Visions in Paraíso is the first of three albums underway from the collaboration of Lionmilk and Leaving Records. In early Spring 2019, the Los Angeles-based artist Moki Kawaguchi aka Lionmilk was introduced to Leaving Records founder Matthewdavid by Mndsgn during during their collaborative performance at the ongoing Leaving Records-curated public concert series Listen To Music Outside In The Daylight Under a Tree. Moki also is known for his recurring On The Spot performances of curated improvised music that is organized at the LA weekly underground club night Back Beat LA.
*total runtime 1hr 53min
*51 tracks
*ltd 2CS edition of 100 copies
*cover photo Sam Lee
In 2016 revered Los Angeles & Long Beach-based vocalist/producer Zeroh (birthname Edwin Liddie Jr.) *briefly* released five volumes of work titled “0 EMISSIONS”. Leaving Records is grateful to unearth this 51-track genre experimentation while we wait for Zeroh’s proper full-length LR LP soon come.
YUNGMORPHEUS and Fumitake Tamura (aka Bun) present Mazal, their first collaborative album for Leaving Records. After meeting online through a mutual respect for each others’ work (YUNGMORPHEUS’ 44 Laws of Mentalizm and Fumitake’s Mudai releases with Dakim for Leaving,) the two linked up at a brief 2017 Low End Theory performance and then began trading files back and forth over the next two years. Mazal, its title taken from a Japanese word meaning “a mixture of things,” is the result, a cohesive yet varied album documenting stressful trials, psychedelic endeavors, and copious inhalations of marijuana. Veering from violent fantasies of societal upheaval to blunted musings on religion and politics, YUNGMORPHEUS’ lyrics uncannily inhabit the twisted, pitch black backdrops that Fumitake conjures. Hypnotic chants materialize as blunted hooks which weave through the abstract beats like sun rays in a thick fog of smoke.
Fumitake’s artfully experimental beats provide an exquisitely warped foundation for the project. Of his composition process, Fumitake writes “I wanted to make music that I haven’t made before. For example, I would subtract some sounds to make the song unbalanced or unstable, and then I would look for new sounds to re-balance the track in a different way. Also, because the rapping is dynamic, I wanted to keep the beats minimal. I tried to make a new kind of feeling by balancing those two elements.” YUNGMORPHEUS writes “There’s a lot of different sonic textures in there that I usually don’t find myself gravitating towards, but it felt fire to step outside of a lot of unnecessary comfort zones.” With a nimble flow and a simmering mistrust, YUNGMORPHEUS adapts to each new lawless atmosphere with trenchant lyrics full of cutting observations on American life. The album’s first half is steeped in a persistent, paranoiac dread in tracks like the spaced, densely packed “Blunted” and “Lastdays Ashtrays,” while the back half tackles more earthly matters on funkier cuts like “General Barca” and the jazzy, tranquil interlude “Stay Twistin’.”
Mazal stays grounded by the struggles relayed by YUNGMORPHEUS. He writes, “I feel like most of these joints are snapshots of moments from that time period; some joints get recorded during days where you feel real flexed up and others when you’re burdened by the nature of maneuvering a social situation that was inherently built to your detriment. My grandmother passed during the period of recording of this project and that shaped a lot of content unintentionally but naturally. Shit like identity politics … most especially in relation to being a Black person in Amerikkka … disillusionments, triumphs, you know, life ‘tings.”
Ami Dang fuses sitar, voice, and electronics to create east-meets-west, ambient/trance music. On the all-instrumental album Parted Plains, she draws inspiration from South Asian and Middle Eastern folktales, specifically, the four tragic romances of Punjab, Sohni Mahiwal, Sassi Punnun, Heer Ranjha, and Mirza Sahiba; Flora Annie Steel’s Tales of the Punjab: Folklore of India, and selected stories from One Thousand and One Nights. Galvanized by the Western interpretations of these stories, Parted Plains unfolds as a new sort of soundtrack for a yet-to-be written folktale that is neither Eastern nor Western, not traditional or contemporary–but somewhere in between.
~
AMI DANG ON TOUR RN
August 2 – Brooklyn, NY :: Rooftop Film Fest
August 3 – Brooklyn, NY :: Baby’s All Right*
August 5 – Allston, MA :: Great Scott*
August 6 – Burlington, VT :: Arts Riot*
August 8 – Troy, NY :: The Church*
August 10 – Fort Wayne, IN :: One Lucky Guitar*
August 11 – Chicago, IL :: Schuba’s*
August 12 – Columbus, OH :: Ace of Cups*
August 13 – Allentown, PA :: Soft Machine Gallery*
August 14 – Philadelphia, PA :: PhilaMOCA*
August 15 – Washington D.C. :: Songbyrd*
August 16 – Richmond, VA :: Gallery 5*
August 17 – Durham, NC :: The Pinhook*
August 19 – Atlanta, GA :: 529*
August 22 – Bloomington, IN :: The Back Door w/ Rose Winston
August 23 – Cincinnati, OH :: Thompson House Parlor w/ Rose Winston
August 24 – Pittsburgh, PA :: Nights of Conroy w/ Rose Winston
* with Florist
