FabFlameOneHundredandFiftyFive

from Seekers VA
released on April 19th, 2024

cover art: Sylwia Szydełko
graphic support: Laura Linnik
mastering: @r_ethe
w&p: @katiushadj

buy here:
https://splot.bandcamp.com/album/seekers

Katiusha - Creeper Deluxe

In My Line Of Sight

So, that's it then. Summer's slowly creeping back into its cubby hole; and October is trudging into view, bringing brown leaves and colder eves with it. Maajo is a musical continuation of the similarly titled 12” single by Herman Prime, the Finnish producer’s idea expanded to a five-member band. And the name, which actually translates to "May" in Somali, hands us a final grasp at the sun with this next gift on Queen Nanny. Entitled Tropic Of Tulli, it's a ten-track expedition fuelled by "an obsession with Balearic disco, deep tribal roots and a love of eighties Afro-pop".

"Darkness is Good" blends together the last two nodes in that description. A swampy, guitar-led jam that wades along at walking pace; custom-made for your Sunday lazeathons and late evening chill sessions.

Wax lovers will be pleased to know that it's arriving on 2 x 12" in a gatefold sleeve. But whether it's vinyl and/or digital copies you're after, set your alarm for the release on October 28th.

Tropic Of Tulli

Maajo "Darkness is Good" - Boiler Room Debuts

Maajo stands for May. The month of excitement and expectation of imminent joy. A time of hope following weeks and months of rain and cold. The time that best encapsulates escapism, those wistful, delightful daydreams. A time when you release yourself from everyday routine and already begin to live in the holiday that hasn’t yet arrived. A place that might not even exist. Let it be a warm, a joyous place, a fuzzy bricolage you witness after passing out while watching a David Attenborough documentary. Outlandish and romantic ideas of distant cultures. Maajo is motion, movement from one place to another. It is moving without travelling, dream and dance.
Maajo is a musical continuation of the similarly titled 12” single by Herman Prime, the producer’s idea expanded to a five member band. The music is the product of a mixed technique where vocal samples and programmed synthesizers coalesce with fingerplucked guitars and handheld percussion. Beneath everything run several strong currents of inspiration: an obsession with balearic disco, deep tribal roots, a love of eighties afropop, lessons from minimalist composers and a desire to just dub it up.
Tropic of Tulli is not a direct flight but a meandering journey. Starting beside a flowing river, Kaba sends us on our way with a gentle arrangement of kalimba and a Mandinga poem. Two midtempo groovers, Tum’pi and Makkara, set an expectant mood. Musa Paradisa lands on a tropical island with plentiful percussion and a clatter of mallets. The party starts with the fervent afrodisco number Okudu. There is a strange detour to an urban cityscape with Fode’s meandering bass line and street drummer for company. The path leads to a dark rainforest, both menacing and inviting, following Kofi Obu’s feverish vocal and desertic guitar riff. Darkness is Good is a bout of afrocosmic exploration. A.O.O. offers a final chance for a sunrise dance before the beautiful balearic theme Maajo closes the album with an intoxicated smile.

Listen on youtube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJgisJgM9D4&feature=youtu.be

PREMIERE : Maajo - Kofi Obu

Finnish band @maajoofficial get their afro-influenced balearic original a makeover from @call-super, turning it enigmatically trippy, rich in textures and dance-floor focussed.

Read more & buy: http://www.stampthewax.com/2017/09/28/premiere-maajo-maajo-call-super-remix/
Listen on Youtube: http://bit.ly/maajo-call-super

Maajo Remixes

Listen on Youtube

Maajo - Maajo (Call Super Remix) (STW Premiere)

Maajo Remixes ft. Call Super, Luke Vibert & Dengue Dengue Dengue

Like to think these shows after the holidays are the most varied – I sit around doing f.a. & playing catch-up on all the arabic jazz / latvian avant-garde / deep reggaeton. So here's a glut of that, plus some brand new bits for 2018. Drifts in the first half –> rockets ahead in the second:

AFX - With My Family _ [self-released; 2015]
Carter Burwell - The March _ [Varése Sarabande; 1987]
Onyx Collective - Market St. _ [Big Dada; 2017]
Laraaji - Hare Jaya Jaya Rama II _ [Numero Group; 2018] **
J. G. Biberkopf - Dance of Relating _ [Danse Noire; 2018]
NSRD - Decembra sesija 2 _ [Seque Latvia; 1987]
Curd Duca - Bongos 2 _ [Mille Plateaux; 1998]
DJ Python - Esteban _ [Incienso; 2017]
Blue Iverson - Jenna’s Interlude _ [self-released; 2017]
Mary Halvorson Quartet / John Zorn - Verchiel _ [Tzadik; 2017]
Yazz Ahmed - Jamil Jamal _ [Naim Jazz; 2017]
Zazou, Bikaye & CY1 - Lamuka _ [Crammed Discs; 1983]
Pink Rhythm - Melodies Of Love _ [Intercord; 1985]
SFV Acid - Lil Gurn _ [BAKK; 2017]
Deee-Lite - What Is Love (Holographic Goatee Mix) _ [Elekta; 1990]
Job Sifre - Zodiak _ [Knekelhuis; 2018] **
Portable pres. RANGEr - Normalizo (ft. Korus) _ [Waella’s Choice; 2018] **
Maajo - Maajo (Luke Vibert Remix) _ [Queen Nanny; 2017]
Jad & The - Tops Off FM Radio _ [Toy Tronics; 2017]
Cabaret Voltaire - Easy Life (Jive Turkey Mix) _ [Parlophone; 1990]
K2 - The Journey _ [Vibraphone; 1993]
Fantastic Man pres. P.M.T.C. - Reality Change _ [Superconscious Records; 2017]
Leisure Muffin - Isoprene _ [The Bunker; 2018] **
Second Storey - No Such Location (Marcel Dettmann Positive Remix) _ [Houndstooth; 2018] **
Spawn - The Thinking Man _ [Probe; 1992]
Anthony Rother - Young _ [Datapunk; 2004]
Donato Dozzy - Track 5 _ [Further Records; 2010]
Satoshi & Makoto - Poincare _ [Safe Trip; 2017]
DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ - Beautiful Things _ [self-released; 2017]
DJ Taye - 2094 _ [Hyperdub; 2018] **

** = forthcoming

As Heard on Radar Radio 

Radar Radio: Catch Up If You Can - 13th January 2018

The Finnish tropical troupe @Maajoofficial is back with a two-track EP. In contrast to the Afro-Balearic sound of their 2016 debut Tropic of Tulli, the new Defo / Mansaba EP is a step in a deeper and sometimes darker direction.

Defo kicks off the EP with a driving 5/4 rhythm. Reminiscent of Mark Ernestus' Ndagga sounds, it is a tribal tune with Maajo's signature ethereal disco elements.

Trevor Deep Jr.'s version straightens out the original's unconventional time signature and focuses on a four-to-four beat and plenty of Berliner dub. The remix is a solid dancefloor tool, traversing the original like a train making its way through a dark rainforest.

The B-side is entirely covered by Mansaba, a 14-minute long journey into inwards. This studio jam, recorded largely live, is a wild mixture of polyrhythmic sequences, krautrock guitar licks, equatorial forest percussion and violin synths. The trip starts slow and soothing, sneakily picks up pace and keeps grow and growing, eventually exploding into a full-on tribal dance.

Maajo - Defo/Mansaba

VINYL IS IN STORES

Enjoy 3 guys jamming 3 tracks together as Lemonade’s 3rd release, played on 33rpm.

For almost a year now, our main man serving the drinks Arno Lemons has been relocated from Antwerp to Berlin, where he lives and works for OYE Records. After a few months of wack adventures into the rich culture of Berlin’s nightlife, Arno got around, made friends and was introduced to some very magical hombres …

For the next release on his Lemonade imprint, we have to go to a mythical place called Darmstadt. Darmstadt is a city in Germany, literally translated from Belgian-Flemish slang to English as “Drunk city’. According to Mr. Lemons, it would’ve been impossible to not have great stories made there.

And gladly enough, he was right; the city is sleazy & jazzy as hell, baby.

After the Jazz-storm hit Los Angeles, USA, and bursted into (South) London, UK, it has now struck Germany, right in this little, mysteriously interesting city, in the southern part of the Rhine-Main area.

Meet Triorität: a mesmerising threesome co-responsible for this fresh movement in D-town.
With Gerrit Ebeling on keys and synths, Grégoire Pignède on bass and Alexander Hoffmann on drums, you have no idea where you’ll end up. With amazing self-composed, long duration tracks full of moodswings and jams, it knows how to surprise and catch you with its uplifting drums, dancing tones and dreamy melodies.

The trio started with Gerrit and Alex, who grew up in a musical environment.
As cousins they started jamming on their fathers’ drumkit and keyboard since they were little.
In 2012, they met their third companion Grégoire at a party, drinking really bad Gin Fizz out of a plastic bottle.

After this life changing moment, Grégoire joined the duo, which reformed itself into a musical threesome full of crazy adventures. With deep influences from the 70s fusion and disco scene, as well as modern electronic genres like Hip Hop and House, Triorität pursues to push a fresh and new sound which will represent the German city in the upcoming history of jazz, thus enriching the global jazz scene and expand its different varieties of styles within the genre.

It was time Lemonade made some “Priorität”, which it now does with the amazing band called Triorität, all the way from Darmstadt!

A1. Josef Der Kamel
(A2. Hidden Track)
B1. Ammoniak
B2. Aquaboarding

//

Recorded at Lui Hill Studio in Darmstadt
Produced and Mixed by Lukas Lehmann
Mastered by Markus Broy at DTL

Keys: Gerrit Ebeling
Bass: Grégoire Pignède
Drums: Alexander Hoffmann

Distributed by Oye Records
Manufactured by R.A.N.D MUZIK
Released with love by Lemonade
Design by Charlie Van Beeck
A&R by Arno Lemons

support:
DTL Mastering www.dtl-mastering.de 
Lui Hill Studio www.facebook.com/luihillstudio/ 

//

Cat. No.: LEM03 
credits
released March 15, 2019

Skorphut

Josef Der Kamel

Colors

You've Got to Have Freedom

A3 - THATS CDIIF QUAD SIDE B - Trk 3

All songs written and produced by Eun apart
from and with special thanks to:

Nubya Garcia - Saxophone (Tracks 1, 2, 3 & 7)

Cynesha Brown - Guitar (Tracks 4 & 5)

Georgia Anne Muldrow - Vocals (Track 5)

Demae Wodu aka Bubblerap - Vocals (Track 6)

Wu-Lu - Bass (Track 6)

Jake Milliner - Additional Production (Track 7)

Darkness Must Be Beautiful (TuneCore)

Doubt (feat. Nubya Garcia)

A1 - Area 10K Boys Riddim (Original Mix)
B1 - Area 10K Boys Riddim (Flightmode Edit)
B2 - Area 10K Boys Riddim (Radio Edit)

Out 7th December @ekitisoundofficial
Pre-order live soon...

Ekiti Sound - Area 10K Boys Riddim

Bass transmissions from Lagos via London by https://soundcloud.com/ekitisoundofficial on https://soundcloud.com/queennanny label

Area 10K Boys Riddim

LISTEN ON YOUTUBE

PREMIERE : Ekiti Sound - Area 10K Boys Riddim (Flightmode Edit)

* Read more: https://boltingbits.com/maajo-esukey-ft-ismaila-sane-queen-nanny
* Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Wzqi646aK3A
* Pre-order: https://queennanny.bandcamp.com/album/kuru-kuru

Maajo, the afrolectric troupe from Finland is back with their second full length album, "Kuru Kuru", once again on UK label Queen Nanny which launched in tandem with the group. Debuting with their "Tropic of Tulli" LP in late October of 2016, they've been on our radar ever since. With their sparse discography, each of their rare EP releases in between albums, such as Defo/Mansaba, have gotten us equally excited.

Merging more traditional African sounds with modern electronic instrumentation, Maajo have managed to create a sound that's truly in a category of their own. They've built on the sounds of the initial album and "Kuru Kuru" is a direct extension of their journey. Similar yet different, you can hear the progression in their identity as they incorporate a greater number of African instruments such as balafons, more original vocals and an even wider array of influences as well.

Last March they released a single entitled 'Sèmbè' alongside Senegalese vocalist Ismaila Sané. They clearly enjoyed working together so much that a couple of the tracks on the new LP feature his vocals. Our premiere today, 'Esukey', is one of them. A slice of nostalgic Afro-pop, Sané's vocals are the main attraction. Dancing around them are electric guitar lines, stabby synth pads, electric strings and an afro-disco groove with plenty of percussion. This one's a surefire crossover hit that's going to be a staple for us this summer. What's more is that we've got the exclusive video premiere of the single for you today, featuring the band and Ismaila Sané themselves, singing, playing instruments and a game of chess.

Whatever you do, don't sleep on the rest of "Kuru Kuru". This one is a must grab, hands down. Full of drums, instruments and influences from across the African continent and beyond, there's a little slice of sunshine for everyone, something that's desperately needed right now.
Maajo means the month of May. This album is coincidentally releasing in late April, just on time. Be sure to get it here as it's a fantastic piece of music to listen to as the weather changes from rainy spring to sunny summer, especially as we're all still feeling the effects of this crazy global phenomenon.

QNLP003

OFFICIAL VIDEO

PREMIERE: Maajo - Esukey (feat. Ismaila Sané)

Urban electric reggae and dubbed out bass transmissions sent out via the UK.
Record label est. 2016

Maajo - Defo/Mansaba

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