Mundo Urbano Sunday Favorites Vol.1

Ruins of a mausoleum in Tus, Iran, circa 1900′s. 

01. Various Artists - Artificial Intelligence (Warp) 

 

Available on vinyl for the first time in 30 years, the iconic compilation, originally released in 1992, includes rare early tracks by Aphex Twin (as The Dice Man), Autechre, Richie Hawtin (as UP!), B12 (as Musicology) and Alex Paterson (The Orb), the latter featuring co-production from Jimmy Cauty (The KLF).

In the history of the label, »Artificial Intelligence« was a key release that marked the transformation of Warp Records from a classic dance label to the spheres of 'listening techno', ambient, and IDM (emblematic of this: the pot-smoking robot in an armchair, listening to LPs by Pink Floyd and Kraftwerk.)

It was also first released in Warp’s 1992 - 1994 series of the same name, which consisted of »Artificial Intelligence«, »Surfing On Sine Waves« by Polygon Window, »Bytes« by Black Dog Productions, »Electro-Soma« by B12, »Dimension Intrusion« by F.U.S.E., »Ginger« by Speedy J, »Incunabula« by Autechre, and »Artificial Intelligence II«.

Original gatefold sleeve reconstructed by The Designers Republic. Album re-cut by Beau Thomas at Ten Eight Seven Mastering on classic black wax. "Artificial Intelligence is for long journeys, quiet nights, and, club drowsy dawns. Listen with an open mind.

02. Various Artists - Sneaker presents Give'n'Take 2 (Uncanny Valley)

Eight years after Cuthead's "Give'n'Take", it's Sneaker's turn to put together four of his favorite tracks for Uncanny Valley's compilation series. The artwork is once again by Planetluke.com aka Luca Lozano.

"This record is a vista of my world where music inhabits the air between people. As an exchange of genius, emotions, gestures - even conventions, rituals, and love. Dedicated to L.B. BaD, whose music I inhaled and whose records inspired me on my quest for deepness. You will be missed!" (Sneaker)

Besides L.B. BaD’s wonderful “Late In The Evening (Music’s Seeping Thru)” you’ll get three absolute bangers on top. The Optimistic Misanthropes are Mystic Bill, VeXaTioN, and Sneaker himself. One of the most influential Chicago House DJs, true to the underground for over three decades now, and once part of the Trax Records roster... Mystic Bill. VeXaTioN already got to know him back in the day but is currently hailing from Mexico City. His track was born in Los Angeles and remixed by Sneaker in Berlin.

Also, Left Unknown's "Mädchen" got the jacking Midas touch from Sneaker, a touch you've come to recognize. Behind the one-off project is Saxonian Gnista aka DJ Detox and somebody who wants to remain incognito. Jacob Korn however is well-known since the early days of Uncanny Valley and is above all Sneaker's best buddy at TailOut Studio, Dresden. Released November 25, 2022. 

03. Various Artists - Polyphonic Cosmos: Sonic Innovations In Japan (1980​-​1986) (Cease & Desist)

Since he made his first trip to Japan to DJ, Optimo Music founder JD Twitch has been bewitched by Japanese music, particularly the vibrant, imaginative, and often far-sighted sounds which emerged from the island nation during the 1980s. Now he’s put years of digging in Japanese record shops to good use on Polyphonic Cosmos, the latest release on his compilation-focused Cease & Desist imprint.

Subtitled ‘A Beginners Guide to Japan In The ‘80s’, the collection offers a personal selection of Japanese gems recorded and released between 1981 and ’86 – a period when advances in recording and musical technology offered the nation’s artists and producers a whole new tool kit to employ. Combined with Japan's unique musical culture, where local traditions are frequently fused with Western styles to create timeless, off-kilter aural fusions, this embrace of locally pioneered music technology had spectacular, often unusual results.

Eight years in the making, Polyphonic Cosmos provides an endlessly entertaining musical snapshot of Japanese music of the early-to-mid ‘80s with all of the open-minded eclecticism and sonic twists that you would expect from the Glasgow-based DJ.

Compare and contrast, for example, the gently breezy, morning-fresh folk-plus-electronics bliss of ‘ばら二曲 Baranikyoku (Fellini&Rota)’ by World Standard – the most familiar alias of long-serving musician/producer Sohichiro Suzuki – and the hallucinatory, slow-motion tribal rhythms, post-punk rhythms and tape delay-laden electronics of Imitation’s ‘Exotic Dance’. Or, for that matter, the tipsy mid-‘80s electronic reggae of Pecker’s ‘Sha La La’, the grungy but melodic post-punk strut of ‘You Go On Natural’ by Earthling (a track Twitch accurately describes as “sheer unrelenting groove”), and the unearthly, swirling sonics, new age instrumentation and flotation tank vocals of prolific (and seemingly mysterious) act Geinoh Yamashirogumi’s ‘Rimme Kohkyogaku Meiki’.

It’s a credit to JD Twitch’s curatorial skills that the quality never dips, and sonic surprises lurk around every corner. Consider for a moment the hard-to-describe, far-sighted audio immersion of D-Day’s ‘Ki-Ra’ – all languid post-pop guitar, enveloping chords, spoken word vocals, shuffling 808 beats and marimba melodies – and the two contributions from video games soundtrack specialist (and driving instrumental synth-pop specialist) Hiroyuki Namba.

The collection naturally includes some selections that have long been favorites in Twitch’s DJ sets – see Masumi Hara’s ‘Your Dream’ – as well as a handful of tracks from artists who may be more recognizable to those with only rudimentary knowledge of Japanese musical culture. The great Yasuaki Shimizu, whose work as Mariah has become far better known in recent years thanks to reissues of some of his most magical albums, is represented via ‘The Crow’, a picturesque chunk of horizontal, hard-to-define jazz-not-jazz smokiness, while the collection fittingly concludes with a sublimely funky, oddball electronic workout from Yellow Magic Orchestra legend Ryuichi Sakamoto (the frankly incredible ‘Wongga Dance Song’). Released July 8, 2022.

04. Various Artists - "America Dream Reserve"  Compiled by Charles Bals & Henry Jones (Smiling C)

Welcome to the America Dream Reserve, home to husband & wife duos, pub legends, one-man bands, preachers’ sons, and country-lounge entertainers…

America Dream Reserve is a place for kindred souls. An hour-long journey into the world of lo-fi drum computer folk, disco-pop-lounge, haunting ballads, obscure vanity pressings, and synthesized string ensembles. A collaborative compilation between Charles Bals, creator of the inimitable Club Meduse, and Smiling C.

This edition of ADR is housed in a die-cut leather structure gatefold sleeve, and comes with eight double-sided interchangeable loose cards with exclusive artist photos on them that can display through the oval cut out. Embossed ADR logo. Includes an insert about the project. Limited run. Design by Asger Behncke Jacobsen & Rudy Guedj. Released October 7, 2022.

05. Various Artists -  Aquapelago: an Oceans Anthology (Discrepant)

An anthology introducing the first of a series of albums based on the concept of Aquapelago. "This compilation album takes the concept of the aquapelago into new depths and breaches it on fresh shores. The tracks are soaked with the aquatic. Bassy sonorities boom as if heard deep underwater. Bubbly textures breach the surface, water drips and seabirds soar high above waves. Sugai Kei samples fragments of text concerning the Ningen, a fantastic humanoid/whale that reflects the ‘aquapelagic imaginary’ of modern Japan and its preoccupation with industrial whaling. Andrew Pekler continues the orientation of his Phantom Islands project - a sonic atlas of imaginary places - with a soundscape as if heard by a swimmer just offshore, mixing sounds of the island and the sea together. Mike Cooper’s sonic reflection on Hong Kong’s Lamma Island is similar, combining the island’s ubiquitous barking dogs with the slurp of waves on rocky shores, conjuring a languorous time before Chinese crackdowns on the territory.

Taking another track, the Dead Mauriacs gleefully water-ski through a collage of tropical island exoticisms, replete with glitchy orientalism, while Babau combines skittering idiophone melodies with resonant glissandi. Vica Pacheco moves between dense and airy sounds, as if crossing between surf lines and the space above. Yannick Dauby’s track is also imbued with in-betweenness, evoking ambient sounds heard through a ship’s hull. Sculpture’s ‘Froth Surfer’ realizes Francesco its title, with bubbling sounds and rhythms that evoke Hawaiian surfing filtered through layers of time and distance. Reminding us of the shore necessary for aquapelagic spaces, Francesco Cavaliere and Tomoko Sauvage’s composition anchors the album, centered around shaken rhythms and resonant ringing tones and drones.

Taken together, the album sketches the contours of the aquapelago as it might be imagined and conjured in sound – an endless oceanic realm that laps onto beaches and crashes against cliffs. The performers navigate this space under alternately starry and cloudy skies, orientating themselves with sounds, textures, and sonic samples of their terrestrial homes while we float with them." - Philip Hayward. Artwork by Evan Crankshaw. released September 30, 2022, on Discrepant.

06. Various Artists - THE SPLIXXXTAPE (Island House Recordings)

 “The Splixxxtape tradition is the idea of a compilation tape reflecting the international community of like-minded artists/friends in the world of abstract/experimental underground music that is a unique by-product of being online. The concept was originated by New Zealander Ben Telfer and the first one was released on his label Hypnic Jerk (now known as EEG Recordings). It featured acts such as Tarotplane, ragenap, and Prana Crafter and sold out almost immediately. Now Tim McManus’ Island House Recordings out of Roosevelt Island, NYC brings us a second variation on the theme. This time around we are treated to musical visions from Gregg Skloff, Hyacinth., Modern Folk Trio Band, Andrew Weathers, German Army, and an improvised collaboration between Prana Crafter’s Will Sol, Andy Craze, and Eiderdown Records proprietor Adam Svenson. A worthy link in a special chain to be sure. Here’s to music and the community that it fosters, against all odds. Thank you, friends!” ,-J. Moss. Cover art by Gretchen Korsmo. released December 9, 2022, on Island House Recordings.

07. Various Artists - I Had the Craziest Dream: Modern Jazz and Hard​-​Bop in Post War London, Vol. 1 (Death Is Not The End)

A survey of the modern jazz & hard-bop scenes that emerged in the new cultural melting pot of post-war London, with recordings from the end of the 1940s through to the early 1960s.

Featuring Post-War representations from players whose roots lay in the East End's Jewish community, such as Ronnie Scott, Vic Ash & Harry Klein, alongside a wealth of talent of Caribbean and African descent playing and recording in post-war London during this period, incl. Dizzy Reece, Wilton Gaynair, Joe Harriott, Shake Keane & Ginger Johnson.

Made in partnership with the Barbican to coincide with the exhibition Postwar Modern: New Art in Britain 1945-1965. A delightful take on the British jazz scene in the post-war period.  Huge Tip! Released March 25, 2022. 

08. Various Artists - Musique des Alli​é​s (incoming call)

The genesis of this compilation comes from a general desire to collaborate, and the sum of friendships and meetings, in real life or not. Featuring composers from Brussels, Los Angeles, Braga, Nagoya, St-Jean de Luz, and of course, Limoges.

The compilation distills an ample, bright, and digital-sounding music throughout. Separated in two parts, one focused on ambient/new-age sounds, and the other on atmospheric and dub-ish textures, which, when put together, form a cohesive whole.

"When Victor, my roommate at the time, told me he wanted to make a compilation called "Musique des Alliés", named after our street, la Rue des Alliés, I was immediately psyched b,y the idea of a shared effort by like minded-people scattered around the world; oblivious allies and total strangers (mostly). I find the final result surprisingly coherent despite including very different genres, united solely by Victor's sensitivity in his curation.

I like to imagine every musician of this compilation living somewhere in Rue des Alliés, and this tape as a permanently ongoing concert happening at our house, with the door left open for any curious to come and check it out, like you reader, who ended up on this bandcamp page." Artwork by Dieter Durinck. released October 24, 2022.

09. Various Artists - S​í​ntesis Moderna: An Alternative Vision Of Argentinean Music (1980​-​1990) (Soundway Records)

Soundway's telescope to forgotten and lesser-known musical realms extends to Argentina on a brand new, triple vinyl compilation, Síntesis Moderna: An Alternative Vision Of Argentinian Music 1980-1990.

A digital rewilding of computer and synth-powered music, dripping with an impressive variety of influence, from Italo disco, electro-funk, post-punk, tango, ambiance, jazz-fusion, Afro-folk and techno-pop, the record is a cultural document of a musical decade transformed after the lifting of restrictions of English language music post-Malvinas War (Falklands), and the end of Argentina's military dictatorship.

Síntesis Moderna: An Alternative Vision Of Argentinian Music 1980-1990 is set for release on Soundway Records this October 21st. Painstakingly crafted by record collectors, DJs, and producers Ric Piccolo and Ariel Harari and conceived over 5 years ago, the duo have selected an eccentric selection, some avant-garde cult obscurities, long-lost B sides, and experimental versions of once-famous tracks from an array of artists, some of whom disappeared as quickly as they appeared whilst others by household names in Argentina. Ric and Ariel also weigh in with two edits, subtle rewirings, geared towards the dance floor, and a compliment to their careful curation. Released October 21, 2022. Highly Recommended!