2020s 178 Items

Chilly Gonzales releases his new album 'French Kiss' on September 15 through his own label Gentle Threat - the first album by Chilly Gonzales to be written and performed in the language of Molière and Bangalter.

Chilly Gonzales is as well known for his intimate approach to the piano through his Solo Piano album trilogy as he is for his undeniable talents as a performer, exuding his showman energy in the philharmonic halls of Europe. He has collaborated with internationally renowned artists such as Feist, Drake, Jarvis Cocker and Daft Punk, and the anthemic power of his track Smothered Mate (from Ivory Tower) became the soundtrack to the French national soccer team's 2018 World Cup victory.

Since then, the unpredictable pianist has grown closer and closer to France, finally returning to Paris to live in the heart of the Ile Saint-Louis, from where he watched the inauguration of Notre-Dame with a tear in his eye and a joint on his lips. After several years of intense preparation, which consisted of feeding exclusively on Camembert and French literature, and while waiting to be elected to the famous Académie Française, he is now releasing the album 'French Kiss' on September 15.

One of the best albums of 2023. Güner Künier's debut album is finally available on vinyl! Produced, Recorded and mixed by Sid Vision

Recorded at Grandpa's Smoky Cellar Studio in Berlin / Tempelhof, 2022

All Instruments by Güner Künier & Sid Vision

Songwriting by Güner Künier

A.R. Kane were formed in 1986 by Rudy Tambala and Alex Ayuli, two second-generation immigrants who grew up together in Stratford, East London. From the off the pair were outsiders in the culturally mixed (cockney/Irish/West Indian/Asian) milieu of the East End, with Alex and Rudy’s folks first generation immigrants from Nigeria and Malawi, respectively. The two of them quickly developed and fostered an innate and near-telepathic mutual understanding forged in musical, literary and

artistic exploration. Like a lot of second-generation immigrants, they were ferocious autodidacts in all kinds of areas, especially around music and literature. Diving deep into the music of afro-futurist luminaries such as Sun Ra, Miles Davis, Lee Perry and Hendrix, as well as devouring the explorations of lysergic noise and feedback from contemporaries like Sonic Youth and Butthole Surfers, they also thoroughly immersed themselves in the alternate literary realities of sci-fi and ancient history (the

fascination with the arcane that gave the band their name), all to feed their voracious cultural thirsts and intellectual curiosity.

It was seeing the Cocteau Twins performing on Channel 4 show the Tube that spurred A.R. Kane into being - “They had no drummer. They used tapes and technology and Liz Fraser looked completely otherworldly with those big eyes. And the noise coming out of Robin’s guitar! That was the ‘Fuck! We could do that!

The duo debuted with the astonishing ‘When You’re Sad’ single for One Little Indian in

1986. Immediately dubbed a ‘black Jesus & Mary Chain’ by a press unsure of Where to put a black band clearly immersed in feedback and noise, what was immediately apparent for listeners was just how much more was going on here – a tapping of dub’s stealth and guile, a resonant umbilicus back to fusion and jazz, the music less a conjuration of past highs than a re-summoning of lost spirits.

The run of singles and EPs that followed picked up increasingly rapt reviews in the press, but it was the ‘Up Home EP’ released in 1988 on their new home, Rough Trade that really suggested something immense was about to break. SimonReynolds noted the EP was: Their most concentrated slab of iridescent awesomeness and a true pinnacle of an era that abounded with astounding

landmarks of guitar-reinvention, A.R. Kane at their most elixir-like.

If anything, the remastered ‘Up Home’ is even more dazzling, even more startling than it was when it first emerged, and listening now you again wonder not just about how many bands christened ‘shoegaze’ tried to emulate it, but how all of them fell so far short of its lambent, pellucid wonder. This

remains intrinsically experimental music but with none of the frowning orthodoxy those words imply. A.R. Kane, thanks to that second generation auto-didacticism were always supremely aware about the interstices of music and magic, but at the same time gloriously free in the way they explored that connection within their own sound, fascinated always with the creation of ‘perfect mistakes’ and the possibilities inherent in informed play.

The follow up to their hugely successful UK 2x Platinum selling debut album 'Go West,' this collection of 12"" Remixes, B-sides and live tracks are taken from UK single releases. “Bangs & Crashes” was largely aimed the international audience who didn't get to hear all the tracks. This subsequently went on to be a UK Gold selling album and has become a firm fan favourite. This is issued to coincide with the recently released deluxe edition box set of their debut album. This Exclusive RSD version is pressed on 2 x 140gm clear vinyl.

A download code is included. Christophe Chassol is reshuffling the deck. After making his name worldwide with three magnificent ultrascore compositions (Nola Che?rie in 2011, Indiamore in 2013 and Big Sun in 2015), working with Solange and Frank Ocean, and playing the most prestigious halls, he’s taking his quest to arrange reality even further with Ludi, his new project that includes an album, film and show. It’s play - an all-important word in music - that underscores this impressive, masterful construction freely inspired by Hermann Hesse’s The Glass Bead Game. Everything is part of the melody: a playground or basketball players in the suburbs, an arcade in Tokyo, a roller coaster, singer Crystal Kay and rapper Kohh. Solo musicians were filmed in rehearsal, like flautist Jocelyn Mienniel and the composer’s partner, drummer Mathieu Edward, who managed to reprise on stage Chassol drew from the great German author’s utopic book, where music, mathematics, aesthetics and spirituality intermingle, to create a passionate work produced by Bertrand Burgalat’s label Tricatel that once again justifies his special place in the musical landscape.