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Global pointing Brazilian jazz trio releases their new album Agôra, that sparkles with electric funk and Herbie-esque eclecticism. It features a myriad of guest vocalists and musicians including Brazilians Xênia França and Zé Leônidas, Jembaa Groove's Ghanaian singer Eric Owusu and South African artists Bongani Givethanks & Mpho Nkuzo

Re-wiring the concept of 'fusion' for 2023, Agôra is Brazilian trio Caixa Cubo's resurgent new record with the title referring to 'now', based upon the intuitive and fluid nature of the trio's method, and this inspired recording. With shoots to black music culture, from Brazil to Brooklyn, Ghana and South Africa, Agôra is the group's ninth album yet is their first where they've invited guests, mainly singers, onto each track and follows their last, Angela from 2020, released on Heavenly Records, which won a BBC 6 Music Album of the Year (Huey Morgan's selection) granting them much deserved international recognition.

The core musical elements of Caixa Cubo are Henrique Gomide (keys), João Fideles (drums) and Noa Stroeter (bass), all from São Paulo, Brazil and where they met as teenagers and would continue their friendship and musical bond at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, Netherlands. Now all in their mid thirties, João and Noa live back in the city where it all started but Henrique has settled in Cologne, Germany where the recording of Agôra took place, over the course of 3 days, at the home cum studio of Chris 'Dusty' Doepke, their friend and owner of the label they signed to, Jazz & Milk.

In line with all their creations where flow and energy provide the magic, allowing what the moment provides, the album shines not only for its virtuosity but for its minimalism, the depth of space, and for the first time, the ability to figure in and outside of the jazz fold, as the trio decided, for the first time, to bring in singers and add a new aesthetic to their sound.

"Agôra is a wake-up call to reality, a reminder that the infinite possibilities of technological progress should not disconnect us from the earth, from eye-to-eye relationships, and from moments lived in person" the band are keen to point out. "And that we must not be consumed by greed, for all we truly possess.... is the NOW."

Turning hope and metaphor into music, the debut single Sábado, an electrified future- jazz-fizz reflects perfectly the spontaneity that permeated the entire recording of the album. "When we got to the studio, we had no idea what we were going to record. We started playing a groove, kind of inspired by Gilberto Gil's 80s albums, and our drummer João started singing this funny song 'Sábado Barrigudão' (Big Belly Saturday) alongside the bass groove and that was that". Inspired by their city of birth, São Paulo, it features long time collaborator and vocalist Zé Leônidas, with cuicas, tamborim, agogo and shakers providing the most obvious Brazilian affect from the album.

Dreams is the band's first foray into R'n'B melding the group's simple and sporadic instrumentation of drums, keys and bass into a Jill Scott inspired song that could have been born in Brooklyn yet sung by Brazilian singer and Grammy nominated Xênia França and Zé Leônidas in both English and Portuguese. Xênia recently performed online for hip-to-it website Colors and it's her latest collaboration with Caixa Cubo, having first met in 2009 for a series of live performances.

South African artists Bongani Givethanks & Mpho Nkuzo come to the record with a wholly different approach on Ndiyakhangela, providing spoken word and vocal refrains on top of an Afro-Brazilian percussion jam with a delivery and verse in Xhosa, Zula and Ndebele. Asase is the album opener and features vocals of Eric Owusu who is part of highlife pioneer Pat Thomas's live band and most recently, co-leader of Jembaa Groove, an Afro-soul band from Berlin. It's a synth wig out with djembe grooves and offers a brand new take on Afro-soul-jazz.

Other contributions come from Cologne based jazz singer Rebekka Ziegler (Oblique Sunshine), São Paulo based guitarist Eduardo Camargo (Caio & Eric) and trumpet player Matthias Schriefl on Kismeti, a gorgeous and rolling number that ebbs and flows, exemplifying the group's effortless ability to craft a sound energised by a belief in one-self and the idea of having faith without the need to look at each other for verification.

As drummer and percussionist João Fideles perfectly surmised upon arriving for the recording session, "What drums do you have? Whatever you have, I'll use it". Agôra is testament to nearly 20 years of camaraderie, friendship and most importantly, trust.

Grant Dell’s name is woven deep into the fabric of UK underground house. As a DJ, producer, and co-founder of Swag Records, he’s been part of a movement that prioritized groove, individuality, and dancefloor connection over trends and hype. From the raw energy of early London parties to a catalogue that still resonates with diggers today, his work has always been guided by instinct and a deep respect for the roots of the music.

Still DJing worldwide and has been a wiggle regular Gems have unearthed another piece of classic underground tech house music with one of Grant Dell’s most sought-after productions. Originally released on Visitor Recordings out of Belgium.

Remastered for 2026 limited stock act fast!

Elations Recordings presents "Return of the Airpoets", an exploratory recording from longtime collaborators Reuben Lewis (I Hold The Lion's Paw) & Adam Halliwell (Mildlife, IHTLP), occupying a unique space between contemporary experimental music and avant jazz. Engineered and mixed by Reuben Lewis in 2023, and featuring guest appearances from acclaimed Australian drummer Ronny Ferella.

"Return of the Airpoets" continues a conversation begun with 'Cygon Dance', an extended duo between Lewis and Halliwell from Halliwell's 2023 LP "Freedom Lapse"; a dialogue that stems from a shared love and respect for Jon Hassell's Fourth World music. Sonic pioneer and adventurer, Hassell's futuristic vision advocated possible musics, stressing plurality and multiplicity. Faithful to his vision, Adam and Reuben, as trailblazers rather than imitators, delight in boundless musical possibilities, adopting Hassell's futurism as stock-in-trade, making it their own while augmented with neo noir hues and hints of the tilted electro-funk of Miles Davis' collaborations with Marcus Miller.

These nine tracks flow together as a unified suite, their shadowy presence stitched from fractured narratives: imaginary crimes, murders, dreams, the unspoken. At the same time, you can detect the artists' meticulous attention to sonic detail, feel the undercurrents, the complex layering. This music has been distilled, winnowed, from extended improv sessions, with the artists - as producers - zeroing in on offcuts, shards, and splinters, seamlessly patching together fragments in post-production to construct intricately layered sound collages, taking a leaf out of Tao Macero's book, building from the ground up.

Who are these airpoets? Their mystifying trial suggests the travails of Joseph K, sentenced for unspecified crimes. But I prefer to see them as fugitives escaped from Robert Bolaño's novel, "Savage Detectives". In Bolaño's book, poet Juan Garcia Madero is granted admission to the shadowy group of poets, the Visceral Realists, whose movement has no clear aims, and whose members "walked backward . . . gazing at a point in the distance, but moving away from it, walking straight toward the unknown." Like the visceral poets, these airpoets, Reuben Lewis and Adam Halliwell, set their sights on a point on the distant horizon, setting off without map or compass, drawing nearer and moving away, towards the unknown.

DJ Support: Mousse T, Michael Gray, Sam Divine, Black Legend, Sgt Slick, CASSIMM, Grant Nelson, Steve Angello, Mark Knight and Carl Cox

Another 4 tracks from Toolroom’s House imprint; Fool’s Paradise. Includes the number one hits ‘Do It Ya’ll’ from Grant Nelson & Mark Knight alongside Richard Earnshaw’s reimagining of Fonda Rae’s classic ‘Touch Me’

Rosie Lowe, die gefeierte britische Singer-Songwriterin und Produzentin, veröffentlicht ihr brandneues und drittes Album 'Lover, Other' auf dem Londoner Tastemaker-Label Blue Flowers Music. Musikalisch entzieht sich 'Love, Other' jeglicher Kategorisierung, ist Genre-fluid par excellence, gekonnt zusammengehalten durch Rosie Lowes makellosen, fast mühelosen Gesang. Das Album ist ein Patchwork-Wandteppich voller Komplexität und Tiefe, das ihren inneren Dialog offenlegt. Produziert hat Rosie Lowe 'Love, Other' in Eigenregie mit Unterstützung von Harvey Grant (Kerala Dust, Puma Blue) und D’Monk.

After releasing his seventh - arguably best and most popular album - The Odd Shower, The Bitter Springs' singer / songwriter Simon Rivers reinvented himself as Poor Performer, whose own debut, Like Yer Wounds Too, followed the same winning formula, widened somewhat by the inclusion of songs with a greater fragile beauty and introspection . . . though rarely without a degree of self-effacing humour and a rather stylish wit. Decades of self-releasing compact disc-only albums from the far southwestern suburbs of London, with scant regard for promotion or the normal machinations of showbiz - touring, for instance - did little to spread the word about Rivers' unique and prestigious talents. A conversational singer with a delightfully warm and convivial stone, Rivers' sense of the absurd and willingness to portray aspects of life generally unrecognised by pop music, one supposes it's not entirely unfair to have expect Top of The Pops to come calling. Yet the relative absence of cult of Simon Rivers fans is somewhat perplexing, for his lyrics, ideas and tunes all do merit it. There's little affectation in the sense of stage persona, but heaps of personality and intriguing, occasional perverse idea. It's hard to listen to anything he's down without a degree of sheer enjoyment. It's real, without affectation. The very real bumps heads with the slightly mental, just like in life! So what does this new guise - Oldfield Youth Club - have to offer? It's partially a revival of Rivers' first 'real' band, Last Party, and it displays hallmarks of that band's youthful energy. There's a bit of teen glam in Good News I'm Afraid and (Theme From Oldfield Youth Club, even while lead track We're The OYC and When Bob Grant Ruled The World add a dollop of an energetic ruefulness to the mix. A Kind Of Loving In A Loveless Town is an immediate classic, a song one could hear dozens of times before really reaching the core of its magic and majesty. Lest this sound like the work of a solo artist, it does feel like a band - a rather clever one, in fact. Including members Kim Rivers and Neil Palmer (both from Last Party), as well as trumpeter / vocalist Alison Targett, Oldfield Youth Club is a band with an obvious musical kinship. There's a connection to the literal style of Vic Godard's Subway Sect (and members have been shared between both acts) or early Go-Betweens . . . there's an alchemical sensibility shared by all three acts wherein their words and tunes inform each other in a deceptively casual but arresting manner. It's hard not to love, a rare work that earns immediate affection and just grows better from there.

Parallel Minds’ fifth label release is a major landmark for the Toronto-based label. Not only is it their first full length LP, it is also the debut album from co-founder Ciel, who is also making her first solo appearance on the label since its inception.

In 2021, spurred on by a productive creative streak and the economic austerity of pandemic lockdowns, the Xi’an-born and Toronto-based DJ Ciel (real name Cindy Li) applied for grant funding from the government of Canada to write her debut album. Self-proclaimed “DJ first, producer second”, Ciel never thought she would have the self-confidence and desire to write an album. It wasn’t until after spending prolonged time away from clubs & festivals whilst dedicating herself to daily sessions in her studio that she gained the motivation and aspiration to make a musical statement that only an album could express.

Since the start of the covid19 outbreak, Ciel, like many other Chinese diaspora people in the West, had felt a great deal of anxiety and pain at the rise of anti-Chinese sentiment and racism in the media — even in her corner of the dance music industry. Tired of expressing her frustrations fruitlessly online, she felt inspired to channel that into her music, to turn something that was filled with hate into a thing of joy and beauty. It was within this context that Homesick began to take shape.

After researching the rich history of Chinese instruments, a concept began to form around the album in which she could marry her love of sampling and analogue instruments. Using the eight types of traditional Chinese instruments (silk, bamboo, wood, stone, metal, clay, gourd, and hide) as a guideline, Li began writing each track with a focus on one of the eight. She hired traditional Chinese instrumentalists to play the guzheng and the xiao, whilst purchasing and teaching herself the smaller hand drum instruments like the kuaiban (bamboo clappers), and muyu (temple blocks). With the news that she had successfully been granted funding from Canada Arts Council, she wrote, recorded, arranged, and mixed all nine tracks of her album over the first three months of 2022. More than just highlighting Chinese instruments, the music on this album encapsulates so many musical influences from Ciel’s childhood when she began her lifelong love affair with music. True to her style as a DJ, the LP incorporates a diversity of genres she loves, from drum & bass to house, electro to breaks - even downtempo.

What has come out of these sessions is a deeply personal dancefloor record, a true expression of love for Cindy’s culture that came out of a time of relentless chaos, negativity, and uncertainty. Ciel sees her compositions as a distillation of herself — her life experiences, her wide interests and passions, and her often-turbulent emotions. Immersing oneself in the LP feels like listening to the musical confessions of an artist heading towards the peak of their career, who is finally starting to make sense of her artistic identity. What a joy to witness it.
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Sofia Grant überzeugt auf ihrer Debüt-EP mit komplizierten Gesangsharmonien, lyrischem Geschichtenerzählen und delikater Studioproduktion. Die aufstrebende, britische Jazzsängerin, Pianistin, Komponistin und Arrangeurin trat im Laufe ihrer Karriere an Orten wie der Royal Albert Hall (BBC Proms), Alexandra Palace (Later... with Jools Holland), Ronnie Scotts und Village Underground auf. Sie ist ferner Gründerin der Jam-Session HIGHER GROUND, die einen sichereren und integrativeren Raum für Künstler aller Geschlechter und musikalischer Backgrounds schaffen will. Ihr atemberaubendes Debüt festigt sie als eine Person, die man im Jahr 2023 im Auge behalten sollte.

Following their debut Glastonbury Festival performance, Broadside Hacks in collaboration with British Underground today announce the UK premiere of The Broadside Hack; a new documentary telling the story of the young vanguard of UK artists sharing radical interpretations, proto-feminist narratives and queer histories through the lens of British traditional folk song. An accompanying live album of the songs performed in the film will also be released in December on LP and digitally. Having enjoyed its US premiere at SXSW in March, The Broadside Hack is a short music documentary produced by British Underground, created with the aid of a grant from Arts Council England and PRS Foundation. Directed by Crispin Parry and filmed by The Northern Cowboys, It explores the influence of traditional folk songs on a new generation of musicians, filmed just as the UK was emerging from the dark days of the pandemic. The documentary was made in collaboration with music collective Broadside Hacks and features influential artists and groups from the new folk scene, including Rough Trade signees caroline, former Goat Girl bassist Naima Bock, whose acclaimed album Giant Palm was released on Sub Pop earlier this year, Shovel Dance Collective, Thyrsis, Broadside Hacks and Boss Morris. Discovering a fresh vitality in the tunes and new histories in the stories they tell, the film includes conversations, dances and intimate performances filmed at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios in Box, Wiltshire between 17th and 19th August 2021. The live concert and screening of The Broadside Hack arguably marks the close of the first chapter in the story of the UK’s new folk scene; a story in which Broadside Hacks has been central. Initially formed as a folk night, the pandemic forced it to change its shape, morphing into a collective of young, like-minded musicians who met to play folk music in South London. “An adventurous exploration of traditional music by the young and folk curious” - The Times // “All your favourite players in one Sunday League team” - Loud And Quiet // "The band play old folk songs, those so old their authors have been lost in time, and inject in them such life, depth and emotion that it's extremely affecting" - The Quietus // Side 1 A1 Boss Morris - Up The Hill A2 Interview Shovel Dance Collective - ‘A Collective Authoring of History’ A3 Shovel Dance Collective - The Bold Fisherman / My Husband Has No Courage In Him A4 [Interview] Thyrsis - ‘Collaboration Across Space and Time’ A5 Thyrsis - Single Sailor A6 [Interview] Naima Bock (Broadside Hacks) - ‘Retracing Beginnings’ A7 Broadside Hacks - Gently Johnny. Side 2 B1 Shovel Dance Collective - Merrily Kissed the Quaker B2 [Interview] Shovel Dance Collective - ‘Queering Folk Songs of the Past’ B3 Thyrsis - Godstow Bridge B4 [Interview] Naima Bock (Broadside Hacks) - ‘The Broadside Hacks Folk Club’ B5 Broadside Hacks - Rain and Snow B6 Boss Morris - Young Collins

12345 500 copies 180 gramm 3 artists 3 wizards in the vinylwoodland. On her way, Roon meets and befriends the Jeanneret, who wants a brain, the Malin Genie, who desires a heart, and the Afriqua, who is in need of courage. Roon invites each of them to accompany him. After the Witch attempts to stop them several times, they finally reach the Emerald City. Inside, after being initially rejected, they are permitted to see the Wizard. He agrees to grant their wishes when they bring him the Witch of the Vinylwoodland.

It’s the unexpected that fascinates us, letting our curiosity grow stronger than the urge for safety and control. The magic of new encounters and unplanned turnarounds helps us switch
off the autopilot of everyday life and grants us an unbiased, curious glimpse at ourselves and the world around us. In these brief moments we accept the chaos surrounding us, allow
ourselves to embrace it and see the beauty of it.
This delightful chaos is the vibrant fabric woven into “Pleasant Clutter”, the debut album of Vienna-based DJ and producer B.Visible. With an endless love for detail, he masterfully
condenses familiar and strange sounds into a fascinating collection of moments, each one in itself as beautiful as volatile – again and again you find yourself wanting to hold on to something
you’ve only just grown fond of, yearning to stay just a little longer. Leaving space for the unexpected, the album bit by bit reveals the beauty that lies in the harmony of the whole.
Using playful little melodies and decontextualized fragments of sounds, B.Visible conjures up a wide range of moods and emotions: he tells mesmerizing instrumental stories full of
unexpected twists and turns, evoking lively images within the mind. In constant flux between weightlessness and dead-aim beats, structures are being broken up and put back together on
the fly – always changing, always evolving.
Change as a constant and the symbiosis of contrasting elements are omnipresent on “Pleasant Clutter”, and beyond that. Running through the entire work of B.Visible, these stylistic devices have shaped the musician’s creative output over the years, and this distinctive sound has long become his trademark. Colorful Illustrations by Viennese artist Daniel Triendl complement the
music and add a visual dimension to the album, making the project’s intentions visually accessible.