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

Calm - Long Summer Dream

Part of my all night mix
delivered on September 3, 2022 on our church/boat/club 20/44

Kompleks At 2044 Sept 2022

DC Promo Tracks #1023: "Chorando Pitanga" by Guinu is part of the release "Palagô" on Razor-N-Tape @razor-n-tape  

Buy Now: https://razor-n-tape.fanlink.to/Palago 

More Promo Tracks: https://www.dreamchimney.com/promo

DC Promo Tracks: Guinu "Chorando Pitanga"

Summer may be over but you can keep the vibes alive with this new package from Hell Yeah. It revisits Max Essa's 'The Great Adventure' and serves it up with a couple of fresh remixes from the man of the moment My Friend Dario and a rare appearance from Balearic Gabba Sound System.

Back in 2020, 'The Great Adventure' was the name of an album that collected together all of Essa's tunes on this label, as well as being a single itself. It is a signature sound from the Balearic boss with tropical drum sounds and organic percussion. Airy drums ride on blissful waves with cosmic synths soundtracking the moment that afternoon turns to evening and the dance floor begins to fill up.

Next comes My Friend Dario, who is at the heart of the Balearic new wave thanks to his fresh takes on Nu Northern Soul and his upcoming album on Hell Yeah. He speeds things up and brings warm house grooves underneath the lush and expansive synths. It's a real bubbler with triumphant leads and plenty of Mediterranean magic.

Finally come the in-house Balearic Gabba Sound System crew to bring their fusion of Italo, acid, downtempo, disco and proto-house. It makes for a track of subtle euphoric intensity, always on the rise, powered by loose drum tumbles, snaking acid lines and awash with a rush of melodic joy.

This is a versatile package that offers plenty of different and equally delicious Balearic perspectives.

Download

Max Essa - The Great Adventure (Balearic Gabba Sound System Remix)

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

More Promo Tracks: https://www.dreamchimney.com/promo
NEW! Dream Chimney App: Radio, Promos and more https://apple.co/3R7i4FX

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

DC Promo Tracks #1038: "IV (Promo Version)" by Precipitation is part of the release "Live at BushBash" on Precipitation @precipitation  

Buy Now: https://precipitation.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-bushbash 

More Promo Tracks: https://www.dreamchimney.com/promo

DC Promo Tracks: Precipitation "IV" (Promo Version)

Pezzner - Sunrising EP (Incl. Remixes from Fred Everything & Doza)
BUY LINK:  https://pezzner.bandcamp.com/album/sunrising-2
Label: Hunt & Gather (https://soundcloud.com/hunt-and-gather)
https://soundcloud.com/search?q=Pezzner https://soundcloud.com/fredeverything

"Dear Hunter & Gatherer, and friend of Pezzner

It is our great honor to share with you the next expression by Hunt & Gather label founder and House music raconteur Pezzner. In his latest tale Pezzner, ever the eclecticist and vanguard, transcribes grandiose orchestral expression, Broadway vocal jazz, exalted post-disco, and Balearic tones into a format that we can all gather and dance to.

This is 'Sunrising' and it comes accompanied by two reinterpretations: a propellant electric disco romp by label partner Doza, and a sterling but jovial expression by Deep House legend (and our dear friend) Fred Everything. This release is capped off by Pezzner's playful and flowing reperformance of Herb Alpert's dancefloor classic 'Rise'.  The artwork was created by Robbie Busch, DC Comics writer and penciler.

Hunt & Gather"

BUY LINK

PREMIERE : Pezzner - Sunrising (Fred Everything Apr​è​s Minuit Remix)

Just one of my ideas that I had to do. If this track gets listenings, I'll make one album of this kind.

Have No Fear

Story
Roots Beneath My Skin
In a valley hidden among misty mountains lived Maialen, a young woman who, since childhood, felt her body vibrate to the rhythm of the earth. When she walked barefoot through the forest, her feet seemed to absorb the whispers of the ground: the creaking of roots, the throbbing of mushrooms, the subterranean song of water.
Every dawn, Maialen buried herself up to her knees in the damp earth of the family garden. She said it awakened her muscles, that the earth taught her to move with purpose. Her grandmother, wise and silent, told her that the ancient baserritarras believed that the human body was an extension of the forest—that bones were stone, blood sap, and breath wind.
One day, after a fierce storm, the nearby river changed course and began to erode the land. The neighbors feared for their crops, but Maialen approached the water, bent down, and buried her hands in the mud. She closed her eyes and listened. Then, guided by an ancestral intuition, she began planting willows in a spiral, as if weaving a vegetal song.
As the months passed, the willows slowed the erosion, and the river calmed. The elders said that Maialen had "dialogued with the earth," that her body had been a bridge between the landscape's pain and its healing.
From then on, whenever someone fell ill, Maialen took them to the forest. She taught them to breathe with the trees, to feel the pulse of the ground beneath their heels, to remember that the body doesn't end at the skin, but extends like a root, like a mist, like a song toward the earth that sustains us.

🎶 Listen 💫 Share 💬 Comment ➕📃🎧 Add to your playlists... Because this journey is meaningless without you... Thank you for being here... J. Bilbao

Sonic Universe II

Roots Beneath My Skin V

"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