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Jean-Luc Mocard met Jean Ronde in September of 2009, while working at the CASIO Palaiseau factory, near Paris. Before, they were both active musicians with a particular taste for synthesized music, touring extensively through European and Asian underground venues and clubs. Eventually, their furious passion for collecting 80’s keyboards brought them together to become the fabulous duo Vive Les Cônes.

Presently based in Porto, Portugal, by a matter of pure chance, Vive Les Cônes is a CASIO explosion, the fuel of a dancing machine that never stops and cherry picks moments from dance and pop music culture along the way. Their live concerts are non-stop hit parades featuring their very own local cult classics, such as “Bonaparty” or “Brocoli-Rave”, and medleys of pop-culture classics ranging from video-game soundtracks, to dance hits, to classical music.

“De France”, their debut album, is the product of years of playing live, training and mastering the perfect CASIO technique. Every track in this album is played live using only pure unmodded Casio PT-380 and Yamaha PSR-37 keyboards, thrift store fx pedals, bringing to the recorded form the meticulously crafted tracks that set dancefloors on fire all throughout the world.

The album is an eclectic journey through electronic and dance music on cheap keyboards, from traces of House Music in “Maillon” and the instant hit “Je Ne Sais Pas”, fumes of vaporwave in “Machine à Vapeur”, and, of course, baguettes of French electro in “Brocoli-Rave”, the track that usually andeuphorically ends Vive Les Cônes’ set.

The Quietus has referred to the duo as a “weird John Shuttleworth take on house music”, but them being French, a better comparison would be something like “Daft Punk lost all their gear on tour and had to play a gig using some old keyboards”. But could they even do it? Maybe a “Pascal Comelade on molly live set for Boiler Room” could make thembetter Justice. We’re not really sure what to compare them to though, and probably there’s no need to compare them to anything, as the best thing you can do is to give them a go and check them out for yourself.

Jean-Luc Mocard met Jean Ronde in September of 2009, while working at the CASIO Palaiseau factory, near Paris. Before, they were both active musicians with a particular taste for synthesized music, touring extensively through European and Asian underground venues and clubs. Eventually, their furious passion for collecting 80’s keyboards brought them together to become the fabulous duo Vive Les Cônes.

Presently based in Porto, Portugal, by a matter of pure chance, Vive Les Cônes is a CASIO explosion, the fuel of a dancing machine that never stops and cherry picks moments from dance and pop music culture along the way. Their live concerts are non-stop hit parades featuring their very own local cult classics, such as “Bonaparty” or “Brocoli-Rave”, and medleys of pop-culture classics ranging from video-game soundtracks, to dance hits, to classical music.

“De France”, their debut album, is the product of years of playing live, training and mastering the perfect CASIO technique. Every track in this album is played live using only pure unmodded Casio PT-380 and Yamaha PSR-37 keyboards, thrift store fx pedals, bringing to the recorded form the meticulously crafted tracks that set dancefloors on fire all throughout the world.

The album is an eclectic journey through electronic and dance music on cheap keyboards, from traces of House Music in “Maillon” and the instant hit “Je Ne Sais Pas”, fumes of vaporwave in “Machine à Vapeur”, and, of course, baguettes of French electro in “Brocoli-Rave”, the track that usually andeuphorically ends Vive Les Cônes’ set.

The Quietus has referred to the duo as a “weird John Shuttleworth take on house music”, but them being French, a better comparison would be something like “Daft Punk lost all their gear on tour and had to play a gig using some old keyboards”. But could they even do it? Maybe a “Pascal Comelade on molly live set for Boiler Room” could make thembetter Justice. We’re not really sure what to compare them to though, and probably there’s no need to compare them to anything, as the best thing you can do is to give them a go and check them out for yourself.

Since the release of the Sentimental Fool, Lee Fields has been touring relentlessly, playing to capacity crowds all across the US & EY with the drive and determination of an artist a fraction of his age. The fruits of which have culmi-nated in his song "Forever" being featured in 2023's top rated Super Bowl commercial, further solidifying Lee as the king of soul. In keeping with the momentum it is our pleasure to announce the release of his brand new single "Waiting on the Sidelines". Written by Thomas 'TNT' Brenneck (MSB, Charles Bradley, Diamond West Records) this beat-ballad grooves low and slow, giving Lee ample room to unleash a heart-breakingly soulful display of vocal acrobatics - an absolute must-have for fans of the Penrose sound. On the flip you'll find "You Can Count On Me", an in demand, upbeat moover previously only available on a limited edition 12" EP. Now bow to the king!

finally repressed !

Essential UK experimental composer Richard Skelton returns to Phantom Limb for new album selenodesy, interweaving his newfound love of electronics and synthesis with mastery of gritty organic texture.

Skelton’s music has always been rooted in landscape, in the loam and grit of the earth: from his 2009 Pennine Moors-inspired modern classic Landings to his more recent Moraine Sequence of geological excavations, his work has been bound inexorably with the stark and untended wilderness of northern landscapes. With this new album, however, Skelton shifts his gaze skyward — in part the result of a move in 2017 to the countryside near the Kielder Observatory, and to a so-called ‘dark sky’ region of the UK. In this remote landscape, light pollution is minimal, allowing the austere majesty of the night sky to be seen with greater clarity.

The resulting album, selenodesy, reveals a new, reverberant spaciousness to Skelton’s use of electronics. It marries the twin worlds of his previous Phantom Limb release - 2020’s These Charms May Be Sung Over A Wound, and its abandoned-factory threnody - with the landscape-revering arcana of his earlier work, which saw him bury instruments in the soil to return months later to recover and record with them, newly imbued with the land they occupied. selenodesy was prefigured by a period of insomnia and the relief found

in stargazing, during which Skelton tried to transcribe his hypnagogic visions: “much of this music came to me in the early hours, in that nowhere state between dreaming and waking. I’d look out the window and the night sky would be swirling with stars. Mars or Venus would be hovering in the corner of the room. I’d lie there and watch the Aurora Borealis dance across the ceiling.”

In selenodesy, we find the lingering, distorted sine waves of album opener “Albedo” that thrum and fizz with an icy, foreboding moonlight, rays of subtle movement that illuminate and darken alternately. Next follows lead single “The Plot of Lunar Phases”, whose passive shrieks echo about a cold, yawning space, reaching an ecstatic crescendo of hissing sonics and swirling celestial drone. Its dynamic range acts like the light of a lunar passage, from utmost darkness to radiant luminosity. Elsewhere, the pulsing, precessional bass of “Faint Ray Systems” gradually opens to reveal mournful, elegiac synthesis that reaches high into the night sky with an unearthly beauty. It is as if, during those long months of lockdown in the Scottish countryside, Skelton tapped into a series of sidereal electromagnetic transmissions, and transposed them into musical form.

Another beautiful & booming release from Piezo on his rock solid Ansia imprint, conjuring up 5 tracks of frenetic & kinetic mind/body music that are distinctly his own with a reverent nod to such genres as UKG, grime, techno, gqom & footwork.
Evolving beyond the manufactured nostalgia that populates today's current dance milieu, Piezo takes bass science into the realm of the metaphysical.

“jRj” & “Big Room Technow” emanate metric tons of somatic energy for the club crowd, the former building up momentum on a gqom-infused grime pattern, while the latter is like a tin robot whistling an odd melody inside a peak-time 4/4 banger.
“Sensory Overdraw” is an outstanding UKG curveball with a distinctive metallic bassline and intricate head swimming programming for the headphone listener.
A similar approach is applied to “Cutest Kitty Content”, which teems with bizarre ear-candies, but moves with a different and faster framework. Footwork with outsider insight.
Finally you have the digital exclusive “Zing Zang”, which slows things down but still keep the same balance between mind and body requirements.

The genre references aren't blanketing the tracks as much as they are being manifested through pure passion and love: these tunes are all encompassing bin shakers that knock and sway the lucky participants that are awakened enough to be open to the journey.
This is a rare release where you can see the forest from the trees and yet both can simultaneously be experienced and enjoyed.

DRAIN – the Santa Cruz, CA based hardcore band, whose energetic live shows have propelled them to peak underground popularity (during a global pandemic) and they are ready to break wide open in 2023.

Living Proof is the band’s Epitaph Records debut and follow up to their 2020 breakout release, California Cursed.
The new album is a testament to the hard work and heartfelt ethos that’s at the center of DRAIN’s good-time psyche. There are a couple surprises on the album. Rapper Shakewell appears on the track, “Intermission”.
There’s also a cover of “Good, Good Things,” a nearly four-decade old melodic punk carol by the Descendents: slam-pit forebearers to DRAIN if there ever were any. “It’s crazy because the song’s been out like forty years, but lyrically it’s a DRAIN song!” exclaims vocalist
Sam Ciaramitaro.
“It just hits on everything that I love, that I’m about.”
What Sammy’s about is plenty wholesome. “I hope with this record that when someone hears it, it gives them hope,” beams. “If we were able to get through the tough times, anyone can. I can’t wait to play these songs and hear a room full of people singing back to us. We’re what the title says, the Living Proof.”

Produced by longtime friend and multi-instrumentalist Taylor Young (God’s Hate, Suicide Silence), then mixed by John Markson (Drug Church, Koyo), this is hardcore for everybody.
“As the band gets bigger, I try and keep that feeling alive,” says the smiling singer. “Every night I set up the merch and run it until it’s time to play. I want to be the guy that everyone says hello to. I want to thank every single kid that comes out for being there.”

"Westerman — the London-born, Athens-based pop maverick — has returned with his new album, ‘An Inbuilt Fault’.

The album's nine songs took shape throughout the depths of the pandemic and soundtrack Westerman’s reckoning with two years of intense isolation, loneliness, heartbreak, and dread. The phrase “an inbuilt fault” itself is an examination of the inherent and innate flaws that make us human – a visceral response to Westerman’s disillusionment with AI and social media during this time period.

Through it all, the album is visceral and live-sounding, full of the sound of breath and the idiosyncratic gestures of acoustic instruments. It creates a spatial feeling, sounding like musicians assembled in a room, passing evolving ideas back and forth. Co-produced with producer and percussionist James Krivchenia (Big Thief), and featuring an extended crew of Los Angeles associates, 'An Inbuilt Fault' exhibits music that is heavier and more sonically daring than Westerman’s previous releases, and it is the most adventurous and unselfconscious songwriting of Will Westerman’s career.

‘An Inbuilt Fault’ follows Westerman’s acclaimed 2020 debut ‘Your Hero Is Not Dead,’ a graceful and self-reflective project which earned him a spot as one of the most talked about new artists of the year thanks to profiles from Pitchfork (‘Rising’), Stereogum (‘Artist To Watch’), and Rolling Stone (‘Artist You Need To Know’)."

One of the most notorious hatemongers in movie history is Captain Ahab from John Huston’s 1956 classic Moby Dick. His manic monologues cast a spell on generations of viewers. Berlin based musician and sound artist Jan Jelinek has now turned the voice of Ahab into a musical instrument.

Faitiche presents Jan Jelinek's soundtrack for SEASCAPE – polyptych, an audio-visual software developed in collaboration with Canadian new media artist Clive Holden in 2022.

SEASCAPE – polyptych is based on image and acoustic source material from Moby Dick. While Holden works on manipulating film sequences, the voice of Ahab plays a central role in Jan Jelinek’s soundtrack. The dynamic volume and tone of the captain's speech control a synthesizer system that turns Ahabs voice into ten abstract soundscapes.

In this production the voice gives the impulse and controls things but is not the sound of spoken word itself that we hear. Only occasionally can snippets of speech be heard so that syllables or sounds are recognisable. Instead we hear compositions made of hissing, soundscapes and eruptive sounds. The atmosphere is dark and sinister. Still every piece has a clear sonic structure and follows an understandable dramatic composition. This music is abstract but not overwhelming. Quite the opposite, SEASCAPE – polyptych is an invitation to listeners to let themselves be carried by the stream of sonic events. Although part of a media art work, the soundtrack can be enjoyed without any of this connecting superstructure. It works with no previous knowledge. But what happens when one does know that it’s the sonic waves of a human voice that is controlling a network of synthesizers?

If you want to hear Ahab, you will hear a choir of Ahabs in every piece of sound. The subliminal threatening as well as the conjuring Ahab. Finally the Ahab who whips up his crew and tears them with him into their downfall. The majestic „on the quay now, waiting and watching“, the oppressive “drawn towards the whirlpools center” - they are all music as well as sonic discourse.

Repress of the 2019 reissued special marbled 180g vinyl version! "Odyshape" the second album by The Raincoats was originally released on Rough Trade Records in 1981. Remastered from original masters. "It was The Raincoats I related to most. They seemed like ordinary people playing extraordinary music. Music that was natural that made room for cohesion of personalities. They had enough confidence to be vulnerable and to be themselves without having to take on the mantle of male rock/punk rock aggression_or the typical female as sex symbol avec irony or sensationalism". (Kim Gordon, Sonic Youth,1993). "We just really loved what The Raincoats were doing - they were a really exciting band. I think the thing that was good about The Raincoats simply was that the tradition that they were playing in was their own and so they had an original voice. You couldn't ignore them - they were undeniably fascinating - the interplay between the two voices and the sound of the group was something original and that was what was exciting about them". (Geoff Travis, Rough Trade Records, February 2009)

This is a new pressing on 180g Transparent clear vinyl. 500 copies only. We ThRee announce the reissue of the "Odyshape" the second album by The Raincoats originally released on Rough Trade Records in 1981.Re-mastered from original masters. Heavyweight 180-gram vinyl.

"It was The Raincoats I related to most. They seemed like ordinary people playing extraordinary music. Music that was natural that made room for cohesion of personalities. They had enough confidence to be vulnerable and to be themselves without having to take on the mantle of male rock/punk rock aggression…or the typical female as sex symbol avec irony or sensationalism". (Kim Gordon, Sonic Youth,1993). //

"We just really loved what The Raincoats were doing - they were a really exciting band. I think the thing that was good about The Raincoats simply was that the tradition that they were playing in was their own and so they had an original voice. You couldn’t ignore them - they were undeniably fascinating - the interplay between the two voices and the sound of the group was something original and that was what was exciting about them." (Geoff Travis, Rough Trade Records, February 2009)

Fresh off his explosive Boiler Room performance in Liverpool, the dust is yet to settle from the electronic eruptions caused by GTOWN head-honcho and energy inducer, KETTAMA. Namely, the damage caused by his latest armoured artillery; ‘GTOWN004’, a radioactive EP with devastatingly euphoric consequences.

‘Samba Soccer 2001’ is the track that opens the door to ‘GTOWN004’, as we’re welcomed by an anonymous voice that insults the listener; a perfect introduction to a project that is wildly unapologetic in its character, and utterly ruthless in its delivery. Released as the first single from the ‘GTOWN004’ EP, ‘Samba Soccer 2001’ has already been greatly received by the GTOWN faithful, and sets the tone for what is arguably KETTAMA’s most complete, and anticipated project yet.

The EP starts as it means to go on, as KETTAMA drops another bombshell with ‘Blitz Zuruck.’ With a euphoric soundscape which the producer partners with a punishing bassline, this track is deeply nostalgic, embodying a time-capsule in the thick of a modern rave-renaissance. Further elements of revamped rave-nostalgia are seen in ‘Slaap Lekker’, before we’re taken deep into the belly of the Galway beast with the atomic ‘GTOWN IN EFFEKT’, and finally killed off with the ‘Rock Da Cliffe Mix’ of ‘Blitz Zuruck.’

‘GTOWN004’ features an ungodly blend of sounds, and in the process, creates an atmosphere that is both ecstatic enough for heaven, and sinister enough for hell. Purpose built for dance-floor destruction, KETTAMA’s infusion of stomach-churning bass, hypnagogic synthesisers, soulful vocals and contagious drum patterns result in an utterly pure, addictive sound.

From Galway to Vienna, Liverpool to New York, the track will be road tested amongst an armoured artillery of records, with dance-floor devastation an inevitable outcome. With his name boldly imprinted on the lineups for the likes of AVA Festival in Belfast, CRSSD in Miami, 121 Festival in New Zealand and Terminal V Festival in Edinburgh, KETTAMA’s worldwide domination of sound-systems continues.

In the Detmold area (Westphalia, Germany), there wasn‘t much going on for metal fans in the first half of the eighties. Fortunately, the members of two bands met in 1982 in a chip shop and recognized their common preference for hard music by their long hair, leather jackets and moustaches, which were good manners at that time. In this moment SACRAFICE were born, who subsequently became local heroes - of course influenced by the NWOBHM that was just spilling over into Germany, but also by the usual suspects like Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Rainbow or Kiss, as well as Judas Priest and the early Accept.

Two unusual choices were made at once: In the spirit of Def Leppard or Led Zeppelin, the band name was deliberately changed - i.e. NOT Sacrifice, but Sacrafice. And they decided not to make the typical demo tape, but a 12“ EP on their own. This one is called „The First Experience WIth The Unknown“ and can be bought here and now on Discogs for 120 Euro and more used.... But already the book „Heavy Metal Made In Germany“, which was published in the nineties via Iron Pages, lists the record as „Top German Metal Rarity“.
No wonder, because the quite aggressive heavy rock and metal knows how to please even today - or maybe especially today - and reminds us of the upbeat mood of the German metal scene in the first
half of the eighties. This is also true for the three live tracks, which have been elaborately restored in days of work.

Another house number are the tracks of the follow-up band TranQuilL
(that‘s right, that‘s the correct spelling). The mostly overlong songs can be classified as heavy prog. Due to various circumstances these pearls remained (as good as) unreleased. Again, a lot of time and work was invested in restoring and mastering these private studio recordings (there are six long TranQuill songs on the CD version, while there was only room for two tracks on the LP, without losing sound quality).
As always, the printed inlay contains liner notes (actual interview with a former band member). Photos and other illustrations.
The CD version of the Golden Core re-release has already received very good reviews in Rock Hard and Good Times, among others!

Taking his cue from seminal mix albums of days gone by, Glenn Astro is back with a compilation of original productions from a cast of fictional artists on Nothing Is Real. Across 13 tracks, the Tartelet mainstay celebrates the thrill of discovery which came as standard listening to new entries in series’ like X-Mix and DJ Kicks, moving between head-nodding downtempo, ambient techno, broken beat and all manner of chill-out room delights. You might be left wishing artists such as DJ 1999, Mental Trance and Eye Soul8r had actual discographies to go and explore, but as Astro himself is keen to point out, “nothing is real.”

Astro has never been shy to embrace classic tropes and tones in his past albums for Tartelet, Apollo and Ninja Tune, but he’s drawing on a different set of influences for this album and embracing the flexibility afforded by using imagined aliases for varied production styles.

“I had the idea to do a mixtape, preferably with unknown dance tracks that also reflect that whole 90s/early 00s vibe,” Astro explains. “Instead of digging for some records that haven’t been sourced yet or trying to find those ‘forgotten’ treasures, I made the tracks myself. That way I had full control over BPMs, feel and the whole arrangement of tracks. I thought of a few alter egos and started producing the tracks in the order that I intended to play them in a mix. In the end a whole compilation of tracks emerged.”

While the concept might suggest you’re going to hear a lot of over- familiar sounds, don’t be fooled. Astro is inspired and inquisitive, channeling the experimental spirit of the 90s and early 00s when electronic music was still continually being redefined in all kinds of micro-scenes. In many cases, Astro’s productions slip into the cracks between genres rather than specifically mimicking a style.

Even if the reference points are detectable, the end result is a curious blend as indebted to ambiguity as the overall concept of the compilation. Like the spine-tingling sensation of hitting play and awaiting the waves of unknown sonics on one of those seminal mixes, you never know exactly what you’re going to get as you take the trip through Nothing Is Real.

Shannon, and veteran electronic producer and remixer producer Dave Clark, best-known for his Sparky moniker, and as one-half of the production/remix team Optimo (Espacio).

First emerging in 2015 with a couple of compilation appearances, Kübler-Ross released their debut, self-titled album in 2020. Originally released as a limited-edition cassette on the Glasgow label Akashic Records, the album — now resequenced and released on vinyl via Suction Records’ minimal synth sublabel Ice Machine — is a collection of tracks recorded over a three year period in a variety of studios, rehearsal rooms, and gigs, documenting the musical variety and ferocity of their incendiary live performances. The Akashic tape, despite being low-key, under-the-radar, and released in limited quantity, managed to earn them a Long List nomination for SAY (Scottish Album of the Year) for 2020.

Standout cut “Bridges”, first released in 2015, is synthpop perfection — sitting comfortably alongside classics from the first wave of UK electronic classics by Thomas Leer and Robert Rental, John Foxx, and even early Depeche Mode. It’s not the only synthpop track on the record, but the album is dominated by a more tough, raw, and punk spirit, featuring aggressive female vocals, live drums + bass guitar, and judicious use of crude analog synthesizers and tape delay fx. Think Liaisons Dangereuses meets Suicide, and you’re beginning to get close…

Available digitally, and on limited vinyl LP in a reverse-board jacket. We’ve also pressed up a special edition with an additional bonus 7”, featuring covers of songs by US minimal synth oddball John Bender,and Australian industrial mavericks SeveredHeads. The special edition LP and 7” are on pink-vinyl LP + green-vinyl-7”, and strictly limited to 200 copies. Both versions include a Bandcamp download card inside.

Mogwaa returns to Peggy Gou’s Gudu label with Drifted, his second EP for the imprint and a perfect summary of what makes him one of Korea’s most exciting contemporary artists - complete with a remix by Klasse Werks founder Mr. Ho.

A staple of Seoul’s electronic scene, Mogwaa’s catalogue takes in everything from ambient to jungle - but at the centre of his music, there’s always a distinct sense of melody and pure compositional chops that defines his music regardless of style or tempo. Put simply, you know a Mogwaa track when you hear one.

Quicker in tempo than his last EP for Gudu, Drifted opens with ‘Driven’ - a combo of chopped-up breaks and a relentless riff that does just what the title implies - before Mogwaa really flexes those melodic chops on ‘Chances for Bounces’, getting heady with synthesized voices and an almost Detroit-leaning bassline over an 808 groove. ‘Rushing’ takes things further into peaktime with an acid bassline and some nifty automation to keep things ascending, before Mr. Ho’s remix of ‘Driven’ closes the EP on a dreamy techno tip.

Following several European runs last year that saw Mogwaa perform at Warehouse Project, Pleasure Gardens and more, plus a Boiler Room in Seoul alongside Anz, Sharda, Finn, Closet Yi and Seesea, Drifted is another snapshot into the sound world of this remarkable talent.

Ebalunga!!! is thrilled to announce the first official reissue of the self-released, self-produced, and self-titled 1985 LP Scott Seskind. The album is a lo-fi singer-songwriter jewel. Don’t miss it.
“Authentic and personal, at times it reminds this writer of luminaries such as Jackson C. Frank, PF Sloan, Skip Spence, and Phil Orchs while never feeling derivative.

The songs are melodic and haunting, fueled by existential woes, political angst, and good ol’ fashioned love. Scott’s rich voice has an unpretentious gravitas, his simple-yet-effective guitar playing ranging from delicate fingerpicking to angry bashing.
Created at home on a Tascam 4-Track Portastudio, the recording features few frills and is all the better for it. Unlike most mid-80s records it sounds like it could have come from any time since the late ’60s onwards. As a testament to its greatness, and despite the late recording date, it even gets a nod on Patrick Lundborg’s “Acid Archives” compilation website, Lysergiawhere it’s described thus: “Late phase downer-loner folk and singer-songwriter trip, mostly acoustic, some tracks with a small band.” – Andrew Ure for Ugly
Things.Read a long story about the album in the upcoming Shindig! issue: Story about Scott Seskind in Shiding Mag.
The reissue is available on vinyl with a lyric insert.
Mastering (as always) by Jessica Thompson.

Feedbacks and reviews:
“Almost totally inheralded singer-songwriter Scott Seskind gets the reissue treatment, and I couldn’t be happier. About a year ago I pulled Seskind’s sole vinyl release out of the used bin of a Boulder record store, and with its almost Wallace Berman-esque cover art, could immediately suspect it was something special. The first listen didn’t dispel that notion one bit; here was an impressively captivating and moving collection of four-tracked bedroom folk of the highest order, with an out-of-time vibe that didn’t really snyc with its 1984 recording date. Definitely on the loner-ish end of the folk spectrum, with some aspects of the album harkening back to Skip Spence’s iconic Oar, while other moments revealed the urgency of the ’80s lo-fi revolution. But most importantly, the songs were just really, really great and managed to remain haunting long past their leaving.

Here, I thought, is an album that needs to be heard by more people, NOW. I asked around amongst some record collecting friends and discovered it was pretty highly rated by a small circle of people in the know, and that it had even managed to garner a mention in the Acid Archives despite its late recording date, and most excitingly that there was talk that the digital reissue label Yoga had managed to track Seskind down and secure the rights to his LP. (…) So here we have it, the best songs from Seskind’s eponymous LP. (…) I really hope this release continues to garner the listeners that it deserves.” – Michael Klausman

“The one that struck us the most this year was the almost totally unheralded work of singer-songwriter Scott Seskind, who recorded an impressively captivating and moving collection of four-tracked bedroom folk of the highest order, with an out-of-time vibe that doesn’t really sync with its original 1984 release date. Definitely on the loner-ish end of the folk spectrum, with songs that are really, really great and which manage to remain haunting long past their leaving. Truly an album that deserves to be heard by more people immediately. ” – Other Music

WATAIN ist der Wolf, der furchtlos und frei in der dunklen Nacht des Menschen weiterjagt Seit 1998 haben sich WATAIN einen Namen als eine der bekanntesten und berüchtigtsten Black-Metal-Bands der Welt gemacht. Auf ihr Schaffen wird oft mit Furcht, Liebe, Verwirrung oder Ehrfurcht, aber selten mit Gleichgültigkeit reagiert.


Aufgenommen in einer alten Kirche auf dem schwedischen Lande, bringen WATAIN dem Hörer das innerste Herz einer Band näher, die trotz aller Gerüchte und Kontroversen stets nach aufrichtigen, authentischen Ausdrucksformen strebt.


Die 10 Songs stammen aus der Feder des Gründertrios von WATAIN (E. Danielsson, H. Jonsson und P. Forsberg), und markieren das erste Album, das in voller Besetzung mit A. Lillo, H. Eriksson und E. Forcas aufgenommen wurde. Das Material wird zusätzlich durch Gastauftritte von Farida Lemouchi (Ex The Devil's Blood, jetzt bei Molasses) und Gottfrid Åhman (Ex In Solitude, jetzt bei PÅGÅ) bereichert. "The Agony & Ecstasy of Watain" entstand mit Produzent Tjore Stjerna in der Chapel Of Necromorbus, wurde von Thomas Johansson im The Panic Room gemastert, während Bandkopf E. Danielsson für das eindrucksvolle Artwork und Layout zuständig war.

11th album by the one-of-a-kind collective: psychedelia and free form jazz (not jazz) trigger a sophisticated excursion into weird textures with drastic turns. Dislocated dense music full of secret connections!

Kammerflimmer Kollektief – "Schemen"

Before reason prevails, invoked by those who want everything to remain as it is, Kammerflimmer Kollektief disrupts the established supply chains of sound. It seeks more interesting ways to assemble them. Trusting in this, because of the fact that every sound that still comes out of a guitar, a bass, a harmonium, drums and electronic devices has already been taken into the common mangle of meaning anyway. Enough of all that. Here, nothing is explained. Here we speak in schemes. Polished and jerky.

The images that Kammerflimmer Kollektief conjures up therefore happen not in the focus of consciousness, but rather in its outer realms. In those to which one does not give one's full attention at the moment, but which are nevertheless perceived. For example, when a leaf falls from the ground back up to the tree in the corner of your eye, and for an instant you think this is possible, before you realize it was a small bird flying into the tree; it is in just such irritating moments between perception and realization that the art of the Kollektief also unfolds. On "Schemen", familiar fragments float gently around their core – a Fender Rhodes tone, a bass figure, a guitar motif, a masterful drum shuffle, a moment of icy stasis borrowed from the harmonium playing of Christa 'Nico' Päffgen. Triggering brief associations, they slowly rush off in other directions through free jazz-informed editing work, whereupon such zones can also arise in which perception has a few tricks ready and earlier experience suddenly breaks into the now in a completely different way. Half suspected, half seen.

Half-music like Can from Cologne – also masters of improvised editing – sometimes produced a few decades ago in their in-between moments. The first minutes of "Future Days" for example, which fade in gently, sketch a barely graspable figure emerging from all directions of the room. Kammerflimmer Kollektief also engages in similarly open moments of development. Loosely, it eludes the first formative impressions, keeping itself ready for moments that do not follow any logic of appointment. This looseness in handling makes Kammerflimmer Kollektief so fluidly audible, even when dissonant peaks and free playing arise. What Karlheinz Stockhausen is to Can's understanding of composition, the recordings of The Cocoon are to Kammerflimmer Kollektief. The Cocoon, a meeting of garage psychedelics from the Hannover area with free jazzers from the Galaxie Dream Band, whose album "While The Recording Engineer Sleeps", recorded in 1985 in unguarded moments, operates in a very similar way with decentralized perceptual ambivalences and only appeared more or less secretly four years later on Wilhelm Reich Schallspeicher. Other traces of "Schemen" lead to the debut album of Quicksilver Messenger Service. The guitars of Gary Duncan and John Cipollina, which refer to themselves in an unforced manner, are instructions to let go. They don't want to be traced in every note as a solo, but they give their music a sense that the essential takes place off center, in the mutual and intuitive gift of loving attentions. Consciousness-free.

Loving turns like the little guitar phrase that, like a kind of leitmotif, is repeatedly ghosting more or less unchanged through all of the Kammerflimmer Kollektief albums. A Coricidin induced, very catchy slide idea filtered out of ancient Æther, which – who knows – maybe even centuries ago found its way from somewhere to America – the old, the eerie – and from there wafted on through the ages to southern Germany, to a smoky studio in the Upper Rhine lowlands. A memory of which even the memory no longer knows what it once reminded. Unsaid, then forgotten.

In Kammerflimmer Kollektief you will also find a friend of slowly building, unhurried music, which probably would have been appreciated by the old Franz Mesmer, who 200 years ago, after tranquilizing treatments, sometimes used to play for his patients ambient melodies on the enormous glass harmonica. However, in order not to surrender completely to the flow of one's own life energy, as Mesmer had in mind with his therapies, Kammerflimmer Kollektief occasionally adds hectic tensions, gently embraced by the droning of a sine wave generator, as if a trance could briefly refesh. This old analog sine wave generator is new in the Kammerflimmer assortment of sounds. So, the art of the Kollektief likes to dock occasionally in modern times, yet with the past in mind. Mental states begin to flicker between imagination and certainty, between culture-bound art expression and coincidences: A cawing and scraping can always just be a cawing and scraping with Kammerflimmer Kollektief, the way Andy Warhol's mushroom eater just eats a mushroom.

Heike Aumüller's cover works, which illustrate all the Kammerflimmer Kollektief albums, additionally act as amplifiers of unexplained refractions. Her style consists of eye-corner art that remains so, even when looked at directly. Her shots remain disquieting because they do not jolt themselves into a reassuring order, even in retrospect. Rather than evading the fear that arises when looking at them by trying to impose some irrational rhyme or reason, that fear must simply be endured. This strategy of endurance is equally applicable to the music. The trick is to let parts be parts without compulsively seeking delusional patterns that lull us into a false sense of security and in doing so, possibly delude ourselves. In this context, freedom means not having to anxiously attach a fantasized superior meaning to everything. "Schemen" has an conspiracy disintegrating effect.


b A2 Zweites Kapitel (ruckartig) [feat. Heike Aumüller]

Black Vinyl – stock is slightly limited on this one and orders might be subject to cutbacks

After asking Chloé Thévenin to collaborate on the soundtrack of her show "Static Shot" (2020), Maud Le Pladec has called upon the producer and DJ again for "counting stars with you (musiques femmes)". A new ambitious, militant and feminist creation made for the 2021 season of Montpellier Danse. The dancer and choreographer, accompanied by six dancers, uses dance and song to explore the unspoken, the marginalisation and the representation of women musicians from the Middle Ages to the present day by summoning historical and contemporary figures such as Kassia of Constantinople, Barbara Strozzi, Giovanna Marini and Clara Schuman...

“In concrete terms," says Chloé, "I composed the music by taking on board the songs of the dancers, drawing and reworking the voices from the repertoire of all the women composers who have been silenced by history. It’s a collective work, with Maud Le Pladec and Tom Pauwels (of the Ictus Ensemble), and we built on it as we rehearsed and developed the piece. The voices, their choices and reinterpretations were able to evolve into the music that I was composing.” Immersed in the creation and the work-in-progress nature of this show, Chloé has imagined a soundtrack based on song. She uses the performers’ scansions, whispers, performances

Silberfarbenes 2LP-Vinyl zur Feier des 100-jährigen Jubiläums von Disney mit Favoriten von Three Little Pigs, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs bis Coco, Encanto und mehr!

Îlot, an isolated element within a different whole. For his new album, Sheldon, emblematic rapper of the 75e Session collective, continues his work of introspection on organic compositions, filled with the multiple references that build the musical universe of the artist.

Produced by Epektase and mixed by Sheldon himself at Winslow Studio, the project leaves a lot of room for the guitar and the rapper's 60/70s rock influences such as Bowie and the Beatles. There are also influences from Soul, R&B, Lo-Fi and Jazz, pushing the meeting of rap with other musical genres even further.

A nod to Böcklin's painting Isle of the Dead, a work of multiple interpretations that obsessed the painter himself, the island echoes feelings of isolation and solitude, but also the need to escape and introspect. We thus find the themes that haunt Sheldon: his childhood and his relationship with others, his questions about his place as a human being, which he poses head-on or through lighter notes of humour, and his dismay at a world for which he "knows the problems, not the solutions". His texts, unique and personal, reveal his most intimate thoughts. Like a conversation, they resonate within each of us and create a strong bond, a deep sense of understanding, against the backdrop of all the sweetness and melancholy of the images he conjures up: "One more day on my islet, watching the sailboats go by."

The metaphor of the islet continues in the visual universe built around the album, where the central element is a monolith used to represent isolation and emptiness. Made up of four mirrored sides, this imposing artefact represents both the island and the subject of the album: the central element is not the main subject, Sheldon, but rather what he tells us about the world around him.

The second in Jazz Room's occasional Pure Latin releases this Underground Masterpiece first emerged in 1980 and is an outstanding example of the Classic Era Nu Yorican El Barrio Underground Sound! If you dig the Tata Vasquez LP on Jazz Room then this is for you.

Featuring the Afro-Cubano Salsaero Jazz Heavyweights of the day including Chocolate Armenteros, Jose Mangual, Mauricio Smith and Orestes Vilato and a huge seven man Percussion Section it really blasts out the Afro-Latin message.

A part history of the Afro-Cuban Music Journey from the Hinterlands of Cuba via Havana and eventually arriving in Jazz Age New York it is a welcome addition to the Jazz Room Catalogue (as well as being Jazz Room Head Honcho's favourite albums).

Floor filler cuts for Latin Lovers with "Esa Brujeria" always turning up the heat.

Mammal Hands announce spell-binding new album 'Gift from the Trees', their fifth studio album, pointing to subtle shifts and exciting new departures for the unique trio
"We're at a point now where playing and writing together can sometimes feel almost telepathic, that as individuals we can tune in to a collective resonance..."
Mammal Hands fifth album 'Gift from the Trees' offers a fresh perspective on the unique trio's singular music. The first to be recorded in a residential studio, the band enjoyed the opportunity to go late into the night searching for a deeper, more organic experience, closer to both their writing process but also their trance-like live performances. While some of the music was pre-composed and had even been performed live, the band also enjoyed the opportunity to improvise ideas in the studio. Drummer Jesse Barrett explains:
We wanted to have a more immersive experience that felt closer to our writing process. One thing that was really important to us was feeling free to jam out ideas as they came to us. We're at a point now where playing and writing together can sometimes feel almost telepathic, that as individuals we can tune in to a collective resonance and just follow that thread where it wants to go. Sometimes it's something as simple as a rhythmic, textural flow, like in Sleeping Bear.
There was also a conscious decision to move away from the sound and ambiance of the recording studio, with the band opting to engineer the record with their go-to live engineer Benjamin Capp before mixing the sessions with Greg Freeman in Berlin. The idea was to try and capture more of the energy of the band's captivating shows, saxophonist Jordan Smart explains:
Considering the group of tracks we had, it made sense to try and capture this process as organically and honestly as possible, and so a change in studio environment felt like the right move to us. Some of the tracks have a raw joy and energy that came with being able to play together again after a long period of time of having been apart, and capture that feeling of just being happy to be in a room with our instruments altogether again.
Whereas for pianist Nick Smart there was also the chance to really go deep into the band's music:
The new studio environment really opened us up to different ways of working and thinking because we could record at any hour of the day or night. I think this allowed us much more freedom to try unusual ideas and push elements of the music to extremes because we had the time to really focus in on the detail and work on things without time pressure. With some tracks, we were trying to find the boundaries of our playing ability and push beyond that point. With others, it was just getting into the right mindset and putting as much energy and emotion into the take as possible.'
The Welsh environment outside the studio doors seeped into the music presented on Gift from the Trees, with two recording sessions (one in winter and one in the spring) bringing different moods: one bleak and wintery, the other more hopeful and bright – an energy that permeates through tracks such as Kernel and Dimu.
Gift from the Trees opens with wonderfully elevating The Spinner which grew from one of Nick's piano parts and was developed and arranged into a complete tune without losing the feeling of constant flow and motion. It is almost like a dance, with the interaction of different melody parts and the doubling of certain parts melding together and fitting into the overall energetic flow, while Jesse's drums are both floating and deeply melodic. Riser aims to capture the band's raw energy and intriguingly is influenced by both breaks and modern drum production but also minimalist classical composition. Nightingale features the band at their most delicate and lyrical – a band favourite it draws heavily on modern folk with a beautifully realised melody that came unforced to pianist Nick Smart before being jammed out together. It was recorded early one morning, bringing an extra light and brightness to this beautiful performance.
Another album highlight is Dimu which utilises one of drummer Jesse Barret's favourite rhythmic devices from the Tabla repertoire and draws inspiration from Indian, Greek and Arabic music as well as modern folk arrangements. Dimu starts with saxophone over a bed of drones and percussion and moves through many different sections that frame and present the melodies in unique ways. The beguiling, intimate Deep within Mountains aims to place you in the room with the band as they play; it was recorded late at night to capture a dreamlike, liminal ambiance. The piano solo really reflects this mood and energy while the tenor is some of the softest and closest on the recording. Elsewhere, the remarkable Labyrinth started with what Nick describes as "some weird recording on my phone from a soundcheck, where Jordan was playing some crazy sounding bass clarinet part and I quickly recorded him", giving birth to a captivating, complex slice of propulsive 'almost' contemporary classical that like so much of the music on Gift from the Trees really couldn't be any other band than Mammal Hands.
Finally, the album draws to a close with the glorious Sleeping Bear, a tune that was wholly improvised in the studio. Nick and Jesse entered a simple but 'weird' locked groove and Jordan improvises melodies over the top. The track came about without any planning or thought; it was one of those special things that came by surprise and the band felt offered the perfect ending to their latest gift to us all: a deeply enthralling album that captures so much of what makes Mammal Hands a special band while mapping out new routes and paths for their beautiful, beguiling music.

With Cruisin', their second album for Telephone Explosion, Toronto's Bernice distils their playful sense of composition resulting in the most affecting collection of their young career. Across fifteen tracks, a special kind of contemporary, jazz-inflected pop unfolds, miraculous for being both fun and musically adventurous, all in the name of emotional resonance. Each groove in the bassbin is matched by a little scratch at the listener's heartstrings. The album was recorded at home with Phil Melanson (Sam Gendel, Andy Shauf) and Thom Gill (Beverly Glenn-Copeland, Joseph Shabason), led by songwriter and vocalist Robin Dann (Martha Wainwright) and producer Matthew Pencer, with additional contributions from longtime members Dan Fortin and Felicity Williams (Bahamas) being captured remotely.

Throughout their eleven years as a group, working at the intersections of several scenes and spotlights (many of which begin and end at Toronto's beloved Tranzac Club), Bernice have developed an idiosyncratic musical language that feels immediately inviting and wonderfully refreshing. The group's two previous releases, Eau De Bonjourno (2021) and Puff: In The Air Without A Shape (2018) received generous nods from both Stereogum and Pitchfork, who described the music as "unusually mesmerizing". With the songcraft a little more crystalline and the vulnerability notched up, Cruisin' feels like the right record to open Bernice up to a much wider audience.

Development of the album began in Spring, 2021 during a writing retreat at the family farm in Bond Head, Ontario. Members of the band luxuriated in slow time, tinkering with lyrics and melodies, sharing meals, knitting. From this communal gathering, the concept of 'dedication' emerged as a guiding theme. Specifically, developing songs in an almost epistolary form; as love letters or check-ins for friends, community members, pets and other more elusive acquaintances (a longtime working title for the project was 'Songs For People').

Lead single 'Underneath My Toe', one of the first pieces developed under this theme, finds the group at their most graceful and direct. Beginning with songwriter/vocalist Robin Dann singing simply 'Hi / I miss you all the time', the composition proceeds to shift subtly between soft jazz balladry and low-bit funk, revelling in the intimate beauty of a long-time-no-see letter to a dear old friend.

Though being a band that so deeply values the art of fartin' around, Bernice couldn't settle on such a straightforward approach. During the creative process, a clarifying question arose: 'Can you cruise to it?'. This somewhat ambiguous aesthetic criteria became a guiding light for the album. 'Sure, it's a beautiful song about building trust with a new nonagenarian friend... but can you cruise to it?'.

Case in point, both follow up singles, 'No Effort To Exist' and 'Second Judy', fall into a more nebulous, bewildering category of song. Undoubtedly affecting, emotionally charged, existentially searching, yet also undeniably juicy. Drum patterns skitter into place while synth tones shift on a dime to meet thematic twists. There's errant whistling and curious overdubs. Then in come elegant backing vocals, elevating the narrative while an unlikely, left-field groove is established. Miraculously, the listener is not just moved, but Cruisin'.

Therein lies the marvel of Bernice: they remind us that the rec room funk of Mario Kart 64 need not exist in mutual exclusivity to a rich tapestry of human emotions. Even as we live through this most cursed timeline, we can look into the heart of things, dwell on the challenges we're called to witness, and find a little levity to carry us through; grab a lil' mushroom and cruise the existential soup.

Seems our favourite light-fingered Norwegian Cut-N-Paste maestro has been busy of late !

With his Cosmic Oslo debut about to land, we're treated here to a SUPER Limited 4-way of secret weapons from the cupboard of delights...

As ever with Rune, we're going off-piste, but into nevertheless inviting dancefloor territory.

A 70's cheeser hides in plain sight until the last minute pay off alongside a slick, mid-Eighties Japanese gem on the A.

On the B, another Japanese favourite is reworked for maximum dancefloor derangement while an Iberian throbber finishes us off in fine style !

Be quick !

10 Year anniversary reissue of Citizen's debut fan-favorite LP on "Evergreen" vinyl including updated deluxe artwork with die-cut slip-case o-card and new gatefold cover. To celebrate 10 years of YOUTH, Citizen and Run For Cover Records have teamed up to completely update the band's debut LP. Since it's initial release in 2013, the songs that make up Youth's tracklist have been staples in mixtapes, playlists and record collections for listeners chasing what felt like a long-lost feeling in alternative music. YOUTH takes notes from the headbanging tempo of grunge, the hazy reverb of shoegaze, and the catharsis of emo together to make something deeply personal and profound. Songs like opener "Roam the Room" and the anthemic sing-a-long "The Summer" have been soundtracked a thousand stagedives at live shows, while pensive and moody songs like "Figure You Out" and "Sleep" offer brief, downtempo respites with blissful melodies. YOUTH also features Citizen's two most popular songs: "The Night I Drove Alone" builds from a quiet, isolated guitar strum into vocalist & lyricist Mat Kerekes' diary-like confessional, exploding mid-song into a full-band barrage, while "How Does It Feel?" incorporates dreamy shoegaze elements into a somber mid-tempo wall of sound. New additions to the vinyl packaging include a die-cut slip-case cover to hold a new rendition of the album's classic flower text done by artist Mike Adams. Packaging also includes an updated printed inner sleeve with photos from the era as well as lyrics and updated liner notes. This updated version of Citizen's first record pays homage to a landmark record for the band and re-contextualizes it alongside their ever-growing catalog.

Wistful, quietly positive, and a little bit melancholic; ambient artist Umber is set to release kaleidoscopic new album ‘Sometimes that light, that shine, seemed like a pretty nice thing’ on 17th March 2023. Focused on melodies that engage the heart as much as the mind, the album brings his electronic influences to the fore, combining shimmering soundscapes with a throbbing pulse of movement.

Umber, the project of Nottingham based Alex Steward, has been steadily releasing sublime music since 2011. Living in a small town provides Alex with a balance between the peace of rolling green fields and the energy of community. This life on the edge of the countryside comes across in his music, which finds the verve of night life enveloped in organic textures and environments.

Wistful, quietly positive, and a little bit melancholic; ambient artist Umber is set to release kaleidoscopic new album ‘Sometimes that light, that shine, seemed like a pretty nice thing’ on 21st April 2023. Focused on melodies that engage the heart as much as the mind, the album brings his electronic influences to the fore, combining shimmering soundscapes with a throbbing pulse of movement.

Umber, the project of Nottingham based Alex Steward, has been steadily releasing sublime music since 2011. Living in a small town provides Alex with a balance between the peace of rolling green fields and the energy of community. This life on the edge of the countryside comes across in his music, which finds the verve of night life enveloped in organic textures and environments.

Alex draws from his experience as a part time palliative care giver, which has had a significant impact on this record. He says, “Through caring for elderly patients, whose time is in short supply, I have discovered that life needs to be celebrated. Even if it’s just playing a game of Scrabble or the way that the shadows of trees dance on a living room wall on a sunny day; there is beauty everywhere. Sometimes we just need to slow down and look a little harder.”

The evocative track titles stem from phrases Alex has heard or read, with the album’s title taken from Stephen King’s book The Shining. They range from the literal (‘It Is Going To Be Ok’, ‘The Last Perfect Day’) to the oblique (‘Hologram Shut Stability’, ‘Sun House Chant’), bestowing the everydayness of fleeting inputs and thought processes to more conscious mantras.

“I feel that my music taps into a part of who we all are”, says Alex. “I try to create music that will emotionally resonate with the listener. Ultimately the album is about finding hope in the smallest actions, something that can often be overlooked or discarded in a world that doesn’t always make a lot of sense.”

Umber’s ‘Sometimes that light, that shine, seemed like a pretty nice thing’ is set to be released on vinyl and digital formats via California-based label Subtempo on 17th March 2023.

Dauw presents 'babel', the debut album from Belgian duo ZONDERWERK. The duo’s name means ‘’without work’’, but it also comes from “bijzonder werk”, where bijzonder is particular, special, unique. They like to work with images/paintings that are “bijzondere werken”, odd works.

babel is an ambitious exercise in translating images into sound. babel was initially created for the eponymous theatre piece by architect and artist Steve Salembier. Inspired by the biblical legend, Salembier envisions the legendary city as an abstract, sprawling modern metropolis in continuous flux. Its steel and glass skeleton is a representation of both an accumulation of overlapping contemporary cityscapes and a metaphor for the anonymous repetitiveness of our daily routines mirrored by the architecture. Subway lines, sky scrapers and whirling highways converge into a megalopolis of monstrous proportions. Despite the composition’s initial context as soundtrack for a theatre play, for the band this album is seen as a standalone work, whose complex sonic material can be appreciated without having seen the piece.

Their score focuses on fleshing out the imposing imaginary universe both in terms of scale and meaning. One of their biggest inspirations were Michael Woolf’s photographs, which served as the basis for the original theatre piece. His use of grey and repetition is translated into looped harmonies and fine-grained drones that progressively open up like blooming ice flowers.

With sounds of bells and metal as their primary materials, Carrijn and Sanders build soundscapes that are at once seductive and unsettling. The atmosphere on tracks like “DreamArp4Kort4” make for majestic, mysterious synths conjuring otherworldly visions, while the angelic glockenspiel set against subtle explosions in “VuurFeest” suggest a serene yet potentially dangerous place. Other tracks like “RoomCarousselTapeLoop5” create multi- layered textured drones through the process of tape decay, a commentary on the cannibalistic nature of the city.

Resulting from an arduous improvisational processusingold samplers with elements such as the Beam harp, a self-made metal instrument with piano strings, reel to reel tape recorders, field recordings and violin, babel perfectly captures the oxymoron of the man-made concrete jungle that is at once inhospitable yet endlessly awe-inducing.

ZONDERWERK is a duo consisting of Linde Carrijn and Dijf Sanders who started this project during the pandemic as a way of exploring their relationship as creative partners. Carrijn has a background in acting but recently came more to the fore as composer/performer with original scores for theatre and her other band Brik Tu-Tok founded with multi-disciplinary artist Maxim Storms. Sanders is a composer and gear enthusiast, more well-known for his eclectic works that draw from a wide-array of non-Western music. His milestone-album Moonlit Planetarium paved to way to a broader audience and recognition from major press in Belgium. In 2021, his work as a producer was recognized with a nomination at the Music Industry Awards.

Of all the things that can and should and will be said of Sam Wilkes’ & Jacob Mann’s Perform the Compositions of Sam Wilkes & Jacob Mann, let’s begin at the beginning and acknowledge that it is an aptly named record indeed. An ideal collaborative effort (which is to say, greater than the sum of its parts), here we have two longtime friends, two luminaries of the New Weird Los Angeles — the experimental, genre-encompassing underground—who have, at last, devoted a full-length record to their signature musical admixture.

Since their meeting as USC music students (Wilkes studied bass, and Mann, jazz/piano), the two have, with a kind of ceaseless abandon, chased the music to the ends the earth — oftentimes quite literally; travel is a recurrent theme in Compositions’ track titles (Pre-board, Soft Landing, and Around the Horn), and the record’s second track, Jakarta, was sketched out in a hotel room in the city of the same name, where Wilkes and Mann were performing at a jazz festival in 2019. Having initially bonded over a mutual and abiding appreciation for the Soulquarians, the two have spent over a decade playing and traveling, together and separately, their styles coevolving all the while.

Across its thirteen tracks, Compositions captures the relaxed creative flow of two consummate musicians. Most of the record’s sessions (“four-to-five-day summits” in an apartment studio, occasioned by “blasts of inspiration”) began with casual improvisation, and, indeed, roughly half of the final material was composed in this manner: Wilkes and Mann squaring off, a Yamaha DX7 facing a Roland Juno 106, alternating leads, two co-pilots with no set course. And though the songs are polished to a shine, there are artifacts of the intimacy of these sessions. Yes It Is concludes with a snippet of just-intelligible studio chatter: “…A flat minor, then A major.” A figuring-it-out-as-we-go moment that briefly renders explicit the warmth, friendship, and creative freedom that is the album’s heart.

Swing Family's Music Force is dramatic mid-80s synth-funk. From the maverick mind of Sauveur Mallia, it's a thrilling and uniquely brilliant album from start to finish. It's undoubtedly known and revered for its unbelievable standout track, "Mission Africa". Those that know, know. And if you don't know, get to know. It's the reason this record has been hugely sought-after for the best part of two decades. Originally released on Tele Music in France in 1985 but now tear-inducingly rare, this is the definition of "a welcome reissue."

Swing Family is basically a supergroup of French Funk royalty. Led by French disco lord and Arpadys maestro Sauveur Mallia, they were augmented by trombonist Alex Perdigon from legendary French funk rock collective Godchild, trumpeter Kako Bessot from funky fusion group Synthesis and saxophonist Pierre Holassian, a member of Giant, Janko Nilovic's French jazz orchestra. So, about as heavyweight as it gets for funky French goodness. Mallia handles, of course, bass duties throughout, as well as utilising his arsenal of synths including his E-mu, Yamaha Dx7, Roland MSQ 700, Mini Moog and Oberheimm.

The maximalist disco fusion of "Exorcistor" is perhaps a bit too 80s French cheese for most tastes, so either linger on its singular style or head straight to the soundtracky typo-funk of "Greewich Boulevard". A deep, swaggering powerhouse, it comes on like mid-80s Chic jamming on the set of Beverly Hills Cop with Kashif. Yes, *that* good. It's followed by the vital "Music Force", a synthy, sleazy instrumental full of sax and flute and those 80s drum fills. Just the right side of acceptable.

OR! You can even choose to forget all the rest and just stick "Mission Africa" straight on. A rumbling, strutting, afro-cosmic low-profile banger. The slick drums hit hard, the synth strings warm things up, overlapping horns add swagger whilst electric guitar flourishes and a chanted refrain sit in the mix quite perfectly. A track that's almost impossible to describe and do justice to. You just need to hear it. Preferably as you saunter into your favourite after-hours club, after spotting all your friends at once, as you cut a swathe to the bubbling dance floor. A track quite like no other, it makes you sit up within its first bars and, to us at least, sound like something you'd have heard on a Print Thomas mix from the mid 00s. Basically, it's cosmo-galactic.

The B Side opens with "Musical Stars", an oh-so-80s funk-lite track which, at times, sounds like something Daft Punk may have left on the cutting room floor during their Discovery sessions. Another unimpeachable favourite of ours is the druggy brilliance of "Gentleman & Musician". You can almost hear the white powder through the speakers, as soaring, acidy synths, slick, heavy beats and the irresistible interplay of the primo horn players create a real sleazy wonder. "Film Action" follows, a galloping horn-heavy synth romp with moments of extreme bass breakdown brilliance before the drama-synths of "Episode Double" take things up another notch as it oscillates between gorgeous funky horns and urgent bleepy magic. Super tense, super funky and super stylish. Just ace. The elctro-tinged horn workout "Fatal Lady" closes things out majestically.

The audio for Music Force has been remastered by Be With regular Simon Francis, ensuring the punch of Sauveur's bass and those sick drums come through to the fullest. Pete Norman’s expert skills has made sure nothing is lost in the cut whilst the original and iconic sleeve - complete with perky Liberty Belle - has been restored here at Be With HQ as the finishing touch to this long overdue re-issue.

FÜR FANS VON: Whitesnake, Deep Purple, Rainbow, Scorpions, MSG, Gillan, Dio, Heaven & Hell
Balladen spielen in der Geschichte der Rockmusik eine ganz besondere Rolle. Einerseits dokumentieren sie die emotionale Seite des Genres und
zeigen, dass hinter (fast) jeder harten Rockerbrust ein weiches Herz schlägt. Zudem werden ruhigere Nummern auch in weniger Rock-affinen
Radiosendern gespielt – und von den Hörern für ihren gefühlsbetonten Tiefgang geliebt. Und drittens: Balladen sind in einer zunehmend hektischer
werdenden Welt oftmals kurze Momente des Innehaltens, des sich Besinnens auf die wesentlichen Dinge des Lebens. Kein Wunder also, dass die
Balladen-Compilations der Axel Rudi Pell Band ein absolutes Erfolgsmodell sind. Allein von ‚The Ballads I‘ (1993) bis ‚The Ballads V‘ (2017) sind weit
mehr als 250.000 Exemplare über den Ladentisch gegangen. Unter den aktuellen Top-10 der über Spotify meist gestreamten Pell-Songs befinden sich
allein neun (!) Balladen! Die Beweislast ist also erdrückend, wenn Fans des Bochumer Gitarristen und Songschreibers regelmäßig auf eine Fortsetzung
dieser Veröffentlichungsreihe drängen. Mit Erfolg: Am 21. April 2023 erscheint ‚The Ballads VI‘ als CD, Doppel-Vinyl-LP und digitaler Download, wie
gewohnt über Steamhammer/SPV und wie nicht anders zu erwarten mit kleinen Überraschungen. ‚The Ballads VI‘ ist somit nicht nur die neueste
Ausgabe der beliebten ARP-‚The Ballads‘-Serie, sondern auch der direkte Nachfolger des Studioalbums ‚Lost XXIII‘, das sich im April 2022 auf Platz 2
der deutschen Verkaufs-Charts platzieren konnte.

Enemy is a 2013 psychological drama film directed by Denis Villeneuve and produced by M. A. Faura and Niv Fichman. The A24 film stars Jake Gyllenhaal in a dual role as two men who are physically identical, but different in personality. Enemy premiered in the Special Presentation section at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival on 8 September. The movie earned ten nominations at the 2nd Canadian Screen Awards, winning five, including Best Director for Villeneuve, and Canadian Screen Award for Best Supporting Actress for Gadon. It was named Best Canadian Film of the Year at the Toronto Film Critics Association Awards 2014.

The score is composed by Daniel Bensi & Saunder Jurriaans who gained major acclaim for their score of the popular Netflix series Ozark. Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans have been creating music together for over twenty years. In the last 10 years, they have completed well over 100 acclaimed film and TV scores.

Enemy is available on vinyl for the first time. This is a limited edition of 500 individually numbered copies on translucent yellow coloured vinyl. The gatefold includes liner notes by director Denis Villeneuve.

smokey vinyl

French label and promoter Much More recordings is proud to present the first vinyl our collection.

This vinyl features 6 tracks ranging from breaks to techno and passing by acid and electronica, designed for soundsystem and anchored in their proper original and analogic techno sound.

We believe that redefining the essence of the genre is now critical. After years of promoting parties in Paris and Europe, Much More has gathered artists considered to be the essence of techno. Artists who know how to turn knobs without screens.

They continue to make the mob sweat on the dance-floor, with a simple at first yet efficient recipe that holds a myriad of subtleties.

On our table lies a lemon slowly withering away, a fruit that once was as much suave than sour. Our artists are as ripe as this yellow sphere lying in the open. They possess the experience and knowledge needed to forcefully broadcast this emergency rebirth that techno desperately needs. Our creations are neither nostalgic nor futuristic, they aim to be atemporal. They are naked to artifices, raw to over-tuning, built and cut upon the very ageless tools that defined and will name what is Techno.

Far from us the desire of claiming to be the only definition of the genre, nor forgetting about its primal cravings. Whereas Amarou, Skudge and Sawlin showcast the narrative scope of our passion, Wrong Assessment, Arnaud le Texier and Falling Echoes will remind us what is raving under the strobe's fire.

It's music from urban centers and countrysides, for big room and inner space.
It's music without tag or time, where every loop stops and unfolds on its own.

We are back to the essence, and yet, much more.

The group was formed by three members of Descendents (Bill Stevenson, Karl Alvarez, and Stephen Egerton). Mass Nerder brings you sixteen searing cuts that never dip below 210 beats
per minute. Produced by the band’s own Bill and Stephen at Bill’s Blasting Room studio in Fort Collins, CO, and featuring Descendents’ vocalist Milo Aukerman on backing vocals, Mass Nerder is the house blend for dweebs and cool guys alike and is not available in decaf. Reissued on vinyl for the first time ever in Europe to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the release!

American cellist prodigy Yo-Yo Ma recorded Sing Me Home with the Silk Road Ensemble, a musical collective with performers and composers from all over the world. The album features guest appearances by Grammy Award winning artists Toumani Diabaté, Gregory Porter, Lisa Fischer, Bill Frisell and many more.

Released in 2016, Sing Me Home was meant to open hearts, ears and minds during a time of tragedy and political turmoil. “All around the world, people constantly meet the unfamiliar through change,” Yo-Yo Ma said of the album. “Rapid or dramatic change can feel threatening, tempting us to build walls to defend against the unknown. At Silk Road we build bridges. In the face of change and difference, we find ways to integrate and synthesize, to forge relationships, and to create joy and meaning.”

Bringing together the cultural backgrounds of the musicians, Sing Me Home is a culturally conscious album, reflecting on modern globalisation and collaboration. From Macedonian folk to traditional music from Mali, and from Irish fiddle to Indian sitar: it all comes together wonderfully. Critics agreed, and the album went on to win the Grammy Award for Best World Music Album in 2017.

The group was formed by three members of Descendents (Bill Stevenson,
Karl Alvarez, and Stephen Egerton)
Mass Nerder brings you sixteen searing cuts that never dip below 210 beats per
minute. Produced by the band's own Bill and Stephen at Bill's Blasting Room
studio in Fort Collins, CO, and featuring Descendents' vocalist Milo Aukerman on
backing vocals, Mass Nerder is the house blend for dweebs and cool guys alike
and is not available in decaf.
Reissued on vinyl for the first time ever in Europe to celebrate the 25th
anniversary of the release!

Emotional Rescue can be relied on to dig up obscure, left of centre dance gems and serve them up to newer, wider audiences. Adu's reggae-pop cut 'Burkina Faso' is a great example, re-purposed for the dancefloor without any of its original flavour lost in the overhaul. A
South Saharan/West African emigre to Brixton, Rauf Adu would go on to fairly sizeable European fame with the Eddy Grant-esque 'Human To Human'. This, however, is his 1982 debut for Copasetic Records, another reggae-pop inspired, ludicrously catchy effort with scorched electric guitar and a Compass Point-style drum/bassline providing rhythmic rocksteadiness. As well as the buffed up original, there's a dub mix, which gives his beautiful guitar plenty of room to breathe, and an appearance from the Isle of Jura Sound System boss Kevin Griffiths , whose remix completes the trio of mixes.

In a career laden with highlights and hallmarks in the annals of soul history, 'Just As I Am' is rather overlooked as one of the best soul debuts ever issued. Beautifully remastered, 'Just as I Am' is presented to a new generation of listeners who may have missed out the first time. With this remastering comes an intimacy, warmth, and immediacy to the recordings that was only hinted at with previous versions; it's almost as if Withers is in a living room singing to a small group of people, rather than making a record. Of course, the instantly recognizable anthem "Ain't No Sunshine" gets all of the acclaim it so richly deserves, but also in tracks like "Harlem", 'Grandma's Hands' and "Better Off Dead" you can hear the intensity and maturity of Bill's performances. Even when he's doing covers, Withers makes them sound as if they are his own compositions.
Give this classic record a spin, and get ready to be submersed in the Soul of one of the true masters of the genre!

Limited Edition RED Vinyl – 100 units Hand numbered

Omid's parents were Iranian but he spent his childhood in Putney, London. He grew up listening to rock music, and listed Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young and the Cure among his favourite artists – after Robert Smith became a fan Omid would later remix various Cure songs. He learnt to play guitar and formed a rock band, but after hearing hardcore records played on pirate music stations he began making his own tracks on basic equipment that he had bought. Beginning in 1995, his early house and techno singles were released on his own Alola and Disclosure labels under the names of 16B and Phaser, but they soon attracted the attention of big-name DJs such as Derrick Carter, François Kevorkian and Sasha, and he signed to Sven Väth's Eye Q label to release his debut album Sounds from Another Room in March 1998, which was described by the Independent on Sunday as "avant-garde" and by Muzik as "quite breathtaking".
Although he started out as a producer, Omid gradually moved into DJing, at the request of friends who asked him to play records at parties. He secured a regular spot playing the Elements club night run by Hooj Choons record label boss Red Jerry. In October 2001 Omid released The Witch/Which Equation under the alias of the Sixteen Million Dollar Man.Inspired by Prince initially releasing his Planet Earth album as a covermount with a British newspaper, Omid released his third studio album Like 3 Ears and 1 Eye (Part 1) in a similar manner as a covermount with the November 2007 issue of DJ Mag.
Omid also formed the SOS collective of DJs, consisting of him, Desyn Masiello and Demi. The trio secured a residency at London's Ministry of Sound nightclub, and were asked to produce the club's first mix CD in 2010

Kevin McCormick's unreleased bedroom studio tape material (1982-1984). Moods similar to Durutti Column, Woo, Crosby’s spacey moments, and Boards Of Canada’s nostalgia.

Following the release of Light Patterns in 1982, Kevin recorded a series of songs onto tape that explored the sonic possibilities of a solitary guitarist. Shedding the acoustic sound of his previous effort, he adopted a swelling electric palette to apply his moods to. These recordings are a shift in direction to a sparse and ambient style, and their hazy, repetitive movements create room for evocative melodies.

Kevin fills a deficiency of guitar-forward music with his minimalistic approach that is somewhere in the space between ambient, rock, jazz, and avant-garde. On Sticklebacks, he casts away the morning elegance of Light Patterns and leans further into the introverted feelings of the small hours. It is a nascent springtime journey that shows just what Kevin is capable of with six strings.

Following up his score for the japanese Netflix Anime series “Carole & Tuesday”, Mocky returns to album mode with his new orchestral opus “Overtones For The Omniverse”. Just days before the first Covid lockdowns, Mocky brought a 16 person orchestra comprising of his usual who’s who of underground talent into LA’s Barefoot Studios (and into the same room where Stevie Wonder recorded “Songs in the Key of Life”) to record a pile of scores he had come up with during his previous year’s sabbatical in Portugal. The result is a stunning orchestral album recorded in 36 hours in one or two takes straight off the written page. Shunning the “possible perfection” of today's recording techniques, Mocky looked back as a way to find an alternate future.

According to Mocky:
“We had to do it quick with no rehearsal to capture that big open sound of people working together in a room - in all its imperfect glory. In the imperfections you find the humanity. And in today’s tech driven spaces you have to fight to preserve a space for humanity. I felt a deep desire to create a sonic trajectory path for us to follow as we ascend and evolve our understanding of love and what it means to be human. This is the inspiration for „Overtones for the Omniverse“”.

The album runs the gamut from Steve Reich infused minimalism overlaid with Dorothy Ashby style harp runs (“Overtures”) to atonal analogue synth sounds over Martin Denny style percussion (“Bora!”). There's a classic Mocky crooning number that gives a Jim Henson-esque take on the state of “Humans” and the album as a whole captures Mocky's skill of bringing together the joyful energy of a unique cast of LA collaborators.

Featuring:
Randal Fisher / Flute, Vicky Farewell / Piano, Vocals, Harry Foster / Bass, Vibraphone, Tubular Bells, Vocals Joey Dosik / Organ and Glockenspiel, Vocals, Guilermo E. Brown aka Pw / Percussion, Vocals, Jhan Lee Aponte (TossTones) / Percussion, Vocals, Timpani, Paul Cartwright / Violin, Molly Rogers / Viola, Gabe Noel / Cello, Contrabass, Liza Wallace / Harp, Coco O. / Vocals, Mocky / Compositions, Drums, Vocals, Roland Sh-1000

O for the O Choir :
Nia Andrews, Leslie Feist, Moses Sumney, Durand Bernarr, Eddie Chacon

Recorded at Barefoot Studios, Los Angeles March 6 + 7, 2020.
All songs written by Dominic “Mocky” Salole and published by Heavy Sheet Music/Warner Chappell except "Wishful Thinking" written by Dominic “Mocky” Salole and Matt Corby and "Bora!" written by Dominic “Mocky” Salole, Guillermo Brown, Aponte Poro.

Produced by Mocky, Justin Stanley and Renaud Letang. Mixed by Renaud Letang at Ferber Studios Paris
Mastered by Emilie Daelemans. Cover artwork by Rand Sevilla. Photo by Vice Cooler.

ABOUT MOCKY
Performer, producer, songwriter, composer and multi-instrumentalist, Dominic "Mocky" Salole came to prominence in the Berlin electronic scene of the mid 2000s, releasing three acclaimed solo albums, co-writing and producing classics like Jamie Lidell's "Multiply" and Feist's "The Reminder" and making waves on stage with close collaborators (and fellow Canadians) Peaches, Feist and Chilly Gonzales.
In 2009, his music took a jazz-inflected turn to the acoustic with the release of "Saskamodie" and in 2011, after work in Big Sur on Feist's "Metals", Mocky relocated to Los Angeles, where he quickly established himself as a co-writer with uncommon credentials and eccentric working methods collaborating with L.A.’s brightest breakthrough artists like Kelela, Joey Dosik, Vulfpeck or Moses Sumney.

Whilst in L.A. songs he has written have been sung by Mary J. Blige, Jill Scott and many more and he has collaborated with artists as diverse as Mali’s Bassekou Kouyate and the GZA. His monthly rooftops gigs at the ACE Hotel breathed new life into the LA live scene and Mocky channeled those new creative energies into his fifth full length album "Key Change" and four digital mixtapes/EPs "The Moxtapes" Vol. I-IV.

After co-producing and co-writing Feist's "Pleasure", Kelela's "Take Me Apart" and Joey Dosik's "Inside Voice", in 2018 Mocky released two albums: "Music Save Me (One More Time)" - a collection of the best of Japan-only/unreleased gems and favorites from his so far digital only "Moxtapes" series and "A Day At United", an instrumental jazz album, recorded in a single day in the legendary LA recording studio United Recording.

In 2019 Mocky delved into soundtrack work by collaborating with legendary Anime director Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop) on the first two seasons of the breakthrough show “Carole and Tuesday” (Netflix) for which he won Best Score at the Anime Awards 2020.

I was lucky enough to release Godflesh 'Love is a dog from Hell' on my old label Pathological many moons ago. I was equally lucky to drop JK Flesh 'In Your Pit' on my new label PRESSURE three years ago, and then follow that up with the G36 vs JK Flesh sound clash 'Disintegration Dubs' last year. Justin has consistently handed me pure audio gold, and actually gifted me some of my favourite releases from him full stop, in an incredible career of riches which he has tirelessly. produced since Napalm Death til today. So again, I’m now totally psyched to drop 'Sewer Bait' on my label PRESSURE. The sixth album from JK Flesh, this album is a Slo-mo, Slo-fi, Sewer tech journey into utter gutter level filth. Overdriven, corroded, corrupted and absolutely blasted, it contains so many essential elements of clubland low life, but yet manages to remain beautifully original whilst pushing all levels deep into the red until it hurts in the best possible way. Anyone hooked on Andy Stott's dirtiest works, Porter Ricks deepest explorations or Techno Animal's speaker punishing grooves will find addictive nourishment within these relentlessly distorted heavyweight grooves.... Not so much hard as completely f-ckin brutal, the master stroke from Justin Broadrick however, is takin his raw materials and feeding them militantly into the dub chamber. This is like a wholesale destruction of Techno, 4/4 for people too wasted and strung out to give a f-ck about dancefloors, yet compelling enough and magnetic enough to completely insist upon fully body hypnotism in an undersized room with an oversized rig. The album's title track sounds like Drum & Bass don Digital or the peak of the Metalheadz label dragged down into hell for the ultimate bad rave trip, whilst 'Crawler' could be Killing Joke, jammin with Regis and his aggro allies from Birmingham Techno's underappreciated discography, deep in a warehouse warzone. You don’t have to dig techno to dig this dirt, you just have to enjoy having your head taken off and your body physically punished. If Jeff Mills output had been chopped, screwed and then painfully, slowly crushed, it may resemble the monolithic, psychedelic, crawl of 'Sewer Bait'.” – Kevin Martin

A Ghanaian funk LP from the afrofunk master. one of Ebo Taylor's rarest and most sought-after!
Ebo Taylor and The Pelikans is being reissued on vinyl by Comet Records, pressed on high quality vinyl, with label designs and artwork as per the original release.

Originally released by Ghanian Abookyi label in 1976, Ebo Taylor and The Pelikans is one of Taylor’s most elusive releases, and marked the first time he sang on the seminal Ghana Funk anthem “Come Along”.
The album saw the legendary musician, producer, composer and arranger joining forces with 12-piece Cape Coast Ghanian band ‘The Pelikans’ led by Bessa Simmona with rhythm guitarist Fifi Orleans Lindsay.

Put simply, there has never been a musician and artist quite like Ebo Taylor. As an artist, arranger, musician and producer he’s a combination of James Brown, Nile Rodgers and Quincy Jones: He not only created some of the greatest funk songs ever recorded but as much if not more than that, his genius as an arranger gave the signature sound to high life and afrobeat that was made famous by his one-time London roommate (from when they were both music students, in The early 1960s) Fela. And his funky guitar brought a percussive sound to the rhythm section that didn't exist before.

Pink Blue Marbled Vinyl

Angelo is an EP, named after a car, featuring nine songs Brijean have crafted and carried with them through a period of profound change, loss, and relocation. It finds percussionist and singer Brijean Murphy and multi-instrumentalist/producer Doug Stuart processing the impossible the only way they know how: through rhythm and movement. The months surrounding the acclaimed release of Feelings, their full-length Ghostly International debut in 2021 which celebrated tender self-reflection and new possibilities, rang bittersweet with the absence of touring and the sudden passing of Murphy's father and both of Stuart's parents. In a haze of heartache, the duo left the Bay Area to be near family, resetting in four cities in under two years. Their to-go rig became their traveling studio and these tracks, along with Angelo, became their few constants. Whereas Feelings formed over collaborative jams with friends, Angelo's sessions presented Murphy and Stuart a chance to record at their most intimate, "to get us out of our grief and into our bodies," says Murphy. They explored new moods and styles, reaching for effervescent dance tempos and technicolor backdrops, vibrant hues in contrast to their more somber human experiences. Angelo beams with positivity and creative renewal _ a resourceful, collective answer to "what happens now?". Angelo the car is a 1981 Toyota Celica they got off Craigslist during their first stint in Los Angeles, where Murphy and Stuart have since settled. "Such a bro-y, `80s dude car, it's been super fun to drive around in a new town," Murphy says. "He's older than us, he's a classic, he's got a story." It is a spiritual vehicle with a cinematic appeal, first dropping them off in an alleyway for the scene-setting intro, "Which Way To The Club." The question is quickly resolved by "Take A Trip" as a cruising bassline mingles with crowd sounds, hand-claps, cuíca hiccups, whip-cracks, even a horse neigh. Brijean have found some club on this cross-dimensional trip - the kind of imagined space or chamber within one's self capable of "shifting a fraction of who you are," says Murphy. They wrote the track with the simple intention to be "as free as we could be," adds Stuart, likening the flip on the B section to a realm unlocked: "What if the world changed completely? You open the door to a new room." Next is "Shy Guy," a motivational anthem for the wallflowers among us. Murphy sets up the daydream: "We are in junior high, we're on the dance floor, what's going down, who is dancing, who is not, how are we gonna make them dance?" The narrator, the MC, hypes up the room as conga-driven rhythms bounce between languid synth and guitar lines. "Show me how to move...I feel something...I know you feel it too," Murphy sings sweetly, calling back to the opening lines of Feelings, and this time the audience chants it back. It is easy to picture Brijean performing this one - something they only got to do a handful of times until more recently, opening shows for Khruangbin and Washed Out, an experience they found informative. Murphy explains, "It was inspiring to be out there and let loose more. To see how people can expand their expression on stage gave me more liberty with how I viewed my musicianship. My role for so long was to be a backup percussionist, so why would I ever leave the drums, you know? But then after playing all these runs, you see these artists and realize you can, you have permission." "Angelo" and "Ooo La La" deliver the danciest stretch in Brijean's catalog to date. The title track adopts a deep house pulse replete with strings, hi-hats, and kicks. The latter opts for a funkier groove that foregoes verses in favor of warbled hums and extended breakdowns. What follows is perhaps the duo's dreamiest run, a comedown initiated with the honey-hued interlude "Colors" drifting into "Where Do We Go?", a tropicália reverie where Murphy contemplates the passage of time and space. It all culminates in "Caldwell's Way," a fond farewell to their Bay Area community - "a part of my life that I knew couldn't come back," says Murphy. Above shimmering organ sounds, lush strings, and the birdcall of their former neighborhood, she wistfully articulates the uncertainty of moving on by remembering the characters dear to them. There's the wisdom of their neighbor, Santos, who refused payment when helping them move out: "I'd rather have 100 friends than 100 dollars." And the song's namesake, Benjamin Caldwell Brown, a friend and club night cohort for many years. "I'm only miles away, maybe I'm just feeling lonely," the line resigns to warm nostalgia, and "Nostalgia" runs the closing credits to this healing and transportive collection.

More in tune now with the rhythm of the sun and moon, Xylouris White (Dirty Jim White and George Xylouris) speak to each other across great distances with the intuition and fellowship that can only be found over years in each other"s company. With fewer distractions, appreciative of the freedom to play with new sounds and spaces, they carve The Forest In Me from unbelievably thin air. Once you set the needle down on the record and hear for yourself, the intimacies and impressionism, abstraction and unfiltered emotion found in The Forest In Me, you may wonder what was the mood of the room in which this music came to be. George, Jim and long-time producer (and secret third member) Guy Picciotto share their thoughts: Guy Picciotto: "In late 2019, we had begun taking steps to working on new material. In a haphazard fashion, Jim and I started tracking drums in my basement, cutting them up into shapes with no set landing in mind. Some of it we sent to Giorgos in Crete - he responded with his lyra and his lute. Without intention we had initiated a process that would soon become more ruthlessly mandated by the world events that separated and isolated us to three corners of the globe in the following year." Giorgos Xylouris: "While we were recording, I noticed that the music had a certain solitude about it, both from the title and from inside. That led us to find more music from within that we had not yet discovered." Jim White: "The idea emerged, naturally nourished and nourishing a record with none of our usual angles and themes, no verbal language, no angst nor sudden dynamics, a more subtle structure. And we found The Forest In Me." The first revelation from The Forest In Me is "Latin White", in which Jim"s jaunty pattern sets the stage for George"s Cretan lyra and lute figurations, giving this short dance piece the feel of a welcome hoedown around the campfire, warding off the encroaching darkness of an emptied world. The repetitions, gathered to induce joy, have a glassy-eyed mechanical drive to them; their dervish-istic seeking betrays any suggestion of balm.

Blue Hawaii was Elvis’ 8th film, and on its release in 1961 became one of that year’s most
successful titles at the box office. It remained one of the singer’s all-time favourite movies,
and began a love affair with the island, which had become America’s 50th state in 1959.
Blue Hawaii was the usual Elvis mix of exotic locations, beautiful girls and lots of songs. The
soundtrack of Blue Hawaii did not disappoint – the sleeve boasting “14 Great Songs”. The
title track was a perfect introduction, while the Hawaiian setting meant that space was found
for the atmospheric Hawaiian Sunset and Island Of Love (Kauai). Room was also found for
two other island-related songs - Aloha Oe and Hawaiian Wedding Song, both of which had
been hits for Bing Crosby back in the 1930s. But where Blue Hawaii really scored for fans
was the inclusion of the boisterous Rock-A-Hula Baby and a song which would go on to
become one of the singer’s best-loved ballads – Can’t Help Falling In Love. Based in part on
an 18th Century French melody, for many years this became Elvis’ in-concert finale.

The album The Skatalite was originally released in 1969 and contains some of the best tracks from the Skatalites cut for producer Duke Reid. It was recorded with the classic line-up, featuring Don Drummond on trombone, Jackie Mittoo on piano, and Jonny “Dizzy” Moore on the trumpet. This 12-track set includes “Eastern Standard Time”, “Dan-De-Lion” and “Yard Broom” amongst others.

The Skatalite is available as a limited edition of 750 individually numbered copies on turquoise coloured vinyl.

Amelie Tobien neues Album 'Monument' - Achterbahnfahrt zwischen Schwermut und Leichtigkeit.

Die Indie Folk Newcomerin Amelie Tobien veröffentlicht ihr 2. Album 'Monument'. Aus Tumult und Hoffnungsschimmern der vergangenen Monate steigen die zehn Titel wie ein Phönix aus der Asche. 'Monument' ist ein Gesamtwerk welches den Titel 'Album' mit Würde trägt. Mit Feinsinn kuratiert, bietet es eine Berg- und Talfahrt zwischen Schwermut und Leichtigkeit. In 'Fall into my Arms' findet man Trost, zu 'Intoxicated' tanzt man elektrisiert, bei 'Friday' legt man zum Morgenkaffee die Füße auf den Tisch.

When we established Balmat in 2021, neither of us could have imagined that within two years, we’d be putting out an album by one of our musical heroes: Mike Paradinas, aka µ-Ziq. The British producer has been an inspiration to label co-founders Albert Salinas and Philip Sherburne since the 1990s. In fact, his album-length remix project The Auteurs Vs µ-Ziq was one of the very first pieces of electronic music that Philip bought, way back in 1994. To have the opportunity to release his music now feels like a real full-circle moment.

Paradinas, of course, needs no introduction. Under a slew of aliases, chief among them µ-Ziq, the British artist revolutionized leftfield electronic music in the 1990s—coincidentally, this year marks the 30th anniversary of his debut album, Tango N’ Vectif, for his friend and sometime collaborator Aphex Twin’s Rephlex label—and his label Planet Mu has built up a formidable catalog of visionary, forwardlooking records, mapping virtually every corner of the electronic spectrum. With 1977, he turns the clock backward in a sense, and not just with the album’s title: Rooted in classic ambient and electronic sounds, these 15 tracks evoke the anything-goes spirit of the early ’90s, before the tools and tropes had calcified into cut-and-dried styles.

There’s no shortage of familiar sounds on 1977. There are echoes of raves and chillout rooms and transmissions from the fringes of techno; there are detuned synths and glistening reverb tails and, above all, gauzy vox pads, the eerie glue that holds it all together. The title, he says, is meant to invoke a general sense of nostalgia, bookmarking a year in his boyhood when he became more selfaware. More than anything, 1977 sounds like µ-Ziq distilled: Stripped of his signature breakbeats and customary chaos, Paradinas’ first-ever strictly (well, mostly) ambient album presents the essence of his music in a whole new light.

Along the way Paradinas touches on dark-ambient drones (“Marmite”), horror-film themes (“Belt & Carpet”), jungle breaks (“Mesolithic Jungle”), and even house music (“Houzz 13”), which marks the first bona fide dance-floor moment on Balmat to date). Yet the album never—to our ears, anyway— feels expressly retro. Rather, Paradinas plucks timeless sounds out of the ether and gives them a gentle tap, spinning them into unexpected new orbits. At times, 1977 feels like an experience of extended déjà vu: When we first listened to it, we had the sense that we already knew this music. It was as though we had heard it years ago, perhaps on a battered cassette tape lent to us by a friend, and been searching for it ever since. We hope you feel the same.

Metallica melden sich mit einem Knall zurück!

Die achtfachen GRAMMY-Gewinner veröffentlichen ihr langersehntes 12tes Studioalbum mit dem Titel „72 Seasons“.

Das Album beinhaltet 12 brandneue Songs, produziert von James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich und der Rock-Produzenten-Ikone Greg Fidelman (U2, Slipknot, Johnny Cash, Slayer, Red Hot Chili Peppers, uvm.) Als Vorgeschmack auf das Gesamtwerk dient der bereits veröffentlichte Song „Lux Æterna“. Mit 77 abwechslungsreichen Minuten bietet das Album darüber hinaus jedem Fan die Möglichkeit, sich vollkommen in das Werk fallenzulassen.

Den Titel erklärt James Hetfield wie folgt: „72 seasons. The first 18 years of our lives that form our true or false selves. The concept that we were told ‘who we are’ by our parents. … Prisoners of childhood or breaking free of those bondages we carry.”



Zusatzinfo:

Zeitgleich mit der Bekanntgabe des Albums und dem Release von „Lux Æterna“ kündigen Metallica auch ihre M72 Welt-Tournee an, die sich über die Jahre 2023 und 2024 erstrecken wird. Im Zuge dessen werden jeweils 2 Shows in Hamburg und München gespielt, jede davon mit einer gänzlich anderen Setlist und Support-Acts.

Metallica melden sich mit einem Knall zurück!

Die achtfachen GRAMMY-Gewinner veröffentlichen ihr langersehntes 12tes Studioalbum mit dem Titel „72 Seasons“.

Das Album beinhaltet 12 brandneue Songs, produziert von James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich und der Rock-Produzenten-Ikone Greg Fidelman (U2, Slipknot, Johnny Cash, Slayer, Red Hot Chili Peppers, uvm.) Als Vorgeschmack auf das Gesamtwerk dient der bereits veröffentlichte Song „Lux Æterna“. Mit 77 abwechslungsreichen Minuten bietet das Album darüber hinaus jedem Fan die Möglichkeit, sich vollkommen in das Werk fallenzulassen.

Den Titel erklärt James Hetfield wie folgt: „72 seasons. The first 18 years of our lives that form our true or false selves. The concept that we were told ‘who we are’ by our parents. … Prisoners of childhood or breaking free of those bondages we carry.”



Zusatzinfo:

Zeitgleich mit der Bekanntgabe des Albums und dem Release von „Lux Æterna“ kündigen Metallica auch ihre M72 Welt-Tournee an, die sich über die Jahre 2023 und 2024 erstrecken wird. Im Zuge dessen werden jeweils 2 Shows in Hamburg und München gespielt, jede davon mit einer gänzlich anderen Setlist und Support-Acts.

Mammal Hands announce spell-binding new album 'Gift from the Trees', their fifth studio album, pointing to subtle shifts and exciting new departures for the unique trio
"We're at a point now where playing and writing together can sometimes feel almost telepathic, that as individuals we can tune in to a collective resonance..."
Mammal Hands fifth album 'Gift from the Trees' offers a fresh perspective on the unique trio's singular music. The first to be recorded in a residential studio, the band enjoyed the opportunity to go late into the night searching for a deeper, more organic experience, closer to both their writing process but also their trance-like live performances. While some of the music was pre-composed and had even been performed live, the band also enjoyed the opportunity to improvise ideas in the studio. Drummer Jesse Barrett explains:
We wanted to have a more immersive experience that felt closer to our writing process. One thing that was really important to us was feeling free to jam out ideas as they came to us. We're at a point now where playing and writing together can sometimes feel almost telepathic, that as individuals we can tune in to a collective resonance and just follow that thread where it wants to go. Sometimes it's something as simple as a rhythmic, textural flow, like in Sleeping Bear.
There was also a conscious decision to move away from the sound and ambiance of the recording studio, with the band opting to engineer the record with their go-to live engineer Benjamin Capp before mixing the sessions with Greg Freeman in Berlin. The idea was to try and capture more of the energy of the band's captivating shows, saxophonist Jordan Smart explains:
Considering the group of tracks we had, it made sense to try and capture this process as organically and honestly as possible, and so a change in studio environment felt like the right move to us. Some of the tracks have a raw joy and energy that came with being able to play together again after a long period of time of having been apart, and capture that feeling of just being happy to be in a room with our instruments altogether again.
Whereas for pianist Nick Smart there was also the chance to really go deep into the band's music:
The new studio environment really opened us up to different ways of working and thinking because we could record at any hour of the day or night. I think this allowed us much more freedom to try unusual ideas and push elements of the music to extremes because we had the time to really focus in on the detail and work on things without time pressure. With some tracks, we were trying to find the boundaries of our playing ability and push beyond that point. With others, it was just getting into the right mindset and putting as much energy and emotion into the take as possible.'
The Welsh environment outside the studio doors seeped into the music presented on Gift from the Trees, with two recording sessions (one in winter and one in the spring) bringing different moods: one bleak and wintery, the other more hopeful and bright – an energy that permeates through tracks such as Kernel and Dimu.
Gift from the Trees opens with wonderfully elevating The Spinner which grew from one of Nick's piano parts and was developed and arranged into a complete tune without losing the feeling of constant flow and motion. It is almost like a dance, with the interaction of different melody parts and the doubling of certain parts melding together and fitting into the overall energetic flow, while Jesse's drums are both floating and deeply melodic. Riser aims to capture the band's raw energy and intriguingly is influenced by both breaks and modern drum production but also minimalist classical composition. Nightingale features the band at their most delicate and lyrical – a band favourite it draws heavily on modern folk with a beautifully realised melody that came unforced to pianist Nick Smart before being jammed out together. It was recorded early one morning, bringing an extra light and brightness to this beautiful performance.
Another album highlight is Dimu which utilises one of drummer Jesse Barret's favourite rhythmic devices from the Tabla repertoire and draws inspiration from Indian, Greek and Arabic music as well as modern folk arrangements. Dimu starts with saxophone over a bed of drones and percussion and moves through many different sections that frame and present the melodies in unique ways. The beguiling, intimate Deep within Mountains aims to place you in the room with the band as they play; it was recorded late at night to capture a dreamlike, liminal ambiance. The piano solo really reflects this mood and energy while the tenor is some of the softest and closest on the recording. Elsewhere, the remarkable Labyrinth started with what Nick describes as "some weird recording on my phone from a soundcheck, where Jordan was playing some crazy sounding bass clarinet part and I quickly recorded him", giving birth to a captivating, complex slice of propulsive 'almost' contemporary classical that like so much of the music on Gift from the Trees really couldn't be any other band than Mammal Hands.
Finally, the album draws to a close with the glorious Sleeping Bear, a tune that was wholly improvised in the studio. Nick and Jesse entered a simple but 'weird' locked groove and Jordan improvises melodies over the top. The track came about without any planning or thought; it was one of those special things that came by surprise and the band felt offered the perfect ending to their latest gift to us all: a deeply enthralling album that captures so much of what makes Mammal Hands a special band while mapping out new routes and paths for their beautiful, beguiling music.

Hell Yeah heads to Brazil and the cultured sounds of Pedro Bertho for a hot new 12" that features Mariana Gehring and remixes from Romain FX and My Friend Dario. The digital version includes two bonus cuts while the vinyl is the first to have all-new artwork by FJD.

Now based in France, inclusive party promoter Pedro Bertho’s music is a melting pot of sound that draws on his own personal heritage and a life spent digging for records. That means that afro rhythms, Italo melodies, rolling reggae, deep house, and plenty more all get mixed up into something new.

They have come on the likes of Cracki Records and always search out innovative ways to bring euphoria to the dance floor.

For the first tune, he works with Mariana Gehring, a Sao Paulo-based singer and composer influenced by new MPB and other signature Brazilian sounds like Forro, Maracatu and Samba.

Their excellent 'Tornei' is a mix of full-fat bass and sensuous vocals. Fizzing synths, percussion and FX bring the energy while Gehring arrives in the breakdowns to bring the spine-tingling soul. Romain FX is a scene mainstay, label head at fauve, boiler room veteran and has released on the likes of Kalahari oyster cult and many more.

His version is a retro workout with lush cosmic melodies and slinky grown-up grooves sure to get the floor full.

Next is 'Elephants au 5eme', a busy mix of analogue drums and hits, wild elephant trumpets and fleshy synths that bring unusual tropical heat to any party. The same track is remixed by label regular and new school Balearic boss my Friend Dario.

He plays with the vocals, layers in shimmering chords, and keeps things dubby to make for another of his signature grooves.

’Military Arms’ is the debut output by Gothenburg-based sound-smith Irma Krook. Up until now primarily known as bass player & founding member of death pop vanguards Makthaverskan, Krook has composed four tracks of ethereal beauty, in the sanctity of her own home.



Limitation is the mother of invention and recording from a flat in Masthugget narrows the possibilities even more. Recording her vocals on her phone & making all instrumentals in GarageBand on an iPad - Krook has succeeded in making a big sound from small means.

Uniquely her own, while still honoring the inspirations. Kate Bush á Hounds Of Love-era, Anna Domino, 90’s era Talk Talk, This Mortal Coil & Julee Cruise. 


Music you’ll need to take out your furniture before listening, for it to even fit in the room it’s occupying.

’Military Arms’ is available physically on a black vinyl 12” & digitally through all streaming.
It will be forerun by the double-single ’Find Me’ on the 15th of February, containing the B-side track ’I Keep On You’ which will not be available on the full-EP release.

Halestorm’s ‘The Strange Case of Halestorm’ album is repressed on a single clear LP and is a one-time pressing.
This vinyl release is a part of Atlantic Records' 75th Anniversary vinyl collection.

Nach seiner unerwarteten Rückkehr aus dem 20-jährigen Ruhestand mit dem erfolgreichen Comeback-Album Resurgence im Jahr 2019 meldet sich die Stimme der Hollies - Allan Clarke - mit einem beeindruckenden neuen Album zurück.

I'll Never Forget bringt Allan mit seinem alten Hollies-Bandkollegen Graham Nash von Crosby, Stills And Nash wieder zusammen.
Die beiden alten Freunde aus Manchester begannen während der
Pandemie nach über 40 Jahren gemeinsam zu schreiben, was zu dem mühelos eingängigen Buddy's Back führte, einer Hommage an die Rock & Roll-Größe, nach der die Hollies benannt wurden.

Grahams wunderbare Harmonien sind auf dem gesamten Album zu hören, aber es ist auch Allans Album, das sich mit Spiritualität, Erlösung und Romantik in "The Presence Of You" befasst, dem ersten
Liebeslied, das Allan nach 59 Jahren Ehe für seine Frau Jennifer (die "Jennifer" im Hollies-Klassiker "Jennifer Eccles") geschrieben hat.

Black Swan is a 2010 American psychological thriller film directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, Mila Kunis and Winona Ryder. The plot revolves around a production of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake ballet by a prestigious New York City company. Usually described as a psychological thriller, Black Swan can also be interpreted as a metaphor for achieving artistic perfection, with all the psychological and physical challenges one might encounter.

The original score for the film was composed by Clint Mansell, an English musician, composer, and former lead singer of the band Pop Will Eat Itself. Mansell was introduced to film scoring when director Darren Aronofsky hired him to score his debut film, Pi. Ever since Mansell wrote the score for many of Aronofsky’s films. Notable additional film scores include The Fountain, Moon, Smokin’ Aces, Requiem for a Dream, The Wrestler, Doom, and High-Rise.

Black Swan is available as a limited edition of 750 individually numbered copies on silver and black marbled vinyl and includes a 4-page booklet.

Hot on the heels of last year’s Mermaids reissue retrospective, Hull’s deep listening house forerunners return: this time revisiting a pair of originals as well as previously unreleased versions.

It’s testament to the depth of feeling that Steve Cobby and David McSherry can conjure, that these tracks sound as potent and impactful as they did when they first came out - and not just for the dance. Throughout their 30+ years, the Yorkshire duo have produced ten albums amid many more collaborations, and transformed the remix into an artform, putting their fingerprints on everyone from Busta Rhymes to The Orb to Radiohead.

This EP collection finds them at the full scope of their powers: from disembodied mood music, to tripped-out dubby beats and raw house sessions for the club. The title track Subtle Body sounds like it drifted in through the window in the middle of a snowy night. Its layered chimes, looped delay feedback and floaty chords (played on a Wurlitzer Electronic Piano that Steve bought from Bill Nelson), mark it out as an enduring piece of ambient music, and a favorite for film-makers, able to soundtrack both haunted memories and afterparty comedowns with finesse. It precedes an unreleased instrumental version of Nightfall from Fila Brazillia’s 2002 album Jump Leads (named Mixmag’s chill album of the year), and as an instrumental, the chunky electro bass and mix of ephemeral tones and bird-like chirrups are brought clearly into focus. The attention to detail is what makes Fila Brazillia’s sound palette so rich, and Nightfall a certified smokers’ anthem.

On the B side, the tempo and temperature rises, and we’re treated to The Light Of Jesus, a favorite from Fila Brazillia’s 1994 debut LP Old Codes: New Chaos. Atop a bumping house groove, the song weaves together smooth organ pads and electrified guitar licks with syrupy bass and gospel-tinged exaltations from Charles Bukowski. The EP rounds out with Room ‘96, a live house jam from Hull’s Room nightclub, and a veritable time capsule back to the halcyon ‘90s rave days, when the lights were still on, everyone was home, and anything seemed possible.

The songs here on Subtle Body might be a window into a time long past, but they remain in the present: and as long as bodies seek pleasure, and dancers want to keep going til sunrise, Fila Brazillia will endure, and soundtrack those moments for us all to get lost in.

Following in the footsteps of "Mind Palace" and "Lost Spirits", respectively issued in 2018 and 2021, Hidden Empire return to Stil vor Talent with their eagerly anticipated third studio full-length, "Momentum". Going the same route that came to define their sound throughout the years, Branko Novakovic and Niklas Schäfers cook a savvy mix of deep electroid flavours and prog techno magnitude which flourishes in the long-playing format. Orbiting the frontier between proper no-nonsense, floor-focussed effectiveness and a trademark exploratory take on electronics, Hidden Empire here delivers one of their most accomplished slices to date, which not only spans the largest span of their many-faceted influences, from tribal anchorage to hypermodern escapology, but breathes a truly epic wind into it.

Draped in luscious, silken envelopes and easternmost ambiences, "Dawn" gets the ball rolling on a mystique-imbued note, halfway meditation-friendly material and square-shouldered club busting wares. Moving into Afro-infused house grounds, "Modesty" finds Branko and Niklas heading for the deeper end of the spectrum, as they pull out a clinically precise blender of rattling percussions, opaque incantations, lush synth swashes and verbed-out machine talk, tailored for nightly boogie rituals in the forest. "Avalanche" opts for a more brooding, deadlier approach. Cutting its path away from prying eyes, this one finds Hidden Empire pulling the stealth weaponry to absolute hypnotic effect - perfect for serious in-between peak time business with its thick, thriller-like tension, mist-shrouded atmosphere and surgical focus. Featuring Felix Raphael on vocals, "Who We Are", is a pop-influenced chugger that perhaps best defines Hidden Empire's ambivalent style, both hi-NRG and innervated with a melancholy that infuses down to the bass and most functional elements. Geared up for big-room traction with its seesawing synths and clinical drumwork, Raphael's moving timbre does more than offer a sensible counterpoint to the track's overall sturdy backbone, it takes it to a whole other dimension completely.

"Repeat The Good" ft. Wolfson balances out a fast-ticking groove with those subtle melodic lines Hidden Empire champion to astounding vibrancy, offering a particularly satisfying glimpse into their vortical imaginarium, whereas "Last Call" has us journeying to straight out Moroder-esque territories, flush with the aptly configured palette of fuzzy space disco bass, fast-paced Italo churn and vocodized talk for good measure. All in breaks and chopped-up euphoria, "Vivid" runs the hoodoo down in muscular fashion and with impressive levels of energy throughout, all set at cranking up the heat one notch further, while "Rebel" provides us with the kind of rough-around-the-edges EBM horsepower and neon-clad synth engineering that'll get the basement in a state of alert. Encompassing all of the pair's idiosyncratic merger of styles - from pop-laced Italo to spaced-out techno wares, through jagged motorik and heavily mecched-out jacking house, "Alright" shows off Hidden Empire's wide arsenal of pyrotechnics under the most compelling of lights. A more openly jagged and quirky weapon that hatches into a full-fledged solar number around the half, "Momentum" roars up the club's highway at full throttle, proving a formidable asset when it comes to plunging dancers into a state of weird, left-of-centre euphoria.

A stroboscopic eclipse is predicted as "Dark Sun" enters the room, deploying its obscure wingspan over the ravers, not quite a bad omen as it lets more light in with every bar, its brittle piano lines and heart-wrenching vocals cutting a path into the crowd's pulsating hearts. Graceful as Hidden Empire's music can be, a moment of utter exhilarating beauty. "Savasana" wraps up the voyage with a pure slab of cyphered 4x4 seduction, as an ASMR-like voice guides us across the soul-questioning haze that blankets our pathway onto a luminous finale. A piece of elusive nature, clearly designed for the club and yet telling a tale of off-piste initiation through twelve fascinating movements, "Momentum" will undoubtedly etch on the listeners' mind as one of the German pair's most strikingly powerful emanations.

Download:
1. Hidden Empire - Dawn Interlude
2. Hidden Empire - Modesty
3. Hidden Empire - Avalanche
4. Hidden Empire & Felix Raphael - Who We Are
5. Hidden Empire & Wolfson - Repeat the Good
6. Hidden Empire - Last Call
7. Hidden Empire - Vivid
8. Hidden Empire - Rebel
9. Hidden Empire - Alright
10. Hidden Empire - Momentum
11. Hidden Empire - Dark Sun
12. Hidden Empire - Savasana
13. Hidden Empire & Felix Raphael - Who We Are (Instrumental)

The second in a series of self-released Liquid Earth Physical Records, “The Breakdown” is a front flip into curbside clubbing.

The Aside offers two impeccably tight mixes of the 12” title tune, both providing different licks of pleasure for the casual clubber. “Charms Of Gaia” is forward leaning, equipped with big room, big energy type vocal breaks. “Trips & Skips” is an ode to the stripped down wigglyness of one of UK Tech House’s greatest, Nathan Coles - a clear influence of Mr. Earths.

From here, we are sat next to the two black sheep of the 12” on what seems like the most pleasurable road trip of a record. B1 being the beefed-out break tune titled “The Closer” and B2 the straight and narrow slammings of “Cobblestone Stomper,” a track surely given its holy legs by the OG Jerusalem Cruiser.

What you won’t find on this record is senseless filler, instead, you’ll surely be pumping your face with the permanent botox that is Liquid Earth. Now let’s see that smile!

London based imprint High Praise are proud to announce the last addition to their roster. Having released a slew of heralded 12”s on Capitol K’s Faith And Industry Records, Darker Than Wax & XVI Records, London based producer & sound designer Dampé prepares to release his expansive and head-spinning new 12” ‘Glow’. With previous support coming from the likes of Tom Ravenscroft, Dummy, Bandcamp, Boiler Room, Mixmag, DJ Mag and Keep Hush, Dampé showcases why he’s making a name for himself as one to watch in the UK’s vibrant Electronic music scene.

Opening with the hypnotic arpeggio of title track ‘Glow’, the EP launches headfirst into a spinning world of driving rhythms and grainy synth textures. ‘Ravey Emo Tool (Like Me)’ provides a welcome moment of cloud parting serenity. ‘Twenty Two Savanna’ utilizes twisting, contorted breakbeats colliding against trance-like euphoria inducing synth patterns and shuttered vocals. On the flip, second single ‘Clay’ brings a dose of 2-step bounce to the proceedings, with an off-kilter but rock-steady groove. Atmosphere builds steadily as the gated notes and industrial effects of ‘Through The C10’ spill out of the speakers, before ‘King Tide’ brings the 12” to a powerful close with its rippling keys and avalanching waves of low end pressure. A truly impressive offering with incredible attention to detail.

Red Vinyl

ASSASSINS did what many bands do: they grabbed a moment out of the air and slammed it onto tape machines and hard drives with relentlessness, cunning, and an attitude.
It was in Chicago, mid 2000’s, and though there was energy in the music scene, it wasn’t coalescing into anything you could use as a heading in the musical encyclopedia. Drag City, Thrill Jockey, Bloodshot, Tortoise, Andrew Bird, 90 Day Men – amazing labels and bands, but discrete and siloed and separated by boundaries that weren’t very real.
In the midst of that complicated morass, ASSASSINS generated a collection of songs that became the album YOU WILL CHANGED US. And it did.
There was confidence built into the fabric of the project: 5 members, 2 singers, massive synced video walls and samples streaming from laptops swirling in three dimensions around the stage. They could go from subtle atmospheric moments to a gargantuan wall of sound instantly. It was hard to do- months in cold practice rooms troubleshooting sections of songs or reworking synthesizer patches put the band through a self-imposed boot camp. And it brought them together as a sort of hive-mind focused on one thing: that these songs could connect. They could cut through the noise and share a state of mind with other human beings.
And it worked. Those early shows were mind bending. It was fun, loud, drunken, and rewarding- that time together, before the record deal, before the tragic let down of being traded and gobbled up by the major label system. The years after that got more difficult, more complicated, more human.
Leading us here: the musical journey of the Assassins has ended. With the up-coming release of their second and final album THE YEAR THAT NEVER CAME, we finally get to hear, and feel, the final statements of their inspiring chemistry.
In July of 2021, founding member, songwriter and singer Joe Cassidy unexpectedly passed away. THE YEAR THAT NEVER CAME is the culmination and end point of a collaboration that started in the early 2000’s with a chance meeting and excited conversation with Aaron Miller at a gig in Chicago. Quickly joined by David Golitko on keyboards, Merritt Lear on vocals and guitar, and Alex Kemp on bass.
It was Miller who saw Joe Cassidy’s song writing in a new context. Cassidy had been known for his beautiful, post- pop inflected BUTTERFLY CHILD, a thoughtful, regal project where Joe’s emotions could soar. Miller saw a different context for that voice- not dreamy, but immediate, not just hopeful, but demanding. He took Joe’s open hand and suggested that it could be a fist, raised in the air, with a crowd of other people doing the same.
At the time of his death legendary composer and songwriter Jimmy Webb (who wrote such hits as ‘Wichita Lineman and MacArthur Park) said Joe ‘was a creative and generous producer but, more importantly, he was a creative and generous friend.’
With the release of THE YEAR THAT NEVER CAME, this band, this relentless creative force, has to finally relent. No one in the band could see a future ASSASSINS that doesn’t include Cassidy. So in one last act of will, for the love of their friend, they did the rigorous work of finishing the songs that they had started together for the second album.
Assassin’s obsession with the notion of time, from YOU WILL CHANGED US to THE YEAR THAT NEVER CAME, flows from the most natural question we all have to ask ourselves: what do I do now? Because: how we react today to life’s unpredictability - that is the tomorrow we build for ourselves.

After almost two years of work, we're glad to invite you to a new journey through the fog of time and enjoy the upcoming reissue of the great Ambient/Folk record from 1984. A well-known to collectors but extremely rare record by Jon Iverson a multi-instrumentalist from Palo Alto and his college friend, mandolinist Tom Walters. They shared a love for singer/songwriter fare and gigged around campus playing covers of Neil Young, CSN, and Loggins/Messina in the late '70s.
"First Collection" was recorded during the Spring of 1984 in a small garage that had been converted to a one-room apartment in the seaside community of Los Osos, California.
With an instrumentation of 12-string guitar, piano, mandolin, analog synthesizers, and sampler, the duo has recorded nine bright, weightless, and diverse compositions where electronic experiments mix with ethnic rhythms, sweeping through inspired folk reminiscent of the work of William Ackerman, John Fahey, Master Wilburn Burchette, and Robbie Basho, to homemade pastoral space folk exuding sophisticated, pale, lunar sonic moods that somehow might remind of the work of Roedelius from the early 80s.
Equipment used for tracking included a rented 1/2" 8-track Otari MX5050 analog tape machine and assorted mics. With only a few thousand albums pressed, First Collection has become a collectable in some circles.
Now, almost forty years later, First Collection has been remixed and remastered from the original 1/2" tapes for this release.

The endlessly prolific and unpredictable Richard Youngs returns to Black Truffle with Modern Sorrow. As any Youngs fan knows, one of the great pleasures of following his career comes from not being able to predict what the next entry in his inexhaustible string of releases will bring: Unaccompanied voice? Country songs? Shakuhachi? Guitar pieces played with his feet? Shredding fuzz bass over the top of hyper-speed distorted drum machine beats? Continuing in the grand Youngs tradition of exploring new techniques, instrumentation and approaches while bringing to all of them his idiosyncratic touch, Modern Sorrow serves up two sides of twistedly elegiac, radically stark takes on contemporary pop production. The side-long title track is built from a piano sample, synthetic bass notes and organ swells, and an iterative blurt that seems to have wandered out of a 90s jungle track. Eventually joined by a shuffling drum machine, the track moves very slowly through a series of chords, each delayed long enough that its arrival comes as a major event. Over the top, Youngs’ heavily pitch-corrected voice is heard. The processing paints his signature wandering melodic improvisations with shades of contemporary R&B; at the same time, it cuts the natural swoops and glides of Youngs’ melodies into rapid microtonal trills, giving his voice a quavering, middle eastern feel. Unfolding languorously over more than 17 minutes, the piece’s final minutes make room for an extended drumless coda, returning to the stark palette of its opening moments. On the second side, the two parts of ‘Benevolence’ push this minimalism ever further, its first half consisting of nothing more than a remarkably slow drum machine hit, bass-heavy chords and pitch-corrected voice, here so heavily processed that it starts to resemble a shawn solo. In its second part, the harmonic foundation drops out from under the piece while two more voices join; at some moments the voices pause, leaving nothing more than isolated, metronomic drum hits. Though Youngs has explored the sound worlds associated with dance music and contemporary pop in previous work, here these elements are radically reduced, foregrounding a meditative bed of silence with a boldness equal to any more academically inclined contemporary composer. Embracing the accessible digital tools of contemporary music production just as at another moment he would pick up a kazoo, like much of Youngs’ work Modern Sorrow uses simple DIY tools to generous ends, producing formally radical music that remains both free from pretension and deeply moving.

Understated, yet dramatic, Nana Adjoa combines storytelling, poetry and instrumental musicality for Bloomer Records’ fourth release. Songs are flecked with alternative sound designs but always ride atop rich acoustic foundations. The A-side presents orchestral and jazz fusion interpretations whereas the B-side recordings have a more grounded edge, completed with Nana's 5-piece tour band. As a multi-instrumentalist and powerful vocalist, she gives substance to the term modern-day musician.a few driving and noticeably danceable numbers, offering glimpse of familiarity amidst emotive and inquisitive soundscapes.

Sunergy brings together synthesists Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Suzanne Ciani for the thirteenth installment of FRKWYS, RVNG Intl.'s intergenerational collaboration series. For this edition, a panorama of the Pacific Coast provides the place and head space for a musical appreciation and consideration of a life-giving form vast and volatile with change. Fortuitously (as is the freaky way), Smith and Ciani were discovered to be neighbors in the small coastal community of Bolinas, California. The two had become close friends, bonding over their experience as woman musicians and, more unusually, their shared passion for the Buchla synthesizer. The music of Sunergy embraces this kinship, with Ciani and Smith respectively performing on the Buchla 200 E and the Buchla Music Easel, two modern configurations of the innovative instrument developed in the '60s by Don Buchla.
Sunergy was recorded in the Bolinas home where Ciani has lived for the last twenty-four years. Her living room overlooks the Pacific Ocean from a cliffside perch, creating an idyllic, inspired setting for music making. Setting up their synths side-by-side, Ciani and Smith took turns keeping time and freely improvising for the album sessions. As a complete piece, Sunergy is shaped by slow, pulsing forms and sinuous, melodic sequences that conjure both an oceanic world and the unlimited sound made possible by modular processing.For her part, Ciani has long been a Buchla voyager. Suzanne proselytized the potential of Don's synthesizer instruments in the '60s and '70s, performing her own compositions before introducing synthesized jingles and sound effects to household audiences. Ciani then achieved wide recognition for her debut album Seven Waves, a collection of colorful, classical song-like melodies fluidly working with harmonic textures and sounds of the ocean shore. Since its 1982 release, Seven Waves has become an important chapter of the ambient canon within which contemporary artists like Smith have developed their own synth syntax. Smith was born just a few years after the appearance of Seven Waves, growing up in Orcas Island, Washington. A place of profound natural beauty, the islands would inform Tides, her first instrumental collection from 2014. Smith composed Tides as an accompaniment for Yoga classes, ultimately freeing her from conventional songwriting into the exploratory, synth-based compositions demonstrated in ecstatic variety on 2016's Ears. Despite the serene setting where Sunergy was realized, the album does not romanticize a complete oneness with nature. Smith and Ciani use their collaborative ground to reflect on the unstable forces at play across the Bolinas horizon. Sunergy takes stock of Bolinas in the 21st century, a once-thriving artist's refuge now vulnerable to real estate pressure extending from affluent San Francisco, and more irreparably, the specter of climate change erasing its many waterfront habitats.
A diametric dynamic is present in Sunergy, a somber meditation amidst the intense cultural and solar forces transforming the landscape, and a hopeful assertion of the surviving creative culture of Bolinas. Far from rehashing the gentle grace of the artists' seminal works, Sunergy instead seeks to awaken and bear witness, employing the Buchla waveforms to mirror the infinite rhythms of the ocean and our essential relationship to it.
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Suzanne Ciani's Sunergy will be released on September 16, 2016 on LP, CD, and digital formats. An accompanying documentary by Sean Hellfritsch will be offered in tandem.

On behalf of re:discovery records, it is with great excitement that we announce the 3rd and last EP of the set highlighting the music of 1990's Norwegian electronic act Neural Network. Part 3 hones in on their unreleased album that was never formely named. The band and those in the industry who heard it felt it was their best music yet. There were label suitors for this album including a top tier Belgian label but sadly things did not work out as that label folded. And this project was left on DAT's.

Of the 9 tracks we chose, there were 4 we felt would most fit the vinyl medium and the theme of the first 2 EP's. These fit in with music like B12, Stasis and As One for some lofty comparisons and we think it fit's perfectly in that esteem company. The Detroit-esque beautifully somber 'Lambent' sounds almost 'Tedra' like from Kenny Larkin. 'Jetstream' is pure melodic robotic funk from the future. The side B track 'Floatation' coming in at just over 18 minutes and is a prime example of the sci-fi music they so wonderfully produced. This 3 record series is a great example of re:discovery records' mission to present the past for the future. All feature amazing artwork from UK's Grid Pattern complete with insert that features info on the music and their history. Bring back the Chill Out Rooms!

Aaron Andrew's Chubby label doesn't rush things. Since launching in 2018 and now only just hitting its sixth release though the music sure is worth the wait and is proof that quality will always win over quantity. Leonid's twin brother, Al Smith opens up with the cuddly and cosmic depths of 'Drama Room' before getting more dark and unsettling with his twisted synth modulations on 'Full Of Music', which then becomes a gorgeous downtempo cut with star-gazing pads and splashy hits within the Specter remix. Dan Piu picks up the pace for some delightfully warm deep house dynamics on 'Days Gone' and 'Snows Of Solaris'. Last of all is the more scuffed up, heads down deep house murk of Rai Scott's remix of Dan's intro tune, 'Day's Gone'.

blue marbled vinyl

A thundering take on the classic Hot Pants break leads to eerie synth work, developing a powerful haunting atmosphere. An intense driving bassline intertwines with the beats & hats, challenging the balance between the headphones and the dancefloor.

A deceptively simple break expertly programmed with ASC's trademark punch is layered with dreamy 808 bass and long, swirling pads & synths, creating a luscious smooth vibe to the aptly titled Cosmic Energy.

Expertly programmed yet understated break work punctuates Stargate with an unforgettable kick-cymbal-kick-cymbal sequence, laden with room-filling sub-bass, a collage of effects and "that" whale sample used so effectively it feels fresh again in 2022.

Prophecy effortlessly combines a plethora of samples and effects you'll recognise from classic atmospheric drum & bass spanning the 90's and beyond to create a true "old school brand new" vibe set to a variety pack of jungly breaks and occasional vocal hits, with a lush tonal transition towards the latter stages.

Words by Chris Hayes (Spatial / Red Mist)

Gold Vinyl

Since 2008, "438Hz As It Is, As You Are" is "only" the third solo release from Tomoyoshi Date. The last one dates from 2011. Less is more.
In parallel, from 2013 to 2021, he has recorded some releases in collaborations with Toshimaru Nakamura, Ken Ikeda, Stijn Hüwels, Asuna and Federico Durand.

"This record was recorded on Diapason's upright piano made in the 1950s at the house of his maternal grandmother's sister (*). The piano has moved and tuned many times, and now it has arrived at my living room. It was a pre-mass production piano with a thick board and good sound, but I couldn't tune it without replacing the screws and the weakened base. After consulting with the tuner, I decided to tune the whole tune to the sound of the strings wound around the loosest and most inseparable screws. "As it is"

*Mikiko Yamada: A performer who formed a Japanese music group of contemporary Japanese music in 1964 and made Biwa the first five-line score. She also had a samisen, so I called her "Aunt Pen Pen". Her husband was a shakuhachi player, so she was "Uncle Boo Boo".

When I tuned in the summer, I tried to tune at 442kHz, but I changed the tune in the winter to 438kHz. From now on, the pitch of this piano will decrease year by year as the material ages. I will play the decaying piano and continue to record music that can only be done at that time.

When you drop a needle on a record, a sound is produced on the spot, and the sound constantly changes depending on the air, temperature, and humidity around the needle. The sound also affects all of the listener's life, affecting the frequency of the person's body and mind. The effect of the sound once generated will last forever.

This work was created with the intention of having the listener adjust the pitch at the desired speed according to the mood and frequency of the listener at that time. With a little faster 45 turns, you can listen to this dilapidated piano at 440kHz or 442kHz. You can slow it down, or adjust the number of rotations as you like, whether it is 33 rotations early or late. I really like the stretched sound of the recorded piano. When you want to relax, use slow music to adjust the pitch of the space around you, the creatures, and your own body and mind. "As You Are"

Tomoyoshi Date

When the red light in Studio 2 at the famous Abbey Road Studios came on at the start of the recording sessions for Elschenbroich’s and Grynyuk’s latest ONYX recording, the control room had a very different atmosphere. The recording was made using analogue technology – tape recorders, vintage microphones, and longer takes.At no point was the recorded material subjected to a digital process.

Elschenbroich wanted to capture a specific sound for these sonatas; the recorded sound of the late 1950s and the 1960s was his goal. The result is a wonderfully

intimate, warm yet clear sound, as if the musicians are actually in the room with the listener – not clinical, not a bright superficially impressive digital sound, but a

sound that captures perfectly the best recorded sound of the golden years of the LP. Importantly, it is the sound by which the artist ‘recognises’ himself. As Elschenbroich writes in the notes ‘ the listener only needs one pair of ears and the music must come to life in their unique space’.

Under The Big Black Sun is the third studio album by American rock band X and was released in 1982. It’s arguably their finest record. All 11 songs are exceptional, from both a performance and compositional point of view.

Before the recording of the album, singer Exene Cervenka’s sister was killed by a drunk driver, and the band decided to work out their grief in the music, which eventually resulted in two of the album’s best tracks: the melodic “Riding With Mary” and the vintage ‘50s sound of “Come Back to Me”.

The record was produced by Ray Manzarek, who is best known as the co-founder of The Doors. The cover art illustration was made by Alfred Harris.

Under The Big Black Sun is available as a limited edition of 750 individually numbered copies on turquoise coloured vinyl and includes an insert.

• 180 GRAM AUDIOPHILE VINYL
• INCLUDES INSERT WITH LYRICS
• PRODUCED BY RAY MANZAREK (THE DOORS)
• LIMITED EDITION OF 750
INDIVIDUALLY NUMBERED COPIES ON TURQUOISE COLOURED VINYL

US-based Mystery Circles is the next stop for Hiroshi EBINA following a previous outing here last year. This new cassette is another beautifully organic ambient soundscape with delicate pads and a sense of quiet hope and atomism. The beauty of the album cover really portrays the majesty of the music within as gentle chords linger in the air above warm and fuzzy drones. Some pieces are more empty that others which only lends the appearance of a wispy pad all the more weight while some grow in stubby intensity as sounds are layered up and draw you in ever deeper.