International Feel Uruguay 黑胶唱片和CD

Review: London duo Toni Rossano and Neil Simons coexist as Calabra, delivering a fresh quintet of Balearic jams to our ears. Lifelong friends, the pair mutually uprooted their Midlands origins for the big smoke, whereupon they set about many a sprawling musical project in the UK capital. Having known each other since day, it was only until recently, during a fuzzy after-hours party on the pebbles of Brighton beach, that they eureka'd the idea of fastening a cross-channel sonic colloquy between the British isles and those of the Mediterranean. Fusing every motif of the latter Balearic genre - from analogue synth subduings to cascading guitar swirls - with every motif of the former UK rock-dance continuum - new age, post-punk and 70s art rock references - 'Mazzara Return' is the ideal accompaniment to your next transnational estival foray.

Review: International Feel has been away on what it calls an 'extended meditation' but now, happily, makes a welcome return. And what an album to come back with - Charlie Charlie is the work of Gabriella Borbely, alias Bella Boo, and Jens Resch, better known as Chords. They hail from Stockholm but dreamt this one up in Southern California. And so the music is steeped in hippie sounds, counter culture dreams and beauty pop that transports you to that world immediately. Dreamy and beautiful tracks come thing and fast from the downtempo sounds of 'Nothing Here But You & Me' to innocent Balearic ditties like 'Save Us.'

Review: Charlie Charlie's 'Save Us' is a track brimming with raw emotion, and Mondag's remix feels like a perfect counterpart, bringing a subtle touch of melancholy with its soft saxophone solo. The track maintains its weight, but Mondag's approach gives it a dream-like quality, coaxing out the depths of its aching beauty. Bella Boo's edit brings a noticeable shift, tightening the rhythms and infusing the track with a sharper energy, but it never loses the soul of the original. Gerd Janson, meanwhile, offers an ambient version that feels like an entirely different experience - less immediate, but no less absorbing. On the other side, Hypernatural's remixes expand on the dreamlike, almost otherworldly feeling of the originals. Knightlife's take on 'Spirit Walk' stretches the song's already fluid nature, making it feel weightless, while Gerd Janson's remix of 'Stormfront' adds a darker, more reflective mood.

Review: Italian DJ and producer and Afrotemplum co-founder, Feel Fly, revisits the sunned, balearic mood of his childhood on this early-stage career definer of an EP. As a series, 'Mediterranean Dreams' lets the light in on only the haziest of sonic visions, letting in island stenches and coconut skitters between the palms. Everything from dub, ambient, balearic and kraut is here channelled into a realised smattering of deep trance, tittilating the senses with an echoic foray into navel-gazing reverie.

Review: International Feel kicks off what is presumably a new series given its title, Mediterranean Dreams - Part 1. For it, they turn to Perugia synth obsessive, underground mainstay and fine producer Feel Fly for four tracks of breezy and sunny disco-house chuggers. 'Onironauta' brings retro Italo chords and nice chunky drums, 'Grace In Space' is a leggy cosmic wonder with far-sighted chords and muted acid magic, then 'Mediterranean Dreams' is pure 80s dream house bliss. 'Becalmed' is the most rough edged and analogue house jack track of the lot.

Review: The legendary deep house duo Fila Brazilia return with another retrospective four-track, following last year's Mermaids' reissue. Steel Tiger Records founder Steve Cobby and lecturer David McSherry ha da whirlwind romance with the house scene, one they reignited in 2020 after a 16-year separation. 'Subtle Body' serves as an incredible reintroduction to the dynamic duos sound, tripped-out dubby beats and raw house sessions, with the title track's layered chimes, looped delay feedback and floaty chords blasting right out of the gate. What follows is an unreleased instrumental version of 'Nightfall' from the 2002 album 'Jump Leads', an industrial ambient drifter.

On Side B, the tempo and temperature rises, and we're treated to 'The Light Of Jesus', from the debut LP 'Old Codes: New Chaos'. A bumping house groove, smooth organ and sweet bass combine for an unforgettable track that has stood the test of time fiercely. The EP rounds out with 'Room '96', a live house jam from Hull's Room nightclub - a time capsule to better days. The songs here on Subtle Body might be a window into a time long past, but they remain in the present: and as long as bodies seek pleasure, and dancers want to keep going til sunrise, Fila Brazillia will endure, and soundtrack those moments for us all to get lost in.

Review: Pop on your space suit and lock in for an intergalactic Balearic ride at the hands of Luca, whose new Terra LP is a terrific trip through the cosmos. This is a second full length from the artist born Francesco De Bellis and it follows on swiftly from his well received Venus EP early in 2022. It's a fr-reaching musical journey with retro-future synths glistening in the solar rays, loose and jumbled drums suspending you amongst the stars and pieces like 'Capitolo 2 Coscienza' with its spoken word elements contouring up the feeling of some mystic ritual dance.

Review: ile Flottante is Mr. Beatnick's fith album, following 2023's Joy In Variation (including the notorious cover of 'Love On A Real Train'), and his well-received, off-beat collaboration with London-based avant-garde agitator Richard Greenan: Coasty. This is his first contribution to the International Feel trademark; the record draws its name from the national French staple pudding enjoyed on Mr. Beatnick's childhood holidays, also being a jeux de mot (pun) for "floating island". With fantasy visions of self-suspensory lands held firmly in mind, we launch ourselves into a bristling eight-track record, breezily nodding along to the rhythmic snowfall detailed on 'Crystal Snowflakes' and the impossible aerial beaches of 'Low Tide'. A truly fantastical sonic landscape; in a realm of floating landmasses, do dolphins still dance? Mr. Beatnick seems to say yes.

Review: The man, the legend. Well, to those paying attention, anyway. 20 years in the game, Ilija Redman only seems to get stronger, carving out a niche for himself as both one of the best 'cosmic' DJs and a master producer of throwback 1980s boogie, weirdo disco, proto-electro and psychedelic chug, having graced the likes of Bear Funk and Is It Balearic?, and presented work on his own imprints Red Music and Imogen Recordings. On Pulsar Diaries he turns his deft talent to a slightly curveball sound compared to the usual stomping grounds, crafting warm synth wave from drum machine grooves and spaced out melodies. Purposeful beats and pieces meet the kind of tones that make you feel as though the tether has broken and you are adrift, floating through deep space with only rhythms to guide you.

Review: Raf Dug has always been outspoken when it comes to the less favourable aspects of 'the scene' which if course means more eyes are on him when he steps out with new music. Fortunately he has more than enough skills to keep criticism at bay as this new one on the legendary International Feel shows. He kicks off with the epic electronics and dubby rhythms of 'Casita Mas Alta' which unfold over nine fine minutes. After that dancefloor workout comes the blissed out downtempo of 'Cala Vedella', steamy Balearic of 'Las Cicadas' and innocent new age melodic charms of 'Niu Blau.'