Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement - Black Magic Cannot Cross Running Water

God damn. Can Blackest Ever Black do any wrong? Complementing their existing roster of dark ambient, minimal and industrial artists, their latest release comes from Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement, who's black magic rituals for Hospital Productions so far have been utterly superlative. Stretching synth tones and industrial malfunctions out until they attain monolithic proportions, Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement craft a form of ambience that drowns modern electronics in a brutalist swamp of afro-dread. Whilst previous releases have drawn comparisons to Raime, with their skeletal beats and noticeable dub-influence, Black Magic Cannot Cross Running Water is a mostly beatless affair more indebted to Carpenter, Lustmord and Frank Bretschneider - the second track Refugees From Black Magic opens with a strangely ominous patter of rainfall that develops a loping half-rhythm before being subsumed under a wash of crepuscular synth noise. Top quality music.

The Lay Llamas - Vatican Zombie (Jozik Records)

"The Lay Llamas is a tribe that in the year 2092 AD starts a trip from an unknown region of Nigeria on a self-built spacecraft (track A1) to reach a planet that they continued to observe every night from the earth and inexplicably attracted them. Once there, explore the planet (track A2) until they meet a totem called the Big Snake (track 3) who will point the way for the purification and elevation to a higher state of consciousness (track B4)"
Cheers to Rocket Recordings for bringing this to me.
Treading the fine line between epically psychedelic and bonged-out-their-nut-pretentiousness, this concept EP is a very cool piece of work out on Finland's Jozik records. On C30 cassette. There's bits of Caribou and Manitoba in there, touches of Can, a little Boards of Canada and the smudgy thumbprint of Hawkwind smeared across the whole thing. Somehow managing to maintain a solid narrative over messy, semi-improvised instrumentation, Nicola Guinta's Lay Llamas elevate brain-rotting fuzz and lurching dynamics to new heights of awesome.

I guess I'll have to buy a cassette player and mail-order from Finland.

Auntie Flo - Future Rhythm Machine (Huntley & Palmers)

Auntie Flo - Future Rhythm Machine (Huntley & Palmers, 12 May)


We've blogged a couple of times about Auntie Flo in the past and are pleased to see Huntley and Palmers throwing their weight behind this very interesting project, releasing this mini-album/ extended EP that predates both Oh My Days and Goan Highlife. Anyone who believes that electronic music lacks soul, or has grown jaded with DJ culture and production needs to hear this album, as its one of the most invigoratingly vibrant electronic releases of the past couple of years - a whirlwind mess of global-influences and non-electronic sounds looped, twisted and infused with the inherent energy of great house music. Tribal acapellas rub shoulders with Latin American percussive riffs, kwaito drum patterning and Caribbean jazz, with a solid mechanical undercarriage tying it all together. This melting pot of styles is probably most succesful on the aptly-titled he Makes the People Come Together, which switches the drum samples from 303s, to Latin American, to South African without ever dropping a beat, a technique which implies a sense of universal rhythm permeating the record.

Working with Glasgow's favourite Springbok Esa (Subculture / H&P) and Chilean vocalist Mamacita, Future Rhythm Machine manages to cram a great deal into just over 30 minutes, including two short, loop-driven sketches, and one stunning single entitled  La Samaria. Described by Twitch as "...so beautiful. It should be a hit single in a just world", and featuring the aforementioned Mamacita, La Samaria is a rich dancefloor anthem masquerading as a summery pop song, and is utterly awesome. The only criticism I have for this is that mini-albums feel infuriatingly short, but with the quality of material, that's swiftly dismissed.

Cottam - Deep Deep Down (Aus Music)

Cottam - Deep Deep Down (Aus Music, 07 November)

Having eagerly followed Cottam's rise to prominence, we welcome his new 12" with open arms - his four 12"s on his own imprint were superlative peices of work, but with very limited pressings and no digital release, superstardom was never going to come easily. Though he's snuck out various remixes and soundcloud giveaways, this is Cottam's only release not on his own imprint since the 12" for Use of Weapons, and with the critically acclaimed Aus Music backing him up, it aught to garner him the recognition deserved. Moving away from his signature slow-groove house, Cottam's begun to channel a more acidic, technoid sound, without losing the funk and soul that make him stand out. With metallic percussion and an acidic synth line, Deep Deep Down channels hints of Jus-Ed and Levon Vincent, peppering the robotic with fluid afrobeat percussion and a wailing saxophone. Like Cottam's previous works, it's a well-crafted long-runner that manages to work a limited pallette of sounds without growing repetitive. Whilst filling an appropriately weird niche with it's reconstructed rhythms and tape screeches, the Vakula remix leaves me somewhat cold in comparison - it's a fun addition nonetheless.
The B-side, Twang returns to Cottam's signature pitched down groove, with funk-inflected guitars and wailing vocal snippets peppering a languid bassline. Contrasted with Cottam's self-titled releases however, both tracks on this 12" are leaning more towards recognisable house and techno rhythms with a definite focus. However, Cottam manages to avoid the stylistic neutering that broadening appeal often equates to (Daft Punk, Wiley, Skream, this means you) and it genuinely feels like Cottam has improved by moving from languid sketches of confused beauty, to fully-realised masterpeices. Quality work from one of the most interesting house producers at the moment.

Fela Kuti - Music Is the Weapon

Set against a backdrop of Nigeria in the early 80's, this documentary provides an interesting insight into the mind of musical and political renegade Fela Kuti as he struggles to maintain his self-proclaimed republic against the increasingly violent interventions of the country's corrupt regime.

In addition to his brave and uncompromising political stance against brutal military rule, Fela also had a mighty package -shown here in the possibly the smallest pair of briefs known to man- which could easily defeat anything in Niall's post here.




Plus some Yellow Fever, for it is awesome:

Auntie Flo - Goan Highlife EP

Auntie Flo - Goan Highlife EP

Brian D'Souza (Slabs of the Tabernacle / Inner Ear) drops this bombshell next week, on the ever-awesome Huntley and Palmers. Chewing up everything from afrobeat, to folk, to funk and disco, the man behind some of the best parties in Glasgow delivers top quality house shot through with rich melodies and contorted rhythms. If you're into Cottam, Theo Parrish and Moodymann, this is well worth keeping an eye out for; tapping a similar vein of raw, simply produced dance music that disregardes anal-retentive wav polishing and synth-wankery in favour pure groove and rough, tribal spontaneity. With Slabs of the Tabernacle, and his other various ventures, Brian D'Souza has managed to combine an encyclopaedic knowledge of obscure and offbeat dance variants with a powerful love of proper techno, house and dubstep. Producing as Aunty Flo, he manages to unite all these elements, without ever sounding attention deficit or messy, and the result is something I'll be buying as soon as it hits the shop.

Nice work.

Auntie Flo - Highlife (Sample) by Auntie Flo
Auntie Flo - Goa (Sample) by Auntie Flo

Cottam - Causes of Colour Mix

Cottam-Causes Of Colour Mix by Cottam
Awesome late night music

Cottam - Cottam #4 Review

Cottam - Cottam #4 (Not On label)
It's fair to say that we're big fans of Cottam, the mild-mannered Lancastrian who released 3 devastating 12"s over the course of 2009 and introduced the world to his unique blend of afrobeat, reggae and house. We were lucky enough to catch him playing the early slot before Seldom Felt and Jackmaster tore up the subclub, and his DJ set tied up all the elements of groove, melody and dub that are represented on record. This new 12", which hit the shops last Thursday, continues Cottam's winning streak and I'm pretty certain Molotov Disco's Kyriakov will be unable to shut up about it any time soon. The A-side bears all of Cottam's hallmarks, with snippets of obscure afrobeat tracks looping over Kuti-inspired percussion and a solid techno undercarriage. However, with a more house-friendly bpm (as high as 119) than past tracks and a big techy chord chopping up the rhythm, this is probably one of Cottam's most accessible tracks to date and has critics comparing it to early Carl Craig releases. It's going to be huge.
On the B-side, a slumberous techno beat gets injected with funkadelic grooves and snippets of soul vocals. Clocking in a 9+ minutes, it's all about evolving a groove, and throws bongos, shifting guitar loops and brooding bass into the mix. It's a tricky little number that challenges DJs to work for the big pay-off, but is an invaluable weapon if used correctly.

Cottam's soundcloud contains mixes and unmastered demos available for download. I highly reccomend checking it out.
Cottam-Causes Of Colour Mix by Cottam

EDIT: I just bumped into Kyriakov, and the main focus of his discussion was how he'd spent his lunch money on Cottam #4.
I just dropped into RubaDub records. They'd sold out of Cottam #4 within five hours of opening - this one's gonna go fast.