International Feel Uruguay Vinyl & CDs

Review: International Feel has been away on what it calls an 'extended meditation' but now, happily, makes a welcome return. And what an album to come back with - Charlie Charlie is the work of Gabriella Borbely, alias Bella Boo, and Jens Resch, better known as Chords. They hail from Stockholm but dreamt this one up in Southern California. And so the music is steeped in hippie sounds, counter culture dreams and beauty pop that transports you to that world immediately. Dreamy and beautiful tracks come thing and fast from the downtempo sounds of 'Nothing Here But You & Me' to innocent Balearic ditties like 'Save Us.'

Review: Charlie Charlie's 'Save Us' is a track brimming with raw emotion, and Mondag's remix feels like a perfect counterpart, bringing a subtle touch of melancholy with its soft saxophone solo. The track maintains its weight, but Mondag's approach gives it a dream-like quality, coaxing out the depths of its aching beauty. Bella Boo's edit brings a noticeable shift, tightening the rhythms and infusing the track with a sharper energy, but it never loses the soul of the original. Gerd Janson, meanwhile, offers an ambient version that feels like an entirely different experience - less immediate, but no less absorbing. On the other side, Hypernatural's remixes expand on the dreamlike, almost otherworldly feeling of the originals. Knightlife's take on 'Spirit Walk' stretches the song's already fluid nature, making it feel weightless, while Gerd Janson's remix of 'Stormfront' adds a darker, more reflective mood.

Review: Italian DJ and producer and Afrotemplum co-founder, Feel Fly, revisits the sunned, balearic mood of his childhood on this early-stage career definer of an EP. As a series, 'Mediterranean Dreams' lets the light in on only the haziest of sonic visions, letting in island stenches and coconut skitters between the palms. Everything from dub, ambient, balearic and kraut is here channelled into a realised smattering of deep trance, tittilating the senses with an echoic foray into navel-gazing reverie.

Review: Pop on your space suit and lock in for an intergalactic Balearic ride at the hands of Luca, whose new Terra LP is a terrific trip through the cosmos. This is a second full length from the artist born Francesco De Bellis and it follows on swiftly from his well received Venus EP early in 2022. It's a fr-reaching musical journey with retro-future synths glistening in the solar rays, loose and jumbled drums suspending you amongst the stars and pieces like 'Capitolo 2 Coscienza' with its spoken word elements contouring up the feeling of some mystic ritual dance.

Review: ile Flottante is Mr. Beatnick's fith album, following 2023's Joy In Variation (including the notorious cover of 'Love On A Real Train'), and his well-received, off-beat collaboration with London-based avant-garde agitator Richard Greenan: Coasty. This is his first contribution to the International Feel trademark; the record draws its name from the national French staple pudding enjoyed on Mr. Beatnick's childhood holidays, also being a jeux de mot (pun) for "floating island". With fantasy visions of self-suspensory lands held firmly in mind, we launch ourselves into a bristling eight-track record, breezily nodding along to the rhythmic snowfall detailed on 'Crystal Snowflakes' and the impossible aerial beaches of 'Low Tide'. A truly fantastical sonic landscape; in a realm of floating landmasses, do dolphins still dance? Mr. Beatnick seems to say yes.

Review: Raf Dug has always been outspoken when it comes to the less favourable aspects of 'the scene' which if course means more eyes are on him when he steps out with new music. Fortunately he has more than enough skills to keep criticism at bay as this new one on the legendary International Feel shows. He kicks off with the epic electronics and dubby rhythms of 'Casita Mas Alta' which unfold over nine fine minutes. After that dancefloor workout comes the blissed out downtempo of 'Cala Vedella', steamy Balearic of 'Las Cicadas' and innocent new age melodic charms of 'Niu Blau.'

Review: From the depths of a smoky 4x5m studio packed with vinyl, busted synths and fading dreams and first released under the alias Jacobite Fool on International Feel, this cult favourite is reborn after being rebuilt on the same machines that once buzzed beside the mattress. The rest of the EP carries that same raw spirit: 'Lucy's Electricity' drifts through bittersweet memories, 'One' meditates with Moog warmth and 'Love 2 Love' revives a lost jam with Hanne Uekermann. This is a wonderfully messy, beautiful scrapbook of sound, friendship and memory brought to life in lo-fi and glowing with joy.