Buscar:america

Nonesuch Records releases Laurie Anderson’s Amelia, the 2024 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award recipient's first new album since 2018’s Grammy-winning Landfall. The record comprises 22 tracks about renowned female aviator Amelia Earhart’s tragic last flight. Anderson, who Pitchfork says, ‘sees the future, but she starts by paying attention’, wrote the music and lyrics for this subjective narrative piece. On the album, she is joined by the Czech orchestra Filharmonie Brno, conducted by Dennis Russell Davies, and Anohni, Gabriel Cabezas, Rob Moose, Ryan Kelly, Martha Mooke, Marc Ribot, Tony Scherr, Nadia Sirota, and Kenny Wolleson.



Earhart was a passionate pioneer of early aviation, achieving fame as the first woman to cross the Atlantic, in 1932. Five years later, she embarked on a flight around the world. Before she could complete the voyage, her plane disappeared without a trace; it has never been found. “The words used in Amelia are inspired by her pilot diaries, the telegrams she wrote to her husband, and my idea of what a woman flying around the world might think about,” Anderson says. First premiered at Carnegie Hall in 2000, the updated piece was recently performed across Europe.



Laurie Anderson is one of America’s most renowned – and daring – creative pioneers. Her work, which encompasses music, visual art, poetry, film, and photography, has challenged and delighted audiences around the world for more than 40 years. In a recent 60 Minutes profile, Anderson Cooper said she ‘is a pioneer of the avant-garde, but ... that doesn’t begin to describe what she creates. Her work isn’t sold in galleries. It’s experienced by audiences who come to see her perform: singing, telling stories, and playing strange violins of her own invention... she blends the beautiful and the bizarre, challenging audiences with homilies and humor. She blurs boundaries across music, theater, dance, and film.’ The Washington Post has said she ‘doesn’t just tell stories; she draws out every word with a kind of physical pleasure, tasting its flavor as she probes the everyday mysteries of life,’ and the Guardian has called Anderson ‘one of the great popular artists and storytellers of our time.’



Anderson released her first album with Nonesuch Records in 2001, the critically lauded Life on a String. Her subsequent releases on the label include Live in New York (2002), Homeland (2010), the soundtrack to Anderson’s acclaimed film Heart of a Dog (2015), and her Grammy-winning collaboration with Kronos Quartet, Landfall (2018). Additionally, Anderson’s virtual-reality film La Camera Insabbiata, with Hsin-Chien Huang, won the 2017 Venice Film Festival Award for Best VR Experience, and, in 2018, Skira Rizzoli published her book All the Things I Lost in the Flood: Essays on Pictures, Language and Code, the most comprehensive collection of her artwork to date.



Recent exhibitions and installations of Anderson’s work include Habeas Corpus at New York’s Park Avenue Armory; her largest exhibition to date, The Weather, at Washington, DC’s Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum of Modern Art; and Looking into a Mirror Sideways at Stockholm’s Moderna Museet, which was her largest European exhibition to date. Anderson recently toured with Sex Mob, performing her piece Let X=X. Earlier this year, she was awarded the 2024 Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication, along with Christopher Nolan and David Attenborough, and the International Astronomical Union named a minor planet in her honour: Asteroid 270588, Laurieanderson.



Nonesuch released a re-mastered edition of Anderson’s landmark 1982 album Big Science in 2007 for its 25th anniversary, followed by a vinyl LP re-issue in 2021; its beloved single, ‘O Superman’, became a surprise viral hit on TikTok earlier this year.

American Standard beginnt mit einem Schock. Sänger Michael Berdan steht allein und schreit: "A part of me, but it can't be me. Oh God, it can't." Alles beginnt mit einem Geständnis. Hinter den erschütternden Schreien verbirgt sich der Schmerz der Bulimia nervosa. Es ist der Schmerz einer Krankheit, die ebenso physisch wie psychisch ist. Dies ist eine Art von Aufbruch. Mit jedem Satz von American Standard schält Uniform eine neue Schicht ab und erzählt die Geschichte im Inneren der vorhergehenden. Die Texte dringen in den Kern des innersten Selbst ein, in das kleine menschliche Wesen, das im Griff der Krankheit zerquetscht wird. Um diese Geschichte von Essstörungen, Selbsthass, Wahnvorstellungen, Manie und letztendlicher Entdeckung zu entschlüsseln, holte sich Berdan Hilfe von zwei überragenden literarischen Außenseiterfiguren. Zusammen mit B.R. Yeager (Autor des modernen Kult-Klassikers Negative Space) und Maggie Siebert (dem Kopf hinter dem zeitgenössischen Body-Horror-Meisterwerk Bonding) nehmen die drei Autoren das persönliche Material auseinander, um ein Porträt psychischer und physischer Krankheit zu präsentieren, das so eindringlich und erschreckend ist wie nichts anderes im heutigen Kanon. Das Ergebnis ist eine akkurate Artikulation eines Zustands, der über einfache Qualen hinausgeht, und fängt die aufregende Transzendenz und Befreiung ein, die Krankheit in diesem Prozess bringen kann. American Standard ist mit Sicherheit das thematisch gelungenste und musikalisch selbstbewussteste Album von Uniform, das es bisher gab. Abschnitte drehen sich und explodieren. Motive driften ins Ungewisse ab, bevor sie sich mit neuer Kraft wieder durchsetzen. Genres kollidieren und brechen auf und formen etwas Eigenwilliges und Neues. Es gibt eine Größe, die zum Teil auf die Hinzufügung des Interpol-Bassisten Brad Truax zurückzuführen ist, zusammen mit dem perkussiven Druck und Zug des zurückkehrenden Schlagzeugers Michael Sharp und des langjährigen Tour-Schlagzeugers Michael Bloom, der hier sein Uniform-Aufnahme-Debüt gibt. Diese Großartigkeit ist jedoch ganz klar der Größe und Kraft der Arrangements von Gitarrist und Gründer Ben Greenberg zuzuschreiben, die immer elegant zu den intensiven lyrischen Themen passen. Ohne den geringsten Zweifel ist American Standard ein Kunstwerk, quälend in seiner Ehrlichkeit und unerbittlich in seinem Streben nach klanglicher Transzendenz. Es ist abscheulich. Es ist wunderschön. Es ist notwendig.

American English is the second studio album by British new wave band Wax, which consisted of Andrew Gold and 10cc band member Graham Gouldman. The two got together after 10cc split up in 1983 and released a total of three studio albums, including the 1987 American English. The album grew into their most successful effort, largely due to the hit single “Bridge To Your Heart”, which charted in the top 10 in many European countries and remains their biggest hit to-date. The album spawned two more singles; “American English” and “In Some Other World”. The album’s front cover was designed by Storm Thorgerson, who is best known for closely working with Pink Floyd, in addition to Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Def Leppard among others. American English is available as a limited edition of 1500 individually numbered copies on pink & purple marbled vinyl and includes an insert.

Lavender Vinyl. In the late 1970s, a peculiar sound began bubbling up from the land of 10,000 lakes. Buried beneath 50 solid inches of annual snow, Minneapolis made a Sound quite different than what the pop world foresaw. It issued forth as a slick, black, technologically advanced fusion, poised to storm the charts. Never known for sizable African-American populations, the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul in fact harbored a tight-knit community of musicians working feverishly through the late '70s and early '80s toward a radical manipulation of American dance music, coating futuristic funk with the glamorous sheen of guitar rock. Synthetic ebony and ivory met electricity, with sexed-up results sent shockingly across the pop heavens like violet lightning.

Zero One Zero is a no nonsense American Hard Rock Band. There comes a time when enough is enough and you want to take your music back! Rock music has turned into a bland cookie cutter version of its former self. Zero One Zero is going against the norm and providing a valuable service. Delivering a kick ass, grade A, American made product! No phony over produced, auto tuned garbage. This is Retro-Aggressive Hard Rock for the people! The Band is Rob ‘Boots‘ Zawisza – Vocals, James Ferrentino – Guitars, Mark Ahles – Drums, Marc Russell – Bass. The band’s latest release Traces Of Yesterday was produced by Grammy Award winner Paul Nelson (Johnny Winter). As the band explains, “We were approached by Paul in December of 2020 as he wanted to produce a record with us. After hearing our second studio album Full On. We were honoured to have a Grammy Award-winning Producer and talented musician find interest in us. We all met at his studio, The Music Room in February of 2021 and worked out the details of what would become our third studio album, Traces Of Yesterday.” Unfortunately, Paul passed away suddenly in March of 2024 but not without leaving his mark on Traces Of Yesterday. With standout tracks like the first single “You Knock Me Out” and follow up “I Am Calling”. Zero One Zero is now about to take their spot in Hard Rock as a force to be reckoned with.

These are four historic performances from the Fillmore East and West in 1970, at a time when Miles Davis was single-handedly bringing Jazz into the commercial Rock era. In their unedited form, all selections are previously unissued. The searing white heat of these concerts, originally issued in severely edited form, are now made whole. This set includes several bonus tracks like Wayne Shorter's “Paraphernalia” and “Footprints”, an early version of “Miles Runs The Voodoo Down” plus a rare encore performance of Bitches Brew’s “Spanish Key”.

The visionary Bill Graham had booked Miles on a bill with The Grateful Dead at the Fillmore West and with fellow Columbia artist Laura Nyro in June 1970. The latter recordings are the earliest documented live performances of Miles’s band when he hired two keyboardists--Chick Corea and Keith Jarrett, along with saxophonist Steve Grossman who had replaced Wayne Shorter. The rest of the rhythm section--keyboardist Corea, bassist Dave Holland, drummer Jack DeJohnette and percussionist Airto Moreira--were in the backbone of this band throughout this explosive period.

Curated by Carlos Santana, this set features fascinating firsthand accounts and profound insight into a seismic shift in American society, music, and culture. In a rare, in-depth interview, Miles--while listening to the concert playback--was “so excited about the music that he wanted every set, every note made available to the public...”

Previously Unreleased Recording. Limited to 1200 copies on transparent cherry vinyl. Tip-on jacket, Download code. Insert featuring LP sized original art by Grungie O'Muck. Includes the original recording of Richard Tucker's "Are You Leaving For The Country", later covered by Karen Dalton, and the only song co-written by Karen & Richard, "Sleeping In The Garden". "Richard, Cam & Bert seem to have grasped The Great Harmony. That is, ensemble singing that is at once sweet, precise, funky and a bit sardonic..." -Mike Jahn / New York Times (1970) "For a few years in the late sixties and early seventies Richard Cam & Bert ruled MacDougal St. walking a fine line between the increasingly commercialized demands created by groups like Crosby Stills and Nash and the fierce integrity of earlier folk performers, the generation to which Richard belonged. They managed this with great aplomb, producing original tunes of great integrity and obvious folkloric origins, as well as those which expressed the anarchic omnipresent psychedelia of the moment. They also never abandoned the idea of including some traditional material in their performances. But for the usual random application of luck they could have been very big." - Grungie O'Muck / Artist, Bluesman, Cover artist for their first album and contributor to this one. Richard Tucker, Campbell Bruce, and Bert Lee coalesced as a trio in the spring of 1968, and by the end of that year had become regular performers at fabled Greenwich Village nightspots - The Gaslight, The Bag I'm In, Cafe Feenjon, among others. But mostly they were street singers, busking regularly in Central Park. Their only LP, Limited Edition, was released in 1970, and sold mainly at gigs and on the street. Somewhere in The Stars compiles earlier, previously unreleased recordings, when all three members were signed with Peer-Southern Music publishers as writers and began using their studio to make demos and experiment musically. Beautifully recorded by house engineer Charlie Mack (supervised by Jimmy Ienner), the demos capture a back room casualness and rustic, homespun quality. For me, listening to their songs and harmonies is like entering a world you always hoped existed but had never experienced. Some of the songs were re-recorded the following year for Limited Edition, but many are heard here for the first time. Among them is the original demo for Richard Tucker's song, "Are You Leaving For The Country", which Karen Dalton covered on her seminal 1971 release, In My Own Time. Richard and Karen were husband and wife for much of the 1960s, performing as a duo (initially as a trio with Tim Hardin), and navigating their time on the Village scene while alternating living in a small mining town outside Boulder, Co. before splitting up in 1967. Also making its debut, is the only song Richard and Karen ever wrote together, the haunting "Sleeping In The Garden". Also contains two epic songs by Cam "One Of These First Nights", and "Stockholm") not on their LP, but staples of their live performances, and noted in a gig review by The New York Times, and in a column by future A&R hero, Karin Berg, who was an early champion. Another rarity is the only cover of "Sweet Mama" by Fred Neil we've ever heard. Campell Bruce came to New York in 1967 as lead singer with a band from Washington, DC, The Natty Bumpo. They'd recently signed a record deal with Phillips, but were falling apart. Cam landed in the Village with an acoustic guitar and first started playing and singing in the basket houses, and shortly thereafter at The Gaslight, as the "Cam Bruce Trio" (which included Collin Walcott). After opening for Mose Allison, Cam's hero, the trio went their separate ways, and Cam returned to regular solo gigs at The Flamenco, and the basket houses on Bleecker. Richard and Cam met up on that scene and quickly found a musical kinship as well as becoming best pals. Bert Lee arrived in New York as a runaway the following winter, and began playing and sleeping wherever he could. His sometime accompanist, Ron Price, introduced Bert to Richard and Cam just as Bert's own songs were garnering attention from publishers. According to Bert, "I arrived on the New York scene during a time of great change, and it was the notion of change that influenced me. All around me I saw there were two sorts of songwriters, on the one hand dedicated to the traditions that had inspired them, folk, jazz, the American songbook. On the other hand were songwriters influenced by the wave of experimentation that The Beatles were the perfect example of. Mixing genres, writing lyrics that weren't just about ordinary love and loss. Richard Tucker was a country blues player, with a relaxed and melodic approach to the craft. Cam wrote something more akin to soul songs, with a hint of jazz in the changes. I was writing tunes that sometimes drew on classical structures with a tendency toward what I suppose would be known as prog-rock. But I was rather adamant about not being pinned down stylistically, and so I would write, for example, a song based on some complex classical chord structure, and then go right ahead and write a simple folk song, like Evelyn. Our band was popular locally, and it was this variety that made it distinct." Delmore is excited to present this unearthed treasure, fifteen years in the making. In the words of Richard Tucker, "Tap on your knee, roll on the floor; if you aint free, what's it all for?" "The trio's singing, playing, and writing have all withstood the test of time. Believe me, because I was there. In 1969 R,C&B, myself, Charles John Quarto, David Bromberg, Ron Price, and Keith Sykes were just a few of that year's crop of song-slingers. We were young turks back then, out on the prowl in New York's Greenwich Village for record deals, gigs, and beautiful young women to sleep with and maybe even write a song about. I've lost the names and numbers of those lovelies and I'm not sure what happened to Ron Price, but Richard, Cam, and Bert are back! - Loudon Wainwright lll

The latest full-length from Kishi Bashi, Kantos is a work of exquisite duality: a party album about the possible end of humanity as we know it, at turns deeply unsettling and sublimely joyful. In a sonic departure from the symphonic folk of his critically lauded 2019 LP Omoiyari - a career-defining body of work born from his intensive meditation on the mass incarceration of Japanese-Americans during World War II - the Seattle-born singer/songwriter/producer's fifth studio album encompasses everything from Brazilian jazz and '70s funk to orchestral rock and city pop (a Japanese genre that peaked in the mid-'80s). Informed by an equally kaleidoscopic mix of inspirations - the cult-classic sci-fi novel series Hyperion Cantos, the writings of 18th century enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant, a revelatory trip to ancient ruins on the island of Crete - Kantos ultimately serves as an unbridled exaltation of the human spirit and all its wild complexities. During the earliest stages of creating songs for the album, Ishibashi's main intent was to return to his highly eclectic musical roots, in part by tapping into his jazz background and by delving into the dance-rock-leaning sensibilities he previously embraced as co-founder of Brooklyn-bred indie band Jupiter One. But not too long into the songwriting process, he stumbled upon an AI-equipped website capable of composing catchy song hooks based on a prompt - a turn of events that quickly catalyzed the existential inquiry at the heart of Kantos. Although his ruminations on AI, transhumanism, and humanity's troubled fate indelibly guided the making of Kantos, Ishibashi nonetheless views the album as "less of a warning about this kind of hubris but more a celebration of the very characteristics that make us human: desire, passion, empathy, and love." "If there's anything I want people to come away with when they hear this record, it's a feeling of excitement about the possibilities of human-created art," he says. "Even as we're learning more about all the amazing things AI can do, I think humans will always be one step ahead in terms of our creativity and innovation. There's still no limit to what we have to offer."

'Dream Pictures' ist das brandneue Studioalbum des US-Singer/Songwriter Andrew Combs aus Nashville, Tennessee. Die 12 neuen Songs bewegen sich galant zwischen Americana, Indie-Pop und Country-Folk.

Combs produzierte das Album gemeinsam mit dem Schlagzeuger Dom Billett. Die beiden Musiker begannen 2017 gemeinsam zu touren, und ihre Freundschaft ist auf dem Album fast durchgängig hörbar. Mit Ausnahme des Instrumentalisten Spencer Cullum, der die Pedal Steel beisteuerte, wurde Dream Pictures komplett von Combs und Billett aufgenommen und eingespielt. Die beiden nahmen alle Unvollkommenheiten in Kauf, die mit dem hausgemachten Aufnahmeprozess einhergingen und brachten die Rohheit der Aufnahmen mit der Finesse von Combs Songwriting perfekt in Einklang. Sie nahmen sogar Combs Gesang mit einer Reihe von Live-Auftritten im Studio auf und widerstanden so der Versuchung, verschiedene Takes zusammenzuschneiden, um ein poliertes Album er erhalten.

In 2004, California-based indie band Golden Shoulders followed up their highly acclaimed debut with their second album, Friendship Is Deep. Now, on the twentieth anniversary of its release, the album most requested by their fans for a vinyl release is finally set for one on Unspun Heroes. Described as “one of the great semi-lost albums of the 21st Century”, the album showcases singer, songwriter, and band mainstay, Adam Kline’s knack for lyrical hooks and penchant for catchy melodies. But, like friendship, this is deeper than its pop sensibilities might suggest.
 
From the moment the opening track I Will Light You On Fire opens with its simple piano refrain and vocal harmonies you know you’re listening to something worthy of further exploration. From this building of tension between its temporary aural chaos and the beauty that ultimately emerges, you’ll be hooked. Yet, scratch beneath the surface and you’ll find this is an album that carries with it a political, pro-peace, and pro-humanity message, albeit somewhat more satirical than you might expect of a band hailing from America’s West Coast. This is particularly notable on tracks such as Golden Soldiers and the Committee, where Kline’s turn of phrase and wit shines through, cleverly weaving words so they create detailed poetic mosaics. 

Golden Shoulders is a loose and ever-changing lineup of international talent, with Kline as the kingpin and sole songwriter. Given the pedigree of those whose talents grace the album – among them, Todd Roper and Greg Brown (Cake), Josh Klinghoffer (PJ Harvey, RHCP, Pearl Jam), Neal Morgan (Joanna Newsom, Fleet Foxes), and Dan Elkan (Broken Bells) – it’s no surprise the compositions and attention to detail present in each and every one of the 14 songs is top notch. It’s this pleasing mix of accomplished individuals, and their mishmash of influences, which lend a pinball effect to the set of stylistically diverse songs on Friendship Is Deep. Collectively though, the music you’ll hear has a focus, one that channels late 90’s Brendan Benson, the poppier side of 80’s Violent Femmes, and even the mid-60’s flair of the Beatles’ Rubber Soul. 

Evolution ist der Motor für Langlebigkeit. Within The Ruins drängen unerbittlich nach vorne, verbrennen Selbstgefälligkeit und erschaffen Neues aus
ihrer Asche. Das Quartett aus dem Westen von Massachusetts sprengt alle Konventionen, indem es mit polyrhythmischem Geknüppel, kopfnickenden
Grooves, eindringlichem Gesang und lebendigen Erzählungen die Sinne angreift. Ihr kontrolliertes Chaos hat zu zig Millionen Streams geführt (eine
Seltenheit für so kompromisslos harte Acts), zu ausverkauften Häusern auf Tour und zu weitreichender Anerkennung durch Alternative Press,
American Songwriter, Loudwire, Metal Injection, Phoenix New Times und viele mehr. Jetzt entwickeln sie sich auf ihrem siebten Album Phenomena II
MNRK Heavy weiter. "Wenn ihr uns zuhört, hoffen wir, dass ihr das Gefühl habt, frischen Metal gefunden zu haben", sagt Joe. "Wenn man etwas
lange Zeit gemacht hat, kann man leicht in seinen Gewohnheiten stecken bleiben. Deshalb versuchen wir immer, etwas zu präsentieren, das man
h nicht gehört hat - und das man nirgendwo anders bekommt."

FOR FANS OF: Manowar, Queensryche, Kamelot, Savatage, Running Wild, Vicious Rumors
Nach der bombastisch-epischen Veröffentlichung ‚The Passion Of Dionysus‘ im vergangenen Sommer wird nun am 23. August 2024 über
Steamhammer/SPV das allererste Virgin Steele-Album in einer besonderen Edition als Digi-CD und Gatefold-Doppel-Vinyl-LP sowie in digitaler Form
neu aufgelegt.
David DeFeis hat der Wiederveröffentlichung den zusätzlichen Spitznamen ‚The Anniversary Edition‘ verliehen, denn er hat das Album – basierend auf
den originalen Mehrspurbändern – vom ersten bis zum letzten Ton komplett neu abgemischt. Er erklärt: „Ich habe der Neuauflage diesen Titel
hinzugefügt, da es tatsächlich eine besondere Wiederveröffentlichung und ein großes Fest ist. Jeder Song wurde liebevoll restauriert und mit festem
Glauben, heißem Herz und hartem Stahl neu gemischt. Erstaunlicherweise waren die originalen Mehrspurbänder größtenteils in einem unerwartet
guten Zustand, auch wenn man hier und da ein paar kreative Entscheidungen treffen musste. Diese haben die Wiederauferstehung des Albums
allerdings in keiner Weise beeinträchtigt, sondern sogar dazu geführt, dass die Scheibe und ihre Songs noch stärker und interessanter klingen. Das
ursprüngliche Feuer wurde bewahrt, die klangliche Transparenz sogar verbessert. Nun erkennt man die explosiven Leistungen aller Beteiligten noch
deutlicher, fast so, als ob man am Tag der Aufnahmen im Studio persönlich anwesend war.

Dream in Dream Cornelius Vinyl Release Sales Sheet BIO Cornelius is the brainchild of Japanese multi-instrumentalist Keigo Oyamada; the genre-defying producer and multi-instrumentalist. Last year Cornelius released the highly anticipated seventh studio album, 'Dream in Dream’ via Like Ltd, which marks the first full-length album since the critically acclaimed 'Mellow Waves' in 2017. What can only be described as breezy and sun-drenched ambiance, 'Dream in Dream' seamlessly merges elements of avant-garde jazz, soulful R&B, and psychedelic acoustic electronics, resulting in a genre-blending masterpiece that pushes the boundaries of musical innovation.

With his breakthrough album Fantasma, Cornelius gained international recognition for his cut and paste style reminiscent of American counterparts Beck and The Beastie Boys and was released internationally by Matador Records.

Being called a "modern day Brian Wilson" for his orchestral-style arrangements and production techniques, Cornelius subsequently became one of the most sought after producer/remixers in the world, working with a wide range of artists including Blur, Beck, Bloc Party, MGMT, and James Brown. 'Dream in Dream,' Cornelius expands his sonic universe, incorporating angular guitars and lush synthesizer interplay that dance around syncopated drums throughout the album.

"Bright and poppy while inviting an air of contemplation, this track takes notes from ‘00s indie rock, alt-pop, and a touch of electro to form a solid comeback.

Dream in Dream Cornelius Vinyl Release Sales Sheet BIO Cornelius is the brainchild of Japanese multi-instrumentalist Keigo Oyamada; the genre-defying producer and multi-instrumentalist. Last year Cornelius released the highly anticipated seventh studio album, 'Dream in Dream’ via Like Ltd, which marks the first full-length album since the critically acclaimed 'Mellow Waves' in 2017. What can only be described as breezy and sun-drenched ambiance, 'Dream in Dream' seamlessly merges elements of avant-garde jazz, soulful R&B, and psychedelic acoustic electronics, resulting in a genre-blending masterpiece that pushes the boundaries of musical innovation.

With his breakthrough album Fantasma, Cornelius gained international recognition for his cut and paste style reminiscent of American counterparts Beck and The Beastie Boys and was released internationally by Matador Records.

Being called a "modern day Brian Wilson" for his orchestral-style arrangements and production techniques, Cornelius subsequently became one of the most sought after producer/remixers in the world, working with a wide range of artists including Blur, Beck, Bloc Party, MGMT, and James Brown. 'Dream in Dream,' Cornelius expands his sonic universe, incorporating angular guitars and lush synthesizer interplay that dance around syncopated drums throughout the album.

"Bright and poppy while inviting an air of contemplation, this track takes notes from ‘00s indie rock, alt-pop, and a touch of electro to form a solid comeback.

Fourplay is a contemporary American smooth jazz quartet, who released their eighth studio album Journey in 2004. The line-up consisted of Bob James on keyboard, Harvey Mason on the drums, guitarist Larry Carlton and Nathan East on the bass. The vocals included in a few of the selections add a dimension of freshness to those selections reflecting earlier albums. While Carlton leads the Sting cover “Fields of Gold,” it is the opening riff, East‘s vocals on the bridge, and his signature bass runs at the end that make it attractive. The complete album is self-penned, except for the opening ""Fields of Gold"". For the very first time, Journey is being released on vinyl. The album is available as a 20th anniversary edition of 1000 individually numbered copies on smokey coloured vinyl.

Nick Maurer’s Come On In! is the stuff of a modern American fable. The 20 year-old Cincinnatian’s first release on Happy Families feels wise beyond years but is equally moving in its innocent enthusiasm. Written while still in highschool and recorded using his cellphone, Come On In! is best enjoyed live, but even on vinyl or digitally, the album feels timeless, like you are stepping into a colorful picture book illustrated with a careful hand.

Gregory T.S. Walker’s Minstrels & Minimoogs was self-published by a young, nomadic composer and virtuoso in 1988 to accompany an immersive multimedia performance at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Fiske Planetarium. Created with this outer, and other, world setting in mind, the four tracks find Walker stretching toward an ancient-to-future vision where Egyptian myths and Hieronymus Bosch-ian tableaus are rendered in a screaming three dimensional circuitry of electronic drums, synth guitars, and, of course, Minimoog. Given the musical terrains and outmoded topics traversed, and that this entirely DIY effort was originally released as a micro one-sided 12” edition, Minstrels & Minimoogs is as perplexing and euphoric a document lost-to-time as it is now found.

Born in 1961 into an intensely musical family spanning four generations, Gregory’s mother Helen Walker-Hill was a noted musicologist specializing in the rediscovery and work of historical Black female composers, while his father, George Walker, was the first African American composer to win the Pulitzer Prize for music. Both parents studied with the famed (and famously strict) Nadia Boulanger in Paris in the 1950s, and held to lofty aesthetic standards in their home life. Walker began studying the violin as a child, but when a burgeoning interest in the electric guitar and rock music as a teen manifested, it was largely verboten in the household. The rule was that the music played in the home was to be acoustic and classical. Although the elder Walkers eventually relented and allowed Gregory’s guitar to be plugged in for a brief interval on the weekends, the remaining days he settled for strumming it sans amplification.

Gregory, conditioned and eager for a life in music but looking to get out from under the influence and yoke of his famous composer father, ultimately chose to study computer music at the University of California at San Diego, where he earned a Master of Arts. This was followed by another MA in electronic music composition at that hotbed of West Coast experimental music, Mills College. Intermedia and multimedia in the arts was the rage in the 1980s, and Mills was one of the centers for it; audacious spectacle meeting visionary performance, such as one of the realizations for Anthony Braxton’s music for multiple orchestras a young Gregory performed in with his violin.

After a series of solo synthesizer concerts around California, Gregory followed a girlfriend on a mid-country move to Boulder, Colorado. After picking up yet another composition degree at University of Colorado Boulder, his life as a composer really started, writing a piece for extended technique for guitar, a passacaglia for vocoder and orchestra, as well as Minstrels & Minimoogs.

Envisioned as a multimedia performance such as the kind he’d experienced at Mills (which was all but unknown in Boulder at the time), Gregory roped in a number of college going or aged friends of varying skill levels and musical sympathies to accompany him with distorted sax or oblique spoken interludes. Confronted with a lack of finances, but driven to get his ideas captured in a complete musical package, the album was recorded in his brother’s apartment. If not every player assembled was on Gregory’s virtuosic level, so be it; it was more about capturing the spirit of his intentions and embracing the serendipity of mistakes.

An inspired attempt at world building, Minstrels & Minimoogs draws on the deep well of musical knowledge Gregory gathered from his parents and teachers, but all the while subverting that historical basis by incorporating mutant strains of prog and pop music. The work accumulated is not unlike the playful 1980s work of Gregorio Paniagua, where medieval estampies and rondeaus are wrenched into an anachronistic present where Hildegard Von Bingen and Kate Bush are contemporaries. Ars nova, new art, a 20th century minimalist jester and troubadour.

A one sided LP was the cheapest option Gregory found to have Minstrels & Minimoogs memorialized on vinyl, so somewhere between 50 to 100 copies were pressed. There was no distribution, outside of copies that were handed out to friends or sold at the performances at the planetarium. Gregory T.S. Walker’s cosmic-futuristic forays into oblique pop and baroque subversion could forever reside perfectly in both the domed simulacrum of our universe for which it was composed, in the formats it is being reintoduced now, and our own biblical firmament. For in the words of Gregory, straight from the original liner notes: “God Is A Minimoog”

Gregory T.S. Walker’s Minstrels & Minimoogs arrives again August 23, 2024 on vinyl and digitally as part of uncommon¢ (“uncommon sense”), an open-ended, serialized endeavor from Freedom to Spend that provides new meaning for rarefied recordings from music's outermost fringe.

"Civilians" lädt Fans auf eine Reise in Joe Henrys poetische
Lyrik ein. Das Album überzeugt mit einem Mix aus Jazz-, Folkund Blues-Einfl üssen. Begleitet von langjährigen Weƽefährten
kehrt Henry mit "Civilians" zu einem traditionellen SongwritingAnsatz zurück

Joe Henry is one of the artists who have shaped the sound of modern American folk and blues music like hardly anyone else. “Civilians”, his 10th studio album, was originally released in 2007. It takes the listener on an intimate journey into Henry’s poetic lyricism and is heavily influenced and inspired by the more melancholic sounds of folk and jazz music. Recorded in Henry’s home studio at the time, the Garfield House in Pasadena, the album has a raw and stripped-back feel, with several of Henry’s close friends and collaborators, like Loudon Wainwright III, Bill Frisell, Greg Leisz, and Van Dyke Parks, joining him in the studio to bring these songs to life. Now available on 180g black double vinyl for the first time ever, the 2024 reissue edition of “Civilians” features not only the 12 songs of the original release, but also previously unheard bonus material, including intimate demo versions of several songs on the album, as well as the all-new bonus track “Bread & Flowers”.

A late period hard-rock, proto-punk entry in Zambian guitarist and bandleader Paul Ngozi’s extensive catalog. Featuring drummer Chrissy Zebby Tembo. LP includes oversized 8 page booklet detailing Ngozi’s arc, rare photographs, discography and annotations. Released under license from the Estate of Paul Nyirongo. “Zambia's Zamrock movement that exploded in the 1970s ... provided young musicians access to European and American music, and created a unique sound. At its root, Zamrock melded fuzz-toned psychedelia, chugging garage rock and roiling funk with a broad mix of African cadences and beats.... enlivening a scene that included bands like Musi O Tunya, Amanaz and the Ngozi Family.” - The New York Times Zamrock was a bona-fide rock scene, with albums released through independent labels based in Zambia. This music scene was complete, encompassing the genres of rock, acid folk, fusion, Afro-beat, South African jazz and traditional Zambian melodies. It quickly became a uniquely Zambian movement, befitting of its name. WITCH, Paul Ngozi and Amanaz sound nothing like other rock music from the African continent or elsewhere.