Taken from the album 'Polytrichum Commune', released on Aatma Records in February 2024.

Download available at aatma.bandcamp.com/album/polytrichum-commune

Warm Beast

READ > inverted-audio.com/premiere-united-freedom-collective-higher-drums

Hot on the heels of releases from Thomass Jackson, Charlotte Bendiks, and Earthtones, Montreal-based record label Multi Culti unfurl their technicolor banner with ‘Bright Patterns’, the latest offering from London-based group United Freedom Collective...Our pick, ‘Higher Drums’, is a bona fide Balearic daydream, a track that transports you straight to the crystalline shores of the White Island. It begins with a celestial symphony of synths and gently pulsing rhythms, the kind that feel tailor-made for sun-dappled cliffside revelry. As the groove thickens, strings flicker like mirages, weaving a tapestry of cinematic intensity. Horns erupt in a frenzy, accompanied by voices dipped in honeyed tones, all building towards a climax of space-delayed flutes that spiral skyward like the final rays of a Mediterranean sunset.

@unitedfreedomcollective
@multiculti

Bright Patterns [MC078]

Higher Drums

United Freedom Collective - Higher Drums [Multi Culti]

Having delivered one of 2024's best debut albums, Nandakke?, Belgium-Japanese duo Aili have spent much of the past 12 months bringing their kaleidoscopic collision of electro-pop, electronica, house music and more to clubs and festivals throughout Europe, Mexico and Japan. Not wanting to leave us hanging though Aili Maruyama and Orson Wouters are back with two new club ready tracks, Damewadame and Shindara, the vibe of which will be very familiar to anyone who's caught the band's live show and experienced the moment their neon hued electronic pop gives way to a calorie burning blast of beats, bass and strobe lights.  

Whilst these new tracks have already made themselves very much at home in Aili's lives sets, their origins lie in the soundtrack to an upcoming Belgium TV series, Drift, that the band were invited to score. The series follows a group of 20-something Brussels friends, navigating the shifting sands of sex and love in the 21st century, and Aili's music provides a perfect backdrop as they explore the increasingly relevant issues such non-monogamous relationships, trust and consent that young people are dealing with today.  

The first track here, Damewadame, was originally created for one of Drift's party scenes. When it came to turning the original 30 second or so snippet into a complete song Aili wanted it to reflect not just some of the themes of the show but the band's own concerns with what's happening in clubs in Belgium, and indeed around the world, today. The result is one of Aili's harder tracks, that veers more towards industrial edged techno and where rattling percussion and overdriven bass underscore the urgency of Maruyama's vocals.  

“Here I’m literally singing 'Yes is yes. No is no,' as the song is about consent in clubs," she explains, a hot button topic in Belgium in the wake of several high-profile incidents of spiking and sexual assaults. "It's an important subject, especially in clubbing environments where people take drugs, or they're intoxicated, and it can become a blur and people use that as an excuse. There's been a few cases in the news recently and it's good it's finally being taken seriously as all my female friends have a bad story, and some of my male friends too. So this is just a simple but clear message, a yes is a yes, a no is a no. Even if you're intoxicated you know what that means.”  

With many of the scenes set in Brussels' vibrant clubland Aili needed to provide an appropriately up-tempo accompaniment and for inspiration looked back to a track written for their very first live show when they needed something explosive to end the gig with. Never properly recorded until now, that intense end of set workout has been vastly overhauled. Now retitled Shindara, the track eases us in with a soaring, almost meditative intro, that sees Maruyama's vocals, glitch, echo and misfire over a bed of numinous ambient textures, before the drums and acidic synths kick in and drag us back to the dark of the dancefloor. Fitting for a song that, as Maruyama explains, ended up entering some fairly philosophical pastures.  

"The lyrics [in Japanese] are essentially about 'when I die, where do I go?' And I just don't know because I don't really have a religion to fall back on, but still it's something I often think about. So Shindara has this very long intro which is very light and uplifting, and you feel it's taking you somewhere peaceful but then it was fun to play with that idea, to have this big existential question and then turn it into a huge club track. It's a fun puzzle."

Aili - Shindara

Until the End of the World

Hell Yeah have been busy making musical connections and reaching out to like-minded beatmakers once again. This time, it is Pier Paolo Polcari aka Polcari, a founding member of cult Italian band Almamegretta, who steps up with the magnificent new album I Will Try To Imitate The Birds. The eight-track record also features Adriano Viterbini, another Italian music icon and guitarist with the revered Bud Spence Blues Explosion and I Hate My Village as well as Ubjk, San Ignacio and Sergio Dileo.
Label head Marco first got in touch with Polcari after he remixed Italian cultural hero Sergio Messina's cover of 'Fly Away' back in 2021. The pair began sharing music, discussing their favourite reords and, eventually, the natural next step was to work towards the album now served up here.

Polcari is a master of downtempo sounds and, as well as several solo projects that fuse trip hop, folk, dub and world music, he has made a global mark as part of Almamegretta. The revered Naples band formed in the late 80s and has worked with greats like Massive Attack and Adrian Sherwood across more than 15 albums and are currently on a special 30th anniversary tour.

Opener 'Jardino' (Feat. San Ignacio) sets a laidback vibe from the off with gently breaking drums topped with whimsical melodies. 'Vita Nova' is cavernous dub with more lush instrumentals, xylophones and wispy synth motifs making for a world escape and 'Mundo' (Feat. Ubjk) has an air of Eastern melody with delicate pads and glowing keys floating above the pillowy drums. 'The Birds' (Feat. Adriano Viterbini) has fluttering harp strings that bring real beauty to a downtempo groove packed with vocoder vocals, synth smears and organic percussion.

'Orcos Ou Fadas' carries on with a rich blend of strings and percussion, shuffling rhythms and curious moods, 'Raifuki' lurches on moody drums and introverted melodies and 'Ligea' (Feat. Sergio Dileo) brings some romantic Latin rhythms and seductive clarinet while 'Superluna' completes the odyssey with more wavy dub and magnificent collages of melody and percussion.

I Will Try To Imitate The Birds will lift you off your feet and carry you away to a lush world of cathartic, sun-kissed musical pleasure.

"really special. Cut above typical balearic biz" - Ruf Dug

"Wonderfull!!" - Sean Johnston

"A beautifully atmospheric experience from start to finish." - Max Essa

"Fabulous release...All tracks" - Trevor Fung

"When experimental meets Balearic!" - Ilya Santana

"dreamy, hypnotic and lovely" - Chris Todd/Hot Toddy/Crazy P

"excellent album" - Andy Wilson (Cafe del Mar) 

Shop

Polcari - Mundo (feat. Ubjk)

SUBSONIC SILENCE

Yakuza

Yakuza (Sworn Virgins Remix)

Buy vinyl + digital: lnk.to/lcdhome

It wasn’t really hiding, just sitting quietly online. But Tom Sharkett’s edit of “Home” was too good to ignore. Originally a bootleg we first heard played on Flo Dill’s Breakfast Show on NTS, it wormed its way into our hearts and never left. So we made it official. Sometimes the internet actually makes your life better.

Buy vinyl

Home (Tom Sharkett Edit)

Julie Pavon produces gutsy synth-pop on new track 

‘Passenger’ →https://linktr.ee/musicfordreams
 
The Danish-Honduran house-pop marvel known for her “combustible blend of impassioned lyrics and club-geared beats" (DJ Mag) reveals another track from her much-awaited debut album. ‘Passenger’ puts forth a driving, atmospheric synth-pop beat that seems marked with the gothic glimmer of 80’s new wave.
 
‘You’re a passenger on the run/You’re a passenger flying for more/You’ll never land, that would feel so wrong/You’d miss the sun’ intones Pavon in her trademark delivery.
 
Sadly, Pavon have had to postpone her debut album Born With Heartbreak, which was originally due in May, and which is now set to release September 19th. She is gearing up for a European tour this summer leading up to her album.

Supported by Koda’s Cultural Funds and Musik Forlæggerne.

Connect with Julie Pavon
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3hFqGO0iOFkOfVWR0ydcHs
FB : https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551288484167
IG : https://www.instagram.com/juliepavonn/

Connect with Music For Dreams
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Home : https://musicfordreams.dk/

Julie Pavon - Passenger - s0939

Sehnliches Leiden (Der Delfin)

4890

Spycker came to Earth in the Dutch town of Zoeterwoude, famous for its beer brewery and its magnificent water tower. After finishing high school, he went to study physics. Frustrated at not discovering the smallest particle around, he decided to join a radical rural community in Northern Bulgaria. 

After 5 years his beard had grown too long and his toenails too soft. He left, but not without a newly-crafted plan: finding the Lord our God. Spycker did actually find God, but he discovered that God was a jealous God, and also very angry with the fact that our hero had neglected his duties at the bi-weekly grain offerings. 

Finally, Spycker decided that it was time to return to his homeland. In a small bordertown, he stumbled across the long-lost songs of the 16th century Flemish troubadour Armelius Klaasz Spycker. Adopting the name of his beloved musical ancestor, Spycker modernized these songs and went on to become another wannabe nobody.

Warm Beast

Spycker

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