Cerca:ag

ERIN Collective is an ensemble of musicians from the Bologna scene born in March 2022 from an idea/project by Gionata Lazzari
shared over time by Valentino Pirino, Filippo Cassani, Andrea Lazzari, Marcello Pala, Federico Magazzeni, Giuseppe Sardina and
Francesco Antico. Their repertoire, inspired by the Afrobeat of the 70s, is composed of original songs written by Pirino/Lazzari and
arranged together with the other members of the group. The style looks to Afrobeat and some of its artists such as Fela Kuti, and
Ebo Taylor, but also focuses on contemporaneity and other artists such as Antibalas, Budos Band, Tony Allen and other sounds from
other areas of Africa. “Alternative Positive”, anticipated by the singles “Kalam Layl” and “Alafia” is their first LP, which follows the
release of the Ep “Same Blood” in 2023 and which marks the meeting between the band and the label Irma Records. The album,
strongly influenced by Afrobeat sounds with funk nuances, contains 8 original songs written by Pirino / Lazzari and arranged together with the other members of the group, three of which are instrumental, 4 sung by the Nigerian artist Devon Miles and one by the
Moroccan artist Reda Zine. The songs on “Alternative Positive” all have a social value: for ERIN Collective, music takes a stand
against inequalities and tries to break down borders and barriers, calling on everyone to commit themselves to rights for peace for
resistance to racism and inequalities of all kinds. All this requires commitment and a choice. Music makes you dance, makes you
smile, raises your spirits, creates bonds. ÈRÍN means smile, laughter in Yoruba language and it is through this attitude that one can
meet the other and that one can defeat fears, borders, cultural differences, hatred and wars. The titles and the meaning of the lyrics
of this debut album recall this horizon.

DJ Support: DJ Sabo, Gordon Invisible Inc, Ground Chill Mountain, Roe Deers, Thomas Von Party, Vidis

Multi Culti serve up a full-length treat from Peruvian artist Aristidez. Cofounder of Lima-based party collective Casa Locasa and the non-profit label Behua Icara (translated as Healing Rhythms), in support of indigenous culture, Aristidez has recently relocated to Berlin. With releases on Calypso, Disque-Discos, and Kebrada, as well as remixes for Amplio Espectro, Ida Sound, Discos Aquelarre, Rotten City Files, and Playground Records, Aristidez has quietly made a name for himself with a growing catalog of low-key dance tracks that have been championed by the likes of Matias Aguayo, Andrew Weatherall (RIP), and Inigo Vontier, to name a few. With an emphasis on the hypnotic power of rhythm, Aristidez channels indigenous influences in subtle fashion, alluding to visionary experience without resorting to pastiche or obvious tropes. There are freaky tribal rhythms but no shaman samples, just expertly produced tracks than reveal an expansive set of electronic influences that range across tempos and decades, from breaky 90s rave, 80s proto-trance, cult dub, downtempo and more. It’s listenable, danceable, heady and kaleidoscopic stuff that should stand the test of time.

After almost one year of silence, M.U.S.A come back again with a live legend, a pioneer of electro in Spain, Dark Vektor. Three original tracks plus two remixes, one by Kan3da and one by Dj Maaco aka Detroit in effect. Limited copies..

Crispy Jason is a moniker of Rian Trench. Trench, once half of Solar Bears (Planet Mu, Sunday Best, Warp), branches out here into acid-focused IDM. Shadowcon One explores spaced out 303s via retro arcade against furious breaks and ambiguous moodscapes with an offset of introspective disco

The Hyperdrive label is back with a third outing which once again offers up some exciting and forward-thinking new artists. Anderson's 'Sweet Psylow' kicks off with some psychedelic synth loops over crisp tech house drums that hark back to the 90s prog heyday. HearThuG's 'Back To The Future' is a darker sound with whistles, snappy snares and eerie chords and Luis Malon & Seb G then combine for the bouncing techno rhythms and acid-laced pads of 'Extasis Nebular.' Last but not least, Jamie Leather's 'Strange Commodities' is a surging cosmic techno trip with dynamic drums and perc and majestic leads. This is another fine release from this young label.

Etran de L'Aïr, die Sterne der Luft, die am längsten bestehende Hochzeitsband in Agadez, der Hauptstadt der Tuareg-Gitarre, kehren mit einem neuen Album mit sonnenbeschienenem Wüstenklang zurück! Ihr erstes Album, No.1, brachte ihre Musik den Kritikern und Fans näher. Ihr zweites Album, Agadez, führte sie auf internationale Tourneen. Und jetzt sind sie zurück mit 100% SAHARA GUITAR, bereit, die Welt zu erobern, mit diesen swingenden Melodien, wie ein vom Meer her wehender Sandsturm . Etran de L'Aïr sind 100% SAHARA, und das gilt auch für die Band, alles Söhne aus Agadez, darunter die Brüder Moussa, Abdoulaye und Abdourahamane,und ihr lieber Freund, der jüngste der Gruppe, Alghabid. Alle Brüder schreiben und spielen Gitarre und tauschen die Instrumente aus, während Alghabid die vier auf dem Boden hält. Mit 100% SAHARA GUITAR sind Etran de L'Aïr zurück, um den Thron zu erobern, mit ihrem ersten Studioalbum! Und was für ein Sound das ist. Aufgenommen in sonnigen Studios an der Westküste, bringen die Brüder den alten Agadez-Sound auf ein neues Niveau. Sie fügen noch mehr Gitarren hinzu und verweben Schichten von halligen Melodien und schimmernden Harmonien zu einem Klangteppich. Wie viel Gitarre können sie in eine Platte packen? Die Antwort lautet 100%.

Etran de L'Aïr, die Sterne der Luft, die am längsten bestehende Hochzeitsband in Agadez, der Hauptstadt der Tuareg-Gitarre, kehren mit einem neuen Album mit sonnenbeschienenem Wüstenklang zurück! Ihr erstes Album, No.1, brachte ihre Musik den Kritikern und Fans näher. Ihr zweites Album, Agadez, führte sie auf internationale Tourneen. Und jetzt sind sie zurück mit 100% SAHARA GUITAR, bereit, die Welt zu erobern, mit diesen swingenden Melodien, wie ein vom Meer her wehender Sandsturm . Etran de L'Aïr sind 100% SAHARA, und das gilt auch für die Band, alles Söhne aus Agadez, darunter die Brüder Moussa, Abdoulaye und Abdourahamane,und ihr lieber Freund, der jüngste der Gruppe, Alghabid. Alle Brüder schreiben und spielen Gitarre und tauschen die Instrumente aus, während Alghabid die vier auf dem Boden hält. Mit 100% SAHARA GUITAR sind Etran de L'Aïr zurück, um den Thron zu erobern, mit ihrem ersten Studioalbum! Und was für ein Sound das ist. Aufgenommen in sonnigen Studios an der Westküste, bringen die Brüder den alten Agadez-Sound auf ein neues Niveau. Sie fügen noch mehr Gitarren hinzu und verweben Schichten von halligen Melodien und schimmernden Harmonien zu einem Klangteppich. Wie viel Gitarre können sie in eine Platte packen? Die Antwort lautet 100%.

Jade Hairpins waste no time fulfilling their second album's titular demand. From its harmony-drenched opening note to its baroque-anthemic conclusion, Get Me the Good Stuff is positively loaded with musical ideas, an absurdist buffet of sound and aesthetic that comes with one hell of a floorshow as the Hairpins stack those ideas higher and higher, almost daring them to crash to the floor. Instead, those elements - punksploitation, power pop, baggy, funk, and Italo disco are just some touchstones - are not only held aloft, they defy gravity and convention. These pyrotechnics are, in true Jade Hairpins fashion, something of a sleight of hand. While the music swaggers and gallops, Get Me the Good Stuff grapples with anxiety and self-doubt, obfuscating pain and alienation with sparkling wit and some straight-up ravers. Get Me the Good Stuff opens with one of those, "Let It Be Me," in which Jonah Falco shouts lyrics about being alone with one's shortcomings against guitars, synths, and harmonized vocals that are on the verge of closing in. The song is just over 90 seconds long, hitting with the gnarled-barb ferocity of punk and the gleeful insanity of theatrical art rock. It is, in other words, overwhelming. Or it would be if Jade Hairpins - Jonah Falco and Mike Haliechuk - weren't remarkably nimble in their ability to bring unity to sounds by placing them in competition against each other. When those sounds are adjacent, like the glam and disco that saturate "Drifting Superstition," the thrill of those universes colliding in the heat of an absolutely filthy clavichord line turns its lyrics, about the habit of solving personal problems by ignoring them, into a winner's anthem on the order of Bowie or Hot Chocolate. Get Me the Good Stuff arcs towards unequivocal joy as Falco, Jade Hairpins' primary lyricist, breaks these cycles and attempts to run away with his dreams. The arc is roughly analogous to how the album came to fruition. Four years removed from Harmony Avenue, an album of material that proved too strong to be contained within the narrative universe of Fucked Up's Dose Your Dreams, Jade Hairpins have gelled as a live act - with Tamsin M. Leach and Jack Goldstein centering them on stage - and planted their flag in the UK punk scene in which Falco has embedded himself. Working out new material live, Falco noticed that crowds were digging into his unfinished lyrics, and the album tightened around the anxieties of being in the spotlight, of being worthy of attention. At times, those songs are eager to please, like the album's title track in which a winking self-deprecation rubs up against the self-congratulatory bombast of Freddie Mercury, Falco simultaneously turning heads as a shooting star and a burning car. Elsewhere, as in "Better Here Than in Love," Jade Hairpins pitch themselves towards creating gorgeous soundscapes that exist nowhere else, channeling postpunk through the glimmering haze of '80s Japanese electronic music. Theatrical and personal, absurd and true-to-life, playful and serious, Get Me the Good Stuff is album of tremendous personal and artistic growth that signposts towards dozens of potential futures to come. It's not only worth the attention, it continuously rewards it.

Jade Hairpins waste no time fulfilling their second album's titular demand. From its harmony-drenched opening note to its baroque-anthemic conclusion, Get Me the Good Stuff is positively loaded with musical ideas, an absurdist buffet of sound and aesthetic that comes with one hell of a floorshow as the Hairpins stack those ideas higher and higher, almost daring them to crash to the floor. Instead, those elements_punksploitation, power pop, baggy, funk, and Italo disco are just some touchstones_are not only held aloft, they defy gravity and convention. These pyrotechnics are, in true Jade Hairpins fashion, something of a sleight of hand. While the music swaggers and gallops, Get Me the Good Stuff grapples with anxiety and self-doubt, obfuscating pain and alienation with sparkling wit and some straight-up ravers. Get Me the Good Stuff opens with one of those, "Let It Be Me," in which Jonah Falco shouts lyrics about being alone with one's shortcomings against guitars, synths, and harmonized vocals that are on the verge of closing in. The song is just over 90 seconds long, hitting with the gnarled-barb ferocity of punk and the gleeful insanity of theatrical art rock. It is, in other words, overwhelming. Or it would be if Jade Hairpins_Jonah Falco and Mike Haliechuk_weren't remarkably nimble in their ability to bring unity to sounds by placing them in competition against each other. When those sounds are adjacent, like the glam and disco that saturate "Drifting Superstition," the thrill of those universes colliding in the heat of an absolutely filthy clavichord line turns its lyrics, about the habit of solving personal problems by ignoring them, into a winner's anthem on the order of Bowie or Hot Chocolate. Get Me the Good Stuff arcs towards unequivocal joy as Falco, Jade Hairpins' primary lyricist, breaks these cycles and attempts to run away with his dreams. The arc is roughly analogous to how the album came to fruition. Four years removed from Harmony Avenue, an album of material that proved too strong to be contained within the narrative universe of Fucked Up's Dose Your Dreams, Jade Hairpins have gelled as a live act_with Tamsin M. Leach and Jack Goldstein centering them on stage_and planted their flag in the UK punk scene in which Falco has embedded himself. Working out new material live, Falco noticed that crowds were digging into his unfinished lyrics, and the album tightened around the anxieties of being in the spotlight, of being worthy of attention. At times, those songs are eager to please, like the album's title track in which a winking self-deprecation rubs up against the self-congratulatory bombast of Freddie Mercury, Falco simultaneously turning heads as a shooting star and a burning car. Elsewhere, as in "Better Here Than in Love," Jade Hairpins pitch themselves towards creating gorgeous soundscapes that exist nowhere else, channeling postpunk through the glimmering haze of '80s Japanese electronic music. Theatrical and personal, absurd and true-to-life, playful and serious, Get Me the Good Stuff is album of tremendous personal and artistic growth that signposts towards dozens of potential futures to come. It's not only worth the attention, it continuously rewards it.

A selection of 24 Colombian cumbia bangers for the dance floor from the deep vaults of Discos Fuentes, the most emblematic and best remembered label in the golden age of the genre. An invitation to enjoy and be amazed, above and beyond ethnographic and academic concerns. Double LP. The historical origins of cumbia in Colombia are nebulous and imprecise. The mythology surrounding it suggests an ancient past when Amerindian, African and European musical sounds were mixed together. The main record companies in Colombia such as Discos Fuentes, Discos Tropical, Sonolux, Zeida-Codiscos, Silver, Ondina, Discos Atlantic, Vergara and Curro were created between Barranquilla, Medellín, Cartagena and Bogotá from 1936 to 1954. All of them, without exception, recorded Colombian tropical music that over the years was given different names such as porro, gaita, fandango, paseaito, merecumbé, mapalé, bullerengue or, of course, cumbia. This first volume in the series “Cumbia Cumbia Cumbia!!!” comprises 24 Colombian cumbia bangers for the dance floor from the deep vaults of Discos Fuentes, the most emblematic and best remembered label in the golden age of the genre. This is complemented by a selection of cumbias recorded by the label Discos Tropical, which sold most of its catalog to Discos Fuentes in 1990. Discos Fuentes concentrated on recording cumbias played on the accordion and by orchestras and ensembles. The label produced a prodigious number of albums devoted to cumbias between 1962 and 1979, which served to define ambiguous stereotypes, rooted as much in authenticity and modernity as in demure sensuality and joyful nostalgia. “Cumbia Cumbia Cumbia!!!” combines well-known classics and rarities that are difficult to find in their original formats. An invitation to enjoy and be amazed, above and beyond ethnographic and academic concerns.

Die neueste Veröffentlichung der US-Thrash-Legenden FLOTSAM AND JETSAM steht in den Startlöchern. Unter Beibehaltung ihres typischen schnellen und aggressiven Stils präsentiert „I Am the Weapon“ noch mehr musikalisches Können und Komplexität als zuvor.

Am the Weapon“ knüpft nicht nur nahtlos an die beiden herausragenden Vorgänger an, sondern geht auch in Sachen musikalisches Können und Komposition einen Schritt weiter. Während FLOTSAM AND JETSAM ihre Kernkompetenzen wie ihren aggressiven Stil kombiniert mit schnellen Tempi voll ausleben, gibt es auf „I Am the Weapon“ mehr überraschende Momente als je zuvor.
Von brutalen high-speed Tracks wie „I Am the Weapon“ hin zum atmosphärischen, aber nicht superschnellen „Burned My Bridges“ überzeugt jeder Track des Albums auf seine eigene Weise.

Die neueste Veröffentlichung der US-Thrash-Legenden FLOTSAM AND JETSAM steht in den Startlöchern. Unter Beibehaltung ihres typischen schnellen und aggressiven Stils präsentiert „I Am the Weapon“ noch mehr musikalisches Können und Komplexität als zuvor.

Am the Weapon“ knüpft nicht nur nahtlos an die beiden herausragenden Vorgänger an, sondern geht auch in Sachen musikalisches Können und Komposition einen Schritt weiter. Während FLOTSAM AND JETSAM ihre Kernkompetenzen wie ihren aggressiven Stil kombiniert mit schnellen Tempi voll ausleben, gibt es auf „I Am the Weapon“ mehr überraschende Momente als je zuvor.
Von brutalen high-speed Tracks wie „I Am the Weapon“ hin zum atmosphärischen, aber nicht superschnellen „Burned My Bridges“ überzeugt jeder Track des Albums auf seine eigene Weise.

FOR FANS OF: Soundgarden, Foo Fighters, Queens Of The Stone Age, Silverchair, Black Sabbath
Wie sie selbst zugeben, gab es eine Zeit, in der es unwahrscheinlich schien, dass Torus überhaupt hier stehen würden, um der Welt ihr Debütalbum
vorzustellen. Das ist an sich schon eine überraschende erste Aussage, die aus dem Mund von Frontmann und Band-Mastermind Alfie Glass kommt,
während er und seine Bandkollegen im Wohnzimmer seines Hauses außerhalb von Milton Keynes sitzen. Jeder Schritt, den Torus bisher
unternommen haben, wurde mit Interesse und Beifall bedacht - bereits vor der von der Kritik gelobten Debüt-EP Sail" schwärmten die wichtigsten
Kritiker wie Kerrang! und Classic Rock von ihrer Marke des Null-Bullshit-Hardrocks", der gigantische Riffs und dicke, monströse Grooves" in der
Tradition von Rockgrößen wie Kyuss, Queens Of The Stone Age und Smashing Pumpkins bietet. Wenn Ihnen der Name Alfie Glass noch vertrauter
vorkommt, liegt das wahrscheinlich daran, dass Black Sabbath-Gitarrenlegende Tony Iommi die Fähigkeiten des Sechssaiters in der TV-Talentshow
Guitar Star lobte, als Glass gerade mal 12 Jahre alt war. Torus begann als Ein-Mann-Schlafzimmerprojekt, wurde aber schon bald durch den Bassisten
Harry Quinn (2020) und den Schlagzeuger Jack Orr (Anfang 2022) ergänzt. Trotz ihrer unterschiedlichen musikalischen Hintergründe und Einflüsse, die
von Wüstenrock über psychedelischen Prog bis hin zu Punk reichen, verbindet das Trio der gemeinsame Wunsch, Musik zu machen, die die Köpfe zum
Klingen bringt und die Füße bewegt. "Wir kommen alle aus verschiedenen Ecken, haben aber eine gemeinsame Vision für die Musik, die wir schreiben
wollen", nickt Orr.

Imaginative re-workings and improvisations by Andrew Tuttle of the late great Michael Chapman's unfinished instrumental album. Sonic explorations that bridge the Southern and Northern Hemisphere via the Caribbean, remote Northumberland and sub-tropical Australia. Navigating calm seas and turbulent waters of ambient corals, new-age pirates, waves of lapping banjos and drifting eroding guitars.
When Michael Chapman passed away in September of 2021, at the age of 80, he did so – as he spent much of his life – as both a pioneer and a legend. A veteran of the British blues/folk/jazz scene, Chapman emerged in 1966 and continued working throughout his life, always pushing the boundaries of his creations while collaborating with a slew of similarly heralded musicians along the way: Bert Jansch, Mick Ronson, Elton John, Thurston Moore, Steve Gunn; to name just a smattering of those he worked alongside over the years.
It's the latter of those – Brooklyn guitarist and songwriter Steve Gunn – who Chapman flourished alongside in recent years, the two collaborating on 50 and True North, two of Chapman’s final and finest records. It was through that friendship that Chapman’s music found Andrew Tuttle, the Brisbane-based multi-instrumentalist who has toured Australia several times alongside Gunn.
In the aftermath of Chapman’s passing, his partner Andru discovered Tuttle’s Fleeting Adventure LP, describing it as “one of the albums that kept me sane during that first brutal winter on my own.” The pair met in Australia shortly after, and before Andru had even made it back home to the north of England, Tuttle had begun working on the recordings she shared with him at that time. Those recordings were part of a project Chapman was working on at the time of his death, called Another Fish – what would have been a companion piece to his previously-released LP, simply called Fish.
Though Chapman had spent time in his local studio playing all the guitars, layering the different sounds and effects, he’d always intended to do much more work on the songs, however fate had its way and he never got to ribbon-bow those ideas and bring the album to its conclusion.
Though there was little intention in terms of how to finalise the project, Tuttle spent valuable time with those recordings. What materialised, eventually - with time, care, and diligent attention - is a two-disc set Another Tide, Another Fish, something both unusual and completely distinctive. The first disc, Another Tide is centred around Tuttle’s own work, which shaped all seven of Michael’s songs and ideas into new songs of their own, and the second disc which simply incorporates the recordings that Michael left behind.
“On all of the tracks I also ‘played along’ on banjo to the originals several times until I learned an approximation,” Tuttle continues. “This ended up resulting in a ‘hybrid’, where some works are easily identifiable to those who know Michael’s originals, and some took that inspiration to head altogether elsewhere. Each of the tracks, even where not obvious, does have at the very least a trace element sample of the original recordings so that it’s a true collaboration.”
What we’re left with is indeed a hybrid: part remix album, part cover album, both a solo work and a collaboration, of sorts. Inspired by Chapman’s original ideas and with new track titles directly referencing the numbered but otherwise untitled source material, Tuttle adds his own flashes of colours throughout, including editing, sampling, MIDI transposing and signal processing that twists these songs into beautiful new shapes. Perhaps Tuttle’s greatest achievement here then is that Another Tide sounds so effortlessly free of all this context.
Whether you know Michael’s, Andrew’s or even Andru’s story or not, these recordings will bristle with enchantment and intrigue, worlds are built, and while some thrive and grow, others fizzle out in a burst of light, such is the way. “It's been a long, long road but we got there and I think it's been more than worth it,” Andru says in the record’s liner notes. “I really hope you think the journey was worth it too.”
Guitars and effects by Michael Chapman recorded by Alex Warnes at Phoenix Studio, Brampton, Cumbria, 2017 Banjo, effects and edits by Andrew Tuttle at Bella Vista, Brisbane / Meanjin, 2023-2024

Brussels is a highway where rainbow-fuelled melancholia kids race its track, mountain and road bikes. Endless summers cherish the collective chosen chaos of the city; every corner displays wild micro-natures, buzzing insects, and rare weeds fourishing organically; tape hiss and AM radio compression are the soundtrack of everyday life. And hear! Originated in the Brussels DIY, indie rock and noise scene, a new kid on the block appears: Another Dancer.

They deal in utopian music - of the open, welcoming and whatsoeverish kind. It’s fresh, snotty, neurotic art-rock deeply rooted in 80s/90s DIY aesthetics. The songs on their debut album balance gently between forgotten pop hits and broken sound experiments. In their world, any shitload of weird, random, and badly synchronized sounds unveil broken-hearted pop mastery. In the Another Dancer universe, radios are stuck to WFMU and Soulseek is a self-conscious AI producing 80ies psychedelic FM-rock.

Brussels-based Another Dancer is outdated, wild at heart and elegantly shy. Their full album I Try to Be Another Dancer is out September 10th on Bruit Direct Disques and Aguirre.

"Flashes of the shambolic post-punk of Good Sad Happy Bad and the goofy, fraternal synth-pop of the blog-era gem Teenagers can be seen, often simultaneously, across the new single from the Brussels-based band Another Dancer. Vocals are layered on top of each other to a conversational near-cacophony, like you’ve been placed at the center of a Dry Cleaning show where everyone is, improbably, in a good mood. Sunny synth sweeps jostle next to bent, jangly guitar lines for a song that finds a special kind of vibrance in its mess. — Jordan Darville”

Bobo Integral Records announces the Deluxe Edition of "Dead Calm", the debut album by The Boys With The Perpetual Nervousness, available September 13, 2024. This edition enriches the original tracks (now remastered), which were met with immediate success and critical acclaim, with new material and acoustic demos. Also incorporates an expected insert with all lyrics. Upon its initial release in 2019 by Pretty Olivia Records, "Dead Calm" was celebrated for its melodic craftsmanship. Purepopradio praised it asa "masterpiece of melody and harmony", Powerpopaholic rated it 9/10 and included it in their "best of 2019 list for best power pop this year", and Section 26 recommended it as "Presque indispensable". After two other records, "Songs From Another Life" and "The Third Wave Of_", that are now cult classics in the genre, it's the time to come back to the record that started it all. The Deluxe Edition offers fans an exclusive track from the original sessions, "Wouldn't Be Anywhere Else", and six acoustic demos that provide insight into the band's creative process. Reflecting their musical influences, such as The Byrds, R.E.M., Big Star, The Go-Betweens, Teenage Fanclub and the classic power pop era, the band's sound is a contemporary homage to these inspirations. Andrew Taylor is the leader and soul of Dropkick, a wonderful Scottish power pop group with touches of altcountry. Gonzalo Marcos is part of the cult Spanish indie pop group El Palacio de Linares and founder of the Bobo Integral Records label. The two forged a friendship during Dropkick's first tour of Spain and Dropkick ended up releasing a couple of albums on the label. "The most perfect voice in jangle/power-pop at present (sorry Teenage Fanclub fans!)" - Janglepophub

The Balcony (10 year anniversary) - Debut and breakthrough record The Balcony has become a career-defining album for Catfish and the Bottlemen, with Double Platinum status and 9 BPI Certified Singles including ‘Cocoon’ and ‘Kathleen’, it was originally released through Communion/Island Records on 15th September 2014. Written by Van McCann and produced by Jim Abbiss, the collection of songs on this album showcase McCann’s talent for posing everyday, easily identifiable observations through his lyrics. The album’s success and the many sold out shows resulted in a Brit Award for British Breakthrough Act. The expanded album will be available on a collector’s 7” boxset, a beautiful black slipcase housing 7 discs, each with original artwork, and a tracklist that includes the full The Balcony album plus bonus tracks ‘Hourglass (Ewan McGregor Version)’ and ‘ASA’ This boxset will be numbered and limited to 2,000 copies worldwide. LTD 2LP - In celebration of the 10 Year Anniversary and after their biggest headline shows to date this Summer, The Balcony will be released on limited edition ultra-clear 2LP with inverted white artwork and 6 bonus tracks including a selection of previously unreleased acoustic versions of ‘Cocoon’, ‘Kathleen’ and ‘Pacifier’, ‘Rango’ (single version), ‘Hourglass’ (Ewan McGregor version) and rare bonus track ‘ASA’ available on a vinyl 12” for the first time after the original pressing of the limited edition 7” single 10 years ago.1CD - In celebration of the 10 Year Anniversary and after their biggest headline shows to date this Summer, The Balcony will be released on limited edition 1CD with inverted white artwork. This CD features the full album, plus a selection of previously unreleased acoustic versions of ‘Cocoon’, ‘Kathleen’ and ‘Pacifier’, ‘Rango’ (single version), ‘Hourglass’ (Ewan McGregor version) and rare bonus track ‘ASA’ available on CD for the first time after the original pressing of the limited edition 7” single 10 years ago.

Die neueste Veröffentlichung der US-Thrash-Legenden FLOTSAM AND JETSAM steht in den Startlöchern. Unter Beibehaltung ihres typischen schnellen und aggressiven Stils präsentiert „I Am the Weapon“ noch mehr musikalisches Können und Komplexität als zuvor.

Am the Weapon“ knüpft nicht nur nahtlos an die beiden herausragenden Vorgänger an, sondern geht auch in Sachen musikalisches Können und Komposition einen Schritt weiter. Während FLOTSAM AND JETSAM ihre Kernkompetenzen wie ihren aggressiven Stil kombiniert mit schnellen Tempi voll ausleben, gibt es auf „I Am the Weapon“ mehr überraschende Momente als je zuvor.
Von brutalen high-speed Tracks wie „I Am the Weapon“ hin zum atmosphärischen, aber nicht superschnellen „Burned My Bridges“ überzeugt jeder Track des Albums auf seine eigene Weise.

Roberta Flack's "Now Playing" spans soulful and emotive tracks like "Compared To What" and heartfelt renditions such as "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face."

Collaborations with artists like Donny Hathaway in songs like "Where Is The Love" highlight her ability to create magic through duets.

Iconic hits like "Killing Me Softly with His Song" and "Feel Like Makin' Love" resonate worldwide, showcasing Flack's enduring talent and musical legacy.

Farbiges Vinyl-Doppelalbum-Set mit Etching/Gravur auf der D-Seite.

Nur sehr wenige Bands schaffen es, Jahrzehnte zu überdauern, aber bei denen, die es schaffen, ist es oft einfach, sich niederzulassen und es sich ein wenig zu bequem zu machen. Allerdings gibt es nichts Bequemes an „Devourer“, dem explosiven neuen Album von Cursive. Die kultige Band aus Omaha hat in den letzten 30 Jahren eine kühne Diskografie geschaffen, die sich sowohl durch ihren kathartischen Sound als auch durch ihre gewichtigen, herausfordernden lyrischen Themen auszeichnet. Ihr 10. Album „Devourer“ ist so kühn wie eh und je Es steckt voller intensiver und prägnanter Songs, die untermauern, warum Cursive so einflussreich und beständig waren - und dass sie auch heute noch genauso vital sind. In den Jahren seit ihrer Gründung 1995 haben sich Cursive zu einer der wichtigsten Gruppen entwickelt, die Ende der 90er/Anfang der 00er Jahre entstanden sind, als die Grenzen zwischen Indie-Rock und Post-Hardcore zu etwas völlig Neuem zu verschwimmen begannen. Alben wie „Domestica“ (2000) und „The Ugly Organ“ (2003) wurden zu wichtigen Prüfsteinen, deren Widerhall auch heute noch in neuen Bands zu hören ist. „Devourer“ untersucht die bodenlose Fähigkeit der Menschheit zum Konsum durch eine Reihe von Songs, die wie Vignetten wirken, angetrieben durch den nie endenden Appetit von Frontmann Tim Kasher, sowohl Kunst aufzunehmen als auch zu schaffen. „Ich bin besessen davon, die Künste zu konsumieren“, erklärt er. „Musik, Film, Literatur. Ich habe erkannt, dass ich all diese Kunstformen verschlinge und dann wiederum meine eigenen Versionen dieser Dinge erschaffe und sie in die Welt hinausspucke. Das ist positiv, man ist Teil eines Ökosystems. Aber der Begriff 'Verschlinger' kann auch etwas Unheimliches, Unheilvolles verkörpern.“ Die Fans erwarten von Cursive mittlerweile solch brisante Themen, aber „Devourer“ setzt einen neuen Standard. Während die Musik von Cursive nicht bequemer geworden ist, wird sie vielleicht in eine Welt entlassen, die zumindest ein bisschen mehr nach ihrem Bild geformt ist. „Devourer“ klingt dringend und frisch, das Werk einer Band, die immer noch experimentiert und nach neuen kreativen Höhen strebt. Auf dem Album-Highlight „Consumers“ klagt der Protagonist: "I saw our future and I want to go back." Aber Cursive bewegen sich nur vorwärts.

Back again.. The funkiest band from Oklahoma you have now probably heard of..

Glass Pyramid released four 7" inch singles over the span of 1979-1986. When we originally re-released their music in 2008, we were told by the band this song "Better By The Minute" was never pressed on vinyl.. Years later with the help of our fans we learn it does exist! So here is what we call.."Better" Better By The Minute + "Stop It" another unreleased track taken from the same 1986 Studio 7 Oklahoma City session.

Tip!

Polido has been fantasizing with the idea of free music throughout his artistic career. Free from restraints, logos, musical genres, but also from this modern obsession with narratives, plans, business plans, algorithms and bubble wrapped ideas for comfort of those of you that can’t breathe without everything making sense.
“Hearing Smoke” has nothing of that. It has been four years since Holuzam released the double album “A Casa e os Cães / Sabor a Terra” and for four years I have been daydreaming about what would come next. This is it, eleven new pieces about the future of the future of music. It is the result of years of study, research and sound consolidation. Sound as matter, mutating, transforming, absorbing all around, a shapeshifting entity connecting with the principles of freedom.

"Polido has been researching Portuguese contemporary composition, its very own sounds and ideas. Its origins, the web of repression, tension and censorship before the April 25th revolution in 1974; secondly, as an afterthought, freedom, equality and a unique sense of community and belonging screaming through the music. He absorbed those states of mind and made an album that listens to the current world and presents globalization as a mental trap.
If the music that inspired him somehow comes from a post-colonial world, “Hearing Smoke” questions how we can create something new in this permanent state of cultural colonization, where new trends or forms of music only thrive if they are accepted by the dominant cultures. The physical world has been transformed, but ideas like “world music” or “ghetto music” still show that dominance, the Strange can only be accepted if it incorporates the rules and codes of that dominant force. What I am saying is that it is hard for Portuguese musicians to present themselves as original. They will never have that credit unless the music relates to something that exists in another

realm. Never for their benefit, but for the power of association. I may sound arrogant here, but Polido is unique, original, one of a kind (all those words, all those redundant synonyms). I knew it four years ago when I got lost in the way “A Casa e os Cães” is assembled and how he makes something memorable out of the most commonplace conversations. “Hearing Smoke” continues the flow and puts us in the centre of these ever evolving masses of sound.
Somehow his music finds you, it starts speaking with you until it asks you to be a part of it. Polido’s beats and harmonics are combined in such a tender way that you mellow out while listening to these beats - thinking of the brilliant “Saque”. Even when he exposes you to something more harsh - “Canto D’Amorte” or the closing moments of the last track “Custa A Crer” - there’s still a cradle effect.
But what keeps me returning to this album is how it seems to transform in my ears. Not every time I listen to it, but while I am listening to it. The sound seems to move, embracing me and controlling my inner thoughts. These start to move along at the same pace, with the same feeling of cloudiness. Nothing new here, the thing is how it feels different from time to time, how the music, because of something that changes or moves, comes as a catharsis/revelation. It drives me nuts how the beats come and go in tracks like “Fogo Firme (Encomendação)” or “The More I Think, The Less I Can Speak“, leaving everything suspended and, simultaneously, relieved. When dramatic - ”Prova De Existência“ - it is sad af and gorgeously epic.

Trap, bass music, dubstep, ambient, hauntology and contemporary music flow side by side here, no pushing around, free of interpretation, and you are free to feel or listen to whatever you want in “Hearing Smoke”. That’s free music for you. Not a hard concept, something for you to enjoy, feel, reflect about. This is what the future will sound like."

André Santos // Holuzam

Brighton (UK) punks THE BAR STOOL PREACHERS have announced their new EP 'Below The Static', which features reimagined versions of songs from the bands 2022 album 'Above The Static'. The EP is out 13th September 2024 via Pure Noise Records. Speaking about the new EP the band said, "For this release, we really wanted to highlight how good the songwriting was. We were stoked with how well the album went down but we really wanted to expose some of the more vulnerable elements and fuck with the format a bit. To hear such strong fxmale vocals, and having heavy guitar riffs on cellos/violins etc. really got us excited about these songs again. Some of the versions are stripped right back to just a voice and one instrument. It's the band like you've never heard it before, and really breathes a different life into the songs."

Opium Warlords' sixth album "Strength!" out on Svart Records in September 2024! Opium Warlords, led by Sami Albert ”Witchfinder” Hynninen (Reverend Bizarre, The Puritan, The Candles Burning Blue), return with their sixth album Strength! It is a versatile but tight combination of pussy techno, sludge, industrial pop, hardcore punk, drone, shamanistic pulse, noise, heavy metal, old school gothic rock and march music. It is a take on European rhythmic patterns: stagnant factory beat – no groove, no swing, just a rhythm of industrialism that pierces through different genres and styles. Comparing to the dark and oppressive Nembutal (2020), Strength! is significantly more light-hearted, with its postmodern lyrics emitting from sources such as shampoo bottles and television UFO series to the Pan-Europa myth or morbid lore of death-hungry Transylvanian Iron Guard. However, the sting of irony and sarcasm is balanced with more serious subjects: Strength! is a hate/love letter to Europe and a self-reflection on Machiavellian and Nietzschean philosophies of strength and elitism. True to the band’s soul everything is covered with pure toxic misanthropy. Strength! 2LP/digital/2CD will be released 13th of September on Svart Records. Album’s first outtake, Erotomania, is out right now via digital services worldwide.

Opium Warlords' sixth album "Strength!" out on Svart Records in September 2024! Opium Warlords, led by Sami Albert ”Witchfinder” Hynninen (Reverend Bizarre, The Puritan, The Candles Burning Blue), return with their sixth album Strength! It is a versatile but tight combination of pussy techno, sludge, industrial pop, hardcore punk, drone, shamanistic pulse, noise, heavy metal, old school gothic rock and march music. It is a take on European rhythmic patterns: stagnant factory beat – no groove, no swing, just a rhythm of industrialism that pierces through different genres and styles. Comparing to the dark and oppressive Nembutal (2020), Strength! is significantly more light-hearted, with its postmodern lyrics emitting from sources such as shampoo bottles and television UFO series to the Pan-Europa myth or morbid lore of death-hungry Transylvanian Iron Guard. However, the sting of irony and sarcasm is balanced with more serious subjects: Strength! is a hate/love letter to Europe and a self-reflection on Machiavellian and Nietzschean philosophies of strength and elitism. True to the band’s soul everything is covered with pure toxic misanthropy. Strength! 2LP/digital/2CD will be released 13th of September on Svart Records. Album’s first outtake, Erotomania, is out right now via digital services worldwide.

Lovers of Italo disco music will consider Cyber People as one of the most important acts in its scene. The Space-synth sound Cyber people brought in the mid 80’s, was highlighted by their 1985 ‘Void Vision’ release, which became a hit both in Europe, as well as in South America. On top of that, Cyber People paved the road for acts like Koto, Laserdance and Hipnosis, just to name a few. Cyber People were disbanded though in 1988, but left behind a series of most important Italo Disco records.

Now, build on the ashes of the former and legendary ‘Memory Records label from Parma – Italy, Memix International is pleased to announce its return, and the return of Cyber People. In its original form, headed again by the Maestro Giorgio “Theo” Spagna himself, as leader of the pack, with a tribute to Anfrando Maiola, the founding father of Mamory Records’ most important act, Koto, who left us in 2023.

As a tribute, Anfrando’s “Dragon’s Legend” get’s a complete new overhaul by Cyber People, respecting its original structure, concept and spirit, bringing it however into the 21st century.

Besides the almost 8-and-a-half-minute tribute of Dragon’s legend on the MEM-side, on the MIX-side you will find the DJ friendly ‘DJ DUB’, bringing you the compact essential of ‘Dragon’s Legend’ for any up-to-date Italian Disco set. (And if you want to call it Italo Disco, that’s perfectly fine with us too!)

With this release, Memix International continues where it’s predecessor stopped in 1989. Paves the road into a new era, and pays with this rerelease it’s respect to Anfrando Maiola and his Koto releases , such with full support from his heir.

With this release Memix International also brings a tribute to Alessandro Porta, the great Italian designer and visual artist, whose heirs were as kind to participate also, and made one of Alessandro’s drawings available for the sleeve of this unique release. It was Porta who was, on many occasions, responsible for the characteristic artwork of various Koto releases and, all together it will for sure make this release a well sought item which comes in a strictly limited edition of 500 units, so distributed on a ‘first to come, first to serve’ basis. Expected release and shipment: end of September/begin of October 2024.

Mutant is proud to present Academy Award-winning composer Michael Giacchino's latest album, Exotic Themes for the Silver Screen – Volume 1, featuring iconic scores from Giacchino's extensive portfolio rendered in the retro lounge style of Exotica from the 1950s.



“It's no secret that we at Mutant are huge fans of Michael Giacchino,” says Spencer Hickman, Co-Founder of Mutant. “We're excited to release a retrospective of his astonishing three decades as a composer. Rather than just curating a simple compilation of his previous works, Michael went back into the studio, rearranged and re-recorded every major theme from his career. These tracks have been recorded in an Easy Listening style inspired by such greats as Martin Denny and Les Baxter, creating not just a unique and incredible look back at some of the most beloved movie and television themes of the modern age, but also bringing a fresh, exciting take to the beautiful journey he has taken us all on with him. It feels like you are discovering these songs for the very first time: timeless, beautiful, and a joy to listen to. These newly recorded themes transport you to a far-off sunset, looking out at the ocean, complete with a cocktail in hand, providing a much-needed escape from the stress of modern times, and we can all agree that is something we all crave right now.”



Exotic Themes for the Silver Screen – Volume 1 spans nearly two decades of Michael Giacchino’s music, from his early video game scores to his television hits and blockbuster films. The album transforms these works through the lens of Exotica, replacing epic strings and thundering drums with vibraphones and marimbas.



“This album was inspired by the work of Arthur Lyman and Martin Denny,” says Giacchino. “What would they do with the Star Trek theme? Or video games like Medal of Honor? It was a way for me to play in that world I loved so much growing up. I thought it would be fun to create a fantasy world, where this album was recorded back in 1967 and then lost, only to resurface today.”

The album showcases Giacchino’s unerring talent for melody, stripping down grand symphonies to their essential elements while retaining their aesthetic and emotional core.



“So much was rooted in the big orchestral sound, so it was really about scaling it back. The real trick is figuring out the little fun hooks and things you can add along the way. There were no rules; I was up for anything. It was a way to re-engage with the material and be creative in a new way.”



Exotic Themes for the Silver Screen – Volume 1 includes an array of reinterpreted pieces from Michael Giacchino’s career. Highlights include ‘Primordial Forest’ from the 1997 video game The Lost World: Jurassic Park, ‘Life and Death’ from Lost, the theme from Ratatouille, ‘Roar!’ from Cloverfield, ‘Enterprising Young Men’ from Star Trek (2009), ‘A Man, A Plan, A Code, Dubai’ from Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, and a Super 8 suite.



Featuring package design by Luke Insect, and liner notes by Charlie Brigden.

Robyn Hitchcock is a rock’n’roll surrealist. Born in London on March 3rd, 1953 he describes his songs as “pictures you can listen to”. As much a child of Dali, De Chirico, and JG Ballard as of his 1960s musical heroes, he is a master of the absurd, reveling in the beauty of the unexpected. His first publicly visible band The Soft Boys (1976 - 81) has remained an influential art-rock touchstone for generations of musicians. “I just want to be an obscure cult fringe,” he told the NME in 1978; the NME didn’t believe him, but he’s been true to his ambition. Without ever breaking the surface of pop culture Hitchcock has floated at a tangent to the mainstream for nearly 5 decades. His songs have been performed by REM, The Replacements, Neko Case, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Lou Barlow, Grant Lee Phillips, Sparklehorse, and Suzanne Vega with the Grateful Dead among others. A confirmed outsider, he nonetheless has devoted listeners around the world who attend his concerts, and also tune into the online streaming shows Robyn seasonally does with his wife, the singer Emma Swift. In 1996 he was the subject of Jonathan Demme’s in-concert film, ‘Storefront Hitchcock’. Robyn Hitchcock came of age in the 1960s when he attended Winchester College, an eccentric hothouse boarding school in the south of England. This is the subject of “1967”, which is both a memoir and an album, due for release in June this year. The memoir is a book “1967: How I Got There And Why I Never Left”, describing how the music of Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and others drastically transformed the direction of his life when he left home for this strange new world. The companion record album “1967: Vacations In The Past” is a selection of the (mostly) hit songs of that year, re-recorded acoustically by Robyn with the help of some friends in Cambridge, San Francisco, and Sydney. He is currently preparing new material to release in 2025. “I like to keep busy”, he says: “We have all eternity to not exist”.

Keyboardist/composer Doug Carn was the
biggest star on the legendary Black Jazz Records
label, with four releases to his credit (all reissued
by us at Real Gone Music), and remains a
touchstone for spiritual jazz fans and musicians
alike. But very, very few folks have heard his
debut record, cut for the venerable Savoy label
back in 1969. In fact, it’s so rare that we couldn’t
even find a copy to use for artwork, so, with
Doug’s help, we enlisted his daughter Eroniffa
Ibrahim to create illustrations for our reissue
based on the original cover photos. But you know
what we did find? That’s right…the original master
tapes! So, not only is this the first LP reissue for
The Doug Carn Trio, but it’s an all-analog edition to
boot, pressed at Gotta Groove Records with their
proprietary GrooveCoated stampers to minimize
high-frequency loss with each successive pressing.
And, we’ve added an insert with liner notes by Aaron
Cohen based on an exclusive interview with the man
himself. As for the music, it’s a tight organ trio set
that starts cooking right from the get-go with a groovin’ cover of Gus Cannon’s “Walk
Right In,” which became a folk hit for The Rooftop Singers. Carn’s fluid, forward-thinking
playing anticipates Larry Young’s future keyboard forays, and originals like “Butter from
the Duck” and “Yna Yna’s Delight” presage the compositional prowess he flashed on the
Black Jazz releases (note: that’s Don Hales on guitar, not Gary Starling as credited on the
original record). The opening salvo from a scintillating career, finally available again!

On Chastity’s upcoming, self-titled fourth record, Williams decided to write a fully non-fiction work. Out Friday, September 13 2024 on Deathwish (US), Dine Alone (Canada), and Big Scary Monsters (UK/E) ‘Chastity’ is a 13-track record about the things that have always run through the band’s records—struggle, death, despair, redemption, darkness, and light—but this time, the songs ascend to new depths of intensity and desperation, new heights of resolution and power. “It’s really about the first nosedive that I did as a young person,” says Williams. “It’s a record about struggle, about the missing years. It’s also a thank you to some people in my life.” The record hurtles through melodic hardcore, shoegaze, and emo, all magnificently and enormously rendered thanks to slick work from John Paul Peters (Propagandhi, Comeback Kid), who engineered and mixed the record. Chastity’s first three full-length records—2018’s Death Lust, 2019’s Home Made Satan, and 2022’s Suffer Summer—formed a trilogy that defined a 4-year arc of the band’s contribution to outsider music. Each record was informed by Williams’ life, but each was also conceptual and interpretive, refracting his experiences through a level of remove. On the self-titled record there’s a beautiful and affirming ending to it’s closer, centered on the band’s first and enduring idea: life is less shitty if we live it together.

Satan’s history is storied, their albums and incendiary live shows, iconic. The Newcastle, England-bred lineup may quip that their career has been “44 years of prolonged mayhem with a 20-year lunch break”—forming in 1980, eventually pausing before reuniting in 2011—but circa 2024 finds the band thriving, writing, recording, and touring at the top of their game. Proof positive is their seventh studio album, and third for Metal Blade, Songs in Crimson. If 2022’s Earth Infernal album was brutal, up-tempo and with loud guitars, guitarist Russ Tippins calls Songs in Crimson “concise. It’s more to the point and gets there quicker. One of the reasons behind the title Songs in Crimson is that this record is very ‘song’ focused. There’s more punch this time around. Each chorus speaks for itself.” An eminently relatable song is “Era (The Day Will Come).” “There is nobody on this planet who is not familiar with the feeling of loss. When you get to the age we are at in this band, it becomes a weekly occurrence. If there is a message in the lyrics, it is pretty much ‘do not take anything for granted.’ Especially people. You just don’t know what is around the corner that you can’t see coming.” Satan’s chemistry, honed by years of collaboration, brotherhood and love, is unbreakable. “We played at a metal festival where the headlining band had zero original members,” Tippins says. “I cannot get my head around that, though I admire their bravery. We are the genuine article.” To be clear: “We did not reunite just to trade on past glory,” he concludes. “If you want nostalgia, this is not the band for you. We look only ahead and always will.”

Satan’s history is storied, their albums and incendiary live shows, iconic. The Newcastle, England-bred lineup may quip that their career has been “44 years of prolonged mayhem with a 20-year lunch break”—forming in 1980, eventually pausing before reuniting in 2011—but circa 2024 finds the band thriving, writing, recording, and touring at the top of their game. Proof positive is their seventh studio album, and third for Metal Blade, Songs in Crimson. If 2022’s Earth Infernal album was brutal, up-tempo and with loud guitars, guitarist Russ Tippins calls Songs in Crimson “concise. It’s more to the point and gets there quicker. One of the reasons behind the title Songs in Crimson is that this record is very ‘song’ focused. There’s more punch this time around. Each chorus speaks for itself.” An eminently relatable song is “Era (The Day Will Come).” “There is nobody on this planet who is not familiar with the feeling of loss. When you get to the age we are at in this band, it becomes a weekly occurrence. If there is a message in the lyrics, it is pretty much ‘do not take anything for granted.’ Especially people. You just don’t know what is around the corner that you can’t see coming.” Satan’s chemistry, honed by years of collaboration, brotherhood and love, is unbreakable. “We played at a metal festival where the headlining band had zero original members,” Tippins says. “I cannot get my head around that, though I admire their bravery. We are the genuine article.” To be clear: “We did not reunite just to trade on past glory,” he concludes. “If you want nostalgia, this is not the band for you. We look only ahead and always will.”

Formed in 1995 in the small Swedish city of Mariestad by key players from Sweden's legendary hardcore scene, Wolfbrigade (known as Wolfpack until 1999) remain among Scandinavia's most respected, influential and reliable purveyors of real-world brute-force hullabaloo. On this eleventh album, the niftiest skills honed to a fine edge over 30 years are dispatched with greater style and intensity than ever.

Ginger Root ist das Projekt von Cameron Lew aus Südkalifornien. Seit seiner ersten Veröffentlichung 2017 vermischt der Multi-Instrumentalist, Produzent, Songwriter und visuelle Künstler handgemachten, aber makellos polierten Synth-Pop, Alt-Disco, Boogie und Soul zu einem Sound, den er selbst als "aggressiven Fahrstuhl-Soul" beschreibt. Durch seine Linse als asiatischer Amerikaner, der mit der Musik der 1970er und 80er Jahre aufgewachsen ist, nimmt eine Musik Gestalt an, die insbesondere den kreativen und kulturellen Dialog zwischen japanischem City Pop und seinen westlichen Gegenstücken von French Pop über Philly Soul bis hin zu McCartney der Ram-Ära hervorhebt. SHINBANGUMI ist seine dritte LP und die erste für sein neues Label Ghostly International. Lew zeigt sich auf SHINBANGUMI gelassener, eigenwilliger und bewusster denn je und bringt genau das zum Vorschein, wonach sich Ginger Root anhören und anfühlen sollte. Die Leadsingle "No Problems" fungiert mit singbaren Basslines, schwungvollen Gitarrenriffs und cleveren Keyboard-Hooks als Eröffnungssequenz und als Brücke zu neuem Terrain. Für Fans von L'Imperatrice, Toro y Moi, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Thundercat, Crumb, Khruangbin. ENGStep inside the world of Ginger Root. Cameron Lew makes it easy to do so; every considered detail is his own manifestation, written, designed, and executed as an all-encompassing diorama of sound and sight. A multi-instrumentalist, producer, songwriter, and visual artist from Southern California, Lew has crafted his project steadily since 2017, inviting a fervent and growing legion of fans into storylines drawn across mediums: captivating albums with accompanying films and globe-spanning tours. The Ginger Root sound _ handmade yet immaculately polished synth-pop, alt-disco, boogie, and soul _ takes shape through Lew's lens as an Asian-American growing up enamored by 1970s and '80s music, specifically the creative and cultural dialogue between Japanese City Pop and its Western counterparts from French Pop to Philly Soul to Ram-era McCartney. He spins his retro-minded influences and proliferates savvily in the present, synthesizing a songwriter's wit, an editor's eye, and a producer's resource into something singular and modern. SHINBANGUMI, his long-awaited third LP, and Ghostly International debut set for physical release in 2024 with a visual album component, translates roughly to a new season of a show. It finds Lew more poised, idiosyncratic, and intentional than ever in a new chapter of life, unlocking "exactly what Ginger Root should sound and feel like," he says. "In terms of instrumentation and musicality, it's the first time that I felt very confident and comfortable with what everything should be comprised of. On the more personal side, I'm coming out of the last four years of writing, touring, and living as a different person; SHINBANGUMI is a platform to showcase my new self."

Ursprünglich wurde dieses legendäre Album von den Death-Metal-Pionieren Benediction aus Birmingham, UK, 1998 veröffentlicht. Nun erhältlich als limitierte Auflage auf lila Doppel-Vinyl, ist diese Neuauflage ein Muss für Sammler und neue Hörer gleichermaßen. Das Paket enthält exklusive Bonusinhalte wie seltene Fotos, Linernotes der Band und nie zuvor gehörte Demotracks, die einen Einblick in die Entstehung des Albums geben.

Smutty Edits is the brainchild of Jeroen Van der Smut, a music aficionado who after indulging himself in kilos of Gouda Cheese, Fritjes with Mayo and Ban-cakes, left Amsterdam over 30 years ago for Anjuna Beach in India. Jeroen quickly got into Raving in the world of Goa Trance and electronic music. However, his love for Disco, Synth-Pop, and New Wave, where his musical journey began, brought him back to his roots. This passion led to the creation of Smutty Edits, as he decided to release carefully chosen edits from some of the most talented artists in the industry.

This first 12” features contributions from renowned artists who have left an indelible mark on the music scene. These collaborations ensure that each edit is of the highest quality, maintaining the integrity and spirit of the original tracks while adding a fresh perspective.

With occasional trips to Europe to reconnect with family and old friends, Jeroen remains deeply rooted in his heritage while continually seeking out new musical inspirations. Smutty Edits is set to release a series of records, each showcasing the label’s dedication to quality and innovation in Italo, Proto-House, Synth-Pop etc

The Heads’ Simon Price returns to his kandodo project with 'theendisinpsych'; "primitive pieces of psychedelic tuneage+years of wasted time=43 minutes of headphone bliss." It's the follow up to the 2019 collaboration with Wayne Maskell and Hugo Morgan, Kandodo 3 – K3, but this time back in solo-mode. He is now relocated in Northumbria, and has recorded the album himself in his home studio, drawing on his wide collection of music/instruments and the rural environment for inspiration. The new album fizzes and crackles with a verve that will activate the “turn on, tune in, drop out” sense in all listeners… Simon explained the album in a focused/out of focus track by track way… is this Price’s paean to his obsession with Bowie? chamba7 - octave mandolin through fuzz, tambo beat, in praise of Bowie compilations. chamba is malawian weed theendisinpsych - bought a reel to reel tape off ebay in 2005, ('Bowie radio interview tape, USA, 1970, 3 minutes?') then bought a machine to play it on in 2015. Heard the words and laid them onto a fuzzy break bed. Thought it all too relevant to today, prophetic David from his 'hippy' days (not a prophet or a stone age man) fuzzy oceans - played on 1 string spamjo, bouncing echo over 70's drum machine, 'we've fucked the oceans' freefalling - rolling cello and hissing cymbals with vocoder dreams comes with african/stationtostation artwork stylings for the sleeve..pre-apocalypse blues (and pinks), the world isn't going a good way a sumptuous 4 course sonic supper, tuck in.

Spirit Mother's forthcoming album "Trails" brings the energy of the band's visceral, all-in live performances while expanding on the sensibilities of their debut album "Cadets." It is the undeniable next chapter in the band's creative process. The darker tonality, heavier, fuzz-fueled riffs, and relentless rhythm section accompanies prolific structure and arrangement. The violin summons a brooding, atmospheric pedestal for the remaining power trio to wield with fervor. Lance's haunting vocals and stark lyricism intersperse the instrumentals with a melody that is as dynamic as it is accessible. It is the culmination of road worn years in pursuit of the art, and the moment-to-moment adrenaline of studio exploration. The album was aged, captured, delivered by Spirit Mother, and brought to the broader public by Heavy Psych Sounds Records.

Mustard Yellow Vinyl, limited to 400 copies. Spirit Mother's forthcoming album "Trails" brings the energy of the band's visceral, all-in live performances while expanding on the sensibilities of their debut album "Cadets." It is the undeniable next chapter in the band's creative process. The darker tonality, heavier, fuzz-fueled riffs, and relentless rhythm section accompanies prolific structure and arrangement. The violin summons a brooding, atmospheric pedestal for the remaining power trio to wield with fervor. Lance's haunting vocals and stark lyricism intersperse the instrumentals with a melody that is as dynamic as it is accessible. It is the culmination of road worn years in pursuit of the art, and the moment-to-moment adrenaline of studio exploration. The album was aged, captured, delivered by Spirit Mother, and brought to the broader public by Heavy Psych Sounds Records.

This is the second Jamaican Recordings sampler collecting together rare dubs from the label.

Origami unfolds on La Danse de l'Albatros to reveal an intricate universe - long-form narrative storytelling in direct opposition to disposable tools.

Over a catalog of six albums, Native Harrow have produced a discography of “rich, engrossing records” and “instant classics” while single-mindedly following their own artistic code, acquiescing only to the exigence of the song: each song its own world with its own rules.

Formed a decade ago, Native Harrow spent their first five or six years crisscrossing the United States and Canada on numerous tours, averaging more than 150 concerts per year in 47 states and 4 provinces, on the back of two self-released albums, Ghost (2015) and Sorores (2017). In 2019, they released Happier Now, partnering with London alt-country stalwarts Loose Records. The record garnered glowing reviews, with Rough Trade selecting it for its album of the month, writing “Beautifully soaring... rolling grooves ground languid and dreamy clearwater shimmers of sound.” The critical acclaim and Americana chart success of the album prompted three back-to-back UK tours in 2019 and early 2020, ultimately leading to a three-year stint living and touring in the UK and Europe. In this time, Native Harrow released two more critically acclaimed records with Loose; Closeness (2020) and Old Kind of Magic (2022), playing for audiences ranging from rock clubs in Norway and Sweden to opera halls in Portugal, and every stop in-between, as well as performing at festivals such as BST Hyde Park (supporting the Eagles and Robert Plant & Alison Kraus), Greenman Festival, Black Deer Festival, The Great Escape, Celtic Connections, Moseley Folk Festival, SXSW, and many more.

Following the eruption of its title track, Side A of “Divided Kind” transitions nimbly through hazy tremolo-laden dusty canyons, past an intimate soulful love letter, and towards a moody anthem of devotion buoyed by propulsive grooves, before ultimately settling on a gentle bird’s-eye-view of love and transcendence. Side B opens with the debut single, “Goin’ Nowhere” a soul transmission over incendiary bass and undulating layers of guiro, congas, tambourines, shakers, and handclaps that sidesteps into moments of infinite dial-toned burnished, Rhodes-propelled soul-jazz and self-assured blues rock à gogo before ending in a spectral folk reading on celestial meditation.

“Divided Kind” was produced and recorded by the pair, in their home studio surrounded by the vintage acoustic and electric guitars, dusty semi-functional amplifiers, and out-of-date Rhodes, B3, piano, and assorted percussion they’ve grown accustomed to. Chicago-based Alex Hall was again drafted to add drums and to mix, and Philadelphia drummer and engineer Joshua Friedman mastered the record. London-based musician Joe Harvey-Whyte added the pedal steel to “Borrowing Time”, with all other voices and instruments being performed by Tuel and Harms.

"With their third full-length, Washington, D.C.’s Bad Moves have expanded their founding artistic identity — a candy-coated guitar-pop shell surrounding a bitter lyrical core — by refracting their ideas through a new set of musical forms that weaponize repetition. On the new Wearing Out the Refrain, recorded once again with producer Joe Reinhart (Hop Along, Algernon Cadwallader), Bad Moves propose that the flip side of the delirious harmony of the basement show singalong is the volatile, accusatory antiphony of a community divided by strain, shouting the same desperate hook back and forth at one another.

Bad Moves’ tag-team vocals, which forgo centering anyone one member, also let the traditionally confessional “I” become the “we” of a community, or generation. Witness the ambitious climate change metaphor of “Eviction Party,” which understands the union of sugary pop and genuine angst embodied by 1960s girl-group songcraft, and uses it to expand a personal story to planetary scale. “It’s my eviction, I’ll cry if I want to” Bad Moves shouts, channeling the dawning millennial midlife crisis. The personal may be political, but what if both feel weighed down and trapped in circular, inescapable ruts?"

Debut album from Los Angeles duo Los Yesterdays - Sweet Soul music meets Mexican Folklorico

"Sweet soul music - also known as lowrider oldies on the West Coast, rolas and souldies - are typically early 60s-style tunes that emphasize vocal harmonies. Most songs are slow-to-midtempo, many are ballads, and the sub-genre is generally stripped down compared to the highly produced Motown hits of the time....there is a generations-long appreciation for sweet soul music among California’s Latino communities. Eastern Los Angeles teens.... helped foster a love of sweet soul in the early 60s by covering soulful ballads by artists like James Brown... Those sounds....were kept alive by record collectors and people who spent evenings cruising along East Los boulevards." - Los Yesterdays are a Chicano soul band from Los Angeles based around the creative collaboration between Gabriel Rowland and Victor Benavides. They began working together when Rowland - a drummer by trade, then creaky and exhausted from waking up at dawn to work construction - decided to channel those struggles into song. He contacted Benavides, a former bandmate of Rowland’s deceased brother, to record the soul ballads that Southland Chicanos call “oldies.” Los Yesterdays filter love-struck R&B crooning through guitar-strumming Mexican balladeering; the result is something that sounds like the Los Angeles of yesterday and today - the indelible, immovable Los Angeles of cruising Whittier Boulevard, of cold drinks on the porch on blazing summer nights, of watching a blue-orange toxic sunset and wondering if they are thinking about you. Los Angeles changes; Los Angeles stays the same. Los Yesterdays have changed, outgrown their childhood barrios and the bands of their early 20s and their private garage hermitude; Los Yesterdays are Frozen In Time.

Almost exactly one year after their debut album on Sdban Ultra (2023), the pan-European trio KAU continues their energetic trip with a double single release. This release, packed with intricate synthesizer arrangements, rapid drum patterns, and deep resonant basslines, is once again focused on capturing and translating their infectious live sound to tape.

Fully playing off their energetic band dynamics, the trio draws on elements of jazztronica, combined with familiar jam sounds from acts such as Yussef Dayes and corto.alto, transitioning into a groove atmosphere reminiscent of Flying Lotus. Imagine the fusion of British jazz with the innovative, vibrant 'Brussels sound'-that's where KAU sits.

"Kaugummi" (chewing gum) is the latest original track produced by the trio. The idea evolved by combining a 'dub' bassline with an intricate drum pattern. The melody is reminiscent of the EP's other side, "Mad Kau," as it uses similar unapologetic, richly diverse, and grooving elements. Both tracks culminate in highly energetic moments distinguished by aggressive arpeggiators and synths.

"Mad Kau" is a present-day remake of their previous 2022 release "Mad Max." It's a true representation of how the track is played by the trio on stage, with its iconic melody as the heartbeat of the song. It evokes moments of madness both within the musicians and the listener, hence the title.

Pianist and composer Bas Bulteel turns his gaze inward after a successful track record as leader of the adventurous energy bomb Wasdaman and as inspirer of his own trio, with which he won the 2014 Klara Music Prize for best CD in the jazz category for the album Coming Home, his debut as a bandleader.

Bas went into residency with visual artist Jan Frederik De Cock which resulted in a unique collaboration where image and sound dialogue with each other, feeding off each other, cursing against each other, loving each other ....

The result has become a profound and layered solo piano record that showcases Bas' versatility as a pianist and composer. Musically hovering between minimalism and avant-garde. Sometimes melancholic and always compelling.

Chicago's blackened noise nihilists return to scene with their 5th full length album From All Purity. On From All Purity, INDIAN take their infamously hateful aggression to new levels of despair. Now augmented with an even keener sense of harsh noise, all the trademark elements of INDIAN's sound have been refined to reach new lows of powerful and punishing anguish. This is the opposite of easy listening.

Sepultura is a Brazilian heavy metal band formed in Belo Horizonte in 1984 by brothers Max and Igor Cavalera.
Reprint of "Quadra". The 40th Anniversary Edition will be available as 2LP - 180g Ruby Red Marble in gatefold.

Instrumental rock is alive is the motto of the VAL EXPERIENCE BAND, the new project from
rock-metal guitarist and composer Valéry Granson (aka Val). As a fan of instrumental rock,
which reached its peak in the 80s and 90s and still fascinates him, he decided to record his
first solo album, OSMIUM.
His major influences lie somewhere between Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Andy Timmons, Joey
Tafolla , Ritchie Kotzen, Jeff Beck , Jimi Hendrix, Paul Gilbert, Eric Johnson, Santana, Queen,
Frank Zappa and many others. Instrumental rock is alive...
The VAL EXPERIENCE BAND is a project worth discovering, whether on album or in concert,
for an experience that will not leave you indifferent.

Ace Buzz is one of the various projects of Tony Baron and Gery Francois (the minds behind projects like "Teknokrat's" and others that would found their output on labels like Carrere). Potentially naive for some, but surely playful and raw, an exquisite example of the sound of Belgian "New Beat". Void of the usual aggressive temper known to the genre, "Moskitos" comes in with a slight juxtaposition of Balearic accents in the form of those classic, very simple, piano chords we might have heard enough of. The samples employed invoke the image of someone in a cheap hotel room in Ibiza without AC trying to kill the airborne vermin celebrated in the title while hallucinating from an August drug infused heatwave, who knows. On the B-side, things slow down into a deeper more serious mood, "Nuevo Mondo" departs from the usual New Beat potency into something a bit more digestible to the ear in a rather unique way, followed by a Remix that sounds more like a complete facelift of a cover version by studio maestro Anatolian Weapons.

The Silence is back once again to try and save the industrial scene with two hands tied behind their backs with more tortured dubstep, industrial hardcore that's just a little too slow, hard techno and one of those tracks that's just a bunch of kicks.

Death and the Maiden’s Uneven Ground draws back the velvet curtain on the trio’s crepuscular dreamworld with nine songs of their distinctive shadowy slow-motion fusion of underground electronic dance music and post-punk guitars washed through with psychic unease. The trio’s name is taken from that of a nineteenth century engraving by Edvard Munch: an artwork steeped in mythology, exploring the dark boundaries between love and death, strength and frailty, beauty and decay. Their three albums to date each reinforce the symbolism of the name, and Uneven Ground’s title could apply as much to their own journey in the years since Wisteria, their previous album, as to the times in which we live. Bassist and vocalist Lucinda King is the bedrock, guide and storyteller. Guitarist Hope Robertson weaves swooping, soaring motifs and sometimes deconstructed layers of noise to build analogue atmosphere for these alternate worlds. Danny Brady’s beats mix old-school drum machines with electronic tones and distortion, while his synth arrangements blend elements of psy-trance and acid house with more amniotic ambient and industrial textures. While Uneven Ground may be the most overtly “pop”-sounding album in their catalogue, it also ratchets up the ominous atmosphere, noise and experimentation. Once again King’s evocative lyrics appear as cryptic stories, built from events, memories, dreams, moments, warnings, regrets; where questions raised are left unanswered, and possibilities remain open.

2024 repress

The classic 1982 electrofied disco gem back again. Bootlegged badly in recent years, Isle Of Jura does it right with fully remastered versions from Matt Colton and the added inclusion of a previously unreleased Q song ‘Keep It Strong’

2024 repress

Rush Hour’s RSS series excels in unearthing buried treasure, offering a second chance for artists and releases that have long been overlooked. That’s certainly the case with ‘Witches’, the superb sole single by British 1980s wave trio Zenana.

Originally released on seven-inch by the tiny PRM label in 1986, ‘Witches’ was the product of a sister-brother songwriting team whose music was mostly recorded in the front room of a terraced house in Nanpean, a small industrial village in Cornwall, England’s most south-westerly county. While the single was infectious, impeccably produced and dancefloor-ready, it sold in limited quantities at the time.

Zenana’s story can be traced back to the early 1980s, when singer-songwriter Anita Tedder founded the all-female trio as a vehicle for her musical ambitions. To bring her songs to life, she joined voices with her brother Mike, an early adopter of electronic music who had built a studio – nicknamed MFR, short for ‘Mike’s Front Room’ – in his Cornish home.

Countless Zenana tracks were recorded at ‘MFR’ between 1984 and ’86, with the resultant demo cassette securing the band a management contract, a slew of live bookings, a video shoot and even a television appearance. Buoyed by this underground success, they headed to the remote Sawmills Studio in Cornwall – famously only accessible by boat – to re-record ‘Witches’, a song inspired by local folk tales of witches gathering near Mike’s home.

While this version of ‘Witches’ failed to make an impact at the time, it has become something of a cult classic following its’ rediscovery by crate digger Kiernan Abbott – and subsequent championing by other dusty-fingered DJs including Antal, Skyrager, Trevor Jackson and Luke Una – in early 2023. The buzz inspired Zenana to perform live again for the first time in decades, with the story of their surprise comeback being covered by British media outlets including the BBC and (more surprisingly) the Daily Mail.

Now presented in re-mastered form, ‘Witches’ is a genuinely slept-on gem. Propelled forwards by punchy drum machine beats, a killer synth bassline and fizzing keyboard sounds, the song benefits greatly from strong vocals and an extra-percussive middle eight layered with vocalisations, cosmic spoken word sections and swirling noises.

It comes backed by a brand-new extended ‘spell of love’ courtesy of Bristol duo Bedmo Disco, AKA music journalist Matt Anniss (author of Join The Future: Bleep Techno and the Birth of British Bass Music) and DJ/production partner Gareth Morgan. Anniss is a long-time friend of Mike and Anita Tedder who has fond memories of visiting Mike’s home studio with his family around the time that ‘Witches’ was recorded.

Working from Zenana’s original MFR eight-track recording (tapes of the single version were lost years ago), Anniss and Morgan have turned in the extended ‘dance mix’ the track never had first time around. More atmospheric, clandestine and dancefloor-focused, it offers authentic nods to New York proto-house, mid-80s Shep Pettibone dubs, and the pioneering synth-pop productions and dub mixes of Factory Records regular Martin Rushent.

A dance floor sensation from DJ Agent 86, now finally gets a vinyl release thanks to DJ DSK and the DNA Edits crew. This well respected Melbourne producer and DJ brings a blend of funky 70s disco samples and hip-hop snippets to 7” vinyl, ensuring a guaranteed party starter. As a special treat, the B-side features a fresh edit of the disco classic "Rapture."

With her new single release "Uh-Ah Song" the Ghanaian Frafra Soul singer Florence Adooni announces her debut album "Fo Yelle" on Philophon.

A lot has happened since the release of her first single "Mam Pe'ela Su'ure" in 2021. While this release was a pure studio project, Florence Adooni is now an eight-member live formation, made up of young talents from the highlife scene of Kumasi. The group has already considerable credentials: In 2023, they toured Europe twice and thrilled their audiences at festivals such as Roskilde, Down The Rabbit Hole and Überjazz. And this year, with the debut "Fo Yelle" under the belt, Florence and her group embarking on a 50+ concert summer tour through Europe, from Sweden to Portugal to UK and at festivals like FMM Sines, Xajazz, Africa Oye, Fusion, End of The Road.

The title track "Uh-Ah Song" is based on a rhythm typical of Kumasi and shines with its playful and cheerful character. Florence remembers the process of creating the piece: "When my producer Max Weissenfeldt came to me to play me on the piano an idea for a new piece, my daughter, who had just been born, began to sing in rhythm ah-ah-ah, with all joy in her face ever imaginable, while Max was playing. Max turned around and answered her with uh-uh-uh, to which she replied again with ah-ah-ah. We laughed so much and decided to make it a piece that would capture that very moment of joy we just had experienced. That's why it's somehow a children's song".

"Otoma Da Naba" (The Creator Has Done Well) has a sequencer bass line from a Roland TB-303 as its foundation. While Florence holds her verse in a kind of Ethiopian pentatonic scale, in the pre-chorus she switches to a sweetly swinging heptatonic motif, with a typical highlife guitar in the background creating the atmosphere. In the chorus, the singing then changes in that unique choir style, which is the trademark of Frafra music.

The international debut album "Fo Yelle" will be released on Philophon this summer.

Admittedly, I'm not a great salesperson when it comes to running our little label. I do my best not to give into hyperbole or build something up too intensely if someone has not heard a new artist yet. I prefer to simply present the music and let the listener decide how they feel about it. However, we live in an age when the "story" put together by publicists, labels, and managers are often the driving force of an artist's ascension into the zeitgeist. And for me, that's always felt rather artificial, even when the narrative is genuine. But every once in a while, a project comes along that takes on a life of its own. And I can say without a doubt that the growth of Pale Jay's reach since we first started working with him has little to do with conjured narratives or clever marketing, but more to do with how the music makes the listener feel. It's that simple. In fact, Jay is so enigmatic and without a narrative that the mere absence of a story has become the story. Who is he? Where is he from? What's next? Some questions are better left unanswered in my opinion, my friend. Including the question, "Why does this music make me feel so much?" You're better off just sitting back, disconnecting, and letting Low End Love Songs by Pale Jay wrap you up. Enjoy and spread the good word. - Terry Cole

"Low End Love Songs", more so than previous releases, is a diary in form of song. I knew I just had to wait for the songs to be ready to be picked, like ripe fruit from a tree. Each tune encapsulates a distinct moment in my life, with music serving as my means of processing complex and sometimes conflicting emotions. In this album, I depart from loop-based song structures towards more intricate and lush compositions. Latin influences permeate the music, adding new layers of rhythms and textures to my soul-music roots. - Pale Jay

Mike Bandoni is back again with another sure shot batch of original drum breaks. Exclusive to Drumstream. Mike has an incredible feel that brings a unique originality and authentic style of breaks ready for you to cut, juggle, loop or just play out. This one is HOT.

Rain and experimental music have had an interesting connection for decades. Under the umbrella of American film music promotion, Hanns Eisler was already looking for "Vierzehn Arten, den Regen zu beschreiben” (fourteen ways to describe the rain) in 1941. A good 20 years later, The Cascades interpreted the periodicity of rain as a rhythm of mourning. For the Beatles ("If the rain falls, they run and hide their heads"), the precipitation inspired the band to use backward running tapes. However, it seems that there has always been a lot of rainfall in popular music. In the early seventies, David Toop and Paul Burwell even had a band project with the great name Rain In The Face...

That was a long time ago and today, rain, which in the age of climate catastrophe mainly occurs as heavy rain or an enervating endless loop, has lost a great deal of its inspiring quality. Perhaps as a reminder of the musical quality of rain, but knowing full well that it can only be enjoyed in theory, Razen call their new album "Rain Without Rain". In the music of the Brussels collective led by the two multi-instrumentalists Brecht Ameel and Kim Delcour, it certainly pours down on the roofs. In fact, the album opens with the sound of pouring rain before we hear the sequence of an oscillator played through a guitar amp on the first track „Lazy, Lazy Eye“.

The album is the captivating result of an one-night mobile studio field recording in an abandoned pedestrian tunnel in the centre of Düsseldorf, and it is finding beauty with brutal(ist) means: recorder, oscillator, guitar amp and reverberation, two musicians and four microphones, early electronics versus Early Music. “Suicide meet Hildegard von Bingen”, as Stefan Schneider, who recorded the session, admits. “Ghostly occurrences”, he adds.

Brecht Ameel states: “We do put a lot of weight and care on acoustics. On some of our recordings, the room acts as another band member, or as the main ‘mixing board’. Most of the albums we have recorded so far are not mixed in the traditional sense: they are simply „captured”, and we let the room decide what is left on the tapes. The studio recordings, then, give us the possibility of bringing other elements to the fore; precision of interplay, or tiny variations in breathing.”

The group Razen exists since 2010 and has since released numerous records on labels such as KRAAK, Marionette and Hands In The Dark. "Rain Without Rain" is their debut on the Düsseldorf label TAL. If there has been an increased international interest in experimental music from Belgium in recent years, this is not least due to musician collectives such as Razen. In terms of its electro-folkloristic intensity and instrumentation, Razen's music is quite unique worldwide. What does Razen actually mean? “We took the word from a poem by Paul Van Ostaijen, not specifically because of its meaning but because of the way it looked on paper”, Ameel explains. “But the meaning goes in the direction of ‘thundering / raging / speeding’ … although we prefer playing with a strong notion of restraint, building our world from (and with) silence.”

Olaf Karnik, Köln 2024

The mighty U Roy is the originator, the man who put the DJ phenomenon on the map and made it an artform. From Kingston Jamaica to the corners of all the Dancefloors, Clubs and Sound Systems across the world. U Roy (B. Ewart Beckford, 1942, Kingston, Jamaica) began his musical career spinning records for Doctor Dickies Sound System way back in 1961. The mid sixties saw him working for Sir George The Atomic before moving in 1967 to the man who best shaped his sound King Tubby on his Home Town HI - FI. Tubbys work in the dub field, dropping out vocals on his versions for the Sound Systems allowed U Roy to voice over these spaces adding to the excitment of the Dance!!!

U Roy moved into the recording arena firstly cutting two disc's for Producer Lee Perry 'Earths Rightful Ruler' and 'OK Corral' and then following this with 'Dynamic Fashion Way' and 'Riot' for Producer Keith Hudson. Producer Duke Reid seeing the protential in this new found form brought U Roy to his Treasure Isle Studios to voice over his back catalogue of Rocksteady Hits. His first three releases for Duke Reid 'Wake The Town', 'Rule The Nation' and 'Wear You To The Ball' held the Top 3 positions for 12 weeks in early 1970's.

We have compiled some of U Roy's best loved cuts from his mid 70's period when all were still looking at him for guidence.  The opening cut Call On Me sees him working over Delroy Wilson's 'Got To Be There'.  You Never Get Away gets U Roy answering Delroy Wison's 'Keep On Rocking'. Johnny Clarke's 'Time Gonna Tell' with rootsy bassline turns into Every Knee Shall Bow. Cornell Campbell the Gorgon himself gets his 'Check Mr Morgon' turned into Gorgon Wise. Johnny Clarke's Hold On gets reworked. Jeff Barnes 'Blowing In The Wind' tuned into Number 1 and alongside King of The Road which sees Lennox Brown blow his saxophone over the instrumental 'In The Swing of Things', was one of U Roys first releases. Linval Thompson's 'Let Jah Arise' is versioned to Joyful Locks. I Originate which lends us to the title of this compilation, says it as it is, a classic built over Dave Barker's 'Shocks of Mighty'. Linval Thompson again provides the backbone with his Cool Down Your Temper cut for U Roys version. The mighty Burning Spear's Creation Rebel although providing our next track, it is Johnny Clarke's version that gets worked over. Leo Graham's 'Birds of A Feather' turns into Stick Together. Soul Syndicates instrumental 'Goliath' grows into Riot. A big hit for Max Romeo Wet Dream sounds great under U Roy's new rendition.

Two extra tracks for the CD release of this album sees the great voice of Slim Smith on his 'Let's Stick Together' becomes ‘Ain’t To Proud To Beg’ and Cornell Campbell's 'Stand Firm' works with
U Roy to sign us off with ‘I Shall Not Remove’.  A fine collection i hope you agree to the Daddy of all DJ's who in his own words ''I Originate, so you must appreciate, while the others got to imitate'' says it all really……

The agony of hard bop, the rise of jazz-rock, and the emergence of free jazz. The definitive live recording that captures the chaos and climax of jazz in Japan.

Japan's jazz scene around 1970 is very interesting. The agony of hard bop, the rise of jazz-rock, and the emergence of free jazz. New music and values were born one after another, and chaos was reached, and up-and-coming musicians ran at a speed that shook off the meter. This album "Sensational Jazz '70 Vol. 1/2" is famous as a live sound source that contains this appearance and enthusiasm. Shibuya Public Hall on April 30, 1970. The Three Musketeers of Jazz Rock such as Jiro Inagaki, Takeshi Inomata, and Akira Ishikawa have all stepped on the stage, free jazz musicians such as Mototeru Takagi and Itaru Oki have finally taken the stage, and musicians who support the mainstream such as Toshiyuki Miyama and Terumasa Hino have stepped "beyond". Led by the sound limited "Mustache", which is said to be the deadliest jazz rock live recording, there are hot performances that make smoke rise.

text by Yusuke Ogawa (UNIVERSOUNDS / DEEP JAZZ REALITY)

Black Truffle is thrilled to present a Song for two Mothers / Occam IX the first ever solo release from Laetitia Sonami. Born in France in 1957, Sonami studied with Éliane Radigue in Paris before moving to California in 1978 to study electronic music at Mills College, going on to make important innovations in the field of live electronics interfaces and multi-media performance. Sonami is perhaps most closely associated with one of her inventions, the Lady’s Glove, an arm-length tailored glove fitted with movement sensors allowing the performer fluidly to control digital sound parameters and processing, as well as motors, lights and video playback. Having performed with the Lady’s Glove for 25 years, Sonami retired it in 2016, turning her attention to the interface/instrument heard and pictured here, the Spring Sprye.

In Sonami’s own description, “The Spring Spyre is composed of three thin springs that are attached to reverb tank pickups, mounted on a metal ring. The audio generated when the springs are touched, rubbed or struck is analyzed in Max/MSP. The extracted features are then used to train machine learning models in Wekinator and Rapidmax and control the audio synthesis in real time. We never actually hear the springs.” After decades of aversion to documenting her work on recordings, a Song for two Mothers / Occam IX treats listeners to two side-long performances with the Spring Spyre: the very first piece developed for the instrument and the most recent, the two contrasting remarkably in sound palette, energy and form. A Song for two Mothers (2023) spins an intricate web of rippling synthetic burbles, rapid sweeps and fizzing textures. Performed in real time with the sensitive and partly uncontrollable Spring Sprye ("a bit tyrannical," Sonami calls it), the music is delicate yet chaotic. Abrupt gestures hover against a backdrop of silence, "devoid of spatial or temporal direction". After several minutes, the sound-world becomes metallic and percussive, tapping and ticking in pointillistic flurries before a wavering harmonic cloud emerges, sprinkled with resonant drips and pops.


Occam IX is a radically different proposition. At the outset of Sonami’s exploration of the Spring Sprye, she asked her former teacher Éliane Radigue to compose a piece for it—and her: like all of Radigue’s work since she ceased working with analogue electronics at the beginning of the 21st century, Occam IX is written not only for an instrument but also for a particular performer. These scores are developed verbally, through meetings and conversations between performer and composer; each is grounded in an image (usually kept from listeners, to avoid influencing their experience); all magnify the subtlest acoustic phenomena and require great commitment and patience from the performer. Sonami’s is one of the few Occam pieces to make use of electronics, bringing it closer to Radigue’s famous longform pieces for ARP 2500. Beginning from a rumbling low tone, the listener is gradually immersed in slowly lapping waves of synthetic tones, eventually thinning out into delicate bell-like pings against a background of white noise, reminiscent of one of the most beautiful sections of Kyema from the Trilogie de la Morte.


Accompanied by notes from Sonami, her longtime collaborator Paul DeMarinis, and Radigue, and illustrated with scores, photographs and images of the Spring Spyre, a Song for two Mothers / Occam IX is an essential document celebrating an under-recognised pioneer of electronic music and performance.

Coming out on September 6th on Sharptone Records, Sundiver is Boston Manor’s fifth album and one that represents a glimmering dawn for the Blackpool five-piece. Grown from a seedbed of optimism and sobriety, the LP celebrates new beginnings, second chances and rebirth. With two members recently stepping into fatherhood, hope is baked into every note. “Datura came out of these really dark few years over the hangover of the pandemic,” Henry reflects. “I'd been struggling a lot with drinking and not taking care of myself and bad mental health and stuff. We wanted Sundiver to be the next morning of the following day.” He explains that it feels good this time round to write through the lens of positivity. “The themes began to emerge, of rebirth, spring, dawn, sunshine and then other elements just started to fit into that.” It was during the making of Sundiver that Henry found out he was going to be a dad. This album is a significant one for the band. Originally coming out of the emo and pop punk scene, they’ve explored sonics and genres throughout their career, taken risks and achieved more than they could ever had dreamed of. They’ve grown up as Boston Manor – their lives and the world changing around them. They’re now taking stock, at a crossroads of the band they were and the band they could be.
While writing the album, they revisited the bands that shaped them in the late 90s and early 00s. “I was listening to the music I loved when I was a teenager and I just thought, why don't we make music like our favourite bands?”, guitarist Mike Cuniff remembers with a smile. “So we brought our interests to the table that way. Y2K kind of vibe. There are elements of Deftones, there are elements of Portishead in there, some Garbage, The Cardigans.” He laughs and adds NSYNC to the list of inspirations. From this cocktail of classics comes a dynamic and ambitious record, rich with depth, groove and more hooks than Peter Pan’s nightmares. Lyrics that foxtrot from parallel universes to personal growth, vivid dreamscapes to raw grief. Individually they’re single strokes full of meaning and magic. Together they’re a landscape.
Container (out Feb 15th) is the first single and it’s them at their best – impassioned and infectious. “This song is about the stagnancy of life creeping up on you & how that can bring about change.,” Henry explains, citing Ocean Song by US band Daughters as an inspiration.

The concept of the butterfly effect is present on Sundiver – how small actions can lead to big changes. This is no clearer than on their second single, Sliding Doors (out April 5th). It has the golden sound of late 90s Lollapalooza rock – think Smashing Pumpkins - rebooted with crisp 2024 production and a potent heaviness. In the lyrics Henry wonders, what if?, pondering on what could be. The idea that there are infinite versions of you whose lives splinter off in different directions at every decision you make. That there’s another you out there somewhere right now reading this sentence, and another me writing it. “So much is down to chance and circumstance,” Henry says. “You might catch that train and your life totally changes. Or you might miss it and things stay the way they are.”
Heat Me Up (out May 30th) is defiant and victorious, the audio equivalent of quitting your shit job and driving into the hot summer sun with a head full of dreams. “The lyrics are about love and gratitude,” Henry shares. “Another theme on the record is just appreciating what you have. It’s about not taking for granted the things that you've been afforded.”
There was some natural magic in the creation of Sundiver. They worked with their usual producer, Larry Hibbitt, and engineer, Alex O’Donovan, but instead of recording in London again they ended up in the green pastures of Welwyn Garden City. “Because Larry lives out in the countryside now, it was a way different environment and way different experience recording this time,” Mike remembers. “That contributed a lot to the brighter sound of the record.” The daily barbecues they had during their recording sessions imbued the process with harmony – five old friends spending quality time together and making quality music.
However, the album is by no means one-note. Birthing this new world they’ve created wasn’t without it’s pain, and that can be heard in the heavier moments on Sundiver. What Is Taken Will Never Be Lost is the most-stripped back on the album, a slow rock number seasoned with the downtempo Portishead influence. The heartfelt lyrics are Henry’s way of processing the loss of his grandfather, who died in a hospice last year(?). “It was just fucking horrible. It was always cold when I went there and they were always trying to get rid of me. The song title, What Was Taken Can Ever Be Lost, is the idea of his memory fading at the time because of dementia.” Henry goes onto explain that shoeboxes of photographs, diaries and a legacy is what he’s left behind. “He lived a really rich life and it has really impacted me and my father. His legacy is etched into the fabric of history in a very small way.” This song continues the connection between his grandfather and the band, as his painted face is emblazoned on the cover of the very first Boston Manor EP, Driftwood. As well as emotionally heavy themes, there’s heaviness in the music of Sundiver too. The closing song, Oil In My Blood, descends into an intense shoegaze outro with Debbie Gough from Heriot screaming hellfire. It’s in moments like this that the band show us aggression and fury can be as much a part of positive change as quiet introspection. The last lyrics of the song, “It resets and starts again,” leaves us in contemplation as the final chord rings out.
Touring the US, Europe and Japan over the years makes for an impressive CV, but if you know anything about Boston Manor you’ll know that they’re all about their hometown. Their choice to work with Blackpool-based photographer Nick Barkworth is testament to that. They’ve been working with him since the pandemic. “He captures Blackpool in a light that really reflects the weirdness and quirkiness of the town,” Henry says.” He's got a really good way of presenting that.” For the Sundiver cover, Nick photographed a 30ft tall abstract glass sculpture made by the local artist John Ditchfield. A striking and bewitching monolith that’s familiar to them but unusual to most people. “It has such kind of a gravity and power to it,” Henry describes the sculpture which stands in a field just outside of the seaside town. “It reminds me of either an explosion or a star or a supernova. To me it represents new life, power and radiance.” Boston Manor have got a knack for that - connecting the otherworldly and the everyday, the stars and the streets.
They’re a band known for using their music to make bigger statements about society. This time round they’re harnessing the uplifting power of music, and the communion it creates, as an antidote to the daily doom and isolation. “It seems like absolute chaos out there at the moment,” Henry says. “You’ve got Gaza and Israel, you've got Russia, you've got the fact that 40% of the world is going to have an election this year and increasingly most governments are leaning very far to the Right. The internet is dividing everybody, people are getting poorer and more desperate. It's really, really scary.” They considered trying to tackle the weight of it all in their music. “We could’ve written Welcome to the Neighbourhood on steroids, where it's just absolute darkness and misery”. He’s referring to their 2018 concept album that deals with class, inequality and the bleaker side of Blackpool. “But I think it's really important to write something that people can be immersed in and find some sort of solace in. Somewhere they can escape to from the modern day pressures and everything that’s going on. We’re all in this together.”

A new release on this label and this time its one of DJ Recharge……..

MOVIE MOVIE takes the listener on a cinematic journey in their songs. They combine elements of power pop, '60s, '70s, and '80s garage, classic, alternative, and glam rock, but they have a sound all their own, with afocus on strong hooks and melodic vocals.

MOVIE MOVIE was formed in NYC in early 2022 by Derek Davidson (formerly of THE ELECTRIC MESS), and includes former members of other popular NYC and internationally known bands, including Andrea Sicco (TWIN GUNS) and Frank Caira (THE ABOVE), with Alan J. Camlet (also from THE ELECTRIC MESS). They recorded their debut 6 track EP "Now Playing" (Ghost Highway/KOTJ), over the summer of 2022, with the addition of Dave Amels (REIGNING SOUND) on keyboards.

They quickly followed it up with a full 10 track LP, "Storyboards" (Topsy-Turvy), completing it in early 2023, and they toured Spain later that year to well-received shows and receptive audiences. Around that time they went back into the studio and recorded the 10 tracks that would become their second full LP, "In 4-D!" (Topsy-Turvy), for release in late 2024. Again, they emphasize their cinematic flashback approach in the sequencing, with a wide range of styles along the way, beginning with '60s garage, through pop psychedelia, glam, New Wave, post-punk, and even veering into stadium rock territory (in the best sense) by the end, all filled with ear worms and indelible vocal arrangements and harmonies.

The legendary UK Thrash Band Solitary mark three decades of metal, with the release of a brand new album " Embrace The Darkness" which is the fifth of their thirty year career - and not only is it their heaviest, hardest, most confrontational release to date, it's undoubtedly their best yet, following on from the highly acclaimed "The Truth Behind The Lies" (Metalville Records 2020).

The UK's resolute and relentless kings of thrash, Solitary, have tapped into the thick, black blood that pulses sluggishly through the fat and filth congested veins of society. It is fact that we live in dark times; alongside war, pandemics, grief and horror. These are the days of division, where we turn against each other in politically driven hatred and against ourselves, choking on a social media diet of self-loathing and isolation.

Through our ever-glowing screens we watch the crumbling of virtue and the slow, agonised death of decency and honour. Solitary have stared into the alleyways, the cellars and the broken minds of our youth and forged their most unflinching album yet. This is their hymn to a dying world, their soundtrack to the end of days it's time to "Embrace The Darkness"

WOOF. - das Debütalbum des aufregendsten Live-Acts, den es derzeit aus UK gibt!

WOOF. ist der Soundtrack für das Ende von allem, die genreübergreifende Zerstörung von allem, was wir kennen oder zu kennen glauben. Neben dem frenetischen Klezmer-inspirierten Geplapper der Debütsingle "King of the Slugs" und der industriellen Agitation der zweiten Single "All the Same" gibt es die rasende Trance von "Running", den abgehackten Abstieg in Dantes Inferno von "Closer to God" und den jubelnden Stakkato-Kirchenchor von "I Am The King". Umrahmt von Monologen des Schauspielers Neil Bell (Dune, Dead Man's Shoes, Coronation Street) ist WOOF. die musikalische Begleitung zur Abrechnung mit der Menschheit.

WOOF. - das Debütalbum des aufregendsten Live-Acts, den es derzeit aus UK gibt!

WOOF. ist der Soundtrack für das Ende von allem, die genreübergreifende Zerstörung von allem, was wir kennen oder zu kennen glauben. Neben dem frenetischen Klezmer-inspirierten Geplapper der Debütsingle "King of the Slugs" und der industriellen Agitation der zweiten Single "All the Same" gibt es die rasende Trance von "Running", den abgehackten Abstieg in Dantes Inferno von "Closer to God" und den jubelnden Stakkato-Kirchenchor von "I Am The King". Umrahmt von Monologen des Schauspielers Neil Bell (Dune, Dead Man's Shoes, Coronation Street) ist WOOF. die musikalische Begleitung zur Abrechnung mit der Menschheit.

Beloved Spanish indie rockers Hinds are back with their utterly triumphant fourth album, VIVA HINDS. Written by the band’s co-founders, co-vocalists, co-guitarists and co-songwriters Carlotta Cosials and Ana Perrote, it features their first-ever fully Spanish language songs, as well as first collaborations with the likes of Beck and Fontaines D.C.’s Grian Chatten. Recorded in rural France, the album was produced by Pete Robertson (Beabadoobee), engineered by the GRAMMY-nominated Tom Roach, and mixed by GRAMMY-winning engineer Caesar Edmunds (The Killers, Wet Leg).

Shortly after the band made their debut ten years ago, they hit what felt like an insurmountable obstacle – they had to change their name from Deers to Hinds for legal reasons. But, as their fans began to greet them at shows by cheering “¡VIVA HINDS!”, the band soon realized that what initially felt like an ending was actually just the beginning. Fast forward to 2023, and VIVA HINDS was written by Cosials and Perrote after a series of endings. They hit a creative rut after releasing their 2020 album The Prettiest Curse, and their bassist and drummer devastatingly decided to leave the band. They also split with their management team, lost touring revenue due to lockdowns, and were without a label for the first time. But when Perrote and Cosials got together to write again it became clear that their connection, one so special that they call themselves “millionaires in friendship,” would be all they needed to get them through. VIVA HINDS – the most accomplished, sonically adventurous, honest and celebratory record of Hinds’ career – is only the beginning.

PRESS/ONLINE: “The track, though signaling a new era for Hinds, arrives rapturous and catchy, as Perrote and Cosials trade verses and riffs. ...'Coffee' is a sweeping first chapter of where the duo aims to
“‘Coffee’ is a a gorgeous punk-indie cross contamination, instantly memorable, grungy” - Wonderland


“They bring the energy of a thousand rock bands, entrancing the crowd with their searing indie riffs, the constant interlocking of guitars and smiles, and deeply charming banter” - Rolling Stone

“The Prettiest Curse is an evolution. It is striking, complex, uncompromising indie-pop. More than that, it makes a bold statement: it canonises Spanish indie-rock” – Loud and Quiet 9/10
“They’ve taken their sound and unashamedly experimented with it. They’re all the better for it” – NME 4/5

“The Spanish group’s second album displays the superior songcraft of the band, as vocalists Ana Perrote and Carlotta Cosials wade through love’s messy feelings with confidence and exuberance” - Pitchfork

Limited

Unsere Resident Evil Vinyl-Serie wird mit dem actiongeladenen Remake von Resident Evil 3 fortgesetzt, in dem Jill Valentine in HD von der furchterregenden Nemesis gejagt wird.
24 Tracks wurden speziell für Vinyl gemastert und auf traditionelle schwarze Heavyweight-Platten gepresst. Diese befinden sich in einer Deluxe-Gatefold-Hülle mit einem Cover-Artwork von Capcom. Unter der Leitung des langjährigen Resident Evil-Mitarbeiters Masami Ueda gehören Kota Suzuki, Takayasu Sodeoka, Azusa Kato, Ryo Koike, Takumi Saito und Saori Maeda zum Kompositionsteam des Spiels. Der Score schwelgt in der unheimlichen, atmosphärischen Spannung, die nur Resident Evil-Titel erzeugen können. Dazu kommen pulsierende Actionszenen, die das Herz höher schlagen lassen, und einige nostalgische Themen aus dem Jahr 1999.

A new album by Medway's premier alt-folk outfit The Singing Loins! Yes indeed. We caught up with Rob Shepherd to find out more about their brilliant new LP Twelve_ Q: "The new album is called Twelve. Could you settle an office debate - is it your 12th album or have you called it that because it has twelve songs on it? (We thought Here On Earth was your 12th but not according to Discogs. Also, our ability to count accurately has diminished over the years!)" A: "A bit of both. Course, there's the 12 songs, but then, depending on how you count, it's also our 12th album (from 91-98, there's the 1st 4 LPs that Damaged Goods collected together on The Complete & Utter - that's a comp though, so we can't count that eh - then there's At The Bridge with Billy, so that's 5_..we can skip Alive In Dunkerque as well cos it's a live album....then there was 2004-13 where we made four more with you, then in 2019 we got back together and made 13 Moon Songs From Merry Hell, released on the Vacilando 68 label...so that's 10_and then we did another record with Billy, The Fighting Temeraire_ so yeah, that makes this one number 12)." Q: "The album has features newly recorded versions of several Loins classics. Was it a difficult decision deciding which back catalogue songs to record?" A: "No, pretty easy - it's basically the 12 songs we enjoy playing the most with the current lineup. Saying that, it's been a bit of a meandering road getting to this point. Since Brod passed away, Arf & me have done few nights of Loins songs - and it's felt good - celebrating the songs we all wrote together - so that started the selection process. Oli, Arf's lad, joined us on percussion and then Rich, who Billy had introduced to us, joined on violin - then Chris came along to play the drums, so Oli switched to guitar - and through all that we were refining the set of songs, and we got a point where we felt that, yeah, we've sort of worked out how to do this (you know, respecting and celebrating our past, without coming on like a tribute band to ourselves), so it made sense to make the album - just to reflect where we'd arrived at....so we went into Jim's Ranscombe Studios and bashed them all out live in a couple of hours....no overdubs, no fussing over mistakes....just sing and play the songs as if it was a gig." Q: "It's been 33 years since the debut Loins' LP - How does it feel to be the elder statemen of Kent's alt-folk scene?" A: "Ha ha, are we? We don't know any other folk bands, alt or not, so it doesn't feel as though we're qualified to be the statesmen of anything! Elder, certainly, but statesmen? Nope." Q: "There's been plenty of gigs recently with more to come around the album's release, including some European dates. For people who've not seen you before what can they expect from a Loins gig?" A: "Yeah, as I said, now that we've worked out how to do this, and as we're having so much fun with it, we thought we'd get out & about. We're off to Serbia immediately after the album's release, so that'll be an adventure - Serbia was always special for us (Aleks, the promotor, took us out there to play seven or eight times in all) and we've stayed in touch over the years, so it'll be lovely to see everyone out there again. As for what can anyone expect when they see us? "Riotous fun filled joy" I've just been told, but best let everyone else be the judge of that!" Q: "The Singing Loins wouldn't have existed of course if it wasn't for Chris Broderick. Chris sadly passed in 2022. What would he have thought about the fact you're carrying on with the band and recording new music?" A: "Yeah_ he'd be happy. In the week before he passed away, he asked Arf & me over, basically to say goodbye and tie up any loose ends. And he told Arf that we should carry the Loins on. So yeah, I think he'd be pleased and proud that we're keeping the songs, and his words, alive."

Admittedly, I'm not a great salesperson when it comes to running our little label. I do my best not to give into hyperbole or build something up too intensely if someone has not heard a new artist yet. I prefer to simply present the music and let the listener decide how they feel about it. However, we live in an age when the "story" put together by publicists, labels, and managers are often the driving force of an artist's ascension into the zeitgeist. And for me, that's always felt rather artificial, even when the narrative is genuine. But every once in a while, a project comes along that takes on a life of its own. And I can say without a doubt that the growth of Pale Jay's reach since we first started working with him has little to do with conjured narratives or clever marketing, but more to do with how the music makes the listener feel. It's that simple. In fact, Jay is so enigmatic and without a narrative that the mere absence of a story has become the story. Who is he? Where is he from? What's next? Some questions are better left unanswered in my opinion, my friend. Including the question, "Why does this music make me feel so much?" You're better off just sitting back, disconnecting, and letting Low End Love Songs by Pale Jay wrap you up. Enjoy and spread the good word. - Terry Cole

"Low End Love Songs", more so than previous releases, is a diary in form of song. I knew I just had to wait for the songs to be ready to be picked, like ripe fruit from a tree. Each tune encapsulates a distinct moment in my life, with music serving as my means of processing complex and sometimes conflicting emotions. In this album, I depart from loop-based song structures towards more intricate and lush compositions. Latin influences permeate the music, adding new layers of rhythms and textures to my soul-music roots. - Pale Jay

Mutant, in partnership with WaterTower Music, are proud to present the premiere physical media release of Tom Holkenborg’s explosive score to George Miller’s latest wasteland epic FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA. Tom Holkenborg’s collaborations with the legendary George Miller Mad Max: Fury Road, Three Thousand Years of Longing have produced some of the most unique and powerful film music of the last decade. With FURIOSA, he takes the sonic landscape he created with the last film and shifts into higher gear. The loudest revving-engine of a score you’ve ever heard, absolutely pulsating with ferocity and white-knuckle tension.

"My collaboration with the incredible George Miller began over a decade ago with our work on Mad Max: Fury Road, a project that marked a pivotal moment in my career as a film composer." says Holkenborg. "Returning to this world to score the odyssey of Furiosa, an epic tale of survival, resilience and revenge has been just as eye-opening and gratifying. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is a testament to the vision of a singular film maker, whose pursuit of excellence always inspires me to push my creative limits."

Pressed on 2x 140 gram eco vinyl, with liner notes by composer Tom Holkenborg and housed in a tri-fold sleeve designed by Mutant co-founder Mo Shafeek.

Thandii (aka Jessica Berry, Graham Godfrey) first made waves with their debut album A Beat To Make It Better in 2023. The album gained somewhat cult critical acclaim long after its release, with listeners luxuriating in the unusual sound collaged from offcuts of Soul, Lo-fi Hiphop & Psych. Thandii’s world comes bolstered by collaborations with esteemed artists such as Michael Kiwanuka, Inflo, SAULT, Joy Crookes, Jordan Rakei, and Little Simz. The duo’s sophomore offering comes in the form of two companion albums Dream With You & Come As You. The two albums make up a single conceptual statement celebrating dissonance, contradiction, polarity and opposition.

The pair believe that binary thinking has a lot to answer for in today’s world and is often used to divide us as a people. ‘We wanted to explore what it felt like to hold disparate notions in both hands whilst making the music. Starting with the title tracks, we explored the idea of unashamedly being your authentic self in every moment - this is admirable for those that can live their life in an uncompromising way. In contrast to that idea, we explored those moments where we perhaps wished we were more than our reality - a dreamed up, imagined self’. It’s no surprise that duality is central to what Thandii is all about with the pair co-writing, co-recording & co-producing from their seaside studio HaloHalo in Margate, Kent.

The albums each have a distinct flavour of their own. Dream With You is built on cassette-tape-driven lofi beats, art-pop melodies and soulful piano breaks. Whilst Come As You explores more experimental song-form that wouldn’t seem out of place on Tender Buttons - Broadcast or Dots And Loops - Stereolab. Jessica’s voice is the transcendent, ethereal form that shapeshifts between the realms of the two statements; dancing playfully through falsetto harmonies, confessional spoken word, detuned alter egos and haunting choirs. Key collaborators on the albums include bass player Jonathan Harvey and pianist Steve Pringle, both members of Margate’s burgeoning Arts scene. Thandii escaped London nearly a decade ago, their sights set on creating a means for prolific expression, without the distractions that the city can bring. The albums find them in an exploratory stage, throwing paint at the canvas with joyful abandon, gifting themselves permission for uncensored expression. The LPs muse on relationships - romantic, platonic & familial - community, self-worth, self love, healing and boundaries, at times from differing perspectives. This contrast of opinion makes for rich listening throughout a vast emotional landscape

Aki is an emerging jazz collective led by drummer Anke Verslype. The core of the group consists of guitarist Willem Heylen, bassist Ruben De Maesschalck and harpist Marjolein Vernimmen. They perform atmospheric jazz with at its base uncomplicated, restrained melodies whose boundaries are pushed during improvisations.

With two previous EPs, "Warm Days" and "Niobe," aki has already impressed. In the fall of 2022, they surprised their audience with the debut of their first full-length album,

titled "Nader," released under W.E.R.F. records. This album featured an exciting collaboration with Joachim Badenhorst on clarinet, who added a new dimension to their sound.

For theirlatest album and upcoming tour, aki once again joins forces with Joachim Badenhorst and asked Niels Van Heertum (euphonium) as a guest. This expansion enriches the color palette of their music and brings out a new depth. Together they create a unique sound that takes listeners on a journey of warmth and melancholy, somewhere between cinematic landscapes, jazz and minimalism.

On August 16, Toronto-based musician and producer David Psutka aka ACT! (fka Egyptrixx / Anamai / Ceramic TL) will release his latest project ‘Face to Face, Day by Day’ for his own Halocline Trance imprint.

This is is Psutka’s third 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.

“Aesthetic accidents in the periphery of the ‘work’ can be the message. In 2018, at an Egyptrixx concert at Bagni Misteriosi de Teatro Franco Parenti - a gorgeous, sprawling outdoor pool theatre in Milan - I had a clarifying moment. Gigs around then had mostly been in pummelling, dark music venues, so I wasn't prepared for this expansive space (and the thoughtful work of the organisers who had layered sheets of plastic film on the pool to parallel eco-materialist themes from a previous album). It was the midday soundcheck that struck me most - brittle digital sounds from the set echoed off the colonial Milanese facades and ricocheted down the Via Carlo Botta, pinging off buildings in the distance and clashing with the noise of traffic, tourists and whatever else. It was a strange, collisionist moment, and a reminder that my essential approach to music is, above all, a preoccupation with the materiality of sound. 

Everything on Face to Face, Day by Day began as an improvisation. Openness to accidents and the emotional complexity that comes from centering them in composition has become important to my work, and helps the music go beyond the possibility of what is playable, imaginable. I also wanted to channel adventurous solo pop records of the 1970’s and 80’s, like Yasuaki Shimizu, Jon + Vangelis and Stevie Wonder. These came from an interesting era in commercial music as studio production techniques became increasingly formalised as compositional devices, like AMS RMX16 percussion sounds and early digital stereo effects. 

Like many musicians, I’ve been travelling and performing less since the pandemic and as a result, have wanted studio sessions to feel more collaborative and improvisational. There were great writing and recording sessions for this album. Vox, synth, sax and guitar jams - much of what ended up on the record isn’t edited much, if at all. I jammed a sm57 into Colin Fisher’s sax bell and created feedback loops using various preamps and distortion units. The clunky sounds were sampled and used as percussion elements. I also had a great synth jam session with Jeremy Greenspan at Barton Building Studio in Hamilton, which was recorded by filmmaker Liz Adler. 

I’ve had a few months to sit with this album and see clear throughlines connecting it to previous projects. There are aspects of the experiential and structuralist sound design ideas from the EGYPTRIXX records; and also some arrangement tricks borrowed from ANAMAI - specifically, the use of interruptionist sound events. Perhaps most of all, it feels connected to the Ceramic TL + Ipek Gorgun record ‘Perfect Lung’ and its splattered take on musical complexity. “ (David Psutka)

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 Ben Gunning, 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.

Nach der zurückgenommenen, intimen Atmosphäre des Vorgängers Darling Arythmetic (2015), auf dem sich die zeitlosen Singles 'Courage' und 'Everythung I Am Is Yours' befanden, verfolgt das neue Album ein vielschichtigeres, facettenreicheres Konzept, wie man es schon von Conor O’Briens Debütalbum 'Becoming A Jackal' (2010) und dessen Nachfolger 'Awayland' (2013) kennt. 'The Art Of Pretending To Swim' wurde ursprünglich im September 2018 releast.

- Format: Purple Vinyl inkl. Downloadkarte