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Dixie Dregs' private press debut album / Original recordings of Dregs classics that would be re-recorded for their Capricorn and Arista albums / First-ever LP reissue / White Vinyl - STEVE MORSE - Guitars / ANDY WEST - Bass Guitar / ALLEN SLOAN - Violin / ROD MORGENSTEIN - Drums - The Great Spectacular is Dixie Dregs' original 1975 demo debut album, recorded at the University of Miami as a class project, pressed independently by the band, and distributed locally in limited quantities. Yet The Great Spectacular also functions as a greatest hits of sorts, debuting tracks which would later be re-recorded across Dixie Dregs' classic 1977-1980 Capricorn and Arista albums, as well as during guitarist/band leader Steve Morse's stint in Kansas. It includes the first recordings of key Dregs tracks including "What If," "Leprechaun Promenade," "Holiday," "Refried Funky Chicken," "Country House Shuffle," and more. Original copies of The Great Spectacular are rare collectors' items. For its first-ever LP reissue, the album has been pressed on white vinyl.

King’s X is one of the great mysteries in rock. Ear Candy is the sixth album of this American rock band.

Ear Candy expands on King’s X ability to vacillate between pop, hard rock, psychedelic, and everything in between. All these elements
can be found on this album, good hard rocks songs, ballads and everything in between.

The album also features the single “The Train” and Glen Phillips of Toad The Wet Sprocket can be heard the track ‘A Box.’

Ear Candy is available as a limited edition of 1500 individually numbered copies on purple coloured vinyl and comes in a gatefold sleeve.

Released in October 1974, Fear is an incredibly important in the 50+ year career of John Cale - This re-issue faithfully replicates the original 1974 Island Records UK release and is pressed onto high quality 180g vinyl.Fear marked Cale's return to recording in London after the best part of a decade in America. Signing to Island, he made fast friends with two key admirers, Phil Manzanera and Brian Eno, who assisted him in returning his music to the rawer sound of his earlier work, as opposed to the lush textures of his previous studio album, Paris 1919. The tense, clipped "Fear Is A Man's Best Friend" harks back to the work of the Velvet Underground, as does the standout, "Gun", eight minutes of overdriven bleakness with Eno duelling with Cale's guitar solo on synthesisers. Much is rightly made of these tracks, but there is also the sweetness of the gospel of "Buffalo Ballet" and the Beach Boys homage "The Man Who Couldn't Afford To Orgy". The pretty, semi-autobiographical "Ship Of Fools" offers listeners an opportunity to hear Cale reference the South Wales city of Swansea, its seaside suburb, Mumbles and his home village of Garnant. In its often-skeletal simplicity, the often triumphant Fear is an album that brought an angular aggression with it.

"Austin-based funk/prog/rock 10-piece collective GRANDMASTER present their self-titled 15 song debut. produced by fellow Austinite Nolan Potter, the record channels the sounds of inspirators Earth Wind & Fire, Stevie Wonder, John Williams, Parliament Funkadelic, The Bee Gees, & Potter’s own Nightmare Band, while also blending in elements of jazz, prog., and classic Nintendo scores.

The record has already garnered praise and heavy airplay from Austin tastemaker station KUTX, who named them Artist Of The Month back in summer."

Classic free jazz album reissued for the first time since the 70s. Old-style gatefold sleeve LP, with liner notes by Ed Hazell.

Noah Howard, an alto saxophonist and composer, was known for weaving intricate and innovative musical patterns, often likening his work to "sound paintings." His 1971 album Patterns, the first LP he self-produced on his Altsax label, stands as a testament to his experimental and spiritual approach to music. In interviews, Howard frequently used visual terms like "patterns" and "shapes" to describe his compositions, emphasizing the importance of melody and structure even in highly improvisational settings. For Howard, patterns and melodies were essential to guiding listeners through his explorations without alienating them, maintaining a balance between innovation and accessibility. Howard's quest for an original sound was deeply influenced by jazz greats like Charlie Parker, Ornette Coleman, and Jackie McLean. While he admired these legends, Howard avoided imitation, striving instead to develop his own distinct voice. His sound was unmistakably his own, and he felt a deep obligation to carry the jazz tradition forward through personal expression, not by mimicking others. His music was also rooted in spirituality, a legacy he traced to his upbringing in the Black Baptist Church. He believed jazz had always contained a spiritual essence, from Louis Armstrong to John Coltrane, and his work aimed to channel this cosmic, spiritual energy.

Patterns was recorded in the Netherlands during Howard's second stint in Europe, where he found a more open, less racially charged environment compared to the U.S. For the album, Howard collaborated with Dutch musicians such as Misha Mengelberg (piano), Han Bennink (drums), and Earl Freeman (bass). Despite the challenges faced by guitarist Jaap Schoonhoven, who felt out of place in the session, the album came together as a powerful mix of blues, jazz, and classical elements.

The music on Patterns is a high-energy fusion of American free jazz and Dutch improvisation. Howard's saxophone work alternates between leading with passionate, lyrical lines and blending into the collective improvisation. The album’s dynamic interplay, particularly between Mengelberg’s dissonant piano clusters and Bennink’s thunderous drumming, creates a vivid "sound painting" full of contrasting forms and colors. Patterns remains one of Howard’s most unique and celebrated recordings, showcasing his visionary approach to jazz.

The Tattooist of Auschwitz is a 2024 six-part TV miniseries based on the international bestselling novel by Heather Morris, inspired by the real-life story of Holocaust prisoners Lali and Gita Sokolov.

The story follows one man, Lali, a Slovakian Jew, who, in 1942, was deported to Auschwitz, the concentration camp where over a million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust. Shortly after
arrival, Lali was made one of the Tätowierer (tattooists), charged to ink identification numbers onto fellow prisoners’ arms. One day, he met Gita when tattooing her prisoner number on her arm, leading to a love that defies the horrors around them. The cast features Harvey Keitel, Melanie Lynskey, Jonah Hauer-King, and Anna Próchniak.

• 180 GRAM AUDIOPHILE VINYL
• INCLUDES 4-PAGE BOOKLET
• ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK TO THE 2024 SKY TV MINISERIES STARRING JONAH HAUER-KING, ANNA PRÓCHNIAK, MELANIE LYNSKEY AND HARVEY KEITEL
• MUSIC COMPOSED AND PERFORMED BY LEGENDARY FILM COMPOSER HANS ZIMMER AND KARA TALVE
• SOUNDTRACK NOMINATED TWO TIMES AT THE PRIMETIME EMMY AWARDS
• FEATURING “LOVE WILL SURVIVE” PERFORMED BY BARBRA STREISAND
• BLACK VINYL

Music for the series was composed by multi Academy Award-winning composer Hans Zimmer and Kara Talve. The soundtrack also features the brand new song “Love Will Survive” by global music icon Barbra Streisand. The music for the show received 2 Primetime Emmy nominations, for “Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics” and “Outstanding Music Composition for a Limited or Anthology Series, Movie or Special (Original Dramatic Score)”

The Tattooist of Auschwitz is available on black vinyl and includes a 4-page booklet.

Three years after his album 'Feniks', Esko is now back with his new album 'Taboe'.

With 'Feniks', Esko introduced himself not only as a successful producer but also as a rapper, a debut with which he amassed millions of streams. Now it's time for the next chapter, which will mark his career. On this vinyl of the album, with collaborations with JoeyAK, Lijpe, Bilal Wahib, Josylvio, Jonna Fraser, Flo, Ayden and D-Double, there is something to discover for every Esko fan. On 'Taboe' Esko is more personal than ever and lets you get up close to his personal life.

Three years after his album 'Feniks', Esko is now back with his new album 'Taboe'.

With 'Feniks', Esko introduced himself not only as a successful producer but also as a rapper, a debut with which he amassed millions of streams. Now it's time for the next chapter, which will mark his career. On this vinyl of the album, with collaborations with JoeyAK, Lijpe, Bilal Wahib, Josylvio, Jonna Fraser, Flo, Ayden and D-Double, there is something to discover for every Esko fan. On 'Taboe' Esko is more personal than ever and lets you get up close to his personal life.

Prairiewolf make easy listening music for an age of fracture. They almost do it in spite of themselves. No one can seriously question the head music bona fides of the members of this Colorado-based trio.

Guitarist Stefan Beck has already assembled a formidable discography of jewel-toned guitar zone-outs under his Golden Brown moniker. And keyboardist and guitarist Jeremy Erwin and bassist Tyler Wilcox have both made their reputations as chroniclers of the vast world of out-music. Erwin helms the indispensable Heat Warps blog, a performance-by-performance archive of Miles Davis’s labyrinthine electric period. And Wilcox has been covering the ragged edges of psychedelia and experimental rock at Aquarium Drunkard and other publications, not to mention his own virtual basement for heads, the great bootleg blog Doom and Gloom from the Tomb.

These guys come by it honestly. And yet, given their backgrounds, Prairiewolf’s self-titled debut last spring was remarkably free of face-melters, brown acid blowouts, and ascendant spiritual jazz odysseys. Instead, they dropped a record of beautiful, elegant, low-key cosmic groovers that sounded like the piped-in background music to a resort hotel on Jupiter. It was an unlikely psychedelia, brocaded with mid-twentieth century sonic threading from the hi-fi era: vintage synthesizers, smears of spaghetti western, luxe tropical details, the faint schmaltz of space age pop. Imagine something like a Harmonia residency in the airport lounge. And yet somehow it all worked brilliantly. Prairiewolf became last summer’s cool-down standard. After a year woodshedding around Colorado’s Front Range region, the Prairiewolf boys have fired up their trusty Korg SR-120 drum machine for another outstanding collection of suborbital exotica. The appropriately titled Deep Time operates in its own chronology, unspooling at its unhurried pace. All its incongruous period and stylistic references—the new age pulses, Hawaiian steel, shaggy hippie rambles, lysergic guitar spirals, and orchestral synthesizer flourishes—float atop the album’s own singular temporality. Deep Time makes its own time.

From the moment Beck folds his slide guitar, origami-like, into a sound resembling the call of gulls on the tranquil album opener, “Peach Blossom Paradise,” there is a sense of departure from everyday life. The shimmering “Lighthouse” has a similar sunbaked nonchalance, like an afternoon passed day-drinking in a seaside bar. That they named their lush, kaleidoscopic downtempo track “The Meander” pretty much says it all. The ranging, propulsive “Saying Yes to Everything” seems like a nod in the direction of Rose City Band’s brand of wookie krautrock. And the motorik noir of “Demon Cicadas in the Night” also goes hard. Beck and Erwin’s intertwined guitar jam on the eerie album standout “The Cold Curve” evolves into something that sounds like primitive computer music. A genteel bassline from Wilcox on another album highlight, “Revisionist Mystery,” sets the stage for a loopy space jazz turn from guest clarinettist Matt Loewen of Rayonism. The title of post-rock cowboy tune “Another Tomorrow” might refer to the alternative future that so many critics heard in the music of Prairiewolf’s first album. Or it might simply refer to the persistence of time, however deep. Either way,

I’m thankful for the way Prairiewolf make each of their tunes a little oasis or sanctuary, each subsisting according to its own crystalline little logic for a few minutes. It is no simple task to filter out the omnipresent anger and anxiety of everyday life these days. But Prairiewolf are out here making it seem easy.

Brent S. Sirota

Out of My Province is Nadia Reids third album, following 2017s critically acclaimed Preservation. This album is Reids first with Spacebomb Records, produced by Matthew E. White and the Spacebomb House Band. Out of My Province is the sound of a young artist growing in profile and dexterity before international audiences and whose world has changed before her eyes. // "Each of the album's 10 songs manage to elegantly teeter without toppling into the overly referential or experimental sides of the sonic canyon. They recall the greats while also plotting a map of the future. The New Zealand songwriter makes her best album yet" UNCUT.

Critically-acclaimed German pianist Pablo Held announces TRIO PLAYS STANDARDS, the seminal new trio album which captures Held and his comrades Robert Landfermann & Jonas Burgwinkel paying tribute to the rich legacy of Jazz.

Reflecting on the album’s theme, Held shares:
"On our previous 14 recordings, Robert, Jonas, and I have explored a wide range of musical realms: my original compositions, classical pieces, works by my father Peter Held, and occasional tunes by some of my favorite artists. Delving deeply into each of these musical environments has played a pivotal role in shaping the trio's sound over these years. Now, we've finally fulfilled a dream: recording an album of standards."

The album showcases Pablo Held’s unique arrangements of broadway classics as I’LL NEVER BE THE SAME, YOU WON’T FORGET ME and LAST NIGHT WHEN WE WERE YOUNG, reworkings of Charlie Parker’s BARBADOS and Bill Evans’ VERY EARLY, alongside Held’s own JUST IN CRAME - a contrafact on the old standard JUST IN TIME - each imbued with the trio's signature improvisational spirit and collective synergy.

Pablo Held, who’s not only known as a revered pianist and composer, but also a musical researcher, knows the value of deep study and cherishes its effect on his work: "The more I study this music, the more it propels me forward," says Held, echoing the sentiment of his personal hero Wayne Shorter about the past being “the flashlight that guides the way into the future”.

The trio recorded the album at Jazz Campus Basel’s pristine studio facilities on October 29th 2023 in front of a live audience of attentive students who witnessed the trio’s explorations first handedly in this intimate setting.

TRIO PLAYS STANDARDS was recorded and mixed by recording engineer Daniel Dettwiler and mastered by Christoph Stickel, who mastered the majority of Pablo Held’s expansive discography as a leader.
Legendary vocalist Norma Winstone penned the liner notes, and its timeless cover design is by Christian Schäfer, featuring captivating photos by Linghuan Zhang.

TRIO PLAYS STANDARDS marks the 6th release on Held’s own label HOPALIT RECORDS.
After the success of the previous trio album WHO WE ARE, Held favors a double-release method for his records going forwards: a 6 month pre-release period, where the album is exclusively available via Bandcamp and on live shows, leading into the official release in stores and streaming platforms.

As an additional incentive every (physical & digital) copy includes the bonus album TRIO PLAYS STANDARDS - LIVE, recorded during Held’s own curated festival STANDARDS WEEK at the LOFT Köln in 2022.

Jabu return with ‘A Soft and Gatherable Star’, an LP that sees the Bristol-based trio evolve from a uniquely spectral take on trip hop to proffer a singular vision between cloudy, downered dream-pop, off-kilter ambient, and the warm, low-end throb of sound system culture. This development is aligned with contemporaries like HTRK, Dean Blunt, Tarquin Manek, YL Hooi and Rat Heart Ensemble, whilst also harkening back to the likes of AR Kane (with whom they are set to play shows and release a collaborative single), the languorous drift of 'Victorialand' era Cocteau Twins or The Cure circa ‘Disintegration’. Comprising Jasmine Butt (vocals, guitar), Alex Rendall (vocals, keys) and Amos Childs (production, bass guitar), the trio’s method may have shifted but the feel remains consistent - slow, spatial, sensuous and gently melancholic. With a career arc unlike almost any other current guitar outfit, Jabu sit within a strong lineage of off-centre Bristolian music, and a very British strain of home-spun DIY bands. Self-recorded between Jas and Amos’ home in South Bristol and Amos’ mum’s house in rural North Somerset, the album came together via a process of trial and error - learning to play on borrowed instruments, using the equipment “wrong”, staying up late recording and slipping into strange, semi-conscious sleep deprived/inebriated headspaces. Having captured over 50 tracks, they honed in on those they liked most, shaping them further, whilst carving out space to allow input from people they love and admire - Daniela Dyson’s voice and Will Memotone's clarinet on ‘Ashes Over Shute Shelve’, Birthmark's synth on ‘Gently Fade’ and ‘Sea Mills’, Rakhi Singh (Manchester Collective) and Sebastian Gainsborough (Vessel)’s strings and arrangements on ‘All Night’, Josh Horsley’s cello on ‘If I Asked You, You'd Tell Me’, and Lorenzo Prati’s sax, again on ‘Sea Mills’. The album was mastered by Amir Shoat (HTRK, ML Buch, Dean Blunt, Carla Dal Forno). Influence-wise, the guitar-based material recalls the bands Amos listened to when younger, and Jas’ more folk-leaning inspirations. Deep-lying dub, hip hop and soul influences are also evident in both the way the LP was mixed, and the space ingrained in their subconscious. Tinged with melancholy, the songs cohere as a set of soliloquies and ruminations on love and tenderness. The album’s title comes from a poem by Amos’ late father which hangs on his wall and seeped into the record. ‘Ashes Over Shute Shelve’ is formed of lines from another poem of his. Recited by longtime collaborator Daniela Dyson and with Will Yates (Memotone) playing his mother’s clarinet, the track was imagined as a conversation between his parents. Geography and location also play a big part in the record, with several significant places name-checked in songs. Shute Shelve itself is a hill near Amos’ mum’s house, who explains “There’s a tree at the top with a 360° view of the Mendips, where my dad’s ashes were scattered. We used to go up there when we could first buy booze from the petrol station down the road, get drunk, light a fire, listen to music from my little battery powered CD player and sleep out without tents.” Titled after a Bristol suburb near where Amos’ grandparents lived and where Jas would spend time as a teenager, ‘Sea Mills’ references her being abandoned by friends on the Downs while high on mushrooms, stranded and missing the bus back. ‘Kosiše Flower’ references the city in Slovakia where Amos and Jas holidayed shortly after getting together and a flower he gave her, which she pressed in a book after an argument. ‘Oceanside Spider House’ is a location in Nintendo 64 game The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, where someone seeks shelter from the falling moon. Genre: Electronic / Ambient / Dream-pop

Tommy Boy reissues exclusive limited edition pressing of Afrika Bambatta & Soulsonic Force's "Planet Rock” Considered one of founding fathers of rap, Afrika Bambaataa has long been considered a revolutionary, both within the music business and beyond. Raised in the South Bronx, Afrika Bambaataa made his name as a DJ, rapper and songwriter, eventually becoming the foremost DJ, event organizer and promoter of the large block parties that rocked the neighbourhood during the mid-to-late 70's. Leading into the 80's, Bambaataa had found acclaim for releasing countless genre-defining tracks, infusing Hip Hop and Electronic elements into a sound that would influence other artists for years to come. With the groundbreaking release of Soulsonic Force assisted, "Planet Rock," in 1982, Afrika Bambaataa forever cemented his place in the history books as one of the most revered and innovative artists of his time. Since its release, "Planet Rock" has gone on to be recognized as one of the earliest Hip Hop hits and remains one of the genres most pioneering recordings. A long-time favourite amongst break-dancers, DJ's and music lovers alike, "Planet Rock" was ranked by Rolling Stone magazine at #240 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and has received Gold certification by the RIAA. Originally released in 1986 as a collection of previous singles, this highly sought after record has long since been out of production, until now. Ranked at #84 by Slant Magazine on their "Best Albums of the 1980s" list and was also included in the book, "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".

‘Leon’ is the highly anticipated fourth album from Grammy Award-winning recording artist, songwriter, and producer Leon Bridges. With 13 tracks featuring Leon’s signature storytelling and a unique blend of organic genre alchemy, ‘Leon’ is his most poignant, powerful, and personal work to date. He takes fans on a trip through the heart of Ft. Worth he knows best, the things he holds dear, and the people and places that shaped him. Featuring production by Ian Fitchuk (Beyonce, Noah Kahan), Daniel Tashian (Kacey Musgraves), and Tyler Johnson (Harry Styles, Miley Cyrus), Leon describes the album as “somewhat of a self-portrait… I’m excited to share these stories about my home, about nostalgia, about my upbringing, about where I’m from, with all of you. I hope this music brings you back to your roots and your journey.”



Quote from Leon:
“‘Leon’ has been a long-time coming. I started writing pieces of it as far back as ‘Gold-Diggers Sound.’ They didn’t fit what I was trying to do with that album and I tried moving on. But I couldn’t shake them because they’re part of me. And, if I’m honest, also because I think this is some of my most excellent work yet.In many ways, Leon has been in the works since my childhood. This record is about simpler days. It’s about time spent in my beloved Fort Worth and the experiences that made me the man I am today. It’s soulful music in the truest sense - it’s imbued with my soul.I’m excited to share these stories about my home, about nostalgia, about my upbringing, about where I’m from, with all of you. I hope this music brings you back to your roots and your journey.”

Label and collaborative musical collective, +33JOY announce their debut release, this first one from Bopperson & Bikbaye.

Born out of a meeting at New York’s annual Winter Jazz Festival, back in 2020, this 4 track EP entitled ‘The Wellness Project’ is a very personal project.

Neil Bopperson is a DJ, musician and producer originally from Yorkshire. Having travelled the world working as a DJ and chef, he landed in London for a while where he remixed afrobeat legend Dele Sosimi for Wah Wah 45s. Now residing in Paris, France, a sharer and carer of music in every aspect, he chooses not to follow trends but instead follow his heart, with variety being an essential part of his musical DNA.

Based in Los Angeles, Bikbaye Inejnema works as a cultural activist, writer, teacher, counselor and spoken word artist. He has a bachelor’s degree in Sociology boasting over ten years experience in social work. He works as a A.T.O.D. (alcohol, tobacco & other drugs) prevention specialist for Homeless Healthcare in L.A. He is also the Executive Director of The Conscious Youth Global Network (CYGN)

Bikbaye strives to utilize art to equip the youth with the skills to become positive, productive citizens. Focusing on diverse topics ranging from leadership development to financial literacy to health and nutrition, Bikbaye gives youth the tools they need to create empowered and enlightened content.
As Bikbaye says, “The goal is to flood the airwaves, the media, everywhere with enlightened art.”

This first release on +33JOY comes in the form of a collaborative project, with music coming predominantly from Neil, with a little help from some additional players - Sam Crowe; keys (Lianne La Havas, Little Simz & Native Dancer) and the saxophone of Nick Briggs; (Joel Culpepper, Poté & The Last Skeptik). All words and vocals are from Bikbaye.

After a chance meeting in NYC, where Bikbaye was hosting talks at The Winter Jazz Festival, speaking mainly about mental health and wellness in the music industry. His words really resonated with Neil, they connected and this EP is the outcome.

Sitting somewhere in the alternative hip hop world, music is used as a vessel for Bikbaye’s words to ring out. Upon being presented with Bikbaye’s recordings, Neil composed music and collected sound design accordingly.

Starting out the set is the stripped back ‘Wellness Is A Practice’, as the opener to proceedings the vocals take forefront and the message is clear. Found sound, an old crunchy keyboard and some guitar pulses keep the poem afloat.

‘Who Are You?’ raises important questions, directed at other artists and music industry professionals. Flute, choirs and spacy drums come together for an eerie and dubbed out moment.

Third track ‘Consumption’ conveys perhaps the most important memo on the release. Sam Crowe’s grand piano floats beautifully over the reading, really highlighting Bikbaye’s statements.

Finally, and with a more hopeful feel, ‘Changes’ was the last addition to the recording sessions. A sketch Neil had been sitting on for a while, DJ Bobafatt added some cuts and Nick Brigg’s sax solo opens this track out to a goosebumps inducing ending. The most upbeat of the four tracks serves as a perfect prelude to the club-ready remixes that will follow this release.

These tracks are responsible for a huge impression on Dream Software and the sound of the label, so it is with great honour we reissue these tracks and release them back into the outersphere. The soundtrack to a retrofuturist world gleaming with optimism. A world where humanity, technology and nature exist in a peaceful symbiosis. A real utopia. We thank you Alex for your inspirational music.

Written and produced by Alex Silvi (Alien Signal) throughout the years of 1993-1994. ‘North Polar Stars’, ‘Brilliant Evening Planets’ and ‘Violent Volcanoes of Io’ originally released on album ‘Celestial Sights of the Future’ from Upland Recordings in 1993. ‘Quantum Limit’ was originally released on album ‘The Search Begins’ also on Upland Recordings in 1993, whereas ‘Atomic (Esoteric Mix)’ was a self-release from 1994.

Lovingly remastered by Lopazz@mixmastering.de and carefully distributed by One Eye Witness.

© Dream Software, Corp (2024)

Berlin-based truthspeaker returns with a full-length Album with 9 new tracks. With forcefully driven rhythms and mystifying atmospheres, they have made previous appearances on labels such as PUPPY, Post Hoc, Ectopic, and Massive Gain while also playing worldwide, from Berlin’s Berghain to touring the North American underground, making appearances throughout New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Providence, Portland, Richmond, Baltimore, and Nashville. The artist has built a reputation for delivering a transcending, occasionally unpredictable, yet intensely immediate listening experience for the dance floor. Citing previous experience in noise and experimental music, truthspeaker is establishing a functional yet disruptive sound, opening up obscure spaces within the confines of the harder edges of dance music.

Located in a grey zone between ambient, post-natural sound design and hi-tech sacred music, the first long-form physical output from Milanese trio Cortex of Light, features two long compositions merging into one another without a specific beginning or end. This release marks also the first collaboration between A.R.X. and Krisis Publishing.

Ben Lukas Boysen’s new album, Alta Ripa, signifies a seismic shift in his artistic journey. It revisits the foundational impulses of his youth, shaped amidst the serene beauty of rural Germany—a bucolic backdrop where his creative palette flourished. However, it was his move to Berlin in the early 2000s that electrified his sound, infusing it with the city’s pulsating energy and diverse cultural influences. Alta Ripa captures this transformative experience, blending the introspective melodies of his rural beginnings with the bold, experimental tones born from Berlin’s vibrant electronic music scene. This album is a testament to Boysen’s evolution, showcasing how geographical shifts can profoundly shape artistic expression.

Boysen’s fourth studio album under his own name, Alta Ripa is a nod to his beginnings as much as a hint to his future, and as a work, it’s almost contradictory in its boldness and humility. He invites the listener on a journey of self-discovery; both for himself and for them, describing the music as “something the 15-year-old in me would have liked to hear but only the grown-up version of myself can write.”

His last two albums involved working closely with other musicians, including cellist Anne Müller, flugelhorn player Steffen Zimmer, and drummer Achim Färber. However, inspired in part by a recent return to live performance, Alta Ripa sees Boysen circling back to his passion for pure computer music.

For Boysen, the return to his youthful musical language marks a major turning point in his career. It represents a departure from his roots in classical music – his mother was an opera singer and his father an actor with an appreciation for Wagner, Arvo Pärt, Keith Jarrett, and Stockhausen. Although these are still important influences, Alta Ripa encapsulates a new, exploratory interplay between Boysen’s careful craft and his ability to let go of some of the process.

The album’s title comes from the original Roman name of the town that Boysen grew up in, Altrip, where he lived until his early twenties. This formative period is central to the ideas behind this album, from Boysen’s parental ‘schooling’ in classical music through to his sonic journeys through drum and bass, Aphex Twin, and Autechre — all of which changed his idea of what music could be. The extreme energy of tracks like ‘Acperience 1’ by Hardfloor, ‘Tracks & Fragment’ by Cari Lekebusch, ‘Focus2 Implan’ by Jiri.Ceiver, and ‘Low On Ice’ by Alec Empire are also pivotal influences.

For Boysen, this time of his musical development also involved knocking down the pillars that he previously thought had carried his world. A key moment for Boysen was being given a precious (pre-internet) club cassette at school that featured artists like Source Direct, Photek and Goldie. Excited by this new discovery, he introduced his father to the song ‘Dred Bass’ by Dead Dred. After the song finished, Boysen Sr. turned off the tape and proclaimed it was “the end of all music”. This heated exchange sparked a new, and more mature dialogue between the two that involved them sharing and discussing music on a regular basis.

Boysen’s classical and jazz music upbringing might not be easily noticeable from the electronic palette that he uses. But it can be found in its bones; the structure of the tracks and their dynamic shifts. On Alta Ripa, he intentionally embraces a spirit of controlled chaos, churning out sonic ideas to see what sticks.

One of Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategy cards contains the phrase “gardening, not architecture”, and the trajectory of Boysen’s creative path reflects this metaphor. In much of his previous work he followed a sort of Brutalist architect’s approach; here, he was fully responsible for the tracks’ austere structures and planned them with deliberate care. But by sacrificing some of that control on Alta Ripa, he sets the right conditions for a dark and unpredictable, organic growth. It’s a push forward into a new world.

Lara Sarkissian’s long-awaited debut full-length, ‘Remnants’ is an ornate patchwork of ancient and modern sonic shapes that uses the vernacular of electronic music to reformulate Armenian traditions and memories. Taking digitally modeled instruments (such as the kanun, a large zither, and the duduk, an ancient double reed woodwind instrument), vocals, davul and dhol drums, tenor saxophone (from acclaimed Paris-based player Adrien Soleiman) and myriad electronic elements and techniques, Sarkissian tangles the old and the new, creating an immersive, narrative-driven experience that’s powered by history, mythology and her own familial connection to the West Asian landscape. It’s an album that’s best absorbed like a film; only multiple encounters can reveal its layered themes and references to industrial music, noise, various club styles, ambient and traditional folk.

Born and raised in San Francisco and currently based in Los Angeles, Sarkissian has developed her unique approach to composition over years of relentless experimentation across various disciplines. Her interest in music production initially stemmed from her filmmaking and video editing work, when she began to sculpt her own sound collages and scores to accompany the visuals. Since then, she’s constantly blurred the boundary between dance and experimental music, DJing around the world, producing AV installations and scoring film and video projects that have been exhibited in Berlin’s Gropius Bau, Montréal’s Musée d’art contemporain, the Music Center Los Angeles and other prestigious institutions, and releasing music with labels such as Tresor, Knekelhuis, All Centre, Silva Electronics and CLUB CHAI, the label and event series she co-founded. In recent years, she’s also been able to advance the theory behind her art, publishing a conversation with ethnomusicologist Sylvia Alajaji in the Journal of the Society of Armenian Studies in 2021, and unveiling her methodology in Norient’s ‘This Track Contains Politics – The Culture of Sampling in Experimental Electronica’ a year later.

‘Remnants’ is a new stage in Sarkissian’s evolution as an artist; not only is it her first proper album, but it’s the inaugural release on her new platform btwn Earth+Sky. She sees the label as a place to encourage collaborations between musicians and producers and prioritize sound in visual arts realms, and ‘Remnants’ is the ideal proof of concept. It opens with ‘Heaven, or Paradise; and Hell’, a track that’s inspired by the layout of the Armenian sharakan (or hymn) ‘Aravot Luso’. Sarkissian imagines the original piece’s harmonies and melodies as parts of a dreamy electronic opera, using digital kanun sounds to punctuate her woozy, evocative synths. Soleimen joins on tenor sax in the third act, while Sarkissian repeats the chant and Jace Akira adds ghostly traces of electric guitar and bass. And on the rousing ‘Our Dead Can’t Rest (Old Jugha Flute Dance)’, Sarkissian chops urgent davul and dhol drum rhythms with spine-chilling shvi woodwind sounds lifted from a documentary about Old Jugha. The title is a reference to the moving of graves by Armenian families; the area initially housed over 10,000 elaborately carved khachkars (cross stones), one of which is pictured on the album’s cover, provided by historian Argam Aivazian’s archive.

On ‘Miracle’, Sarkissian samples atmospheres from the post-Soviet Armenian comedy film ‘Կիսանդրի’ (Kisandri). She takes this opportunity to lighten the mood a little, powdering her smudged samples with tightly edited breaks and bass thumps. It’s not until the album’s middle section that the duduk, perhaps Armenia’s best-known instrument, makes its appearance. Its familiar reedy tones, popularized by Djivan Gasparyan on his many Hollywood soundtrack appearances, emerge on ‘Unraveling (Interlude)’, weaving through the acidic ‘Zephyr’ and ‘Far from the eye far from the Heart’, a post-punk inspired stomper. Sarkissian mutates the instrument almost beyond recognition, pitching and layering it into a voice-like wail that creeps between her woody, dancefloor-primed percussion on the former, and turning it into a gentle, ghostly moan on the latter. And she brings ‘Remnants’ to a close with two of her most cryptic tracks, marrying digital kanun strings with Soleiman’s resonant tenor hums on ‘What Solace Can I Give’, and looping the same saxophone sounds until they dissolve into the air on the beatless closer ‘…nothing matters more than touching you although i haven’t touched you yet’.

It’s an album that ties up Sarkissian’s various interests and experiences, finding a romantic, poetic glimmer of light in history’s darkness. But most of all, ‘Remnants’ is about the optimism of starting anew, and rebuilding a life from the pieces of everything that’s been left behind.

Signing off 2024 in style, Berlin’s Pure Hate Trax brings you PH008 Execution Style EP by DJ Speedsick. The Wisconsin-born Chicago based recording & visual artist who also owns and operates as Snake Eyes & Sevens and Escalationist has previously released on labels such as Ophism Records, Bank NYC, Psychic Liberation, Psy X Records & Techno Is The Devil’s Music. Described as taking Techno to uncompromising places he delivers five hardware tracks direct out of the box implementing harsh instrumental industrial noises alongside Acid and Techno to create a signature Speedsick EP. PH008 is available in stores from 4th December 2024, distributed by Ready Made Distribution, Berlin. Mastered by Joe Farr. Artwork by Slave To
Society. Tracklist:

Alton Ellis is one the finest soulful voices to come out of Jamaica. As well as writing hit singles himself, he could make a cover version known as a foreign tune sound like a Jamaican reggae tune with the greatest of ease.

As the more upbeat rhythms of the earlier 'Ska' period began to slow down around the turn of 1966 some say due to the extreme heatwave that hit the island of Jamaica that year, slower rhythms suited the people to groove to at the various sound systems and dances. This also allowed the singers to express themselves more and allow the song to shrine through. No one did this better than Alton Ellis.

Alton Ellis (b.1944, Kingston, Jamaica) started off singing at an early stage as part of a duo with singer Eddie Perkins and recorded for both Studio One and Randy's as 'Alton and Eddy' and had a massive hit with the song 'Muriel'. The singing pair went their separate ways with Alton going solo with Studio One and being a much in demand voice also recorded with Duke Reid's Treasure Isle Studio as 'Alton Ellis and The Flames'. As we stated earlier as the beat slowed down the top singers shined through and Alton Ellis reigned supreme. One of his tunes that we feature on this set 'Get Ready(Do the Rocksteady') even gave this period in reggae's history its name 'Rocksteady'. It's this fantastic period Rocksteady 1966-1968 that we feature on this release. This set carries all the big hits 'Ain't That Loving You', 'Girl I've Got A Date', 'Cry Tuff' alongside many more classics. All the cut at Treasure Isle songs that really defined the era.

So sit back and enjoy the Rocksteady sound it's finest....
We hope you enjoy the set....

The last couple of years have seen a renaissance for West Coast singer-songwriters. LA-based youngsters such as Drugdealer and Sylvie have attracted considerable attention releasing warm and mellow records tonally reminiscent of the early 70s. Most fans of this new/old sound are unaware of Bart Davenport's early explorations in the same sonic territory. His now 20-year-old "Game Preserve"album should gain an appreciative new audience with its first ever vinyl release.

In the year 2000, Bay Area troubadour Bart Davenport and several other musicians were recruited by a major tech corporation in Seattle to work on an algorithm-based music matching/search engine. It was what looked like the beginning of a promising career. After a year, however, the project was shelved. Bart and his colleagues were laid off with a healthy severance package... on the 12th of September, 2001. Not only had the musician's life changed, so had the world. Rather than blow the money on a holiday or new car, Bart knew he had to make a record. A proper album that meant something.

Back in Oakland, he entered Wally Sound Studios with former Kinetics bandmate Jon Erickson at the controls, and a swathe of talented local musicians. "With Game Preserve," Bart explains, "Jon and I really wanted to knock it out of the park. I wanted to utilize people from my old bands like Loved Ones drummer John Kent. I also invited my newer indie-pop friends from Call & Response, and a young Nedelle Torrisi. Harmony singing by The Moore Brothers was an essential ingredient on Game Preserve as well."

Both Erickson and Davenport fondly recall growing up in households where the music of The Carpenters, Joni Mitchell and The Eagles soundtracked their young lives. By the early 00s they were ready to reconnect with what is often referred to as the "Laurel Canyon" sound. "I'd buy used tapes at garage sales and play them in the car. "Ladies Of The Canyon" by Joni and Jackson Browne's first album were both in heavy rotation. Jon Erickson was getting deeper into the Steely-Mac-Doobie yacht-rock sound in earnest. A certain amount of childhood nostalgia led a lot of us back to that part of the 70s. I'd flirted with classic soft-rock on my first album, but that record was pretty scattered esthetically. I wanted my next one to be more focused. Jon and I made some ground rules: no electric guitars (except on 'Bar-Code Trees'). No synths. Most importantly, all the songs have an air-tight, super dead, close mic'd drum sound. Putting these sorts of limitations on the sessions will give your record a specific quality. In the case of "Game Preserve"it's mostly about tight drums, acoustic instruments and analog production. We used a 24-track, two-inch tape machine for tracking, then ran the mixes through an analog board straight to a 1/4 inch master tape."

While the album's sonic palette may be firmly planted in 1970, Davenport's songwriting covers a sizable landscape of moods and reflections. From the quasi-flamenco intro of 'Sweetest Game' to the somber Wurlitzer of 'Nowhere Left To Go', to the 12-string shimmer of 'Intertwine', "Game Preserve" tells a story of young love, lost innocence and redemption, crossing borders and oceans along the way.

Released in 2003 on family-run Oakland label Antenna Farm, the ultra-analog sounding "Game Preserve" was only made available on digital formats, including CD. Copies were later pressed by labels in Germany and Spain; the latter being one country the album actually did well in, establishing Bart Davenport with a small but loyal fanbase he still enjoys today. Two European tours as support for Kings of Convenience also helped gain a foothold on the continent. Back in the US, however, Davenport and his sophomore album remained quite obscure.

Limited promotion meant it did little, but for the music lovers that heard it, the album undoubtedly remains a classic of the era, deserving far more. Twenty years on, it now finally receives its vinyl debut. "I personally think it holds up well," says Bart of the album two decades later. "The idea was to make something that could be an homage to late 60s/early 70s West Coast pop but hopefully timeless as well. Years on, I hear it as just that. It was a colorful and brief period of my life that felt at times like it could last forever. I discovered the joy of working in a proper studio with a perfect cast of characters. I'm still very close with all these people and still play music with many of them."

As we all know, reggae music was created in the Ghettos and has helped many people in their struggle & creating many opportunities for those who worked hard for it. In Brasil, with the rise of sound systems inspired by the UK and JA scene, Monkey Jhayam was one of the first artists to express his art and also build a solid and prominent career alongside many sound systems in his country. Out of São Mateus, Monkey broke barriers and has been collaborating with producers from all over the world.

Monkey Jhayam features on an interpretation of the Johnny Osbourne Roots Reggae Classic, “Truths & Rights” / Inst Vs on the A side and a re-mix Vs of “Great Old Men”/Vs (AA side). All tracks also feature Alvin Davis (Horns), Asha B (Congos & Percussion) with Rhythm/Lead Guitar from Steven ‘Marley’ Wright.

Who is Isabelle Lewis, anyway?

What kind of music does she make? Is she an opera singer? Does she write pop songs? Does she compose ethereal ambient soundscapes? Does she play chamber music on the violin? Is she producing dark, electronic beats?

Well… yes. But Isabelle Lewis is not so much a person as a project. Isabelle’s debut album, Greetings, credits a trio of composer–performers at its heart: producer Valgeir Sigurðsson, vocalist Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe, and violinist Elisabeth Klinck. The sound of the elusive Isabelle Lewis is heard most clearly in the push and pull between them, the three-way tension that gives the album its musical and emotional drive.

Each of the three brings more to the collaboration than those epithets might imply. Elisabeth’s solo performance practice incorporates composition, improvisation, live electronics, and a close command of bowing and fingering techniques that make her fiddle sing, whisper or whistle as required. Benjamin is a self-taught countertenor - keening, crooning, and swelling to a voluptuous sensuality—but also an interdisciplinary stage director and performer. Well known for his work as a producer and studio collaborator, and as a composer of scores for film and stage, Valgeir’s solo discography interweaves meticulously crafted electronics, drones, noise, and other digital elements with acoustic instruments and vocals recorded with naked, unflinching clarity.

But the extravagant theatricality Benjamin brings to the aptly titled “Drama”—also featuring a heroic violin solo from Elisabeth—grapples against the thudding bass of the implacable digital backdrop. On “Mother, Shelter Me” Valgeir’s austere and detailed production throws the hushed violin and vocals into stark relief. The result is an exquisitely uncanny juxtaposition of past and present, human and mechanical, like a Rococo treasure viewed under cold fluorescent lights, or an 18th-century automaton slowly opening its clockwork eyes.

Even the lyrics seem somehow out of time. On “O Solitude,” Benjamin goes so far as to quote an entire song by the first great English opera composer, Henry Purcell, verbatim. No stranger to Purcell’s music, which has made its way into Benjamin’s theatrical productions as well, here Isabelle Lewis removes Purcell’s melodies and harmonies and sets the text, Katherine Phillips’s 17th century translation of a poem by Antoine Girard de Saint-Amant, to new music whose heightened, archaic character nevertheless seems haunted by Baroque ghosts.

Throughout the album, the outsized emotions and timeless archetypes of Benjamin’s lyrics feel like relics from some half-forgotten past—from the neatly rhymed couplets of “Fisherman,” a seemingly straightforward (but still somewhat askew) character study, to the abstraction of “Moonshell,” whose words seem like the fragments of some ancient, lost lament. It is just another of many ways in which Isabelle Lewis carefully distorts the listener’s notions of time. On a more micro level, time can stop for a moment of weightless, drifting ambience, and then plunge forward as the cloud of harmonies suddenly lock into tempo with the drop of the bass or the change of a chord. Or else that weightless moment is allowed to be, as in the aptly named prologue and epilogue to these Greetings (“Voicemail”/“…and farewell”), or in the interstitial tracks that bind the album together, connecting its dramatic peaks with expanses of meditative stasis.

The album as a whole is elegantly shaped, swelling from an intimate, interpersonal statement into something deeper and more spacious. The first half of the album leans slightly towards self-contained pop songcraft and ticking beats, while side B jumps off from “O Solitude” into the almost symphonic grandeur of songs like “Moonshell” or the instrumental “Not the water, air, or the dirt.”

But as it progresses, the contrasts only grow more sublime: antique and postmodern, human and machinelike. The ominous weight of the droning sub-bass and trombone (guest player Helgi Hrafn Jónsson) only makes the interplay between vocals and violins (guest player Daniel Pioro joining Elisabeth) seem more delicate and vulnerable. The ethereal string tremolos of “Moonshell” seem to pull against the heavy, shuddering electronics and layers of crooning vocals.

And that, in short, is where you will find Isabelle Lewis. Like an ancient stone archway, or a delicate house of cards, the architecture of Greetings is held together by the tension between opposing forces. Not just in Elisabeth’s playing, Benjamin’s singing, or Valgeir’s arrangements and production but in the conflict and contrast that generates the synergy between them.

Oh—Isabelle says hi, by the way. She’s looking forward to meeting you.

Naoki Zushi. Perhaps best known for his stellar guitar contributions to psych folk group, Nagisa Ni Te, Zushi has had a parallel career, for several decades, slowly releasing solo albums that spotlight his exultant guitar playing. Originally released to CD only by Shinji Shibayama of Nagisa Ni Te’s Org imprint in 2018, IV has Zushi playing and writing at a peak, its six songs slowly unfurling with a kind of paradoxical understated grandeur. This is psychedelic guitar music at its most paced and considered, yet given to flights of inspiration, and in this respect, Zushi sits within a lineage of guitarists who’ve used their instrument both as textural anchor and improvisatory tool – think of figures like Phil Manzanera and Robert Fripp, but also Roy Montgomery, Liz Harris of Grouper, even Tom Verlaine on his instrumental solo albums. Like those artists, Zushi locates moments of deep emotional resonance amidst luxuriant textural and melodic exploration. Zushi’s history stretches back to the mid 1970s. While for many, he first appeared on the scene as a founding member of noise legends Hijokaidan, alongside Jojo Hiroshige, his musical contributions predate that encounter. He started out playing progressive rock and improvised music, making home recordings of when he was in high school. He was a member of Rasenkaidan (Spiral Staircase) alongside Hiroshige and Idiot (Kenichi Takayama), the group that soon mutated into Hijokaidan (Emergency Staircase). Zushi and Takayama would soon form Idiot O’Clock, in 1982; Zushi also led his own Naoki Zushi Unit, starting in 1983. But for many, Zushi’s first significant appearance on record was as a member of Shinji Shibayama’s mid-eighties psych-pop group, Hallelujahs, whose sole album was recently reissued on vinyl. That group mutated into Nagisa Ni Te, and Zushi has played a significant role as their lead guitarist for several decades. His own solo music has appeared sporadically – Paradise (1987), Phenomenal Luciferin (1998), III (2005) and IV, with a few recent, meditative offerings, For My Friends’ Sleep (2021) and Nocturnes (2022). With IV, though, Zushi achieved something remarkable, a kind of extended exploration of the time-altering properties of echoplexed, hypnotically spiralling guitar interplay. The opening ‘Mirror’, “a song about the mirror inside me,” Zushi explains, starts out as a lush psych-folk song, slow and gentle, but soon takes to the skies with a cat’s cradle of Fripp-esque guitars, before thick, droning chords sweep the song to a drowsy coda. ‘Nocturne’ weaves silver skeins of guitar melody around a cyclical chord pattern; it gathers energy and quiet intensity through insistent repetition. The rest of the album explores the nuance Zushi can draw out of simple elements, building on what ‘Mirror’ and ‘Nocturne’ offer – the profundity of a chord change; the melancholy of a few quietly sighed words; the exhilaration of a guitar solo bursting out of the speakers; the subtle shifts in emotional register offered by tone and touch. Throughout, there’s something quiet, yet ineffable, shading the contours of the songs, such that it makes perfect sense when Zushi says, “What I want to express through music may be ‘sense of mystery’.” A few of the songs had their basic parts recorded at LM Studio and Studio Nemu with Shibayama and Masako Takeda joining on bass and drums, respectively; much of the album, however, was tracked at Zushi’s home studio. That seems appropriate for a collection of songs that are expansive in their intimacy. Asked what drove the sessions, Zushi answers, “I thought I’d make IV an album that particularly focuses on the guitar play.” And focus it does, as Zushi’s sky-scraping, soaring, elemental tone is front and centre throughout. But these are no guitar heroics; rather, Zushi uses the guitar as conduit and diviner, a tool for spirit location, and IV is his most eloquent expression yet of such singular magic.

Frenchie King is a veteran artist and producer from the world of Reggae music. He was born in Jamaica and moved to the UK at the age of 12, where he began singing in a church choir. In the late 1960s he formed a church band with two friends called "The Ressurectors". Their music caught the attention of Reggae star Alton Ellis. After meeting Alton a new band formed called "Black Stallion" and their first song on Venture Records was released entitled - "Love Power". Alton was mentor and guiding light for Frenchie and crew; enabling them to jam with a host of Studio One artists.

Frenchie went on to work with noteworthy Reggae arists like: Alton Ellis, Dennis Brown, Dennis Alcapone, Ken Parker, Tito Simon, Dave Barker, Bobby Davis (The Sensations), Ruff Cutt, Owen Gray and Akabu.We didn't tour with Dennis or John Holt but Alton would always call them to the stage to jam, but we did a few shows with Alton sister Hortense Ellis and few other too much to mention...

Moving into the 1980s, Frenchie started a solo career and switched to the label "M1" where he released projects like "Your Entitled" and "Poor Me Natty Dread". During this time he also worked with renowned producer Sid Buckner (Studio One), before taking a brief hiatus; returning to help produce artist Owen Gray. He also wrote the song "Blackbird" for the band Akabu which was released in 1995 on U-Sound. M1 recording produce yours truly under name countryman linkup with the man Ezekiel in Luton hence M1

Moving forward into the 2000s, along with other musical adventures the iconic album "People Had Enough" was released in 2017, along with singles, "Let Us Do Something" and "Dance Cork". On let us do something and dance (kark) is produce by Michael McNeil aka the original jah son , a good musical sou-jah.

Which brings us up to date. In 2023 Frenchie hooked up with The Blackstones. Through this came the opportunity to work with Iron Sound Records and producer Alien Dread. This is the first single on ISR, with a solid Roots vocal track backed by studio band: Alvin Davis, Asha B and Steven Wright. More to follow!

Pat Kelly possesses one of the great soul voices to come out of Jamaica. Influenced by the fantastic American singer Sam Cook, Pat Kelly could ride over any tune that came his way and with his outstanding falsetto voice always added a little magic to each recording.

Pat Kelly (born 1949,Kingston, Jamaica) began his singing career in 1967 when he replaced Slim Smith as lead singer of the Techniques, his voice working so well with the impeccable harmonies of Winston Riley and Bruce Ruffin. Their first hit for the mighty Duke Reid stable was a version of Curtis Mayfield's tune 'You'll Want Me Back' retitled 'You Don't Care' which held the Number 1 position in Jamaica for six weeks. Their next hit was another Curtis Mayfield cover of the Impressions 'Minstrel and Queen' again retitled for the Jamaican market as 'Queen Minstrel'. Further hits followed with such cuts as 'My Girl' and 'Love is Not a Gamble' before in 1968 Kelly decided to become a solo artist and hooked up with producer Bunny Lee. Bunny decided not to break the tried and tested formula and put Kelly on another Curtis Mayfield track 'Little Boy Blue' a style that
suited his voice so well. This paid dividends and was followed with 'How Long' (will I love you)' which gave them the biggest selling Jamaican hit of 1969. A track which broke the mould in that often used tradition where Jamaican tracks are sweetened
for the foreign markets by adding string arrangements. This was reversed on this occasion as the tune had already been released in the UK and dubbed over with strings so came back to the Jamaican shores and released there.
Another string to Pat Kelly's bow was his engineering skills. Having already spent a year in America studying electronics he put this to good use and became little known to many
one of the chief engineers at Channel 1 studios in the late 1970's and early 1980's.

For this release we have focused on the fabulous singing skills of Mr Kelly and have compiled some of his finest recording moments for your listening pleasure. The aforementioned timeless cuts to 'How Long ( Will I Love You )', 'Little Boy Blue'
alongside some other killer lost classics, as our set opener 'It's a Good Day', 'Somebodys Baby', 'Give Love a Try' and 'I'm In the Mood for Love'. His version of 'Twelfth Of Never' in a Rocksteady Style sounds as good now as it did then. We have
also included his interpretation of the James Carr soul hit 'Dark End of the Street' which has Pat Kelly working over the same rhythm as 'How Long' but giving it a different slant
with these fresh lyrics. A fine set from one of the Islands finest, Jamaican Soul indeed... hope you enjoy the set.

2024 Repress


Johnny Clarke stands tall as one of the great vocalists that ruled the Jamaican reggae scene from the mid 1970's to the early 1980's Dancehall period. This re-issue of his 'Don't Stay Out Late' set shows his versatility to sing any song that was put in front of him and make it his own. Under producer Bunny 'Striker' Lee's guidance, Mr Clarke produced a run of singles and albums few could match.

Johnny Clarke (b 1955, Jamaica, West Indies) cut his first record 'God Made the See and Sun', after winning a local singing contest in the Bull Bay area of Jamaica. Although the single was not a hit, it led to two follow up tracks for producer Rupie Edwards, '
Everyday Wandering' and 'Julie' that fared much better, both on the island and overseas in England and Canada. These tracks also brought the singer to the attention of producer Bunny Lee and a working relationship that would go on to produce a prolific catalogue of music.
Johnny Clarke's Dread Conscious/ Love Song style were to grace many hits around this time in 1974. Such tunes as 'None Shall Escape The Judgement' , 'Move Out Of Babylon' , 'Rock With Me Baby' , 'Enter The Gates With Praise' to name but a few. All new songs added to a host of cover tunes, recommended by Bunny Lee, many taken from singer John Holt's catalogue, that suited Clarke's vocal style.
The rhythms were cut at various studios around the Island. Randy's Studio 17, Channel I, Treasure Isle, Dynamic Sounds and Harry J's by a group of musicians loosely called The Aggravators and voiced King Tubby's studio.

All great tracks backed by great rhythms, cut by Mr Johnny Clarke with a voice that few could equal.

Henrik Schwarz on the remix for Hot Since 82! A rare vinyl release on Knee Deep In Sound and it’s a special one; the German producer showing why he continues to be revered and around the world. Featuring a beautiful vocal from Ed Graves, there is also a dub for those that need it. A must have!

Waxwork Records is proud to present BARBIE Score From The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack composed by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt! The score is featured in the juggernaut film Barbie, directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken.

On composing the score, Ronson says, “Greta’s Barbie overflows with emotion in a way that inspires us to no end, not just with harmony and melody but also textures, sonics and rhythms. Sometimes Greta wanted us to elicit tears, sometimes she wanted it to feel like a disco. Sometimes she loved the warmth of vintage analogue synthesizers, sometimes she wanted the richness of the orchestra. Often, she wanted both.

“The late nights and crazy hours we put into Barbie were all worth it to us, because we were so in love with this film. And we truly hope listening to our score from beginning to end will give others the same emotional, whimsical experience they had watching this magical film.”

The highly anticipated film score vividly brings Gerwig’s vision to life and adds the perfect layer to the film that immerses fans into the Barbie Universe.

Tracklist:Creation of Barbie , Pink ("Barbie" Opening Theme) *Lizzo Cover , Beach Off , Ken Thinks , Stairway to Weird Barbie , Thoughts of Death , Send Me Through the Portal , Ken Makes a Discovery , Bus Stop Billie *Billie Eilish Cover , Mattel , Meeting Ruth *Billie Eilish Cover , You Failed Me! , Alan vs Kens , Deprogramming , Warmth of Your Gaze , An Ending , I Don't Have an Ending , What Was I Made For? (Epilogue) *Billie Eilish Cover

The first in a four-volume retrospective of Kuduro and tarraxinha pioneer DJ ZNOBIA. Incoming unto the world for a very long time from the musseke of Rangel, home of Casa da Mé&e Ju, in the Angolan capital o Ldanda, one if not the pivotal visionary of his country’s music electronic and digital modernism DJ Znobia, o/fum/an inventor. Usually considered the first purveyor of the fluency regarding tarraxinha (drinking in its foundational slow shuffle from the city of Benguela), as well as a main player in free thinking, spontaneous, funny, depressive, silly, melancholic, hilarious all encompassing beats within kuduro, batida, techno and beyond, his influence as a producer, DJ, MC and public fiuce has had a great imprint in Angolan culture for the better part of the last three ecades. This venture went through over 700 tracks of his archive (more than double are lost in the meantime between his and the NNT library) in order to collaboratively select a fiercely representative albeit balanced affair from his production, between instrumentals for sung kuduro, instrumental kuduro/batida, sung and instrumental tarraxinha, and other creative styling from the late 90’s to the mid 2000’s. Forms now heard around the world which started here, with Znobia a decisively influential contributor, along with several of his peers and collaborators, which will be also in evidence in this four volume retrospective. His story is way too far flung for this endeavor to try and make a simple narrative out of it. You have to be him, you have to be within this territory, and we ask of the people who will approach to ask him what has happened with the history of this music and what is the current reality at ground zero Luanda, as he is a mirror and visionary of its streets, in a country with such complicated dynamics and brutal treatment of its citizens. To try to put in a clean slate for this conversation, let’s talk to a genius of street music. Your question. First, here's the opening collection of what we have to share with you.

DJ Support: Kevin Reynolds, James Baron, Hot Toddy, Pablo Valentino, Colin Dale

Suite For Chick is a heartfelt Homage to the late Jazz Maestro Chick Corea.

This collection features reinterpretations of City Gate, Rumble, Time Track, and Hymn of the Heart from the Chick Corea Elektric Band, as well as Return to Forever’s classic Romantic Warrior. These vibrant renditions celebrate Corea's enduring legacy in the jazz world.

Chick Corea played a crucial role in shaping Miles Davis's electric fusion era and was a key member of his Lost Quintet. He was also a founding force behind Return to Forever and many other influential groups.

Bangkok-based Maarten Goetheer collaborates with top Thai drummer Pong Nakornchai, blending Wurlitzer chords, Moog basslines, ARP leads, and signature Rhodes phasings. Nakornchai, a Master’s graduate in Jazz Studies from Mahidol University, leads his own quartet and embodies the progressive spirit of modern jazz in Thailand.

Maarten's inspiration stems from his musical upbringing; his father, Gerard Goetheer, was a jazz pianist. This environment fostered his deep appreciation for music. A pivotal moment came when he heard Masters at Work remixing Tania Maria, igniting his vision to merge genres and create something new.

With Suite for Chick Maarten wanted to incorporate a wider range of Modern influences that he became infatuated with throughout his Musical career such as Techno, Italo, Cosmic Disco, Dub, Acid, Boogie, Proto-House & Ambient Music.

To Maarten bringing these genres together is his current and unique interpretation of the JAZZ FUSION moniker.

Radio Support: Kev Beadle Radio support, Colin Curtis Radio support, RINSE FM mini album mix & interview on Tim Garcia show, BBC6 RADIO New Music Fix 16th Oct 2024

DJ Feedback:

DJ Harvey - Very cool collection of reworks

Terry Farley - so fucking good - house heads will be lovin’ this

Laurent Garnier / FG Radio France: Whaouuuu. That’s brilliant. Great album!

Lars Behrenroth / Deeper Shades Of House: This is so cool. Love the dub of City Gate, too. Great music

Jimpster / Freerange: Great idea to work up some contemporary interpretations of Chick classics! Was always a fan of Time Track so nice to hear this one included. These tracks strike a really nice balance of electronic/sequenced elements and live recording. I’m into it!

Tim Garcia / Rinse FM: I think this whole release is excellent and inspired, nice to see a tribute to one of my favourites work so well.

a A1: City Gate Rumble Original
[b] A2: City Gate Rumble [Reprise Dub]
[c] A3: Romantic Warrior [Original]
[d] B1: Time Track [Original]
[e] B2: Time Track [Reprise]
[Original]

Apnea Records proudly welcomes a new face to the family, though one whose name resonates deeply in the electronic music world. Versalife, also known as Conforce, steps onto the label with the first of two meticulously crafted EPs in the "Parallax Effect" series. With a career spanning over 20 years of sonic innovation, Versalife delivers a masterful blend of broken rhythms, metallic textures, pulsating synths, and analog tones. From industrialesque electro to deep IDM explorations, "Parallax Effect PT.1" takes listeners on an immersive journey through cutting-edge soundscapes. And with Part 2 on the horizon, this is just the beginning of an exciting new chapter for both Versalife and Apnea Records. Pure bliss for lovers of forward-thinking electronic music!

The second offering from Mud Trax, a division of MixCult Records is a compilation to remember.

With Dub Tech laid out in all its many forms and moods by a dynamic assortment of rhythms, it is nothing less than exquisitely fresh pop manipulative.The album features contributions from Kirill Matveev, Ataneus, Genning and Etzu Mahkayah. With an electrifying mix of dub's sprawling scope and acid's driving rhythm, even a record that pushes sound the way this one does can come off totally funky.

Kirill Matveev & Wiklauri's Ioli (Kirill's Version) makes for a promising opening, melding into deep dub its ethos of acid, a psychedelic blend that touches the nerves of those who love to dance. Ataneus takes it further on A2 with Napolitaner, a track that is like nothing else: dense, dub-coloured layers of sound, which create a steadily seductive momentum able to steal listeners away into temporal plunge.

On the other side, B1's Red Lights by Genning is at once a punchy piece and a dancefloor phalanx of sound. A work meticulously sculpted by the speakers, yet redolent with natural energy-Geistgemäss.
The journey is brought to a close by Etzu Mahkayah's Cs-137 on B2, hypnotic grooves offering equal parts reflectivity and pumping energy.

Taken together these tracks provide an experience that is euphoric yet absorbing, each not only embodying Dub Tech but also pushing it in new directions.

Cascading through kaleidoscopic stardust and forming in the outer reaches of the music universe, transcending time and distance, cosmonaut musicians Mo Morris & Zeben Jameson reconnect to write & record songs from opposite sides of their planet (Bali and London) written over the internet during the pandemic. Landing the much anticipated and eagerly awaited new A Mountain of One album "Stars planets dust me".

Welcome to the formative British psych electronic heroes A Mountain Of Ones 3rd studio album.

Mastered and reimagined and a full forthcoming album rework by electronic wizard, master selector & global superstar Ricardo Villalobos, featuring additional collaborations from 80s/90s Balearic legends "The Woodentops`s" front man "Rolo McGinty,”, Japan’s cult heroes ``Dip in the Pool" and "Unkle" and "Toy Drum`s" Pablo Clements.

UK Dub master "Dennis Bovell MBE" also makes an incredible appearance on the "Custards Last Stands" dub versions. Now available on a ltd Japanese 10". A beautiful artwork series generously loaded in by photography legend Dick Sweeney, and co-mixed by Dea Barandana in Indonesia. With its cosmic pop sound, soulful soaring, balearic sensibilities and feel good choruses it carries all the weight of a much needed revo- lution in psychedelic, conceptual ever popular music and sounds & feels like the infamous crossover album that promised to come from the heady days of the bands ascend last time round.

So here’s some back story, garnered from the hearsay, folk law, the myths and the legends, of 10 years ago, in case, like Mo & Zeb, if they'd remembered any of it, they probably weren’t there, after 2 much acclaimed albums and sellout shows vanishing in a cosmic cloud of dust the yin and yang brothers Mo Morris (ZSOU/Electric Stew) & Zeb Jameson (Oasis/Tricky/Pretenders) uncoupled and each em- barked on a pathfinder mission to equip themselves for their inevitable return... they just didn’t know it at the time... and as the global community ground to a halt 2 years ago they sought refuge from opposite sides of the planet in each other's company again.

The solace and rejuvenation it gave had them re-emerging as invigorated, inspired and wiser music creators, this has given rise to the evolution of their 3rd all important album‘s sound.

Zeb "our capacity as human beings is more phenomenal and limitless and way beyond the conventional thinking of society constructs but also in complete harmony with the intelligence and brilliance of advancing technologies".
Experiencing this energy together, as dedicated and devoted music pioneers, these great collaborative universal truths were revealed, imbed and steeped in their writing and recording experience as the music touched and resonated with all involved to create the fresh and fully formed A Mountain Of One 2.0.

A Mountain of One return with their second single from eagerly awaited forthcoming album "Stars Planets Dust Me".

"Dealer" sees them push further into the Cosmos with a modern take on the electronic disco pulses of Kraftwerk and Giorgio Moroder mixed with organic sensibilities, Electric sitar and reverse guitar akin to the heady moments of The Beatles track "Tomorrow never knows". Criss crossing Balearic, psychedelia, disco and electronica.



”Dealer” shows the band, made up of musical soulmates Mo Morris and Zeben Jameson, have lost nothing in the past decade. Recorded over Skype during the coronavirus pandemic, with Mo now in Bali and Zeben in west London, a shimmering, modern classic, experimental but accessible, melodic and adventurous. As ever, it is utterly unique, made in a musical universe all of their own.

When A Mountain Of One first started performing, they quickly became one of the most- acclaimed bands out there, with the likes of i-D, Sunday Times Culture, Pitchfork, NME and more raving about them and their inspired and original approach.

Sold-out shows and awesome reviews followed with “Collected Works” and “Institute of Joy”, two phenomenal globally acclaimed albums that have stood the test of time,
This heady odyssey is mastered again by Global Electronic music icon "Ricardo Villalobos", and soon to also be remixed by Ricardo on a full album of his interpretations of the forthcoming album.
Their first single "Custards last stand" from the forthcoming album had radio support from NTS radio, Worldwide FM / BBC 6.



The forthcoming album “Stars Planets Dust Me” will be released March of 2022.

Moondog's jovial H'art Songs was the first release not to incorporate his name in the title, but the record that forever proved his genius. A rare vocal album recorded by Moondog when he was in his sixties, these ten art songs blur the boundaries between classical and pop music. Moondog called this series of art songs "H'art songs" - Hardin's art songs. The musical content is on a higher level than most popular music, but has an appeal to a wide range of tastes, from the pop to the classical listener. This collection of piano pop songs written and recorded in 1977 made Moondogs' stunningly eclectic discography even more chaotic musically. It also featured some of his most mesmerizing wordplay. Telling tales that can be interpreted as metaphors for how to live - sometimes political, sometimes autobiographical, sometimes nature loving - they are always intriguingly poetic, and helped push this album to the very top of all Moondog'sreleases. "My singing style is without vibrato, as is the singing style of most of the people in the world. The voice part I have kept simple, intentionally, so that I and many others who like to sing such songs, including the barbershop quartet people, would be able to sing them. As I did on the record, the voice part should be sung by one voice or in unison, but not in harmony, because the harmony is exclusively in the piano parts, which are more complicated than the voice parts, especially in the canons and the obligati, which carry the main melodic burden." "Moondog singing Moondog? Really! even goodness knows, Moondog doesn't sing a song; he shows you how it goes." - Louis T Hardin aka Moondog. First time on Vinyl since 1978. Inner sleeve with lyrics to sing along to. Album liner notes by Moondog.

Over the course of her trailblazing career, Charli XCX has earned critical acclaim for her forward-thinking musical output and refreshing entrepreneurial spirit that has seen her carve her own lane on the global pop circuit. A singer, songwriter, video director, documentary maker, radio host and record label boss, Charli’s story is one of an artist continuing to succeed without compromise.

Now in 2020, Charli is already breaking boundaries - this year has seen her first BRIT nomination for British Female Solo Artist, marking a huge moment of validation from a mainstream audience that Charli has built on her own terms. In reaction to the global COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, Charli has proven herself to be one of the most adaptable artists working today; initially providing programs of Instagram live sessions that invited various guests to spark conversation, share insight, or simply entertain fans across the world who are currently practicing social distancing. Charli’s vision then expanded further, leading her to announce ‘how i’m feeling now’ - a new album to be written, recorded and released in 39 days, completely in self-isolation. The creative process was also to push her collaborative stream in a unique way; opening up the recording, writing, artwork, music videos and more to fans for feedback and contribution - she also further inspired her fans’ creativity, allowing them access to song stems to create remixes and greenscreen footage to be edited using their own imagination.

‘how i’m feeling now’ has given further spotlight to Charli’s status as one of the most adaptable, exciting pop artists working today, and through it’s uniquely collaborative approach, provided a shared space for those who listen to feel safe enough to express themselves however they wish at a time when they need it most.

NOTON is pleased to announce the release of Xerrox Vol. 5, the final installment of Alva Noto’s Xerrox series.

For anyone who has been following the series since its inception in 2007, the concept of Xerrox no longer requires introduction. Originally, it aimed to create copies of images—both visual and acoustic—that are more memorable than the originals. The exploration of the relationship between the original and the copy, along with the invention of the copier, not only inspired the series name but also informed its underlying concept. In 2024, this series comes to an end, marking the culmination of a journey that began with the first recording in 2005/2006. Over nearly two decades, the five albums in this series have accompanied the artist's evolving perspective and conceptual approach.

Initially characterized by rawness and a conceptual focus on seeking resolution in white noise, the later works engage with themes of dissolution while shifting their emphasis toward acoustic particles. The copying process is now less visible through software manipulation; rather, it unfolds as the artist describes melodic and acoustic images that are then manipulated, copied, and transformed into new patterns during composition.

Nicolai describes this evolution as a journey encompassing buildup, exploration, and resolution, drawing parallels to the Odyssey and the stories of Jules Verne, particularly those featuring Captain Nemo.

The conclusion of this album holds a sense of finality for the artist. “I aimed to create a whole cycle of tracks that frame both the beginning and the end,” Nicolai explains. “The motif of the journey continues, but this time, the story reaches a dissolution through a conceptual object that embarks on its own journey into infinity. The word “dissolution” (“Auflösung” in German) is a wonderful concept. On one hand, you can solve a riddle, on the other hand, a pill can completely dissolve in water. Here, I am deliberately describing the process of dissolution.”
In crafting Volume 5, Nicolai has evolved his compositional process, eschewing samples in favor of original melodies. “This album probably took the longest to complete,” he reveals. “I first created melodic sketches, which became the foundation for the pieces. These recordings are created entirely from scratch. Based on these sketches, I constructed the process of copying, manipulating, and reshaping.”

Drawing from his recent experiences working with film and larger ensembles, Nicolai's approach to composition reflects a growing influence of classical instrumentation. “This experience of working with acoustic classical instruments has flowed into the compositional process for Xerrox Vol. 5. Certain instruments are designed with potential orchestral translation in mind.”

The sonic atmosphere of Xerrox Vol. 5 is one of profound dissolution. “I wasn’t initially interested in strong, emotional melodic aspects,” Nicolai shares, “but I realized that the fragment plays a central role.” This shift leads to an emotionally charged experience, imbued with melancholy and the bittersweet essence of farewell. The passing of Ryuichi Sakamoto, an admirer of the series, has further deepened the album’s emotional resonance.

“Xerrox Vol. 5 has a lot to do with farewell,” the artist explains. "Not only the farewell to the series itself, which I’ve nurtured for almost two decades, but also there have been many farewells to people who were close to me. I believe these people are recognizable in the music. It’s a very emotional, personal album.”

Listeners can expect a visual dimension to the music, though Nicolai intentionally leaves this open to interpretation. “I prefer to allow the music to evoke personal experiences and images rather than dictate a specific narrative,” he states. The result is a layered listening experience that invites tenderness and introspection.