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 - Feel It

Saves (You More on More of What You Want!)

That Wouldn't Make Sense

No Irritating Commercials

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)

All Mutant Disco Radio Show premieres available on :

Youtube : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLypdVb_SuSmL_C21MgXo2Q
Spotify : https://open.spotify.com/playlist/31NT4Oq48gcKdmttAFbx23
Facebook group : https://www.facebook.com/groups/170732496230
Facebook page : https://www.facebook.com/MutantDiscoRadioShow
Twitter : https://twitter.com/LeriAhel
Soundcloud : https://soundcloud.com/mutant-disco

Taken from "Sorcerer - Bubble Funk (Dream Chimney)". Out April 20th 2023. Buy here : https://dreamchimney.bandcamp.com/album/bubble-funk

Dream Chimney is excited to announce our 2nd album release by Bay Area hometown hero Sorcerer. In the follow up to his previous album `Tape Dreams`, Sorcerer brings back the balearic synth-pop loose groove funk in his musical tribute to skateboarding. Using his Tascam Portastudio 414 as the primary recording device, Sorcerer keeps things loose and real. The new 12 track album is full of what you've come to love from all your favorite Sorcerer tunes. So grab your board, walkman and go out for a cruise with the new Bubble Funk album.

Artist social media:

https://soundcloud.com/sorcerermusic
https://sorcerermusic.tumblr.com
https://www.instagram.com/sorcerermusic
https://twitter.com/SorcererMusic
https://www.facebook.com/sorcerermusic

Label social media :

https://soundcloud.com/the-dream-chimney
https://www.instagram.com/dreamchimney
https://twitter.com/dreamchimney
https://www.facebook.com/dreamchimney

Bubble Funk

Irie Ites

PREMIERE : Sorcerer - Irie Ites (Dream Chimney)

Cuerpo Docente - Fulgor 
Dream Chimney
Release dayte: 18-Aug-23
Support: https://dreamchimney.bandcamp.com/album/esferas

an Francisco’s Dream Chimney officially began in 2018 but its genesis goes much further back. First an electronic music project in ‘97 while experimenting on demos and late-night college radio sessions. In 2000 Dream Chimney continued as a collaborative music platform known for its passionate music community. For over 20 years DC has been a knowledgeable source exposing and sharing exciting new music discoveries. The label was born with a focus on lo-fi Balearic, new age, dance, and synth pop, with releases from Sorcerer, Memorex and Po-One, and compilations that have included Vision of Panorama, Max Essa, Trujillo, Hatchback, Rollmottle, Faint Waves and more.

 

This summer Dream Chimney welcomes Cuerpo Docente to the roster, an instrumental trio from Santiago, Chile. Drawing from backgrounds in DJing, composition, production, and improvisation, they formed in 2018 playing full improv sets in experimental dance spaces in Santiago.  Inspired by the music of Herbie Hancock, Larry Heard, King Tubby, and The Rotating Assembly, their mutual interests coalesced into a synth-based, minimalist, restrained yet playful musical landscape. In 2021 they decided to self-produce an album of original compositions and improvisations edited in a style reminiscent of Can and Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew. The result is a kaleidoscopic album that boldly features jazz, funk, dance, dub, and a multitude of leftfield sonics.

Esferas

HSM PREMIERE | Cuerpo Docente - Fulgor [Dream Chimney]

DC Promo Tracks #1231: "Tropical Climax" by Aura Safari is part of the release "Island Dreams" on Hell Yeah Recordings @hell-yeah  

Buy Now: https://aurasafari.bandcamp.com/album/island-dreams
https://www.juno.co.uk/products/aura-safari-island-dreams-vinyl/962601-01/?ref=dc 

Interview: https://www.dreamchimney.com/interviews/Aura-Safari/

Andrea Moretti, Lorenzo Lavoratori, Daniele Melloni, Nicholas Iammatteo, Lorenzo Francioli, Ruggero Bonucci and Nicola Pitassio are Aura Safari.  Collectively they play drums, percussion, bass, keys, and guitar and they contributed to the first volume of the Buena Onda comp in 2020 on Hell Yeah Recordings.  A year after that they served up a debut album on London's Church Records!  Skilled musicians and instrumentalists with an effortless charm inspired by time spent soaking up the vibes from the Umbria Jazz Festival, and winters keeping warm at the legendary Red Zone Club. These days they host their own Tropical Climax parties monthly in the town centre of Perugia, the deep-digging collectors drawing on sounds from Afro to Italo, house to disco, boogie to world, from jazz to Balearic.

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

DC Promo Tracks: Aura Safari "Tropical Climax"

Automat - Heat (2xLP)
BUY LINK : https://compostrecords.lnk.to/Automat-Heat
Label: Compost Records (https://soundcloud.com/compost)
https://www.instagram.com/compostrecords

The fifth album by the Berlin band Automat pours oil on the fire. "Heat" is more homogeneous, warmer and rounder than its predecessors. Intimate dub, rich bass, scrambled delays, deep blue trip hop, deep violet down-tempo ballads, reggae / rap sparks fly here and there, all of which makes “Heat” a beautifully album.

Heat stands for a process of change: both in the line-up and for the energy and passion of the new line-up. After a longer break due to Corona, the leave of guitarist Jochen Arbeit, the entry of keyboardist Max Loderbauer and producer Ingo Krauss as well as the ingenious reinforcement by Scott Montieth (Deadbeat), singer Barbie Williams and the guests on the microphone Gemma Ray and both reggae legends Prince Alla and R Zee Jackson, the new Automat is running like a machine.

Automat are: Achim Färber (Phillip Boa & The Voodooclub, Skip McDonald), Georg Zeitblom (wittmann/zeitblom), Max Loderbauer (Ricardo Villalobos / Sun Electric / Moritz Von Oswald Trio), Scott Montieth (Deadbeat)

BUY LINK

PREMIERE : Automat - Standing

Bladed

sorted

Intro Dan Sinplisite

Buy on Bandcamp

for all booking contact:
scrnobrnja@gmail.com


In Flagranti (Sasa Crnobrnja & Alex Gloor)

The duo has always made a great case demonstrating how “inspiration” from the creative works of others can truly be made into something new and totally distinct from the source material.  But whether you know the source material bears major influence on what their interpretation is going to even sound like to you.  In other words, you could be hearing the same song as another listener is, but if you’re familiar with the source material, you’re going to also be hearing that, while someone who isn’t familiar with it won’t.  Most of their listeners have no idea this is even going on, or could even be allowed.
I figure I follow In Flagranti quite closely, but I only make a connection here, or a connection there.  Sometimes this happens immediately, other times it’s taken years to notice.  Most connections I will never even be aware of, and I don’t listen for them, they just stand out to me or they don’t.  Sometimes I only discover the source material long after I’ve been familar with In Flagranti’s take on it, which you’d think would detract from the latter, but for me, it only adds to it.  In Flagranti’s musical interpretations show a certain ethic and a philosophy that parallels their approach to visual content.  It’s so “meta” that I’m at a loss to describe it, except to say what I often do:  Warhol would be In Flagranti’s biggest fan if he was around to witness them. – truckerdisco.wordpress.com

Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery—celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from—it’s where you take them to.”

Jim Jarmusch’s Golden Rule #5

That Wouldn't Make Sense

In Flagranti

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