Cosmic | Balearic Vinyl 475 Items

It's been a long journey for Romain Bezzina aka Zero Netcost ever since 2002 when he discovered the band that would become his favorite of all time: The British duo Bent through the amazing track "Always" remixed by Ashley Beedle. Twenty years later, the circle is complete with this compilation of remixes from all his idols including, of course, a beautiful atmospheric/downtempo remix from Bent, a cheeky mega drive mix from Simon Mills (one half of Bent), a chunky sunny remix from the legendary Ashley Beedle, and to complete this nice bunch of guys, a very nice sharp balearic remix from the amazing I:Cube. Enjoy!

Next up on Second Circle is the debut release of Indonesian outft Zatua, with their album ‘Sin Existencia’. Led up by Dea Barandana and Harsya Wahono, the seven track album was recorded in Jakarta and Bali over two years and grew out of improvised live shows the duo had put together.

Zapatilla, better known as Louis Hackett, is a founding member of Brownswood 's Owiny Sigoma Band and key collaborator on Eska's Mercury nominated debut album, but has a neat side hustle making house music with one foot in the gentle melodies of Balearic beat and another in the irresistible energy of Afrobeat. It's a recipe that he continues over onto this fine four tracker, which opens with the smoothly grooving but lively 'Like Dat' before 'Zimzimmer' builds up around a gently frenetic Afro guitar riff. On the flip, 'Disco Facial' is slower and more retro, with a synth line that could be from a lost John Carpenter soundtrack. 'Self Isolated' completes the package in its most esoteric fashion, another synth work rooted in the past, this time perhaps echoing the approachable experimentalism of Jean Jacques Perry.

A retro-futuristic journey from folk to free exploring the shores of the Mediterranean, claiming its power as a living core, never as a deadly border. The TransMegaCobla fuses traditional Mediterranean culture –from bulería to kopanitsa, from gnaoua to sardana– with contemporary culture to create a fictional but deeply human and festive universe. Resurrecting the Phoenician language, the octet seeks common roots to fuse and remake them with contemporary molds such as rock, punk, free jazz and conducted improvisation. A timeless orchestra ready to invent, with real elements, a science-fiction Mediterranean in a parallel reality.

Pinchy & friends is delighted to present the latest offering from Kaifeng-born and raised, Vancouver-based musician Yu Su. In her first major release of original music since 2021’s acclaimed “Yellow River Blue” LP, Yu Su says elements for the EP began to form during time spent in the deserts of Ojai, California and the fertile coastal areas around her home in British Columbia. Of the new release, Yu Su says the ideas are thanks to “the objects around (colors, reflections of light, wood burning in the fireplace, and material rhyme with the sounds in the room) the desert and valley plants, the ground where citrus grows, and the flood a rainstorm created.” She notes that “the golden earth is the changing point of the matter, earth centers, stabilizes, and conserves, nurtures, and seeks to draw all things together with itself.” Likewise, the four varied pieces of the EP match four very different landscapes: Earth-of-water (Wet/Cold Earth) Earth-of-Fire (Arid/Hot Earth) Earth-of-Metal (Dry/Hard Earth) Earth-of-Wood (Loose-Fertile/Warm Earth). Additional guitar and bass were provided by Scott Johnson Gailey and Aiden Ayers - who also play in Yu Su’s live band. The vinyl release comes on 180g vinyl in a full-colour sleeve by Seoul based Lobde Kim, with OBI Strip.

Ylia—aka Susana Hernández—had a remarkably productive 2020. In addition to releasing her debut album, Dulce Rendición, on Barcelona’s Paralaxe Editions, she penned compilation tracks for Lapsus Records, Hivern Discs, and Super Utu/Stars on Earth.

But professional success can be deceiving: The following year was, personally speaking, terrible. Her grandfather died. Her father died. Her cat died. And she ended a relationship. “That’s a lot of things all at once, no?” she says.

Her second album, Ame Agaru, is not necessarily a record of that year, but it is, she says, a response to those life events—a record of grief.

The new album is clearly a continuation of the ambient investigations of Ylia’s debut, but it differs in key ways. Where Dulce Rendición was exploratory and faintly cosmic, Ame Agaru—a Japanese phrase meaning, roughly, “the rain lifts”— captures a melancholy sense of stillness. And where her debut was largely electronic, on the new album, Ylia has folded in a number of acoustic elements, even when they are not recognizable as such. Her partner, Alejandro Lévar, lends fingerpicked acoustic guitar to the glowing dronescapes of “Todos los Cuerpos”; multi-instrumentalist and bandleader Tete Leal adds flutes, clarinet, and soprano saxophone to “Ame Agari”—or “after the rain”—which opens the album with a moment of contemplative calm, the kind that follows an extended deluge.

One track, the dub techno-influenced “Flowers in June,” grew out of Ylia’s live sets, but the rest are the fruit of improvisational sessions at home in Málaga, five minutes from the beach—jamming and then refining, searching for the ideal expression of a feeling as it was first captured. Searching for the spontaneity behind the stillness. In places, Ylia even incorporates piano, an instrument she has played since she was 10, yet has never included on one of her recordings before. For the most part on Ame Agaru, she seeks ways to fuse piano with synthesizers and electronic processes. But on the closing track, “El Único Adiós Posible,” she leaves us alone with the instrument in all its stark, unadorned beauty. It is a profoundly moving conclusion to an album defined by its economy of means and purity of expression: a cycle

Yetsuby lands on London label Third Place with her 'Water Flash' EP this July. Seoul-based artist Yetsuby is best known as one half of electronic super-duo Salamanda, who have won hearts and minds with their light and floaty new-age electronica via releases on Good Morning Tapes, Human Pitch, and Métron Records. As a solo act, she has released her own music on the Taipei-based 禁 JIN as well as through the Seoul store The Internatiiional amongst self-released delights on her Bandcamp. Turning to Will Hofbauer's playful Third Place imprint for her latest 12', Yetsuby delivers four bubbly tracks. On the A-side, the title cut 'Water Flash' leads with airy synths and textured percussion, while 'Electro Union' ups the energy with choppy vocal samples, punchy drums, and twinkling arps. On the flip, subtle synths wriggle alongside low-key percussion on 'Commercial Noisy Day', making for a heads-down affair, before the gorgeous finalé '물먹는하마' rounds out the B-side with delicate keys and detailed yet muted drums.

King Of Blue by Yes Indeed sees Laurie Tompkins and Otto Wilberg take their eclectic stance on cosmic jazz and electronics to further uncharted and dreamlike territory, encompassing a unique logic of what is harmoniously absurdist.

King of Blue by Yes Indeed sees members Laurie Tompkins and Otto Willberg further dive into their melismatic take on cosmic jazz and new electronics, by way of their highly eclectic and at times nonsensically sensical modus operandi. Their work is defined by an eloquent flurry of ideas, spheres, and signifiers, creating a musical universe of surprising longevity and depth. Treating musical convention with gentle disdain, Yes Indeed take on a variety of genres and moods and switch them around into a beautifully melismatic and dreamlike state of being. King Of Blue is a mini- album of fragmented beauty and warmth. It puts the illogical center stage and gives space to abruptly miniaturist musical ideas, allowing them to take on a meaning bigger than one would expect. It is cosmic music for modern times. A brazen descent into the execution of a fundamentally diversified musical stance.

'Yes Indeed' are Laurie Tompkins & Otto Willberg. Live, they play keys, bouncy bass and sing over tactile, emotive samples. Their music is epic and also somehow wrong, with space for delicacy, straight-up joy and soaring licks. Since 2022’s ‘Rotten Luck’ - their first proper album, on Bison - YI have played across the UK and Europe. Solo, Laurie co-ran the Slip label and has put out CDs on Entr’acte, 33-33 and Hyperdelia. Otto is a roaming bassist in groups like Historically Fucked and Abstract Concrete and his LP of “wildly singular, wickedly trippy and sensual set of fusion jams” (Boomkat) was recently out on Black Truffle.

The Havoc guys have been on an enforced hibernation through the winter due to a lurgy that had been affecting the planet. They have remained in the cave throughout this time huddling up to keep warm and exploring what had become their home away from home for months on end. One night, whilst lighting a fire, trying to find motivation for the next release (basket weaving had lost its appeal) they spotted a glint across the way – On further inspection, it was a small bottle and had a label of sorts – It looked to be medicine or smelling salts – Liquid Gold. Curious creatures they are they all took a long good sniff of this elixir. And just like that, they rummaged around the records stacked in the corner put some more coal in the old computer and began their work. Soon the A-Side of the new EP was born. Most certainly a step up in the BPM from the previous A-Side off EP1. A1 kicks off with a Germanic Proto Throb Job, that's sure to cause errr...Havoc on the dance floor. Whilst A2 is a Bassline Driven, Reconstructed Austrian Euro Pop Monster. One for late-night Discos. After a while they had stopped sweating, hearts had stopped beating quite so quick. Whilst the creative juices were flowing a few more records were dug out and a log put on the fire and a cup of fungus juice imbibed. B2 came rattling out the speakers in no time at all in all its chugging glory, the vocals take in a nod to god after the devil has done his dirty work. At this point, the sun was starting to peek through the mouth of the cave and a new day was upon them. One last record had been found, earlier, that was decided would work at this time, actually after consideration, any damn time... B2 Is like a familiar Balearic Back rub with pop-infused French vocals and beats for days...So now EP2 is complete. Back out into the world our intrepid or is it tepid threesome went... Let's only hope their wives haven't left them after all this time locked away.