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Record labels unite to tell Senyawa’s story Alkisah which guides us to navigate the near future before the end of time (Kiamat). Senyawa’s Alkisah tells a tale that repeated itself since the dawn of humankind; this time will be the last. A group of people, realizing the end is near, rush towards the estuary to build a better civilization to survive the apocalypse. But the same people, now rulers become worse than the tyrants they fled from. A revolution erupts against the rulers who are eloquent in preaching about creating a better world but who have created a worse one instead. The people finally speak their mind and rise up to kill their rulers. Then the people regret, realizing the vastness of the destructions they have caused by their greed and hatred towards each other, and that it is now all too late. The doomsday is upon them.

“Indonesian experimental duo Senyawa creates some of the most exciting experimental music anywhere on the planet, pairing the extreme vocal techniques of Rully Shabara with the intense virtuosity of Wukir Suryardi on his unique instrument and namesake, the bambu wukir [bamboo spear]. While Shabara originally hails from the island of Sulawesi and Wukir from Malang in East Java, the group formed in the cultural and artistic center of Jogjakarta, where the two fused hardcore metal, traditional folk culture, and free improvisation into a powerful sound that somehow echoes (and distorts) the gritty populist spectacle of Javanese village ritual, the confrontational intensity of punk, and the edginess of avant-garde performance.”

- BOMB -

In a revolutionary decentralization approach, the album is co-released by a multitude of independent record labels from all over the globe; each with different design and packaging, and multiple remix/reinterpretations by various artists.

Accompanying Senyawa’s Alkisah on tape is a leather scroll with a protective talisman, and a sacred sticker to ward off the evil eye, and a dagger infused with ambiguous power. “What is the meaning of power when the end is at hand?” 

Wukir Suryadi: Handmade custom instruments
Rully Shabara: Lyrics, Vocals

Recorded and Mixed by Iwan Karak
at Eloprogo, Central Java
September 2020

Mastered by Cordey Lopez

Soundcape of Eloprogo recorded by tesaran

Minang Proverbs in “Kabau” compiled by Taufik Adam

Alkisah

Senyawa - ALKISAH I

Racine - Amitiés
Cat. Nr: DN022
Format: CD / DL
Release Date: January 21, 2022
Buy / stream: dansenoire.ffm.to/Racine

There’s a lived-in quality to the sound of Racine’s Amitiés. Named after the French word for friendship, the Montréal-based Quebecois artist follows an extended time spent indoors to contemplate what it means to be isolated and in one’s own body, while also staying connected. The album is a follow-up of sorts to Quelque chose tombe (“Something Falls”), released in February 2020 and a kind of accidental prophecy for the crisis that was to come.
Amitiés disintegrates before your very eyes. Opening with a roughshod iPhone recording of Racine playing his parent’s harmonium, the creaky acoustics of "Mon amour je ne guéris jamais" slowly degrade into digital simulations of dreadful organic beauty. That track and the rest of the LP gives the feeling of an abandoned building; a sense of frayed, earthiness dusted with the wisdom of time. And yet, it’s almost entirely made from simulations. Clipped Native Instruments violin patches punctuate the churning atmospherics of “Arête coincée dans une amygdale”. The lonely gongs and bells of “Grosso” resonate in a gust of synthesised ambient. Vocal plugins and the very occasional YouTube samples of a recorded voice are sped-up, glitched, pitched and scrambled into indecipherability. These vocal apparitions rise and fall into the sonic ether like individual ghosts of human contact. They’re bold and expressive, deeply melancholy and yet full of the potential for joy and an awareness of life’s beauty.

It’s in this dearth of social interaction—the heady psychosis of too much solitude—that Amitiés’s tone and mood lies. A score for the numb dissociation from internal chaos and alienation, the album’s sense of acute distress is assuaged only by the small network of collaborators and influences it draws from. Long-time friend and peer Justin Leduc-Frenette (aka Keru Not Ever) contributes drum programming to “Mon amour je ne guéris jamais”. A last-minute reworking of the untitled “Sans titre” by German duo Arigto matches the weight and timbre of Racine’s sooty post-classical soundscapes.

Ultimately, Amitiés is a very human response to an inhuman environment. It’s an intimate homage to friends and the mysterious effects of distance, while somehow finding healing in hardship.

Mastered by Rashad Becker, artwork by Niels Wehrspann

@julienracine

Amitiés

Racine - Mon amour je ne guéris jamais

Ruhail Qaisar - Fatima
Cat. Nr: DN019
Format: DL + 48 page photography & text publication (Urdu / English)
Release Date: January 27, 2023
Buy / stream: dansenoire.ffm.to/fatima

Ruhail Qaisar’s Fatima is a requiem for a dead future. The debut album release by the self-taught artist and producer screams with the trauma and decay of life in his hometown of Leh—a high-altitude plateau region in the contested Ladakh area, extending from the Himalayan to the Kunlun Ranges. Qaisar absorbs this external condition of perpetual conflict between nation states into his internal life and resulting compositions, crossing sound art, noise music and experimental filmmaking. Hauntological drones, power electronics and convulsive post-industrial dissonance create an unnerving sense of fear, anger, and alienation. A broken transistor with a knob tuned to the abyss is bombarded with the cries and bitter laughter of a city’s inhabitants tyrannized, not only by military occupation but the soft-power subjugation of the tourism industry.

Following 2016’s Ltalam EP—released under Qaisar’s now-defunct Sister moniker—Fatima serves to transmit memories carried through the events, local mythos and personal recollections of growing up between the remote agrarian villages of Ladakh and the urban center of its joint capital—Leh. The album was mixed between that area, and a DIY home studio in New Delhi, where the artist amalgamates his collected found sounds and field recordings into unrecognizable hybrids. Discordant pads and atmospherics on the dark ambient of “Daily Hunger” is disrupted by a crashing, pounding reverb, while contributor Elvin Brandhi shrieks towards its horrifying conclusion in the squelching, scratching sound of something soft being chewed.

An anti-lingual conjuring of metaphysical totems in music, Fatima is a seething chronicle of experience through the dynamics of riots, violence, colonization, unemployment, PTSD, and self-abuse. The cycling tumult of “Namgang” hosts a menacing whisper that echoes the hissing fury of something like Einstürzende Neubauten and Lydia Lunch’s “Thirsty Animal,” while a trouncing distorted bass line on “Fatima’s Poplar” circles a voice that barks, "The Western Civilization Show has been discontinued."

The Bunker, New Delhi
Choglamsar Village, Ladakh

Mastering by Rashad Becker
Mixing by Julien Racine
Photography by Rana Ghose
Design by Niels Wehrspann

Fatima

buy / stream

Ruhail Qaisar - Fatima's Poplar

HULUBALANG - Hitam

Buy on Bandcamp:
https://mramadivision.bandcamp.com/track/red-gardens

Red Gardens

Al’Maghfira evokes beautiful sorcery entwined with chaotic times, conveying its melancholic emotions into grim electronics. In these industrial and tribal signatures, you will hear the nuanced elements of forgiveness.
~
Artist : Prophän
Title : Al’Maghfira
Catalogue : MEDS012
Release Date : September 2023
Release Format : Cassette, Digital
~
Track Listing
A1. Live By Steel Die By Steel
A2. Show Me Take Me
A3. There I Saw The Truth
A4. It Is What It Is
B1. Manstahelsh
B2. Rabbi Khlaqni Hakka
B3. Live By Steel Die By Steel (Kujo Remix)

Prophän - Live By Steel Die By Steel (Kujo Remix) | MEDS012

Between May 2012 and August 2013 I shared a flat in Heliopolis with 3 of my best friends. Because we were all artists, it was naturally one of the most inspiring times of my life. 

Now, there are few things in life I hate more than doing the washing up, so I cut a deal with them where I'd be in charge of doing laundry for everyone, and in return, never have to do the dishes - ever. We had this 1970s Whirlpool washing machine that used to make the most interesting sounds. 

I was hanging out in the kitchen one day waiting for it to finish and the sounds coming out of it were so rhythmic, I decided to have a go at emulating them, and that's how "Pt A" happened; I threw in an Anne Peebles sample and it became a Swag Lee beat. Of course the next step was to sample the machine using my field recorder. So I did that and made "Pt B", "Pt C" and "Pt D" (the latter revolves around clicks from twisting the machine's main knob). 

Almost a year later, I realized I had 4 finished Doing Laundry tracks, 2 of which people have only heard in my live sets. So I put them together on an EP along with an Abyusif remix of "Pt B" and - for jokes - a couple of mash-ups of some old Egyptian detergent ads.


03. ZULI Vs Swag Lee - Doing Laundry Pt B

"Alive In The Living Room - The Remixes" constitutes the second phase of the release "Alive in the Living Room - على قيد الحياة في غرفة القعدة" by Richie Culver.

In contrast to the original piece, where vocals were intentionally absent, simulating a state of sleep paralysis, and the lyrics confined solely to the written page, they find their voice in this rendition. Additionally, the sound mass comes to life in two distinct remixes crafted by Pessimist and bod [包家巷].

BUY HERE: https://drownedbylocals.bandcamp.com/album/alive-in-the-living-room-the-remixes

@drownedbylocals @pessimist

PREMIERE: Richie Culver - Alive In The Living Room (Pessimist Remix) [ Drowned By Locals ]

Within the span of a year, Tallinn-based club night series and creative collective Shelter has managed to rally dozens of electronic musicians from all corners of the world to an unexpected meeting point by the Baltic Sea. By curating club nights that showcase local talents aside some of the brightest minds in electronic music today, Shelter has undeniably played a significant role in revitalizing Tallinn’s club scene.

More importantly, Shelter uses its platform to shed light on some of the worst humanitarian crises currently plaguing our planet. Beyond covering event costs, ticket sales proceeds from Shelter Showcase events have been directed to organizations who provide resources to those in need, including the Ottawa Black Diaspora Coalition in Ukraine and the Rebuilding Alliance in Palestine.

To celebrate 1 year of building bridges between communities and incubating forward-thinking electronic music, Shelter presents Feyrûse: a compilation album featuring 17 tracks by an intercontinental melting pot of musicians, majority of whom have graced the dancefloors of Shelter.

Feyrûse aims to capture increasing unity within the global electronic music community. The musical styles represented on the album are as varied as its diverse cast of artists, ranging from purpose-built hybrid club to serene and blissful melodic rituals.

Mastered by:
TTAN – soundcloud.com/ttan-mastering

Cover by:
ntby – www.instagram.com/notthebestyetbutworkingonit/
Magnus Harjak – www.instagram.com/sungam_crs/

Bible Club - Cuts From Life

Pollution Opera - s/t
Cat. Nr: DN027
Format: DL / LP
Release Date: April 24, 2024
Buy / stream: dansenoire.ffm.to/PollutionOpera

Elvin Brandhi and Nadah El Shazly refuse to turn away from the horror. The intercontinental duo’s Pollution Opera album is an uncompromising futurist depiction of our disfigured, dystopian, and dying reality. Facing hell in full defiance, the experimental noise album catapults itself through a volatile compound of breathless shouts, screams, and screeches, in collision with vocal samples, environmental recordings, and acousmatic sounds. Ten tracks cover the spectrum of electroacoustic fragments and vocalizations, treacherously suspended between the roar of engines and synth distortion, of evocative intonations or guttural retching.

First conceived in 2020, Pollution Opera bubbled up organically from a first tandem motorbike ride through El Shazly’s hometown of Cairo. Singing and screaming through the second-loudest city in the world, Brandhi and Shazly found the extreme noise pollution served as catharsis from the suffocating smog that surrounded them. They then took these sonic specimens into studios across years and countries—from the initial recording and sessions in Egypt to Uganda, where their so-called “cacophony carbon orchestra” would carry into simultaneous but separate residencies at Nyege Nyege in Kampala. There, Brandhi and Shazly reprised the role of the motorbike as their “stage,” in a city where motorbikes are the main mode of public transport. They then developed a live A/V performance from video material captured by Arno Mery, collected from their travels, and reworked by Egyptian artist Omar El Sadek during Banlieues Bleues Festival 2023 in France.

The result is what the artists themselves describe as “an uncompromising world-spew, a shameless alloy of love and hate.” Haptic knocking, barking dogs, and human growls trample El Shazly’s famously evocative Egyptian singing style on “CRÎi Me A River.” Breathless vocal cut-ups and samples are bulldozed by arrhythmic acoustic percussion on “Danse Le Flou.” There are moments of respite within all the chaos, however, whether in the heavily pitched, Auto-Tuned opening of “Pollute Bold” or the wonderfully melodic closer of “Crisp Heart”—its derelict rhythmic thrust giving a listener something to dance about.

Both artists lend their unique positioning and idiosyncrasies to Pollution Opera, whether it’s in artist, vocalist, and musician Brandhi’s avant-garde noise music pedigree as both a solo artist and member of father-daughter duo Yeah You, or
singer, composer, and producer El Shazly’s hybrid catalogue combining electronic music with contemporary classical. Together, in asking the question of what a postmodern opera might sound like, the duo offer their existential answer in the true spirit of the often playful and ironic philosophical position by offering no answer at all.

Voice & electronics: Elvin Brandhi & Nadah El Shazly
Violin on ‘Crisp Heart’: Ocen James
Soprano on ‘Attention’: Marie Requa Gailey

Artwork by Omar El Sadek & Niels Wehrspann
Mastering by Rashad Becker

Pollution Opera

Pollution Opera - Tusker Light

Buy on Bandcamp:
https://shersh.bandcamp.com/album/primal-moves-mrmd031

Written and Produced by Shersh
Mastered by Studio A440 Berlin
Cover by Dove Molotov

After a quiet period, ZEAN returns with his fourth solo EP, "No Roots" on Gully Riddim. These tracks were produced during the pandemic and are distinctly different from his earlier work. He uses a sombre atmosphere and fragmented, unpredictable rhythms, combined with various distorted and overloaded sound samples of both humans and animals, attempting to diversify his sound and break free from his own stereotypical and fixed creative approach. This is also a form of self-criticism against this culturally barren land. The EP includes five of ZEAN's tracks, along with two remixes, one by Argentinian producer Jaiiu and another by South African producer Jumping Back Slash. Both remixes reduce the experimental sounds of the originals, simplifying the song's rhythm and structural changes, and making them more friendly for the dance floor.

ZEAN在一段时间的沉寂后，在Gully Riddim带来他的第四张个人EP ”No Roots“。这些制作于疫情期间的声音明显的不同于他早期的作品，他用暗沉的氛围感与破碎的不固定节拍，结合各种添加了失真和过载效果的人与动物的声音采样，试着使其更加多样化，以此打破自身刻板和固定的创作思路，也是向这片文化贫瘠的土地表达自我的批判。此EP包含5首ZEAN的个人曲目以及两首Remix，分别来自阿根廷制作人Jaiiu，南非的Jumping Back Slash。两首Remix都减少了原曲的实验性声音，简化了歌曲的律动和结构变动，使其更加适合舞池。

Artist: Zean @zeanmusic
Remixes: @jumpingbackslash @jaijiu
Title: No Roots
Label: GR Recordings
Cat No: GR012
Cover: StoRmAB
Mastering: Zean
Release Date: 28th, July 2024
Format: Digital

Released by:
GR Recordings

1. Nocturnal Language

Costes & Omar – انتقام الحب الضايع is out today on limited edition cassette tape (x50). Each cassette comes with a hand-drawn cover by Costes and a handwritten lyric book by Omar, making each one unique.

A bastardized blend of Costes' hybrid Arabic howls and a performance possessed by the ghosts of Omar's past.

Today also marks the 4th anniversary of Drowned By Locals, launched in 2020 with Costes’ Bad Trip in Petra. 'انتقام الحب الضايع' includes 14 bonus solo tracks of the album in English by Costes


عُواءٌ وَنَحيبٌ يُنبِئُ عَن ماضٍ زائفٍ وحاضرٍ يَصعُبُ حقًا امتلاكُه، ومستقبلٍ غيرِ أكيدٍ. "انتقامُ الحُبِّ الضايع" ألبومٌ يَنجَحُ في دفعِكَ لإسكاتِ الصرخاتِ مع أوَّلِ دُخولِها – رُبَّما من خوفِ مُواجَهةِ نارٍ طالما حاولتَ إخمادَها. إصدارٌ جديدٌ من كوستاس، تمَّ تأويلُهُ للخيالِ الأردنيِّ المُعاصِرِ من دراوند باي لوكالز. يتداخلُ صوتُ كوستاس بعربيَّتِهِ الهَجينةِ وصوتُ عُمر بلكنتِهِ العَمَّانيةِ على طولِ الألبوم ليخلقا تجربةً صوتيةً لَقيطَةً.

يَكشِفُ الألبومُ أوَّلَ طَبقاتِ زُهدِه فيقول: "ما عندي إشي أقوله، ما عندي إشي أُغنّيه، بس بحب أغنّي". سَيلٌ من الهذيانِ يخلُقُ مساحةً لسردِ قصةِ انتقامِه من هذا الواقع. يُحبِكُ الألبومُ خيوطَهُ حولَك ببطءٍ حتى يَلفِظَكَ في آخِرهِ بجحود: "بِتِقدَري تموتي، ما راح أهتمّ. بتقدري تبكي، راح أضحك."

كزائرٍ لحديقةٍ بريَّةٍ، يُبقيكَ الألبومُ على مَسافةٍ آمِنةٍ وأنتَ تُشاهِدُ افتِتانَهُ المُشوَّهَ بالجُثثِ المَيتةِ في "فِرجوني الجُثث"، أو رَجائهِ العبثيَّ بالتواصلِ في "مُتلازمة التيك توك"، أو بُكائِه على الفقدِ في "أعَزّ صاحِبٍ اللي مات"، وتَجييشِه القَدَرَ للعِقابِ في "انتقام الحبِّ الضايع". فَرُبَّما تَبتَسِمُ بسُخريةٍ أو تُشيرُ عليه هامسًا، مُطمئنًا لِبَقاءِك في تِلك المسافةِ الآمِنةِ على شرفةِ المَسرح.

تُعَزِّزُ موسيقى الألبومِ المشاهدَ المسرحية، فتكملُ ما تعجزُ الكلماتُ عن التعبيرِ عنه، وتَعكِسُ حِوارَ الراوي بألحانٍ راقصةٍ أحيانًا ودِراميةٍ في اللحظاتِ الخاطئةِ، لِتُكوِّنَ جُزءًا مُتكاملًا مع العمل. يتنقلُ كوستاس بين الأساليبِ الموسيقيةِ كطفلٍ يلهو غيرَ مكترثٍ بالوقوفِ داخل الأطرِ الموسيقيةِ المُتعارَفِ عليها. فَمَثَلًا نَسمَعُ صوتًا أثيريٌّ حالمٌ في "أي لحن عجسمك"، ألحان مُشوَّهةً في "وين بير الميّ"، وأصواتَ كوستاس وعُمر المُستخدَمةَ كآلاتٍ موسيقيةٍ على طولِ الألبوم. ويتركنا الإصدارُ في "بارد زي الحجر" باعترافٍ صريحٍ على لحنٍ نهائيٍّ حالمٍ يملأ فراغَ القاعة. صوتٌ ديستوبيٌّ بامتياز!

تحتفل دراوند باي لوكالز بمرورِ أربعِ سنواتٍ على تأسيسِها من خلالِ إصدارِ "انتقامُ الحُبِّ الضايع" لكوستاس وعُمر. يَأتي الإصدارُ في طَبعةٍ محدودةٍ تشملُ ٥٠ شريطًا بغلافٍ مُمَيَّزٍ مَرسومٍ يدويًّا من تصميمِ كوستاس. نرى في التصميم نُسَخًا مختلفةً من وحشِ الانتقامِ يخترقُ أجسادَ الأعداءِ والأحباءِ سواءً لينتهي بالتهامِ جسدِ الراوي. بالإضافة إلى الشريطِ، يحتوي الإصدارُ أيضًا على كُتيِّبٍ يَضُمُّ كلماتِ الأغاني بخطِّ عُمر.
هذا الإصدارُ هو تَعاونٌ مُشترَكٌ بين دراوند باي لوكالز ودار النشرِ الشقيقةِ دراوند باي بابليك.


Produced by Jean-Louis Costes
Performed by Omar Amarin
Original lyrics (English) by Jean-Louis Costes
Arabic translation by Laith Demashqieh, Shereen Amarin, and Omar Amarin
Cassette artwork: hand-drawn by Jean-Louis Costes
Lyric book: hand-written by Omar Amarin
Text: otteswed

DBL29CT

Costes & Omar - Kteer Kabt

Sayf - JAH

Following the release of the single 𝘔𝘢𝘲𝘭𝘢𝘣, the Marseille-based duo Caïn و Muchi presents their debut full-length album 𝘋𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘢. This takes listeners on a journey through a rich tapestry of industrial gloom woven of dubstep, grime, and contemporary hip-hop. In this album, these 'labels' matter as much as they don't, given the heavy mutations they undergo, in a That’s Hara Kiri fashion (RIP Sd Laika).

At the heart of this record lies a dense yet harmonious sound palette, featuring meticulous vocal processing of lead singer Vanda’s voice, which engages reflection on their shared and individual lives.

As the album progresses, the lyrics reveal layers of stress and trauma linked to colonial experience, intertwined with multiple references to North African ghost stories and legends. The result is a resonant experience, where the wraithlike and glacial instrumentals crafted by the duo encapsulates the introspective act of witnessing the turmoil of our current world.

Releases October 8, 2024

Written, Mixed & Composed - Caïn و Muchi
Sinclair Ringenbach & Vanda Forte
Mastering - Victor Malvoti
Artwork - Akakir Studio
Words - M. Fellah
Photo & Executive Production - Vincent Mare
©2024 Gros:Œuvre Records (GOE009)

J'NIA IN DISGUISE جنية مخفية

MEDS Flood Series IV
Producer - 00970

~ الياسين ١٠٧ ~

x 00970 - Dimension | MFS04

production credits: aisha belhaj
vocal credits: MrF13
lyrical credits: MrF13
vocal mixing: aisha bel haj
mixing & mastering: aisha belhaj

deköm - MNMM ft. MrF13

Part of Imuran Remixes : https://rhadab.bandcamp.com/album/imuran-remixes

Prophän - Imuran Lqssb (Llimbs Remix)

From the album Under The Ground, available: mediteranos.bandcamp.com/album/under-the-ground

Written, produced - @00970 
تحت الأرض - under the ground 00 (samples credits including by @stormtrap)

Release date:
15 June 2020

settttt

Vakarme