Review: Modha - At Your Pace (Sonar Kollektiv)

Sonar Kollektiv is a seal of approval in itself but their sophomore album, 'At Your Pace' is a love letter in istelf to giving yourself some time to breath, "step outside the noise, breathe deeper, and reconnect with the unpolished beauty of musical collaboration".

Modha (aka Dhanya Langer and Max Scholl) have not been in a big rush to follow up their debut release 'Getting By' (Prinewax, 2020) but they know plenty of folks who want to work with them.

No doubt it helps being based in Berlin but these two couldn't be more laid back judging by these eight tracks - and if you can't find your inner peace with the outstanding, 'Find Me (Underneathe The Sun) featuring to soothing vocals of okcandice, the rest of the album will be a loss on you.

And whilst the instrumental opener 'Move At Your Own Pace' sets the tone for gentle trumpet  meditations as the track weaves into a semi-breathless jazz shamen dub.  And there's more good news as Allysha Joy features on 'Good News' (such a rare thing these days) 

The 'River' featuring Àbáse (who you'll recall from 'Awakening' - see review HERE) and the fantastic flute of Fanni Zahár in the semi-spiritual jazz is a little more pacey than you might expect; upstream Carlos Niño you might say.  And early Niño-esque, Baton Rouge rapper Wakai adds verses to the beatsy 'Bullet'.

James Chatburn featured on their first album on a track called 'Freckless' and he's still thinking about it here (perhaps) with 'The Bee By The Pool' that's shamelessly cut short as it's like a slo-mo Thundercat/lovetempo. Conic Rose have a track coming out next week ('loving parents' - see review HERE) and they turn up on this album too on 'Breeze'. 

The fact that it's not just the duo themselves and a load of other musicians might make you think this is sounding like an indulgent supergroup but nothing could be further from the truth. And in, 'Find Me (Underneath The Sun)', I predict, it's going to be one of those unexpected Summer Festival hits so get on it now, before it's too late, but no rush.. take your time.. chill out. 'Move At Your Own Pace' you could say

BUY LINK / PRE-ORDER: https://modhask.bandcamp.com/album/at-your-pace

Artist: Modha 

Title:  At Your Pace 

Release date: 13th March, 2026

Label : Sonar Kollektiv

Catalog Number : SK535LP

Format: Vinyl / Digital / Bandcamp

Review: Close Counters - Lovers Dance Academy (Close Counters)

Wow! The Naarm / Melbourne massive are taking over the world and now spearheaded by Close Counters, they are coming to form a 'Lovers Dance Academy' near you soon.

We've recently had Rami Imam's 'Safara EP' (Interview HERE and review HERE), Nick Marks, Ziggy Zeitgeist of ZFEE (see review HERE) and the Pro-Teens (new album HERE) and they are all incredibly active and excellent, but are they signed up to the 'Love Dance Acamdemy'.

Clearly the administrators know all about their past students as they have called up Allysha Joy ('Waiting All Night'), Lyric Jones ('Feeling Takes Over Me'), Shiv ('Freedom We're Needing'), Tiana Khasi ('On The Move') and Jace XL ('Constant Love').

 

Joy, she of First Word, Gondwana Records and the 30/70 Collective (see review HERE) puts in her hight level on soulful vocal and one of the more opened jazzy bruk tracks whilst the other tracks have this deep jazz-funk groove updated for dancey crowd; 'Constant Love' being a prime example, possibly the one that'll get on the radio; can you say 'nipples' on the radio these days?) and if you hear it there first, all these tracks are this good too!

And if you love the original jazz-funk-soul-house, Finn Rees and Allan McConnell, the joint heads of Close Counters, know their stuff and there's quite a Dexter Wansel/Herbie Hancock disco/funk/Philadelphia (Ed. don't mention the Eagles) underliing to some great tracks, 'CloseTo Me', 'Dusk' and the brilliant opener, 'Waterfall'. 

You'll recall Finn's solo album on Mr Bongo (see review HERE), 30/70 and his appearance on Alexander Flood's 'Can’t Get Enough'  (see review HERE) who has found in Allan a close working relationship.  Indeed, Close Counters are busy touring and have a wide collection of fans Gilles Peterson, Folamour, Jamz Supernova, Jague (BBC Radio 1) and Complexion (BBC 1Xtra) so you'll be hearing a lot from these guys this year.

BUY LINK: Pre-Order / Pre-Save: https://bfan.link/lovers-dance-academy

Artist:  Close Counters 

Title: Lovers Dance Academy

Release date: 12th February, 2025

Label : Close Counters

Catalog Number : CC026

Format: Limited LP vinyl / Digital / Bandcamp