Search:aesthetic

In Flagranti needs no introduction they have been at it for more than 25 years. The project is a compressed package of all their experiments in music, art and graphics, and is defined by a raw cut'n'paste aesthetic and DIY attitude. This EP is no different featuring two magnificent tracks with remixes by Eric Duncan and Fango Calypso Records is happy to welcome these legends to our catalogue.

Following up on the Rock Sound and Kerrang! Radio supported album
'Amorphous', Icon For Hire introduced 'The Reckoning', with the bruising
single 'Ready For Combat'
Described by Rock Sound as "a bold and belligerent piece of hard rock chaos", the
track, alongside its high-powered music video, perfectly depict the harder-edged
sound and aesthetic of the upcoming album, in the band's own words; "grittier,
louder, larger". Talking about the album Icon For Hire say; "'The Reckoning' isn't
just about exploring all the dark and heavy pieces of ourselves, it's about
embracing and accepting those pieces, and using them as weapons against the
gatekeepers that hold us back, even when those gatekeepers are our own selfimposed limitations." Featuring collaborations with Keith Wallen of Breaking
Benjamin and mixing by Joe Rickard of In Flames and Red, the album boasts
Ariel's fiercest vocals to date, and Shawn's signature in-your-face guitar style.
Since forming in 2007, Icon For Hire - composed of singer Ariel Bloomer and
guitarist Shawn Jump - have quietly amassed a legion of fans. With 250 millions
global streams to date and nearly 1 million followers across social platforms,
Icon For Hire are no longer the sleeping giants of the modern rock scene. Having
sold over 120,000 albums to date through their completely independent set up,
they are one of the most successful direct to fans stories. Continuing to build
their legacy on their own terms, unapologetically forcing all to take note that they
aren't going anywhere any time soon, with 'The Reckoning' Icon For Hire are
embracing their self funded freedom.
Featuring collaborations with Keith Wallen (Breaking Benjamin) & mixed by Joe
Rickard (previously of In Flames & Red).
144M YouTube streams / 410K subscribers.
725K+ followers across social channels.

Cristi Cons lands with his debut on Adam's Bite, serving up two pristine cuts of electronic wizardry. The label has previously meddled in strong 90ies aesthetics, delivering starry-eyed homages to days long gone. With the eternal wunderkind at the controls, things get kicked up another notch: following efforts from his peers, he's unearthing, deconstructing, and reassembling some of Frankfurt's halcyon days' most essential sonics.

Drop the needle on the A side to access „Black Swan”, a contemporary house burner perfectly imagining the early trance experiments heard in the dark womb of dance music history. Sprawling across the flipside, „Ahead of the Curve” finds Cristi Cons exploring the psychedelic side of this sound, revealing delicate details to lose your mind in – and a playful bassline keeping bodies earthbound and flowing. Zipping and zapping from Goa to Mainlandia via Bucharest, there's plenty to fall in love with here. Over and over again.

Leaving Records presents Under the Lilac Sky, the debut LP by Arushi Jain, an India-born, US-residing composer, modular synthesist, vocalist, technologist, and engineer. At six songs spanning 48 minutes of ambient synth ragas intended to be heard during the sunset hours, Under the Lilac Sky invites the listener to transport themselves through intentional listening. Jain states, “You know that moment when the sun is bidding farewell to the sky, and the colors turn into beautiful hues of purple and pink and everything in between? That is the moment that this album will shine the most. The deeper you listen, the more shades you’ll see.”

Jain’s work focuses on reinterpreting traditional Indian classical music through the lens of electronic instrumentation. She re-contextualizes ancient sounds in a modern framework, carrying the torch of electronic luminaries such as Suzanne Ciani and Terry Riley while pursuing personal explorations of her musical heritage and upbringing. Under the Lilac Sky is a cinematic statement of intent, an album that reverently nods to Jain’s musical history while presenting a bold sonic point of view. Jain states, “This album is the coming together of two distinct cultures of Hindustani classical and modular synthesizers representing the two parts of me that evolved into one whole in between my time in India and California”

Voice is emphasized as an essential element of the album, not just for the lyrics or the melodies but also as a source of texture. It is most recognizable when Jain sings aalaaps or sargam of the different ragas the songs are composed in, however her voice is deeply embedded in other, sometimes quieter layers of the record. Jain, who spent her childhood studying indian classical as a vocalist says, “At any given point, there is at least one layer in the record that carries my voice. The human voice is powerful and unique to every individual. My voice is unique to me, so I decided it should be present at all times even if it’s unrecognizable.”

Another core theme of Under the Lilac Sky is the time of day, and the role it plays in influencing how one interacts with the music. “Intrinsic to Indian classical music is the concept of Time and Seasonality. For each raga, there is a specific time of the day when it is meant to be heard for it to shine in it’s authenticity. It harkens to the question of when the environment around you is most in tune with your own sound and breath, and how it supports you in realizing your vision of the moment. This album is meant to be an ode to those timely rituals, and is best heard while you take a moment to do what you love.”

Jain’s exploratory musical ethos finds a like-minded home within Leaving Records’ “All Genre” philosophy. Jain is acutely aware of her role as a composer and modular synthesist reinterpreting a historical art form. “For Indian classical music, this is atypical. The music I compose is inspired by a centuries old tradition, yet aestheticized in a novel way, using the tools and technical innovations of analog synth movements. My art is crafted using machines that I’ve slowly fallen in love with and made my own.”

Toronto-based musician and producer David Psutka aka ACT! (fka Egyptrixx / Anamai / Ceramic TL) will release his latest project ‘Strange Bounty / About Life’ for his own Halocline Trance imprint.

‘Strange Bounty / About Life’ is Psutka’s debut album proper as ACT! following the release of the “sonic mixtape” ‘Universalist’ in 2018 and the augmented reality soundtrack ‘Grey Matter AR’ in 2021; a series of Snapchat filters created by artist Karen Vanderborght and soundtracked by ACT! which explored the poetic and existential potential of AR and social media.

The new album represents a refinement of aesthetic and compositional ideas that exist across Psutka’s various projects and collaborations. It is a bold blend of new psychedelia braided with ecstatic groove. It’s a collage of physical sound, composition and freeform electronics that is simultaneously original, bold, and balmy whilst retaining a certain timeless familiarity and the obvious, indelible hallmarks of Psutka’s creative vision.

“‘Strange Bounty / About Life’ is in some ways my most refined record. The previous period of solo material was quite experimental and spontaneous, whereas this was written slowly and with more intentionality, and as a result, feels very clarified. Robin Dann of Bernice, and Alanna Stuart of Bonjay both contributed lovely vocal work to the record and it was written and performed primarily on guitar. I think it is fair to call this an 'experimental guitar record'.” David Psutka (ACT!)

On opener ‘Oblivion Shuffle’ synths trickle and squelch beneath vintage arcade bleeps, an off-kilter rhythm and mournful vocals. The palette of faintly dystopian electronics, unnerving ambience and scorched, wonky rhythmic pulses reoccur across the album on tracks like ‘Separation Code Is Togetherness Meta’, ’50 Million Motives For Making’, ‘Peace Javelin Heaven Bound’ and ‘Street Racer’.

Elsewhere on the record the guitar is more obviously prominent, and its presence allows the thematic subtleties of ACT’s music to flourish. It becomes clear after numerous listens that there is a push and pull at play across the whole project; one of optimism vs existentialism, of anxiety vs hope - a consistent theme of Psutka’s back catalogue. The track titles themselves even begin to reveal juxtaposition contained within and a deeper inspection of the lyrics reveals more.

‘Lotto’ and ‘Rebuild Your Body’ and title track, ‘Strange Bounty / About Life’ all feature slick classic soul hooks, silky vocals and smooth Balearic guitar licks over the idiosyncratic beats and distinctive electronic instrumentation. A perfect melding of the two seemingly disparate stylistic directions on the album. A real testament to the refinement promised by Psutka on this project.

In addition to ACT!, Psutka has released music with numerous projects including Anamai, Egyptrixx and Ceramic TL, he has collaborated widely with artists such as Junior Boys, Ipek Gorgun, and Kuedo as well as Jessy Lanza (2016) and an official remix for Massive Attack’s ‘Hymn of the Big Wheel (2012). The contributions on this album, from Robin Dann and Alanna Stuart, reflect the deeply collaborative nature of the Halocline Trance label and the Toronto creative scene more broadly.

Many of Psutka’s releases have received critical acclaim from media outlets such as Pitchfork, Exclaim, The Quietus and Resident Advisor. As a live performer, he has toured extensively including performing at Sonar Festival, Roskilde, Mutek, MOMA PS1 Warm-UP and CTM Festival. He’s also presented sound installations at various institutions such as Galeria Civica Commune di Modena, and Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO).

In 2015, Psutka launched Halocline Trance as a home for his various sound projects, events and collaborations. Now a creative collective and label, it has grown to include a diverse array of artists including Casey MQ, Xuan Ye, Myst Milano, Colin Fisher and others. The label is described as “genre-agnostic” and conceptually open, supporting work across a wide spectrum of creative fields including soundtrack recording, AR design and traditional artist albums. Their impeccable roster also includes, theorist/improviser Eldritch Priest, and AR/VR artist Karen Vanderborght. In recent years, Halocline Trance has established itself as a platform that facilitates many of Canada’s most exciting creative music projects. Many of the releases have received critical acclaim from outlets including Pitchfork, Exclaim, Bandcamp and Resident Advisor.

Sounding simultaneously from the past, the present, and the future, the debut album 'MLDE' by Marxist Love Disco Ensemble seeks to eradicate both the trite from disco and the sobriety from political music. Half poetic, half tongue-in-cheek, this stunning compact eight-track album is influenced by Eastern European and Mediterranean 70s disco records. In the words of band member Paolo, ''it was written in response to hearing 'I love America' by Patrick Juvet. The song prompted the question: why does disco, a genre originally created by oppressed minorities, eventually become synonymous with American capitalist excess?" MLDE seeks to break this connection.

Merging disco, post-disco 80s pop, and boogie into the fold, 'MLDE' was recorded using only analogue instruments, giving it warmth and space. Recorded on cassette, ¼ and ½ inch tape, this gives moments of lo-fi abstraction between the beats of an aggressive, tight drum kit. Instruments used for this recording range from saxophone, trumpet, harpsichord, guitar, and rare analogue synthesisers. The bass sound is shaped by early 80s boogie records, whilst the influence of artists such as Hamlet Minassian can be heard in some of MLDE's more driving-disco outings, such as 'Hues of Red'. In the tradition of Soviet vocal group records, which the band has studied, some songs are sung by a vocal quartet in homage to this tradition.

Tracks such as '1905' and 'Brumaire' have a greater pop aesthetic, with Paolo's vocal style on these more pop-driven songs evoking early 80s bands such as Orange Juice and Chas Jankel.

The format and message of pop and disco are commonly viewed just to entertain and move bodies around a dancefloor; however, lyrically, the subjects range from dialectical and historical materialism, class struggle, Marxist theory and praxis, as well as the concept of Marxist disco music.

Adding the icing to the cake, mastering don Joker aka Liam McLean dusted the album with his magic, giving the songs space where the room is needed, as well as the kick and punch demanded by the modern dancefloor.

Yes, this is a press release, and they are always full of hype, but we were blown away when we heard this album, and we hope it enriches you too.

Saib is the prolific producer and guitarist whose insatiable desire to create comes from his childhood: passionate about Bossa Nova, Japanese Anime Soundtracks, Jazz as well as old school Hip-Hop, he draws his inspiration from composers and musicians such as Yoko Kanno, Joe Pass and Nujabes. Bathing in the cosmopolitan culture of Casablanca, a melting pot at the crossroads of the two African and European continents. This diversity is a constant in his music, where groove and melody are skillfully mixed in a style inspired by the classic hip-hop productions of the 90s. Hip Hop beats form the backbone of Saib’s musical palette, as his style skips from Jazz flavors to lounge experiments and to upbeat four on the floor grooves ... and sometimes within a single track.

Saib’s hyper-productivity has allowed him to release, over the last five years, seven albums and more than a dozen EPs and singles, including releases on labels such as Chillhop Music, Cold Busted, Majestic Casual and Blue Note Records. Saib’s tracks are a regular fixture on Editorial Playlists including Spotify’s “Jazz Vibes” (2 million Likes) and “lofi beats” and have accumulated more than 500 million plays on streaming platforms.

Saib’s new LP, “Unwind” maintains the stupendous head-nodding grooviness that listeners have come to love from the young producer with a healthy added dose of Tropical and Lounge/Bossa-jazz influence. Album and single artwork done by star-Moroccan photographer Ismail Zaidy (IG: @l4artiste) who has seen his work featured in GQ Middle East, Art Basel, BASE Milano, Vogue Arabia, and has done partnerships with The Sims and Adobe. LP design work done by Jakarta label mainstay, Robert Winter. “Unwind” also includes features by Rotterdam’s ØDYSSEE and legendary Hip-Hop MC Masta Ace. Jakarta is ecstatic to share such a career-defining work, arriving digitally and physically September 16th, 2022.

The albums 1st single, “Mushroom Samba” arrives Wednesday, June 29th along with the vinyl pre-order announcement. The track is deliciously groovy, and is a perfect example of the kind of sunny, jubilant grooves to be encountered on the LP. Saib takes the lofi-expertise he’s become known for since his 2015 debut and brings a freshness to the beat-genre. The song is perfect for the onset of summer and will have you humming along to the brass refrain by the songs end.

2nd single, “Pennywise,” will be released July 13 and features legendary Hip-Hop MC Masta Ace on the album’s only vocal track. The track is a surefire splash of hip-hop that’s both nostalgic and forward-moving. Ace sounds as fresh as ever, flowing over a head-bobbing beat with lush, tropical guitar inflections. While the beat brings to mind sandy shores and sun rays, Ace’s two verses invoke skyscrapers and boomboxes, making “Pennywise” a perfect track for your summer hip-hop fix.

Saib’s 3rd single is the stunning, swirling, and utterly smooth “Cosmic Dust” with Rotterdam producer ØDYSSEE arriving August 10. Keeping with the tropical essence, the track comes and goes like waves on a beach. Soft sounds flow like water before the drums and bass wash in, building to a saxophone and piano heavy crescendo. Like the tide, the beat recedes and the track ends as gently as it began, leaving you wanting to hear it all again.

Single 4, the moody “Suave” arrives August 24 and is bossa nova at its core. What starts off with a familiar Brazilian groove quickly takes a hip-hop turn, with a smooth bass drop and crisp drums layered over bossa nova keystrokes. Warm / timeless saxophone punctuate the track, providing a mellow break between basslines and closing out the end. “Suave” is a sunny and soul-soothing fusion of bossa nova, jazz, and hip-hop, perfect for closing out the summer with.

“Unwind” is a project steeped in the beats that keep you moving and grooving but with a sonic and visual aesthetic palette that goes deeper and groovier than the surface level lo-fi artists that have proliferated in the last 5 years. Ranging from FloFilz and eevee imbued vibrations to Jonwayne-styled beats, Saib brings forth a sonic spa session that invokes a state of calm that leaves you an uplifting and energetic plateau. Dig it.

Black Truffle is pleased to announce a major archival discovery from the wildest outer fringes of the FMP universe, the Bergisch-Brandenburgisches Quartett’s Live ’82. The Bergisch-Brandenburgisches Quartett (BBQ) was formed in 1980 in Rostock, East Germany, when three of the most radical and riotous members of the West German free music scene—reedist/accordionist Rüdiger Carl, percussionist Sven-Åke Johansson and Hans Reichel on violin and his modified ‘strange guitars’ — first played as a quartet with East German saxophonist Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky. A rare example of a working band with members from both sides of the wall, during its lifetime the BBQ left only one recorded document, a studio LP on Amiga, the pop and jazz sublabel of the GDR state-run Deutsche Schallplatten Berlin. Neither pure fire music nor orthodox free improvisation, the four members of the BBQ shared an all-embracing aesthetic where quotes and jokes sat comfortably alongside radical extended techniques and sonic experiments. Beautifully recorded at the 1982 Moers festival, the music presented here is a kaleidoscopic demonstration of what Johansson has called the BBQ’s ‘free postmodernism’. Beginning with a fractured landscape of clarinet flourishes from Petrowsky, Johansson’s spacious drums accents, banjo-esque plucks from Reichel’s handmade guitar and the groans and squawks of Carl on cuica, the music lurches between flowing melodicism and stunted locked grooves, settling after a few minutes into a lyrical clarinet and bass clarinet duet accompanied by shimmering guitar chords and some inexplicable percussive rotations. When Petrowksy starts to unfurl long, flowing flute lines accompanied by hand percussion, the music suddenly recalls Don Cherry’s global fusions, but this turn to the folkish quickly takes on a more European character when Carl and Johansson pick up accordions for the first of several comical but oddly moving duets. The more frantic second half of the set takes in a raucous digression into honking R&B, an Ayler-meets-Schlager romp with almost rockish chordal accompaniment from Reichel and an outrageous free jazz blowout with Carl on accordion, not to mention episodes of Johansson’s signature improvised Sprachgesang and antics with his expanded percussion set up, including items such as shoe stretchers and the Berlin yellow pages, which more than once cause the audience to burst into laughter. Arriving in a beautifully designed sleeve with copious archival photographs and flyers from Johansson’s collection and extensive new liner notes from Francis Plagne, Live ’82 is a major historical document that remains both musically challenging and immensely entertaining forty years on.

First thought, best thought. Until the next thought: a guiding principle for No Age in the 16ish years they've been around. Constantly responding to their own streams of consciousness with reductive flexibility, they've taken the basic duo of guitar and drums with vocals WAY farther than anyone listening in halcyon Weirdo Rippers days could have guessed. Expounding on those larval possibilities, they've zig-zagged in serpentine precision, in and out of the teeth of the wringer - ranging outside and back in again, as befits the present thought. And now, six albums into it, these principles have led them to make People Helping People. Composed in their studio of ten years in the "pre pandemic" times, then an eviction from said space, and finished deep in the midst at their new basecamp: Randy's Garage. It starts with an instrumental, too. First counter-intuition, best counter intuition! Nearly five minutes prelude Dean's debut vocal interjection - a zoom in from the upper atmosphere, Randy's guitar clouds pulsing with radiation, paced by spare, percussive accents. When the first song with singing ("Compact Flashes") bounces in on an insane synthetic beat, the only recognizable sound of No Age is a sputtering of enchanted clicks and creaks - muted guitar strings and drumkit rattlings that cycle for a full minute before voice song and snare fall into place. This is the sound of People Helping People: No Age, deep in the lab, scraping available nuclii together to see what new compound they find next. Erasing the starting points, reordering the pieces and beginning anew. It's an everyday mindset - and as the first No Age album recorded entirely by No Agee, People Helping People is a broadcast of entirely lived-in proportions. Side one ricochets expertly back and forth between magisterial instrumentals and sing-song forms cut up on the mixing desk, as with the undeniable hitness of "Plastic (You Want It)", winningly rewired to MIDI-mangled beat squelches. They don't really land on a straight up punk-style riff until it's almost time to flip the side, and even once they've got off on a run of rockers on side B, their aesthetic choices continuously reframe the norms, enhancing their inherent power. People Helping People finds their disparate desires operating in perfect sync; prolegomenic weirdness fused immaculately to classic rock propulsion, transforming the energy pouring out from their hands and feet with electronics. Dean's lyrics are like pieces taken off the belt at the factory and put together into a John Chamberlin-esque sculpture, meant to sit out in the rain. Randy's guitars, collaged into arrangements that reflect, again, boundless curiosity and exquisite restraint. This is People Helping People: unpretentious, suspicious, inviting, confident, left field. The most accurate display of the No Age ethos put to record. Yet!

“Klangstof are conducting deliciously evil experiments on indie rock.” – Clash. Klangstof recently returned to attention with the ‘Ocean View’ EP, which was one of two projects they recorded simultaneously in 2021. Its release added to the anticipation for the bigger set that was recorded at the same time, their third studio album ‘Godspeed To The Freaks’, which will be released on September 16th. The band today launch the album by sharing its lead single ‘Disguiser’. ‘Godspeed To The Freaks’ will see the Edison Award (the Dutch equivalent to the Grammy or BRITs) winning band add to the widespread tastemaker attention that has greeted their previous two albums. It’s an album which focuses on self-reflection; finding the courage to confront your inner self and being at peace with your demons. There’s a power that comes with the acceptance that every good day might have a touch of darkness to it. And in a further contrast to the electronic-orientated 2020 set ‘The Noise You Make Is Silent’, this record is focused primarily upon the warmth of its live instrumentation and the intuitive interplay between the band members. Remarkably, the bulk of ‘Godspeed To The Freaks’ was recorded in just two weeks. The trio - Koen van de Wardt, Wannes Salomé, and Erik Buschmann - were boosted by the addition of their touring guitarist Wouter Van Nienes and channelled the energy of their live show, an approach further amplified by recording in a temporary studio in De Bolder, a music venue on the tiny Dutch island of Vlieland. Klangstof essentially rehearsed, recorded and produced the core of the record themselves in that serene environment, giving them a bubble of freedom amidst a world in chaos. Any outside input only followed later, with additional mixing by Sam Petts-Davies (Radiohead, Frank Ocean) and mastering by Heba Kadry (Björk, Slowdive, Big Thief). The album campaign’s visual aesthetic features band portraits courtesy of the iconic photographer and director Anton Corbijn. His timeless photography includes shoots for R.E.M., U2 and Nick Cave, while Nirvana, Metallica and Depeche Mode lead his numerous renowned music videos. He is also a feature-length film director who is best known for the Ian Curtis / Joy Division biopic ‘Control’. Klangstof will play several European shows this summer as guests to Pixies, including Manchester’s Castlefield Bowl on July 5th. They will again link up with Pixies in December for a tour of Australia and New Zealand.

"Hailing from Amsterdam, Secret Rendezvous' singer/songwriter Sietske Morsch and producer/guitarist Remi Lauw are well versed in crafting great soulful pop songs with more than a cheeky pinch of 90's throwback flavor. Long considered to be specialists in sweet and sultry slow jams, their own brand of indie RnB is a lush fusion of lo-fi bedroom sounds, catchy melodic hooks, sexy basslines and polished RnB aesthetics.

This limited edition vinyl LP combines the 4 original digital EP tracks + a selection of 4 of the remixes as featured on the digi remix EP.

Comes with full coloured artwork for inner and outer sleeve. Shrink-wrapped."

2023 Repress

The third release from Canopy features the title track from a tough to catch Afro funk 7” originally released on private press in Benin in the 1980s. While information on the mesmerising Tomede Ehue remains elusive, she is backed by the Beninois powerhouse, the truly almighty, “TP Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou”.

Electrifying cosmic voodoo disco grooves, heavy bass pulsing, blistering horns and spooky
organ riffs set the tone on this transcendental dance floor afro funk cut.

A modernised tropical disco remix from bosq & an Afro - acid version from Sam Redmore revitalise this mysterious dance floor incantation and launch it into the present day.

These tracks strike a balance between moody afro psych-funk and more punchy electronic aesthetics, while maintaining the subtleties of the original composition and performance.

"My debut album "Leidenzwang" is the consequence of boundless obsession" apostrophizes Kenji Araki with stoic calm. An obsession in the most positive as well as in the most negative of all senses, involving a wide variety of media. Kenji, in his early 20s, is known to be a digital and interdisciplinary artist from Austria with roots in Japan whose work is primarily influenced by the deconstruction of music and contemporary art.

"Leidenzwang" (in English: Suffering compulsion) is confrontation. Confrontation with the world. Confrontation with oneself. A confrontation that can be productive and cathartic. However, until Kenji Araki was able to get into this pattern of thinking, it was necessary in the process of creation to leave his very own sanctuary which he cultivated over the years. Escapism in the rear-view mirror of the past. "Leidenzwang" as a natural hybrid of passion (probably the most beautiful feeling a creatively active person can experience) and dangerous self-flagellation plus constant unrest. The result and musical core of Kenji Araki's debut album is an experimental, emotional post-club exploration with pop sensibility that deliberately ignores genre boundaries.

12 tracks spread over 50 minutes in fast forward: It starts with the adequate intro "Avant" - a primal scream. Next with "Matter" where Kenji collaborates with Thomas Mertlseder and constructs the sound world of a dark fashion film. Emotional highlights for the vividly vibrating club floor as well as for the digital terminals of Planet Earth delivers "Nabelschnurtanz" with its amalgamation of human sound waves. Followed by "Gel & Gewalt" - a combination of 90s Grunge, IDM and exponential rhythms - the fierce "SINEW" with its distorted double bass recordings and "Monomythz" which is Kenji's interpretation of a club banger with a combination of 2000s Eurodance aesthetic and hypermodern off kilter beats.

A moment to take a breath is offered by the spherical track "Milieu" which was written during an emotional low and thus naturally has a dark note. At position 8 is "lluviácida" - inspired by the "rave scene" observed from afar. Closely followed by the album's title number "Leidenzwang" with its granularized piano melodies while nature sounds can be heard in the background.

The album finale is formed by the polyrhythmic fireworks "Deathless Mess", the piece "Isan 世襲" (in Japanese heritage) which symbolizes the own inner turmoil and at the same time acoustically illustrates the relationship to his origin. And the conclusion is marked by the heartbreaking "Au-Dèla" as the epitome of a closer. Kenji Araki: The time is now.

Over the course of the last two decades, of Montreal’s creative force, Kevin Barnes, has been wowing fans with their vast catalog of endlessly fascinating pop and mesmerizing live shows. Barnes’ songwriting and production aesthetic has since become iconic in the industry and has garnered massive critical acclaim in publications such as Rolling Stone, The New York Times, NPR, and Pitchfork, who described the band’s album, Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? as “ceaselessly fascinating and inexhaustibly replayable,” as well as ranking it as the #5 album of the year. Barnes’ influence on pop music is undeniable, with multiple late night TV appearances, including The Late Show With David Letterman and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, as well as brilliant collaborations with the likes of Solange, Janelle Monáe, Jon Brion, and others. The band has also performed across the globe, with festival appearances at Coachella, Sasquatch!, Pitchfork Music Festival and others, as well as hundreds of millions of streams worldwide.

On of Montreal’s latest album, Freewave Lucifer f ck, Barnes continues to push the boundaries of what pop music can be. On songs like “Marijuana’s A Working Woman,” Barnes revisits themes of psychedelia using pulsating synths

Recorded predominantly in Orlando’s studio in Los Angeles, ‘When the Lights Go’ is his first album since 2012’s critically acclaimed ‘Trouble’. The new album marks a departure in sound, defined, of course, by the events of the last few years. Encompassing songwriting, ballads and a pop-centered aesthetic, it’s full of depth, feeling, storytelling and woe - presented in a compelling manner, as only he can.

When the Lights Go is a substantial body of work, containing 17 tracks, representative of the duration between albums, “I feel grateful to know that there are people who are interested in more music from me. So I want to give them something significant in length”, he says. When the Lights Go also marks a shift into the pop domain, Orlando’s vocals take center stage with arrangements that complement the sadness in the songwriting.

Tape



Over the course of two nights, a few weeks before the pandemic arrived in Portugal, André Gonçalves (ADDAC System) and Casper Clausen (Efterklang) recorded music from another realm, dreamy and scary at the same time, sounds complete but it seems to be falling apart at any moment. It is like an alien language or a way to process sound that sounds foreign because it is different from everything else, formally, and aesthetically. This is “Aether”, 37 minutes of constant take-off. A departure from what both musicians have done in the past.

That’s the beauty of these collaborations. You don’t know exactly the point of departure and where it leads. “Aether” masters that feeling throughout seven parts. The synthesized sounds hang in the air like clouds slowly moving, transforming into something else. Sometimes they touch each other and form something else. Or they just hang in there, waiting, just waiting. And then Casper Clausen’s voice shows up and offers a “Twin Peaks” feeling to everything, transforming that sound mass into ethereal melodies that become too overwhelming.

We think about all those Popol Vuh soundtracks from the Werner Herzog films, the fog that never goes away. The constant ecstasy of creating something magical or achieving the impossible. Or even Vangelis and his ability to elevate simple sounds into something beautiful and glorious. Both share this element of the unexpected, you’ll never know what you’ll listen to or feel during the process of active listening. It is a bizarre but comforting experience, a synthetic dream you want to be part of. Music to be touched and felt.

»HD+« is a data dvd, documenting uwe schmidt's aka atomTM's visual aesthetics for the first time. the conceptual engagement with and the critical yet diverting examination of pop music that's always delivered with a twinkle in the eye is a central topic of the musician's diverse creative work and cer- tainly included in this visual presentation of it. together with the second remix ep »riding the void« to be released this summer, »HD+« marks the provisional completion of atomTM's »HD« cycle. besides tracks from the »HD« album (r-n147), the video collection does as well contain tracks from other atomTM recordings such as »streuung«, originally released on »winterreise« (r-n140), and tracks taken from external releases such as »praezision«. in order to present the video material in high resolution and at the best quality, no special format- ting was used, but for playing the videos, the following system requirements have to be met: OS: Mac OSX 10.5 or later, Windows 7 or later processor: 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo or faster RAM: minimum 2 GB video RAM: minimum 512 MB furthermore, we have to thank the following people who helped realizing this complex work:

823 is a multifaceted Perth-based record label, fashion brand, and artistic community, founded by Australian producer and all-around creative, Ta-ku (846k monthly listeners on Spotify). With an ethos of attention to detail and appreciation for the everyday things in life, 823 doesn’t stick to any particular genre. 823’s releases include Cabu’s (800k Monthly Listeners on Spotify) “So Far To Go” EP, Ta-ku and matt mcwaters’s duo project “Black and White,” which featured Masego collaboration “Flight 99” (14 million streams on Spotify), their debut release with Australian producer and instrumentalist Kuzich, and multiple sold out clothing capsules. “All Things Considered Vol. 1” set off a collaborative series of curated compilations, featuring both budding and well-established artists around the world including Idealism, Wun Two, pastels, SwuM, Jinsang, Saltyyyy V, and more. “All Things Considered Vol. 2” sees the continuation of this project, this time in partnership with fellow Perth-based powerhouse, Butter Goods.

Butter Goods is a Perth clothing brand rooted in skating culture and style, but drawing inspiration from hip-hop, jazz, and music at large. Butter Goods has been featured in major publications, including GQ, Complex, and HYPEBEAST. They’ve collaborated on releases with Peanuts and Puma, and have reached international levels of popularity. Butter Goods co-founder Garth Mariano’s deep love for and eclectic tastes in music drive his creativity, and are front and center in his partnership with Ta-ku and 823 on “All Things Considered Vol 2,” where the two team up to curate a wide-ranging compilation.

Arriving on September 2nd, 2022, “All Things Considered Vol. 2” is an exploration of Ta-ku’s and Mariano’s extensive and often overlapping musical palettes in two parts. The record pays homage to the love of instrumental music and hidden gems of new school jazz and funk that act as a source of inspiration and nostalgia for the both of them. The collaboration brings together over a dozen producers and instrumentalists from Sydney to Chicago, including Jadu Jadu, Gnarly, Tenderlonius, silentjay, and more. Side A is curated by Ta-ku and 823. It’s as much a love letter to the past as it is a nod to the future of beat-making. Featuring sample heavy, drum looped beats, sprinkled with the occasional ear candy for the attentive listener, it presents cruisy soundscapes & easy listening. Side B is curated by Garth and Butter Goods. It’s a raw and eclectic companion to Side A, leaning heavily into the texture and grit of multi-layered jazz and funk-driven beats.

As with any 823 release, the project is as visual as it is sonic. The artwork and visualizers are a celebration of Garth’s love of thrift culture and old nature documentaries, fused with 823’s design aesthetic of bringing everyday inspirations to the forefront. CRT style visuals are paired with 90’s spin, slide and fade away transitions. When partnered with the music, each visualizer could easily work as the intro for an episode of a VHS series of nature docos.

1st single, “senzu bean,” arrives on July 7th and kicks off Side A, showcasing Ta-ku’s hip-hop-centric tastes. Sydney producer Jadu Jadu teams up with UK-based TAMBALA, apltn, and Makzo for a vibrant instrumental. From a head-nodding bassline beneath fuzzy synths, to soft horn licks sprinkled over electronic drums, “senzu bean” is sonically rich and multilayered.

2nd single, “Too Much” by UK producer saaaz arrives July 20th. It’s a moody and low-tempo beat that builds itself up over time, complete with cryptic vocal samples and syrupy drums and bass. Also off of 823’s Side A, “Too Much” maintains a laid-back hip-hop theme but with saaaz’s signature and definitive lo-fi twist.

3rd single, “Goodmorning” from Baro Sura and silentjay of Melbourne arrives August 3rd, kicking off Butter Good’s Side B. The track is bright from start to finish and is a sun-filled track perfect for closing out the summer with. Final single, “Fool’s Gold” by Los Angeles producer L.Dre arrives August 17th. The infinitely creative beatmaker layers soft hums and the sounds of crashing waves over crisp drums and an infectious bassline. Together, it makes for a beat that sounds like it was made outside, under the sun, and is best enjoyed in the same way.

Focus track, “Seventh Wonder” by Tenderlonius, comes off of Side B, and is a window into the ideas and palettes on both sides of the compilation. The beat slowly fades in, one sound at a time, until it reaches a full-fledged groove, soaked in synths, bass, and horns, that’s impossible not to move to.

On the whole, “All Things Considered Vol. 2” is a forward-focused, sonic journey into the minds behind two of today’s great creative brands, and is as artistically eclectic and varied as those minds are, and a proud follow-up to its first volume.

LP contains A2 poster on uncoated stock.

Glenn Astro and Hulk Hodn (to some known as mighty Hodini) release their new full-length record “Ghosts” via Kommerz Records on August 26th.
Producers Astro & Hodn‘s first joint album “Turquoise Tortoise” in 2018 combined uptempo beats, hiphop and spaced out lo-fi slow jams effortlessly. On “Ghosts” the duo develops their exploration of new
aesthetics even further through synthesized soundscapes and numerous collaborations with young talent from all over the world. Artists such as Danish neo soul discovery AGGi, King Krule collaborator Gal Go, Kamohelo from Studio Barnhus band Off The Meds, Berlin-based voice experimentalist Yosa Peit and many more deep dived into the collaboration and transformed the album into a sonic multiverse.
New Release Information
Glenn Astro and Hulk Hodn are connected through a long lasting musical friendship. With their Detroitinspired house releases they gained wider recognition by critics and listeners alike. Nevertheless,
they’ve never been one dimensional artists. Berlin-based Glenn Astro‘s diversified approach to production as showcased on labels such as Ninja Tune and Tartelet bridges the gaps between ambient, hip-hop, techno and bass.
Meanwhile Cologne‘s Hulk Hodn gained the status of a German underground hip-hop legend. Through his records and shows with rapper Retrogott he gathered a cult-like following besides dropping high quality projects with other beat makers such as Hubert Daviz and Twit One and rappers such as Eloquent. Most recently he dropped the instrumental LP “Sparklez” on Sichtexot sub Casual Low Grind.

Mo Troper is truly one of a kind, and that’s never been more apparent than on his fifth full-length, the winkingly titled MTV. Arriving hot on the heels of his 2021 full-length, Dilettante, the album finds the Portland, OR-based power pop extraordinaire diving further into home-recorded immediacy to make a record that feels like a strikingly direct conduit to the world of Mo–where heartbreak, hilarity, and hooks all go hand-inhand.

MTV hurtles through 15 songs in just 31 minutes, with most of the tracks never even coming close to the three-minute mark. The sequence feels like a combination of a fever dream and a travel diary, intertwining tales of romantic longing with the ups and downs

of cross-country touring. Songs like “Across The USA,” “Royal Jelly,” or “Coke Zero” unravel the headaches and heartbreaks, often alternating between unflinching emotional details and legitimately funny one-liners. “I feel like I’m just in this mode of rebelling against the expectation for artists to be emotionally or aesthetically cohesive,” Troper says. “I think about all my favorite records and songwriters, and they’re often these people who would have really depressing stuff and then insane moments of levity that don’t get talked about as much. I want to make music that’s emotional but also campy or sarcastic or resonates in other ways. I’m like, ‘you know what, it’s all me.’”

"After 11 pm, you stop hearing regular rock on the classic hits radio
station and start hearing more strange stuff, one-hit wonders from 1976,
or really minor singles from artists I thought I didn't like because I just
hadn't heard this one weird song before," says Bloomington, Indianabased singer-songwriter Damion - Rather than let those offbeat classics
fade into the twilight on his late-night drives, Damion returned home and
went straight to the Tascam cassette machine - Inspired by both the
sound and the bleary-eyed ambiguity, the result of that late-night
recording is the bronzy Special Interest, a record bathed in memory and
the antigravity of '70s AM radio
Once he had finished demoing songs at home, Damion brought the nine tracks
that would make up the album to his preferred studio, Russian Recording, and
worked with Ben Lumsdaine and Lewis Rogers to polish them up. Aesthetically,
Damion aimed to fit within the limits of the era that inspired the songs.
"Recording to cassette tape, you either have to play the part right or learn to love
the way it sounds wrong, so even in the studio we abided by those same
limitations," he says. Rather than limitations, the structures and styles of vintage
rock perfectly suit the album's lithe falsetto, eerily familiar melodies, and hazy
storytelling--the listener immersed in a soup of poetic fragments, Damion himself
always at a beguiling arm's length. On lead single and opener "Company Man",
resonant acoustic guitar and Super Ball bass provide a platform for Damion's
knowing ability to split the difference between confident swagger and laid-back
charm. The singer-songwriter pulls joy out of musical echos and lyrical wordplay,
in part coming from his love of classic songwriters and long history as a
performer. "I am mostly inspired by singer- songwriters like Carole King, Todd
Rundgren, etc.

CHARLES MINGUS (1922 – 1979)

At the end of the Fifties, hard bop was something else looking for a way out. The inexorable cycle of avant-garde trends needed renewal. These were years when both sides of the Atlantic saw wide-reaching deconstruction in philosophy, painting and music. Everything that seemed to belong to a healthy, normal, established order was seen with the most scrupulous scepticism.

In the history of art, successive pivotal years have always had an artificial aspect while at the same time they have revealed the state of an art that would define a new aesthetic. 1913… 1922 … 1959 … The Shape of Jazz to Come, Kind of Blue, Time Out, Ah Um … When creative minds decoded the structures of an art that was current, it was time to discover new ones. Charles Mingus was one of those who deconstructed, a creator and inventor who marked out a path for the other artists to come.

'No Sub Reino dos Metazoários' is the first and only record by musician and poet Marconi Notaro, out of Pernambuco, Brazil. Originally released independently, however, with the support and distribution of Rozenblit, the 1973 album featuring Lula Cortes, Zé Ramalho and Robertinho de Recife is part of the holy trilogy of "Psicodelia Nordestina" amongst the equally mindblowing Paebiru (1975) and Satwa (1973). For its non-comercial a raw aesthetics, the record became a true rarity among collectors worldwide and one of the most important albums of Brazilian Psychedelia. For years it was known that the master tape of 'No Sub Reino dos Metazoários' had been lost during two floods that wrecked the Rozenblit Studios. Lots of equipment were damaged and plenty of material gone. However what no one expected was that the tapes were kept on the highest shelves in the studio where the water did not reach with the thought of "equipment can be replaced, master tapes are unique". Notaro's daughters inherited and rescued the tape and made it available so that Fatiado Discos could release the first and remastered version from the original tapes since 1973. The lysergic highest moments come with nature elements textures as water and wind mixing together with the unmistaken sound of the Tricórdio Acústico - which is a very unique instrument that Lula Côrtes brought himself from India and then adapted it with the help of a local luthier to the regional sound of the Brazilian northeast. The gatefold designed by Lula Côrtes is portrayed in this release and it also has its inner side designed by Cátia Mezel, apart from an extra insert with unpublished photos of Marconi provided by the musician's family.

1972-1985 KATEBEGIAK - Prog-Rock, Psych-Folk & Jazz-Rock Music from the BASQUE COUNTRY. The album KATEBEGIAK, now published by ELKAR, contains 13 tunes on double LP gatefold edition from Haizea, Izukaitz, William S. Fischer, Magdalena, Enbor, Itoiz, Koska, Itziar, Errobi, Lisker, Amaia Zubiria & Pascal Gaigne, Gontzal Mendibil & Taldea and Urria, and the CD-Book edition adds an extra bonus track by the great unknown artist Juan Arkotxa. Complied by Mikel Unzurrunzaga Schmitz aka DJ Makala. Music produced in the 70's in the Basque Country got trapped between two earth shattering artistic currents; Ez Dok Amairu in the 60s and Basque Radical Rock in the 80's, and unfortunately, most of the lovely discs and tunes created at that magical time have been pushed to a remote (and sometimes even despised) corner of our collective memory. 60's and 80's music currents are almost opposite, and both work as magnetic poles with a very strong power of attraction, and maybe also as a burden for any of the later artistic currents. 60's generation of artists searched within their rich and ancient cultural roots to acknowledge and update them, in proud, hopeful and unforgettable folk songs. The 80's one on the other hand, worked in a flammable environment in constant social and political conflict and found in punk the perfect way to express their anger and weariness for so many unfulfilled promises and the lack of opportunities into short, noisy, direct and corrosive songs, technically sparse but full of energy and expressive power. Most of the "classic" names engraved in our memory come from one or the other like Benito Lertxundi, Mikel Laboa, Lourdes Iriondo and Xabier Lete or Kortatu, Hertzainak, Zarama, Las vulpes, Eskorbuto or Cicatriz. 70's generation and their music work somehow as the "missing link" ("katebegia" in Basque) between the two. They loved folky tunes and don't forget their ancient roots, but they also look outside for inspiration and experimentation. Just as the 80's boys and girls found punk the 70's guys found a completely different sonic and aesthetic landscape in the works of Grateful Dead, Fairport Convention, King Crimson, Soft Machine, Gong_ and worked closely with keen souls in other neighboring regions such as Maquina!, Pau Riba or Sisa in Catalonia or Smash and Triana in Andalusia. This resulted in more abstract and poetic lyrical content, much longer psych-folk-prog-jazz tunes, full of complex instrumental passages and mesmerizing structures of sheer ambition and masterful execution in many cases. But, most important of all, they found a voice of their own, rich, unique, and fascinating, and that's what makes them so valuable to us. Not only to us, but also to lots of vinyl collectors and crate-diggers around the world, who have in many cases paid fortunes for some of the original editions of LPs that are the source of tunes in this compilation. Mikel Unzurrunzaga Schmitz aka DJ Makala, DJ and producer of worldwide scope and wisdom, noticed this fact first and decided to pay homage to these wonderful tunes through this masterful and dedicated selection for your pleasure and as an open invitation to dig deeper into your adventures in the dark and hidden side of Basque popular music.

What happens when you let go of something you've always been passionate about? Will it come back? And if so, in what ways and with what impact?
These questions laid the foundation for Toby Whyle's debut album 'Call It A Night'.

It is a journey to find out what feels right to him-this means escaping old patterns and allowing himself to try new things. Musically, he exposes himself unreservedly to the gravitational forces of electronic music and guitar pop by orbiting these points of attraction without ever really getting caught by either of them. Each song moves along its own trajectory, fueled by Toby's thoughts and experiences.

His first single, 'No One Moves', hitting number 1 on the FM4 charts in early 2021, marked the beginning of a new adventure-a journey upon which Toby embarks entirely on his own for the first time. After his first EP, 'A Mood Of Its Own', and the release of further singles, the debut album 'Call It A Night' will be out on May 20th, 2022, on Matches Music.

PRESSTEXT
Writing songs has always been quite natural and ever-present in Toby Whyle's life. And he's written plenty of them over the last decade. However, what's new is the realisation that songwriting is one of his few means to slow down the bright and fast-paced world surrounding us. Driven by the urge to create and develop something new, he started to write again. And suddenly, this feeling of being able to pause time came out more intense and immediate than ever.

In this way, the singer, songwriter, and guitarist manages to stand back from the constant rush, carving out space to move freely at his own pace. " Each song is an empty room, and I can decide for myself how I'm going to furnish it. It might get rather chaotic with stuff piled up to the ceiling, then again there's almost nothing in it", he describes his approach to songwriting. For him, creating melodies, crafting music and lyrics is not just a means of reflecting on situations he finds himself in but also a tool of handling them. Toby's music strives to affect and inspire people in all the different phases in life, as his songs are also a result of the diverse situations he's gone through.

Aesthetics and craftsmanship play a crucial role in Toby Whyle's creative process, from crafting songs, recording and producing them, and building and maintaining a particular visual language. He aims to create high-quality and exceptional music that enthuses and delights people, which sparks energy and conveys a certain feeling.

This release will have you dancing and crying at the same time. On his debut album, Paris-based producer and founder of the "raw poetry" aesthetic Loyce Demellier - AKA DJ Physical - takes us on a fast-paced journey through techno, electro, breaks and more. Whilst the music's indisputable home is the club, Physical teases out moments of playfulness and sentimentality amongst hard-hitting electronics.

"Silver Lake" LP resides on the colder, more industrial side of Demellier's sonic spectrum, following on from his latest release on London imprint 10 PILLS MATE which saw him depart from the more lofi quality of his previous releases in favour of a raw, club-focused sound. On the A-side, Demellier situates the release within the context of old warehouse raves, with euphoric acid melodies and a 140BPM propulsion ("Uranium"): and high-pitched synth stabs that ascend from darkness ("Gold Mines").

The B-side maintains the pace, but this time it's about electro and breaks. On "Overshoot", reverberating cymbals add another layer of depth to Amen break interludes whilst "Lawbreaker" harnesses a cheekier tone, offering respite from the previous tracks' venom. This air of playfulness sticks around on "Lunatic State" helped by MPC drum claps and a ludic electro melody, before fellow Parisian Ika Sile steps up for "Early Sprinter" and "Bootybounce": the former offering a slicker take on acid techno and the latter: rave music at its absolute with piano stabs and sleazy vocal chops. Silver Lake LP drops 22nd July 2022 via Lost Palms

3x7" box set containing DIIV's inaugural, pre-Oshin releases from 2011 First repress since their original release Pressed on Eco vinyl and limited to 3000 copies Includes full color booklet with photos, art, and new writings // Before Oshin, there was `Sometime,' `Human,' and `Geist'... In 2011, a newly formed DIIV (known, at the time, as `DIVE') created instant vibrations in the blog-world with their impressionistic debut single `Sometime'; finding its way onto the esteemed pages of Pitchfork a mere matter of weeks after the group's formation. They quickly followed it up with the equally great `Human' and `Geist', with the latter featuring a b-side cover of Kurt Cobain's "Bambi Slaughter." These very first offerings from DIIV chemically fused the reminiscent with the half-remembered, building a musical world out of old-air and new breeze. These are songs that remind us of love in all it's earthly perfections and perversions, and work that ultimately put DIIV on the map, leading the way for the band to become a central influence on the sound and aesthetic of the 2010s Brooklyn indie music scene. Now, to commemorate the 10 year anniversary of their seminal debut album Oshin, all three 7"s will be repressed for the very first time since their original release. DIIV: "Looking back, these 7"s were really the thing that propelled the band into existence and pushed us to realize Oshin in the first place. This type of retrospective project wouldn't feel complete without them."

Long before Lina Seybold became a geologist, the singer and guitarist was already writing songs and making a name for herself far beyond the city limits of Munich with her Steve Albini-trained (and produced) quartet candelilla, before the band dispersed into new projects. During her studies, she met Moritz Gamperl and the two realised that what they learned in rock research could also play a role in rock music. Thus, the material history of the planet became both a source of existential reflections for the two and the impetus for a highly accomplished and often graceful sound, which has been expressed in the band pirx together with drummer Sascha Saygin since 2019: Technically sovereign, obstinate songs that - with Seybold now on bass and vocals - create subtle dramaturgies, cinematic aesthetics, far-reaching arcs of tension.

With Lamina, the trio now presents an excellent debut album, recorded by Martin M. Hermann, which shoots out of the earth with explosive force as hot lava, only to flow into the valley in glowing beauty the next moment, changing the earth's surface, telling of elemental forces - until it finally evaporates the water in the sea and lays a comatose fog over all existence. Or in other words: pirx make creation music, in all directions of time!

New full length album of Franck Vigroux's uncompromising signature sound of colossal electronic music. Atotal gathers material from Franck's latest live A/V of the the same name. Working with his long time visual partner Antoine Schmitt, ATOTAL is an audiovisual performance aiming to reconstruct in order to better deconstruct the processes of imposition of will by repetition and absolute synchronism, to propose a breach to a potentially life-saving decoincidence. The total work of art, when pushed to its paroxysm of absolute coincidence of the perceptions of a captive spectator, is similar to the techniques of mental manipulation of totalitarian regimes, proceeding by annihilation of the critical mind, repetitive semantic pounding, subliminal messages. The ideal of a deterministic universe of Newton in which everything rationally stems from its causes, in which everything is predictable like a totality for Laplace’s daemon, where everything can be considered already written, has been undermined in the infinitely small of the uncertainties of Heisenberg which tell us that it is impossible to know everything about a particle, in the quantum mechanics of Schrödinger which reveals to us that the looker affects the looked-at, and in the infinitely abstract of Gödel’s incompleteness which explains to us that certain things are literally unexplainable. The show ATOTAL slips into these flaws and, like a clinamen of Lucretia, deviates the visual and audio atoms from their destiny. Mastering by Denis Blackham. Artwork by Mostafa Khaled

"Jurassic Shift remains a creative peak." Classic RockOne of the most influential
bands to emerge from the UK's festival scene, the Ozrics layer ambient & ethereal
landscapes with freeform dub trips, incredible rave grooves & psychedelic
progressive rock. It's an open exploration of music & the soul.
For over 30 years, the Ozrics have experienced the vicissitudes of the rock & roll
life. The band has flourished through several line- up changes, spawned several
side projects, created their own record label, scored a hit record & sold over a
million albums world- wide. And yet, the basic motivation behind the band's
existence has never wavered.
Their signature blend of hippy aesthetics & raver electronics with spiraling guitars,
textured waves of keyboard & midi samplers & super- groovy bass & drum
rhythms continue to delight fans across the world to this day.
'Jurassic Shift' was the fourth proper release from the band & the first album to
be recorded in their own studio The Mill. The album reached #11 in the UK
national chart when it was released in 1993.
This version of 'Jurassic Shift' features the 2020 remastering by frontman Ed
Wynne

If you thought the Erupt-ion was over and done with, think again. Another earful of heavy breaks and hardcore junglism have risen from the ashes to keep your residential area vibrating. This time, the ballistics are blasted out by the label's head man, Bullet S.

Bullet uses his EP to tell a story of growing up around urban decay, and claustrophobic city centres. He translates that angst into three tunes' worth of furious beats and staccato riff overload, with the moody aesthetic to boot. This is the first sign of trouble, you cannot ignore it.

Erupt Records was established in 2016 to cover tougher, faster styles of electronic dance music, with a view of openness towards introducing contemporary influences alongside the familiar; Hardcore that reflects today, not yesterday. The objective? Push the boundaries, keep the drums raw, compromise for noone.

Grab the vinyl while you can to get yourself an exclusive bonus track which won't be on any digital releases of this EP, "No Loss".

THE OZRIC'S SEMINAL 1989 FIRST TRUE ALBUM IS BACK ON VINYL

'Pungent Effulgent', the Ozric's first 'official' album in 1989, after self- releasing material on cassettes, is the first produced to label standards & retains their explorative style based on improvisations whilst performing live. One of the most influential bands to emerge from the UK's festival scene, the Ozrics layer ambient & ethereal landscapes with freeform dub trips, incredible rave grooves & psychedelic progressive rock. It's an open exploration of music & the soul.

For over 30 years, the Ozrics have experienced the vicissitudes of the rock & roll life. The band has flourished through several line- up changes, spawned several side projects, created their own record label, scored a hit record & sold over a million albums world- wide. And yet, the basic motivation behind the band's existence has never wavered.

Their signature blend of hippy aesthetics & raver electronics with spiraling guitars, textured waves of keyboard & midi samplers, & super- groovy bass & drum rhythms connect fans of progressive rock, psychedelia & DJ culture.

'Pungent Effulgent' will feature the 2020 remastering of Ed Wynne. The band's early influences from peers such as Hawkwind, Gong & Pink Floyd are evident in this transformative release.

Sub Pop debut by accomplished Greek artist Σtella, produced by Redinho (Swet Shop Boys).
‘Up And Away’ is an eclectic, compelling modern pop album showcasing Σtella’s skilled songwriting and the influence of classic love songs, Greek folk, and contemporary electronic-music production.

Σtella makes her Sub Pop debut with the mesmerizing ‘Up And Away’, an oldschool pop paean to the pangs and raptures of love. From the Greek folkinflected get-go, we’re swept up in Σtella’s world - and it’s quite the captivating place to be.

The singer songwriter joined forces with artist and producer Tom Calvert (aka Redinho), and it was a match made in Athens; the results are heavenly. Tom caught one of Σtella’s gigs on a visit to the city. He reached out, they started hanging out, and the pair soon clicked creatively. Both mention chemistry when asked about their collaboration and it’s clear, from what we hear, they had it in spades. The meld is seamless.

Σtella’s songs have always riffed on American and Greek mid-century pop but ‘Up And Away’ doubles down on the vintage aesthetic. Tom says he styled the record “as if it was a rare gem from the ’60s found in a box of records in Athens,” and Σtella notes she was ready for a more “deeply Greek touch - it felt comfortable and right, smoothly fusing with the pop.” The bouzouki appears on a full five tracks played by Christos Skondras who, she says, “was brilliant at improvising,” while Sofia Labropoulou on the kanun “brought an insane amount of dreaminess to the last two songs. Having these amazing musicians play for ‘Up And Away’ - I couldn’t be more grateful.”

While not exclusively a confessional artist, Σtella is always intimate - when she sings, it’s personal. She writes “about things I feel passion for. Stories about me, about others, about all that’s there in love and war.” Σtella was “in a very emotional state at the time, which came through in the lyrics and vocals.” And it’s true, her honeyed voice - layered in those unmistakable harmonies of hers - thrillingly runs the gamut from tender to terse, by turns bracing and smitten, aching and forlorn. But it’s the lyrics that feel key. Across her output, Σtella has proven herself a strong storyteller, and ‘Up And Away’ is no exception (the guise of the medieval bard she assumes on the cover is telling). Past releases have been studded with gem-like vignettes - a diverse array of stories set tightly together to form non-linear narratives unified by emotion. Her latest feels singular in that it seems to trace a longer-form tale across songs, with each track escalating the record’s erotic arc.

By the end of the album, ‘Up And Away’s core concerns are clear: the conflicting and conflicted emotions inherent in love, that live on in ways we can’t always understand or control. Love is like this record: when it’s over, you still feel it for time to come.
Loser Edition LP pressed on blue vinyl.

A match made in heaven and hell, since forming in the cradle of Europe Athens, back in 2012, dark synth duo Selofan have paved their own perditious way, reinventing the modern Darkwave scene throughout the continent and worldwide with their prolific creativity and work ethic over the past decade. Through varied experimental synth-scapes conjured with keen ears for sound design, production, and theatrical aesthetics, Selofan rest not on the laurels of just creating highly danceable coldwave infused music, but with together with Joanna Pavlidou's haunting vocals, and Dimitris Pavlidis' throbbing bass guitar, and modular synth compositions, the pair conjure whole other worlds and narratives throughout each album and music video they create. Thus far the Selofan have released 5 studio albums, issued through their own legendary label they curate themselves: Fabrika Records. Through their Fabrika family, Selofan have championed such acts as Lebanon Hanover, and She Past Away, aiding these bands in becoming two of the most popular Darkwave acts worldwide. Drab Majesty even cameoed in a She Past Away video while being hosted by Selofan during one of the band's frequent stays in Athens, and Kaelan Mikla, a handpicked favorite of The Cure, were first championed by Selofan, through the release of the Icelandic Trio's self-titled debut in 2016. In the Spring of 2020, Selofan released the video for the hopelessly plaintive "There Must Be Somebody", the first single from their forthcoming sixth studio album Partners In Hell, the follow-up to 2018's widely popular Vitrioli LP. "There Must be Somebody" is a discordant composition, mimicking the startled song of birds after a disturbance in a wooded enclave on a mountainside, while a magick ritual unfolds. The album itself opens with "Grey Gardens", a menagerie of morose melodies setting a sombre tone for the rest of a bleak record whose sound design and dreamscapes evoke the best sounds of British and German post-punk of the 80s. "Almost Nothing" is a brooding bell-driven track with a dark and pirouetting melody that is the perfect soundtrack to a figurine twirling in a music box. The German language "Nichts" means No, and this song is both sinister and cinematic with sighing keys, shuddering drum machines, and German lyrics sung with sorrowful conviction. "Zusamen", is a word often asked if you are together, or separate, is a dark ballad whose shadowy keys weave a nightmarish delirium, evoking the soundscapes of a lullaby sung in a haunted dollhouse. "4am" is a restless rhythm, whose soft percussive melody tosses and turns alongside subtle bass and string accents overlaid with despondent vocals. "Happy Consumers" sounds like the swirling of a finger drawn upon the edge of crystalline glass, with vocals and drum machines coming emanating from an adjacent room with echoing acoustics, collectively evoking the sound like lingers when the somnambulist wakes from his dream. "Absolutely Absent" hums onward like a phantom train ride that is a one-way ticket to madness, and with the next track "Metalic Isolation" the locomotive beats gather more steam, propelled forward with anachronistic melody. The album closes with "Auf Dein Haut", which translates as on your skin, and the song is both tactile and tenebrous with sensuously dark synth textures amidst howling German vocals that take flight like witches during a sabbat. Partner's In Hell was mixed and produced by Serafim Tsotsonis, and mastered by Doruk Ozturkcan. Genre: Alternative / Post-Punk / Cold Wave

Her debut LP, Banshee, was released on Wax Poetics. Has collaborated with MF Doom, Czarface, Ghostface Killah, Dennis Coffey, and more. Kendra Morris’s Nine Lives, to be released on Karma Chief Records (a division of Colemine Records) in early 2022, marks not only the culmination of the decade since the release of her first LP Banshee, but also a turning point in Kendra’s life. Nine Lives heralds the beginning of a new chapter; label, and an evolution to the next level of adulthood. This collection of her original songs encapsulates moments from what could be nine lifetimes. Kendra, while very much a New Yorker and veteran of almost 2 decades on the NYC scene, hails from Florida and aesthetically embodies the broader sense of American culture, bringing to her contemporary sound influences found in music and cinema dating back to the mid 20th century. Her music conjures imagery evocative of road trips to weird and wonderful places. Concurrently a visual artist, filmmaker and animator, Kendra harnesses the feline nine lives metaphor repeatedly. In the context of the chapters of her musical trajectory alone, we see at least 9 lives. From discovering multi-tracking on a karaoke machine as a child, to playing in bands in Florida, moving to NYC and creating music alone on an 8 track, releasing her first 2 LPs on Wax Poetics, releasing her 2016 EP Babble and collaborating with DJ Premier, 9th Wonder, MF Doom, Czarface, Ghostface Killah, Dennis Coffey, and David Sitek, to name a few. The life of this multi-disciplinarian artist contains units of time and story lines through which we can all relate to universal themes of love, loss and overcoming one's fears. Kendra, never ceasing to heed her spiritual calling to continue creating music and art, no matter what, has no plans of slowing down but a belief in only evolving, eager to begin experiencing her next nine lives.

FP030F pressed in half black half purple vinyl 500 copies hand-numbered. FP030G pressed in black with red splatter vinyl 500 copies hand-numbered. A match made in heaven and hell, since forming in the cradle of Europe Athens, back in 2012, dark synth duo Selofan have paved their own perditious way, reinventing the modern Darkwave scene throughout the continent and worldwide with their prolific creativity and work ethic over the past decade. Through varied experimental synth-scapes conjured with keen ears for sound design, production, and theatrical aesthetics, Selofan rest not on the laurels of just creating highly danceable coldwave infused music, but with together with Joanna Pavlidou's haunting vocals, and Dimitris Pavlidis' throbbing bass guitar, and modular synth compositions, the pair conjure whole other worlds and narratives throughout each album and music video they create. Thus far the Selofan have released 5 studio albums, issued through their own legendary label they curate themselves: Fabrika Records. Through their Fabrika family, Selofan have championed such acts as Lebanon Hanover, and She Past Away, aiding these bands in becoming two of the most popular Darkwave acts worldwide. Drab Majesty even cameoed in a She Past Away video while being hosted by Selofan during one of the band's frequent stays in Athens, and Kaelan Mikla, a handpicked favorite of The Cure, were first championed by Selofan, through the release of the Icelandic Trio's self-titled debut in 2016. In the Spring of 2020, Selofan released the video for the hopelessly plaintive "There Must Be Somebody", the first single from their forthcoming sixth studio album Partners In Hell, the follow-up to 2018's widely popular Vitrioli LP. "There Must be Somebody" is a discordant composition, mimicking the startled song of birds after a disturbance in a wooded enclave on a mountainside, while a magick ritual unfolds. The album itself opens with "Grey Gardens", a menagerie of morose melodies setting a sombre tone for the rest of a bleak record whose sound design and dreamscapes evoke the best sounds of British and German post-punk of the 80s. "Almost Nothing" is a brooding bell-driven track with a dark and pirouetting melody that is the perfect soundtrack to a figurine twirling in a music box. The German language "Nichts" means No, and this song is both sinister and cinematic with sighing keys, shuddering drum machines, and German lyrics sung with sorrowful conviction. "Zusamen", is a word often asked if you are together, or separate, is a dark ballad whose shadowy keys weave a nightmarish delirium, evoking the soundscapes of a lullaby sung in a haunted dollhouse. "4am" is a restless rhythm, whose soft percussive melody tosses and turns alongside subtle bass and string accents overlaid with despondent vocals. "Happy Consumers" sounds like the swirling of a finger drawn upon the edge of crystalline glass, with vocals and drum machines coming emanating from an adjacent room with echoing acoustics, collectively evoking the sound like lingers when the somnambulist wakes from his dream. "Absolutely Absent" hums onward like a phantom train ride that is a one-way ticket to madness, and with the next track "Metalic Isolation" the locomotive beats gather more steam, propelled forward with anachronistic melody. The album closes with "Auf Dein Haut", which translates as on your skin, and the song is both tactile and tenebrous with sensuously dark synth textures amidst howling German vocals that take flight like witches during a sabbat. Partner's In Hell was mixed and produced by Serafim Tsotsonis, and mastered by Doruk Ozturkcan.

Repress

In 1974 Mazzotti recorded her first album Ninguem Vai Me Segurar (1974), enlisting the in-demand arrangement talents of Azymuth’s original keyboard maestro Jose Roberto Bertrami who co-wrote several of the tracks and plays organ, piano and synthesizers on the album. It also features Azymuth’s bassist Alex Malheiros and percussionist Ariovaldo Contestini, with Romildo Santos who produced the album on drums. Recorded in Estudio Haway around the same time Azymuth recorded their debut album there, it’s no wonder the samba jazz-funk pioneer’s distinctive aesthetic is present throughout, and Mazzotti’s sensational compositions are made even more beautiful for it.

An artist as imaginative and unique as Ana Mazzotti doesn’t come around often. Dubbed a “super-musician” by fellow Brazilian virtuoso Hermeto Pascoal, Mazzotti’s short but rich musical career culminated in just two studio albums: Ninguem Vai Me Segurar (1974), and Ana Mazzotti (1977). Outside circles of Brazilian funk aficionados, these two gems of spellbinding samba-jazz, lysergic funk and trippy bossa have remained relatively obscure. This was partly as a result of Mazzotti’s premature death (she lost her battle with cancer in her mid-thirties), but also due to financial restraints and the prejudice she faced as a female songwriter in a fundamentally sexist society.

Born in Caixas, in Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul municipality, Mazzotti began to play the accordion aged five, before moving with prodigious ease onto the piano. By the age of twelve she was already conducting her convent school’s choir, and at twenty-one she led her city’s premier chorus, the Coral Bento Goncalves. When rock and roll hit South America in the sixties, a young Mazzotti was one of the early adopters, fronting various guitar groups including an all-female Beatles cover band, and an eclectic, eight-piece psychedelic group Desenvolvemento. Before moving to Sao Paulo to start her career proper, Mazzotti met drummer, producer and fellow music educator Romido Santos, who she would later marry. Romildo introduced Mazzotti to jazz, and music by the likes of Chick Corea and Hermeto Pascoal who she would later befriend and perform with.

In 1977, Mazzotti took her debut album back to the studio, releasing the album with a new running order and new ethereal cover art, ostensibly another crack at commercial success following the small scale of the independently funded first release. With intimately re-recorded vocals, and the bonus of gorgeous horn arrangements and a new track: the carnivalesque ‘Eta, Samba Bom’, replacing Roberta Flack’s hit ‘Feel Like Making Love’, Ana Mazzotti (1977) delivers Mazzotti’s refreshingly cool musical style even more effortlessly, while retaining the all magical energy of her debut.

Far Out Recordings is proud to present the official reissue of this cult favourite Brazilian treasure. Remastered and pressed to 180g vinyl Ana Mazzotti (1977) will be available on vinyl LP, CD and digitally from 13th September.