Some of the greatest New Beat, Industrial/EBM and loner synth music you’ve never heard compiled across two separate vinyl collections from unsung pioneer Dirk Desaever’s amazing archive; painstakingly restored and released for the first time ever by Geneva’s smart Musique Pour La Danse label.
The first LP, Collected 1984-1989 (Long Play) features 16 previously unreleased/unheard cuts (save for one track off a rare 7”), a stunning haul of mid-late ‘80s Belgian music riddled with a uniquely moving, dark, sleazy and brooding character that we can’t get enough of, ranging from beautiful bedsit synth dreams and sex dungeon-ready etudes worthy of Coil B-sides, thru to melancholic EBM and medieval proto-grime/techno.
Opening with the beatless, baroque synth study ‘Orchestra 15’, the set oscillates in and out of the shadows from the wickedly resolving drum patterns to a creepily daft but brilliant ‘Medieval’ set dance sounding like Wiley gone pagan, thru to pulpy midnight synth cues such as ‘Dzjingle 9’ and the drugged-up robot swagger of ‘Ein Spielzeug’ and ‘Orchestra 10’. But, if we’re pushed for favourites, it’s the more romantic/dramatic arrangements that really get us here, namely the beautifully weightless ambient-pop soul of ‘The Same, Same Story’, and when he appears to channel Lewis on ‘And Suddenly’, and no doubt the salty-sweet dance-pop jangle of ‘You Laugh With Every Little Joke’ which ends the set like an expertly picked closing credits theme.
The second LP, Collected 1984-1989 (Extended Play) focusses on the dark, minimalist, and cinematic trax issued under Dirk’s coveted White House White alias. Omitting a couple of obvious classics, the selection includes all three cuts from 1988’s ‘Disdain’ 12” – the Front 242-styled title cut, his cantering ace ‘Oddball Harry’ and the New Beat thriller ‘The House of My Master Holds Many Rooms’ – before digging deep into the treasure trove of his archive with the sci-fi-sampling nugget ‘Wolves & Owls’, before that gurning New Beat flavour comes strong in the sleazy glam of ’St. Moritz, Mallorca and Cannes’ and ‘Put My Fingers’.
Very simply, if you’re into outsider synth music, lo-fi dance trax, the dankest EBM and proto-techno oddities, you will obsess over these two LP’s, for us already up there among the most crucial reissues of the last couple of years, revealing a hitherto unheard depth and breadth to this most elusive producer.
Musique Pour La Danse will release Collected 1984 – 1989 on March 8, 2019
Remastered reissue of the ‘Noises’-compilation, originally released on Kamikaze, the very short-lived label started and ended by Marc Moulin in November 1977.
Noises is a rather uncommon collection of songs that ranges from pieces with stunning vocal harmonies of an early Ilona Chale (who later also would be a member of the band Cos) and her brother Eric, an hypnotic chant where Marc Moulin blends a speech of Belgian King Boudewijn I with reel to reel tape techniques to a trance anthem to a spoken poem transformed into an ambient composition.
Featured in Vinyl Factory‘s 10 new reissues to look out for in early 2019.
Cortizona will release Noises on February 15, 2019
The Detroit techno artist will kick off Str Mrkd (pronounced “Star Marked”), named after his 2014 track, with an EP of his own by the same title. The 12-inch feature four truly interstellar techno cuts like only he can muster, which the label describes as “new thinking for a new time.”
Revisit Jeff Mill’s interview & guestmix on NTS Radio.
Sublabel of the Belgian record reissue label Radio Martiko dedicated to the renowned Egyptian singer Om Kalsoum (1904-1975) who was active from the 1920s to the 1970s. The name “Souma Records” is called after Oum Kalthoum’s nickname “Souma” in her native Egypt.
A Night With Om Kalsoum
Alf Leila Wa Leila, or “1001 Nights”, is the first Om Kalsoum song I fell in love with. How apt is the song’s title? That first night was mostly about the music. I was too young to appreciate the words and at that time most of the meaning of the song passed me by. And yet I could listen to the track endlessly and enjoy the voice eternally. As the nights went by, a thousand and one, I started to understand what Om Kalsoum was singing about with those nocturnal lyrics. The melodies of her voice and the beauty of the words were a treat for my soul. In Om Kalsoum’s songs the text, the music and the performance itself form a unity, as if created by a single artist. I still remember the night when I closed my eyes and listened to the ‘star of the orient’ as she sang: Leilat hob helwa… bi alf leila waleila : A sweet night of love is equal to a thousand and one nights” and I knew that I was in love with Om Kalsoum.
As time went on, I would discover the many ways in which Om Kalsoum’s songs are special. At first, I enjoyed the mix of Arabic melodies played with western instruments – the guitar, the accordion and the electric organ. Once I knew the songs a little better, the words came more into the foreground, first in colloquial, then in classical Arabic. I started to pay attention to what they meant and how they rhymed. Some of the words of Om Kalsoum’s songs have become words of wisdom, like proverbs among her Arabic-speaking fans. One example is, el hob keda, “love is like that”, the equivalent of the french “c’est la vie”. Another has no equivalent French or English expression, but the meaning is easy to understand, “if you want us to be as we were in the past, ask the past to come back”.
At last, I discovered the genius of Om Kalsoum’s voice: so powerful, so expressive, so full of passion. I learnt to listen not only to how she pronounced each word, but also to how she spoke each letter. When her fans demanded an encore, sure she sang the same verses back again, but never the same way twice. The connoisseurs of Om Kalsoum’s art don’t only know her songs by heart, they have strong opinions about different versions of the same songs, sung on different occasions, or in different countries. For me, this is a testimony to her passion, and to her interaction with her audience. Om Kalsoum was never fond of singing in a studio.
But Om Kalsoum’s genius wasn’t only a result of her incomparable talent. It was also a result of hard work and smart decisions. She surrounded herself with some of the best composers in Egypt at the time, who were more than willing to compose even one song for her, ensuring their place in Arabic music history. Egyptian composers of those days fall into 2 groups: those who composed songs for el set (literally “the lady”, but probably “diva” is a better translation) and those who didn’t accompany her.
It was first Zakaria Ahmed, El Asabgi, and the great El Sonbati in the 40s, 50s and early 60s, who composed her most famous songs. In 1965, so the story goes, a high level political ”request” was made to have Egypt’s most famous composer at the time Abdel Wahab, compose a song for Om Kalsoum in what became known as the “cloud” meeting. This was the beginning of a new phase in Om Kalsoum’s songs in which composers such as Mohamed Abdel Wahab & Baligh Hamdi, amongst others, began to blend Western influences into traditional Arabic music, bringing new colours to Arabic modern music. These modern songs brought yet another generation into the community of Om Kalsoum fans which already numbered in the millions.
Lyrics that “the Lady” sung were written by gifted minds and souls such as Ibrahim Nagi, Bayram al-Tunsi and Ahmed Rami, to mention just three. In a very beautiful Arabic idiom, the joys and pains and the thousands of shades that cross the paths of love are graciously evoked. Om Kalsoum brought both modern and classical poetry to life. Some of her texts dated back hundreds of years and likely would never have reached such a wide audience if they hadn’t been heard through “Souma’s” voice.
Om Kalsoum had memorized the Qur’an – considered the reference on Arabic language – at a very young age. Later, this helped her to appreciate classical Arabic songs and to bring her own distinct colour to them. The combination of these poets, composers and Om Kalsoum helped establish what would later be dubbed the aghany el-zaman el–gamil, the songs of the golden age – songs that still happen to be shared in the Middle East and throughout the Arab speaking world. Om Kalsoum continuously explored new vistas in poetry and music. In her own words, “If a person feels she’s at the top and that she has achieved everything she wants, then that means death. It means the end.” Perhaps, that’s why Om Kalsoum’s voice and her music live on today.
It’s hard to imagine the breadth of Om Kalsoum’s reach. The entire Arabic speaking world was fascinated by her, from North Africa to the Arab Gulf, where she performed various memorable concerts with unforgettable moments and long standing ovations, not to mention audience members trying to get on stage to kiss her feet! The first Thursday night of every month the streets of Arab countries were empty, except for the popular cafes where people gathered to listen to her monthly concert. It is often said that Om Kalsoum succeeded in unifying all Arabs in a way that no political leader managed to do, with her rich and varied repertoire of love, patriotic, and religious songs.
The greatest Egyptian composer of all time, Sayed Darwish, listened to Om Kalsoum as a young girl at the beginning of her career, singing one of his songs. He remarked, “this girl will become someone one day…her voice is beautiful and performance excellent, but that’s not what makes me admire her: she doesn’t sing the music, she lives it. There’s something in the way she sings, I don’t know what it is, or how to express it… Hearing her sing my songs, I relive the same moments that inspired me to compose them.”
A sweet night of love is the equivalent of a thousand and one nights … and so is a night with Om Kalsoum. – Nadim Mahmoud, Geneva, July 2018
Souma Records will release Alf Leila We Leila and El Hob Kollo on December 21st, 2018
BEST COMPILATION: JAMES ZABIELA “BALANCE 029” [BALANCE MUSIC]
To say James Zabiela went in deep on his ‘Balance 29’ double- mix album is a bit of an understatement. From initial wishlist playlists of over 2000 potential tracks, he whittled it down to the final 58-track odyssey by months and months of experimenting, editing, fusing and sculpting…
His diligence is more than evident across these winning mixes. Even for a DJ with Zabiela’s reputation, ‘Balance 29’ is a serious piece of work — both musically and technically. Running the atmospheric gamut from gentle electronica to thundering techno, attention is paid to the very last detail, to the point almost every track is a mix in itself, comprising elements of three or four tunes. For added detail you can break the mixes down yourself in the album artwork mix schematic James provided with the album… A wry nod to Sasha & Digweed’s seminal ‘Northern Exposure’ mixes that inspired James as a teenager 20 years ago. Refreshingly, even after over 15 years of professional DJing, his music fan side is still very much in full effect…
“What I found exciting about the mix when it was released was that, as a fan of each and every artist who appeared on the mix, it put me in direct contact with them,” James says. “Some had perhaps heard of me as a DJ but weren’t really aware just how much I admired their work. That was ace for me to connect with them.”
The connections go both ways; James explains how fans got in touch online and in clubs and asked about specific details and mixes he’d crafted. “I love that some people got as nerdy about listening to it as I did putting it together,” James grins. “I genuinely was surprised how some people connected with it. It’s more than I could’ve hoped for.”
His deep ethic and attention to detail paid off: to say that James Zabiela’s ‘Balance 29’ mix is a reminder that professional mix albums still have serious validity in today’s game is a bit of an understatement. – DJ Mag
N.E.W.S. distribution is proud to welcome Berlin’s premier minimal techno label Klockworks run by Ben Klock.
Active in dance music for almost 20 years, Ben Klock resides in the higher echelons of techno after becoming a Berghain resident in 2005. An incredible producer and even better DJ, Klock’s skills are complimented further by his acute ability to read crowds and work a room – which has led to him compiling the fabric 66 compilation in 2012, and reigning supreme as the winner of BBC Radio 1’s Essential Mix of the Year award in 2015.
Alongside his domination of the DJ and festival circuit, Ben Klock has spent the last decade running his own imprint, the aptly named Klockworks label. Initially a playground for his own productions, he was inspired to start nurturing emerging techno talent when coming across the then unreleased work of DSV1. The rest, they say, is history – with Ben’s label going from strength to strength to boast a back catalogue of work from Sterac, Etapp Kyle, Trevino, The Advent, ROD, and Troy.
Ben Klock invite Greek-grown, Moscow-based artist Stef Mendesidis for Klockworks 23 coming out next month.
