Vijaya Anand
Asia Classics 1: The South Indian Film Music Of Vijaya Anand: Dance Raja Dance

MARIONETTE15 - UK - 2021Rainbow de Nuit by David Fenech & KlimpereiMaestro melodist Christophe Petchanatz (aka Klimperei) and all around music fanatic David Fenech engage remotely in a repetitive exchange of recordings and overdubs on their debut album titled ‘Rainbow de Nuit’, sporadically spanning over the last decade. Evocations of experimental and improvised jazz, chansonesque songs, bluesy folk, and outsider music undulate harmoniously across the record. From music boxes and walkie-talkies down to plastic straws, plucking various stringed instruments such as the charrango and banjo, kazoos and snake-charmer ocarina and flutes, all the way through the sweet accordion and melodica, found and traditional tuned percussion - there is far from a shortage of sound sources on this freakishly inviting record. What germinates as an imaginative and emotional chord progression played by Klimperei, evolves with Fenech layering additional recordings, which would then find their way back home to Klimperei yet again, and so on, and so forth. This recursive compositional and improvisational loop, combined with Fenech’s musique-concrete-like mixing and editing techniques, transforms the acoustic recordings by way of compression, saturation, and reverberation or simple pitch changes - resulting in the duo’s recordings seemingly sound like they may very well be an octet in real time. While the majority of the recordings have been ping-ponged remotely, David and Christophe unite under one roof to record the closing track of the album.The pieces presented on ‘Rainbow de Nuit’ treat the ears to a carousel ride waltzing through a multiverse made up of surrealist puppet theaters, dramatic film noir act changes, and a mosaic of polyphonic instruments and toys alike. In other words, a score to a fable brought to life with haunting yet charming melodies and occasional hallucinatory voices reminiscent of laughter and infantile epiphanies which we hear on Tarzan en Tasmanie and Madrigal for Lola. This is taken a step further by Fenech, to a brief libretto of incomprehensible tongues on Pocarina. Amid the mysterious and dark (Septième Ciel and Rugit Le Coeur) also lies tender and simple compositions (Rainbow de Nuit and Chevalier Gambette), murky suspenseful melancholy (Levy Attend and Eno Ennio), and casually slipping into pensive psychedelic backdrops (Un Cercueil à Deux Places) - forming a colorful blend of sounds. A world of echoes. A tale of tales. One persistent earworm that you’ll likely be whistling and humming along to on a first listen.

Bruno De Angelis and Giovanna Gulinello unwittingly met in London in the late 70’s, after being introduced by a mutual friend. Both Bruno and Giovanna arrived with varying ambitions. Giovanna wanted to learn English or be a painter, while Bruno found work at the Royal Post Office, which he found testing. It wasn’t until Bruno rescued Giovanna from an awkward date that the pair became a couple. At the time, music was just something they did for fun. Bruno already had an acoustic guitar and G bought a bass. Those were the days when you could start a new band, whether you could play or not, and new independent labels were springing up. Rough Trade Records was literally around the corner. In 1981 the pair moved back to Italy and found an apartment in Rome. It’s here that they began to focus on their music and where they started ‘recording’ their tracks. First, they would record the rhythm, maybe add the Gigster (the name of their “cheap drum machine”), the bass, and then, as they made a copy of the first cassette onto a second cassette they would add guitar, more synth, or both at the same time. After that, it was not unusual to copy from the second cassette back into the first cassette adding even more “stuff”. As with many artists during the early 80’s, the Influenza Prods’ sound was the direct result of the accessibility of emerging electronic instruments and the recording equipment available to them. The duo was resourceful and inventive, acquiring new equipment as resources allowed. They recorded dialogue from British Soap Operas on their TV set, which were later added to their tracks, while further making use of their family’s cutlery sets, which were used to fill in certain percussion sections The duo’s homespun recordings found a web of admirers in the unofficial distribution of tape trading and mail-art scenes. Despite the DIY ethos and the fact that most tapes were handmade, the Influenza Prods managed to ‘release’ three tapes which comprised of the Greatest Tits (1983), Cheek-A-Bomba (1984) and Quasi Solo (1985). Bruno and Giovanna were sadly subjected to serious family problems, including the loss of loved ones in their lives and eventually parted ways, concluding the Influenza Prods. However, to this day they remain close friends who keep in touch regularly.

Do you have something to lose? Maybe the kind of love that makes you understand there is more to life than getting lost in the bluish fog of yet another smoked-out bar? Berlin’s very own Better Person, the silent prince of the city’s international late-night underground pop scene has found it. He’s found the kind of love that elevates existence and makes the whole world light up in lush colours, suddenly making sense. The kind of love that turns you into the version of yourself you were destined to be. The kind of love that makes you a better person.Better Person is the moniker of Berlin-based Polish singer and balladeer Adam Byczkowski. After his 2016 EP It’s Only You captured the sound of late night intoxication and devastated croons to an empty dance floor, the singer toured relentlessly, traveling all over Europe, North America and Asia, moving and living in Montreal, Los Angeles and returning, time and time again, to Berlin. Somewhere in between these divergent cities he fell in love, and this love would become the centerpiece and inspiration for his long-awaited debut album.

Man Made Hill/ Olaf split 7" by Man Made Hill/OlafPlanet Ontario traveller, Man Made Hill, meets Jeremy Greenspan at the controls for this sonic snack which weds signature sounds from the king of sleaze with a new sheen to his slick. Atomized melodies swirl atop boomy bass drops as the crusty crooner bellows & whispers his unique utterances of unbridled love & lust. A woozy stepper that must be heard to be comprehended.Mysterious newcomer, Olaf, is coming in hot & heady with this emotionally dense banger that forgoes clarity for an unhinged catharsis. Swimming through synthy miasma, Olaf’s impassioned vocals dive deep into raw feelings before coming up for air. A chugging, sluggish house beat pulls us along as this fresh-faced contender flexes what she’s got & leaves us wondering & wanting.

ZamalFunk and La Freak records are proud to present their first common reissue !First of our series is Matadi's album " Dance My Love" released in 1978 on now reissued for the first time with a full remastering of the original tracks and including an exclusive interview of Sammy Massamba on a printed insert.Matadi was a band created by legendary producer Sammy Massamba in late 70s, here's their first and only album "Dance My Love" , including cosmic afro-disco and heavy funk and soul tracks with crazy synths and groove on all tracks !The whole album was fully licensed in close collaboration with Sammy Massamba.

"Echoes" is the Ethno-Wave love child of collaborators Frank Harris & Maria Marquez. A collection of sublime songs dating back to '85, avante-pop flourishes are married here to the heart strings of a synthetic Amazon- think MFM's "Outro Tempo" meets a tropical Sade. With much contemporary interest in South American electronic music, Echoes is a window into two musicians prescient dreamings of tradition, melody & technology.