Mind Against launch their eagerly awaited imprint Habitat via first single ‘Criseide’ with Sideral out June 8th. A full 15 track compilation METAFLORA will drop June 23rd to celebrate the launch, featuring 15 new cuts from Mind Against, Dyzen, Sam Shure, Read the News, Laroz feat. Sheera, Marino Canal, Aether, ENØS a.m.m…
‘Habitat is a platform built on the belief that music has the power to transcend boundaries, unite people, and transform the world. We also believe that technology democratises access to art and unlocks endless possibilities for creating new experiences’ Mind Against say. ‘By embracing and nurturing innovation and creativity and exploring the boundless potential at the intersection of music, art and technology, we hope to create a lasting impact that transcends conventional limitations.’
The launch video – dystopian, robotic, featuring delicate and jewelled-like plants and vegetation, embodies the ‘collision’ of art and technology which Habitat represents. The visuals are crucial in this new venture, created by Aujik aka award-winning Swedish-born, Japan-based artist Stefan Larsson.
First single: Mind Against & Sideral – ‘Criseide’ heralds this new world with portentous pounding beat/bass, the melodic synth singing beneath like beauty surviving under threat, the vocal/lyrics with an edge of alarm: ‘if you think it couldn’t happen to you…’
Suitably, the 15-track launch compilation ‘METAFLORA’ (available digitally and as a 3LP deluxe vinyl box set) features new and emerging artists with whom MA have relationships, and recurrent motifs of subtly unsettling melodic house/techno building alternate worlds in soundscapes. ‘Talk To Me’ by Dyzen (who also collab’ed with MA on their fabric Presents compilation) has stately chords riding a prancing beat while sombre piano and sweet high vocal create a heraldic, post-apocalyptic nu-medieval world, whereas Sam Shure’s ‘Plus Ultra’ has rattling percussion, with melody like a coded message from an abandoned spaceship to which something replies in stark tones…
Marino Canal, whose debut album was released by Nicole Moudaber’s MOOD, and who has support from many big names including fabric’s founder Keith Reilly, features plangent notes veering up, down and off the scale for a disturbing effect in ‘Ample’, while Swiss duo Read The News in ‘A Place’ set a fast, kicking beat against a female voice yearning for ‘a space where I can just be’.
Remcord, often played by Black Coffee, Tale of Us and more besides MA, show us why in ‘Entourage Effect’ while Laroz gives a lively melody and raucous chords in ‘Don’t Touch’ feat. Sheera as her cool, raunchy, layered vocals come to the fore.