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viewing 1 To 11 of 11 items
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SOUK 012LP
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Always timely reissue of Muqata'a's first self-released EP from 2017. After years of fertile digital existence on his own Bandcamp, La Lisana Lah now gets a much-deserved tactile version through Souk, the Discrepant sublabel responsible for the already classic Inkanakuntu. One of the most prominent figures of the Palestinian electronic scene, Muqata'a's trajectory has been one of resistance and urgency, leaving a sonic imprint of his own from pretty much the beginning. Without anything tentative or vestigial about its sonic fictions, La Lisana Lah deploys an arsenal of Muqata'a's traits that would be explored on subsequent releases: the glitchy thick textures verging on noise of "Tib Al Huroof," the narcotic broken beats of "Taqdirahu Anta" and "Zyadet Naqs" or the alluring disruptive harmonic suspension of "Dijla Wal Fada," everything cared for with an essential attention to space and evoking the heritage of Palestinian resistance through his use of samples and scales. A visionary from the get go.
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SOUK 011LP
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Souk present the sophomore album from a true fixture in Cairo seething electronic scene who should, by now at least, remain anonymously famous behind the 3Phaz moniker. Both as a way to make focus on the music itself regardless of identity and to sever ties with past projects, 3Phaz acts like an entity in itself, a most suitable conjuration of sounds past and future gravitating on their own dimension. Though connections are inevitable and welcoming with home turf artists such as ZULI or Rozzma, the Souk catalog or percussion obsessed travelers like DJ Plead or errorsmith, 3Phaz's dalliance with the traditional sounds of Shaabi and Mahraganat and possible intersections with grime, techno, and bass-heavy subcultures feel very much their own. Stripping away some of the dankest and darkest layers that made his debut album -- Three Phase -- such a dystopic proposition, Ends Meet envisions a different kind of future, that while not necessarily utopian, feels less tense and more celebratory in the capture and release mastery of its syncopations. Through seven percussion workouts summoned from hard-hitting kicks, flinty hand drums, darting rhythmic excursions and traditional flute-like synth melodies, 3Phaz creates a set of raw and ever-intriguing DJ tools for adventurous dancefloors that escape the mere functionality associated with the term to bristle with a life of their own.
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SOUK 010LP
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Romperayo is back, with a brand new tropical nine-track album full of tropical riddims and humid Caribbean jams. After two long sold-out albums, Romperayo (Discrepant, 2015) and Que Jué? (Souk, 2019), Pedro Ojeda's unique update on classic Colombian music returns for a full long player of future tropical instrumental tunes, heavy on the drum grooves mixed with slow, languid experimental interludes. This is 21st century Colombian popular music taken to the next level by one of the most singular figures currently active on the Colombian scene. Romperayo's, aka Pedro Ojeda (Los Pirañas, Chupame el Dedo) solo project uses his irreverent drumming techniques and filters them through a lens of new school psychedelia, historical sampling, and acid synth solos. With his sound obsessions clearly present over all of his work (and this record), Pedro effortless mixes the old school with the new with an avant-garde collage approach to composition, never forgetting his academic studies on Latin American drumming styles. The result expands the frontiers of Colombian tropical music and provides a new, multicultural dialogue whilst using many of the rhythms and melodies of the Colombian historical repertoire to a new generation. The Colombian Caribbean coast sonido never sounded so fresh. Artwork by Mateo Rivano. All tracks composed and produced by Pedro Ojeda. Acosta Accordion on "Calzoncillo Colorado" by Iván Medellín. Gaita on "Calzoncillo Colorado" by Jaime Ospina.
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SOUK 009LP
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It is no surprise that the most populated Serpente record to date is also his most vibrant and emancipated. With collaborations from Maxwell Sterling, Kelly Jayne Jones, Pedro Sousa, Vasco Alves, and Gabriel Ferrandini, Dias da Aranha is a leap from previous releases like Parada (ELP 044LP, 2019) and Fé/Vazio (2020), both on Ecstatic. If you're keeping in touch with Portuguese electronic music, then Bruno Silva's music should be no stranger to you. If you've also been keeping tabs on his evolution throughout Souk's catalog, you'll notice how mature and resolved his sounds feels in Dias da Aranha. There's no restrain here, the beats evolve in a self-confident way and the way it assembles and incorporates other people's sounds is a bliss. Go straight to the last track, "Ritos de Poeira", and listen to how organic everything feels, the endless rhythm and how Pedro Sousa's saxophone is incorporated as a beautiful hopeful lament. Just put it on repeat. Bliss. You have never heard Bruno -- as Serpente or Ondness -- so sure of himself. Escapism is very present in his music. In the past the idea of searching for it was key, in Dias da Aranha he lives in it. It is daring and luminous, streaming a continuous beam of bright ideas, making sure that they find the right course on their own ("Meio Ondness"). It never stops, keeps evolving, getting better and finding ways to surprise the listener. In some moments you can listen to the music breathing. Or sense some kind of field recordings shape. It doesn't rely anymore on the idea of music as a work in progress. This is evolution. Welcome to the Serpente Era. Artwork by AJD and Bruno Silva. Mastered by Carlos Nascimento.
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SOUK 008LP
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Grup Ses, Istanbul based veteran beatmaker returns to Souk after two years with first fully instrumental album since 2011's sought-after Beats and Pieces from Turkish Psychedelia. Grup Ses project dates back to 2007 which at the time focused on v/vm style edits and breakcore infused mash ups. Starting from 2008 Grup Ses started to build a version of Stones Throw abd Brainfeeder influenced beatmaking mixed with a touch of humor. A blend including all kinds of local recorded material like records, tapes, radio broadcasts etc., which became the building blocks of signature Grup Ses sound. Beats from the Vaults is a showcase of beatmaking aesthetics Grup Ses visited between 2008 and 2021. Including various cuts available only on SoundCloud plus unheard material compiled just for this album. Edition of 500; vinyl edition includes tracks not available on digital and streaming formats.
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SOUK 006LP
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Portuguese electronic alchemist Bruno Silva, aka Ondness, aka Serpente, lands his first ever vinyl release as Ondness on the ever-evolving Souk imprint. 2018 couldn't have been better for Bruno Silva. Two major releases under his moniker Serpente, A Noiva (Tormenta Eléctrica) and Parada (Ecstatic, ELP 044LP) and a Ondness tape, Not Really Now Not Any More (Holuzam). Meio Que Sumiu is the first vinyl release by Ondness, following more than a dozen releases on tape, CDRs, and digital. He's also graduating to vinyl on the Discrepant family, after his 2018 tape Celas Death Squad combining Serpente and Ondness works as a split (SUC 020CS). "Meio Que Sumiu" can be translated as the "community that disappeared" and it alludes to the disappearance of outdoors communities and how it affects the music we listen (and how we listen to it). Ondness wanted to release an album less about himself and his inspirations, and more about his aspirations about how dance music could be in an era of constant interactivity and information. But also, how it fails to be that aspiration. Once again, like in Not Really Now Not Any More, Bruno works in the territory of science fiction. Investigating the present and future with nostalgia about how things could be and could evolve. It's music in the realm of non- existing, instead of raving nostalgia about dance music from the 1990s, Bruno explores the idea of possible futures with different approaches to dance/electronic music in each song. In Meio Que Sumiu it's obvious his music has matured and found its listeners. Bruno is no longer a bedroom musician. (He never was, but he sure worked on that idea. And very well, you might say). The dancefloor is now his, with music that explores the deeper immersion of ourselves. Communities may be changing, but the principles of dance music are always the same. Even with motion sickness for future nostalgia, like the music in Meio Que Sumiu.
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SOUK 005LP
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Captivity is the new release by Kush Arora, aka Only Now, following a triptych of self-released output in 2019. Continuing the project's ever-evolving engagement with themes of time and existence, Captivity encompasses versatile synthesis, mutant kuduro, widescreen sound design, turbulent cold fronts of power ambient and melodic undertones of black metal. The product of a two-year period in which Arora was contending with transitional shifts in his personal life, Captivity is a culmination of what the project has explored both in a prolific run of recent material and as a whole, across several years of time-dilating, mind-altering music. Although shaped by adversity and corresponding sentiments of angst and insignificance, Captivity is pitched at total transcendence. Adopting a meticulous approach to production, a methodology which opens up almost every element to transformation and deconstruction, Arora generates forms which possess a sense of pointillist precision, as well as a keen psychedelic potency. Despite consistency with his earlier output as Only Now, Captivity is nevertheless an indication of Arora's ability to challenge internal and external assumptions. The introduction of new hardware -- namely, the Nord Drum 3P synthesizer, as well as the incorporation of far-flung atmospherics -- closing track "Clock Lust" features field recordings from a trip to Kyoto -- delivers fresh enterprise and experimentation, contributing to the expansion of a sound signature which remains as unpredictable and compelling as ever. With the eponymous opener, Arora combines fathomless underworlds and riotous breakbeats. On Mutants" a hyper-kinetic onslaught of percussion, low-end and stray cut-ups of noise break out, building to a panorama of thunderous industrial firmaments. "Perpetual Slaughter" maintains momentum with icy, ricocheting FX and concussive, tribal drums, then unexpectedly shifts into a poignant outro which brings to the fore the enduring influence of black metal on the project. "Bound 2" is cut with relentless sub-bass and rapid syncopation, resembling an abstracted form of juke music, something that could feasibly have been masterminded by Autechre. With the LP's finale, "Clock Lust," Arora presents a finale of transfixing 3D ritualism, the lone toll of a bell ringing out into a mesmeric emptiness. Together these form a complete statement from Arora, illustrating the fertile and open-ended territories the Only Now project has arrived at after promising outings on Infinite Machine and Discrepant imprint Sucata Tapes. With Captivity Arora delivers a substantial high point and a profound voyage into the world of Only Now. Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker.
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SOUK 003LP
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In 2018, Sucata Tapes welcomed Grup Ses with Program 01 (SUC 012CS, 2018), a mystically-mixed soundtrack of far-out new age and film soundtracks from Turkey circa 1986. A new set of Turkish delights were prepared for this year's release. Deli Divan is a two-part record with incredibly crafted beats that tell a different story depending on which version one choses. The A side captivates with its voracity; hi-tech and fierce beats drop with the sharp voice and flow of Ethnique Punch, delivering 14 (yes, f-o-u-r-t-e-e-n) short and punchy tracks. The diggin' liveliness of Grup Ses is well present in the samples used, manufacturing beats that serve well the fast paced and nocturnal voice of Ethnique Punch. The first part of Deli Divan is pretty much a straight story, but a good one. But then comes the surprise, the other side. The same fourteen tracks without voice, just the beats. And here, Deli Divan tells a completely different story. It loses the urgency, darkness and robustness of the A side, especially because the beats float in limbo without a voice. But that limbo reveals the straightforwardness of the beats created by Grup Ses for this record. There's a hidden narrative here; without the voice the short tracks connect like an outer world radio broadcast. But there's no narrator, just time-traveling beats that interlink past, present and future, synthesizing complex ideas in short bursts of one or two minutes.
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SOUK 004LP
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Back in 2014 when Chupame El Dedo first released their self-titled album (CREP 030LP, 2016), one couldn't be sure if people could hold their mojitos while banging to their music. In 2019 one is seriously advised to keep one's hands free while listening to their second album, No Te Metas Con Satan. Formed by psych cumbia master Eblis Alvarez (Meridian Brothers) and Pedro Ojeda (Romperayo), the men that found the perfect cocktail mix for acid + folk + tropical beats, Chupame El Dedo are ready to mess around with Satan. No Te Metas Con Satan is a humorous title for music that expels cartoonish metal-vibes mixed with tropical rhythms. It's a pitch-perfect title for a record that's never at the right pitch. The humor makes way for the funny stories that Eblis and Pedro explore in their lyrics; Souk's fourth release is a daring adventure in global beats. Frequently it calls to mind the universe of Quasimoto, Madlib's abstract hip hop that sounded delicious in the early 2000s. Chupame El Dedo lives in the same kind of power trip, fueled by intense salsa rhythms dressed with heavy metal images - that's where Satan comes into place. The Devil wears many clothes, but none are as multi-colored and trendy as the ones we see in No Te Metas Con Satan. One is advised of that during the first side of the LP, each song dares the listener, with a multitude of ideas (sometimes dissonant ones), to find a way to make sense. An example? The first song "No Te Metas Con Satan" sounds like a perverted version of Rod Stewart's "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" and when you think it's over, it starts again, repeating ideas and leaving you extremely confused. What the fuck just happened? Chupame El Dedo happened. Flip to the other side and "Alexandra Candelaria" says hi with a nearly eight-minute long sinful and hilarious soap opera; no one is ready for this. Laughter mixes with intense head banging; is this what would happen if Jodorowsky made a Cartoon Network show? Maybe it's a good idea to not mess around with Satan, but one could find oneself in serious trouble if one doesn't listen to this. Seriously.
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SOUK 002LP
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Second release on the newly minted Souk (sub label of Discrepant), coming swiftly after the mind-blowing Palestinian beat LP Inkanakuntu (SOUK 001LP, 2018). For the second release, Souk chose someone who is already part of our Discrepant family: the Colombian tropical masters Romperayo, aka Pedro Ojeda. Back in 2015 Discrepant released their self-titled debut and now it's time for the follow up, Que Jue?, ten up-tempo bangers filled with the unique sounds of psychedelic 1970s Cumbia. Whilst the first Romperayo LP united several musicians around Pedro Ojeda's frantic drum style (CREP 020LP, 2015), Que Jue? sees him take the reins solo, armed with instruments, samplers, and his trusted drum skills. Que Jue? is a fever rhythm joy, an intense voyage to the diverse landscape of Colombian folklore and psychedelic scene. It's also a combination of old and new, an exploration of sample techniques that throwback to classic cumbia but with an electronic minimal vibe that seeks the intense repetition of some dance music produced recently. All for the sake of pleasure, Romperayo's music is magnetic, impulsive, and addictive. The repetitive patterns are mixed astutely and sweaty percussion changes the rhythm whenever it's needed: you don't know that, but they do, and they deliver it frequently with awe. Tropical fusion, new cumbia, or salsa on acids? You decide.
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SOUK 001LP
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Beat master Muqata'a, one of the brains behind the thriving hip hop scene in Ramallah, Palestine, delivers a unique instrumental album, Inkanakuntu. While Discrepant were exploring the world digging for music that exists at the edge of many genres they realized the need to create an(other) adventurous new sublabel. Souk Records aims to bring beats from every corner of the world with the divergent and discrepant taste that has been delivered since 2010. Inkanakuntu is more than an instrumental hip-hop album, with nods to classic hip-hop works and mixed with a downtempo grime feel that captures the urgency and eagerness of UK's dance culture. With these eight instrumentals Muqata'a shows how vast and deep his music knowledge is, with a refined taste and a perfect sense of melody-molding. Sometimes it's real raw, in others we can feel mellowness and jazz feeling or the perfect pop beat. Make no mistake, Muqata'a is a beats craftsman.
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