STEFAN WESOLOWSKI - 'SONG OF THE NIGHT MISTS'

Formats

• UOH17 - LP (COLOURED)

  5061041820830

• UOH17CD - CD

  5061041820847

Details

The writer Max Sebald often pondered over the nature of human memory, specifically, how our thoughts and desires - and their results - overlap and mutate over time. In A Place in the Country, he writes of the significance of what see as “similarities, overlaps and coincidences”. Are they the “delusions” of the self and senses, or manifestations of “an order underlying the chaos of human relationships, [...] which lies beyond our comprehension”? Song of the Night Mists, the new album by post-classical composer Stefan Wesołowski, often feels it draws on Sebald’s premise. On a simpler plane, the one where the market dictates the neatly ordered information we consume, Song of the Night Mists can be described thus: recorded in the main by Stefan Wesołowski in Gdańsk, both in his studio and in Saint Nicholas' Basilica, the album incorporates acoustic instruments - piano, violin, double bass - and classic synthesizers such as the Roland Jupiter-8, the Soviet Polivoks. A Roland Space Echo RE-150 tape delay was also pressed into service as an instrument. We also hear the basillica’s organ and field recordings from the Tatra Mountains. Other musicians were Maja Miro, who played the flute parts on ‘Glacial Troughs’ and brother Piotr Wesołowski, who played the organ on ‘Wilhelm Tombeau’. Sound engineer was Marcin Nenko, who was also on hand to record the basilica organ parts. The album was mixed in New York by Al Carlson (Oneohtrix Point Never, Jessica Pratt, Zola Jesus, Lady Gaga, and Liturgy) and Rafael Anton Irisarri handled the mastering. Ostensibly, Song of the Night Mists is the last in a trilogy, following on from albums Liebestod (2013) and Rite of the End (2017). All three deal with existential matters such as love, death, decay and “an ultimate end”; apocalyptic and Promethean in spirit, and betraying very human conceits. The Sebaldian nature of the new record starts to make itself felt when Wesołowski talks of how he used sampling. One element is unexpected, that of sampling himself: “I go back to dozens of my own unused sketches and recordings, treating them as raw material to cut, slow down, reverse, and transform in every possible way.” Memory as sound, to be reemployed by the listener through their own imaginings. Another set of samples made by Wesołowski plays another role. These are field recordings, originally created for an audio illustration of the formation of the Tatra Mountains, and used in a film by sound designer Michał Fojcik. Wesołowski: “You can hear cracking ice, streams, footsteps in the snow and the wind, and a real avalanche, recorded from the inside.” The “Tatra connection” on the album is also found in samples referencing composer Karol Szymanowski. The album’s title alludes to a poem about the mountains by Polish poet, Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer. Wesołowski’s Tatra recordings are “about a world without humans - about the fact that the world existed, was beautiful, and had meaning long before people arrived, and for the vast majority of its history, it was a place without us.” Wesołowski, using one iteration of the natural world, plays out in sound Sebald’s idea of another order, underlying the chaos of human relationships lying beyond human comprehension. These feelings play themselves out on the five album tracks. Sonorous and rich, they illustrate tectonic shifts we have no control over. Wesołowski hints that the overall sound is a “meditation on the metaphysics of the non-human set against the spirituality that human presence has brought into it.” In that light, the opening number, ‘Core’, with its slow build, and crackling and straining sound effects, create an effect of the earth groaning into life in a creation myth. Once the piano part raps out a simple melody and modulated tonguing trumpet samples add to the overall atmosphere, the listener can certainly find a cue in the “spiritual”, or “human” side of the story. Human versus nature: from the strains and harmonic muscle stretches of the second number, ‘Glacial Troughs’, through to the powerful and filmic ‘Stalagmite’ and heart-on-sleeve romance expressed in closer, ‘Wilhelm Tombeau’, we listeners are cast as Friedrich’s wanderer, looking out over a landscape that will appear only if we engage with it. Formations of melody appear incrementally, almost appearing by chance - like hidden footings in the rock shelves to give us something to grasp onto. Rhythms are used sparsely: the prolonged percussive taps on ‘Glacial Troughs’ are an anomaly and maybe there to give pace to the album to come; essentially to keep the listener strapped in. Elsewhere, percussion is used as an aid to mood, the two thudding, timpani-style passages on ‘Peak’ there to offset the short, beautiful, kosmische passage that splits them. Elements of the borderline religious spirit that drove German electronic music in the late 1960s and 1970s also find a place on Song of the Night Mists. The swells and recessions of the organ find their emotional climax on ‘Wilhelm Tombeau’, a track which summons up echoes of the “mountain magic” vistas created by Popol Vuh or Tangerine Dream, especially with the slightly atonal wobble of the Mellotron that counters it. This is a dramatic album, but it does feel a strangely short, or curtailed listen on ending, evoking the feeling one gets when waking from a dream, and, for all its incipient grandeur, a track like ‘Stalagmite’, for instance, ends on a minor note. Wesołowski admits that Song of the Night Mists is born of the all too human process of temptation, doubt and recalibration - Sebaldian overlaps and coincidences forming something that must live another life, away from its creator. In Wesołowski’s words, the album is “a newborn foal must stand up and walk right after birth.” Now it is yours to ponder.

Tracks

1. CORE 2. GLACIAL TROUGHS 3. PEAK 4. STALAGMITE 5. WILHELM TOMBEAU

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OOG BOGO - 'COWGIRLS'

Formats

• ITR399 - LP

  657628453918

Details

Los Angeles band Oog Bogo (featuring former Meatbodie Kevin Boog) have released an EP and an LP for Ty Segall’s God? label - now their second LP arrives via In The Red. “Cowgirls” goes off-road, so buckle up, because with songwriter Kevin Boog & engineer Eric Bauer behind the wheel of John Dwyer and Bauer’s studio “Discount Mirrors” - anything can happen. In March of 2024, John Hodge stomped the four-to-the-floor on drums and percussion, as Boog swung back and forth between mutated melodies and total auditory annihilation, vocally and instrumentally. Together, the two swerved hazardously through several roads of smoldering sonic debris… But where does this road lead now? Veering a sharp left turn off the course of Oog Bogo’s previous genres? Sure. A new, unmatched lineup consisting of Gabe Flores (on lead guitar/ backing vocals), Julian Betts (bass guitar) and Grant Snyder (drums)? Why we’re glad you asked! Yes. Accelerating forward, Oog Bogo’s Wipers reject the sorrows of darkened skies that hover over Los Angeles. Monolithic guitar tones grind like freight Trux, flanking you in stereoscopic bliss, as bass metronomically demands your movement alongside their pounding percussive speedometer. Oog Bogo’s harmonies of the lost highways weave you through LA, and siren to you an all-but-haunting message: that rock and roll is ALIVE… and now, with Oog Bogo’s second LP “Cowgirls” on In The Red Records, you’re in the front seat of their Chrome choir. Their momentum has only just begun. So don’t get the blues. Giddy-up.

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MISTER - 'LOVER'S HOLIDAY / I WANNA THANK YOU'

Formats

• PBT-7.002 - 7"

  710473186261

Details

INSTOCK A true holy grail of 80s boogie, MISTER’s ultra-rare 1983 Starville Records release is finally back on wax! For decades, original copies of this sought-after 12” have traded hands for €800–€1000, making it one of the most elusive and prized records in the scene. Now, collectors and DJs can finally own this legendary release in its full glory. At the heart of this reissue is “I Wanna Thank You”—a boogie-funk masterpiece with silky-smooth vocals, deep synth arrangements, and that irresistible mid-tempo groove that defines the genre’s best moments. An essential weapon in the arsenal of top DJs and collectors worldwide, its hypnotic bassline and crisp production have kept it on heavy rotation for those in the know. On the flip, “Lover’s Holiday” delivers a lush, soulful ride, blending warm harmonies with sophisticated instrumentation—proving why Starville Records remains one of the most revered independent funk labels of its time. Now officially reissued for the first time, this is a rare chance to own a cornerstone of boogie history. Strictly limited—don’t miss it!

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C.C.C.C. - 'PHANTASMAGORIA'

Formats

• ARTEFAKT06 - LP

  710473186285

Details

INSTOCK Phantasmagoria is a landmark release from Japan’s legendary noise collective C.C.C.C. Originally unleashed in the early '90s, this album represents the group’s masterful balance between overwhelming sonic force and hypnotic, psychedelic intensity. Led by Hiroshi Hasegawa and fortified by the presence of Mayuko Hino, C.C.C.C. blended the raw power of Japanese harsh noise with elements of cosmic electronic music, creating a sound that resonates with the crushing density of Merzbow, the ecstatic distortion of Hijokaidan, and the hypnotic feedback worship of The New Blockaders. Phantasmagoria stands as a crucial document of Japanese noise music’s golden era, where extreme frequencies met transcendent states of mind. This perfectly remastered reissue of the original cassette finally brings this essential work back to life.

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PAUL SCHUTZE - 'DEUS EX MACHINA - THE SOUNDTRACK'

Formats

• AKT21 - 2xLPs

  710473185868

Details

INSTOCK Another one of the very best ever Tribal Ambient Dub albums, originally released on the famous Australian Extreme label. This 59 minute piece was conceived as part of a total environment for the exhibition Deus Ex Machina. The project as a whole seeks to define and articulate the emotional, cultural and aesthetic manifestations of man's uneasy relationship with technology. The music takes the form of a film score complete with stylized dialogue and actions. During the 59 minutes four basic layers repeat in various configurations. The effect is to provide a template of narrative in which the pieces exhibited may become protagonists, situated in hypothetical scenarios which illustrate the contentions of Deus Ex Machina and the transmission of information. Review: "Paul Schütze’s debut album from 1989 sets his stall out from the start; with a cyber update on Jon Hassell’s notion of ‘Fourth World Music”. Schütze’s music always sounds like it could be an alternative soundtrack to ‘Blade Runner’ (be aware fellow purists, I did state “alternative”), and this album is probably the perfect candidate if in some other dimension the Vangelis OST was no longer deemed satisfactory (such a dimension surely cannot exist). The listener feels like they’re walking through the rain soaked, neon-lit streets of a future LA with Deckard." - Jay Harper

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VARIOUS - 'STRAIGHT OUTTA MACOLA RECORDS: VOL 1'

Formats

• PBT-LP.004 - LP

  710473186247

Details

Macola Records was a powerhouse of 80s independent groove music, shaping the evolution of funk, electro, boogie, and modern soul with an undeniable street-edge. Now, for the first time, the label’s most sought-after gems are gathered in one essential LP—an electrifying ride through the raw and futuristic sounds that defined an era. A major highlight is Bruce Grant’s "Enough Is Enough" (1987), a deep boogie-funk cut written and produced by Ray Miles & Felton Pilate—two legendary members of Con Funk Shun. Their signature touch delivers a track dripping with soulful synths, crisp drum programming, and an irresistible bass groove. Beyond that, this compilation dives deep into the Macola vaults, featuring in-demand tracks from CATCH, SESIL & LOUJON, C.C. & CO, WORLD ENTITY, and an arsenal of killer instrumentals that showcase the label’s genre-blurring innovation. More than just a collection, Best of Macola is a crucial document of one of the most influential labels in independent funk history—a must-have for DJs, collectors, and groove aficionados alike. Strictly limited—don’t miss this essential piece of 80s music history!

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