DJ Kobayashi "Give Me Disco – Vol 2"
Following the success of the inaugural all-Jiri Jiri edition, Batov Records returns with the second instalment of its Give Me Disco series, once again curated by label co-founder and globe-trotting selector DJ Kobayashi. Rather than revisiting familiar disco classics, Give Me Disco Vol. 02 digs deeper, bringing together four dancefloor discoveries from across Europe and Asia, including two previously unreleased tracks available here for the first time.
Spanning Portuguese jazz-funk, Norwegian cosmic oddities, Japanese-inspired psychedelic disco and cinematic groove, the EP reflects the breadth of Kobayashi’s record bag – a carefully assembled selection of tracks that have soundtracked his DJ sets for years alongside exclusive material rescued from the vaults.
Opening the record is The Bam Jam Band’s brilliantly understated “Theme”, a soaring slice of jazz-infused disco from Portuguese musicians Sérgio Alves and Pedro Tenreiro. Originally released only as a now long-sold-out 7-inch on Mad About Records, the track has become one of Kobayashi’s trusted secret weapons, championed by discerning selectors including Darryn Jones and Red Greg. Built around Alves’ dazzling synthesiser work, “Theme” finally gets the wider audience it deserves.
The EP’s first exclusive arrives courtesy of D. Apal, instrumentalist and member of Norway’s Flammer Dance Band. His only solo release, issued on the band’s Lysketrekk Records, has become a cult favourite among adventurous record collectors. Batov now unveils the previously unreleased “60 Meter’n (Rytme)”, an extended instrumental dub that strips away the vocals to let the handclaps, cavernous bassline, dub effects and wonderfully eccentric synthesisers breathe, transforming an underground favourite into an irresistible dancefloor weapon.
Side B opens with YĪN YĪN’s “Tokyo Disco”, taken from the band’s acclaimed third album Mount Matsu on Glitterbeat Records. Long-time admirers of the Dutch quartet, Kobayashi has championed them since first hearing the breakthrough pairing of “Dis̄ kô Dis̄ kô” and “Dion Ysiusk” on Bongo Joe. Since then, he has hosted the band twice on Soho Radio and supported them live in London. “Tokyo Disco” perfectly captures YĪN YĪN’s distinctive blend of Japanese-inspired psychedelia, Southeast Asian influences, post-punk funk and shimmering disco grooves, making it a natural fit for the Give Me Disco series.
Closing the EP is another exclusive from Jiri Jiri, whose contribution helped launch the series on Vol. 01. Ahead of their forthcoming album later this year, the duo unveil the previously unreleased “Spaghetti Western”, a wonderfully off-kilter fusion of Morricone-esque cinematic atmosphere, taut funk rhythms and the soulful modern groove of SAULT. Equal parts soundtrack and dancefloor curveball, it provides a fitting finale while offering another tantalising glimpse of what’s still to come.
With two exclusive cuts sitting alongside two carefully chosen modern classics, Give Me Disco Vol. 02 is another lovingly curated snapshot of DJ Kobayashi’s musical universe: borderless, groove-driven and unapologetically built for adventurous DJs, discerning collectors and open-minded dancefloors alike.
viragezero "viragezero"
viragezero was born on a cold Sunday evening in December, on the way home after a Chris Cohen concert at the Face Z festival. In the Geneva winter, the desire emerged to create a new collective space, nourished by the long drifting journeys of kosmische musik.
Initially imagined as a parallel playground bringing together the duo Citron Citron, two former members of L’Éclair and musicians from Magic & Naked, the project quickly developed its own gravity. This self-titled debut album sketches a world that feels both familiar and distorted, where everyday landscapes slowly shift into something more unstable.
Through tracks carried by nervous synths, rhythms inherited from 1990s trip hop and abstract hip hop, hazy guitars and moving electronic textures, viragezero builds a music suspended in midair. A music driven as much by sensation as by structure, where tensions rise without ever fully exploding, like a dream that refuses to let go.
Zoé Sjollema’s lyrics play a central role in this feeling of drift. Built from fragments of dreams written down upon waking over several years, they develop an instinctive form of writing in which reality constantly seems to lose its stability. Emptiness, wandering, exhaustion and the sensation of being disconnected from the world run throughout the album without ever becoming completely explicit. The songs move more like mental states, spaces where emotions take the shape of shifting landscapes, diffuse tensions or distorted memories.
Beneath its misty textures and hypnotic rhythms, viragezero also speaks to a form of contemporary solitude, to the feeling of moving in circles, searching endlessly for an exit without ever quite reaching it. Yet within this instability emerges a desire to let go, to drift away, to disappear momentarily into something larger than oneself.
Without ever falling into conventional narrative songwriting, viragezero works instead through impressions, repetitions and sensory shifts. The album unfolds like a nocturnal passage between quiet anxiety and contemplative surrender, each track opening a new mental space.
Somewhere between dream pop, electronica, IDM and spectral songwriting, viragezero delivers a dense and instinctive debut album, capable of being contemplative, abrasive and deeply immersive all at once. A nocturnal, haunted and living record that transforms fragments of reality into shifting sonic matter.