Fall - A Theme

Teeth

•	Lost post-punk classic from 1980. A unique mixture of noisy riffs, angular pop melodies and dubwise production aesthetic.  
•	Second ever album release on On-U Sound, never issued before on CD or Digital. 
•	Features former members of Durutti Column and future members of Simply Red! 
•	Can be filed alongside early work by Wire, Gang Of Four and Public Image Limited; and uncannily predates later work by contemporary bands such as Liars and Battles. 
•	Remastered from the original tapes and fully annotated with sleevenotes by the band, plus photos and memorabilia. 
•	All formats include 6 bonus tracks, 3 of which are previously unheard. 
The Mothmen emerged from the ashes of two legendary Manchester groups – comedy/satire band Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias, and the first line-up of Factory Records band The Durutti Column. They also contributed to the beginnings of longrunning dub collective Suns Of Arqa.

Band members Chris Joyce and Tony Bowers went onto become the rhythm section in the classic 80s line-up of Simply Red, whilst multi-instrumentalist Bob Harding ran lauded reggae reissue label Blood & Fire. Tragically, guitarist Dave Rowbotham was murdered in 1991, but was immortalised in the Happy Mondays song “Cowboy Dave”.  

A missing part of the early On-U Sound Records story restored to life and a great example of early-80s UK DIY post-punk music. At times exhibiting psych-tinged tunefulness on tracks such as “Not Moving” and “Change Direction” (or their unreleased cover of Syd Barrett’s “Vegetable Man”). Other tracks are heavier, such as the trance-inducing repetitive rhythms of “Mothman” which recalls 70s German groups such as Can or Amon Düül II.   

Order here: https://bleep.com/release/59582-the-mothmen-pay-attention

01 Afghan Farmer Driving Cattle

Giohw (radio edit)

"Exploraciones" is Shika Shika's new series of releases that unite together two artists from different corners of the world to collaborate on a track and then bring that track to a group of artists to edit or remix. 

For this first session we invited two artists we hugely respect: Chilean trio Matanza and Turkish producer Oceanvs Orientalis. We then invited Jhon Montoya (Colombia / Italy), Carrot Green (Brazil) and History of Colour (Argentina / UK / Mexico) making this a truly global expedition!! 

Masterized by Yosi Horikawa (JP)

Matanza ∞ Oceanvs Orientalis -La Luna Y El Lobo (Original mix)

Download it here:
amulets.bandcamp.com/album/personal-power

DELUSIONS OF GRANDEUR

Awa Poulo "Djulau" from the album Poulo Warali, out now on Awesome Tapes From Africa (LP/CD/Digital). 
https://awapoulo.bandcamp.com/album/poulo-warali
Pre-order: http://amzn.to/2hhXxCn * http://apple.co/2hhVSfX * NL/BE http://bit.ly/2gdEynf * FR http://bit.ly/2h8IFpp * DE http://bit.ly/2gm2W9G 

Awa Poulo is a singer of Peulh origin from Dilly commune, Mali, near the border with Mauritania. Largely pastoral and often nomadic, Peulh- (or Fula-)speaking peoples are found from Senegal to Ethiopia but predominate in the Sahel region of West Africa. Awesome Tapes From Africa is proud to release Poulo’s newest recording of highly virtuosic folk-pop, fresh from the studio, broadcasting her vision of Peulh music beyond the grazing grounds and central markets of her remote home region in southwestern Mali. 

It’s not very common to find a female singer performing publicly among the Peulh. But Poulo’s mother’s co-wife is Inna Baba Coulibaly, who is a celebrated singer most Malian music fans know. Coulibaly herself was brought into music by forces outside her control when a regional music contest required an entry from her village and she was chosen to be a singer. So, set in motion by a surprising series of events, young Poulo’s entree into the music world was auspicious as she gained popularity across the region. After several locally released tapes and CDs, this record is Poulo’s first internationally-distributed record.

On Poulo Warali, she and her band combine the hallmarks of Peulh music—warm flute floating over cross-rhythmic n’goni (lute) riffs and resonant calabash gourd hand percussion—with broader Malian sounds like lightly-distorted guitar and a heavier, rollicking inertia. Shape-shifting layers of rhythm and woody overtones match Poulo’s commanding voice in a jocular yet deliberate dance.  

This is a relatively rare example of Malian Peulh music played in a modern, cosmopolitan context, reflecting the mixed society of Dilly, where Bambara, Soninke and Peulh-speaking people live among each other. 

Poulo’s conscious lyrics about community concerns speak to the distinctive identity of her broadly-flung people. While Peulh represents less than 10% of Mali’s melting pot of languages, the dynamic music here powerfully resonates well beyond the linguistic borders.

Poulo Warali

Awa Poulo — Djulau

The Sinking Of The Titanic (1969- )

The Sinking Of The Titanic

While we cannot see small nanoscopic objects like proteins or other molecules that make up virtually all living matter including our cells, tissues, as well as pathogens such as viruses, our computational algorithm allows us to make its material manifestation audible.  This piece is a musical representation of the amino acid sequence and structure of the spike protein of the pathogen of COVID-19, 2019-nCoV (protein data bank identifier 6VSB [1]). 

MUSICAL DECEIT

A virus’ genome hijacks the host cell’s protein manufacturing machinery, and forces it to replicate the viral genome and produce viral proteins to make new viruses from it.  This musical art teaches us something about the fine line between beauty of life and death as an opposite pole.  As you listen to the protein you will find that the intricate design results in incredibly interesting and actually pleasing, relaxing sounds. This doesn’t really convey the deadly impacts this particularly protein is having on the world. This aspect of the music shows the deceiving nature of the virus, how it hijacks our body to replicate, and hurt us along the way. So, the music is a metaphor for this nature of the virus to deceive the host and exploit it for its own multiplication. 

HOW IT IS DONE: 

What you hear is a multi-layered algorithmic composition featuring both the vibrational spectrum of the entire protein (expressed in sound and rhythmic elements), the sequence and folding of amino acids that compose the virus spike structure, as well as interwoven melodies - forming counterpoint music - reflecting the complex hierarchical intersecting geometry of the protein [2].

Scientific references:

[1] Wrapp et al., "Cryo-EM structure of the 2019-nCoV spike in the prefusion conformation," Science, 2020, DOI: 10.1126/science.abb2507

[2] Buehler et al., "A Self-Consistent Sonification Method to Translate Amino Acid Sequences into Musical Compositions and Application in Protein Design Using Artificial Intelligence," ACS Nano, 2019, DOI: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.9b02180

Fall - A Theme

Wire Nest