London Records – 422-828-927-2 456.42MB FLAC
Thursday, May 7, 2026
Dur-Dur Band - 2013 - Volume 5
Awesome Tapes From Africa – ATFA004
From the late 1960s until the early 1990s, a vibrant music scene in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu was teeming with pop and folk musicians exploring the boundaries of regional sensibilities. With influences spanning several genres of Somali traditional music, often meshed with Western pop, jazz and Middle-Eastern elements, a swirling diversity of sounds were being created, consumed, supported and encouraged.
Dur-Dur Band emerged during a time when Somalia’s distinctive contribution to the creative culture in the Horn of Africa was visible and abundant. Thousands of recordings made at the Somali National Theatre, Radio Mogadishu and other studios, were complemented by the nightclubs at Hotel Juba, Jazeera Hotel and Hotel al-Curuuba, creating a flourishing music scene.
Bands like Dur-Dur, Iftin, Shareero, on one hand, were inspired by everyone from Michael Jackson and Phil Collins to Bob Marley and Santana, as well as James Brown and American soul music. Equally active were groups performing regional folk musics and promoting the traditional side of Somali music. These groups helped develop a continuity with historical musical practices and oral literature that persist in popularity to this day. Seminal outfits like Waaberi and Horseed, in addition to a litany of celebrated qaraami musicians, generated a legacy of masterworks. These seasoned musicians’ efforts rippled through the music scene and spread to countries beyond as many artists began to emigrate when the country destabilized.
This recording, which was remastered from a cassette copy source, is a document of Dur-Dur Band after establishing itself as one of the most popular bands in Mogadishu. The challenge of locating a complete long-player from this era is evidenced by the fidelity of this recording. However, the complex, soulful music penetrates the hiss.
By 1987 Dur-Dur Band's line-up featured singers Sahra Abukar Dawo, Abdinur Adan Daljir, Mohamed Ahmed Qomal and Abdukadir Mayow Buunis, backed by Abukar Dahir Qasim (guitar), Yusuf Abdi Haji Aleevi (guitar), Ali Dhere (trumpet), Muse Mohamed Araci (saxophone), Abdul Dhegey (saxophone), Eise Dahir Qasim (keyboard), Mohamed Ali Mohamed (bass), Adan Mohamed Ali Handal (drums), Ooyaaye Eise and Ali Bisha (congas) and Mohamed Karma, Dahir Yaree and Murjaan Ramandan (backing vocals). Dur-Dur Band managed to release almost a dozen recordings before emigrating to Ethiopia, Djibouti and America.
Dur-Dur Band was considered a “private band,” not beholden to government pressure to sing about political topics. They practiced a love- and culture-oriented lyricism. Government-sponsored bands like those of the military and the police forces, as well as many of the well-known folk musicians, made songs that were chiefly political or patriotic in nature.
In a country that has been disrupted by civil war, heated clan divisions and security concerns, music and the arts has suffered from stagnation in recent years. Many of the best-known musicians left the country. Music became nearly outlawed in Mogadishu in 2010. Incidentally, more than ten years after Volume 5 (1987) was recorded at Radio Mogadishu, the state-run broadcaster was the only station in Somalia to resist the ban on music briefly enacted by Al-Shabab.
Dur-Dur Band is a powerful and illustrative lens through which to appreciate a facet of the incredible sounds in Somalia before the country's stability took a turn. But Somali music of all kinds continues to thrive thanks in part to the diaspora living in cities worldwide. An extensive network of news, music and video websites, along with dozens of voluminous YouTube channels, makes clear an exciting relentlessness among artists. Reports of musicians returning to Mogadishu from years abroad bodes well for the immediate future of music and expression in Somalia.
Song Notes:
1. Dur-Dur Band Introduction--Singer Abdinur Daljir announces the band members’ names over an excerpt of a track from a previous album.
2. Hayeelin—“Don't Do It.” The title refers to a person who is in love. He is asking the audience for advice about his love situation. He is so madly in love that he even thinks of committing suicide. One of the verses says, “Staying awake is helpful to this soul because even telling myself it will be all right doesn’t help me fall asleep.” The background singers respond with, “Hayeelin sidaa hayeelin ilaah baa kuu sahlii ee,” meaning, “Don’t do it, don’t. God will make it easier for you!”
3. Halelo—“The goal has been reached.” This song discusses a love made complete. The man is saying, “We have reached our destination,” we have reached what we wanted out of this love so enjoy it, you deserve it. The girl responds with, “Yes, indeed we have, and we did it together!”
4. Fagfagley—This song discusses family, the household and the problems they face. The title refers to a lady who talks or gossips a lot. The woman is called fagfagley because her husband has another wife but she wants more than what she is supposed to traditionally get; she wants more than what the other wife is getting. Or she demands things the other wife does not even receive. The guy also calls her “fagfagley” because she speaks constantly and her words have no limit whatsoever. She says whatever comes to her mind to her husband.
5. Ilawad Cashaqa—“Hold on to this love with me.” This song discusses the beginning of a relationship between a boy and a girl. The singer is reflecting on the time that he and his love first met. “I used to heal my heart with questions and no responses, you didn’t help me or call on me and you didn’t invite me into your heart.” “Wafayo,” he sings, “I'm coming out making it clear just once, help me with this love. Let’s settle this once and for all!”
6. Garsore Waa Ilaah—“God is the judge, only God judges fair.” This song discusses a couple and the consequences of love. In thinking about her decision to be in love, the girl says, “I'm up for the journey but are you going to help me with this decision?” She is up for the journey but asks the guy for help along the way. She wonders how many people have made plans to live together and love one another but have never reached their goal and end up separated.
7. Aada Fududey Iga Ahow—This song discusses a guy who has remarried after having divorced the mother of his children. His ex-wife returns to him saying she wants to get back together and she apologizes. He thinks about it and says to his new wife, “I love my kids and I have been through so much with them and my family so, please, I can't leave them and be with you any more so please go.”
8. Tajir Waa Ilaah—“God is perfect, God is complete.” This song is talking about how humans are powerless, i.e. one day you have something, the next day you have nothing. If you are wealthy today, don't look down on the less fortunate. Additionally, one should feel sympathetic to women and be nice to them. The guy in the song feels that without obstacles, every aspect of love can be attained. Decisions produce the best outcomes if they are made together.
9. Dholey—Dholey is a girl’s name. In the song, the guy says, “You have stolen my heart and made me fall in love and now I am in pain. Dholey, without you the ground makes me dizzy. I hear voices from the sky, and I wouldn't trade you for the world.” He says, “Look at how we share the same birthplace and have all these other things in common. But you have left me like this, in love and in pain. You gave me false promises and left me out in the cold without warning.”
10. Amiina Awdaay—The title means “Where is Amina?” (Amina is a girl’s name.)
The singer is looking for her and talking about his feelings toward this girl. He asks, “Where is Amina? I couldn't find her. I believe in her and I didn't forget my promise to her. I would be happy to marry her!”
11. Dooyo—Dooyo is a type of traditional Somali dance. The lady is singing, “I am warning you guys, I hear drums playing for me and it’s healing me and I won't resist. It’s my medicine. Dooyo has taken me over and I won’t stop dancing!”
Position Normal - 2025 - Modern and Unique 2
Self-released – none
Return of a legend!
Instruments played here:. Piano (a real one and a software one). Guitars: Aria Pro 2, Yamaha acoustic, electric Italia Maranello, Double Bass, Congas, Bongos, Tambourine (wooden), Shakers (one egg shaped, the others are all made to look like fruit and vegetables). And synths.
2 samples though. One of a dog barking twice and a drum and bass sample from a 90's D&B Sample CD on the last hidden secret bonus track Techno Non-Stop (Party Party Drugs).
This whole album spans from the late 80's to now.
Recorded onto VHS.
credits
released February 5, 2025
published February 5, 2025
Music: Chris Bailiff
Lyrics: John Cushway
Humdrum - 2024 - Every Heaven
Slumberland Records – SLR-284
When the world — and his previous band Star Tropics — crumbled in the early days of the pandemic, Chicago's Loren Vanderbilt began rebuilding himself through song. Daydreaming to the chime of IRS-era R.E.M., Felt, The Railway Children, New Order, and 90's staples like Ride, Pale Saints and Slowdive, he fell backwards in time through records as a means of escape. To break away from the present and embrace the nostalgia of musical eras gone by, Loren formed Humdrum — a band built around his favorite elements of dream-pop, indiepop, shoegaze, and new wave.
___________________________
On his debut album, "Every Heaven," Loren establishes himself as a talented songwriter and master of melody across 10 tracks brimming with jangly guitars and lovelorn vocals—all punctuated by the pulse of a driving beat. A deeper listen reveals a juxtaposition between the album's carefree melodies, and its sobering truths about the life, loss, and the questions of being a queer 30-something artist. With "Every Heaven" Humdrum has presented 10 songs that speak to life's dynamic moments. And they can't wait for you to hear them.
Angel Olsen - 2024 - Cosmic Waves Volume 1
Jagjaguwar, Inc. – none
A few years ago, Angel Olsen quietly formed somethingscosmic, a new imprint and a home for Olsen to have “the flexibility to release when and how I want to with the help from my longtime partners at Jagjaguwar.” Somethingscosmic’s second release, ‘Cosmic Waves Volume 1’ is a compilation reimagined as a dialogue; side A features artists chosen by Olsen, with each artist choosing their own song for the collection. Side B is a collection of songs from the same artists, but chosen by Olsen and recorded by her. Each song, unsurprisingly, illuminates a new artist Olsen finds spectacular. Hearing Olsen refract the artists’ songs back to them reveals the depth of Olsen’s imagination, while spotlighting multiple exciting artists at work.
“As someone that emerged into the music scene through a small tape label,” says Olsen, “I’ve wanted to continue the spirit of discovery and of my debut release, ‘Strange Cacti’, while supporting and collaborating with artists and friends whose music I have been moved by. I feel there is something unique and special about covering another artist's song,” she continues. “We all make it our own, or we try to, but I personally always learn something new about the process when I’m engaging someone else’s words and melodies in such a close way. Time and again I find that putting myself into various different styles of songs can lead to new ways of thinking and creating.”
The artists on “Cosmic Waves Volume 1” draw from a sprawling, myriad sounds, eras and inspirations. Poppy Jean Crawford’s magnetic growl and guitar-god heaviness; Coffin Prick’s reckless, psychedelic fuzz; Sarah Grace White’s hypnotic voice and melody; Maxim Ludwig’s expert minimalism; and Camp Saint Helene’s beautiful, big sky folk. “Thank you for listening and supporting this experiment,” Olsen says. “If you like what you hear, please support these artists by buying some of their music, merch, a ticket to their show, or telling your friends about them. It goes a long way. Love, Angel”
Merzbow / Lawrence English = Мерзбоу / Лоуренс Инглиш - 2022 - Eternal Stalker = Вечный Сталкер
Dais Records – DAIS192
On their first official collaboration, Japanese noise pioneer Masami Akita aka Merzbow and Australian sound sculptor Lawrence English present a harrowing, surrealist portrait of nocturnal industrial activity, spawned by field recordings made in a sprawling factory complex seven hours north of English’s home in Brisbane. He characterizes the area as “uneasy and unsettling,” awash in the sickly glow of smelters and refinement machinery, somehow not of this world – a liminal quality vividly captured in Andrei Tarkovsky’s sprawling purgatorial opus, Stalker, to which the title alludes. Akita, too, described early drafts of Eternal Stalker as feeling “like the soundtrack to a dystopian science fiction opera.” A mood of mechanical dread and ruined futures permeates each of the album’s seven potent compositions.
Opener “The Long Dream” sets the stage with steady rain on sheet metal, punctured by thunder and metallic echoes, reverberating to the rafters in a collapsing warehouse. Quickly the tempest rises. “A Gate Of Light” and “Magnetic Traps” both convulse in churning furies of electric demolition and rattling chains, roaring and relentless. “The Visit” and “Black Thicket” operate more at a distance, surveying the topography of steam, rust, and liquid metal from above, their flickers of violence like gunfire swallowed by blankets of darkness. This is noise at its most elemental and unknowable: brooding, bristling, and opaque, stalking forbidden peripheries of chaos and creation.
Discussing Akita’s music, English refers to its “intense substrata that is purely psychedelic; it consumes and confounds.” The seasick swells of friction and fracture subsume the listener, forcing an auditory surrender: “this saturation of the senses can be a euphoria.” Proof comes halfway through “The Golden Sphere,” when the howling mayhem subtly recedes, revealing an eerie siren drone hovering in the void, like the resonance of a dead star galaxies away. Slowly a seething, venomous wall of volume returns, shredding the signal until its frequencies fray, whipping away into the eye of the storm. The combined effect merges obliteration and liberation, rapture and ravagement; it’s the sound of dissolution as resolution, uprooted and unmoored, finally freed from form.
1-800 MIKEY- 2024 - Digital Pet
Erste Theke Tonträger – ETT - 106
We love 1-800-MIKEY the lo-fi bedroom garage punk project of Eora/Sydney musician MICHAEL BARKER, who also plays in the live line-ups of R.M.F.C. and GEE TEE. The latest album Digital Pet is 'for all the cuties', sunny, full of infectious hooks. If you want an album to make you smile and brighten your day—this is it!
Attention all pop aficionados and rock enthusiasts! The wait is over—1-800 Mikey is back with his electrifying new album, Digital Pet, and it's about to blow your mind! Packed with irresistible hooks and infectious melodies, this LP proves that the best pop is still crafted by rockers who know how to deliver a punch. From high-energy anthems to heart-stirring ballads, Digital Pet is a masterclass in the art of crafting pop that rocks.
Dive into a sonic experience where every track is a hit waiting to happen. Whether you’re hitting the road or just chilling at home, Digital Pet promises to be your new favorite soundtrack. Don’t miss out on the album that’s setting the bar high for pop-rock perfection. Get your copy of Digital Pet and discover why 1-800 Mikey is redefining the genre with every beat. Stream it now and let the hooks take over!
Chat Pile - 2022 - God's Country
Flenser Records – FR129
There’s a sick irony to how a country that extols rhetoric of individual freedom, in the same gasp, has no problem commodifying human life as if it were meat to feed the insatiable hunger of capitalism. If this is American nihilism taken to its absolute zenith, then God’s Country, the first full length record from Oklahoma City noise rock quartet Chat Pile is the aural embodiment of such a concept.
Having lived alongside the heaps of toxic refuse that the band derives its name from, the fatalism of daily life in the American Midwest permeates throughout the works of Chat Pile, and especially so on its debut LP. Exasperated by the pandemic, the hopelessness of climate change, the cattle shoot of global capitalism, and fueled by “...lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of THC,” God’s Country is as much of an acknowledgement of the Earth’s most assured demise as it is a snarling violent act of defiance against it. Within its over 40 minute runtime, God’s Country displays both Chat Pile’s most aggressively unhinged and contemplatively nuanced moments to date, drawing from its preceding two EPs and its score for the 2021 film, Tenkiller. In the band’s own words, the album is, at its heart, “Oklahoma’s specific brand of misery.” A misery intent on taking all down with it and its cacophonous chaos on its own terms as opposed to idly accepting its otherwise assured fall. This is what the end of the world sounds like.
Stylianos Ou & The Cortisol Cows - 2024 - Fucked Forever
Ever/Never – e/n-085
Greek musician Stelios Papagrigoriou is a practitioner of a dizzying array of creative pursuits. He is a published author with novels, poems and short stories to his credit. His award-winning visual arts practice encompasses sculpture, installations and painting (which adorn the front and back covers). Papagrigoriou has also delved into the digital art realm, proving that no medium is beyond his grasp. Reflecting his voracious appetite, Papagrigoriou’s wide-ranging sonic explorations are just as intriguing and well-executed as the other forms he operates in. Hand & Leg, an art-punk duo with Iro Sofoulaki on bass and Papagrigoriou on drums, put out two albums of addictive, angular crunch before hanging up their limbs. Adopting the moniker Stylianos Ou, Papagrigoriou has embarked upon yet another expedition into uncharted waters. In 2023, Søvn Records released To Qfahlogo, a complete about-face from Hand & Leg, with Papagrigoriou using a modular synth to sculpt Aphex Twin-like compositions. Blending the processed voices of children with frenetic percussive textures, this alien landscape beckoned with a strangely human hand. Just when you think you’ve got Ou figured out, he makes yet another 180 degree turn into an arena that might surprise even his most dedicated listeners—the Athens-based polymath has gone full singer-songwriter.
Released by Ever/Never Records, Fucked Forever finds Ou in troubadour mode, bringing along an entire band, the Cortisol Cows, to lay down a suite of songs teeming with bitter laughter, triumphant resignation and fleeting glimpses of that most elusive of instincts—hope. At first glance, Ou’s version of hope might seem incompatible with yours. To the matter of his intentions, he tells us that, “Songs work slowly and with no clear purpose, and for sure, even the most humble ones, are a great way to learn how to live, to learn how to die and maybe for some magical seconds, to see clearly and in all its glory, the blistering flame that consumes us constantly.” I doubt Burt Bacharach ever had thoughts like this, but Lead Belly probably did. Then again, Mr. Huddie Ledbetter never had a chance to pen an ode to one of the 21st century’s most controversial authors, as Ou does with “Houellebecq My Brother.” Ou’s willingness to engage the sordid affectations and indignities of modern life is revealed by song titles such as “Prophet Squirting,” “Our Fake Tits” and “Pornhub Spiritual.” Like respectful jesters at a funeral, the quintet—using banjo, cello, bongos, piano—acquits itself with grace and sensitivity, never overwhelming the lyrical concerns, but fleshing them out, letting them stretch-out and breathe, while never going slack. The way the songs roll and twang and hint at a wildness simmering beneath the tattered elegance resembles acclaimed labelmates Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band, old hands like Bonnie “Prince” Billy, departed masters like Sparklehorse and rising stars like MJ Lenderman.
This is music made for bars where the walls sweat whiskey, cigarette smoke feels like a breath of fresh air, as the patrons stand on wobbly legs and sway like their lives depend on it. And perhaps they do. The last word goes to PapagrigoriOU—“We wait for songs as we wait for trains in the night, or people in our lives. These songs were living inside of me like bacteria and finally bloomed.”
If we are truly Fucked Forever, then at least we now have the proper soundtrack.
Human Impact - 2024 - Gone Dark
Ipecac Recordings – IPC279LP
Human Impact, the laser-precision noise-rock alliance of Unsane frontman Chris Spencer, Cop Shoot Cop's squall-maker Jim Coleman, Made Out of Babies' Eric Cooper and Daughters' Jon Syverson, release Gone Dark, the band's second full-length album out Oct 4th 2024
Gone Dark is a fiercer, tighter upgrade of their taut grooves, brittle guitar shards, impassioned shouts and clouds of dystopian noise. Not a cry from the darkness but a shout through the darkness, a robust proclamation of resilience and opposition in the face of impending apocalypse.
It follows their self-titled debut, which was released on the eve that the world stood still, and was followed by a slew of singles which culminated in the the release of EP01 in 2021 and touring in 2022. The band graced the cover of New Noise Magazine (France) and were featured in a New York Times article amongst other recognition.
"We were all looking to go with something more raw and aggressive than the previous releases." adds Spencer. "There was a real desire to capture more of what the live performances had been like. With this one, we had plenty of time to develop a full, cohesive album joining songs together with interstitial pieces more like a live performance would be. With Gone Dark we have arrived at a place where we fully understand who we are as a band, so it's a bit more focused and relentless."
The Human Impact arsenal is more formidable than ever thanks to the addition of bassist Eric Cooper (Made Out of Babies, Bad Powers) and drummer Jon Syverson (Daughters). Spencer had spent the 2020 Covid lockdown working on a cabin in the East Texas woods and would travel into Austin for informal jam sessions with the pair in the bass player's garage. Friendly blasts through vintage Unsane songs ultimately resulted in the rhythm section being fully absorbed into the Unsane and Human Impact lineups for their 2022 European tours.
Organ Of Corti - 2024 - Colluvio / Mutatio 7''
iDEAL Recordings – IDEAL 255
This is two new pieces by Swedish trio Organ of Corti. Tape loops by Dan Johansson of Sewer Election/Enhet för Fri Musik etc and Mattias Gustafsson of Altar of Flies. Synths and mixing by Joachim Nordwall.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)