quête:a sampler

Ced Gee & Kool Keith, both members of the legendary Ultramagnetic MC's, regroup for a new Ultramagnetic MC's record. The resurgence of classic Hip hop moves strong into 2022 with new release from Ultramagnetic MC's "Kool Keith x Ced Gee." Arising from the Boogie Down Bronx in the mid-'80s as a far-flung hip hop trio with a heap of new ideas to try out, Ultramagnetics Kool Keith, Ced Gee, and DJ Moe Love occupy something of a singular place in the old-school pantheon. Combining funk-heavy tracks with jeep-rocking beats and obscure lyrical references, Ultramagnetic MCs have a list of firsts to their credit: the first rap group to employ a sampler as an instrument, the first to feature extensive use of live instrumentation, the first to feature a former psychiatric patient (Kool Keith) on the mic. Early singles like "Something Else" and "Space Groove" were block-party staples and created waves in the underground, eventually landing the group on the disco-dominated Next Plateau label, where they released their underappreciated debut. The following years found the group shuffling from label to label, releasing albums on Mercury and Wild Pitch before splitting to pursue various projects. This special event will feature Kool Keith and Ced Gee performing classic Ultramagnetic MCs songs and sharing stories and history about the making of their iconoclastic catalogue.

The Eighteen Minute Gap lets you embark on a mysterious journey into a world of ethereal ambient music, where beautiful and soothing listening experiences await. Using field recordings and manipulating textures and sounds, Sonmi451 creates minimal yet tantalizing soundscapes, filled with intimate whispering voices.

Since 2005 Bernard Zwijzen is creating his own blend of minimal, soundscape-laden atmospheric electronics under the moniker Sonmi451 (a character from David Mitchell's novel "Cloud Atlas"), based in Hasselt, Belgium. He has been previously released on labels such as : U-Cover, Slaapwel Records, Time Released Sounds, Eilean Rec. and this is his second album on LAAPS. "The Eighteen Minute Gap" is his thirteenth releases.

Sonmi451 uses various soft- and hardware synths and samplers to create a truly unique and immersive audio experience where one is captivated by mystery and intrigue and immersed in a world of mysterious sounds where boundaries between reality and imagination begin to blur.

Bevor Saturday Night Fever einschlug, gab es bereits Underground-Disco. DJs in ganz Amerika zogen los und fanden die passende Musik, Tänzer gingen raus und fanden die Clubs. Zu diesem Zeitpunkt, in den frühen Siebzigern, war die Disco noch der Veranstaltungsort und keine Musikrichtung. Der Sampler 'Tribal Rites Of The New Saturday Night' ist der Soundtrack zur Story in der Disco begann und eine Hommage an die Underground-Clubs von Brooklyn und Queens. Saint Etienne's Bob Stanley hat diese Sammlung wieder zusammengestellt und dabei das recherchiert, was in den Jahren 1974 und 1975 tatsächlich in den Clubs von Brooklyn gespielt wurde. 'Supernatural Thing Part 1' von Ben E. King oder 'Wake Up Everybody' von Harold Melvin waren kosmisch großartig und beide sind hier enthalten, neben Underground-Favoriten wie 'Helplessly' von Moment Of Truth oder Ivano Fossatis unglaubliches 'Night Of The Wolf' hat Fans in nördlichen Soul-, Disco- und Prog-Kreisen. 'Tribal Rites Of The New Saturday Night' malt eine Szene in voller Blüte. Dieses Album ist der Sound von Disco, bevor er von der Öffentlichkeit als Disco wahrgenommen wurde.

Running up another re-edit sensation, that soulful sampler Chaka Kenn hits with three more edits to flip the script on an assortment of classic De La Soul cuts. From hip hop leaning jazziness to club-ready euphoria and summertime house, here are three different flavours, to get those taste buds tingling.

Experimental hip-hop/jazz quartet Bokoya team up with Colognebased producer / guitarist Gianni Brezzo (Jakarta Records) for collabo album on Melting Pot Music. Bokoya describe themselves as a four-headed human drum machine that play improvised beat music.

You can call it jazz if you like (all four members are graduated jazz musicians btw) but be ready to stumble over some Dilla, kraut rock, ambient or dub in the mix. We recommed their their doublealbum “Hausensession” (MPM, 2022) as a reference point.

Gianni Brezzo's music is a bit easier to access but not less leftfield. Jazz is a major influence too but it goes way further. On his album “Tutto Grosso” (Jakarta, 2022) Brezzo rides a sonic wave similar to Matthew Halsall, Surprise Chef, El Michels Affair and BadBadNotGood.
The recording sessions for “Minari” took place at the Gottesweg Studios in Cologne where Bokoya and Gianni Brezzo jammed for three days and nights based on some basic sketches and beats. The sessions were edited and arranged after by Bokoya and Brezzo but no overdubs added.

Improvised & produced by Bokoya & Gianni Brezzo.
Mixed & mastered by Roe Beardie.
Artwork by Jens Roth & Jeremias Diekmann.
Leon Raum - Drums
Darius Heid - Fender Rhodes, Synth
Lukas Wilmsmeyer - Guitars, Bass
Ferdinand Schwarz - Trumpet, Synth
Gianni Brezzo - Guitars, Sampler, Effects

In 1990, a friend was thinking about acquiring a synthesiser...

Synthesisers... mysterious keyboard instruments with lots of knobs that made strange sounds. Something we’ve always known about but never really had an opportunity to experience up close. Most of the music we grew up listening to and loved featured synths.

So we trawled through the Trading Post and found an old Roland JX-8P going cheap. I had a car, my friend had the cash - now we had a synth! We wanted to make electronic music, but something was missing...

Shortly after, a drum machine was acquired. Like the synth, we had no clue about them but very soon a Roland TR-707 was acquired. Pooling our remaining funds, we purchased a 4-track tape recorder and began to learn how to use these instruments to compose music.

Fast forward to 1991, SWLABR was born. I'd fallen down the techno rabbit hole and amassed several more electronic devices... synths, samplers, sequencers and began composing tunes with a techno flavour in my bedroom studio - some of which feature on this EP in all their original glory, tape hiss included!

Crackazat & Heist present: “Senses”. A stunning mini album that sees the artist deliver a heartwarming perspective on contemporary electronic music
On “Senses”, we see the pure talent of Crackazat come to life like never before. We’ve all danced to “Alfa” or his most recent hit on Heist “Demucha” and have heard his venture into the more poppy side of things with his 2022 album ‘Evergreen’ on Freerange. “Senses” however, is on another level. Crackazat takes you on a sonic journey exploring his musical personality with live keys, vocals, bass and production all coming from his studio in Uppsala, Sweden. The
jazzy horns that are featured throughout are recorded by Adeev and Ezra Potash, better known as the Potash twins. The duo took a sidestep from their recordings with John Legend, Robert Glasper and even Diplo to dive into this project with Crackazat and help him deliver arguably his best work to date.
The 6-track album starts off with the low-slung groove of ‘I need to know’. The whole atmosphere is warm, dreamy and seems to be written to lift your spirits, no matter where you are in life. Plucked strings, arpeggios and long horn notes give this song its energy, which is subtly supported by lo-fi drums and sparse bass licks.
“Do you think about me”, keeps the energy tight with a lovely drum groove and a sparse bass section. From the first note of the track, you get the feeling like the energy could change any moment. Halfway through this is exactly what happens, when uplifting keys and a buzzing lead take control of the track. The string arrangement is subtle enough to never overshadow the other instrumentation, but simply adds a beautiful layer to a track that’s already filled with
emotion. It’s all smiles when the energy of this track is set loose!
If “Do you think about me” is Crackazat in pop mode, “Freddie’s Groove” is Crackazat in full-on jazz mode. The nod to Freddie Hubbard is clear, and Crackazat cleverly takes ideas from both the jazz legend and his legendary French sampler, Pepe Bradock for this track. The horns are deep and moody, the groove is jazz-house at its best and Crackazat’s soft vocals have the perfect amount of fragility to fit the groove. The changeover into a stabby synth section
halfway through the track is a subtle reminder from the skilled producer that – even with all these musical elements – he can direct you to the front of the dancefloor with the twist of a note.
“Phantom” sees Crackazat move into a shuffling Latin-dance vibe. Here, the song reaches its full potential through the horn section, so it’s only fitting that this is the feature track for the Potash Twins. The Latin rhythms are lush, the key progression is on point and the energy on this track just keeps on going with layers and layers of horns, powerful vocal chops, and subtle but effective percussion changeovers.
“Endless life” is a track that feels like it’s building up momentum with every repetition. Whether it’s the broken beat groove, the offbeat keys or the sparse horn hits, chord hits or leads, there’s a certain energy in this track that takes a hold of you and simply doesn’t let go.
The outro “When we last met” is built around vibey drunk keys and a downtempo hip-hop groove. There’s a hint of old school D’angelo in this track and you can clearly hear the artist feels at ease with the path he’s taking the listener on. It’s a perfect ending to a record that showcases the beautiful world that Crackazat has crafted through his compositions and one thing is for sure: This is an album we will all keep coming back to for a long time to come.
Yours Sincerely,
Maarten & Lars

On their sophomore effort Tusky, surrealist duet Robbie & Mona ascend beyond the lo-fi scrawlings of their debut album to something altogether more grandiose. Between the lights down drama of sprawling opener ‘Sensation’, to the ‘roll credits’ coda of closer ‘Always Gonna Be A Dead Man’, Tusky exists as a glitzy, lucid journey playing out before the listener.
While debut album EW captured William Carkeet and Ellie Gray as they were finding their feet with one another, creating Tusky was a wholly symbiotic process from day one. “We got better at knowing what each other wanted,” William offers. “This was the album that we were trying to make from the beginning.”

Simultaneously evoking multiple eras of music, the album drifts through worlds of synth pop, jazz, trap, drill, ballroom waltz and leftfield electronica, with the scatterbrain sound palette melded by a peppering of instrumental motifs and William’s addiction to sampling sounds across multiple tracks. “I wanted there to be this weird dimensional thing going on,” William explains, “where songs from the album are playing in multiple places.”

The record sees an expansive cast of musicians assembled, with a much heavier focus on live instrumentation than previous outings. Alongside the expected fare of crackly synths, samplers and drum machines, Tusky gets its glossy sheen from a rich tapestry of jazz drums, double bass, grand piano and saxophone.

Most of the tracks are laden with improvised saxophone from Campbell Baum (Sorry, Broadside Hacks) and Ben Vince (Housewives, Joy Orbison), much of which was scrambled by William in post-production, lifting scraps from one song and layering them atop an entirely different track. Elsewhere, session musicians were cherry picked, including Bingo Fury, his drummer Henry Terrett, and a string ensemble led by Caelia Lunniss and Jo Silverston (Spindle Ensemble).

Most surprising is a rap feature from Monika (of South-East London collective Nukuluk), who brings album centrepiece ‘Mildred’ to new heights with a fiery verse on pain. Aside from being the most unlikely addendum to a sombre piano ballad, it demonstrates Robbie & Mona’s natural state of playfulness, forever following emotions and sensuality over any notion of traditional compositional boundaries.
Many of Tusky's tracks owe their inception to cinema, be it the soundtrack to Betty Blue, the glowing films of Wim Wenders, or the surprising parallels between La Belle Et La Bete and Bad Boys. Equally, much of Robbie & Mona's new-found sense of tension and spectacle comes from William’s recent work soundtracking independent filmmakers, while Ellie gave greater priority to threading a narrative through her stream of consciousness writing style.

In all its majesty, Tusky celebrates creativity with creation. “If you begin to see fiction as real, you can reincarnate and become different things. You can grow,” Ellie implores. “Nothing stays the same. You can shed old characters in yourself. There’s great joy in that.”

365XX, das erste Rap-Label in Europa, das sich ausschließlich weiblichem und genderqueerem Talent widmet, beschenkt sich und seine Artists zum dreijährigen Jubiläum mit einem Label-Sampler (inkl. aufwändig illustriertem Artwork von der aus dem Schwesternblog 365 Female MCs bekannten Henrike Ott). Darauf zu hören: CARY, Die P, Mariybu, MIMII, PALAS, SATARII, Skuff Barbie und YETUNDEY.

"Ob man sie nun Darkwave, Synth-Pop, Post-Punk, EBM oder anders nennen sollte, was Body of Light machen, ist Tanzmusik. Und was die Tanzmusik angeht, so trifft sie jede Genusszone genau ins Schwarze." - Treble Bitter Reflection, das vierte Album der Wüstenbrüder Alex und Andrew Jarson alias Body Of Light, verfeinert ihren schwelenden, stürmischen Synth-Pop zu einer transformativen Suite von Hymnen, Träumereien und Abrechnungen. Nach dem Neo-EBM-Klassiker "Time To Kill" (2019) suchten sie nach Inspirationen aus versteckten Momenten in ihren eigenen Arkanen - Kassetten aus der Kindheit, Heimvideos, verworfene Demos - und stellten sich die Frage: "Wie können wir das wachsen lassen?" Gesampelte Schnipsel von Stimmen, Geräuschen, Synthesizern und Feldaufnahmen flackern in der Peripherie der 11 Tracks von Bitter Reflection auf und murmeln wie halb vergessene Nostalgien oder verdrängte Erinnerungen. Zusammen mit Josh Eustis von Telefon Tel Aviv, haben Body Of Light in Los Angeles eine erweiterte Palette von Live-Instrumenten - Klavier, Bass, Saxophon, Akustikgitarre - zusätzlich zu alten Akai-Samplern, Moogs und archaischer Hardware in Bitter Reflection integriert, was dem Album eine eklektische, unvorhersehbare Sound-Palette verleiht. Dies ist Musik zwischen den Zwillingsflammen von Wahrheit und Sehnsucht, Romantik und Realität, Katharsis und Kontrolle, geboren aus einem Band, das durch Jahre, Träume und Blut besiegelt wurde. Bitter Reflection führt durch eine Galerie der anhaltenden Faszinationen von Body Of Light: Depeche-eske Deklarationen des Schreckens und des Exzesses, grüblerische Dancefloor-Epiphanien, liebeskranke Spiegel-Balladen mit orchestralen Stabs von Art Of Noise und sanfte Thomas-Dolby-Melancholien der Stadtsilhouette.

"Ob man sie nun Darkwave, Synth-Pop, Post-Punk, EBM oder anders nennen sollte, was Body of Light machen, ist Tanzmusik. Und was die Tanzmusik angeht, so trifft sie jede Genusszone genau ins Schwarze." - Treble Bitter Reflection, das vierte Album der Wüstenbrüder Alex und Andrew Jarson alias Body Of Light, verfeinert ihren schwelenden, stürmischen Synth-Pop zu einer transformativen Suite von Hymnen, Träumereien und Abrechnungen. Nach dem Neo-EBM-Klassiker "Time To Kill" (2019) suchten sie nach Inspirationen aus versteckten Momenten in ihren eigenen Arkanen - Kassetten aus der Kindheit, Heimvideos, verworfene Demos - und stellten sich die Frage: "Wie können wir das wachsen lassen?" Gesampelte Schnipsel von Stimmen, Geräuschen, Synthesizern und Feldaufnahmen flackern in der Peripherie der 11 Tracks von Bitter Reflection auf und murmeln wie halb vergessene Nostalgien oder verdrängte Erinnerungen. Zusammen mit Josh Eustis von Telefon Tel Aviv, haben Body Of Light in Los Angeles eine erweiterte Palette von Live-Instrumenten - Klavier, Bass, Saxophon, Akustikgitarre - zusätzlich zu alten Akai-Samplern, Moogs und archaischer Hardware in Bitter Reflection integriert, was dem Album eine eklektische, unvorhersehbare Sound-Palette verleiht. Dies ist Musik zwischen den Zwillingsflammen von Wahrheit und Sehnsucht, Romantik und Realität, Katharsis und Kontrolle, geboren aus einem Band, das durch Jahre, Träume und Blut besiegelt wurde. Bitter Reflection führt durch eine Galerie der anhaltenden Faszinationen von Body Of Light: Depeche-eske Deklarationen des Schreckens und des Exzesses, grüblerische Dancefloor-Epiphanien, liebeskranke Spiegel-Balladen mit orchestralen Stabs von Art Of Noise und sanfte Thomas-Dolby-Melancholien der Stadtsilhouette.

The apartheid boycott In the 80s, the world – rightly - stepped up its boycott against South Africa’s apartheid government. But this had unexpected and sometimes adverse consequences for South Africa’s music professionals and consumers. Musicians still needed to work live shows both at home and abroad, and to make and sell records. The youth still aspired to clubbing and partying at the weekend after hard, poorly paid jobs under the thumb of an oppressive government. Music was their sanctuary: specifically, African- American inspired soul, jazz, boogie, disco and funk. Unique diversity Producing musical excellence was nothing new for South Africa, even in the 80s: both traditional and jazz music of various genres had been performed, showcased and recorded for decades with the assistance of some of the most skilled and ingenious sound-engineers and producers in the world, the jazz players rivalling their American peers in many cases. But what makes Mzansi 80s popular music unique is that it had to – and for the most part, did- appeal to a multi-ethnic, multilingual population almost like no other in the world, for its geographical size. There may have been many tribal and political differences between Zulu, Sotho, Xhosa, Tsonga and others day-to-day, but when it came to the weekend, those differences often melted away for a while on the dancefloor. Paul Ndlovu had kwaZulu fans as well as Shangaan followers; Black Moses and the Soul Brothers had followers and fans with everyone..and so on. And everyone- detractors and lovers alike- were content to settle on the monicker ‘Bubblegum’ as a general description. Mzansi took disco- and slowed it down a bit.. ..exactly as 90s and early 2000s South African DJs and mixers took House- and slowed it down a bit to develop Kwaito, Gqom and – later – Amapiano. The Roland TR-707 sampler came along in 1985- at just the right time for the flowering of Mzansi disco and boogie. And in the artful hands of arrangers, engineers and producers such as Peter “Hitman’ Moticoe, whose work figures on several of the tracks here, it became something unique to South Africa. 'Yebo! Rare Mzansi Party Beats from Apartheid's Dying Years' compiled by John Armstrong is out BBE Music on x3 vinyl set in a gatefold sleeve, CD, and across digital platforms for download and streaming.

Just in time for the summer R&C Records is back, delivering a new edition of fresh reworks from the Italo and 80s scene.
Logo side sees a cool re-imagination of “Starter” (which never made on a vinyl before); Lucio’s voice gets a Balearic treatment
through Italo synths and space-disco harmonics sounds!
On the flip side an addictive Electro-Boogie retouch of a well-known anthem from the Synth Pop era.
Limited sampler - Vinyl Only !!

Repress!

Japanese crustpunk and grindcore icon Eri Fuzz-Kristiansen, aka Gallhammer’s Viviankrist, keeps
the curveballs coming on Diagonal with a bloodied mastication of charred noise and and rhythmic
electronics, following up the label’s acclaimed sides by Sote and Not Waving/Jim O’Rourke
Co-released with the metal-minded Ritual Productions label, ‘Cross-Modulation’ is a brutal
testament to the acridly personalised sound that Viviankrist has explored solo since 1995 in Tokyo,
when she performing vocals, sax and SP-202 sampler in her first industrial/noise unit. 23 years
later her music is still sorely raw, yet riddled with a new found poignance and atmospheric unease
that places her music sometimes as close to Kali Malone’s see-sawing dissonance as the power
electronics of Pan Sonic or the possessed pulses of Conrad Schnitzler and Merzbow.
Since the demise of Eri’s main project Gallhammer at the start of this decade, when she moved
from Tokyo to Oslo (home of her husband and bandmate in Sehnsucht, Maniac - also former
vocalist for BM legends Mayhem), she returned to her early Viviankrist alias from 2017 as a place
to express her primitivist-futurist urges, resulting a trio of CDs including the vicious solo strike
of ‘Morgenrøde’ for Cold Spring. Now on ‘Cross-Modulation’ she intuitively tempers that album’s
phosphorous burn with a deadly incisive application of what Black Metal/Techno pioneer Black
Mecha terms “mentation electronics.”
Alloying avant-metal with rhythmic noise, ambient techno and mind-bending drone to a
metallurgic tang, ‘Cross-Modulation’ serves a dense flux of energies in seven parts, piercing a path
thru maelstrom electronics in ‘Eleventh’ to churn up grizzled Vainio-esque rhythms in ‘Blue Iron’,
while the tenderly bruised ambience of ‘Midnight Sun’ provides a bittersweet palette cleanser for
the tart technoid prang of ‘Insects’, a bout of slow gripping psychedelia in ‘Out of Body’, and the
rugged North European pastoralism of ‘Behind Mirror.’

»Ced Gee X Kool Keith«, beide Mitglieder der legendären Ultramagnetic MC's, haben sich für eine neue Ultramagnetic MC's-Platte zusammengefunden. Das Wiederaufleben des klassischen Hip-Hop wird im Jahr 2022 mit der neuen Veröffentlichung von Ultramagnetic MC's »Kool Keith x Ced Gee« fortgesetzt Die Ultramagnetics Kool Keith, Ced Gee und DJ Moe Love, die Mitte der 80er Jahre in der Boogie Down Bronx als weit verstreutes Hip-Hop-Trio mit einem Haufen neuer Ideen auftraten, nehmen so etwas wie einen einzigartigen Platz im Pantheon der alten Schule ein.

Die Ultramagnetic MCs kombinieren funkige Songs mit rockigen Beats und obskuren lyrischen Anspielungen und können auf eine Reihe von Premieren verweisen: Sie waren die erste Rap-Gruppe, die einen Sampler als Instrument einsetzte, die erste, die ausgiebig mit Live-Instrumenten arbeitete und die erste, die einen ehemaligen Psychiatriepatienten (Kool Keith) am Mikrofon hatte.

Frühe Singles wie »Something Else« und »Space Groove« wurden zum festen Bestandteil von Blockpartys und schlugen Wellen im Underground, so dass die Gruppe schließlich bei dem von Disco dominierten Label Next Plateau landete, wo sie ihr unterschätztes Debüt veröffentlichte. In den folgenden Jahren wechselte die Gruppe von Label zu Label und veröffentlichte Alben auf Mercury und Wild Pitch, bevor sie sich trennte, um verschiedene Projekte zu verfolgen. Bei dieser besonderen Veranstaltung werden Kool Keith und Ced Gee klassische Ultramagnetic MCs-Songs vortragen und Geschichten über die Entstehung ihres ikonoklastischen Katalogs erzählen.

unique cut, record plays inside/out and has big engraved grooves between the tracks


Rude 66 dusted off some of his vintage digital samplers and came up with probably one of the most anomalous releases of his discography. In these tracks you can hear influences of early 90s Meat Beat Manifesto and Coil weaving with the typical West-coast vocoder and synths, making "Fragmented Living" sound like it could have been produced anytime from the early days of industrial music to a few decades ahead from now. Another essential release on Pinkman.

What a record! The outstanding Solar Plexus, the much-loved third album from Ian Carr and Nucleus, was first released on Vertigo in 1971. Inevitably, original copies are now very tricky to score and, like all the Nucleus records, it’s aged ridiculously well. This Be With re-issue, re-mastered from the original analogue tapes, shows off just why this deserves to be back in press.

Genius trumpeter and visionary composer Ian Carr was one of the most respected British musicians of his era. He was a true pioneer and saw the potential in fusing the worlds of jazz with rock, just as Miles Davis and The Tony Williams Lifetime did in the US. In late 1969, following the demise of the Rendell-Carr quintet, and tiring of British jazz, Carr assembled the legendary Nucleus. Regarding music as a continuous process, Nucleus refused to “recognise rigid boundaries” and worked on delivering what they saw as a “total musical experience”. We can get behind that.

Under bandleader Carr, Nucleus existed as a fluid line-up of inventive, skilled musicians. This constant evolution and revolution was all part of the continuous musical exploration and discovery that took jazz to new levels. And the music has kept relevant. To steal a line from a review of our re-issue of Roots, when it comes to anything Nucleus “it’s basically already hip-hop”.

We'll let Ian describe this one: "I wrote Solar Plexus' last year with the help of an Arts Council grant. It is based on two short themes which are stated at the beginning (Elements I & I1). The first theme is angular and has a slow, crab-like movement: the second theme is direct, simple and diatonic. CHANGING TIME and SPIRIT LEVEL explore the first theme and BEDROCK DEADLOCK and TORSO explore the second one. SNAKEHIPS DREAM tries to fuse both themes. (The title is a reference to the famous dancer 'Snakehips' Johnson)."

Solar Plexus features the same lineup as Elastic Rock and We'll Talk About It Later, but they're augmented by six guests, three of which play brass. Carr himself had almost full control of the writing and it does feel very different to the previous albums. It's more of a jazz record loosely based on a rock foundation rather than jazz fusion jamming.

The haunting synth-and-bass soundscape "Elements I and II" opens the album in dramatic, experimental fashion. It gives way to the bright, funky feel-good jazz of "Changing Times". An elegant onslaught of horns, courtesy of guests Kenny Wheeler and Harry Beckett, ride a solid groove for the duration. How the brass refrains have eluded samplers is beyond us. The melancholic "Bedrock Deadlock" features the brooding majesty of Jenkins' oboe and Clyne's mournful, skittering double bass. Wah wah guitar, drums and funky percussion then take over before the horns ride us out over frenetic beats. The dark, angular "Spirit Level" is a real highlight, by turns harmonic and beautiful then dissonant and wayward. Wonky jazz with no apparent structure or melodic bones. Regardless, it represents a great showcase for each virtuoso performer.

The breezy soul of "Torso" feels like a breath of fresh air, skipping along in the uptempo style with guitar, horns, drums and bass. A track which truly sounds scintillating, featuring sax solos, fantastic propulsive interplay from all the group around the halfway stage before Marshall gets his chance to really shine in closing out with a polyrhythmic drum solo. Final track "Snakehips' Dream" stretches cooly out over 15 minutes to round out a spellbinding album. An epic, suave groove, it's a relaxing piece with warm electric keys, laconic guitar and languorous horns. Truly sophisticated soulful jazz. An absolute masterclass. We could easily listen to this all day long.

This Be With edition of Solar Plexus has been re-mastered from the original Vertigo master tapes, Simon Francis’ mastering working together with Cicely Balston's cut at AIR Studios to weave their usual magic with these wonderful recordings. The stunning gatefold sleeve has been restored to complete this sensational package.

Get ready for the return of The Noise of Art, with their highly anticipated new album 'The Retrospective.' This concept album features 12 brand new tracks from legendary Suburban Base illustrator, Dave Nodz, under his Noise of Art pseudonym. As the man responsible for so many iconic record sleeves and imagery that built Rave to DnB, Nodz is a true pioneer of the electronic music scene.

To give fans a taste of what's to come, we're excited to present a special four-track album sampler, available on a very limited vinyl release. These tracks showcase Nodz's unparalleled creativity and skill, and provide the perfect introduction to an album that crosses styles and eras, taking listeners on an unforgettable journey through music.
With 'The Retrospective,' The Noise of Art has once again pushed the boundaries of what's possible in electronic music. Keep an eye out for the album, forthcoming on the Subbase Progression label, and be prepared for a truly unforgettable experience.

While the full album will be digital-only this limited EP is your only opportunity to experience these tracks on vinyl. Don't miss out on this unique and collectible release from one of electronic music's true artists and pioneers.

DJ X-cess & Ghost Unit fire up their samplers again with another new 4 track Ep covering Old Skool Hardcore Rave to Jungle.