quête:10 record cover

The album’s seemingly brief tracklisting belies a work of great beauty and depth, and one which turned into a one-man crusade for singer/guitarist Lars Andersson, intertwining deeply personal stories with his love for the era of Romanticism. “Every time I go to a museum and I’m about to pass through the era of Romanticism I stop in awe,” says Lars of the enduring appeal of the 18th century artistic movement. “Whatever it is – stories, paintings, music – it triggers something deep within me, something profoundly human. It really hits a nerve, and it utterly immerses me to a point where I can’t move.” The album replicates this feeling; a gloriously over-the-top blend of Slowdive and Sigur Rós, mixed with the single-mindedness of Daniel Johnston and the noisiness of Nirvana, it’s as bold and beautiful and every bit as ornate as the art that inspired it. Unlike their acclaimed debut, 2019’s All That Ever Could Have Been, which gradually came into focus with a 15-minute opening track, Picturesque hits home from the very first note of the short and sweet opener, ‘Ballerina’. That’s not to say there aren’t epics here – ‘Metamorphosis’ is essentially a 12-minute suite of three movements; blistering closer ‘The Lot’ is 11 minutes of Swans-inspired heaviness – but everything is much more direct and focused. This isn’t an album to lose yourself in, it’s one to get swept away by. “‘More is more’ was definitely the credo when making this record,” agrees Lars. “A big inspiration were bands like Pond and the way they manage to fill their songs up with stuff to the absolute maximum. While I definitely tried to give the listener some room to breathe at certain points and while, in good old post-rock fashion, it still builds up and breaks down, it relies much more on simple melody and harmony as opposed to noisy experimentation to transport feeling.” Never more so than on the first single, ‘The Golden Age’, which is the album’s centrepiece; a soaring slice of über-shoegaze that is so stunning you can’t take your eyes or ears off it. Like all the songs on the album, it’s based around a fairy-tale from the Romantic era. In this case, it’s Heinrich von Ofterdingen by the German poet, author and philosopher Novalis (other influences are: The Steadfast Tin Soldier by Hans Christian Andersen; The Seven Ravens and Hans in Luck by the Brothers Grimm; Undine by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué and The Golden Pot by E.T.A. Hoffmann), with Lars drawing parallels between the titular character’s mystical and romantic searchings and his own personal quest. This is apt as the album has been an overriding obsession for Lars for the past two-and-a-half years; as well as writing and recording the songs (bandmate Phillip Dornauer played drums), he also mixed and mastered them at his Alpine Audio studio and Picturesque is very much his Brian Wilson or Kevin Shields moment. MOLLY were in the middle of their European tour when Covid hit in early 2020, forcing Lars to retreat back to his home outside Innsbruck and giving him time and space to think about every detail of the record. “Well, I was on a quest I guess,” he admits. “Like everyone, I was stranded at home and at some point I just said to myself, ‘If not now, then when?’ It was an intense process. I’ve worked on music from other bands and artists before but producing and mixing your own music is an utterly different animal. It was probably the most intense thing I’ve ever done, but it was also incredibly rewarding and the feeling of it all coming together piece by piece is incomparable.” The artwork is just as effective. “I think of Radiohead’s OK Computer – what you hear on the record is what you see on the cover,” explains Lars. “We were inspired by what we call ‘wimmelbilder’ hidden pictures in German, a very specific style in art where there are a lot of little things happening. When you see it from further away, it looks organic like a lost painting from the area of Romanticism, but the closer you look the more digital it gets. It’s a nice analogy.” He’s right, it perfectly sums up the conflict between Romanticism and 21st century life. “Romanticism was basically an answer to the Industrial Revolution as well as the social and political norms of the Age Of Enlightenment,” concludes Lars. “Now, we all live in a much more industrialised, materialistic, individualistic and sterile society than any early Romanticist could have ever possibly imagined. Over 200 years later the Romanticists have lost the battle.” With the divine and downright pulchritudinous Picturesque, MOLLY begin the fightback.1.Ballerina 2.Metamorphosis 3.The Golden Age 4.Sunday Kid 5.So To Speak 6.The Lot

"Island Time" is the latest album from Joel Sarakula and his first since relocating to The Canary Islands at the height of the pandemic. From his home in the UK he accepted an invitation to perform a special concert Alfredo Kraus Auditorium in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria in November 2020 not realising it would change his life.

"Island Time" is a collection of songs covering themes such as island life, city life, loneliness and romantic love and our relationship with nature.

Stylistically covering soft-rock, soul, disco and reggae, "Island Time" and its first single "Tragic" is broad in scope but ultimately a cohesive record, with the production focusing on a small group of musicians featuring Phil Martin (Dawn Patrol, Martin & Garp) on drums and Xav Clarke on guitar and bass. Building on his previous records "Love Club" and "Companionship", Sarakula expands his palette with a broader use of synthesizers and drum machines and makes stylistically adventurous choices such as the AOR samba of "Dinosaur" and the 70s-cod reggae inspired title track "Island Time", a tribute to escape and re-invention. Sarakula sings "Don't bother me I'm on island time, don't bother my mind once again." For any overworked and over-connected city-dweller, this plea for isolation in a tropical island is a beautiful fantasy.

"Island Time" will be released on Jan 20th, 2023 with Sarakula bringing some tropical sunshine to the freezing European winter in January and February with performances already confirmed in The Netherlands and Germany.

Having toured the world and delivered one of the pandemic’s most legendary live streams – including bodybuilders and furniture smashing at the old American embassy in Oslo, Aiming for Enrike started working on new music in 2020. Now ready with their fifth album Empty Airports, the tunes flourish further through atmospheric expressions, into floating, minimalistic, electronic, and ambient soundscapes. Empty Airports was composed and recorded in reflection of the quiet Covid19 life during the patience testing lockdown months of 2020 and 2021. Not only is this the duo's longest album ever, but it's also their first double album. The songs are inspired by and belong somewhere between Thom Yorke, Ashra, Nils Frahm, King Crimson in the 80s, Jon Hopkins and Steve Reich. The cover art for Empty Airports is the finishing touch that elevates the album to a complete piece of art. Thor Merlin's unique artwork is a generatively designed collage consisting of clippings from 19 digital paintings and 10 images created with shader programming in Sakuhin: an open-source program that Merlin also uses for live coding of visuals for Aiming for Enrike. The album cover's individual images will be available NFTs. Guitarist Simen Følstad Nilsen says: "Minimalism, which has always been an important part of our expression, is now cultivated to a much greater extent. When the rush to fulfill musical expectations is abounded, it gives the music more space to become more hypnotic and mesmerizing than before." Empty Airports is another fantastic release from the forward-leaning duo, which justifies that Aiming for Enrike lives entirely in their own universe.

Iowa’s blackened punk 4-piece outfit, DRYAD, are the latest band to join Prosthetic Records roster. Featuring crusty dual vocals and relentless buzzsaw riffs, DRYAD is an anomalous combination that eludes easy classification, using elements of d-beat punk, old school death and atmospheric black metal, along with their own touch of bizarre, blackened forest filth. Since the debut of The Black Pullet EP in early 2017, DRYAD has emerged from the basements of Iowa’s DIY scene to perform regularly with a wide variety of acts like Dawn Ray’d, Street Sects, and Drugcharge. Their second offering, The Silurian Age, was released to cassette in June of 2018, and has since been quietly gaining momentum in the underground metal scene across the globe. Inspired by the earth’s ancient glacial lakes that once covered Iowa and fossil-covered cliffs that now remain, the album deals mostly with themes of ecological and political disaster and is a timely reminder of the earth’s inevitable revolt against its most destructive creatures. Since being named one of Astral Noize’s Artists To Watch in 2019, DRYAD has released a crushing split with Acid Leather on cassette, and recently completes a three-week stint across the country with THEORIES and Neckbeard Deathcamp, as part of the Free Speech In America tour.

Mitka is a sound engineer and musician from Ekaterinburg, who mainly works in the film industry. We’ve contacted him after listening couple of his tracks on the web, his music amazed us, but we didn’t knew anything about Mitka himself. He doesn’t play live shows, doesn’t post on social media and in general it feels like he has an ascetic lifestyle.

For “Sound2” album Mitka has been recording drums in the forest, because “acoustic there is better than at home” and he didn’t had money for a studio. He made a guitar by himself because regular fret position is not for him, many of his compositions are played in quarter tone. The titles of the songs on the album are just Mitka’s notes, for understanding harmonies and tunings.

“Sound2” gives you the mystical and cinematic feeling, but at the same time sounds warm and familiar. While listenin this album you can imagine your walk through the green forest covered with fog. You might not know the way out, or how did you get there, but your mind can stay quiet and calm, because Mitka will be your guide.

CHRISTIAN DEATH was formed by Rozz Williams in Los Angeles, California in 1979. Williams was eventually joined by guitarist/songwriter Rikk Agnew of ADOLESCENTS, James McGearty on bass and George Belanger on drums. This CHRISTIAN DEATH line-up was responsible for recording the band's iconic 1982 debut, ONLY THEATRE OF PAIN, widely regarded as the #1 American goth album of all-time. This exclusive double-LP version of OTOP commemorates its 40th anniversary- the first disc is the digitally remastered, original version of the album while the second disc is comprised of "Dogs" from HELL COMES TO YOUR HOUSE, four pre-Frontier demos, two studio demos made for a second Frontier Records' LP that never happened and two alternate studio mixes from OTOP. The gatefold LP jacket is printed in its original its black and metallic gold, includes a Colver collage poster and a hardcover copy of the photo book, ONLY THEATRE OF PAIN and all come in a hard slipcase. The oversized 12" x 12" book features rare and never-before-seen photos of CHRISTIAN DEATH as well as new interviews with photographer Edward C. Colver, the surviving band members, Frontier's Lisa Fancher and others. Colver befriended the band and followed them around in late 1981 and early 1982 at more than a dozen concerts as well as photo shoots in Rozz Williams' family home (used on the back cover and insert of ONLY THEATRE OF PAIN) and a session of now famous images at a Pomona CA cemetery. Info: Just as the theatrically-minded LA punk scene was beginning to give rise to such morbidly themed outfits as 45 Grave and the Flesh Eaters, an androgynous teenaged street performer named Rozz Williams (né Roger Painter) founded CHRISTIAN DEATH, one of the most prolific, enduring, and beloved gothic acts of all time. Williams' otherworldly groan can make "Only Theatre of Pain" difficult going for those that aren't the gothic faithful, but the loud/not-too-fast music (courtesy of ex-ADOLESCENTS guitarist Rikk Agnew and the walking-dead rhythm section of bassist James McGearty and drummer George Belanger) is appropriately doom 'n' gloomy, with inventive arrangements and clear sound - thanks to Frontier Records' go-to punk production legend, Thom Wilson- capturing the mood in full B-movie fidelity. The lyrics sacriligiously address horror topics and religion: they're overwrought (the backwards masking of 'Mysterium Iniquitatis' being one clever exception) but easy to overlook in the wash of inspired rock noise. The original lineup's recorded debut is a gem. Artists inspired by CHRISTIAN DEATH include Danzig, Craddle of Filth, Paradise Lost, Korn, Type O Negative, Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson and Jane's Addiction. Press: "A depraved masterpiece, this was punk rock made poetic, subversive, and gracefully savage."- AV Club "The Gothic album to out-gothic all others" - Melody Maker "Only Theatre of Pain's influence should not be underestimated" - Record Collector Limited availability!

New for 2023 Metal Blade Records reissues the brilliant third album from OSI, featuring Jim Matheos (Fates Warning), Kevin Moore (ex Dream Theater, Chroma Key) and Gavin Harrison (Porcupine Tree, King Crimson) on drums throughout. The album also features a guest appearance from Mikael Åkerfeldt (Opeth) on "Stockholm", which the Swedish musician composed together with the two O.S.I. masterminds, and also included are three bonus tracks, one of which is a harmonic cover of Elliott Smith's "Christian Brothers". In 'Blood', O.S.I. have succeeded in creating a lasting album at the crossroads between rock and progressive metal. Music that alternates between atmospherically dense and aggressively demanding elements, while effortlessly transcending barriers between different styles and genres.

New for 2023 Metal Blade Records reissues the brilliant third album from OSI, featuring Jim Matheos (Fates Warning), Kevin Moore (ex Dream Theater, Chroma Key) and Gavin Harrison (Porcupine Tree, King Crimson) on drums throughout. The album also features a guest appearance from Mikael Åkerfeldt (Opeth) on "Stockholm", which the Swedish musician composed together with the two O.S.I. masterminds, and also included are three bonus tracks, one of which is a harmonic cover of Elliott Smith's "Christian Brothers". In 'Blood', O.S.I. have succeeded in creating a lasting album at the crossroads between rock and progressive metal. Music that alternates between atmospherically dense and aggressively demanding elements, while effortlessly transcending barriers between different styles and genres.

Tyranny and Mutation is the second studio album by American hard rock band Blue Öyster Cult, released on February 11, 1973, by Columbia Records. The album was recorded at the Columbia Studios in New York City during the year before and was produced by Murray Krugman and Sandy Pearlman. On May 12, 1973, the album peaked at #122 on the Billboard 200.

The song “Baby Ice Dog” features lyrics by singer/poet Patti Smith (who was keyboardist Allen Lanier’s girlfriend at the time), who would make several lyrical contributions to the band’s repertoire during its career. The song “The Red & The Black”, with lyrics referencing the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, is a renamed, re-recorded version of “I’m on the Lamb But I Ain’t No Sheep” from the same-titled debut album. The song was later covered by the Minutemen and Band of Susans.

Celebrating its 50th anniversary, Tyranny and Mutation is available as a limited edition of 2000 individually numbered copies on translucent blue coloured vinyl.

Red Vinyl

Adrian Borland and Graham Bailey might be better known as members of legendary post-punk group The Sound, but the two were childhood friends and had been playing together even earlier in The Outsiders, and continued their deep musical rapport as a duo, creating these intense and engaging songs as Second Layer at the same time as their higher profile band output.

Combining their early recordings, including the 1979 Flesh As Property EP and 1980 State Of Emergency EP, Courts Or Wars takes its title from the first song that served as the pair’s introduction to listeners. Right from the beginning you are enveloped in what The Quietus described as, “a monochrome worldview morbidly obsessed with the dehumanizing effect of war, nuclear weapon annihilation, and the fracturing and negation of the self within an increasingly distorted and technologically mediated society.” Where The Sound fit snugly next to Echo And The Bunnymen, Second Layer had far more in common with the pulsing menace of Suicide.

Borland’s familiar vocals and sense of melody hold a connection to his other songwriting, but within these songs he takes far more risks in his guitar work to suit the subject matter. What really drives everything is Bailey’s propulsive bedrock, formed by his homemade pre-drum machine rhythm generators, creating an innovative mechanical approach that somehow inserts a jittery neurotic touch that merges perfectly with his electronic layers driven by the wasp synth, various unique effects boxes or tape loops. Adding in Bailey’s own distinctive bass playing, the results feel personal and experimental, pointed and harsh, while also bracingly accessible and covered in dark manic energy.

Over forty years later, these recordings feel shockingly appropriate. In painting a bleak reality and frightening future, there is real desperate beauty here.

Barely heard in his lifetime (1961-2002) but hailed as an outsider hero of ur-punk since 2009’s ‘Cosmic Lightning’ compilation, J.T. IV strikes back!

15 unheard-of tracks found on an obscure cassette tape make the schizo split in his music - rabid rock & roll fantasy and cold-eyed acoustic introspection - an epic. ‘The Future’ is J.T. IV’s mad magnum opus.

The 2009 comp LP, ‘Cosmic Lightning’, cast his tragic silhouette up on the big screen
for all to see: the lost boy, alone in the world, standing before the mic and releasing
his inner star with glee and vengeance, his antisocial visions flying high atop a raging
funnel of distorted guitars and blunt rhythms. Or couched, childlike, within a heart
breaking billow of acoustic guitars - a schizophrenic split that only magnifies the
display of his deep emotions.
‘The Future’ goes even further, excavating fifteen recordings from a previously
unheard-of cassette entitled ‘The Best Of Johnny Zhivago Retrospective 1979–1993’,
and adding four more uncollected tracks from his slim (and impossible to find
anyway) discography.
Of these nineteen tracks, eight are covers - and J.T. IV’s picks, from Velvets to Mott
the Hoople, Roxy Music, Lee Hazlewood, The Kinks, Eno and Stephen Sondheim,
sharpen our image of the misfit adrift; on the outside looking in, but maybe just a few
steps away from his goal.
‘The Future’ unfolds like an epic, as both sides of J.T.’s persona - the street-smart,
damaged rocker and the heart struck poet of the scene - live on together in the best
performances of his short career.
A punk of the old order, John Henry Timmis IV was born in 1961 into a dysfunctional,
abusive and eventually broken family. By the mid-70s, he was desperate to get out,
running away from his mother’s home several times while still a teenager living in the
greater Chicagoland area. At wit’s end, she had him committed to the Menninger
Clinic for a year or so. Released on his own reconnaissance, he began his meteoric
ascent to the mythic level of self-aggrandizement in which he appears here. Inspired
by the underground, proto-punk sounds in the air (the likes of which any sharp-eyed
young thing might chance upon in the back pages of Creem, Crawdaddy, Trouser
Press, etc.) and desperate to be heard himself, J.T. presented like the scabby
younger brother of Bangs and Laughner: born only to rock, his musical conception a
rabid personality crisis of proselyte elitism and nihilist excess.
Now, 20 years on from his passing, ‘The Future’ is ever farther away from the world
in which he struggled so mightily - but his stinging iconoclasm, whether screamed
from Marshall amps or mic-ed up close, feels ever more powerfully infused with his
unique breadth of illness and essence.
These songs represent the two sides of J.T. - and while they emanate from the 80s,
they find themselves potently renewed in the polarized world of today, making ‘The
Future’ a worthwhile destination for everyone who ever had a heart touched by the
transgression and freedom promised by rock & roll.

Das Album ”Disclaimer” von Seether wird am 20. Januar 2023 mit einer erweiterten Neuauflage auf
Vinyl, CD und digital gefeiert. Diese enthält das ursprüngliche 12-Track-Album mit Hits wie ”Gasoline”,
”Fine Again” und ”Driven Under” sowie eine bisher unveröffentlichte Live-Show, die 2003 im Hampton
Beach Casino in New Hampshire aufgenommen wurde. Abgerundet wird das Bonusmaterial auf Disclaimer
(Deluxe Edition) durch eine seltene akustische Live-Coverversion von Nirvanas ”Something in the Way”
aus dem Jahr 2002, die ursprünglich als B-Seite veröffentlicht wurde. Einmal mehr begeistert die Band
Seether ihre Fans mit ihrer Mischung aus Alt-Metal, Grunge und Lyrik mit Herz auf dem rechten Fleck.
Außerdem verglich der Rolling Stone Seether mit Grunge-Helden wie Pearl Jam und Nirvana und lobte die
”mitreißende Katharsis” der Gruppe.
Das Album ist erhältlich als 2CD und als Ltd. 3LP.

EP, black vinyl Death doom metal group Kuolemanlaakso's most recent album Kuusumu, released to much critical acclaim in March 2022, will be followed up by a limited three song EP Kuolleiden laulu in December. Both the album and the EP were recorded in the same studio session in 2021, both share lyrical themes and cover art based on art by Evelyn De Morgan (1855-1919). "We knew already when entering the studio that we're going to record more than an album, as we had plenty of material to work on. When all ten songs were done, it felt natural to compile the album of the heavier epic songs and put the more unusual and catchy tracks on the EP. These three songs have contagious hooks and clean vocals", comments guitarist-songwriter Laakso. The title track on the EP is the band's most radio friendly track to date with a smoother production and an infectious chorus plus guest female vocals by Lotta Ruutiainen, who also performed on the album. The slow and menacing second track "Juuret jalkojeni alla" is a more complex composition, whereas the EP closing number "Rautasiivet" pays a visit to the same melancholic but catchy territory that Kent and Katatonia also inhabit. "The three songs on Kuolleiden laulu differ from one another considerably, and they present new sides to the band. Lyrically all three songs are fictional stories based on the 10-year volcanic winter that begun in 535 and has been described by historical scholars as 'the worst time to be alive'", comments Laakso. Aleksi Munter (ex-Swallow The Sun and Insomnium) plays keyboards on the EP, and it was produced, recorded, mixed and mastered by V.Santura (Triptykon), the man responsible for producing everything Kuolemanlaakso has released thus far.

The legend of Twilight Force began to form in the year 2007 of the Human Era. It was the result of a yearning to bring back the golden age of Epic Symphonic Power Metal. But Twilight Force soon became an entity of its own, evolving and elevating the genre to new heights and sounds. By fusing triumphant melodies with rich orchestral arrangements and swift performances, Twilight Force creates an intense and immersive experience. Transporting the listener to a magic realm filled with wonder, heroic tales and mesmerising tales from the mythical world known as The Twilight Kingdoms.

Using their vast experience from previous musical endeavours, their classical training, and technical proficiency, Twilight Force spawned the first ever Adventure Metal album in 2014 H.E. - Tales of Ancient Prophecies. Two more critically acclaimed albums followed in its wake, Heroes of Mighty Magic (2016), and Dawn of the Dragonstar (2019), with the fourth opus At the Heart of Wintervale set for release on January 20th, 2023 on Nuclear Blast Records.

Once again, the cover artwork has been created by the brilliantly skilled Kerem Beyit, and is directly connected to the album’s title track as the band explains: “It depicts the tale told in ‘At the Heart of Wintervale’ where an evil curse is broken, and the ancient dragon may finally roam the realms again, free and unfettered!"

At the Heart of Wintervale will be released on CD, Digibook, and Vinyl. The limited Digibook edition will also include three bonus tracks. The first one is a song, many of the band's loyal knights may somewhat recognize; it is an acoustic blend of some of the older works, featuring an entrancing vocal performance and guitar work by Twilight Force's very own wood elf Aerendir. The second and third bonus tracks are orchestral versions of two songs from the album, where fans will have the opportunity to experience a different soundscape, and perhaps discover new exciting elements and intricacies never discerned before.

With the band embarking on a headlining tour through Europe and UK on time with the album’s release, Twilight Force look immensely forward to continue their epic tale.
“So, sharpen your swords, dust off your magic tomes, and brew your strongest potions. It is time to join Twilight Force on their quest for the eternal glory of the Twilight Kingdoms, once again.
May the Power of the Dragon guide you!”

Defiance is the Californian thrash metal band that consisted of Ken Elkington, Dough Harrington, Jim Adams, Mike Kaufmann and Matt Vander Ende. After issuing a demo, the band signed with Roadracer Records and traveled to Vancouver to record their debut album Product Of Society with Annihilator guitarist Jeff Waters. The album cover art was made by Ed Repka.

Product Of Society is available as a limited edition of 1500 individually numbered copies on translucent blue coloured vinyl.

RAMPAGE’s Veil of Mourn is superlative in every sense. There’s a distinct ruggedness to the band’s ceaselessly shifting style of thrash. Mind you, NOT necessarily “rawness” – although the album’s production certainly tends toward the rough – but RAMPAGE’s execution eschews the super-clean sharpness that thrash metal was largely heading toward in the post-Master of Puppets era. With form meeting content, the power-trio’s songwriting similarly takes all sorts of labyrinthine paths short of being qualified as “tech,” racing around and restarting with sometimes-maddening fury. Hooks thankfully abounded, and RAMPAGE’s attack undeniably possessed a death metalled underbelly not unlike Dark Angel or aforementioned Oz cult icons Hobbs Angel of Death. With that songwriting often reaching a fever pitch of diabolism and all three members barely keeping that fury in check, Veil of Mourn becomes a palpitating experience, a veritable ‘80s horror movie turned into a thrash record. The creepy cover art only heightened this sensation.

Following the April 2022 reissue of the album Shrimp Boats, We Are Busy
Bodies presents companion titles Plum and Cherry and Deeper in Black
to round out a Lionel Pillay and Basil Mannenberg Coetzee trilogy as part
of the label's As-Shams South African jazz archive series
The connection between these three albums is tight as the 1987 release Shrimp
Boats compiled unreleased recordings from both the 1979 session for Plum and
Cherry and the 1980 session for Deeper in Black. These two rare records have
been carefully remastered from their original tapes and are back in print for the
very first time in over 40 years.Shrimp Boats and Plum and Cherry capture the
extraordinary musical chemistry that existed between pianist Lionel Pillay and
tenor saxophonist Basil Coetzee in the late 1970s. The respective album
showpieces Shrimp Boats and Cherry each occupy an entire side of vinyl with
both exquisite musical journeys clocking in at an epic 25 minutes a piece. While
Shrimp Boats was an instrumental reimagining of the popular 1951 song by
American singer Jo Stafford, Cherry drew inspiration from Abdullah Ibrahim at the
behest of producer Rashid Vally, who wanted to emulate the success of the
famous track that had helped launch his independent As-Shams/The Sun record
label in 1974.
Ibrahim's hit Mannenberg had also featured Basil Coetzee and it was this zeitgeist
South African jazz recording that had given rise to his stage name. Capturing the
grace and vitality of working- class township life on the city fringe, Cherry
channels the type of laid-back Cape groove that Abdullah Ibrahim, recording as
Dollar Brand, introduced to South African jazz in the 1970s. On the flip side, Plum
appears to take its own simple chord change in the same direction before
breaking into a chugging 20-minute romp that verges on proto-electronica and on
which Pillay hangs all manner of savage keyboard riffing and experimentation.
The two distinct flavours of Plum and Cherry make for a well-rounded platter with
an iconic cover featuring the work of abstract expressionist painter and AsShams/The Sun collaborator Hargreaves Ntukwana.

Celebrating a momentous five decades in the industry, legendary
musician and songwriter Paul Carrack, who's 'Golden Voice' features on
numerous classic world wide hits such as 'How Long' (ACE') ,
'Tempted' (Squeeze), 'The Living Years', 'Over My Shoulder' ( Mike and the
Mechanics) teams up with the GRAMMY Award-winning SWR Big Band &
Strings on epic new album " Don't Wait Too Long"
The covers album celebrates the pioneering golden era in music from the 50s and
beyond spanning blues, gospel, country and jazz. The first single "Cryin' Won't
Help You" out in Jan 2023 is Paul's tribute to the legendary BB King.Paul has a
deep love of R&B songs from the fifties and beyond. For him, 50s music was filled
with intense emotion, it was wildly kinetic and had a profound impact on his
career. In Paul's mind, it's where all modern pop music began, the sounds were
spectacular and revolutionary. Days when the change from jazz to pop was
stretched via pioneers and great singers like Bobby Bland, Ray Charles, Aretha
Franklin, and Lloyd Price..These artists always resonated as fantastic performers
with stylistic records that had such joy and intensity.
The 50s were not only a time for musical revolution but a social and generational
upheaval of vast and unpredictable scope. The power of this music is as vital
today as it ever was with the power to change lives forever.
After working with the SWR band on a number of projects, Paul and his producers
had the idea to find and record a selection of these time-warped classics, some
well- known, others not so much, and the title track , a modern song that harks
back to those times called 'Don't Wait Too Long'. The result is an impassioned,
compelling album. Honest, epic, touching, the album showcases a great vocalist
who is at home with his art and talent.
NATIONAL TV & RADIO.BBC Breakfast - Will take first week Jan / BBC Radio 2 -
Cerys Matthews - First Week Jan / Talk Radio - 2nd week Jan / Sky News - Beth
Rigby Interview - Second Week Jan / Greatest Hits - First Week Jan / GB News -
Live Interview via Zoom First Week Jan / Talk TV - Live Interview via Zoom first
week Jan / Ch 5 News - TBC week 2 Jan / ITV News - 2nd week Jan

Pressing Info: 180g 'muddy water' (transparent green) vinyl, mono audio, printed inner sleeve, hand numbered, limited to 500. As part of their ongoing King Gizzard bootleg series, Fuzz Club are releasing a mono version of 'Polygondwanaland' - the Aussie psych legend's twelfth studio album and the bootleg that started it all. Polygondwanaland first appeared as a partial leak on the band's demos for the album. The leak was uploaded to SoundCloud but was soon taken down. As a result, news of the album was scarce and mostly involved rumours, one of which stated that it would be the last of the five albums released in 2017. The track "Crumbling Castle," which appeared on the demo, was performed live by the band as early as September 2016, albeit in a much shorter form. However, it lay dormant for many months during an especially prolific period for the band, leading to speculation that the track might have been scrapped. Both the track and the music video were finally released on 18 October 2017, exactly one year after the first performance of the song was uploaded to YouTube. The legitimacy of the demos was all but confirmed at this point, as not only did the track feature the album's name in the lyrics, but it also contained lengthy musical passages equal in duration to the demo. Polygondwanaland was officially announced on the band's Facebook page on 14 November 2017. The release date and cover art were publicized by the band, who stated, "This album is FREE. Free as in, free," encouraging fans to make their own copies and bootlegs of the album.

One of These Nights occupies an important, unique place in the Eagles' discography given it represents the final album the group made before releasing the bajillion-selling Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) compilation. The timing is telling. A coming-out party for Glenn Frey and Don Henley's songwriting skills, the studio record – the band's fourth, and its first to hit #1 on the charts – signifies the group's ascent to superstar status. Home to three massive singles (the title track, "Lyin' Eyes," and "Take It to the Limit") and nominated for four Grammy Awards, the quadruple-platinum 1975 effort solidified the Eagles' Southern California-reared sound and made the band a household name.

Mastered from the original analog tapes, pressed on MoFi SuperVinyl, and limited to 10,000 copies, Mobile Fidelity's UltraDisc One-Step 180g 45RPM 2LP vinyl box set takes One of These Nights to the limit. And then some. Playing with reference sonics and a practically indiscernible noise floor thanks to MoFi SuperVinyl's special formula, it provides a rich, dynamic, transparent, and three-dimensional view into a release that moved country-rock ahead by leaps and bounds – and paved the way for the Eagles' ascendancy to global superstardom. The opportunity to zero in on the particulars of the Eagles' golden harmonies, distinct vocal timbres, and cohesive interplay has never been better.

Visually, the premium packaging and presentation of the UD1S One of These Nights pressing befit its esteemed status. Housed in a deluxe box, it features beautiful foil-stamped jackets and faithful-to-the-original graphics that illuminate the splendour of the recording. From every angle, this UD1S reissue exists as a curatorial artefact meant to be preserved, touched, and examined. It is made for discerning listeners that prize sound quality and production, and who desire to fully immerse themselves in the art – and everything involved with the album, from the renowned cover art to the meticulous finishes. As much as any Eagles LP, the connection between the imagery and the music and the band on One of These Nights runs deep. No wonder it led to a Grammy Nomination for Best Album Package.

Devised by West Texas artist Boyd Elder, the striking skull-and-feathers themed piece gracing the front of One of These Nights represents where the Eagles have been and where they were headed. Album art director Gary Burden explained: "The cow skull is pure cowboy, folk, the decorations are American Indian-inspired, and the future is represented by the more polished reflective glass beaded surfaces covering the skull." Moreover, Elder had met the group years earlier when Henley and company performed at one of his gallery openings in California. MoFi's UD1S box set allows Elder's vision (and Burden's debossed treatment of the image) to pop and appear as if it was a stand-alone object.

Of course, what's inside the sleeves, and in the grooves, proves equally compelling. Though One of These Nights marks the final appearance of band co-founder Bernie Leadon on an Eagles LP and contains three of his tunes, the record's tremendous success owes to Frey and Henley's timeless contributions. Taking the next step in their maturation and evolution, the pair crafted several songs while living together as roommates in a rented house in which they converted a music room into a recording studio.

The duo's bond and chemistry pulse throughout the record – particularly in the tight arrangements, tasteful instrumental flourishes, and seamless blending of the folk, country, and rock elements. The musical combinations and partnership not only produced the Eagles' first million-selling single (the slow-dancing "Take It to the Limit," co-written with bassist-vocalist Randy Meisner) and the Frey-led cheating classic "Lyin' Eyes," but the famed title track, which nods to the era's nascent disco scene as well as Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff's Philly soul platters.

Frey named "One of These Nights" as his favorite Eagles composition of all-time; Meisner's high harmonies alone send the track into a galaxy of its own. Speaking of the latter, Leadon's instrumental "Journey of the Sorcerer" ventures into another universe and was soon used by Douglas Adams as the theme to his "The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" radio series. Inspiration and creative experimentation also dragged the Eagles into the blues. Another Frey-Henley gem, the self-probing "After the Thrill Is Gone" serves as a response song to B.B. King's signature track and more evidence the band was turning the lens inward for lyrical narratives. Like everything on One of These Nights, the song confirms the Eagles were breathing rare musical air.

More About Mobile Fidelity UltraDisc One-Step and Why It Is Superior
Instead of utilizing the industry-standard three-step lacquer process, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab's new UltraDisc One-Step (UD1S) uses only one step, bypassing two processes of generational loss. While three-step processing is designed for optimum yield and efficiency, UD1S is created for the ultimate in sound quality. Just as Mobile Fidelity pioneered the UHQR (Ultra High-Quality Record) with JVC in the 1980s, UD1S again represents another state-of-the-art advance in the record-manufacturing process. MFSL engineers begin with the original master recordings, painstakingly transfer them to DSD 256, and meticulously cut a set of lacquers. These lacquers are used to create a very fragile, pristine UD1S stamper called a "convert." Delicate "converts" are then formed into the actual record stampers, producing a final product that literally and figuratively brings you closer to the music. By skipping the additional steps of pulling another positive and an additional negative, as done in the three-step process used in standard pressings, UD1S produces a final LP with the lowest noise floor possible today. The removal of the additional two steps of generational loss in the plating process reveals tremendous amounts of extra musical detail and dynamics, which are otherwise lost due to the standard copying process. Every conceivable aspect of vinyl production is optimized to produce the most perfect record album available today.

MoFi SuperVinyl

Developed by NEOTECH and RTI, MoFi SuperVinyl is the most exacting-to-specification vinyl compound ever devised. Analogue lovers have never seen (or heard) anything like it. Extraordinarily expensive and extremely painstaking to produce, the special proprietary compound addresses two specific areas of improvement: noise floor reduction and enhanced groove definition. The vinyl composition features a new carbonless dye (hold the disc up to the light and see) and produces the world's quietest surfaces. This high-definition formula also allows for the creation of cleaner grooves that are indistinguishable from the original lacquer. MoFi SuperVinyl provides the closest approximation of what the label's engineers hear in the mastering lab.