Tommy C
Lesson On Love

Endangered Musique kicks off with a high-quality reissue of an EP that deep house heads will either already know or soon grow to love. It was written by Jose Chinga in 1994 and is an alias of an artist better known as Brothers' Vibe aka Tony Rodriguez. The opening tune 'Love Is What You Need' is also the most well-known - it's US garage with low-slung drums and grainy pad work with a simple but effective vocal. 'I Got You' picks up the pace with shuffling drums and a grinding lead before the warm 90s house sounds come to the fore again on 'Let It Go' and 'Riding On A Cloud'. Lovely stuff.

Over the better half of a decade, Time is Away, the London-based duo of Jack Rollo and Elaine Tierney, have made tender and heartfelt transmissions through countless mixes, sound works, live appearances and radio. Exploring deeply human themes of memory, persistence and resistance using an assemblage of source material, the duo’s unique mode of storytelling culminates in Ballads, a new suite of songs and, significantly, their first officially licensed compilation.From the opening notes of Horvitz Morris Previte Trio’s jazz romanticism to Gilles Chabenat and Frédéric Paris’s lively reimagined standard, the haunting vocal seance of Tanto Pressanto and the mesmerising swirls of The Unthanks, Yuko Kono and Rachel Bonch-Bruevich, the spirit of Ballads roams through generations of affectionate songwriting and conjures images both candid and surreal. The voice of poet and longtime collaborator Christina Petrie appears briefly and contemplates the “sighs and replies… the space between verses” of the Ballad, its beauty, its place in our lives. What is the Ballad but a reflection of our soul? “Perhaps I’ll wander in search of it”, she bittersweetly concedes.At the suite’s cusp is an alternate version of David Lang’s 'just (after song of songs)’, a thirteen-minute meditation on devotion that originally featured in Paolo Sorrentino’s Youth (2015). The track’s universal themes of faith and desire radiate throughout and elucidate Time is Away’s peerlessly precise yet gossamer touch.Four dancing steps, one after the other, leading to a turn.Four biting lines, one after the other, leading to a twist.Through the sighs and replies of the ballad form, a shape persists – four and then four and then four and then four, on into the distance. Between one thorn tree and the next, in the space between verses, perhaps I’ll find the ballad of my life, and live to hear it. Or perhaps I’ll wander in search of it, drifting through the unfurling lines, and defer my poignant fate. Time is Away is Jack Rollo and Elaine Tierney, two visionary storytellers who map personal, poetic and sometimes playful dérives through the histories of their imagination. The voice is an instrument, a letter from home, the colour of pomegranates... pastoral mysteries and idyllic myths weaved from an inventory of dreams.

Omar S teams up with Atlanta based producer Kai Alce for this killer new 12", with the FXHE boss openly suggesting the second B-Side offering is 'ringtone worthy'! The Jive Time EP features three original productions - "Not Phazed", which takes up the whole A Side, while the EP's dancefloor-friendly eponymous track shares the flip with ambient house track "Incognigro". Alce, a Detroit native who now resides in Atlanta, has had a fine year, releasing a tidy little 7" on FXHE back in April as well as a collaborative EP with Englishman Phil Asher and Atlanta vocalist Kayenne. Killer release.

Editions Mego is pleased to welcome Danish Loke Rahbek (Damien Dubrovnik, Croatian Amor and Posh Isolation) to the fold. Known for countless creative and commercial endeavours Loke presents his first solo full length under his own name. As with all of Loke’s output City of Woman harnesses the radical with the aesthetic in a manner of extreme pleasure for all who encounter. Harnessing his thorough knowledge and experience in extreme electronics, melodic encounters and sultry showmanship Loke ties together disparate threads of various underground movements to create a singular and deeply personal journey through industrial temptation, noise refraction and melodic seduction. This is 21st Century pop music. One which dismantles previous held borders of sound to present a wide palate of sound, song, abstraction and intense emotion.