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With her hypnotizing voice and vivid lyricism, Jackie Mendoza makes fantastical, intimate electro-pop propelled by ukulele-based dance grooves. Having grown up between her birthplace of Chula Vista, California and Tijuana, Mexico, the 29-year-old singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist bridges these two worlds with dynamic soundscapes that pull from Latin pop, electronic music, and indie pop. She creates a musical universe that exists beyond strict borders of genre and geography, giving her the space to traverse the vast expanse of her interiority. Mendoza first started performing in 2014 as the vocalist for Brooklyn dream pop bands Gingerlys and Lunarette. She then broke out as a solo artist with her 2016 pop hits "Islands" and "La Luz," which showcased her imagery-packed, yet deeply introspective lyrics. On LuvHz, her 2019 adventurous debut EP that was initially inspired by a painful breakup, she turned her personal experiences into songs that observe greater truths about the world around her. As a result, the project became a broader reflection on varying forms of love, in relationships with your partner, your culture, and the natural environment. Mendoza expands this approach on her debut album, Galaxia de Emociones (Galaxy of Emotions), which sees her exploring a great range of feelings, from depression, celebration, outrage, numbness, hopelessness, and thrilling love. She uses each emotion as a portal to convey the intricacies of her experience as a queer, first-generation Mexican American woman, who actively defies and criticizes machismo and the Christian culture she was surrounded by. Brought up in the suburban border town of Chula Vista, she recalls being told by her parents to not mix English with Spanish, but speaking "spanglish" quickly became inevitable. It wasn't until high school, that learning to play ukulele and singing in school musicals allowed her to authentically express herself. "This album is about finding the courage to not only face my emotions, but also sharing them by singing them out loud." Mendoza says. The project was co-written and co-produced by Mendoza and Rusty Santos (Animal Collective, Panda Bear), with a contribution from Grammy winning producer and accordionist Ulises Lozano. As Galaxia de Emociones cruises from shimmering indie pop to accordion-laced electronic norteño, Mendoza proves there is both power and tenderness in embracing the fullness of your being and not doubting your instincts that might have been discouraged by society. She says it all in the opening song, "Natural," which blooms with spacey synths and twinkling ukulele plucks. "There is no use in controlling what comes natural to you," she sings in Spanish in a spellbinding loop. With her new album, she hopes that listeners can connect with her words and look within to explore their own galaxy of emotions.

American singer-songwriter, poet, and photographer Thomas Meluch, known musically as Benoît Pioulard, returns with his most structured and vocal release to date. Titled »Eidetic,« a word denoting the ability to recall mental images with extraordinarily rich precision, the album presents unprecedented clarity and vitality for Benoît Pioulard. To access its thematic ground, Meluch looked inward with an affinity towards the people he loves during a period marked by his move from Seattle to Brooklyn in 2019. The resulting work engages with the universe's unflinching mortality and, as he says, »the ways it has modified and improved my relationships, especially with family.« Embodied by the creek, leaves, and ferns of the cover photography — taken in Michigan’s Burchfield Park, where he and his dad used to hike and »muse on existence« — the music glistens and unfurls with the flow of life he’s come to know. »Eidetic« is the culmination of Meluch's craft both as a producer and writer. An evocative sonic vocabulary meets deft lyrical introspection, articulated with the nuance, vulnerability, and confidence of a longtime artist hitting a stride.

Meluch has continually refined, redefined, and adjusted the focus of his gentle pop project over the last 20 years. Recorded primarily with guitar, tapes, and voice — and spanning labels with albums for Kranky, Morr Music, Beacon Sound, and Past Inside the Present — his catalog flows seamlessly between ambient improvisation and pop composition. Much like the analog photos that often accompany his releases, songs can feel dreamily softened and distant, and others beautifully vivid and detailed. 2021 full-length »Bloodless« found Meluch deep in droning decay, expressive yet wordless. With »Eidetic,« he swings back to sharpened forms. Lush banks of treated guitar and synth brush against hushed percussion; there is mist in the distance, but everything up close is intricately constructed and radiant. Meluch's voice is notably forward in the mix — a warm and calming tenor, a harmonic coo more than a whisper — ever-observant and actively processing.

To record much of the album, Meluch filled a cabin in rural Maine with his usual setup of simple percussion, a couple of Fender electrics, and a parlor guitar made by his friend who does bespoke luthier work. The modest utility is what he knows best, and here he pushes the output to its most pristine potential.

»Eidetic« opens in a swirl of familiar haze; »Margaret Murie« eases listeners in, as lush and verdant as the landscapes conserved by its famed namesake. With the setting established, Meluch, the narrator, enters the foreground with »Crux,« a tender piece written about finding new motivations in a new city. »We covet this rare green hue / Here at the farthest point from home,« he sings above a reassuring pattern of strums and percussion. Meluch's prose shines on the swiftly-moving »Nameless,« inspired by the neurological effects that came with the antiquated practice of manufacturing mercury mirrors; »folks would slowly go insane while looking into their own reflections every day,« he adds. The idea informs a series of surreal abstractions before everything drops out in the final minute, and we are left free-floating in eerie nothingness.

Across the album, labyrinthine lyrical ponderings scatter with dazzling imagery, artfully blurring scenes from world history with Meluch's more personal, present-day. The propulsive and earnest »Thursday Night« catches his mind overly active and too stoned, riffing on black holes and songwriting itself. »Halve« references the splitting of the atom, what he considers »the beginning of man's downfall,« and the unrealized initiative proposed by the US government that would have created 'nuclear refuges' in its national parks. Meluch's loved ones weave throughout; »Tet« holds his father's experience in Vietnam and its lasting effects. »Lillian Isola« touches on his maternal grandmother's spinal curvature, and »Pastel Dust« navigates the wake of his cat, who died on New Year's Eve 2020.

At first blush, Meluch's atmospheric and melodic sensibilities resonate purely in their own right. Upon closer meditation, his ability to render stories — many of which surround human tragedy, misfortune, and understanding — through the prism of his poetry makes »Eidetic« even more rewarding.

Dark Green Vinyl

American singer-songwriter, poet, and photographer Thomas Meluch, known musically as Benoît Pioulard, returns with his most structured and vocal release to date. Titled »Eidetic,« a word denoting the ability to recall mental images with extraordinarily rich precision, the album presents unprecedented clarity and vitality for Benoît Pioulard. To access its thematic ground, Meluch looked inward with an affinity towards the people he loves during a period marked by his move from Seattle to Brooklyn in 2019. The resulting work engages with the universe's unflinching mortality and, as he says, »the ways it has modified and improved my relationships, especially with family.« Embodied by the creek, leaves, and ferns of the cover photography — taken in Michigan’s Burchfield Park, where he and his dad used to hike and »muse on existence« — the music glistens and unfurls with the flow of life he’s come to know. »Eidetic« is the culmination of Meluch's craft both as a producer and writer. An evocative sonic vocabulary meets deft lyrical introspection, articulated with the nuance, vulnerability, and confidence of a longtime artist hitting a stride.

Meluch has continually refined, redefined, and adjusted the focus of his gentle pop project over the last 20 years. Recorded primarily with guitar, tapes, and voice — and spanning labels with albums for Kranky, Morr Music, Beacon Sound, and Past Inside the Present — his catalog flows seamlessly between ambient improvisation and pop composition. Much like the analog photos that often accompany his releases, songs can feel dreamily softened and distant, and others beautifully vivid and detailed. 2021 full-length »Bloodless« found Meluch deep in droning decay, expressive yet wordless. With »Eidetic,« he swings back to sharpened forms. Lush banks of treated guitar and synth brush against hushed percussion; there is mist in the distance, but everything up close is intricately constructed and radiant. Meluch's voice is notably forward in the mix — a warm and calming tenor, a harmonic coo more than a whisper — ever-observant and actively processing.

To record much of the album, Meluch filled a cabin in rural Maine with his usual setup of simple percussion, a couple of Fender electrics, and a parlor guitar made by his friend who does bespoke luthier work. The modest utility is what he knows best, and here he pushes the output to its most pristine potential.

»Eidetic« opens in a swirl of familiar haze; »Margaret Murie« eases listeners in, as lush and verdant as the landscapes conserved by its famed namesake. With the setting established, Meluch, the narrator, enters the foreground with »Crux,« a tender piece written about finding new motivations in a new city. »We covet this rare green hue / Here at the farthest point from home,« he sings above a reassuring pattern of strums and percussion. Meluch's prose shines on the swiftly-moving »Nameless,« inspired by the neurological effects that came with the antiquated practice of manufacturing mercury mirrors; »folks would slowly go insane while looking into their own reflections every day,« he adds. The idea informs a series of surreal abstractions before everything drops out in the final minute, and we are left free-floating in eerie nothingness.

Across the album, labyrinthine lyrical ponderings scatter with dazzling imagery, artfully blurring scenes from world history with Meluch's more personal, present-day. The propulsive and earnest »Thursday Night« catches his mind overly active and too stoned, riffing on black holes and songwriting itself. »Halve« references the splitting of the atom, what he considers »the beginning of man's downfall,« and the unrealized initiative proposed by the US government that would have created 'nuclear refuges' in its national parks. Meluch's loved ones weave throughout; »Tet« holds his father's experience in Vietnam and its lasting effects. »Lillian Isola« touches on his maternal grandmother's spinal curvature, and »Pastel Dust« navigates the wake of his cat, who died on New Year's Eve 2020.

At first blush, Meluch's atmospheric and melodic sensibilities resonate purely in their own right. Upon closer meditation, his ability to render stories — many of which surround human tragedy, misfortune, and understanding — through the prism of his poetry makes »Eidetic« even more rewarding.

Faitiche presents the album Exq I by Berlin underground techno legends Muellie Messiah & Punk not Punk, mainly known under their 100Records moniker. Weighing in at 36 minutes, the track was recorded in 2010, effortlessly intermingling dub, drone and collage, a blend achieved thanks to the duo’s jazz-inspired approach to improvisation.

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100records is one of the last undiscovered treasures of the Berlin underground of the 1990s and 2000s. Like Elektro Music Department, 100records is unthinkable without techno and the club scene, but with a few exceptions the duo’s tracks are not aimed at the dancefloor. With a claim to universality and a broader frame of reference, 100records developed a more extensive understanding of sound that rests on three pillars: the understated analogue drums of the Roland TR-808, a blurred, dubby sound, and improvisation.

On first hearing, Exq I has little in common with the groovy, detailed, variation-rich sound usually associated with 100records. Recorded at the end of a highly productive decade, it is an echo speaking of exhaustion in which dub, drone and collage converge to form something whose jazz sensibility makes it readily identifiable as the work of 100records.

100records was founded in 1994 by Muellie Messiah (Dirk Budde) and Ekki 808 (Ekkehard Rau), who were joined in 1999 by Punk not Punk (Martin Osti). Around 2002, Ekki departed, leaving Budde and Osti to continue as a duo. Since then, their relationship has shaped 100records: Budde is the driven lone genius doggedly pursuing sounds, Osti the pragmatist who turns ideas into music.

As well as making music, Budde is also a musicologist. In 1997 he published his PhD thesis entitled Take Three Chords... Punk Rock and the Development to American Hardcore. As well as being his specialization, punk is also part of his identity: in the 1980s he sang and played keyboards in various punk bands in Kassel, the best known being Haunted Henschel.

After the fall of the Wall, attracted by the freedom of the newly reunited Berlin, Budde packed his bags and drove to the formerly divided city, having already become acquainted with techno at Kassel’s influential Stammheim club.

First album of the self-titled band ‘Sheikhs Shikhats & B’net Chaabi’, to be released in March 2023.

‘Sheikhs Shikhats & B'net Chaabi’ is a colorful and exuberant ensemble led by Laïla Amezian. Through this project, Laïla wants to pay tribute to the shikhats and ghanayats, female singers who fought for freedom of expression in 19th century Morocco through popular songs. She surrounds herself with Laurent Blondiau for the musical direction and 16 other renowned musicians and vocalists, including jazz saxophonist Toine Thys, tubist Michel Massot, trumpeter Pauline Leblond, young trombonist Nabou Claerhout and female singer-percussionists of the Sultanats B'net Chaabi.

The release of the album is accompanied by a concert tour in Antwerp, Brussels, Leuven and Rotterdam (NL), amongst others. Want a taste of their exciting mix of jazz, urban ethno and traditional Moroccan songs? They will drop a first single online on the 23rd of November 2022. Expect alluring melodies, enchanting vocals, breathtaking brass instruments and an explosive chaabi groove!

Vive La Musique brings us yet another magical release, compiling four stunning tracks from South African bass player - Sipho Gumede. Taken from two rare albums originally released in the 80s, the music blends South African roots with Boogie influences and is the follow-up to the hugely successful "Jika Jika" reissue.
The release was born through label founder Aroop Roy's relentless search for a copy of the 1983 Peace album, which led to him tracking down the original producer - Greg Cutler - a key figure in South African music from that period and regular collaborator with Sipho. Aroop was blown away by "Uthinina" and "Bayabizana" - two unique tracks, featuring haunting Zulu vocals, African jazz flavours, and epic changes over hypnotic grooves.
"Something to Say" and "City of Gold" were recorded a few years later in the world-renowned Battery Mobile Studio. Sipho had been working there with Caiphus Semenya and Letta Mbulu and their influences can be heard, with drum machines and American Boogie instrumentation laying the foundation for powerful vocal lines sung in English, with soul and gospel sensibility.
The 12" comes with extensive liner notes from Greg Cutler, talking about his time in South Africa. He recalls his experience as a White producer, working with Black musicians under the challenges of apartheid and describes his musical journey with Sipho Gumede, with intriguing details on how the music and production evolved.


Feedback

"The music of Sipho is so good - wow! Uthininia def worth the 3 year search, but even more wonderful to then stumble over a tune like "Something To Say"!"
Hunee

"Chunky, soulful and deep. Thanks for unearthing these beauties!"
Mr Scruff

"Brilliant tracks! Thank you so much"
Gilles Peterson

"This is fucking amazing!!!!"
Eli Soul Clap

"Sipho's Music is great!"
Antal

"Amazing music that is perfect for today's music environment, a lovely blend of South African and boogie flavours."
Patrick Forge

Fingier Records were established in 2020 as a
group label of Acid Jazz Records to showcase the
Latin American productions of Argentine producer,
Kevin Fingier.

The label has produced a series of sell-out and
collectable 7” singles, with some going for
hundreds of pounds on collector sites.

This compilation brings these singles together onto
one album, with graphics and photography to
match the sound and style of Fingier Records.
Features the vocals of Diane Ward, Jo-Ann
Hamilton and Gerri Granger, Brazilian singer Jose
Dias and Senegalese vocalist / percussionist
Abdoulaye Badiane, backed by the all-star Kevin
Fingier Collective.

Radio - BBC Radio 6 Music Craig Charles Funk & Soul
Show.

Debüt-Studioalbum der britischen Singer-Songwriterin. Webb ist bekannt für ihre Singles "Before I Go" und "Good Without", letzteres erreichte Platz acht der britischen Singles-Charts. Im Oktober 2021 veröffentlichte sie ihre Debüt-EP "Seven Shades of Heartbreak"

As Deutsche Grammophon celebrates its 125th birthday this year 2023, the Yellow Label marks the occasion by releasing a selection of vinyl LPs for the first time ever.
Nadine Sierra’s childhood intuition – that she was born to sing opera – has proved correct in every way and is reflected in the title of her second solo album for DG. The dramatic presence, searing passion and technical brilliance for which the American lyric soprano regularly scores rave reviews are captured in Made for Opera, which trains the spotlight on three of the most demanding roles in the repertoire – Verdi’s Violetta, Donizetti’s Lucia and Gounod’s Juliette. Recorded with the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai and Capella Cracoviensis under Riccardo Frizza, the album not only reflects Nadine Sierra’s command of bel canto technique and rich range of vocal colours, but also documents her insights into the psychology of the ill-starred heroines of La traviata, Lucia di Lammermoor and Roméo et Juliette.

The five songs on the Kingfisher EP deal in nostalgia, lost time, and the peculiar pleasure of sadness. It was recorded in StudiOwz in Pembrokeshire in December 2021, engineered by Iwan Morgan (who co-produced along with Georgia, and with whom she worked on her last album Mai). Musicians include Stephen Black (Group Listening, Sweet Baboo) and Iwan Huws, and with additional percussion by Osian Williams, and string arrangements by Owain Roberts. Georgia’s one-year-old son Idris features in the background of a few of the songs, if you listen closely enough! Glassy electronic beats and improvised vocals sit alongside dreamy Americana.
Georgia said: “There's a freedom you get with an EP - you can try things out, get it all out of your system. But all these songs are connected - they come from the same place. I imagined them all as scenes from the same film! “

Cosmic American Music from the far flung reaches of rural Oregon. Issued in 1979 on Allan Wachs' own True Vine imprint, Mountain Roads and City Streets gathers a decade of songs written while hitchhiking up and down the west coast. Screeching pedal steel, lilting flute, and tingly dulcimer are peppered throughout Wachs' tales of brief affairs, invisible dogs, and getting lost in a changing America.

WITCH RIPPER haben eine liebevolle Hommage an die legendären Pulp-Science-Fiction-Storys aus der "Goldenen Zeit" des Genres erschaffen. Auf ihrem zweiten Album "The Flight After the Fall" erzählen die Amerikaner eine durchgehende Geschichte, die aus all den schmackhaften Zutaten besteht: Ein verrückter Professor, seine sterbende Frau, Kryo-Kammern und ein Schwarzes Loch dürfen dabei nicht fehlen. Garniert wird das Konzert von universell wichtigen Themen wie Liebe, Angst, Verlust und Akzeptanz. Musikalisch haben WITCH RIPPER ebenfalls das passende Rezept für "The Flight After the Fall" gefunden. Das Album steckt nicht nur erwartungsgemäß voller Vorwärtsdrang und ungezähmter Energie, sondern es finden sich ebenso flinke wie vertrackte Gitarren-Attacken, ein subtiler Hauch von Synthesizer-Sounds und kosmischer Atmosphäre sowie unverschämt eingängige Clean-Vocal-Hooks. Kurz gesagt, WITCH RIPPER bleiben ihren knorrigen Wurzeln treu, während sie sich gleichzeitig den Arena-Rock-Bombast von QUEEN und DAVID BOWIE sowie den überschwänglichen modernen Prog von COHEED AND CAMBRIA und MUSE zu eigen machen. Geboren und aufgewachsen in der Stadt des grauen Himmels und der lauten Musik, Seattle im Jahr 2012, haben WITCH RIPPER aus Washington von Anfang an die zeitgenössische Härte von Acts wie MASTODON, GOJIRA und BARONESS nahtlos mit der hymnischen Qualität des klassischen Rock verschweißt. WITCH RIPPER gehen ihre Musik auf typisch amerikanische Weise an: Fette Riffs, große Hooks und verdammt sei dieser Schlagzeuger! Mit "The Flight After the Fall" meldet sich die Heavy-Truppe aus Seattle mit einem kühnen musikalischen Statement in der US-Metal-Szene zurück.

After three years of breakout touring at some of the biggest roots festivals in the United States and Canada, and another three years locked out of the live performance world they have so ambitiously cultivated, Doolin', France's premiere practitioners of Irish and Celtic music, return with a new album entitled CIRCUS BOY. Recorded in part in the US (Chicago, Kansas City and Pittsburgh) during their 2019 tour, the album was completed at the legendary Studio Ferber in Paris, France, under the direction of two legendary producers, Olivier Lude and Patrice Renson, both of whom have collaborated with some of the biggest names in French music. While their 2016 album drew its inspiration from the fusion of traditional Irish music, French chanson, and American roots music, CIRCUS BOY is resolutely more adventurous, as evidenced by their original compositions ("Circus Boy", "When I'm Gone", "A Place Where We Belong"), as well as by the added punch and sonic elements that were brought to the project by producers Lude and Renson. Powerful, full of emotion, and eminently appealing, Doolin' is poised to take their career to the next level with the release of CIRCUS BOY.

Belgium's Ahl Iver has become synonymous with the Lenske name since founder Amelie Lens singled out one of his demo submissions back in 2018. Since then, the young DJ/producer has dropped two EPs on Lenske whilst holding down a busy international touring schedule including regular appearances at Amelie's revered Exhale party series. 'Paradox' contains four dance-floor orientated cuts with the typical Ahl Iver sound that's steadily become a Lenske staple.

Opening the record is 'Reverse Psychology', featuring a thunderous kick drum, whirring sonics and industrial slams. Ahl includes a stripped back rave synth and siren combo with sharp stabbing sequences. Next up is 'Paradox', kicking off with a distant alarm, wicked keys and another blistering kick drum. The elements build together to form the foundation for the jacking vocal sample that dominates and drives the track onward, always with a singular acid line buzzing menacingly in the background.

On the flip is 'Rumble In The Jungle', kicking off with twisted and devilish effects that snicker and shoot across the hurried pace of the roaring kick. The track develops into a battlefield, with the initial mischievous sounds mimicking a frenetic laser fight, before stripping back the focus onto the main kick drum and singular percussive slap. Rounding off the record is 'No Salvation'. The track builds on the initial kick drum combo as well as an ever-present melody that gradually rises to the forefront of the track in a powerful takeover. There's a cinematic feeling to the cut created by airy elongated pads as the hook of the track, gliding and ascending under the harsher elements.

180 GRAM AUDIOPHILE VINYL
PVC PROTECTIVE SLEEVE
GATEFOLD SLEEVE WITH VELVET SPOT VARNISH ON THE OUTSIDE AND IMAGES OF ICONIC MOVIE POSTERS ON THE INSIDE
4-PAGE INSERT
A SELECTION OF DEFINING MORRICONE SONGS, FEATURED IN CLASSIC MOVIES AND SERIES “VERUSCHKA”, “SLALOM”, “ALIBI”, “VIOLENT CITY”, “MACHINE GUN MCCAIN”, AND MANY MORE
LINER NOTES BY CLAUDIO FUIANO
PART OF THE MORRICONE THEMES COLLECTION
THE SPINES OF THE FIVE TITLES FORM ONE IMAGE TOGETHER
MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE SERIES ON MORRICONEONVINYL
BLACK VINYL

Lounge is the third in a series of five double vinyl releases that bring together some of Ennio Morricone’s greatest soundtrack music. Each collection centres on a different movie genre, together they allow the listener to rediscover the unmatched genius of the greatest movie composer of all time. The Maestro. This collection was announced before Ennio Morricone passed away on July 6, 2020. We’ll continue to release the series to honour this great composer.

The term Lounge Music is not one that Ennio Morricone would have heard at the time he was composing these pieces for the movies that they enhanced, but it is one has been retrospectively applied to a certain type of music, and it is a style that Morricone has contributed a great deal towards.

Lounge refers to a type of easy listening music that began to be popular in the 1950s and developed right through the 1960s and into the 1970s. This was sophisticated music for an adult audience. Lounge music combined its American influences with music that was popular outside the USA such as Latin, Hawaiian, Polynesian, French , and many others. This was an era that was inspired by new inventions. Lounge mimicked the space-age sound effects of the time and the advent of stereophonic technology allowed spatial audio techniques to be used to full effect.

This collection is not about a specific genre of music for film, it is a celebration of Lounge style pieces by Morricone that are capable of evoking in the listener thoughts of easy living, sophistication, romantic moods, and the excitement of a 1950s cocktail lounge or a 1960s nightclub.

Starting 70 years ago as an arranger for the piece Mamma Bianca, Ennio Morricone is the emperor of scores and soundtracks. Morricone has always been a huge influence for the likes of Hans Zimmer, Danger Mouse, Muse, Metallica and many more musicians. He was one of the most successful composers of all-time, selling over 70 million records and winning dozens of awards.

Lounge on black vinyl includes a 4-page insert with liner notes written by Claudio Fuiano. The gatefold sleeve contains a velvet spot varnish on the outside and images of iconic movie posters on the inside.

»Holo« by the US-American three-piece Kiln, first released in 1998, is one of those rare records that managed to carve out a niche of its own while also building bridges to variety of genres like Chicago-style post-rock, the ambient mysticism of projects like Rapoon or the music made at the intersection of shoegaze, and electronic music in the late 1990s. Lush textures, subtle rhythms, jazzy inflections and electronic experimentation seamlessly blend into each other over the course of the eleven tracks. This reissue through the German label Keplar makes the fully revised version, self-released by the group in 2007 under the name »Holo re/lux,« available on vinyl for the very first time. »Twenty-five years later this newly mastered vinyl edition is evidence that the sound of ›Holo‹ continues to attract like-minded listeners,« says member Clark Rehberg III. »Which on many levels means that our mission was successful.«

Rehberg had embarked on this mission together with Kevin Hayes and Kirk Marrison in 1993. They had first worked together under the name Fibreforms as a live trio that used treated guitars, kit drums, and tapes of found sound to explore the balance between band composition and recording experiments, while Marrison made heavy use of the Akai S612 sampler as a fabricating strategy with the project Waterwheel. »Kiln seemed to encapsulate the evolution and melding of those previous approaches to one that insisted on the continual opening up of the compositional process, allowing more of the mystery that can be discovered through studio experiments—and accidents—to become important elements of creating our music,« says Rehberg of the trio that is still going strong after three decades. »The word Kiln implies heat and transformation, an attitude that we apply to every sound we use—we begin with notes and performance and then mosaic with shape and colour.«

»Holo« followed up on the trio’s debut self-titled EP that had been recorded in the summer of 1996. »That same year, during a lull in our collabs, Kirk began building pieces on a low-memory Mac using an early 8-channel DAW,« explains Rehberg. Enchanted by the unprecedented fidelity and energy of those recordings, the three reconvened to build upon them and make more music in that manner. »I’d say our intention was no different than any other time: create something immersive and compelling: dense melodic blasts of uniquely constructed but ultimately accessible audio moments.« The group worked individually and in pairs for about 18 months while being spread across the United States. »We poured everything into it that we had at the time, working dead-end jobs by day and on audio in every other open moment. I remember the struggle of that process, but also the pure joy as we pulled down countless moments of magic while the pieces took shape.«

Rehberg says that he still hears »a time-stamp of those efforts and the belief that we were creating a special audio experience« when listening back to »Holo,« a record the band itself chose to revise almost a decade after its initial release. »Ultimately we just felt those pieces needed more impact and we had the tools and ability to make that happen,« he explains. 16 years after that and a quarter of a century after it first introduced Kiln as a force to be reckoned with, the remastered version feels indeed timeless. It is both a snapshot of the first extensive album project by a group whose bond is still »diamond strong,« as Rehberg puts it, and a record that continues to sound fresh, if not visionary also today.

All tracks composed and recorded by Kevin Hayes, Kirk Marrison, Clark Rehberg III.
Originally released on Thalassa in 1998.
Remaster by Stephan Mathieu. Vinyl cut by LUPO.
Cover art by Kirk Marrison & Clark Rehberg III.
Text by Kristoffer Cornils.

"Urban Hell" is the latest endeavour from Mass-X-odus, the hard-power-tech-noise side project of Adam X. A sound track set to the urban blight of America's inner city neighborhoods. Adam's third release under this rough and tough street techno alias bulldozes it'a way through the decay.

Nebraska is a 2013 American comedy-drama road film directed by Alexander Payne, written by Bob Nelson and starring Bruce Dern, Will Forte, June Squibb and Bob Odenkirk. Shot in black- and-white, the story follows an elderly Montana resident and his son as they try to claim a million-dollar sweepstakes prize on a long trip to Nebraska. The film was nominated for the Palme d’Or (Grand Prize) at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, where Dern won the award for Best Actor. In addition, Nebraska was nominated for six Oscars and became a commercial success.

The film score was composed by Mark Orton, who is part of the acoustic chamber music group Tin Hat (formerly the Tin Hat Trio). For parts of this soundtrack, Orton is joined by other members of Tin Hat, which was the first time they reunited since 2005. They’re known to combine many genres of music, including jazz, southern blues, bluegrass, neoclassical, avant-garde and eastern European folk.

Celebrating its 10th anniversary, Nebraska is available on vinyl for the first time. The soundtrack is available as a 10th anniversary edition of 500 individually numbered copies on black & white marbled vinyl and includes an insert with movie stills and liner notes by director Alexander Payne.

This album features Pharoah Sanders playing some no-nonsense tenor in a quartet with pianist John Hicks, bassist Walter Booker, and drummer Idris Muhammad. Sanders performs "It's Easy to Remember" (in a style very reminiscent of early-'60s John Coltrane), an original blues, and two of his compositions, including the passionate "You've Got to Have Freedom."

The musicianship is at a high level and, although Sanders does not shriek as much as one might hope (the Trane-ish influence was particularly strong during this relatively mellow period), he is in fine form. Review by Scott Yanow/AMG

Beware! This is hot stuff! Wear asbestos clothing while listening. Four world-class musicians at the very pinnacle of their art relating closely to one another in the vortex of a cyclone of jazz music. They're all burning, but listen particularly to John Hicks (R.I.P Mr. Hicks) on "DOKTOR PITT." Is he not the best thing to happen to the keyboard since McCoy Tyner? And when I state John Hicks was burning, if you've ever had the opportunity to view the video of this performance (maybe still on YouTube) recorded at the Great American Music Hall in 1981, you'll see
Mr. Hicks melting with perspiration. That's cookin' brother...
review by James S. Grogan

Tape

The next issue in the on-going Mastermix series features a centerpiece of Frankfurt’s club history: Wild Pitch Club.

A predecessor to the esteemed Robert Johnson and a stepping stone for Panorama Bar’s very own nd_baumecker.

Founded by Playhouse masterminds Ata and the late Heiko M/S/O it was a Thursday club night that heavily featured house music as a prescription to the ongoing techno fever. Enamored with the US-American roots of it and all things deep, it not only presented the right records, but also their creators and protagonists. With a string of guest DJs from Robert Hood and Claude Young to Kerri Chandler and Theo Parrish as well as talent from the UK and Europe, it was one of the culture’s hubs at the time.

Here you have its testimony. Selected and mixed by Ata and nd_baumecker, it’s an authentic snapshot of the club’s vibe and spirit, spread over a collectable tape (download included) and a pleasant streaming version, it’s the full dosage. Like Roach Motel confessed: Wild Pitch, I love you.

Anne's 7th Opus in 13 Years, Containing 6 Fantastic Covers and 6 of Her Own Songs, Recorded in One of the Most Prestigious Studios in Montreal with Her Original Blue Mind Team

Fresh from the success of her single "Killing Me Softly" from her previous album Keys to My Heart, Anne Bisson, singer-songwriter and jazz pianist, decided to perform and record more standards from the American jazz songbook, as well as new arrangements of classic songs that were so much a part of her teenage years.

Be My Lover, Anne's seventh album is, therefore, a savoury feast of original compositions and classic songs in her own bold new arrangements for acoustic trio. While still in the 'Smooth Jazz' genre, the presence of a Fender Rhodes, the legendary '70s keyboard, along with an electric bass, impart the album with quite a unique tone.

After over 18 months of musical experimentation and other creative endeavours, Anne once again brought together master drummer Paul Brochu (Gino Vanelli, Michel Legrand, UZEB) and proficient bassist Jean-Bertrand Carbou from France, for a series of informal sessions to explore the songs that were being considered for this seventh release.

These two musicians have been valuable collaborators for several years now. Paul has been featured on many of Anne's albums, notably Blue Mind, which made a huge splash when it appeared, with over 35,000 hard copies sold, while Jean-Bertrand's playing has also graced several of her albums.

Since 2009, the three have performed at several important venues, including Le Festival International de Jazz de Montréal, as well as other festivals in the United States and Mexico.

What holds them together is an evident complicity which is present from the very first notes. Their musical contributions are precise and deeply heart-felt. Their virtuoso playing greatly enhances these songs without turning them into mere technical exercises.

With precision playing, subtlety and attention to detail, as well as being recorded in impeccable High Definition, these songs will definitely please Anne's audiophile fans, while also appealing to a wider audience.



All About Ultimate High Quality CD (UHQCD)
Many years have passed since the birth of the Audio Compact Disc (CD) back in 1982. By use of High-Quality materials and a totally different manufacturing method, the definitive version of audiophile audio CD was born. Playable on any CD player, the Ultimate High Quality CD greatly surpasses all previous CDs before it!

The Ultimate High Quality CD (UHQCD):
UHQCD is a radical change to the CD manufacturing process itself. The conventional wisdom about CD manufacturing, which had remained largely unchanged across the world for over 30 years, has been exhaustively questioned. Through this effort, the ultimate in quality was attained - a level of quality that is certainly impossible to achieve with existing CD discs.

The Ultimate High Quality CD was developed through an effort to improve audio quality by simply upgrading the materials used in ordinary CDs to higher quality materials. For the substrate a high-transparency and high-fluidity polycarbonate (a type of plastic) of the type used for LCD panels was used, while for the reflective layer, low-cost, common aluminium was replaced with a unique and expensive alloy of high-reflectivity.

Differences in manufacturing methods:
Conventional CDs are produced using the technique of injection moulding to form "pits" of data on polycarbonate material. Metal plate on which "pits" representing audio source data are formed is used as a die. This is called the "stamper." Polycarbonate is melted at high temperature and poured into the die to duplicate the pit patterns on the stamper.

This method is efficient because it enables high-speed production, but it does not enable totally accurate or complete duplication of the pits on the stamper. As a melted plastic, polycarbonate is inevitably viscous, so it cannot penetrate completely into every land and groove of the tiny pits of the stamper.

The Ultimate High Quality CD photopolymer is used instead of polycarbonate to replicate the pits of the stamper. In their normal state, photopolymers are liquids, but one of their characteristic properties is that they harden when exposed to light of certain wavelengths. The advantage of this property, perfect replication of very finely detailed pits was achieved. Photopolymers in the liquid state are able to penetrate into the tiniest corners of pits on the stamper so that the pattern of the pits is reproduced to an extremely high level of accuracy. The Ultimate High Quality CD reproduces audio with greater precision and at a level that is impossible to achieve using conventional CD production technology!

Futurismo present their new anthology series: Altered Vision, beginning with SUBURBAN ANNIHILATION The California Hardcore Explosion / From The City To The Beach: 1978-1983.

This aggressive collection draws from California’s rich history of punk, more specifically hardcore: a new sound that eschewed melody for intensity, a sound that took punk harder and faster, a sound intrinsically American. Whilst hardcore was also burning over on the East Coast, it was in California that it had ignited and sprawled, a sonic punch in the face that raged socio-political disdain and total abandonment for commercialism, fuelled by a crumbling American Dream and the collapse of family values.

Suburban Annihilation takes you from the major cities, to the coastal towns, to the SoCal suburbs, showcasing some the most important bands of the West Coast. Blasting off with the Adolescents ‘I Hate Children’, it heads from the year zero of Middle Class’s ‘Out Of Vogue’ to the surf punk of Agent Orange’s ‘Bloodstains’, from the blues tinged outlaw of The Gun Club’s ‘She’s Like Heroin to Me’ to the classic anti-anthems: ‘Live Fast Die Young’ by the Circle Jerks, lifted from their seminal Group Sex album, and the hardcore staple ‘California ÜberAlles’ by the Dead Kennedys. Also present are so many other bands integral to the era: T.S.O.L, Wasted Youth, Germs, Social Distortion, Suicidal Tendencies, Negative Trend, Flipper and many more.

Though the music was designed to repel, this historical document has been lovingly designed to remind us that this genre created some of the most immediate and acutely-realised music ever produced. Making this collection of choice cuts essential for long-time fans of hardcore and punk, just as those new and inquisitive about one of the most angry and pissed off genres to have given birth in America.

This 2xLP comes in a choice of limited edition coloured vinyl, it has a tracklist co-curated by Henry Rollins, it contains liner notes by Lisa Fancher of Frontier, a bio by award winning author Benjamin Myers, and contains a booklet featuring an array of images by the legendary punk photographer Edward Colver.

blue marbled vinyl /

By now a fabric of the Samurai Music sound, Tensor sees Sardinia's Last Life back for his fourth release for the label. The dive-bomb bounce of Offside opens the EP - hurling out laser-sharp mentasms over a searing groove. Elements adds pace with a driving amen tunnel, pinned down by a swaying half-step kick formation and a vocal insignia. Title track Tensor combines many of Last Life's signature talents perfectly - honed amen edits, a lush percussion loop, and kick drums sitting perfectly - a lesson in propulsion. EP closer Incubus has been receiving the most plays by DJs - a flexing groove, dripping in menace and raw power.

After leaving BMG, Theo Lawrence returns to independence with the launch of his own label Tomika in 2020 and a busy year in 2022: opening acts for Robert Plant & Alison Krauss and Charley Crockett, Americana Fest (Nashville), SXSW and a European tour, Theo Lawrence unveils a new album entitled Chérie. A 12-track jewel case, recorded in Nashville and sailing between ultra- romantic and thrilling ballads, Louisiana Cajun sounds, silky string arrangements and epic vocal flights taking you back to the Pop Music heyday of Roy Orbison and Frank Sinatra. Theo Lawrence is a young French-Canadian songwriter based in Bordeaux. His music is rooted in the country music of the 50"s and 60"s, while borrowing elements from soul, pop and rock&roll of the same era. A mixture of styles and sounds, with a deep love of tradition, while bearing the stamp of modern times. Theo brings a new sound to traditional American music, and with this new album confirms that he is part of the prolific new North American country scene.

With his new album, Gecko Turner confirms that he is a standout artist in the global groove scene, a must for the outernational sounds aficionados.

Somebody From Badajoz is the fifth studio album in his much lauded discography and his first in seven years, eagerly anticipated by both his fans and himself: "this business of dedicating yourself to music and making songs... it's a long game."

With the release of his first two, remarkable, albums, Guapapasea! (2003) and Chandalismo Ilustrado (2006), Gecko started cultivating what one astute journalist defined as Afro-maduran soul—the "maduran" bit referencing Extremadura, a region in central-western Spain.

Badajoz, Gecko's birthplace, is the biggest city in the area, on the border with Portugal, by the Guadiana River. It is a place that oozes history, where there is constant movement at the border, and people's character is friendly and open-minded with foreign habits.

Gecko's Afro-maduran soul isbuilt on Afro-American music and drenched in Brazilian, African, Latin American and Jamaican sounds. There are also echoes of a youth marked in equal parts by our man's admiration for the Beatles and the flamenco that could be heard everywhere in Badajoz in the seventies. It makes for a singular sound and a musical language of its own—spicy, succulent, full of nuances, but with a very personal flavour.

The album opens with the Nigerian talking drums of Twenty-twenty Vision, (neo) soul in a magical falsetto, carried by a sumptuous orchestral arrangement with a cinematic flavour: "I'd been thinking about doing something called 'Twenty-twenty Vision' for some time, making a play on words with the vision we have of the world after the year 2020 and the medical expression, which, in ophthalmological terms, means 'normal or complete vision.' Beyond that particular song, I think that's the mood of the album: a look at society in the twenties of the 21st century and the feelings and demons it produces."

It's followed by De Balde, a very special song born from a posthumously discovered lyric by the great writer Carlos Lencero, a regular collaborator of Camarón, Pata Negra, and Remedios Amaya, and also from Badajoz. While conceived as a fandango, Gecko has moulded it into his sound in such a seamless way it now seems as if the words could only have been written to be embraced by the percussion, brass, and backing vocals heard on the album. It's the only lyric on Somebody From Badajoz not written by Turner, still it sits rather comfortably with the rest, sharing the same emotivity and sensitivity, as well as the trademark humour and irony.

Other tracks see more protagonism for the rhythm.The beat-driven Ain't No Fun Preachin' to the Choir features Gecko's vocals walking the thin line between singing and talking over a phenomenal afro-disco-funk-infused trailblazer. In Am I Sad? it's impossible to not bob your head to the queen of Papatosina's mongrel rhythm, as close to the banks of the Guadiana river as it is to the shores of the Mississippi. Qué Siesta Tan Buena, He Babeao Y To! is an ode to the snooze in true Afro-Maduran fashion. And in Come And Try, the Caribbean influence is evident—lovers' rock that invites you to dance in good company.

In these songs, and throughout the album, for that matter, the musicians accompanying Gecko, who himself plays many of the instruments as well, shine brightly. All hailing from Extremadura, Javi Mojave (percussion), Álvaro Fdez 'Dr. Robelto' (bass), and Rafa Prieto (guitar) have been carrying him with delicate forcefulness since he started out as a solo artist. At the same time, the wonderful and essential voices of Deborah Ayo, Astrid Jones, Fani Ela Nsue, and Miriam Solís give the album a sunny variety of colours. And there are many more—a sensational group of musicians contributes dazzling harmonic bursts to many of the songs. The palette of sounds is very diverse and rich in textures and nuances, including, for example, the ngoni, bells, and various repurposed kitchen utensils.

The groove is always around, moving between the magical border sound of Everybody Knows Somebody From Badajoz and Little Dose, the silky soul of The Sibariteo Appreciation Society, and the exultant celebration of End Of The World (which surprisingly sees Gecko turning to the occasional use of autotune), a piece that could be used for the final credits of a Monty Python film and, in fact, closes the album.

Gecko Turner has done it again with Somebody From Badajoz, looking to the future without losing sight of the roots. In times of upheaval all over the globe, when people are looking for purity, he delivers a formidable piece of work: risky, optimistic in spite of everything, and with a decidedly bastard sound. Let's rejoice.

Johnny Cash (* 26. Februar 1932) ist eine Legende der Musikgeschichte. Sein Tod am 12. September 2003 war ein Schock für viele Fans, obwohl er wenig überraschend kam. Seine hemmungslose Drogensucht und sein exzessiver Lebensstil in den Fünfzigern und Sechzigern, die erst durch die Liaison mit June Carter ein Ende fanden, waren allgemein bekannt. Dabei war Cash in erster Linie der größte und einflussreichste US-amerikanische Country-Sänger, und ein begnadeter Songschreiber dazu. Cashs Markenzeichen war neben seiner markanten Bassbariton-Stimme und seinen kritischen und unkonventionellen Texten der "Boom-Chicka-Boom"-Sound seiner Begleitband Tennessee Three, der an einen rollenden Zug erinnerte. Cashs musikalisches Spektrum reichte von Country, Gospel, Rockabilly, Blues, Folk und Pop bis hin zu dem von Rick Rubin ab Mitte der Neunziger kongenial in Szene gesetzten Alternative Country. Legendär sind seine Konzerte in den Gefängnissen Folsom und San Quentin Ende der Sechziger. Cash schrieb etwa 500 Songs, nahm rund 2500 Titel auf, verkaufte mehr als 50 Millionen Tonträger und wurde mit 13 Grammy Awards ausgezeichnet. Zudem trat Cash in einigen Filmen und Fernsehserien als Schauspieler auf.

Ben E. Kings (1938-2015) kommerziell erfolgreichster Song ist das weltberühmte Stück "Stand By Me" von 1961. Insofern passt es sehr gut, nach diesem eine Hitkompilation zu benennen. Die Karriere des US-amerikanischen R&B- und Soulsängers startete 1955, als er zur Vokalgruppe Five Crowns stieß und dort James Clark ersetzte. Die Band setzte sich neben King, der als Leadsänger fungierte, aus Charlie Thomas (Tenor), Doc Green (Bariton) und Elsbeary Hobbs (Bass) zusammen. Ab 1958 trat die Formation unter dem Namen The Drifters auf. Von da an stellten sich größere Erfolge ein. So feierten die Drifters zum Beispiel mit dem von Leiber/Stoller produzierten "There Goes My Baby" einen ersten Rang in den R&B-Charts und einem zweiten Platz in der Pophitparade. Nach weniger als einem Jahr verließ King die Drifters und trieb seine Solokarriere voran. Dennoch nahm er noch einige Titel mit der Gruppe auf, darunter die Millionseller "Save The Last Dance For Me" und "Nobody But Me", die jeweils den ersten Platz der Charts erreichten. Nach seinen Soloaufnahmen "Spanish Harlem" (1960) und "Stand By Me" hatte er bis zum Ende der 1960er noch etliche Hits. 1975 gelang ihm mit "Supernatural Thing" ein stattliches Comeback, danach war Kings große Zeit vorbei.

Parisian quintet En Attendant Ana have dazzled since day one. From the muted strains of their 2016 EP "Songs From The Cave", to the assured 2018 TiM debut "Lost & Found", to the sparkling refrains of "Juillet"; released just before the world collapsed around us, and which stood as the band's rebirth and purest statement of their music ambitions - until now. "Principia" is the band's third album and is without a doubt their best yet. Bandleader & principal songwriter Margaux Bouchaudon's voice anchors many of the songs on "Principia", her crystalline delivery ringing out like a bell as the band swoons & sways beneath her. The songs on "Principia" were composed from a place of confusion about the state of the world and her place in it, looking outward and inward for answers. They question our perception of others, the one they have of us and finally the one we have of ourselves in a society where the individual is king and the group is forgotten. Guitarist Max Tomasso - newly joined just before the recording of "Juillet"- feels more "moved-in" on these tunes, his sly guitar-work gliding effortlessly through. No showboating - only prickling at the precise moment necessary in suit of the song itself. New member Vincent Hivert (their touring sound man, Hivert joined the group just as touring was underway for "Juillet", replacing founding member Antoine Vaugelade)'s bass-work is rubbery & flexible, bouncing around and thru the melodies on a rhythmic sugar-high, practically urging on drummer Adrien Pollin's metronomic swing. The band's secret weapon, multi-instrumentalist Camille Frechou's trumpet & saxophone are more present & considered in the arrangements, adding a new layer of sophistication to the group's already debonair indie pop. Her beatific harmonies add a yearning to Bouchaudon's lilting phrases; sometimes uplifting, other times melancholic. Bouchaudon says "One of the most important points we tried to focus on was the place given to each instrument. For the first time, we withdrew parts, we were careful not to play everyone at once and I think that the result is a much lighter album in which every musician has a specific place and moment". But this album is also the first one to have been shaped entirely by the band, from the conception to the production. The meeting of Vincent Hivert and Margaux Bouchaudon gave birth to a duet in which the technical and artistic aspects were intertwined from the very beginning of the conception of "Principia". Apart from reshaping En Attendant Ana's dynamic, Vincent Hivert was able to think as a musician and producer as soon as they started working on Margaux Bouchaudon's demos which brought a new dimension to their music. The two of them recorded and mixed the album together reuniting their references and artistic goals. "Principia" is a great step forward without sacrificing the things that make the band unique. The nods to French pop (both current & classic) still permeate the proceedings, and the group's penchant for Anglo-Saxon indie pop from The Nineties (think Electrelane, Stereolab, American Analog Set) still rings out, but there's an air of - dare we say - maturity in "Principia"s twelve songs. The group always felt a little 'out-of' and 'ahead-of' its time, but tunes like "Wonder" "The Cutoff" and "Same Old Story" are cinematic and romantic, and absolutely feel like the next great phase of an already great band.

Peach Vinyl

Parisian quintet En Attendant Ana have dazzled since day one. From the muted strains of their 2016 EP "Songs From The Cave", to the assured 2018 TiM debut "Lost & Found", to the sparkling refrains of "Juillet"; released just before the world collapsed around us, and which stood as the band's rebirth and purest statement of their music ambitions - until now. "Principia" is the band's third album and is without a doubt their best yet. Bandleader & principal songwriter Margaux Bouchaudon's voice anchors many of the songs on "Principia", her crystalline delivery ringing out like a bell as the band swoons & sways beneath her. The songs on "Principia" were composed from a place of confusion about the state of the world and her place in it, looking outward and inward for answers. They question our perception of others, the one they have of us and finally the one we have of ourselves in a society where the individual is king and the group is forgotten. Guitarist Max Tomasso - newly joined just before the recording of "Juillet"- feels more "moved-in" on these tunes, his sly guitar-work gliding effortlessly through. No showboating - only prickling at the precise moment necessary in suit of the song itself. New member Vincent Hivert (their touring sound man, Hivert joined the group just as touring was underway for "Juillet", replacing founding member Antoine Vaugelade)'s bass-work is rubbery & flexible, bouncing around and thru the melodies on a rhythmic sugar-high, practically urging on drummer Adrien Pollin's metronomic swing. The band's secret weapon, multi-instrumentalist Camille Frechou's trumpet & saxophone are more present & considered in the arrangements, adding a new layer of sophistication to the group's already debonair indie pop. Her beatific harmonies add a yearning to Bouchaudon's lilting phrases; sometimes uplifting, other times melancholic. Bouchaudon says "One of the most important points we tried to focus on was the place given to each instrument. For the first time, we withdrew parts, we were careful not to play everyone at once and I think that the result is a much lighter album in which every musician has a specific place and moment". But this album is also the first one to have been shaped entirely by the band, from the conception to the production. The meeting of Vincent Hivert and Margaux Bouchaudon gave birth to a duet in which the technical and artistic aspects were intertwined from the very beginning of the conception of "Principia". Apart from reshaping En Attendant Ana's dynamic, Vincent Hivert was able to think as a musician and producer as soon as they started working on Margaux Bouchaudon's demos which brought a new dimension to their music. The two of them recorded and mixed the album together reuniting their references and artistic goals. "Principia" is a great step forward without sacrificing the things that make the band unique. The nods to French pop (both current & classic) still permeate the proceedings, and the group's penchant for Anglo-Saxon indie pop from The Nineties (think Electrelane, Stereolab, American Analog Set) still rings out, but there's an air of - dare we say - maturity in "Principia"s twelve songs. The group always felt a little 'out-of' and 'ahead-of' its time, but tunes like "Wonder" "The Cutoff" and "Same Old Story" are cinematic and romantic, and absolutely feel like the next great phase of an already great band.

Tape
Parisian quintet En Attendant Ana have dazzled since day one. From the muted strains of their 2016 EP "Songs From The Cave", to the assured 2018 TiM debut "Lost & Found", to the sparkling refrains of "Juillet"; released just before the world collapsed around us, and which stood as the band's rebirth and purest statement of their music ambitions - until now. "Principia" is the band's third album and is without a doubt their best yet. Bandleader & principal songwriter Margaux Bouchaudon's voice anchors many of the songs on "Principia", her crystalline delivery ringing out like a bell as the band swoons & sways beneath her. The songs on "Principia" were composed from a place of confusion about the state of the world and her place in it, looking outward and inward for answers. They question our perception of others, the one they have of us and finally the one we have of ourselves in a society where the individual is king and the group is forgotten. Guitarist Max Tomasso - newly joined just before the recording of "Juillet"- feels more "moved-in" on these tunes, his sly guitar-work gliding effortlessly through. No showboating - only prickling at the precise moment necessary in suit of the song itself. New member Vincent Hivert (their touring sound man, Hivert joined the group just as touring was underway for "Juillet", replacing founding member Antoine Vaugelade)'s bass-work is rubbery & flexible, bouncing around and thru the melodies on a rhythmic sugar-high, practically urging on drummer Adrien Pollin's metronomic swing. The band's secret weapon, multi-instrumentalist Camille Frechou's trumpet & saxophone are more present & considered in the arrangements, adding a new layer of sophistication to the group's already debonair indie pop. Her beatific harmonies add a yearning to Bouchaudon's lilting phrases; sometimes uplifting, other times melancholic. Bouchaudon says "One of the most important points we tried to focus on was the place given to each instrument. For the first time, we withdrew parts, we were careful not to play everyone at once and I think that the result is a much lighter album in which every musician has a specific place and moment". But this album is also the first one to have been shaped entirely by the band, from the conception to the production. The meeting of Vincent Hivert and Margaux Bouchaudon gave birth to a duet in which the technical and artistic aspects were intertwined from the very beginning of the conception of "Principia". Apart from reshaping En Attendant Ana's dynamic, Vincent Hivert was able to think as a musician and producer as soon as they started working on Margaux Bouchaudon's demos which brought a new dimension to their music. The two of them recorded and mixed the album together reuniting their references and artistic goals. "Principia" is a great step forward without sacrificing the things that make the band unique. The nods to French pop (both current & classic) still permeate the proceedings, and the group's penchant for Anglo-Saxon indie pop from The Nineties (think Electrelane, Stereolab, American Analog Set) still rings out, but there's an air of - dare we say - maturity in "Principia"s twelve songs. The group always felt a little 'out-of' and 'ahead-of' its time, but tunes like "Wonder" "The Cutoff" and "Same Old Story" are cinematic and romantic, and absolutely feel like the next great phase of an already great band.

Red Vinyl

Initial LP copies pressed on opaque red vinyl! As its name suggested, the intimate and sultry Cuntry Covers Vol. 1 was always going to have a follow-up. Led by the brooding vocals of Bria Salmena, Cuntry Covers Vol. 2 is every bit as potent as its predecessor whose noir-inflected alternative country-rock stood in sharp contrast to the singer's commanding delivery as leader of post-punk revivalists FRIGS. Debuting the project in 2021, the languid, reverb-drenched Cuntry Covers Vol. 1 saw her artfully collaborating with multi-instrumentalist Duncan Hay Jennings and reimagining a carefully picked collection of Americana anthems. Vol. 2 pushes the envelope further and harder. Encompassing feverish takes on tracks by Gillian Welch, Paula Cole, Mary Margaret O'Hara, Robert Lester Folsom, Glenn Campbell - by way of Nick Cave - and the late, great Loretta Lynn, Bria's deliciously dark approach shimmers through these six startling songs. Created during a break from Salmena and Jennings' work in Orville Peck's world-conquering backing band, Vol. 2 was recorded directly after Peck's second album and Bria's US tour supporting Wolf Alice. Embracing contrast, the sunny circumstances in which Vol. 1 was made were flipped on their head. Instead of a bucolic barn in the Canadian countryside, they recorded the new tracks in chilly Toronto, huddled together in their tiny makeshift home studio, with Jennings at the controls. They enlisted the help of local Toronto musicians Lucas Savatti (FRIGS), Simone Baril (US Girls, The Highest Order, Darlene Shrugg, Partner), Andrew Manktelow, and frequent collaborator Jaime Rae McCuaig. While Vol. 1 was Bria's attempt at subverting country music's conservative roots and primarily white and heterosexual agenda, here the emphasis was on experimentation. While Vol. 2 might be less personal, it's just as idiosyncratic, with half of the reversions staying true to the originals and others taken to a different universe entirely. Building on the tried-and-true/bold-and-new duality of Cuntry Covers' first offering, Vol. 2 delivers a deeper dive into the duo's brilliant alchemy of traditional and contemporary reinterpretations. The added experimental flourishes, from dizzying electronica and pulsing bass to sax-driven soul, take Bria's new EP into previously uncharted territory, signalling a thrilling new step in Bria's adventurous evolution.

Chocolat is the 2000 British-American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Lasse Hallström (The Cider House Rules) starring Juliette Binoche, Judi Dench and Johnny Depp. The movie was adapted from the novel written by Joan Harris and is about a woman and her daughter opening a chocolate shop - with Sunday hours - across the street from the local church in a small French village.

The music is composed by Rachel Portman and the soundtrack also includes “Minor Swing” from Django Reinhardt/Stéphane Grappelli and the 1936 jazz standard “Caravan” from Duke Ellington and Juan Tizol.

Rachel Portman has written over 100 music scores for film, television, and theatre. She was also the first female composer to win an Academy Award in the category of Best Musical or Comedy Score for Emma in 1996 and in 2015 she received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for the HBO TV series Bessie.

Chocolat is available as a limited edition of 500 individually numbered copies on white coloured vinyl and includes an insert.

Record Kicks presents "Yours Truly", the new album by Bordeaux's "Soulboy", Mr. Alexis Evans.

Like fine Red Wine, "Soulboy" Alexis Evans gets better with Age. The best evidence of this is his brand new album "Yours Truly", set for release on February 3rd, 2023 on LP, CD and digital via Milan-based label Record Kicks. Produced and mixed by Louis-Marin Renaud (Lou Doillon, Theo Lawrence, Desmond Myers), "Yours Truly" is the third studio album by Bordeaux-based singer-songwriter Alexis Evans and sees the light 4 years after his previous LP "I've Come A Long Way", defined "Soul album of The Year" by Rolling Stone France. "Yours Truly" consists of 12 brilliantly soulful cuts that take direct inspiration from 60's & 70's classic soul music adding a sound that is firmly rooted in the new millennium.

Anticipated by the first single "Mr Right On Time", the album was recorded between Bordeaux and Nantes during 2021 and beginning of 2022. The idea behind the new album was to find a unique sound, mixing classic 60's & 70's soul music with more contemporary influences such as hip hop beats, jazz, reggae, and Caribbean sounds. To do that, Alexis paired up with producer Louis-Marin Renaud, known for his work with French-English singer, actress and model Lou Doillon and country-soul rising star Theo Lawrence, who took part in the arrangements and mixed the album.

"All instruments were recorded live, some titles were completely live and others got modified, cut, sampled, depending on the tunes in a kind of beatmaking way. It was a very fun and fulfilling project that will sound awesome on stage for sure," explains Alexis.

Lyrically, the album could be described as soulful everyday rhymes. "Love may be the number one subject in soul music and clearly has its place of honor in a few songs ("Close to me", "What is this feeling"), while other songs tend to deal with it in a more cynical but poetic way, for instance on "Mister right on time", in which beauty remains in simplicity," states Mr. Evans. He continues: "Another topic of the album is abandonment ("It matters to me", "The only apple", "Close to the water"). Whether it is the fear of being left behind or the sadness after a loss, this album still bears some traces of lockdown and I was aiming at giving another perspective on different matters, looking at them in a dreamlike way." The themes of the album are reflected in the cover artwork, made by Adrià F Marquès.

Alexis Evans, songwriter with a timeless style based in Bordeaux, France, found the love of music and learnt to play guitar thanks to his father, an English musician. His inspirations range from Marvin Gaye and Sam Cooke to David Bowie. At the age of 17 he debuted with his first project "Jumping to the Westside", with which he was awarded the "Cognac Blues Passion" prize and flew to the "International Blues Challenge" in Memphis, Tennessee, where he impressed the American audience even though he was still a teenager. Mr. Evanshas built a household name in the scene as the "enfant prodige of soul" starting with his first album, released in 2015, and consolidated his reputation with his second long play "I've Come a Long Way", released in 2019 on Record Kicks. Rolling Stone France described it as "The Soul album of the year", while Blues & Soul Magazine and BBC 6 defined him as "One of the most exciting additions to the international Soul Scene". Following the release of the album, Alexis toured in France and Europe extensively, stopped only in 2020 by the Pandemic. Thanks to the forced break, Alexis started to lay down the new album, and he's now ready to present the fruit of his hard work: "Yours Truly".

Braindance is the second, highly anticipated, collaborative EP from Irish producer DJ Mudak 2000 and French producer FTL, landing on their new label as the debut release.

Produced in Dublin & Paris, the two prolific junglists have encapsulated the intricacies of modern jungle while still highlighting the emotive elements of yesteryear.

The first track "I Wanna" begins as a fantastically light, classic jungle track with piercing soul vocals that unpacks into a soaring brawl of amens and intense 808s. A great representation of the duality of light and dark elements which make this whole EP a standout.

A2 "Barriers" is a driving, high tempo club ready cut. There is absolutely no messing about with this one, in your face reese business for the peak timers. On the flipside, title track "Braindance" is a complex yet ethereal roller carried along by hovering staccato vocals that are contrasted with a deep cutting sub that will hit you in all of the right spots.

The final track "Chasing A Dream" lives up to its name as its emotive synth lines and Sad Boys-esque cowbells will fill you with the tangible feelings of want and passion.

For the first time the work of Jacqueline Nova is available to the public in vinyl LP format. - Jacqueline Nova is one of the pioneers of Latin American electronic music and an essential figure of the Colombian avant-garde. - Jacqueline Nova (Ghent, Belgium, 1935 - Bogotá, Colombia, 1975), a representative figure of Colombian avant-garde music, developed important and radical work within the field of electronic and instrumental music, as well as in interdisciplinary forms. This album CREACION DE LA TIERRA - Ecos palpitantes de Jacqueline Nova: Música electroacústica e instrumental (1964-1974) CREATION OF THE EARTH - Throbbing Echoes of Jacqueline Nova: Electroacoustic and Instrumental Music (1964-1974), under the curatorship and research of the Colombian composer Ana María Romano G., recovers Nova's most important electroacoustic works: Creación de la tierra Creation of the Earth (1972), Oposición-Fusión [Opposition-Fusion] (1968) and Resonancias 1 [Resonances 1] (1968-69), as well as the music for the film Camilo el cura guerrillero [Camilo the Guerrilla Priest] (1974), composed during her stay at the Centro Latinoamericano de Altos Estudios Musicales (CLAEM) , of the Torcuato Di Tella Institute, in Buenos Aires, as well as in the Study of Phonology of the University of Buenos Aires. The compilation also includes the instrumental works Omaggio a Catullus (1972-1974), Transiciones [Transitions] (1964-1965), and Asuimetrías [Asymmetries] (1967), in which she explores randomness, timbre possibilities or the encounter between acoustic and electronic media. - The interest in experimenting with the human voice, and interdisciplinary work involving visual arts, were some of the aspects that have defined Jacqueline Nova's work. Ana María Romano has written: "Nova lived in an environment hostile to change, to debate and discussion, hostile to her being an autonomous and lesbian woman. She undertook feats that make her a pioneer, even though she did not set out to be taken as one, but only as a result of the commitment, dedication and passion of a creator with her society. Jacqueline Nova died in Bogotá of bone cancer. Her tragic and early death not only cut short a career in full creative force, but also directly affected the development of electroacoustic music in the country. After her death there was a great silence -close to 15 years- in musical creation with electronic means. Nova challenged a conservative milieu and survived alone, working in a field thought to be exclusively masculine. But it was a woman who strengthened the use of technology in Colombian music. A risky bet that sadly represented a high cost: Nova was relegated during her lifetime, but her noises managed to shake and question the comfort zones of the Colombian musical establishment". - CREACION DE LA TIERRA - Ecos palpitantes de Jacqueline Nova: Música electroacústica e instrumental (1964-1974) [CREATION OF THE EARTH - Throbbing Echoes of Jacqueline Nova: Electroacoustic and Instrumental Music (1964-1974)] is published through Buh Records, on all digital platforms and in a double vinyl edition, limited to 300 copies. The album includes a booklet with extensive information written by Ana María Romano G. This publication was possible thanks to the Ibermúsicas fund.

Diese luxuriöse 3-LP erweitert das bahnbrechende Werk des Vince Guaraldi Trios, zu dem auch der Grammy®-gekrönte Hit ”Cast Your Fate to the Wind” gehört, erweitert um 16 Bonustracks, darunter
alternative Takes und bisher unveröffentlichte Musik und neue Linernotes.
Die Aufnahmen wurden von Plangent Processes übertragen und von Paul Blakemore neu gemastert. Die Sammlung enthält außerdem
neue, ausführliche Liner Notes des Jazz-Autors Andrew Gilbert (San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, KQED Arts).

Auch ohne sein Lied ”Cast Your Fate to the Wind”, ein echter und allzu seltener Instrumentalhit, war Guaraldis Album ”Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus” von 1962 ein Meilenstein, der ein Trio mit einem
einzigartig verführerischen Sound vorstellte. Die Kombination aus geschliffener Lyrik, rhythmischer Subtilität und exquisiter dynamischer Kalibrierung zeichnete es aus, aber die Wirkung der Gruppe ergab sich auch aus ihrem Repertoire.

Guaraldi war nicht der erste amerikanische Jazzkünstler, der sich mit dem brasilianischen Liedgut auseinandersetzte.
Aber Jazz Impressions war ein früher Vorbote der allgegenwärtigen, beispiellosen und dauerhaften Übernahme des Bossa Nova (was auf Portugiesisch ”neue Sache” oder ”neue Welle” bedeutet) durch die Jazzszene.

Adam Lambert war schon immer bestechend gut darin, die Songs anderer Künstler und Künstlerinnen zu interpretieren – von seinen Anfängen bei „American Idol“ über seinen Auftritt bei den Kennedy Centre Honours 2018, wo er Cher mit seiner fast zärtlichen Version ihres Megahits „Believe“ zu Tränen rührte, bis hin zu seiner Rolle als aktueller Sänger von Queen.

Nun geht der Grammy-nominierte Künstler konsequent den nächsten Schritt und kündigt ein ganzes Album ausgesuchter Coversongs an. „High Drama“ erscheint am 24. Februar 2023 und markiert zugleich sein Debüt bei Warner Music. Schon jetzt gibt es zwei Songs daraus zu hören: „Ordinary World“, eine kraftvolle, atmosphärische Balladenversion des Duran-Duran-Hits von 1993, sowie Lamberts wunderschöne Interpretation des Noël-Coward-Klassikers „Mad About The Boy“ aus den 1930er-Jahren. Fans des Musikers werden wissen: Er performte den Song kürzlich bereits im Rahmen der BBC-Show „Strictly Come Dancing“ (siehe unten). Außerdem wird Lamberts Version auch in dem kommenden Film „Mad About The Boy — The Noel Coward Story“ über das Leben des Noël Coward zu hören sein, der kommendes Jahr in die Kinos kommt.

„High Drama“ – der Titel des neuen Albums ist natürlich nicht von ungefähr gewählt, denn der US-Amerikaner liebt die große Geste. Und wir erleben ihn hier mehr denn je als einen Künstler, der sich in seiner eigenen Haut wohlfühlt, der voll und ganz er selbst ist – und jede Minute davon auskostet.

Bei seinem neuen Album übernahm Adam Lambert auch die Rolle des ausführenden Produzenten, die Songs selbst wurden produziert von Tommy English (Kacy Musgraves, Carly Rae Jepsen), Andrew Wells (Halsey, OneRepublic), George Moore und Mark Crew. „High Drama“ nimmt uns mit auf eine Reise durch die moderne Musik, von Klassikern wie Ann Peebles' „I Can't Stand The Rain“ und Bonnie Tylers „Holding Out For A Hero“ bis hin zu Hits jüngeren Datums wie Billie Eilishs „Getting Older“ – hier in einer Glam-inspirierten Version – und einer rockigen Interpretation von Lana Del Reys „West Coast“. Gemeinsam haben alle Songs, dass sie sich durch Adam Lamberts unvergleichliches Gesangstalent auszeichnen.

Aktuell arbeitet Lambert übrigens auch an seinem eigenen Musical, bei dem sich auf eigene Songs von ihm und eine Starbesetzung freuen kann.

White Vinyl

The Pretty Reckless haben dem Rock 'n' Roll den nötigen Schwung für eine neue Generation gegeben, und sie haben es auf ihre ganz eigene Weise geschafft. Seit 2008 haben sie sich als die ungewöhnlichste Naturgewalt entpuppt, die in INTERVIEW Magazine, Nylon, ELLE, Good Morning America und Entertainment Tonight erscheinen kann - und sich eine Bühne mit Guns N' Roses und Soundgarden teilt. Zusammen mit dem verstorbenen Produzenten Kato Khandwala entfachten sie diese Flamme auf Light Me Up 2010 und Going To Hell 2014. Letzteres enthielt drei Nummer-1-Hits - das Platin-zertifizierte "Heaven Knows" (der größte Rocksong des Jahres 2014), "Fucked Up World" und "Follow Me Down". Nach "Who You Selling For" von 2016 stieg "Take Me Down" auf Platz 1 der US Mainstream Rock Songs Chart und machte die Band laut Billboard zur "ersten Band, die ihre ersten vier Singles auf Platz 1 der Charts schickte". Im Jahr 2021 wurden sie mit dem Album "Death By Rock and Roll" in den Himmel gehoben. Die vierköpfige Band ging in die Geschichte ein als "die erste von einer Frau angeführte Band, die zwei Mal hintereinander auf Platz 1 der aktiven Rock-Charts stand" und "die erste von einer Frau angeführte Band, die sieben Mal auf Platz 1 der Billboard Rock Radio Charts stand". Das Album wurde nicht nur vom V Magazine, Spin und anderen gelobt, sondern landete auch auf Platz 1 der Billboard Top Album Sales Chart. Bemerkenswert ist auch die Zusammenarbeit mit Legenden wie Matt Cameron und Kim Thayil von Soundgarden bei "Only Love Can Save Me Now" und Tom Morello von Rage Against the Machine bei "And So It Went". Diese Grenzenlosigkeit treibt "Other Worlds" [Fearless Records] an, wo sie ihre ersten richtigen akustischen Aufnahmen, unerwartete Covers und andere Neuinterpretationen abliefern und einmal mehr Neuland betreten.

The Pretty Reckless haben dem Rock 'n' Roll den nötigen Schwung für eine neue Generation gegeben, und sie haben es auf ihre ganz eigene Weise geschafft. Seit 2008 haben sie sich als die ungewöhnlichste Naturgewalt entpuppt, die in INTERVIEW Magazine, Nylon, ELLE, Good Morning America und Entertainment Tonight erscheinen kann - und sich eine Bühne mit Guns N' Roses und Soundgarden teilt. Zusammen mit dem verstorbenen Produzenten Kato Khandwala entfachten sie diese Flamme auf Light Me Up 2010 und Going To Hell 2014. Letzteres enthielt drei Nummer-1-Hits - das Platin-zertifizierte "Heaven Knows" (der größte Rocksong des Jahres 2014), "Fucked Up World" und "Follow Me Down". Nach "Who You Selling For" von 2016 stieg "Take Me Down" auf Platz 1 der US Mainstream Rock Songs Chart und machte die Band laut Billboard zur "ersten Band, die ihre ersten vier Singles auf Platz 1 der Charts schickte". Im Jahr 2021 wurden sie mit dem Album "Death By Rock and Roll" in den Himmel gehoben. Die vierköpfige Band ging in die Geschichte ein als "die erste von einer Frau angeführte Band, die zwei Mal hintereinander auf Platz 1 der aktiven Rock-Charts stand" und "die erste von einer Frau angeführte Band, die sieben Mal auf Platz 1 der Billboard Rock Radio Charts stand". Das Album wurde nicht nur vom V Magazine, Spin und anderen gelobt, sondern landete auch auf Platz 1 der Billboard Top Album Sales Chart. Bemerkenswert ist auch die Zusammenarbeit mit Legenden wie Matt Cameron und Kim Thayil von Soundgarden bei "Only Love Can Save Me Now" und Tom Morello von Rage Against the Machine bei "And So It Went". Diese Grenzenlosigkeit treibt "Other Worlds" Fearless Records an, wo sie ihre ersten richtigen akustischen Aufnahmen, unerwartete Covers und andere Neuinterpretationen abliefern und einmal mehr Neuland betreten.

• The premium cuts by the legend that is Link Wray remastered on limited coloured vinyl with free CD
• Stunning artwork by Sophie Lo
• Liner notes by Author Nina Antonia.

It will surely come as no surprise that Quentin Tarantino picked up on Link Wray’s ‘Rumble’ and ‘Ace of Spades’ for the movie ‘Pulp Fiction’. The brooding guitar man; born in North Carolina in 1929, as Fred Lincoln Wray Jnr, hails from pulp territory - the mythic Americana of rock n’ roll. Wray’s mother, from whom he inherited his striking appearance, was a Shawnee Indian, his father was a street corner preacher and grandpa did some jail time. Whilst having contracted tuberculosis when serving in the Korean war affected Wray’s vocals, his guitar playing mostly did the singing for him, but he wasn’t always volatile - ‘Lillian’ and ‘Alone’ revealing the heart beneath the tough exterior. Fiercely independent, when the rock n’ roll boom burst, Wray fashioned a 3-track home studio from a chicken shack and largely extricated himself from the music business although he would continue to record and play, stating ‘Money don’t rule me, record companies don’t own me.’ Nothing owned Link Wray but he owned rock n roll. Though the era of monochrome had ended, Link cast a long shadow, drawing admiration from the likes of Neil Young, Keith Moon and Pete Townshend who noted of Wray ‘He is the king, if it hadn’t been for Link Wray and ‘Rumble’, I would never have picked up a guitar.’ Though often marginalised throughout his career, Wray was like the night, an unquantifiable influence on successive generations of guitarists who sought to scorch rather than soothe. In November 2005, Bob Dylan was just about to step out on stage at the Royal Hall Albert, when he learned that Link had struck his final chord. In tribute to the great man, Dylan commenced his set with ‘Rumble.’