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Out now for the first time on vinyl! The world first heard Pill on their self-titled cassette release on Dull Tools. And the world took note. Evan Minsker, writing for Pitchfork, says 'they are loose with form, they pack in a lot of ideas, and they successfully deliver an emotionally complex narrative where joy is accompanied by an impossible-to-ignore undercurrent of danger. The band's debut outing is enigmatic—a Dull Tools record through and through—but it's also well crafted, full of stellar performances and unflinching lyrics.'
The band then signed to Mexican Summer, releasing their debut LP. Shortly after, prolific in a way that has become a hall- mark of Dull Tools artists, they release another cassette, 2017's 'Agressive Advertising'. If one thought the self-titled cassette couldn't get more acerbic and confrontational, Agresstive Advertis- ing proved them wrong.
Now both releases are available on one LP. This LP is an important document of New York City's DIY scene and one of the best bands to emerge from it. Pill are an ever present force in NYC's scene. Playing small clubs like Baby's All Right, DIY spaces like Silent Barn and even the Museum of Modern Art. When the art and culture of New York is examined in, much in the way we examine culture from the past, you can bet that Pill will be a shining example of this moment in time.

Second release of the year already from the party music people of Abstrack. This time, it’s Brussels based artist Strapontin whose original production is on the menu, with re interpretation from several gifted companions. The multitude here is no excuse for genericity or easy recipes, rather a fertile playground for toying around with a wide range of vibes and moods.

Matches is a poetic, sensual spoken-word piece. The song feels like a flower about to blossom, though with plenty of hybrid DNA in it. In the end it leaves the way wide open for further emotions to get through. And they do.

Sasnal Park is the emotion of wander : looking for something forever, but for what? The drums make you believe that you found it but they turn out to be a mirage, and so does every tangible element of the track. A beautiful journey in the end even if you don’t know where you’ve been.

Family Diner … no ambiguity this time : a mystical roller as dark as it is trippy. Or maybe more trippy. Either way, not sure you can resist dancing to this one played out loud. Lose yourself to screaming halfway through, but only to fall back well rooted in those dancing feet afterwards.

On the flip, remixers put it where they’re expected to : A Strange Wedding takes the wandering “Sasnal Park” on the Edge of trancy club music, closer to the roots of Abstrack parties.

Feon turns the belter “Family Diner” into a road roller : sirens and massive subs engage into a memorable fist fight.

And home man Vidock choses the very dreamlike “Matches”, adding quite a touch of dancefloor but not removing one inch of dream.

Action/Adventure (A/A) is a pop-punk band hailing from Chicago ready to shatter the decades-long stereotypes of the scene. As a band comprised solely of BIPOC, their mission is to create #PopPunkInColor and ensure pop punk is a genre where everyone is represented on and off stage. Playing collectively together since 2014, the band has gotten the attention of alt scene tastemakers like Alt. Press and Kerrang!, garnered nearly 20k monthly listeners on Spotify, over one million plays on TikTok, and even secured a slot at the final Vans Warped Tour in 2018. The band consists of Adrian Brown (drums), Blake Evaristo (lead vocals), Manny Avila (bass), Oren Trace (guitar), and Brompton Jackson (vocals/guitar). Pulling Focus will be the bands fourth EP joining Going Heal (2018), Last Minute Stuntman (2016), and Ruble Pak (2016). The dynamic five-piece collectively write music that slides along the vast spectrum of pop punk, typically landing in the area of melodic hardcore. Poppy lyrics and melodies bring an air of familiarity that are simultaneously bringing a fresh perspective through a new lens, and gripping riffs and trashing breakdowns that you can nod your head to. A/A has now successfully planted their flag into the national landscape of the pop-punk scene following the release of their powerful 60-second single, “Barricades,” which details the discrimination the band has faced while gigging at pop-punk shows across the country. On a whim at the suggestion of a friend, the band posted the impactful music video for “Barricades” onto TikTok one afternoon with their hashtag #PopPunkInColor, and uninstalled the ap shortly after. By the end of the day, they had over 60k plays #PopPunkInColor. Within three weeks, the guys had over one million plays and an email from their dream label in their inbox.

Back in print ! Spittle Records present an expanded reissue of Massacre's Killing Time, originally released in 1981. Following the breakup of Cambridge's avant-rock legends, Henry Cow, guitarist Fred Frith moved to NYC in 1979, and soon found himself deep in the heart of the city's robust post-punk and free-jazz scenes. He performed with Bill Laswell and Fred Maher, from the group Material, as a power trio of sorts under the moniker of Massacre. The group quickly garnered a reputation around town, and around the world for that matter, as a heavy and heady band that experimented greatly with rhythm, time signatures, and tone. As Frith himself put it, "the group was a direct response to New York. It was a very aggressive group, kind of my reaction to the whole New York rock club scene." Massacre released one album, Killing Time, before disbanding for nearly 20 years. Their first wave as a group crashed fast and furiously and this one album, recorded in part live in Paris, and in part at Brooklyn's OAO Studio, is a perfect encapsulation of early '80s NYC. In addition to the original album, first released on Celluloid in 1981, this deluxe three-sided double LP includes eight bonus tracks recorded live between '80 and '81 at The Stone in San Francisco, and Inroads and CBGB in NYC. Avant-jazz-post-punk-noise of the highest order from several legends and one of the most important projects Frith and Laswell were ever involved in.

Lee Foss and Franky Wah join forces in the ‘Name of Love’ for this hypnotic house track on Club Sweat complete with a bumping Torren Foot Remix. Lee and Franky escape their own sonic boundaries to conjure up a pertinent soundtrack for everyone feeling the need to escape their physical confines after this past year and reconnect with loved ones. Filled with a lush piano melody, crisp drums and blissful vocals of SPNCR the track slowly brings in lush deep-tech undertones to create a euphoric soundscape.

On teaming up with Lee Foss, Franky Wah said, "I’m buzzing about this record because if it wasn’t for Danny Howard and Radio 1 this collaboration would never have even happened. I’d say Lee and I are in different lanes sonically but this track is a perfect example as to why artists should experiment and forget about the boundaries and rules that they set themselves. It’s a record that everyone needs to hear given the year we’ve all had and another one that I hope will resonate with all of us."

Re-mastering by: Cicely Baston at Alchemy/Air Mastering, London

Electric blues guitarist Melvin Taylor had been sporadically recording solo albums for 20 years when Dirty Pool arrived — and was somehow just beginning to find fame. Already a hit in Europe, it had taken a steady run of performing in Chicago’s famed blues clubs to slowly earn Taylor a well-deserved reputation as an equal talent among the giants before him, such as Otis Rush, Albert King and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

While early records like Melvin Taylor Plays the Blues For You show off an equally amazing jazz side, Taylor traded away his Wes Montgomery-inspired runs for more Luther Allison/Jimi Hendrix attacks with the formation of the trio Melvin Taylor and the Slack Band in the mid ’90’s.

The title song of the second album by that outfit, “Dirty Pool,” is actually more the balls-to-the-wall, no-compromise, hard-rockin’ electric Texas blues of Vaughan and Johnny Winter than the sweet Chicago soul of Buddy Guy.

Indeed, three tracks on this 1997 release, including “Dirty Pool,” were SRV tunes. Other standards, like “Kansas City” and “Floodin’ in California” also have more of a Lone Star State approach to them. But the Jackson, Miss.-born Taylor’s guitar is cleaner than his forebears and technically, he even surpasses them, yet the anger and sorrow of the blues is readily evident in his playing.

This rare combination of qualities really comes out in a slow blues tune like his solo in “Dirty Pool,” which after repeated listens, still makes me head shake in disbelief when I hear it.

“Too Sorry” is a good example of how well Taylor fares when he treads in Jimi Hendrix territory, whereas his rhythm work is the best I’ve heard from a lead guitarist since Vaughan; listen to “I Ain’t Superstitious,” “Born Under A Bad Sign” and the funky “Telephone Song” for your proof.

It also helps that Taylor’s drummer James Knowles is well in synch with him, while Ethan Farmer completely owns the low end of the sound. Farmer’s peppering bass lines in and “Floodin’ in California” is the textbook way electric blues bass should be. Overall, a tight little band.

Taylor’s vocals certainly won’t draw any comparisons to the Wide-Brimmed–Hatted One but he holds his own just fine until it’s cuttin’ time. This is right at the top of my list of best blues guitar playing on record over the last couple of decades. If you decide to give this one a listen, prepare to be blown away.

The legendary soundman and record producer, Lloyd Coxsone, began his career in the 1960’s soon after arriving from Jamaica. He was one of the first soundmen to play at West End clubs where a generation of British pop stars like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones first heard music from Jamaica. Sir Coxsone sound then dominated the seventies, when Bob Marley & Dennis Brown were among his greatest allies, as heard on unforgettable dub-plates from that era.



He formed the Tribesman Label and issued King of the Dub Rock before recording the likes of Fredlocks, Willy Stepper & Jimmy Lindsay. King of the Dub Rock 1 & 2 are recognized as reggae classics. They not only feature Lloydie’s own productions but also riddims by Jamaican producer Gussie Clarke and heavyweight dubs by mix master Scientist. On King of the Dub Rock 3, Lloydie teams up with Jahsolid Rock Music, who’s albums with Brinsley Forde, Apple Gabriel and Earl 16 were regularly heard on Sir Coxsone playlists. This album features exclusive dub mixes and vocal tracks from these artists plus brand new tunes by Mutabaruka, Chezidek, Micah Shemaiah, Var & Ras Teo.



King of the Dub Rock 3 is an essential companion for all Coxsone fans wanting to complete the trilogy. It delivers such a high standard of musical quality that it promises to be a modern day classic!

On his new album "Famous Last Songs Vol. 1" Westbam presents himself as a brilliant curator of his own music. With unerring instinct, the legendary techno DJ and producer succeeds together with guests such as Dieter Meier (Yello), Inga Humpe (2raumwohnnung) and Jon Marsh (The Beloved) in paying homage to the spirit of the Eighties and making the ultimate statement about the current time: music for the club in your head.

Parisian label Chuwanaga proudly presents Latitude, Saint-James label co-founder new studio project. Keeping it close to the deep jazz-funk ethos of the label, Latitude brings to the light two luminous songs of joy and hope for a better day, highly danceable yet rich and complex grooves with a human feel to feed your soul and make you move. Their new EP Leo / Attitude presents these first effort with a Dub Remix by Mato: plenty of diverse tastes for every music enthusiasts. Available as Vinyl 12" and Digital.

Latitude is french. Not a random collection of chansons sung in french. Latitude is so french in its sheer elegance, in its simple yet so sophisticated seemingly effortless attempt to groove in a pop context, trying to create moments of grace in the process. Latitude is here with the right vibe as the chorus of "Attitude" says it in french: "It’s the bad attitude, always the good latitude". Latitude is sprung out of the wicked musicianship of Parisian jazz-funk and fusion mavericks and Saint-James tight and adventurous compositions and production. All that jazz combined with David Cukier (Greita) retro-futurist engineering skills in these intense sessions captured in his cutting edge vintage Delta studio.

On A Side, "Leo (Extended Mix)" is an uptempo disco track for the dancers but also a beautiful song for the summer. A seductive number with a pregnant classic French jazz-funk feeling with the help of Parisian singer Club Celest’s energy and beautiful voice. It comes on digital as a short edit for radio but as a serious extended 12inch mix on the vinyl with 8 minutes and 10 seconds of pure pleasure, ending in a real climax after an irresistible percussion break.

On B1, "Attitude" enchanting quality shines with a banging rhythm section and goes for the win as an anthem chorus while sweeping synths keep on growing till the very last drop. On B2, Reggae/Dub don Mato (Stix Records) delivers a sweet dub wise riddim for the Lovers Rock massive.

For Bajram Bili, every new record is the kick off for reinventing himself in a series of explorations and experimentations.
After venturing through techno, Adrien Gachet opens a new page bursting with artistic possibilities and sonic freedom. His new research is founded on two cornerstones : his reassuming of the piano, the historic medium he’s left aside those past years, and the deconstruction of contemporary electronic music. The result is a flush yet tight affair condensing the broad spectrum of its ambitions in just six tracks.
A true mine for textures and melodies, Detuning Euphoria feels like a blinding mirage. The music conjugates cinematic composition and borrowings of the 2020’s club music, where laser synths and skeletal beats melt one another in bare and frontal feelings. It’s a total work, an exhilarating and untamed piece opening a new chapter in a maniac and turbulent discography. We’re very proud to be associated to this new stage of Bajram Bili’s fascinating research for new horizons.

It’s been ten years since Adrian Gachet first ventured into electronic soundscapes under his Bajram Bili moniker. On wax, the project started with the romantic label Another Record with the Sequenced Fog EP and his dance-kraut manifest of a debut album Saturdays With No Memory.
The affair became more muscular with the acquaintance of the Neo Punks from Le Turc Mecanique. After a first warning with the break-heavy Distant Drone (with the banger ‘Roger and Stan’) and the blasting Need Meditation, the Remembered Waves LP is released, oscillating between ecstatic urgency and foggy electric landscapes.
The following Spin / Consequence was dedicated to the drills of seminal techno giving way to the quieter Reshaped Distortion EP on Chloe’s label Lumière Noire.
Those years of intense creation, massive live sets and federating DJ sets come together in today’s new research, mixing the experience of his epic machinery with the deviation of the acoustic piano, following the aesthetic of his new record Detuning Euphoria.

clear blue vinyl

Stockholm native Viggo Dyst joins Shall Not Fade's roster for their new Classic Cuts series, serving up ear candy and sparkling sounds on Everything Else Is Secondary EP. Fresh from a successful release with Swedish label Vivrant, he is also joined by stalwarts of the scene Baltra and 1800-GIRLS for two gorgeous reworks.

The title track is a breathless, hopeful opener that overflows with feel good energy, sunshine melodies and personality. Baltra flips the lead melody into a hazey, UKG style club remix, maintaining the shimmering core - while 1800-GIRLS creates something tenser, a persistent beat and a warped breakdown.

On the B side, "Time After Time" carries strong Aphex Twin influence pairing sombre orchestral instrumentation with a hurtling yet delicate break throughout. "Weekend Special" is a classic Shall Not Fade sound; gentle, swelling house that needs to be danced to, closing out the record on a high.

• The tracks from the group’s two 1984 EPs together on a swanky 10-inch vinyl LP. Inner bag features liner notes by Kris Needs incorporating new interviews with all three Delmonas and a series of great photos by Eugene Doyen.

• Sarah Crouch, Hilary Wilkins and Louise Baker started singing together as a unique spark of spontaneous magic inextricably linked to their boyfriends in the Milkshakes, then rocking a garage-punk antidote to shiny synth-pop and brash chart stars with a direct lifeline back to rock’n’roll’s original simplicity and wildness. After Billy Childish and Bruce Brand formed the Pop Rivets in 1978, the guys hooked up with Micky Hampshire and Russell Wilkins to found the Milkshakes. Sarah shared a student house with boyfriend Micky plus Billy. After she and Hilary, then dating Russell, sang backing vocals on the Milkshakes’ rollicking Beatles-translated take on the Shirelles’ ‘Boys’, Louise’s arrival turned them into a girl group pretty much by accident.

• “I loved the music the Milkshakes were playing,” Louise recalls. “Loved the small, intimate venues and most of the bands that played with them, especially the Prisoners. I’d gone with the Milkshakes to Belgium and was somehow persuaded to get up on stage and sing something. Next thing I knew, there was some kind of plan to get the three of us in the studio.” At first the three girls were called the Milk-boilers, renaming themselves the Delmonas by the time Ace Records’ Roger Armstrong and Ted Carroll suggested recording the EPs that furnish this collection. “I think we were asked to each think of three songs and turn up,” says Louise. “I mostly listened to music from the 60s: lots of girl groups, Irma Thomas, Dusty Springfield, Bo Diddley, Velvet Underground, Kinks. Bruce had the best record collection; Mel Tormé was in there somewhere and one of my faves. Sarah came up with doing the Doors cover.”

• ‘Comin’ Home Baby’ was written as an instrumental before Bob Dorough added lyrics and Mel Tormé recorded it in 1962. The Delmonas’ finger-clicking, noir-dynamic version kicked off their first EP with authentic-sounding 60s production resonance, iced with mysterioso organ. The Cookies scored a hit with Goffin & King’s ‘Chains’ in 1962, the Beatles’ version providing the Hamburg Star-Club template for the Delmonas’ energised rendition. The first EP, “The Delmonas Volume 1”, rounded off with two songs from the Childish-Hampshire songwriting partnership: ‘Woa’ Now’ and ‘He Tells Me He Loves Me’, the latter recalling the New York Dolls covering the Shangri-Las’ ‘Give Him A Great Big Kiss’, mainly because it has similar chords.

• “The Delmonas Volume 2” opened with Sarah’s idea of covering the Doors’ hit. “We thought, ‘How would the Kinks have played it?’” she affirms. ‘Hello, I Love You’ had got the Doors into hot water with the Kinks’ publishers for its resemblance to ‘All Day And All Of The Night’. The Delmonas home in and highlight that similarity, adding bonkers psychedelic drop and evocative new coda. Their surf-tinged version of the Milkshakes’ ‘I’m The One For You’ is followed by the swampy screaming of ‘Peter Gunn Locomotion’, a cover of a 1963 single by Freddie Starr in his pre-stand-up comedian days as singer with the Midnighters. The set closed with the sultry organ-led vamp of the Milkshakes’ ‘I Want You’, the nearest the Delmonas get to the slowies Sarah helpfully points out they referred to as “shag songs”.

• All these tracks would re-appear on their “Dangerous Charms” album, along with out-takes and recordings from a BBC session, before the original trio splintered, leaving Sarah and Hilary to return for further adventures as Ludella Black and Ida Red. The eight tracks here capture a moment when three fun-loving friends got to live out some musical fantasies and had a blast doing it. 37 years later, it sounds just as contagious.

Saint Petersburg-based Kuzma Palkin returns to GOST Zvuk with a new series, Memont. GOST has been expanding its presence for several years through sublabels Instrument and Archive, as well as releases from GOST family members on their own labels. Flaty's experiments can be found on the ANWO label, while OL has issued a number of releases through Asyncro. For Palkin, Memont represents a return to his roots. The artwork for the first release, stadion sever, features the original packaging of Moment universal superglue, something that will be familiar to every Russian who lived through the 1990s. The album is named after the eponymous stadium in Palkin's hometown of Severodvinsk, which is displayed on the back cover. Sever represented a kind of playing field in childhood, but has now come to stand in as a metaphor for daily life. The visual landscape of modern Russian life points back to Sever.

Musically, stadion sever is also a return to Palkin's roots. The echoes of early IDM that kickstarted his career in the beginning of the 2000s are on display here. While the music is thoughtful and attentive to detail, traces of irony can be identified among the seriousness, not least in the title of the series and the track synth1 power user. The same ironic touch makes its mark on the album's sound. Palkin borrows the recognizable textures of club music, but drastically modifies their context and transforms them into something altogether more thought-provoking and inscrutable. Palkin's unique sound and the beauty of his music can be found in the balance between retrospection and looking ahead, where austerity meets humour.

Tape

Tekanan is the full-length debut of Melbourne-based Indonesian-Australian drummer and sound artist, Rama Parwata. A thorough exploration of rhythmic capabilities and percussive improvisation under ever-shifting timbral and stylistic environments, Tekanan is Parwata’s examination and documentation of his vast musical influences in electro-acoustic improvisation, Indonesian gamelan music, free jazz, electronic music, R&B, and noise music, whilst still maintaining an entirely unique non-idiomatic musical voice. Tekanan sees Parwata experimenting with not only the drum kit, but additionally implementing no-input mixing boards, musique-concréte sampling techniques, junk percussion, electric guitar, and computer music production to create a relentlessly metamorphosing soundscape that abruptly, yet seamlessly oscillates between ethereal ambiances to turbulent barrages of rhythm and noise through five unique movements.



Aptly named after the Indonesian word for pressure and stress, Tekanan was composed by Parwata with the intent of it being a listening experience which would pressure the listener to have no clear indication of the direction of the music and where it will ultimately settle, leading the listener on a sinuous, yet intriguing aural journey. This title additionally applies to the pressure of the challenging nature of the music, in a performative sense, which pushed Parwata to his physical and mental limits to perform and compose.



“As cliche or banal this might sound, I tried to make a record that was purposely made to be hard to put into a box. I didn’t want to make a “drumming” record or a noise record or anything of the type, but a record that just contained "good” music (or what I constitute as being good). Many aspects of my musical life were injected into this release: gamelan music (the first music I was exposed to), noise, hip-hop, free-improvisation, Xenakis, jazz, electronic music. Ultimately this record is a homage to those musical influences.” - Rama Parwata

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An active figure in Australia’s experimental music and art scenes, Parwata has worked with the likes of Marco Fusinato, Robin Fox, and Robbie Avenaim, and choreographers Stephanie Lake, Juliet Burnett, and Melanie Lane. He is also a member of seminal long-running Melbourne Doom Metal band, Whitehorse.


As of 2019, Parwata has been a co-curator and committee member of Melbourne’s legendary concert series, Make It Up Club, which has been presenting weekly avant-garde improvised performances since 1998.

Transmeridian is the first album from Departure Lounge (ex-Bella Union) in 19 years. It features all four original members plus a guest appearance from legendary REM guitarist, Peter Buck, one of many long-standing admirers of a band that embodied a lost age of reflective, experimental pop music coming to the fore at the turn of the Millennium alongside The Beta Band, Tunng, Boards Of Canada and Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci.

The surprise new album, named after the defunct ‘golden age of aviation’ cargo airline for which singer/guitarist Tim Keegan’s dad was chief pilot, is released on Violette Records (formed by Michael Head (Shack, The Pale Fountains) and Matt Lockett ) on digital and vinyl formats on Fri 26 March 2021.
Originally scooped up by Simon Raymonde’s Bella Union label (labelmates with John Grant’s Czars) following the self-funded release of their debut album Out Of Here (1999), Departure Lounge’s sophomore outing, Too Late To Die Young (2002) was equally acclaimed and was honoured as the first ever Album Of The Week on the emergent BBC 6 Music. The band toured extensively in the UK, Europe and the US, including outings with The Go-Betweens, Morcheeba, Paul Heaton and Robyn Hitchcock, peers whose stylistic contrasts reflect the eclectic nature of Departure Lounge themselves.

Calling a halt in late 2002, citing family and geographical reasons (drummer Lindsay lives in Nashville, where their second album Jetlag Dreams (2001) was recorded), the four members remained firm friends and occasional collaborators, before reuniting in late 2019 for shows at The Green Door Store, Brighton and The Lexington, London, ostensibly to support the digital reissues of their first three cult-classic albums. With no plans other than to make some new music, the next day they set off for Middle Farm Studios, Devon.
Tim Keegan (vocals/guitar), Chris Anderson (lead guitars/keyboards/bass), Lindsay Jamieson(drums/keyboards) and Jake Kyle (bass/guitar/drums) channelled their evident joy at being back together into a complete 13-track album, largely conceived and recorded in just one 24-hour session in the company of studio owner and co-producer, Peter Miles. Ranging from soulful Americana to piano and mellotron-fuelled melancholia via pastoral musings on the nature of post-youth and eerie Spaghetti Western-tinged instrumentals, the next leg on the Departure Lounge journey is a multi-mood expression of pure artistic freedom.
The ‘leak’ of instrumental track Al Aire Libre (remixed by Parisian groovemeister Kid Loco) in October 2020 gave little away as to what fans could expect from a new Departure Lounge record, the track going gracefully everywhere and nowhere on a whistled Latino breeze. First single proper, Mercury In Retrograde, covered in the twinkling lights of a music box Casio CZ101 melody, turned the clock back - this was an old live favourite that never got past the studio door. Unfinished business brought to a happy conclusion, the single returned Keegan’s honest and distinctive lyrical voice back to British music at just the time listeners needed it.
It was an emotional thread, rather than one musical style, which gave the first three Departure Lounge albums their coherence. The songs told the story of the band. Transmeridian has the same sense of deeply connected musical energy. The purring, campfire acoustica of Timber and So Long bear no obvious resemblance to the ethereal, end-of-the-evening, piano-led interlude Paging Marco Polo, whilst the quasi-glam stomp of Mr Friendly would normally have no business sharing space with the strange, spacey Gurnard Pines (named after an abandoned holiday camp on the Isle Of Wight). Yet the journey’s ebb and flow, accelerations and pauses make for compelling, grown-up listening. Australia, showcasing the chiming Rickenbacker 12-string of Athens, GA’s finest guitar slinger, leaves no doubt that Departure Lounge’s pop sensibilities also remain solidly intact.
These four friends from different musical backgrounds came together originally with the stated aim of ‘creating music to soothe the troubled soul’. Citing their love of (and placing on record their debt to) influences including Robert Wyatt, Nick Drake, Talk Talk, Lou Reed, Arvo Pärt and Cocteau Twins, the band’s diversity of taste is reflected in the music they create.
Transmeridian is only the second full-length LP released by Violette Records, formed by Michael Head (Shack, The Pale Fountains) and Matt Lockett as a platform for Head’s work and developing into a respected independent label as well as multi-disciplinary event organiser, drawing in outsiders working in music, literature, art and design. The label continues to host live events whenever possible and recently initiated an ELP (halfway between and EP and an LP) vinyl series, putting out acclaimed releases by The Pistachio Kid and Studio Electrophonique.

After more than a decade at the forefront of the global club music scene withseveral celebrated albums and EPs under their belt, Peruvian duo DengueDengue Dengue's seminal 2014 Enchufada EP 'Serpiente Dorada' is still oneof the most impactful of their exciting career. Capturing the vitality of theirearly genre-defining work, where the traditional and hypnotic rhythms ofcumbia were modernised through a collage of electronic music styles,'Serpiente Dorada' is still at the top of their most played music on streamingplatforms to this day, and has motivated their fanbase to continuouslydemand a physical edition since its initial digital release. The wait is finallyover as in 2021, just as the band completed 10 years of activity, we arepressing a beautiful 12'' vinyl edition in black and gold colours, freshlyremastered for vinyl to give this essential release the quality it deserves. 'Serpiente Dorada' remains an absolutely infectious and colourful mixture ofglobal sounds, where genres and styles are used as a starting point on theirongoing hybrid exploration of the interaction between traditional LatinAmerican music and modern electronic music, where the total is much morethan the sum of its parts.

Those who pay close attention to DJ Harvey’s sets should already be familiar with NuNorthern Soul’s next single, a fully licensed reissue of a sought-after 1980 promotional seven-inch from legendary Spanish Flamenco singer Manuel Mancheño Peña, better known as El Turronero (‘The Nougat’).

Both ‘Las Penas’ and ‘Si Yo Volviera A Nacer’ have long been secret weapons in the sets of dusty-fingered Balearic DJs, with Harvey regularly dropping the tracks during his sessions at Pikes Hotel on the White Isle.

Both tracks first appeared on Pena’s 1980 album New Hondo, a set that updated the then veteran Flamenco artist’s sound for the disco era. Whereas most of his previous albums were more traditional Flamenco affairs, New Hondo combined his throaty, effervescent Flamenco singing style with the driving grooves, swooping orchestration and spacey synthesizer sounds of European disco.

To promote the album, Spanish label DB Belter pressed up a promotional “45” featuring two of the most club-friendly cuts on the album. It’s this release that is being reissued for the very first time by NuNorthern Soul.

A-side ‘Las Penas’ is undoubtedly an off-kilter, late-night disco classic. Built around a flanged, action-packed disco-funk bassline, metronomic beats. soaring and layered female backing vocals, intergalactic synth sounds and stirring strings, the track steps up a level when ‘El Turronero’ takes to the microphone to belt out an infectious, energetic vocal in his trademark Flamenco style. It’s the kind of cut that’s as haunting and intoxicating as it is funky and floor friendly.

Flipside ‘Si You Volviera A Nacer’, another of New Hendo’s most sought-after tracks, is another unique and righteous concoction. Looser, groovier and warmer in tone, it sees another sublime, Flamenco style lead vocal from Pena accompanied by even funkier bass, spiralling ’70s synthesizer sounds, sweaty drums and some seriously exotic instrumental flourishes (think sitar and kalimba). It’s every bit as alluring as the more driving A-side, and equally as playable.

Both tracks may be unusual in comparison to the artist’s other releases, but they expertly capture a moment in time, when disco dominated dancefloors all over the world and inspired even the most traditional and historic of European musical styles. Quite a number of flamenco-disco records were made in Spain during the late ’70s and early ’80s, but very few are quite as magical as these.

2024 Repress

Mystical Disco returns to vinyl after six years. Jackson Lee brings a moody atmosphere to the A side with a Motown revisitation swirled in hazy pads while A2 follows the vibe with some deeper shades of acid. The B side is all about devotion to city and feline. Empire State is a peak-time club slammer and love song to New York City. B2 brings out the analog hardware for a colorful, bubbling synthesizer ode to the best studio companion ever. Mystical Disco 8.5 is dedicated to Jedi the House Cat.

Suburban Bases favourite duo Krome & Time rare DAT studio masters saved!
Krome & Time provided the very first Suburban Base release that launched the now legendary label, under the alias Kromozone catalogue number SUBBASE 001 set the tone for the label that became and integral part of the development of Rave and Breakbeat Hardcore into Jungle and Drum & Bass!

So who better to kick off the relaunch of such a revered brand than the legendary duo that started it all KROME & TIME! With brand new sleeve design from original SubBase illustrator Dave Nodz!

Having accessed a long forgotten storge facility and discovered a treasure trove of Suburban Base master tapes, we struck gold when we found box after box of unreleased and exclusive master recordings from some of the biggest artists within the SubBase family.

The two exclusive tracks that make up this release were huge dubplate only specials and have never been released as vinyl singles or digitally. Finding the master copy of the once thought lost 'Original Juggling' was incredible, the song is much asked after and as an album exclusive on the 1995 Telepathy Dub Plate Special was never given a full release only appearing on that project.

‘Non-Stop Rocking’ was a 1995 dubplate recorded specifically as an album exclusive for the legendary Drum & Bass selection album project and stayed exclusively on dubplate receiving extensive club and radio play whilst remaining only available within D&B selection.

These sought-after tracks remained stuff of legend never having had a digital release or full vinyl release… until now! From the original master tapes of Suburban Base we present this slamming 12inch from Krome & Time

Clear Vinyl

WRWTFWW Records is happy to announce the release of Para One’s new album SPECTRE: Machines of Loving Grace, available in half speed mastered 180g double lp housed in a heavy sleeve with UV spot varnish. Machines of Loving Grace, the new album by Para One, whose real name is Jean-Baptiste de Laubier could be called fiction. It is an object freed from constraints, formats, genres, territories: the gospel of a new world. Six years after Club, eight years after Passion, his previous LP, this lover of electronic music, who has also been putting his sensitivity to the service of movies (soundtracks for Céline Sciamma in particular) opens with this record a new dimension in his artistic career. “I needed to break away from patterns and systematisms of formats, and take unexpected turns. To do so, I had first to allow myself to do so”. Allow oneself and maybe above all confront oneself – with one’s childhood, with one’s childhood’s ghosts, and what fantasies, ideals, memories, and grey areas they harbor. He had to go back – without giving up on his position as an adult, as a full-fledged artist – to the sources of his imagination, to the moment when music was holding almost mystical power. And then revisit it to make something new out of it. Just like Sanity, Madness & the Family (the feature film directed by Para One that he just finished and of which it is a consubstantial part), Machines of Loving Grace has an investigation around a family secret and the father figure as its starting point. “When you go down the path – of a work, of a person, of the past – you never really find out what was. You find yourself

Shall Not Fade's Time Is Now series continues to showcase the cutting edge of breaks and bass oriented club music. This time they introduce Groovy D; this new solo project of one third of Sheffield-based trio Denham Audio curates a totally fresh take on garage which is soulful, unique and genre-defying.

Afterworld Groove EP features female vocalists and a collaboration with Time Is Now regular Interplanetary Criminal; vocal heavy tracks are a highlight of the record, taking the garage sound away from the confines of the club. "Outta Control" is one of these tracks; Emma Cannon's vocals walk the edge between soulful and mournful, contrasting the wild breakbeats and deep, dirty bass. The title track uses housey intoned keys; this is daytime garage, made for summer parties. Taking influence from his Sheffield home, "Keep Movin' On" has a classic bassline sound palette, cheeky stabbing synths and hyperactive breaks.

"Project Zeus" opens the B-side: stutters of snare and punching bass are broken through with a classic, uncontrollable bassline; the tongue-in-cheek sample that forms the drop will undoubtedly bring a smile to British fans. More minimalist B2 "Timeless" is a chorus of bubbling ear candy until the rolling sub bass looms into a deep, headsy climax. Manchester's Interplanetary Criminal joins to close the EP; with vocals from Anna Straker, "Higher" takes a genre-spanning approach in hazey garage percs and soaring pads. The tempo is down, and misty, romantic sax forms the backbone.

Music on Hold deliver an LP with strictly "only the hits" in updated graphics and soundbite studio wizardry. It's the shinning neon-colour video game classic you never played in your youth in the arcades. You only dreamed about it after too many bong hits. You think you've heard these songs before? Ha! You've never heard them better brother. Gary Wilson called, and sung you a melody and the Human League stole the synth lines.. then The Spits put lead guitar in slow-motion. This is a record for all four seasons in all TV Colours and black and white nouvelle vague romance. This LP is the first baseball bat you take you A Ferrari parked outside a strip club. This is the flock of seagulls that exploded in the sky The project once a solo affair is now a power-trio featuring funky starship troopers Guillaume Mobstaire and beloved cult-hero Mathis (Police Control, Skategang) in the shuttle. And as they blast off into cyberspace, tThey toss this their first greatest hits out of the cockpit and into your hands.

Premieres from Data Transmission and Bolting Bits. Early support from Hospital, Huey Morgan, Rupture, Fanu, Rob Luis, Anthony Kasper (Fokuz), Red Rack'em, Bandcamp Weekly, etc.

150 copies pressed on 180 gram vinyl. Picture shows the HF021VFELT edition which comes with 'Nuthin' But a Jungle Thang' die-cut felt sleeve insert (in assorted colours), with Heard and Felt embroidered fabric tag. HF021V edition is the same 180g vinyl without the felt sleeve insert.

With music from Jonny Faith's recent Night Lights EP appearing in Grand Theft Auto and best of 2020 lists including Gilles Peterson's, you might think Jonny would continue to mine his take on hip hop and broken beat. Well, all in good time. He's been ready to enter the jungle for 20 years, and he's not waiting any longer.

Now based in Melbourne, Jonny first got involved in music in Edinburgh as a DJ and turntablist in the 90s, getting hooked on jungle, drum & bass, hip hop and the hybrids of these championed by the Mo'Wax label. Formative experiences included hearing DJ Hype spinning in Newcastle, seeing the Roni Size/Reprazent live show with two drummers and hanging out at cult Edinburgh club night Manga, where residents G-Mac and DJ Kid hosted the likes of Marky, Grooverider and J Majik.

Jonny was keen to start making his own sounds, signing up for an electronic music production course. But it wasn't quite what he was after.

'The course turned out to be more house-oriented,' Jonny recalls. 'Sampling wasn't on the curriculum, and the students weren't allowed to touch the Akai S900, the sampler used in lots of the early jungle classics.'

When Jonny did start releasing his own productions a few years later, he was starting to explore the experimental beat scene around the time Flying Lotus and Hudson Mohawke (another Scottish turntablist) were starting to make their mark.

Jonny continued to widen his sonic palette, adding elements of dub, jazz, funk, electronica and broken beat, and picking up fans like Radio Nova Paris, KCRW, Vice and Clash Magazine along the way. But he's never been more than one degree of separation from his jungle/D&B roots. He continued to buy and play the music, did the odd D&B remix and snuck sonic elements and techniques into his tracks at various tempos. Over the years his releases have shared labels with the likes of Peshay, Om Unit, Drumagick, Reso, Kid Drama and Danny Scrilla.

Now, more than 20 years after those early experiences in Edinburgh, Jonny unveils his first jungle/D&B EP, On Lock. And it sounds like he's been making this music the whole time. In a way, he has.

The single 'Open My Eyes' bursts out the gate, chopping not only the breaks and the soul for a tune that sounds like Amerie's '1 Thing', or some Just Blaze chipmunk soul, reimagined for the 174 BPM crew. Jonny started this one as a hip hop beat for a live routine on his MPC, but it only really came together when he reframed the groove around a D&B rhythm. Next up, Jonny tries a similar trick on his own boom bap tune 'Stay in Your Lane' from the 'Night Lights' EP. His new Step Off Mix totally recontextualises US MC Lady K's slinky soulful rap and hooks with a tough and funky junglist groove. One for fans of the old Roni Size/Bahamadia collab. 'Create' then spaces things out just a touch, with atmospheric but propulsive drumfunk. Vinyl bonus track 'Nuthin' But a Jungle Thang' layers cascading amen breaks, timestretched vocals and a massive double bass-line over the wah guitars and synth whistling of a G-funk era classic.

With early support for Jonny Faith's take on jungle/D&B coming from Hospital Records, Rupture (Rinse FM) and Fanu (Metalheadz), Jonny is ready to be welcomed (back) into the scene.


b A2: Stay in Your Lane (Jonny Faith Step Off Mix) feat. Lady K

More a family than a band, BANDA MAJE formed in a home studio in the historic district of Salerno, in Southern Italy, on the initiative of Peppe Maiellano (composer and keyboards) and Tonico Settanta (producer, rapper and DJ). The collective has an ever-changing number of members, all of whom – a bit like the lively port city they are from – exist at the crossroads between Italian melodies and imported genres like funk, soul and disco.

Released by Four Flies Records, a label specializing in vintage Italian soundtracks and brand new productions with a strong cinematic feel, Banda Maje's debut album "Ufo Bar" transports you to an imagined version of Salerno that combines local tradition and 70s pop and film culture.

Listening to the album's eight funk- and soul- infused tracks also means seeing stories unfold in the streets of this re-imagined city: from the jubilant uprising organised by the women from the Rione Fornelle neighborhood in "Fornellesse", to the cigarette smuggling story in "P' ciel, p' mar, p' terr"; from the distinctly southern Italian pucundria (bittersweet melancholy) in "Sunday Embarcadero", to the saga of provincial nightlife in "Living Disco Club".

While the LP's Side A is sunny and cheerful, its Side B is more nostalgic, almost nocturnal, with bittersweet vibes in "2010" and new wave-influenced synths in "Ago". This variety of moods reflects the emotional depth behind the music of Banda Maje: "We want to leave a trace of what we experience: the narrow little streets brimming with life; our love for Neapolitan music, for Italian soundtracks from the 70s, for B-movies and the saga of cigarette smugglers; our passion for vinyls and cassette mixtapes, not to mention second-hand love affairs and dusty afternoons spent watching third-division football."

Izorgor’s sound reflects his burly bouncer name. Drums pound and hi-hats slash in the mean and murderous “HDF-N”, a soundtrack for car crashes and late late club sessions. “Nosferatu” comes from a similarly evil place, percussion is fed through a mincer before a fog of distortion descends to smother samples. If you’re after a respite, you’ll have to wait or feck off home. “HDF-S” wades in. Similar to his sibling in terms of rancorous rhythms, this beast drips with 303 sweat and venom with just a touch of salvation in those soaring notes. Boris Brenicki, of Ontal fame, ends with his own sepulchral take on “Nosferatu.”

High Pulp returns with a brand new instalment of covers, on Mutual Attraction Vol 2. A spiritual jazz journey, interpreting arrangements by Arthur Verocai, Cortex and Casiopea. The 8-piece fusion band pays homage to tracks and artists that have woven themselves into the DNA of their band.

The Mutual Attraction series is about paying homage and looking back to influences that have paved the way for informing the band’s sound. It was important to the band to find 3 different significant spaces to record each volume. MA Vol. 2 was recorded at a house that the group’s drummer, Bobby Granfelt holds many fond childhood memories. It is the house that his father grew up in, and a house that his grandfather built. A house that would eventually become Granfelt’s current residence and also is the band’s homebase for rehearsing and hanging out. It is a reflection of the past and the present, as are these interpretations of songs. Rich textures and cinematic grooves alongside trippy guitars, lush Rhodes keys, and soulful horns. Covering tunes that may have flown under the radar, but have impacted the group immensely.

High Pulp are an 8-piece band that emerged from the Royal Room, a legendary Seattle Jazz club where they held “Funk Church” jam sessions in 2017. Their signature sound is a Psychedelic fusion of Hip-Hop, Funk, Jazz, and Soul which come together with complex, well thought out arrangements and progressive style. After successful sessions and premieres with prestigious station KEXP, and being at the forefront of the Seattle music scene, they are now branching out and taking their sound worldwide.

Brand new Barcelona imprint Balearic Ensemble hit the ground running with their premier plastic disc drop, BE001. We’re over (and under, and around) the moon to present the Painting Of The Day EP, the first i n a series of extended plays l ined up from the baddest crew of balearic samurais for your aural i ndulgence. Leading the charge i s the one and only Max Essa, a man some may know as botanist-in-chief at the sublime Jardin Jansen l abel, others as the shadow behind a string of l ush productions sounded out by the l ikes of the Guv’nor Andrew Weatherall or a one David Mancuso. Painting Of The Day i s the l atest i n Max’s deeply inventive output, with Joe Morris, Lukkas and Ibicenco duo Reisdentes Balearicos serving up three wondrously lush revamps for the heads . First up i s ‘ Matinee’, which takes that l aid-back 80s sound and washes i t through reverb racks and cascading arpeggiatic tones. Soft, subtle and brilliant, the result i s an emotional Essa performance, akin to a soft caress of the waves, or a brush stroke on a canvas i n the afternoon sun. ‘Tempo Babadoh’ i s another massive balearic number, promenading and pirouetting i ts way across a vista of club congas, wah guitar and deluxe synth sounds. Sliding nylon strings evoke memories of a l ate-night Mandy Smith anthem as agogo bells i nterweave among the flora and fauna of Max Essa’s balearic vision. A l ofty, virtuosic affair that’s sure to be a staple when the good times come. On the flip we have Joe Morris’s ‘ Paraiso’ version of Tempo Badaboh. It’s a(n) NY hymn, a dusty psalm, a stellar reimagining of the original which brings an 80s Chicago feel with all the savoir faire and finesse that the Clandestino man has come to be revered for. Sizzling b l ines, crickets at dusk and time-tested balearic motifs presented i n a new, slightly angular l ight. Over on B2 (?) we get Lukkas’ Club Mix of Matinee, a dangerous dance weapon with a dose of l ow frequencies bubbling through the sp

The idea for the album came in summer 2020. At first I only played around on my piano for myself. More and more ideas came up and I started to take recordings. After producing electronic music for more than 20 years and publishing it under different names, the corona pandemic slowed life down. No more gigs, clubs closed, festivals
canceled. For me the chance to try new things and find a new way to make music.

Without the club context, I was free in my mind. Making music right out of myself was a liberating feeling. I could do what had been dormant in me for a long time. There were attempts now and then, but in the end I couldn't get rid of the feeling of always
doing techno. Nice too, but not everything for me.
Many inspirations of my music come from artists such as Nils Frahm, Ólafur Arnalds, Yann Tiersen, Martin Kohlstedt, Poppy Ackroyd and many others, as well as nature, forest and city noises. And often from the instruments themselves.

I switched my setup in the studio from the electronic to a minimalist instrument setup, just piano, double bass and a Moog synthesizer. I also like the background noise that comes from an instrument, like the hammers and dampers on the piano, the fingerboard and bow noises of the double bass. So I tried a lot of recording
techniques and microphones until I found the sound I was looking for.

After a few recordings, a number of pieces came together that went well together. I decided to finish it as an album. Some of them are one-takes with the associated imperfections, others are recorded and arranged layer by layer in the studio. I also used field recordings. A warm summer rain was the starting point for "Rain".
The album will be released in May 2021 as a limited vinyl edition and digitally on my newly founded label "Feldeffekt".

“Vax!” – Reminiscent of all the slippery vinyl that glitched under so many sweaty wet fingers in a steamy basement before time – a picture that seems highly illegal in our current antiseptic climate of hopefully germ free adolescents. Vax-inate! Give them the needle! It’s time.

Deti Vechnosti – Pered Rassvetom opens the gates to plug into the socket of our collective deranged consciousness, generating frisky and flamboyant specks to brightening darkness that confines our lives. Offering glimpses of the great unknown we also carry within. The Track introduces Chikiss & Mustelide’s new group “Deti Vechnosti”.

Alexander Arpeggio & OhLandy’s “Der Anruf”, wich originally appeared as a French language version on a previous Sameheads / Diapason tape release tells those tales of hot and hotter heat. Karmic payback for the sweaty and long nights enveloped in the halo of resonating frequencies of silly and high-spirited mischief.

Rouge Mécanique – Down the Line – follows suite in the odyssey that is a demented night out, sitting in front of a club, realising that the leatherjacket you picked up a few streets ago from the ground doesn’t smell like adventure but like spew.

The B-Side opens with Automatenfall – a hardware electronic 3 piece, previously appearing live at Sameheads during a “My Friend calls it K-Jazz” event. A yearning that eventually gets us on a spiritual path and headed toward enlightenment through the meandering melange of chimes, that little sounds that usually overcome us in the weirdest of times.

Das Kinn – the new project from Toben Piel, who’s part of Frankfurt’s MMODEM family, and one half of Les Trucs evokes memories of better days, black leatherpants – think Falco meets DAF – Überpop for the Untergrund.

Stopping for a final coup d’œil is Alessandro Adriani’s – Preserved Data Space. A persuasive case of brutally but lovingly worked machines serenading sawtooth waves of an infinite Weiter, a dissolving timeframe – the longest after hour I’ve been to, it lasts more than a year now already and counting.

Written by Michael Aniser.

Offering a multi-faceted LGBT+ experience, this stellar 1LP, pressed onto rose coloured vinyl, brings together old and new for the most fabulous musical accompaniment to your 2021 summer. £1 from each unit sold, will be donated to Stonewall in support of their work towards LGBT+ equality.

Side A, entitled ‘Queer Club Classics’, provides the perfect throwback snapshot of all your favourite queer tracks, including worldwide hits such as Cher’s “Believe” and Chaka Khan’s “I’m Every Woman”.

Whilst Side B, entitled ‘New Age Anthems’, is an assortment of the best music from more recent years. This collection combines tracks from LGBTQ+ artists such as the indie-legends Tegan and Sara, and pop pioneer L Devine, as well as popular songs within the LGBTQ+ community such as Lizzo’s charismatic feel-good bop, ‘Juice’.

After missing out on Pride celebrations in 2020 and with the summer of 2021 set to be the start of a long-awaited celebration of freedom, this vinyl release is a surefire way to keep up your spirits right the way through to summer 2022.

Following up to Rob Belleville's inaugural delivery, Fluid Electronics returns in 2021 with a new collaborative EP courtesy of Dutch veteran Jarno, the man behind Trouw's infamous Below evenings, and Fluid Electronics' co-founder and owner Shirazi, back in full swing after a ten-year break from production. The EP features remixes from Amsterdam's Love Over Entropy and seminal Rotterdam-based duo, Duplex.

The A-side finds Shirazi and Jarno dishing out a vaporous dub with the focus track, "Late Night Thoughts". Engineering a mix of reverb-drenched atmospheric techno laced with hedonistic house accents and mystique-imbued melodies on a dreamy tip. Upping the tempo and overall vibe of the track, Love Over Entropy's remix propels its listener in a blazing corridor of synth arpeggios and luminous chords.

The flip side sees Shirazi go solo on the ethereal "Continue Learning", all in evocative spaciousness and textural finesse, as it merges the immersive depth of Basic Channel-esque envelopes with further straightforward floor dynamics. Clone-affiliated duo Duplex provides a tighter, jacking match to the original's vaster headspace, tweaking it into a proper clinical club-ready weapon.

ALL THEIR LEGENDARY RECORDINGS, PLUS LOADS OF UNRELEASED STUFF!

“The Lipstick Killers were easily one of the greatest live bands I've witnessed in my 65 yrs. on this planet” – Keith Morris (Black Flag/Circle Jerks/Off!!)

HINDU GODS ARE CALLING YOU!!! Grown Up Wrong! Records is thrilled beyond belief to present the LONG-AWAITED anthology of material by the legendary Lipstick Killers, who blazed a trail in late ‘70s post-Radio Birdman Sydney before gigging with the likes of the Gun Club and the Flesh Eaters in Los Angeles where they crashed and burned in 1981.

The Lipstick Killers released just one single in their life time – the perfect ’79 Deniz Tek-produced pairing of “Hindu Gods of Love” and ”Shakedown USA” on their own Lost in Space Records and Greg Shaw’s Voxx Records - but a posthumous live album and a couple of archival releases followed. It was all incredible. All that material is included here, as is a plethora of additional stuff, all from the best-available sources (mostly original tapes).

The Lipstick Killers’ enigmatic and high-energy sound – heavily inspired by the Stooges and the ‘60s psychedelic punk sounds of bands like the Thirteenth Floor Elevators and the Chocolate Watchband – bridged the gap between Radio Birdman and subsequent Sydney groups like the Sunnyboys (whose first-ever show was opening for the Lipstick Killers), Lime Spiders, Hoodoo Gurus, the Screaming Tribesmen and the Psychotic Turnbuckles. And of course they anticipated generation after generation of other bands with similar things in mind, right up to today’s ‘60s-inspired freaks like The Straight Arrows, The Living Eyes and Thee Oh Sees.

ALL THEIR LEGENDARY RECORDINGS, PLUS LOADS OF UNRELEASED STUFF!

“The Lipstick Killers were easily one of the greatest live bands I've witnessed in my 65 yrs. on this planet” – Keith Morris (Black Flag/Circle Jerks/Off!!)

HINDU GODS ARE CALLING YOU!!! Grown Up Wrong! Records is thrilled beyond belief to present the LONG-AWAITED anthology of material by the legendary Lipstick Killers, who blazed a trail in late ‘70s post-Radio Birdman Sydney before gigging with the likes of the Gun Club and the Flesh Eaters in Los Angeles where they crashed and burned in 1981.

The Lipstick Killers released just one single in their life time – the perfect ’79 Deniz Tek-produced pairing of “Hindu Gods of Love” and ”Shakedown USA” on their own Lost in Space Records and Greg Shaw’s Voxx Records - but a posthumous live album and a couple of archival releases followed. It was all incredible. All that material is included here, as is a plethora of additional stuff, all from the best-available sources (mostly original tapes).

The Lipstick Killers’ enigmatic and high-energy sound – heavily inspired by the Stooges and the ‘60s psychedelic punk sounds of bands like the Thirteenth Floor Elevators and the Chocolate Watchband – bridged the gap between Radio Birdman and subsequent Sydney groups like the Sunnyboys (whose first-ever show was opening for the Lipstick Killers), Lime Spiders, Hoodoo Gurus, the Screaming Tribesmen and the Psychotic Turnbuckles. And of course they anticipated generation after generation of other bands with similar things in mind, right up to today’s ‘60s-inspired freaks like The Straight Arrows, The Living Eyes and Thee Oh Sees.

Nearly twenty years on from his last solo sortie, Tommy Gillard reemerges as Curved Needle with “Rain Of Molten Iron” - a new six-tracker scoping out the confines between hi-octane body music and FX-riddled experimentation.

After spending most of the decade working in the studio with Oliver Ho alias Broken English Club as Zov Zov, the West London-based producer reignites the flame of trueschool horror electronics with five cuts heaving us into a furnace of post-apocalyptic machine talk by the scruff of the neck, complimented by a remix from Broken English Club.

Hella Love, the Hardly Art debut from Marinero, is an album about closing a chapter. It’s Jess Sylvester’s grand farewell, and love letter to his hometown and the place he grew up, The San Francisco Bay Area, before relocating to Los Angeles after finishing his debut release. Using the moniker Marinero (which means “sailor” in Spanish), Jess Sylvester was drawn to this name as a means to honor his parent’s stories -- his father, a sailor, and mother, a Mexican-American who grew up in San Francisco. This record blends many worlds from beginning to end, and as you go deeper it hits harder. It’s his goodbye to The Bay. Pulling sonic influences from classic Latin American groups and international composers from the 60’s & 70’s: Los Terricolas, Ennio Morricone, Esquivel, Carole King and, Serge Gainsbourg Hella Love finds Sylvester fusing classical arrangements with a variety of different genres, evoking a sonic nostalgia blended with other contemporary artists like Chicano Batman, Connan Mockasin, and Chris Cohen. The album was written, played, and produced by Jess Sylvester with help from Bay Area engineer Jason Kick (Mild High Club’s Skiptracing) at Tunnel Vision and Santo Recording in Oakland, California. On the standout single “Nuestra Victoria,” Sylvester shares “It’s my way of talking about gentrification in SF, or specifically the Mission where my mom and family grew up. The song is about a bakery, or panaderia called La Victoria, and was a place where my mother and tias went growing up, a place I also went to that is no longer there.” It was one of the oldest Mexican-American businesses in SF and I wanted to honor it”. “Through the Fog” highlights Sylvester’s exploration of his influences from the Tropicalia movement, weaving bossa rhythms with lush percussion and orchestration. Using SF’s infamous fog as a metaphor for “tough times”, Sylvester expands that it is a dedication to his friends and family who have helped him get through substance abuse issues, heartbreak, and other painful experiences. “There are a few easter eggs in the lyrics for Bay Area folks or people who have followed my music in the past but it’s mostly about getting through something difficult with the love and support from the homies and fam.” The album’s title track, “Hella Love,” summarizes both of his parent’s stories of how they ended up in the bay. The first verse is about his father’s voyage out west as a sailor during the late ’60s while the second verse follows his mother’s experience moving to The Mission District when she was a young girl.


It’s difficult to classify or generalize about Marinero’s music or identity. To him, it’s important to let his music do the talking. “I’m Chicanx, a bay native, biracial, and I’ve luckily gotten to travel and spend time in Mexico and I feel like my personality and specific musical tastes come through on this album. More than these generalizations we often make, I’m just a human who can both fear and love, and I’m just hoping to connect with others to share optimism and experience joy and laughter, even if for a moment.” Lean your ear to the ground because Jess Sylvester has been many things and will continue to share his journey. It is clear this gifted creator has more to say.
-Luz Elena Mendoza

Buzzing new Glasgow five-piece VLURE release their hotly anticipated
debut 7” ‘Shattered Faith’ via London-based label Permanent Creeps
Records.
Bursting onto the scene at the dawn of 2020, VLURE introduced
themselves to the world with a live audio/visual performance of their
phenomenal track ‘Desire’, captured in beautiful cinematography from
the loading bay of their Glasgow studio space. Blurring the lines between
live electronics, jarring guitars and the performance sensibilities of their
post-punk contemporaries, the video offered a keyhole view into their
captivating live shows.
Combining synth laden hooks, heavy club influenced rhythms and
emotionally confronting lyrics, VLURE have already seen support from
the likes of So Young and Wax Music praising their life affirming, intense
and enigmatic live performances.
Recorded between the halls of a deconsecrated church in the heart of
the Scottish Borders, the self-produced ‘Shattered Faith’ is an indulgent,
genre bending coming of age anthem influenced by the rhythms,
repetitions and euphoric hooks of Glasgow’s thriving afterparty and club
scene with an angular post-punk foundation. Speaking on the track the
band explain: “We wanted to create something that felt at home on the
dancefloors that we all found ourselves on growing up, yet still equally at
home in the sweat-filled venues that the band was conceived in. At its
crux, ‘Shattered Faith’ is about self-empowerment. It’s the
disillusionment with where you are and what you’ve been given. It’s lying
on your kitchen floor at 3am realising who you truly are and finding
power in that - it’s a new lease of life. We believe that, if they want to find
it, there is something for everyone in this song.”
“There is nothing comparable - this is a new era of musically skeletal
human showmanship” - So Young Magazine
“Urgent, destructive and completely absorbing. Brutalist in form -
unyielding, massive-sounding, distinctive - their atmospheric, yearning
mood is overflowing with inclination and exposed tenderness -
vulnerable and exasperated. They pound the door down with every inch
of blood, sweat and tears in their vessels” - Wax Music
“This is post-punk, but not as you might familiarly expect” - Little Indie
Blogs
“One of Scotland’s most exciting new bands” - Tenement TV

You've reached the bedroom funk hotline! We have the mysterious Berlin-based Westcoast Goddess on speed dial, blessing Infinite Pleasure with four of his signature uplifting melody driven house cuts. The perfect soundtrack for a much needed night of dancing in your favourite club and a successful booty call after. U Up? Let your body do the talking.

The Black Keys release their tenth studio album, Delta Kream, via Nonesuch Records. The record celebrates the band’s roots, featuring eleven Mississippi hill country blues standards that they have loved since they were teenagers, before they were a band, including songs by R. L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough, among others. Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney recorded Delta Kream at Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound studio in Nashville; they were joined by musicians Kenny Brown and Eric Deaton, long-time members of the bands of blues legends including R. L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough. The album takes its name from William Eggleston’s iconic Mississippi photograph that is on its cover.

Auerbach says of the album, “We made this record to honor the Mississippi hill country blues tradition that influenced us starting out. These songs are still as important to us today as they were the first day Pat and I started playing together and picked up our instruments. It was a very inspiring session with Pat and me along with Kenny Brown and Eric Deaton in a circle, playing these songs. It felt so natural.”

Carney concurs, “The session was planned only days in advance and nothing was rehearsed. We recorded the entire album in about ten hours, over two afternoons, at the end of the “Let’s Rock” tour.”

Auerbach says of Delta Kream’s first single ‘Crawling Kingsnake’: “I first heard John Lee Hooker’s version in high school. My uncle Tim would have given me that record. But our version is definitely Junior Kimbrough’s take on it. It’s almost a disco riff!” Carney adds, "We fell into this drum intro; it's kind of accidental. The ultimate goal was to highlight the interplay between the guitars. My role with Eric was to create a deeper groove."

The music from northern Mississippi, which came to life in juke joints, has long left an imprint on the band’s music, from their cover of R.L. Burnide’s ‘Busted’ and Junior Kimbrough’s ‘Do The Romp’ on their debut album, The Big Come Up; to their subsequent signing to Fat Possum Records, home to many of their musical heroes; and to their EP of Junior Kimbrough covers, Chulahoma.

Formed in Akron, Ohio in 2001, The Black Keys, who have been called ‘rock royalty’ by the Associated Press and ‘one of the best rock ‘n’ roll bands on the planet’ by Uncut, are guitarist/singer Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney. Cutting their teeth playing small clubs, the band have gone on to sell out arena tours and have released nine previous studio albums: their debut The Big Come Up (2002), followed by Thickfreakness (2003) and Rubber Factory (2004), along with their releases on Nonesuch Records, Magic Potion (2006), Attack & Release (2008), Brothers (2010), El Camino (2011), Turn Blue (2014) and, most recently, “Let’s Rock” (2019), plus and a tenth anniversary edition of Brothers (2020). The band has won six Grammy Awards and a BRIT and headlined festivals in North America, South America, Mexico, Australia, and Europe.

Norwegian duo Lost Girls, artist and writer Jenny Hval and multi-instrumentalist Håvard Volden, release their first album after collaborating for more than ten years. Volden has been playing regularly in Hval's live band for more than a decade, and their duo project goes back to an acoustic collaborative album from 2012, using the moniker Nude on Sand. Instead of resurrecting the previous band, Hval and Volden opted for a fresh start for their 2018 EP Feeling, taking nomenclatural inspiration from the 2006 graphic novel by writer Alan Moore and comics artist Melinda Gebbie. For their first LP, Hval and Volden booked an actual studio (Ora studios, Trondheim, Norway), which they had never done before. Recording sessions took place in March 2020, even if they felt like the material wasn't really ready for recording. This left a lot to improvisation, and so Menneskekollektivet was created in-between set structures and the energy of collective exploration. Perhaps this is what makes Menneskekollektivet unique: The quality of trying something, to see if the structures fit. In a way this is a more physical version of what Hval has been exploring lyrically over the past decade in her solo work. The title is Norwegian and translates to human collective, which adds to the feeling of a recording made as part of a strange, improvised performance project. The music flickers; between club beats and improvised guitar textures; between spoken word and melodic vocal textures; between abstract and harmonic synth lines. Throughout the piece, Volden's guitar and Hval's voice come across as equals, wandering, wondering, meandering. Sharing the space. The writing process began with short, more concise forms, but then Volden brought in experiments with seasick synth loops and drum machines, and the work went off on a longer durational tangent, inspired by chance and intuition. This allowed for an unfinished, raw feel, and the song structures and words were expanded and improvised in the studio. Hval says: "There are lots of late night ideas at work, begun as half-asleep, slack vocal takes on top of something really strange Håvard has sent me. We both record before we know what we're actually doing."

Strut present the definitive edition of a 1977 classic, Plunky & Oneness OfJuju's 'Make A Change' album featuring the international hit 'Every WayBut Loose' and five previously unheard studio takes. Recorded at Omega studios in Maryland, the album marked a transition forthe band with lead vocalist Jackie Eka-Ete recording her last sessions withPlunky and Virtania Tillery taking over lead vocal duties. "'Make A Change'was always designed as a slightly more commercial entry in our discography," says Plunky. "We approached the sessions in the same way that we had approached all of our music since the early '70s. We played extended jams because we would always find something within those explorations. The songs had enough organic qualities to be considered R&B and enough rhythm to be Afro funk." After catching fire in Washington DC clubs through local record pools, the dancefloor favourite 'Every Way But Loose' famously became an anthem for Larry Levan at New York's Paradise Garage, kick-starting international success for the track. Other album cuts like funk workout 'Higher' and the wistful stepper 'Always Have To Say Goodbye' have remained staples among soulful DJs worldwide. "The songs and lyrics on this album have come back around full circle," continues Plunky. "With songs like '(Family Tree) Make A Change' and 'Every Way But Loose', we don't have tochange one word for them to be relevant all these years later. The positive messages are universal and timeless." This definitive edition of 'Make A Change' features the full original album alongside five previously unheard studio takes, all remastered by TheCarvery from the original tapes. Bonus tracks include extended studio versions of 'Every Way But Loose' and 'Always Have To Say Goodbye'and a previously unheard version of 'Time'. Package features brand newliner notes by bandleader Plunky Branch.