The Muscut and Shukai sounds of lost futures

At first glance, the sonic worlds of Ukrainian labels Muscut and Shukai sound very similar. While the aesthetics of both share the sound of the nostalgic allure of blurred, overdubbed tape loops, they diverge in their creative approach. Shukai delves into the archives, unearthing lost gems often banned and suppressed by the Soviets, while Muscut crafts new music that evokes the feeling of a lost vintage soundtrack to a picture promising visions of a brighter future.

The mood in which Muscut’s musical direction will be carried was revealed with the first release in 2012, the 7-inch compilation Test Pressing. The label’s catalogue is quite broad in terms of genre. From the surf-rock, funky and sometimes even dub aesthetic of Chillera, to the woobie jazz of Hennadii Boichenko and the dreamy drone-ambient of Bryozone, to work by the label founder Dmytro Nikolaienko, which mixes library music, muzak, easy listening 50s exotica and analogue sound. All released on vinyl or audiocassette, each visually treated in a DIY archival aesthetic: catalogue stickers, stamps, forms and poorly scanned lo-fi images.

​​Shukai began its journey in 2019 with the debut release of Ukrainian composer Victor Vlasov’s music for the anti-utopian sci-fi film Air Seller. This pilot album clearly outlined the future aesthetic and direction of the label, which in the following years often covered never-officially released music by Ukrainian composers. Volodymyr Bystriakov’s music for the surreal, almost psychedelic animated film Alice Through the Looking Glass, the tape archives of New Age experimentalist and violinist Valentina Goncharova, and the hidden treasure of Ukrainian avant-garde and neo-folk Cukor Bila Smert’.

With hauntology as a leitmotif, Dmytro from Muscut and co-founder of Shukai unveils the relationship between art, politics, nostalgia and a future steeped in echoes of the past.

Read the interview with Nikolaienko here

Tracklist

A1. Muzak For Mesozoic Showreel (feat. Arthur Mine)
A2. Troglodytes (feat. Arthur Mine)
A3. The Ancient Musical Complex Of Mammoth Bones
A4. Glass Flowers
A5. Sacrifice I
B1. Misantropicalia
B2. Dark Archeo
B3. Sacrifice II (Curse of Snakes Valley)
B4. ExotiCon
B5. Yalta (feat. Amphibian Man II)

“At its best, the album sounds like the high points of ex-Skater Spencer Clark’s varied catalog (think Vodka Soap or Monopoly Child Star Searchers) and harmonizes with Christina Vantzou’s bizarre and brilliant “Multi Natural” full-length.” — Boomkat

“The natural and unnatural have rarely sat together in such perfectly unsettling harmony.” — Juno

“Nostalgia Por Mesozo´ica is an “exploration of experimental exotica.” ‘Troglodytes’, for example, reimagines the age of dinosaurs and their leaky cave-dwelling existence, through a distorted and nostalgic lens that evokes movie soundtracks from the ’60s and ’70s.” — if-only

“Great production and mix by St. Petersburg musician Eugenii Fadeev aka Flaty, author of a good album of electronica on the same label in 2018 (Wrong Water – Dozen LP)”. — Laurent Fairon

“Alchemical combinations of musique concrète, samples, synthetic parts with fairy-tale melodies (‘Muzak For Mesozoic Showreel’) and sound-art (‘Dark-Archeo’), produce a varied, fascinating and original music narrative”. — The Quietus, Jakub Knera 

Muscut will release Nostalgia Por Mesozo​́​Ica (featuring a Riso printed cover sleeve) on October 4, 2024

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Compilation of Columbian Tropical musician Edmundo Arias’ work from the 50s and 60s.

Edmundo Arias was one of the key figures in the tropical music of the Caribbean and Pacific coasts throughout the 50s and 60s. Together with Lucho Bermúdez and Pacho Galán, Arias is seen as one of the ‘big three’ composers of Colombian tropical music.

He was a rather introverted person who avoided being in the spotlight at all cost, leading to his work being less known than his contemporaries. With this album we hope to highlight the amazing legacy Edmundo Arias has left us. Think of big bands with sharp dressed musicians playing the finest cumbias, porros and other tropical sounds in fancy ballrooms on a hot evening in Medellin or Bogota.

Tracklist

A1. Juanita Bonita
A2. Cumbia Candelosa
A3. El Mecanico
A4. Tus Ojos
A5. Que Te Pasa
A6. Brisa, Mar Y Arena
B1. Venenosa
B2. Uey’ Je’ Je’ Pa’
B3. El Canje
B4. Dime Pa’ Quien
B5. El Guarachero
B6. Solo Estoy
C1. La Luna Y El Pescador
C2. Noche De Fiesta
C3. Acuarela Cumbiambera
C4. Las Diez Velas
C5. El Chontaduro
C6. Orlandito
D1. Fiesta Tropical
D2. Cumbia Del Caribe
D3. Guepa…Je
D4. Buenas Noches Diciembre
D5. Alma Quibdoseña
D6. Asi Se Baila Cumbia

releases September 13, 2024

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Pino d’Angiò, Italo disco artist and ‘Age Of Love’ composer, dies aged 71

Italian newspaper Il Messaggero broke the news last Saturday, July 6th, describing him as “an icon of Italo disco music.” The cause of death was lung cancer.

Born Giuseppe Chierchia in Pompei in 1952, d’Angiò’s debut release was 1979 single “È Libero, Scusi?” Other highlights from his discography include “Un Concerto Da Strapazzo,” “Fammi Un Panino,” “Genoveffa” and “Ma Quale Idea,” a hit single that sold over two million copies. The track samples 1979 disco classic “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now” by McFadden & Whitehead.

Aside from Italo disco, d’Angiò also composed the harmony and lyrics for Age of Love’s self-titled trance classic. His contribution was “born in a totally random way,” he told Guerilla Bizarre, occurring spontaneously when he was visiting a friend in Belgium. “And then, the worst mistake of my life, I told him ‘do whatever you want with this, but please, don’t dare putting my artist name on any of it.'”

Listen to Age Of Love’s The Age Of Love.

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Jeff Mills is releasing a new album

Out on July 5th via Axis Records, The Eyewitness explores themes of shock and trauma. It follows March’s The Trip: Enter The Black Hole, a black hole-themed album that was accompanied by an immersive audiovisual show.

Listen to “Those Who Worked Against Us (Vendetta Mix).”

Tracklist

A1. Jeff Mills – In A Traumatized World
A2. Jeff Mills – Menticide
B1. Jeff Mills – Those Who Worked Against Us
B2. Jeff Mills – Mass Hypnosis
C1. Jeff Mills – Hold And Command
C2. Jeff Mills – Wonderous Butterfly
D1. Jeff Mills – Sacred Iridescent Mirror (The Pledge)
D2. Jeff Mills – In A Traumatized World (Human Toll Mix)
D3. Jeff Mills – Indoctrination

The full-length is out on July 5th through Axis Records.

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Experience Miaux’s new album

Antwerp-based composer and synth virtuoso Miaux presents her new album, Never Coming Back on VIERNULVIER Records. The record is rooted in the recent film score she composed for the surreal and haunted cult movie ‘Carnival of Souls’ (1962).

“An impeccably tuned ear” – The Wire

“Armed with a synth and devastating song writing skills, her music is minimal, melancholic and timeless, somewhere between Roedelius, Ruth White and electronic realisations of Baroque music” – Roope Eronen

“The general gloom MIAUX spreads on her sandwiches is darker than Tatort and could replace any soundtrack of a Fassbinder movie” – Dennis Tyfus

Stream below

Tracklist

A1. Too much current, too much sand
A2. Put your soul into it a little, ok?
A3. Thank you but I’m never coming back
B1. The old pavilion near the lake
B2. What’s the matter with everyone, why don’t they answer me?
B3. I have no desire for the close company of other people

Released June 21, 2024

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The Greek-Belgian Connection of Les Cyclades

Olive oil dub, ambient, Detroit inspired meta techno.

The Klein blue horizon, gliding seagulls, a ferry purring between two languid islands, dotted with ultra-white villages and ancient ruins… These idyllic visions run through Glika, the ultimate musical project of Les Cyclades. An exciting electronic odyssey from West to East, from Belgian effervescence to Greek mysticism.

In 2020, confined to the neighborhoods of Yser and Mystère in Brussels, Alex and Ludo dream of Greek islands, of scorching sun on their skin, of salty baths, chilled ouzo and braised octopus. But everywhere, time stands still. Must one necessarily move to travel? To levitate? In the absence of Elsewhere, the Franco-Canadian duo will compose the imaginary soundtrack to their escape.

Glika (which means “sweet” in Greek) perfectly synthesizes the musical influences of Les Cyclades: a cosmic saxophone inherited from Alex’s dub and free jazz past, an architect-pastry chef-botanist from Normandy, and Ludo’s “Balearic” tracks, a musician-performer-wine lover who frequented his first raves in 1995 in Houston, Texas.

From a hedonistic encounter on a friendly terrace in the 19th arrondissement of Paris to their chosen exile in Brussels, these hypersensitive jacks-of-all-trades first danced and mixed records. Before creating their own phantasmagorical sonic territories, where cinema and poetry meet more or less human voices, brass instruments, synthesizers and analogue drum machines.

On Yser Mystère – the names of the two stations on tram 51 that physically linked Alex and Ludo’s psyches during the lockdown – Alex’s astral sax balances out the industrial mechanics of a locomotive, against a backdrop of urban soundscapes.

And then a rising bpm dominates Alocasia, with its deep and sensual light foot. So sunny. From one track to another, there are interludes influenced by Xenakis, Vangelis and Jean-Michel Jarre. Seminal heroes of the Cyclades… But soon, the duo unleash hostilities at the helm of Epigone, their meta-techno anthem. “I know”, “You know”, echoes Alex.

Laughs of friends, “mouth noises,” and “bizarre rhythms” still dominate Parc Fou, while DRAM eyes the minimalist techno of Detroit. So dear to Ludo’s heart… And what about PAME, that post-modern Greek epic. Or Glossa, a timeless track that finishes with a fascinating – because diffracted – elegance, this multi-sensory journey through Les Cyclades. Let’s close our eyes. Silencio! Hay Banda!

Tracklist

A1 Glika
A2 Yser Mystère
A3 Alocasia
A4 Short Hero
A5 Epigone
B1 Parc Fou
B2 DRAM
B3 Niko
B4 PAME!
B5 Glossa

Hi Score will release Glika on May 17th, 2024

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