From the first bars of the immediately recognizable ‘Alamode’, this album is an explosion of beauty. This first sextet iteration of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers includes a young Wayne Shorter (tenor saxophone), Lee Morgan (trumpet), Curtis Fuller (trombone), Bobby Timmons (piano) and Jymie Merritt (bass). The band ferociously pushes the pace with each track, leaving no prisoners in their wake. This Verve By Request title is pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Third Man in Detroit.
Neon Genesis Evangelion gehört unumstritten zu den legendärsten Anime Franchises auf dem Markt und begeistert die Fans seit fast drei Jahrzehnten. Der Soundtrack von Shiro SAGISU erscheint jetzt als brandneue blau-schwarz-marmorierte Doppelvinyl, inklusive der Hits "A Cruel Angel's Thesis" und der beliebten Bossa Version von "Fly Me To The Moon" aus der Serie.
Tramp Records International proudly presents: The 1975 Baltimore Colts Glenn Doughty and his All-Pro Shake & Bake Band! In 1975 Glenn "Shake & Bake" Doughty Wide Receiver for the Baltimore Colts formed the Shake & Bake Band. Glenn Doughty and his Baltimore Colts Shake and Bake Band of the 70's is the first musical group consisting of former NFL All-Pro players that Tramp Records has partnered with in its history!
Doughty is a Detroit 'Motown' native and All-American from the University of Michigan, that was recently crowned national champion and the winningest college football program in NCAA History. Doughty and his four world-class athletic teammates formed the heart of the band. The Shake & Bake Band in the mid 70s played live at Baltimore's hottest Clubs with teammates in attendance on Monday nights after Shakin' & Bakin' their opponents on Sunday at Memorial Stadium. Doughty's sports hero was Muhammad Ali. He originated the popular Shake & Bake athletic movement scoring touchdowns. He recited Shake & Bake poetry like Ali to make predictions after games on local and national TV to celebrate Colts victories. His lyrics in his music were used to fire up thousands of his Colts fans and his teammates. Many fans felt the group sounded like WAR the popular funk group from California. Members of the Shake & Bake Band were: Glenn "Dr. Shake" Doughty #7, All-Time Colts leading Wide Receiver, producer, lead singer, congas and lyrics, Ray "RC Cola" Chester, All-Pro Tight End, Super Bowl Champion, Bass, Baltimore, Maryland, David "DT" White, Wide Receiver Lead Guitar, producer, sound technician. Buffalo N.Y., Lloyd "The Bullet" Mumford, Defensive Back Harmonica, Miami Florida, Freddie "Bones" Scott, All-Pro Wide Receiver on percussion, Grady Arkansas, and Bruce "Turn it Loose" Barnett, Drummer and shoe salesman. Randallstown, Maryland. This group of talented stars lead the Colts to its first ever three consecutive Eastern Division Championships.
Between 1975 and 1977 they also became the first group of pro athletes to create two records while playing football together for a NFL team. Their debut 7-inch single from 1976 was cut at 33 1/3 RPM due to the length of the songs. "Shake and Bake Pt.1" lasts for 4:30 minutes while Part 2 stretches out to an incredible 7:00 minutes!
Additionally, "Shake and Bake Pt.1&2" will be featured on the forthcoming "Movements Vol.12" compilation album, due September this year.
Key selling points:
- limited to 500 copies!
- deluxe picture sleeve edition!
- official re-issue, done in cooperation with Glenn Doughty!
- Glenn Doughty and his Baltimore Colts Shake and Bake Band of the 70's is the first musical group consisting of former NFL All-Pro players that Tramp Records has partnered with in its history!
Wildly acclaimed Grammy-winning artist Flume returns with a
new album, ‘Palaces’, on Transgressive Records.
‘Palaces’ began to take shape when Flume returned to his
native Australia after struggling to write music in Los Angeles at
the beginning of the pandemic. Settling in a coastal town in the
Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Flume quickly
found the inspiration he needed through reconnecting with the
nature around him - the rolling hills, walking around barefoot,
the green colour the sky turns before a big storm, growing and
eating his own vegetables, the smell of rain.
He and his neighbour and long-time collaborator, the visual
artist Jonathan Zawada, became fascinated by the local wildlife,
in particular the birds, collecting field recordings that ultimately
worked their way in to the album. As Flume continued to forge a
strong connection to his surroundings, the album he wanted to
make started to form, eventually adopting a title to properly
highlight the luxury and magic of the natural world.
‘Palaces’ is his most confident, mature and uncompromising
work to date, a true testament to nurturing the relationships that
make us whole and bring us peace.
The album features a host of vocalists and collaborators, its
cast list spanning new and household names from around the
world - breakout US star Caroline Polachek, British polymath
icon Damon Albarn, Spain’s Vergen Maria, France’s Oklou and
fellow Australian Kučka, who returns following her standout turn
on ‘Skin’.
Deluxe CD including two exclusive bonus tracks in 6-panel
heavyweight board digipack with tube pocket and 8-page
booklet. Matte finish on digipak board with glossy spot UV
finish.
CD digipack with poster insert.
Black 180G double vinyl in widespine jacket with full colour
centre labels and digital download card.
Globally renowned Danish group WhoMadeWho has returned with their 8th studio LP, the highly emotive and melodic Kiss & Forget, marking their first album release since 2022’s acclaimed UUUU. The ever-evolving outfit step into a new era with a vibrant collection of 13 tracks featuring indie electronic, pop, house, disco, synthwave, and more elements. Boasting an impressive list of album collaborators - RY X, Blue Hawaii, Adriatique, Kölsch, and nour - Kiss & Forget offers a concoction of diverse sounds that evoke the collective’s perpetually youthful spirit. Kiss & Forget is due for release on September 13th via the band’s imprint, The Moment.
Despite their extensive and storied career, WhoMadeWho - comprised of Tomas Høffding, Tomas Barfod, and Jeppe Kjellberg - has been having one of their best years yet. Since announcing the album in late 2023, the band has teased fans with a series of singles that highlight the diverse sonic palette of Kiss & Forget. The nostalgic lead single, “Children,” boasting the angelic timbres of the Danish children’s choir Vesterbros Ungdomsgård, became an instant hit, earning Pete Tong’s highly sought-after “Essential New Tune” title on BBC Radio 1. This was followed by the ethereal “Love Will Save Me” featuring GRAMMY-nominated RY X, the dreamy “Kiss Me Hard” with Canadian indie duo Blue Hawaii, and “Heartless” with fellow venerated Danish electronic producer Kölsch.
MJ Lenderman is a songwriter born and raised in Asheville, North Carolina. The anatomy of an MJ record might go something like this: warped pedal steels and skuzzed out guitar; crackin" a cold one with some buds; a voice reminiscent of the high lonesome warble of a choirboy. Songs snake their way from a lo-fi home recording to something glossier made withn longtime friends at Asheville"s Drop of Sun studios, but the recording setting doesn"t seem to matter much - at its core, a Lenderman song rings true. Manning Fireworks is a remarkable development in MJ Lenderman"s story as an incredibly incisive singer-songwriter, whose propensity for humor always points to some uneasy, disorienting darkness. The punchlines are still here, as are the rusted-wire guitar solos that have made Lenderman a favorite for indie rock fans looking for an ernerging guitar hero. There"s a new sincerity, too, as Lenderman Iets listeners clearly see the world through his warped lens.
Als dieser exzellente Downbeat-Instrumental-Hip-Hop-Sampler 2002 erschien, waren Zero 7 für ihr brillantes Debütalbum "Simple Things" für den Mercury Prize und den Brit Award als bester Newcomer 2002 nominiert, ihr späteres, drittes Album "The Garden" erhielt 2007 gar eine Grammy-Nominierung. Zero 7 haben unglaubliche Musik gemacht, ihre Remixe stets mit Bedacht ausgewählt (so z.B. Terry Calliers "Love Theme From Spartacus") und sich zu einer hervorragenden Tourband entwickelt.
Die ursprüngliche ALN Vinylausgabe ist so begehrt, dass sie heute für teures Geld verkauft wird. Freuen wir uns auf den Soul-Klassiker "People Make The World Go Round" der Stylistics und die rare, von Roy Ayers produzierte Groove-Bombe "You Can’t Turn Me Away" von Sylvia Striplin. Don Blackmans "Holding You, Loving You" ist ebenfalls enthalten, das von Slum Village gesampelt wurde, die hier mit "Jealousy" vertreten sind, ebenso wie Herberts Boompty-Boom-Rub von Gainsbourgs & Bardots "Bonnie & Clyde". All diese Güte wird wieder für einen anständigen Preis erhältlich. Form ist vorübergehend, Klasse ist dauerhaft. Und Zero 7 sind eine Klasse für sich.
- Gepresst auf schwarzem 180g Doppel-Vinyl samt 30 cm großem Art-Print und Download-Codes für die ausgespielten Tracks und den Original-DJ-Mix in den Formaten MP3/FLAC/WAV.
Original Cover[27,52 €]
Honour's debut album is a ligament stretching from Lagos to London and to New York, curling across the diaspora and brushing the darker hues of blues, hip-hop, free jazz, ambient, gospel with Christian mythology and Yoruba folklore. As cinematic as it is painterly, Alàáfíà is a meditation on themes of life, death and love that pulls inspiration from the unexpected poetic profundity of casual conversations, field recordings, literature, ephemera, or personal archives. The result is an impressionistic vision in Black and Blur that both exhausts and implicates language_substantiating a mythos proposed by Fred Moten that sublimates boundaries between everywhere and nowhere; history and the present; the individual and the universal. Alàáfíà delineates a gothic landscape cut by overdriven beats, swooping orchestral blasts, choral bursts and ear- splitting fuzz, where the fleshly and spiritual realms commune. Dedicated to Honour's late grandmother, the title track began to take form after their last embrace and remains steeped in her influence and spirit_a tape-saturated composition that starts in Lagos and ends in London's smoke-stained cityscape, the song's dream-like quality developed out of the artist's grief and PTSD coping with this loss. Beneath the stretched guitar drones and stuttering loops, their grandmother's shared faith bubbles to the surface. "When Angels Speak of Love," borrows its title from two works by Sun Ra and bell hooks, respectively. Sculpting echoes of praise music into disorienting spirals perforated with syrupy DJ Screw-inspired breaks and sharp splinters of melancholic guitar, "When Angels Speak of Love" engages a conceptual dialogue with the spirits of both late thinkers, folding them into Honour's pantheon of ancestral guides. The album's ninth track, "Giz Aard ($uckets)," is a dirge of regimented drums which anchor this somber melody as it whirls into a blizzard of heartache, uncertain if its consequence will be death or eternal joy. The album's sole lyrical offering, "Pistol Poem (Lead Belly)," begins with a darkly humorous bar, "He went thru hell and back/ came back/ 2 get the strap," that swells into a haunting allegory based on the life of Philip "Hot Sauce" Champion. A modern take on the Blues, Honour's lyrics reify the artist's status as a student of both literature and popular culture, crossbreeding the artist's clever wordplay with additional references to Richard Pryor, Robert Johnson, Kelly Rowland & Bryon Gysin. Setting core principles of hip-hop, R&B, jazz and gospel music to atemporal soundscapes and compositions, Honour crafts a record that marinates in its own knotty contradictions. The ghosts that sit on the artist's shoulders have never been more tangible than with this emotive debut.
The mighty U Roy is the originator, the man who put the DJ phenomenon on the map and made it an artform. From Kingston Jamaica to the corners of all the Dancefloors, Clubs and Sound Systems across the world. U Roy (B. Ewart Beckford, 1942, Kingston, Jamaica) began his musical career spinning records for Doctor Dickies Sound System way back in 1961. The mid sixties saw him working for Sir George The Atomic before moving in 1967 to the man who best shaped his sound King Tubby on his Home Town HI - FI. Tubbys work in the dub field, dropping out vocals on his versions for the Sound Systems allowed U Roy to voice over these spaces adding to the excitment of the Dance!!!
U Roy moved into the recording arena firstly cutting two disc's for Producer Lee Perry 'Earths Rightful Ruler' and 'OK Corral' and then following this with 'Dynamic Fashion Way' and 'Riot' for Producer Keith Hudson. Producer Duke Reid seeing the protential in this new found form brought U Roy to his Treasure Isle Studios to voice over his back catalogue of Rocksteady Hits. His first three releases for Duke Reid 'Wake The Town', 'Rule The Nation' and 'Wear You To The Ball' held the Top 3 positions for 12 weeks in early 1970's.
We have compiled some of U Roy's best loved cuts from his mid 70's period when all were still looking at him for guidence. The opening cut Call On Me sees him working over Delroy Wilson's 'Got To Be There'. You Never Get Away gets U Roy answering Delroy Wison's 'Keep On Rocking'. Johnny Clarke's 'Time Gonna Tell' with rootsy bassline turns into Every Knee Shall Bow. Cornell Campbell the Gorgon himself gets his 'Check Mr Morgon' turned into Gorgon Wise. Johnny Clarke's Hold On gets reworked. Jeff Barnes 'Blowing In The Wind' tuned into Number 1 and alongside King of The Road which sees Lennox Brown blow his saxophone over the instrumental 'In The Swing of Things', was one of U Roys first releases. Linval Thompson's 'Let Jah Arise' is versioned to Joyful Locks. I Originate which lends us to the title of this compilation, says it as it is, a classic built over Dave Barker's 'Shocks of Mighty'. Linval Thompson again provides the backbone with his Cool Down Your Temper cut for U Roys version. The mighty Burning Spear's Creation Rebel although providing our next track, it is Johnny Clarke's version that gets worked over. Leo Graham's 'Birds of A Feather' turns into Stick Together. Soul Syndicates instrumental 'Goliath' grows into Riot. A big hit for Max Romeo Wet Dream sounds great under U Roy's new rendition.
Two extra tracks for the CD release of this album sees the great voice of Slim Smith on his 'Let's Stick Together' becomes ‘Ain’t To Proud To Beg’ and Cornell Campbell's 'Stand Firm' works with
U Roy to sign us off with ‘I Shall Not Remove’. A fine collection i hope you agree to the Daddy of all DJ's who in his own words ''I Originate, so you must appreciate, while the others got to imitate'' says it all really……
Entdecken Sie zum ersten Mal auf Vinyl, das 4. Album der großartigen Crew von Yellow Productions: Africanism All Stars. Unter der Leitung von Bob Sinclar und mit dJ Spen, Federico Scavo, Roger Sanchez, Eddie Amador, Bt&Baker, Martin Solveig, DJ Gregory...
We expect that many of you will have heard of Anton Barbeau, but for those who haven’t, and indeed those who have but don’t know much about him, here’s some relevant information. Anton is from Sacramento, California and has been putting out his music on a variety of labels since the early 90s. He has lived in the UK and Germany, and we believe he’s now back in California. A brilliant singer/songwriter and performer with an ear for a catchy, psychedelic tune, Anton has worked with plenty of celebrated artists over the years, including Scott Miller, Colin Moulding, Kimberly Rew, Andy Metcalfe, Morris Windsor, Robbie Mackintosh and many more. In 2006 he released ‘In The Village Of The Apple Sun’ on San Francisco’s Four Way Records as a CD only issue. When we started Blue Matter, Anton contacted us suggesting we might like to re-issue the album, as it had never been on vinyl, and he thought it’s overtly psychedelic direction would suit the label. We, of course, agreed. Having worked with Anton over 20 years ago, we were familiar with his output, and were overjoyed to get the opportunity to release this masterpiece on our label. Great songs, great playing, it’s a thoroughly wonderful album, and it’s a genuine pleasure to be working with the excellent Mr Barbeau once again.
To mark the 50th anniversary of the Wild Magnolias' first album release, Decca Records France presents a vinyl box set featuring the 2 original Barclay albums plus 4 bonus tracks and 2 previously unreleased remixes. The complete Barclay Sessions are presented on 140gm vinyl in a limited 3LP lift-off lid box with original jackets.
Blue Glitter Vinyl. One Step Closer has always believed that hardcore is limitless. On All You Embrace, the band puts that theory into practice. Every release from the Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania band has seen them exploring the sonic overlaps of hardcore, emo, and '90s alternative rock without an iota of self-consciousness, or pretension, creeping into the mix. All You Embrace is a collection of 11 songs that show One Step Closer reaching for something deeply honest and, as always, authentic."I wanted to showcase One Step Closer in its fullest state," says vocalist Ryan Savitski. "Every single part of the band, I wanted it to be there. I wanted us to be 100% ourselves and be as authentic to our band as we could possibly be." For fans of their first EP From Me To You, there are songs like "Blur My Memory," which show the passionate melodic hardcore the band built its name on is still part of the program. But it's immediately followed by "The Gate," a song that taps into the expansive reaches the band hinted at on This Place You Know and put on full display with the powerful follow-up EP, Songs For The Willow. Every element of One Step Closer is on display throughout the record, as they expound upon every idea until each one has achieved its full potential. The result is a record that's bigger, catchier, and moodier than anything they've done before, while still feeling exactly like OSC.Taken in full, All You Embrace is the sound of One Step Closer honoring their past while building a future that looks more open, more creative, and more expansive. It's a place where records like Start Today, Diary, and Floral Green are all in conversation with one another. Even the album's cover art marks a new direction for the band - the dizzying, frigid blur of blues & blacks colliding is a painting of guitarist Ross Thompson spinning in place, evoking how it feels to listen to these eleven tracks about change, grief, anger and the growing up. One Step Closer feels like the next in a line of revered bands coming from the crescent-shaped depression of Wilkes-Barre - and All You Embrace is the perfect introduction to the most exciting version of the band to date.
Vol.2[31,05 €]
Limited Opaque Green Vinyl. Anthony "Ant" Davis is a distinguished hip-hop producer, one-half of the renowned duo Atmosphere, and a founding member of independent record label Rhymesayers Entertainment. His decades-long career of beat-making has also included works for MF DOOM, Brother Ali, Murs, Rav, Sage Francis and a dozen others. Raised in a military family, his nomadic upbringing exposed him to many diverse influences and, coupled with his father's love for collecting records, laid the groundwork for his deep appreciation for all sorts of music. Ant's latest endeavor, Collection of Sounds, is a four-volume series of instrumental works showcasing the breadth and depth of his musical expertise. The Collection of Sounds series offers a window into Ant's creative journey, reflecting his evolution as an artist over the years. Drawing from a vast vault of unreleased material, he's exhumed cross sections of his catalog with surgical precision, organizing songs by sound rather than mere chronology. Volume 1 is at times so intimate as to border on claustrophobia, like the creeping "Bar One" or the haunted twinkling of "I Was Always A Collector" while other tracks are expansive enough to fill entire venues, like the forebodingly airy "4-Track Beyond Beat 1996." Many of the beats on Collection of Sounds: Volume 1 have pockets that are practically begging for rappers to explore. When he first pondered releasing an instrumental series, Ant figured he might want to make the songs more intricate than the ones gave to his rapper collaborators, filling up the space in the mix that would normally be given over to their vocals. "But then it would be jazz, right?" he says with a loud laugh. "And I'm not that." Fitting, as Collection of Sounds is not about forgetting who you are-it's about remembering, reconfiguring and reimagining, all at once; a testament to Ant's artistic integrity.
This is the third album by Sound Limited, also known as "Hidden Treasure". This gloss. This depth. Takeshi Inomata's jazz rock has entered a new dimension.
Sound Limited, which was formed at the end of 1969, recorded three albums in quick succession in 1970, as if to reflect Takeshi Inomata's enthusiasm. The third of these albums is New Rock In Europe. This album is composed mainly of songs by European musicians such as The Beatles, Donovan, and Nino Rota. There are many highlights to listen to, such as "Something," which fascinates with Kimio Mizutani's shimmering guitar, and "Barabajagal," which has an exciting tight groove, but I am happy to see a revival of Inomata's original "Mustache," which is part of the group's repertoire. ?Sounds Of Sound L.T.D.? This is the third recording after "Sensational Jazz Vol. 1/2", and this version is glossy and psychedelic as if it concentrates the atmosphere of the entire album. It is a monumental work that makes it known that Jazz Rock by Inomata has entered a new dimension.
text by Yusuke Ogawa (UNIVERSOUNDS / DEEP JAZZ REALITY)
Coming out on September 6th on Sharptone Records, Sundiver is Boston Manor’s fifth album and one that represents a glimmering dawn for the Blackpool five-piece. Grown from a seedbed of optimism and sobriety, the LP celebrates new beginnings, second chances and rebirth. With two members recently stepping into fatherhood, hope is baked into every note. “Datura came out of these really dark few years over the hangover of the pandemic,” Henry reflects. “I'd been struggling a lot with drinking and not taking care of myself and bad mental health and stuff. We wanted Sundiver to be the next morning of the following day.” He explains that it feels good this time round to write through the lens of positivity. “The themes began to emerge, of rebirth, spring, dawn, sunshine and then other elements just started to fit into that.” It was during the making of Sundiver that Henry found out he was going to be a dad. This album is a significant one for the band. Originally coming out of the emo and pop punk scene, they’ve explored sonics and genres throughout their career, taken risks and achieved more than they could ever had dreamed of. They’ve grown up as Boston Manor – their lives and the world changing around them. They’re now taking stock, at a crossroads of the band they were and the band they could be.
While writing the album, they revisited the bands that shaped them in the late 90s and early 00s. “I was listening to the music I loved when I was a teenager and I just thought, why don't we make music like our favourite bands?”, guitarist Mike Cuniff remembers with a smile. “So we brought our interests to the table that way. Y2K kind of vibe. There are elements of Deftones, there are elements of Portishead in there, some Garbage, The Cardigans.” He laughs and adds NSYNC to the list of inspirations. From this cocktail of classics comes a dynamic and ambitious record, rich with depth, groove and more hooks than Peter Pan’s nightmares. Lyrics that foxtrot from parallel universes to personal growth, vivid dreamscapes to raw grief. Individually they’re single strokes full of meaning and magic. Together they’re a landscape.
Container (out Feb 15th) is the first single and it’s them at their best – impassioned and infectious. “This song is about the stagnancy of life creeping up on you & how that can bring about change.,” Henry explains, citing Ocean Song by US band Daughters as an inspiration.
The concept of the butterfly effect is present on Sundiver – how small actions can lead to big changes. This is no clearer than on their second single, Sliding Doors (out April 5th). It has the golden sound of late 90s Lollapalooza rock – think Smashing Pumpkins - rebooted with crisp 2024 production and a potent heaviness. In the lyrics Henry wonders, what if?, pondering on what could be. The idea that there are infinite versions of you whose lives splinter off in different directions at every decision you make. That there’s another you out there somewhere right now reading this sentence, and another me writing it. “So much is down to chance and circumstance,” Henry says. “You might catch that train and your life totally changes. Or you might miss it and things stay the way they are.”
Heat Me Up (out May 30th) is defiant and victorious, the audio equivalent of quitting your shit job and driving into the hot summer sun with a head full of dreams. “The lyrics are about love and gratitude,” Henry shares. “Another theme on the record is just appreciating what you have. It’s about not taking for granted the things that you've been afforded.”
There was some natural magic in the creation of Sundiver. They worked with their usual producer, Larry Hibbitt, and engineer, Alex O’Donovan, but instead of recording in London again they ended up in the green pastures of Welwyn Garden City. “Because Larry lives out in the countryside now, it was a way different environment and way different experience recording this time,” Mike remembers. “That contributed a lot to the brighter sound of the record.” The daily barbecues they had during their recording sessions imbued the process with harmony – five old friends spending quality time together and making quality music.
However, the album is by no means one-note. Birthing this new world they’ve created wasn’t without it’s pain, and that can be heard in the heavier moments on Sundiver. What Is Taken Will Never Be Lost is the most-stripped back on the album, a slow rock number seasoned with the downtempo Portishead influence. The heartfelt lyrics are Henry’s way of processing the loss of his grandfather, who died in a hospice last year(?). “It was just fucking horrible. It was always cold when I went there and they were always trying to get rid of me. The song title, What Was Taken Can Ever Be Lost, is the idea of his memory fading at the time because of dementia.” Henry goes onto explain that shoeboxes of photographs, diaries and a legacy is what he’s left behind. “He lived a really rich life and it has really impacted me and my father. His legacy is etched into the fabric of history in a very small way.” This song continues the connection between his grandfather and the band, as his painted face is emblazoned on the cover of the very first Boston Manor EP, Driftwood. As well as emotionally heavy themes, there’s heaviness in the music of Sundiver too. The closing song, Oil In My Blood, descends into an intense shoegaze outro with Debbie Gough from Heriot screaming hellfire. It’s in moments like this that the band show us aggression and fury can be as much a part of positive change as quiet introspection. The last lyrics of the song, “It resets and starts again,” leaves us in contemplation as the final chord rings out.
Touring the US, Europe and Japan over the years makes for an impressive CV, but if you know anything about Boston Manor you’ll know that they’re all about their hometown. Their choice to work with Blackpool-based photographer Nick Barkworth is testament to that. They’ve been working with him since the pandemic. “He captures Blackpool in a light that really reflects the weirdness and quirkiness of the town,” Henry says.” He's got a really good way of presenting that.” For the Sundiver cover, Nick photographed a 30ft tall abstract glass sculpture made by the local artist John Ditchfield. A striking and bewitching monolith that’s familiar to them but unusual to most people. “It has such kind of a gravity and power to it,” Henry describes the sculpture which stands in a field just outside of the seaside town. “It reminds me of either an explosion or a star or a supernova. To me it represents new life, power and radiance.” Boston Manor have got a knack for that - connecting the otherworldly and the everyday, the stars and the streets.
They’re a band known for using their music to make bigger statements about society. This time round they’re harnessing the uplifting power of music, and the communion it creates, as an antidote to the daily doom and isolation. “It seems like absolute chaos out there at the moment,” Henry says. “You’ve got Gaza and Israel, you've got Russia, you've got the fact that 40% of the world is going to have an election this year and increasingly most governments are leaning very far to the Right. The internet is dividing everybody, people are getting poorer and more desperate. It's really, really scary.” They considered trying to tackle the weight of it all in their music. “We could’ve written Welcome to the Neighbourhood on steroids, where it's just absolute darkness and misery”. He’s referring to their 2018 concept album that deals with class, inequality and the bleaker side of Blackpool. “But I think it's really important to write something that people can be immersed in and find some sort of solace in. Somewhere they can escape to from the modern day pressures and everything that’s going on. We’re all in this together.”
On August 16, Toronto-based musician and producer David Psutka aka ACT! (fka Egyptrixx / Anamai / Ceramic TL) will release his latest project ‘Face to Face, Day by Day’ for his own Halocline Trance imprint.
This is is Psutka’s third album proper as ACT! following the release of the “sonic mixtape” ‘Universalist’ in 2018 and the augmented reality soundtrack ‘Grey Matter AR’ in 2021; a series of Snapchat filters created by artist Karen Vanderborght and soundtracked by ACT! which explored the poetic and existential potential of AR and social media.
“Aesthetic accidents in the periphery of the ‘work’ can be the message. In 2018, at an Egyptrixx concert at Bagni Misteriosi de Teatro Franco Parenti - a gorgeous, sprawling outdoor pool theatre in Milan - I had a clarifying moment. Gigs around then had mostly been in pummelling, dark music venues, so I wasn't prepared for this expansive space (and the thoughtful work of the organisers who had layered sheets of plastic film on the pool to parallel eco-materialist themes from a previous album). It was the midday soundcheck that struck me most - brittle digital sounds from the set echoed off the colonial Milanese facades and ricocheted down the Via Carlo Botta, pinging off buildings in the distance and clashing with the noise of traffic, tourists and whatever else. It was a strange, collisionist moment, and a reminder that my essential approach to music is, above all, a preoccupation with the materiality of sound.
Everything on Face to Face, Day by Day began as an improvisation. Openness to accidents and the emotional complexity that comes from centering them in composition has become important to my work, and helps the music go beyond the possibility of what is playable, imaginable. I also wanted to channel adventurous solo pop records of the 1970’s and 80’s, like Yasuaki Shimizu, Jon + Vangelis and Stevie Wonder. These came from an interesting era in commercial music as studio production techniques became increasingly formalised as compositional devices, like AMS RMX16 percussion sounds and early digital stereo effects.
Like many musicians, I’ve been travelling and performing less since the pandemic and as a result, have wanted studio sessions to feel more collaborative and improvisational. There were great writing and recording sessions for this album. Vox, synth, sax and guitar jams - much of what ended up on the record isn’t edited much, if at all. I jammed a sm57 into Colin Fisher’s sax bell and created feedback loops using various preamps and distortion units. The clunky sounds were sampled and used as percussion elements. I also had a great synth jam session with Jeremy Greenspan at Barton Building Studio in Hamilton, which was recorded by filmmaker Liz Adler.
I’ve had a few months to sit with this album and see clear throughlines connecting it to previous projects. There are aspects of the experiential and structuralist sound design ideas from the EGYPTRIXX records; and also some arrangement tricks borrowed from ANAMAI - specifically, the use of interruptionist sound events. Perhaps most of all, it feels connected to the Ceramic TL + Ipek Gorgun record ‘Perfect Lung’ and its splattered take on musical complexity. “ (David Psutka)
In addition to ACT!, Psutka has released music with numerous projects including Anamai, Egyptrixx and Ceramic TL, he has collaborated widely with artists such as Junior Boys, Ipek Gorgun, and Kuedo as well as Jessy Lanza (2016) and an official remix for Massive Attack’s ‘Hymn of the Big Wheel (2012). The contributions on this album, from Robin Dann and Ben Gunning, reflect the deeply collaborative nature of the Halocline Trance label and the Toronto creative scene more broadly.
Many of Psutka’s releases have received critical acclaim from media outlets such as Pitchfork, Exclaim, The Quietus and Resident Advisor. As a live performer, he has toured extensively including performing at Sonar Festival, Roskilde, Mutek, MOMA PS1 Warm-UP and CTM Festival. He’s also presented sound installations at various institutions such as Galeria Civica Commune di Modena, and Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO).
In 2015, Psutka launched Halocline Trance as a home for his various sound projects, events and collaborations. Now a creative collective and label, it has grown to include a diverse array of artists including Casey MQ, Xuan Ye, Myst Milano, Colin Fisher and others. The label is described as “genre-agnostic” and conceptually open, supporting work across a wide spectrum of creative fields including soundtrack recording, AR design and traditional artist albums. Their impeccable roster also includes, theorist/improviser Eldritch Priest, and AR/VR artist Karen Vanderborght. In recent years, Halocline Trance has established itself as a platform that facilitates many of Canada’s most exciting creative music projects. Many of the releases have received critical acclaim from outlets including Pitchfork, Exclaim, Bandcamp and Resident Advisor.
This is going to be the scariest spoken word record you’ve ever heard. We’re not joking…and neither is Vincent Price. The star of such horror classics as House of Wax, The Abominable Dr. Phibes, and Theatre of Blood (and, of course, narrator of Michael Jackson’s Thriller video) can barely hide his delight while he takes his audience through a graphic and occasionally grisly history lesson in witchcraft from the Bible through the Middle Ages, the Spanish Inquisition, and Nazi Germany. Then, accompanied by occasional eerie, abstract electronic music, Price’s sinister satisfaction only mounts as he provides instruction in the dark arts, with such tracks as “How to Make a Pact with the Devil” and “Curses, Spells, Charms.” It’s all in good fun, of course…or is it? The mysterious writer of the script, one Terry d’Oberoff, has only one other credit to his name: as the “mascot” of an early ‘70s band called…wait for it…Black Magic. This 1969 double-LP release has long been coveted by collectors of the curious and macabre, and for its first reissue in over 50 years, we are giving it the Real Gone treatment, reproducing the gatefold jacket and the full-size, 8-page booklet that accompanied some copies. It’s a combination history textbook and how-to manual in witchcraft, with a title page depicting a particularly unsettling spell called “The Hand of Glory” involving the severed, salted, and dried hand of a convicted felon. We are releasing this one-of-a-kind album on clear with orange “pumpkin” swirl vinyl…Happy Halloween.
`Think Differently' is the debut LP by the duo of Callahan & Witscher. Jeff Witscher has been one of the most daring voices in underground American music for two decades, highlighted by releases on Pan and NNA Tapes. Jack Callahan's focused, uncompromising approach to sound caught the attention of both Demdike Stare's DDS label and Swiss composer Jürg Frey, who took Callahan on as his first composition student. Fans of their individual work might expect opacity, disruption, or rhythmic irregularity from their collaboration, but `Think Differently' sounds like a pitbull in a convertible, a sand-kicking beach party, the dopamine hit you get from 311 or Smash Mouth. It's a punchy, crunchy, highly infectious record. How did Callahan & Witscher cut the path from the ghostly margins of avant garde musics to the gutters of post-grunge American hard rock? In the words of Callahan, "at some point, you start to need a stronger drug." The most potent characteristic of this stronger drug is the guitar. And not just any guitar, but a sassy, contagious, blithe guitar. Its presence is a drastic shift for two guys who've combined to make dozens of records over the years, not a single one of which has a recognizable guitar sound on it. Alongside the cool breezes and hyperactive fretwork of Callahan's guitar playing, the songs are backboned by strutting, groove-happy vocals: all bark, all bite. Every song is a careful collage, light but dense, ornate with gang choruses, soulful femme vocals, autotune and whisper scratches. This accumulation almost manages to hide the record's potent undertow of dread. `Think Differently' unfolds carefully, a slow-motion demolition that reveals the anxiety of second guessing, the exhaustion of tour, creative bankruptcy, willful misunderstanding, the pain of caring. Setting this lyrical cynicism against such sonic glee isn't a spoonful of sugar, it isn't a bait-and-switch, it isn't a prank. After all, the dumb bliss of Sugar Ray's "Fly" shades a song about Mark McGrath's mom dying. "All Star" is about climate change. Most Sublime lyrics are a bummer. But there's still room for a raised beer, for a dumb grin. Like these ancestors, Callahan & Witscher aim at maximum uplift, at sounds that warm and dazzle like a sped-up sunrise. In spite of overdraft fees, in spite of bad art, in spite of self-doubt.
