It is been a long time since I wanted to write a post about one of my TOP favourite record stores. What can one say about this legendary record store? A place of people rubbing together, producing endless waves. At Discos Paradiso you will find the crème de la crème of all kinds of music. Artists from all over the world have visited this avant-garde record store in Barrio Gotico between Raval and Plaza Catalunya, right in the heart of the beautiful city. Friendly atmosphere, always with good vibes and you never know how your day will end up by visiting this place. One thing is for sure; you will definitely pick at least one mind-melting record.
Whilst I am writing these words I bring to mind those days when I lived in Spain and I started visiting Discos Paradiso every week. I spent endless hours in there and the guys always happy to help, to offer some beers and that was all… all you needed to feel like home, feel like being in Paradise! At that fantastic place, I met some of the best DJs and artists of the city and I made friends. A territory of exchanging ideas and music. A place where you can be musically educated. Discos Paradisos it is far more than a record store, it is about promoting new ways of existing. It is a lifestyle.
This is what makes Discos Paradiso the best record store in Barcelona and one of the best ones in the world, in our own humble opinion.
As electronica is our soft spot, there you will find an exquisite collection of all subgenres from Acid Techno to Detroit, Industrial, Deep House, Dub Techno, Bass, Noise and Experimental. Needless to say, you will also find a great selection of other genres such as Disco, Funk, Soul, Hip-Hop, Indie, Rock, Folk, Synth-Pop. Remember to dig deeper and check all the offers as the hidden gems are waiting for you.
Photo taken by Vilma,2014
Live gigs and events that took place at this friendly space had marked my taste and certainly opened my musical horizons.
That is a quite different and emotional post but I think this is the real way to support, through pure love and personal experience.
Miss you guys. Warm and musical greetings from Bristol!
Fonemi has totally enchanted us with his last Cosmopolis EP released on Blackwater. Ritualistic hymns to our collective inner subconscious like a Jungian archetype with an hypnotising vibe. A utopic COSMO-polis full of new sounds and images committed to quality leading to a never ending mind journey.
Cosmopolis EP- Fonemi (Blackwater)
Fonemi is Vito Santoro, an Italian writer, novelist and producer. Santoro juxtaposes the passion for the crime stories with electronic music, thinking his music as a soundtrack for his novels. His style blends ambient music, experimentalism and ethnic suggestions. Recently he has released two ep’s: “Cosmopolis” (Blackwater Records), a tribute to Don DeLillo’s novel, a modern odyssey along the streets of a crowded metropolis, and “Porta d’Oriente” (Putsch Records), four tracks load of ritual and tribal recalls. Fonemi under his alias Sicarius Hahni produces rhythmical and electronic oriented sounds.
Today we are very excited as we have the wonderful opportunity to share with you a taste of Fonemi’s mysterious world through his exclusive podcast for Tales of Psychofonia. A selection of sixteen breathtaking tunes some of which produced by Mr Vito Santoro himself. Get absorbed by his magnetising music and save the name; Fonemi aka Sicarius Hahni.
Isotropy – Dopplereffekt
Bisogni Primari – Fonemi
John Doe’s Carnival of Error – Blanck Mass
Ezra – Oneohtrix Point Never
Lakker – Pylon
Knights & Bishops – Ancient Methods
Il Punto Cieco – Sicarius Hahni
Out of Horse – Ryuichi Sakamoto
Carbon 7 – Jlin
Drifter – Biosphere
Mizu – Niagara
Is This Power – The Field
Rainy Souls, Gloomy Futures – Clap! Clap! Clap!
Transience – Scuba
Music for the Quiet Hour Part 1 – Shackleton
Il Filo dell’Orizzonte – Fonemi
T.O.P. invites LXV a promising artist from Pennsylvania. His album “Clear” was the one that triggered our interest and called our attention a lot.
The album is a full-length LP of original content on the Catalan label, Anòmia.
The album is also very much about the more desolate aspects of urban life: modern ruins, wide, empty streets in industrial neighborhoods.
These muses instill in ‘Clear’ a mournful quality and, at times, a redemptive one. The fractured voices in ‘Clear’ represent the existential churning of the world, a churning which suggests there is a world underneath this imposed reality, just under the surface, wavering in and out of view.
We are presenting LXV and his words for T.O.P.
T.O.P.: Where are you from and how do you find you local music scene?
LXV: I am currently living in Philadelphia. I find my local scene to be pretty cool and weird.
T.O.P.:The LP seems like scattered dreams and fragmented conversations, does this sound take influence from or even compliment any other art form like cubism for example?
LXV:I have spent a lot of time in my life studying the history of art and practicing visual art. I think my brain is inclined to think visual-conceptually. Sound prohibits me from following the immediacy of some of my ideas, which I enjoy about it. It allows me to present my dreams, narratives and personal mythology abstractly through cryptographic compositions.
T.O.P.:What aesthetics do you try to portray when you enter the studio as LXV?
LXV: I think aesthetics I am conjuring represent purely the absurdity of our five sense reality. I think maybe, in LXV, what is better represented is the breaking down of aesthetics and subsequent path towards some primordial, proto-symbolic language.
T.O.P.:Do you find it important for music to represent certain aspects of life?
LXV: Certainly. For me personally creating music is only worth it if it has some foundation of conceptual meaning, even if that meaning is obscured to the audience. I am rarely compelled to make music without this precursor.
T.O.P. What kinds of things in life inspire you to be creative?
LXV: I think consciousness is already such a strange thing that it doesn’t take much to get me going.
T.O.P.: Where would you find the most ideal place/ venue to enjoy your music?
LXV: Maybe abandoned Olympic stadiums of yesteryear. I personally enjoy to listen to music in states of transit. Something about being in motion. I think this is a good setting to listen to LXV.
T.O.P.: Do you find any new pieces of musical hard/software pushing things forward in terms of experimental music?
LXV: I usually find myself pretty unimpressed by the software/ hardware itself. I think when the work becomes about the technology I lose interest. I am much more enthralled by someone viewing the world suspiciously and using technology to realize their ideas as opposed to inspire them.
T.O.P: Psychofonia is a method to treat migraine with music, what album/record would you put on to heal the mind?
Today we are going to Istanbul. Merve Bozdag is our today´s guest and her beautiful selection of oriental vibes and music for a contemporary fairy tales. Her mix for Tales of Psychofonia is like a vehicle to another ages. A journey between past and future between West and East. A magical evolving trip leading to an endless daydreaming.
Born in Istanbul, she found herself playing as a DJ due to her passion for music. It is this passion that has made her wake up eager to discover new tracks and sounds, everyday ,since her childhood. Merve’s music is intense, colorful and fluid. Always influenced by the feelings of her journey, it is not surprising that her music is full of great vibes as well as a deep feeling of melancholia. She believes it is important to tell a different story every time she plays. She has played at several places, such as Indigo, Kiki, Kloster, Minipax Festival and Chill-Out Festival to name but a few. Her strong mind leads her to create a music beyond its time. She is presenting a unique sound in experimental and electronic music.
“Cheap Poetry” is like a male orgasm, lasts only for a few seconds ….
Tendts and lights, Tendts and tales, Tendts and dreams, Tendts and melancolic beats, Tends with love… from Thessaloniki. Our today’s T.O.P. interview travels to the beautiful city of Thessaloniki and Tendts disclosure interesting details about themselves through a heartfelt enjoyable and real interview for Tales of Psychofonia. We are more than happy to share it with you.
We would urge you to read their words whilst listening their “Cheap Poetry” LP which was one of the reasons for this post. Tendts are able to magically transfer you to another dimensions transforming Cinderellas to classy ladies and frogs to princes, even if it is just for a while…
We introduce you to….. Tendts!
1. Why “Tendts”?
Cause of that stupid, filthy, rusty tent outside our studio -and our obsession with change and redefinition of course.
2. What is the message delivered by your sound?
“I’m a bitch, I’m a lover, I’m a child, I’m a mother
I’m a sinner, I’m a saint, I do not feel ashamed
I’m your hell, I’m your dream, I’m nothing in between
You know you wouldn’t want it any other way.
3. What type of hardware do you normally use on your live acts?
We usually use a Roland Sp505, a couple midi keyboards, an Alesis drumpad, a floor tom, a Korg Kaoss Pad, laptops, an electric guitar, four to five guitar pedals, a Behringer console and lots of cables to connect and power all this mess.
4. Any influences?
Joy Division, Talking Heads, Fourtet, Panda Bear, Animal Collective, Chemical Brothers, Brian Eno, David Bowie, Orbital, Caribou, Alien Sex fiend, Claude Debussy, Sex Gang Children, Cinema Strange, Happy Mondays, Bauhaus, Antzela Dimitriou, Aneta Marmarinou, Ta Paidia tou Peiraia, VIPS, Kostas Haritodiplomenos, George Alkeos, Giannis Parios, Karlota and last but not least Lampis Livieratos.
5. What was the most unforgettable live performance and why?
We had some pretty memorable ones like the one with Death in Vegas or a couple festivals but we have to say that the most unforgettable has to be the one in Hamburg with the Project Mooncircle family. It had everything! A roadtrip, great pizza and to top it all the amazing sound-system of the Mojo Club plus an awesome crowd!
6. What are you up to next? any future plans?
Few gigs here and there to promote our album. At the same time we will try to gather all the raw material and samples that are hidden in our hard drives and try to focus in making a release.
7. How do you perceive the electronic music scene both in your own city and in Greece?
The electronic music scene in Thessaloniki and in Greece in general is growin’ and getting stronger! That’s definitely a good thing! But one of the things we also find absolutely great is that bands now try to experiment more with electronics and the nature of “how electronic music works” in both terms of synthesis/studio and vibe/live! One band that has nailed this part -and we are patiently waiting to hear their new stuff- is Mary’s Flower Superhead.
8. Is there any place, stage, festival you have dreamt to perform at?
Sure thing! As far as festivals concerned we would love to play at “Field Day”. Now for places and/or locations a tour around the globe wouldn’t be bad! Hehehe 🙂
9. What is the tale behind your debut album Cheap Poetry, an album that makes us feel in love every time we listen to it…
This album basically is layers and layers of sounds stacked up on top of each other showered with nostalgia and memories and at the top you have our bitter/sweet feelings laying there. Those feelings are responsible for the sickness that you may feel in your stomach as you return home during a weekend full of sun and joy.
Its not a bad thing that you return home, it is a bad thing though that you must return to your job, that you have to confront the fucking ugly face of your boss, the stress, the stupid decisions that you have to make during your regular day. Well, “Cheap Poetry” is so cheap that will (maybe) make you feel good but only for a few minutes, it will not last forever. “Cheap Poetry” is like a male orgasm, lasts only for a few seconds (laughs!) …. Sometimes you ‘d be wishing to be a woman so you could have multiple orgasms instead! ( Maybe that is our next endeavor’s concept! )
10. Will you share us with us an album you both like and you consider it can work as mind and soul healer?
“Talking Heads – Remain in Light”. This is THE album that makes both the booty and the soul move!
Rotkeller are coming from the cold Switzerland to warm our minds with their new EP both on luana and everest records.
The Sublime EP is another great skillfully crafted piece of edgy electronica. The pair know how to rock the darker side of the Swiss electronic music scene. The A side is straight down business the way Rotkeller know best! Walker starts as a dramatic stand out piece or bass music that some how refines itself as an upfront techno groove when the bass line steps into the next gear.
Sublime, which gave its name to the record, is more like a soundtrack of a suspense movie hiding surprising changes expressed by breaks and a district harmonica, unfolding the perfect audiovisual plot making us wait watch next with an epic end, the end of Sublime¡ dynamic loops like an industrial metamorphosis. Herr Vodmar – Call Of War from the previous EP is getting back with different faces and more remixes of it. Maybe the most upbeat tracks of the EP bringing the balance between darkness and light,adding to the dynamic contrast.
The Kelpe version chugs along nicely with twisted licks from the original and the fat analog bass while the Baumeister version gives you an end of set record to close a big night with.
Delete gets a face lift from their previous album,courtesy of Dave Eleanor, who elegantly controls the suspense of the boys gnarly hardware gear . Bitumer (Digitalis remix) rolls in some scattered jungle grooves with some warm vintage sci-fi undertones to stitch it all together.
This is a quality package and strictly limited release a dramatic bass music with hints of jungle and industrial attitudes. Strictly for lovers of the eccentric dark beauty in electronic music.
T.O.P. TALE: We give for free to one of our TOP readers the unreleased yet Sublime EP.You just need to either like or comment the post about Sublime EP on Tales of Psychofonia blog or on our facebook page and we will pick up a name out of the hat. Saturday morning the winner will be announced.
We are looking for our first podcast for T.O.P. If you want to see your mixtape on T.O.P. please contact us. The artist of the mixtape chosen is going to receive a special gift. Preference to vinyl sets.Have a nice music day! Thank you!
