Whisper it quietly, but Andrew Meecham’s ninth album as The Emperor Machine, Island Boogie, may well be the long-serving producer’s strongest set to date. Of course, all his albums ripple with vintage synth sounds, colourful lead lines, dub-flecked electronic disco grooves and lashings of cosmic intent, but this one just feels a little more special. Island Boogie is certainly special. Meecham’s “most personal” full-length to date, it was inspired by his experiences at the Rotation Garden Party – a beloved micro-festival promoted by a group of friends (including sometime Bizarre Inc and Chicken Lips partner Dean Meredith), renowned for the quality of its custom-built Klipschorn soundsystem. “The album’s title sums up the vibe that you get from Rotation,” he explains. “It may be held in a landlocked venue but it gives a wonderful sense of isolation – it is an audiophile paradise.”
Meecham road-tested rough versions of the album’s eight tracks at Rotation 2023, with the feedback and dancefloor reaction guiding the sound and arrangement of the final mixes. Fittingly, Meecham will return to the event to showcase the album at Rotation 2024 this July. Given the inspiration he’s drawn from previous editions of the festival, that will be a very special occasion. Musically, Island Boogie offers the most fully functioning and expertly constructed expression of The Emperor Machine sound yet, a style Meecham describes as “electronic cosmic disco-boogie”. It’s a sound that takes cues from early ‘80s NYC punk-funk and dub disco, vintage electro, proto-house and left-of-centre synth-boogie, but one that’s instantly recognisable to those who have followed Meecham’s career over the last three decades.
Island Boogie also sees Meecham continue his blossoming working relationship with Severine Mouletin, whose stylish and distinctive vocals previously graced his popular ‘Dance Por Amor’ and ‘Your Own Style’ singles. Here Mouletin features on four tracks: the acid-flecked retro-futurist wave-boogie of ‘La Cassette’ (featuring additional percussion by Rupert Brown); the infectious, bleep-sporting headiness of recent single ‘Devoilez-Vous’; and the squelchy analogue synth-funk of ‘Wanna Pop With You’ and ‘Vas-y-Le Chat’. Meecham also finds space for a cover of Fox’s 1976 pop-rock classic ‘S-s-s-single Bed’, one of the Stafford-based artist’s all-time favourites. His version, featuring headline-grabbing lead vocals by Michelle Bee and guitar from Dave Atherton, re-imagines the track as a subtly Chic-influenced slab of infectious electro-pop rich in kaleidoscopic synth sounds, sing-along choruses and shuffling drums.
The instrumental foundations of the classic Emperor Machine sound come to the fore on the album’s three other cuts. There’s the jazz-funk-flecked warmth of the LP-opening title track; the sparse squelches, bleeps, TB-303 style bass and brightly coloured electronics of ‘Walk The Dog’; and the exotic, slow-motion cosmic electronica of ‘Cha Murrah Etem’, a warm but poignant affair dedicated to his late father. Heady and intoxicating, with hints of Balearica and digital reggae, it offers a fittingly beautiful and tactile conclusion to Meecham’s most expressive and accessible album yet.
Cerca:ac in records
2024 Re-Release
Newly formed archival label Fresh Hold presents one of Australia’s most mysterious jazz long players - Singing Dust, in collaboration with Efficient Space. Almost bound for obscurity from its inception, the eponymous creation of Queensland-based jazz pianist Robert Welsh was originally issued in 1986 on Melbourne independent label Cleopatra Records. Rich in compositional sophistication and expressive performance, Singing Dust resembles a unique fusion of Indian devotional song, the jazz piano styles of Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett, English folk and Debussey’s tonal impressions, bearing little similarity to the dominant commercial and subcultural music of its time.
Representing a culmination of Welsh’s influences in and outside of music, the dynamic collection of seven compositions accompany the Ghazal devotional poems translated by Australian poet Francis Brabazon. While Singing Dust sits loosely within the spheres of exploration that many jazz players took into world fusion in the '80s, it stands alone in its bright searing light of truth, love and austerity.
A true work of dedication and posterity that will appeal to many serious music lovers, the album has finally been transferred and remastered from original tapes by Dan Elleson, superseding the imperfect 1986 pressing and fully realising Welsh’s expansive vision.
Barbara Lynn is a singer, songwriter and musician from a golden era of soul. While she is best known commercially for 'You'll Lose A Good Thing' (1962) there is so much more to her repertoire across ten albums (including 'You're Losing Me' from her Atlantic years classic album 'Here Is Barbara Lynn') and the 7' single 'Movin' On A Groove' remains her most sought after. It's a modern soul indemand anthem, first released in 1976, original copies have exchanged hands for £300. And the now the funkier flip side 'Disco Music' has become indemand in it's own right, this 7' reuniting the two sides as a very strong 45 release for DJs and collectors alike.
Cardinal Fuzz / Feeding Tube Records in collaboration with Deep Water Acres and in tribute to Sunrise Ocean Bender Records bring to you: Elkhorn – ‘Other Worlds.’ Drew Gardner and Jesse Sheppard, the two-guitar duo of Elkhorn, share a musical brotherhood that spans several decades. From their nascent high school socialist-realist post-punk band Mayfirst, to teenage scavenger trips to the Princeton Record Exchange and City Gardens, the two came of age goofing along to the Dead Kennedys, the Butthole Surfers, and Sonic Youth in the dank Jersey/Philly-scene music holes. Elkhorn has long traversed the valleys between fried cosmic psychedelia and American Primitive, particularly the latter style’s reverence for a wide range of folk and blues idioms ranging from County Records compilations to the Mississippi Sheiks. While the pair is best known for their acoustic guitar explorations, ‘Other Worlds’ continues their recent experiments with other instrumental possibilities. For instance, on the previous Elkhorn release ‘On the Whole Universe in All Directions,’ Drew switched to vibraphone and drums, with Jesse playing 12-string guitar. ‘Other Worlds,’ on the other hand, finds them in a recognizable ‘rock trio’ format (in improvisational mode)—Drew is on electric guitar, with Jesse playing bass, and they are again joined by Ian McColm on drums, with the free-flowing groove he brings. On the opening track ‘Watching the Skies’ you can feel the forward propulsion this—dare I say—power trio sets up, a cosmic widescreen which Elkhorn proceed to rock and groove across the whole of ‘Other Worlds.’ Three flawless musicians in their own right, together they form a telepathic psychic link that taps into the otherworldly flow that is ‘Other Worlds,’ as the synergy created by Jesse and Ian leaves Drew plenty of space to take off on exhilarating and soaring flights of fuzzy haze fire that results in a musical journey toward transcendence. Elkhorn demonstrate again and again that there is no height they won't scale, no direction they won't travel. Have Elkhorn ever sounded as heavy or as on fire as the recordings laid down here? You be the judge. The trio is multitudes. The trio is one. Mastering - Chris Hardman Artwork - Brett Savage
Die 1970 von Schlagzeuger Bill Curtis gegründete Fatback Band unterschrieb bei Perception Records, die dieses Debüt 1972 in den USA herausbrachten. 'Let's Do It Again' wurde im Blue Rock Studio in New York aufgenommen und zeichnet sich durch den bald patentierten Fatback-Sound aus. Das Album enthielt Originale, darunter 'Street Dance' (1973 ein Billboard-R&B-Hit), 'Free Form', 'Take A Ride (On The Soul Train)' u.a. Es gab auch Coverversionen von Jimmy Webbs 'Wichita Lineman', David Gates 'Baby I'm A Want You' und dem Evergreen 'Green Green Grass Of Home'.
Viele Jahre lang vergriffen, bringt Ace nun einen wertigen LP-Re-Release mit voller Unterstützung von Bill Curtis.
There are two versions of Perennial: the adventurous art-punk modernists, layering British Invasion pop, 60s soul, 90s Dischord post-hardcore, electronic music, and free-jazz, and the live three-piece whose bombastic 20 minute sets have become a “must-see” in the New England music scene. What started in 2015 as an all-encompassing art project has since grown into an honest-to-goodness word-of-mouth phenomenon, with over 300 shows played in the last six years (including shows with Guerilla Toss, Bully, Calvin Johnson, Jon Spencer, Sheer Mag, Teenage Halloween, and Downtown Boys) and multiple pressings of both of their full-length records. Perennial formed the band they always wanted to hear, and when they play, they're the band they always wanted to see. Perennial’s breakthrough 2022 LP, In The Midnight Hour, was their first time working with producer Chris Teti (The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die), a collaboration that garnered rave reviews from BrooklynVegan, Under The Radar, Post-Trash, Pop Matters, NPR Music and more, and marked a new creative benchmark. Feeling inspired, the band once again worked with Teti on 2023’s 7” EP The Leaves Of Autumn Symmetry, which earned more high praise from Stereogum, Paste, Consequence, Alternative Press, and Bandcamp Daily. Their latest release is the adventurous, experimental mod punk LP Art History, available June 7 via Ernest Jenning Record Co. and Safe Suburban Home.
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (1917 - 1993) was a legendary trumpeter, composer, and bandleader. Gillespie was praised worldwide for his trumpet playing, using not just any trumpet, but one with a bell bent at a 45-degree angle. The unique shape of the instrument, according to his autobiography, was not intentional but the result of an accident. Fortunately, Gillespie liked the altered sound, and this unique shape and sound became the artist's trademark.
Gillespie began playing the trumpet at the age of 13 and formed his first big band in 1937 with Teddy Hill (1909 - 1978). Later, Dizzy Gillespie led his own big band from 1946 to 1950, making pioneering contributions to the jazz world. Gillespie was a versatile musician, known not only as a memorable trumpeter but also as a fantastic pianist and trombonist. He even made an unsuccessful bid for the presidency.
In the 80s, Dizzy Gillespie gave some beautiful and unforgettable performances at North Sea Jazz, and thanks to NSJ Records, NTR, AVROTROS, and MOJO, this legendary concert is now available on LP!
Dizzy Gillespie is one of the LPs that is part of the North Sea Jazz Concert Series. Other concerts in this series feature artists like Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Charles, Dexter Gordon, and Jan Akkerman.
The North Sea Jazz Concert Series will include officially licensed releases that will be released as standard on 180-gram white vinyl in a sleeve of heavy paper and printed on reversed board. The records will be captured in mainly black-and-white artwork by Hans Pol in his signature style of the festival with inspiration from the covers of classic older jazz releases from the Blue Note label, for example. The liner notes are written by journalist and jazz expert Jeroen de Valk
A song is a song until it isn't, until it's pushed to its limits and beyond to become harder, faster and more dissonant. The music on Oneida's 17th full-length album, Expensive Air, all started as tightly structured, melodic rock songs _ very much in line with the non-stop bangers of Success from 2022 _ but along the way, they changed. Bobby Matador sketched the structures of these songs from his home base in Boston, then sent the demos to Oneida's New York contingent: Kid Millions, Hanoi Jane, Shahin Motia and Barry London. "We were working out the songs in New York without Bobby. We would start out riding the riffs, and then Shahin and Jane would add wild, out-of-tune licks," said Kid Millions. "It seemed so perfect." Oneida has long straddled gray-area boundaries between the NYC punk/psych/rock world and the art/experimental world, playing at gritty rock clubs and elevated cultural institutions, including the Guggenheim, MoMA PS1, ICA London, MassMOCA and the Knoxville Museum of Art. The band has been known for extended live improvisational performances, collaborating onstage with Mike Watt, members of Flaming Lips, Portishead, Boredoms, Yo La Tengo, Dead C, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and many others. Oneida's members juggle a wide variety of other music projects. Drummer Kid Millions has played with Spiritualized, Royal Trux and Boredoms and releases solo compositions under his own name and as Man Forever. Shahin Motia founded noise - punk's Ex-Models and currently plays in Knyfe Hits. Kid and Fat Bobby perform and release music as People of the North, and Bobby's outside projects New Pope and Nurse & Soldier each released new albums in 2023. Oneida's previous album, Success, came after a four-year hiatus, unleashing the band's pent up creative energy in a set of catchy, accessible, nearly poppy songs. Song structure remained important in the run up towards Expensive Air, but so was the instinctual, improvisatory interplay that has always been a part of Oneida's process. The band had been playing live together for two years, sharpening its attack and pushing its songs to go harder, faster and wilder. Oneida recorded Expensive Air in three sessions scattered across 2023, convening at Colin Marston's Menegroth The Thousand Caves studio in Woodhaven, Queens, whenever they had a few songs ready. Marston and the band mixed the album in February 2024 at Menegroth. The new album expands on what Oneida achieved with Success, but also pushes past it, laying down irresistible song structures then blowing them to psychedelic bits. "I found myself thinking about this record as a darker, looser, louder, counterpart to Success," Bobby explains. "Both records charge forward from the jump and mix the elliptical with the blunt, and longing with self-mockery. But Success is like laughing in a car gunning carelessly through an ice storm, and Expensive Air is how you laugh at yourself as the car spins into the ditch, or a tree. Same trip, but a little closer to the bone."
Following a ten-year hiatus, multi-instrumentalists Rafael Anton Irisarri and Benoît Pioulard return with »How to Color a Thousand Mistakes«, their third LP together as Orcas. Building on the electronic minimalism of »Orcas« (2012) and the Twin Peaks-inspired haze of »Yearling« (2014), the duo have expanded their sound and vision into a full-spectrum ensemble.
In the time since their last major collaboration, Irisarri and Pioulard have done plenty on their own, while also traversing significant life changes: relocation from Seattle to New York, separation and divorce, illness, hospitalizations, and the loss of siblings, parents, and friends. Yet from these tribulations, they gleaned inspiration to reconstruct their lives, creating music with new collaborators and partners. Recorded in a variety of studios and cities including Brooklyn, Cambridge, Oxford, Seattle, and upstate New York, the resulting album, under the tutelage of UK producer James Brown (Arctic Monkeys, Kevin Shields, Nine Inch Nails), is a patiently-crafted beast, equally inspired by impressionism, British new wave, and dream pop.
With Irisarri’s guidance and Brown’s encouragement, Pioulard brings his velvety voice to its harmonized peak on songs like »Wrong Way to Fall« and the Durutti Column-indebted »Fare«. Where his most recent solo albums for Morr Music (»Sylva« and »Eidetic«) navigated foggy forests of ambient pop and stacked tape loops, here his characteristic blur shifts into focus with a unique degree of clarity and confidence. »How fare against balance do I / Navigate my errors?«, Pioulard sings in a heartbreaking tenor, echoing the album’s broader themes of introspection, grief, loss, trial and trauma.
Lead single, »Riptide«, is a summary of Pioulard’s life changes and personal upheavals in the past decade, »flitting eastward toward a yen deep in the past« and learning to glide through the tumult of ocean waves, as a metaphor for the punches one takes in pursuit of grace. Its towering, key-changing midsection arrives with the monumental drumming of Slowdive’s Simon Scott, a long-time friend and cohort who appears on most songs in the set. Scott’s quintessentially English, jazzier approach offers a balance of force and restraint as the backdrop for Irisarri’s majestic guitars, analog synth lines, and Martin Heyne’s Fender Rhodes counterpoints.
Second single, »Next Life«, began as a sketch by Scott, and reached its final form in the hands of Pioulard and Irisarri, at a point that each had endured major concurrent losses, finding a commonality in the need to gaze over the horizon while acknowledging the unavoidable bittersweetness of letting go – not only of people, but of routines, places, and expectations. It’s one of Orcas’ most nuanced pieces, with a mid-tempo, sunset glow that unfolds into a sparkling, slide-guitar finale as it disappears in the rear view.
On third-act highlight, »Bruise«, Scott is doubled on the drum kit by MONO’s Dahm Majuri Cipolla, whose Liebezeit-influenced metronomy anchors a nimble bass groove from Andrew Tasselmyer (of Hotel Neon), and some of the album's most syncopated, spaced-out interplay, courtesy of Puerto Rican guitar player Orlando Méndez (a childhood friend of Irisarri’s). Originally a droney, fingerpicked guitar demo, »Bruise« is the most storied composition here, having gone through almost a dozen versions and lyrical edits, with Brown distilling hours of improvised performances into the final arrangement.
Throughout »How to Color a Thousand Mistakes«, Irisarri uses his deep well of production experience to paint the stereo field with meticulously designed textures, exemplified on the slow burn of »Heaven’s Despite« and the heady rush of »Swells«. As a mixing and mastering engineer with Black Knoll, he has built a client list that reads as a who’s-who of modern, forward-thinking composition, including Temporary Residence, All Saints Records, and Ghostly International, among many others.
As with previous collaborations, Irisarri and Pioulard bring disparate styles and specialties to the table, but with an interpersonal dynamic that transcends friendship into brotherhood, their open-minded workflow and mutual respect are evident at every turn. »How to Color a Thousand Mistakes« brims with tight, complex art rock songwriting, masterful production, and sonic versatility, informed by a plethora of genres and tonal hues. The title might promise answers, but the gravitational center of the album is the dawning realization that, as you reckon with the infinite whims of the cosmos, there could be none.
Limited Blue Vinyl[28,36 €]
After a 12-year hibernation, Beachwood Sparks emerges with 'Across The River Of Stars,' a transcendent and succinct sonic odyssey. Under the guiding hand of Chris Robinson, the band's revival showcases their growth and musical maturity. From their indie roots to this celestial return, the album bridges the past and present, offering a journey through cosmic and earthy landscapes. Within it's nine songs Across The River Of Stars invites listeners to rediscover Beachwood Sparks.
Black Vinyl[28,36 €]
After a 12-year hibernation, Beachwood Sparks emerges with 'Across The River Of Stars,' a transcendent and succinct sonic odyssey. Under the guiding hand of Chris Robinson, the band's revival showcases their growth and musical maturity. From their indie roots to this celestial return, the album bridges the past and present, offering a journey through cosmic and earthy landscapes. Within it's nine songs Across The River Of Stars invites listeners to rediscover Beachwood Sparks.
SHHE, Scottish-Portuguese sound artist and producer Su Shaw, is releasing new mini-album, ‘DÝRA’, on July 19th via One Little Independent Records. The ambient project took form during a self-directed artist residency in the Westfjords of Iceland, influenced by the tranquillity of the Dýrafjörður fjord. Immersed in a distinct landscape with quietly monumental surroundings, Shaw began documenting her experience of the environment through field recordings and environmental data captured across several geographical locations.
‘DÝRA’ is an exploratory and mesmerising durational piece, evocative in its construction, inviting listeners to imagine their own space and scale within a landscape. Reflective, textured, and pensive, with expansive synths that further showcase Shaw’s deftness in sculpting immersive and introspective soundscapes.
Dýrafjörður is a 32-kilometre-long fjord in the Ísafjarðarbær municipality, in the Westfjords of Iceland. Shaw originally embarked on a 10-day residency in 2018, during which the village experienced an immense storm, hindering her schedule. Shaw explains, “It was my first visit to Iceland, and I’d made myself a meticulous itinerary in advance, which included recording at the summit of some of the peaks in the fjord. When the storm arrived after only a few days, it made any kind of travel challenging – so partly out of necessity to be able to continue developing the project, I began recording my immediate surroundings instead – attuned to incidental sounds from around the village and fluctuating weather states – and I quickly built up an archive of the environment”.
Numero's Hottest Sounds Around trio gathers castaway late-'70s grooves from across the Greater Antilles. Stan Chaman's Trinidadian Semp concern delivered Wilfred Luckie's wobbly "My Thing" and the Hamilton Brothers' calypso-disco smash "Music Makes The World Go `Round" in 1978. Across the sea, Frank Penn's G.B.I studio tracked Stephen Colebrook's Doobies-inspired "Stay Away From Music" for the cruise ship curious. All three are housed in a custom Numero sleeve inspired by Edward Seaga's Caribbean music manufacturing and distribution powerhouse WIRL (West Indies Records Ltd.)
Tropics Green Colored Vinyl. Numero's Hottest Sounds Around trio gathers castaway late-'70s grooves from across the Greater Antilles. Stan Chaman's Trinidadian Semp concern delivered Wilfred Luckie's wobbly "My Thing" and the Hamilton Brothers' calypso-disco smash "Music Makes The World Go `Round" in 1978. Across the sea, Frank Penn's G.B.I studio tracked Stephen Colebrook's Doobies-inspired "Stay Away From Music" for the cruise ship curious. All three are housed in a custom Numero sleeve inspired by Edward Seaga's Caribbean music manufacturing and distribution powerhouse WIRL (West Indies Records Ltd.)
2024 Repress
'The Magical World of The Strands' is one of the most accomplished albums of British songwriting of all time. Why every household doesn't have a copy, I don't know. Seriously, I think it's a masterpiece' - Richard Hawley
'Mick Head is a genius' - Noel Gallagher
Michael Head has announced details of the release of his first album of new material in over 11 years.
Recorded under the name of Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band, 'Adiós Señor Pussycat' is released on Violette Records on Friday 20th October 2017.
Beautiful and evocative and recorded in his home-town of Liverpool between March 2016 and June 2017, the album is the culmination of four years of hard work. Equal to his finest moments, Adiós Señor Pussycat will undoubtedly only further cement his reputation as one of this generations greatest songwriters.
Dedicated to the power of pop music, Sobs are Singapore’s premier indiepop propagandists. After releasing a breakout bedroom pop EP Catflap and a dream-jangle LP Telltale Signs that brought international embrace, Sobs now assemble a front-to-back indiepop behemoth – Air Guitar – after a much anticipated three-year wait.
A thirty-minute trip for the post-Internet consumer, Air Guitar calibrates inventive pop hooks for the indie rock lover, instantly accessible yet intricately arranged. The album draws a line through the history of pop stylistics from 80s new wave ("Last Resort") and 90s power-pop ("Burn Book") to 00s sk8er punk and radio pop ("Air Guitar"). Further informed by the cosmopolitan, culturally astute ethos of PC Music – Sobs connects the uptempo of Shibuya’s Advantage Lucy ("Lucked Out"), heart-on-sleeve indie rock of Bettie Serveert and Big Star ("World Implode"), with the eclecticism of New York’s Darla Records ("Friday Night") to define the pulse of indiepop then and now.
[i] B5 Cool (Gwen Stefani Cover) [Bonus Track]
Original[27,31 €]
Turnover have teamed up with a team of collaborators to release Myself in the Way: Remixes, a new vinyl release that features reimagined versions of the band’s infectious and trippy album Myself in the Way. Artists like Young Guv and Anthenagin offer drum & bass updates to singles “Myself in the Way” and “Wait Too Long,” while prior touring partner Healing Potpourri adds to the psychedelic trance of “Moun- tains Made of Clouds.” Even Turnover’s own Austin Getz contributes three remixes, turning songs like “People That We Know’ and “Stone Station” into trance-influenced elec- tronic jams. Youtube sensation Frank Watkinson closes out the album with a different interpretation of “Mountains Made of Clouds,” with only an acoustic guitar and the song’s heart- breaking lyrics to recontextualize the song as what feels like a timeless folk-ballad.
This isn't just a seminal album. It is an estuary. All the black rivers that would form Brazilian funk/hip-hop flow through it. Led by Paulista pianist Salvador Silva Filho - Dom Salvador - 'Som, Sangue, e Raça' from 1971, one year after the explosion of Tim Maia on the scene, catalyzed the bossa nova and jazz background of its leader with the rhythm and blues of its members like saxophonist Oberdã Magalhães, nephew of samba-enredo master Silas de Oliveira and future leader of Banda Black Rio, who since the group Impacto 8 (which had, among others, Robertinho Silva on drums and Raul de Souza on trombone) had already been trying to reconcile MPB with Stevie Wonder and James Brown. Add to all this a mixture of samba, Nordestino accent, and even the black side of the Jovem Guarda represented by the authorial presence of Getúlio Cortes (older brother of Gerson King Combo, our James Brown 'cover') in 'Hei! Você'. Alongside these elements and the presence of Rubão Sabino (bass), who still called himself 'Rubens', drummer Luis Carlos (another member of Black Rio), the record enlists the trumpet and flugelhorn of symphonic musician Darcy in place of the original Barrosinho (yet one more founder of Black Rio), who was traveling during the recording but would end up being a leading force of the band.
The album 'Som, Sangue e raça' paves the way for future generations of musicians and producers of the Carioca scene at the beginning of the 1970s. The lyrics that dealt with the question of race and the explosive fusion of samba, soul, jazz, and funk, elaborated by Dom Salvador and his troupe, Abolição, established the bases for the development of new sounds and tendencies in Brazilian music.


















