!K7 Podcast

"The beatific female voice drifting through Birthday has all the hypnotic power of the sun rising over the ocean."
The second video, 'Birthday', is taken from the album 'No Hassle'.
For more info and a free download track please check the microsite: www.tosca-nohassle.com

'My First' is taken from the album 'No Hassle'.
For more info and a free download track please check the microsite: www.tosca-nohassle.com

Some welcome news in a season that could certainly use some: Circlesquare is back. Circlesquare is Vancouver, British Columbia's Jeremy Shaw, now living in Berlin. Don't be surprised, though, if he doesn't sound like any of his citymates: for the length of his career, Circlesquare has never sounded quite like anyone but Circlesquare.
Last heard from over two years ago, Circlesquare set hearts racing with a set of records released between 1999 and 2006 on Trevor Jackson's Output label, home to a diverse roster of electronic outsiders like Black Strobe, DK7, and Colder.
Songs About Dancing and Drugs is an album that finds Shaw sounding more complex, melancholy, profound, and invigorating than ever before. This is the real deal, the kind of album that comes around once in forever, an album for late nights and long drives and breakups and lovemaking, for cold mornings and matted-velvet comedowns. Oh yes, for comedowns.
For more info and a free download track please check the microsite: www.songsaboutdancinganddrugs.com

Matthew Herbert’s dazzling new album ‘There’s Me and There’s You’ is the most seductive, sophisticated and subversive collection of protest songs ever recorded. Blending lush jazz instrumentation, soulful vocals, fascinating rhythms and a secret underground arsenal of outlandish samples, it marks Herbert’s second collaboration with his big band.
Effortlessly wrapping deluxe avant-jazz arrangements around polemical lyrics and artfully selected noises, the album’s dominant theme is power and its abuses in the 21st century. The war in Iraq is a key rallying point, informing several tracks including ‘One Life’ and ‘Waiting’. The power of monarchy is addressed in ‘Regina’, religion in ‘Pontificate’, media in ‘The Story’, wealth inequalities in ‘The Rich Man’s Prayer’, and state-sponsored torture in ‘Battery’. The hypocrisy of climate change politics and the evils of rampant consumerism are also recurring motifs.
For more info and a free download track please check the microsite: www.matthewherbertbigband.com

Bomb the Bass is back, but put away that smiley face: this is no nostalgia trip. With 'Future Chaos', Tim Simenon revamps his long-running project to produce a record that's fresher than anyone might have expected from an outfit that got its start in the '80s. Tickling tweeters and pushing the limits of low-end, the album hovers confidently on the cusp between futurism and vintage, boasting the sort of confident songwriting that's a rarity anywhere, much less in electronic music.
For more info and a free download track please check the microsite: www.future-chaos.com

The Herbaliser are all about moving forwards, onwards and upwards.
On their latest album, Same As It Never Was, The Herbaliser hit a dazzling new peak. With a new label, a new main vocalist, and a new focus on soulful songwriting, this is their richest and most diverse record so far.
For more info and a free download track please check the microsite: www.same-as-it-never-was.com

Quiet Village's Silent Movie can't be described with any one term. Its assembly process may tag it as "electronic music," but you'll find little else this lush in the electronica bin. The album is rich with feathery textures and swollen tones: harp, curtains of bells, hand drums, chamber strings, vintage synthesizers and voices—innumerable voices.
It's as hypnotic as the rotation of a disco ball, chock full of long phrases, gentle repetitions and subtle shifts that slyly pull the rug out from under you.

For more info and a free download track please check the microsite: www.quietvillage-silentmovie.com

Carl Craig's Session is both a look backwards at his role as one of the genre's pioneers and a look forward as one of its stylish visionaries. It fuses new tracks exclusive to this release, alternate mixes of classic Craig tracks from the past two decades, and several recent remixes of other artists'; songs that have quickly become new dance-floor classics. His new music is moored in his Detroit roots and echoes of his youthful exploration, forming a continuous cycle of energy with his past work. This album is a manifestation of that idea, and that is heard as new tracks seamlessly mix with old, generations of rhythms in constant conversation.

For more info and a free download track please check the microsite: www.carlcraig-sessions.com

Booka Shade's DJ-Kicks mix works from a different set of rules. There's something of a nod to the music that inspired Booka Shade back in the day and there's exclusive tracks that haven't even seen the light of day yet.
And this is then combined with a certain flair that is all Booka Shade.
Across the album's magnetic 22 tracks, the mix follows a distinctive rhythm. It flows, it goes down side roads, it wanders and it surges forward, and the view is quite breathtaking. Influenced by the vast electronic heritage of their adopted home city, there's a brooding dynamism at its heart.

For more info and a free download track please check the microsite: www.dj-kicks.com/bookashade

The unique trio Cobblestone Jazz use early computers and analogue instruments to create pared down sounds that retain the quality of improvisational jazz but with a techno dancefloor aesthetic. Through a real-time exchange of musical form, language, and ideas Tyger Dhula, Mathew Jonson and Danuel Tate provide a continual sense of excitement and discovery for their audience. '23 Seconds' is their debut album.Cobblestone approach a simple key melody from every angle imaginable, with the harmonies, disharmonies, bubbling accents and rhythmic permutations exposing the otherworldly potential of the simplest of tunes.

For more info and a free download track please check the microsite: www.cobblestonejazz.com

Swayzak are their old selves again! James Taylor's fatherhood sabatical is over, David "Brun" Brown managed things during his absence anyway, and now they return together with their album "Some other country."
Swayzak's new opus sounds mature and full. On the Brits' fifth album, what counts is quality, loud showy effects are superfluous. Swayzak have always loved their echo pedal, but in their tenth year of existence, their dub-techno attains a new, compositional dimension.

For more info and a free download track please check the microsite: www.swayzak-someothercountry.com