Şatellites "Aylar"
Şatellites blast back into orbit on Aylar delivering a bold evolution on the psychedelic folk-meets-groove sound they established on their acclaimed debut album.
Heavily influenced by the wave of psychedelic rock fused with traditional folk music that swept across Turkey in the 60s and 70s, Şatellites’ self-titled debut album received international acclaim. The record earned support from outlets such BBC Radio 6 Music and FIP in France, and were invited to record live sets for both Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide FM, and KEXP in Seattle.
Since their debut, Şatellites have evolved from a studio project into a full-fledged touring band. Over time, the lineup has shifted, enabling the group to recreate their studio sound live. Their expanded lineup now includes Tsuf Mishali on keys and synths, known for his work in proggy psych bands, and the animated Tal Eyal on percussion. Rotem Bahar has also stepped up as the band’s full-time vocalist and frontwoman, adding a fuller, grittier edge to the group’s sound. Behind the drumkit, Lotan Yaish brings dynamic energy to the rhythm section.
After two years of touring, this cohesive and reinvigorated lineup entered the studio with renewed purpose and closer musical bonds. Aylar (Turkish for “moons” or “months”) showcases more ambitious arrangements, extended compositions, intricate harmonies, and unexpected twists, reflecting the band’s commitment to innovation and their passion for the original wave of Turkish psychedelic music.
The album opener, “Tisladi Mehmet Emmi” serves as a gateway to their expanded sound. This reimagining of a traditional Türküler—a Turkish folk song by the prolific saz-playing singer-poet Aşık Ali Doğan—transforms it into a modern psychedelic funk masterpiece. Kluger’s saz and Mishali’s synths intertwine seamlessly, underpinned by Ariel Harrosh’s infectious basslines and Yaish’s dramatic drumming, all culminating in Rotem’s husky, emotive vocals. Lyrically, the track narrates two elderly men lamenting the state of the world—a timeless theme.
One of the album’s standout surprises, “Midnight Sweat” reveals a darker, sultry side of the band. Rotem delivers a steamy late-night lullaby over a slinky disco-rock groove. Developed collaboratively, the track began as a sketch by bassist Ariel Harrosh, before Itamar added a melody and Rotem crafted lyrics in Turkish. The song tells a passionate love story, punctuated with sensual imagery.
“Hot Jazz” ventures into cinematic territory, as the band flexes their jazz and funk chops. The hard-hitting groove is destined to energise breakdancers. The bağlama and flute riffs, steeped in minor scales and modal nuances, infuse the track with a distinctive Middle Eastern character.
Elsewhere, Aylar delivers genre-bending highlights such as “Gizli Ajan”, which opens with a percussive intro reminiscent of the Incredible Bongo Band’s “Bongolia.” This instrumental jam has become a live favorite. “Yok Yok” reinterprets an Erkin Koray classic with a prog-tinged punk-rock flair, transitioning through four distinct sections before concluding with a rousing 9/8 Zeybek rhythm.
The album’s most ambitious cover is their cosmic folk-funk rendition of Hakki Bullut’s ballad “Ikmiz Bir Fideniz” is followed by the original instrumental “Beş Kardeş” (“Five Brothers”), a smoky, 5/4-time piece led by Itamar’s reverb-drenched bağlama.
The album closes with a dynamic duo: “Zülüf Dökülmüs Yüze” a cosmodelic disco-fuzz take on a classic Türküler by Neşet Ertaş, and “Zülüf B (Reprised)”, which deconstructs and reassembles the groove. Starting with a foreboding proto-metal pace, the track builds to a dramatic, high-tempo finale.
If Şatellites’ self-titled debut laid the blueprint for their sound , Aylar marks their transformation into a fully realised musical force.With this album, Şatellites step confidently out of the shadows of their Anatolian psych heroes to craft a modern yet timeless record, expanding their influences while deepening their connection to their roots.
Two-Man Giant Squid "Two-Man Giant Squid"
Jules Reidy "Ghost/Spirit"
Jules Reidy’s sublime music maps the human experience in glittering constellations of sound. The guitarist is a driver of Berlin’s fertile contemporary music scene, a respected polymath whose prolific output and worldwide touring has led to performances and collaborations with myriad lauded artists. Reidy’s breathtaking recordings and magnetic performances offer a truly futuristic, singular vision of guitar music. Explorations of microtonal mysticism and alternate tunings drawn from transcendental folk and minimalism color Reidy’s playful experiments with smudged pop melodics and sampling. A wide-eyed imagination combined with technical mastery guide each work in Reidy’s extensive catalog, from solo guitar albums and collaborations with innovative peers, including recent works with claire rousay, Oren Ambarchi, Andrea Belfi and Sam Dunscombe to major commissions from institutions such as JACK Quartet and Zinc & Copper. The songs of Ghost/Spirit collectively convey an astral sense of yearning and wonder, pushing towards transcendence. The album charts a deeply personal journey with love, spirituality and transformation expressed in fractal guitar figures, ethereal vocal vapors and rippling microtones.
Ghost/Spirit was conceived during a period of dissolution and transformation for Reidy. Through the experience of heartbreak, a major shift in their personal identity and a rediscovery of their fascination with mysticism, the album documents a major shift in Reidy’s understanding and experience of earthly and divine love. “My personal experience with mysticism is intuitive, and expresses itself mostly through music. I understand and experience practice as being a struggle and expression of my relation to life’s display and as a tool for transcending it,” they explain. Each track charts a single trepidatious step on the path to being remade, a prayer to the universe delivered with raw honesty. “To Breathe Lighting” takes its title from Anne Carson’s The Glass Essay on heartbreak and eternity, grappling with the tension between earthly and divine love as Reidy’s lyrics trace being “drawn to the sky” and “drawn to the earth” respectively. “Every Day There’s a Sunrise” finds peace and resolution in letting go of our traditional understanding of love, instead accessing a more all-encompassing, astral love directed outwardly at the universe rather than an individual. The album’s title and narrative arc equally communicates this same journey towards transcendence, with the A-side “Ghost” invoking feelings of loss and absence, while the B-side “Spirit” stretches out to encompass something altogether more divine and expansive in its glistening harmonics and lysergic reverb tails.
The experience of transformation and reconstruction is mirrored in Reidy’s compositional approach on Ghost/Spirit. Throughout the album, the guitarist’s refracting guitar themes and vocals are augmented by samples provided by friends and collaborators, deconstructed and reassembled by Reidy into beguiling new forms. Reidy’s guitar approach unlocks the tonal and textural possibilities of the instrument from their use of alternate tunings and astute processing. The maximalist melodics of album opener “Every Day There’s a Sunset” are bolstered by rumbling bass samples from Andreas Dzialocha, Reidy’s collaborator in new duo Sun Kit. On “Satellite,” cello samples from Judith Hamann stretch out through the cosmos, orbited by spiraling finger-picked guitars, while stacked trombone chords echo out into the ether. Thundering drum samples from Berlin metal mainstay Sara Neidorf push the album to ecstatic peaks on “Every Day There’s a Sunrise,” fragmented rhythms breaking apart in the atmosphere. Field recordings of the Berlin S-Bahn recur throughout the album, another endless cycle of leaving and returning that shuttles beneath the album’s whirling tones.
Ghost/Spirit’s song trajectory mirrors Reidy’s own personal journey with transformation. As Reidy describes it “The album is infused with this energy of being absolutely destroyed, and having the potential to be remade.” It captures the inherent power and agency in choosing to offer yourself up to the universe and let go, ego death and prayer rendered in incandescent sonics. Reidy’s inimitable skill as a guitarist, producer and composer is on full display, and when combined with the intensity of experience, the resulting album is a remarkable work of art.
Bummer Camp "Stuck In A Dream"
Bummer Camp serve up disarmingly melodic grunge-gaze that cuts straight to the heart. Originally forged as a solo loop project from NYC scene mainstay Eli Frank, the band has grown through two EP releases into a dynamic 4-piece. Stuck In A Dream is their debut full-length and scheduled for release on February 14th via Trash Casual. These new recordings are testament to the evolution of the group’s sound; expanding from their lo-fi origins into the sonic vibrancy of the current fully-fledged live act.