Stepping up to the plate for this week’s Staff Pick Of The week is Don Juan aka Juanito aka The Juan and Only aka Slowpez! During the week Juan works at Forward Thinking Music managing various DJ and Live Acts but you can often find him behind the counter on the weekends. If you’ve been keeping up to date with our Cover Of The Week feature you’ve probably realised that Juan’s taking care of that too! All that aside, Juan is an all around good guy and a wicked DJ, you can keep up with his sounds here and if you’re in London make sure you make it down to his next gig at Dalston Superstore with Tornado Wallace & the Discosódoma boys!
Following up the excellent starter AIAN001, the Berlin-based imprint ALLISANDNOT is back with more raw analogue productions from the mysterious WC0016 & Abono.
Housed in a plastic sleeve with an insert and a sticker – brownie points for that – the mystical aesthetics and the enigmatic sentences of this release will surely make you scratch your beard. While the first 12” quoted Hermes Trismegistus affirmation “All truths are but half truths”, the second instalment follows up with “All things rise and fall”, featuring an illustration of Pythagoras and his cryptic Tetractys. With the imagery strongly referencing spiritual illumination, the concept of The All and the paradox of mental perception, the label’s object seems to be the introduction of the philosophical concepts of Hermeticism and its deistic approach to truth-seeking.
Hermeticism is an ancient philosophical tradition, a path of spiritual growth based primarily upon writings of the aforementioned Hermes Trismegistus, who is sometimes considered a wise sage and Egyptian priest, and sometimes as a syncretism of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth. This symbolism suits perfectly the dreamy, immersive pads that evoke a transformative, post-apocalyptic feeling as if we were experiencing the end of an era and entering a new age (of consciousness). Bearing in mind that Hermeticism and its beliefs have greatly influenced Western esoteric traditions and occult movements, especially during the Renaissance, this record seems to capture quite well the current zeitgeist of New Age / Spiritualism revival and serve as a soundtrack for this modern way to enlightenment.
Following a meditative approach to production, these 3 tracks were recorded in 100% live takes with no editing or post-production. But the EP is not only addressed to the mind. The saturated, rough percussions and gritty basslines shake your body heavily, and will certainly do damage on the dancefloor.
Great output from this obscure new label which seems to be related to the Tonal Island release we stocked a few months ago. In fact, Tonal Island it’s just an anagram of ALLISANDNOT. As puzzling as it gets! And I’ve probably missed something. Can’t wait for the next release!
