Anoraque – not for anoraks!
How this band ever arrived at their cagoule of a name is a mystery. Anoraque are anything but boring. A kaleidoscopic view of everything that’s exciting in contemporary indie, more like. Taking as a starting point the angular dynamics of bands like Alt-J, Anoraque’s feelers are stretched out in all directions, from the glitschy electronica […]
Cortez demand “No more Conquerers”
9 November 2018 sees the release of the third album by the Geneva-based Cortez, “No More Conquerors” on Basement Apes Records (France), Grains of Sand Records (Russia), Cheap Satanism Records (Belgium), Get a Life! Records (Switzerland) and WOOAAARGH (rest of the world). It was produced by Raphael Bovey (Zatokrev, Impure Wilhelmina, Convulsif, etc.). Cortez will need no introduction […]
A lovely-dubby Christmas to all!
Dub Spencer & Trance Hill have done it again: their tenth album “Christmas in Dub” is another mind-bending, expectation-confounding collection of the bizarrely brilliant and the brilliantly bizarre. Having already brought their talents to bear on the works of William S. Burroughs, Lee Perry, Dieter Meier and Ken Booth (amongst others), the dub reggae outfit […]
Us & Sparkles damn the rich
The Zurich-based production duo Us & Sparkles – Roland Vollenweider aka steinklopfer, and Philipp Cron aka paws – have released EP volume four of excerpts from their “Damn Rich” series of experiments with space and ambient sound and rhythm. Us & Sparkles are perhaps better known for their deep and heavy downbeats, turned into a […]
Alenko is elsewhere in his head
French-Swiss electro-chansonnier Alenko is celebrating twenty years as a solo artist with the re-release of his album “La Tête Ailleurs” (“the mind elsewhere”). Released in Switzerland two years ago, it now comes with an extra EP, “Lifting”, comprising six new songs. Whilst “Lifting” is available as a separate record in Switzerland, it is launched in […]
Mario Batkovic rocks Womex
Womex is a travelling conference/festival dedicated to spreading the word about all aspects of world music. Bringing together more than 2300 professionals as well as around 300 performers, it is easily the most diverse music meeting worldwide. Taking place this year in the idyllic location of Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, one of the […]
Swiss Music Export at MaMA Paris – 17 – 19 October 2018
Paris in the autumn is pretty nice by itself. Add MaMA Festival & Convention to the mix, and the lure becomes irresistible. Staged in various locations around Montmartre and Pigalle, two of the most colourful areas of Paris, the MaMA is easily the most glamorous event in the yearly cycle of music business get-togethers. Attracting more than […]
Swiss Focus at Match & Fuse Japan, 17, 18 and 21 October 2018
Started in 2011 in London, Match & Fuse is an international festival of adventurous music with branches in the UK, France, Ireland, Belgium, Italy, Poland, Norway, and – via Ayumi Katigani Frei’s management company – Switzerland and Japan. Match & Fuse matches bands from different countries to play together and create new works. The latest […]
Klaus Johann Grobe return symmetrically
Exciting news indeed! We found it on the homepage of our favourite post-Krautrock-groovers Klaus Johann Grobe. “We’re happy to announce our new record “du bist so symmetrisch”,” it says, “it will be out on October 26 via Trouble in Mind Records.” Few Swiss bands in recent years have enjoyed more attention from music publications in the […]
Puts Marie’s bad temper
Revitalised by a time-out earlier in this decade, Puts Marie have returned fresher, wittier and tighter than ever. Three years almost to the day after the ground-breaking “Masoch 1 – II” album that marked their renaissance and cemented their international reputation, 28 September saw the release of their keenly awaited follow-up, “Catching Bad Temper”. With […]
