Hive Mind Records
Album Review: Yara Asmar – ‘everyone I love is sleeping and i love them so so much’ : Extraordinary electro-acoustic stories crafted from simple things.
Tinkering, testing, tuning and transforming, Yara Asmar is a restlessly inquisitive multi-instrumentalist. Since her debut release on Hive Mind, ‘Home Recordings 2018-2021’ the Beirut- based musician has used music boxes and metallophones, accordion and toy pianos to sculpt her sonic narrative. It’s not Art Ensemble avant or Cage-ist experimentalism powering her practice though, the pull …
Album Review: Wolfgang Pérez-‘Só Ouço’: Bringing a new avant-pop, no-wave edge to MPB lushness.
Chance happenings sometimes take music to the right place. For Spanish-German, Cologne-based singer-songwriter/arranger Wolfgang Pérez that place is his new succulent album ‘Só Ouço’ out now via Hive Mind Records. Two albums into Pérez’s pop fusion experimentation, ‘Who Cares Who Cares’ from 2021 and last year’s ‘Ahora’, the thrilling tones of Música Popular Brasileira were …
Album Review: Trá Pháidín – ‘An 424’: Dynamic and distinctive experimental post rock from the illusive Galway collective.
So let’s get philosophical. In the mid-fifties Guy Debord developed the idea of ‘Psychogeography’, the influence a place has on its inhabitants, their attitudes, values and how they go about their day to day. If you put that into a pop music perspective could you imagine Joy Division without Manchester, Bjork from anywhere but Iceland, …
Album Review: Maalem Houssam Guinia – ‘Dead Of Night’ : An unforgettable, intense offering from the Gnawa master-musician
We should be mighty thankful for the long and strong relationship that’s grown between Brighton’s Hive Mind Records and Guinia family of Gnawa musicians in Morocco. Back in 2017, the label’s inaugural release was the first vinyl press of ‘Colours Of The Night’ by the legendary guembri player Maalem Mahmoud Guinia. It was a poignant …
Album Review : Herandu – ‘Ocher Red’ : a dazzling jazz-fusion journey from the brothers Gavrilov.
If there was a section in the record store for ’Music by Brothers’ just imagine how expansive that would be. Stretching from the Everlys to the Johnsons, Louvins to the JAMC boys and beyond, the genre could probably consume all others. But there is something else about brotherly music-making, whether driven by love or hate, …
Album Review: Nino Gvilia – ‘Nicole/Overwhelmed By The Unexplained’ : a surreal experimental song saga with an indefinable magic.
It’s been a challenge to keep up with the unravelling of singer songwriter Nino Gvilia’s recorded output over the last few months but now we’ve arrived at some sort of finale. Her exquisite ‘Nicole/ Overwhelmed by the Unexplained’ double EP is at last fully available in both digital and vinyl forms via the ever-resourceful Hive …
Album Review: Nino Gvilia – ‘Nicole’ EP : Delicate songs for desperate times.
You may have noticed a couple of quirky tunes drifting out from the home of Hive Mind Records at the back end of ’23. Delivered by ‘new’ singer songwriter Nino Gvilia, the tracks drifted illusively between the tropes of bedroom pop, eastern European folk and lo-fi experimentalism but with a real sense of purpose. These …
Album Review : Yara Asmar-‘synth waltzes and accordion laments’ : an electro-acoustic journey of deep emotion and rippling beauty.
Here’s a little booster for the difficult days ahead. Lebanese multi-instrumentalist and puppeteer Yara Asmar once again ushers in those intimate, close-knit vibes we so need with her new release ‘synth waltzes and accordion laments’ on the irrepressible Hive Mind Records. It was last September when we were gifted the tiny gem of her ‘Home …
Album Review : Vumbi Dekula – ‘Congo Guitar’ : The much loved Soukous musician’s honestly joyful first solo album.
The feast of goodness that is the Hive Mind Records catalogue is deftly sprinkled with a fair share of the finest guitar-centric albums from Ricardo Tavares ambient leaning ‘Congo’ to Gustavo Yashimura’s rugged and rakish ‘Living Legend’ cassette. Now comes a new addition to the mix, ‘Congo Guitar’ the debut solo album from revered fret …
Track/Video : Lebanese multi-instrumentalist Yara Asmar announces emotional new album ‘synth waltzes and accordion laments’ with the rippling beauty of ‘come back later’.
Autumn is the perfect time to encounter experimental musician Yara Asmar’s drifting music. Last September we were gifted the tiny gem of her ‘Home Recordings 2018 – 2021’ cassette, a soundtrack of detailed exquisite portraits from the Beirut streets and houses around her. The tunes had a warm glow, an illusive presence made real by …