www.slowdance.co.uk/motr

The debut single from Terror Peaks.

Terror Peaks is a musical project dedicated to extremity, blinding light, impressionistic visions, and emotional outpourings. It aims for sensory overload, and the space found between stabbing heights and euphoric calms.

Terror Peaks (‘TP’) is a vast world, but you often can’t see much of it. Wherever you go, you are showered in, and forever fatigued by, an overbearing light. This light does not reveal things as they are, but behaves in an obscurant way, like an anti-haze which blinds all that it illuminates. 

Only rarely does the light behave normally, like a beam. Mostly, it acts like a volatile weather condition, like a blizzard or sleet storm. Occasionally, it gives observers a cruel fright, morphing in and out of sight as though it were a living entity. Nobody knows it where it comes from. There is no sun. The sky appears as a vaguely off-white void, if it can be made out at all. Your eyes are bathed in it, like an afterimage taunting the visual field. It’s difficult to know the limit to its brightness. It simply floods more light that existed there before. Light enshrouds extant light.

But at times, it lets up. Visions of distant mountain ranges, oceans, and sky-scraping structures sometimes appear from behind the light-gloom, out of reach. Odd beings, like floating pieces of dyed papyrus or cloth, have been known to hover about before darting away again. 

You’ll be largely thankful for what the light masks. There are horrors, angels. Mercilessly stalking the unprepared and foolish, these superintelligences rarely take on corporeal form, ‘singing’, wailing in pain at having become TP’s permanent denizens. Prolonged exposure to the light has forced their voices into a ‘trapped’ tuning, a suffocating harmony. Some entrants have also spoken of colossi, but that’s a fairytale. You probably won’t catch sight of any living beings, but if you do, you’ll either be baffled or scarred for life.

Terror Peaks -  Sᐝo⼁❘ ︲⏐ ˌ ˈ ̩ Showyou  [SD045]

Happy to officially welcome Aga Ujma to the Slow Dance family with debut single ‘In The Ocean’ paired with a short animation by New York artist Gabriela Sibilska. Aga is a captivating individual, both her music and personality brim with a childlike openness but also a hint of a fairytale darkness beneath the autumnal warmth, we couldn't be more excited to share her music to the world.

Stream: https://backl.ink/145054470
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/agaooyima
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/agaujma/

www.slowdance.co.uk

"‘In the ocean’ was written using traditional polyphonic Central Javanese patterns (cengkok) played on gender barung in unusual ways: I extended them, chopped in little chunks and alternated some of their melodies and glued them back together, creating a mosaic with numeric music notation (kepatihan) Then, I fitted in a tailored singing part with a poem that reflects on the state of sadness and where it can lead us if we trust the process. It also touches upon missing multiple homes at the same time and a psychedelic tropical picnic on a desert beach." - Aga Ujma
--
‘In The Ocean’ is a delicately textured track that combines her soothing vocals with syncopated rhythms and abrupt changes in tone performed on her other instrument of choice, a gendèr, which is a Gamelan instrument used in Balinese and Javanese traditional music. It is paired with a music video by experimental animation artist Gabriela Sibilska, Polish-born but based in New York. 


your sadness - it's a way
It's a river
that looks like milk

some people are louder when they're gone
there are some homes I'll never find again

do you remember when you used to hold me
in the ocean like a newborn
I was floating safely in your arms
for these moments water was our home
and the air was our kiss

red and yellow fish were petting my feet
corals underneath us were staring with white eyes

sun was glazed in rainbow

Aga Ujma - In The Ocean

The Moth & The Dove is about loss and the dark parts of our mind, but it is also a celebration of the melancholy of life and the fragility of the relationships we build.

Uma follows her acclaimed debut EP with Sophomore EP ‘The Moth & The Dove’, a continuation of her calming sonic presence, with interjections of bossa nova and more electronic influences in places, capturing “loss and the dark parts of our mind, but also a celebration of the melancholy of life and the fragility of the relationships we build.”

 includes the singles ‘Bring Me The Mountain’ and ‘Black Bees’, two collaborative cuts with partner Lucy Lu written during lockdown, gaining praise from the likes of The Needle Drop, The Line of Best Fit, DIY and Gigwise. 

“the song writing process became a kind of therapy, a way to approach subjects we couldn’t talk about. It was only after we’d finished, we realised we’d made records,”

Stream: https://backl.ink/144143553
Support Uma on Bandcamp:

www.uma.band

Uma - Even When She Knows

Uma Ft. Lucy Lu  - Black Bees

Uma - Talking Walls

Uma - Nebula

Uma Ft. Lucy Lu  - Bring Me The Mountain

It is with great pleasure that Slow Dance can announce Polish born singer-songwriter and multi instrumentalist Aga Ujma’s debut EP: Songs of Innocence and Experience. Aga Ujma is a captivating individual, both her music and personality brim with a childlike openness but also a hint of a fairytale darkness beneath the autumnal warmth. 

Her sound follows the contemporary folk cannon of Bjork, Múm, Eivør, CocoRosie and Current 93, blending traditional folk with minimal avant-garde production methods and Eastern instrumentation. Her glacial vocals, underpinned by the delicate plucking of an Indonesian sasando and golden passages of gender barung, make her EP a beautiful homage to two very different places that are close to her heart. 

Song of Innocence and Experience, is named after a William Blake set of illustrated poems. Aga has a love of poetry and literature that can be felt in her lyrics. nosze, the middle track on the EP, is a Polish translation of an E.E Cummings poem that Aga says she always finds herself returning to because of its theme of ‘carrying love in your heart across spatial boundaries’. 

Opener, great expectations, begins with Aga’s trademark whispered vocals and sounds like a mythological siren call. In The Ocean, originally released as part of the yearly Slow Dance compilation, is a ‘delicately textured’ (The Quietus) track that combines her soothing vocals with syncopated rhythms and abrupt changes in tone performed on her other instrument of choice, a gendèr, which is a Gamelan instrument used in Balinese and Javanese traditional music. It is paired with a music video by an experimental animation Polish artist Gabriela Sibilska based in New York. 

Lead single night echoes Vashti Bunyan via Aldous Harding, featuring a gentle sasando melody and an addictive hushed chorus with a hushed choreographed video here. In contrast, the last track, what to write about, is ‘the most raw’ and ‘unfiltered’. The repeated glissando noise is striking, serving to capture raw attention instantly. 

Aga was born in a sleepy town in the South West of Poland, to parents who were ‘quite conservative but open-minded and extremely loving at the same time’ - a duality reflected in her music. From an early age Aga had rebellious musician inclinations. When she was eight, she applied to study classical piano at the local music school without telling her parents. 

While studying musicology in Wroclaw, she heard Gamelan music for the first time. Something about it resonated with Aga, who says she felt ‘angry’ with her teachers that she’d never heard it before. The strong Western bias in music school combined with her fascination with the unfamiliar sound of Gamelan music led her to apply for a scholarship at the Indonesian Institute of Arts in Surakarta. 

It was here that she first saw Indonesian music played live, an experience she describes as captivating. There was a strong experimental music scene surrounding the University, and every night Aga would go to gigs where musicians would play with a sense of freedom she had never seen before. Part of this was the construction of their own instruments, something we have seen from Indonesian experimental bands like Senyawa. 

Aga credits to Indonesia the experimental aspect of her music, which manifests itself on the EP in playful song structures and surprisingly placed glissandos. What stuck with Aga most about Indonesian musicians was their willingness to reinvent traditional music and do ‘crazy’ things with it. This kind of modernity, she says, is not possible with traditional Polish folk music. In Poland, folk music has such a revered status that to play around with it too much is considered offensive. This experimental approach to traditional folk, blending cultures together in a delicate arrangement makes Aga’s music a one of a kind insight into the childlike curiosity of musical exploration

Aga Ujma - Night

Platonica Erotica - Marriage Of Convenience (SD055)

Stream here:  https://backl.ink/145193668
Video: https://youtu.be/4Ac-BLgD_fU

‘I bet someone told you that I’d be a bad wife, I can’t be your mother, I couldn’t do that right, I bet you read Updike and think one of these nights I might drink your gin and drown our baby’ Platonica Erotica opens her debut single “Marriage Of Convenience” with venomous words, delivered in honeyed, silk-smooth tones, over the pious notes of a church organ.

Self-described as ‘the Greek god of singing karaoke to your crush (in your imagination)’, she lavishes listeners with cultural references whilst always spooning in a healthy dose of humour, name-dropping John Updike and Socrates. Scarlett O’Hara gets a mention, too - “Melanie” is a quote from Gone With The Wind and the name of the woman who runs into the arms of her former lover. 

Cover by Emma Parkinson
Logo by Jacob Read (Jerkcurb)

www.platonicaerotica.com
www.slowdance.co.uk

Platonica Erotica - Marriage Of Convenience

It is with great pleasure that Slow Dance can announce Polish born singer-songwriter and multi instrumentalist Aga Ujma’s debut EP: Songs of Innocence and Experience. Aga Ujma is a captivating individual, both her music and personality brim with a childlike openness but also a hint of a fairytale darkness beneath the autumnal warmth.
 
Her sound follows the contemporary folk cannon of Bjork, Múm, Eivør, CocoRosie and Current 93, blending traditional folk with minimal avant-garde production methods and Eastern instrumentation. Her glacial vocals, underpinned by the delicate plucking of an Indonesian sasando and golden passages of gender barung, make her EP a beautiful homage to two very different places that are close to her heart. 
 
Song of Innocence and Experience, is named after a William Blake set of illustrated poems. Aga has a love of poetry and literature that can be felt in her lyrics. nosze, the middle track on the EP, is a Polish translation of an E.E Cummings poem that Aga says she always finds herself returning to because of its theme of ‘carrying love in your heart across spatial boundaries’. 
 
Opener, great expectations, begins with Aga’s trademark whispered vocals and sounds like a mythological siren call. In The Ocean, originally released as part of the yearly Slow Dance compilation, is a ‘delicately textured’ (The Quietus) track that combines her soothing vocals with syncopated rhythms and abrupt changes in tone performed on her other instrument of choice, a gendèr, which is a Gamelan instrument used in Balinese and Javanese traditional music. It is paired with a music video by an experimental animation Polish artist Gabriela Sibilska based in New York.
 
Lead single night echoes Vashti Bunyan via Aldous Harding, featuring a gentle sasando melody and an addictive hushed chorus with a hushed choreographed video here. In contrast, the last track, what to write about, is ‘the most raw’ and ‘unfiltered’. The repeated glissando noise is striking, serving to capture raw attention instantly. 
 
Aga was born in a sleepy town in the South West of Poland, to parents who were ‘quite conservative but open-minded and extremely loving at the same time’ - a duality reflected in her music. From an early age Aga had rebellious musician inclinations. When she was eight, she applied to study classical piano at the local music school without telling her parents. 
 
While studying musicology in Wroclaw, she heard Gamelan music for the first time. Something about it resonated with Aga, who says she felt ‘angry’ with her teachers that she’d never heard it before. The strong Western bias in music school combined with her fascination with the unfamiliar sound of Gamelan music led her to apply for a scholarship at the Indonesian Institute of Arts in Surakarta. 
 
It was here that she first saw Indonesian music played live, an experience she describes as captivating. There was a strong experimental music scene surrounding the University, and every night Aga would go to gigs where musicians would play with a sense of freedom she had never seen before. Part of this was the construction of their own instruments, something we have seen from Indonesian experimental bands like Senyawa.
 
Aga credits to Indonesia the experimental aspect of her music, which manifests itself on the EP in playful song structures and surprisingly placed glissandos. What stuck with Aga most about Indonesian musicians was their willingness to reinvent traditional music and do ‘crazy’ things with it. This kind of modernity, she says, is not possible with traditional Polish folk music. In Poland, folk music has such a revered status that to play around with it too much is considered offensive. This experimental approach to traditional folk, blending cultures together in a delicate arrangement makes Aga’s music a one of a kind insight into the childlike curiosity of musical exploration.

What To Write About

Nosze

Great Expectations

Out today - Platonica Erotica presents “I Can’t Be Your Everything” is its wistful sibling to debut single ‘Marriage Of Convenience’, referred to by Platonica as ‘the last of my prom music ... I wanted a very clean, dreamy number with a veiled threat in there. I wanted to rip the carpet from underneath that person who didn't want me - to say, "Oh, you don't like a part of me? Well, I'll disappear from you completely."’

Written by Hannah Hayden, Produced by Jude Woodhead, Mastered by James Clancy

Platonica Erotica - I Can't Be Your Everything

Minor Conflict are a new three-piece from Bristol that formed organically at the end of 2019 when band members Josh Smyth (bass), Natalie Whiteland (harp and vocals) and Robbie Warin (drums and vocals) began having weekly jam sessions. After a lockdown hiatus, the band continued to rehearse and write music in The Cube Microplex, where they all volunteer. ‘Office Block’ is one of many songs composed during these writing sessions. Toby Burroughs from Pozi helped with the recording of this track at Rumbaba, his studio in London. After debuting their live show in 2021, they’ve already caught the attention of various London and Bristol based promoters. The long intro of this track is sonically almost like Meredith Monk, but it moves seamlessly into catchy, propulsive post-punk that plants them within the context of the current Bristol music scene, with contemporaries Squid.

Minor Conflict - Office Block

Gate Song is part of DIY-project Bara & Isa’s EP ‘pink sphere’, which they self-released in October 2021. They’ve found that the introspection of their music has led it to be described as a 'disturbed lullaby' (“ Someone told me they took a nap to our music and I love that”), 'morning music' and 'chest of interludes with pockets of beauty'. They’re looking to explore live performance further in 2022, and potentially collaborate with other artists. At the same time, they admit that they like to take their time, and would like to “hide away in a hut in the Austrian Alps first and write some songs about sheep”.

Bara & Isa - Gate Song

Cornwall-based artist and composer Stanley Welch graduated from the Slade school of fine art in 2020, then moved to Glasgow where he decided to devote his attention to making music. Continuing the solitary working practice that came from his degree, he arranged and performed all the parts of his new creations himself. Described as “episodic, apocalyptic and urgent”, and “genuinely moving … unpredictable and full of character”, his music steals approaches from baroque pop, contemporary classical, classical-classical, electronica, krautrock, chamber folk and soul, and uses them to guide you between listening, dancing, stepping back and falling in. Stanley Welch provides the ​​guitar, vocals, saxophone, cello, synths and percussion on this track. In 2022, he will be writing and recording an album, with plans to release an EP, from ‘the 300-odd tracks which have been clogging up my hard drive’.

Stanley Welch - Croptor

Preorder link: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/various/late-works-of-noise

6 groups of musicians created tracks with 6 sculptures/instruments built by artists Mathilda Bennett-Greene, Jonas Pequeno, Angus McCrum & Joseph Bradley Hill. Each group had 6 hours to create a track sampling only the instruments and vocals.

Featuring members of black midi, 404 Guild, Sorry, Powerplant, Impromptu & Curl Recordings, the groups were as follows:

1 - DJ Dairy & MC Spritz (black midi), Aga Ujma, Silkarmour & Beth Dawson
2 - Bathwater 404, Devenny 404, Eliot 404 & Sonny 404 (404 Guild)
3 - GG Skips (Glows & Sorry) & Felix Raman 
4 - Martha Skye Murphy, Kiran Leonard, Corpse Boy (Impromptu) & Cajm (Powerplant)
5 - Bianca Scout, Jacob Samuel & j. b. glazer (Curl), Cam Molloy, Harald Smart & Elena Isolini 
6 - Clottie Cream & Rosy Bones (Goat Girl), Richard Limper (leather.head) & Horse Whisperer

The concept for 'of Noise' by Joseph Bradley Hill takes its inspiration from Luigi Russolo’s 1913 Futurist manifesto “The Art of Noises” and his six classifications of noise: 

1 - Roars, Thunderings, Explosions, Hissing Roars, Bangs & Booms. 
2 - Whistling, Hissing & Puffing. 
3 - Whispers, Murmurs, Mumbling, Muttering & Gurgling. 
4 - Screeching, Creaking, Rustling, Humming, Crackling & Rubbing. 
5 - Noises obtained by beating on metals, woods, skins, stones, pottery etc. 
6 - Voices of animals and people, Shouts, Screams, Shrieks, Wails, Hoots, Howls, Death Rattles & Sobs.  

The entire EP was recorded at Slow Dance HQ in London Fields, between the 25th & 29th February 2020  - the studio rules were as follows:

1. Musicians may only bring things that modify sound, not make sound themselves.
2. Vocals are allowed, but any lyrics must be written in the studio time.
3. The tracks must only use noise sampled from the sculptures and the voice.
4. The tracks must be completed within each respective six hour session.

Late Works  is a permutable collective of artists, musicians, film-makers, writers, dancers and designers who populate a nomadic series of live intermedia events of the same name. Since September 2018, over 135 artists have collaborated with founder Joseph Bradley Hill to put on 8 different events across London, alongside their monthly radio show on  Resonance Extra , the experimental wing of the #1 arts radio station in the UK. Initially aiming to examine the concept of the gesamtkunstwerk, Late Works has developed into a set of heavily process-based experimental events united by an ethos of indeterminate intermedia improvisation.

https://lateworks.co.uk
Follow us on Instagram https://instagram.com/lateworks_ to stay updated with our latest events!

Slow Dance, founded in 2016, is a profoundly DIY label and arts collective made up of artists, musicians, designers, A&R scouts, managers and filmmakers. The collaborative nature of the organisation means that lines between art, music and industry sensibilities are blurred and evolved into something entirely new. The current core members, founder GG Skips (who also releases music under the name Glows), Darius Williams and Maddy O’Keefe, are surrounded by a satellite of like-minded creatives who are at the forefront of London’s underground music scene.

Slow Dance’s live event curation has seen them provide a platform to a variety of experimental and burgeoning artists, many of which are now very commercially successful (the likes of black midi, Jockstrap, Sorry, Goat Girl, PVA, Squid and more). It is these events that caught the attention of bookers from Knee Deep, Test Pressing and The Alternative Escape, leading to their involvement in curation, and the label are now partners at the upcoming Brockwell Park festival Wide Awake.

https://slowdance.co.uk
https://instagram.com/slowdancerecords

Geordie Greep, Cameron Picton, Lottie Pendlebury & Rosy Jones all appear courtesy of Rough Trade.

Slow Dance Presents - Late Works: Of Noise [SD040] -  12" Sampler

Stream: https://backl.ink/143141447

Following off her debut EP ‘Brave,’ Fran Lobo drops remix from duo Glows of the title track ‘Brave’. The track is the second following a remix from Loraine James in a series of remixes for a forthcoming remix EP out at the end of the year. 

Fran Lobo has had an eclectic and fascinating career in the musical underground for the last several years. Having released two solo EPs and worked as a member of Deep Throat Choir, she collaborated further on DTCx Simian Mobile Disco’s lauded collaborative album ‘Murmurations’. As a vocalist she has also toured with trip-hop legends UNKLE as the key vocalist. In 2017 She was invited by Mathew Herbert to support his Barbican show as well as supporting Okay Kaya on her EU tour.

Over the past few years she has also realised various sound installations such as ‘Tune In’ at the Southbank Centre and ‘Voicescolourmotion’ an immersive multi-channel choral and light installation at the prestigious Snape Malting's Festival Of New which then went on to be exhibited at London’s V&A Museum. ‘Last year she was selected as one of the Shure 24 by UK curator James Lavelle alongside curators Holly Herndon, Santigold, James Lavelle and Yuri Suzuki. 

Her debut EP ‘Brave’ for Slow Dance is a dramatic nightmare dream about addiction, reclaiming identity and processing grief: employing rare analogue drum machines and synthesizers, field recordings, live band, choirs and orchestral instruments. Recorded between Stereloab’s Andy Ramsay’s (Stereolab) studio in South London (King Krule, Mount Kimbie) and Massive Attack’s 3D’s studio in Bristol with Bruno Ellingham. The EP was mixed by Jimmy Robertson and mastered by Christian Wright at Abbey Road.

Glows is the project of London based audio-visual duo, GG skips and Felix Bayley-Higgins. Heavily involved in the curation of the Slow Dance collective, they’ve experimented in all avenues of London’s arts and music scenes in recent years. From forming EMU, a group welcoming rotating members from the likes of black midi, Young Turks and Sorry for improvised A/V performances at the Windmill, to receiving commissions for immersive installations at the Royal Academy of Arts, they have been incubating at both ends of the spectrum. Support for Glows has come from NME, DIY, and Radio 1 with debut track Perla being voted one of Loud and Quiet’s best songs of 2019. they’ve supported the likes of Squid, Kelly Lee Owens, Sorry, Goat Girl, Black Midi and Mica Levi.

Fran Lobo - Brave (Glows Remix)

🔊Slow Dance ’20 #5 - Platonica Erotica - ILYSM 🔊
Stream: https://backl.ink/143760263
Slow Dance’s Platonica Erotica describes herself as the greek god of singing karaoke to your crush (in your imagination). With her debut release on Slow Dance’s 2018 Compilation, “Wasted” introduced New Jersey born, London-based Hannah Hayden as an idiosyncratic songwriter whose humour and intelligence bleed through her words and arrangements. Whilst completing a masters in art history, Platonica Erotica extended her musical stomping-ground through the London music scene, played gigs with Matt Maltese, Tiña The Rhythm Method, and Black Country, New Road (to name a few). Her songwriting draws upon influences from Jonathan Richman to Rodgers and Hammerstein and ricochets from the sweet to the vicious over lush choral harmonies and pea-sweet bedroom production. With a brooding beauty in her voice akin to Lana Del Rey, but with a heavy dose of self-awareness and knife-edge wit, Platonica Erotica’s world is seductively romantic and sophisticated. No other artist can make you feel so enamoured and yet so victimised.
Video in bio
—
It may have been the most unanimously detested year in all our lifetimes, but out of the sludge comes a undeniable distillation of talent. 
Slow Dance ’20, the fourth of our annual compilations is a 16 track smorgasbord of of characteristically genre-fluid picks, spanning all manner of electronic music from harsh techno to expansive ambience, lo-fi bedroom productions from some of the most exciting new bands and solo artists that have emerged over the past year.
We will be releasing a track every weekday with the full compilation out on the 26th January.

Platonica Erotica - ILYSM

Slow Dance ’20 #4 - Sonny Bliss - Skin Contact
Stream: https://backl.ink/143760263
A real special one today, music quite unlike any other we've heard.
Industrial Lounge Act 'Sonny Bliss' (Robin, Núria and John of Manchester's 6a6y 6 collective) formed late 2018 and has since supported Penelope Trappes, Handle, Currentmoodgirl, Bamya, Otis Jordan and Bunny Hoova. They premiered their self released debut in Desire Press Closer magazine via QR code, and released follow up EP through Stockholm's Maternal Voice label. The project began when they utilised a space in one of Manchester's first cotton mills - recording live improvisations of Alto Sax, Flute and DR55 Drum Machine being fed together through a 70s Roland Space Echo unit. They'd then master and release the recordings, and recreate the pieces as songs live.
—
It may have been the most unanimously detested year in all our lifetimes, but out of the sludge comes a undeniable distillation of talent. 
Slow Dance ’20, the fourth of our annual compilations is a 16 track smorgasbord of of characteristically genre-fluid picks, spanning all manner of electronic music from harsh techno to expansive ambience, lo-fi bedroom productions from some of the most exciting new bands and solo artists that have emerged over the past year.
We will be releasing a track every weekday with the full compilation out on the 26th January.
https://youtu.be/YbhevpOE_0g

Sonny Bliss - Skin Contact

Slow Dance ’20 #3 - Crimewave - BARCODE
Stream:https://backl.ink/143760281
Appealingly referred to as ‘My Bloody Valentine meets Aphex Twin’, Crimewave combines late 80s/early 90s shoegaze music and contemporary electronic music. If we describe this as ‘shoegaze 2.0’, the vision is a surreal, futuristic take on an old genre; using the likes of The Jesus and Mary Chain’s wall of sound approach and cutting it up, stretching it and obscuring it in whatever way the latest technology allows. These plays in sound design are pinned down by expansive, off-kilter drums. As a matter of concept and principle, Crimewave does not use any synthesisers in his music; much of what you hear in his tracks that resemble synthesisers are in fact digitally manipulated guitars. The chilling vocals and lyrical content that rides over these beats are to be expected, echoing the morbid atmosphere of the great northern cities of Manchester and Newcastle. Lyrical topics include an outsider’s perspective on the 2017 Manchester attacks, the beauty in impoverished areas and the struggles of trying to enter an increasingly overcrowded job market.
—
It may have been the most unanimously detested year in all our lifetimes, but out of the sludge comes a undeniable distillation of talent. 
Slow Dance ’20, the fourth of our annual compilations is a 16 track smorgasbord of of characteristically genre-fluid picks, spanning all manner of electronic music from harsh techno to expansive ambience, lo-fi bedroom productions from some of the most exciting new bands and solo artists that have emerged over the past year.
We will be releasing a track every weekday with the full compilation out on the 26th January.

Crimewave - BARCODE

Slow Dance ’20 #2 - HALINA - Filling the Void
Stream: https://backl.ink/143766348
Debut track from newcomer HALINA, mixed alongside Saint Jude / Jude Woodhead.
HALINA is the music project of Yorkshire born and London based singer/ Producer and songwriter Tasmin Dacres.
HALINA’s sound was born out of experimenting with production during the March Lockdown. Taking influence from Tirzah, Dean Blunt, Smerz and Erika de Casier, HALINA uses sound collages of her own voice alongside digital drum machines and ambient textures to create rolling soundscapes which form the backdrop to her intimate vocals.
—
It may have been the most unanimously detested year in all our lifetimes, but out of the sludge comes a undeniable distillation of talent. 
Slow Dance ’20, the fourth of our annual compilations is a 16 track smorgasbord of of characteristically genre-fluid picks, spanning all manner of electronic music from harsh techno to expansive ambience, lo-fi bedroom productions from some of the most exciting new bands and solo artists that have emerged over the past year.
We will be releasing a track every weekday with the full compilation out on the 26th January.

HALINA - Filling The Void

Slow Dance ’20 #1 - comfort - Received Life 
Stream: https://backl.ink/143760278
It may have been the most unanimously detested year in all our lifetimes, but out of the sludge comes a undeniable distillation of talent. 
Slow Dance ’20, the fifth of our annual compilations is a 16 track smorgasbord of of characteristically genre-fluid picks, spanning all manner of electronic music from harsh techno to expansive ambience, lo-fi bedroom productions from some of the most exciting new bands and solo artists that have emerged over the past year.
We will be releasing a track every weekday with the full compilation out on the 26th January.
First up is a track from comfort.
Glasgow’s industrial protest-pop sibling duo comfort’s “Received Life” is a political call to arms. ‘There’s no maximum wage’, we are reminded by vocalist Natalie over off-kilter electronic sub beats and Sean’s steady, pulsing drums. With a Scottish Album of The Year nomination under their belt for 2019’s ‘Not Passing’, the pair are Slow Dance’s newest signees and we can expect more from them on the label in 2021. Their creation of activist music so raw and sonically exciting is something that has been missing for years in music, and if anything can mobilise the masses it is comfort’s live show. With increasingly apocalyptic political, social and environmental situations it is necessary that artists vocalising themes such as physical and economical violence, trans rights, injustice and more are given the exposure they need.

comfort - Received Life

Stream: https://backl.ink/143760275
“I Wish” by Julia Sophie, is an introspective but propulsive track that will be the first of her second EP, ‘</3’ (heart-broken). The intricate electronics and ricocheting, engine-like beats are balanced by mesmerising spectral vocals that are delicately embroidered together. As an artist whose solo career is informed by her experiences in rock band Little Fish and dream pop collective Candy Says, supporting Debbie Harry, Idles and The Japanese House, she has found her own voice in the click of a vintage drum machine and the unlimited freedom of self-production. Earning her place in the avant-pop sisterhood of FKA Twigs, Grimes, Half-Waif and Natasha Kahn, Julia Sophie’s palette is a mix of the hot, liquid, cool and electric: she sings of desire and loss, control and release. With praise from BBC Radio 6’s Lauren Lavene, Mary-Anne Hobbs and Nemone and Huw Stephens on Radio 1, Julia Sophie promises to be one of the most hotly-tipped new artists for 2021.

Julia-Sophie - I Wish

Stream: https://backl.ink/143766341
Mysterious newcomer Lui, blends lo-fi Garage and soulful vocals for his debut which features additional production by Glows. Watch this space for more…
—
It may have been the most unanimously detested year in all our lifetimes, but out of the sludge comes a undeniable distillation of talent. 
Slow Dance ’20, the fourth of our annual compilations is a 16 track smorgasbord of of characteristically genre-fluid picks, spanning all manner of electronic music from harsh techno to expansive ambience, lo-fi bedroom productions from some of the most exciting new bands and solo artists that have emerged over the past year.
We will be releasing a track every weekday with the full compilation out on the 26th January.

LUI - Nothing Left To Say

Stream: https://backl.ink/143760370
a.Blubox is a London-based Italian-German production duo consisting of bass/ synth player and producer Max Mella and guitarist and producer Alessandro La Barbera. The project aims at exploring the fusion of programmed electronic music and live improvisation with the use of samplers, heavily processed guitar and bass, various tape machines and synths, blending elements of electronic music, hip hop and funk.
Aphty Khéa lives between London, Berlin and Athens; she weaves a fusion of myriad samples and synths to form an electronica future beat hybrid. Influenced by Mount Kimbie, Bonobo and her dad’s old Greek CD burns, the artist and activist builds a hard-hitting sound world that delves into glitchy production and lo-fi samples.
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It may have been the most unanimously detested year in all our lifetimes, but out of the sludge comes a undeniable distillation of talent. 
Slow Dance ’20, the fourth of our annual compilations is a 16 track smorgasbord of of characteristically genre-fluid picks, spanning all manner of electronic music from harsh techno to expansive ambience, lo-fi bedroom productions from some of the most exciting new bands and solo artists that have emerged over the past year.
We will be releasing a track every weekday with the full compilation out on the 26th January.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZ0yF_uhUAw&feature=youtu.be

Aphty Khéa & a.Blubox - Pengvibe2.0

Heka’s “Redwoods (a few interesting facts about sequoias)” is an assemblage song, which emerged as an experiment in lyrical and musical collage. By juxtaposing acoustic, electric, and electronic sounds, it builds a subtle tension between organic and inorganic sound: vocals shift from natural to robotic, guitar drowns in the beat. Looping through melancholic melodies, saturated lo-fi beats, distorted guitars and multi-layered vocals that seem to chase each other, it creates a space that feels both expansive and intimate. The lyrics run like a stream of consciousness on two tracks: a relentless list of facts about sequoias is interspersed between an internal monologue of confused love. The project mimics the mind, as it desperately clings to senseless information in order to avoid feeling.

Heka - Redwoods (a Few Interesting Facts About Sequoias)

ZZ Bop are two 3D rendered ladies that occupy the bit of space between chaos and perfection. A production project between London based musicians limezoda (PVA) and ZOWZE (Blue Bendy), ZZ Bop formed from a lockdown collaboration between the two, sending samples and demos to one another, playing and working wit the limitations of online collaboration - to go on to form their first release, the joint EP ‘Tiger Print Bean Bag Sofa’. From there they plan to further dive into this sonic clusterfuck space they find joy within. Happy accidents, experimentation and carefree limitlessness is in the heart of what they are striving to do with this project.

ZZ Bop - REV

Listen: https://backl.ink/143760367
EMU (Ex-Mothers’ Union) is a live project based on Improvisation with a rolling line-up of artists, musicians and performers with a range of featured players from the London music scene (Geordie Greep black midi, Glows, aga ujma, Cajm, Asha Lorenz (Sorry)
Each performance is different and features different instrumentation. This recording features Kit Mosely (Guitar), Martha Skye Murphy (Vocals) Felix Stock (Bass), Si Richards (Modular synth) and was recorded at The Waiting Room in Stoke Newington on the 11th of November 2019.

08 - Emu - Waiting Room (Excerpt)

Slow Dance ’20 #15 - Butch Kassidy - Heath

Butch Kassidy are London based four-piece whose submission “Heath” is an explosive, vigorous post-rock masterpiece. Inspired by bands like Swans, Slint and Godspeed You! Black Emperor, their deafening live performances place them amongst London’s most compelling new guitar projects. Their coruscating walls of sound, affinities for improvisation, minimalism and metal set them apart from other newcomers, and on the strength of early live shows, they were long-listed for Glastonbury’s Emerging Talent Competition and invited to perform at BBC Radio 1 Huw Stephens’ ‘Presents’ showcase

—
It may have been the most unanimously detested year in all our lifetimes, but out of the sludge comes a undeniable distillation of talent. 
Slow Dance ’20, the fourth of our annual compilations is a 16 track smorgasbord of of characteristically genre-fluid picks, spanning all manner of electronic music from harsh techno to expansive ambience, lo-fi bedroom productions from some of the most exciting new bands and solo artists that have emerged over the past year.
We will be releasing a track every weekday with the full compilation out on the 26th January.

SLOW DANCE

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