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For its 20th anniversary, Keplar presents an absolute milestone in the history of IDM and ambient music for the first time in its definite form: »Together Is the New Alone« by Donnacha Costello was originally released on Mille Plateaux in 2001 as the second LP under the Irish producer’s given name and firmly established him as one of the leading artists in the field of forward-thinking electronic music after he had primarily made a name for himself with house and techno releases under the Jayrod moniker. This vinyl reissue with an entirely new artwork comprises all ten tracks originally only included on the CD version in their edited and final form in which they were last presented on the digital re-release under the name »Together,« remastered by Stephan Mathieu and self-published by Costello, in 2015.

Truly prescient artists rarely opt for introspective sounds, however that was the case when Costello set out to produce »Together Is the New Alone« during nightly session in his hometown Dublin between April and July in 2001, and it also explains the album’s enduring appeal and unwavering radiance twenty years on. While many of his contemporaries dedicated themselves to explore the musical zeitgeist and notions of the future in conceptual terms, Costello made them emotionally tangible, allowing his audience to feel their underlying ambiguity rather than just reflect on it. »Together Is the New Alone« is an album that wordlessly speaks of the paradoxical sense of social alienation and isolation expressed by its title and thus seems even more topical today than it did at the time of its release.

Working with elements from techno culture, glitch aesthetics, intricate IDM rhythms and lush ambient textures, Costello never once throughout the album adheres to tried and tested formulas and conventions, but holistically moulds complex compositions out of distinct and discrete parts. The result is a record that is at once easily accessible and deeply affecting, but also infinitely rich and stunningly sophisticated in musical terms. A personal record expressing a universal sentiment—a truly timeless statement that will reverberate for decades to come.

(Kristoffer Cornils)

Deluxe gatefold 2LP on coloured vinyl, limited to 500 copies.The Bony King of Nowhere's critically acclaimed debut album finally gets its first release on vinyl in 12 years + second LP including a selection of home recordings.

From its founding in the late 14th century, the kingdom of Buganda has been celebrated through sound and nurtured a rich musical tradition in its royal court. Coming from across the kingdom, musicians would take turns in the palace to sound drums, xylophones, flutes, lyres, and more to praise and honour the existence of the kingship. In recent years however, the tradition has been more difficult to maintain, especially since 1966 where there was a violent attack on the palace that abruptly abolished the kingdom and during which royal musicians fled or were killed. And while the kingdom was re-established in 1993 as a cultural institution, many of the remaining musicians had since chosen to sideline their skills to deal with the issues of their day to day lives, the practice of the royal tradition waning in popularity, especially with younger listeners and players. But all is not lost. Scattered across the kingdom, a motivated team of older veterans and attentive young players are still keeping the tradition alive. Offering a transversal glimpse into the past and the present, "Buganda Royal Music Revival" collects recordings made in between the late 1940s and 1966 illustrating the older generation's skills, and presents them alongside recent recordings featuring old and young musicians who still carry on this musical tradition, some even performing for the current king, Muwenda Mutebi II. The later were made during the shooting of the 2019 documentary "Buganda Royal Music Revival" that presents through a film what this album conveys through sounds: a packed dive into a century-old tradition. The music displayed here is diverse and vibrant, presenting a variety of styles and highlighting instruments that illustrate the depth and sophistication that stemmed from the royal court experience of Buganda. As a starter, the album opens with 'Mujaguzo'. Often translated as 'The Drums of the Kingship', the mujaguzo is a crucial ensemble for the cultural tradition, made from drums collected by the kingdom throughout its long history and numbering around 100 drums (historical records suggest there were at some point over 300). They are the vitality of the kingship packaged into sound. From here, we're introduced deeper to an array of instruments and textures, like the buzzing Bugandan lyre (endongo) by contemporary royal player Albert Bisaso Ssempeke, the resonant akadinda xylophone with its 21 large wooden keys, Temutewo Mukasa's restless praise sung with his harp (ennanga), the hand-made gourd trumpet (amakondere), the entenga "drum-chime" and its core set of 12 drums tuned like the amadinda xylophone, or the tightly intertwined melodies of the flutes ensemble (abalere). With the music, the hissing and swishing sounds of old tapes reminds at times the listener of the long process, from the original recording to its archival digitization, that allows the talent of past musicians to still vibrate nowadays. This rousing selection of music and moods is a unique and all too rare exploration of sounds that celebrates the common history of generations of musicians, and the question remains open as to how this rich cultural tradition will shape and be shaped by the upcoming Bugandan future, and what engagement it will trigger among audiences within, but also beyond, the kingdom of Buganda.

The Ethiopians are one of the great vocal groups to come out of Jamaica. Singing songs of life and times as they found them, themes that resonated with the people of the Island that made them such a treasured group. Lenard Dillon (b. 9 December, 1942, Port Antonio, Jamaica) the founding member of the Ethiopians began his singing career at Clement 'Coxonne' Dodd's Studio One. Initially he recorded under the name of Jack Sparrow, and backed by the Wailers, cutting 'Ice Water' and 'Suffering In The Land'. Under The Wailers encouragement, he went on to form his
own vocal group. Recruiting singers Stephan Taylor (b.1944, Portland, Jamaica) and Aston 'Charlie' Morris to become The Ethiopians. They cut 'Live Good', 'Why You Gonna Leave Me Now' and 'Owe Me No Pay Me'. Although receiving favourable response, Aston Morris decided to leave the band and the remaining pair carried on and cut 'I'm A Free
Man' and 'Don Dead Already' and 'For You'. On meeting contract builder Leebert Robertson who had recently returned to live in Jamaica, ashad he wanted to get into the music business, a session was booked for Treasure Isle Studios. The session produced their seminal 'Train To Skaville' track, which became an immediate hit in Jamaica and in the UK, when in 1967 it reached number 40 in the charts. They also cut 'Engine 54', which became the title of their debut album. Its
follow up 'I Need You / Do It Sweet', did not fare so well and the band moved over to Sonia Pottinger's stable, where they cut 'The Whip / Cool It Amigo' which revived their fortunes and proved another big hit for the band. Two more hits followed 'Stay Loose Mama' and 'The World Goes Ska', after which the band decided to return to a trio, adding
Melvin 'Mellow' Reid to the line up. The band now hit another run of successes with producer JJ Johnson 'Everything Crash, 'Gun Man', 'Hong Kong Flu' and 'The Selah'. Many hits followed leading the band to work with a variety of Jamaican producers. Such tracks as 'I Want To Be a Better Man, ' Conquering Lion', 'Fire A Mus Mus' Tail', and the timeless 'Reggae Hit The Town' to name a few. Two albums 'Reggae Power' (1969) and 'Woman Capture Man' (1970), pulled a lot of these tunes together. Sadly Taylor was killed in 1975 after been struck by a van in a road accident. Dillon returned to Port Antonio till 1977, when he was persuaded to return to Treasure Isle studios with producer Niney The
Observer and cut the Rasta based album 'Slave Call'. Additional members who joined for this album were Bro Fatty, Bro Ewing, Bro T, Mello and Hychi Dread. An album that showed all the Ethiopians magic had not been lost.
For this release we have included the full 'Slave Call' set, 'Ethiopian National Anthem', 'Slave Call', 'Guilty Conscience', 'Hurry On', 'Mus Follow Babylon'(on CD Edition), 'Train To Skaville (1977 version, on CD Edition), 'Culture', 'Obeah Book', 'Let It Be' and 'I Love Jah'. Alongside some of the bands early hits including the original version of 'Train To Skaville', 'Engine 54', the great and poignant 'Everything Crash', 'Reggae Hit The Town' and 'The Selah'. An interesting set to remind us what a great group the Ethiopians really were.

REPRESSED !!

Wolfsheim are a synthpop duo from Hamburg, Germany consisting of Markus Reinhardt (music) and Peter Heppner (lyrics and vocals). The band was founded in 1987 by Markus Reinhardt and Pompejo Ricciardi and was named after Meyer Wolfsheim, a fictional character from F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel 'The Great Gatsby'. Ricciardi soon left the band and was replaced by Peter Heppner, a childhood friend of Reinhardt's. Together they produced their first demo tape, Ken Manage', in 1988.

After making a second demo tape, Any But Pretty', in 1989, Wolfsheim applied at various labels until they caught the attention of independent record label Strange Ways Records. They are best known for their debut breakthrough single, "The Sparrows and the Nightingales', the first single to be released on Strange Ways in 1991. The band's musical style takes cues from the 1980s New Romantics, new wave, synthpop, and darkwave. The track's sombre synths were produced by Carlos Peron of Yello. Reinhardt says the lyric was inspired by 'The Great Gatsby', "in the 'onomatopoeic tension' between predator and security." Over six minutes, the narrator describes being lost, unsure of where his life is heading, using highly metaphorical language. On the flip is a brand new remix by German producer Ancient Methods, a pseudonym of Michael 'Trias' Wollenhaupt, who provides a driving, EBM-leaning, amphetamine-laced club ready cut.

All songs have been remastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. Designer Eloise Leigh has updated the record's original design with two sparrows enclosed in a blood moon circle against a deep black purple backdrop. Each copy comes with a black and white photo postcard notes by Carlos Peron and the song's lyrics. This release comes in time to celebrate the single's 25th anniversary.

Witness the ever-changing, ever-mutating threat that is reality.
Perception is under duress; sensibility is bending everyday
under the barrage of nonsense. One must make note of whom
one is and what one has become: look into the mirror of the
planet-killers—psychic cannibals infiltrate and contaminate
once familiar and seemingly secure territories… formidable
foes indeed! What powers these beasts? What fuels discord
and hatred? The behemoth of a “civil” society? What are the
weapons at one’s disposal? Generosity is the aegis against greed,
empathy is the armor to deflect apathy, love is the club to abate
hate…the fog is lifting and humans are opening their eyes.
And so Castle Face offers this field recording, the Osees
Protean Threat, from the pits as a quick booster between protein
pills and recycled sweat beverage anthems to assist the listener
to not worship at the altar of violence and greed, to not offer
oneself up for free, to stand up and be vigilant! Truth will not
be found in the speeches and photo ops of the overlords— stand
strong and together under the gaze of the oppressors.
Stand vigilant, united with those who don’t have the same
privileges. Demand respect and a peaceful life for all.
This recording is at the apogee of scuzz—punk anthem
amulets for the ears and heart, a battery for one’s core. Be
strong. Be human. Be love.

Time fortifies the bonds between us. Since emerging in 2018, Light The Torch have grown stronger in lockstep together as a band and as friends. Through this growth, the Los Angeles, CA trio—Howard Jones vocals, Francesco Artusato [guitar], and Ryan Wombacher [bass]—only enhanced every aspect of their signature sound. Upheld by head-spinning seven-string virtuosity, yet also anchored to skyscraping melodies, the group crafted twelve no-nonsense and no-holds-barred metallic anthems on their 2021 second full-length album, You Will Be The Death of Me [Nuclear Blast].
“The past few years have helped me to become much more personal in my writing,” explains Howard. “Even though I’m kind of a loner, this band became real family. My experiences with Ryan and Fran inside and outside of the band truly bonded us. I think it shows in this album, it truly represents who we are as a group.”

“Every second on this record was thought-out,” adds Fran. “Howard’s performance gives me chills, because it feels so alive. There’s so much emotion in it. I know the guy very well at this point, and our friendship is a big part of Light The Torch.”That friendship cemented over the course of the past three years. The group shot out of the gate as a contender on their full-length debut, Revival. It bowed at #4 on the Billboard US Independent Albums Chart and at #10 on the Hard Rock Albums Chart in addition to receiving acclaim from Revolver, Outburn, and many more. “Calm Before the Storm” racked up a staggering 14.5 million Spotify streams, while “The Safety of Disbelief” remains one of SiriusXM Octane’s all-time most requested songs. They also crisscrossed North America and Europe on tour with the likes of Trivium, Avatar, In Flames, Ice Nine Kills, Killswitch Engage and August Burns Red to name a few.

In late 2019, an idea for the title track “Death of Me” kickstarted the creative process. The guys returned to Sparrow Sound in Glendale, CA to once again work with the production team of Josh Gilbert and Joseph McQueen [Bullet for My Valentine, As I Lay Dying, Suicide Silence].This time around, they also welcomed Whitechapel’s Alex Rudinger on drums. “He’s incredible,” says Fran. “He was exactly what we needed.”Now, they kick down the door for You Will Be The Death of Me with the single “Wilting In The Light.” Howard’s instantly recognizable vocals soar over a sweeping riff and rolling beat before culminating on a massive luminous hook, “Over and over again we struggle. We’re wilting in the light, and we stumble in the dark.”“It has a different vibe and a very interesting riff,” observes Howard. “I love it when listeners can take what they want from a song. This was a special one for us.”

“More Than Dreaming” opens up the record with gut-punching guitar and another knockout hook. Elsewhere, airy keys wrap around chugging distortion on the title track “Death Of Me.” Regarding the latter, the frontman goes on, “Most people have some source of grief in their lives. It’s relatable, and it was appropriate for the song.”After the melodic melancholia of “Come Back To The Quicksand,” Light The Torch recharge the 1987 Terence Trent D’Arby classic “Sign Your Name” as the record’s climax. Shimmering keys bleed into an overpowering verse before it snaps into the immortal chorus beefed up with thick distortion. “Howard stayed at my house with me and my wife for the entire recording of the album,” recalls Fran. “I like to cook, and one night during the first week of pre-production I made everyone dinner. A compilation with ‘Sign Your Name’ started playing, and I thought, ‘I can do a version that would sound awesome!’ Howard knew and loved the song too. For as crazy as it sounded, it worked so well.”
In the end, the bond between Light The Torch burns brighter than ever in the music as they deliver a definitive statement with You Will Be The Death Of Me.

“We wanted to make a fully listenable and fun album that doesn’t let up,” Howard leaves off. “At the same time, we’re showing some heart, passion, and connection. It’s what we’ve always intended to do with this band.”

Malin Genie's post-corona label for quality music and an optimistic future.

Truly adventurous and life enhancing music that invigorates your soul. TIP!

Press Release:

Gordan join traditional Serbian singing with abstraction, energy and minimalism. Their music is marked by radical reduction, seemingly endless ascension and a passion for experiments.

The Serbian singer Svetlana Spajić is an internationally recognized and acclaimed artist. She, like almost no other contemporary singer, is a master of all the complex local stylistic variations of singing from Balkan music. Guido Möbius plays bass and various electronic sound generators. Additionally he uses guitar amps, microphones and effects to provoke feedback which either harmonize or are juxtaposed with the song. It is a dialogue between sound and noise which is accentuated or fragmented by means of Andi Stecher’s expressive drumming. With a rich pool of ideas the percussionist drives the sound forward breathlessly and grounds it. Together the trio form a dynamic body of sound.

Gordan recorded their debut during the first wave of the Covid19 pandemic in Europe in March 2020. Due to the lockdown in Berlin at that time the city didn’t have many distractions to offer, so the trio just concentrated on work. The atmosphere of being isolated in a recording studio had a big impact on the musical results. All three band members came up with ideas for new pieces, which were immediately tested, worked out and recorded. On abstract instrumentals provided by Stecher and Möbius, Svetlana Spajic sometimes reacted with personal interpretations of serbian traditionals, and the other way around. Most of the time it was as if the music just happend to the band; playing together felt natural from the first moment on.

Some of the old serbian traditional songs that Spajic sang are extinct forms with a specific local melodic mode. The skillful improvisation of their lyrics and ornaments was of great importance and very estimated among village singers. The title song Down In The Meadow for instance originally is a love song from the village of Odevce in eastern Kosovo, Serbia. The singing manner is of a great intensity and sonority, with lots of specific local ornaments. It disappeared along with the village communities from the area. Oh, my Rose flowers is from the region of Kopaonik mountain (southwest Serbia) and the mode, scale is known as ”kopaonički glas” (Kopaonik mountain air). Svetlana adopted the style from the late singer Veličko Veličković from the village of Ostraće. It is an old mountain solo chant, rich in fast ornamentation movements and microtonal intervals. Don’t ask how I live is Svetlana’s homage to the new popular folk music movement from the 80ies known as Južni Vetar (Southern Wind) led by a musician and composer Mile Ilić, known as Mile Bas (“Mile the Bass”) which revolutionized popular music introducing tabooed oriental music and original arrangements.

All music by Spajic Stecher Möbius except ‘Don’t Ask How I Live’ by Miodrag M. Ilić, original title Što me pitaš
All lyrics are traditional, except ‘Don’t Ask How I Live’

Svetlana Spajic — vocals
Andi Stecher — drums & percussion
Guido Möbius — bass, feedback, electronics

Recorded by Alberto Lucendo at UFO sound studios Berlin in March 2020 mixed by Morphosis
Mastering by Neel at Enisslab, Rome
Artwork by Lorenzo Mason Studio

Biga Ranx is a major artist of the international Dub Scene, he has been acclaimed by the biggest Jamaican MC's over the years for his unique flow and style. From the age of 14, Biga has been working on his lyrics, his compositions, etc.. After 5 albums and 1000 gigs over the world, Biga Ranx his still evolving and his mixing Dub, Electronic, Lo-Fi and Hip Hop sounds.

Night Bird is his 3rd album released in 2015

Initially released digitally at the end of 2020, Olamide celebrates the one year anniversary of the hit album, Carpe Diem, with it's first physical release. Although his eleventh studio album, Carpe Diem marks the first body of work under American label and distribution company, EMPIRE. With bubbly and melodical production from Young John, Pheelz, ID Cabasa, P.Prime, and VStix, the album features Fireboy DML, Bad Boy Timz, Omah Lay, Phyno, Peruzzi and Bella Shmurda. In tune with the title, this marks the start of Olamide's global takeover.

An hour of finely crafted grooves where cosmic atmospheres meet late night bangers !

While on a break due to a certain pandemic, L’Eclair threw itself in the making of a new album. Until that point recording sessions were usually really short. Former albums were made in only a few days and recorded mostly live on tape. That changed as the band decided to do four recording sessions over nine months, hence allowing the group and its sound engineer/manager Benoit Erard to spend more time and energy on the production. With the ability to step back and reflect on the work in progress, L’Eclair had the occasion to take things a step above in terms of arrangements, compositions and structures. The result is an hour-long 12 tracks record, which is more diversified and concise than previous efforts.

Titled “Confusions”, the album shows L’Eclair’s obsession with groove in all its forms. It blends club vibes with psychedelic grooves, rhythmic trances and ambient comedowns while retaining a true coherence. Produced and organic, danceable and ethereal, spontaneous and cerebral, joyful and melancholic, “Confusions” is always on the fence between very different moods without ever wandering off. The band’s never fading influences are still there: you can hear hints of CAN, Piero Umiliani or Tangerine Dream here and there. But it’s melted with different universes, such as late 80s Madchester or Aphex Twin and Boards Of Canada’s textured worlds. There is also a strong Hip Hop feel with sampled-based tracks and non-binary beats that recall the likes of great producers like Madlib, MF DOOM, J Dilla or even Timbaland. The record also has its fair share of dub and house influences, which connect with the group’s attachment to the club vibe.

The hotly anticipated vinyl EP release of Hikaru Utada’s “One Last Kiss” - the title track is the featured theme of the new film 'EVANGELION:3.0+1.0 THRICE UPON A TIME (SHIN EVANGELION)'. In Japan the film has been the highest grossing movie of the year and 35th highest grossing movie of all time. The movie has now been released worldwide on Amazon Prime. The SHIN EVANGELION franchise has been described as a “pop culture phenomenon” and a “grand masterpiece”. Hikaru Utada is a Japanese American singer/songwriter/producer and one of the most successful and celebrated artists in Japanese music history.

Swedish group Roxette celebrates the 30th Anniversary of their third album “Joyride”, following the band’s spectacular global breakthrough with “Look Sharp!” in 1989. The 30th Anniversary of ”Joyride” will be celebrated with the release of a 4-album vinyl and a 3-CD box, containing the original release as well as previously unreleased or hard-to-get material, that paints a fuller picture of a unique time in pop history. A richly illustrated 32 page booklet tells the story.

Joyride” was the album that was supposed to cement Roxette’s new-found status as a global hit-makers. Which indeed it did. On May 1, the title track zoomed all the way up to #1 position on the Billboard Hot 100 chart – setting a record no Scandinavian group or artist has yet been able to break, helping to make “Joyride” a 11+ million seller.

Twelve of the songs are previously unreleased, among them the first recording of ”Hotblooded”, which originally was meant to be the album’s opening track until ”Joyride” knocked it down a notch, giving the album and the upcoming “Join the Joyride” World Tour its name. The “Joyride” box set also offers a chance to hear two previously unreleased demos of songs originally released by Per’s former group Gyllene Tider, who in 1984 tried to break the international market with the album “Heartland Café”.

Now Here Is Nowhere is the debut studio album by American alternative rock band Secret Machines. It was originally released on May 18, 2004.

The band’s epic, drawn out melodies are reminiscent of classic rock bands such as Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, with influences from krautrock and shoegaze. Now Here is Nowhere received widespread critical acclaim, saying the band is locked-in and steady while Garza’s imperturbable drums stand strong against Brandon Curtis’ guitar explosions and Ben Curtis’ psych-rock keyboard scribbles.

The album was released online before it was released physically, which was uncommon at the time, but it did help the band gain more press coverage. The song “Nowhere Again” was used as a promotional single and appeared in the 2006 video game Driver: Parallel Lines.

By now you’re probably familiar with our wildly popular Brown Acid series of rare, lost and unreleased proto-metal and stoner rock singles from the 60s-70s. In the endless pursuit of those glorious gems, we often uncover equally brilliant rarities from the late-70s to late-80s Golden Age of Heavy Metal that also just must be heard, but they don’t fit the series’ aesthetic. Scrap Metal, Volume 1 collects some of the greatest unknown and lost Heavy Metal tracks, long buried beneath the avalanche of the era’s classic output.
We all know the old adage that history is told by the winners. But sometimes the losers tell the best stories. And while none of these bands found fame and fortune, this artifact and the volumes to come are testament to the enduring power of heavy music. You can hear the blood, sweat and beers that went into each of these singles. The recordings may be low budget, but the inspiration and talent is immutable. Not only are the amps turned up to 11, the boyish sexual innuendo is cranked to 69. You can hear the convergence of influences — NWOBHM, thrash, glam metal, doom, etc — colliding at once as the era birthed a wellspring of subgenres.
Many of these singles are self-released and were thus limited to a small run of copies. Those that remain are hoarded by collectors and sold for exorbitant amounts. We’ve collected the best of the best for you here. As with Brown Acid, all of these tracks are licensed legitimately and the artists all get paid. Because it’s the right thing to do.
LINER NOTES:
Rapid Tears launch this series with the perfect christening. The Toronto, ON quintet’s 1981 single “Headbang” is such the pinnacle of heavy metal madness that it almost sounds like a spoof. There’s also enough of the rapid-fire sputum that inspired Metallica to bang the head that doesn’t, as such, engage in said practice, to be found on the band’s sole full length Honestly. But “Headbang” is a straightforward glammy anthem for the ages.
Air Raid’s “69 In A 55” may be lyrically so sophomoric that it’s actually pretty clever, but this 1983 Bay Area power metal single is loaded with sleek Judas Priest riffs and interwoven melodies that are downright sublime. The band’s sole release, the 2-song Rock Force 7” features a curious band photo in which 3 band members — dolled up in Crüe makeup and leather — are sexually menacing the lead singer/guitarist tied to a bed. Another low budget highlight is when singer/guitarist Tommy “Thrasher” Merry imitates a delay effect on his vocals as he sings, “tonight!...tonight...night.”
Hades’ “Girls Will Be Girls” has a real demo cassette feel to its vastly uneven mix, but the energy to the performance makes this an undeniable keeper. The long running Paramus, NJ quintet’s 1982 2- song debut 7” titled Deliver Us From Evil features this blistering thrasher dominated by shimmering leads and confident vocals that show why the band went on to near-fame on Metal Blade Records.
Resless don’t need no T to prove that they’ve got “The Power” with this 1984 driving mid-tempo rocker in the vein of Mötley Crüe and Ratt. The River Vale, NJ quartet’s tight crunch wails all over Bon Jovi posers but it’s the band’s unique and subtle deployment of background vocals that gives this rager its staying power.
Pittsburgh, the Steel City, is home to Don Cappa, a band that pays tribute to the burgh, the metal, and the awesomeness of both with “Steel City Metal.” Their lone single, issued in 1987 with only 300 copies released, sounds like the work of some serious steel driving men, with a drummer who might’ve forgotten to wear a hard hat one too many times on the construction site.
The Beast has more of a punk feel to their aggressive “Enemy Ace” track from the 4-song Power Metal EP from 1983 — something like Dr. Know meets D.O.A. But their look, artwork and lyrics all prove that Heavy Metal is where their hearts lie. And this hook filled monster delivers repeated lines like, “I command them all in my lofty realm,” with commendable conviction.
Dead Silence from Denver, Colorado, debuting in 1984 is not to be confused with Dead Silence from Denver, Colorado, who also debuted in 1984. The former a workman’s hard rock bar band, the latter a political peace punk band and neither knowing of the other’s existence throughout their tenure. The pre-internet days were a marvel, indeed.This Dead Silence spits out a slick, Nugent tinged rocker called “Can’t Stop” about life on the road.
The Danger Zone is, by all accounts, not the place to be. And, Hazardous Waste of Boston, MA saw fit to add their two cents on the matter with this 1986 single that combines Van Halen’s flashy musicianship with NWOBHM aggression that sounds so awesome it teeters on itself entering the “Danger Zone.”
Czar’s heavy, doomy “Iron Curtain” single from 1982 hearkens to the sleazy sounds of Saint Vitus and Pentagram with its cranked up DOD Distortion pedal in a Peavey combo amp guitar tone and meaty, barking vocals. The upstate NY quintet only issued this 2-song single, but its driving rhythm, nosedive whammy-bar guitar solos and comparatively mature Cold War subject matter show they had real potential.
Not much is known about Real Steel’s majestic “Viking Queen” from 1987, other than it rocks hard and the 7” 45 sells for upwards of a grand on the collectors market. The Flint, Michigan band recorded at the home studio of local radio personality Bill Lamb, who primarily released Christian Gospel recordings. So, perhaps the band was struck down by a bolt of lightning shortly after this rare single’s release. Whatever the case may be, it’s a must have for fans of classic metal mayhem.

2LP in printed innersleeves.Mattias De Craene flirts with musical boundaries at the intersection of minimalism, ambient, jazz and free improvisation. Like a one man orchestra he takes the listener on a dreamy and slightly conjuring journey.

Composer, electronic music innovator, and Pere Ubu's original synthesist Allen Ravenstine returns to Waveshaper Media with the diptych LP (comprised of 1 EP per side) Nautilus / Rue De Poisson Noir, the final two parts in Raventine’s Tyranny of Fiction series. Waveshaper Media first came into contact with Ravenstine when we interviewed him in 2012 for our modular synthesizer documentary I Dream Of Wires.

Nautilus / Rue De Poisson Noir brings together 21 of the prodigious composer’s recent lyrical and abstract compositions collectively comprised of the sounds of analogue and digital synthesizers, alongside traditional acoustic instruments. The first 10 recordings, subtitled Nautilus, are found on Side A of this LP while the second 11, Rue Du Poisson Noir, comprise Side B.

Using a singular blend of acoustic and electronic instrumentation, each track on Nautilus, weaves its own wayward travelogue amidst stray bits of audio verité and wafting musical fragrances—by turns tropical and foreboding. Rue De Poisson Noir takes cues from its fragmentary companion both in palette and approach, slithering between cinematic intrigue, off-brand jazz, avant-garde mischief, and fried electro without ever batting an eye. Together they form a beguiling collection of hyperrealist miniatures that remains strange, restless, inquisitive and — most of all — evocative throughout.

For those in the know, Allen Ravenstine has been one of the most creative synthesizer players of the past forty-plus years. Ravenstine started out in the mid-1970s experimenting in his Cleveland apartment with an analogue EML 200 synthesizer, eventually creating a piece in 1975 that became known as Terminal Drive. While he had no intention of releasing his compositions, word got out about the kind of sounds he was experimenting with, which led to an invitation to join pioneering “avant garage” group Pere Ubu for the recording of the group’s first 45, “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo.” He soon joined Pere Ubu full-time, bringing to the band’s sound unpredictable textures, effects, bleeps, squalls, pulsating washes of sound—whatever he felt could enhance the soundscape of the band’s performances and recordings.

By the early 1990s, Ravenstine had grown sick of the road, band infighting and the music industry in general. Deciding a change was needed, he opted to forego music altogether, making his living as an airplane pilot. His music career remained in limbo until 2012, when an interview for the I Dream Of Wires documentary, alongside Robert Wheeler who had succeeded him as Pere Ubu’s synthesist, turned into a recording session for the duo, leading to a series of collaborative releases. As well as having his 1975 Terminal Drive recordings released to great acclaim in 2017, Ravenstine has been prolific in recent years, with Nautilus / Rue De Poisson Noir now marking his 4th solo full-length.

The Italian singer Chiara Civello and the French producer Marc Collin are back together for a second time. After Eclipse, they present « Chansons: Chiara Civello Sings International French Standards ».


A tracklisting of 12 classic songs dating from 1945 to 1975 all by French song writers.

From Michel Legrand to Charles Aznavour, Charles Trénet, Édith Piaf, Jacques Brel or Gilbert Bécaud and Francis Lai. Household names for French music lovers, but not necessarily so for international audiences.

The gala evening at the Paris Opera on December 19, 1958 was announced in the press as "the greatest show in the world". Maria Callas, at the height of her glory, performed for the first time in front of a Parisian audience. The diva delivered all the facets of her art through the Italian classics that she loved, with the theatrical genius that is proper to her. Paris gave her a triumphant evening!

The original recording of this evening, broadcast in Eurovision throughout Europe, has been newly restored with the greatest care.

Presentation by Benoît Duteurtre, novelist, essayist and music critic.

Excerpts from Norma by Bellini
Excerpts from Il Trovatore by Verdi
Excerpts from Il Barbiere di Seviglia by Rossini
Complete second act of Tosca by Puccini

"The Best Driving Music in the World Ever" was written and recorded during a 48 hour lock-in session, having never left the studio until completion. The artist stated, "This all came together due to a bout of loneliness and depression that swept over me one Friday evening. Being lonely sometimes can render positive results, something I am learning. I decided to go and make a guitar-based record and not leave the house until it was done. I succeeded and this is what was made." The tracks were then sent over to be mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at his incredible studio, Black Knoll in New York, US.

"The Best Driving Music in the World Ever" was written and recorded during a 48 hour lock-in session, having never left the studio until completion. The artist stated, "This all came together due to a bout of loneliness and depression that swept over me one Friday evening. Being lonely sometimes can render positive results, something I am learning. I decided to go and make a guitar-based record and not leave the house until it was done. I succeeded and this is what was made." The tracks were then sent over to be mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at his incredible studio, Black Knoll in New York, US.

5th anniversary 14 song double black vinyl LP of James Arthur’s #1 album 'Back From The Edge' which includes the hits “Say You Won’t Let Go” and “Train Wreck". Alongside the original album this pressing will also include an acoustic version of 'Train Wreck' which was not on the initial release.

It is highly likely that you will have hummed a song by
Charles Trénet at some point in your life. Thus ‘La Mer’
(aka ‘Beyond the Sea’), a song written on a train
between Narbonne and Montpellier in July 1943, is sung
in Tokyo as well as in Los Angeles and its popularity is
universal. And this is not the only one, among the 700 or
so songs that Charles Trénet submitted to Sacem during
a career of exceptional longevity: nearly seventy years.
 10 CD box set features 277 tracks, including 11 rarities.
This edition presents the complete studio recordings
1937-1962 plus several bonus titles from 1933-1936.
 2LP vinyl format offers a selection of 29 of his most
famous songs.
 What they said about Charles Trénet:
 “This new pulse, this extraordinary joie de vivre brought
by the songs that this dishevelled boy was throwing by
dozen, were born from the conjuncture of a remarkable
poetic gift and the vitality of jazz fully assimilated by a
fine sensitivity.” - Boris Vian
 “The Sun-King of songs” - Henri Salvador
 “He’s a giant … someone who brought everything to
French song. The ‘Singing Fool’ was not only a singerpoet, he was someone extraordinary who is part of the
heritage. He will be teached in schools, he will be talked
about in universities around the world” - Charles
Aznavour
 “Charles never asked for anything, but he knew exactly
which place was his, which is the first.” - Alain Delon

You Should Be Here, the 2015 follow-up to debut mixtape Cloud 19 from Bay Area-born two-time GRAMMY Award-nominated multiplatinum songstress Kehlani, is out on vinyl on November 26th.

The 15-track mixtape, available as a physical vinyl, includes the hugely popular tracks “The Way”, “You Should Be Here” and “Jealous”, with appearances on the album from Chance the Rapper, BJ The Chicago Kid, Lexii Alijai & Coucheron. After bowing at #5 on the Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Chart and at #1 on the iTunes Top R&B Albums Chart, the mixtape garnered a 2016 Grammy Award nod for “Best Urban Contemporary Album”. Upon release, Pitchfork praised how, “You Should Be Here’s dynamism and generosity is something to be amazed by,” while Billboard proclaimed it, “The year’s first great R&B album.” It landed on Complex’s “Best Albums of 2015,” Noisey’s “50 Best Albums of 2015,” and Rolling Stone’s “20 Best R&B Albums of 2015.”
Critically acclaimed R&B pop songstress Kehlani is praised by Complex as “a special talent, making the kind of personal music that speaks to her fans as much as it functions as a therapeutic release for her”. It doesn’t really need an explanation – you know exactly what Kehlani means when she sings. Without sugarcoating or softening a word, she will drop a hard truth in one breath and flip a middle finger in the next. She may extend a seductive invitation or an empathetic plea before leaving you in your thoughts and feelings. Either way, she finds a way to consistently relate without filter and with each move she strengthens this connection to listeners everywhere.

In January 2017 Rufus Wainwright toured with the prestigious all string ensemble Amsterdam Sinfonietta through the Netherlands. Critics and audiences of the ten concerts were enraptured by the intimacy and intensity of the program curated by Wainwright. The concerts reflected the immense bandwidth of Wainwright’s musical influences and interests from Verdi Arias to Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell, from Rameau pieces to the American songbook and French chanson and from Wainwright’s beloved Berlioz to his family’s and his own songs, some of them written for this program. Emotional center piece of the album is Wainwright’s almost 9 minute version of late Canadian singer songwriter Lhasa de Sela;s harrowing “I’m going in”, a song she wrote about her own death from cancer at the age of 37. All arrangements were created specifically for the Amsterdam Sinfonietta and around Wainwright’s voice that is truly at the peak of its power. The artistic kinship between Wainwright and the Amsterdam Sinfonietta lead by Candida Thompson is astounding and make these live recordings into something utterly unique and breathtaking. “Rufus Wainwright and Amsterdam Sinfonietta Live 2017” will be released on BMG’s Modern Music Label as vinyl, CD and digital releases with two bonus tracks on the digital formats.
The album was mixed by multiple Grammy winner Ryan Freeland and mastered by Ruairi O’Flaherty both in Los Angeles and is comprised of live recordings from five of the ten concerts.

Whether it be on the banks of the Mississippi River or deep in the heart of the English countryside, rock 'n' roll lives, breathes, and burns on the outskirts. Hailing from Rome, GA, at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, The Georgia Thunderbolts rise up with a scorching signature style steeped in soulful southern swagger. On, Can We Get A Witness, their full-length debut for Mascot Records, the quintet—TJ Lyle vocals, harp, piano, Riley Couzzourt [guitar], Logan Tolbert [guitar], Zach Everett [bass, keys], and Bristol Perry [drums]—conjure a tried-and-true spirit through a fresh fire.
“We all grew up on rock music,” Riley says. “Rock ‘n’ roll comes back around, but longevity depends on grinding it out. That’s what we want to do. We try to put in the work our favorite bands did. If I could think of three words to describe us, they would be ‘Hardworking, Determined, and Humble’.”




Gigging tirelessly, they cut their teeth by playing with Black Stone Cherry, The Kentucky Headhunters, Blackberry Smoke, Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown, Atlanta Rhythm Section, Molly Hatchet and The Cadillac Three. The band began when Bristol and Riley initially bonded over rock ‘n’ roll in high school. By sophomore year, they had a regular jam schedule, and eventually joined up Zack, TJ, and Logan to round out the group. They share a wide swath of inspirations, ranging from southern gospel to Hank Williams, Jr., Neil Young, Little Feet, Waylon Jennings, Ray Charles, Merle Haggard to the hard rock of Ozzy Osbourne, Audioslave, Bad Company and of course, The Allman Brothers & Lynyrd Skynyrd.
The band recorded at the iconic Barrick Recording Studio in Glasgow, KY, with producer Richard Young. The album comprises of thirteen undeniable anthems, beginning with opener “Take It Slow.” Distilling whisky-soaked riffs, wild harmonica, and pulse-pounding drums into a simmering groove, it struts out of the gate with confidence and charisma. “There’s a message to what we’re doing,” Bristol leaves off. “It’s okay to be yourself. If you’re going through hard times, the music will always be there. We’d love to remind everyone of that.” The Georgia Thunderbolts embody the blue-collar working man who has put their foot down on the accelerator towards the rock ‘n roll American dream.

"‘Arise, Dan Sartain, Arise’, the latest studio album by America’s infamous rock ‘n’ roll troubadour Dan Sartain, will be released by One Little Independent Records. Made up of thirteen wickedly wisecracking, vintage surf-rock bangers, this concise and classic record incorporates everything that’s made Dan Sartain the genres favourite underdog over the last two decades.
Seeped in obsidian black humour with tracks like ‘Glasses Houses’, ‘Rooster In The Henhouse’ and ‘I Heard Laughing’ ruthlessly calling out those who would slight him while also riding the hard line of self-awareness, the biting witticism of these tracks pair wonderfully with the playful tone of Sartain’s slick-back dark doo-wop. Elsewhere on the likes of ‘True Love’ and ‘Fires and Floods’ the crooner gets a chance to flex his punk muscles, pushing the guitars further into distorted territory taking the late 50s garage-rock influence via the late 70s in much the same way The Ramones and The Damned did. But we’re transported right back again when Sartain slows down for ballad standouts such as ‘Kisses In The Morning’ and ‘Personal Injury Law’. Throughout ‘Arise, Dan Sartain, Arise’ searing surf guitars intertwine with beautifully haunted organ jabs, with rhythms pulled straight from saloon bars way out west, and cheeky wink-to-the-camera lyrical whimsy."

Long a collector favourite, this early stereo recording presents a set of lively American light classics: ‘Mexican Rhapsody’ (Robert McBride); ‘Savannah River Holiday’ (Ron Nelson); ‘Kentucky Mountain Portaits’ (Lyndol Mitchell); ‘Joe Clark Steps Out’ (Charles G. Vardell Jr.). Recorded in the Eastman Theatre, Rochester NY, October 28, 1956 with a Schoeps M201 microphone in the centre and Neumann U-47’s on the left and right sides.

Gatefold double LP. Black Vinyl. No DL Code is out in January, 1000 copies available. Since 2006 Maybeshewill have released four full-length albums of towering, cinematic instrumental music. After a decade long career that saw them tour across four continents they bowed out in 2016 with a sold out show at London’s Koko. Having reformed briefly in 2018 at the request of The Cure’s Robert Smith for a show at Meltdown Festival, 2021 sees the band return with their first new material since 2014’s Fair Youth. Having worked on ideas separately in the intervening years, it was the sketches of music that would become ‘No Feeling is Final’ that pulled the band back together. Building on the songs that they felt needed to be heard, together. ‘No Feeling is Final’ was born from a place of weary exasperation. From the knowledge that we’re living in a world hurtling towards self-destruction. We watch as forests burn and seas rise. As the worst tendencies of humanity are championed by those in power; rage, fear, greed and apathy. We see every injustice, every conflict, every catastrophe flash up on our screens. We stay complacent and consume to forget our complicity in the structures and systems that sustain that behaviour. As the world teeters on the edge of disaster, we sigh and keep scrolling, the uneasy feeling in our stomachs eating away at us a little more each day. However easy it would be to switch off and pretend all is lost, there’s no choice but to remain engaged. To set that feeling of hopelessness aside and use the fear and frustration as fuel to make something positive. ‘No Feeling is Final’ is a message of hope and solidarity. It’s a story of growing grassroots movements across the world that are rejecting the doomed futures being sold to us, and imagining new realities based on equality and sustainability. It’s a reckoning with the demons in our histories and a promise to right the wrongs of the past. It’s a plea to take action in shaping the world we leave for future generations. It’s a simple gesture of reassurance to anyone else struggling in these troubled times: “Just keep going. No feeling is final.” Continuing and building on the self-sufficient, do-it-yourself ethos that has been core to their existence, ‘No Feeling is Final’ was once again recorded and produced by bassist Jamie Ward, and released on the bands own Robot Needs Home Collective Label, in collaboration with close friends Wax Bodega (North America), New Noise (Asia) and Birds Robe (Australasia).

LP is limited to 1000 copies, black vinyl. Swansea Sound started in the middle of lockdown. They realised that fast, loud, joyous, angry indie-pop punk was the answer to being stuck indoors. Who needs introspection? Hue Williams is reunited with Pooh Sticks partner Amelia Fletcher (ex- Talulah Gosh, Heavenly). Rob Pursey (also ex-Heavenly) and Ian Button (Wreckless Eric’s live collaborator) provide the noise. Swansea Sound are the fast, acerbic and joyous past, present and future of indie. Four of the tracks were released as singles, all of them now impossible to obtain. ‘Corporate Indie Band’ was a limited edition cassette, ‘I Sold My Soul on eBay’ was a one-off lathe cut that got auctioned on eBay (with a £400 winning bid), ‘Indies of the World’ was a 7” inch single that briefly hit the UK physical charts, but immediately sold out and plummeted back out again. And then there was ‘Swansea Sound’: a requiem for a lost radio station; an anti-corporate lament - another limited edition cassette single. First track Rock N Roll Void gives a three minute revision session, just in case you’ve forgotten about The Ramones, The Kinks, The Buzzcocks and the brief explosion of indie noise pollution of 1986. Some of the songs are reflexive – ‘Swansea Sound’ and ‘The Pooh Sticks’. (Who else was going to write a tribute to The Pooh Sticks?) Others are searching for hope in the digital desert – ‘Let It Happen’, ‘I’m OK When You’re Around’, ‘Pasadena’, ‘Angry Girl’. ‘Je Ne Sais Quoi’ is pure pop throwaway fun. The others songs are dead catchy too, they just happen to express a sickness and a contempt for the state of things. ‘Corporate Indie Band’ is about a group who have mortgaged their creativity to a major label and sold their identities to an online marketing team of public schoolboys. Freedom of Speech takes a look at three contemporary ‘alternative’ music stars and considers how they’ve responded to BLM, the pandemic and the rise of right-wing populism. ‘Like self-serving arseholes’, is the unfortunate answer. (You won’t struggle to work out who the three ‘alternative’ stars are.) Swansea Sound took their name from a well-loved local radio station when it was given a corporate makeover in 2020. They even used the radio station’s abandoned logo. Like the indiepunk pop songs, something modern acidic and angry has taken up residence in a familiar, borrowed frame. You can throw yourself around to Swansea Sound like it’s 1986, but if you catch the lyrics you’ll remember you’re in 2021. (Sorry about that.) The Rum Puncheon, a notorious pub in Swansea, closed down decades ago.

GENRE: Modern Classical, Experimental, Ambient Metal. RIYL: György Ligeti, Sarah Davachi, Stars Of The Lid. 180g LP pressed at Optimal, 350gsm jacket, inner & DL card. Jessica Moss Also Known For Her Tenure In Thee Silver Mt. Zion (2002-2015), Black Ox Orkestar (2002-2007), Recordings By Vic Chesnutt, Carla Bozulich, Arcade Fire, Basia Bulat, Roy Montgomery, Sarah Davachi, Big Brave & More. A phosphene is “the phenomenon of seeing light without light entering the eye.” The title of the heart-rending and resolute new album by composer/violinist Jessica Moss could not be better chosen. Moss is by now a seasoned practitioner of immersive isolation music; across three previously acclaimed solo records of minimal and maximal post-classicism, her acoustic, amplified, and electronically-shifted violin is the raw material for deeply expressive, palpably haunted, wholly committed compositions. But Phosphenes inscribes fleeting halos of refracted ghostly light out of a prevailing darkness with especially plangent determination and intensity. This is the most overtly searching, mournful and inexorable music Moss has made to date. The pieces on Phosphenes exquisitely navigate consonance and dissonance, building patiently from single notes to multiple voicings, harmonic stacks and clusters. These compositions channel themselves like slow-moving water in a dark cave, finding small eddies and catching glints of luminescence from within. Signal processing is kept to a minimum in the three-movement “Contemplation” suite on Side One, where Moss deploys amplification chiefly in the service of activating overtones and pitch-shifts, thickening and widening the sonics, carving out her unique timbral space. Based on a four-note sequence that sets whole tones against one another, “Contemplation” is a bona fide requiem that finds Moss at her most instrumentally naturalistic, measured, and modern. Side Two unfolds in a more foreboding vein: “Let Down” is marked by cavernous octave-dropped arco and pizzicato, providing a gothically-inflected substratum upon which hauntingly wordless vocal invocations and cumulative gyres of violin melody unfurl. “Distortion Harbour” grinds with noisier grit and a more harrowing complexion, highlighting Moss’s ambient-metal sensibility and her distinctive palette of industrial-inflected power electronics a reminder of why she’s also been a go-to player on albums by the likes of Big Brave, Oiseaux-Tempête and Zu in recent years. These two songs also feature upright bass from old friend and former bandmate Thierry Amar (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Thee Silver Mt. Zion, Black Ox Orkestar). Album closer “Memorizing & Forgetting” is inarguably the most tender and beautiful song in Jessica’s oeuvre: a keening lullabye of sorts, on which she plays piano, violin and guitar, joined by her partner Julius Levy in a lustrous ambient vocal duet. Everyone has been trying to find a way through and out of pandemic, lockdown, social isolation and often darkened hope and for many musicians, the absence of touring, of live performance, live sound, live audiences, and a living. For Moss, it’s also been “like when you press your fists hard against your eyes and eventually there is fireworks.” The light gets in where it can, even or maybe especially as imaginative sensory simulacra (if/when we shut down our screens and are left to our own devices). Phosphenes is a stoic, acutely sensitive, superlative musical statement from Moss

Game returns after their 2019 full-length No One Wins with the Legerdemain EP. Piercing the listener with nonstop aural carnage, the EP would be an apt soundtrack to the armageddon. Part Venom, part Death Side, all live and loud, Legerdemain offers no restful moments. An instrumental masterclass with blistering drumming from Jonah Falco, weird and wonderful guitar melodies conjured up by Cal Baird, and a rumbling and decapitating buzzsaw bass by Nicky Rat, the release's finishing move is an ever-changing vocal tone by Ola H. Legerdemain can be a rewarding, or punishing, aural journey depending on your perspective. The new release, which was recorded and mixed by Jonah and mastered by extreme music legend Arthur Rizk finds Game leaning heavily into their metal influences, with sounds of early 80s UK steel given extra ferocity through the lens of Japanese hardcore punk from the same era. Having toured multiple times in Europe and North America, Game, which features members of Fucked Up, Arms Race and Violent Reaction, is equally comfortable playing to punks, metalheads and everyone in between. ‘Legerdemain’ is a magician’s term meaning sleight of hand, a key skill of deception. The term is used as a metaphor for our current post-truth society where governments, technocracies, and financial institutions use smoke and mirrors to create a farcical and bewildering existence where one cannot know if something is real or not in order to cover up social injustice and mechanisms that drive inequality. As Legerdemain progresses, one is being continually dragged along towards an apocalyptic ending on "Release", which reflects on this current predicament as a nuclear explosion approaches with nothing left to do except give into the madness. There is a constant cycle of rising again, fighting against wrongdoing, exhaustion, and endings. The lyrics in Polish, English and a sprinkle of French, represent the multinational members of the band, who feel culturally in a no man’s land, which in fact is everyone’s experience in 2021. Legerdemain tries to answer this anomie with urgent metal punk that is hauntingly relevant. Check out the music video for single "Atomowa Rekonstrukcja," from NYC punk freaks D4MT Labs here

Mr. Käfer and Phlocalyst are adding their own chapter to the saga with their collaborative album Now / Again to be released via Melting Pot Music. The vibe of the 12 tracks is chill. The kicks, snares and basslines are crisp but relaxed. Wrapped up in warm melodic layers and led by the distinctive sound of Phlocalyst's trumpet. The Flemish producer grew up in Ghent and relocated to Munich where he plays in a classic orchestra - a rather uncommon day-job for a lofi producer with more than 2 million monthly listeners on Spotify. Mr. Käfer was born in Salzburg – the hometown of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Crack Ignaz – to an Austrian mother and an Algerian father. Today he lives in Cologne. In his music he fuses influences from boom-bap to jazz to traditional North-African music. The album artwork was created by Cologne-based artist Giza One.

Frank Zappa’s “200 Motels” was a miraculous feat, a cinematic collision of the venerated musician and composer’s kaleidoscopic musical and visual worlds that brought together Zappa and his band, The Mothers, Ringo Starr as Zappa – as “a large dwarf” – Keith Moon as a perverted nun, Pamela Des Barres in her acting debut, noted thespian Theodore Bikel, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and an incredible assortment of characters (both on screen and off) for a “surrealistic documentary” about the bizarre life of a touring musician. In celebration of “200 Motels” golden anniversary, Zappa Records, UMC and MGM have assembled a definitive Super Deluxe six-disc box set of the beloved, yet hard to find, soundtrack for release on November 19. Fully authorized by the Zappa Trust and produced by Ahmet Zappa and Zappa Vaultmeister Joe Travers, the monstrous 200 Motels 50th Anniversary Edition brings together the original soundtrack, newly remastered by Bernie Grundman at Bernie Grundman Mastering, along with a staggering amount of unreleased and rare material unearthed from FZ’s Vault, including original demos, studio outtakes, work mixes, interviews and movie ads, along with newly discovered dialog reels, revealing an early audio edit of the film. Also included is a wealth of never-before-heard audio documentary material surrounding the project. The six-disc set will be housed in a 64-page hardcover book in a handsome 12” x 12” slipcase. The packaging replicates the original booklet updated with revealing new liner notes from Pamela Des Barres, Ruth Underwood and Joe Travers, as well as Patrick Pending’s essay from the 1997 reissue, and is chock full of motion picture artwork, stills and images, from the film and its making, many which have never been seen before. This must-have collector’s release will also include a custom “200 Motels” keychain and Do-No-Disturb motel door hanger and a full-size replica of the original movie poster. Years in the making, all the audio was meticulously identified and transferred over several years as Travers dug through the Vault to create a new high resolution 96K/24B digital patchwork stereo master from the original analog tapes. The Vault material was mastered by John Polito in 2021. The remastered 200 Motels soundtrack will also be reissued on vinyl as a 2LP pressed on 180-gram black vinyl and on a 2CD format - both will include a smaller version of the movie poster.

Right from the start, it was not meant to be a one-off side project but the beginning of something truly unique and exciting. Their first live album “Gizmodrome Live”, to be released on November 19th, 2021, builds on the foundation laid by the band’s debut album and allows for even more unpredictable outbursts of creative energy. It perfectly captures their commitment to this band and the pioneering collaboration. The fervent genius of Stewart Copeland on drums, guitars and vocals, the incredible bass and vocals of Mark King as well as the incisive guitar work and vocal parts by Adrian Belew, brilliantly rounded off by Vittorio Cosma on keys – it all comes together in a one-of-a-kind high voltage combination on “Gizmodrome Live”. In many ways the live show even manages to surpass the recorded versions of their songs, with Stewart Copeland sharing lead vocal duties with the unmistakable voices of Adrian Belew and Mark King. Powering through a setlist comprised of their debut album as well as a fantastic selection of songs from The Police and King Crimson, Copeland, King, Cosma & Belew truly delivered a live show to be remembered.

Eddy Mitchell is back! For his 39th studio album, Eddy recorded at La Fabrique studio, in the heart of the Provençal countryside, a place that inspired him with the "country" wink in the album's title, "Country Rock". Around Eddy are his faithful companions, such as Pierre Papadiamandis and Basile Leroux, as well as his internationally renowned American musician friends: Charlie McCoy, Bill Payne, Russ Hicks and Bernie Dresel. A great Eddy album, rock, country at the same time, tackling very current social themes as well as very personal themes, like the first single "Un petit peu d’amour ". Ads and Reviews R2 London Macaadam

"The Gurrumul Story" is the first ever anthology of the nine time ARIA award-winner's most enduring and popular songs. The collection contains alternate versions of two of Gurrumul's most popular tracks. 'Wiyathul (Longing For Place)' is a brand new, orchestrally-augmented version of 'Wiyathul' - the song that thrust Gurrumul into the limelight back in 2008. Also included on the album is a rare duet version of the song 'Bayini', from Gurrumul's sophomore album Rrakala, featuring a touching contribution by Australian singer/songwriter Sarah Blasko

With the release of Sweet Inspirations At Muon, the first appearance on vinyl of Tori Kudo’s mythical early ‘80s primitive rock gang Sweet Inspirations, another piece of the seemingly endless puzzle of the Japanese underground has fallen into place. Recorded some time in 1982 at Yokohama venue Muon – precise details are sketchy – we’re now given another chance to discover what was going on in Kudo’s mind just before he formed the group he is now best known for, the ragtag gang of pro and amateur musicians that was Maher Shalal Hash Baz.

Sweet Inspirations were one of several groups formed by Kudo around this time. He’d already released the visionary naïve-art album, Tenno, in collaboration with Reiko Omura, in 1980, and a trip to New York the following year led to the recording of Atlantic City, under the name La Consumption 4. Returning to Japan, Kudo first formed Guys’N’Dolls with Jun Yoshiwara (bass) and Kiyoaki Iwamoto (drums); Yoshiwara carried over into Sweet Inspirations, who existed for a few years, their membership, at various times, featuring Asahito Nanjo (High Rise etc.), Jutok Kaneko (Kousokuya), Yoshio Kuge (Les Rallizes Denudes etc.), 3C123 and many more.

The material here was originally released, without permission, by the Cragale label on CD-R in 2000. It was one of a sudden wave of archival CD-Rs that Cragale pumped out that year of material recorded at Muon, which was owned by Kohei Iehara, who co-founded Cragale with Tamotsu Hongo. In the context of the recent unleashing of material from the Kudo archives – the 9CD At Goodman set, the reissue of the first two Maher Shalal Hash Baz cassettes and the Noise LP, and the tantalising glimpses of other historical gems via Tori’s own Bandcamp page – hearing Sweet Inspirations with such clarity fills in a significant piece of the puzzle; here is Kudo, just before Maher, channelling the rough conceptualism of Red Krayola and the glinting, staggered rhythms of Syd Barrett into extended blooms of ragged glory, sketching out future classics like “Manson Girls”; A bonus CD includes a cover of a song by legendary South Korean rock group San Ul Lim.

Debut studio album by legendary American singer/songwriter/artist. Originally released on November 10th 1975 by Arista Records. When she emerged Smith's music was hailed as the most exciting fusion of rock and poetry since Bob Dylan. Produced by John Cale with a Robert Mapplethorpe cover - a raw combination of poetry, shamanistic chant and rock ‘n’ roll thrills.

In November 1976, Jef Gilson’s phone rang. What a surprise! It was Serge Rahoerson, one of the musicians he had met in Madagascar at the end of the 60s and who had played on his first album “Malagasy”. Rahoerson announced that he was in Paris for a few days.

Immediately, Jef wanted to organise a recording session, starting the next day. He thought of a trio including Serge, Eddy Louiss on organ and cellist Jean-Charles Capon, who had also been on one of the trips to Tananarive and so had also known Rahoerson there. Unfortunately, Eddy Louiss –who had already played with Gilson and Capon on the album “Bill Coleman Sings And Plays 12 Negro Spirituals” in 1968- had to drop out at the last minute: he was delayed by a session with Claude Nougaro. Jean-Charles Capon had also become a sought-after studio musician since his trip to Madagascar in 1969. He appeared on several key albums on the Saravah label including the now famous “Comme À La Radio” by Brigitte Fontaine, “Un Beau Matin” by Areski and “Chorus” by Michel Roques, without mentioning the album by his own Baroque Jazz Trio. He was also to be found with Jef Gilson for his album on Vogue with the ex-drummer from Miles Davis’ first great quintet, Philly Joe Jones, or also in the orchestra led by Jean-Claude Vannier for the album “Nino Ferrer & Leggs”. He also played regularly on albums by Georges Moustaki.

Jean-Charles Capon and Serge Rahoerson found themselves thus in the studio, with Jef at the controls. He had decided to record the rhythmic structure right away. He would find the soloists later, that didn’t worry him. Serge Rahoerson was on drums. Though a saxophonist by training, Jef remembered that Serge was also capable of great things behind a drum kit: he was the improvised drummer on their cover of “The Creator Has A Master Plan” on the album “Malagasy”... The great memories came flooding back (the nod on the title “Orly - Ivato”), and the old magic worked again.

Brought in momentarily from Europamerica, Gilson’s new big band, in which JC Capon also played, the saxophonists Philippe Maté, from France (another Saravah stablemate) and the American Butch Morris (soon to be a key member of David Murray’s band) were invited to record their parts later and Gilson mixed it all as if it had been one single session (as he had already done on other albums, with the tracks by Christian Vander recorded before the creation and success of Magma).

The album would not appear until 1977, on Palm, Jef’s own label, and was dedicated to the memory of Georges Rahoerson, Serge’s father, who had also played on the album “Malagasy” and who had died prematurely at the age of 51 in 1974.
“I only received my own copy of the album in 1981 when I came to live in France definitively”, a still-moved Serge Rahoerson told us in 2013. “I was playing in a club one night and Jef turned up by surprise with a copy of the album for me, I was so pleased to see him again. When I arrived in France, I told everyone that I had played with Jef Gilson a few years previously, and I was surprised to learn that so few people knew of him. For us, he was of one of the great jazz visionaries.” (Jérôme "Kalcha" Simonneau)

Long a collector favourite, this early stereo recording presents a set of lively American light classics: ‘Mexican Rhapsody’ (Robert McBride); ‘Savannah River Holiday’ (Ron Nelson); ‘Kentucky Mountain Portaits’ (Lyndol Mitchell); ‘Joe Clark Steps Out’ (Charles G. Vardell Jr.). Recorded in the Eastman Theatre, Rochester NY, October 28, 1956 with a Schoeps M201 microphone in the centre and Neumann U-47’s on the left and right sides.

Repress!

With Robyn, South London's cktrl shares his most ambitious work yet, collaborating with the likes of Duval Timothy, Coby Sey (Micachu, Tirzah, Dean Blunt) and Purple Ferdinand to create a vital exploration of contemporary-classical from the black perspective; out via Errol and Alex Rita's Touching Bass. Spurred on by the overpowering feelings of heartbreak, Robyn impressively creates emotive and heartfelt clarinet and saxophone-led soundscapes about the all-consuming power of love. On the project, cktrl says: "'Robyn' at its core is heartbreak and is just really sentimental. It's a journey of losing a love but it ends with optimism as you find strength to love again." Born and bred in Lewisham, cktrl aka Bradley Miller is an integral part of London's pioneering musical underground. One of the only remaining original DJs on NTS, cktrl has previously worked with and played alongside the likes of Sampha, Sango, Kelela and Dean Blunt. Throughout his career to date, cktrl has also been recognised and heralded by fashion and film VIPs including Virgil Abloh, Bianca Saunders, Tremaine Emory, Nicholas Daley and Jenn Nkiru who recently secured him a cameo in Beyonce's heralded 'Black Is King'. With a shared ethos of elevating and amplifying leftfield black music, he partners with London based label, Touching Bass, themselves a key cog within the city's bubbling musical underbelly.

LIMITED ICE BLUE VINYL

On Delta, a dozen artists across four continents freely interpret Fountain across a double LP, again featuring Donna Huanca’s surreal artwork, and the unearthly graphic manipulations of Nufolklore Studios. Remaining faithful to Fountain’s presentation, Lyra’s curation reflects her commitment to stylistic diversity, with the old guard and the next wave alongside each other. Where some artists chose to rework existing works, others composed new material from fragments found across the record. The results showcase the very themes of wordless identity conflict and technological concerns that Lyra and her foremothers have projected.

the limitless highs of Sigur Ros and the steady pulse of The Knife. KMRU cloaks Lyra in a hazy film, soundtracking the depths of space embedded within the ghosts of jungle past. Gabber Modus Operandi expose the realities of artificial nature in a multicoloured rave dystopia. Eris Drew’s double opus takes the tenets of her philosophies into both ambient and peaktime expressions of the trip, the things that lead to the decision before, and the portals that can open up after.
Ben Frost dissolves Cradle’s deep and tremulous hymn in analogue warble, distressed tape spooling out of control and breaking up over the heavens, while remaining oddly serene. Heaven In Stereo conjures up post-rock with trap drums out of Gossip, buried in bass weight and dub space. Nailah Hunter and Tygapaw transform New Moon into an earthbound ode to nature and a pounding trance state induction, while Caterina Barbieri and Hudson Mohawke extract and amplify Tendril’s mind and soul. Vessel takes what feels like the entire album and builds it up to a frantic climax before subsuming into Enoesque pastoralia.
Alongside Delta, Lyra has collaborated with Spitfire Audio to develop Siren Songs, a free plug-in for their LABS series made from playable samples from Fountain, able to work across DAWs in multiple formats. By removing barriers to access, the listener can craft their own responses to the album’s themes, or use its language to express their innermost feelings in their own works.
Life and society emerge where water tessellates over land and provides fertile soil. The chances of evolution that made them interact as they did could have had meaningful environmental consequences had things developed differently. For Lyra Pramuk, that fertile geology provides the ground for her albums. Fountain was that burst of water and swell of energy that propelled her to critical acclaim. Delta is a new take on a traditional remix album, centred on transgenerational dialogue and global storytelling, and will be released again via Iceland’s Bedroom Community label. Projecting Fountain through prisms, wordless songs fractalize into lush creations that blossom with new life.
The ability to have such sheer diversity of material in one place is thanks to the global increase in accessible technologies, fueling an explosion of creativity and genre exploration that was thought of as unthinkable in our lifetimes. Like its namesake, Delta is a point where creative flows meet and triangulate, where global and personal folk histories are presented in novel ways, where transcultural collaboration is celebrated, where many worlds emerge from the depths below.
RIYL: The Knife, Spacetime Continuum, Lorenzo Senni, the soundtrack to Planete Sauvage, 3:45 AM by the front left speaker, 7:45 AM as light pours in and everything winds down.

‘Eighteen Movements’ is a collection of recordings captured at live performances between 2017 – 2019. The record’s rich textures combine ambient, tribal rhythms, field recordings, ritualistic vibes, and a meditative feeling that runs through the entire LP. Đ.K. is in full flight mode, illustrating the project’s aptitude for deep transcendence.

Đ.K. is a DJ, composer & producer based in Paris, France. A versatile and prolific artist, D.K. has cultivated an eclectic body of work in recent years, with acclaimed output on renowned labels including Antinote, Melody As Truth, 12th Isle, Good Morning Tapes, Music From Memory’s Second Circle imprint, and L.I.E.S. (as 45 ACP).

Luminous and mesmeric, D.K.’s work combines finetuned traces of house, synth pop, ambient, balearic, minimalism, and fourth world music, creating energies and soundscapes which aim to invoke elevated forms of consciousness.

Prismatic tones exchange space with devotional drums on ‘Clarity’ and ‘Echo Chamber’, as Đ.K. hits a hypnotic stride somewhere between Jon Hassell, HTRK & a Folkways percussion ensemble. With ‘Full Consciousness’ meditation bells ring out across a progression of gleaming new age emanations, conjuring an entrancing spell. Movements of pulse and ether.

On ‘Mirror’, sonorous, elaborate percussive phrases are interwoven with drifting ambient vapours, while ‘The Other Side’ veers into broad, rolling blasts of dub and Antipodean drone, a cavernous trance evoking the early roots of Ras Michael and Yabby You, pared back to resolute drum sequences and infused with esoteric chimes and sultry synthesis.

The finale of ‘Eighteen Movements’ represents one of Đ.K..’s most ambitious recordings. ‘Awakening’ is an epic tone poem of aqueous, outer planetary resonance that completes this mercurial cycle with a poignant, euphoric fadeout. Chronicled in the moment, alternating between rhythm and repose, momentum and aviation, 'Eighteen Movements' sees Đ.K. voyaging further, into vast, uncharted outskirts of sound. A collection of movements for heightened states and new diversions.

Mastered by Jose Guerrero at Plataforma Continental. Graphic Design by Javi Tortosa.

Jónsi releases his latest score, for the new Amazon Original movie Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse, starring Michael B. Jordan, Jodie Turner- Smith and Jamie Bell, directed by Stefano Sollima. The score is 23 tracks of pure action, adrenaline and anxiety.

“For one whole year Jónsi has devoted himself to finding the soul of Without Remorse,” says Sollima. The complexity, sophistication and elegance of his composition adds incredible depth to the story”.

New Universe 4 tracks sampler with finest house cuts. This essential record bag filler, is a fresh jacking groove that the artists packs in this amazing production. What a bunch of absolute slammers!

Lovers of fabulously swung, nice ‘n chunky house music have a treat in store on Hudd Traxx 066 as Swiss producer Agnès makes a very welcome, vinyl only return to our label.

Much-loved for his stripped back and dubby style - with previous EP “Got That Music In My Mind” championed by Disclosure on their Mixmag mix - here we witness the Sthlmaudio Recordings founder loosening up with four shoulder-rolling rides of deep house greatness which commemorates his and Eddie Leader’s tour of South America in 2013/14.

It’s the first new material we’ve heard from the producer since his 2016 EP “Accent Grave” and the track “Embryonic Connections” off our 15th year anniversary collection released early in the year.

Effortless in construction, with the genre’s classic tropes of poking organs, sub-tickling bass, rich atmospheres and cheeky, playful vocal samples littered throughout; the EP’s real beauty comes across in Agnès’ unfathomable grasp of swing and shuffle, instantly injecting listeners with a fidgety energy and need to dance. His percussion sounds fizz, pop and crack in a manner that’d make Kerri Chandler blush while neon-hued pads glue the whole thing together with a radioactive warmth. Chuck in an almost shamanic level of dancefloor understanding & connectivity and what you have here is a breakthrough dose of unrivalled hedonism.

There’s a sophisticated simplicity and sympathy at work here; with a reduced, hard-hitting and well thought out sound palette connecting the tracks together with the same impassioned spirit. That fiery flame of a basement and a red light, encapsulated perfectly and destined to rouse the spirits of house heads across world this Autumn…

The EON label's fourth vinyl release features an original from Birmingham producer Jayson Wynters with Chicago innovator Hieroglyphic Being on the remix.

Wynters - who along with label founder Adam Shelton has been at the heart of the Birmingham scene for years - has already impressed this year with his biggest EP yet on mighty Dutch label Delsin. Here he invites us ever deeper into his nebulous deep techno world with a superb new single 'Filtered Xploits.' It's a punchy but dynamic cut with lush ambient pads smeared across a cosmic sky while chattery percussion and lithe synth power onwards. It has a futuristic soul that recalls early Detroit techno and might be his best work yet.

Both Shelton and Wynters have long shared a love for the idiosyncratic sounds of Chicagoan Jamal Moss aka Hieroglyphic Being, the hugely prolific boss of Mathematics Recordings. He was one of the first artists they bonded over five or so years ago and that love only deepened when they caught him playing a standout set at Freerotation in 2017. After hooking up there, Jayson later hung out with Moss on a visit to Chicago before tapping him up for this remix.

In his hands, 'Filtered Xploits' becomes a brilliantly raw and textured track with layer upon layer of fractured melody and gurgling acid. The prickly, jacked up drums will make an impact on any floor, and as the chords shine through the mix they bring a sense of hope and optimism.

These are two more expertly crafted tracks from artists at the top of their game.

Green Marbled Vinyl

THE KINGS OF JUNGLE aka Jungle pioneer and all-round legend DJ Dextrous, served up some genre defining releases on Suburban Base and just a couple of much demanded pieces of brilliance slipped through the net. Many VIP versions were made of tracks and specials for one time use at particular events, in the tradition of reggae clash events from which jungle took much inspiration.

Two such VIP dubplates feature here brought together for one heavy hitting 12inch release, ‘KING OF JUNGLE VIP’ was made especially as a dubplate for Jungle Fever events, rinsed and rewound repeatedly at these shows and elsewhere, it only appeared just once as an exclusive on the seminal D&B Selection album in ‘94, and we have been asked for DJ friendly copies of this track ever since!

The Junglist anthem ‘JUNGLE THEME VIP’ another rare version only held on dubplate by a select few but became a mainstay of the very best Jungle events through 1994, it graced The Joint LP as an exclusive and never had a single release until now.

Saved from the original master tapes directly from DJ Dextrous studio these have both been carefully and stunningly remastered and are being made available as a 12 inch single DJ friendly format for the first time ever!

Looking absolutely amazing in camo style colouring to the vinyl and in the classic Suburban Base house sleeve to evoke those memories of the gold age of Jungle! Grab yourself a piece of history in the making now!

Prodigal son of the ESP Institute, Juan Ramos, rises from the cesspool of a world gone mad with 'Agua Del Cenote', his fifth release with the label. Whilst many artists are following their inner light to bring us some much needed joy amidst these rotten times, Juan (being the little shit that he is) follows an inner demon and delivers listeners and dancers a demented clusterfuck of sadistic chaos. The title track opens with what sounds like a butane torch and we metaphorically freebase into oblivion. Our perception of reality unravels, writhing in abrasive textures smeared across a low-slung, mid-tempo erotic thump. Everything feels blurry and distant, as if we’re swimming through an underground aquatic tunnel, in a panic, searching for an invisible band of spirits whose tune summons us into certain annihilation. Following this is a remix from a decorated lord of 20th Century electronics, Harald Grosskopf AKA The Synthesist. Harald wipes away grit and lethargy to reveal elements hidden deep within the mix as well as softens Juan’s sense of terror by building up to an optimistic layer of added synth. We’d love to offer some relief with the balance of the EP, however, the remaining two tracks paint complimentary hues in the same cerebral palette. 'Let It Go (Freaks Only)' veers closely to House in terms of tempo and gestalt, utilizing a vocal sample from Third Generation (Kerri Chandler) and a healthy dose of sub bass, but Juan hardly apologizes for his masochistic tendencies and certainly never relents into an uplifting mood. Closing the EP, Juan serves an antidote of sorts with 'Cuko', as if suggesting a way out of the swamp, but leaves it up to the listener’s intuition to not only see the carrot, but actually follow it into the light, thus completing the quest.

green vinyl

For a duo whose youthful energy rejuvenated the world of house music at the start of the 2010s, it seems incredible that Disclosure are now into their second decade of musical life. The incredible vigour of those early records, the spark of invention and ever-onward musical thrust, remains with the Disclosure brothers, Howard and Guy Lawrence, to this day. The emphasis throughout DJ-Kicks is on motion. After a brief ambient introduction from Pépe's Life Signs, Disclosure keep the energy high, in a mix that showcases the wonderful malleability of a house beat in the right hands. From sub bass to disco samples, African funk to 303 tweak, all is welcome in Disclosure's house, with the mix allowing individual songs space to breath even as the pace remains harefooted.

AUF TOGO is the long-time collaboration of Sasa Crnobrnja
(from In Flagranti and Mytron & Ofofo) and Clement Cachot-Coulom
(from The Fabulous Penetrators and Big Girls).

After multiple singles and EPs on Leng Records and SaS Recordings, including two collaborative EPs with the tentacular outfit Becker & Mukai, acclaimed by fans and DJs alike, most of their time has been spent writing, recording and bringing to life the 8 amazing tracks that form their debut album “Movements”.

“Movements” follows in the steps of Auf Togo’s previous releases and won’t disappoint the early fans, but it also offers a completely new proposition. Their signature blend of slamming percussion, driving bass lines, psychedelic guitar hooks, fat analogue synths are expertly mixed with new musical ventures across the tracks: from the louche Hawaiian jazz of Along The Dotted Line to the psych-funk of Pan Con Tomate, the electronic wanderings of Mexico to the cinematic intensity of Radical Departures.

The result is a spell-binding summer album, one to listen to on a coastline somewhere under the Mediterranean sun, and one that is not afraid to wear its many influences on its sleeve, from 70s psych-rock to Balearic Beat, Space Disco and Afro Beat. The scope of “Movements” is wide and proves a captivating and gratifying listen.
Debut album from supergroup with members of In Flagranti and Mytron & Ofofo Pressed on 12” vinyl with artwork drawn and designed by Award winning animator Erica Russell UK/EU marketing campaign led by Neighborhood and specialist press/DJ by Your Army, with previous support from Mixmag, Trax, Ransom Note, NTS, Bill
Brewster, Andrew Weatherall and more.

52 Beats is project initially started on Bandcamp with Snips uploading 1 beat per week over the course of a year with an accompanying behind the scenes video. This is the final release of the entire project as a limited run cassette. Musically Snips stays true to his Hip Hop roots chopping samples and keeping the sound rooted in traditonal Boom Bap which birthed his style

Léonie Pernet's second album Le Cirque de Consolation, to be released November 19th on InFiné & CryBaby, inhabits a world where borders dissolve and everyone makes their own unique and singular utopia. Hereby, the record questions the links between pop music, African cultures and electronic music, neo-classical music or the role of voice, whether human or synthetic. Sophomore albums can be a painful process for an artist - how refreshing it is to hear one so decidedly optimistic.

Textextext - (add your write up)

The sought after whirlwind of French Pop that exploded onto the scene with her debut "Crave", Leonie Pernet, returns with her second album, "Le Circque de Consolation", a sort of double negative of her first. While the yearning that sat at the center of "Crave"might not have been resolved, the young multi-instrumentalist and singer has found a new perspective - a more open and positive outlook on her own life and work. Perhaps telling, then, that the title was the first element of the album to exist: as it is and has always been a journey of personal (and collective) consolation first, a musical confrontation with the self.

"This record parallels my life's journey," confirms Léonie, "it reflects what has happened in my life since 'Crave' came out and how I feel today. There's still a lot of melancholy, but a lot more sunshine and light. In four years, I've become sober, which has saved me; I've worked a lot on my voice, which is a part of a desire to speak, to address my audience more directly, and also a more pronounced pop desire." In line with her new-found "openness", Leonie invites another musician into her creative process for the first time on "Le Cirque de Consolation": Jean Sylvain le Gouic, who lended his coproduction and perspective to her, while Leonie still plays almost all instruments herself with an astounding prowess.

Leonie's voice oozes with a new-found self-confidence and takes center stage amidst eclectic, distinctively fun and open-minded production. Sometimes she sings in English, mostly in French: "I worked a lot on my voice," confirms Léonie, "I didn't dare to sing before, neither live, nor on record, nor in the studio." Surrounding her astounding, intoxicating voice are forays into any direction imaginable: from harsh, experimental electronics to the more sombre, organic and quiet moments - and everywhere, there is the vision of Africa, (also Middle East) it's many sonic gifts and cultures.

Leonie has found a universal utopia that she craves for - a musical, cultural amalgamation that is decidedly non-western, political and poetic, rooted in self-discovery and the connection with other humans: African and oriental percussion, synthesizers, drum-machines; Léonie mixes genres and instruments with ease and precision. The French novelist and philosopher Édouard Glissant - whose work and writing had a big influence on Pernet - coined the term "Creolization ", the "bringing together of several cultures or at least several elements of distinct cultures, in one part of the world, resulting in new data, totally unpredictable in relation to the sum or the simple synthesis of these elements."

From "Hard Billy ", a techno-influenced rebellious anthem, to "Les Chants de Maldoror," a club and dance song propelled forward by feverish derboukas, to the deeply moving "A rebours" and its Afro-electronic rock. Léonie Pernet inhabits a world where borders dissolve and everyone makes their own unique and singular utopia. Hereby, the record questions the links between pop music, African cultures and electronic music (Intérieur Négro), neo-classical music (Le Cirque de consolation, Dandelion), or the place of the voice, whether human or synthetic as in the atmospheric "Vowel". Sophomore albums can be a painful process for an artist - how refreshing it is to hear one so decidedly optimistic.

Does returning to a place have a sound? Can the ear have a memory? And what if places which we return to are just empty shells? Choreographed rooms which we need to play, fill from scratch each time with fragments from the past and present, layer upon layer, familiar and still somehow always new and differently assembled. Paula Schopf’s Espacios en Soledad are acoustic walks around present day Santiago de Chile, the city where she was born - which she always left, had to leave and to which she always returns - but more than anything also through her own memories which resonate throughout the public places, squares, streets though still in their own way remain strange.

„Every immigrant in the world has a piece like this - a kind of missing link, something which is incomplete. And every time one returns to the home country you are looking for it. For me it was a matter of sound.“ (Paula 2019).

In the mid 70s leaving Santiago was a flight of exile as a child with her family. Leaving in 1990 was an autonomous decision to head for Europe, Berlin, where the wall fell, where the heavens opened up all at once and electronic music became a kind of new home to so many. Paula Schopf belonged there. For her the Ocean Club at Tresor club was a central place where friends and mentors like Gudrun Gut and Thomas Fehlmann made it possible for her to get really into it. Dancing, being and feeling your body, forgetting oneself in the bass and beats, who one is and where one’s from, to becoming the DJ Chica Paula. Chile was very far away during this time, Latin America was more just a code, a musical and habitual cliche to be cautious of. This was especially true for the culture of the Chilean exile, the pathos of the “Canto Nuevo”, the sound and ideologically charged instruments of the „música andina“, for example the Zampoña, Quena or Charango. Techno was the greatest thinkable alternative to this even if or perhaps because so many kids exiled from Chile became key figures in the German and European scene: Ricardo Villalobos, Dandy Jack, Cristian Vogel, Matias Aguayo and many more.

How does returning to a place sound? Does the ear have its own memory? The field recordings which were recorded in Santiago de Chile in 2016 and form the central sonic material for Espacios en Soledad represent the paradox for Schopf’s return to her home country after emigrating: the inevitable drifting apart of her own lived time from that of her former home. Already the Venezuelan and Colombian hawkers are unmistakable signs of the deep change in Chilean society which has happened in recent years due to immigration. Which is in contrast to the old lady who sits on the floor in a pedestrian zone and without break sings the same three songs by Violeta Parra and then keeps falling asleep while doing so. The fragile presence of her voice is joined with a repertoire which is almost mythologically timeless in Chile in a particularly moving way.

By layering, ordering and conjoining such found sounds from modern day Santiago this piece become about the urban sound of Chile’s present. But more than anything by doing this Paula Schopf becomes an arranger of her own sonic memory or sound-triggered memories of returning to this city. Just as techno and Berlin helped her for such a long time to get away from too strong of an identification as a Chilean in exil, now with Espacios en Soledad she has found a way to bring these two seemingly disparate lives and remembered worlds together.

Matthias Pasdzierny

A multidisciplinary voyage through exploratory listening: Oddysee offers experiences through carefully-curated events, podcasts, radio and Buy Music Club playlists. Established in 2020 and operating with a heartfelt passion for electronic music culture, the Amsterdam-based platform connects the dots between like-minded music aficionados in their hometown and beyond.

Their inaugural release is a compilation that features musical works from artists that they had the pleasure of collaborating with over the first 12 months. A carefully curated assembly of a rather talented bunch of creatives. This special first edition vinyl featuring high-grade dance floor excursions from Eva Geist & Steve Pepe, Budino, Massimilano Pagliara and Christian S. Accompanied with exclusive artwork from Vancouver-based (CA) contemporary artist Amy Stewart.

100% of profits from the vinyl will be directly donated to NATV - a close-to-heart platform that amplifies indigenous voices and perspectives to a global audience. At a time when indigenous peoples' identities and their right to traditional lands continue to be violated, we hope to support these communities, many of whom protecting vital ecosystems to insure biodiversity for generations to come.

Red Vinyl

nown for her delicate compositions, soaked in dream-like surrealism, Icelandic musician Sóley has attracted a huge following since launching her solo career back in 2010. Her 2012 single ‘Pretty Face’ went on to generate an enormous amount of buzz, and quickly became a viral sensation. Now, with three solo LPs under her belt, Sóley is preparing to debut a completely new sound via the release of her new concept album, Mother Melancholia, on October 22nd.

Described by the artist as "Nosferatu meets Thelma and Louise in a vampire church under the watchful eye of David Lynch", Mother Melancholia is the soundtrack to the end of the world as we know it. As a self-confessed news addict, Sóley became obsessed with the idea that the world is ending. Having surrounded herself with real-life stories of global warming and patriarchal politics she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was going to die. This feeling was so all encompassing that it sparked the idea for a new project. Could there be a soundtrack for the last days of humans on earth? How would that sound?

“I read books about possible dystopian worlds and started writing poems about irrational and in love characters who live in gray and cold imaginary loneliness. In each other’s burning arms. Walking in circles with no way out” she explains. “After all, the album reflects our life here and now. Our life and reality is a kind of dystopian world.”

Whilst writing the album, which serves as a tongue-in-cheek eulogy to our planet, Sóley began reading about ecofeminism, a branch of feminism which uses the concept of gender to analyse the relationship between humans and the natural world. Ecofeminism emphasizes that both women and nature must be respected but also separated. Since the beginning of time, the natural world has been synonymous with female identity, phrases like Mother Nature are commonplace. “The patriarchy views women as volatile and hysterical. Earth and women are either our saviours or our destroyers,” explains Sóley. “It’s so easy to abuse the earth, like the patriarchy has abused women since the dawn of time, then ask for forgiveness afterwards and promise they´ll never do it again”.

The new album sees Sóley move away from the indie-pop of her previous releases. She began by experimenting with writing songs on the accordion, allowing her a new sense of freedom in her writing. The process allowed her to broaden her horizons even further and experiment with a whole range of new and exciting sounds. “I bought myself a theremin as I was really excited about the unpitched sound and there is no perfect pitch during the end of days,” she laughs. “I also bought a mellotron, my first moog and a cello and taught myself how to play each of them. All of these new instruments are particularly suitable for the kinds of aesthetic inconveniences which I have learned to embrace.”

Album opener ‘Sunrise Skulls’, one of the most cinematic moments on the album, was inspired by the Me Too and SlutWalk movements and tells the story of a group of women who rise up and fight the patriarchy. ‘Blows Up’, a track that would be at home on any horror soundtrack, is a sarcastic love letter from the Earth to humans. Standout track ‘Desert’ is an incredibly moving song dedicated to the next generation. “It’s about the guilt you feel, as a mother, for having children and leaving them on the frontline. My daughter, for example, will take over this inevitable war” explains Sóley.

In true soundtrack style, the album flows through the end of the world in chronological order, closing with the Earth’s final moments. ‘Sundown’ is a dark piano ballad detailing human kind’s final day on Earth. “And everyday, I dig my own grave, and as I dive in you´ll hold my hand” she sings, over twinkling piano and swirling synths. We then hear the world end on ‘XXX’, a dark and swirling soundscape that swells before fading to silence. On ‘Elegía’ the silence then turns to the sound of the ocean, as we hear the Earth, like a woman finally free from a violent relationship, healing on her own.

Mother Melancholia is the mark of an artist confidently striding into more experimental territory. With a lengthy and successful career behind her, Sóley felt compelled to try something new and express the real her. The music might be shrouded in darkness but it’s a move that fills her with joy and freedom. “I hope that people not only enjoy the new sound, but also that Mother Melancholia might raise some questions in people, particularly women,” she says. “I’m under no illusions that this album will change the world but I hope that people can connect with the idea”.

SIM CARD HØLDER is not a band. It is the hybrid child of Ian Bruner, Drone Operatør and Gajek. It's procreation date is hard to pin down, but it started 2020 with an Insta chat and one of Ian's piano improvisations recorded in his Colorado living room. From there the album grew in separated covid lockdown wombs at three different locations in Germany. Ian's shadowy instrumentation of light piano and heavily layered and long believed to be dead soundscapes were digested, replanted and grown-over by Drone Operatør's and Gajek's uncompromising and individual sense for song structures and sounds. When finally all body parts were assembled in early 2021 the baby was already fluent in different languages.

Sim Card Hølder grows slowly while meandering through dense and open fields. It switches from calm and dreamy moods to wild fractured outbursts without fragmenting into the arbitrary. A raw spiritual power keeps every part connected and in perfect motion. Each song is a portal into multiple universes that suck you in on thick piano carpets, sharp saxophone spikes and buzzing quadcopter wings, warming insect intestines, blasting raw drums and slow healing winds, screeching synth rhymes, dissonant orchestral tales and floating blue melodies. It's a demanding ride but thoroughly deeply relaxing. The perfect soundtrack to rewind your mind.











k 11: Alone_ (rendered altitude) [feat. Drone Operatør & Ian Bruner]

Their roots are firmly planted in heavy rock, melodic aggression and
despair. They have conquered the stoner rock kids and breathed fiery life
into the classic rock snobs.
Now Thulsa Doom’s branches are growing with twigs of Kiss and
Crimson; strong wooden arms hold Skynyrd, Ween and Bob Dylan, and
progressive leaves of soulful, poignant, intricate gems cover the ground.
And there are nuts, lots of nuts. ...and with the release of their new album
“Ambition Freedom” the tree itself will
stretch right in through your bedroom
window and grab you. Just like the one in
Poltergeist.
The band’s sophomore “…And Then Take
You To A Place Where Jars Are Kept”
(2003) earned them two Norwegian
Grammy nominations, and is widely recognized
as one of the best rock-releases
from Norway ever.
«A Keen Eye for the Obvious» was released
in 2018 and was instantly recognized
as the greatest comeback since
Batman.
The band that once was a cherished but
well-kept secret has now become a national
treasure because of the timeless qualities
of their albums and unforgettable live
shows. Relentlessly rehearsing and playing
shows all over Norway and for dubious but
welcoming crowds in central Europe
has once again inspired Thulsa Doom to
make new music. “Ambition Freedom”
will not harm you in any way, but it might
rearrange your heart and refurbish your
belief in Rock.
“Ambition Freedom” will confuse many,
but for others it will lead the way. You will
wish it never stops, and it doesn’t have to.
It’s a record. Spin it again

This year marks 25 years since Oasis’ two iconic record breaking live concerts at Knebworth Park in Hertfordshire on the 10th and 11th August 1996. The shows were both the pinnacle of the band’s success and a landmark gathering for a generation of young people. Released alongside the cinema debut of the feature length documentary film of the event, ‘Oasis Knebworth 1996’ is the definitive live recording featuring a setlist packed with stone cold classics album taken from across both nights of the concert, from the opening salvoes of ‘Columbia’ and ‘Acquiesce’, to ‘Champagne Supernova’, ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’, ‘Live Forever’, an orchestra backed ‘I Am The Walrus’, and ‘Wonderwall’ the first song from the 1990’s to reach over one billion streams on Spotify and universally loved anthem.

THERION have always been a band that have challenged themselves to explore new paths, while remaining true to their musical core values. For their 17th studio album, mastermind Christofer Johnsson and his collaborator Thomas Vikström have created something that has been previously unthinkable to the guitarist and the singer. "We have done the only thing that was left of all the different angles to explore", explains Christofer. "We have decided to give the people what they kept asking for. 'Leviathan' is the first album that we have deliberately packed with THERION hit songs."

True to the Swede's words, the album opens with the catchy and swift tune 'The Leaf Of The Oak Of Far' featuring female and male antiphonal singing as well as a choir that seems to have evolved straight out of THERION's breakthrough full-length "Theli" (1996). This is immediately followed by the obvious highlight 'Tuonela', in which Christofer cleverly underscores this hit-track's Finnish vibe by employing NIGHTWISH’s "metal voice" Marko Hietala. Next up in this parade of future fan-favourites is the title track 'Leviathan' that offers classic THERION material with operatic female vocals and a massive choir.

Christofer Johnsson's passion for classic voices, choirs, and orchestral elements as well as his penchant for epic melodies in combination with rock and metal shines clearly through the following sing-along ballad 'Die Wellen Der Zeit', which indicates another nod to German romantic composer Richard Wagner. "Ever since 'Theli', Wagner has been and will always be at the core of THERION", emphasises Christofer. "When we started to combine metal and opera, it was something new and original. Today, symphonic metal has long been a firmly established genre." When THERION came into being in 1988 by changing name from the already existing band BLITZKRIEG, which was founded a year earlier, Christofer had rather taken inspiration from SLAYER's "Reign In Blood" among other classic metal albums.

At the beginning, the Swedes were firmly rooted in death metal, a genre which they helped to define, as witnessed by their debut album "Of Darkness...." (1991). Yet even back then, there were hints of "something else" lurking beneath the rough surface. The use of female vocals is another core ingredient of THERION today, which developed gradually. CELTIC FROST had basically introduced the female element to extreme metal on "To Mega Therion" in 1985. THERION began with both a female and male vocalist emulating a church like choir already in their sophomore full-length 'Beyond Sanctorum' (1992). With Symphony "Masses: Ho Drakon Ho Megas" (1993) and "Lepaca Kliffoth" (1995), Christofer continued to developed his trademark sound by gradually drifting towards cleaner vocals and more keyboards.

With "Theli", the Swedes had firmly established a reputation of pushing the boundaries of metal in the 90s –among such acts as their compatriots TIAMAT, THE GATHERING, and MOONSPELL that were often referred to as "gothic metal" at the time. THERION continued to break new ground leaving inspiration for others to follow in their wake: On "A'arab Zaraq -Lucid Dreaming" (1997), Christofer further explored the use of Near Eastern music in metal which he had already begun in 1992, while "Secret Of The Runes" (2001) dared to have Swedish lyrics in some songs.

While critics were left confused and fans challenged, THERION were often ahead of their times and vindicated in hindsight. Even the band's 25th anniversary excursion "Les Fleurs Du Mal" has by now overcome the initial shock the album caused and is only beaten in terms of streaming by the classic "Vovin" (1998). When Christofer faced the question of where to go next after the dramatic "Beloved Antichrist" (2018) had finally fulfilled his musical mission, his answer is "Leviathan" named after a giant sea monster from Judeo-Christian myth that has roots in Babylonic lore: THERION have created a giant hit album –and for the first time in the history of the Swedes, their fans are not asked to explore something new, but simply to lean back and enjoy the best from their band!

Far View’ is a compilation of tracks from Joel Vandroogenbroeck’s series of library
music releases for the Coloursound label, a uniquely trippy catalogue of music
vignettes long overdue for their day in the library music sun, remastered from the
original analogue reels.
 The late Joel Vandroogenbroeck was among the rare breed of musicians who defy
all categorization, using music conventions to explore the far reaches of human and
cosmic consciousness. After passing through the jazz and rock worlds from the
1950s through the ‘70s, Joel found new outlets for his expansive vision in the ‘80s
with the Swiss library music label Coloursound. ‘Far View’ draws tracks from these
releases, which form a unique entry in the genre of library music. For the uninitiated,
this is just one way to begin a brilliant musical trip through Vandroogenbroeck’s
undersung career.
 A musical prodigy from youth, Joel arrived at Brussels’ classical Music Conservatory
in the early ‘50s, but his studies were curtailed by the revelation of jazz. Soon, Joel
was touring in groups around Europe and beyond with luminaries like Eje Thelin,
Stan Getz, Bob Brookmeyer and Zoot Sims. As time passed, his musical
consciousness continued to expand: time spent in Africa sparked a deep exploration
of the music of the Middle East. The new rock sounds from England, like The Beatles
and Jimi Hendrix, were mind-blowing. And from Germany came the krautrockers,
with something completely else again.
 Vibing on the eclectic energies of the day, Vandroogenbroeck formed Brainticket,
whose approach to composition fused jazz, rock and a mélange of global musical
traditions, combining a Western rhythm section and analogue synthesizers with an
astonishing array of acoustic instruments; ethnic flutes, sitar, harp, kalimba and all
manner of percussion. Steeped in diverse approaches of playing and listening,
Brainticket drew from prog rock and psych, traditional sounds and minimalist music,
all of which passed through their hands like the tributaries that formed the basis of
what would soon be known as New Age music.
 In the late 1970s, Vandroogenbroeck began composing for sound libraries, with
recordings to be used as underlay music in films, radio and television. Gunter
Greffenius’ Coloursound Library was formed in 1979 with an inclusive vision of
music, including experimental, progressive rock, and some of the earliest examples
of ambient music - styles not well represented in other libraries. Coloursound gave
Joel the freedom to create music in any style or genre, and over the next decadeplus, he embarked on a musical journey that is unmatched anywhere in the world of
library music. Working under the pseudonyms VDB, his output on Coloursound is
some of his most sublime and otherworldly - ranging from dark electronics to
imagined music of the ancient past to ethereal ambient sounds of the future, which
makes sense, as Joel’s records were always ahead and in and out of their time.
 Joel VandroogenbroeckJ passed away in in December 2019, while work was being
done assembling this collection. Curated by David Hollander, whose ‘Unusual
Sounds’ album and book of the same name delightfully explore the library music
world, ‘Far View’ draws from ten of Joel’s Coloursound albums with lovely cohesion.
Featuring brilliantly remastered sound, liner notes from David Hollander, album art
designed by Robert Beatty and reproductions of the Coloursound album jackets, ‘Far
View’ is an entry point to Joel Vandroogenbroek’s mind-bending body of work - sonic
soma to expand your consciousness and vibrate with the cosmos.

Triple Black Vinyl, 12”x24” Poster, Vinyl “Bumper” sticker, DL card. An essential rock artefact tracing The Groundhogs from their pre - ‘Thank Christ For The Bomb’ blues roots to the final live show for the classic line up of Tony McPhee (guitar and vocals), Pete Cruikshank (bass) and Ken Pustelnik (drums). Never before heard recordings from the Warner Brothers’ vaults including a vintage 1969 set from their show at the Richmond Athletic Ground (AKA The Crawdaddy Club) and their final explosive set at the Pocono Raceway track. Includes the live debut of what would become the anthemic ‘Cherry Red’ and McPhee’s seismic destruction of ‘Amazing Grace’. A career-spanning gem from the ultimate heavy rock power trio book-ending 976 days and 250-plus live shows. “In their stage act they concentrate on being as heavy and as hard-hitting as possible.” The Scene magazine. “Performing on stage we feel that the emphasis is on excitement so we play the numbers that involve the greatest amount of movement and dynamics,” Tony McPhee told Star Pop.

We used to enjoy presenting Chapelier Fou's work using the idea of music in the form of a treasure hunt. However, while the phrase in itself it still just as relevant today, we would never have imagined that it would become such an integral part of one of his albums. Or two of his albums to be perfectly exact - Méridiens and Parallèles. Two records with twelve songs each which answer each other back in the form of anagrams. They are like the two sides of the same planet - similar but simultaneously so different. They need to be discovered one after the other taking the time necessary to travel through the sound territories produced by his imagination. The starting point is a sombre night in Uqbar… Chapelier Fou's opening reference to Borgès was obviously not made by chance. He subsequently confided in us the objective of his diptych, namely to combine reality with fiction to question certainties and our relationships with the imaginary sphere. He has continued with his traditional classical-contemporary electronic approach which, although now known to a wide audience, has the advantage of opening up a whole range of possibilities right up to the infinite scale. Moving away from an "État Nain" (Dwarf State) to take refuge on an asteroid...Throughout Méridiens, each composition can be seen as a universe in itself or a specific landscape with its own temporality. Proof of this is the introduction to the chamber music format composed for and performed by only strings which can only be given the date we want to give it. This is "État Nain" in which violins are played like guitars. In some parts we find the spirit of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra and the idea of cheering up classical instruments and not taking everything too seriously. In other parts, we find something close to a mischievous and childish unplugged grunge anthem that could be from the French series Les Shadoks. This mischievous view of things is shown to full effect in Am Scharchtensee. The introduction shows Chapelier Fou's whole classical universe and mastery of orchestration in which "modular" electronics provide a subtle and discreet backdrop. Then, the record suddenly switches to a surrealist dialogue between these classical sounds and modular synthesizers with the flavour of the German pioneers Kluster/Harmonia to name but one example. Timelessness and imaginary places. La vie de cocagne confirms this choice of total freedom. It's traditional music with old sounds, a kind of forgotten bourrée (old French dance) in which electronic sounds disturb the established order and thus reach another musical dimension. Le méridien du Péricarde followed by Désert de Sonora push this idea of a trompe l'oreille and a hall of mirrors even further. The latter track ends almost like a catchy 80s melody and we can no longer find any logical meaning. We let ourselves be carried away by this profusion of madness and are a little amazed by this mastery of sound, composition and space. It sometimes all seems like a succession of conjuring tricks. Chapelier Fou takes not being serious very seriously indeed. The end song Everest trail is the perfect conclusion, a deadpan track in which the primary aspect of a totally classical melody in all its straightness is underpinned by a permanent exchange of electronic tweets which mocks the main musical posture. This impertinence harks back to Pierre Schaeffer who directed the ORTF's very serious experimental department in another era and allowed the development of Jacques Rouxel's series Les Shadoks thus introducing the general public to the notion of concrete music. This is also perhaps why Louis Warynski's stage name is French – because he has opted to use his French musical heritage. Thus the first singles selected from this album, Constantinople with its groovy and jazzy allure and Le Triangle des Bermudes evoke composers like Michel Magne or Michel Colombier both of whom have totally open minds and consider all music to have the same importance, namely that of sound. In absolutely all the tracks that make up Méridiens, you will find at least one detail - a pattern, melody, sometimes a simple sound - that will draw you back to explore it a little more. And the words are carefully weighed for sure. It's quite simple. This is undoubtedly his most hypnotizing and catchy album. Chapelier Fou has become a complete master of his own universe. He draws the start and finish lines himself and no one can follow him in a field that now belongs to him alone. Composed imaginary spheres, illustrated territories...Music is just as meaningful as the more visual arts. Therefore the artwork of Méridiens had to project each of the twelve tracks considered individually and not just the whole album as such. Chapelier Fou therefore asked his old friend the contemporary artist Corentin Grossman to create twelve windows to represent glimpses of the twelve worlds composed for the record. Windows or mirrors when it comes to that? You can never be sure of anything...Space OK. But what about time? The years go by and sometimes we forget that fact. But a simple glance back is often enough to gently touch the time that has passed. It is over 10 years since his first official record and he has been composing, recording and sharing his music for almost 20 years. 20 years is a long time. It makes some people look old while others fall into reassuring but sterile nostalgia. Chapelier Fou, on the other hand, has released his most ambitious project and tried to take a higher view of his discography that was itself nevertheless irreproachable. Although the journey is over we can see Parallèles universes on the horizon. Chapelier Fou has announced 12 additional tracks which are like echoes of the compositions on Méridiens' and will be released on the album Parallèles next spring. They are neither twins nor opposites – they are instead totally original new compositions which go further in exploring a universe which is already richly abundant.

ALTER- : A REACTION TO THE ALTERMODERNISM IN SOUND ART
For the Automatisme - Alter- album. I am inspired by how the art historian Nicolas Bourriaud defines the Altermodernism. Bourriaud understands the term "Alter" as a way to mean "other". The altermodernism would be another modernity that is different from the avant-garde modernism and post-modernism. More precisely, this is a new paradigm from the XXIe century with alternative ways to motivate artists to be more radical in art by traveling in the physical and digital world, by cutting the frontiers and by creating other time lines. I apply the "alter" subject to time and to landscape and those, to the rhythmic and the ambient glitch music.

1- THE ALBUM HAS A RHYTHMIC SIDE AND A LANDSCAPE SIDE.
1- a : The rhythmic tracks are named Alter-Rate. That means that I offer other types of rhythms by calculating beats with time rate experimentations. The form of the rhytmic tracks, expresses a course, a wandering, which, in the altermodern life, is not just in a standard 4/4 , or just grid based or non-grid based, but it's in a complex hybrid of all of those.

1- b : The ambient tracks are named Alter-Scape. That means that I offer another type of landScapes by a paused temporality and not by a random time or by the time of the nature. Alter-Scape tracks mimic the saturated globalized soundscapes of the XXIe century.

2- THE GLOBALISED AND SATURATED TIME
For Bourriaud, the artists respond to a new globalised perception. They traverse a cultural landscape saturated with signs and create new pathways between multiple formats of expressions and communications1. The Alter- album tracks have saturated rhythms Rates and static ambient soundScapes. The specific context within which we live is the age of globalisation2. In this album, it means that globalised or always evolving rhythm Rates are in constant movements and are also different every time an Alter-Rate track is exported or performed. On the other hand, a globalised landScape is an ambient track with a motionless temporality. In the era of the altermodern, displacement has become a method of depiction3. The movement of the sound in the Alter- album is two sound spaces. The first is the rhythms that make time movement become apparent and the second is an ambient paused or static time that makes possible to feel and to analyze the movement effect of our surroundings.

3- THE CONSTANT TENSION STATE OF ART
For Gilles Deleuze, art is in a constant state of tension, in as much as it oscillates between the poles of chaos and order4. The Alter- album is a tension between chaos and order in rhythmic beat tracks and ambient soundscapes tracks. It is a deterritorialization of the rhythms and the ambiences of today's natural and digital landscapes and it brings them into the computer glitch music format.

By pushing new softwares to their limits, I push at the extreme the software capacity to calculate and to generate sounds. The Alter-Rate tracks are experimentations with time rates and rhythms with the use of probability and artificial intelligence based sequencers. The partition signal starts from a master sequencer that gets into all instruments on a track. Each instrument receives this signal and modulates it with other sequencers that are each programmed differently for every instrument. Finally, all the instruments signals return to a master output that contains a stutter effect. This master channel is sequencing all other channels into one single rhythm. In short, a single rate merges and expands into a vast archipelago of rates and the transformed signal becomes a new single rate. The Alter-Scape tracks are experimentations with midi triggers that give the sensation of a timelessness. Multiple reverb effects are also routed into each other to create soundscapes of continuity. About the type of sounds created in this album, I do experimentations with deep frequency modulation synthesises (FM) on all Alter-Rate and Alter-Scape tracks.

I put a few layers in the tracks to be able to focus on the time space and perception. The tracks are generative and every parameter uses probabilities to be programmed. This is something that was not possible some years ago. The computers are enough powerful to generate that now. I export many times the tracks and i push the computers to their limits by making hard for them to calculate and to generate the tracks with a deep, a pointillist and an extreme software programming. These techniques do different versions every time that I export or perform a track and in my opinion, that opens a fresh and innovative way to do new experimental club music and ambient music. The computer has its own limits too.


Reviews in The Wire, Gonzo, A Closer Listen, Datacide, African Paper, Silent and Sound, and more

James Blunt’s greatest hits album, 'The Stars Beneath My Feet (2004-2021)’ is out November 19th and celebrates songs spanning a stellar 17-year career that has spawned over 23 million album sales, a global smash hit with ‘You’re Beautiful’, two Brit Awards and two Ivor Novello Awards, as well as receiving five Grammy Award nominations.

Amongst the string of hit singles, 'The Stars Beneath My Feet (2004-2021)’ will also include four new songs (‘Love Under Pressure’, ‘Unstoppable’, ‘Adrenaline’ & ‘I Came For Love’), as well as four exclusive live performances from around the world, including the Glastonbury Festival. It also features stunning tracks from his latest Gold-selling album ‘Once Upon A Mind’, including ‘Cold’, and the heartbreaking ballad for his father, ‘Monster’.

James’ classic 2004 debut album ‘Back To Bedlam’, was recently named as one of the top ten best-selling albums of that decade, and with ‘Once Upon A Mind’, James Blunt reinforced his reputation for writing honest, emotional songs that people can easily relate to. The album marked a return to what James Blunt does best – writing classic songs that touch both the heart and the head. Another side of James - his wit and charm - have in recent times been showcased via his always engaging Twitter account. James has also announced a huge UK arena tour for 2022.

Reunited after some fourteen years, following the historic success of their first collaboration Raising Sand (2007), which reached #2 on the UK album chart, generated multi-platinum sales, and earned six Grammy Awards including Album and Record of the Year.
Like its predecessor, Raise The Roof was produced by T Bone Burnett, who worked with Plant and Krauss to expand their collaboration in thrilling new directions, accompanied by drummer Jay Bellerose, guitarists Marc Ribot, David Hidalgo, Bill Frisell, and Buddy Miller, bassists Dennis Crouch and Viktor Krauss, along with pedal steel guitarist Russ Pahl among others.
The album features twelve new recordings of songs by legends and unsung heroes including Merle Haggard, Allen Toussaint, The Everly Brothers, Anne Briggs, Geeshie Wiley, Bert Jansch and more. Other highlights include a Plant-Burnett original, “High and Lonesome,” and the Lucinda Williams classic “Can’t Let Go”.

Oak Corridor is the second full-length album from Newcastle, Australian duo Troth (Amelia Besseny & Cooper Bowman). It follows 2020’s warmly received album, Flaws In The Glass (Altered States Tapes) and 2021’s Small Movements In Radiance mini-album (Not Not Fun). While the same themes and intentions remain, this time Troth channel their ambient experiments into an environ located somewhere closer to minimal-wave and synth-pop.

While Oak Corridor is their most ‘song-based’ album to date, it continues the respectful treatment of natural themes found in their previous releases, further tying in elements of balance, truth, justice, humility, strains of mysticism from varied origins and an opposition to the encroachment of ill-advised development surrounding them in Newcastle (and Australia more broadly). The album is a truly collaborative affair and offers something of a sound-diary of the two’s relationship.