Following a CD-only release in Japan in 2021, legendary downtempo producer Calm finally releases his Before album on vinyl and digital courtesy of Hell Yeah. The 10-track record is a slow-burning Balearic beauty.

Calm aka Kiyotaka Fukagawa has never been to the White Isle, but he sure knows how to capture its musical essence. He has done so over a long and storied career that has taken in 17 albums and some 35 EPs on many labels including this one over the last 20-plus years. His unique blend of ambient, jazz and leftfield was last showcased on this label in 2018 with his By Your Side album, and now he does it again with another timeless and escapist offering.

The record was written, arranged, mixed and produced by Calm, but with gorgeous musical embellishments, trumpets, flutes, saxophones, violins, bass and keys played by friends and guests like Shiba, Sinsuke Fujieda, Fumiko Takeshita, Tomokazu Sugimoto, Yuichiro Kato and Toshitaka Shibata. Tracks from it have already had support from Cosmo Coleen Murphy on Worldwide FM, while Phil Mison says it is "100% reminiscent of an old Café Del Mar or José Padilla record." He is not wrong.

As soon as the opening chords of 'Beauty on Earth' wash over you there is no escaping the naturalistic charm and beauty of this record. 'Long Summer Dream' layers mystic wind sounds and gentle percussive patterns into suspensory bliss, 'Blue in Void - 限りなく透明に近い青' is a plaintive moment of sombre sax and pensive piano, then 'Liminal Moment - 目を閉じて見えるもの' awakens the soul with its gorgeous flute lines and looping arps.

There is perfect horizontal sunset house on 'I Love You - 月がきれいですね,' 'Feel It' picks up the pace with seductive saxophone motifs and psychedelic synth loops and 'Before Sunrise Blue - あたたかい青' is crushing downtempo melancholia. 'Kunpoo - 薫風' reawakens you with leggy bass and expansive synths that reach for the heavens, while 'Freedom Sunset' is an epic 10-minute journey out to sea. Lastly, 'Let's Make Harmony' is super slow motion jazz-funk that swells the heart.

Before is a superb album that is well-deserving of this double vinyl pressing and is sure to become a Balearic classic.

download / vinyl

Calm - Liminal Moment

Calm - Blue In Void

Walpole Days (Joe Claussell's Stripped Down Mix)

DC Promo Tracks #1026: "Into The Bright Light" by 291outer space is part of the release "Beyond" on Taste Rec @tasterecmilano   https://tasterec.bandcamp.com/

Buy from: https://tasterec.bandcamp.com/album/beyond
https://www.horizonsmusic.co.uk/products/291outer-space-%EB%84%88%EB%A8%B8beyond 

More Info: https://www.dreamchimney.com/promo/1026-291outer-space-into-the-bright-light

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DC Promo Tracks: 291outer space "Into The Bright Light"

Kubebe's music slowly goes around the earth. From Cologne to Mexico City, the Lille native releases a handful of EPs on Calypso Records, Feines Tier, Hardfist. As an archaeologist of the psyche, he vacillates between ambient and dub, between Japanese influences drowned in neon lights and traces of sweat discovered in the rubble of the Hacienda.
Lately Remixed by Lauer, Theus Mago, Thomas Von Party.

Kubebe [18.01.2023]

DC Promo Tracks #1099: "Smooth Machine Control" by Metropolitan Soul Museum is part of the release "Smooth Machine Control" on Pr0gramma @pr0gramma  

Buy from: https://pr0gramma.bandcamp.com/album/smooth-machine-control 
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DC Promo Tracks: Metropolitan Soul Museum "Smooth Machine Control"

As a record label, San Francisco’s Dream Chimney began in 2018 but its genesis goes back much further. The name was first used for an electronic project in ‘ 97 while experimenting on demos and late-night college radio sessions. At the start of 2000, the name continued as a collaborative website known for its passionate and discerning music community sharing new discoveries for over 20 years. The label was born with a focus on lo-fi Balearic, new age, dance, and synth pop. Releases have included Sorcerer, Memorex and Po-One, A Vision of Panorama, Max Essa, Trujillo,Hatchback, Rollmottle, Faint Waves and more.
Hormone is the experimental dance pop duo out of Austin,Texas, Jim Colby, and Rosie Clements. Summoning tracks built for both dancefloor and headphones, they draw inspiration from the modern internet kaleidoscope of influences of street soul, 80s pop vanguards Laurie Anderson and Hiroshi Satoh, and the bottomless well of modern ambient music. Formed amidst the southwestern moonscape of Tucson, AZ, the duo met in the city’s tight-knit and prolific music scene, bonding over a desire to make music that was sparser and groovier than projects they had been involved with before. They released their eponymous debut in 2017, chiselling out tracks from the bedrock of boogie funk and bedroom disco with forays into the hazier quadrants of dance pop. 
“Smoothsayer” sees the duo leaning into a more focused version of this sound, with smacky drums, luxe synth pads and rubbery bass lines rolling out alongside contrasting tracks with a sense of quiet weightlessness, all tied together with the cool, drizzly beauty of Clement’s vocal. Written during the summer of 2022 in Tucson, Arizona, “Lo-Sun Season” reflects the hallucinogenic heat of an asphalt parking lot at midday, while the title cut sounds just like pulling out of that lot for a 90-degree midnight cruise along barren cactus-studded highways. Keeping a firm foot on the dancefloor, remixes come courtesy of the Bay area’s Sorcerer, plus a dub from the Dream Chimney in- house squad.

Smoothsayer EP

PREMIERE : Hormone - Smoothsayer

During the years he spent living in Amsterdam, when his DJ career seemed to become an unstoppable juggernaut, Tom Trago was a regular visitor to Deco Sauna, a local institution that helped him “decompress” and de-toxify his body. Eventually, a more extended period of “decompression” was needed, with Trago moving to the coast to reassess his priorities and spend more time with his young family.

‘Deco’, his sixth album and first for Rush Hour in a decade, was recorded following an extended absence from club dancefloors, as Trago cut back on DJ commitments to prioritise family life. When he returned to the studio, often with his daughter by his side, Trago initially struggled to get back into the groove. The desire to make dancefloor-focused music had – temporarily, at least – deserted him; instead, he found himself drawn towards a desire to create “electronic lullabies” and music that reflected his more pastoral environment (his home backs on to a patch of woodland in which he would walk every day).

Returning to his most familiar synthesisers – and specifically the first synthesiser he bought, on credit, as a young DJ and wannabe producer – Trago set about navigating different musical routes without the straight-jacket of club-focused dancefloors. Occasionally, old friends from Amsterdam would join him in the studio – Tracey and Maxi Mill, both of whom are part of his Voyage Direct label roster, contributed to tracks on the album – but for the most part the production process was a solo endeavour: musical therapy for an artist determined to do things differently after years spent making club hits and sweat-soaked peak-time workouts.

The results are rarely less than spellbinding. Trago sets his stall out with opener ‘Dark Oak’, a gorgeous, colourful, sun-bright scene-setter co-produced by Tracey that layers tumbling lead lines, chiming melodic motifs and kaleidoscopic chords atop the gentlest of bubbly beat patterns. Maxi Mill lends a hand on ‘Central Park’, a deep and hypnotic excursion marked out by rhythmic bleeps, minimalistic beats and layered melodies, and the summer sun-down rush of ‘Never Peace a Puzzle’, where kaleidoscopic synth sounds, meandering solos and looped electronic stabs rush towards a dancefloor of the mind.

Trago’s desire to create “electronic lullabies” for his young daughter comes to the fore on ‘To Be Left Unlocked’, a hypnotising fusion of spacey electronic motifs, Steve Reich style (synth) marimba melodies and slowly building musical intensity, while the echoing Fender Rhodes riffs, squelchy synth-bass, glistening guitar notes and sparse, snappy post hip-hop beats of ‘When The Sky Is Watching Us’ doff a cap to the producer’s roots as a bedroom beat-maker.

Given the project’s genesis, it’s perhaps fitting that Trago chose to conclude proceedings with ‘It Might Be Forever’ and the digital only ‘Blue Dope’, the album’s most rejuvenating, immersive, and vibrant moments. Both feature sustained chords painted with vivid aural brush strokes and come blessed with the merest hint of a rhythmic pulse – a thread that subtly runs throughout Trago’s most mature and musically rich album to date.

BUY on BANDCAMP

PREMIERE : Tom Trago - A Dark Oak (Feat. Tracey)

What would you like to drink ?

This ambitious instrumental collection traces the complex emotional landscape of a woman navigating the labyrinth of desire, love, and self-discovery across multiple relationships and encounters. Through 60 interconnected pieces, the album weaves a non-linear narrative where past and present intertwine, memories overlap with reality, and different loves echo through time.

Fading Polaroids

“Coastal Drive” is a sonic journey along the French Riviera — from sunrise in Nice to sunset in Saint-Tropez. Each track captures a moment of freedom, wind, and sun-drenched serenity. Smooth saxophone lines, gentle Rhodes piano, deep bass grooves, and airy synths create the perfect soundtrack for endless summer drives.

It’s music for golden hours, ocean reflections, and quiet thoughts behind the wheel.
A blend of elegance, calm, and effortless motion.

Mood: relaxed, cinematic, romantic, free, coastal.
Perfect for road trips, sunsets, seaside dinners, or late-night reflections.

Farewell to the Sun

"If you didn't know, Hell Yeah is the Italian label hell-bent on releasing the best modern disco(ish) you can find. Sometimes it's blissed out and Balearic, sometimes it's squelchy and down-right weird and sometimes it's the sort of elongated, tribal stuff that works dancefloors into a salacious frenzy" (Kristan J Caryl - DJ MAG January 2014)


Hell Yeah Recordings, a descendent of leading Italian dance label Mantra Vibes is an Italian-based electronic music label active since 2006. Releasing from Ferrara, Bologna, and Amsterdam and led by Marco Gallerani “peeDoo” (A&R), the label bases its philosophy on a diversity of artists and recording experiences tied together by a common vision of what defines quality progressive recording. 

With a sound as diverse as the artists it represents, Hell Yeah does not limit itself to the constraints of genre but packs a complex palette of sounds ranging from techno to minimal-nu-rave to electro-funk and tech house.  Artists as varied as Radio Slave, Santos, Umek, Oliver Koletzki, Congorock, 3iO, Crimea X and the mighty Balearic Gabba Sound System have helped establish Hell Yeah’s eclectic sound, a distinct take on party music loaded with a sonic Balearic feel good vibe that has made press around the world hail Hell Yeah as a label to watch, always

Hell Yeah aims to build upon its current reputation as a leading Italian Electronic Music play, overseeing the release of a series of progressive productions that straddle genres, defy conventions and blur barriers between listening and dance music. Stemming from Hell Yeah’s initial graphic identity formed by Neverending’s Rocco “the Boghe” Pezzella, new mind-bending web and label artworks from Italian artist Andrea Amaducci and the Berlin-based Ice Cream For Free collective promises complete visual as well as aural stimulation.

info/bookings: 
marco@pplayground.com