No Delayin

Guest: Clanc - Golden After Ages

Genji Sawai’s classic LP “Sowaka”, featuring Midori Takada and Bill Laswell, reissued for the very first time.
Sowaka will be re-released on February 10th with remastered audio.

Sowaka, recorded in 1984, displayed an innovative sound that went beyond genre – mixing dub, world, jazz, electro, hip-hop and avant-garde. A perfect match of some of the most experimental artists of that time resulting in an extremely sought after and singular piece of music of the golden Japanese era. A talented crossover.

In 1984, working with Bill Laswell, Michael Beinhorn and Midori Takada would be unlike working with anyone else Genji Sawai had before, pulling him out of the J-jazz experimental scene he was based on. Rather than work off written music, they’d build songs like cooks. Genji might supply the ingredients, perhaps the tonal choices – sax, FM synths, drum machines, and Bill would task himself to do the “cooking”, creating the overall image of the song. It’s the use of imagery to have a conversation with each other, musically, that just felt so different to Genji.

Unlike the other musicians who contributed to Sowaka, musicians of impressive, rarefied technique like Midori Takada, Shuichi “Ponta” Murakami, and Kazuhiko Shibayama, notation or sheet music wasn’t a part of Genji’s vocabulary with Bill. With him, drawings were how songs were built from the ether. Whatever image a demo conjured up – that’s where the song had to go.

You hear it on songs like “Hikobae” that predicted the chopped and screwed sound that would revolutionize hip-hop years later. On this track what started with a mental picture, of some kind of tree shoot, metastasizes a vision full of no-wave sax skronk dosed with pointillistic dub affectations. Although, Sowaka wasn’t tied inherently to it’s original meaning – the final utterance from the Buddhist Heart Sūtra – it’s philosophical meaning wasn’t too divorced from the true meaning (or at least, his truest meaning) Genji placed on it here: getting things done. Simply put, all his high-minded ideas wouldn’t have come to fruition unless all involved put some serious work into getting the project over the finish line. In five cracking days the album was put on tape and was then jettisoned off to NYC for Bill to put its final touches.

What’s fascinating about Sowaka, or at least what will make it so, is just how it perfectly captures a certain atmosphere, somewhat alien to overground Japanese music at the time. Forget about a starry-eyed, futuristic, technopolis. The Japan heard in songs like “1969 (The Real)” is found in its iconic back alleys and constantly changing cityscape. It would use hip-hop, jazz, folk, and world music, to drop its sonic graffiti. That pull of “tradition” trying to co-exist with increasingly hypermodern ideas is palpably heard in music defined by its mix of organic and synthetic instruments paired with hard-nosed melodies. Genji’s Japan, as heard in Sowaka, pulls no punches, it wants you right in the middle of that public maelstrom. It wants you to sonically be there.

Behind the mysterious chopped-and-screwed-with jazz of songs like “Hikobae” or the no-wave, nu wave-fried jazz of the titular track, there was a new kind of fusion being presented. Moving beyond world music, there was territory to be uncovered that was even more unplaceable. Somewhere, between the mind, body, and spirit, closer to one’s neck and booty, was this music urging you to simply move elsewhere, further, until you’re closer to where Genji’s music would land. Somewhere between history and his story, there’s still room to rewrite our story by absorbing this spectacular music that remains completely, forever, out of time.

Sowaka

BUY on BANDCAMP

PREMIERE : Genji Sawai - 1969 (The Real)

BUY / STREAM : Sales / Pre-sales Link: https://bfan.link/weiter-1
Thomas Burkhardt - Weiter
Label Name: - LIN/LOG (https://soundcloud.com/lin-log)
https://soundcloud.com/thomas-burkhardt-2

„Weiter“ is a love letter to music I grew up with and furthermore it is a window to our future. Humans tend to forget their past and believe that future only brings progression, knowledge and wealth. They forget about their spiritual roots and sacrifice their inner thoughts to algorithms in anticipation of redemption and peace. But truth is, all beings have to fight their inner demons for themselves. So stand up! „Es geht weiter!“

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PREMIERE : Thomas Burkhardt - Sonne

Markeno started his record collection in the 90s combining different genres from techno of the era to black, rare grooves and disco. While djing around Tuscany, his native region, he started to throw parties mainly with his Løvetempo collective and turned into resident at the cult riviera Diagonal club during the golden era of early 2010s when Prins Thomas, Hunee, Young Marco where regular guests. In the same period he worked as Art Director promoting Look At Festival for three editions.

Markeno is dedicated to many activities aside of djing and collecting records, he co-started Embassy-Artists, a booking agency based in Milano and curated many showcases, introducing for the first time in Italy many renowned talents. In the same period he’s been busy also as music curator for The Botanical  Club and Sound designer for Brands and commercials.

Follow artist - https://soundcloud.com/markeno

225⚡M a r k e n o

yungmholla + coco zodiac - let you go

Hannah Holland - Beats Aesthetic 
BUY LINK: https://hannahholland.bandcamp.com/album/beats-aesthetic
Label: PRAH Recordings (https://soundcloud.com/prahrecordings)
https://soundcloud.com/hannahholland-music

Hannah Holland has been a crucial figure on the London queer scene since the mid-00s. Raised on a diet of Kraftwerk, Grace Jones and Talking Heads, among others, by her parents; and inspired by the legendary Metalheadz drum ‘n’ bass parties of the mid 90s" (where she was sneaking in very underage), Hannah’s approach to music has always been one of collaboration, grounded by a passion for the power of community. This is evident in the melting pot of her ever-varied sets, the curation of her label Batty Bass, her soundtrack work, and in remixes for the likes of Goldfrapp, The Knife and Metronomy.

Having recently ventured into soundtrack work alongside an ever-present love for the dancefloor, her latest EP explores a meeting point between the two. Beats Aesthetic EP is out August 11th via PRAH Recordings, with the title single out today.

BUY LINK

PREMIERE : Hannah Holland - Lucid H

This set was recorded on a warm summer night in Moscow at the DOM event. Brought everyone out of the darkness to the light, check out how it was ;=)

Сет был записан тёплой летней ночью в Москве на мероприятии DOM. Из темноты вывел всех к свету, чекните как это было ;=)

DOM 12.08.23. [Moscow, Russia]

YouTube Streaming | youtube.com/live/Hhu99CwpyD4

Greenwald | Kivach Radio | 30.08.23

Ulyap is a village in the Caucasus, where one can find an enormous number of accordion and harmonica players. “Ulyap Songs:  Beyond Circassian Tradition” represents an attempt to document ancient bards‘ chants and their entanglement with popular rural heritage as well as Soviet culture during modern times, through a critical prism. Interacting with a rich book on the subject, this issue reflects on a music phenomenon involving talented female and male musicians, performing in lively (and sometimes festive) social dynamics. It does so by revealing important songs of the repertoire on the one hand, inviting original artists to experiment with Ulyap songs on the other.

In 2021, Flee Project met with Nalchik-based music journalist Bulat Khalilov. The music enthusiast kept on speaking about a fascinating vernacular musical genre from the North Caucasus, involving a lot of heavy drinking and which had absorbed urban elements of petit-criminal as well as Gulag-returnees’ chanson. A few months after this encounter, the FLEE collective traveled across the Caucasus to interview and record local toughies, wedding musicians, bards and researchers to make sense of this peculiar folklore. The expedition culminated in the visit of Ulyap, a tiny village home to many virtuoso accordion players that gave its name to this festive music tradition. Three years later, forced to readapt the project to the many issues and challenges that the war in Ukraine has brought up, the art collective finally publishes a book, including essays, artworks, and unpublished pictures depicting the colors of life in this forgotten (post)soviet underworld. The book encompasses the contributions of: Lina Tsrimova, Bulat Khalilov, Madina Pashtova, Milana Khalilova, Nikita Rasskazov, Almagul Menlibayeva, Akhmat Bikanov, Olivier Duport, Alan Marzo.

Musically, the double LP conists of rare and unpublished archives as well as recordings made by FLEE, Ored recordings and Nikita Rasskazov over the last years in various locations of the Caucasus. These original celebration and drinking songs performed by group of professional and amateur musicians alike have been used as a creative fabric by sonic sound artists and musicians: Zongamin, Misha Sultan, Emmanuelle Parrenin & Colin Johnco, Simone Aubert, Valentina Goncharova, Minami Deutsch, G.A.M.S. & Vatannar, Jrpjej & Ben Wheeler.

The transmedia object comprehends of an LP and book in an innovative packaging made out of traditionnal wool. FLEE 005 will be officially released January the 19th of 2024, with launches around the world and followed by a traveling exhibition.

Order: https://fleeproject.com/order/005
@fleeproject

Simple Girl [prod. by Jan Seemann]

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