Loka - Passing Place
(CD/Digital) Ninja Tune ZENCD175/ZENDNL175, 2011-11-28

Loka, Ninja Tune's cult psychedelicists, purveyors of cinematic music that disturbs and troubles and intrigues rather than comforts, return with a new album, Passing Place. With many acts finding considerable critical acclaim in the music world right now through adventures in the outer reaches of psychedelia/jazz/classical, it's worth remembering that Loka have been ploughing this field with stunning results ever since their debut track on Ninja Tune's 10th birthday compilation Xen Cuts in 2000 when they emerged from the same fertile alt-Liverpool scene as Pop Levi, Zukanican and Super Numeri. The debut album proper was Fire Shepherds in 2006. Since that album, co-founder Karl Webb left Loka, leaving Mark Kyriacou to carry the banner. Mark re-grouped with members of the live Loka band and went about sketching out ideas later to become Passing Place… The result is their most confident and cinematic album yet. Less claustrophobic and inward than before, the new album has a wide-screen, rolling hills vista feel to it. It is an album seeped in reflection, but containing a wide-eyed thinking of the days to come. Welcome to the timeless world of Loka. And as a bonus, there's an exclusive mix made by Loka for Paris DJs, The Daily Bread, to download here.

Grant Phabao & Djouls - Ninja Tune - 20 Years of Psychedelic Hip Hop, Funk & Jazz (MP3 Podcast on www.ParisDJs.com) 2010-08-28 We're still celebrating 20 years of musical activism from the english label Ninja Tune! The huge boxset is now coming out very soon... Parties in Paris and London are starting to get sold-out quite fast, and french magazine Trax has released a special (Ninja Tune 20 Ans...), in which I've written 3 articles. The first one is about 20 of the rarest pieces of wax released by the label. The second is a selection of 20 astonishing or stunning remixes, you might...

Snap Ant presents The Silver Selva (MP3 podcast on www.parisdjs.com) Snap Ant, 2009-04-23 Snap Ant, bass player from Super Numeri, granted us with one of our most downloaded mixes two years ago, a psychedelic mashed-up mix called 'In Dark Threes'. We're proud to say he's now back on ParisDJs.com with a new full tripping megathing of 58 tracks in 38 minutes that goes from psychedelic rock to new-wave, from library music to blues, from jazz to soundtracks, pop and hip pop... Expect an amazing construct of sounds and colors and plan some heavy tripping for your speakers! [comment faire?/how to?]...

Snap Ant - In Dark Three's... (MP3 podcast on www.parisdjs.com) Snap Ant, 2007-03-11 Info : Ever heard of Snap Ant? He plays bass and kalimba with Ninja Tune's UK psychedelic masters Super Numeri, with Pop Levi and Karl Webb from Loka (check their discography). If you haven't heard them yet it's still high time! Snap Ant also released a very cool sample-free psychedelic pop album, "This Is Jut!" on Invicta Hi-Fi Records in October 2005 (read my review). He remixed Ladytron and Coldcut. He started a pop band called Maude, with Lynsey Packman and Linus Jackson (download their free...

Loka - Fire Shepherds
(LP/CD) Ninja Tune ZEN89/ZENCD89, 2006-03-24

Last year we had voted in our 'Best Of' selection for Super Numeri, and we're still listening to that album. So it's no surprise to find the Loka album in the best of 2006 list this year, as Loka is a duo fronted by Karl Webb, one of the three founders of Super Numeri. Go seek - and yes, there are vinyls for those albums!!

Coldcut - Man In A Garage
(7"/12"/CDS) Ninja Tune ZEN12176, 2006-01-09

Tracklisting 7" :
A1. Man In A Garage (album version)
B1. Man In A Garage (Snap Ant Version)

Tracklisting 12" :
A1. Man In A Garage (Nick Franglen [Lemon Jelly] Remix)
B1. Man In A Garage (Bonobo Remix)
B2. Man In A Garage (Daedelus' Hydraulic Remix)

Tracklisting CDS :
01. Man In A Garage (Album Version)
02. Man In A Garage (Snap Ant Version)
03. Man In A Garage (Bonobo Remix)
04. Man In A Garage (Daedelus' Hydraulic Remix)
05. Man In A Garage (Nick Franglen [Lemon Jelly] Remix)

Super Numeri - The Welcome Table
(2xLP/CD) Ninja Tune ZEN97/ZENCD97, 2005-11-28

Info :
Super Numeri est un collectif de Liverpool dirigé par 3 membres fondateurs: Pop Levi, Snap Ant & Karl Webb (ce dernier formant chez Ninja Tune le duo Loka avec Mark Kyriacou). Pop Levi joue des claviers (piano électrique, farfisa), du vibraphone, de la sitar, de la clarinette et des percussions. Karl Webb (Loka) joue de la guitare, du sax soprano, de la viole et du clavier (Digitone). Snap Ant joue de la basse et de la kalimba. Ajoutez-y une farandole d'amis musiciens qui apportent guitare, batteries, percussions, harpe celtique, violons, viole et contrebasse et vous obtenez un groupe de 13 personnes complètement dingue. Dingue? Oui dingue, frappé, habité, taré, incroyable... en d'autres termes psychédélique! Leurs influences vont en effet de Can à Miles Davis, en passant par Pink Floyd, Tortoise, le Fleetwood Mac de Peter Green ou bien Soft Machine (première époque), et ça s'entend! Prenez le track d'ouverture, par exemple, presque 25 minutes de transe psyché-rock explosive: voilà de la jam instrumentale, du mélange de rock psyché, de free jazz, de post-rock, de folk de l'école de Canterbury (psyché-folk anglais 60's et 70's), comme on en fait plus en Europe depuis une trentaine d'années! Certains objecteront qu'aux États-Unis on peut trouver depuis quelques années un groupe exactement dans le même esprit musical: j'ai nommé Mushroom (à San Francisco), bien sûr, encore plus inconnus que Super Numeri en nos terres ignares. Le parallèle avec la formation américaine est pourtant tellement évident... Daevid Allen avec son University Of Errors ou John Medeski avec Medeski, Martin & Wood (sur scène!) poursuivent eux aussi le même genre de paysages ultra-trippés mais le lien est beaucoup moins immédiat. En tous cas, vous l'aurez compris: on peut considérer la musique de Super Numeri aujourd'hui comme unique. Essentielle, oui, aux amateurs de jazz et de rock très psyché en premier lieu. Les fans de prog-rock pourront passer leur chemin, il ne s'agit pas ici de faire preuve de dextérité extra-terrestre mais surtout d'ouvrir la porte à l'auditeur vers un ailleurs tout en fluides et en gaz, de lui faire vivre une expérience au-delà de son corps, de l'emmener loin... loin... très loin. Pour résumer l'histoire, disons simplement que la consommation de champis, de champipis, de champignons ne pourrait pas profiter d'une meilleure illustration sonore que celle proposée par cet album, ce CD rempli à ras-bord (78 minutes et quelques), cet Olympe de la musique psychédélique du vingt-et-unième siècle. - Djouls

Super Numeri is a collective from Liverpool directed by 3 founder members: Pop Levi, Snap Ant & Karl Webb (who forms at Tune Ninja the duet Loka with Mark Kyriacou). Pop Levi plays keyboards (electric piano, farfisa), vibraphone, sitar, clarinet and percussions. Karl Webb (Loka) plays guitar, soprano saxophone, viola and keys (Digitone). Snap Ant plays bass and kalimba. Add there a parade of musician friends who bring guitar, drums, percussions, celtic harp, violins, viola and cello and you get a band of 13 nutcases. Nutcases? Yes nutcases, people who'd been hit on the head, inhabited, crazy, incredible... in other words psychedelic! Their influences go indeed from Can to Miles Davis, while passing by Pink Floyd, Tortoise, Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac or Soft Machine (first period), and you can hear it! Take the opening track, for example, almost 25 minutes of psyched-up explosive trance-rock: that's what I call an instrumental jam, a mixture of psychedelic rock, free jazz, post-rock, Canterbury folk, like it hasn't been done in Europe for about thirty years! Some will object that in the United States for a few years already you could find a band in the exact same musical spirit: Mushroom (in San Francisco), of course, who are even more unknowns than Super Numeri on our uncivilized grounds. The parallel with the American formation is yet so obvious... Daevid Allen with its University Of Errors or John Medeski with Medeski, Martin & Wood (on stage!) are on the same scale of over-tripped-out landscapes but the link is much less immediate. Anyway, you'll have understood by yourselves: you can consider music of Super Numeri today as unique. Essential, yes, to jazz and very-psychedelic-rock lovers in the first place. Fans of prog-rock can look somewhere else, it's not a question of extra-terrestrial dexterity here, but especially to open the listener's doors of perception towards an elsewhere all in fluids and gas, to make him live an out-of-body experience, to take him far... far... very far away. In short, let's simply say that the consumption of mush, mushrr, mushrooms could not benefit from a better sound illustration than the one proposed by this album, this CD filled up to the limit (78 minutes and some), this Olympus of psychedelic music of the 20th century. - Djouls

Pop Levi - Blue Honey
(7") Invicta Hi-Fi LIQ033, 2005-10-17

Pop Levi plays electric piano, farfisa, vibraphone, sitar, clarinet & percussion in Super Numeri.

Tracklisting :
A1. Blue Honey
B1. Mournin' Light

Snap Ant - iThis Is Jut!
(CD) Invicta Hi-Fi LIQ030, 2005-10-10

Review :
Oh my what a strange album. It took me quite a while to get into, maybe because of the first misleading tracks...
Opener "!Jut!" is a melodic dirty analogue thingie, quite a cool introduction to a lo-fi home-produced electro-pop psychedelic album. Then come "Shock Control" and "Function Room", leaning towards current glam-electro-pop hype.
You pass that false-leading introduction, you'll get transported into a marvelous world of wonder, filled with Brazilified-Beatles psychedelia ("Larva Ball"), Beta Band-ish trippy pop ("Berewind"), Super Numeri-esque ethereality ("She Makes All Sense", "Better One In The Hand Than Two In The Bush"), Cornelius-like dreamy electronics ("Savour Piece", "You Make Me Basic"), out-there post-punk by Muppets ("Grumpy Nymph"), with layers and layers of LSD-friendly little sounds ("Inner Red Daze") and Ween-ified alien pop ("Truning Ugly").
Whoa that's one hell of a ride into the mind of Super Numeri's and Ladytron's bass player. Are you ready for this?
Djouls

Note : Snap Ant plays electric bass guitar & kalimba in Super Numeri.

Tracklisting :
01. iJut!
02. Shock Control
03. Function Room
04. Larva Stall
05. Berewind
06. She Makes All Sense
07. Saviour Piece
08. Better One In The Hand Than Two In The Bush
09. You Make Me Basic
10. Grumpy Nymph
11. Inner Red Daze
12. Turning Ugly

Links :
snapant.com
myspace.com/snapant
invictahifi.co.uk/snapant.htm

Snap Ant - Grumpy Nymph
(7") Invicta Hi-Fi LIQ028, 2005-09-26

Snap Ant plays electric bass guitar & kalimba in Super Numeri.

Tracklisting :
A1. Grumpy Nymph
B1. The Cavaliers
...