Black Mango: Naked Venus b/w Soft Kicks
(10” single/limited edition of 500)
Get the album here: http://glitterbeat.com/glitterbeat_store/

A mysterious two-song release, licensed directly from a group of Bamako musicians who, with the exception of the Souku master Zoumana Tereta, choose to remain anonymous. 

In the last years, the political turmoil in Mali has caused many of the cities clubs to shutdown and dried up other sources of musician income like weddings and festivals. With less work and more downtime, small recording projects like this one have been given more of a chance to happen. The situation continues to be desperate, but the music remains a powerful force: both a refuge and a medicine.

These two Black Mango tracks are ethereal, hard to classify artifacts, seemingly influenced in equal parts by Ali Farka Toure and Lou Reed. In fact, the titles of the songs name check compositions by the recently passed Rock & Roll legend, though they are clearly not cover versions, as much as explorations on themes. The backstory of how and why these two tracks came into being remains untold, and we are left to purely enjoy them as moments captured.

The one credited musician Zoumana Tereta is a legend of Malian music, having played his Sokou, a single-string, horse-hair violin, on albums by Oumou Sangare, Bassekou Kouyate, Samba Toure, the National Ensemble Instrumental du Mali and many others. 

We can only hope that this is not the last musical transmission we will hear from Black Mango.

Black Mango - Naked Venus

"'A Picture Of Our Torn Up Praise" from Pride, released 10/23/07 via Dead Oceans


Musicians often head to New York, it's a familiar story. But something magical happened when Matthew Houck picked up stakes halfway through making his new Phosphorescent record, Pride, and moved to Brooklyn from Athens, Georgia.
Raised in Alabama, Houck has always made music steeped in the Southern-gothic tradition, a sweet American folk soaked in atmosphere like a pound cake in rum. On 2005's Aw Come Aw Wry, our weary-voiced bandleader cemented his reputation for making masterpiece albums filled with hallelujahs for both grace and tragedy with songs that swung from ramshackle and joyous to broken and pleading in the space of a prayer. The live show swung along this arc – with Houck sometimes backed by up to 14 or 15 members – creating a full-blown, shambling, marching-brass-band-revival-tent celebration.
Pride is something different. While it's not without the moments of sheer abandon that have made Phosphorescent's work unmistakable--"At Death, A Proclamation" thunders into familiar territory--mostly gone are the messy marching bands and evangelical fervor. Here, Houck instead channels something more mystical and haunting, offering up a dark, meditative set of songs that is all the more spiritual-sounding for its restrained tone. On previous albums, he's recruited guest musicians to fill the gaps, but on Pride, Houck has only enlisted the services of a makeshift choir, otherwise recording every instrument himself. His achingly cerebral delivery recalls Arthur Russell, but honestly, Pride sounds like nothing else we've ever heard. These are poems uttered in an empty field, punctuated by shouts and hollers, as if from a singer either abandoned or possessed. The lyrics are Houck's strongest ever, wrapped in washed out choral etudes that could be channeled from a rural French chapel or a solemn African tribe in prayer.
Pride sounds like it was made by a man set free. In fact, Pride sounds broken free of time and place altogether. Yet still it is warm, familiar, and welcoming--a record to call home.

"A Picture Of Our Torn Up Praise" from Pride, released 10/23/07 via Dead Oceans


Pride

A Picture Of Our Torn Up Praise

Pick it up here

Phosphorescent - 'A Picture Of Our Torn Up Praise'

Programmers Love

If I Could Turn Back Time

flowing 85 bpm 12524 take 1

composer: Isaac Albéniz
piano: Carlos Márquez

Image: Alhambra Tiles
flic.kr/p/5MDHeU

Isaac Albéniz: Mallorca Op. 202

On February 5th 2017 Erased Tapes open the doors to their new East London home, marking the 10th anniversary by introducing their fans and the public to the new Erased Tapes Sound Gallery. Coinciding with the launch of a new website where fans can also download a new gratis compilation, the label will be celebrating with many festival showcases and other events to be revealed throughout the year.  

Initially founded by German-born Robert Raths in 2007, the London-based label has grown and extended across the world with satellite offices in Los Angeles and Berlin. Spanning over ten years, Erased Tapes has nurtured avant-garde artists from all around the world whilst remaining genre-defying and truly independent.

"Ten years of one of the most important record labels of the last few years" – Gilles Peterson

“The heart-string-tugging London label that floats gently between 20th century composition
and ambient music.” – Rolling Stone

Commencing these celebrations with a free compilation entitled Erased Tapes Collection VIII, they also welcome the iconic Penguin Cafe to the roster amongst tracks from new signing Daniel Brandt (of Brandt Brauer Frick) and Peter Broderick’s duo project Allred & Broderick. It also includes recent compositions by Rival Consoles, A Winged Victory For The Sullen, Ben Lukas Boysen, Douglas Dare and Immix Ensemble & Vessel, as well as a previously unreleased Ryan Davis remix of Erased Tapes stalwarts Ólafur Arnalds & Nils Frahm which was recently favoured by Aphex Twin and an exclusive edit of Woodkid & Nils Frahm’s score for JR’s Ellis, with spoken words by Robert De Niro.

“I simply want to tell a story, whether that’s by compiling this annual collection of songs that connects the dots between all these works of music we had the honour of releasing over the years, or curating a label in general. It helps me reminisce and revisit the moments that brought us all closer together, that make us human. With each year the picture becomes clearer and the message less reliant on words. I hope that this music helps the listener as much as it helps me to keep imagining, keep focusing, keep awake in a time when silence and peace is so hard to come by. May our new space provide a haven, reflecting these values we share and allowing people to find a moment to slow down in this fast-paced world we live in.” – Robert Raths

As the first of many label-curated festival stages, this year’s Sea Change Festival in Devon, England, will see performances by Japanese vibraphonist Masayoshi Fujita and London-based singer-songwriter Douglas Dare.

Download 'Erased Tapes Collection VIII' for free from our new website www.erasedtapes.com 

Visit the Erased Tapes Sound Gallery at 174 Victoria Park Road, London E9 (opens to the public on Saturday February 11, 2017)

The Shell

Rene Aubry

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