Boldy James / Sterling Toles
Manger on McNichols

Voor Harmonium by HellveteIn his essay ‘The Meaning of My Avant-Garde Hillbilly and Blues Music’, Henry Flynt talks about how his music should be analysed as an intellectual tribute to the music of the autochtone, setting aside plain folk references, but adopting academic insights to mold the music one makes as a folk creature. Much of Flynt’s discourse applies to the music of Glen Steenkiste’s Hellvete. Over the past twenty years he has been thoroughly investigating both the ethnic musical language of various regions as well as the contemporary pioneers that preceded him as a drone musician, internalizing concepts such as e.g. deep listening or just intonation. Casting off any redundant ideas or sounds, and stripping down the focus to develop singular concepts, his working method lead to pieces such as ‘Droomharmonium’, in which he shapes the endless variations on a theme, emphasizing detail and nuance rather than multitude. The Indian harmonium here serves as the main device to worship ancient ghosts and masters, and to preserve a continuum in a tradition that touches both folk and avant-garde culture. The materialisations are sustained tone compositions which become a means of appreciation of the people and cultures that paved the way for forms of mutual escapism. This might well be the core of what Hellvete’s music is about. As much as it is a form of self-entertainment – like folk music in the old days – it also invites the listener to a shared experience of sonic reverie, it is a casual gift to the community. This is certainly true for the pieces presented on this album. They were first presented in a smoke filled and darkened art space in Ghent, Steenkiste surrounded by only a couple of candles and just enough stage light to see him erratically moving to the rhythm of the piece, occasionally twiddling the knobs of a Doepfer synth that processed the prerecorded harmonium tracks. Unlike most of his other performances this piece embraced the audience in a trance that was similar to that of an old-school rave club. Flynt writes: ‘The music should be intellectually fascinating because the listener can perceive and participate in its rhythmic and melodic intricacies, audacity of organization, etc. At the same time, the music should be kinesthetic, that is, it should encourage dancing.’ ‘Voor Harmonium’ does exactly that; it builds on the artistic ideas that have long been established in Hellvete’s oeuvre, but the ecstatic nature of these pieces merges the usual spiritual transcendence with one of determined physical bliss. It encourages both mind and body to step into the sound, to be enraptured, to celebrate.

Eros’ Go For It is a fearlessly original take on Paradise Garage disco, mixed in a way that feels equally Mad Professor and Walter Gibbons. The story of Eros begins in a high school in Vauxhall, New Jersey in the mid 70s when four kids began a friendship based around their mutual love of soul, funk, rock, disco, and bands like Earth, Wind & Fire and Funkadelic. Assanouan G’Bado, Fletcher Gaines, Bobby Jones and Mike Freeman started off jamming after school, playing occasional gigs in New York and honing in on an original sound. When the group graduated, Assanouan and Bobby went off to the service and Fletcher went to university. Eros reunited in the late 70’s and began taking things more seriously, producing a set of songs with the intention of getting a deal with Motown. The morning after recording a full album’s worth of material, the group flew to Detroit hoping to sign a record deal. The legendary label was interested in the songs, but made them an offer that didn’t feel right for the group. The songs were shelved and Fletcher and Bobby moved on to new ventures. Mike and Assanouan pursued a self-released single on their own DAP records, reinterpreting two of their Motown demos with drum machines and overdubs to fill in for their two missing bandmates. Go For It was their individual take on disco, and the new 1985 remake took the AOR-oriented demo version, and transformed it into a transcendent dance floor illusion, that, in an alternate universe, would have turned dancers at the Paradise Garage upside down. Similar to Stephen Encinas’ un-classic, the song mutates deftly at the half-way point, opening up into a stripped-down and dubbed-out denouement, adorned in cascading electronics and the soaring vocals of Barbara Green. Go For It is the first of two releases from Eros on Mixed Signals, and pairs the group’s expanded electronic remake with the original Motown version, rescued from the last surviving demo cassette. Stay tuned for the unreleased demo album Motown missed out on, slated to come out later this year.

NS-35 SIDE A -JULIUS CAESAR- 9mins 5 seconds Hypnotic ancient Espionage Techno-House HybridNS-35 SIDE B-YEARS OF YOUR LIFE - 9 mins 10 secTargeted Dance-Floor Rhythms

The heat is rising with our 5th instalment coming from the volt of Meister Bert Ashra veteran from Berlin's 90s underground scene and active still in the city with his Mastering & Sound Design Studio and experimental audio production and studies.The solo project B. Ashra has existed since 1993. B. Ashra is a live act, DJ, composer, sound designer and mastering engineer. The style is pretty cross-genre and ranges from ambient, experimental, soundscapes and trance techno to deep house and electronic jazz.For his pure techno and house productions he uses the pseudonym Robert Templa and for the extremely experimental music, trash and gabba he calls himself Hackbert.Furthermore, B. Ashra is active in several music projects and bands, including: Psychotikum, Cosmic Octave Orchestra, 70db, Morphon and Brain Entertainment Laboratory.The collection is a double LP With a variety of sounds spacing between Ambient and Minimal - Techno vibes with deep bass-lines and layered melodic progressions written with special care to the evolution of the harmonies such to maintain those hypnotic feeling until the structure comes back together and releases a powerful groove.A rich Album and a landmark in the growing of the label, must have, limited copies!

To kick off his new label and musical output - Aweh Music, Esa shares with us two exclusive tracks from his most recent soundtrack LP for The Invisible Hand podcast. This limited 7" features a modern street soul track and a collaboration with the legacy duo from the early 1990s, Doval and Robert Roper of Special Touch, which you might be familiar with from their cult classic the Garden of Life LP. On the flip side, Esa collaborates with his sister Tasneem based in Cape Town, for the very first time. They present a musical journey that takes influence from Soul with Balearic tones and Afro-Beat, all brought together nicely by the talented Franck Biyong on organ, guitar, and paying homage to Fela with his introductory vocals & lyrics. Esa recorded these tracks during the pandemic, with many of the studio sessions done remotely. It also features some rising talents based in London - Ayo Salawu on Drums, Raquel Martins on Guitar, Amane Suganami on Synths and Manu Idra on percussion. All tracks were written, produced and arranged by Esa.