DJ Fokus
Get A Bearing

The fourth release from São Paulo label Lugar Alto is not a Brazilian production but it still has strong ties to the country, it is the psychotomimetically heuristic ambience of The Dreambird by Mitar Subotić (Suba) & Goran Vejvoda. The album was produced in Paris in 1987 and 5 years later was the first release by Suba in Brazil as a limited edition CD put out by the Brazilian Catholic label Paulinas COMEP.

I:Cube has made a new album. It is a very "hands on" album, as the eight tracks on show were created almost entirely by improvising with electronic hardware - synthesizers, sequencers, drum machines and effects units - and recorded in real time, with very little after-editing. It is also his first album in a decade, should you be keeping track.During the time he spent recording it, which was in part inspired by the processes behind his 'Cubo Live Sessions' series, I:Cube had fun, experimented, unleashed the raw, primitive energy of his machines, and emptied his head of thought. The resultant tracks are instinctive, immersive and otherworldly, driven by the emotion of the moment rather than the formulaic structures of dance music. They are unpolished and immediate, but also immersive and sincere.Think of it as a soundtrack to time spent alone in the studio, daydreaming in darkness and light, translating mental and physical messages in real time. It is not calculated, overblown or over-produced like much modern electronic music, but gently odd, engaging and pleasingly rough round the edges. In some ways, it is I:Cube's most personal and emotional album to date.

The Miracles Of The Seven Dances by Hany Mehanna - هاني مهنى

Ruyzdael presents Writers on Wax Volume 2: The Sound of Graffiti, a compilation album with 8 exclusive tracks and an intro by producers from different countries who are likely more (in)famous as graffiti writers than as musicians. Writers on Wax Volume 2 is a group exhibition of beats and basslines, imagination and expression. 'Writers on Wax Volume 2: The Sound of Graffiti' is a project by Ruyzdael Music with the support of Montana Colors.

Release Spirit by Khotin

Yes No Maybe de MoniqueaMoniquea's Yes No Maybe is an album that is steeped in the synthesizer-heavy aesthetics of 1980's R&B funk (often referred to as "boogie") but is modern enough to move past the "retro" label into something that builds a fresh sound upon the blueprints created by seminal 80's acts such as Prince, Midnight Star, or Evelyn "Champagne" King. It is Moniquea's vision to set herself apart by "bringing back" a more standardized song structure to the burgeoning modern funk genre, an ideal which can be considered a commodity in what has largely branded itself as an avant-garde musical movement. Yes No Maybe's production, provided by XL Middleton & Eddy Funkster, is the springboard for the main focus of the album, Moniquea's vocals, delivered in a sassy, yet silky tone which shows that she has done her homework in studying her predecessors, while turning it into something modern, and uniquely her own.