doing this better than 99% of the bros trying tbh

Na Zala Zala

Zuwa Ba Risk

Le Motel - Sueños is out now on Maloca

Belgian artist and Maloca Records founder Le Motel returns to the label for a new EP, ‘Sueños’, his most expansive work to date. Released on the 25th February, Le Motel draws from the worldly ethos of the label to bring together collaborators from the UK, Ghana, Spain and Brussels. 

Meaning dream in Spanish, ‘Sueños’ was made during the lockdown and is inspired by the fragments for dreams and the incapacity of experiencing music and life in a physical way. On Le Motel’s two solo cuts, ‘Sueños’ and ‘Talking To Drums’, the dynamic artist showcases his signature percussive driven sound. With the global influences from the collaborators, ‘Sueños’ continues to expand across heavyweight grime on ‘Love Talk Bad’ with Logan, glitchy IDM with Cabasa on ‘Libet’s Delay’, Clara! bringing reggaeton flavours to ‘Rápido’ and Bryte provides his distinctive vocals to the heavy bass rhythms of ‘Wonteeda’. 

As a music producer and film composer, Le Motel’s versatility has taken him to festivals and clubs in every direction and as a field recordist, he has ventured out to the less accessible areas of the globe to source sounds for his enriching productions. Having produced for some of Belgium’s biggest hip hop artists, Le Motel has also released on Portugal’s XXIII, LA’s TAR and New Zealand’s Cosmic Compositions. 

Launching Maloca Records in 2020, Le Motel aims to bring together a global network of makers which was highlighted on the label’s first compilation, Maloca Vol. 1. The release focused on a terrestrial and borderless percussive sound that has been bubbling in clubs and Le Motel’s orbit, featuring tracks from Nick León, OMAAR, DJ JM, Dengue Dengue Dengue, Coen, DJ N.K. and Tsongo. Maloca has also released solo EPs from Howie Lee, Farsight and more recently Griffit Vigo.

Sueños

Le Motel - Talking to Drums

Nostro Hood System head honcho Galtier makes a return to the Bristol label with 5 visceral tracks which, through fusion of synthetic and organic textures, emulate human imitation of nature's essence.

He crooked his neck, not daring to make any bigger movements as he learnt his surroundings. His feet stumbled clumsily and he found himself spinning, his eyes receiving visual information faster than his brain could process it. The hardness of metal pressed itself into soft flesh, resembling the shape of human bodies, but not their movement. Faces showed their teeth and squinted their eyes, but didn't smile. Mouths projected noise, but didn't speak. It was grotesque but strangely enticing.  He looked down at his hands which couldn't hold.

In some respects, 'Imitation Plantae' is exactly what you'd expect from a Galiter release. 5 off-kilter tracks which laugh in the face of genres, maintaining just enough of their stylistic tropes to make them recognisable before screwing them up and making something totally new. In reality, it's hard to know what to expect from Galtier - an artist who basks in unpredictability and uncanniness.

Departing somewhat from his previous output, an introspective full-length album released on Mexico's Infinite Machine imprint , Imitation Plantae is a whiplash tour of club music's strangest corners. Crystalline sound design flirts with the senses, each blip and groan tempting to the touch, immersing their listener in its cyborg world. 

Our pick 'XX-101 (Process)' sees Galtier put his oddball spin on dembow. Arpeggiating synths and a razor-sharp buzz that whirrs mischievously above, add layers of movement to an assertive triplet rhythm. Club mutations at their most incongruous, we file this one next to Batu's most recent EP.

Imitation Plantae EP

PREMIERE: Galtier - XX-101 (Process)[Nostro Hood System]

https://youtu.be/yUkm8Rh03ow

Born Yallah Gaudencia Mbidde in Kenya and raised in Uganda, MC Yallah has been involved in East Africa's rap scene since 1999. Alternating rhymes in Luganda, Luo, Kiswahili and English, her conscious, poetic and experimental style was slow to creep into Uganda's mainstream. Following a brief but necessary hiatus, she returned to the stage in 2018 with a new lease of life accepting her role as a central component of the Nyege Nyege/Hakuna Kulala family.

"Yallah Beibe" is the fiery follow-up to Yallah and Berlin-based producer Debmaster's acclaimed 2019 debut "Kubali". After her tour plans were cut short as COVID-19 broke out in 2020, Yallah returned to Kampala and started work on her sophomore album at Nyege Nyege's villa. The process was more complicated this time around, developing pointedly from an initial back-and-forth with Debmaster and flourishing as beats appeared from Japanese producer Scotch Rolex and Congolese club maestro Chrisman. The finished album is an international patchwork of futuristic cyber-rap experiments fastened together by Yallah's unforgettable personality and elastic flow.

More charged than its predecessor, "Yallah Beibe" is an apt soundtrack to a challenging era. Yallah is an experienced and versatile MC and channels her layered understanding of the complicated global cultural landscape into 12 stories that skate through trap, dancehall, club and industrial styles. Her authoritative guiding force is never more evident than on 'No One Seems To Bother', a collaboration with Duma's gravel-voiced singer Lord Spikeheart. Trading bars over Debmaster's slippery, bass-heavy rhythm, Yallah and Spikeheart ink an alternative East African sonic landscape, with activated lyrics ("the world is going under, no-one seems to bother") and rasping, death metal-inspired groans.

"Yallah Beibe" is a call to action, a loud siren that's intended to educate the wider world of East Africa's shrouded history and bright future. Yallah's collaboration with rising star Rati Gan 'Bigbung Song' is the best evidence of this, looping Rati's Afro-Caribbean dancefloor flex and Yallah's politicized flow around a twisted bass-heavy beat from Chrisman, joining hands between the DRC, Uganda and the wider diaspora. Tracks like 'Baliwa' and the anthemic 'HERA' meanwhile completely center Yallah's signature lyrical dexterity, playing her tongue twisting raps against Scotch Rolex's pan-global foley-trap splatter. At times, the sounds feel as if they're from their own planet entirely - a fourth world that's rooted in collaboration rather than appropriation.

If "Kubali" re-established Yallah as a force to be reckoned with, "Yallah Beibe" cements her status as one of the world's most exciting MCs, both on record and on the stage. There's nobody doing it quite like her.

Mc Yallah - Yallah Beibe

3 - Laboratoire Des Nuages (Original Pampa Mix)

Desert Trance

https://soundcloud.com/hellolemo
https://soundcloud.com/krizzli

As we enter into the 2018th Sequence of the modern earth time, so too does the Nostro Hood System advance forward, the system itself generating a gravitational pull marginally similar to that of the solar system nestled against it. Within the vast confines of the Nostro Hood, a vessel floats proudly – a beacon for the myriad of living spheres that surround it from every angle. The Waystation; a point of congregation for unimaginable beings who seek refuge, resources or even knowledge regarding the various species that occupy nearby worlds. 

At this time, at the beginning of a new year, the vessel lends its halls to the beings of the Nostro Hood. A celebration to the glowing star that lights the terrain for so many beings as it ages yet another lifetime. Providing the aural selections for this momentous occasion are ten artists, each hailing from their own homeworld, each offering a piece of auditory culture to represent the people of their planet. This multicultural experience truly defines the nature of the Nostro Hood – a celebration of difference both sonically and culturally.

Mastered by Cyrcular Mastering
Artwork by Azul De Monte

Waystation Compilation: Sequence I

Lemonick & Krizzli - Nammi

See here for more info: https://wp.me/pwcbn-kCX

Teardropz - EP

Siete Catorce & Amazondotcom, ‘A Party That Fits In Your Pocket’ (2018). Courtesy NHS, London.

I spent days chopping up the whole Best Available Technology / BOA back catalogue - this is a kind of megamix. Big up Kev, Gary, Cam and Phil!

SUS033

Buy on Bandcamp

BOA - Mosca's Constricted Version

>>> bokehversions.bandcamp.com/album/mutual-aid-2020 <<<

"Mutual Aid 2020 is the first ever Bokeh compilation, with 100% of all proceeds going direct to artists - for themselves or for distribution in their local community. 17 tracks breathe in the whole history of what we would never ourselves call 'the Bokeh sound'. From sci-fi digi to dancehall sampling shoegaze chuggers, B-movie horror drill, industrial spoken word, euphoric steppas, surf-indebted metallic roots, acid goths remixing gqom. This is all we've ever been about."

Mutual Aid 2020

Buy at Bandcamp

Low Jack - Reaction (Bokeh Allstars - Mutual Aid 2020)

Maloca, Vol. 1 is OUT NOV 13th - @nickleon
Pre-order : https://maloca.bandcamp.com/album/maloca-vol-1

Tracklist :
01. Dengue Dengue Dengue - Minerals
02. DJ JM - Skirts
03. Nick León - Creation Story
04. DJ N.K. - Quebra Ossos
05. Le Motel - Durban
06. Coen - Stomp
07. Omaar - Denumbawon (The Number One)
08. Tsongo - Fantasy Girl

Featuring 8 different artists from Mexico to Lithuania, Peru, Portugal, Florida, UK and Belgium, ‘Maloca Vol. 1’ outlines the worldly focus of Le Motel’s new label. 

Launching Maloca Records earlier this year, the label’s ethos is to build bridges interlinking disparate yet like-minded musicians dedicated to blending organic electronic and acoustic elements. The global network of makers highlighted on Maloca Vol.1, the label’s first compilation, confabs a terrestrial and borderless percussive sound that has been bubbling in clubs and Le Motel’s orbit. 

Opening the compilation is esteemed Peruvian duo Dengue Dengue Dengue followed by Lithuania's DJ JM who has previously released on the likes of Nervous Horizon and Goon Club Allstars, Miami artist and NAAFI affiliate Nick León and Lisbon’s DJ N.K. On the second half of the compilation, there are contributions from the label founder himself, Mexico’s Omaar, UK’s Coen and mysterious artist Tsongo. 

Maloca Records has put out three vinyl releases to date from Oakland’s Farsight, Beijing’s Howie Lee and Le Motel. The label is quickly building a reputation for releasing brilliant forward-thinking club records whilst capturing specific international sounds.

ARTWORK BY HELL’O COLLECTIVE 
GRAPHIC DESIGN BY LE MOTEL 
MASTERED BY BRANDENBURG 
DISTRIBUTED BY CREVETTE DISTRIBUTION

Maloca, Vol. 1

Nick León - Creation Story

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( /￣∪

ฅ•ω•ฅ : soniahhhh@gmail.com

Desert Trance

Sonia Calico

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