Grand Pianoramax is a Swiss duo of talented musicians (award-winning jazz piano player Leo Tardin and drummer Dominik Burkhalter) more often than not joined by an american MC for their live performances (Black Cracker most of the times, who rhymes on two of the tracks of the album; and sometimes Mike Ladd, who appears on one track).
If you are wondering what a drummer, a pianist and an MC could possibly do together and why it would fit the pages of Chain D.L.K., keep wondering because it sure is hard to describe, but somehow fits our readership more than you might think.
Tardin plays piano, rhodes, K-station, harmonium and philichorda while he accompanies himself with funky bass lines and effortlessly switches between all these instruments and their treated alter egos. All the while Burkhalter lays down a number of smoothly flowing broken beats rich with syncopation, fills and the occasional uneven counts. Stylistically you will hear Tardin's jazzy influence and he'll make your head bop along with his funky playing, but sometimes he will make you feel like you are in the middle of an arcade video game galactic battle; Burkhalter keeps you rocking out steadily with laser sharp precision and a kind of live drum'n'bass aesthetic even when the figures are far from your average dance floor 4-4 and even though there really isn't any d'n'b per say on this record. The two MCs flow on top of everything making what is already an exciting and original musical offering even more out there and at the same time even more approchable.
The album was recorded between Switzerland and India (and features Karsh Kale on tablas on two tracks) and mixed in Germany in an old radio station control room with some funky old-school gear. The sound of the album is great and the attention to detail shows.
I highly recommend checking out this album (out now in Europe and dropping in the US in May) and catching the trio live (some US dates are announced for the spring).

This is the debut album by Federico Agreda taking inspiration from Thomas Hobbes book "Leviathan". According to the press sheet "the album aims to depict the inner nightmare of the reality of mankind". This album relies heavily on sonic impact rather than subtle structural textures and the result is, in some part, amazing: heavy drones, nocturnal soundscapes and a lot of volume on the effect. But, unfortunately, not a lot of inventions in the development of the tracks; in this regards this is a classic dark ambient album with some remarkable features but any distinguishable tract.
"Twilights of the land" opens this record with a massive load of crafty constructions of the classic elements of dark ambient and, after listening to "sacrifice and tragedy" it's stunning to consider the quality of the mastering: this record sounds really well in his sonic fury in the description of an almost horror movie. But, strangely but understandable, here relies the real weakness of this album. When it's the turn of "the throne of water" it became obvious the development of the track and, while the sound is carefully constructed, one knows what's happening in advance. The title track tries to introduce some noise element in the recipe and, in this path, the musical journey continues until "whale requiem" closes it with an ambient side that relieves the tension continuosly underpinned in the development of this work.
This is not a milestone in the genere but, if you are a dark ambient fan, this is a record not just for collectors. When Agreda will balance his sonic construction with some variety and a sense of structure it will be probably a milestone. Nice.

ELECTRO SUPERSTAR is the newest Diamondback Kid single and contains three blasters. Blending classic electrofunk influences as well as nu-electro sounds (see Blastromen as reference) "Humanize", "Throw Yo Tats Up" and "Start Sum Shit" mix spacey atmospheres (check "Humanize" for this) as well as bringing in some bouncing lead synths which melodies will stuck into your head making you want to breakdance even if you don't even know where to start (like on "Throw Yo Tats Up") and also 80s classic atmospheres that remind me of Newcleus (see "Start Sum Shit"). Diamondback Kid isn't a newcomer and you can tell by listening to these fantastic tunes. Diamondback Kid started life in Trevor Horn's 'Sarm West Studios' in West London and had huge success with a remix of Adamski's "Sharktank" in the mid 90s. In the years after that he wrote breakbeat and instrumental hip hop tunes for shows such as 'Miami Ink', 'Americas Most Wanted' and 'Grey's Anatomy'. I'm just glad he decided to start releasing something new. If you dig this one check the EP titled "Snakebite" that he self-released last year.
(Proofread by: Johan Sebastian Bot)

It's hard for me to say if I like this album or not. First of all it's a really long one, it contains nine tracks (one of which is 20 minutes of length) which play around i.d.m. rhythms, dubstep and artsy non musical melodic mixes. TINY CREATURE, the newest album by Cex, is a constant flux of destabilizing rhythms and melodies which sometimes sounds cold and sometimes alien. If Venetian Snares is able to create furious tracks that take you elsewhere, Cex, instead, freeze you by unplugging your senses... but they does it gently. I don't mean to say that this is a lousy release but for sure it needs time to be understood and sometimes you arrive to the point where you are about to stop the CD player, just to decide to wait a little while. The tracks that to me sound more structured are the hip-hop influenced "Megamuse", "12 exalt" and "Trumpetflower", a mid tempo based on rhythm breaks, epic synth leads and synth shots but who knows at the fourth spin what I could find... I could end loving it. If you are willing to give a try to an album that is in balance from cosmic digital music, experimental, i.d.m. and breakbeat, TINY CREATURE is the one for you.

'Faded Heart' is Mushy's mature debut album after many years in the Italian underground and the result is no less than astonishing. The imaginative spaces created by the Rome based artist steers from her previous experimental/industrial roots, towards nocturnal synth-driven blues about lost loves and intimate struggles. This album is made of songs, ten glowing lo-fi dirges and lullabies. The singing is very peculiar, always layered with effects. Sometimes whispered and sometimes bursting with primeval moans. Mushy states the 80s dark wave as one of her main inspirations and the influence of Liz Fraser's pre-Heaven Or Las Vegas ways of singing can be spotted. Sound-wise we find analogue gear merged with strange found instruments (a four stringed guitar bought at a flea-market can be heard in many lo-fi parts of the album) and objects. The journey starts with 'Child Of Light Will Burn', one of the best tracks in the moan-wave micro-genre in my opinion, think about a ghoulish version of Grouper's fluttering compositions. The b-side's boiling cauldron of sound sorcery contains some of the best moments of the album, 'I Will Not See It' and the title track are bounded togheter by a dark droning glide and again the title track is her most heartfelt piece and the one that will be instantly recognized by the listeners. 'No More' is a wavey affair, a collaboration with Mannequin record's Alessandro/Newclear Waves. Be quick because the record is selling extremely fast and it's the album of the week at Rough Trade. Out on white vinyl edition of 300 and on cd with four (amazing) remixes by Soft Metals, Newclear Waves, Crossover and Heinrich Dressel.