FFN 002 :: Vulnerability

1.1 Blurry vision. Colored streaks on a foggy, rain-covered window, reflecting fractals of city lights. The heavy rainfall turns the radio’s happily humming melody and the low rumbling voice of the radio host into the only things warm and melancholic. Salvation for a tired and irritated nerve tract. A car’s back seat has always been a romancer’s best friend.

Rain. You make my sunny clouds turn gray. Rain. You make me feel the pain.

As DJs, producers, and dancers we’re involved with music to heal ourselves and to heal others. There is comfort hidden within those deep pulsating basslines as they act like medieval fortifications around our battered souls. But what’s best is that they don’t work so much by shielding you from whatever pain you feel but by guiding you through a hidden passageway that leads into a new world of yet untested possibilities.

I’m feeling so blue I need a place to run and hide Relax a while and clear my mind and dream of brighter days…

Losing yourself in a decent track is to lose yourself in your thoughts and dreams. It becomes a natural and involuntary act – if you’re doing it right, that is. Auditory meditation, revelation, exaltation. Sonic excursions into a life to come, ideas and feelings filling the blank. Life is imperfect. It is only within the most abstract part of your being that you can conceive of an ultimate perfection for which part of us constantly yearns.

1.2 His body involuntarily made a step backward as the bus came to a stop right in front of him, it’s big tires working through big puddles of water. A loud hiss signaled the opening of the doors and an unexpected tropical heatwave came crushing upon him.

Roger entered the bus and sat down on a free seat looking out the rain-covered window. The busy crowd outside unfolded on the window like a surrealist painting and a strange mood took hold of him. He grabbed his headphones from his backpack and put them on…

It could be anywhere, on the dance floor or on the commute to work, once that mystic magical force of music takes hold of you it immediately seems to open a door to another world. It’s this no man’s land between yesterday and tomorrow that gives birth to the most fascinating moments in lifeLike a rift through time and space. Dancing in the moonlight. Holding tight to this burning feeling.

The road I take is long The fire’s burning strong I’ll keep holding on

It’s that feeling of drowsiness surrounding you like a piece of armor that lets you walk home effortlessly in the early morning hours. Dance music is not about what it sounds like, it’s about how it makes you feel.

1.3 18 hours later while still lying in bed Roger’s looking back on what he’d just experienced as if watching a movie through a purple-colored lens. A steady stream of visual emotions, most of it simply scrolling by, a few details coming into focus here and then. But in his heart, he knows what he’d really experienced: life!

This newsletter contains lyrics by Kerry Chandler, Cajmere, and House of Spirits

1.4 Reviews

V/A - Outro Tempo II (Music From Memory)

Another deep-dive into the depths of the Brazilian underworld by veteran compiler John Gomez bringing together music made in Brazil in the late 1980s and 1990s. This time all twenty tracks revolve around the constant push and pull of opposing forces.

Rainforest nature vs. raw and ardent city live. Analog heritage vs. digital sonic invention. Classic Brazilian popular music vs. the global sounds of electronica. And while doing so those artists inevitably move into unknown territory. Indigenous chants turn into polyphonous poetry. Traditional hand drums and bowed instruments fight with vaporwave synth sounds before making a new age left-turn. It’s that blatant use of otherness that keeps you hooked to your speakers.

Outro Tempo II is a super interesting listen, a challenging one, too. One that has to be looked at from different angles to fully comprehend.

KOKOKO! - Fongola (Transgressive)

I reviewed KOKOKO!’s „Liboso“ EP in the last newsletter already, so I want to keep it brief. With Fongola, their debut LP, KOKOKO! continue their torrid, anarchic journey that started with their two previous EPs „Liboso“ and „Malembe“.

Working with french beat-maker Débruit they forged an energetic sound combining lo-fi percussive polyrhythms and electronic experimentation. Electronic loops clash with traditional instruments. Highly distorted guitar licks add to those agit-punk beats creating intense rhythms. A kick coming from a thumb hitting against a cable. Percussive layers and claps which are created using tomato cans. In the absence of electronic machines, KOKOKO! built their own instruments making their sound even more iconic.

„KOKOKO!’s post-punk/post-techno attitude already stirs appetite for the upcoming album due this summer“ is what I wrote four weeks ago. Well, dinner is served.

Leoparden - Stilen er svimmel (Lyskestrekk Records)

I haven’t witnessed that many musicians who can instill vulnerability and despair into their music in such an intense and yet positive way like Leoparden does.

„Stilen er svimmel“ is more than a recollection of steady grooves and hypnotizing patterns. Yes, there are references of Africanism and cosmic heritage disguised as modern boogie/nu-disco tracks. But while the likes of Lindström or Todd Terje focus on re-creation, Leoparden’s focus is the ancient impacts on modern reflections. He aims to move into the possibility space of future disco.

His vibes and arrangements literally let you grasp the loneliness and moodiness of outer (and inner) space. Tightly grooving beats and bass-lines coming forth with such an elegant relaxedness yet they have this incredible drive that keeps you bouncing endlessly. And finally the vocals: a rarely seen combination of subtle sadness and self-deprecating humor that allows the music to be a messenger of both the problem and the solution at the same time.

„Stilen er svimmel“ is pure therapy for battered souls. Soul-cleansing at its best and if you’re not dancing by the end of the record you’re not listening.

The Mauskovic Dance Band - The Mauskovic Dance Band (Soundway)

With their head-turning „Down In the Basement“ EP still making us dance, Nic Mauskovic’s Mauskovic Dance Band finally come through with their debut LP: 8 tracks, recorded in the storage space of Amsterdam’s Garage.

All proudly DIY, it is a plethora of bumpy, jumpy rhythmics, afro-fired guitar licks, and lofi synth-stetics. Melodies and chords defying any known dimension will make you hum along, while high pitched vocals and spacious steel-drums are creating that special easy-going Caribbean feeling that makes you swing and wiggle your butt.

Naturally drawing on psychedelic influences of old and new, Mauskovic does not fail to explore a wider range of inspirations in pursuit of heavyweight dancefloor gold. NewYork’s New-Wave of the early 80s? Early cosmic disco? Rhythmic inspirations from Colombia and Peru? You’ll find it all here fused together in this LP.

Kapote - What It Is (Toy Tonics)

Can sameness be anything else than what it is? Kapote aka Munk aka Mathias Modica demonstrates what can be done when old ideas meet creative capability. He fearlessly takes from all the genres house music has seen in the last twenty years (deep, dub, disco, acid, filter, you name it) and dares to incorporate all these elements into one track. But what’s best: he easily comes away with it.

„What It Is“ is the perfect example of freshness created from the same tedious meaninglessness. Samplemania splits syntax into rhythmical molecules abducting you from your ordinary listening experience. Percussion/piano getting looped and delayed until notes lose any profile, creating tension without release… converging until they roughly emerge as a groove mechanism.

Multiple personalities not being a syndrome or disorder but a given fact. Transmutating from alter-ego to multi-ego, giving into rather than fighting against. That’s „What It Is“… a condensed overwhelming mix of funk, disco, jazz, and house music.

V/A - House Of Riviera (Mona Musique)

In some sorts, Italy is the true European pioneer of House and Techno music (apart from London, of course). Whilst the majority of Europe was only just beginning to digest the arrival of electronic dance music in the late 80s and early 90s, Italian clubs, DJs, labels, and radio shows were fully embracing the new sound.

It was during those summer holiday vacations in Tuscany as a young boy, when I got hooked to House music. I vividly remember lying at the beach and listening to the various Italian radio stations playing dance music in the late 80s and early 90s. Still getting goosebumps!

Well, the sound of Italy during the 80s and 90s is becoming a focus point again as Italo Disco and Dream House are experiencing a revival of sorts. Especially the House sound of early 90s Italy is getting attention by more and more big names including Palm Trax, Young Marco and now Parisian mastermind, DJ, label owner and La Mona host Nick V.

His compilation on his label Mona Musique brings together 8 iconic tracks from this specific period. Nick V is showcasing the whole spectrum of the Riviera sound, so expect not only a colorful, breezy, and piano-laden sound, but also gnawling, dubby basslines, classic 90s house beats, and strong vocal tracks.

If you love US House and New Jersey Garage with a twist then this compilation is for you.

Octo Octa - For Lovers EP (Technicolour)

The opening incantation: 30 seconds of distant chants, a sweetly humming synth pad, a filter opening up sight towards a stunningly bright future. Remnant signals of a distant orchestra vacant somewhere in outer space transmitting a message of love: „We’re still here waiting for you“. And then that breakbeat! “I Need You“, the opener track for Octo Octa’s “For Lovers EP“, is absolute bliss masquerading as a tremendously grooving house/dance track.

„Bodies Meld Together“ ups the tempo, a thoughtful and gloomy mood pushing towards resolve. Reverberating vocals weaving a subtle mesh around tickling percussions and melancholic sounding synths, getting themselves locked up in a seemingly endless void. „Loops For Healing“ finally returns home. Lush chords make you feel warm again.

For this EP Octo Octa lifts her production skills onto a new level. Full of sophisticated electronic textures it’s a compelling EP that will be a feature in my collection for years to come.

Daniel Wang - Don’t Go Lose This (Degustibus Music)

Daniel Wang aka Danny the Dancer returns with a new record, delivering two edits of Hugh Masekela’s proto-house classic “Don’t Go Lose It Baby”. Reducing it down to the most essential parts. Endless repetition as a means of finding new freedoms. Adding just enough new instrumentation to slightly off-set the nature of the track, flipping it into an opulent, HI-NRG disco-tech monster. Synths, dubs, and good times.

He also sends out an important message to our community. Written on the label sticker, in plain sight for everybody to see, he reminds us of our scene’s origin as a vehicle of freedom and diversity. And that the real riches of life are to be found within the moment. Don’t do things because they are cool or make rich or look hip. Do it for the joy of it and for the spirit inside. Be yourself.

1.5 Spread some love

If you enjoy this newsletter, perhaps you’d like to give your friends some love by sending them to http://trentaudio.de/ffn002/signup.html and forcing them to sign up ;) I also welcome your feedback. Let me know what you think or if it struck a nerve with you or if you have any recommendations. I’m here to listen. Just hit reply.

Thanks for reading. I really appreciate that!

Bobby Mhark