Following on from big recent releases from Neue Grafik & Oliver Night, CoOp PresentsSivey, with an all-new double-header of heat, 'Nobody Else' and 'Somebody Samebody'.
For those that don't know, Manchester-based Sivey became a player in the future beats scene a couple years back, releasing music with the LA-based collective Soulection, as a solo artist and via collaborations with Evil Needle, which came to fruition after a series of online beat battles, as well as releases and remixes with labels like Astral Black and Ninja Tune.
His last wave of output was greeted with enthusiasm by fans of soulful beats championed by artist collectives such as HW&W and Darker Than Wax, and saw Sivey subsequently spinning at events across the UK, and perform shows as far afield as Los Angeles and Tokyo.
Rooted in hip hop production, Sivey's largely instrumental tracks have brought together elements of millennial R&B, neo-soul, UK garage, jazz and 80s funk. In the few years since his previous releases, Sivey has continued to experiment with new ways of exploiting his diverse influences in his productions. As his listening habits became increasingly orientated around jazz and obscure 70s fusion records, his own productions began to reflect the shift.
The recent resurgence of the broken beat movement was something that also inspired him, admiring the balance between musicality and danceability of the genre. He made his first experiments with bruk in 2017 and found that it mixed perfectly with what he'd already been creating. Eager to share the results with the world, it made perfect sense for his first offerings of this ilk to find a home here with us at CoOp Presents.
These two tracks exemplify the ever-evolving progression of Sivey's sonics; the familiar deep keys and synth sounds of his previous productions are there, but nestled alongside more uptempo grooves, and the lush rhythmic complexity of bruk. Tied in with his love for jazz fusion, 'Somebody Samebody' sees Sivey reinterpret a late 70's track by Japanese guitarist, Kazumi Watanabe; this one also enlisting the help of Trian Kayhatu on keys. As well as the original tracks, prolific Selectors Assemble crew member Danvers adds in his own tasty heads-down version of 'Nobody Else', and label co-founder IG Culture (who recently received a Worldwide Award for 'lifetime achievement'!) provides a dope bruk-funk flip of 'Somebody Samebody' to close out the set.
The album comes in the right moment: It's a great time for Toy Tonics: MixMag had the label in their "10 best labels of the year" list. DJ's like Harvey, Kerri Chandler, Moodymann, Gerd Janson, Hunee, Black Madonna playing the records. The releases selling out on vinyl constantly. And: Toy Tonics just joined the K7! family. One of the most prestigious electronic music collectives. After doing one EP per month for the last five years, now here is the first album. Made by Toy Tonics' head honcho KAPOTE. With a lot of live instruments, solos, clever using of rare samples and a wide range of musical inspirations. Pure quality and freshness for 2019.
But: who is Kapote? If you are a Toy Tonics follower you know: he is one of the two guys running the label. The mysterious person never showing his face. Always appearing next to Munk - the other Toy Tonic boss. But well, it's time to solve the little mystery. As it was obvious for many anyway: Kapote is Munk! It's the same person. It's Mathias Modica. The Italo- German music nerd, labelowner, vinyl collector, keybord wizzard, DJ und producer based in Berlin. Modica is both artists: Munk & Kapote. And he is the creative mind behind Toy Tonics and Gomma. He started Toy Tonics with two friends five years ago. To release music of new talents he met around the world while djing. Before Toy Tonics he was running the (now sleeping) Gomma label. While Gomma was dedicated to indie disco and weird electronica, Toy Tonics stands for advanced funk inspirated dancemusic.
"pootek" - Paul (Solpara) and I laid down the majority of this track one November night in Berlin. We lived in the same dorm in university nearly 10 years ago and bonded over weird electronic music. We hadn't seen each other in a while and had never made music together. We got so rowdy making this my neighbour who I had never seen before came up to complain we were being too loud.
Cygnus aka Phillip Washington returns home to CPU with Deep Analysis. Six tracks of nebulous compositions all containing his signature emotional and melodic electro.
Sheffield Bleep is an ode to CPU Records complete with an old school vocoder rap over CR-78 rhythms. Deep Analysis is an answer to one of Washington's favourite tracks 'Sleep Paralysis' by Mikron. Ultraterrestrial, Her Majesty and Descent of Man are beautiful si-fi electronic music without comparison. The E.P. wraps things up with Hallucinate Data cementing Cygnus as a master of the genre.
![Kapote - What It Is [2x12" Vinyl]](http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0488/8057/products/toyt090_{width}x.jpg?v=1557916714)
