VA ‎– 12"/80s (2005)

Style: Pop Rock, Dub, Goth Rock, Synth-pop, New Wave
Format: CD
Label: Family Recordings

Credits:
Compiled By – Dorian Wathen

DISC 1
1-01.   The Cure - A Forest (Extended Mix)
1-02.   Aztec Camera - Walk Out To Winter (Long Version)
1-03.   The Icicle Works - Love Is A Wonderful Colour (12")
1-04.   Soft Cell - Tainted Love / Where Did Our Love Go?
1-05.   ABC - Tears Are Not Enough (12" Mix)
1-06.   Simple Minds - Promised You A Miracle (12" Mix)
1-07.   Spandau Ballet - To Cut A Long Story Short
1-08.   Echo & The Bunnymen - Never Stop (Discothéque)
1-09.   Fun Boy Three - Our Lips Are Sealed (12" Mix)
1-10.   The Jam - Precious (12" Mix)
1-11.   Siouxsie & The Banshees - Spellbound (12" Mix)
1-12.   Bauhaus - She's In Parties (Extended Mix)

DISC 2
2-01.   The Human League - Love Action (12" Mix)
2-02.   Pet Shop Boys - West End Girls (12" Mix)
2-03.   Visage - Fade To Grey (Extended)
2-04.   Yazoo - Situation (U.S. 12" Mix)
2-05.   Japan - Quiet Life (12" Mix)
2-06.   Talk Talk It's My Life (U.S. 12")
2-07.   Stephen 'Tin Tin' Duffy - Kiss Me (Mixe Plural)
2-08.   The Style Council - My Ever Changing Moods (Long Version)
2-09.   Simply Red - Money's Too Tight To Mention (Cutback Mix)
2-10.   Animotion - Obsession (U.S. 12")
2-11.   Tom Tom Club - Wordy Rappinghood (12" Version)
2-12.   The Passions - I'm In Love With A German Film Star (Long Mix)

DISC 3 3-01.   Grace Jones - Pull Up To The Bumper (12" Mix)
3-02.   Kid Creole And The Coconuts - I'm A Wonderful Thing Baby (12" Mix)
3-03.   The Blow Monkeys - Diggin' Your Scene (Extended Mix)
3-04.   Lloyd Cole & The Commotions - My Bag (Dancing Remix)
3-05.   Hipsway - The Honeythief (12" Mix)
3-06.   Tears For Fears - Sowing The Seeds Of Love (Long Version)
3-07.   Junior -Mama Used To Say (12")
3-08.   Grandmaster Flash - White Lines (12" Mix)
3-09.   Man Parrish - Hip Hop, Be Bop (12" Mix)
3-10.   Monsoon - Ever So Lonely (Extended Mix)
3-11.   Curiosity Killed The Cat - Down To Earth (12" Mix)
3-12.   Black - Wonderful Life (12")

Jonny Trunk ‎– 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (2016)

Style: Experimental, Avant-garde Jazz
Format: Vinyl
Label: Trunk Records, Four Corners Books

Tracklist:
A1.   Mobilis In Mobile
A2.   Nemo's Organ 1
A3.   Excellent Zoophytes
A4.   Nemo's Organ 2
A5.   Anenome Jam
A6.   Nemo's Organ 3
A7.   Sea Drift
A8.   Nemo's Organ 4
B1.   Sinking
B2.   Nemo's Organ 5
B3.   Singing Fish
B4.   Nemo's Organ 6
B5.   A Walk On The Bottom Of The Sea
B6.   Nemo's Organ 7
B7    Kraken
B8.   Nemo's Organ 8
B9.   Seven Tenths Of The Earth

Credits:
Music By – Jonny Trunk

The Knife ‎– Deep Cuts (2003)

Style: Electro, Synth-pop
Format: CD, Vinyl
Label: Brille Records, Mute, Rabid Records, Hussle Recordings

Tracklist:
01.   Heartbeats
02.   Girls' Night Out
03.   Pass This On
04.   One For You
05.   The Cop
06.   Listen Now
07.   She's Having A Baby
08.   You Take My Breath Away
09.   Rock Classics
10.   Is It Medicine
11.   You Make Me Like Charity
12.   Got 2 Let U
13.   Behind The Bushes
14.   Hangin' Out

Credits:
Mastered By – Henrik Jonsson
Mixed By – Christoffer Berg, The Knife
Music By, Words By – The Knife
Recorded By, Producer – The Knife

In promotional photos, the Dreijer siblings appear in comically oversized crow's masks; when performing live, they obscure the stage with a gauzy mesh overhang and peer out impassively from behind bodysuits and balaclavas; on record, they delight in vocal distortions, each one emanating some inhuman grotesquerie. Theatre is the Knife's lifeblood. It's incorporated so completely and convincingly into their persona that, much like Pitchfork's Amanda Petrusich's conviction that Tom Waits "exists in a world populated only by freight trains and barmaids, rodeo clowns and shortwave radios," it's next to impossible to reconcile Karin and Olof with the banalities of day-to-day life. 

That desire to transcend the mundane drives lots of art, but despite that they've been making music for the better part of the decade, it didn't really crystallize for The Knife until earlier this year. That moment came, of course, with the release of their third album, Silent Shout. More than just a great pop album, the record boasted a truck of exotic characters, textures, and ideas. In the sense that it etched out a world with a strange but identifiable internal logic, it felt a little bit like a fantasy writer's breakthrough novel, except with the Dreijers playacting their way through every goblin, ghost, and spook. 

Not surprisingly, the relative success of Silent Shout has paved the way for a re-examination of the band's first two albums. Issued in America for the first time courtesy of Mute Records, neither 2001's eponymous debut nor 2004's Deep Cuts approach the feral highs of Silent Shout; but, taken in a lump, this streaky collection of buoyant pop, creepy denouements, ill-advised genre exercises, and flashes of brilliance spell out the Knife's journey from a sprightly, steel drum sampling, electropop outfit to something much darker and more refined.

Stacked side-by-side-by-side, the Knife's discography is pretty much a textbook example of increasing returns, which means 2001's The Knife is the weakest link in the chain. With the exception of the sproingy "Kino", the nasty guitar squalls of "I Take Time" and the retooled Celtic folkisms of "Parade" (all of which are great), everything else here feels a little limp and unsure; latter-half tracks like "Bird" and "A Lung" practically crumble to an end. Nonetheless, between Dreijer's voice (a thing of strange beauty, even in untouched form), the mutated vocals in "A Lung", and the gently percolating synths of opener "Neon", there are plenty of moments to suggest the Knife's future greatness. 

Brandishing a bona fide calling card single (the superb "Heartbeats"), a toothier production approach, and an increasing debt to house music, 2004's Deep Cuts marked a double-step forward for the duo. If The Knife suffered from seeming a little too tentative and domesticized, Deep Cuts came across as brash and untamed, a streamroller that left overturned chunks of everything from steel drums ("Pass This On") and marimbas ("Rock Classics") to hi-NRG ("Listen Now") and slinky, Timbaland-inspired r&b ("You Make Me Like Charity") in its path. It wasn't always pretty, but the highs-- "Heartbeats", "One For You", "She's Having a Baby", "You Take My Breath Away"-- were more rewarding, and the sense of drama noticeably heightened. 

Where The Knife comes reissued as-is, without extras, Deep Cuts arrives packaged with six bonus tracks and an additional DVD of videos. Between standout Deep Cuts-era remixes from Dahlback & Dahlback, Rex the Dog, and Mylo-- the likes of which would become standard practice for Silent Shout's singles-- and a DVD showing signs of the band's increasing attention to their visual aspect, the bulk of these bonuses have the effect of further bridging the gap between records two and three. Of course, whether you actually want to peek at the duo fumbling behind the curtain in the years before they hit their stride is another question altogether; at the least, any grousing over the unavailability of these records can end now. 

Mark Pytlik / Pitchork

The Knife ‎– The Knife (2001)

Style: Synth-pop, Abstract, Experimental
Format: CD, Vinyl
Label: Brille Records, Rabid Records, Mute

Tracklist:
01.   Neon
02.   Lasagna
03.   Kino
04.   I Just Had To Die
05.   I Take Time
06.   Parade
07.   Zapata
08.   Bird
09.   N.Y. Hotel
10.   A Lung
11.   Reindeer

Credits:
Handclaps – Albin Lindblad
Vocals – Karin Dreijer
Written-By, Recorded By, Producer, Mixed By – The Knife
Accordion, Saxophone, Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Bass, Organ, Synthesizer, Sequenced By, Sampler, Drum Programming – Karin Dreijer, Olof Dreijer

In promotional photos, the Dreijer siblings appear in comically oversized crow's masks; when performing live, they obscure the stage with a gauzy mesh overhang and peer out impassively from behind bodysuits and balaclavas; on record, they delight in vocal distortions, each one emanating some inhuman grotesquerie. Theatre is the Knife's lifeblood. It's incorporated so completely and convincingly into their persona that, much like Pitchfork's Amanda Petrusich's conviction that Tom Waits "exists in a world populated only by freight trains and barmaids, rodeo clowns and shortwave radios," it's next to impossible to reconcile Karin and Olof with the banalities of day-to-day life. 

That desire to transcend the mundane drives lots of art, but despite that they've been making music for the better part of the decade, it didn't really crystallize for The Knife until earlier this year. That moment came, of course, with the release of their third album, Silent Shout. More than just a great pop album, the record boasted a truck of exotic characters, textures, and ideas. In the sense that it etched out a world with a strange but identifiable internal logic, it felt a little bit like a fantasy writer's breakthrough novel, except with the Dreijers playacting their way through every goblin, ghost, and spook. 

Not surprisingly, the relative success of Silent Shout has paved the way for a re-examination of the band's first two albums. Issued in America for the first time courtesy of Mute Records, neither 2001's eponymous debut nor 2004's Deep Cuts approach the feral highs of Silent Shout; but, taken in a lump, this streaky collection of buoyant pop, creepy denouements, ill-advised genre exercises, and flashes of brilliance spell out the Knife's journey from a sprightly, steel drum sampling, electropop outfit to something much darker and more refined.

Stacked side-by-side-by-side, the Knife's discography is pretty much a textbook example of increasing returns, which means 2001's The Knife is the weakest link in the chain. With the exception of the sproingy "Kino", the nasty guitar squalls of "I Take Time" and the retooled Celtic folkisms of "Parade" (all of which are great), everything else here feels a little limp and unsure; latter-half tracks like "Bird" and "A Lung" practically crumble to an end. Nonetheless, between Dreijer's voice (a thing of strange beauty, even in untouched form), the mutated vocals in "A Lung", and the gently percolating synths of opener "Neon", there are plenty of moments to suggest the Knife's future greatness. 

Brandishing a bona fide calling card single (the superb "Heartbeats"), a toothier production approach, and an increasing debt to house music, 2004's Deep Cuts marked a double-step forward for the duo. If The Knife suffered from seeming a little too tentative and domesticized, Deep Cuts came across as brash and untamed, a streamroller that left overturned chunks of everything from steel drums ("Pass This On") and marimbas ("Rock Classics") to hi-NRG ("Listen Now") and slinky, Timbaland-inspired r&b ("You Make Me Like Charity") in its path. It wasn't always pretty, but the highs-- "Heartbeats", "One For You", "She's Having a Baby", "You Take My Breath Away"-- were more rewarding, and the sense of drama noticeably heightened. 

Where The Knife comes reissued as-is, without extras, Deep Cuts arrives packaged with six bonus tracks and an additional DVD of videos. Between standout Deep Cuts-era remixes from Dahlback & Dahlback, Rex the Dog, and Mylo-- the likes of which would become standard practice for Silent Shout's singles-- and a DVD showing signs of the band's increasing attention to their visual aspect, the bulk of these bonuses have the effect of further bridging the gap between records two and three. Of course, whether you actually want to peek at the duo fumbling behind the curtain in the years before they hit their stride is another question altogether; at the least, any grousing over the unavailability of these records can end now. 

Mark Pytlik / Pitchfork

Paisiel ‎– Paisiel (2018)

Style: Experimental
Format: Vinyl, FLAC
Label: Rocket Recordings

Tracklist:
A1.   Satellite
B1.   Limousine In The Desert
B2.   Cause Yourself To Rise, Gong

Credits:
Mastered By – José Arantes
Percussion – João Pais Filipe
Tenor Saxophone – Julius Gabriel

“ A quasi-tribal trance through the language of jazz.” Arte-Factos  

“ A rhythmic plane between Africa, techno, krautrock, and minimalism.” Jazz PT  

“ A driving force that unites past, present and future.” Rimas E Batidas  

Based on an individual exploration of the sound and on the expressive possibilities of their instruments, the duo’s music seeks to join and systematize their influences, albeit without any obvious correspondences or affinities – resulting in textures and abstract melodies propelled by a mechanical and existential percussion that morphs into a kinetic trance.  

Heterodox and digressive musicians, they move freely between the repetition of krautrock and techno, jazz, experimental music and other new musical categories, João Pais Filipe and Julius Gabriel create radio-graphic sounds that inhabits somewhere between the reception and the emission of a signal, like a cosmic telephone exchange. 

This three track album was originally released in 2018 as a ltd edition cassette on the great Portuguese label Lovers & Lollypops. And now Rocket Recordings are extremely proud to be releasing this unique recording on a ltd edition colour vinyl and across all digital channels.  

In 2018 João Pais Filipe has also found the time to release a stunning and highly acclaimed solo album and a very exciting collaboration with fellow drummer/percussionist, and also very talented Valentina Magaletti (Tomaga/Vanishing Twin/UUUU) called CZN.  

Bandcamp

PlanningToRock ‎– Have It All (2006)

Style: Electro, Experimental
Format: CD, Vinyl
Label: Chicks On Speed Records

Tracklist:
01.   The PTR Show
02.   Bolton Wanderer
03.   Changes
04.   Local Foreigner
05.   Hiding Where I'll Find Me
06.   Take It Away
07.   Don't Want What You Don't Want
08.   Never Going Back
09.   I Wanna Bite Ya
10.   Think That Thought
11.   Have It All
12.   When Are You Gonna Start

Credits:
Mastered By – Lupo
Mixed By – Cornelius Rapp, PTR
Music By, Lyrics By, Performer, Producer – PlanningToRock

Some musicians are famous for departing their homeland (Scott Walker, for instance), while others don't find themselves until they leave. Janine Rostron, aka Planningtorock, is among the latter. Rostron left England for Berlin and ran into Peaches, Kevin Blechdom, Jamie Lidell, and Chicks On Speed along the way. While Planning... doesn't sound much like her fellow expats, she does share their flair for the theatrical-- she performs live in Elizabethan costumes and masks-- which is fitting considering her video work predated her music. 

Part travelogue, part self-help manual, Rostron's debut album details the transformational powers of getting the fuck out of town (in her case Bolton, England), and using the self-imposed alienation to examine personal truths and discover survival skills. "Bolton Wander" is a straightforward narrative of her move and the reasoning behind it. "Local Foreigner" moves on its belly, with eerie percussive vocal stabs and tambourines slithering in and out and Berlin's empty buildings echoing in the song's hollow corners. 

If half of Have It All is about leaving home, the other is about never going back. The sprightly "Changes" explains her metamorphosis. Here her lower vocals are backed by a higher, ghostlier version of the same, as if her different stages are duking it out for supremacy. Eventually the more confident Berliner wins out. On album centerpiece "I Wanna Bite Ya" Rostron flips "I hate your guts" on its head : "What happens if/ I start on your little finger/ What happens if/ I'm halfway up your elbow." This is Rostron's central strength: Her ability to collapse the distinction between threat and enticement, and make you forget that there ever was a distinction in the first place. It's violence rendered playful with a flirty xylophone trill, and sex stripped of any innocence by a guttural growl.

Despite her location and label, Rostron doesn't make dance music. Planningtorock also separates herself from her label mates by keeping her vocals pure, expressive, and soulful; she eschews electro's lifeless monotones and IDM's synth manipulations. The title track has the album's only true beat and bass lines. Most of tracks on Have It All stay away from bass-heavy dance beats, but her songs are more flexible without that backbone. Rostron's Janis Joplin-like runs are able to cover the distance between melody and primal scream, leaving her free to exploit her entire expressive range. 

Have It All* is only one part of a three-part system (along with her costuming/performance and her videos). After all, the album's first track, "The PTR Show" welcomes you to her show, not her album. But Have It All is unique on its own, and sounds like nothing else that's come out this year. The Knife's Silent Shout could be a reference point (and Rostron has remixed a song for them) but their otherworldliness and theatrics alienate the listener. Rostron invites us to become a part of her alienation, and injects the experience with a sense of humor. It repulses as it beckons; the more you ignore her, the closer she gets.

Jessica Suarez / Pitchfork

João Pais Filipe ‎– João Pais Filipe (2018)

Style: Experimental, Free Improvisation
Format: CD, FLAC
Label:  Lovers & Lollypops

Tracklist:
1.   Kavusan
2.   Nine Doors
3.   Konorak

Credits:
Composed By, Performer – João Pais Filipe
Mixed By, Mastered By – José Arantes
Recorded By, Producer – Brendan Rui Hemsworth

Figura incontornável dos circuitos da improvisação e do experimentalismo em Portugal (o seu currículo refere dedicações como Fail Better!, Rafael Toral Space Quartet, Pedra Contida, Sektor 304 e HHY & The Macumbas), João Pais Filipe tem neste disco homónimo o seu primeiro a solo e aquele em que tudo o que vem realizando converge num mesmo conceito estético – um conceito a que não é alheio o seu trabalho paralelo como construtor de gongos e outros instrumentos metálicos de percussão.  A este chama de “ethno-techno” porque explora, em simultâneo, características que pertencem tanto às músicas ditas tribais ou ritualísticas como à electrónica de dança. Outras referências podemos ainda encontrar ao longo dos três temas reunidos, “Kavusan”, “Nine Doors” e “Konorak”, e estas vão desde o melodismo baterístico de Max Roach ao “groove” obsessivo e hipnótico de Jaki Liebezeit, o que define bem o carácter inclusivista e sincrético das perspectivas aqui magnificamente aplicadas. 

Se, como seria de esperar, o ritmo está na base de tudo o que ouvimos, e regra geral com métricas que têm tanto de precisas quanto de estonteantes, neste álbum cabe igualmente um visionarismo harmónico que chega a ser tão assombroso quanto os “beats” armados com peles e pratos. O que um pianista pode ter de orquestral naquilo que tira do teclado é o que Pais Filipe faz com a bateria, dando a esta outros papéis que não aqueles que lhe são usualmente configurados – nesse aspecto, justifica-se plenamente a alusão promocional de que estamos perante uma «nova direcção sonora». As construções podem soar mecânicas na sua implacável repetição de módulos ou na minimalista e lenta (apesar da rapidez das batidas) transfiguração sofrida pelos mesmos, mas não podiam ser mais orgânicas na expressão. Só isso bastaria para que o músico do Porto se destacasse, mas há mais em oferta: um sentido de musicalidade que aspira sempre a ir mais além. Bravo! 

Rui Eduardo Paes / jazz.pt

Bauhaus ‎– The Sky's Gone Out (1982)

Style: Alternative Rock, Glam, Goth Rock
Format: CD, Vinyl, Cass.
Label: Virgin, Beggars Banquet, A&M Records

Tracklist:
01 .  Third Uncle
02.   Silent Hedges
03.   In The Night
04.   Swing The Heartache
05.   Spirit
06.   The Three Shadows Part 1
07.   The Three Shadows Part 2
08.   The Three Shadows Part 3
09.   All We Ever Wanted Was Everything
10.   Exquisite Corpse
11.   Ziggy Stardust
12.   Party Of The First Part
13.   Spirit
14.   Watch That Grandad Go

Credits:
Engineer – Derek Tompkins
Mastered By – Ian Gillespie
Music By, Words By – Bauhaus
Producer – Bauhaus

I vividly recall my first encounter with Bauhaus. I might have first heard the name in a Dogfood [the local New Wave paper that my teenaged life revolved around] review, but it remained until late ’82 when I managed to catch one of the scant airings of the video for Bauhaus’ single “Spirit” on MTV, which had only been available since September of that year where I lived. You can imagine that in my home, it was on almost at all times. At least in those salad days of only interesting videos from almost 100% UK New Wave acts. Of course, we were soon driven from Paradise, but that’s another story. 

I was immediately struck by the entrancing song. I was fascinated to hear music this great that had no obvious synthetic component. By 1980, synths had come to dominate my musical listening, and it was rare to hear a guitar band who still managed to perk my ears up this strongly. I noted that the album was on A+M in America, and on a trip to the godlike Record City in Fern Park I bought my first Bauhaus album, “The Sky’s Gone Out.” 

I set the distinctive silver and tan label on the spindle and was rewarded with my first hearing of Brian Eno’s “Third Uncle.” By the previous year I was steeped in the first two Eno solo albums, but a copy of “Before And After Science” was still in my future at that point. The breakneck rhythms of Kevin Haskins’ drums pummeled the song onward at a furious pace as Daniel Ash’s seriously phased roars of lead guitar shrieked overhead like jets scrambling. But they were not warm jets. This was brittle, frantic music in full panic mode. 

Over it all, Peter Murphy’s multiple threads of interlocking, syncopated vocal lines wove a tapestry of catastrophe. This was obviously the soundtrack to some horrible, unstoppable event. It was foreboding in a way that anything moving this fast rarely was. And yes, it certainly got my pulse racing. I was now enervated and ready for anything. Good thing, too… because they then proceeded to throw everything but the kitchen sink at those still tender ears. 

“Silent Hedges” began innocently enough, in an English Folke mode before the bass of David J piled on and began smothering the light as the song accelerated down its “beautiful downgrade, going to hell again.” Then the next track really twisted the knife.

Post-Punk Monk

Khruangbin ‎– Con Todo El Mundo (2018)

Style: Funk, Psychedelic
Format: CD, Vinyl
Label: Night Time Stories, Beat Records, Dead Oceans

Tracklist
01. Como Me Quieres
02. Lady and Man
03. Maria También
04. August 10
05. Como Te Quiero
06. Shades of Man
07. Evan Finds the Third Room
08. A Hymn
09. Rules
10.    Friday Morning

Credits:
Drums – Donald Johnson, Jr.
Guitar, Vocals, Mellotron, Percussion, Producer – Mark Speer
Pedal Steel Guitar – Will Van Horn
Percussion – Charlie Perez
Vibraphone – Chase Jordan
Bass, Vocals, Handclaps, Producer – Laura Lee
Producer – Steve Christensen
Written-By, Arranged By – Khruangbin

Khruangbin craft atmosphere music that never fades into the background, like some endless curl of smoke that keeps pluming upward. Sprinkled with snippets of spoken word, faint vocal melodies, and ranging and impeccably performed guitar solos, the whole of their second record, Con Todo El Mundo is, in effect, a long and pleasant head nod that seems to hang between continents and eras. The group—whose name is a transliteration of the Thai word for “airplane”—elicits the same eclectic enjoyment of any number of artists that came of age around the turn of the century, from the laid-back trip-hop feel of Kruder & Dorfmeister to dub-jammy Thievery Corporation: Ethereal instrumental music that might be described as “world” as shorthand for its range of melody, rhythm, and overall vibe. But the Houston-based instrumental trio makes music that’s a little more dusty, frayed around the edges, and personal. 

Though clearly informed by psychedelic rock, the primary influence that fueled their 2015 debut, The Universe Smiles Upon You, was Thai funk, music that bassist Laura Lee and guitarist Mark Speer found by scouring the Thai music blog, Monrakplengthai. Speer was in a gospel band with hip-hop producer and drummer Donald “DJ” Johnson, who became the third member, adding the more influences to the blend, and plenty of breakbeats. But Con Todo El Mundo broadens the group’s sound, maintaining the funk but also adding bits and pieces of Caribbean, Indian, and Middle Eastern music. Iran is the obvious touchstone in “Maria También,” whose video directly addresses women’s rights in that country. Throw in a few retro surf riffs and whispered vocal lines and you’ve got an aesthetic that feels at home at any beach or desert in the world. 

From the laidback first few seconds of guitar, bass, and organ that begins “Cómo Me Quieres” (“How do you love me?” )—the question answered by the album’s title Con Todo El Mundo (“With all the world”)—it’s clear that this music might be the perfect accompaniment to just about any somewhat passive activity. Cooking? Studying? Walking? Riding the bus? Khruangbin have your back. Need to speed it up a little? Skip to the funky, zouk-styled bounce of “Evan Finds the Third Room.” Relaxing around the house on a Sunday afternoon? Try the loping slowness of “A Hymn.” Every track is profoundly pleasant and, at times, even danceable, in a crunchy kind of way.

Perhaps this is music for the Spotify era; a flowchart of sounds spawned from a range of music connected by the wonders of algorithmic technology. Describing how musical influence can be found anywhere, drummer Johnson describes Shazaming tunes in his local pho restaurant, and the band also offers a curated Spotify playlists for listeners. Each one contains music that influenced the band while recording and allows the playlist to be tailored to the length of an airplane journey and tweaked according to the mood. It may read like a slight to say that Con Todo El Mundo sounds like the result of an algorithm, but it’s an algorithm that reflects the way music is now consumed. Every week listeners “discover” new rhythms catered to an activity or previous selections. But it also allows, maybe, just maybe, for what was once called “world music” to slide into these shuffled, technologically selected playlists. Khruangbin’s takes this new mode of listening and injects its own singular and developing personality into the playlisting of modern music. 

Erin MacLeod / Pitchfork

Space Invadas ‎– Wild World (2018)

Style: Contemporary R&B, Hip Hop, Neo Soul, Soul
Format: Vinyl
Label:  Invada Records

Tracklist:
01.   Welcome
02.   Late Night
03.   Dont Ever Look Back
04.   Wild World)
05.   Satellite
06.   Are You Afraid
07.   Love And Hope
08.   Now That I Know
09.   Woman In Charge
10.   Minds Eye
11.   Say Something
12.   I Just Want To
13.   Imaginist

Credits:
Mastered By – DJ Danielsan

Sometimes you don't realise how much you miss someone til you hear them again. 

Eight years on from their acclaimed debut Soul-Fi, Katalyst and Steve Spacek return with Wild World, the second instalment of electro soul gems for Space Invadas. And listening to it makes us wonder how we lasted so long without new music from this perfect collaboration. 

Katalyst's expertly-selected crate-digging productions and Spacek's flawless soul vocals are such a perfect combination, each complementing one another so perfectly that they make each other sound better. 

While these two creative forces are the crux of what makes this record such a dynamic soulful punch, a few expertly selected guests bring a fresh perspective to some of the productions. 

Natalie Slade is a not-so-secret weapon that elevates every production she sings on (see: Yum Yum, Plutonic Lab's latest cuts). So it stands to reason that her appearances on opener ‘Welcome' and the beautifully brassy ‘Woman In Charge' are among the album's many highlights. 

Guilty Simpson's verse on the funk gem ‘Late Night' is both smooth and powerful, as is Remi's contribution to ‘Wild World' – neither of them transform their respective tracks into hip hop songs, they just add a fresh element to keep things interesting. 

While the record is very much steeped in late-70s funk and soul, there are a few sidesteps that keep the audience guessing. There's the exotic South American flourish of ‘Don't Ever Look Back', the synth-heavy ‘Satellite' has a distinctly electro vibe, and it all wraps up with the spacey, psych-soul of ‘I Just Want To' that shows the duo can get a little weird when they need to.

It's tough to pick highlights when a record has no low points, no moments lacking in inspiration. But special credit must go to ‘Now That I Know' – one of the best soul tracks of the year and a jam that is every bit as good as the best hip hop tinged soul (think Anderson.Paak et al) being made anywhere. 

Katalyst and Spacek's are one of the most formidable tandem acts in Australian music. Everything on Wild World is executed with great care and class, and it's a soul record that can, and should, stand up alongside the giants of modern hip hop and soul worldwide. 

Dan Condon / ABC