Mar 19, 2017

Sundaze 1712

Hello, Chuck Berry, guitarist, singer and songwriter and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music, has died age 90,. With songs such as "Maybellene" (1955), "Roll Over Beethoven" (1956), "Rock and Roll Music" (1957) and "Johnny B. Goode" (1958), Berry refined and developed rhythm and blues into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive, with lyrics focusing on teen life and consumerism and music featuring guitar solos and showmanship that were a major influence on subsequent rock music. The world awaits his final album, Chuck.

On a different note i watched Milan San Remo cycling final this afternoon, superman Peter Sagan rode solo 20 seconds away from the hunting peloton, unfortunately there were two he had been unable to dislodge enough from his wheel and as these things go one of them, that sneaky Polak Kwiatkowski managed to just outsprint him. Disgusting victory, no honor, a leech this Kwiatkowski, but apparently in cycling this is acceptable behavior, well not in my book, not that anyone needs to feel sorry for Peter Sagan he wins plenty of races, but as a viewer i had to see a deserved victory stolen and the thief honored.



Today's Artist stands for two decades of experimental electronic, dubtech and consequently pushing dubhouse tracks for intense nights on the floor. In this process the productive artist likes to integrate himself in different artistic constellations with project pseudonyms such as Saafi Brothers and Aural Float into ambient, space and experimental sound scapes… Next to his music projects Gabriel also works with Aural Float on audiovisual concepts: as a team they did the artistic supervision of Spacenight, a prototype of an integral TV-concept, utilizing spectacular film- and documentary footage from outer space with music made on earth. With an open mind and always in a search for fresh musical experiences, Gabriel keeps on exploring electronic music. With Dr. Motte, Gabriel Le Mar started mixing electronic music, focussing on the pure aspects of dance. Still following that path that led them together searching for the soul in the machines, the music lovers are playing with the various settings inside their electronic devices to get the sound and atmosphere they were after for. ....N'Joy

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Gabriel Le Mar is one of the high profile musicproducers and lives and works in Frankfurt/Germany. He is bringing together different musical styles such as Dub, Techno and "electronic leftfield music", which you can hear in his productions. Gabriel was born in Germany, the son of Greek parents, and grew up in Berlin. Around 1984, he gets his first stage experience as a professional club dj and bassman of a band experimenting with electronic sounds. In 1987, Gabriel studied at the HdK, Berlin (University of Fine Arts) and got a diploma in "Society and Economy Communication". Then he worked as an Art-Director in advertising agencies but could never quit producing music and soon he produced soundtrax for commercials still today. 1987, in Berlin he gets in contact with the art "pop project" Bamboo Industry and they released longplayers on a major label plus an extensive tour with appearances at big festivals. Besides "Bamboo Industry", Gabriel is also part of the Berlin based experimental electronic project, "Cosmic Trigger" with Mike V.A.M.P. from the "Märtini Brös".

1992, Gabriel moved to Frankfurt and became founder of the electronic project Saafi Brothers. Together with Frankfurt based producer "Michael Kohlbecker" (Eternal Basement), Gabriel did a remix for the German number one hit "Sie ist weg" by the hip hop group "Die Fantastischen Vier". 1993, inspired by the mix techniques of "Jamaican dub music", Gabriel was also a member of the successful local "dub club concept" Serious Dropout with the producers "Jammin´ Unit" (Air Liquide), "Tricky Cris" and "The Reverend". The unique connection of dub reggae, electronics, ambient and techno sounds featured musicians and producers from Jamaica (like Yah Meek) and the UK (like Rootsman) and they released 3 albums on a major label.

1994, soon, Gabriel followed this concept not only at the monthly dub nights in Frankfurt, but also at other events, including DJs more influenced by techno and electronic sounds. He met Alex Azary, mastermind of the XS-Club, at this time one of the leading venues for ambient and chill out sounds in Europe. Together, they formed the Aural Float project and appeared on the stages of many events all over Europe (Montreux Jazz Festival /CH, Mayday, Rave City, Universe, and Euphoria). In the same year, Aural Float released their first track on a various artists compilation put out by a major label. The producer Pascal FEOS became a member of the project and they delivered a well acclaimed remix for Sven Väth.

1995, the first Aural Float album Introspectives was released on the Elektrolux label.
 Eversince their first "chill out sessions" at Frankfurts legendary XS Club, Aural Float has remained one of the main driving forces for the German electronic-leftfield music scene.
 In order to achieve visionary progress for electronic music, they started the Elektrolux-Label and joined UK designer "Neville Brody" in creating the corporate design of Elektrolux. The project raises public attention and interest for innovation. They also cooperate with diverse artists and cross genres from media to video to movie to photography and graphic design.

1996, Aural Float created the soundtrack for the TV-series Space Night broadcast by "German station BR" every night. As a team they did the "artistic supervision" of SpaceNight, a prototype of an integral tv-concept, utilizing spectacular pictures and visionary soundscapes which became a landmark success on german television and was highly acclaimed on an international level and remains a synonyme for chillout until today. Since then his music can be heard every night as part of the successful "Space Night", showing pictures from planet earth taken from space. Aural Float took over the musical direction for the concept of the tv-series and associated CD/Vinyl compilations series as well.
 Alongside the SpaceNight activities and the ongoing work for the first Saafi Brothers album, he was also busy with live appearances with different acts at the first Cocoon events in Frankfurt, Munich and Copenhagen, and at festivals like Vision (CH) and Roskilde (DK). Gabriel also played in clubs like the Colosseum (London), Fuse (Brussels), Orbit (Leeds), Sensor (Zürich).

 1997 the Saafi Brothers debut "Mystic Cigarettes" came out on the well known british label BlueRoomRel./UK. With the internationally successful and today classic album the project consisting of Frankfurt/Germany based producers Gabriel Le Mar, Michael Kohlbecker, Alex Azary and Groovetitan immediately placed itself among the first row of the international ambient and electronic scene. Tracks from the album have been released on numerous compilations, the extracted 12" ³Internal.Code.Error.930" featured a remix by british techno/dub project Bandulu and became a club hit.

1998, Gabriel and his Saafi Brothers partner, Michael Kohlbecker, put out the techno influenced Def=Lim album from their side project, "Montauk P.", which is also signed to BlueRoomReleased/UK. In London, he was in recording-sessions with "Mike Maguire" (Juno Reactor) and the legendary Band Amampondo (South Africa). On Elektrolux the "Dub Mix Convention" series was released.

1999 Gabriel Le Mar began to record his first solo album "Gab´s Lab", which was released on SpiritZone and represented a journey through Gabriels musical influences from dub and electronics to techno and trance. For the first time, he played in the USA, doing shows in New York and San Francisco. More dates followed in places like Vienna, Copenhagen, Zurich and Tokyo. Also in 1999, Gabriel started new projects with "Dub_Connected" (Liquid Audio Soundz) and "Banned-X" (multiColor), which included different guest artists and combined the whole spectrum of electronic music with "dub and reggae elements".  2000 Gabriel released his second solo album "Gab´s Gift" on SpiritZone, which widened the concept of its predecessor with even more musical components. Gab´s Gift was album of the month in German music mags like Keyboards and Raveline. Also on stage Gabriel performed at festivals like Lovefield, Excalibur, Liberty One, Moonflight and Love Parade, as well as in clubs like Nostru (Helsinki), Gaskessel (Bern) and Matrix (Zurich).  After a long tour with numerous live and dj sets (a.o. TribalGathering/UK, Roskilde/DK) Saafi Brothers returned to the studio and delivered their second longplayer on BlueRoom/UK, "Midnight´s Children". The album represented another perfect demonstration of the Saafi-style made up of the will to experiment and a feeling for the combination of different influences between West and East.

2001 Gabriel entered the studio alongside "Alex Azary" and "Pascal FEOS" to record the long awaited second Aural Float album Freefloat. It features a musical spectrum including ambient, downbeat, and electronic sounds.Together with Tokyo/Japan based producer "Toby Izui", Gabriel started the project Supercruizer. The album, Skydiverz (Superstition Records) combined Techno and electronic sounds with far East vibes. The second "Dub_Connected" album "Electronic Music" appeared on "Liquid Audio Soundz".  2002 Gabriel Le Mar introduced his 3rd solo album "Hear and Now" on SpiritZone Rec. (heavy rotation at Raveline mag). Gabriel Le Mar has remixed artists like "Anne Clark", "Thomas D", "Bob Marley", "Martha + the Muffins", shaping his personal vision of global electronic music and the co-existence of styles.

2003 "Gabriel Le Mar" and "George DIN" released "Studio India", a sampling-CD on bestservice and also produced his 4th solo album "Short Stories" on SpiritZone Records, which became album of the month in "Raveline magazine". On SHORT STORIES the selected tracks form a progressive journey through electro breaks, dance beats and "magnetising instrumental atmospheres".A ten stories soundtrack of self-discovery. In 2003 as well the third album of Saafi Brothers, "Liquid Beach" on Saafi Rec./EFA came out. The album also received good reviews (heavy rotation in Raveline) and became no. 1 at the offical "German Chill Out album charts" DCOC and toured in europe with the live band. Gabriel Le Mar and Saafi Brothers, both play their live-sets with computer, FX and controllers. In accordance to their versatility as producers, their dj sets also cover a wide spectrum of electronic music: both will take us on a trip through a variety of "4-2-the-floor-styles" from "deep and minimal TechHouse" to "energetic soulful Techno" on the decks, merging his own productions into one mix together.

2004 Gabriel Le Mars 5th solo album "Nightradio" was released on C.O.R.N. rec. and was for several weeks no. 1 at the Deutsche Chill Out Album Charts. Digital studio production and innovative programming trickeries meet acoustic guitar. Nightradio is a synthesis of beautiful listening and some "slow and groovy tracks". Since then Gabriel produced over more than 150 tracks solo and in various formations. 2005 Aural Floats 3rd. album "Beautiful Someday" (with Pascal FEOS and Alex Azary) was released on Elektrolux on CD and comes in 2006 with special video-artworks on DVD. "Kim Sanders" is chanting on 5 tracks of this album. 2005 is also the year, in which the Elektrolux label celebrated its 10th anniversary. The jubilee started with the nighttime "Flowmotion-tv-chillout-special"as well as with furthermore visual music-DVD´s, featuring the sound of Aural Float and Gabriel Le Mar. The videos can be seen at a Flowmotion tv chill out special at German station Hessen TV (HR) via "Astra satellite". With "Flowmotion" Elektrolux hosts another successfull tv-Chill-Out-special that is being broadcasted also every night.

Being a productive and live experienced artist since more than a decade, Gabriel Le Mar seeks to integrate inspiring moments from his travels from India, Nepal and Japan with a visual appearence into his music. Meanwhile Gabriel focussed his live performances also on visuals as well as live sequenced music itself. Combined with a passion for ambientdub and trip hop, the rhythmic roots in his sound are hard to ignore and crosses the definitions between dance and listening music. 2006 Gabriels first DVD Reel Time will be released on Elektrolux. Gabriel Le Mar surprises by sophisticated graphic and cinematic interpretations of his music. Gabriel performs the clips and tunes from his new solo album "Reel Time" live and very electronic...according to the vibes and the special atmosphere of the moment...



2007 Saafi Brothers hit a perfect balance of electrodub with their 4th album "Supernatural". Saafi Brothers put together a unique blend of riddims and synthesis with an emphasis on live sound manipulations, deep basslines and "dub-wise grooves". 2007 Aural Float , release their first DVD Moving Images. The DVD includes selected "Aural Float" tracks as well as comprehensive bonus material. The tracks are interpreted anew in an exciting way by well-known video artists, based on high quality film material from "Corbis Motion" and music from their last album "Beautiful Someday". Aural Float also did deep remixes of Juli`s single "Dieses Leben", Xavier Naidoo`s single "Zeilen aus Gold" and A-ha`s single "cosy prisons". 2008 Gabriel and Alex produced - Subsonic Park - and move on entirely new ground. "Second Skin", the first vinyl release from the album "Inner City Codes", starts with "deep ambient dubhouse", syncopic chords and gently demanding percussive beats. A sensual form of dub allowing memories of the "Basic Channel series"....

The origins of "Subsonic Park" date back about 10 years before. In the context of Sven Väths regular gigs at the UK cult club Orbit, Leeds, they were DJing on the second floor. "At our gigs, my partner used to be at the turntables and I played with my synthies and samplers in real-time. This way, our shows were always a mixture of DJ performance and live act. Now, this special mix of club music and experimental electronic music also characterizes the productions by Subsonic Park as far as tempo, deepness, syncopic chords and dub sequences are concerned.  2009 is a very productive year for Gabriel. His new album Dubwize sounds refreshingly variable and discrete, caused by an uncoerced approach in the studio and conveyed by the input received by the creative exchange processes with his project partners and last but not least, the musical socialization which encompasses rich influences from "King Tubby" to "Andy Scott" is definitely a factor which helps gabriel to stay refreshingly flexible. In this process the productive artist likes to integrate himself in different artistic constellations with project pseudonyms and Co-ops with "Dr. Motte", "Pete Namlook", "Justin Sequence" and "Subsonic Park".

2010 African funk and "african musical traditions" and culture influenced Gabriel in many ways.
 On his new album Jump Cuts Gabriel Le Mar co-opted again with singers and songwriters from South-Africa like "Busi Mhlongo", "Lungiswa Plaatjies", "Madala Kunene" and "Mantombe Matotiyani" from Amampondo, one of Nelson Mandela`s favourite bands. Fusing techhouse and dub influences with the local style of south african music like Kwaito, Maskanda and traditional Zulu music into modern club sound. The result is a fusion of ideas that became evident through the characteristic expression of these artists, whose vocal performances oscillate between traditional to contemporary, and that are merged in the techhouse mix with a soul and dub feel. "It`s about combining these styles, the physical energy of "digital club and dancefloor sounds" with hypnotic afro-rhythms and the vocal-power. It`s about to push the musical styles and to find ways to intensifying our tracks both emotionally and meaningwise"

2011 Gabriel Le Mar nices up with his album Level, it features Gabriel´s affinity to Techno, TechHouse and Detroit influences, while Dub sound is what connects the tunes in all the variations. All tracks are made for the floor but also work in pure listening fun if you like music that can tell stories. Moody floating sounds, bassy grooves and atmospheric filterworks as well as danceable deepness are the carrying elements of Level. Gabriel was looking to find the right balance of emotion in "sound and groove" and to give space for floating lyricism on the music. Level features vocal performances with lyrics by his friends Ingo Ito and George DIN, who are both excellent musicians and writers. On Level, Gabriel Le Mar exposed himself on different levels and put the focus more and more on the groovy DubTechno beat and refer more to "atmospheric Detroit Techno". This special mix of club music and "experimental deepness", syncopic chords and dub sequences characterizes his productions.

2012 With his new vinyl label Dub2Dust Records, Gabriel steps on a new ground, releasing electronic dance music with a special focus on the various colours of deep DubTechno and "Dub inspired TechHouse". The dub-feeling is clearly the inspiration behind the general flavor of the dub2dust sound and will demonstrate innovative efforts to offer interesting hybrids of techno/house music. Dub2Dust is operated by Gabriel Le Mar and Carsten Schorr. the sound: from Electro-Ambient to Dub-inspiered Minimal-Tech-House....2012 Lifes filled with music Dr. Motte and Gabriel Le Mar still following the path that they have led them together, searching for the soul in the machines. On different sessions the two tracks The Breeze and Puttin` On The Green Hat were recorded at Gab`s lab in Frankfurt, playing with the various settings inside their electronic devices to get the sound and atmosphere they were after for. The two EP`s draw its energy from the deep and dubby tension to put the listener in a trance-like state and were release on Motte`s imprint Praxxiz.

Saafi Brothers latest album Live on the Roadblog was released on iboga records in Febr 2014. Music and ideas and the interaction process will always go on, the Saafi Brothers tell us a lot of stories. With “Live on the Roadblog” they walk a deep line between ambientdub orientation and blissed out beats. Luca Anzilotti, George DIN and Rikta join Gabriel Le Mar, Michael Kohlbecker and Groovetitan for the production. Sleepless-faced on music Saafi Brothers digged deep into a series of "live recording sessions", rediscovering the emotional depth of "real-time created music" after a couple of live shows that fueled the idea of creating an entirely live recorded album. In a jammin´ good time it becomes more and more developing into something more meaningful, working with lyrics and create moments. The result is the organic flow and deepness in "Live on the Roadblog", linking the message like secret friends on the road.

2014 launches the first free download track "Moving Crossraods" from Saafi Brothers, their podcast and in February their new album "Live on the Roadblog" on Iboga Records. With Live on the Roadblog Saafi Brothers walks a deep line between ambientdub orientation and blissed out beats. Luca Anzilotti joins Gabriel Le Mar, Michael Kohlbecker and Groovetitan for the production.

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The Frankfurt based producer Gabriel Le Mar presents with short stories his fourth solo album on spirit zone recordings. Packed with 10 jamming tunes, Short Stories consists of a balanced mix of 5 Techno dance and 5 Ambient to Electro tracks. Beginning with FFM (Beach Dub) along with acoustic guitars and dubby beats, the soundscape rises into multi-layered percussion and lavish breaks in Hope. Full flight takes off with the first of three techno stompers (Steppin'), energetic and funkee in essence - just as Gabriel Le Mar deejay sets. The journey continues with ATX's spacey elektro beats, highly strung sitars and an abundance of synths and sound effects. The theme carries over into May, an eclectic acid elektro grinder. Being wicked to the groove Legalizer and Burnin' wind up the pace with a techno beat before Voxs provides the eastern Ambient outro.

The techno roots of his home town lend themselves directly to Gabriel LE MAR's fusion of chill out and dance music styles. On 'Short Stories' the selected tracks form a progressive journey through electro breaks, dance beats and magnetising instrumental atmospheres. As a DJ and producer Gabriel LE MAR seeks to integrate inspiring moments from his travels and live appearances into his music. Combined with a passion for dub and trip hop, the rhythmic roots in his sound are hard to ignore and crosses the definitions between dance and listening music.



Gabriel Le Mar - Short Stories  (flac 456mb)

01 FFM (Beach Dub) 6:49
02 Hope 6:25
03 Steppin' 8:28
04 Multipan 6:56
05 Story 7:11
06 ATX 6:07
07 May 5:50
08 Legalizer 8:28
09 Burnin' 6:58
10 Voxs 7:01

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This first collaboration of Pete Namlook and Gabriel Le Mar is a perfect combination of two worlds in Chill-Out and Ambient. While both artists have composed and released electronic music for over a decade, each followed a different path. While Namlook was often more on the beatless path of deep instrumental music, Le Mar had a strong connection to dub music and percussive content. Both developed their personal style and now combined their ideas to a perfect match in music. Percussive, melodic, organic monochrome, even a minimalistic electro-techno track is part of this album. The variety of unique organic music with its intense quality, makes you listen to it over and over again.



Gabriel Le Mar + Pete Namlook - Namlook . Le Mar (flac  285mb)

01 Acidflow 6:39
02 Springtimer 11:03
03 Deepa 9:09
04 In Time 7:42
05 Jetzt 6:39
06 Flow 13:38

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Subsonic Park is a side project from 2/3 of The Saafi Brothers, Alex Azary and Gabriel Le Mar. In summer 2007 Subsonic- Park again started to play and perform live and in clubs (with own areas as at top events like TimeWarp/Mannheim, Pollerwiesen/Köln, or Merkwuerdigen Verhalten/Frankfurt, as well as with their residency at Cocoon Club Frankfurt), and went on up to 14 hours lasting audiovisual journeys with the excited crowds...Inspired and driven by those experiences, Alex and Gabriel consequently developed their Subsonic Park sound by their deep and thriving mixes between deephouse, techhouse and dubtech and now expressed this progression on their new album Inner City Codes. So, with those two guys you expect something special, right? I'm happy to report you get in spades on Inner City Codes. It could easily be a Saafi Brothers release. There's the impeccable, extremely wide bandwidth, with deep bass, along with soaring jazzy interludes that are so rich and complex, with no cliches. Simply another gorgeous, head bopping classic from these guys who have never made a bad record that I know of.



Subsonic Park - Inner City Codes (flac 419mb)

01 Bionic Garden 8:33
02 Red Shift 8:11
03 After Dark 10:58
04 Inner City Codes (Beatless) 6:51
05 Second Skin (Beatless) 8:25
06 Rain Machine 9:31
07 X-ident 5:53
08 First Cause 4:34
09 Refloat (Beatless) 6:55
10 Signs Of Life 7:30

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With Echoes From Inside, Subsonic Park (Alex Azary und Gabriel Le Mar) now present their second album, giving an update of their recent development, which is shaped by diverse feedback loops in the process of it's synthesis: Subsonic Park have three tracks of their forthcoming album remixed upfront and as far one can jugde, they've been remixed for good. "Code Two" is re-fixed by the man Brendon Moeller, which delivers one of his best works within his seemingly neverending string of releases flooding the stores in the last months - classy DubTechno stuff at its best. Aku Aku takes care of "Find U Tonight" remixwise and serves positive dancefloor fodder for all those jacks balancing on the border of groovy DeepHouse and funky Minimalism, while Quantum StarDub's version of "Zoologic" is on a nice dubby tip again



Subsonic Park - Echoes From Inside (flac 390mb)

01 Zoologic 2.0 7:39
02 C.U. 9:24
03 Find U Tonight (Dub Mix) 7:58
04 Code Two (Brendon Moeller Remix) 7:05
05 Gabriel Le Mar - Nova Bluez (Subsonic Park Remix) 7:27
06 Magnetic Sun 7:40
07 Full Circle 8:40
08 Find U Tonight (Aku Aku Remix) 8:45
09 Zoologic (Quantum StarDub Remix) 10:35

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3 comments:

  1. Yet another cool sundaze Rho - thanks for these.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Rho,

    A re-up of these would be great!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Rho, thanks for the re-up of Namlook - Le Mar.

    ReplyDelete