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Emerging from endless improvisation sessions and re-interpreting their heroes, Paris-based band Underground Canopy presents their first body of original work via MENACE : “Bluestaeb & S. Fidelity present Underground Canopy” drops on January 31st, 2020. 
The debut EP was produced, recorded and mixed by critically acclaimed Jakarta Records artists Bluestaeb and S. Fidelity in London. The five-piece band’s neo soul- and jazz-infused instrumental hip-hop is heavily influenced by like minded acts such as Yesterday’s New Quintet, BadBadNotGood and Butcher Brown.

Underground Canopy officially formed in 2016 after jamming and playing covers of Flying Lotus, Madlib and J. Dilla for several years. Band members Jonathan Aréna (Keys), Warren Dongué (Bass), Necky Gomis (Trumpet/Flugelhorn), Alfredo Grooveton (Drums) and Jeremy Talon (Guitar) members met in the south of France during their 20s and immediately connected over their shared passion for hip-hop and instrumental music. The approach to compositions was always to transform the vibe of jazzy hip-hop into hand made live music. They’ve played dozen of shows throughout France, including support slots for Alan Mion’s legendary jazz funk outfit Cortex and rising Japanese jazz band WONK.

Through MENACE label founder Midori (Menace) the band met Bluestaeb, who moved from his hometown Berlin to Paris in 2015, and his long time collaborator S. Fidelity, who is still based in the German capital. Both featured UC pianist Jonathan Aréna on their previous records and collaborated with guitarist Jeremy Talon. The two producers, who are signed to German tastemaker label Jakarta Records, recognized the raw creative potential of Underground Canopy and shaped their demos into six fully arranged and fully grown songs. Additionally, Bluestaeb and S. Fidelity recorded a ten-minute jam of the band, which they left uncut showcasing the skill and ingenuity of each member.

“Bluestaeb & S. Fidelity present Underground Canopy” will be released on 12” vinyl and on all digital platforms on January 31st 2020 via MENACE. 
Credits
All songs written and composed by Underground Canopy
Necky Gomis (Trumpet / Flugelhorn), Jeremy Talon (Guitar), Jonathan Aréna (Keys / Synth), Alfredo Grooveton (Drums), Warren Dongué (Bass)

Recorded in London by S. Fidelity
Produced and arranged at Manolo Purple Studio, Berlin by Bluestaeb & S. Fidelity
Mastering by Philipp Welsing at Original Mastering, Hamburg
Production by Mido for MENACE Production
Graphic design by Fabian Bremer
Photography by Alfred Rambaud
Assistant engineering by Ashyar Balsara and Hakim Cherfi, London
Production assistance by Jack Palmer and Camille Rigou-Chemin
Special thanks to Martin Giffard

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I’ve wanted to do an album dedicated to the guitar for a long time.
As a child, I treated it as a toy. In my early teens, with the guitar patched with pieces of sellotape, I tried out the most varied tunings to reproduce heavy rock riffs. At the end of adolescence, in the samba circles where someone asked for a D minor and began to sing something I had never played in my life, I forced myself to find the cadences and breaks in the midst of my fear. The guitar came first and always accompanied me.
My dream was to perform choro. I tied myself in knots, but, due to technical limitations, I started looking for my own way to play. Although I really like that Brazilian guitar tradition, it was in the Afro works of Baden Powell and in the guitars of Dorival Caymmi, João Bosco, Jorge Ben, Rosinha de Valença and Gilberto Gil that I could see a different way of applying the instrument to the song format.
My quest with the guitar has always followed a path linked to rhythm, especially with the right hand, which usually sweep-picks the instrument or makes the attacks. The idea has always been to play the guitar as a percussion instrument. The samba and choro guitar, separating the bass strings from the high strings, have helped me a lot in creating a more polyrhythmic view. Usually, when I do something on the guitar, the bass lines and sharp counterpoints are present.
My experience in the São Paulo punk rock / hardcore scene of the 90s, in the samba and in the religious activities at Ilê Leuiwyato, directed by the priestess Iya Sandra Medeiros Epega, somehow shaped the way that I play guitar today.
Music also comes forth from the ground that people walk on, in people, in the dust of the paths, and not only in the artistic world.
Rastilho is part of the desire to find these places. The songs were basically composed over a period of one month. Over a few days, André Magalhães and Bruno Buarque recorded and mixed everything to tape in a completely analog process. Before putting the sound together, I showed them some recordings from the 60’s by Sergio Ricardo, Geraldo Vandré, Edu Lobo, Pedro Sorongo and we noticed a very interesting use of the effects of echoes, delays and reverbs. We looked for this ambience as part of the sound of the album.
The album features Ava Rocha, Ogi and Juçara Marçal.
The wonderful Coral is formed by Dulce Monteiro, Maraísa and Graça Menezes.
The master was done by Felipe Tichauer at Red Traxx Mastering
The cover is by Pablo Saborido, a tropical, putrid, sick image that reminds us of today.
Rastilho truly is a guitar record, where the instrument overlaps everything else, the voices, the lyrics. It is the wood that sings.
Rastilho can be the piece of bone that supports the strings on the guitar easel. Rastilho can also be the fuse that lights the bomb.
The characters on this album lit their own fuses and exploded.

translated by David McLoughlin (Brasil Calling) 
Credits
Recorded and mixed at Minduca Studio - SP (september and november 2019)
Kiko Dinucci - Vocals, acoustic guitar (nylon strings), production, songs and lirycs.
Dulce Monteiro, Maraísa, Gracinha Menezes and Juçara Marçal - chorus (tracks 02, 04, 05, 09 and 11)
Juçara Marçal - voice (tracks 08 and 10)
Ogi - voice (track 08)
Ava Rocha - voice (track 07)
André Magalhães and Bruno Buarque - recording and mixing
Felipe Tichauer - Mastering at Red Traxx Music - Miami
Pablo Saborido - cover photography - Estúdio Soy Yo
Aline Belfort - profile photography

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Fresh from releases on whitelabrecs and Archives, Luis Miehlich is a producer from Germany with an inclination for creating calming soundscapes based on a collage of different sound sources. From playful Kalimba sounds to smooth guitar tones and the odd synth here and there, he ties these together with field recordings in a manner that is evidently his own. It’s at times lo-fi with a hint of abstraction, other times peaceful.

Having discovered Luis’ music through his Archives release, I was very happy to have been able to secure this short but sweet selection of tracks for Inner Space Travels and it’s a pleasure to put them out to the world. Keep an eye on this guy, there’s a bright future ahead.

Credits
#IST008
Produced and mixed by Luis Miehlich
Mastered by James Armstrong
Artwork and Design by Bettina Gackstatter
Published by INNER SPACE TRAVELS 2020

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The next official reissue oozes the feelgood factor, a reggae disco cover of ‘Ain’t Nobody’ by Jamaican artist Yvonne Archer. For the first time since the original release in 1983 the full length original 12” mix gets the reissue treatment along with the Lovers Rock leaning ‘Checking Out The Way I Feel’. On the flip Jura Soundsystem provide 2 edits, a main edit that pulls back on the electric guitar from the original and a Dub adding subtle delays and sparse use of the Vocal to let the groove work its magic. This is the first of two 12”s licensed from producer John Rubie that will appear on Isle Of Jura in 2020. Full sleeve artwork by Bradley Pinkerton.

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Cult guitarist and all-star band mix environmental theme with West Coast vibe

For his sixth Hubro album, the Norwegian composer, bandleader and virtuoso guitarist Stein Urheim presents a new set of compositions for a specially formed group featuring three of his favourite musicians: bassist Ole Morten Vagan and percussionists/multi-instrumentalists Hans Hulbækmo and Kåre Opheim. Characterised by a relaxed, loose-limbed pulse rippling with cross-rhythms, and an epic, widescreen feel that can suggest the open vistas of the American west, the seven tracks function together as a kind of informal suite. Their strongly defined melodies and carefully layered textures evoke a luminously-coloured acoustic world where bucolic, country-rock tinged soundscapes meet world-jazz improvisations and a little of what might be termed pop-Americana.

As well as acting as composer/arranger and playing various guitars and related gizmos, Bergen-based Stein Urheim also sings on the album’s three vocal tracks, delivering his own eco-conscious yet teasingly enigmatic lyrics with a deep-voiced, Californian-accented charm. The result is a winning, immensely likeable and listenable collection of songs that matches compulsive tunefulness with superb drumming and enough expertly-played licks - including some killer bottleneck slide - to satisfy the most demanding of guitar fans. The contrast with Stein Urheim’s two most recent Hubro releases - the bare-bones solo acoustic set ‘Simple Pieces & Paper Cut-Outs’ , and the earlier concept album ‘Utopian Tales’ (a socio/musical investigation into microtonality and utopian communities, in whose band Vagan, Opheim and producer Jørgen Træen also appeared), could on the face of it not be greater, but there is a connection.

“Some of the music had its origin in the VossaJazz festival commission from 2016 that also resulted in the album ‘Utopian Tales, and the other tunes were mainly written in Berlin in the summer of 2018 during an artist-residency there” (the same residency that led to the creation of ’Simple Pieces & Paper Cut-Outs’), says Urheim. “I wanted to make a percussive album with a strong focus on drums, but with many ideas and arrangements for counterpointing melodies played with different stringed instruments, and vibraphone. I had also written lyrics for some of the tunes, and I wanted to see what it would be like to sing all of it myself. We did a three-day session at Paradiso studio in Oslo in December 2018 with engineer Christian Engfeldt. In early February this year I overdubbed all the rest of the arrangements with Jorgen Traen in Duper Studio in Bergen, where we also mixed and finished the production of the album. I really like listening to to this set myself, which is not always the case with my own music. It has a lot of layers, and the composed themes and the improvisation go hand in hand with each other.”

The album opens with the short but striking title track, a beautifully-played instrumental prelude where Urheim’s pedal-driven guitar almost seems to weep the melody like a saxophone solo. If the background of Indian drones and percussion already seemed reminiscent of the Impulse! recordings of John Coltrane or Pharoah Sanders, the subsequent track, ‘Brave New World’, accentuates the comparison, its opening riff sounding like a paraphrase of Coltrane’s famous 'Giant Steps’. As the initial riff is succeeded by a new, free-floating figure, it’s possible to hear further echoes of Coltrane’s wide-ranging influence, from the Byrds’ raga-rock classic ‘Eight Miles High’ to the epic space-jams of the Grateful Dead. The Dead’s rhythm guitarist Bob Weir compared his role to that of pianist McCoy Tyner in the classic Coltrane Quartet, serving up new chordal shapes for lead guitarist Jerry Garcia to run with. And so ‘Downhill Uplift’ goes, each additonal track revealing a further twist to the developing story.

Of course, Stein Urheim is his own man with his own music, but among the many pleasures afforded by ‘Downhill Uplift’ is the breadth of references it invokes. We also travel a long way from restrictive notions of what does or does not constitute jazz: from the gritty slide-guitar playing we might easily associate with Ry Cooder, David Lindley or Little Feat’s Lowell George (who recorded with jazz drummer Chico Hamilton), to ambient interludes of multi-tracked, overlayed guitars and guitar synths, to the singer-songwriter context of the very impressive vocal tracks. But despite its wilful eclecticism, Urheim manages to create an overarching mood and structure that allows ‘Downhill Uplift’ to function as a satisfyingly through-written suite. By alternating experimental instrumentals with strong sustaining themes and the occasional reward of a properly poppy, radio-friendly ear-worm, Stein Urheim has succeeded in creating a guitarist’s album that is defined by so much more than the guitar alone.

Credits
Music performed by Fenomenolodic 4:
Kåre Opheim: drums, percussion
Hans Hulbækmo: drums, percussion, vibraphone, flute
Ole Morten Vågan: upright bass
Stein Urheim: guitars, vocals, bouzouki, tamboura, mandolin,
tanbur, harmonica, flute, electronics, synth, percussion

All music by Stein Urheim (TONO) except “Poor Moon” by Alan Wilson.
Recorded by Christian Engfeldt in Paradiso Studios, Oslo, December 2018.

Additional overdubs and mixing in Duper Studio, Bergen, February 2019.
Arranged by the musicians and Jørgen Træen.
Editing, mixing, mastering and synthesizer on “Lamp” by Jørgen Træen.

Produced by Jørgen Træen and Stein Urheim

Released with support from Fond for lyd og bilde

Thank you:
Andreas, Jørgen Træen, Christian Engfeldt, Benedicte, NOPA (såkornmidler), Komponistenes Vederlagsfond, Hardanger Kunstlag, family & friends.