{"title":"Modern Love","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"the-long-count","title":"The Long Count","description":"\u003cp\u003eModern Love debut from Delia Beatriz aka Debit; a study of Mayan wind instruments from the late post classical period, rebuilt as synth instruments and deployed with ultimate heft and wooooze.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDelia Beatriz’s musical output straddles two distinct artistic poles; her debut solo album, 2017’s acclaimed \u003ci\u003eAnimus\u003c\/i\u003e, oozed from sensual, beatless soundscapes to high-octane club music, while her 2019-released \u003ci\u003eSystem\u003c\/i\u003e harnessed tribal guarachero elements while simultaneously scraping ideas from industrial techno. On \u003ci\u003eThe Long Count\u003c\/i\u003e, the Mexican-American producer has inked her most rigorous statement to date, sublimating opaque ancestral knowledge into vaporous AI-stirred fog banks, activating an ancient rite that reaches into tomorrow. It’s audacious electro-acoustic archaeology that sounds disorientating, anachronistic and arcane.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Long Count\u003c\/i\u003e is rooted in research Beatriz made into Mayan wind instruments - whistles, ocarinas, flutes and trumpets - using the archive of the Mayan Studies Institute at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, the oldest and largest collection of its kind. Developing a set of digital instruments that could be played using different types of temperaments and scales, Delia processed these sounds using machine learning techniques to shuttle the distant past into our extant artistic universe, peering into Mexico’s pre-colonial history and weaving those ideas into complex tonalities gleaned from musique concrète and contemporary electro-acoustic music.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBeatriz describes the Mayan instrumentation as ancestral technology, part of a world that’s not so much been forgotten, but purposefully erased. And although it’s impossible to know exactly how Mayan music may have sounded, it’s feasible to converse with history using modern technology to conduct a ceremony of remembrance.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFeaturing soundscapes that are haunted by indistinct, shared memories and centuries of pent-up emotion, the material here is as intentional, direct and meticulously crafted as the work of Deathprod or Thomas Köner; Debit's microtonal compositions are psychedelic to their core, shapeshifting through dimensions and painting complex mental images while retaining a stylistic focus and lucidity that’s all too rare. Although 'The Long Count' was nurtured by machines, human experience is coded into its DNA - an ancient-future heirloom that whispers through countless generations.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Modern Love","offers":[{"title":"Clear | LP","offer_id":50417437114699,"sku":"1146759","price":26.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/e050b007-01b7-48b1-9632-748278229431_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726729448"},{"product_id":"too-many-voices","title":"Too Many Voices","description":"\u003cp\u003eFourth Album from Andy Stott, a follow-up to 2014's \u003ci\u003e'Faith In Strangers'\u003c\/i\u003e, once again featuring vocal contributions from Alison Skidmore. Fourth World pop variants joining the dots between Haruomi Hosono and Ryuichi Sakamoto, Newworldaquarium, Ruff Sqwad and Theo Parrish. \u003ci\u003e'Too Many Voices'\u003c\/i\u003e was recorded over the last 18 months and sees a diverse spectrum of influences bleed into 9 tracks that are as searching as they are memorable.The album draws for inspiration from the fourth-world pop of Japan's Yellow Magic Orchestra as much as it does Triton-fuelled Grime made 25 years later. Somewhere between these two points there's an oddly aligned vision of the future that seeps through the pores of each of the tracks. It's a vision of the future as was once imagined; artificial, strange and immaculate. Full of possibilities.The album opens with the harmonised, deteriorating pads of the opening \u003ci\u003e'Waiting For You'\u003c\/i\u003e and arcs through to the synthetic chamber-pop of the closing title track, referencing Sylvian and Sakamoto's \u003ci\u003e'Bamboo Houses'\u003c\/i\u003e as much as it does the ethereal landscapes of This Mortal Coil and Dead Can Dance. In between, the climate and palette constantly shift, taking in the midnight pop of \u003ci\u003e'Butterflies'\u003c\/i\u003e, the humid, breathless \u003ci\u003e'House of First Night'\u003c\/i\u003e and the endlessly cascading \u003ci\u003e'Forgotten'\u003c\/i\u003e.Longtime vocal contributor Alison Skidmore features on half the tracks, sometimes augmented by the same simulated materials; voicing the dystopian breakdown on \u003ci\u003e'Selfish'\u003c\/i\u003e, at others surrounded by beautiful synth washes, such as on the mercurial Over, or the dreamy, neon-lit \u003ci\u003e'New Romantic'\u003c\/i\u003e. It's all far removed from the digital synthesis and the abstracted intricacies that define much of the current electronic landscape. The same cybernetic palette is here implanted into more human form; sometimes cold, but more often thrumming with life.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Modern Love","offers":[{"title":"Clear | LP | x2","offer_id":50461479567691,"sku":"400806","price":31.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/39f68793-91fe-4113-8032-589cc35742a3_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727248847"},{"product_id":"faith-in-strangers","title":"Faith in Strangers","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eFaith In Strangers\u003c\/em\u003e is an album that straddles analogue club music and vocal pop songs, drawing influence from artists such as Ron Hardy, Dome, Actress, Cocteau Twins, and Arthur Russell. The album includes vocal contributions from \u003cstrong\u003eAlison Skidmore\u003c\/strong\u003e on six tracks and was mastered and cut by Matt Colton at Alchemy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eFaith In Strangers\u003c\/em\u003e was written and produced between January 2013 and June 2014, with editing and sequencing completed in late July of that year. The album makes use of a variety of instruments, field recordings, found sounds, and vocal treatments, resulting in a largely analogue variant of hi-tech production styles that range from dissonant to sublime.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe album opens with the track \"\u003cem\u003eTime Away\u003c\/em\u003e\" featuring Euphonium played by Kim Holly Thorpe and closes with \"\u003cem\u003eMissing\u003c\/em\u003e\", a contribution by \u003cstrong\u003eAlison Skidmore\u003c\/strong\u003e. In between, the album explores a range of sounds, from the sparse and infected \"\u003cem\u003eViolence\u003c\/em\u003e\" to the broken, downcast pop of \"\u003cem\u003eOn Oath\u003c\/em\u003e\" and the motorik, driving melancholy of \"\u003cem\u003eScience and Industry\u003c\/em\u003e\".\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\"\u003cem\u003eNo Surrender\u003c\/em\u003e\" offers a sparkling analogue jam followed by a tough, smudged rhythmic assault, while \"\u003cem\u003eHow It Was\u003c\/em\u003e\" reflects sweaty Warehouse signatures and \"\u003cem\u003eDamage\u003c\/em\u003e\" finds a balance between RZA's classic 'Ghost Dog' and Terror Danjah's brutal style.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe title track, \"\u003cem\u003eFaith in Strangers\u003c\/em\u003e\", stands out as one of the most beautiful and open tracks on the album, with a vocal hook and chiming melody that ties the album together. The overall sound of the album provides a sense of warmth and nostalgia, creating a cohesive listening experience that showcases Stott's innovation and tradition through darkness and light.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Modern Love","offers":[{"title":"2LP - Clear","offer_id":50469434491211,"sku":"381581","price":28.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"2LP - Gold","offer_id":50469437342027,"sku":"2019405","price":35.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Faith_In_Strangers_a07f4876_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727360663"},{"product_id":"never-the-right-time","title":"Never The Right Time","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn early 2020 - with a new album almost done and an offer to produce for a mainstream artist on the table - personal upheaval and a pandemic brought everything to a sudden standstill. Months of withdrawal eventually triggered a different approach. recording hours of raw material; slow horns, sibilance, delayed drums, wondering flutes - whatever, whenever. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith vocals recorded by Alison Skidmore, the album was finally completed late last year- taking on a different shape. Its songs desolate, melancholy, defiant, beautiful - often all at once. The sounds echoed music around Stott during those months: Prince, Gavin Bryars, A.R. Kane, Bohren \u0026amp; der Club of Gore, Robert Turman, Cindy Lee, Leila, Catherine Christer Hennix, Junior Boys, László Hortobágyi, Nídia, Prefab Sprout - the unusual \/ the familiar.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEchoing that mix of new and old, each of the songs on \u003ci\u003eNever The Right Time\u003c\/i\u003e is woven from the same thread despite following different trajectories; from the lovelorn shimmer of opener \u003ci\u003eAway not gone\u003c\/i\u003e, to the clattering linndrum pop of \u003ci\u003eThe beginning\u003c\/i\u003e, through \u003ci\u003eAnswers\u003c\/i\u003e angular club haze, and the city-at-night end-credits \u003ci\u003eHard to Tell\u003c\/i\u003e. These are songs fuelled by nostalgia and soul searching, but all hold true to a vision of music making as a form of renewal and reinvention. A 10 year cycle, complete.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Modern Love","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50507246534987,"sku":"1120501","price":13.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/5827200b-8ab0-44d4-b41b-f13142937b98_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727844089"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/de\/collections\/modern-love.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}