some interesting releases on the artetetra label out of Italy, whose preferred Zone of Alteration appears to be Fifth World / nu-exotica / neo-geo 3.0
release rationale:
"Erhai Floating Sound is a spatialized live sound performance which took place on Erhai lake in Dali, Yunnan, China in may 2010, involving Laurent Jeanneau aka Kink Gong and Julien Claus. The electronic sounds were produced on a small fishing boat inside the lake connected by underwater cables to other four boats, each of them carrying a speaker. This tape is a stereo version of the quadraphonic performance of Kink Gong and it's about an hour long.
Laurent Jeanneau is an electroacoustic composer, ethnomusicologist and Sublime Frequencies contributor, who has released more than 150 cds concerning recordings of ethnic minority music, mostly from south-east Asia taken in more than 15 years of activity. The electroacoustic activity of Kink Gong is based on the deconstruction of the original recordings, which focus mostly on vocal and local instruments like gongs, mouthorgans and string instruments, into soundscapes and cut-ups."
release rationalised:
"Pavel Eremeev is an artist based in Moscow and a member of Middle-Eastern tinged band uSSSy. Under his solo guise as Holypalms, Eremeev hooks his quarter-toned guitar up to his laptop to make some pretty gritty and relentless music, riding all manner of West African, and South Asian rhythms. His background in complex compositions with uSSSy seems to have really opened up the amount of detail and sheer number of sections and interleaving tracks of distorted Eastern guitar licks and synthetic drum rhythms at his disposal. ‘New Monkey Forest II’ stands out as a glorious 8-minute burst of energy, the rabid guitarwork blending with a vast array of meticulously programmed jungle drums. In comparison the 12 minute ‘Stoned In The Jungle Stolen By The Liana’ is much woozier and stranger, focusing in on laptop bleeps for a simmering introduction before the guitar joins in and the entire affair weaves its way through a good half dozen peaks and troughs" - Spool's Out - the Quietus
release rationale:
"Ak'chamel, the giver of illness, is a mysterious band from Texas.
This new tape is a work based on the concept of shortwave broadcasts from unknown and invented places. When it comes to talk about surfing black magic and to officiate obscure pagan rites in the swamps consumed by otherworldly music, unknown drugs consumption and incomprehensible formulas to offer to the elders, Ak’chamel definitively know what they're talking about."
also on artetetra, there's some new (ish) gear from Hybrid Palms (who made one of my favorite albums of last year) + pal Cheap Galapagos
release rationale:
"In this new work curated and produced by artetetra and designed by Giulia Bencini and Disegnini Brutti in a very short issue of 50 CDRs, Cheap Galapagos and Hybrid Palms bring together an entire imaginary of cheap tropicalisms, lo-fi exotica and virtual soundscapes concerning all the aesthetic elements of touristic trips from the glorious era of 50's/80's commercials and vintage holidays photo books. While Cheap Galapagos propose their idea of caraibic/samoan/jungle music with two long compositions that mix strong influenced environmental ambiences à la Dolphins Into The Future/Lieven Moana Martens and Fluorescent Heights with Hailu Mergia styled harmonium groovy organs and goofy percussions and xylophones, the russian Hybrid Palms demonstrate to be really attached to a very genuine vapor influenced perception of Tiki music with 5 tracks showing a summerish lysergic mood that reminds of earliest synthwawe as well as some of Sun araw latest experimentations. The work result is to be a coherent and fresh vision on the new developments and shades of tropical music and exotic vaporwave that the italian label seems to love and support.
Shiny Beaches with giant palms scattered all around, greenish water full of unknown new marine animals and a shitton of deluxe and gorgeous malls full of kitsch souvenirs shops take over the imagination of the listener who can take a whole all-comfort vacation from his boring daily life only through the almighty Internet."