Portico Quartet announce Monument, the electronic driven follow-up to their acclaimed ambient-minimalist suite Terrain, presenting the band at their most direct. It's rare that a band releases two albums within six months of each other, rarer too that while both are so different, they are both as epochal in terms of the band's output as Terrain and Monument are to Portico Quartet. The irony is that Monument, a stripped-back, intentionally direct album, was the album that the band set out to write in May 2020, before the dream like long-form Terrain came into focus. Briefly they were two halves of the same record, but the band ended up developing these two distinct bodies of work concurrently. And although they were written side-by-side and recorded at the same sessions, they are records best understood as distinct from each other, each with opposing ideas and forms. Monument is one of Portico Quartet's most accessible, direct records to date. If Terrain addressed the darker side of how Duncan Bellamy and Jack Wyllie made sense of the pandemic, then Monument resonates as an ode to better times. If not quite a dance record, it nonetheless pulses with an energy, radiance and a scalpel sharp focus. Jack Wyllie explains: "It's possibly our most direct album to date. It's melodic, structured and there's an economy to it that is very efficient. There's not much searching or wastage within the music itself, it is all finalised ideas, precisely sculpted and presented as a polished artefact." Bellamy expands "Monument sits somewhere between our albums Portico Quartet and Art in the Age of Automation. It has perhaps a more overtly electronic edge to its sound – there are more synthesisers and electronic elements than we have used before and the music is often streamlined and rhythmic". After the ethereal, stage-setting of Opening, the album kicks into overdrive with Impressions, a short energetic track that pairs a club influenced groove with hang drum and close, delicate saxophone. It's the balance between these elements that push and pull the track through a selection of melodic and rhythmic re-configurations, contrasting human touch with a machine-like focus. Ultraviolet is a kaleidoscopic, krautrock inspired track with a haunting introduction and an insistent pulse. The wistful Ever Present builds from a simple piano refrain; a nostalgic melody line floats over the top as drums and bass groove insistently underneath, before reaching a euphoric peak. The title track Monument builds around a looping vocal sample, drums and an enigmatic melody, the ending giving way to a gauzy, weaving synth line. The power here is in its economy and luminosity. AOE flips back and forth, like a dial that's been switched. Mining the tension between a pastoral inflected cello and saxophone melody, with an abrupt shift to jilted live drums, wailing delayed saxophone and a flickering synth line. Warm Data comes straight from the same Portico Quartet tradition as older tracks like Current History and Laker-Boo. It's a marriage of instrumental minimalism with drum machines and synths. Finally, the album closes with On The Light, a track that transmits a sense of suspense and freedom, driven by the twitching drums of Bellamy and evocative sax of Wyllie. It offers the perfect bitter-sweet and evocative ending to Portico Quartet's latest Monument. Mastered by John Davis at Metropolis. Artwork by Duncan Bellamy for Veils Project.

鸠摩智作于大雪山中。

The enigmatic Kenny Dixon Junior, aka Moodymann, is one of the Detroit sound’s leading architects. Black Mahogani is the definitive Moodymann album, featuring the rarest & most sought after tracks from his early KDJ outings as well as some incredible new future classics. The album features Amp Fiddler on vocals for "I’m Doing Fine", which is arguably Amp’s finest moment. Also featured are two Detroit jazz & soul legends; Norma Jean Bell and Roberta Sweed. The pure soulful genius of this album will give it a more universal appeal than just Moodymann’s usual fans and should bring in an audience from a wide variety of genres including jazz, soul and R&B.

Rob Garza and Eric Hilton consider it their most introspective work to date. Existing somewhere between rock, dub, psychedelic, Latin, and electronic music, this 2002 album finds the duo elevating their signature sound with more contemplative and thought-provoking songwriter. The jewel case is housed in a slipcase along with a 40-page black & white photo booklet. Eighteenth Street Lounge. 2002.

Mixing fluidly between afro-beat, reggae, rock, Brazilian, soul, easy listening, electronic and rare library music, Thievery Corporation create a set that takes the listener on a trip of truly global proportions. The Outernational Sound is a seamless recording from many nights of sonic exploration with the turntables and a crate of records. From warehouse parties in Caracas to elegant soires in Honolulu, and root downs in Kingston, Garza and Hilton have played a lot of rare wax for a broad spectrum of listeners. Now, in a one-hour mix CD, the sound system has been mashed up and the whole world can share in Thievery Corporation's Outernational Sound.

In an ordinary suburban house, on a lovely tree-lined street, in the middle of 1970s America, lived the five beautiful, dreamy Lisbon sisters, whose doomed fates indelibly marked the neighborhood boys who to this day continue to obsess over them. A story of love and repression, fantasy and terror, sex and death, memory and longing. It is at its core a mystery story: a heart-rending investigation into the impenetrable, life-altering secrets of American adolescence.

你可以想象得到一个著名平面设计师和一个辛勤的园丁的合作所产生什么化学作用呢？Lost Horizons就是他们的产品，大量的Beats、Loops、Sample的和谐相处，制作了02年最奇妙的Downtempo之旅。专辑的开首曲Elements已经是一手集铿锵吉他、轻柔和唱、温暖口琴的窝心之作；Spacewalk通过如音乐盒般的钢琴给我们带来无重状态的太空感受；Return to Patagonia以紧凑的Jazz鼓击与色士风的配搭，为我们带来丝丝入扣的翱翔感觉；而Experiment Number Six的出色小号演出所带来的则是神秘的另类Jazz意境。沉醉在Lemon Jelly的音乐当中，望着Lost Horizons的唱片封面，我放下了手上的所有工作，闭上眼睛，怀着豁然的心情，走上了秋季旅行之路。