LISTEN UP: NEW RELEASES OF VARYING DEGREES OF BRILLIANCE (2.7.2022)
VARIOUS ARTISTS - HABIBI FUNK 007
Habibi Funk is dedicated to re-releasing a style of music that historically never existed as a musical genre. The term to describe a certain sound from the countries of the Arab world. The songs chosen were created in places quite far from another and under very different circumstances. Some were written and recorded during war times, others in exile. Despite the differences there is a musical connection between them. Essentially, these aremusical endeavors, in which artists from the Arab world mixed local and regional influences with musical interests coming from outside of the region. Even though the name suggests it’s all about funk music, the focus is more than just that. Often these influences might be inspired from Western popular music such as soul, pop and rock but it’s not limited to that either. Some of this is best described as Arabic zouk (a genre originating from the Caribbean islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe) like Mallek Mohamed’s music, Algerian coladera (a popular musical style from the Cape Verdean islands) or Lebanese AOR. Which means the process of musical influences displayed on this compilation was much more than composers taking Western music as a blueprint and translating it with a local accent. The compilation features fifteen different artists.
Du Y Moroedd (Welsh - the black of the sea) is an album of abyssal dark ambient-environmental soundscapes and atmospheres from above, below and beside the ocean; field recordings made onboard vessels at sea; sounds from submerged recording devices deep underwater; recordings from the coasts of North Wales to Greenland and the Arctic Ocean.
The tracks were created onboard the RV Prince Madog whilst conducting research using multibeam sonar to locate, survey and identify shipwrecks from WW1. The multi-beam sonar creates images of the seabed using acoustic reflections. It is quite an experience to watch the sonar reveal an unsurveyed wreck and be the first person to "see" the ship for over one hundred years as the vessel was sitting at the bottom of the ocean waiting in the dark to be discovered.
The album features recordings from the hull of RRS James Clark Ross whilst ploughing through ice fields off Greenland from a "sound trap" attached to an anchor as it descended through 80m of water to the seabed, as well as sounds from onboard the RV Prince Madog with its pitched engine drone. There is also a recording of the bell at Trwyn Du lighthouse, Anglesey, made in August 2020, days before the bell was removed to be replaced with a modern fog horn. Prior to this, the bell had rung every thirty seconds since 1922.
In the Great Britain of today, here’s a group that have got to be like the truest secret music weapon that the city of Bristol – and in fact maybe even the whole of our piddly little island – doesn’t even know it has.
The sound of The Total Rejection is something that screams young, wild, energetic, hungry, dynamic and vital; even though, individually at least, one or two members of the group may not be all that young in years and may have, as they say, already been around the block once or twice. With a pretty diverse outlook, the overall sound, coupled with an individual approach and attitude, we witness a group that possesses an effortless ability to successfully assimilate, amalgamate and consolidate all manner of those strains, tapers and strands from their (and our) most favorite mid-and-late sixties sounds, and somewhere beyond . . . and manages to pull everything into a magnificently swirling, occasionally fizzing, most definitely popping, and defiantly whirling vat of hypnotizing sounds which comes across as, most of the time, completely of their own making. (It's Psychedelic Baby)
TOPOT is proud to present a compilation prepared for the Richtich 2021 - festival of new improvisational and experimental music, which will be held in St. Petersburg on December 18, 2021.
The compilation contains new and unreleased tracks from the artists participating in the festival: the cult duet of Vyacheslav Gaivoronsky and Nikolai Sudnik, THE SHAPKA, Elektricheskaya Sobaka, Alexei Borisov Solo Operator, Oxana Grigoryeva and many others. From a Moscow label and promo group centered on the Russian improvisation, noise and academic scene.
CIAN NUGENT - DOUBLES
Doubles is the first widely-available release by Irish guitarist Cian Nugent, a showcase of major talent in an audacious setting of two side-long epics. Clearly inspired by the Takoma-classics and the recent generation of greats (Rose, Jones, etc), Cian delivers two perfectly formed takes on the classic steel-string sound, one (mostly) unaccompanied, the other an expertly arranged full-band throwdown. "Peaks & Troughs" is a slow-building solo piece in the style of Fahey's "Fare Forward Voyagers," with each part perfectly connected to the previous. Cian has ample technique, but the virtuosity here is all in service of the mood and the build up. His guitar has a darker, more intimate sound than many current players without the brittle ring common to fingerstyle. The emergence of a deep drone after fifteen minutes shakes up the track like a swarm of bees spilling out of the speakers. In contrast, "Sixes & Sevens," is a percolating jam in the style of Jim O'Rourke's classic Lp, Bad Timing, with Cian's steel string riding an inventive wave of drums, organ, viola, woodwinds, and brass. The main tune of the song is instantly memorable, building momentum before a subdued interlude that resets things for an elegant, orchestrated finish.
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