Eclectic Electronic

Mop Mop is the brainchild of Andrea Benini, musician, producer, DJ who has been active for more than ten years exploring a large variety of musical genres, from club to jazz music. Several musicians joined Mop Mop during the album recording like Latin piano player and composer Alex Trebo, "virtuoso" vibes player Pasquale Mirra, Down Beat Critics Poll winner Gianluca Petrella, Veteran Jazz singer Alan Farrington and the London singer Robina Veda. Mop Mop's music shakes Jazz and eclectic club sound with an Italian taste that joins international tendencies.
"…Just Imagine a place that doesn't exist where you can have a drink and dance till' dawn. Imagine a small keyboard soft lights a hip place; beyond you a round table where Jelly Roll Morton, Duke Ellington, Martin Denny and Mr. Soul number one James Brown are having a lively conversation…

Flag was a watershed album for the group. On one hand, it is a refinement of all the ideas the band had been following through the '80s, on the other, in the wake of their high-profile success with "Oh Yeah," Yello had reached the point where ideas turned into self-parody - the cover art of Deiter Meier and Boris Blank pulled together into a human knot is horrifically appropriate. Nothing is a surprise here, apart from how "The Race" is a Xerox of their own 1981 song "Bostich." Tracks like "Of Course I'm Lying" are empty exercises in suave, like late-period Roxy Music without the pedigree. Billy Mackenzie returns to provide backup vocals on the more romantic tunes. This isn't to say that the album is a dull listen - "Tied Up," repeated here three times on a nine-track album, is a fascinating collage of Afro-Cuban rhythms, rain storm effects, drums nicked from a Broadway revue, monkey chatter, basso-profundo lyrics, and screams…

Café del Mar XIX features 26 new tracks of which 22 are exclusive for the compilation. Including some of the biggest names in electronic music, such as Moby & Mark Lanegan, Bonobo, The xx, Kate Bush… Great combination of cool lounge music guaranteed to put your mind to rest and chill your self to complete rest.

On their 2016 full-length, The Digging Remedy, Plaid claim to have revisited their Detroit techno roots. While this might cause longtime fans to expect something similar to the duo's pre-Warp recordings, particularly the solo tracks recorded under pseudonyms including Atypic and Balil, the album isn't quite as danceable as the work they produced during the early '90s. In some ways, it's slightly darker and less playful than many Plaid albums, continuing with the cinematic flair of their previous decade's output. (The duo recorded a few soundtracks during that time, most of which were only available in Japan or digitally.) Opening track "Do Matter" trickles in with John Carpenter-esque synth melodies and creeping, suspenseful rhythms that skip a beat rather than sticking to a 4/4 pattern…

If eclectic is your bag, then Heartbeat might be your thing. Like Hector Zazou, Ryuichi Sakamoto employs a realm of many styles on this upbeat collection. Songs performed in Japanese, Russian, French, and English (by friends Youssou N'Dour, David Sylvian, and Deee-Lite's DJ Towa Towa and Super DJ Dmitri) top an already brimming album that is everything its predecessor, Beauty, wasn't. Two completely different versions of the title track add arty spice. "Triste" is a wonderful, lazy-afternoon stroll in Paris jazz; "Lulu" follows suit. Is there no end to this Sakamoto's talent? He does jazz, rap, and chucks in a couple of solo piano pieces reminiscent of his soundtrack work. "Songlines" came about via his score for Pedro Almodovar's High Heels. "Boram Gal" and "High Tide" – with guests Youssou N'Dour and Arto Lindsay, respectively – are both delicate and swathed in summer. Ingrid Chavez adds poet's fire to frozen dust on "Returning to the Womb" and contributes eerie funk on "Cloud #9."

Spore is the second disc in Vidna Obmana's (Dirk Serries) trilogy based on Dante's Inferno. This is also quite a departure for Serries. He uses quite an array of eclectic devices to create this experimental - almost avant-garde - album. The most interesting sounds are from the overtone flutes and fujaras. Serries has commented that this is not an ambient CD. That is correct. This CD is interesting enough to be the focus of deep listening. It is not innocuous enough to be ignored as background music. It demands attention. The rhythms and atmospheres complement each other smoothly. The experimental sounds are neither dominant nor dominated. This disc is certainly electronic, definitely experimental, and decidedly Vidna Obmana. It will appeal to fans of Steve Roach, Robert Rich, Jorge Reyes, and Ma Ja Le.