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"WARKINGS Warriors beware, the mighty warriors are back with an unexpected ally – none other than the legendary Sorceress Morgana le Fay! The sister of Arthur and mistress of the lost souls has joined the four kings on the fourth chapter of the WARKINGS saga, Morgana, to be unleashed on November 11, 2022 via Napalm Records! Forging their musical steel in the tradition of Powerwolf, Sabaton, HammerFall and Running Wild, the WARKINGS burst onto the battlefields in 2018. They gathered their Warriors around the world and entered the Official German Album Charts 2021 at #13 with Revolution. Gathered in the golden halls of Valhalla, the four ancient kings – a roman Tribune, a wild Viking, a noble Crusader and a martial Spartan – are now back with Morgana, having already escaped from the underworld, fought the Monarchs of the dusk and called for Revolution. Back in the realms of the dead, they were captivated by the eerie and extraordinary chanting voice of “evil” sorceress Morgana La Fey. Obsessed with the idea of telling humanity her own version of her story, the witch inspired the WARKINGS to include Morgana in their circle as they fought their next battles – a covenant made for eternity! In their trademark manner, the WARKINGS – armed with weapons made of pure Heavy Metal – tell their stories in songs forged of pure steel. Morgana's haunting voice rises to tell her story in four acts: The first chapter ""Hellfire"", tells of her love-hate relationship with King Arthur, ""Monsters"" of the dark side in each of us, and ""Heart of Rage"" of her desire to grant forgiveness to all who have hurt her, before revealing in ""Immortal"" how she and Arthur's immortal souls are reborn again and again. In the last two chapters of the battle, Arthur himself speaks out and implores Morgana not to give up, before he himself narrates the Arthurian saga in the crowning finale! Of course, the WARKINGS themselves raise their voices to tell their stories – recounting their battles with Hereward the Wake, the naval battle of Salamis and a man unjustly enslaved. As a special gift, the WARKINGS offer “To The King” – a hymn in honor of the most loyal of the faithful WARKINGS Warriors, who stand side by side with the mighty kings in all battles! Raise your swords and join the next fight in the WARKINGS saga with Morgana!"

REISSUE

Spanky Wilson has a famously powerful voice but that is matched by just as potent a horn section, with some added staccato guitar chords and a super groovy rhythm section here on this much warranted reissue. She is a conduit for "The Funk' here with a mega fine vocal performance time after time on this well curated selection of classic covers. The likes of The Doors' 'Light my Fire', Cream's 'Sunshine of your Love' and 'Loveland' are all included and stand right out. Each one shows a different but equally essential side to the voice of Spanky Wilson. All tunes have been newly remastered for this release by P-Vine.

Twisted and irreverent, The Rabbits combined ear-splitting guitar shrapnel with one of punk’s greatest-ever snot-nosed vocalists. With hints of PIL or Chrome, but beamed in from a parallel dimension and filtered through the warped lens of visionary loner Syoichi Miyazawa. First-ever vinyl release, fully remastered from the band’s original early ’80s cassette releases, and housed in a sturdy tip-on sleeve. Includes a double-sided, printed insert. Edition of 500

Singer-songwriter Syoichi Miyazawa’s tale is a confounding one.

He grew up in a small town in Yamagata Prefecture (in northern Japan), loved Dylan and The Beatles, and had very little exposure to, or interest in, underground music. And yet, shortly after 24-year-old Miyazawa arrived in Tokyo in 1978, he began performing solo shows at tiny clubs in the city, singing and playing guitar. His performances quicky devolved from brisk acoustic jaunts to lengthy, heavy dirges sung in a snot-nosed wail over a blown-out electric guitar detuned to produce a kind of sonic sludge.

At one of his earliest gigs, a mutual friend introduced him to Endo Michiro, who would soon become the legendary front man of Japanese punk icons The Stalin. It turned out Miyazawa and Endo had attended Yamagata University at the same time just a few years earlier, but hadn’t known each other at school. In Tokyo, they became fast friends, moved into the same apartment building, and for years were inseparable. Endo played guitar and drums on Miyazawa’s debut release, the “Christ Was Born in a Stable” flexi disc. But while Endo was social and outgoing, Miyazawa preferred to be alone, avoiding concerts unless he was performing.

Despite these antisocial tendencies, Miyazawa came to despise playing solo. In 1982, an eccentric high school student named Chika introduced herself at one of Miyazawa’s gigs, and Miyazawa asked if she’d play bass. She agreed and drafted two of her friends to play second guitar and drums. The Rabbits were born.

Miyazawa wrote the tunes, and had a clear vision for the group, but struggled to get the sound he wanted from the other members. His second guitarist was more of a fusion player, and Miyazawa took great pains to get him to tone down the shredding. The group quickly went through multiple line-up changes. Frustrated with the sound of their first proper recording (self-released as the “X1(x)” cassette), Miyazawa spent a full year mixing their second cassette, “Winter Songs,” on his own.

The hard work paid off — the sound of “Winter Songs” is striking, and unlike anything the band’s peers produced. There’s liberal use of delay on the vocals, giving the music a psychedelic feel, but the guitars are caustic, cutting through the mix like metal shrapnel. The rhythm section seems on the verge of teetering out of control throughout, an overdriven and pummeling current below abrasive slabs of guitar and vocals. Even at their most aggressive, though, The Rabbits had strong pop sensibilities, complete with cooing backing vocals and the occasional harmonica solo. Miyazawa delivers his borderline nonsensical lyrics with equal amounts of menace and gaiety, consistently riding that fine line as only a natural oddball can. At times, the band sounds like a distant cousin of PiL, Chrome or The Homosexuals, but beamed in from a parallel dimension and filtered through Miyazawa’s warped lens.

Although The Rabbits briskly sold all 500 copies of the "Winter Songs" tape, live audiences at the time seemed dumbfounded by the group, and would stare at them in silence. After two years together, The Rabbits called it quits in 1984.

When asked if any of the many legendary groups (Les Rallizes Desnudes, G.I.S.M., etc.) he shared stages with left an impression, Miyazawa recently revealed that he always left the venue as soon as he finished performing, so he never caught any of the other bands…

All of which is to say —

The Rabbits are one of the great punk bands of the early ’80s, but their leader had no interest in the punk scene and always thought he was making “normal” music. They rubbed shoulders with a slew of notable groups of the era, and their singer was best friends with arguably the most famous Japanese punk of all time, but Miyazawa shunned fraternization and purposefully distanced himself from his peers.

Could this be why so few underground music fans are familiar with the group, even in Japan? Why they seem to have been written out of the official history of Japanese punk? One can never know for sure, but Mesh-Key hopes to remedy this travesty by offering this compilation, the first-ever official LP by The Rabbits, to a new generation of punk and psychedelic music connoisseurs.
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What is this?

This delight of flicker and bent landing so delicately upon the ear?

It’s “peeled”, JJ+JS’ first outing on Daisart. It’s their second album, following their 2020 debut release as a duo, “1”, which saw JJ – John Jones (AV Moves, Geo Rip, among others) – and JS – Jesse Sappell (of Motion Ward) – flex their collaborative energies across an album of deep, textured meanderings in rhythm and sound on the perennial Lillerne Tapes. “peeled” sees the two pick up where they left off and veer into a ~ place ~ of sound, of sorts.

This place is likely familiar to those following the duo's output and goings-on, as one together and as themselves apart, but with a tweak to the framing of projects past, naturally. Where we find ourselves with “peeled” is reflective of the two’s interest in jamming without a specific destination in mind, a distillation of the two’s interests in a range of sounds and styles.

And though there is some arcane resemblance to all manner of ethereal music of the past, on this vaporous dream of a record, the haze shimmers somehow; the shake’s shudder is dissimilar.

There’s a pair of key interventions on this collection: one a wistful vocal guesting from Izella on the not-quite-folk mood ‘Lily Pad’, the other on ‘Syntropy’, where Daisart’s J pitches layers of texture and chord in polyrhythmic impression. Both bring something refined to the table on which JJ+JS work air into mirage, color into scene, folding the mundane into the magical.

For those of you versed in the catalogs of picnic, Motion Ward, West Mineral, and Experiences Ltd, a wander akin awaits on “peeled” – but this is not a much of a muchness likeness; more so a refreshing, important addition to the expanding catalog these two artists are crafting.

– Nico Callaghan

Toronto’s Dan Lee steps out of the spotlight and into the producer’s chair on the new collaborative Lee Paradise LP, Lee Paradise & Co., due October 28 2022 on Telephone Explosion. Lee Paradise & Co. follows 2020’s critically acclaimed The Fink LP, and finds Lee flipping the shadowy nihilism of the project’s previous releases upward into a sort of cybernetic universality. This is Dan Lee in producer mode, veering away from the pursuit of a singular musical direction rooted in personal vision, towards of a process rich in collaboration, emotional expansion and tonal exploration.

Starting off as a set of mood-focusedinstrumental sketches drafted by Dan on his own, the compositions began coloringthemselves in after he started sending the tracks out to collaborators, asking them to contribute without much in the way of direction or intention. With help from an ensemble cast of artists including Carlyn Bezic (Jane Inc.), Jonathan Pappo (Scott Hardware, No Frills, Ducks Ltd), Scott Hardware, Isla Craig, Victoria Cheong (New Chance), Jay Anderson, Charise Aragoza & Lukas Cheung (Mother Tongues) and Daniel Woodhead (Moon King), nearly every aspect of this album’s creation eventually became open to collaboration, from musical performances, lyric writing, and vocals all the way through to mixing and mastering.

Sonically, the record is still unmistakably Lee Paradise: a widescreen polyrhythmic psychedelia that melts, bubbles, whirrs and klanks; the sound of the human and the machine grooving in accordance towards new futures. The album’s sonic palette is at once synthetic, warm and extraterrestrial. Arpeggiated square wave melodies dance in lockstep with crunching hi-hats, digital bells and chimes fall like crystal rain in stereo above plush pads and gurgling bass figures. Used to finishing the records on his own, Lee mixed this album with Montreal’s Asher Gould-Murtagh and the results are spacious, dusty and dubbed out. “Carnival” sets the scene with it’s stuttering, busted funk groove and ribbons of aqueous vocal harmony from New Chance’s Victoria Cheong. “Raffles”(featuring one of Daniel’s two vocal performances on the record) radiates a mellow optimism in its solar-warped balearic bliss. The album’s final track, “Youngish” is a gliding, melancholic downtempo instrumental thumper saturated in a kaleidoscopic array of lysergic tones. As always, the record anchors itself to the dancefloor with the screwed-down electro of “Cement”, the swinging midnight afterglow of “Leaving” and “CS2X”’s fluttering rave arpeggios.

Lee Paradise & Co. is the sound of an expert producer and sound sculptor conceding to the elusive flows of inspiration, knocking genre conventions askew and hopscotching between a variety of styles, musical identities and sound worlds with absolute panache.

The East Coast of England is a land living on borrowed time. Time we borrowed from the North Sea, reclaimed a thousand years ago. But now it seems that sea has come to claim it all back. Michael C Coldwell spent three years travelling up and down this rapidly disappearing shoreline, collecting ghost stories, photographing the roads to nowhere, the monumental sound mirrors and pillboxes teetering on the edges of cliffs, making field recordings of the waves and fog signals, and writing mournful electronic music from static caravans. This hauntological project finally culminated in a short essay film entitled Views from Sunk Island - and this new Conflux Coldwell album. More than just a film score, The Phantomatic Coast stretches beyond the original aims of the documentary, to evoke something deeper about our troubled relationship with the sea – the many towns and ships lost beneath the waves, and ancient forgotten lands lying out beyond the windfarms like some Yorkshire Atlantis. Memory and mythology became obvious themes in the work, as did the ruins and remains of the world wars, now slipping beneath shifting sands forever. The Phantomatic Coast will be released via digital platforms and limited edition pressed vinyl in a deluxe gatefold sleeve.

Hate Propaganda's far too overlooked 2019 debut EP "World War 666" sees a much needed reissue on vinyl, remastered and enhanced by brand new artwork commissioned for the purpose by Xerox master P. Van Trigt. When it was first released on cassette tape back in 2019 by War Arts Productions, this war-torn debut offering of primeval warnoise by the mysterious Portuguese war criminals stood out immediately as a crown jewel debut for the genre and as one of the year's most definitive and underrated manifestations of extreme metal's most hateful and berserk fringe. Packing in nineteen minutes of absolute hatred, the annihilating MLP manifests as a nightmare hallucination of complete violence and negativity, evoking eons of perennial apocalyptic global planetary war and terror on the wings of its nefarious design of achieving maximum annihilation in the shortest amount of time possible. To harness this bleak pantheon of ruin, the Portuguese conquerors have assembled a weaponized and uncontrolled sonic chain reaction where grindcore, black metal, death metal and hardcore punk are all accelerated and instigated into an inescapable payload of death aimed straight at the vital sinews of humanity. A sonic maelstrom churned into shape by an onslaught of obscure violent riffs, psychotic leads and ominous laughter which, parallel to a pulverizing drum performance, emanates from oblivion with an antediluvian, negative aura. Comparisons to bands like Diocletian, Heresiarch, Tetragrammacide and Nuclearhammer will run abound, yet these would be only easy superficial conjectures as this is a manifestation of sonic extremism which dwells on a plain of excellence entirely its own. Its uniqueness transpires particularly in the maniacal drumming which underlines the band's hardcore and punk influences, and is exalted further by an unusually crystalline production and by a masterful onslaught of uber-audible riffs hiding behind nothing and seemingly going in the opposite direction of the homogenous and indiscernible sensorial smothering the genre usually opts to go in. Tracklisting: 1. World War 666 2. Neverending Mass Graves 3. Violent Nature of Human Annihilation 4. Welcoming the Nuclear War With Open Arms 5. Let the Sirens Signal the End of Times

The Mansion were initially a prison group formed by Charles Lorenzo Blakely in 1970 while serving time in the Green Bay Reformatory at Allouez, Wisconsin. The Mansion’s line up included at different times Michael Locke, Stanley Newburn, Carl Anderson, John Crawford, Michael Smith, Larry Moses, Ronald Hardin, Jerome Wagner, Larry Lister, Maurice Payne and Charles himself. One day while rehearsing in the prison chapel, the Mansion attracted the attention of the warden’s wife who happened to be showing some local dignitaries around. Impressed by what she heard the warden’s wife was instrumental in the Mansion being invited to perform for the city’s television station WBAY, where they recording two holiday programs. The warden later gave them permission to perform outside the prison which brought them to the attention of a Milwaukee neighbourhood program adviser by the name of Al Dunlap of the Commando Project One. It was through Dunlap that the Mansion recorded their solitary 45 release in 1974 “The Girl Next Door /Stop! Let Your Heart Be Your Guide” for a local Milwaukee label Gibbs (406). The label’s owner Bill Gibbs held the release back until some of the members of the Mansion were granted their release papers as at that time prisoners were unable to sign any contract agreements while still incarcerated. Although Charles Blakely remained incarcerated, he was later moved to a medium security prison in Fox Lake County, Wisconsin. While there he formed a gospel group, called the ‘Bell Tones’ who’s line up included Charles, Mayweather Lee, Joe Hayes, and Levell Rudd. The formation of this group was seen as major factor in Charles’s rehabilitation which led to his eventual parole in 1976. Once on the outside Charles with former ‘Bell Tone” member Mayweather Lee were joined by Charles (Sonny) Bryant and Jimmy Taylor to form a new ensemble by the name of The “Final Chapter”. As the final Chapter they recorded a solitary release for Marvel Love’s New World Label “Now I Know/Get Down For Your Action” (NW800) during 1980, a brief association that for several reasons was to eventually brake down. Although Jimmy Taylor left to pursue a career as a blues musician the remaining three members of the ‘Final Chapter’ continued to perform until they finally disbanded in 1987. Three previously unissued Final Chapter songs can be found on Soul Junction Various Artists CD compilation “We Got A Sweet Thing going On” Volume II. The Mansion’s Gibbs 45 is now is a highly prized and sort after item amongst Sweet and Group Soul collectors.

Exzellente Live-LP zum Jahrestag des letzten Nightmares On Wax-Studioalbums 'Shout Out! To Freedom...', aufgenommen mit vollständiger Band und dem New Yorker Vokalisten Haile Supreme im legendären Pikes auf Ibiza im Oktober 2021.

Nightmares on Wax spricht darüber, wie das Live-Album zustande kam: "Dieses Live-Album fängt wirklich die Momente ein, in denen wir aus dem Lockdown herauskamen und alle wieder zusammen sein und auftreten konnten, während wir die Möglichkeit hatten, all das auszudrücken, was wir bei der Entstehung des Albums fühlten. Wir spielten es live mit allen Musikern aus Ibiza, Haile Supreme kam aus New York City, nachdem wir lange Zeit keinen Kontakt zu ihm hatten, und wir konnten im legendären Pikes Ibiza auftreten. Es war unser erster Gig während der ganzen Pandemie und es war ein ganz besonderes Gefühl. Teil der Geschichte in diesen Mauern zu sein, ist etwas ganz Besonderes und liegt mir sehr am Herzen, denn Ibiza ist meine Heimat. Dieses Live-Album fängt diese Energie und Stimmung ein, ebenso wie all die wunderbaren Menschen, die ausgewählt wurden, um uns bei diesem Ereignis zu begleiten."

Mit einer Band bestehend aus George Evelyn alias DJ E.A.S.E, Haile Supreme, Michael Alcaras, Antonie Blakstad, Marlon Lopez, Omar Alcaide, Alessandro Doretto und Kwake Bass.

12 of the heaviest early tracks by the master of rebetika music. Markos Vamvakaris sings from the hash dens of the Greek ports of the 1930s - mournful, poetic, bitter music of love and long nights. Rebetika is the sound of Greece and Asia Minor clashing amid civil war, mass population exchange, and the anarchy of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Poetic, mournful, and bitter, rebetika music was born in the hash dens (tekes) of Mediterranean ports, its verses whispered in Greek prisons before spilling out to the greater population in the 1930s, propelled in no small part by a series of remarkable recordings by Markos Vamvakaris. Markos, as he’s known to this day, sang heady, drugged out songs of love, pain and yearning at brothels, bars and hash dens in the port of Piraeus. He arrived as a youth in 1917, working as a skinner in a tannery. By the time he picked up the bouzouki around 1924, he was fully taken by the life of the manges, the lowest rungs of the Greek social ladder. They lived by their own code and in total opposition to the rest of the population, and rebetika was their music. On these twelve early tracks, recorded in Athens between 1932 and 1936, Markos was already a master of the bouzouki. His forceful, clean playing compliments his hoarse voice and his stunning rhythmic sensibility, the result of his years as a champion zebekiko dancer. Tracks build and spiral outward, his open-note drones and melodic lines drawing calls of ecstasy and encouragement from his fellow musicians. Translations of songs like “Hash-Smoking Mortissa” and “In The Dark Last Night” provide a glimpse into the life and language of the manges - Ottoman cafe music, the calls of displaced Greeks of Smyrna, the chaos and suffering of port life, it all comes through Markos’ songs. These recordings, incredibly rare and expertly remastered, mark the height of rebetika, the brief period between the music’s emergence on the recording scene in the early 1930s and government censorship of all lyrics starting in 1936. During the Axis occupation there was no rebetika recording, and though Markos had some hits in the years after the war, he never again attained this level. These are the dizzying, entrancing, and heaviest works of one of the great artists of the 20th century. Pressed on 160gm vinyl, includes full size 8 page booklet with historical notes, rare photos, and lyric translations.

Als ein Drittel des New Yorker HipHop-Trios Flatbush Zombies arbeitete Meechy Darko bereits mit u.a.
James Blake, A$AP Rocky und Danny Brown zusammen. Mit ”Kill Us All” stellte er jetzt die erste
packende Videosingle aus seinem Debütalbum ”Gothic Luxury” vor, das am 26. August über Loma Vista
Recordings / Concord erschien.
Es ist die Komik der Tragik, die Meechy Darko zu seinem ersten Soloalbum geführt hat. Ausgehend von
dem entsetzlichen Tod seines Vaters, der im Januar 2020 von einem Polizisten in Miami niedergeschossen
wurde, ist sein Debütalbum kein Schritt aus der Komfortzone, sondern ein Stoß in die Realität: ”Ich hatte
keine andere Wahl, als es zum Persönlichsten zu machen, was ich je getan habe, denn glücklicherweise oder
unglücklicherweise befinde ich mich gerade in einer sehr aufrüttelnden Phase meines Lebens”, sagt der 32-
jährige Rapper über die Entstehung von ”Gothic Luxury” und die Bedeutung dessen als Momentaufnahme.
”Der, der ich gestern war, ist vielleicht schon nicht mehr der, der ich morgen bin. Ich bin nicht der,
der ich letzte Woche war. Man kann nicht sagen, wer ich nächstes oder übernächstes Jahr sein werde.”
Zusammen mit Dot Da Genius, dem langjährigen Partner von Kid Cudi und Produzenten für u.a. Jhené
Aiko, Lil Nas X und Denzel Curry sowie Grammy-Preisträger Neal Pogue (u.a. TLC, Outkast, Tyler The
Creator) hat Meechy ein vielschichtiges Debütalbum erarbeitet, auf dem sich der Flatbush Zombie so öffnet
wie nie zuvor.

Black Vinyl

Endlich können die Millionen Fans von "Stranger Things" ihre Leidenschaft für ihre Lieblingsserie durch den Kauf von physischen Produkten (vor allem LPs, aber auch CDs und sogar Kassetten, eine Anspielung auf die 80er Jahre als zentrales Thema der Serie) zum Ausdruck bringen! Noch mehr als in den vorherigen Staffeln spielt die Musik eine wichtige Rolle in der Erzählung, insbesondere das Kate-Bush-Phänomen "Running up that hill", das natürlich im Soundtrack enthalten ist, sowie "Pass The Dutchie" von Musical Youth und "You Spin Me Round" von Dead or Alive, die in den ersten Episoden sehr auffällig waren. Supererwartetes Kultprodukt: Vorbestellungsstart am 1. Juli, wenn die zweite Hälfte von Staffel 4 startet. Enfin les millions de fans de "Stranger Things" vont pouvoir matérialiser leur passion pour leur série préférée en achetant en physique (surtout le LP, mais aussi le CD et même la cassette, clin d'oeil aux 80's thème central de la série) ! Plus encore que pour les saisons précédentes la musique joue un role prépondérant dans la narration avec en particulier le phénomène Kate Bush « Running up that hill » évidemment présent sur la BOF ainsi que Pass The Dutchie de Musical Youth, You Spin Me Round de Dead or Alive très remarqués dans les premiers épisodes. Produit culte super attendu : lancement de précommande à ne pas manquer pour le 1er juillet, date de lancement de la 2e partie de la saison 4.

Eigentlich kaum zu glauben, dass es bis heute kein Weihnachtsalbum des unvergessenen Louis Armstrong
gab, schließlich hat er einige der romantischsten, witzigsten und swingendsten Weihnachtssongs aller Zeiten
aufgenommen. Diesem Missstand hat sich jetzt das Jazzlabel Verve angenommen:
„Louis Wishes You A Cool Yule“ ist die erste Louis-Armstrong-Weihnachtsplatte überhaupt und präsentiert seine Weihnachtstracks erstmals als zusammenhängendes Gesamtwerk. Die Zusammenstellung enthält
sechs Decca-Singles aus den 1950er Jahren, zwei Duette mit seinen Lieblingspartnerinnen Ella Fitzgerald
und Velma Middleton, und den monumentalen Evergreen „What a Wonderful World“, der längst auch zu
einer Art Hoffnungshymne geworden ist, die zum Geist des Weihnachtsfestes passt.
Als besonderes Geschenk an Satchmo-Fans enthält das Album eine bisher unveröffentlichte Aufnahme
von Louis’ berührender Lesung von Samuel Clement Moores Gedicht „A Visit from St. Nicholas“ (auch
bekannt als „The Night Before Christmas“), für die Pianist Sullivan Fortner, eine Jazz-Ikone aus New
Orleans, eine wunderschöne musikalische Untermalung liefert.

Fangst never announced their arrival – without a warning they were just there, and so was the demand for their music. The band’s hook-laden songs were quickly embraced by audience and press alike. Suddenly there was a new challenger to the throne of Norwegian “mother tongue rock”. Fangst appeared with a bang – releasing four singles in quick succession in 2021. Seeing the band live, it’s easy to be seduced by the four band members and their magnetic stage presence. Now they’re ready with their debut album on Jansen Records. But this is hardly a musical debut for the guys who make up this four-headed beast. All members of Fangst come with heaps of musical experience, and the bare mention of their other bands – Death By Unga Bunga, Honningbarna and Hvitmalt Gjerde – will awake fond memories in every concert goer who’s ever encountered those bands. Fangst’s debut full-length will be out in the fall of 2022, and if captivating Norwegian lyricism or very, ehm…rocking rock (or even both!) is your bag, then you’ll get your fill here. The band’ sound is a result of their diverse musical backgrounds and combines to create beautiful rock music – sporadically dangerous and at times plain cute.

Ever since he remixed Abimaro & The Free’s ‘Mark’ back in 2014, NuNorthern Soul boss Phil Cooper has kept in touch with Daniel Stenger, the producer and self-taught multi-instrumentalist behind the Flashbaxx project. Cooper was always convinced that Sanger would be capable of crafting a very special release for the label but was willing to give him time to come up with something special.

With Take Care My Friend, a mini-album inspired by the German producer’s deeply rooted love of jazz-funk, Stenger has repaid the faith shown in him. He’s deliv-ered a collection of quality cuts marked out by audible warmth, effortless musicality and memorable, sun-soaked songs.

As he makes clear in the liner notes included with the vinyl version of the mini album, the project began with the recording of luscious, Rhodes-laden opener ‘Al-right’. After staying up all night recording the track, Stenger not only decided to continue recording with the same relatively limited set of instruments (think bass and electric guitars, drums, piano, electric piano, organ, hand percussion and a handful of synthesizers), but also stick to a hybrid sound that added a subtle Lat-in shuffle to his Balearic-minded take on jazz, funk and soul fusion.

We’re biased of course, but there’s no denying that Stenger’s creative choices have resulted in a superb set of tracks. While the restricted kit list provided focus during the music-making process, there’s still plenty of musical variety across the six tracks that make up the set.

For proof, compare and contrast the jazzy, loose-limbed headiness of ‘It Just Happens’, where simmer-ing synth-strings, twinkling melodic motifs and glis-tening guitar licks rise above smooth jazz-funk bass and a gentle broken beat rhythm, and the slow-motion soul brilliance of ‘Strangers’, where Kathryn Kempf’s evocative and poignant lead vocals rise above a sump-tuous downtempo groove and heart-aching piano lines.

This subtly varied but musically coherent vibe contin-ues across the mini album. Stenger indulges in a bit of New York daydreaming on ‘Brooklyn Love Boat’, a wonderfully musically detailed chunk of 1970s style jazz-funk heat that offers knowing nods to Roy Ayers, Herbie Hancock and the jazz-fusion stylings of Azymuth, before opting for a deeper, slower and even more seductive sound on the Hammond-sporting bliss of ‘Take Care My Friend’.

Closing cut ‘City Lights’, a gorgeous, soft-focus affair smothered in echoing Rhodes riffs and immersive chords, has the feel of an underground classic in wait-ing: a stirring, string-drenched future sing-along whose emotion-packed lyrics are delivered brilliantly by Glasgow-born singer/songwriter Chris Pookah.

Despite the song’s subject matter – the painful final breakdown of a relationship – there’s something strangely uplifting about the combination of Pookah’s pitch-perfect vocal delivery and the absorbing warmth of Stenger’s comforting and sonically detailed music. It provides a fittingly impressive finish to a mightily immersive mini album.

No Way Out is the classic rap album helmed by Puff Daddy and featuring his Family of labelmates and trusted collaborators from across the Bad Boy universe and the music industry at large. Debuting in the Summer of 1997, the Grammy Award winning album sold well over half a million copies in its first week of release—securing the Number One spot on the Billboard 200 chart. It also spawned several Billboard Hot 100 singles, including the international chart-topping Biggie tribute “I’ll Be Missing You” which sat in the top spot for 11 consecutive weeks and has the distinction of being the first ever rap song to debut at Number One on the Hot 100 chart.

Originally conceived as an ode to Harlem and a nod to the mob narratives of Scorsese and Puzzo, Puff changed course (and album titles!) following the death of his friend and fellow Bad Boy artist The Notorious BIG. Assembling a powerhouse production team of rotating talent known collectively as “The Hitmen” and stowing away to Trinidad, they spent weeks expanding on the project. What came of those sessions were not only major hit records for No Way Out, but also tracks that appear on Life After Death and various other Bad Boy releases throughout the late 90’s.

Since his debut 25 years ago as a bona fide solo artist, Diddy has gone on to develop countless other talented performers and produce a myriad of projects that reach beyond music into fashion, film and television. Yet and still, No Way Out—which has been RIAA certified 7x Platinum—remains one of Puffy’s most successful, highest grossing albums to date.

6 face-melting gurners for the 21st Century’s, wilted and jilted generation.

Glasgow’s Lady Neptune follows her New Gorbals Gabber cassette E.P. with her debut vinyl release NOZ. Over the course of 23 bloody fisted minutes, Lady Neptune’s – aka Moema Meade - hyper destructed take on Gabber and Happy Hardcore breaks down the genre tropes before rebuilding them as a new pop music. If 2020’s New Gorbals Gabber showed an artist building their own language from fragments of different genres, 2022’s NOZ goes harder into the cyberpunk-ass future and takes no prisoners. Recorded and mixed at Glasgow’s legendary Green Door Studios and mastered by Rashad Becker, here Lady Neptune evolves into a monster.

With the classic weapons of Dutch Gabber – distorted 909 kick drums, bursts of noise and world-eating Rave-O- Matic hoovering synth riffs, Lady Neptune’s 6 tracks constantly threaten to careen off the speaker into the sweatiest, most gibbering, messy corners of the club. The two years since her debut has seen Meade destroying festival dancefloors, training for the full assault that is NOZ. Live performances have seen foam guns, tequila-pistols, neon stage dancers and a full, maxed-out orgy of fast-as-hell BPM, rave music burning up the cones. The experience reaps rewards from the outset on recorded form here. APOCOLYPS begins with monstrous vocals and the all-consuming kick, pulled back and taut for launch. The arsenal builds; warbling synths and high-pitched synth-strings before dropping into Bald Terror-sized hoovers and stuttering 4/4s. It quickly bleeds into MASTERER, with a looped, pitched up vocal intersecting with the synth riff. The aesthetics might be Happy Hardcore but the dynamic feels like a synthetic, evil Nu Metal-influenced Industrial music. Constantly evolving and twisting with its own natural drama, the drop at 2:15 is pure ecstatic release. fusing Meade’s inclination for pop hooks with the first out-and-out 180BPM (ish, who’s counting?) anthemic melter of the E.P., TELL ME has THE big catchy chorus, used sparingly and sung by Meade with angelic devilishness, coming at you in waves of XTC. It’s a repeater.

It’s then massive fists in the air for the ruthless Side B opener WIT. In the Welsh-Brazilian artist’s adopted home of Glasgow it translates directly as WHAT!? Itt makes sense. g. Sharp, weaponised, rhythmic punishment abounds before OH responds. Pitched up vocals and another mid-frequency synth hook wipes the slate clean. Like the best Gabber, the tension and release dynamic is used to full effect by Meade, with the thunderous low end kick -expertly tweaked in the mastering by Rashad Becker – slipping into the ghostly cavern. Industrialized 4/4 and noise-snares propel onwards to be utterly squashed by that bloody synth, stinging and horribly brilliant. Proving her genius for a ridiculous A-N-T-H-E-M, TIME 2 MAKE U FEEL GOOD closes the 23 minutes of ragged, drugged glory with a festival-slamming chorus built from the wreckage. It’s a song that does that thing we all know and love but can’t put our finger on. Sad, happy, tragedy, ecstasy, joy, horror...There’s big, minor chord changes (yes there’s some CHORDS on this slammer), the kick is submerged in layers of pads and Meade’s actual secret weapon: her vocal and knack for writing a chorus line. In the listener’s mind it’s over before it’s begun, a track destined for the big rewind.

NOZ is a breathless, E-number riddled eternal ecstasy.

A meeting of the minds between two Israeli DJs and producers. Adam Ten & Mita Gami release a combined two-tracker in September on Crosstown Rebels, dipping into dark and hypnotising waters while maintaining a club-cut aesthetic.

The pair pen a slow-burning chugger on the title track, merging tones of tech house, progressive house and techno. A high-pitched vocal weave’s throughout, in tandem with a distorted synthline and oddball sound FX—one for a wavey dancefloor. On the flip, Night Shift glistens with emotion as tribal-tinged percussion collides with long, drawn-out piano notes. A cosmic creation that blurs the line between melancholia and warmth.

Adam Ten is a Tel Aviv-born producer and resident DJ of institutional club The Block, located in his home city. Ten is a key artist on the Israeli scene, recognised for his all-night sets that blend a myriad of moods in electronic music. He’s played worldwide, spanning stints in Miami, Cape Town and Mykonos, amongst several other regions, and he’s channelled his compelling sound on labels like Diynamic, Multinotes, Disco Halal and Selador. As a co-founder of the event series TERRA, Ten curates some of the finest nature-orientated parties in Israel. Mita Gami hails from Tel Aviv. A multi-instrumentalist from a young age, he goes beyond the trope of entertainer. Instead, Gami invites his audience into immersive and almost trippy journeys during his performances via a hybrid set-up and enticing energy on-stage. Releases on REALM Records and Diynamic display his metaphysical approach. Beyond producing, Gami co-runs the label Blue Shadow Records and the Sunrise Kingdom area in Midburn Festival, based in the Negev Desert in Israel.

Traditioneller Old School Black Metal, ohne Schnörkel und Spielereien - geschmiedet in den immer noch brennenden Flammen des Spirits der neunziger Jahre! Mit Mitgliedern von NAGLFAR, ASPHYX und GRÁB

- vollfarbige Hülle, Inside-Out-Druck, innen schwarz geflutet
- extra Schuber
- Polygefütterter Innensleeve
- Plastik-Schutzhülle
- erhältlich als handnummeriertes 180g schwarzes vinyl

TRINITAS ist die unheilige Allianz der Drei, die den alten Geist des Black Metal huldigen. Die Mitglieder sind Vargher (Gitarren, Bass, zusätzliche Vocals), Tormentor (Drums) und Azathoth (Necromantical Screams, Lyrics). Die Idee zu TRINITAS kam im Jahr 2012 auf. Alle drei Mitglieder kannten sich zu diesem Zeitpunkt bereits seit einigen Jahren durch ihre anderen Bandaktivitäten. Von Anfang an war klar, dass TRINITAS eine Hommage an die Black Metal Bewegung der frühen 90er Jahre sein sollte. Daher ist die Musik roh und in gewisser Weise primitiv - ein bewusster Gegenpol zu dem, was man heute als Black Metal bezeichnet. Es gibt nichts Progressives in der Musik von TRINITAS und die Texte handeln nur vom Tod und dem Teufel - so wie es damals sein sollte. Eine Hommage an eine Zeit, in der Black Metal mehr war als nur Musik.

Es dauerte bis 2018, als die ersten drei Songs aufgenommen wurden. Sie wurden auf der selbstbetitelten MCD und MLP über das deutsche Label War Anthem Records im Jahr 2019 veröffentlicht. 2021 kamen Azathoth auf die Idee, ein erstes Full-Length-Album aufzunehmen. Innerhalb von drei Wochen komponierte Vargher neun Songs für das Album. Kurze Zeit später vereinbarte die Band eine Kooperation mit dem deutschen Label Vàn Records, um das Debütalbum zu veröffentlichen, das den Titel Total Heresy tragen wird. Es wurde in mehreren Studios in Schweden, den Niederlanden und Deutschland aufgenommen.
Weitere Formate

Deron Miller gives his life to the riff. Unrestrained by industry expectations and genre limitations, the boundlessly prolific guitarist and voice behind multiple beloved projects is best known as the founder, frontman, and songwriter in CKY. His authentic and effortlessly hooky heavy rock obsession returns with 96 BITTER BEINGS. Reinvigorated and ready to rumble all over again, Miller roars back with the same reverence for riffage that made underground hits out of CKY anthems like “Flesh Into Gear,” “Escape from Hellview,” and “Disengage the Simulator” from 1998 till 2011.

The familiar warmth, feel, groove, and unapologetic honesty which drove the song “96 Quite Bitter Beings” to 54 million streams (on Spotify alone) permeates the pair of albums unleashed by 96BB.

A successful crowdfunding campaign saw Miller, guitarist Kenneth Hunter, bassist Shaun Luera and Shaun’s brother, drummer Tim, conjure up 2018’s Camp Pain in limited release. North American and European touring followed, wrapping up shortly before the COVID-19 shutdowns.

“After CKY and a short break, I decided to continue, without changing the sound,” Miller explains. “Because that’s what I do. It’s what I love to do and what people say I do well. All of the guys who got in the band with me are great musicians. And each of them is hungry. They have priorities and ambitions about being in a rock band, no matter the grim state of pop music out there. If we can bring rock and metal back to the mainstream, in some way, that’s the dream.”

In 2022, 96 BITTER BEINGS unleash the long-awaited Synergy Restored, 11 songs of relentless power and vibe. Four-on-the-floor, fuzzy and visceral, proper rock n’ roll made by an actual band, rather than a bunch of overprocessed samples and otherwise stale shenanigans. Songs like “Vaudeville’s Revenge,” “90 Car Pile-Up,” and “Wish Me Dead” offer vivid reminders of the truth-telling prowess of guitars, bass, and drums. Miller is on fire, weaponizing the same knack for memorable musical epiphanies behind projects like Foreign Objects, World Under Blood, and CKY.
Miller co-founded Foreign Objects and later Camp Kill Yourself (a name born of his love of VHS slasher classics) in West Chester, Pennsylvania, in the ‘90s. Written by Miller, 1999’s Volume 1 appealed to metalheads, skaters, stoners, and punks. The album led to a stint on Warped Tour and a deal with Island Def Jam Music Group, which issued Infiltrate•Destroy•Rebuild• in 2002. Axl Rose chose CKY to support the ill-fated Chinese Democracy tour, and they also played with Metallica.
An Answer Can Be Found followed in 2005, producing the Billboard Mainstream Rock Top 40 single “Familiar Realm.” Extensive touring with Avenged Sevenfold and the like-minded Clutch followed. Carver City, in 2009, would prove to be Miller’s last album with the group he created and led. Across the four albums, Miller indulged his love of everything from ‘80s thrash metal to doom, as CKY blended high-octane ruckus with occasional bursts of Moog synths and cinematic storytelling.
Miller never stopped creating, with a handful of full albums written and released, a foray into horror movies, and parenting three children with his wife, scream queen actress Felissa Rose. Like Galactic Prey, the most recent Foreign Objects album, the 96BB records were recorded and produced by Miller and Hunter at Manifest Productions. Camp Pain was explicitly made for diehard fans who supported the creation of both albums through 96BB’s Indiegogo campaign. Synergy Restored was always intended for wider release, which it sees now via Nuclear Blast.
“I want my work taken seriously. I thank God every day that I was never overexposed, or even exposed enough commercially, to where I’m resigned to a specific moment,” Miller says. “I would rather have my self-respect, the respect of the audience, and a dedicated cult following.”

“Every time I go out, I see Nirvana, Metallica, and Misfits t-shirts. These kids may not know the music, but at least they are displaying a visual interest,” he adds. “Corporations spend millions of dollars promoting certain styles of music, but history proves that true rock will always sneak in.”