SUPER UTU

hm hm

SoundCloud Weekly

vocals: Alexia Avina
electronics: Nick Schofield
written by: J. Lanza & J. Greenspan 
publishing: Duchamp / Hyperdub / Domino
photo: Tess Roby

It Means I Love You (Jessy Lanza)

Out worldwide 30/07/2018

POISON is the collaborative project of producers DJ Plead and T.Morimoto. On this debut self titled EP, the artists contemplate their mixed Lebanese and Japanese heritages through a dense combination of digital emulations and rhythmic patterns. POISON investigate the uncanny abstraction whereby centuries old instruments and rhythmic patterns are encoded into files and presets; digital synths, heavy subs, 808s, and vocals from collaborator ARZ, combine with emulations of the Shakuhachi, Mijwiz, Taiko, and Darbuka among others. Enabled by commercial sound design tools, the two Australians have produced a beguiling piece of audio simulacra to be enjoyed by DJs and listeners alike.

Super Utu present this eponymous EP in 10” polyvinyl chloride. On side A we hear Eh Mnee7 Ft. ARZ. Off-beat guitar strums build tension as ARZ’s auto-tuned Arabic vocals punctuate a pop-song structure, and a digital Mijwizz solo calls dancers to floor. Next is CCGC60, a minimal, trance inducing, techno-not-techno anthem that is at once strange and familiar. On side B Mess Tool channels heady poly-rhythmic bass patterns and wild drum solos, as multiple digital flute melodies chirp playfully above. The final, International Funds Transfer, alternates between tight snare rhythms, heartfelt melodies, and a driving 4 to the floor kick drum that stretches out into an expansive late night DJ weapon.

DJ Plead has recently welcomed the release of a solo EP through Air Max 97’s Decisions label. He is one third of BV (Formerly known as Black Vanilla) and his photography graces this record’s cover as it does numerous other Australian artists including Cop Envy and Jikuroux. Meanwhile T.Morimoto has an ongoing practise as a multi-displinary artist, curator and writer and is currently pursuing academic research into aesthetic standardisation under post-digital conditions. His music has been released through US label Illuminated Paths as well as cult Australian label This Thing, Plastic World and Body Promise.

Words by Tom Smith. 
http://thomaswilliamsmith.com

SUPER UTU 1 - POISON - SNIPPETS

Order Vinyl & Digital: https://superutu.bandcamp.com/album/poison

On side A we hear Eh Mnee7 Ft. ARZ. Off-beat guitar strums build tension as ARZ’s auto-tuned Arabic vocals punctuate a pop-song structure, and a digital Mijwizz solo calls dancers to floor.

Out July 30

POISON - Eh Mnee7 Ft. ARZ

READ > https://inverted-audio.com/premiere-poison-mess-tool

Never quite coming close to being possibly pigeonholed, @poisontrack 'Utu1' on @superutu joins the dots between techno and jazz, latin percussions and desert drums, classic 4/4 patterns and left-of-centre polyrhythms, contemplation and trance.

POISON - Mess Tool [Super Utu]

Vinyl & Digital:
https://superutu.bandcamp.com/album/pantene

Pantene was a live performance art-pop group that existed in Berlin, Germany in 2015. Its four band members: Marijn Degenaar, Molly Dyson, Olle Holmberg, and Rahel Tierbach took a DIY approach to instrumentation and arrangement, where intergenerational low-fidelity samples collide with subversive and pithy lyrics. Using laptops, MIDI, samplers and effects units to deliver re-contextualised pieces of music, Pantene explored issues surrounding cultural constructions of power, identity and sexuality with effortless aplomb.

This collection of 4 songs has been, for the past few years, sitting on Soundcloud slowly collecting plays, likes and no doubt intrigue from its listeners, as it seems since the time of upload Pantene have gone silent. Super Utu will be reissuing this remastered digi-relic on 10” polyvinyl chloride for the very first time. On side A is Don’t Touch Me I’m Dancing, a piercing retribution to seedy characters who lurk in dark corners of nightclubs. Molly and Rahel’s disaffected vocals pan “It’s a quest for satisfaction. A finger in every hole.” As if the nightclub is the playing field for some sort of sadistic sexual sport. Just Business, dejectedly examines our autonomy as individuals existing in an increasingly monotonous world controlled by capitalists. It’s the kind of work Barbara Kruger might have written if she decided to make music instead of visual art. Olle reflects “…cos everywhere you go there is another IKEA store to stock up your new life.” It’s a witty remark that would feel as much at home in a dole-wave jangle as a David Foster Wallace novel. At once extremely familiar, yet totally mentally isolating.

On the flip we hear Near To The Wild Heart. A legato, time-warped sample breathes deep and heavy beneath the reverb drenched vocals which sing “I am calm, I am cool, I wait for you. Take me all the way down, stretch it to the limit.” The lyrics float around in the back of your mind, in the exact same way the thought does that the attractive other from across the room, who’s been making eyes at you all night, might go home with you. On My Knees 2 Pray also does not falter in it’s sexually implicit/explicit vocal tango. The hapax legomenon of sultry deutsche sprache translates to “Virgin Mary, I know you see me. My knees only suffer for you.” 

While public discourse on sampling is contentious, it definitely pays to look beyond the technicalities and understand the context and contention of the creator(s). Pantene’s use of samples trounce any blatant pastiche. They re-appropriate decades old night club hits into breath-of-fresh-air political-pop songs. Perhaps you could even call them protest songs. At least we’re confident in knowing that they’ll be broadcast in institutions which were once symbols of anti-establishment, freedom and expression. Maybe they’re still like that. or Maybe not.

Words by Raudie McLeod
http://atelierutu.tumblr.com

SUPER UTU 2 - PANTENE - SNIPPETS

Excerpts from the album:

Artist: Ultramarine
Title: Signals Into Space

Pre-order here:
https://www.lesdisquesducrepuscule.com/signals_into_space_twi1236.html

Formats: 2xLP / CD
Label: Les Disques du Crépuscule (TWI 1236 / TWI 1236 CD)
Released: 11th January 2019

All instruments played by Ian Cooper & Paul Hammond except...
Anna Domino: vocals, lyrics
Iain Ballamy: soprano sax, tenor sax
Ric Elsworth: vibraphone, percussion

Recorded at Stag Studios, Essex and Press Play Studios, London
Engineered by Andy Ramsay
Mastered by Noel Summerville at 3345 Mastering, London

Art & design by Heretic / Spectral Nation
http://hereticheretic.co.uk

Signals Into Space

Ultramarine - Signals Into Space (album preview)

“It’s not easy to be free, but it’s harder not to be”.These are the first words to Bad Woman, Céline Gillain’s debut LP on DRAMA.

I’ve never had that many difficulties writing a text for a release. There were easy ways of dealing with it actually, like isolating some of the lyrics and making aphorisms out of them that would have punctuated the text. I could have also wrote about her music with hackneyed words and glamorous comparisons with the likes of Laurie Anderson or Leslie Winer.

Maybe is it because it summons the influence of artists that have been crucial in our lives, maybe is it because of the ambition and the absolute sincerity emanating from this record, maybe is it also because of the utter contemporaneity of the record… but I feel stuck.

So I will only say a couple of things. If the idea of an LP following her debut 7″ on Lexi Disques gets you as excited as we were and still are, you won’t be disappointed by Bad Woman. The music on the upcoming album definitely is pop music, but in a disturbing, beyond « good » and « bad » taste kind of way.

It sometimes feel as if Bad Woman has been written by a former Pop diva that saw her expectations being shattered by life and now tries to make her come-back with a new album, influenced by what she believes to be contemporary pop music. The thing is, the result is a mutant blend of everything and anything that has been produced by the music industry these last 30 years, from Cher’s delirious come-back in the 1990’s to the most embarrassing moments in Dance music, and it rather sounds like a record that would have been written in a parallel universe.

That being said, Bad Woman tackles painful issues about our lives as individuals and society but with absolute elegance. After months of being the only one able to listen to it, no need to say that Zaltan & I are now extremely proud and happy to see this record coming to life. Thank you Céline for untrusting with taking care of your album.

OUT DECEMBER 2018 via DRAMA

Bandcamp

CÉLINE GILLAIN - FIGHT OR FLIGHT (DRAMA2)

Meditative ambient with marimba and notes of Fourth World, originally recorded some time between '80 and '95.

'Midday Moon' is out now on Bedroom Suck Records.

Buy: bit.ly/2QqSQnm

@bedroomsuckrecords

Midday Moon 

Premiere: Blair Greenberg – Gleaming [Bedroom Suck Records]

A1 - Don't Touch Me (I'm Dancing) from the Pantene EP

Vinyl & Digital:
https://superutu.bandcamp.com/album/pantene