Label’s recent favorites and forthcoming material. Vinyl only mix for your winter holidays.
Muscut (contraction of Music and Cutting) and Shukai label founder Nikolaienko takes us through a blissful journey of exotic sounds, intertwining vintage electronics, early experimentations, forgotten Eastern gems and contemporary essays in music, with the meticulous approach of an archeologist..
TÕNU NAISSOO – Meemeistrite Linn MISHA PANFILOV – Rush Hour TÕNU AARE – Kas Maakera On Ümmargune? HENNADII BOICHENKO – Detouch TÕNU NAISSOO – Pocket Galaхy CUKOR BILA SMERT – The Great Hen-Yuan River MODERN FEELINGS – Photography JÜRGEN RATAN – Bockafen Veirhozen GIUSEPPE IELASI – 07 SG – Rain Nr.33 THE EХPOSURES AKA JAN JELINEK – Collage Of Digital Passion (LOVE) BLACKBODY_RADIATION – Silica ROMÉO POIRIER – Negative Feedback (HATE) KAMANA – Pagot Pugot TARZANA – Reptile Endosure, MIR MALAYEEN – Nadia
On January 2nd, we’re excited to introduce a brand new website! It’s improved, user-friendly, and a better looking platform.
After years of loyal service, we’re bidding farewell to our old, trusty website in favor of a new, faster, and modern design. We’ve carefully considered what would enhance user experience and built something entirely new from scratch. Before we go live, we wanted to give you a heads up. Here are a few pointers to keep you in the loop.
The existing website will continue to be operational until December 21st
Please note that no orders can be placed from December 21st until the new website goes live on January 2nd.
All existing orders will be seamlessly transferred from the old system to the new one. You will be able to view these orders in your new account.
Coming week, you will receive information about the functionality of the new website, including it features and what to expect during your initial login.
Laurent Garnier, Paul St. Hilaire, Jeff Mills, Curses, Robert Hood, Marcal, ECHT!, Azmari, Tin Fingers, Ignez, Altinbas, Orbe, Adiel, Blazej Malinowski, Svitlana Nianio, GiGi FM, and more.
Between 1961 and 1964, Kelana Ria recorded 48 songs that were spread over four records, Kafilah, Yam El Shamah, Ya Mahmud and Ya Hamidah, which became the primary sources for this compilation.
In the early 1960s, two of the best talents in the Indonesian music scene, songwriter and band leader Adi Karso, known for his hits Papaya Cha-Cha-Cha and Balonku and Gambus musician Munif Bahasuan teamed up to form Orkes Melayu (Malay Orchestra) Kelana Ria. These four recordings changed the trajectory of Indonesian popular music. Remastered audio, 14 page booklet with extensive liner notes from Pittsburgh University Professor of Music Andrew N. Weintraub will be released on Elevation this month.
Play Renungkanlah (Think About It), included in this compilation, a love song with heavenly melodies and lilting harmonies, to an audience in the Western part of Malaysia or people of Malay ethnicity in Singapore and they would immediately hum along to the tune. Renungkanlah has been covered by many countless other musicians in Indonesia and Malaysia and it has become a hit many times over. The song has become a go-to song in karaoke bars in the region, with fans oblivious to who actually wrote this song or who performed it the first time. Or take the song Ratapan Anak Tiri (Lament of a Stepchild), a song that has traversed national boundaries and has become a universal sad song in the Malay world, turning into a shorthand for melancholia that permeates this archipelago of nations. Another stunner is the melancholia-laden Kesunyian Jiwa (Silence of the Soul), an operatic tune so majestic that it could open any black and white Kurosawa film from the late 1940s.
The songs and the soulful vocal performance belong to Muhamad Mashabi, who despite the popularity of the songs he created is now largely forgotten, whose history was kept alive only in the neighborhood where he grew up in Central Jakarta. With only a short musical career and only nine recorded songs from almost 40 compositions, Mashabi fell by the wayside in the early 1970s, especially with the rise of pop and rock from bands like Koes Plus, Panbers and God Bless. Yet his songs, inspired by Malay traditional songs but performed in the modern studio setting, lay the foundations for what would become the biggest musical genre in the country, dangdut, especially the kind that was popularized by the self-styled king of the genre, Rhoma Irama.
TRACKLIST
A1. Kesunyian Jiwa (Emptiness of Soul) A2. Untuk Bungamu (For Your Flower) A3. Harapan Hampa (Empty Hope) A4. Ratapan Anak Tiri (Wailing of Adopted Child) A5. Djangan Menggoda (Don’t Tease) A6. Hilang Tak Berkesan (Gone Without A Trace) A7. Pantun Nasehat (Words of Wisdom) B1. Renungkanlah (Think About It) B2. Penggoda Djiwa (Seducer of Soul) B3. Peristiwa Lama (Past Incidence) B4. Tudjuan Bersama (Common Goal) B5. Djangan Mengharap (Don’t Hold Out Hope) B6. Pesta Tjahaja (Party of Light) B7. Seloka Gembira (Poetry of Joy)
Elevation will release Kafilah Nights: Malay-Arabic Variations From 1960s Indonesia on November 24, 2023
Robert Hood‘s techno and Femi Kuti‘s Afrobeat intertwine in a new form where jazz-grooves reign supreme. For the fourth season of La Compagnie des Indes & Sourdoreille Variations live series of creations for France TV, the duo were united around the singer and producer James Brown, performing a tribute to the legendary Godfather of Soul who passed away in 2006. This Variations album is the live recording of this unique collaboration and performance, capturing a very special moment in time.
The evening witnessed a meeting of two icons in their own genres: one with synths and drum machines, the other on saxophone: Robert Hood and Femi Kuti embody excellence in their respective fields and the pair combined to make something truly unique, soulful, funky and spontaneous. Recorded in one 30+ minute take, Variations is embellished by Femi’s exquisitely free-flowing yet restrained saxophone, whilst Hood anchors the groove with layers of pads and kicks with the long-time mastery of a true DJ.
Alongside Jeff Mills and Mad Mike, Hood is one of the original members of Detroit techno group Underground Resistance. His style is characterised by minimalist and experimental tones with an assertive groove. Throughout the ’90s, he helped pave the way for techno to flourish – giving birth to minimal techno with his seminal album Minimal Nation. Since then, he has been consistently forwarding electronic music culture with ground-breaking productions, sensational performances and his M-Plant label.
Alongside him, Femi Kuti takes on every musical style with his saxophone, which he plays with a virtuoso touch: pop, soul, electronic music and Afrobeat, of which he is one of the leading exponents. The son of Afrobeat singer and political activist Fela Kuti, he has inherited his father’s zeal for both music and activism, where he continues to highlight the plight of most Nigerians living conditions in the oil rich state.
With Variations the duo capture an explosive combination on a special night in Paris 4 years ago, 27th November 2019, filmed at the ADP Group headquarters (Paris Aéroport – Charles de Gaulle (CDG) – Roissy).
TRACK LISTING
A. Robert Hood & Femi Kuti – Variations (Side A – 18min 54sec) B. Robert Hood & Femi Kuti – Variations (Side B – 15min 43sec)
Closely following a busy 2023, GiGi FM announces her brand-new record label, offering Kiwi Synthesis Diary Vol. 2 to mark the debut. Sea~rène takes aim at dreamlike and ethereal electronic music to reconnect the subconscious and the cosmos through immersive storytelling. As the identity quote of the label says itself “We are Sea~rène swimming in-between supernatural tides, forever following the emotional waves of the universe”.
Already quite accomplished in her milieu through an acclaimed release on Bambounou’s Bambelabel, where she explored the relationship between bodily technologies and music, as well as through her residency on NTS Radio where she explores inter-dimensional sounds and shares her own musical palette, GiGi also continues to perform at strings of performances in the past years in settings like Berghain, Rural Japan, Draaimolen, Fabric, De School, Primavera, The Bunker New York, and Sustain Release.
The French/Italian artist takes her productions further with this first release of her imprint. A continuation of her first self-released project, Kiwi Synthesis Diary 21k, in 2021, GiGi FM celebrates the exchange between her, as the owner of the journal, and its reader through euphoric soundscapes and vibrant psychedelia. Taking a step back from lockdown introspections, blurred lines between dream and reality like ambient and drony atmospheres, GiGi gives us a bent club record full of colors and life.
GiGi FM guides us through dreams of sonic environments and the adventures to be had through them. Some are characterized by evolving fractals and shifting landscapes like in the healing mushroom journey of Amadamushies and the mythical Japanese Heron Tsuru. Combining steady rhythm and immersive ambiances, the result intends to soothe into a state of openness through kindly familiar territories. Sifting through the tracks, we find ourselves traveling fast through cosmic ecosystems like in the spiritual and cosmic teaching that Tevora‘ represents, as well as Househopping (Keroppi) and Sly Xupete Di Barcelona, conveying the urgency to feel and create, even within difficult circumstances, while Spazio Teletrasporto takes us on a hypnotic whirlwind trip into the depths of the cosmos and our inner consciousness. Through these chapters of a journey, a connection between the mind and the beyond is implied, and its importance is highlighted.
Deeply influenced by astrology, philosophy, and the cosmos; for GiGi, music is both a tool for expression and introspection. As a multi-hyphenate artist, she continues on her quest to push artistic boundaries and hold space for unique audience experiences. Whatever medium she may adopt, the result is a rich embodiment of the interconnectedness of sound, color, movement, and metaphysics.
TRACKLIST
A1. Amadamushies A2. Tevora A3. Sly Xupete Di Barcelona B1. Spazio Teletrasporto B2. Househopping (Keroppi) Digital Bonus. Tsuru
