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7TH May sees the release of London based trio Penya’s self-titled Sophomore LP, a wild and untamed album that reimagines the global music landscape

It’s an exciting return for the band who have been championed by the likes of Gilles Peterson and lit up festival and club stages in the UK and beyond. Penya look set to carry on the momentum with high profile support on BBC Radio 6 music and Worldwide FM to add to an influx of preorders from fans. Penya;s debut LP “Superliminal” was released via On the Corner Records in 2018. Gilles Peterson highlighted the band as “one to watch” and they enjoyed widespread support that included Tom Ravenscroft, Stuart Maconie, Jeremy Soul, Bonobo Worldwide FM, Boiler Room and The Vinyl Factory, not to mention a spin from Jordan Rakei while he was sitting in for Mary Anne Hobbs on BBC Radio 6 music,

Penya have made numerous live appearances, Worldwide Festival Leysin, We Out Here festival, Fusion Festival (Germany) and End of the Road festival (where they featured in a live broadcast on BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction to name a few, as well as supporting bands like Melt Yourself Down, and Sons of Kemet.

Studio work has expanded via collaborative releases with Dengue Dengue Dengue, Photay, Sarathy Korwar and the Tanzanian artist Msafiri Zawose

“Penya” will be released on 7th May 2021 via the band’s own label “Liminal Recordings” with support from PRS foundations Momentum fund

Being a band we have listened to and watched since the very beginning, we are thrilled to release the third album by the Malmö duo. The wy experience contains, apart from the powerful and often emotional songs, an immense visual experience. Stunning videos made and directed by the band themselves are accompanied by beautiful graphics and photos, and even more is coming… Once you’re hooked on wy you will NOT let go.

Being a band we have listened to and watched since the very beginning, we are thrilled to release the third album by the Malmö duo. The wy experience contains, apart from the powerful and often emotional songs, an immense visual experience. Stunning videos made and directed by the band themselves are accompanied by beautiful graphics and photos, and even more is coming… Once you’re hooked on wy you will NOT let go.

Dalhous end the 5-year silence with the long awaited follow up to 2016's House Number 44, presenting the second volume of The Composite Moods Collection. "Point Blank Range" reinterprets the established narrative with an inverse look at the proceedings. Taking the “point of view of the disease", the perspective is now turned inside out, revealing an alternate account from the eyes of the photographed subject of House Number 44. If Vol.1 was a documented presentation of another person's condition, Vol.2 takes the listener behind the facade.

From the outset, the album offers a narratively uncooperative stance, weaving together layers of anxiety and painful specificity that often overtly manifests the psychotic protagonist's stormy interior state. A clearly subjective assault, which is made evident right from opening track 'Transceivers' through to the imploding nature of 'Intramuscular Administration’, to the vulnerable, psychedelic mania of 'Open As A Glade Unfolding'. Continuing to work within the framework of a soundtrack-like structure, Dalhous ramps things up to provide the aural equivalent of sound and picture, manifesting an almost quasi-visual experience.

The entire record can be listened to as a continuous piece, each track seamlessly linked together as though part of an interconnecting nervous system. Where House Number 44 offered airy, widescreen soundscapes of detached detail, Point Blank Range presents an altogether different form. Creating airtight vacuums of agitated twitching feeling, tracks are pulled to the forefront of the stereo field, continually mutating their densely painted neurochemical hallucinations with a breadth of sound previously unheard on previous releases.

Listeners will be able to decipher nods to long standing soundtrack influences from composers such as Fabio Frizzi, with his use of strikingly bold and haunting melodies, to Tangerine Dream’s distinctively foggy atmospheres of The Keep. There are moments that evoke the nihilistic drones of Brian Gascoigne’s soundtrack to Phase IV, and the more horrific passages of metal clanging ambience from the likes of Chu Ishikawa with his scores for Shinya Tsukamoto.

After their former record label Blackest Ever Black disbanded, Dalhous found themselves out on a limb. It took 5 years to find a new home with Denovali. Given the unusually extended period between records, Dalhous had the time to dive deeper into the material, rendering a level of experimentation previously unavailable to them. Over 4 hours of material was created, a total of 1TB of data. Countless revisions to the track listing ensued with some of the unused material being reutilised in the making of the final chapter in the trilogy to form a direct companion piece.

Based in Bristol, LTO first made waves as part of mysterious electronic collective Old Apparatus. As a solo producer, LTO has since attracted attention with three albums.

LTO's ambition to create ever more ambiguous and far-reaching sonic environments, whilst retaining something of the familiar and physical, have led him to take inspiration from imagined landscapes of the folklore of his Welsh ancestry and of the planet Mars. Both images of enchanted forests battling enraged giants from the underworld and unimaginably hostile planetary events guide this work of great magnitude.

In 'Daear', LTO explores an expansive sound pallet of swelling synths and noise, ambiguous string instruments, thunderous percussion, unearthly voices and his signature sound the piano, mostly processed beyond recognition. The result is a mysterious and deeply textured journey that could be set in both the distant past and uncertain future, on this planet or beyond.

‘Paths of Color’ is Nina Ryser’s sixth solo album. In
line with her past few releases, ‘Paths of Color’ is
characteristic Nina Ryser: dreamy, wonky, synthbased art-pop that’s bubbly, edgy, sweet and dark
all at once; with elements of post-punk, art rock
and free jazz. But on ‘Paths of Color’, Ryser has
honed her home recording and mixing skills and
refined her home studio set-up, making it her most
polished-sounding work yet. And, along with the
mastering skills of Angel Marcloid (Fire-Toolz), it is
intentionally clearer-sounding than anything she
has yet produced. But she’s maintained that
homemade vibe, as well as the freedom of
childhood expression that is so crucial to her
sound. Her background in contemporary classical
music serves to hold it all together in a taut,
designful balance.
Do-it-all-herself musician and artist Nina Ryser has
been home-recording since she was eight years
old on her Fisher-Price toy tape machine. She’s
also spent the past seven years in the buzzing artnoise-rock trio Palberta (as well as the projects Old
Maybe, Shimmer, Data and Fire Roast).
“As in her band, Ryser knows how to create an
emotional journey from unconventional material; in
this case, the path will leave you with a smile.” -
Fader
“One thing is for sure- Ryser’s style is something
that you will not forget.” - Impose

Flat Worms on 45! These two tracks charge forth in perfect accord with the increased speed of the format. Culled from their sessions at Electrical Audio for the just-released ‘Antarctica’, this is the upper-cut to follow the album’s gut-punch, a classic knockout move.
The dance called ‘The Guest’ is a bit like The Twist but with more writhing involved. There’s horror there so it’s earned writhing on your part. For this song, Flat Worms take a DEVO-esque view, looking passively upon the actions of the real people. It’s pretty scary.
‘Circle’ belongs to that tradition of 45 tracks that may or may not allude to the 45 itself. “Find the circle! Find the center!” might serve as both timely
polemic and shameless self-promotion. Or maybe not. One thing that’s not ambiguous is the acidglazed lead guitar that hovers like a neon apparition above the thrashing rhythm section. It’s
definitively eerie.
‘Antarctica’ was a life sentence. This double-A-side
45 is the emphatic exclamation point that follows.

Tkay Maidza is a tour de force on her new EP ‘Last
Year Was Weird, Vol. 2’.
Her sonic versatility takes centre stage on eight
tracks that include spitfire summer anthem and
lead single ‘Shook’, smooth boy-bye manifesto
‘Don’t Call Again (feat. Kari Faux)’ and trap-infused
‘Awake (feat. JPEGMAFIA)’, which was nominated
for a 2019 ARIA award and earned a best of the
decade nod from The Needle Drop, as well as
praise from Pitchfork, The FADER, Dazed,
Complex, and others.
The EP follows 2018’s ‘Last Year Was Weird, Vol.
1’, which established her as an exciting voice in
the new guard of hip-hop.

As if the ever evolving style and sprawling narratives of Creeper didn’t already keep him busy enough, Will Gould reacted to last year’s initial lockdown by delving into the archives to complete the debut EP from his side project SALEM. Working alongside his friend and collaborator Matt Reynolds, SALEM quickly sold-out the first vinyl pressing of their self-titled debut EP while also earning fresh acclaim and streaming an In The K! Pit show for Kerrang!.

Now the second chapter in the SALEM story emerges from the underworld with the news that they’ll release their new EP ‘SALEM II’ on May 7TH and now share the first taste of the EP in the shape of the new single ‘DRACULADS’.

‘DRACULADS’ opens with the kind of larger-than-life b-movie horror love letter that can only come from Gould’s poison pen: “Maybe the blood of Jesus Christ is laced upon your lips / I get a little closer to God and too drunk each time we kiss.” It sets the tone for a blitzkrieg rush of melodic punk and raucous rock ‘n’ roll that only stops for breath for the song’s cabaret croon breakdown.

Elsewhere, the EP builds upon the style that SALEM established with their debut. From the tongue-in-cheek reference to The Smiths on the opening track ‘William, It Was Really Something’ to the closing ‘Heaven Help Me’, SALEM play it fast, frenetic and fun. As with the best old school punk EPs, ‘SALEM II’ is an escapist rush of attention that commands your attention for 15 minutes before it’s time to drop the needle back to the start.

The eagerly anticipated debut album Build A Problem, due for release on 26th March 2021. At just 25, dodie has already done a lot of living. Some of that has played out online as she made a name for herself as a singer and writer, amassing millions of fans with her disarmingly honest videos and affecting, intimate singing style. She has scored two top-ten EPs, headlined and sold out London’s Roundhouse, and the Hollywood Palladium and New York’s Terminal 5, and become an ambassador for Depersonalisation charity Unreal. It’s hard to believe she has yet to release her debut album. dodie has released 3 EPs which have charted in the UK, US Billboard, and Australian album charts. Most notably, her recent release the “Human” EP (2019)reached no #5 in the UK charts. Her previous EP ‘You’ reached #6 in the UK Albums Chart in late August 2017. Build A Problem is available to pre-order in CD, vinyl, deluxe CD, deluxe vinyl and cassette formats.

A decade on from their first record, Iceage continue to harness their lives together through music. This journey, in music and life, has never progressed in a linear fashion. Seek Shelter — Iceage’s fifth LP and first for Mexican Summer — is proof that their lives are still happening through their music, and that they remain determined to harness it. Enrolling Sonic Boom (Pete Kember of Spacemen 3) to produce, Seek Shelter sees Iceage’s propulsive momentum pushing them in new, expansive, ecstatic directions. The sound of an emotional core unwound, Seek Shelter radiates warmth and a profound desire for salvation in a world that’s spinning further and further out of control. In an extraordinary and unexpected run following the release of their debut LP, Iceage went from the fertile hyperlocal Copenhagen scene to stages all over the world. Their recordings reflect their journey: 2012’s You’re Nothing was hard, fast and raw, a bold doubling-down on the aggression of youth in the first record as well as the weight of expectation. Plowing Into the Field of Love (2014) and Beyondless (2018) saw a softening of the band’s hardest edges and the arrival of a certain world-weary vaudeville in the Iceage sound. The band’s past two records — all filtered twangy guitar riffs, sparse piano arrangements, and slinky, slow-moving rhythms — ventured into an intoxicated but knowing swirl, surveying the party at the end of the night. They’d seen it all, at least once, and their music rode the crest of that chaos. Seek Shelter, the band’s first record made with an outside producer, is the place they have been called to next. The LP was recorded at Namouche, a dilapidated wood-paneled Lisbon radio studio of 1960s vintage where the band set up for 12 days. It is the longest time they have spent recording a record. Steady rain dripped through the ceiling; they had to arrange their equipment around puddles and slowly-filling buckets covered in cloth so that the sound of droplets wouldn’t reach the mics. Sonic Boom arranged garden lamps from a nearby party store for mood lighting in the high-ceiling space. A choir, the Lisboa Gospel Collective, joined the band for two tracks on the final day in the studio providing a new scale to Rønnenfelt’s incantations. Singer and primary songwriter Elias Rønnenfelt casts their new producer as a sparring partner, another wayward mind to bounce ideas off of. “We wanted a partner that had some noise that we didn’t have, more a wizard than a producer. “When we started, I think we were just lashing out, completely blindfolded with no idea as to why and how we were doing anything. For Seek Shelter, we had a definite vision of how we wanted the album to be carved out, yet still the end result came as a surprise in terms of where we sonically were able to push our boundaries.” He’s speaking of the new record and also of their entire existence as a band, a travelogue that has catapulted these four friends far past the horizons of punk. “Some of that we wanted to remain intact. We try to keep the mystery. If there's no sense of mystery in it for us, then it's not fun.” Seek Shelter is a record that now exists at a moment of a collective unknown, when every beating heart wonders what will happens next.

Fold Unfold is the debut album by violinist Katrine Grarup Elbo from the Danish collective We like We. As a solo artist she steps out from the safety of group performance and presents a vulnerable portrait using only her classical training and analogue electronic setup.

Peaceful scenarios of natural beauty that hover like calm mist over cold streams are interrupted by spine chilling forces. Naked passages and electroacoustic electronics together create ripples in time as the pieces mold into flowers reaching for the outer edge. Elbo summons the most time stopping affairs using only the most basic of ingredients, as a true master. Clouds of uncertainty and reason echoes infinitely into the ether as she moves in and out of acoustic and manipulated sonic landscapes. Imagine Jocelyn Pook´s captivating Masked Ball piece from Kubrick´s Eyes Wide Shut with its clouds of mystery, suddenly turning unmasked and fragile, as if abruptly standing vulnerable in the shadows listening only to the reverb of the room and ones own breath.

The album was recorded and mixed at Saal 3, Funkhaus, Berlin with Antonio Pulli. In the 29 minutes runtime, we are presented with transportations through silent, almost Baroque sounding pieces towards overpowering, processed alterations of her violin that vibrates like echoes springing off the stars. A stunning debut with all its natural purity and intimacy.

Four Flies is proud and excited to present the first full-album release of the long-forgotten soundtrack composed by Armando Trovajoli for Piero Vivarelli's 1964 movie Il Vuoto.

Rightly considered by many to be a key figure, if not the key figure, in the history of Italian jazz, Trovajoli was responsible for fostering an appreciation and understanding of jazz among the generation of music listeners and musicians raised under Mussolini and Fascist nationalism. His outstanding work as a pianist, composer and conductor contributed immensely to the popularization of the genre among the general public and to the reduction of institutional bias against it.

The collaboration between Trovajoli and Vivarelli did not happen by chance. The latter, now regarded as one of Italy's "kings of the B's" for his work in the 'exotic-erotic' genre (Il dio serpente, Codice d'amore orientale, etc.), was a great music expert, a skilled talent scout for the Italian music industry, and a true lover of jazz.

Most of Trovajoli's score for Il vuoto has a refined smoothness that is clearly reminiscent of cool jazz – many tracks on the soundtrack are performed by a sextet featuring Trovajoli himself on piano, Carlo Zoffoli on vibraphone, Gino Marinacci on baritone sax and flute, Enzo Grillini on electric guitar, Berto Pisano on double bass, and Sergio Conti on drums and percussion. At the same time, Trovajoli explores other jazz styles or sub-styles in faster, more rhythm-oriented tracks influenced by bossa nova, samba, and even rock'n'roll, where instruments like drums and percussion, electric guitar, or flute take center stage.

This stylistic variety demonstrates both the maestro's versatility as a composer and the fine skills of the musicians who performed on the soundtrack. Like Trovajoli, they were all pioneers of Italian jazz and played in Italy's very first 'institutional' jazz orchestra: the Orchestra di Musica Leggera of the RAI (the Italian public broadcasting company), formed under Trovajoli's leadership in 1956 and credited as "his orchestra" in public performances and in the album The Beat Generation (RCA Italiana, 1960).

By making available for the first time ever almost all of the music recorded by Trovajoli for Il vuoto, this LP fills an important gap in the maestro's discography. Most importantly, it offers further insight not only into the history of Italian jazz, but also into the penetration of the genre into Italian film music, which was possible thanks to Trovajoli's mastery as a composer and to the virtuosity of the pioneering musicians who performed in his orchestra.

Kleistwahr is the solo project of Gary Mundy, the legendary power electronic and noise-rock musician who is a founding member of Ramleh and runs the highly influential Broken Flag label. Solemn drones and elegiac long-form passages gird Kleistwahr’s Winter, which often chimes, glistens, and glows through a unhurried constructs for organ, synth, guitar, and electronics. Yet Mundy pivots throughout with triumphant explosions of shrill noise, redlined overload, and harrowingly anguished vocals from the great unknown. Quintessential Kleistwahr.

Winter was originally published as part of the instantly out of print On Corrosion - a 10 cassette anthology from 2019 that was housed in a handcrafted wooden box and featuring full albums from Kleistwahr, Neutral, Pinkcourtesyphone, Alice Kemp, She Spread Sorrow, G*Park, Relay For Death, Francisco Meirino, Fossil Aerosol Mining Project, and Himukalt. The collection also stood as the 50th release for The Helen Scarsdale Agency, an imprint founded in 2003 and dedicated to post-industrial research, recombinant noise, surrealist demolition, existential vacancy and then some.

With the necessary reissue of Winter, The Helen Scarsdale Agency will embark upon the reissue of much of that material from On Corrosion.

The always-innovative John Beltran surprises us with his first release on a Romanian label. The circularity of Energy Circle, the beauty of The Cycles EP, sets a typically Beltran soundscape, a melodic mood for this three-pieced beauty. The Sun Also Rises on the flip side, making it the rather bright beast of the release, while the marching B2 – Going Uphill Fast (hope on the horizon) — is a granular techno classic, closing Eufonic Records' first release on a very Detroit note.

Cavern is a collaboration between Australian artists Sleep D and Ad Lib Collective. Sleep D is an underground electronic music duo and Butter Session label heads. Ad Lib Collective is a classical mixed chamber ensemble.

Cavern is the first record release from Play On, a Melbourne based classical/electronic music events company and now record label. Sleep D x Ad Lib Collective's recorded work is a culmination from a two-year project borne out of a live performance at Play On show in a Melbourne underground carpark. Limited to 150 physical copies, this single is taken from the upcoming full length album Flashed Glass.

Gordon Koang, South Sudan’s enigmatic superstar and ceaseless fountain of infectious, upbeat pop music, kick starts 2021 by revealing a series of remixes from his recent Unity album, this time partnering with two of the undisputed leaders of electronic music in his adopted home city of Melbourne, Australia - Sleep D and Andras.

Stranded overseas after civil war tore apart their country over six years ago, Gordon and his cousin Paul Biel Kueth, who were on tour performing to expatriate communities in Australia, were forced to apply for humanitarian protection and made the heartbreaking decision to leave their families stranded at home, on the chance that citizenship would be granted and reunification made possible.

After languishing on the outskirts of Melbourne’s suburbs for many years, Gordon met the Music in Exile label, a not-for-profit run by members of Melbourne’s flourishing music scene in order to create more opportunity for the city's numerous refugee and migrant musicians. He immediately assembled a band and tracked his eleventh full-length album, Unity (his first recorded album featuring performances in English and made widely available).

In the midst of a successful run of singles and festival performances around Australia, the Covid-19 pandemic hit, derailing Gordon’s newfound success and growing status as the darling of Melbourne’s vibrant music scene. Forced to find alternatives, Gordon reached out to some of his newfound friends in that city’s community. The result - this set of startling remixes by some of the finest voices in electronic music today.

Gordon, who was born blind in a small village in South Sudan’s Upper Nile Valley, began composing on the thom, a five-stringed instrument sometimes referred to as a Sudanese banjo, He started busking on the streets of Juba, accompanied by his cousin Paul Biel, who would sell homemade cassettes and CD’s. His anthems of peace, love and unity struck a chord, and before long Gordon found himself as something of a folk hero and a voice for peace in a country torn by ongoing conflict.

Now resettled in Australia, Gordon records and releases music in order to support his family back home in East Africa. He still awaits Australian citizenship, and forges on in the hope that this may one day be granted, allowing him to reunite with his wife and family in his newfound home.

Unity is Gordon’s eleventh full-length album and first to be recorded in Australia. It was produced by Stefan Blair and Liam Parsons of Melbourne lo-fi legends Good Morning, and features an ensemble cast of Australian performers. South Sudan and Y Dah are taken from the album, reimagined here by Andras and Sleep D. The remixes were a gift to Gordon and his family, with no fees paid or royalties due - all proceeds go directly to Gordon to help him reunite with his family.

The amazing singer from our best selling artists duo The Swans of New England delivers this stunning soul take on the Eurithmycs classic from the 80’s givin’ evidence that soul music can turn everything from average limestone bricks to precious gold bars. Of course it was necessary to provide Coco’s vocals with the right arrangement but it’s just a slight contribution from Manny (the other half of the Swans) and myself to the developement of this very Tesla Groove fashioned sound exploration. We well know this experiment will kind of shock some of you but in all honesty we are all about takin’ on new paths of discovery.

Highly sought-after British Jazz-Rock with some vocals thrown in by NormaWinstone. Love Songs was recorded at Tangerine Studios, 1970, and it is sorefreshing, choral and utterly distinctive with a staggeringly good group ofmusicians led by Westbrook and Surman. A mix of the melodic and the wistful,backed by a groovy beat, reissue now available for this classic masterpiece.

The Mental Traveller - A Soundtrack by Noa Erni

If music can take our mind to any imaginable place, on endless individual journeys, Noa Erni's "The Mental Traveller" is the infinite soundtrack. A soundtrack for mental wandering and soul searching, a blend of rap, jazz and hip-hop beats. "The Mental Traveller", an album assembled like a literary anthology, offers musical arrangements and unique narratives where epilogue and prologue of each track merge seamlessly. Far beyond the horizon of compiling single tracks, "The Mental Traveller" is a journey of sound and unity. Inspired by David Axelrod and William Blake, Ahmad Jamal and Flying Lotus - just to name a few - this work aims to be a tribute to these legends' legacies of past, present and future, detached from trends, norms and classical narrative structure.

Swiss-born producer and computer conductor Noa Erni has been crafting obscure jazz and hip-hop behind closed curtains (a.k.a. his flat in Berlin, Germany) for years - free from external pressure and as an adjunct to his day jobs as sommelier and co-owner of local fine wine store "Friedenauer Weinhandlung". On April 30th, 2021, Kommerz Records will release Noa Erni's debut album "The Mental Traveller" on 12" vinyl as well as on all digital platforms. The project features internationally renowned artists such as Count Bass D (alternative rap pioneer, who worked with Snoop Dogg, MF Doom (R.I.P.) and Retrogott), Miles Bonny (New Mexico-based singer and trumpeter), S. Fidelity (hip-hop producer signed to German tastemaker label Jakarta Records) and more. Erni's guests meld seamingly with this unapologetic and experimental album showcasing stand out performances on vocals, instruments and production.

While the album sounds like it was played by a jazz outfit with years of stage experience, the truth surprises and is even more exciting: Noa crafted the songs in countless hours of experimenting with a midi keyboard, various instrument plugins and perfected reverb settings. It was not one and the same band but one and the same person. Just a few tracks include actual live instruments: drums by Max von der Goltz on "The Mental Traveller Theme" and "Uncertainty", bass by Roman Klobe on "Longitude" and flugelhorn by Miles Bonny on "Train Ride".

Proving a saviour in these testing times, Bollywave supply a four-track feast of Bollywood edit delights. Something to stick a smile on your face and get those dormant limbs moving, it’s a feel-good blowout of fragrant firepower.

Brooklyn based Starrk debuts with this 4-track EP of experimental & industrial techno records. Through dissonant synths, harsh distortions, and powerful kicks, "The Club Is Now An Empty Room" is a reflection of a 2020 that deprived us of the catharsis of a dancefloor. The release is influenced by artists such as Tommy Four Seven, Swarm Intelligence, Ansome, and L A V E N, and the sounds will be familiar to fans of these artists.

Starrk himself is a NY based producer who is affiliated with the local techno venue Basement, and organizes various parties and music-related events under the SYITS organization.

Magical is a fusion of a dozen genres, where every song opens up like a Russian doll, splitting into real songs within the song.
Hundreds of details are part of the different sonic worlds in which each song progresses.
Magical is no doubt hard to decipher for very good musicians, but it's easy to dance to for very normal people.
Since the orchestral introduction of the first song your senses will be automatically taken on a journey between irony and sadness, emotional intensity and vibing, extreme nerding and introspection. Magical is a dream that, through sound illusion, makes you meditate on the meaning of life, death and love, three fundamental topics in the album lyrics.
The album is a leap into a future where no tradition is missing.
Just a perfect way to discover the surprising world of Ze in the Clouds.

Ze in the Clouds is a cutting edge multi-instrumentalist and producer.
He created his own compositional style as the result of his jazz origins and his continuous studying and evolution. He shares his thousand faces without any stylistic boundaries with people and musicians who have the same vision.
Born in the Po Valley of Northern-Italy at the end of the last millennium, from a very young age Ze attracted the attention of promoters and artistic directors of the new avant-garde scene linked to jazz and electronic music. JazzMi and Jazz:Re:Found, the two most influential Italian festivals to focus on this kind of artistic proposal, immediately understood the potential of his amazing talent, showcasing him in their lineup. Jazz:Re:Found, captivated by his unique and inimitable style, decided also to reward his genius by inaugurating the catalog of the new record label project "Time is The Enemy" with his debut album.

Banoffee Pies Records 16th Original Series release comes via a 4 track Split EP collaboration between Kincaid, and Zenzizenz, the ambient moniker of techno producer Viers. After a long year behind us, and likely ahead, this record takes a temporary step into the calm and adds reflection to the blurred months that passed.

The release is a collection of textural bumps and melodies opening with Kincaid's 9 minute "Slow Stumble Home" - an aptly titled down tempo trip through a confused space, layered with composition, like a Playstation home screen theme on Mushrooms. Calm follows with two tracks from Zenzizenz - "Returning From Home", a steady meditation through rumbling sounds soon shift to a new mood on the B side. "Falling Off" offers a more lethargic wandering mood through the marshland before BP016 comes to it's close with "Single Cell", the 2nd Kincaid track, which concludes with a chaptered 4x4 structure and slow bursts of energy within. Time to absorb. Love BP x

Five years on from Birdy’s last studio album ‘Beautiful Lies’, it may sound like a long break between albums but for Birdy, taking time to stop, experience the world and find out who she really is, was a necessary circuit break. Travelling to Nashville, home to the greatest heartache songs ever written and visiting LA drawing from classic artists Joni Mitchell and Nick Dave was the perfect way to seek inspiration. These gorgeous surroundings and collaborators seemed to know, instinctively, how to draw the words out from Birdy imbued Young Heart with strokes of the artists who had gone before.

‘Young Heart’ is quite the departure from Birdy’s previous album, 2015’s dramatic Beautiful Lies. Where Beautiful Lies was a fairy tale, Young Heart is a gritty realist portrait of the artist in pain, looking for the light.

Speaking of Young Heart, Birdy says: I’m so proud of this album, my last record was a lot more theatrical–there was a lot going on, it was a big production. Whereas this is quite stripped back -anything that didn’t need to be there, isn’t. There’s no decoration. This album just feels very personal – I’ve grown up a lot over the past five years and have experienced new things that have shaped my understanding of the world, but also of who I am as an artist. This album means a lot to me -I want to protect it.”

After two UK #1 albums, 2 million album sales and an array of international acclaim, you might’ve thought you knew what to expect from Royal Blood. Those preconceptions were shattered when they released ‘Trouble’s Coming’ last summer. Hitting a melting pot of fiery rock riffs and danceable beats, they delivered something fresh, unexpected and yet entirely in tune with what they’d forged their reputation with.

The reaction was phenomenal, with highlights including 20 million streams, a premiere as Annie Mac’s Hottest Record and a run on Radio 1’s A-list and earned alternative radio support and media attention across the globe. In short, Royal Blood are primed to be bigger than ever before. That feat is set to be realised when they release their eagerly anticipated third album ‘Typhoons’ on April 30th via Warner Records.

When Mike Kerr and Ben Thatcher sat down to talk about making a new album, they knew what they wanted to achieve. It involved a conscious return to their roots, back when they had made music that was influenced by Daft Punk, Justice, and Philippe Zdar of Cassius. It also called for a similar back-to-basics approach to what had made their self-titled debut album so thrilling, visceral and original.

“We sort of stumbled on this sound, and it was immediately fun to play,” recalls Kerr. “That’s what sparked the creativity on the new album, the chasing of that feeling. It’s weird, though - if you think back to ‘Figure it Out’, it kind of contains the embryo of this album. We realised that we didn’t have to completely destroy what we’d created so far; we just had to shift it, change it. On paper, it’s a small reinvention. But when you hear it, it sounds so fresh.”

Those traits pulsate throughout the new single and title track. Kerr’s spiralling bass riff casts an hypnotic allure as it grows in intensity, while his vocals switch at will between a raw rock roar and a soulful falsetto. It’s underpinned by Thatcher’s thundering beats, his taut rhythms infused with groove-laden hi-hats.

After setting the tone with ‘Trouble’s Coming’, the album opens in breathless, take-no-prisoners style with the fierce metallic grooves of ‘Who Needs Friends’ hitting an early visceral peak. Royal Blood further reference their fresh array of influences by deploying vocodered vocals on ‘Million & One’ before dynamically switching between the biggest contrasts of their sound with ‘Limbo’. Already a fan favourite having been a regular during the duo’s 2019 shows, ‘Boilermaker’ lives up to its reputation and is more than matched by ‘Mad Visions’, which evokes a hyper-aggressive Prince. It ends with a final surprise in the shape of the stark piano ballad ‘All We Have Is Now’, a vulnerable and revealing reminder to live in the moment.

That song’s unguarded sentiments gives the album a redemptive finale. Whether directly or allusively, the album focuses on exploring the flipside of success that they’ve experienced. It comes from the realisation that success is much more complicated than it seems and that having the time to regain perspective is a precious commodity which becomes ever more elusive. The situation called for reflection and change, which Kerr addressed in Las Vegas. He downed an espresso martini and declared it to be his last drink, and soon discovered that his new-found sobriety would have a positive impact upon his creativity and life as a whole.

That new approach manifested itself in the duo’s decision to produce the majority of ‘Typhoons’ themselves. ‘Boilermaker’ was produced by Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme, the two bands having first connected when Royal Blood supported them on a huge North American tour. Meanwhile, the multiple Grammy Award winner Paul Epworth produced ‘Who Needs Friends’ and contributed additional production to ‘Trouble’s Coming’.

After two UK #1 albums, 2 million album sales and an array of international acclaim, you might’ve thought you knew what to expect from Royal Blood. Those preconceptions were shattered when they released ‘Trouble’s Coming’ last summer. Hitting a melting pot of fiery rock riffs and danceable beats, they delivered something fresh, unexpected and yet entirely in tune with what they’d forged their reputation with.
The reaction was phenomenal, with highlights including 20 million streams, a premiere as Annie Mac’s Hottest Record and a run on Radio 1’s A-list and earned alternative radio support and media attention across the globe. In short, Royal Blood are primed to be bigger than ever before. That feat is set to be realised when they release their eagerly anticipated third album ‘Typhoons’ on April 30th via Warner Records.
When Mike Kerr and Ben Thatcher sat down to talk about making a new album, they knew what they wanted to achieve. It involved a conscious return to their roots, back when they had made music that was influenced by Daft Punk, Justice, and Philippe Zdar of Cassius. It also called for a similar back-to-basics approach to what had made their self-titled debut album so thrilling, visceral and original.
“We sort of stumbled on this sound, and it was immediately fun to play,” recalls Kerr. “That’s what sparked the creativity on the new album, the chasing of that feeling. It’s weird, though - if you think back to ‘Figure it Out’, it kind of contains the embryo of this album. We realised that we didn’t have to completely destroy what we’d created so far; we just had to shift it, change it. On paper, it’s a small reinvention. But when you hear it, it sounds so fresh.”

Those traits pulsate throughout the new single and title track. Kerr’s spiralling bass riff casts an hypnotic allure as it grows in intensity, while his vocals switch at will between a raw rock roar and a soulful falsetto. It’s underpinned by Thatcher’s thundering beats, his taut rhythms infused with groove-laden hi-hats.



After setting the tone with ‘Trouble’s Coming’, the album opens in breathless, take-no-prisoners style with the fierce metallic grooves of ‘Who Needs Friends’ hitting an early visceral peak. Royal Blood further reference their fresh array of influences by deploying vocodered vocals on ‘Million & One’ before dynamically switching between the biggest contrasts of their sound with ‘Limbo’. Already a fan favourite having been a regular during the duo’s 2019 shows, ‘Boilermaker’ lives up to its reputation and is more than matched by ‘Mad Visions’, which evokes a hyper-aggressive Prince. It ends with a final surprise in the shape of the stark piano ballad ‘All We Have Is Now’, a vulnerable and revealing reminder to live in the moment.

That song’s unguarded sentiments gives the album a redemptive finale. Whether directly or allusively, the album focuses on exploring the flipside of success that they’ve experienced. It comes from the realisation that success is much more complicated than it seems and that having the time to regain perspective is a precious commodity which becomes ever more elusive. The situation called for reflection and change, which Kerr addressed in Las Vegas. He downed an espresso martini and declared it to be his last drink, and soon discovered that his new-found sobriety would have a positive impact upon his creativity and life as a whole.

That new approach manifested itself in the duo’s decision to produce the majority of ‘Typhoons’ themselves. ‘Boilermaker’ was produced by Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme, the two bands having first connected when Royal Blood supported them on a huge North American tour. Meanwhile, the multiple Grammy Award winner Paul Epworth produced ‘Who Needs Friends’ and contributed additional production to ‘Trouble’s Coming’.

Womack updates his material for the 80s, creating grown-up sensual soul.

The passion for earthy R&B seemed to have dimmed as the 80s began.

Synthesised confections abounded and veteran Bobby Womack, the Midnight Mover, was at a crossroads. His peers were either in the wilderness (Marvin Gaye, James Brown and Isaac Hayes) or otherwise indisposed (Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson, Sly Stone), so it was left to Womack to fly the flag for down-to-earth, quality soul.

Womack had been a recording artist for best part of two decades when he made The Poet. After making his name with The Valentinos in the 60s, he cut a string of heartfelt, emotional albums for Minit, United Artists and Columbia throughout the 70s. The Poet was written with great optimism; Womack was out of contract and was approached by agent Otis Smith to set up on his new label, Beverly Glen.

Working with Patrick Moten, Womack crafted eight songs that sounded breathlessly contemporary. If this material had been put in the hands of a soul crooner, it could have sounded perfunctory. The Poet works because of the juxtaposition of Womack’s feral growl with the album’s sweet, smooth, urbane soundtrack. This is grown-up, sensual music; from So Many Sides of You to its epic closer Where Do We Go From Here, this is a luscious collision of Womack’s soul mastery and slick musicianship. It rises and falls, with Womack sidestepping cliché thanks to his preaching, heartfelt delivery. For example, when he cries “I wanna dedicate this song to all the lovers tonight / And I expect that might be the whole world,” on If You Think You’re Lonely, it sounds honest, simple and sincere.

The Poet put Womack back on the map, and gave him his first US R&B chart-topper and first mainstream top 30 album. It was adored in the UK, and sent many back to investigate his grittier 70s heyday as an albums artist. The album became the best-selling record of Womack’s career

Womack cut the equally sublime follow-up The Poet II, released in 1984.

Daryl Easlea – BBC

Womack updates his material for the 80s, creating grown-up sensual soul.

The passion for earthy R&B seemed to have dimmed as the 80s began.

Synthesised confections abounded and veteran Bobby Womack, the Midnight Mover, was at a crossroads. His peers were either in the wilderness (Marvin Gaye, James Brown and Isaac Hayes) or otherwise indisposed (Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson, Sly Stone), so it was left to Womack to fly the flag for down-to-earth, quality soul.

Womack had been a recording artist for best part of two decades when he made The Poet. After making his name with The Valentinos in the 60s, he cut a string of heartfelt, emotional albums for Minit, United Artists and Columbia throughout the 70s. The Poet was written with great optimism; Womack was out of contract and was approached by agent Otis Smith to set up on his new label, Beverly Glen.

Working with Patrick Moten, Womack crafted eight songs that sounded breathlessly contemporary. If this material had been put in the hands of a soul crooner, it could have sounded perfunctory. The Poet works because of the juxtaposition of Womack’s feral growl with the album’s sweet, smooth, urbane soundtrack. This is grown-up, sensual music; from So Many Sides of You to its epic closer Where Do We Go From Here, this is a luscious collision of Womack’s soul mastery and slick musicianship. It rises and falls, with Womack sidestepping cliché thanks to his preaching, heartfelt delivery. For example, when he cries “I wanna dedicate this song to all the lovers tonight / And I expect that might be the whole world,” on If You Think You’re Lonely, it sounds honest, simple and sincere.

The Poet put Womack back on the map, and gave him his first US R&B chart-topper and first mainstream top 30 album. It was adored in the UK, and sent many back to investigate his grittier 70s heyday as an albums artist. The album became the best-selling record of Womack’s career

Womack cut the equally sublime follow-up The Poet II, released in 1984.

Daryl Easlea – BBC

It's only fair - in terms of universal balance - that stratospheric pop success should be countered with some gutter realism.

When you live round the Bitter Ends, a year of enforced curfew is the least of your worries.
That said, it speaks volumes that even the folder marked 'Alternative versions' is light years ahead of most of what passes for dance music in 2021.

Majestic, soaring, sonic sensations.

Dependably unbendable !

As always, limited and LOUD

searching for freedom is the forthcoming fifth studio album from the Australian singer-songwriter, free-surfer, and environmentalist Ziggy Alberts. This release follows his acoustic EP 'Truly Acoustic', "the perfect blend of relaxing, soulful guitar and wistful lyrics" - Culture Collide, and collaborative EP with Sydney rap duo, Horrorshow, 'I Won't Give You Up' which was described as one of "the most exciting new music releases to listen to in August 2020" by L'Officiel. Ziggy’s platinum-certified third album, Laps Around The Sun 2018 peaked at #9 on the ARIA Charts and included the platinum-certified single Love Me Now, “a raw, pained plea to love” Atwood Magazine. Released independently via his own label imprint, Commonfolk Records.

Tape / Cassette

"No Contact" documents the last nine years of live actions from O/H, the duo of David Foster (Huren, Teste, etc.) and Rich Oddie (Orphx, Eschaton, etc.) with recordings from performances in Japan, Russia, Holland, and Canada.

Limited edition of 99 copies on pink C74 cassettes.

Hugh Masekela, live at The Record Plant on 24th February 1974. This legendary South African-born trumpeter became a major star when he appeared at the Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967, and he had a smash hit with Grazing In The Grass the following year. This superb set was originally broadcast on KSAN-FM, and captures him at his infectious best.

Formerly of the legendary band Liquid Liquid, Dennis Young is proud to announce his new vinyl recording titled ‘Open Roads.’
The new record is a proud testament of Young’s talent and ability to expand the boundaries of his music, excelling in all facets. The vocal acoustic recording consists of 14 new and original tracks, accompanied by cello/viola and bass guitar.
The exciting new recording shows that Dennis Young isn’t able to be locked into any boundary, and is continuing to surprise new listeners whilst satisfying his current audience with the sounds they have grown to adore, and embrace.
Best known as the marimba player and percussionist for Liquid Liquid, Dennis Young is a self-taught musician who started his music journey at a young age, picking up drums first – which led him to other instruments, later on.
Liquid Liquid was an American no wave and dance-punk group that only lasted 3 years, but released many legendary hits like ‘Cavern’ and ‘Optimo’ which have granted the band a cult-like status within music history. Originated in New York in 1980, the quartet consisted of members Sal Principato, Scott Hartley, Dennis Young, and Richard McGuire.
Dennis Young believes ‘Open Roads’ will become one of your favourite albums as it easy to consume in one sitting, whilst being intoxicating enough to draw you back in for continuous listens.

After years of wondering, the man behind the mystical and enchanting demos that reached the Rama Lama HQ some time ago was tracked down to Malmö, Sweden with good help from documentary filmer Djoana Djones. On April 23rd, Rama Lama will release his debut album which arrives alongside the trailer for the documentary that follows the search for Jo Yonderly.

‘Greatest Hits 1.0’ is the first collection of songs from an artist that isn’t afraid of experimenting with different styles, this resulting in an eclectic mix that straddles the line of control and chaos. The sound is something you’d imagine to be a classic, but hard to define from what decade, or could it even be from the future? The record will be out on both standard black vinyl and turquoise vinyl limited to just 100 copies.

After years of wondering, the man behind the mystical and enchanting demos that reached the Rama Lama HQ some time ago was tracked down to Malmö, Sweden with good help from documentary filmer Djoana Djones. On April 23rd, Rama Lama will release his debut album which arrives alongside the trailer for the documentary that follows the search for Jo Yonderly.

‘Greatest Hits 1.0’ is the first collection of songs from an artist that isn’t afraid of experimenting with different styles, this resulting in an eclectic mix that straddles the line of control and chaos. The sound is something you’d imagine to be a classic, but hard to define from what decade, or could it even be from the future? The record will be out on both standard black vinyl and turquoise vinyl limited to just 100 copies.

At first glance, Sarah Louise might seem an unlikely candidate
to credit technology as inspiration for her new album, Earth Bow.
After all, she has lived in rural Appalachia for the last decade,
foraging numerous species of wild mushroom, concocting
medicine from plants she gathers, and performing what she
terms “Earth Practices” to deepen her relationship with the
natural world. But it is precisely her ability to find connections
between false binaries that makes this album so novel and richly
immersive.
Louise conceived Earth Bow as an interconnected ecosystem,
meant to evolve, interact and grow. Known for her inventive
guitar playing, vocal harmonies and electronic experiments,
it was her use of the SP-404SX sampler that became a primary
inspiration for the album’s woven nature. “Improvising with the
404 during live shows allows me to collaborate with the music
as a living system, almost the way generative music works,” she
says. “I kept finding more and more samples that worked together
and realized I wanted to connect the entire record—and
that there were many ways it could be connected.”
Through this process, what began as eight core songs
blossomed into two sweeping suites. Samples—denizens of
her electronic forest—move around the record with changing
context like words in a sestina or phrases in the I Ching,
revealing new connections with each listen. Mesmeric sounds
abound on Earth Bow, from analog synth tones, to digitally
manipulated sonics that she stretches and layers with a painterly
touch. These electronic sounds inhabit the same environment as
field recordings, ceremonial percussion, guitars and empathic
vocals, weaving together her vast and borderless influences into
an enveloping world. “I want this record to take people on a
journey through the wonders of our incredible planet, to help
people feel held by the mysteries of nature,” she enthuses. “I
believe music can heal.” After a string of celebrated releases on
Thrill Jockey, Sarah Louise is self-releasing Earth Bow on her
new imprint of the same name.

Long overdue vinyl repress of the sixth The Oh Sees album, and indeed, the first Castle Face release
Yes! the sixth THE OH SEES album (from 2007!) and their first for their own label Castle Face. Now reissued on Black Vinyl for the first time in an age..has a DL included … . Produced by KELLEY STOLTZ using all green energy (no joke), the album serves as a half-way point between the band's Cool Death of the Island Raiders album and their most recent material. we got some right now, dig in!

Toronto’s infamous psychedelic multimedia collective, Intersystems, make a surprise return with a new full-length LP, #IV. Coming via Waveshaper Media, #IV is Intersystems’ first new material since 1968! Intersystems’ pioneering avant/electronic music sounded positively alien in the 1960s, and more than 50 years later, this latest body of work sounds just as otherworldly.

When they arrived on the scene in the late 1960s, Intersystems stood out from their peers. Comprised of architect Dik Zander, light sculptor Michael Hayden, poet Blake Parker, and musician John Mills-Cockell (of Syrinx, Kensington Market and more), the group mounted groundbreaking pan-sensory events and released a trilogy of defiantly disorienting records.

Where more conventional purveyors of sonic psychedelia were content with fuzztone guitar and orientalist tropes, Intersystems managed to approximate the full psychedelic experience in all its euphoric wonder and terror. Initially wrangling homespun gadgetry, feverishly spliced-together tapes, and mutant beat poetry, Intersystems were also among the very first to deploy a Moog Synthesizer; their Moog modular system was the first to be imported into Canada. Intersystems’ three vinyl LP recordings, meanwhile, justifiably became coveted collector's items given their scarce quantity and singular unsettling vision.

The reissue of Intersystems’ full discography in 2015 prompted acclaim from a number of major outlets. Among them, PopMatters hailed the set as "one of those great lost recordings (three of 'em actually) that comes from the lysergic era..." Mills-Cockell’s work in Syrinx has also been reissued to great acclaim in recent years.

Fifty-plus years after their 1968 album Free Psychedelic Poster Inside, Hayden and Mills-Cockell decided to revive the long-dormant project with a series of sessions at Hamilton's storied Grant Avenue Studio. The resultant music remains remarkably congruent with the project's original vision while clearly emerging from the present moment. With original poet/lyricist Blake Parker now deceased, Hayden and Mills-Cockell made the counterintuitive (yet strangely apt) decision to render Parker's words electronically. As the computer-synthesized voice alternates between an eerily life-like delivery and slurred cybernetic faltering, it brings a new dystopian tint to the group's anxious surrealism. Taking cues from its predecessor, Free Psychedelic Poster Inside, a modular Moog Synthesizer system is the primary instrument, yet here it offers a dynamic blend of different sonorities: barbed wire basslines, Subotnickesque chirping, gestural plumes of colour and percussive filigree.

While the group cut their teeth in the 1960s, make no mistake these new Intersystems recordings aren't a “comeback" or an attempt to rehash the "good old days". What one hears instead is the sound of Mills-Cockell and Hayden re-energizing the project, bringing with them the myriad experience they’ve accumulated in the intervening 50 years. These aural concoctions—no less perplexing than their 1960s predecessors—build upon the Intersystems foundation but very decidedly reside in the present moment, reminding listeners of just how forward-looking this group was in the first place.