Breath

Final 15 - A Ghostly 15 Playlist Curated by Michael Cina

"Anyone that knows me, knows that my main passion is music. I spend all day listening to music at work and my vinyl collection of 16k pieces greets me when I get home. I knew about Ghostly International before they contacted me in the early 2000’s and we would write off and on. They used to send me big packages of white labeled vinyl, it was decadent.

Late 2007 I got a call from Ghostly asking if I was up for designing a new single for Dabrye. It was a dream come true and I feel like I found a friend who really understood me. I have had the distinct privilege to design over 100 covers for Ghostly, and that is only the half of it.

When they asked me to do a compilation, I was all about it. I wanted to do three or more compilations because I wanted to segment it up into different sections (Ghostly, SMM and Spectral). It is impossible to reduce the entire label to 15 tracks. Ghostly is dynamic, they don’t fit one sound, genre or idea.

So I approached it as a mixtape of sorts. I tried to find a common thread that spoke to me and create a mood around that idea. Some of my favorite tracks are not on here. JDSY 'Horizon Line' makes my head spin. Choir of Young Believers 'Paralyse' takes me to another place. There are so many more.

What you are hearing some songs that have spoken to me over the years in a distinct way. I don’t feel like they are obvious choices but they all are nothing short of amazing. I hope this compilation helps you see a different side of one of the best labels to ever do it." - Michael Cina

Matthew Dear - Elementary Lover (DJ Koze Remix)

https://soundcloud.com/shkema
https://soundcloud.com/hardfist
🛒 https://es.juno.co.uk/products/shkema-afrodelic-room-of-men-eaters-vinyl/992296-01
🔊 https://youtu.be/TpFYct1soyM

Vilnius based producer Shkema makes weird music for weird people. He spent ages with the analog synthesizers, looking for that right tone color. Then he added guitar sounds and various percussion. His strange and off voice component came last. He stays up late into the night, finding peace in his mind, imagining stories and creating music around it. 


That’s how Room of Men Eaters was born: a collection of absurd short stories and invented words coming straight out of his mind, whose aim is to draw you into the twists and turns of the night.


« Tas Malonumas »
Lithuanian word 
Def: meaning That Pleasure
Exemple: conversation between a young,  inexperienced person and an elderly person who’s near death's door. The old one is telling the young one how life is an unceasing search for pleasure. 
Track: takes the form of a mental stroll that takes you far, far away.


« Room of Men Eaters »
Human expression of cannibalism
Def: absurd situation in which men and women eat each other in a room
Track: the contrast between the absurdity of the situation and the apparent normality of speech told by the vocoded voice of Shkema is just astonishing. 


« Sarka Syrkaza »
From the future
Def: meaning “super sarcasm”
Exemple: one day you wake up in the morning and you feel that something within you has changed. All seems to be nonsense and you start to look at everything through the grey glasses of sarcasm. One might look enjoying oneself, but in reality this is an extremely draining state of mind.
Track: musical expression of that state of mind


« Je n’aime pas les fêtes » 
World expression
Def: parties are boring
Track: Shkema remix of his friend Afrodelic is a wacky version that contrasts French lyrics talking about how disastrous parties feel with a beat that just makes you want to dance.

Tracklist: 

1 - Shkema - Tas Malonumas
2 - Shkema - Room Of Men Eaters
3 - Shkema - Sarka Syrkaza
4 - Afrodelic - Je n'aime pas les fêtes (Shkema remix)

PREMIERE: Shkema - Tas Malonumas [Hard Fist]

Ewan Rill - Mother River (Richie Blacker Remix) [Brisbeats Records]

Mustang Lady

Mungolian Jetset - A City So Convenient

Enigmatic Berlin­based producer Algorythm provides the debut release on the new vinyl imprint Neptune Records.

Initiating the package, stuttering percussion and echoing effects form the deep and mesmerising ‘Santos Express’. Syncopated rhythms and thudding bass hits then make up ‘LFO’ as twinkling melodies work their magic, before ‘Bird Cage’ introduces soaring chords and tranquil notes. Tying things together, thudding kicks and snappy snares drive ‘Omar’s Deli’ forward as various layers of serene synths and pads are blended together.

Algorythm - Bird Cage

Quote "Shedding Layers by Rob Clouth is easily my favourite piece of electronic music that I have heard so far in 2018" (Andy Fosberry).......so how am I supposed to remix that!?....it was a difficult track to approach.

I decided I had to stay true to the original core of the track, the main melodic elements, which I just complemented with some new prophet chords. Then for the rest of the remix it was more of a matter of augmenting than a typical remix. I spent a loooong time working on detailing for this, I wanted to try and bring some industrial sounds in to push further the intensity that Rob had created, and push the sound design complexity as far as I felt I could get away with in the context of what is basically a techno track for clubs.

It's definitely one of the most intense remixes I've worked on for some time, and I've been playing it out a lot recently with good effect. But I hope it can also work as an interesting home listening track. As usual I put a lot of effort into the binaural and general stereo design, so if you listen with headphones you should hear sounds pop out at you, fly behind your head, that sort of thing. I wanted to turn all those clicks and strange noises into an immersive cloud dancing around your head.

The remix package has amazing work by Ben Lukas Boysen, Brecon and Chihei Hatakeyama on there, some beautiful ambient and peaceful moments as well as this monstrosity, I'm certain can you find something in there which will make your day better!

Buy/Stream/Full EP

Rob Clouth - Shedding Layers - Max Cooper Remix [Mesh006]

Apparat feat. Raz Ohara - holdon (Modeselektor Remix)

music by Matteo Pavesi, featuring:

Laura Misch - alto saxophone
Louk Cox - tenor saxophone, flute
Dario Lessing - fender rhodes
Pascal Karier - hihat, shaker

mixed by Matteo Pavesi
mastered by Nene Baratto

art by BD Graft, Standing, 2015

Berlin, 2017

Kyson - As The Mind It Changes (Pavlov Bootleg)

Let grasshoppers hop in the green grass!
This is the re-release of the classic and oh-so eclectic EP from 2005 on Karloff Rekordings. (1-800-RIP-KRLF)
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Head over to my bandcamp page to buy LOSSLESS HIGH QUALITY MASTERS - so it can be loss no more!

Impermeable Disguise

Cj's Turnin' World

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Max Cooper is an electronic composer, multi-disciplinary artist, music label founder and former scientist who has carved out a unique space in music and visual art.

He holds a PhD in computational biology at the same time as being the first contemporary electronic musician to perform at the ancient Acropolis theatre in Athens and one of the first clutch of musicians to produce in Dolby Atmos.

Cooper has enquired for over 15 years through music, collaborations, and his label Mesh, to explore the intersections between the arts and sciences with installations, performances, immersive experiences, online media, music videos and live events.  Anchored throughout is his emotive approach, connecting how ideas and forms feel, in a manner accessible to us all. 
 
As an artist synonymous with the evolution of club culture, Cooper honed his craft as a DJ with a 10 year residency at legendary Midlands techno event Firefly where he formed a foundational relationship with Architecture Social Club, with whom he still collaborates on extravagant immersive installations.

"I want to encourage the acceptance of electronic music as an art form like any other. Bringing electronic music and abstract audio-visual projects into concert halls, museums and galleries is liberating - the art world opens up doors to communicate in ways that aren’t possible elsewhere."
  
Pivoting from computational biology to electronic music might not seem like the most natural career transition, but for Cooper the commonalities are obvious:
 
"In both fields, you're in a sense, free. Free from the limits of living systems, free from the limits of corporeal sound. The only constraints are in your mind."

www.maxcooper.net 

Contacts:
Management: James Palmer-Bullock, The Wild Seeds - james@thewildseeds.com 
Label: Anthony Faulkner, Mesh – anthony@thewildseeds.com 
PR: Neil Bainbridge, Neighbourhood PR - neil@nbhd-group.com 
Radio: Matthew Maxey, Enganche - matthew@enganche.co.uk