A synth spell, or a velvet fist cast in analogue electronica sends your puny 20jazzfunkgreats types spinning into another dimension of mystery, magic and romance noir slash murder, you know how blood and sex are tightly interwoven and the suchlike. Life is a bitch, heh?

The new cloud edits 12” comes packed with analogue delights, Vangelis and Claude Larson no less. We are going to go for the former today because as you know we haven’t featured any burly Greek gods in this puny blog of yours for a while. Well, let us rush, least we incur the wrath of the pantheon of master synth-makers who float in the obsidian sky surrounded by an electrified theremin cloud, they have been known to incinerate shepherds with a merciless moog bolt, just for entertaining the idea of buying a laptop. ‘Thou shan’t digital’, it says so in the Bible, yeah, one of the pages at the back. The one where the Thesalonians sell out.

The song we are bringing to your ears today is called ‘Multi-Track Suggestion’, and as far as I can understand seems to be a ballad about Vangelis’ love affair with his music processing equipment. Of course this is a prosaic way to put it, but then it is hard to do justice with words to the genius of this man, the sensual, almost lascivious, psychedelic dream-like glorious vibrations he extracts from his machines, effortlessly like a colossus squeezing milk of a stone with his bare hands, pure bliss sends our souls flying into the air like a silver dove gliding between the monolithic skyscrapers of Neo-Tokyo, or something to the same effect.

Vangelis- Multitrack Suggestion

Sonar Kollektiv are releasing a second part of Computer Incantations for World Peace. You know how the first part drowned us in a delightful sea of utopian electronic soul vibrations. Well, now you have some of the best wizards in the block, including Todd Terje, Smith and Mudd, Brennan Green, Maurice Fulton, Chateau Flight , Prins Thomas or Daniel Wang getting down and dreamy into a orange zone of dubbed out disco and smooth cosmic soul and balearic remixes circumscribed with steady pulse by Jazzanova and Gerd Janson.

Here you have a taster, Al Usher builds the sonic equivalent of Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia shining under the sun of early Barcelona summer if only it was made of glass and gold and silver, and God was blowing between its spires to make the hearts of the populace down there soar with unexplicable happiness at the glittering sounds therein created, now that’s our kind of religion, Aeroplane plays the organ in this church you know.

Al Usher- Lullaby for Robert

Our pal Joey Casio has been doing stuff with Portland’s Loose Control, again we find mystery music covered in a frail and beautiful lattice of synths, sonic fireflies drawing lights vague like the ghosts of lights in a dark den full of abandoned mementoes arranged in the shape of a question mark which finishes a sentence that could have been perfectly uttered by Chromatics adding some marginalia on the technological grimoire written by Kraftwerk, the only possible response is a sigh, a wry smile, sleight of hands, a collaboration with Jonny Jewel is apparently on the cards, and I don’t wonder why.

Loose Control- Accidents (featuring Joey Casio)

Mogg and Naudascher amazed us with the melodic warmth burning inside the gelid cage of techno beats that Moon Units Pt. 1 and 2, released by Supersoul Recordings last years, were. Well, they are back with a vengeance, and what should become the theme tune for doomed lovers in the coming storms of late winter and early spring. This vocal version of Moon Unit pt. 4 featuring Rosalind is frankly stunning, a electronic pop torch song which vibrates with the same sort of tonal evocative glamour of Chris and Cosey or The Knife, projecting laser rays of melancholy into the black sky, stare for too long and they will burn your retina into cinders, you’ll be left to roam aimless amidst the haunted ruins of a collapsed heart, unforgettable.

Mogg and Naudascher- Moon Unit Pt. 4 (featuring Rosalind)

SXSW TYPES

In addition to El Guincho and the DeathbombArc/Load Records party. you should go and check out the Upset the Rhythm label showcase this Thursday, you know we utterly love these London DIY Party stalwarts, they have a killer rooster bringing the place (Habana Annex Backyard (708 E 6th St Austin) down, this includes John Maus, Death Sentence: Panda!, Hawnay Troof and Hands on Heads, Kit, High Places and No Age amongst others, absolute winner.

Epilogue -
This post is tagged with Cosmic