Welcome to HeartSongs, our regularly scheduled (probably) look at songs and the people who write them. We spoke to Michael J. Schumacher from New York experimental noise/pop outfit diNMachine about their new single, ‘Grilled Fish’.

"The spoken part is Alain Robbe-Grillet, the French writer and filmmaker. His name is where the title of the song comes from. His voice has a poignancy that I like. It's backed, so to speak, by a field recording of a park in Barcelona that I made on a trip there last year.

To me, this section seems to issue out of the first part of the song, like an echo of the feelings in the droning bass line; this introspective quality that I'm going for. It's a moment of contemplation before the interruption by the drums.

A lot of the songs on this record explore combining very unlike things; sounds, rhythms, melodies, testing the limits of coherence. This fits right in with that, but the sections are a bit clearer, and more separated. The textures are simpler; there are two or, at most, three things going on at any one time. Like many of the other songs, this started as a bass line improvised on my Verbos synthesizer."

On May 18, Partisan Records will release Deran, the new full-length album from Niger-born Tuareg guitar virtuoso, Bombino. Deran – which loosely translates to “best wishes” – is Bombino’s most focused, compelling, and diverse statement to date, and delivers a message of hope and well-wishes to the world in a time of great pain and tumult.

Written and sung entirely in Bombino’s native language of Tamasheq, Deran was recorded in Casablanca – at a studio owned by current Moroccan king Mohammed VI, no less - over a ten day stretch, and marks his first time making an album in Africa in nearly a decade. In Bombino’s own words, “my mission for this album was always to get closer to Africa.” How to celebrate, protect, unify, and above all, never forget that desert home, are the salient themes throughout Deran. Across ten tracks, the album showcases Bombino’s mastery of a rich palette - from folk, rock, blues, funk, and of course the ‘Tuareggae’ sub-genre which he has single-handedly pioneered.

Over the past decade, Bombino has grown into an internationally renowned and acclaimed act with an impressive list of collaborators and on-the-record admirers ranging from Stevie Wonder, Keith Richards, Robert Plant, Dave Longstreth, Dan Auerbach + more. He’s performed at Bonnaroo and Newport Folk Festival, and been hailed by Pitchfork as “both authentic and ambitious.”

Equally remarkable is Bombino’s path to the world stage. Despite being forced out of his home into exile multiple times due to rebellions in his native region, he slowly cultivated mythical status among the Tuareg people as one of the area’s most sought after and skilled musicians. After a 2009 demo recording he made while in exile fell into the hands of an American filmmaker, the resulting recording sessions would turn into Bombino's proper debut album, 2011’s Agadez, which debuted at #1 on the World iTunes chart.

Deran tracklist:

1. Imajghane

2. Deran Deran Alkheir

3. Tehigren

4. Mikiwan

5. Tenesse

6. Ouhlin

7. Adounia Idagh

8. Tamasheq

9. Takamba

10. Adouagh Chegren