Born during the confinment-gate, Unlog Radio was a great way for us to experiment and take the temperature on what can be done in 2020 to build your own music platform.

The webradio format was a deliberate choice, as it was a time-proof solution, accessible using open source tools, allowed 24/7 streaming through multiple platforms. There’s lots we haven’t had the resources to cover. But at times like these, when one can seriously question the streaming platforms’ growing hegemony and normalized music consumption habits, that experience comforted us in the idea that independent structures still have the means to stand their ground using efficient DIY techniques.

We’re hopeful, it just takes work.

A few highlights :

– 24/7 means 168 hours to fill with curated content. Each week Can your label handle it? For how long?

– Most of the content we’ve streamed came from friend labels, who granted us access to their catalogue. That not only added diversity, but that kind of stated the obvious : LABELS HAVE TO WORK TOGETHER.

– Radio vs playlist : Beyond curation, the model proposed by radio kind of pushed the algorithms away from the listener. Of course, we can’t stop algorithmic music selections from evolving, but there definitely needs to be an alternative around. Support your local radios.

– No data was needed from listeners. No Google account, no login, no tracker… That should be a standard.

– The tools : We’ve spent countless hours setting up servers, playing with scripts, testing designs, scheduling content… but none of that would have been possible had there not been open source tools accessible for us to use and build on. We really recommend checking Azuracast and the community around it.

– So much can be done to expand on the old-school radio format : themed selections, streaming from a studio, but also live-streaming field recording sessions (simple Zoom + Android phone), cine-concerts, live sessions between remote musicians…

All this requires time (a lot), and money, in amounts that could easily be met with the right team, the right ambitions, and the right project.

We’re still scratching the surface here.

We’re leaving it at that, as our resources are better allocated at being a music label for now. We’ll keep supporting innovations when we see it, whatever the shape. Funny how it took the form of a 20+ year broadcasting format, but were the best years of the internet don’t you think?We’ll probably document the process in-depth in the future for those interested, but for now we’d like to thank everyone involved who supported us : Chez Kito Kat Records, Yummy Beats, Shabu Recordings / Heard Island, La Boocle, Underdog Records, Tour De Manège, Cosmovision Records, Blackelk Recordings, Electro Made in QC, Silicon Beats, Beat4Battle, MART ONE, Hugo Selva, Dj Carie aka La Dame, The SharpShooterz, DJ NOYL – Unlog Records, InsideOut, Teddy Kitano, Render.Tex, TSF, Mole Machine, Viñu-vinu, Dj Don Mescal, V.ictor, Olvo, Set à la maison, Far Beats, all the gang on our Discord, all those I can’t tag, and all those who took the time to check it out, whatever the time zone.

Support your local independent radios, who have been keeping the fort for all those years, your local labels, and artists. Money or not, just talk to them.

Least to say is that with Dome to Caddie – Remixes Bplrxxiii, took us in a strange territory What we have here is an icebreaker, a window into his influences and extended music family. Introducing his hardcore-techno background with the likes of MB and Lityk, notable additions by members of the Full Con Records family (irreverent home of many of his previous releases), a cruise controlled minimal roller by PLUG’N’PRAY, a rare incursion into glitch territory by TSF, as well a slapping introduction to by Bobby BBQ, long time collaborators with Bplrxxiii to which we owe one of our next long format release.

Get the original on the excellent Weird Cult album. by bplrxxiii: https://bplrxxiii.bandcamp.com/album/weird-cult

24 JUIN // JUNE 24th

After several months punctuated by impressive modular rig shots, enigmatic sound design videos, ritualistic filmic objects, and a few singles released on Bandcamp, we finally get a clearer picture from the black and white world of LA producer Snakes of Russia, in the form of a first self released EP named “At Home Alone With Lions”.

Right at the crossroads of all distorted cinegenic downtempo music we love, (let’s say if you’re already into Lorn or Eprom, you should feel cosy here), “At Home Alone With Lions” is a remarkable display of sound design. Grounded by heavy and tightly clocked drum impacts, themselves tempered by calmly roaring basslines and textured synth leads floating on top, SoR delivers a methodic sequence of sonic shapshots, leaving no superfluous excess get in the way. Definitely the kind of project we want to hear more often.

Those interested in his background and production process should check his interview for Noise Engineering, in which a wide array of topics are discussed, from his modular setup to questions of music synchronization. By the way, he’s also released some Ableton Wavetable presets, called ‘Isolation Presets’, available here : https://gumroad.com/l/hXfkb

If you’re only here for the pics, we got you : here’s his Insta : https://www.instagram.com/snakesofrussia/

Tagnawit EP the first project of Cheb Runner (formerly known as GAN-GAH) and the latest addition to the rich catalog of the belgian label Rebel Up Records. Counting artists such as Nuri, Arabstazy and Susobrino, in their catalogue. the Belgian label has been introduced to me a couple years ago (thanks to Ozferti) and has for more than 10 years maintained a unique vision, pushing projects that bridge electronic and diaspora music, Their refreshing approach offers a great potential for discovery, such as this one. Let’s dive in !

https://chebrunner.bandcamp.com/album/tagnawit-ep

The latest project by belgo-moroccan producer Reda Senhaji, alias Cheb Runner, focuses on breeding a new style of music from Electronics and Gnawa. Taking inspiration from New Beat to Techno, Acid House and Gabber, the grooves are relentless, stiff and club oriented, relying heavily on analog synths and drum-machines.

The sound is darker, more experimental and mature than the artist’s previous project, Gan Gah. But the producer also digs into the acoustic sounds of his youth, for an organic feeling of warmth and celebration. The syncopation of the classic Gnawa percussions – Qraqebs & Tbal – combined with the use of Gembri guitar are the soul of the Tagnawit EP, and the groove is undeniable. Featuring two traditional singers based in Brussels, Mâalem Driss and Mâalem Hichem, the EP is a reunion for the belgian Gnawa scene, keeping the vibe alive.

In a world of dematerialized culture, we tend to forget where we come from: by putting Gnawa music at the center of his production, Cheb Runner creates a bridge with the past. The young producer is a son of Gnawa himself, this is the music he grew up with and played as a kid. Now he brings it to the club scene : Cheb Runner’s first EP is experimental, brutal, innovative.

Getting past definitions and genres, it opens new horizons for North-African producers, showing them how to use their roots to make new beats. It encourages both tradition and modernity in Music. In 2019, Gnawa music, dance and culture were added to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list, demonstrating both the relevance of the genre and the necessity to preserve it.

Cheb, the Arabic word for “young boy”, is traditionally used to describe the young generation of Raï singers – like Cheb Hasni, Cheb Mami or Cheb Khaled. It means the new generation is here, to create something new with something old. The reference to the Ridley Scott movie Blade Runner is just that: while the Cheb comes from the bled, a moroccan village in the Agadir region, the beats come from the club scene of an industrial city, like Berlin, Detroit or Molenbeek/Brussels.

Cheb Runner takes you on a trip through space and time, as well as to pass on ancient rhythms to inspire the next generations. 

Quiet force behind Polaar Sounds, a label that delivered some of the most mature and forward thinking bass-music mutations we’ve heard in the past couple years, french artist Flore‘s artistic path has ben a fascinating one to follow. Seeking balance between the soundsystem infused fabric of her DJ persona, deeply rooted in UK and afrobass as you can often hear on Rinse France and her inclination towards more visual and conceptual soundscapes, her vision has spawned an A/V performance project with WSK VJ collective and three EPs, before maturing into the present album, Rituals. What we have here perfectly illustrates that balance between two extremes, where an absolute 160BPM banger such as Coded Language (aaa, too short) lies just a few tracks away from the eponymous Rituals, a 3:34 drony build-up that, again, I could take a few more minutes of. A rich 10 track trip, illustrated by a gorgeous artwork by Dorian Rigal (from NEON MINUIT, of which we recommend the short film La Matière des Souvenirs), available both on digital and vinyl formats at the link below.

https://floremusic.bandcamp.com/album/rituals

Rituals, Flore’s second album is the map of a new continent and worrisome dark lands inhabited by primal energy. 10 musical pieces, 10 clues shaping a musical territory where nothing is given, where everything has to be conquered. From ‘Aether’ to ‘You Were Here’, Rituals explores multiple facets of electronic music crafted with meticulosity. It seems here that every step of Flore’s journey to this second album, every influence, every idea, every reference is digested, understood, reinterpreted and feeds into new shapes, layers of textures, indented rhythmics, and menacing bass lines.

Rituals is a very sharp piece of work by Flore, who delivers the result of 20 years of work, experiment, encounters, and curiosity, all knitted together in these 10 pieces of music. This album is the outcome of 5 years of work launched with the eponym audio/visual live performance and prolongated by 3 EP’s released on POLAAR. Rituals, even if dark in its essence, transpires with savage energy, and opens doors to new musical landscapes, constantly oscillating between interrupted daydreaming and furious dances. Altogether, Rituals draws the portrait of a threatened universe healing in collective

2020 – Digital album – Vinyl

Featured in one of our previous compilations (Southern Dreams, Unlog Complex #08 – 2017), Ozferti grew to become of the leading artists of a new strain of afro-futuristic revival we’ve been witnessing in the past few years in electronic music. His album Solarius Gamma, released last March can definitely attest it. Somewhere with excellent artists such as CLAP CLAP! or Engone Endong Ozferti succeeded in crafting his very own style, chanelling Ethiopic vibes through a lively and impeccable production, solid instrumental skills and a dense string of collaborations he’s built over the years between his studio in Brussels and artists in Addis Abeba.

Filled with 11 absolute bangers, Solarius Gamma also reveals another facet in Ozferti’s universe. His undeniable musical skills are completed by an incredible talent in character design, illustration and animation that all combined, allow him to put his music in context in an colorful and elegant way, tapping into animation tropes, tales of a future past and ethiopian culture to create a unique and multilayered afro-futuristic world, as in the video clip he’s made for his track Hagir Fikir, feat. Eténèsh Wassié. Beyond music, we’re talking about a new realm of world-building here.

Back to the album, who better to describe than Ozferti himself.

https://nubianovarecords.bandcamp.com/album/solarius-gamma

Welcome to the first chapter of the OZFERTI saga. Step into an unknown galaxy, where gravity is multi-dimensional and they don’t have Netflix ; where new gods are replacing the old idols and the ecosystems are being crushed by space-mining economy. Follow OZFERTI, the masked beatmaker, in his journey to the stars, in an album inspired by East-African music and partly produced and recorded in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia.
The 11 track album takes you through desertic landscapes and sci-fi atmospheres, with traditionnal rythm patterns and percussions being mixed with electronic synthesisers and live electric guitar.

The A side of the album kicks off with the long intro to Abyssinium Express, setting the atmosphere of the journey and the colorful sounds of HaddinQo’s masenqo. Following is the majestic bass of Hagir Fikir crowned with the powerful voice of Ethénèsh Wassié, like a solemn greeting to this new world. The groove on Space Gurage is undeniable and invites you to some celebration with the Sons of Dire Dawa and Ayou Nagesh on vocals. Chika Bet is a more mature tune, displaying Ozferti’s guitar skills and complex drum arrangements. Closing the side A is the almost religious experience of Selam,joining the Sons of Dire Dawa again.
Side B starts with a slower and more meditative pace, announced by the dark atmosphere and organ of the Lost Stela interlude and the preacher voice of Miki Mac. The title track Solarius Gamma is minimalistic and dreamy, opening space for the clarity of Mékidès Nigatu’s singing. The chainsaw synth riff of Eshi Eshi is brutally groovy and takes the album back on some more upbeat, almost rave, territory. Following are two masenqo tunes with breathtaking solos by Endris Hadié on Ta Na Da ;
and HaddinQo carrying the groove on Komet Melka while Ozferti’s synthesisers take a real space-opera take-off. The closing of the album takes us back to the desert with Purple Sand, a percussive
and up-beat track for the road. 

Needless to say we highly recommend getting the vinyl limited edition.

2020 – Digital compilation

“FROM JAPAN TO THE WORLD WE ARE ∞”

Behind this enigmatic motto lies one rich and fascinating art project, an interconnection between Japan, Europe, fashion, visual arts underground electronic music. Their last project, CREVASSE OF MIND[S], has been in heavy rotation back in 2013 and ever since. After 6 years of patience, a third compilation came out this month, released precisely on Earth Day. 13 track strong, gathered around a brutalist keyword assemblage, both a mantra and a statement of sorts that resonate with the heartbeat sounds you’ll hear at several places in the project :

HUMAN BLOODS DNA EARTH HUMAN BLOODS DNA EARTH

https://utopiansocietys.bandcamp.com/album/a-connexion-of-blood-s

Expect rich aesthetic deconstructions and soundscapes in this project. Starting with a strong abstract hip hop segment with Wad Plasma Automator & T-DK’s ‘阿 ー 魂道’ (could be translated as Soul Road, check notes below*), chaos × ksk,s ‘o’clock’ and rich asymetrical beats by french producer Le Parasite’s Fractal Cosmology (present both their and our latest compilations), the projects mutates towards more minimalistic electronica / dub-techno with Anonumous Letter’s remix of AKI PALLADIUM, Taishin Inoue’s Distant City lights, before diving in complextro territory, incorporating various blends of IDM and breakbeat for a couple dense tracks. Then, after a swift transition to more ambient material, hydrant house purport rife on sleepy’s troumen (also on Thirty Three Records’ catalogue, gotta check this out) we unexpectedly switch back to lo-vibes hip hop with the laidback Gan-Kyu by mic.edu. Not the latest surprise you’ll get from that release, and we’ll leave the rest for you to discover.

Spot our program at https://unlog.info/radio in the next few days, you might see it appear as a featured release in our listening sessions time slots.

If you want to leave this to chance, just connect to our radio and see what happens. If you don’t just go and grab it on their bandcamp below.

*We’ve been lucky to have some more detailed explanations of the titles of intro and outro by one of the initiators of this project :

Track 1 : 阿 means ” birth “, ” beginning of universe ” in Buddhism. – 魂道 – is original subtitle for 阿 which means Soul Road.
And track 13 吽 is a set of words with 阿. 吽 means ” dead “, ” end of universe ” in Buddhism. We say 阿吽 A UN basically.

Just like our newly built webradio, here’s a relic from the time when RSS was king (still is if you ask us). And guess what : we’ve decided to write about it in a blog post.

So here it is : at a time when most musicians are stuck home, we’ve been reminded of one efficient way to jam together with your fellow musicians, each one behind his deck, using the same clock, and online.

Before jumping on the first instagram ad that pops up, we think you should know that this happens to be a free and open source solution, that has been around since 2004.

We’re of course talking about NINJAM.

After some time spent testing the robustness and guitar skills of the many members of the existing channels, we’ve decided to setup a temporary dedicated server, maybe more beat music oriented, for you to jam with in those weird times.

First, a step-by-step video that was brought to our attention.

Then a couple links :
Get the last version of Reaper : https://www.reaper.fm
All you should know about Ninjam : https://www.cockos.com/ninjam

And this package, which should have everything you need to be in business and start jamming in under a minute.

It’s important to note that until we get to 6G connectivity, some miracles cannot be achieved : you will still experience multiple seconds delays between players in real-life, bandwidth can cause issues, but the main point is that you can be in sync (whatever you play, if you’re tight, it’ll sound tight), up to 32 channels per person, record your sessions, and jam together.

For this first week, and with the good old days of turntablist chat rooms in mind, we’ve set the server to 82BPM. We’ll see where this goes, and will probably change it next week.
If anything breaks, come yell at Plugnpray on our Discord server.

Talking about jams, don’t miss Téhu’s live stream on Wednesday, taking over our Twitch channel from 8PM EST. He’ll be performing live from his studio, with a massive amount of keys and analog toys plugged into the live-looping station.
This may be the first of a series, so come join us on Wednesday at 8PM, and we’ll see what happens from there.

If you have any other solution to recommend, let us know.

You can check our webradio here :

https://unlog.ca

https://wiklow.bandcamp.com/album/bloom

Link to all available streaming platforms

https://unlog.fanlink.to/bloom

“Bloom” is the latest experiment from Canadian downtempo artist Wiklow (Michael Gary Dean). Fuelled by recent audio-visual collaborations with artists Push 1 stop and Diagraf, Wiklow merges computer-generated rhythms with sensitively crafted melodies. In “Bloom”, Wiklow shows us a path between chaos and cadence, discovering softness in uncomfortable places.

All tracks produced by Wiklow
Artwork : Jérome Guilleaume
Mastering : Cristobal Urbina