13th of April 2020
Yosi Horikawa – Spaces
released 31 May 2019
Borrowed Scenery label
Yosi Horikawa makes music quite unlike anything you’ve heard, music that reflects not only the appeal of rhythm and melodies but also the power and hidden musicality of everyday sounds. In that sense Horikawa is not just a producer or musician or sound artist: he is a world builder whose materials constantly surround us, though we rarely stop to appreciate
them. Horikawa honed this approach for more than a decade, travelling far and wide to record forests, beaches, cities and people while never missing an opportunity to also find sounds closer to his home in Tokyo.
MSYLMA -DHIL-UN TAHT SHAJARAT AL-ZAQUM
released 12 Dec 2019
Halcyon Veil label
It is a rare that an album is as immediately arresting as Dhil-un Taht Shajarat Al-Zaqum, especially given how mysterious it is. The Mecca, Saudi Arabia-based producer MSYLMA leaves few traces across the internet and, aside from a notable vocal on Zuli’s Terminal album, one of the highlights of last year, there’s not much out there to know what drives this singular release, apart from a vague notion that it’s something of a coming-of-age tale that takes in pre-Islamic and Quranic poetry and culture and melds them to modern electronic and grime sensibilities. With repeated listens, it transforms into a deliriously narcotic ear-worm that can’t be avoided.
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