n.o. Art Ensemble is a recording and performance collective based in London. Their debut release, Death and Entrances, started as a lockdown project, after which they have organised a series of gigs performing their music. They hosted a 50th anniversary concert commemorating Tony Conrad’s legendary Outside the Dream Syndicate, as well as staging an experimental opera they wrote, boasting a 50-piece orchestra. Their newest record E V ER Y RU N G O N TH I S L AD D E R TO G OD, featuring Charlemagne Palestine (a close collaborator of Conrad), was recorded over the last year in different bedrooms and studios in London and Glasgow and is rooted in exploring the possibilities of drone-based music.
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STEPS EP is set for release 14th November 2023 via Slow Dance. The EP co produced with Louis O Bryen - member of the London band Sorry, as his debut production role. Following her previous EP ‘Leak Your Own Blues’ and accompanying film & mixtape under the ‘Midnight Snacks’ monkier, Sarah steps out of the blue to face the wind. STEPS is the 23 year old Londoner’s third EP and features six new tracks that recollect her personal experiences of sexual trauma, albeit painted and portrayed with unexpected splashes of colour, character, and Sarah’s ability to own those experiences through her own strength and power. She explains further, “STEPS EP is about moving forward into the unknown. I never intended to create a project around sexual trauma, but making these songs at the time played a big role in helping me process a way of accepting and taking ownership over some things that have happened. I hope it brings a distinct vulnerability and perspective to the subject matter….Steps is ultimately about ‘making it through’ to define new versions of ourselves after such experiences. “I initially thought it was going to be a self-produced project but ended up taking about half of the songs to my friend Louis [O Bryen], who I feel very grateful for providing a space to elevate those songs in the way we did. My production and recording style for this EP was similar to my Midnight Snacks’ project of demos - made singing into my laptop microphone tucked up in bed. However, it felt necessary to have some of these songs, such as ‘Fucktoy’ ‘Sister You Said’ and ‘Red Hands’, production elevated in a way that could explore new sounds whilst also making these songs feel less discreet, in a “saying them with my chest” sort of way. I hope this project can make people feel seen in what they can relate to from it, or in a non-threatening way, gauge people to ask questions of themselves upon listening.” Musically, STEPS EP dips colour into the noirish, shadowy hues of her Leak Your Own Blues EP. It recalls, in part, the instinctive rawness of early Cat Power recordings, with a loose, lo-fi charm that portrays Sarah’s words with emphasis, feeling and meaning. An important, impressive release by a smart, tactile young songwriter.
Steps, the new single from the forthcoming EP of the same name, is about moving forward into the unknown. "I never intended to create a project around sexual trauma, but making these songs at the time played a big role in helping me process a way of accepting and taking ownership over some things that have happened. I hope it brings a distinct vulnerability and perspective to the subject matter….Steps is ultimately about ‘making it through’ to define new versions of ourselves after such experiences." STEPS EP is set for release 14th November 2023 via Slow Dance. The EP co produced with Louis O Bryen - member of the London band Sorry, as his debut production role. Following her previous EP ‘Leak Your Own Blues’ and accompanying film & mixtape under the ‘Midnight Snacks’ monkier, Sarah steps out of the blue to face the wind. STEPS is the 23 year old Londoner’s third EP and features six new tracks that recollect her personal experiences of sexual trauma, albeit painted and portrayed with unexpected splashes of colour, character, and Sarah’s ability to own those experiences through her own strength and power.
‘Missing June’, which is to be Jude’s only release of 2023, represents another left-turn for the mercurial songwriter. Built upon atmospheric synths and shoegazed-drenched guitar chords, the slow-burning track comes in a just over two minutes. Low Loudly (Drug Store Romeos’ singer Sarah Downie) joins on guest vocals. A very different version of ‘Missing June’ was going to be on Jude’s debut album, Signal, before it was omitted and re-written in January as a retrospective piece on the year that had just passed. “I want ‘Missing June’ to have different meanings for whoever is listening,” Jude says, when pressed for context on the track. “But, for me, I was writing as a means of finding meaning from things that happened to me last year.”
Uma is a boundary-pushing musician hailing from Catalonia, Spain, whose upbringing in an environment of creativity and open-mindedness has deeply influenced her captivating sound. With a diverse range of musical influences and a passion for collaboration, Uma's music is an intimate exploration of emotions, blending genres and creating a unique sonic experience that resonates with listeners worldwide. Raised in a household known as "The Open House," Uma was immersed in a world of artists and writers from an early age. Surrounded by individuals who encouraged self-expression and embraced the freedom of creative exploration, Uma's musical journey took shape. Drawing inspiration from her multicultural background and travels, Uma's music reflects her deep connection to different cultures and their rich musical traditions. Uma has garnered substantial recognition for her distinct sound, with over 7.5 million Spotify streams to date. Her music has received early support from prominent platforms and radio stations, including BBC Radio 1, 6 , Anthony Fantano The Line of Best Fit, and So Young. Uma's growing presence in the music industry attests to her unique artistic vision and her ability to captivate audiences with her emotive and genre-defying compositions.
Dreamed up in 2021 by Kate Mager (bass), Ella Russell (Drums, flute, vocals), Nina Winder-Lind (cello, guitar, vocals) Violet Farrer (violin, guitar, vocals) while lying together in bed, the quartet hosted their first jam sessions in a studio under a railway in the middle of car wash that stunk of hamsters and sweat. "Debuting haunting cut ‘Mother’ on this year’s esteemed Slow Dance Compilation, the previously unreleased ‘Original Sin’ unleashes an engrossing hybrid of rustic folk and 60s garage, with tender, soul-stirring group chants and lightning punk thrashes converging to tap into some uncanny, ineffable power, as the band explain:“The band is fighting a biblical battle between shame and pleasure, body and mind, good and evil. The lyrics are poetic and unapologetic. “Throw away my fading halo and start dancing” is the type of line that’s calling to be written on the bedroom wall of teenagers up and down the country. This is the song Eve would have written if she had an electric guitar.” With members who are themselves established painters, dancers, writers and photographers from across Brighton’s sprawling underground, the band pride themselves on a dedicated DIY aesthetic, designing all their own artwork, directing their own music videos and co-producing all their own material, alongside Lau Ro of Wax Machine. Defined by a powerful communal bond, each member contributes lyrics and themes during the writing process, often singing and speaking together to cultivate that compelling, unanimous force central to their live spectacle.
The first love song written longtime collaborators and partners Uma and Luke Bower aka Salpa fka Lucy Lu is released today Uma also has announced a string of Autumn dates around Europe and UK supporting Puma Blue! 💧
Her latest song, ‘Filthy Rich’ comes out today and in Uma’s words “is the product of frustration and sadness, feeling helpless in a crumbling world. But it is also the drive to change things and bring those who take too much and care too little to justice”. ‘Filthy Rich’ follows previous excellent 2023 singles ‘Tārā’ and ‘Muay Thai’ which have built up anticipation for her upcoming Mixtape and capture the mood of turning nostalgia for the past into nostalgia for the present. As well as 2022 songs ‘Granada’ and ‘Crocodile’, Uma weaves early memories with inner-child wisdom and reflections on parental advice. The Barcelona resident explores the parallels she finds between her itinerant life as a professional artist and the borderless, romantic and creative upbringing that her parents blessed her with, both at Can Obert and across three continents. Her next mixtape is both an extension of her tinderbox chemistry with Bower at Can Obert, and a journey deeper into her maturing sound. She now says she’s in a space where she’s trusting her instincts and her idiosyncrasies more than ever. Uma is being championed by 6 Music’s Mary Ann Hobbs and on Radio 1 as Jack Saunders’ Future Artists. She was also interviewed last month by Ben Cardew (Pitchfork, Guardian) for his Line Noise Radio Show on Primavera Radio.
Today, barcelonas genreless and intercontinental uma releases the resplendent new muay thai, a romantic and life-affirming single which, in her words, is the second half of [2022s] granada. A love letter to my parents. Like its predecessor, muay thai turns nostalgia for the past into nostalgia for the present, weaving early memories with inner-child wisdom and reflections on parental advice. In the mid tempo ambient groove, uma explores the parallels she finds between her itinerant life as a professional artist and the borderless, romantic and creative upbringing that her parents blessed her with, both at can obert and across three continents. Can obert - or the open house - was in fact a creation of umas british mother, a performance artist and festival organizer who developed a community hub of artists and writers around umas childhood home; growing up there, uma would be surrounded by people expressing themselves and encouraging her to do the same. This naturally instilled in her a certain set of values: that creativity is key uma has lived and traveled across the globe, as her parents lived long-distance for most of her youth. She spent a lot of time with her father tew, who lived in bangkokwhere he was born and where he worked for a nonprofit hospice and orphanagewhilst umas mothers work provided her with long stints in canada and greenland. Uma enrolled in york university to study contemporary classical music and moved back to barcelona where after some experimentation, decided to launch her version of can obert.
Audio-visual duo Glows are excited to share ‘Wake Up To The World (Ghost Print/Kill mix)’ an extended 7 minute cut featuring vocals from Asha Lorenz of Domino band Sorry. GG & Felix will be closing the chapter on their debut LA, 1620 mixtape with an open collaborative studio event and the release of the LA, 1620 visual catalogue. ‘Wake Up To The World (Ghost Print/Kill Mix)’ plays out as a 7 minute supercut of the mixtape’s core concept and themes of collage, self-sampling and cataloguing that permeate throughout Glows’ debut mixtape. Vast, ambient soundscapes intertwine with voice notes and clips that the duo have collated over their 6 years of friendship; sprouting fleeting teasers of melodic electronica and ethereal vocals. Through its own medium, the LA, 1620 catalogue embodies the processes of the mixtape. Mirroring the way in which a stack of audio files are consolidated into one frozen track, the book's spreads are made up of different visual surface layers, all flattened into one. Occasionally detritus from the design process which would normally be edited out is left in the final spreads" “We wanted to bookend LA,1620 with an extended version of ‘Wake Up To The World’, the pivot point of the track list and the song which commits to the idea of the mixtape most,” Glows say of the release. “Stacks of samples from different timestamps weaving in and out, all the iterations of an idea looped in a chain reaction, the original voice note for a melody flattened with its final take.” To celebrate the track and the end of this phase, Glows will be hosting a rolling open studio day, featuring a range of their collaborators. Expect live printed merch, evolving lighting design, looping jam sessions, screen tests, custom furniture and other live making stations. The duo have already sold out of USB sticks containing audio stems from the mixtape, which stripped the creative process bare and invited collaboration, mutation and collage from fans. This process of removing the perimeters around creation and democratising the evolution of these tracks is integral to LA, 1620’s ethos: the songs are never completed. Slow Dance Radio will be relaunched at the event, with Glows hosting a takeover of the space, available to stream at www.slowdance.co.uk or via Slow Dance’s Instagram/YouTube feeds.
Sarah Meth
Steps
SD109
Platonica Erotica
Terror Peaks
SD056
Saint Jude
Bodies Of Water
SD047
Aga Ujma
Songs Of Innocence and Experience
SD054
Uma
The Moth & The Dove
SD049
DIVVAS
Challenger Deep
Bel･li
SD027
Fran Lobo
Brave EP
SD033
SD020
Glows
J.L. HOOKER LOVE PLEASURE FOREVER
SD018
GG Skips
GG1
SD014
James Martin
Our Giant Panda Is Not Pregnent
Cope
SD010
Martha Skye Murphy
Heroides
SD008
Hambling
Oh Babes/ Harsh Truthz
SD003
SD107
Missing June
SD106
The New Eves
Original Sin
SD105
Send Me Off
SD100
Filthy Rich
Muay Thai
Wake Up To The World - Ghost Print / Kill Mix
SD097
Tārā
Signal
SD80
Granada
SD086
Mela Femmina
Make Love
SD078
What You Don't Want Me To Be
Pull
Crocodile
No Angels
Chaser
SD079
Hello Chic
SD072
Feedback Song (feat. Low Loudly)
SD070
Blue
Heka & GG Skips
High Tide For The Wicked
SD065
Bestias
Wicked
Binti Red
Dexter
McCabe
Supermodel
In Tongues
Dressed Down
EXPORT
On Scene
Double Helix
Rat Rave
Teeth Machine
Drive By DK
Ebyan
Matar
MAY
LUCKY
Bara & Isa
Gate Song
Aright, All Tied
SD064
Maybe We'll Wake Up
SD060
Tropic / Hold Hold
SD058
Tropic
I Can't Be Your Everything
SD059
Marriage Of Convenience
SD055
↼ Oo°⌕⟜ ⇀ Blis
SD046
In The Ocean
SD051
Altitude
SD047-1
Sᐝo⼁❘ ︲⏐ ˌ ˈ ̩/ Showyou
SD045
Nebula
Molina
Brave (Glows Remix)
SD042
Bring Me The Mountain (feat. Lucy Lu)
SD039
Brave (Loraine James Remix)
SD037
Roscoe Roscoe
Brain Retrieve
SD035
SD036
Keep The Light Inside The House
SD028
EASY
SD029
Astronaut/ Mockingbird
SD026
Head Is Spinning
SD019
Deaf Ears, Blind Years
SD017
Foam
MOTR002
PERLA
MOTR001
Good Dog, Bag Dog
SD015
Black Eye
SD013
I'm Not Looking
SD007
Pet Grotesque
Boy
SD006
Great Dad
1000 Speedboats / Humming
SD005
V/A
Slow Dance '21
Slow Dance '20
SD050
Late Works
Slow Dance presents Late Works: Of Noise
SD040
Slow Dance '19
SD023
Slow Dance '18
SD011
Slow Dance '17
SD002
Slow Dance '16
SD001
About Us
Slow Dance is a London based music collective, label, radio and promotions company started in 2015.
Please send any demos to demo@slowdance.co.uk, please note we recieve a lot of emails so may take some time to get back to you.
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