「PREMIERE」COLIN RILEY, LOTTIE P, NIC PENDLEBURY & STEVE PRETTY — EBB AND FLOW

How do you capture the sea in sound? Maybe you'd record the sound of waves on a shoreline, or perhaps you'd focus on replicating the contrasting sides of the ocean, calm and catastrophic. Or, as is the case with 'Ebb and Flow', you create a piece of music that sounds instead like a grand adventure on the open seas.

"It's a huge blank canvas," says composer Colin Riley, "and we wanted to have lots of sounds to draw on."

Along with violist Nic Pendlebury, Riley is one half of Sonic Collaborations, the creative partnership behind 'Ebb and Flow' in its initial form. It began when the pair were tasked with creating a soundscape for visitors to the Cutty Sark (a late 19th-century tea clipper and once the fastest ship of its day).

"One of the pieces was crying out to be a song," says Riley, "and we really just followed our nose with it." For this they enlisted Lottie P (vocalist of London band Goat Girl).

The piece was 'Ebb and Flow'. It begins as if in ancipation of a voyage, pizzicato strings tense and poised with potential play a simple, shanty-aligned melody in kinetic syncopation with soft minimalist piano. Rising from this mist, slow vocals provide a textured sirensong crossed with a dawn chorus, aching for the land and sea simultaneously.

“Writing ‘sea music’ is a huge blank canvas and we wanted to have lots of sounds to draw on”

The percussion skitters, clattering like ropes fidgeting in the wind against sturdy a mast — in fact, these sounds are sampled rigging ropes, sampled and manipulated to form the sparse, echoing rhythm section of the song. Reflecting these rapid percussive elements, chopped vocals stutter throughout, providing an organic, human gabber that helps soften the harsh sounds of the ship.

The addition of a vocalist turned 'Ebb and Flow' into a song. But with the addition of trumpeter Steve Pretty, the song is elevated once again, and will be appearing in this form on Sonic Collaborations' upcoming album, Ocean Songs.

Pretty came aboard after performing back-to-back at sunrise with Nic Pendelbury at the UK's First Light Festival.

"Steve uses a lot of conch shell sounds treated with electronics in his recent music, and Nic uses electric viola with electronics, so there was a musical affinity," says Riley. "Plus, of course, Steve's work uses sounds that are literally from the ocean!"

As this piece of music continues onward, we hear the flugelhorn in all its splendour, adding not only a playful jazz lilt to proceedings but a sense of maritime charm. "The title of the track is so evocative," Pretty tells us. "When improvising flugel horn lines, I was very much working with this idea of overlapping, swelling, and the cyclical but unpredictable nature of the way that water - especially large bodies of water - moves."

Part epic voyage, part meditation on the nature of the sea itself, holding a mirror up to both ourselves and the briny deep, 'Ebb and Flow' showcases the power of collaborative songwriting — and how the life of a piece of music itself can evolve in fluid, oceanic ways.

✧

Ocean Songs · Ebb and Flow

---

• 🔔 'Ebb and Flow' is out on 16th February, ahead of the upcoming album Ocean Songs, which is set for release on 24th March.
• 🔔 You can read more about the soundscape that Sonic Collaborations made for the Cutty Sark over here.

  "The idea for the soundscape is that it provides an alternative to the spoken audio guide," Riley says. "You listen in your headphones while walking around Cutty Sark. There’s no voiceover, just music and sounds of life at sea blended together, so it’s more meditative. We created music for different decks, each in three versions to match weather conditions from calm to near gale. Remixes if you like."

  Continuing, he says: "Participants in the immersive experience around the boat have an ever-shifting sonic experience, with the music changing automatically as they enter each deck, but they importantly also have some control. They can, in effect, make their own story by changing the weather conditions and hearing the music develop, growing or receding."

---

📠
☟ Sonic Collaborations Internet Presence ☟
bandcamp ⚘ instagram ⚘ official site ⚘

☟ Colin Riley Internet Presence ☟
official site ⚘ blog ⚘ instagram

☟ Lottie P Internet Presence ☟
soundcloud ⚘ instagram (Goat Girl) ⚘ wikipedia (Goat Girl) ⚘ spotify ⚘

☟ Nic Pendlebury Internet Presence ☟
⚘ instagram ⚘

☟ Steve Pretty Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ official site ⚘ instagram

---

⌾

MIDORI JAEGER — EXASPERATE

'Exasperate' feels like a heist. It's the way cellist midori jaeger plays her instrument in a syncopated dance of pizzicato swirl, body-popping its way through a what might as well be a tangle of red lasers and tip-toeing through shadows. It's fitting, given that jaeger says the song is centred on the "overpowering urge to break away from old patterns, to so desperately want the new at any cost, but to feel overwhelming regret for things lost." It makes sense that we have this sense of minimal noir jazz, like a break-in, except this is a break-out — from the old and what no longer serves, but to what, and at what cost?

"I’ll leave this door wide open / To remember how you filled my days, oh but now / I want something unfamiliar, unpredictable" she sings, amidst a lyrical labyrinth delivered in jaeger's cool tones and tumbling vocal style.

On a broadly jazz-inflected canvas, the London-based composer paints a bristling blend of organic and artifial, with icy reverb on her woody cello lines and understated synth gently blooping alongside intricate clattering percussion (provided by co-producer Felix Higginbottom). It feels earthy yet augmented, an idiosyncracy that more or less reflects the song's raison d'etre: restlessness, the desire and constant push for newness. Though sonically harmonious, this cocktail of living instruments and the synthetic figuratively creates the tension inherent in an unnatural pairing, a desperation like a tree wanting to uproot and sprint off into the sunset.

---

• 🔔 'Exasperate' is taken from (Un)planted (due out 9th March), the result of ten days of recording in Lisbon. It's the first in a pair of upcoming EPs by midori jaeger.
• 🔔 Another track has already been released from the EP, namely 'dark green' — gentler and warmer than 'exasperate', but with a similar minimalism and that same characteristic stamp of living-and-breathing crossed with buttons-and-waveforms.
• 🔔 The EP's confessional cover art (as seen above) is the work of Glasgow-based photographer Inigo Blake.

---

📠
☟ midori jaeger socials and such ☟
bandcamp ⚘ official site ⚘ instagram

---

RUUD VOESTEN — THE CRYPTO SHUFFLE

⌾ LISTEN TO THE CRYPTO SHUFFLE BY RUUD VOESTEN ⌾

---

The meandering noir jazz morsel that is 'The Crypto Shuffle' toes a balance between groove and chaos, organised structures and freeform forays into the abyss. Though it's kind of the saxophones that steal the show here, fluttering and squealing and smooth caramel all at once, the track comes from the the mind of drummer amd band leader Ruud Voesten, who says it's "about the capital sin of greed".

Ultimately it follows a concept of setting Dante's Inferno to music, this being the portion occupied by greedy people "who constantly bicker" with each other, as exemplified by rapid-fire frustrated feeling in the duelling saxophones, played by Mo van der Does (alto) and Wietse Voermans (tenor).

To lead his third single through this capitalistic subject matter, Voesten channels his stream of percussion, a successive fluid parade of ghostly liquid knocks and taps that tumble alongside a satisfying buzz and twang of bass. Ultimately, like I said, saxophone rules 'The Crypto Shuffle', being given ample space to wander, but perhaps that's a reflection of the "greed" that inspired the track - more, more, more - and it's a banger beacuse of it.

---

• 🔔 'The Crypto Shuffle' is taken from a forthcoming Dante-inspired album. It's set for release later this month on Nethelands indie jazz label ZenneZ Records.

---

📠
☟ Ruud Voesten Internet Presence ☟
bandcamp ⚘ official site ⚘ twitter ⚘ youtube ⚘ spotify

---

MOSHIMOSHI — ANIME THEME

⌾ LISTEN TO ANIME THEME BY MOSHIMOSHI ⌾

---

A dynamic pendulum keeps time in 'Anime Theme', swinging between math rock-laden slabs of stabbing, syncopated guitar, bass and drums, and the portions where distorted guitars send out a wave after wave of sweeping fuzz. Gently jagged, no harshness in the fast-paced but digestible acrobatics of the melodies here, the track races along very much like a high-octane anime theme.

Finnish band Moshimoshi summon the sensibilities of early-2000s post-hardcore and the emotivity of emo, complete with punk-flavoured drums and throaty, screaming vocals. Warped by their own force, these screams blend with the guitar, becoming a part of the overdriven medley, providing an extra albeit shattered melody to the proceedings. It bounces, pops with precision, fizzes with energy.

---

• 🔔 'Anime Theme' is taken from Moshimoshi's upcoming album GREEN, scheduled for release on 28th April.

---

📠
☟ Moshimoshi Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ bandcamp ⚘ spotify ⚘ instagram

---

EMMA JOHNSON'S GRAVY BOAT — SUN STONES

---

⌾ LISTEN TO SUN STONES BY EMMA JOHNSON'S GRAVY BOAT ⌾

---

If there was ever a fitting title for an album, Worry Not is one. You can thank jazz outfit Emma Johnson’s Gravy Boat for that. It’s on this collection of tracks is where you’ll find ‘Sun Stones’, a joyful piece that flits between boundless energy amid ozone skies, and the drugged, tender haze of an afternoon alcoholic beverage.

Angular, minimalist riffs persist in a storm of skittering drums, while Emma Johnson, the Leeds-based bandleader and saxophonist, brings a wakeful dreaminess to proceedings, swaddled in waves of piano like scudding clouds. Bubblingly bookended by clusters of kinetic ostinato, and with this floating core of calm, ‘Sun Stones’ feels like a reflective yet escapist soundtrack for these times.

---

• 🔔 'Sun Stones' is taken from Worry Not, the debut album from jazz quintent Emma Johnson's Gravy Boat. You may purchase it or just steam it over on Bandcamp.

---

📠
☟ Emma Johnson's Gravy Boat Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ bandcamp ⚘ official site ⚘ twitter ⚘ youtube ⚘ instagram ⚘ spotify

---

GRALITSA — MORNING BUSTLE IN THE HOUSE OF INTELLIGENT PEOPLE

---

What a wonderful noise this is. It’s a frenetic collection of objects thrown together, a series of chaotic collisions, unidentifiable percussion and cartoonish sound effects, that gives Gralitsa’s track its spark. Titled ‘Morning Bustle In The House Of Intelligent People’ (as if that wasn’t enough), this truly is the horror of waking to last night’s detritus, the morning routines, pouring cereal into bowls.

Like a sort of Dadaist folk song, it’s a soundtrack of all the switches and buttons we press, the doors and compartments we open and close, all little noises we make on our way to working our way out of the door, and how we deal with that. A semblance of calm composure wavers behind in the form of wobbling synths, and finally the day begins: chords reverberate out of earshot, resonating onto the street.

---

• 🔔 Gralitsa’s ‘Morning Bustle In The House Of Intelligent People’ is taken from their album Little Mosquitos Are Sleeping This Night. Stream and purchase it on Bandcamp.

---

📠
☟ Gralitsa Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ bandcamp ⚘ spotify ⚘ vk

---

DEREK MURO — ROVE FEAT. DAISY PRESS

⌾ LISTEN TO 'ROVE' FEAT. DAISY PRESS BY DEREK MURO ⌾

---

---

This track by begins as if it were about to erupt into a rave-ready tract of Balearic breakbeats: synth chords wobble and sigh on a backdrop of elastic intent. Instead, it evolves into a cross of Gregorian chant and jazz (like a future revival, perhaps, as if it has already been a thing), the voice of experimental vocalist Daisy Press soaring in an aerial display of virtuosity among phrases of saxophone like scudding clouds.

Sub-bass punctuation and gradual glimmers of light gives Derek Muro’s ‘rove’ yet more cathedralic height and space — and then it breaks off, a rapture interrupted by the everyday, the bubble of dreaming burst. Peals of anguish surface through the found sound chatter, and most pointedly, Muro sprinkles the coda with a ticking clock: though it had seemed halted in its tracks, time has actually not stopped, and never does.

---

• 🔔 'rove' is taken from cues, released 9th April on Toucan Sounds. You can purchase it from Bandcamp either digitally or on cassette.

---

📠
☟ Derek Muro Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ bandcamp ⚘ official site ⚘ twitter ⚘ instagram ⚘ spotify

---

JUHAN ONGBRIAN — SAIL ON

---

⌾ LISTEN TO JUHAN ONGBRIAN, SAIL ON ⌾

---

‘Sail On’ is an apt title for jazz guitarist Juhan Ongbrian’s masterful piece of music. Not only does this song seem to travel effortlessly on gentle waves of sound, like a heavenly sailboat, but it seems to be a spiritual and sonic successor to ‘Albatross’ by Fleetwood Mac.

For sailors, to kill an albatross while at sea was considered a bad omen; so the equally oceanic ‘Sail On’, perhaps, is the sequel here — in the timeline that no albatrosses were harmed, at least.

While the bass guitar (Austin Smith) creates a gloopy groove of stepping notes, like the sturdy materials of a seagoing vessel, or the shape of waves; the slow, calculated drums (Adrian Michael) represent the rhythm of the sea itself, the gentle tick of water lapping against the hull. Ongbrian’s guitar — dropping in at 1:38 — is expansive, a veritable sky of sound, exuding endless possibilities and a moment of bliss all at once.

---

• 🔔 You can stream or download Juhan Ongbrian's 'Sail On' from whichever service on this list is your absolute favourite.

---

📠
☟ Juhan Ongbrian Internet Presence ☟
soundcloud ⚘ bandcamp ⚘ official site ⚘ youtube ⚘ instagram ⚘ spotify

---

TAY NOEL — LAST TIME

⌾ LISTEN TO TAY NOEL, LAST TIME ⌾

---

---

With its beat echoing in a collage of ticks and booms as if caught in a looping memory, 'Last Time' is a vessel of tender emotion tumbled along by the multifaceted rhythm of time. Sultry chords paint a soundscape with muted synth glow, a picked melody adding a gentle delicacy to the scene.

All the while, percussion rattles, cymbals whisper metallics into the air, a lone, full-bodied snare explodes in the near-distance laden with reverb. Created by Virginia producer Tay NoeL, 'Last Time' is a gleaming marvel of measured, minimal production.

"This song came from a personal experience," the producer tells yes/no via email. "It was inspired from a mutual breakup between me and a girl before I shipped off to the Navy."

A hollow synth melody that calls out every now and then, a hollow, flute-esque R&B-flavoured beacon that stretches out slowly above it all. It's a sound that summons the spiritual aesthetic of old-school lovesongs, but in its descending notes, its hint of a mournful tone, it becomes emotive.

"When I create I need to have an emotion in my mind, either from personal or what I believe the song is trying to show me," he adds.

"In better words, I speak my mind and emotions through my music."

The unpretentious simplicity of 'Last Time' — and indeed many of the instrumental soundtracks to emotion and experience to be found on Tay NoeL's album The Vibez: Chill Instrumentals — calls to mind the vaporwave sensitivity to scenes, times, places, fantasy visions, nostalgia. But there's one presiding difference: this music remains gloriously rooted in and inspired by reality.

---

• 🔔 You can stream and/or download The Vibez: Chill Instrumentals, Tay NoeL's collection of instrumentals, over on Bandcamp.

---

📠
☟ Tay NoeL Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ bandcamp ⚘ official site ⚘ twitter ⚘ youtube ⚘ instagram ⚘ spotify

---

🐣 TOMOS — SURFACE TENSION

⌾ LISTEN TO TOMOS, SURFACE TENSION ⌾

---

With gleams of jazz in the wide arms-resting-on-leather-sofa chords, 'Surface Tension' is an excercise in late-night fluidity, a warmly lit space inhabited by mid-century furniture and people murmuring in dark corners, touching each others' elbows and looking into each others' eyes. More than just in the sultry tropicalia groove that swims in the music, Tomos provides a clipped croon, setting the precedent with lines like "I guess there's more to us than being friends."

As the South-East London (via West Wales) musicmaker tells us, however, it was in a "YouTube binge" that 'Surface Tension' was born.

"As a lyric writing technique I often randomly write down lists of words influenced by what I've seen, heard and been interested in that day," he admits. "A couple of years ago, I had been researching the adhesive properties of water, but also found myself watching that trending video by Tatia Piliva, FIRST KISS (the one with load of ‘strangers’ kissing upon meeting for the first time)."

Loop crafted, lyric book in front of him, 'Surface Tension' was born - and then forgotten about, only to be found two years later and be magicked into some brand new music. Tomos carves this pearlescent soundscape not only of watery surface tension, complete with submerged-yet-surfacing synths splashy in their wah-wah-esque repetition, but also the surface tension of a convivial meeting between two people, their underlying desires concealed but bubbling like the agitated, heat-warped percussion shot through the track—and which it ends with, like a hearbeat.

---

• 🔔 This was actually released all the way back in October 2018 via Majestic Casual Records.
• 🔔 The artwork, reflecting the shimmering, liquid qualities of the track and the dark, muted colour palette summoning the same nocturnal feel of the track, was created by Geraint Morgan (aka Gray for Days; work for Boiler Room, Ross From Friends, etc.). There's a video for 'Surface Tension' too, which was also created by Morgan.

---

---

📠
☟ Tomos Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ twitter ⚘ instagram ⚘ apple music ⚘ spotify

---

---

🐣 QUARTETTO MINIMO — ATLANTICO

⌾ LISTEN TO QUARTETTO MINIMO, ATLANTICO⌾ RPG meets jazz in 'Atlantico', a sandswept soundscape from Madrid-founded, Paris-based band Quartetto Minimo. With a guitar melody – composed one summer in southern France – that summons a kind of intrepid videogame castle exploration and sparkling harp that harks back to faraway dark-wood-panelled rooms fable baroque (let's talk E.M.M.A's 'Mindmaze') a time and place, nowhere concrete, gets a bold, impressionistic illustration.

"It's funny that you said it sounds like baroque," guitar player Nicolas Arzimanoglou Mas tells us over email, "because for the past 2 years the bass player and I have actually been playing baroque music, with different instruments and bands of course."

Combine it with organic rough textured bass that feels noir and fantasy, and drums that give it pace and intrigue, and there is excitement, the urgency of jazz merging this into the battle music, penultimate level themes; in terms of real videogame comparisons, it sounds much like the 'Gerudo Valley' theme from Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

The medieval-summoning chamber aesthetics with kinetic energy of improvisation and quick tempo gives it that VGM dynamism. A new jazz release that crosses boundaries and conjures a world away from the traditional; it's chamber jazz.

---

• 🔔 This track is taken from the album of the same name, Atlantico by Quartetto Minimo. Feel free to stream and/or download it on Bandcamp.

---

---

📠
☟ Quartetto Minimo Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ bandcamp ⚘ official site ⚘ instagram ⚘ spotify

---

---

🐣 OKAY(K) — SEVEN, TI SEVEN [初演 • PREMIERE]

⌾ LISTEN TO OKAY(K) SEVEN TI SEVEN ⌾

Fresh from the faded sunset beach guitar sounds of ‘bacardi with a soda’ – his latest track – SoundCloud musicmaker, vocalist and all-round wordist okay(K) crash lands back to earth in his interdimensional pod; the control panel has gone haywire and is playing out some wonky chords from a far-off radio station, colourful blips and bleeps crackling in the hook (notification system failing), the fizzing circuitry of the beat skipping and lurching with a galaxy of glitch.

It’s friendly though. In fact, 'seven, ti seven' sort of reminds me of the 'Battle Against a Weird Opponent' theme from Earthbound. The sound is warm, though jaunty and angular in structure. Like Mr Burns from that Simpsons episode, he brings you love. And here okay(K) is in the middle of it all, with a message from the future. Or was it the past?

“The concept is "seven ti seven ti seven ti seventy" meaning "seven you seven you seven you seventy",” he tells us via email.

“everyone is as much alike in a way as they are different. we’re all human with our own unique characteristics that make us distinct.”

Halfway between a lounge croon and a beat poet recital, okay(K)’s vocal in ‘seven, ti seven’ rolls around picking up references from everywhere, like a virtual snowball through Wikipedia, from foreign languages to the next US election. And all in a style that drips in stream-of-consciousness fever dream freedom; even the way the lyrics can be set out looks like a poem:

never, never, never been where i is
is i isn't
isn't i isn't
isn't i finished
i said now isnt thy wishlist not made in 79 minutes
79 minutes till he be sending my giftish
its like my 79th christmas
he said Pitkästä aikaa
* i said now isn't i Finnish
i said now isn't i finished
...

The skipping but low-slung virtuosity of this first verse (above is a fragment) contrasts with the wobbly, positive spoken word-esque vocal of the second; there’s simple but inspiration thinking in there, with lines like “I think we can go far / If we hold on real tightly” delivered with rounded earnest. Politics comes into play, when okay(K) talks about waiting “patiently” for 2020: "If we are impeaching then it may be imperfection / Coulda happened sooner then there would be no objection now."

It’s an exercise in patient positivity, set to a scuttled hodge-podge glitch-flavoured beat that could seem chaotic, but feels as chill and accessible as those jazzed-out chords—a joyful juncture where rap, poetry and sheer artistic communication meet and mingle.

* This means 'long time no see' in Finnish.

---

• 🔔 Listen to more okay(K) on SoundCloud.

---

---

📠
☟ okay(K) Internet Presence ☟
soundcloud ⚘ twitter ⚘ spotify

---

---

🐣 ÀBÁSE — SKEME GOES ALL CITY

Built around the frenzy of cyclical repetition, this track two-steps to a speedy tempo with a half-time trap-feeling beat—a slice of jazz that's more about the atmosphere created and solid rhythms rather than wheeling, flighty solos. Beginning with a lush, lounge-flavoured intro, it soon bursts into life with a series of dynamic riffs that feel more nightclub than jazz club.

It's by Budapest-based producer and keyboardist Szabolcs Bognar, now embarking on a new project called Àbáse. And it's this musicmaker's love of hip hop that has created the unique, beat-and-groove-led vehicle at the heart of this track: the track's title 'Skeme Goes All City' references Style Wars, a 1983 documentary about graffiti.

"I can clearly remember that I was listening to a lot of current Blue Note releases at the time. Music from Jaleel Shaw, Marcus Strickland, Ben Willams and such." Bognar tells us about the birth of the track. "The main melody is definitely inspired by that scene."

"Each member came up with their part on the spot. We were jamming through it a few times and the trap feel and groove just came out of us so it was all pretty natural. We did only a few takes of recording. I also wanted to put out something completely live first. No huge editing and production process, just the musicians playing and grooving together. It's kind of a tip of the hat to the blue note and classic jazz style of recording, as well."

The crossover of jazz instrumentation and trap-style beats with swaggering repetition is one that feels as relevant as ever—e.g. Kendrick's To Pimp A Butterfly, Kamasi Washington, the flavours of Brainfeeder's output. Riding this wave of band-created groove well away from the producer's studio, Àbáse reflect a newness of modern pick-and-mix culture diverting from the specificity of genre.

---

• 🔔 The members of Àbáse this time around are Fanni Zahár (flute, vocals), Szabolcs Bognár (Rhodes), Tamás Heilig (bass) and Tamás Czirják (drums). The artwork, fresh green with concentric circles of cocktailing collage, reflects the combos at work in the track itself.
• 🔔 You may stream and/or download 'Skeme Goes All City' via your favourite service, if you like. There will be an EP, or maybe an LP, coming soon so, yeah, watch out for that if you liked this.

---

---

📠
☟ Àbáse Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ youtube

---

---

🐣 KERO KERO BONITO — TIME TODAY

Taking off into a world of ceaseless leisure, whimsical hope, the hefty air of summer and free time finding its way into our hearts, this is the wonderful 'Time Today' by the trio that is Kero Kero Bonito. Usually and perhaps more well known for their bilingual Anglo-Japanese playground-rhyme-raps and polished analogue collages of electronic sound, 'Time Today' is a bouncy bopper of a track, with all the airiness, kinetic journeymaking rhythm, and tomorrow-never-comes sweet stoicism that'd make for a good ending theme for a slice of life (or other genre of) anime. The outward appearing of the track says as much, but so do the lyrics, cradling ambition in simple lines like opener, "I got so much time today / I got hopes and dreams and plans all yet to be made" and "But I don't / Even know / Where I should be trying to go / So I guess I'll follow my nose." All honest, all relatable.

It bears a resemblance to Shibuya-kei, the Japanese genre defined by its mix of styles, and yep it's all here: the lounge atmosphere, the electronic keyboard sounds, the jazz chord progressions, the busy upbeat tempo. Those gently unexpected progressions – founded on lovely warm bass, which really complement the cosy, comfy texture of the organ-ish chords – make it colourful and full of feeling, whilst typically KKB musical asides like chiming little melodies, sun-glinting sparkles, whoopy instrumental warbles, and drum machine fills decorate it with engaging nuance and keep things fun.

It is also brief—not too brief, but the sort of brief that mirrors how the song feels and what it says: that time, especially when everything feels right, seems to stretch on and on ahead of you – that "I got so much time today" refrain right? – but before you know it you're thinking, where's it all gone? With its lyrical references to day and night, dawn and sunset, you can see that it's a hopeful start-of-the-day song for the end of the day, a late afternoon reflection for tomorrow's bright morning.

---

• 🔔 This lovely song is taken from the upcoming NEW Kero Kero Bonito album Time 'n' Place, which is coming soon. That's all we know.
• 🔔 KKB also took part in YES/NO's Lazy Interview series all the way back in 2014. Have a lil' read if you feel like it~

---

---

📠
☟ Kero Kero Bonito Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ official site ⚘ twitter ⚘ tumblr ⚘ youtube ⚘ instagram ⚘ wikipedia ⚘ songkick

---

---

🐣 ANOMALIE — CANAL

From literally the first few seconds of 'Canal' we're dropped into an ultrachill atmosphere, one that begins smooth and viscous, hefty on the sub-bass and the lounge-flavoured piano that meanders throughout—and which turns cinematic, with flashes of freewheeling strings that zing on beds of wide warm synth; this morphs into a tract of hard-boiled electronica, with wibbly synths and brash columns of synth-bass buzzing beneath. Canadian musicmaker Anomalie sets us floating down this chilled flow, actual water noises and waves washing on sand interspersed throughout.

And besides the obvious chill of this track there's the dynamism of it all – very much helped by the rattle and thump of the prodigious drums ; the way it sways between different atmospheres and different textures, being neon bubbling contemporary synth jam one moment before reverting to peals of kinetic piano the next: the corollary being this contemporary nocturne, a highly polished, ornately sculptured piece of noir that remains light instead of weighed down by the world. The six seconds between 2:24 and 2:30, with the piano's motif at the end before those synth chords again, sums up the playful virtuoso and expansive subdued nature of 'Canal', sitting somewhere at the juncture between gorgeous inactivity and exciting hyperactivity.

---

• 🔔 This wonderful slice of classy piano is taken from Anomalie's upcoming second EP, Métropole Part II (out 13th April), the follow-up to last year's Métropole EP, which featured tracks like the well balanced jazz of 'New Space' and the elastic 'No Way'.
• 🔔 You can download and stream 'Canal' variously here.
• 🔔 The artwork was created by fellow Montreal resident Ali Hassanein.

---

---

📠
☟ Anomalie Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ official site ⚘ twitter ⚘ youtube ⚘ instagram ⚘ spotify

---

---

🐣 SHAWN KINGSBERRY — INTO TOMORROW

The smoothness of this track lies not only in its late-night jazz style, the softer dimensions of noir, the aching limbs at the end of the day feeling, the starless sky and the angular buildings of a nameless city – ‘Into Tomorrow’ is undeniably smooth, carved into its twinkling lounge shape by musician Shawn Kingsberry. The saxophone plays a languid melody; the long drawn-out notes are the motif of the track, like a lone voice chanting a wordless song. Piano trickles in, adding structure and opulence to the satin soul of the sax, its keys rich and robust yet light and chiming. But all that soothing sound would be for nothing if it weren’t for the beat and bass, a sparse rhythm like a slow walk upstairs, or the empty feeling of watching blurred city lights from the rainy window of a taxi: space, and room to think.

But as with much that effuses noir sentiment, there is a darker side. ‘Into Tomorrow’, even in its name, suggests that wherever this gentle soundscape is located in time, it is night, pathetic fallacy creeping in with the danger and ignorance of the dark and nocturnal activities – but at least it seems to be signifying a transitory moment, as the melody reaches gradually upwards, as uplifting as it is the sound of sinking into exhaustion and despair. Where there is hope, there is a reason to hope.

Kingsberry himself describes the track’s origin: “2017 was a year of reflection on where we are today,” he writes. “As we wake up every day watching the news, listening to the radio, or reading the news feeds, we cannot escape the sadness, negativity, and violence surrounding us.” Though hopeful, though relaxing, these truths leave their mark on the worn soul, the warm emptiness, of this music.

~

---

• 🔔 ‘Into Tomorrow’ is taken from Shawn Kingsberry’s current album, Peace Love and Happiness, which you can purchase here. “Peace Love & Happiness is my attempt to escape the world by creating a place of music, soul, and happiness to bring joy to my listeners.”
• 🔔 Interestingly, Shawn Kingsberry is actually VP, Digital Government and Citizen Services, at global IT company Unisys, where he “[guides] public sector consumers to adopt cloud computing, data analytics and other digital government platforms​.”

---

---

📠
☟ Shawn Kingsberry Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ bandcamp ⚘ official site ⚘ twitter ⚘ tumblr ⚘ youtube ⚘ snapchat ⚘ instagram ⚘ wikipedia ⚘ vimeo ⚘ songkick ⚘ myspace

---

---

🐣 SONNY — AGORAPHOBIA

The momentum in this one, the wintry movement the piles of snow beside the road zapping past the window as whatever vehicle passes by whatever. This kinetic morsel, this quest of sound, has been created by Danish musicmaker Sonny—and despite this sense of motion it's titled 'Agoraphobia'. But perhaps in all the jostling drums with the skittering cymbals and the tumbling tip-tapping snares, in the refraining bassline, the gradual crash of hi-hats, there is the tension of psyching oneself up to venture outside, the sweat and the empty indoor comfort; the snow flurries out the window.

And that coldness: huge robust piano chords crunch – later in the track moving between menace and triumph as the agoraphobe reaches trembling clammy hand to the door (03:45) – the glistening marimba sounds, the hi-pitch synth all snowflakes, the whirl of icicles in the cyclical build of the ending. The explosions throughout the song, and the contrast with the bass-and-drums simplicity otherwise, this is the indecision that is always the hypeman of fear, the enduring legacy of watching a wished for world unexplored from a window many times looked through.

---

• 🔔 'Agoraphobia' is taken from Sonny's debut C.E. EP, which is out now on newly launched Copenhagen-based label Koldt Bord. You can purchase the EP here.

---

---

📠
☟ Sonny Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ bandcamp ⚘ instagram

---

---

🐣 ONLY REGAL — SIDE2ME FEAT. QENDRESA

The clattering Latin beat is the complex somersaulting grammar of this piece, beautifully written, percussive punctuation here all a-glitter all a-tumble, the whole of it giving a blissfully contrasting feeling of chill, not of bustling business or stress as a result of bustling business, but instead the clop tap clack of the beat, perhaps because it puts you in mind of the coursing flowing energy of Latin music, of ease and effortlessness. It's all glass and wooden, all organic and luscious, ticking with a light veil of noir settling over its city-flavoured atmosphere.

British-Armenian musicmaker Richard Melkonian aka Only Regal adds ghostly hollow organ sounds to increase the tension, just slightly, just enough to lift the track off the ground somewhat, so it levitates lightly, all diagonal and unconventional. Intensity builds with the addition of buzzing bass synth, plumes of sound fit to burst with their body of robust frequencies, a hefty foundation for 'Side2Me'. Also joining with Only Regal is London-based singer Qendresa, injecting groove and effusing not exactly smooth soul but the jaunt and intrigue of jazz with a strong silken tone, something retro and angular in how she whispers in the deep booming rumble of this sidewinding track.

---

• This arrives via London coffeeshop-turned-label, Quaker Street Coffee.

---

---

📠
☟ Only Regal Internet Presence ☟
soundcloud ⚘ official site ⚘ twitter ☟ Qendresa Internet Presence ☟
soundcloud ⚘ instagram

---

---

🛰 GUEST MIX 029 :: SIMILAROBJECTS

"Over the years I've developed a nasty habit of digging for music during my spare time," Manila musicmaker Jorge Juan B. Wieneke V aka similarobjects writes in an email. "Whether it be the sounds of the past, present or future it always seemed like I've got a habit of seeking for something good for my ears to munch on." He's the latest artist to step up to the plate and smash a guest mix out of the park—and it seems as though he's a good choice because music, and not just making it, is a big part of this producer's life.

"For writers, people say that "reading is writing" and I feel like this applies to us musicians as well," he explains, "so when I'm not creating I just spend a lot of time digesting music from everywhere and anywhere."

In this guest mix, our 29th, similarobjects takes metropolitan Latin flavours and psychedelic guitars, moods conjured with gentle glossy keys and meandering jazz journeys, magical crooning pop party music, and gradually mixes them into the indigenous interiors of the Philippine islands with darkly chiming percussion and fresh organic textures: it is a cocktail of history and culture.

"As of late I’ve really been stuck on listening to a lot of Filipino records from the '60s, '70s and '80s that draw influences from Western jazz, Indo-jazz, jazz-funk, jazz-fusion, ethnic, samba, folk music, Brazilian, as well as some pieces that fall under the category of ethnomusicology," Jorge writes, taking us through the mix. "I thought I'd share a slice of Filipino culture through some of my favorite selections as a lot of these artists/songs really spoke to me and I hope this mix finds you well. And for those who follow my work maybe this mix can paint a picture of where my head is at the moment."

Previously the musical output of similarobjects has been typified by enigmatic atmospheres, otherdimensional flavours, beats that range from dusty organic to clipping and chaotic, a sonic world of synthetics and introspection. The gentle, cleansing house ambience in last December's two-track release Etheric is different to the high-concept frame of SoundCloud album Happiness is a deactivated Facebook Account, filled as it is with nerve-racking breakcore-style beat glitches and a hectic dystopian mood. He mentions in his email that he's working with RBMA Paris alumni JOHN POPE on "a collaborative EP in the form of a videogame," which will be announced properly soon.

This guest mix, however, acts as a precursor to another upcoming release that seems as though it will be moving away from his past futurist abstractions. It's an EP called UGAT.

"Ugat means "Roots" and it carries with it a sense of re-connecting with our roots as Filipino people," Jorge tells us. "The underlying concept of this EP is that the whole body of work is an ode to forgotten and lost instruments, rhythms, cultures, traditions and practices of the Philippine Indigenous Tribes and our Ancient Ancestors."

As such, some parts of this mix – the obscure mystery of 'Suling Suling' and 'Ugnayan' for instance – really feel like a moodboard for the producer, fresh paint on the palette for his next artistic endeavour, the next step of his musical evolution.

☆TRACKLIST☆
００：００ Bong Peñera – Batucada Sa Calesa (1977)
０２：５４ Bobby Enriquez – Recado (1982)　
０９：４４ Flip Nuñez – See You Later　(1976)　
１７：１４ Bob Aves – Gongs Can Swing (2014)
２０：５３ Boy Katindig – Midnight Lady (1978)
３１：２５ Dakila – Makibaka/Ikalat (1972)
４０：０６ Pasta Groove – Suling Suling (Dr José Maceda Rework) (19??)
４２：０８ Dr José Maceda – Ugnayan (1974)
５２：０２ Joey Ayala – Buwan Buwan　(1991)

---

---

📠
☟ similarobjects Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ bandcamp ⚘ official site ⚘ twitter ⚘ instagram ⚘ spotify

---

---

🐣 SHIGETO — DETROIT PART II

Four years following the release of previous album No Better Time Than Now, Shigeto has produced a follow-up to 'Detroit Part I', an almost symphonic morsel of music, a journey of a track in which a brooding atmosphere is beset with bristling sounds, a melancholy atmosphere where a sense of downcast dystopia looms somewhere in the lament of it all. 'Detroit Part II' is a different beast entirely. If the first part of this sonic homage to the Michigan city charts abandoned buildings and boarded up houses and forgotten assembly lines, the dereliction of Detroit, all angular and atmospheric, then the second part is humanistic, living-and-breathing, focused on how people react to their surroundings in terms of art: its musical culture and heritage.

The track thumps along with a dusty wheezing organic thud of a kick, luscious handclaps and muffled snare rimshots and delicious clopping woodblocks and shuffling shakers punctuating and decorating this subtle driving force of a beat, a tangible waterfall of textures. Soft synth bass plunges fuzzy giving the track a wandering breezy groove, the meandering jazz feel of it augmented by saxophone peals that prize open the heart of the song and allow life to flow forth. Barely discernible, a mist of gentle keys gloss glassy nebulous aching and accepting, merging with the whispering tones of the vocal sample that reverbs into the streaming percussive beat and its homely comforting sense of space. This is a change of heart, the silver lining of the cloud, the other side of the coin.

---

• 🔔 'Detroit Part II' is taken from upcoming Shigeto album The New Monday, which will be released via Ghostly International on 7th October.
• 🔔 The suitably atmospheric video for the track, a production of The Work Inc., shows Zach Saginaw (real name of Shigeto) driving around Detroit and recording the track in glorious greyscale. It was directed and produced by Brandon Rottman.
• 🔔 Here's the yes/no review of Shigeto's 2013 album No Better Time Than Now.

---

---

📠
☟ Shigeto Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ bandcamp ⚘ twitter ⚘ instagram ⚘ wikipedia

---

---