Gone will be the Berlin-based Australian producer’s sophomore full-length, following on from last year’s Confide, which also dropped via Craigie Knowes. It features eight eclectic tracks that run the gamut from trip-hop to techno, electro, and deeper club shades, all tied together with her masterful production and featuring her own vocal work. Gone will also feature two abstract videos, one shot in Berlin where Eluize produced the album.
XLR8R readers will be familiar with Eluize from the current XLR8R+ edition, in which she features alongside AIDA and Slumber (a.k.a. Öona Dahl and Amber Cox), delivering a killer house and techno hybrid cut, as well as an in-depth feature unpacking her techniques and processes. You can even download her Ableton project file to see everything she did on the track.
Eluize also recently launched a coaching and mentoring platform focused on supporting womxn, non-binary, and trans people, passing on her knowledge in music production, performance, label management, and general support on navigating life, mental health, motherhood, living abroad, and the trials of working in “the industry.”
Eluize, real name Emma Sainsbury, began her musical adventures in Adelaide, located in Australia’s south, where her parents instilled in her an appreciation for the arts and creativity. Music lessons from the age of five led her into classical and jazz training through school, but electronics soon came calling and Australia couldn’t satisfy her. After years in bustling metropolises, Sainsbury craved something slower and, with its relaxed way of life and rich music scene, Berlin seemed like the right fit. In 2013, she arrived in the German capital as an electronic music enthusiast eager to immerse herself in the city’s unbridled club culture. She heads up Night Tide, an outlet for artists in her orbit.
Sault have surprise released a new album, UNTITLED (Rise)—their fourth album in 18 months.
Sault, an anonymous British music collective, made their debut in May 2019. They’ve since released three albums, beginning with 7 in September 2019. Earlier this year, they shared UNTITLED (Black Is) and now they’ve put out UNTITLED (Rise). Still today, nothing is known about the collective; there are no interviews, videos, or even live appearances. Revenues have been donated towards charitable causes.
UNTITLED (Rise) shares the aesthetic of their earlier work, which is to say sumptuous R&B, house, and disco. CD and vinyl pressings are available for order via Bandcamp, with copies shipping November 16. Meanwhile, you can stream the album in full via the player below.
Tracklisting
01. Strong 02. Fearless 03. Rise 04. I Just Want to Dance 05. Street Fighter 06. Son Shine 07. Rise Intently 08. The Beginning & the End 09. Free 10. You Know It Ain’t 11. Uncomfortable 12. No Black Violins in London 13. Scary Times 14. The Black & Gold 15. Little Boy
Hicks, a composer, bassist, and producer, is one of Melbourne, Australia’s hardest working musicians, respected for his work as a founding member of influential hip-hop and soul collective 30/70. He also forms part of trad-jazz band Lush Life and works with afro-house group Teymori. His contributions to the Melbourne music scene were recently recognized with a feature on Gilles Peterson’s Sunny Side Up compilation.
His latest LP, Boom Boom, is his most dancefloor-focused to date, joining his loose and raw composition style with the driving frameworks of early Chicago, Detroit, and New York house music. It brings to mind the swinging, soulful work of Moodymann, Chez Damier, Terrence Parker, Mike Huckaby, and Patrice Scott—and Hicks includes a reimagining of Scott’s classic “Be Free.” Much like those artists referenced, Hicks has “always been intrigued by abstract and contemporary ideas. Fusion music,” he explains. “I was always just about freedom in music, freedom in life.”
In February, Horatio Luna released Yes Doctor on La Sape Records.
Tracklisting:
01. Boom Boom 02. Fuck The System 03. Patrice 04. No Words, Big Party 05. Bumps 06. Bush Doof 07. Peruvian
Boom Boom LP is available now as a limited-edition 12″ and digitally via The Jazz Diaries‘ Bandcamp page. You find a stream of the album below.
Scottish-Portuguese artist Su Shaw (a.k.a. SHHE) has shared an Alva Noto remix of her track “BOY.”
Noto’s remix lands with a transfixing video by Shaw and Tommy Perman that looks to reflect “the current pacing of time and movement around us,” Shaw explains, by using light as a reminder and representation of time and referencing “how interrupted routines have made it more difficult to make sense of time moving, or of us moving through it.” Noto’s remix provided a perfect soundtrack, as it “represents a similar shift in pace, a slowing down: a reassessing.”
The remix forms part of the upcoming SHHE remix album, Re:, which is set to drop on October 9 via One Little Independent Records. The album features reworked material and collaborations that explore different aspects of SHHE’s self-titled debut album, available now. The package includes new imaginings by rRoxymore, Makeness, Black Taffy, Sophia Loizou, Tommy Perman, and, of course, Alva Noto.
Tracklisting
01. Eyes Shut (rRoxymore Remix) 02. Saint Cyrus (Tommy Perman Remix) 03. Emma (Makeness Remix) 04. Beds (Black Taffy Remix) 05. BOY (Alva Noto Remix) 06. Maps (Sophia Loizou Remix)
Re: is available on October 9. You can pre-order the LP via Bandcamp, with the Alva Noto remix streaming in full below.
Needless to say, we’re excited to present this month’s submissions from our XLR8R+ members. This edition is notable for its sombre mood. From Kendl’s “Felt” and Peter Vogelaar’s “Felicity Breathes,” to “Lo Seen’s “Say It,” and SASA’s “Yes They Can Say Love,” these submissions broadly favour contemplation.
And if you turn up the temperature a notch, moving towards brtrnd’s sublime breakbeat science, Inertya’s “New Dawn,” and Corduroi’s “Slingshot,” you’ll find rich emotion everywhere. Fans of cinema will possibly pick out Fatwires’ brooding guitar jam. Of all the submissions, MSTRBLSTR’s heady acid track is the most overtly club-ready. There’s something for everyone, so take a rummage around yourselves.
Editor’s note: we’ve made a point of linking each artist’s name to their social media page, or a place where you can buy their music, and we encourage our readers to support these independent artists by buying their music. Let’s keep independent culture alive.
For those unfamiliar, XLR8R+ is a member-supported music community and curated music experience. Every month, you will get three exclusive tracks—sometimes more—by a wealth of amazing artists that XLR8R has supported over the years, as well as access to the member’s area where you can submit tracks and DJ mixesto be showcased in this feature series and to the XLR8R+ community, as well as exclusive editorial content, mixes, FREE passes to music festivals and events, playlists, and more.You can find out more here.
Zeb Samuels, Byron Wallen & Marc Cyril “Positive Spirit”
London-born multi-instrumentalist Zeb Samuels has released his latest single, “Positive Spirit,” on Deep Heads. It features Marc Cyril, who has worked with Joss Stone, on bass, and Byron Wallen on trumpet and flugelhorn. Inspired by artists like Boards of Canada, Robert Glasper, and LTJ Bukem, it’s a soulful jazzy soundscape that draws you in, made for open spaces as the listener gazes at the stars. “I feel like this is a track that is an unveiling of a new light and embodies positivity amongst the dark times that we have encountered recently,” Samuels says.
C_Ben, from Mexico City, began making music out of nostalgia for rave parties. We don’t know anything more about them, but “Bloom Me,” a new track, came from trying to be simplistic and focusing on just letting it flow.
AKWIUS “Clever Girl“
AKWIUS is an electronic musician based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His music is a bass-focused hybrid of rave and post-rave theories, and it explores moods of the current dystopian utopia from a Mexican-American perspective. His most recent release is Clever Girl via Upper Realm.
Afar, from Australia, is the alias of Matt Gibson. Gibson is a fan of many styles of electronic music but uses the Afar name for his deeper, heads-down productions. We’ve previously featured “Division,” a killer dub-house cut from his first batch of public productions. “The Needed Break,” a new track, is similarly memorable, with lush vocals and broken beats.
Clinamen is a project from Bydgoszcz, Poland, headed by solo artists Jakub Ziolek and Krzysztof Ostrowski. For The Tropisms Of Spring, out on Poland’s Brutality Garden, they delivered a serene album of ambient and glitch, with rich vocals and intelligent songwriting. It was recorded between January 2018 and November 2019. “Perto,” the fourth track, is a delightful piece of upbeat electronica.
Kendl “Felt“
https://soundcloud.com/kendlmusic/felt
Jesse Kendal, also known as Kendl, is an Australian electronic musician who creates electronic music with a natural, emotionally charged flow. Having grown up in a musical household littered with instruments, Kendal found solace in music at a young age. Instead of learning how to read sheet music, however, he was more intrigued by freely playing instruments and allowing his imagination to create beautiful sounds and textures. It was a way to help him manage his anxiety throughout childhood. This approach has directly shaped his sound and the way he writes music today. Since debuting in 2017 with his debut EP, Colours, Kendal’s music has accrued millions of streams. Dreamlike, Kendal’s latest EP, landed in August and it featured “Felt,” a delicate soundscape with the most serene of openings.
brtrnd, pronounced “Bertrand,” is from Montreal, Canada and has been producing electronic music for six years. For the past three, he’s been inspired by techno, house, and other types of dance music. In his upcoming album, mattered, he draws inspiration from artists like Myrryrs, Ouri, Pascäal, Andy Stott, and Shlohmo. He started working on it at the onset of the pandemic and has since developed it into a work with a consistent theme. “2176a,” an engrossing breakbeat jam, is the first taste. Read more about brtrnd here. The album comes out on London label Ware.
Phondupe, from Sydney, Australia, has submitted “Arma,” a slow-burner taken from his forthcoming debut album, ONYKIA. The track casts a trance through its ethereal synths that ebb and flow. Angelic Japanese field recordings float through the track. It was recorded by Phondupe himself at Teshima Island, Japan.
Of Italian and Romanian descent, Orli, real name Orlando Stefano Tosi, is a rising name whose sound is becoming appreciated across Romania and increasingly beyond. He’s the owner of the newborn LORI Records and a resident at Goa Club in Rome, a temple of the Italian electronic music scene. His productions are based on sounds from the ’90s and early 2000s, mixed with minimal house influences. Darkness, mystery, and surrealism are key to his music, he says. “Hoard Of The Wizard – Beast,” a slick hypnotizing cut for DJs, forms part of the recommended TRASMISSIONE DIGITALE, a series of 15 tracks influenced by ’80s horror cinema.
Paul Vinsonhaler is a film and media composer living in Memphis, Tennessee, and we’ve featured his work before. Vinsonhaler’s musical work focuses on sound design, dynamics, and sonic experimentation, and it blends the lines between classical minimalism and modern music. “Lethal Silence of Centuries” is a brooding jazz track, and one of his latest works.
MSTRBLSTR “Are We Living In A Simulation” (Fractal Mix)
Originating as an improvisational acid house and techno artist during the 1990s, MSTRBLSTR learned to move crowds at illegal rave parties held in shady warehouses, and at full-moon parties in the Arizona desert. He’s now based in Queens, New York, where he has a studio of hand-built gear that he uses to produce music to “work its way deep into your mind and make your body move,” he says. The track he’s presented is a pumping acid remix of his own “Are We Living In A Simulation,” out on Toy Opulent.
Designed to feel equally at home on the sub-heavy sound systems of haze-swamped warehouses and the intimacy of living room hi-fi setups, Inertya‘s music draws on both the visceral energy of dancefloors and the technological thoughtfulness of modular synthesis. Anthemic techno and delicate experimentalism melt into each other in precisely constructed tracks, which stylishly transcend electronic genre boundaries. This multi-faceted approach to production is second nature for Inertya, real name Falk Morawitz, who has a decade of diverse musical experience under his belt, spanning straight-up rave-ready techno, abstract experimental sound art, and evocative, other-worldly soundtracks. “New Dawn,” available now, is one of his latest productions, available on First Light Records.
A T M﹤O﹥S is an ambient project from Mexico City. There’s no other public information about them, but their self-titled debut album came out on Unos Quantos, a small Mexican label, over the summer. It comprises four gorgeous cuts that sound like a film score without the film. “Sinusoide,” a dreamlike sequence, is the pick of a sublime bunch.
The aim of Richie Gigabyte, from Brooklyn, New York, is simple: to take elements of sound often foreign to each other and blend their worlds into something beautiful. “Missbehavin” features ‘90s hip-hop beats with ENKi’s lush vocals. It’s one of Gigs’ latest productions, and we can expect more soon.
Sebastian Fuentes“Los Días Después“
Sebastián Fuentes is a music producer, raised in Mexico City but currently working on getting his Philosophy degree at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He learned guitar and keyboard at an early age, and he’s added to this a love for creating melodic sequences from synthesizers. It’s not until recently, however, that he’s decided to present his own organic and somewhat melancholic atmospheres. “Los Días Después,” meaning The Days After, is the third track on Unas Por Otras, his new EP. It’s an invitation, he says, to his own delicate dance.
Inner Creatures is the second album from Irish producer and bass player Peter Vogelaar, and it nods in the direction of Four Tet, Bonobo, and Caribou. The title alludes to the introspective nature of crafting a body of work, not just the moments writing but those reflecting.
Although at home with emotive instrumentals, Vogelaar has a knack for bringing guest vocalists into new territories, pulling in the likes of Sacred Animals, Ken Lally, and Katie Kim. Vogelaar has also teamed up with fellow Irishman Deaf Joe on “Felicity Breathes,” creating a gem of downtempo “folktronica,” as he labels it, that laments the over-analytical demise of a relationship.
“I had the beat track on my headphones for a few months, and knew it was special, I loved it and waited and waited until the right melody clicked in my head,” Deaf Joe says.
Austin, Texas-based producer Corduroi has previously created a soundtrack for the University of Texas fashion show and collaborated with the prestigious arts and entertainment group Meow Wolf. On Mazie, his new album, he integrates elements of electro, jungle, house, IDM, and techno, using a wide array of modular gear. It’s dedicated to and named after his grandma Mazie, who was the driving force of love, empathy, and care in his family, he explains. Close your eyes and you’d think it was Ilian Tape.
SASA is the latest project of Orlando-based DJ-Producer Stereo 77. It sees him trading his usual style of Caribbean beats and breaks for a vividly romantic sound inspired by a love for ’70s fusion jazz and ambient compositions. Separation, a new record, blends field recordings from various cities with rich live instrumentation. “Yes They Can (Say Love),” the most ambient of all four tracks, is a dreamlike trip built on layered sounds from vinyl records and warm synths. There’s additional production by Jorge Collazo, a friend and secret weapon of Filtered Deluxe Recordings, the label behind the release.
Lo Seen is a producer from Saint-Petersburg, Russia who has recently moved to Berlin, Germany. His contemplative electronica is heavily influenced by UK bass vibes. Say It is Lo Seen’s first release of 2020, and it comprises three tracks: “Hope you’ll Be,” “Take Me,” and “Say It.” We’ve chosen this title track to showcase here. Expect tender vocal cuts with a powerful low end. Music for the mind and the body.
Fatwires “Strings Of Dread“
Over two decades, Germany’s John Eckhardt has delivered an unusual cosmos of bass music through a variety of collaborations and solo projects. Most recently, he became Fatwires on The Wicked Path, releasing nine organic beatscapes centered by raw bass guitar. Expect rich, cinematic soundscapes, embedded in rugged percussion that won’t settle for a single style. “Strings Of Dread,” the second track, sounds exactly as it says.
Peter Spacey, a beatmaker, DJ, and audio-artist, has shared a live performance video for “Morning Haze,” filmed on an outdoor balcony in a secret garden during sunrise. It’s the first video of an upcoming Spacetagon Sessions series, where he’ll play original music in different magical places. The track is available now, demonstrating Spacey’s traditional jazz background. Expect hazy, lo-fi beats.
ASOY is a mysterious London-based project ready to deliver a body of music that looks to explore the frequency spectrum using his machines, he says. Expect a journey into sound, destination unknown. We know nothing more, but with its playful house vibes and warped sound design, “Coffee In Karthadastim” is worth a listen.
Tima Fei ‘A Change of Pace’
Tima Fei has been a staple to Chicago’s dance music scene for years. This season, he’s released “A Change of Pace,” a deep and dark piece of experimental sonic art featuring tracks from Laraaji, Matthewdavid, Alex Augier, and more. It’s dubby, distorted, and driving all in one.
Ngoma Injection is designed to cause serious cerebral and physical damage on dancefloors, the East African label explains. Its earliest sketches date back to the Russian artist’s residency at Nyege Nyege Studios in Kampala, Uganda following the 2019 edition of the label’s annual festival.
Sonically, the album incorporates industrial/EBM techno and synthetized tones with dembow rhythms, kuduro, and gqom to forge layered corporeal music with no geographical borders. Each track is richly textured, we’re told, and surgically produced with agility and fierce finesse. Wulffluw drops several “emotional club bangers,” the label continues, that are intriguing and jittery, marked by unrelenting percussion and enriched with repetitive sonic explosions, haunting vocals, and cyberpunk ambience.
As the first release the label has put out from outside Africa, Ngoma Injection marks a milestone in Hakuna Kulala’s journey.
Artwork is by Jonathan Uliel Saldanha.
Tracklisting
01. Kuama 02. Ash Bay 03. ii 04. One54 05. Turberarossa 06. Bara 07. Nyege Digital Immersion 08. Durilla 09. Transmitted Quartal 10. Endelea
Ngoma Injection LP is scheduled for October 30 release. Meanwhile, you can pre-order here and stream “Nyege Digital Immersion” below.
Brian Eno will release Film Music 1976—2020, the first ever collection of music from his film and television soundtrack oeuvre.
Eno’s affair with film goes all the way back to 1970 with his soundtrack to Malcolm Le Grice’s short experimental film “Berlin Horse.” In 1976 he followed this with “Sebastiane” and a long forgotten Greek horror film, “Land Of The Minotaur” a.k.a “The Devil’s Men.” Early classic Eno film moments include “Prophecy Theme” from David Lynch’s “Dune,” “From The Beginning” from Dario Argento’s “Opera,” and “Force Marker” from Michael Mann’s “Heat.”
In the years since, Eno has had hundreds of pieces of his music used in films, documentaries, and television programmes, including more than 20 complete scores for some of the best known directors in the world. Spanning five decades, this release features classic Eno compositions, lesser-known gems, and seven previously unreleased tracks.
Included are tracks from movies like “Trainspotting” and Michelangelo Antonioni’s “Beyond The Clouds.” There’s also “Final Sunset,” a track initially featured in “Sebastiane” and included on Eno’s Music For Films.
“An Ending (Ascent)” and “Deep Blue Day” are taken from “Apollo: Atmosphere & Soundtracks,” Eno’s collaboration with his brother Roger and Daniel Lanois. The music was originally written for Al Reinert’s landmark documentary of the Apollo moon landing, “For All Mankind,” although since then “An Ending (Ascent)” has taken on a life of its own and is now remembered just as much from Steven Soderbergh’s “Traffic,” Danny Boyle’s “28 Days Later,” and Miguel Arteta’s “Beatriz at Dinner.”
There’s also music from UK crime drama “Top Boy.”
Tracklisting
01. “Top Boy (Theme)’”from “Top Boy,” directed by Yann Demange, 2011 02. “Ship In A Bottle” from “The Lovely Bones,” directed by Peter Jackson, 2009 03. “Blood Red” from “Francis Bacon’s Arena,” directed by Adam Low, 2005 04. “Under” from “Cool World,” directed by Ralph Bakshi, 1992 05. “Decline And Fall” from “O Nome da Morte,” directed by Henrique Goldman, 2017 06. “Prophecy Theme” from “Dune,” directed by David Lynch, 1984 07. “Reasonable Question” from “We Are As Gods,” directed by David Alvarado / Jason Sussberg, 2020 08. “Late Evening In Jersey” from “Heat,” directed by Michael Mann, 1995 09. “Beach Sequence” from “Beyond The Clouds,” directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, 1995 10. “You Don’t Miss Your Water” from “Married to the Mob,” directed by Jonathan Demme, 1988 11. “Deep Blue Day” from “Trainspotting,” directed by Danny Boyle, 1996 12. “The Sombre” from “Top Boy,” directed by Jonathan van Tulleken, 2013 13. “Dover Beach” from “Jubilee,” directed by Derek Jarman, 1978 14. “Design as Reduction” from “Rams,” directed by Gary Hustwit, 2018 15. “Undersea Steps” from “Hammerhead,” directed by George Chan, 2004 16. “Final Sunset” from ‘Sebastiane,” directed by Derek Jarman, 1976 17. “An Ending (Ascent),” from “For All Mankind,” directed by Al Reinert, 1989
UMC will release Film Music 1976–2020 on November 13. Meanwhile, you can stream Ship In A Bottle,” from “The Lovely Bones” below and pre-order here.
Hidari Ude No Yume, meaning Left-Handed Dream, was originally released in 1981 on Alfa Music. Sakamoto co-produced the record with British producer Robin Scott, hoping to create something pop-focused following his experimental 1978 album, Thousand Knives. Save for a small-scale Dutch vinyl release in 1981, this is the first time the album’s original Japanese edition will be available outside of Japan. The European release on Epic Records included significantly different tracks and mixes.
This edition has been newly remastered from the original tapes by renowned engineer Bernie Grundman. It comes with original artwork featuring a striking cover shot by photographer Masayoshi Sukita, sourced from the original negative. There’s also a four-page insert with a new introduction by journalist Anton Spice. The double-vinyl version includes a previously unreleased instrumental mix of the album.
Hidari Ude No Yume LP is scheduled for November 13 release on vinyl and CD. Meanwhile, you can stream “Venezia” in full below and pre-order here.
Tracklisting
01. Boku No Kakera 02. Saru To Yuki To Gomi No Kodomo 03. Kacha Kucha Nee 04. The Garden Of Poppies 05. Relâché 06. Tell ‘Em To Me 07. Living In The Dark 08. Slat Dance 09. Venezia 10. Saru No Ie 11. Boku No Kakera (Inst Mix) 12. Saru To Yuki To Gomi No Kodomo (Inst Mix) 13. Kacha Kucha Nee (Inst Mix) 14. The Garden of Poppies (Inst Mix) 15. Relâché (Inst Mix) 16. Tell’Em To Me (Inst Mix) 17. Living In The Dark (Inst Mix) 18. Slat Dance (Inst Mix) 19. Venezia (Inst Mix) 20. Saru No Ie (Inst Mix)
“Daniel Isn’t Real” is a darkly euphoric dreamscape that evokes both rapture and dread. Clark’s mutated orchestral score, set for release by Deutsche Grammophon on October 9, plays a key part in telling the tale of the mayhem unleashed, after college freshman Luke is taken captive by his charismatic imaginary childhood friend, the increasingly malevolent Daniel.
“I took Clark’s score of ‘Isolation Theme’ and simply made it feel like the moment we were entering; being told to stay indoors, entering a new type of silence,” Yorke tells XLR8R. “I guess I simplified it in a way, into waveforms that were being disrupted. I was surprised how frightening it became.”
Clark began working on “Daniel Isn’t Real” around the time he was asked to remix Yorke’s track “Not The News,” so it has a neat circularity closing the expanded edition of the score with Yorke remixing him.
He recorded parts of the release in collaboration with the East/West Orchestra in Budapest, Hungary, including “Isolation Theme,” which he describes as “revelatory in terms of harmonic learnings.” It’s one of his first investigations into more complex harmony, using tonal centres that constantly shift and dissolve in an emotionally engaging way. Certain preparatory MIDI parts were converted and replaced with real cello, viola, and double bass.
“I was surprised how well the MIDI translated to his remix,” Clark says. “He got such a good pure electronic tone out of it. It amazes me how simple note information, if it has a nice shape, can transmit to multiple voicings. This isn’t good news for genres. It’s good news for me though.”
Clark’s Daniel Isn’t Real (Expanded Edition) is scheduled for October 9 release. You can pre-order here and stream Thom York’s remix of “Isolation Theme” below.
Tracklisting
01. Luke Entering 02. Spiral Crackerjack 03. You’re Pulling My Face Off 04. I’m Pulling My Face Off 05. Tickling A Nutter 06. Volatile 07. Realm Promo 08. Cassie Falling 09. Diamond Body 10. Mumanguish 11. Snowflake Banger 12. Experts In Light 13. Isolation Theme (Thigpen) 14. Isolation Theme 2 15. Amor 16. Abyss Thick And Wide 17. Luke Falling 18. Isolation Theme (Thom Yorke Remix) 19. Creel Etude 20. Amor (C.B. Rework)
Brownswood Recordings will present a psychedelic jazz album from Mexican drummer and jazz legend Tino Contreras.
La Noche de los Dioses, meaning the night of the gods, is the second unfolding in the relationship between Gilles Peterson, Contreras, and musician and record collector Carlos Icaza. It follows the reissue of Contreras’ Musica Infinita on Arc Records, Peterson’s label focusing on reissuing curiosities. Peterson first picked up a copy of Musica Infinita in Japan and in a serendipitous moment met Contreras back in 2019 in Mexico City, igniting the spark that led to the reissue and now a new album.
Across the album, Contreras is joined by a host of musicians including his son, Valentino Contreras, on bass and Icaza on harmonic arps and pre-Hispanic percussion. We’re told by Peterson that it represents Contreras’ entire career in one, including the nightclubs of Mexico, the blues, and the decadence. “It’s a sassy subterranean cosmic sound,” Peterson says. He recorded it at La Nueva Fresa studios, Mexico City.
In support of the announcement, Contreras has shared the title track, which draws on the two identities of the Goddess Coatlicue (representing both life and death) and the God Huitzilopochtli, who symbolises the war and the sun within Aztec culture. Contreras composed it back in the ’70s.
Born in 1924 in Chihuahua, in northwest Mexico, to a family of musicians, Contreras kicked off his fascination with the drum kit as a young child. He was surrounded by music, raised by his father who led the OK Jazz Band orchestra, which inspired him to move to Ciudad Juárez where he formed his own orchestra. You could find Contreras sharing stages with the likes of Dave Brubeck, Art Blakey, Louis Armstrong, and many more greats.
Tracklisting
01. La Noche de los Dioses 02. Máscaras Blues 03. Naboró 04. Malinche 05. El Sacrificio 06. Al Amanecer 07. Niña Yahel
La Noche de los Dioses LP is scheduled for October 23 release. Meanwhile, you can pre-order here and stream “La Noche de los Dioses” below.
