Angels of Love – Joe Morris

Posted on by

Joe Morris drop a stunning four tracker on Higher Love Recordings out of Brighton, UK

Joe Morris has carved out a niche for himself by offering up a multitude of alluring tracks that gloriously cover a range of moods. Gentle, melody laden and rich in atmosphere, Joe’s style is sometimes melancholic and often euphoric, yet forged in deeply emotive textures and musicianship. And so it continues with ‘Angles of Love’, a welcome outing on Brighton’s increasingly essential Higher Love Recordings imprint. Four tracks encompass Joe’s production mantra by deftly weaving together ultra deep spacey house music that infuses warm ambience and new age sonics.

We open up with Angels of Love, the sunrise and dawn chorus atmospherics combine to a whispered vocal before locking into a classic dream house groove. Moments In The Snow with it’s twinkling stars FX, gentle cosmic keys and soft percussive elements lead to a euphoric arpeggio that elevates the track above the heavens. Solina takes us to the far reaches of the cosmos; it’s deep sub bass, M1 harps and soaring pads drift over the swinging broken beat groove for an otherworldly journey. Subaquatic continues the languid, deep tone by concluding the EP with a tropical atmosphere, alluring keys melting into heavenly strings and chimes that all float away to a new age dream.

Releases March 26, 2021 buy via Bandcamp below or here.

Two Crowns EP – Session Victim

Posted on by

We normally think of Session Victim as big room house artists, but their previous release and now this EP on Delusions Of Grandeur suggest a change direction for their productions, and it’s sounding pretty good to me.

This EP gives us three original tracks which move smoothly from the low slung funky wobble of the title track with it’s stabbing analogue synths and house not house live drum groove, through to the lush, expansive sounds of Village Youth.

Once again, Session Victim have created a collection of tracks which give us a sense of nostalgia for early 90’s Fila Brazilia/Solid Doctor records on the influential Porky label or classic cuts from Kruder & Dorfmeister. A world where trippy spoken word samples, cut up breakbeats, deep pads and sine wave basslines live in perfect harmony and a sense of optimism flows through every note. Let’s face it, we can all do with some of that right now! 

releases March 26, 2021 – Buy via Bandcamp here or via player above

READY IN LED / UNREAL EP & REMIXES / PRINS THOMAS, GERD JANSON, KENNETH BAGER & LOVELOCK

Posted on by

New artist presents slamming synth pop debut EP with a heavyweight remix package, don’t miss this!

Electronic project Ready in LED has to be the Ukraine’s answer to Roisin Murphy. She is the multi-talented goddess Olya Dibrova, a singer and sound producer out of Kiev, with a penchant for vintage synths. The Ukranian scenester’s music is driven by neon pop, powerful synth-wave, analog bass, the romantic piano solos of Tchaikovsky, and just a little bit of Kylie.

The ‘Unreal’ EP features a wide range of disco. From NYC garage inspired ‘TMO’, to the highly sensual ‘Feel’. The main disco bangers are ‘Whatever’ and the super mega – ‘Only Tonight’, surely a Harvey future classic that’ll have you reaching for the sky and looking up at the Disco ball.

The four original cuts are treated to some killer remixes from a star-studded line up that kicks off with a monstrous banger from Gerd Janson. The Running Back boss delivers a prime- time bomb with shades of New Order throughout. Norwegian Disco don Prins Thomas, goes full on synth cascades and percussion with live bass and cowbells on his dancefloor deadly Diskomiks of ‘Only Tonight’. Music For Dreams boss man Kenneth Bager applies his beautiful Balearic touch to a more downtempo version of ‘Feel’. Lovelock tackles ‘TMO’ and goes in the direction of epic space funk, adding live drums and guitar strings. This is New York musician Steve Moore (Kompakt) in his solo synth-disco project moniker. All four originals are included for your listening pleasure. They were recorded in 2020 at the Kiev studio, Artreform Records. The mixing engineer is no less than New York’s Justin van der Volgen.

Release date:26 March 2021 – Buy via Bandcamp link below

Chris Coco & George Solar – Lagrimas De San Lorenzo

Posted on by

The Balearic brethren are back again, bringing the sound of Summer with this beautiful guitar lead two tracker, another essential soundtrack for your escapist journeys, be they real or virtual.

‘With “Lagrimas De San Lorenzo” Chris Coco & George Solar channel their inner star child in order to complete their summer Island phenomena tribute trilogy in style.

Following up on the dub infused “Noche De San Juan” and the rather tropical jazz  smoothie “September On The Island”, this time it’s all about getting lost in cosmic stargazing: the quite impressive “Tears of San Lorenzo” occur as an intense Perseid meteor shower night time spectacle all across the Mediterranean each year around mid august – and this is their rather adequate soundtrack. A star struck one.

This time around, the crisp beat section touches the more hip active mid tempo regions, with spacey synths & funky organic percussion layers carrying a light yet pretty profound jazz guitar skywards… the latter contributed by Argentinian born & Ibiza based Virtuoso Mathias Kamelman aka Kamelmat exclusively for the occasion. 

And so it’s time again soon to gather on that island and get together under the moon & the stars in order to celebrate life. All the tears shed on warm summer nights like that are destined to be tears of pure joy. Look up there… or just ask Lorenzo!’

Released March 19, 2021 via Bandcamp – link below

Falling That You Know – JIM

Posted on by

Essential new EP from ‘JIM’ that’s James Baron of Crazy P, a move away from the dancefloor into singer / songwriter territory. Out now via Bandcamp, see link below to listen & buy.

‘Since first emerging as part of Crazy P in the late 1990s, James Baron has released a lot of great music. However, he’s previously put out very little quite like the Falling They You Know EP, his first solo outing as JIM on NuNorthern Soul.

As those who’ve followed his career closely will tell you, Baron has worked on a number of lauded projects outside of Crazy P, including Ron Basejam (his nu-disco focused solo alias), Secret Stealth (a sample-heavy collaboration with Nottingham stalwart Bob Sadler) and White Elephant (a Balearic-minded outfit featuring Crazy P partner Chris Todd and old friend Benjamin Smith).

The FALLING THAT YOU KNOW EP sees Baron exploring an explicitly stripped-back, sensatory and soft-focus sound. It features a quartet of hazy home recordings created using little more than an acoustic guitar, piano, keyboard and some toy instruments belonging to his children. The music stretched across the EP is warming, wide-eyed and picturesque, with Baron showcasing his rarely heard singing voice as well as a finger-picking guitar style he’s spent the best part of 18 months perfecting.

Those with a wide-ranging musical palette will spot subtle sonic references to some of Baron’s lesser-known musical inspirations, including singer-songwriters Ned Doheny and Nick Drake. There’s a folksy, homespun charm to the campfire-ready bliss of loved-up opener ‘Falling That You Know’, where Baron delivers his own thoughtful lyrics atop shuffling shaker percussion, layered acoustic guitar, smooth bass, synth-strings and sustained piano chords.

Arguably even more impressive is ‘Phoenix’, a swelling, simmering and sweeping semi-acoustic cover of the Cult track of the same name featuring backing vocals from Crazy P chanteuse Danielle Moore. Magical and mesmerizing, Baron’s version takes the goth-rock classic in a stunning, sunset-ready new direction.

Baron’s dedication to the finger-picking style long associated with British and American folk music comes to the fore on ‘Whisper in the Wind’, a future early evening singalong that gently builds across six spellbinding minutes. From a delicate and pared-back start, Baron layers up instrumentation including additional guitar by White Elephant’s Benjamin Smith, drums courtesy of Crazy P sticks-man Matt Klose, and his own mazy, spacey synth lines.

Then there’s closing cut ‘You Know What To Say’, an effortlessly emotive, tactile and atmospheric affair that cannily distils all that is good about Baron’s latest solo venture into three magical minutes. It offers a near perfect end to an EP of rare pastoral beauty.’

Jamu – Chris Coco

Posted on by

Lovely new album release from Chris Coco, file under ambient / deep listening / jazz / cosmic / balearic. Perfectly timed for the return of the sun, slow burning deepness that’ll reward some time and repeated listens, get it at Bandcamp link above and get your best headphones ready for a treat…

‘This is a new album project called Jamu. It is the second collection from Chris Coco inspired by the magical island of Bali, following on from the 2017 album Return To Good Karma. The title is the name of a drink made of local herbs sold by street vendors that is good for health and vitality. I hope we have created a musical version of that healthy juice with our particular variety of ingredients.

This project was made in collaboration with a close group of musician friends. Each person played their part separately on the simple original grooves and soundscapes, inspired by the rhythm or what the last player or singer had laid down. We built a ‘live’ sound without ever playing together. After that I used the live parts to edit and process to eventually create the finished work.’

Released March 5, 2021

Not Going Out – Alex Aguayo

Posted on by

‘With light at the end of tunnel and thoughts of dancing again etching ever closer, Higher Love Recordings first release of 2021 sees them teaming up with Mexican producer Alex Aguayo for some unashamed hands in the air peak time electronic righteousness. The EP comes with 2 different takes on the original from label owners, Balearic Ultras and Whiskey Pickle’s Adam Warped.

Not Going Out starts with a bang, knocking out a four to the floor Italo electro cowbell beat and layering the synths to a proper almighty breakdown. A sustained reach for the lasers attack then ensues. What’s your name and what you on pal?

The Balearic Ultras provide the first remix. Developing the sound around Alex’s emotive synths, they add big breaks and a splash of acid. The tracks builds and builds for over 4 minutes before unleashing the ‘Rave Again’ breakbeat.

Rounding the release off is Adam Warped’s delicious slice of electronica. It features dance music’s most famous birds, subtle electro breaks and lush key and guitar work from Adam. A completely different take on the tune that would work as the sun sets over Sant Antoni de Portmany or at 4am on Sunday morning in Lost Vagueness with European Bob.

Not Going Out…. but….. Not Long Now….’

Releases February 26, 2021 – Buy at Bandcamp here.

Need Somebody – Hazy James

Posted on by

Future classic klaxon! Here’s a cracking new release on Our Starry Universe, ‘Need Somebody’ from Hazy James is a slow burning, melancholic chugger. Over it’s melodic eight minutes it builds in intensity and brightens in atmosphere, a piece that will reward repeated headphone plays and could really work in an early hours ‘lose yourself’ club set (we can dream right?).

It’s paired with a b-side remix from ALFOS legend Sean Johnston in his Hardway Brothers guise. Sean keeps it deep and chugging as you’d expect but raises the temperature with hypnotic bells, loon birds and euphoric builds, expect this to delight the ALFOS faithful in Sean’s ‘Emergency Broadcasts’ over the Spring, yep it’s a banger 🙂

Need Somebody is out on Our Starry Universe 5 March on 12” vinyl and digital via Bandcamp – Listen buy via player below

Sunshine Radio – Tommy Guerrero

Posted on by

Tommy Guerrero has just dropped a new album – ‘Sunshine Radio‘ and it’s a belter, with timeless, dusty, summery sounds soundtracking imaginary desert journeys. Sounding like a lost JJ Cale album covered by Kruangbin and remixed by Kamasi Washington it’s a ‘must buy’ item. Have a listen via the Bandcamp link below. Tommy had this to say about the album…

“Road to Knowhere is inspired by bits and pieces of Ethio-Jazz, Afrobeat, Highlife Spiritual Jazz and dusty funk 45’s. It’s what has kept this mortal vehicle fueled. I tend to take different paths each musical outing but this one is for the long haul, the one for the blue highways and forgotten byways. It’s the one to get lost to. It’s about the journey, not the destination… [If Road to Knowhere was about the long haul, TG’s new album Sunshine Radio is all about cruising on, dropping the top, and taking in a bit of fresh air]. Sunshine Radio hopes to spark a bit of joy as well as a moment to reflect and consider the fires of the world. Take a sonic respite from the endless noise.” – TG