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IKOQWE (pronounced ee-kok-weh) is a new project by Batida (aka Pedro Coquen o, the Angola-born, Lisbon-raised artist who ranks among the leading exponents of the new wave of African electronic music), and Luaty Beir o, aka Ikonoklasta, the Angolan rapper turned iconic activist.
IKOQWE’s inspiration comes from old school Hip Hop as much as from traditional Angolan music. The album (entitled ‘The Beginning, the Medium, the End and the Infinite’) includes drum machines, vocals in Angolan slang, Umbundu, Portuguese & English, discussions about neocolonialism, iniquities and falsified history, radio sounds, utopian solutions, and much more.
The album will be preceded by a 3-track digital single, ‘Pele’ (‘Skin’), containing the album version, and remixes by afro house legend Bodhi Sattva and by UK ‘disco noir’ band MADMADMAD. Also check out the music video for ‘Pele’, including some footage from IKOQWE’s first live performance.

Debut commercial mixtape by Australian rapper/singer, which was released digitally in July 2020 by Grade A Productions and Columbia Records (released via RCA Records in UK). Production was handled by twenty one record producers, including Benny Blanco, Bobby Raps, Cashmere Cat and Taz Taylor. It features guest collaborations from Corbin Smidzik, Juice Wrld and Lil Mosey. It received a nomination for Best Hip Hop Release at the 2020 ARIA Music Awards. This is a standard single LP on black vinyl. Strong radio airplay support. Promo/marketing activity across all media outlets. Includes the current Top 5 hit 'Without You'.

Dream Violence, Michael Beach’s fourth full-length, is an epic album that explores the duality of the human condition. Or, as Beach himself puts it, the album is about “human futility, passion, desire, anger, frustration, and the struggle to maintain hope in a somewhat hopeless time.” Dream Violence, then, addresses the existential crisis of being an artist in 2020.

Known for his work touring with the Australian guitar pop band Thigh Master and the late, brilliantly eccentric Israeli guitarist Charlie Megira, currently the focus of a number of reissues by the Numero Group, Beach is the architect of a sound that is both well-built and ramshackle, straightforward and indeterminably complex, out of the norm yet familiar in all the best ways.

Dream Violence unfolds like a revelation, filled with sonic tumbleweeds that reference Neil Young’s On the Beach, Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska, the Velvet Underground’s Loaded, and the Go Betweens’ Before Hollywood. Influences ranging from the enigmatic outlier Megira to Glenn Branca to the Oblivians are combined to create a new, exhilarating sound, part of the path that Beach has been on since 2008’s Blood Courses. A veteran of year-end indie rock round ups beginning with Golden Theft in 2013 and continuing with Gravity/Repulsion, released in 2017, Beach distills the best of those early albums and adds sharpened intent.

Dream Violence works beautifully as a start-to-finish album. There are magnificent stand-alone moments: “Spring,” a raggedly building ballad that perfectly captures the ennui attached to new beginnings; “De Facto Blues,” a born-to-lose anthem that, says Beach, “is the sound of people totally at their wits end;” “Curtain of Night,” a simultaneously derelict and bright tribute to the late Megira, which sounds like it could’ve been cut at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio after the Rolling Stones wrapped up sessions for Sticky Fingers; and the delicately vulnerable “You Found Me Out,” which evokes equal parts Lou Reed and Joni Mitchell. On the latter, the lyrics “You found me out, on a ship at sea, you pulled me in, made a wreck of me,” encapsulate “the aimless of a modern world view in a future without hope and the draw/dependence of love in those times,” Beach explains.

Through music, Beach strives to convey both passion and compassion, energy and action. “My hope is that something gets communicated that makes people think outside of themselves or their surroundings,” he says. “To ask questions, and consider the effects of their decisions. To communicate some essential part of the human spirit that understands intuitively how to feel connected to each other rather than divide, exploit, separate, ignore, and all the other heinous shit we have the ability to do with each other.”

Recorded on two continents, Dream Violence documents Beach’s move from Oakland, California to Melbourne, Australia as he navigated a new music scene, plenty of bureaucratic red tape, and, ultimately, citizenship. Parts of the album were recorded and mixed at Tiny Telephone Recording in Oakland, at the end of a 2019 tour with Kelley Stoltz producing. Other tracks were recorded at Beach’s new home in Melbourne, where he could be “relaxed and sloppy in all the right ways,” and partially remixed at Phaedra Studios.

At the Memphis-based Goner label, Beach joins an increasingly unique roster of international musicians that reaches far beyond garage or indie rock to encompass artists like gospel singer Rev. John Wilkins, Kentucky rockers Archaeas, New Orleans iconoclasts Quintron and Miss Pussycat, and no-wavers Optic Sink.

- The definitive overview of one of Canada's unsung musical heroes - Rare/previously unreleased recordings, photos, and interviews - Lyrics, discography, and filmography - Audio re-mastered by John Baldwin Mastering - Artwork by Christi Belcourt and Alanna Edwards - Liner notes by Kevin Howes (Voluntary In Nature) - Contributions from the Dunn family, Bob Robb, and Alanis Obomsawin (OC) // How did you first experience the poetry, music, and film of Willie Dunn? In a Montreal coffeehouse during the mid-1960s? On a CBC Indian Magazine broadcast with host Johnny Yesno? At a Toronto record store or Native Friendship Centre at the turn of the 1970s? Waiting outside of the Mohawk Nation Longhouse? Maybe in your parent's record collection on the Rez? A White Roots of Peace gathering? Pow wow? The Mariposa Folk Festival? Or was it that Save James Bay Benefit back in '73? On a good friend's stereo? Sitting around a crackling campfire? How about an old NFB film reel or VHS tape in high school? Or while attending Manitou College? A German concert hall in the 1980s? Maybe a direct action protest on the colonial streets of Canada? Busking in Ottawa during the 1990s? College radio? At Willie's celebration of life service in 2013 alongside Alanis Obomsawin and Willy Mitchell? LITA's Grammy-nominated Native North America (Vol. 1) compilation or the very anthology you hold in your hands? There should be no judgment for coming to things when you do. All that's important is remaining open to life-changing messages such as these_ Willie Dunn shared truth through song and celluloid. His original composition, "I Pity the Country," is an unparalleled statement on the greed and hate created by humankind, recorded in 1971 and still unfortunately needed today. "It's like the reason you're supposed to make music," said Kurt Vile about the song to MOJO Magazine in 2015. With "Charlie," Willie was the first to deliver the devastating story of Chanie Wenjack and the Canadian residential school system to the music community, nearly 50 years before the much-celebrated Secret Path, yet ignored outside of Indian Country and the folk festival circuit. Dunn's film technique, featured in 1968's The Ballad of Crowfoot (NFB), predates the "Ken Burns effect" to great effect. Are you catching the drift? Willie Dunn was not only a trailblazing leader in his time, but well ahead of the curve, simply without the PR push and big money backing of major label players. "He was our Leonard Cohen," said singer-songwriter Eric Landry about his musical hero. The only difference is that Willie refused to play the Hollywood showbiz game. In talent, he is Cohen, Dylan, and Cash rolled into one and along with Buffy Sainte-Marie, Floyd Red Crow Westerman, and A. Paul Ortega, brought a new set of perspectives and realities to the folk music tradition. Willie spoke directly to his people and Mother Earth through his creations, not only from experience but by examining his roots and connecting with the world in which he lived. We are humbled to help honor Willie Dunn. May he never be forgotten_ PEACE

American music icon releases her 50th solo studio album via Sony Legacy. The record premieres 13 new recordings of a career spanning selection of songs illuminating her vast repertoire. Collaborators include Reba McEntire, Carrie Underwood, Margo Price and Tanya Tucker. Lead single 'Still Woman Enough' is receiving specialist radio airplay. A superb 4* lead review in Mojo magazine and other strong reviews across country music specialist publications, plus broadsheets. Online/social media activity. Poster campaign and database mailout.

A brand new 20 track album released via Sony Music Masterworks. A unique celebration of immigrants around the world, showcasing works inspired and contributed to by artists who either identify themselves as immigrants, are from immigrant heritage or wish to express support for those international immigrants who have found themselves judged or disadvantaged by pure accident of birth - Nitin's sequel to his 1999 seminal album 'Beyond Skin'. Jools Holland TV performance plus other promo/marketing activity.

Sony Classical release - OST from the forthcoming Netflix film directed by Ryan Murphy based on the hit Broadway musical from Bob Martin, Chad Beguelin and Matthew Sklar. The album includes all sixteen songs from the original musical, each newly recorded by the film’s star studded cast including Meryl Streep, James Corden, Nicole Kidman, Kerry Washington, Andrew Rannells, Keegan-Michael Key, Ariana DeBose and newcomer Jo Ellen Pellman. Limited double gatefold LP pressed on purple vinyl. CD was released December 18th 2020. Specialist marketing activity.

Solution were a Dutch rock band that were active from 1970 to 1983, with an additional reunion taking place in 2006. Solution is their impressive self-titled debut album, which was recorded over just three consecutive days in 1971. Blending psychedelic and prog with jazz, Solution created a unique sound. Some of the tracks, such as “Koan” and “Circus Circumstances” (the latter of which was based on a composition by French composer Jacques Ibert), see the band playing frantically as an ensemble, while the shorter and more peaceful “Preview” provides a nice change of pace. The theme of “Preview” ended up being used on later releases by Solution as well.

At the end of the '60s in Italy - but also abroad, especially in France and England - a very particular trend began to spread, that one known as 'Library music' or 'sonorization': as suggested by its name, those were real music libraries intended for the accompaniment of audiovisual productions such as

television programs, advertisements, documentaries and films. Since they were created in total artistic freedom condition, they are often difficult if not impossible to catalog, as they're not anchored to a specific musical genre; this freedom also allowed the authors to compose, sometimes in the most complete anonymity, experimental and avant-garde music, capable of anticipating the sounds that only many years later would have been widespread on a larger scale.

Egisto Macchi (1928-1992) was one of the most active composers of the sonorization and soundtrack genres together with artists such as Piero Umiliani, Alessandro Alessandroni and Ennio Morricone; he also collaborated with the latter in the experimental music project Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza. "Fauna Marina" is among his most popular and sought-after by collectors titles: a set of eleven compositions intended to accompany the images of a hypothetical fish fauna documentary, an abstract hybrid of classical, contemporary and jazz music that is still fresh and surprising today.

"Fauna Marina" is part of a reissues series, made in collaboration with Edizioni Leonardi (Milan, Italy), of extremely rare library music LP's published between late '60s and early '70s, most of which have never been released again until today, and that are finally made available again for

collectors and sonorization music lovers.

Mia Maria Johansson has been active on Sweden’s underground scene since the early 2000s, both as a part of indie/electro/punk band Meine Kleine Deutsche and critically acclaimed and award winning punk act Snake but also choring with Swedish indie rock star Hurula. On March 19, her debut LP ‘Slay’ is out on Lazy Octopus Records (MANKIND, Holy Now, The Presolar Sands etc.)
‘Slay’ was written at home after a messy break-up, the Garageband home recordings have then been perfected in the studio with the ambition to keep the simple and direct feeling of the beats and melody.
Mia Maria Johanssons’ debut is a record that treats the subject of owning your own destiny and allow yourself to dream. To let go of the thoughts that hold you back. This have been melted down into eight straight-forward alternative rock anthems that are instantly
memorable.

They Say: “Exploring the wide range of moods and sounds produced by percussion”.

We say: MPCs at the ready because this does exactly what it says on the tin, to devastating effect. Oh, and the sleeve is stunning.

Originally released in 1979, Percussion Spectrum was produced by the legendary percussionists Barry Morgan and Ray Cooper. With dope beats taking in diverse styles, from funk and soul and jazz through to Latin, Brazilian, samba and Afro-Cuban, this is an amazing sample source filled with killer drum-breaks and percussion flares. Unsurprisingly it’s one of the most sought-after records from the Themes catalogue.

This library LP is a library in itself, with its mix of short themes of single beats, short breaks and some longer, more fully-formed DJ-friendly tracks. Trust us when we say that this is a box full of percussion firework ready to be thrown onto the dancefloor at the just right moment. We don’t have anywhere near enough space to describe all 34 tracks (there isn’t even enough room on the labels to list them all!) so we’ll pick out some favourites.

Favourites like opener “Impulsion”, a percussive masterclass with drum upon drum upon drum making it feel like a neat prototype to the percussive underscores of Peter Lüdemann and Pit Troja’s eternal The Now Generation LP. And the dramatic “Fast Action” is exactly that, racing along on a rapid roll of congas, cymbal crashes and throbbing kicks. “The Chaser” is classic library cop-funk with dilapidated drum figures, and the outrageously funky “Heat On” is the perfect accompaniment to your wild action sequences.

A real highlight is “Runaway”, and not just because it sounds like nothing else on the record. Here are drums and percussion in that tight funk style that just cries out to be sampled. “Percussion Power” is an extended, near-three minute suite of funky drum solo after funky drum solo that just aches to be looped: open drums to die for people! “Shivers” is a tense, apprehensive underscore with shock stabs that builds to a climax whilst “Drums On Parade” is a showcase of head-nod drums and cymbals in march time. Did someone say “funky”?

Side B starts with a stroll down “Samba Street”. With the noise of the crowd in the background, this is riotous, authentically drawn samba that sounds like it’s been beamed straight in from Rio in full flow. Drop this at midnight and watch the cobwebs fly off any dancefloor. Prefer it without the fake crowd? “Samba Street (b)” has you covered.

The simple, innocent “Child’s Themes” (all five of them) provide a nice, sweet respite from all the funk. Nursery sounds tinged with only a touch of melancholy. The gentle marimba solo of “Tropical Peace” only adds to the sense of serenity we get from the relatively calm second side. The album closes out with a veritable toolkit of tom toms, snare drum rolls, timpani, vibraphones and chiming bells.

Percussion Spectrum is a joyous collection of sounds, as bright, beaming and downright funky as the vibrant cover. The Themes series is known for each record having its own particularly striking sleeve, which was unusual for library records at the time, and Percussion Spectrums’s multi-coloured drumsticks make for one of the most eye-catching.

As with all of our other Themes re-issues, the audio for Percussion Spectrum comes from the original analogue tapes and has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis. As usual Richard Robinson has taken the same care with restoring the original sleeve from archive scans. This is another one ticked off the list of library records that should be out there for anyone who wants a copy.

They Say: “Contemporary scores for visual effect”.

We say: Synth-heavy, low-slung space-funk masterpiece.

The creator of the romping tunes that became the iconic themes to the BBC’s Grandstand programme and their televised Wimbledon Tennis Championship coverage, Keith Mansfield was perhaps KPM’s most prolific artist from the mid 1960s right the way through the 1980s. As well as the sort of pop orchestral sound that is all over these classic library records, he could also turn his hand to raw, edgy rock and funk. Quentin Tarantino is a big fan, going as far as including some of Keith’s work on the soundtracks to Kill Bill and Grindhouse.

This is it. This is THE ONE for us: Keith “The Man” Mansfield’s Vivid Underscores from 1977. A sample freak’s wet dream and one of Be With Rob’s favourite ever KPM records. A must for fans of Brian Bennett’s Voyage (yes, THAT good). And no, we’ve no idea either why it took us this long to get round to tackling this monster of a record. But then again some things are worth waiting for.

Attention! Calling all crate diggers, DJs, beat heads, Hip Hop junkies, MF DOOM fans! Behold! Vivid Underscores makes sampling easy. Prepare to be up all night, every night, chopping, looping and splicing these endless grooves and spacey synths. The highlights are too many and too mind-blowing so we’ll pull out a few particular highlights. Trust us, this library LP is just jaw-dropping.

“High Velocity” sets the tone with its aggressive horns, wah-wah guitars, funky baseline and wobbly synth refrain. So good and so hypnotic that Memphis Bleek just had to swipe the ominous, frazzled intro for “What You Think of That” featuring Jay-Z. Also, for real drama, the 1985 Lakers retrospective “Return to Glory” used it to soundtrack the footage from the legendary game five of the NBA finals at the Forum. Heady days. “Crash Course” - Stetsasonic horn refrain? Beautiful - jazzy chase-funk, amazing warm keys, percussion and funky horns - all action.

The more restrained “Matter Of Urgency” is an utterly amazing, brass-heavy underscore. The grandiose, uplifting “Dawn Of Aquarius” still sounds like the future with its tense, thundering drums, killer bassline and swirling synths. Version II loses the drums and percussion but is no less startling. “Staying Power” closes the first side with a relentless, pounding groove which *will* snap your neck. Be warned.

“Trucking Company” is a pacey, synth-and-string masterpiece and its accompanying parts (a–c) mess with the formula to great effect. Part (a) adds echo delay to really dazzle and part (c) plays the breezy, beautiful middle section without the tension. “Hot Cargo” and “Espionage” are both tense spy-funk themes par excellence. “Interplay” is a quiet killer, with flutes over a glistening piano refrain just waiting to be looped. The intro to the menacing “Omen” might’ve been sampled by 7L & Esoteric for their classic “So Glorious” but the entire 5 minute track is a mini-drama masterpiece, one only Mansfield could create.

Even though its a mix of short themes in-and-amongst longer, full-length tracks, Vivid Underscores is still thoroughly listenable from start to finish. That’s not something that can be said of all library records and it still manages to serve as rich resource to keep even the keenest samplers busy for a while.

As with all of our KPM re-issues, the audio for Vivid Underscores comes from the original analogue tapes and has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis. And as usual, the sleeve reproduction duties were handed over to Richard Robinson, the current custodian of KPM’s brand ident

Since 2010, Adam Keith's solo project Cube has been supplying a steady run of records and cassettes that capture songwriterly fixations and frustrations in a dextrous style of wounded electronics. Though Cube has been the centrepiece of his activity for some years, he's all the while remained active in collaborations, playing in bands such as SPF and Mansion to name just a few. Rounding off a decade of dialogues and agitations, Alter now presents Keith's third LP under the moniker of Cube, 'Drug of Choice' Based in New York, though managing a functional transience that takes in California too, Keith's latest iteration as Cube launches a panoramic set of sonic touchstones into a gristly and hypnotic orbit. Seismic drum machine parts partition an album that layers industrial-tipped takes on digi-dub with roaming guitar lines, piano vignettes, and breakbeat theatrics. For all the abrasiveness and rhythmic allusions that Keith employs, his use of voices alongside lush manipulations of errant samples and atmospheres tempers the commotion, delivering something that feels as much focused on artful constructions of private experiences as it does the cathartic qualities of noise.

As a rock icon and filmmaker with a unique vision, ROB ZOMBIE has continuously challenged audiences as he stretches the boundaries of both music and film. He has sold more than fifteen million albums worldwide, and is the only artist to experience unprecedented success in both music and film as the writer/director of eight feature films with a worldwide gross totaling more than $150 million.
ROB ZOMBIE has achieved great success in the music industry, first as a member of the multi-platinum band WHITE ZOMBIE and later as a solo artist with even greater results collecting numerous multi-platinum and gold albums along the way including Hellbilly Deluxe, The Sinister Urge and Educated Horses. In 2013, the seven-time GRAMMY® nominee released his fifth solo album, Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor, on his Zodiac Swan label through UMe. The album debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 and spawned two Top 10 Active Rock singles, “Dead City Radio and the New Gods of Super Town” and Zombie’s spin on GRAND FUNK RAILROAD’s anthemic “We’re An American Band.”
In April 2016, ZOMBIE released his 6th studio album, The Electric Warlock Acid Witch Satanic Orgy Celebration Dispenser. The album debuted at number six on the Billboard Top 200 making it the sixth consecutive release to debut Top Ten. Produced by Zeuss, it was recorded and mixed at Goathouse Studios. A full return to form by the rock icon, The Electric Warlock… features John 5 (Guitar), Piggy D (Bass) and Ginger Fish (Drums).
October 2020 sees the release of the first new ZOMBIE track and video in over four years — “King Freak: A Crypt Of Preservation And Superstition” off of the forthcoming full-length album entitled The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy. A classic ZOMBIE album through and through with high-energy rages like The Eternal Struggles of the Howling Man and Get Loose to heavy-groove thumpers like Shadow Of The Cemetery Man and Shake Your Ass-Smoke Your Grass. This new slab of ZOMBIE madness hits in early 2021
For the past two decades ROB ZOMBIE has also directed dozens of music videos for himself as well as other artists including Ozzy Osbourne. ZOMBIE was also the first self-directed artist to win an MTV Video Music Award. He’s also directed a special episode of CBS’s CSI: Miami, two Comedy Central specials, and uncharacteristically macabre commercials for various brands.

– 31 tracks from Capcom’s 2012 ‘dramatic horror’ sequel
– Music by international composition team and live orchestral recordings

Capcom and Laced Records continue their international alliance with the Resident Evil 6 (Original Soundtrack) vinyl release. 31 tracks specially mastered for vinyl will be pressed to two heavyweight, 180g LPs, housed in a gatefold sleeve with artwork by Capcom and designer Boris Moncel. The Limited Edition variant — exclusive to the Laced Records store — features ‘Coke Bottle Green’ discs, while the Standard Edition will have traditional black vinyl.

In a series known for multiple playable characters, Resident Evil 6 upped the ante with players navigating four distinct, action-packed scenarios set across the world. The experienced composition team comprised Thomas Parisch, Laurent Ziliani, Daniel Lindholm and Sebastian Schwartz alongside Capcom stalwarts Kota Suzuki, Akihiko Narita, Azusa Kato and Akiyuki Morimoto. The rip-roaring score for the ‘dramatic horror’ title was recorded with the 90-piece Sydney Scoring Orchestra.

The debut mixtape from Bad Boy Chiller Crew, includes the hits ‘450’, ‘Guns Up’ and ‘German Engineering’.
The debut mixtape from Bradford’s Bad Boy Chiller Crew (BBCC). With over 150 million+ organic streams on their own channels, a feature-length fly-onthe-wall VICE documentary and broadsheet tips for 2020 stardom, the group already have a formidable fanbase and infamy to be reckoned with. In fact, they’re already a fully-fledged organic phenomenon.
MCs Kane, GK, Clive are deeply influenced by the ‘bassline house’ clubbing heritage they grew up around in the North of England as well as emergent UK and US rap. The boys’ have created something of their own new sound, lacing pacey 4x4 bass-quakes with a frantic lyrical fire that veers from infectious
ear-worm hooks to wry observational punchlines. Think The Streets meet T2’s ‘Heartbroken’.
Embracing the term ‘charva’ as a way-of-life, together they channel the nuances and absurdities of northern street life into hugely addictive tunes. These lifelong friends are already celebrities around their Yorkshire locale, with a rabid social media following that devours both their singular brand of bassline-rap bangers.
12-inch gatefold LP on heavyweight 180-gram vinyl. Includes BBCC kingsize rolling papers. A2 fold out poster. Full lyrics and unseen images

The dusty streets of apartheid-era Soweto, 27 July 1987. The politically charged funeral of a young activist who fled South Africa to became a commander in the military wing of Nelson Mandela's African National Congress. Police await in armoured cars. The funeral is restricted by specific government decree.

The man being buried is Peter Motau, assassinated in neighbouring Swaziland on the orders of South Africa's most notorious government-sanctioned killer, Eugene de Kock, orders carried out by his secret police unit in a bloody ambush.

For De Kock and the apartheid government, Peter Motau was a terrorist. For the singing, chanting mourners at his funeral, he was a freedom fighter, a hero from the streets of Soweto itself.

ZA87 is a raw audio document of one extraordinary day under apartheid. A father mourns, himself breaking the regulations declaring any political statements at the funeral illegal. Young activists, the "Comrades", sing in praise of the banned ANC's military wing, sirens blare, helicopters hover overhead, a police officer orders all television and photojournalists to leave. Nigel Wrench's microphone remains. Also there is Winnie Mandela, on behalf of the ANC's exiled leadership. Banned from speaking at the funeral, she speaks instead into Wrench's microphone and stages a remarkable intervention as the police seek to detain activists.

The authorities sought to keep the events of that day away from the eyes and ears of anyone who wasn't there. ZA87 breaks that silence.

Nigel Wrench is an award-winning journalist whose career began in South Africa under apartheid. He is the winner of a Sony Award for "Out This Week", BBC Radio's first national lesbian and gay news programme, and a New York Radio Award for BBC Radio 4's "Aids and Me", chronicling his experience of living with HIV. "Few journalists have quite so intimately captured the essence of their era's great moral panics as Nigel Wrench" (The Quietus).

ZA87 is the follow-up to Wrench's acclaimed first cassette on The Tapeworm, ZA86, "a remarkable documentation of South Africa under apartheid in 1986" (Boomkat), "chilling and at times stunningly beautiful" (The Quietus), "stylistically not dissimilar to Adam Curtis's 2015 documentary 'Bitter Lake', its hypnagogic float through the rushes feels curiously vivid, free of the dating or distancing effect further media packaging might bring" (The Wire).

Following on from the likes of Goat, Josefin Öhrn, Hills, Flowers Must Die, Centrum and GÅS - VED continue to be among the wonderful plethora of Swedish bands to release their exploratory music on Rocket Recordings. With 3 albums, 3 EPs (including one on Rocket), a compilation on labels like Höga Nord and Adrian Recordings already behind them this Malmö 5 piece are famed for creating trance inducing, repetitive, psych. Their ever evolving sound has always taken in many global influences, from Middle Eastern to African to the monotonous explorations of composers like Steve Reich and Terry Riley. Rhythmically driven like the jittered ecstasy of a Post Punk band covering a Oriental Surf a track, “Ett visst fängelse” (translated as ‘A Certain Prison’) establishes a pulsating
clink clack shimmer that is as hyper actively addictive as CAN in full animated instrumental groove. “The Embrace Of The Oarfish” the lead track, advances the propulsive pummeling to a more aggressive sound centred around a repetitive single bass note that masquerades like an menacingly deep percussive outlaw. The looming ribbon like nature of the track slithers like the giant sea serpent the title alludes too - some say the Oarfish can forecast earthquakes themselves, maybe its the resonance of the bomb shelter in
Malmö that is the bands rehearsal space that imposes itself tremor like through their oscillating work. The firewood that is VED’s work has reminiscent echoes of the primal work of UK act Snapped Ankles, but VED’s journey is a wholly unique controlled burn where rapid oxidation devours any listener into a blaze of restorative enchantment.

British artist Robin Rimbaud (Scanner) traverses the experimental terrain between sound and space connecting a bewilderingly diverse array of genres. Since 1991 he has been intensely active in sonic art, producing concerts, installations and recordings, the albums Mass Observation (1994), Delivery (1997), and The Garden is Full of Metal (1998) hailed by critics innovative and inspirational works of contemporary electronic music. Committed to working with cutting edge practitioners he has collaborated with Bryan Ferry, Wayne McGregor, Mike Kelley, Carsten Nicolai, Michael Nyman, Steve McQueen, Laurie Anderson and Hussein Chalayan, amongst many others.

Rimbaud first met Belgian artist Hans Op de Beeck at Le Fresnoy Studio national des Arts Contemporains when they were both Visiting Professors in 2012. Op de Beeck lives and works in Brussels, Belgium and creates sculpture, installations, video, photography, animated films, drawing, painting, and writing. His various works show the viewer non-existent, but identifiable places, moments and characters that appear to have been taken from everyday life.

The artists found an immediate creative connection, and a year after meeting Staging Silence (2) was completed. In 2019, they returned to the theme and created Staging Silence (3).

Each of the films is realised through the same principles, as two pairs of anonymous hands construct and deconstruct fictional interiors and landscapes on a mini film set of just three-square metres in size. The films take the viewer on a visual journey through depopulated, enigmatic and often melancholic, but nonetheless playful, small-scaled places, which are built up and taken down before the eye of the camera.

Ranging from hyper-realistic fictional land and cityscapes to absurd, almost surreal, dreamscapes, the various locations are connected by the sense of mystery and melancholy that pervades them. And at every moment Rimbaud's score is amplifying and illustrating these moments, from tragedy to nostalgia, witty to optimistic.

Introspective and lyrical, Staging Silence offers us a world of mystery and intrigue, held together by nature and time. This is a very humane works experienced at a time when many of us feel disconnected from the world around us. The peculiar silence that permeates this hauntingly beautiful work is very much an illustration of our times, anticipating a future in the past. Staging Silence is an exquisite study in dreamlike abstract ambience, a kaleidoscope of sounds and tones that engage the head and the heart.

RO-D-YS was a Dutch beat psych-beat and pop rock band that was active in the 1960s. The band’s original lineup consisted of Harry Rijnbergen on vocals and guitar, Joop Hulzebos on guitar and keys, Wiechert Kenter on bass, trumpet and vibraphone and Berend Groen on drums. Their debut album Just Fancy was released in 1967 and was met with critical acclaim. Produced by the much sought-after producer Hans van Hemert, the album contains the top 10 hit single “Just Fancy”. The band broke up a few years later after several changes in personnel. Just Fancy is now available on coloured vinyl for the first time. It is a limited edition of 500 individually numbered copies on red vinyl.

Anohni has shared an emotive cover of Gloria Gaynor's 1978 classic 'I WIll Survive'. The track was a staple of her early live shows and opens with a graceful string arrangement by Maxim Moston, paired with piano performed by Anohni. Prior to the track being widely available on streaming platforms, Anohni shared a video incorporating live footage alongside messages dedicated to groups and causes that Anohni has long been an activist and advocate for. During the clip, Anohni dedicates the song to "the sacred gay people"; "all endangered Black trans lives"; "those in the US who die from medical neglect"; "the coral reefs of the world, now rotting"; "all those awaiting execution in US death chambers"; "Black lives tortured and stolen by American cops" and more. The messages reflect Anohni's longer values and work as an artist, trans activist, environmentalist and advocate for social justice. Alongside the release is a statement from Anohni, on the track being the subject of a licensing offer she turned down due to the platform in question hosting misleading pro-Trump ads. Further on the track, Anohni explains: "It was the first song I ever sang in nightclubs in NYC when I was 20 years old. I sang it hundreds of times. In those days I sang it thinking of Marsha P. Johnson and the underground queer community struggling to survive in the face of AIDS. Now it seems to me like an anthem for the future of life on earth." 'I Will Survive' follows a brace of releases from Anohni this year: most recently 'R.N.C 2020', a track inspired by the Republican National Convention which took place in August and the dread Anohni felt while watching it. Prior to that, Anohni released a 7" consisting of two covers, one of Bob Dylan's 'It's All Over Now, Baby Blue' with a b-side of Nina Simone's 'Be My Husband'.

aSecond (and most successful) biggest album from Crash Test Dummies, originally released in 1993. A 12 song album pressed on black vinyl with download code insert. Contains the classic hit "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm". Download code insert. Marketing activity.

WRWTFWW Records is beaucoup happy to announce the official reissue of Pierre Barouh's hard-to-describe-but-easy-to-enjoy French flair meets Japanese avant-garde lost treasure of experimental-electronic-chanson-pop with a new-wave-minimal-bossa touch, Le Pollen. Originally recorded July 1982 at Nippon Columbia Studio in Tokyo and composed, arranged, and played by a who's who of Japan's most groundbreaking musicians of the 80s, the album comes as a LP with bonus 7inch, housed in a heavy sleeve displaying two immaculate photos of Barouh and holding a printed lyrics insert.

A free-spirited world traveler with an incredible ear for music, Paris-born singer and activist Pierre Barouh introduced the sounds of Brazil (and more) to Europe and pushed the envelope with his pio-neering label Saravah, home of adventurous innovators Brigitte Fontaine, Areski, Jacques Higelin, Naná Vasconcelos, and Roland Bocquet's Catharsis among many others. His bohemian border-free vision of modern chanson, blending musical tradition from various parts of the globe with forward-looking artistry, resonated particularly well in Japan, where the scene spearheaded by Yellow Magic Orchestra fell in love with everything Barouh.

And so one day in 1981, Pierre Barouh received an invitation from a Japanese label to come record an album in Tokyo. Not one to turn down an escapade around the world, the French visionary jumped on a plane and landed in a studio surrounded with a dream line-up of musicians: Yukihiro Takahashi (who had named his solo debut Saravah! after Barouh's imprint) and Ryuichi Sakamoto of YMO, Yasuaki Shimizu and his Mariah bandmates Masanori Sasaji and Hideo Yamaki, members of the Moonriders, Motohiko Hamase, Mitsuru Sawamura of Interior, Kazuhiko Katoh and the list goes on. Also participating in the making of the album were longtime collaborator Francis Laï and the mys-terious and beautiful David Sylvian.

The result is Le Pollen, a sincere and affectionate mix of nouveau chanson, techno-pop, post-punk, jazz, bossa, ambient, and minimalism. And probably something else entirely. Honestly impossible to classify in a particular genre, Pierre Barouh's fascinating cosmopolitan music melting pot is, above all, a reassuring ode to humanity, where friendship, exchange, and collaborative creativity breeze freely. Making music together. It's all love.

Pierre Barouh sadly passed away in December 2016, leaving behind a monumental legacy of music and art for us to cherish, and a life philosophy that's well worth considering:

La vie, qu'elle soit longue ou brève
Moi, tous mes rêves
Je les prends toujours au sérieux
Quand l'utopie brise les chaînes
C'est l'oxygène,
De ceux qui sont restés curieux

Life, be it long or brief
Me, all my dreams
I always take them seriously
When utopia breaks the chains
It's the oxygen,
Of those who've remained curious

From the song "L'Autre Rive" on Le Pollen.

First released by Cazzo Film in 2001, ebo hill’s Bonking Berlin Bastards has long achieved the status of an underground punk porn classic. Like the Cazzo productions of director Bruce LaBruce, hill’s vision was both ahead of its time and a playful distillation of 90s and early-2000s Berlin Zeitgeist: queer, industrial, hypersexual, exhibitionist and fueled by electronic music. The story is told in large part by the soundtrack, to be released for the first time on Ostgut Ton sublabel A-TON. The music follows a group of squatters, punks and drag queens as they fuck, party and stumble their way through an empty city at the turn of the millennium. Approaching these themes more through location than plot, the film’s narrative freedom is also a narrative of freedom; between chance encounters and sex in public, atop the maze of roofs in the city’s former East, bent over bridges and moaning in ecstasy at oncoming traffic, pants down in telephone booths, packed into sex clubs, in the shadows of abandoned factories and techno clubs lost in time. Composed by improvisational techno trio AeoX and noise / industrial producer Rouage aka CNM (respectively), the music spans a broad range of appropriately pounding industrial, weird techno, noise, ultra-stoned ambient, improvised dub and electro. It’s a sonic spectrum that connects Berlin’s queer hardcore techno and squatter party scenes from which AeoX and Rouage emerged, drawing a direct line between the likes of Berghain-forerunner OstGut (a primary meeting point for the film’s cast & crew) to the more industrial, breakcore and noise- oriented independent party collectives and locations who provided multiple settings for the film, including Grüne Hölle and Stellwerk.

*Artists:* CNM / Rouage (Kathinka): Born in 1975 and raised in East Berlin. Co-organization of subcultural events since 1998 in Berlin, Potsdam, Leipzig and Barcelona. Experimental music, collaborations, exhibitions and audiovisual shows since 2000.

AeoX: Active between 2001 and 2007. Originally a quartet, then a trio, the group eventually shrank to two permanent members: Alex.E and Hanno Hinkelbein. The latter founded Null Records, where AeoX released two album and numerous EPs. They also released on Mental.Ind.Records founded by former OstGut resident Cora S. Musically, the group experimented with combining improvisational hardware techno, breaks, traditional instruments (guitar, clarinet, piano) industrial and metal.

Ursprünglich 2001 von Cazzo Film veröffentlicht, hat Bonking Berlin Bastards von ebo hill längst den Status eines Underground-Punk-Pornoklassikers erreicht. Wie die Cazzo- Produktionen von Regisseur Bruce LaBruce, war auch hills Vision seiner Zeit voraus und ein spielerisches Destillat des 90er- und Anfang-2000er Berlin-Zeitgeists: queer, industriell, hypersexuell, exhibitionistisch, angetrieben von elektronischer Musik. Die Geschichte wird größtenteils über den Soundtrack erzählt, der auf Ostgut Tons Sublabel A-TON zum ersten Mal veröffentlicht wird. Die Musik folgt einer Gruppe von Hausbesetzern, Punks und Drags, die ficken, feiern und durch die leere Stadt um die Jahrtausendwende streifen. Bonking Berlin Bastards erzählt diese Themen mehr über die Drehorte als über die Handlung. Die erzählerische Freiheit des filmischen Narrativs ist gleichzeitig eine Erzählung von Freiheit: Von zufälligen Begegnungen bis hin zu Sex in der Öffentlichkeit, auf Dächern im früheren Osten Berlins, sich über die Brüstungen von Straßenbrücken beugen, trotz und wegen des Verkehrs stöhnen, mit heruntergelassenen Hosen in Telefonzellen, in überfüllten Sexclubs, im Schatten aufgegebener Fabriken, zeitverloren in Technoclubs. Der Soundtrack wurde sowohl vom Improvisationstechnotrio AeoX als auch von Noise-/Industrial-Producer Rouage aka CNM komponiert und spannt einen weiten Bogen von explizit pumpendem Industrial, schräg klingendem Techno, Noise, ultra-stoned Ambient, improvisiertem Dub und Electro. Das musikalische Spektrum verbindet Berlins queere Hardcore-, Techno- und Hausbesetzer-Party-Szenen, aus denen AeoX und Rouage selbst hervorgingen und zieht dabei eine direkte Linie zwischen dem Berghain- Vorgängerclub OstGut (ein wichtiger Treffpunkt für die Darsteller und Crew des Films) und den eher Industrial-, Breakcore- und Noise-orientierten Independent-Partykollektiven und -Locations wie Grüne Hölle und Stellwerk, welche mehrfach als Drehort und Kulisse des Films auftauchen.

CNM / Rouage (Kathinka): 1975 geboren nd aufgewachsen in Ost- Berlin. Co-Organisation subkultureller Events seit 1998 in Berlin, Potsdam, Leipzig und Barcelona. Experimentelle Musik, Kollaborationen, Ausstellungen und audiovisuelle Shows seit 2000.

AeoX: Aktiv zwischen 2001 und 2007. Ursprünglich ein Quartett, dann ein Trio, dann verkleinerte sich die Gruppe auf zwei permanente Mitglieder: Alex.E und Hanno Hinkelbein. Letzterer gründete Null Records, auf dem AeoX zwei Alben und zahlreiche EPs veröffentlichte. Ebenfalls Veröffentlichungen auf Mental.Ind.Records, welches von der ehemaligen OstGut resident Cora S. gegründet wurde. Musikalisch kombiniert die Gruppe improvisierten Hardware- Techno mit Breaks, traditionellen Instrumenten (Gitarre, Klarinette, Klavier), Industrial und Metal.

We can’t think of many artists that have had as diverse a career and who have been involved in as many different genres of music as Asha Puthli. A musical pioneer who forged a path through 60's psych, free-jazz, pop, rock, disco, and more.

Asha's 1976 album 'The Devil Is Loose' is maybe her most well-known record. Featuring the beautiful disco-funk-classic 'Space Talk’, Asha's ethereal soaring vocals take us on a journey that almost mirrors Asha's eclectic career. The track was championed by a wide-range of musical scenes and movements, and over space and time it has been commandeered as their own. You would hear it played by David Mancuso at the now ‘mythical’ underground New York party 'The Loft’, in the most discerning disco nightclubs across the globe, in the Rare Groove scene, and also being sampled by hip-hop heavyweights such as The Notorious B.I.G / P Diddy, and The Pharcyde. The appeal and lifespan of ’Space Talk’ keeps on extending and morphing as new audiences gleefully discover it for the first time - it still sounds as relevant and fresh on the dancefloor today - a sign of a true classic.

Here at Mr Bongo we are thrilled to be releasing records by such an iconic musical maverick as Asha, from her roots in India to becoming a globe-trotting artist with a celebrated career in music and acting, whilst always staying true to her art. She has blazed a trail so that others could follow. Whether you are buying this album as a replacement for your worn-out original copy or it's the first time you've heard of Asha Puthli and you're just intrigued and drawn in by the cover, we hope you enjoy this quintessential slice of Asha's world.

• Featuring the legendary ’Space Talk’.
• Played by David Mancuso at the ‘mythical’ underground New York party 'The Loft’.
• Sampled by hip-hop heavyweights such as The Notorious B.I.G / P Diddy, and The Pharcyde.
• Also available on Limited Edition Pink Vinyl

“It’s about hopelessness and darkness,” says Aidan Moffat. “But in a fun way.” The Arab Strap frontman is speaking about the band’s 7th studio album and their first since 2005’s ‘The Last Romance’.
The band’s exciting return saw the much lauded
‘The Turning of Our Bones’ single achieve Record Of The Week on Jo Whiley’s BBC Radio 2 show and hit the B-list at BB6Music.
The new album will appeal to longtime fans and pick up new ones who weren’t ready for Arab Strap first time ‘round.
LP contains postcard with digital download code.

A guitarry hybrid of AZITA’s edgy rock / soul / R&B sound. Grooving good times, acerbic exchanges overheard in the street, shifts in community, the losses you will carry always, dark recesses late at night that echo with a wonder you've never felt before. Life.
All instruments played by AZITA; the wackest, most AZITA-harmonious sounding pop album yet.
For those who find the passage of time a one-way process of attrition, here’s good news for you. In the eight years since AZITA’s last long-player her fevered brain has barely rested and the proof is a new album of unbounded physical and mental activity, music and entertainment, entitled ‘Glen Echo’.
The worlds of the previous AZITAs have left their unmistakable essence. Her singular conception of pop music - the idiosyncratic songs, singing and playing that have graced seven acclaimed releases - is in verdant recurrence on ‘Glen Echo’, blossoming anew, cutting sharply in the spirit and image of her everevolving, always questioning style.
Writing and arranging on keyboards since the time of her solo debut, AZITA focused on guitars for this set of songs. Not simply for swagger or a fresh approach to soloing but as part of a way to elide expected singer-songwriter tropes, to democratically populate the sound-stage in equal partnership instead.
This is a key aspect of the ‘Glen Echo’ sound, one that determined another new choice - AZITA playing everything on the album herself.
Previous long-players ‘Enantiodromia’, ‘Life On the Fly’ and ‘How Will You?’ were achieved via close work with players and engineers who took the compositions from the demo to a finished form. Invariably though, something would get lost in the transmigration somewhere. With ‘Glen Echo’, AZITA comes through fully, jaggedly, most vividly, owning her intention entirely in the dialogue of singing and playing her rock and rhythm and blues.
The lyric sheet is riddled with language that circles, through the many moments of life, aspects of the passage of time, the pre-empted dreams and strangeness of the present and the way we invent an idealized past in response to the changes, guiding the narrative... where? It’s all banded together by AZITA’s wit, equal parts droll and dire, her dispassionate view of fates and outcomes for all of us here together on the planet, textured with unique, cinematic details and sudden dives into a deeply felt, utterly OG sense of soul.
In ‘Glen Echo’ are a multitude of sounds - all the moments in a life: the good time grooves, acerbic exchanges in the street, shifts in community and generosity, moments of loss you know you will carry forever, reflection upon unknown futures and pasts, the dark recesses late at night that echo with a wonder you’ve never felt before. You name it, AZITA’s got some sweet and sour theme music for it.

‘Island’, the latest album from Oscar-nominated composer and
songwriter Owen Pallett, released on Domino / Secret City
Records (Canada).
Almost entirely acoustic, ‘Island’ begins with 13 darkened
chords and was recorded live at Abbey Road Studios with the
London Contemporary Orchestra. The introduction is the sound
of waking up alone and on the shore of a strange land. What
follows is a shimmering and luscious orchestral album that
draws across the full breadth of Pallett’s discography, from
‘Heartland’’s Technicolor to the glittering, fingerpicked guitar
that marked Pallett’s first records with their trio, Les Mouches.
In addition to Pallett’s Grammy Award-winning work with
Arcade Fire, Pallett’s commissions have included string, brass
and orchestral work for Last Shadow Puppets, The National,
The Mountain Goats, Christine and arrangements for Frank
Ocean, Caribou, R.E.M., Linkin Park, Sigur Rós, Taylor Swift and
the Pet Shop Boys.
Since the release of ‘In Conflict’ (2014), Pallett has earned an
Oscar nomination for their film scoring work on Spike Jonze’s
‘Her’ and an Emmy for Sølve Sundsbø’s ‘Fourteen Actors Acting’.
Their score for Matt Wolf’s ‘Spaceship Earth’, a documentary
about a crew who spent two years quarantined inside a replica
of Earth’s ecosystem called BIOSPHERE 2, is out now.

“A weird trip of a band…the second this was playing I was
immediately hooked. I initially dove in because their name
was attached to Mikey Young for mastering (I have a rule
with Mikey…if he had his hands on it, it’s probably worth
a listen). This band exceeds in all my trials.
“Esoteric nature, but oddly poppy and ready to prick up
any ears out there. Deconstructed, but full of hooks. If I
were a lazy man, and I am, I would say its for fans of PiL,
but they transcend that pigeon-hole.
“Wonderful production lends its self to this unique LP.
It seems as if the room expands and contracts throughout
songs. Pulling away, then blocking your field of vision entirely.
Wasteland funk. Dub from the depths. Punk from
the pit.
“Even the instrumentation is worth mentioning:
saxophone, drums (and cut-up drums), guitar, synthesizer,
vocals (poetry) and general fuckery all combine to make
this a very interesting and worthwhile escape from the
average. And thank the Gods for that right now. Inspired
and desired by the active mind. A job well done by EXEK,
and there’s new stuff brewing too...
“For fans of BEAK>, Phantom Band, PIL and general
Jah Wobbleness, Magazine, short-wave radio, ESG and
underground Kraut”. —John Dwyer

Columbia Records release the eighth studio album from Grammy Award winning, multi platinum selling US rockers. An 11 track song album which includes the current single 'The Bandit'. Black vinyl double LP and standard CD. Radio support across R1, R2, Absolute, Virgin, Radio X, ILR network with playlists, ad campaign and interviews/sessions. Video plays across MTV/Vevo/Tik Tok. Digital campaign. Ads, features, interviews and reviews across all press. Online/social media activity. TV promo to follow. Poster campaign and database mailout. TV ad campaign.

Second album released on Insanity Records from London based/Bedford born pop/soul singer. This is the follow up to 2018's gold certified 'Lighting Matches'. A 14 track album whose production credits include Dan Grech, Eg White and Lostboy among others. Single LP on black vinyl and standard CD. Plenty of radio support across all the singles released so far: 'Little Bit Of Love', 'Amen', 'Something Better', 'Oh Please' and 'This Is The Place'. Digital campaign. Video plays across MTV/Vevo/Tik Tok. Online/social media activity. Ads, features, interviews ad reviews across all press. TV promo includes Graham Norton Show interview and performance plus more to follow. TV ad campaign. Pending UK tour dates. Poster campaign and database mailout.

Levit's sixth disc released on the Sony Classical label which conveys the urgent desire for encounter and human togetherness – at a time when isolation is the order of the day. The result is a very personal recital. While speaking touchingly of the hardships and unexpected feelings of liberty resulting from social distancing, musically the recital stands out for the objective spirit of its carefully crafted form. Igor has performed a total of 53 recitals over the Internet from his home since mid March 2020 with an audience of hundreds of thousands. Specialist promo/marketing activity.

In between acting as Producer on all of the Black Jazz label releases, keyboardist Gene Russell also cut two fine albums for the imprint, of which this is the second, released in 1973. Judging by the quality of their respective solo outings for the label, the fact that Russell’s band includes bassist Henry Franklin and guitarist Calvin Keys bodes very, very well for the quality of this record. And indeed, Talk to My Lady represents a sterling stylistic leap for Russell from his New Direction album, which was the first release issued on Black Jazz; here, he’s leading an electric band instead of the basic piano trio format found on the former record, and playing a number of original, soul jazz compositions like “Get Down” and the title tune. As for the covers, both “Me and Mrs. Jones” and “You Are the Sunshine of My Life” are heartfelt renditions given a little extra bounce by Russell’s ivory tickling and Franklin’s expressive bass playing in particular, while the version of “My Favorite Things” goes way out beyond what John Coltrane played on his original Atlantic studio version. It’s hard to go wrong with a Black Jazz album and you won’t on this one from the label’s creative helm. First-ever LP reissue!

File Under: Jazz / Contemporary Jazz - For fans of Ryuichi Sakamoto, Boards of Canada, Linda May Han Oh, Supersilent, Nels Cline, Makaya McCraven, and Haruka Nakamura! Born in Pinsk, Belarus in 1984 and immigrating to Canada in 1992 with the collapse of the USSR; Alexei Orechin has been actively shaping musical environments with his current projects No Seas, a solo project for guitar and tape, and leading his own ensemble incorporating jazz, chamber, and experimental elements into his compositional work. A diverse talent that is reflected in the company he has shared the stage with: Nas, Akae Beka, Rana Mansour, Shad, Yaadcore, and Sina Bathaie. He has played in USA, Mexico, Europe, and Russia. Performances include the TD and Montreal Jazz Festivals, Caribana, Irie Music Festival, Tirgan Festival, and Pride Toronto. His music for film has been featured at TIFF, CFC, NFB and the Warsaw Jewish Film Festival. He has been featured on CBC, Noisey, Global News, The Star, Dub Rockers, Huffpost, Afropunk, and Relix magazine. 2020 saw the premier of '1992 Ambient', a 45-minute long composition that is a 'therapeutic experiment in slowly melting sound and colour; representing the acculturation and restructuring oneself through emigrating from Russia to Canada in 1992'. 2021 will also see the release of his debut full length album Mirages; an album that showcases his diverse and ever evolving style of composition, ranging from moments of melodic solitude to fractal experimentalism.

Thumbing Thru Foliage is a blunted journey through YUNGMORPHEUS’ mind where personal lyrics intertwine with socio-political themes and tongue in cheek humour. Produced entirely by ewonee. Lead single ‘Fistfulofgreens’ grooves on a g-funk-esque plain and is an assured mission statement - “original man who got the game plan, I aint switching my hands inside these strange lands” whilst also sharing some intimate insight “I don’t ever answer questions that the feds askin, they were cuffin’ my mama, you know I had to blast them”. Second single ‘Sovereignty’ takes a more soulful turn with ceremonial strings and r&b samples ringing under braggadocious bars. Third single ‘Middle Passage’ is a more introspective cut - sombre vocal and piano loops are juxtaposed with neck snappin’ energetic drums. Describing the project in his own words, YUNGMORPHEUS says, “Peace peace, I consider this album a call to action of sorts. The world is rife with distractions and oppressive tactics but niggas move through it nonetheless ! Respect to ewonee for providing a beautiful backdrop for me to get some much needed shit off my chest. Maneuver through the foliage yall... Power to all black people ! Salute to those who listen”. ewonee adds, “Growing up like we did in this corporation Neegas deal with a lot. Usually gotta go through the mud to get to the greens. Good comes with the bad and vice versa, learning how to adjust is a must. Hope y’all get that from this. Roll up count up and mount up. PEACE”. YUNGMORPHEUS is an American rapper and record producer, originally from Miami but now based in LA. He has released music on Leaving Records and Rap Vacation as well as collaborating with Pink Siifu, Fly Anakin, Koncept Jack$on and Ohbliv. Previously supported by Okayplayer, XLR8R, Bandcamp, DJ Booth, Tiny Mix Tapes, Earmilk, BBC6 Music, Dublab, NTS and Worldwide FM. ewonee is an American Multi-instrumentalist, Producer, Beat-maker & Audio engineer from New York. Part of the Mutant Academy crew and also involved with the Beat Haus Show, ewonee has previously produced & collaborated with the likes of Your Old Droog, Fly Anakin, Reginald Chapman and Koncept Jack$on.

From Nanakuli comes a simple yet stunning ode to the islands with “Hawaii Is Beautiful”, composed and performed by Mike Kahikina. Previously unreleased, “Hawaii Is Beautiful” has been restored and remastered from original master tapes.

Kahikina played an active role in Hawaii’s music scene in the 1970s and 80s, writing and performing protest songs in support of sovereignty for the Kingdom of Hawaii and land rights for Kanaka Maoli, or native Hawaiians. Featured in the 1988 music documentary Hawaiian Rainbow is Kahikina’s song “Who Came First” which provides a clear, poignant message: “Who came first to Hawai‘i? All of us kanaka’s. And how come us kanaka’s, we no own the aina?” Kahikina later served as state representative on the Hawaiian Homes Commission from 2011-2019, championing Native Hawaiian’s rights to homestead lands and pressuring the state government to provide better access to and higher quality of housing for kanaka.

Despite the frustration and fiery feelings he expressed in his protest songs (check out his song “I Am A Native” with Nelson Waialae, written in protest of kanaka who were evicted from Waimea Valley), Kahikina still had plenty of room for songs of love and aloha for his home, including a rare 45 devoted to the art of surfing (“Ocean Rider”, recorded under the name Ka’ala). “Hawaii Is Beautiful” is a shimmering statement of Kahikina’s aloha for his home; a palm-trees-are-swaying tribute to the natural beauty of the Hawaiian Islands.

From Nanakuli comes a simple yet stunning ode to the islands with “Hawaii Is Beautiful”, composed and performed by Mike Kahikina. Previously unreleased, “Hawaii Is Beautiful” has been restored and remastered from original master tapes.

Kahikina played an active role in Hawaii’s music scene in the 1970s and 80s, writing and performing protest songs in support of sovereignty for the Kingdom of Hawaii and land rights for Kanaka Maoli, or native Hawaiians. Featured in the 1988 music documentary Hawaiian Rainbow is Kahikina’s song “Who Came First” which provides a clear, poignant message: “Who came first to Hawai‘i? All of us kanaka’s. And how come us kanaka’s, we no own the aina?” Kahikina later served as state representative on the Hawaiian Homes Commission from 2011-2019, championing Native Hawaiian’s rights to homestead lands and pressuring the state government to provide better access to and higher quality of housing for kanaka.

Despite the frustration and fiery feelings he expressed in his protest songs (check out his song “I Am A Native” with Nelson Waialae, written in protest of kanaka who were evicted from Waimea Valley), Kahikina still had plenty of room for songs of love and aloha for his home, including a rare 45 devoted to the art of surfing (“Ocean Rider”, recorded under the name Ka’ala). “Hawaii Is Beautiful” is a shimmering statement of Kahikina’s aloha for his home; a palm-trees-are-swaying tribute to the natural beauty of the Hawaiian Islands.

Clive Phillips, Dominic Goodman, Peter Blundell are Mosquitoes, a somewhat inscrutable London-based outfit in operation for something close to seven years now, and have released music across a host of celebrated and broad-minded underground labels. Give or take the occasional interview in the less-straight parts of the music press, this is as much formal biography as their music has thus far allowed, for there's something essentially unknowable at the centre of what makes Mosquitoes what they are. So murky is their early history in fact, the first two self-released Mosquitoes records seemed to disappear from sight before really becoming visible. As more records have emerged, those first communications accumulate new meanings, acting as vital documents in tracking the evolution of a band who stand at the vanguard of contemporary British music.

The second of these records, recorded to tape in summer 2016 and first released as a single-sided 12" under the name MOS-002, is arguably the first true iteration of Mosquitoes. Now fittingly renamed Mosquitoes for its reissue as a dubplate-style 10" on World of Echo on 5th March, these five cryptically titled, shape-shifting tracks, see the trio embrace a near-genre-less fluidity, and in doing so express a unique combination of both freedom and intent. By design or instinct, Mosquitoes stand at their own inverted rock nexus, presenting a music that's turned inside out, and in doing so, music that twists the listener the same way.

In that sense, Mosquitoes plug into a long lineage of DIY savant iconoclasts, those outliers who would deny orthodoxy in order to excavate new languages and ideas - The Dead C, This Heat, the anti-formalism of No Wave, David Toop's General Strike. As such, Mosquitoes rely on a musical pluralism in order to take it apart - you must know how something is made before you reassemble it anew. Labelling this an EP may possibly underplay the breadth and ambition of what's on show. Later records would arguably be more cohesive, but what stands as particularly startling with this early work is their fearless and all-encompassing dive into the avant garde. Consider the anti-rockism of the scorched earth 90s re-imagined through a distinctly avant filter of free jazz and dub aesthetics. And it's the latter which perhaps shapes Mosquitoes most, dub the perfect vehicle for the articulation of such wilful anti-formalism. Make no mistake, this is music that's unafraid to be tough, to demand something of the listener and to not ask permission. And to bear witness to a rejection of formalism so aggressively pursued is to be reconciled.

A rare treat for Drumcode faithful: A-Sides Vol.10 is set to drop in December, the second edition of the beloved series to come in 2020.

Fuelled by the extra time and space to be creative during lockdown, Drumcode’s collective of artists have stepped up. Across 17 contributions, the producers have gone deeper into their sonic repertoire, crafting powerful, yet reflective works that capture the range of the label’s sound.

Jay Lumen leads the way with a rousing riff-driven weapon, ‘Galactic Rainbow’, while Ramon Tapia brings us the muscular gem ‘Drum Control’, mixing up ruffneck techno with a barrage of synapse-tickling synths in the second half. Both rousing highlights of the compilation.

Victor Ruiz, Drumcode’s most prolific contributor in 2020, dishes up ‘Love Story’, led by a huge vocal lead. Zimmz also returns with ‘Tension’, which deftly combines deep squelchy grooves with a silky synth interlude. Thomas Hoffknecht follows up his debut on Vol.9 with ‘Escape’, keeping listeners on their toes with dynamic, choppy shifts throughout. Veerus joins with another stirring addition ‘I Know’, reinforcing why Beyer rates him so highly.

Elsewhere a string of debutants feature: buzzy newcomer Lilly Palmer gives us ‘Amnesie’, a brilliantly pummelling and eerie cut; Alex Lentini & Stomp Boxx serve up ‘Expanders’ mixing up drone effects, trippy vocals and an unsettling melody line; and Patrik Berg’s ‘Activated’ is full-bodied techno that drops down into funky rhythms.

Long-time DC family member Bart Skils brings his A-game with the thrilling no-nonsense ‘Solid State’ that hits like a steam train. Likewise, Alan Fitzpatrick who brings a momentous slab of techno energy with ‘Rochus’, while Thomas Schumacher, now feeling like a regular on the imprint, crafts another dark techno opus, this time in collaboration with CAITLIN.

There’s even a special appearance by the chief Adam Beyer, who makes a welcome return with the progressive-tinged ‘Changes’, driven by organic tones and spacey atmospherics. The track stands as his first original contribution to A-Sides since 2017.