quête:angeles

Alice Taylor was a popular session singer who sang background vocals for several local Philly groups including The Delfonics during the height of the Philly Soul boom of the early to mid-1970’s.

In 1974 Alice under the auspice of producer Emanuel ‘Manny’ Campbell Jr and fellow Philadelphian musician/composer Charles R. Bowen entered the famed Sound Room Studios in Upper Dardy PA, to record a session of her own. This session yielded two songs. The more commercial pop soul orientated “(I’m In Love With A) Rock ‘n’ Roll Singin’ Superstar”. A song which took influences from other popular songs of the time that mentioned one’s love for Rock ‘n’ Roll singers and taking road trips to L.A (Los Angeles) in an attempt to cash in. Although the elongated song title may at first be a tad off-putting the recording showcases Alice’s vocal talents to the full and in itself is a very good record. The second song “Sounds Ridiculous” is based around the theme of a girl falling in love with a guy who spends most of his time daydreaming rather than getting a regular 9-5 job. An excellent record that should find favour with 70’s/crossover soul fans alike.



Manny Campbell Jr used some of Philadelphia’s finest musicians on Alice’s session, notably session drummer Earl Young, reputedly the first exponent of the hi-hat cymbal a style of drumming used extensively throughout the disco period. Young had honed his skills during the 1960’s with his band The Volcanos, recording sessions for the Arctic and Harthon Record Labels. The Volcanos later became The Moods before morphing into The Trammps who Young recorded on his Golden Fleece Label with the group recording several further disco hits for Buddah Records prior to their worldwide hit “Disco Inferno” for Atlantic Records. Young’s strumming can be found on many other Philadelphia International, Sal Soul and MFSB recordings. The string and horn arrangements on the session were provided by another MFSB (Mother Father Sister Brother) pool of musician’s member, Don Renaldo.



“I’m In Love With A) Rock ’n’ Roll Superstar/Sounds Ridiculous” came out in November of 1975 as an initial pressing run of 500 copies for promotional use which sadly were not of the best quality with some background noise being present in the introduction on both sides of the single, a possible detrimental factor in the release gaining any significant airplay. It’s was the second and final release on Emandolynn Music’s short lived, Stage-Art label. The first release being another of Manny Campbell’s acts The Nu-Rons & Co “Disco Hustle/Can’t Do Enough Girl” (Stage-Art 1001). Sadly, Alice Taylor passed away sometime during the 1980’s. Soul Junction through its ongoing relationship with Emandolynn Music have taken the opportunity to license these now very sort after Alice Taylor songs, which have been remastered to remove the aforementioned sound problems present on the original release. Which are now presented to you as a 3 track EP which also includes a previously unissued alternative mix of “(I’m In Love With A) Rock ’n’ Roll Singin’ Superstar, a recent master tape discovery.

Debut album from Los Angeles duo Los Yesterdays - Sweet Soul music meets Mexican Folklorico

"Sweet soul music - also known as lowrider oldies on the West Coast, rolas and souldies - are typically early 60s-style tunes that emphasize vocal harmonies. Most songs are slow-to-midtempo, many are ballads, and the sub-genre is generally stripped down compared to the highly produced Motown hits of the time....there is a generations-long appreciation for sweet soul music among California’s Latino communities. Eastern Los Angeles teens.... helped foster a love of sweet soul in the early 60s by covering soulful ballads by artists like James Brown... Those sounds....were kept alive by record collectors and people who spent evenings cruising along East Los boulevards." - Los Yesterdays are a Chicano soul band from Los Angeles based around the creative collaboration between Gabriel Rowland and Victor Benavides. They began working together when Rowland - a drummer by trade, then creaky and exhausted from waking up at dawn to work construction - decided to channel those struggles into song. He contacted Benavides, a former bandmate of Rowland’s deceased brother, to record the soul ballads that Southland Chicanos call “oldies.” Los Yesterdays filter love-struck R&B crooning through guitar-strumming Mexican balladeering; the result is something that sounds like the Los Angeles of yesterday and today - the indelible, immovable Los Angeles of cruising Whittier Boulevard, of cold drinks on the porch on blazing summer nights, of watching a blue-orange toxic sunset and wondering if they are thinking about you. Los Angeles changes; Los Angeles stays the same. Los Yesterdays have changed, outgrown their childhood barrios and the bands of their early 20s and their private garage hermitude; Los Yesterdays are Frozen In Time.

Das vierte Studioalbum von Robert Alfons alias TR/ST (fka Trust), Performance, taucht noch tiefer in das Synthie-Pop-Psychodrama ein, das das Projekt in über einem Jahrzehnt der Entwicklung erschaffen und schließlich perfektioniert hat. Aufgenommen in Los Angeles, brodeln die Songs vor Angst, Lust, Abrechnung und Hingabe, beleuchtet von der Lichtverschmutzung tausender Sackgassen. Alfons hat "Performance" zusammen mit dem vielseitigen Komponisten und Produzenten Nightfeelings aufgenommen und dabei eine dichte, rauchige Balance aus unheimlichen Synthesizern, Nebelmaschinen-Tiefbässen und einer gequälten, krächzenden Stimme geschaffen. Der Titel ist eine Anspielung auf die beiläufige Bemerkung eines Freundes über Alfons' intrinsisch performative Natur. Der Opener "Soon" schwillt mit hymnischer Elektronik zum Leben an, bevor er mit einer riesigen New-Wave-Hook die Tanzfläche stürmt, gespickt mit ätzenden Kiss-off-Texten ("Asleep I still say it aloud / Scared stiff it's all around / We never did call it off, now our organs dried / Scared stiff to stone, you liar"). Die Musik bewegt sich zwischen Schönheit und Bitterkeit, Hymne und Qual, dem Klang einer wuchtig gewordenen Melancholie. Auf einem Track nach dem anderen setzt Alfons Pop-Dynamik und grüblerische Produktionskunst wie eine Waffe ein und schraubt sich durch eine Reihe von Singles - "All At Once", "The Shore", "Dark Day", "Boys of LA". Überall ist ein Gefühl von emotionalem Aufruhr zu spüren, der sich in seltsame Höhen steigert, befleckt von Schuld und Geistern und der Erinnerung an diejenigen, denen Unrecht getan wurde und die immer noch nicht vergeben haben. Als eine Welt für sich ist Performance überzeugend, mitreißend und berauschend, an der Schwelle zwischen aufwühlend und verstörend. Alfons' Stimme ist der Anker im Sturm, er singt eine Collage aus Eindrücken und Bekenntnissen mit einer verschmierten, bewusstseinsverändernden Logik. Er ist sowohl Beobachter als auch Anstifter, Performer und Dramatiker, befreit von der Bühne und der Nacht: "Now we see the rotten mind / It's eye to eye and mysteries/ Sail your boat for shore / I sit by the window waiting for it."

LA-based singer-songwriter Lily Kershaw returns with Pain & More, her new concept album that is a collection of exquisitely heartbreaking, proof-of-life ruminations about existing behind a pall of melancholia. Collectively, they feel like a lifetime of repression, suddenly liberated. Central to Lily’s narratives is the idea that others will probably relate to, or benefit from, her pain. Humbled yet highly melodic, the facetiously named Pain & More is an emotionally tactile album that confronts the many incarnations of the prolonged, persistent depression that has shrouded Lily’s life for decades. It may be her third full-length, but it’s her defining moment -- a vivid, if sometimes uncomfortable, whirl of the angst and hope.Lily released her debut album Midnight In The Garden in 2013, featuring break-out single “As It Seems.” The album scored millions of streams and critical acclaim, and in the following years she landed multiple syncs on shows like Criminal Minds, Grey’s Anatomy, Finding Carter, Ted Lasso and more. She followed it up her 2018 EP Lost Angeles and her 2021 sophomore album Arcadia, which received acclaim from Nylon, American Songwriter, Vulture, Earmilk, Refinery29, CNN and more. Along the way, Lily cut her teeth on tours alongside Radical Face, Mason Jennings, The Weepies, and Joshua Radin, to name a few, and today has amassed more than 80 million streams.

"Call Of The Champions is an album by legendary American composer John Williams. The piece of the same name was composed by Williams especially for the Olympic Winter Games of 2002 in Salt Lake City. It is the opening track of this album which features over a dozen original tracks by Williams, plus an additional bonus track: ""Summon The Heroes"", the anthem written for the 1996 Olympic Summer Games in Atlanta. The album also features ""American Journey""; a six-part orchestral composition by Williams that was commissioned by U.S. President Bill Clinton for the 2000 Millenium celebrations in Washington D.C. ""American Journey"" is presented for the first time as a complete concert work on this album.

This album features The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the Utah Symphony, The Boston Pops Orchestra and the Recording Arts Orchestra of Los Angeles. The album was released as An American Journey in the United States.

Call Of The Champions is available for the first time on vinyl as a limited edition of 800 copies on turquoise coloured vinyl and includes an insert with liner notes by music journalist Jackson Braider.

"Call Of The Champions is an album by legendary American composer John Williams. The piece of the same name was composed by Williams especially for the Olympic Winter Games of 2002 in Salt Lake City. It is the opening track of this album which features over a dozen original tracks by Williams, plus an additional bonus track: ""Summon The Heroes"", the anthem written for the 1996 Olympic Summer Games in Atlanta. The album also features ""American Journey""; a six-part orchestral composition by Williams that was commissioned by U.S. President Bill Clinton for the 2000 Millenium celebrations in Washington D.C. ""American Journey"" is presented for the first time as a complete concert work on this album.

This album features The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the Utah Symphony, The Boston Pops Orchestra and the Recording Arts Orchestra of Los Angeles. The album was released as An American Journey in the United States.

Call Of The Champions is available for the first time on vinyl as a limited edition of 800 copies on turquoise coloured vinyl and includes an insert with liner notes by music journalist Jackson Braider.

Born in Los Angeles in the early 1990s via a residency of week after week jam sessions at a dive club called Raji’s—then relocating to New Orleans—the band’s trajectory lasted about a decade and ended when Hurricane Katrina demolished their homes and the band members scattered. Key members included Vicki Peterson (Bangles), Susan Cowsill (The Cowsills), Peter Holsapple (The dBs, R.E.M.), and many more—including the only member who has been with them from the beginning, Mark Walton (Giant Sand, The Dream Syndicate). However, there were also several singer/songwriters (Carlo Nuccio, Gary Eaton, Ray Ganucheau) without an impressive pedigree that shine as brightly as their slightly more famous bandmates. The best possible comparison that we can make is that the Continental Drifters had a similar vibe to the classic roots combo Delaney & Bonnie & Friends—more of a “collective’ than a band—in which there were several distinctly original lead singers, blistering sidemen instrumentalists and an inspiring blend of both original and seminal cover songs with a southern fried blue-eyed soul approach that couldn’t be beat.

Wildly acclaimed Grammy-winning artist Flume returns with a
new album, ‘Palaces’, on Transgressive Records.

‘Palaces’ began to take shape when Flume returned to his
native Australia after struggling to write music in Los Angeles at
the beginning of the pandemic. Settling in a coastal town in the
Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Flume quickly
found the inspiration he needed through reconnecting with the
nature around him - the rolling hills, walking around barefoot,
the green colour the sky turns before a big storm, growing and
eating his own vegetables, the smell of rain.

He and his neighbour and long-time collaborator, the visual
artist Jonathan Zawada, became fascinated by the local wildlife,
in particular the birds, collecting field recordings that ultimately
worked their way in to the album. As Flume continued to forge a
strong connection to his surroundings, the album he wanted to
make started to form, eventually adopting a title to properly
highlight the luxury and magic of the natural world.

‘Palaces’ is his most confident, mature and uncompromising
work to date, a true testament to nurturing the relationships that
make us whole and bring us peace.

The album features a host of vocalists and collaborators, its
cast list spanning new and household names from around the
world - breakout US star Caroline Polachek, British polymath
icon Damon Albarn, Spain’s Vergen Maria, France’s Oklou and
fellow Australian Kučka, who returns following her standout turn
on ‘Skin’.

Deluxe CD including two exclusive bonus tracks in 6-panel
heavyweight board digipack with tube pocket and 8-page
booklet. Matte finish on digipak board with glossy spot UV
finish.

CD digipack with poster insert.

Black 180G double vinyl in widespine jacket with full colour
centre labels and digital download card.

Since first splashing on to the Southern California circuit in the mid-aughts, Geneva Jacuzzi (née Garvin) quickly cemented herself as the queen of the Los Angeles underground. Her immersive and unhinged multimedia performances are the stuff of legend, a psychotropic gallery of masks, costumes, confrontation, and massive art installations. Jacuzzi’s recordings are equally revered, catchy hooks and cryptic moods dusted in 4-track grit. The arrival of her third official full-length, and Dais Records debut, is cause for such celebration. Triple Fire vividly expands and crystallizes Jacuzzi’s signature fusion of midnight melody and mutant aerobics across a 12-track hit parade of wildcard synth-pop and sly post-apocalyptic camp. Her enthusiasm for the album is as bold as her body of work: “Halfway through, we started calling this the record of the prophecy, the record that’s going to save mankind.”



Opener “Laps of Luxury” sets the template – a strobe-lit dreamer’s delight of swaggering synth bass, Haçienda drum machinery, and sultry vocal spellcasting (“Tragic mysteries I’ve known for centuries / I burned all memories and turned to fantasy”). The collection burns through shades of sardonic strut (“Art Is Dangerous,” “Nu2U,” “Keep It Secret”), coldwave kiss off (“Speed Of Light,” co-produced by Andrew Clinco of Drab Majesty), retro-futurist body music (“Dry,” “Scene Ballerina,” “Bow Tie Eater”), and cheeky glitterball pop (“Take It Or Leave It,” “Heart Full Of Poison” co-produced by Roderick Edens and Andrew Briggs). She likens the eclectic spectrum of moods to the continuum of human emotions: “Funny, sexy, sad, scary, witty, hopeful, menacing. Eventually it deconstructs, turns into a party, and then ends sweet and soft.”



Taken as a whole, Triple Fire comes as close as any document yet to capturing Jacuzzi’s kaleidoscopic alchemy of pop sugar and chaos energy, flickering between icy and ironic, chic and surreal, hungry and heartsick. Hers is a muse as rare as it is regenerative, forever reborn at the precipice of the next chorus: “Someone said that Alcatraz had fallen into the sea / Almost sounded like an angel calling me in a dream / I felt an electric shock when I picked up the microphone.”

Recorded in 2014, Mid-City Island is the first ever project to be released from Moses Sumney. Moses recorded the entire EP from his apartment in Mid-City, Los Angeles straight to cassette on a four-track recorder that TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek lent him. To mark the 10 year anniversary of Mid-City Island, Moses kept good on a promise he made to himself all those years ago, broke and starting out - that he would press it to vinyl in a decade. Reflecting back on that period, Moses says "Mid-City, Los Angeles was more of a concept than a place. Seemingly nobody had ever heard of it, and yet it was the geographic center of the city. Living there felt analogous to my disposition as a 'rising' Angeleno - highly visible and invisible at the same time. I sat on my bedroom floor and wrote 'Plastic.' Throughout his 10-year career, Moses Sumney has consistently evaded definition as an act of duty: technicolor self-directed videos and monochrome clothes; Art Rock and Black Classical; blowing into Fashion Weeks from a small town in North Carolina; seemingly infinite collaborators, but one staggering voice. Consistent across the worlds of music, fashion, and film is his assertion that the undefinable still exists and dwelling in it is an act of resistance.

Belarusian post-punk / synth pop group Molchat Doma have always exuded the kind of brutalist aesthetic of the architecture that adorns their album art. It's cold, gray, imposing, industrial and yet there are human hearts beating within those foundations. In the wake of their breakthrough success in 2020, the trio endured a polarity of experiences, from the nadir of an uprooted life and forced relocation away from their native Minsk to the apex of headlining massive shows across the world. It was in this headspace that the band settled into their new home of Los Angeles to finish writing their fourth album Belaya Polosa, a testament to change in difficult times, a love letter to the digital pulse of the `90s, and a technicolor reinvention of the band's somber dancefloor anthems. From the opening synth swell and drum machine throb of "Ty Zhe Ne Znaesh' Kto Ya," to the goth / post-punk austerity of "Son", to the swirling electronic textures mixed with reverb-drenched guitar flourishes, expansive space, and yearning vocals of title track "Belaya Polosa" - that suggests Depeche Mode at their most reflective or The Cure at their most downtrodden - to the sultry and seductive "Chernye Cvety"_ a track reminiscent of Duran Duran's early `90s output in its fusion of dreamy guitars and authoritative mechanized beats _ and the interwoven layers of instrumentation, soaring chorus, and melodic sophistication of "Ya Tak Ustal", it's clear that Molchat Doma are operating on another level. Molchat Doma gained following with earlier albums that sound like third-generation bootlegs of banned recordings from the Eastern Bloc made after a few key entries in the Factory Records catalog were smuggled in from the West. Belaya Polosa propels them into a new direction while retaining their cold minimalist delivery they're known for. The basement grime and dirty tape-head sound of their previous work are now making space for digital luster and shimmering production values. And while Molchat Doma's broadened aural spectrum adds a synesthetic power to Belaya Polosa, the mood remains rooted in stark and unflinching self-reflection. Molchat Doma retain the duality of being both cold and feverish in their delivery while pushing their music into expanded territories through an armory of new textures. The trio continue to harness the sound of harrowing beauty thriving under harsh realities.

Belarusian post-punk / synth pop group Molchat Doma have always exuded the kind of brutalist aesthetic of the architecture that adorns their album art. It's cold, gray, imposing, industrial and yet there are human hearts beating within those foundations. In the wake of their breakthrough success in 2020, the trio endured a polarity of experiences, from the nadir of an uprooted life and forced relocation away from their native Minsk to the apex of headlining massive shows across the world. It was in this headspace that the band settled into their new home of Los Angeles to finish writing their fourth album Belaya Polosa, a testament to change in difficult times, a love letter to the digital pulse of the `90s, and a technicolor reinvention of the band's somber dancefloor anthems. From the opening synth swell and drum machine throb of "Ty Zhe Ne Znaesh' Kto Ya," to the goth / post-punk austerity of "Son", to the swirling electronic textures mixed with reverb-drenched guitar flourishes, expansive space, and yearning vocals of title track "Belaya Polosa" - that suggests Depeche Mode at their most reflective or The Cure at their most downtrodden - to the sultry and seductive "Chernye Cvety"_ a track reminiscent of Duran Duran's early `90s output in its fusion of dreamy guitars and authoritative mechanized beats _ and the interwoven layers of instrumentation, soaring chorus, and melodic sophistication of "Ya Tak Ustal", it's clear that Molchat Doma are operating on another level. Molchat Doma gained following with earlier albums that sound like third-generation bootlegs of banned recordings from the Eastern Bloc made after a few key entries in the Factory Records catalog were smuggled in from the West. Belaya Polosa propels them into a new direction while retaining their cold minimalist delivery they're known for. The basement grime and dirty tape-head sound of their previous work are now making space for digital luster and shimmering production values. And while Molchat Doma's broadened aural spectrum adds a synesthetic power to Belaya Polosa, the mood remains rooted in stark and unflinching self-reflection. Molchat Doma retain the duality of being both cold and feverish in their delivery while pushing their music into expanded territories through an armory of new textures. The trio continue to harness the sound of harrowing beauty thriving under harsh realities.

Belarusian post-punk / synth pop group Molchat Doma have always exuded the kind of brutalist aesthetic of the architecture that adorns their album art. It's cold, gray, imposing, industrial and yet there are human hearts beating within those foundations. In the wake of their breakthrough success in 2020, the trio endured a polarity of experiences, from the nadir of an uprooted life and forced relocation away from their native Minsk to the apex of headlining massive shows across the world. It was in this headspace that the band settled into their new home of Los Angeles to finish writing their fourth album Belaya Polosa, a testament to change in difficult times, a love letter to the digital pulse of the `90s, and a technicolor reinvention of the band's somber dancefloor anthems. From the opening synth swell and drum machine throb of "Ty Zhe Ne Znaesh' Kto Ya," to the goth / post-punk austerity of "Son", to the swirling electronic textures mixed with reverb-drenched guitar flourishes, expansive space, and yearning vocals of title track "Belaya Polosa" - that suggests Depeche Mode at their most reflective or The Cure at their most downtrodden - to the sultry and seductive "Chernye Cvety"_ a track reminiscent of Duran Duran's early `90s output in its fusion of dreamy guitars and authoritative mechanized beats _ and the interwoven layers of instrumentation, soaring chorus, and melodic sophistication of "Ya Tak Ustal", it's clear that Molchat Doma are operating on another level. Molchat Doma gained following with earlier albums that sound like third-generation bootlegs of banned recordings from the Eastern Bloc made after a few key entries in the Factory Records catalog were smuggled in from the West. Belaya Polosa propels them into a new direction while retaining their cold minimalist delivery they're known for. The basement grime and dirty tape-head sound of their previous work are now making space for digital luster and shimmering production values. And while Molchat Doma's broadened aural spectrum adds a synesthetic power to Belaya Polosa, the mood remains rooted in stark and unflinching self-reflection. Molchat Doma retain the duality of being both cold and feverish in their delivery while pushing their music into expanded territories through an armory of new textures. The trio continue to harness the sound of harrowing beauty thriving under harsh realities.

STONEMAN, die großen Provokateure der Gothic- und NDH-Szene sind nach nun über 6 Jahren Musikpause mit einem neuen Studioalbum zurück!
Während den letzten beiden Jahrzehnten, hat sich die düstere Truppe um Frontmann Mikki Chixx als fester Name etabliert. Mit mehreren Smash-Hits wie "Mord ist Kunst" und zahlreichen Auftritten bei Festivals wie dem Wacken Open Air, Eurorock, Wave-Gotik-Treffen oder Rock The Ring, haben sich STONEMAN aus dem Schattendasein des vorherrschenden Einheitsbreis katapultiert.
Pünktlich zum 20-jährigen Bandjubiläum in 2024, melden sich STONEMAN nun mit dem Album "NEU !" und Konzerten in Deutschland lautstark zurück!
Durch neue Songs wie "Heimatdiebe", "Korrekt" und natürlich "Helene" provozieren und polarisieren STONEMAN wie noch nie zuvor. Mal gehasst, mal geliebt, aber immer im bandtypischen Stil, mit tonnenweise Humor und Satire!
Das Album wurde in der Schweiz, auf Mallorca und in Los Angeles produziert und gemischt. Auch dieses Mal wurde beim Songwriting erneut auf den Steve van Velvet gesetzt, ebenso auf Dan Suter, der sich in der Schweiz um das Mastering des Albums gekümmert hat.

This is the quartet's second LP, recorded in 1971, and contains mostly Peruvian songs with a strong Cuban flavor where Pancho Acosta’s electric guitar reaches vertiginous heights and is combined with outstanding conga and timbales playing. Extremely rare and hard to find in its original issue, this is the first-time reissue. Remastered from the original tapes. The guitarist Francisco "Pancho" Acosta Angeles (1946) played a significant role in spreading love for Cuban rhythms across Peru, those sunshine beats breaking through the cloudiness that hangs over Lima most of the year, as the city bears a closer resemblance weather wise to London than to Havana. In 1967, after making a name for himself with his six-stringed skill, he made his vinyl debut with Compay Quinto. Shortly after Pancho left Company Quinto, he joined Los Kintos. When Los Kintos disbanded, Pancho Acosta swiftly moved on to his next project for MAG: the Cuarteto Yemayá, formed by tumba drummer and singer Miguel Montoya, bassist Máximo Pecho and timba drummer José Luis Fiallega, all under Pancho's direction and arrangements. The quartet's debut album, "Ecos del Trio Matamoros", was a tribute to the Cuban trio of the title and comprised cover versions as well as a couple of their own songs. This is the quartet's second LP, recorded between July and August 1971. "El Tic Tac" contains mostly Peruvian songs. The foreign versions on the album include the classic 'Compay Gallo', written by Miguel Matamoros; 'Toribio carambola' and 'El Tic Tac', from the repertoire of the Cuban Trio Servando Diaz; and 'Sandunguéate', best known in Celia Cruz’s version. ‘Oye Mi Son' and 'Oye Mi Guitarra' were composed by the album's lead vocalist, Miguel Montoya. Percussionist Jorge Mariazza (Los Pachas, Manzanita y su Conjunto) co-wrote 'Descarga Yemayá' with Pancho, which features outstanding conga and timbales playing. Pancho also composed tracks on his own: 'Me Voy a Monsefú', 'Mi Provinciana', 'Yo Me Voy de Aquí' and 'Flaca y Fea', the latter
with a Beatle-like intro where his Japanese electric guitar reaches vertiginous heights (he never used sound effects in his recordings). Cuarteto Yemayá released one more album for MAG. In 1973 Los Kintos reformed, with the addition of the bass, percussionist and guitarist from Cuarteto Yemayá. Pancho Acosta has continued his career as a composer and arranger to this day

Erste Vinyl-Neuauflage dieses fantastischen Albums von 1981 von Marcos Valle, eines der bedeutensten Künstler der brasilianischen Musik. In Brasilien aufgenommen, nachdem er Ende der 70er Jahre in den USA gelebt hat, brachte Valle sein angeborenes Talent für Arrangements und seine vielfältigen Einflüsse auf diesem unwiderstehlichen Album zusammen. Gäste sind u.a. Sivuca, Chicago's Peter Cetera, Robson Jorge und Joses Azymuth Roberto Bertrami. Valle ist einer der wenigen Künstler, die man sich nicht entgehen lassen sollte, wenn man auch nur das geringste Interesse an brasilianischer Musik hat. Ob Sie nun Bossa Jazz, Samba, Psych Folk oder Soul mögen, Valle hat mit Sicherheit ein großartiges Album für Sie aufgenommen. Ende der 60er Jahre hatte er bereits genug qualitativ hochwertige Platten veröffentlicht, um sich einen Platz unter den besten brasilianischen Songwritern aller Zeiten zu sichern, aber seine Karriere war glücklicherweise noch nicht zu Ende, und er veröffentlichte in den folgenden Jahrzehnten weiterhin erstaunliche Musik. Mitte der 70er Jahre ließ er sich in Los Angeles nieder, weil er es leid war, unter der brasilianischen Militärdiktatur zu leben, und begann, mit so talentierten Künstlern wie Leon Ware oder Chicago zusammenzuarbeiten. ,Vontade de rever você" (1981) ist sein erstes Album nach der Rückkehr nach Brasilien und zeigt all die musikalischen Einflüsse, die er während seiner Zeit in den USA erhalten hat, insbesondere Boogie, Soul und Funk, mit hervorragenden Mitwirkenden: Sivuca, Peter Cetera aus Chicago, Robson Jorge und sogar José Roberto Bertrami von Azymuth am Rhodes. Das Eröffnungsstück ,A Paraíba nao é Chicago" ist Marcos Valles eigene Interpretation von Leon Ware's ,Baby Don't Stop Me" und macht deutlich, dass das, was er in LA erreicht hat, nun auch in Brasilien ankommt. Dies ist ein unverzichtbares Album für Boogie-Liebhaber. Hören Sie sich den unwiderstehlichen Groove von ecados de amor, (Valles eigene Komposition, die allerdings zuvor von Cristina Camargo aufgenommen wurde) oder elhos surfistas querendo voar" an, und Sie werden schnell feststellen, dass dieses Album zu den solidesten Leistungen in seiner gesamten Diskografie gehört. Selbst wenn das Tempo im Midtempo gehalten wird, wie beim abschließenden Stück ao pode ser qualquer mulher", schaffen es Valles Songs, die Tanzfläche mit seiner sehr gut gelungenen Mischung aus brasilianischen Klängen und funkigen Rhythmen zu erschüttern.

Dark Entries and Honey Soundsystem Records have teamed up once more to release the final volume of gay porn soundtracks by San Francisco-based musician and producer, Patrick Cowley. One of the most revolutionary and influential figures in the canon of disco, Cowley created his own brand of Hi-NRG dance music, The San Francisco Sound.' Born in Buffalo, NY on October 19, 1950, Patrick moved to San Francisco in 1971 to study at the City College of San Francisco. He founded the Electronic Music Lab at the school, where he would make experimental soundtracks by blending various types of music and adapting them to the synthesizer.

By the mid-70's, Patrick's synthesis techniques landed him a job composing and producing songs for disco superstar Sylvester, including hits like You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)', Dance Disco Heat' and Stars.' This helped Patrick obtain more work as a remixer and producer. His 18-minute long remix of Donna Summer's I Feel Love' and his production work with edgy New Wave band Indoor Life were both of particular note. By 1981, Patrick had released a string of dance 12 singles, like Menergy' and Megatron Man'. He also had founded Megatone Records, the label upon which he released his debut album, Menergy'. Around this time Patrick was hospitalized and diagnosed with an unknown illness: that which would later be called AIDS. Throughout 1982, he recorded two more Hi-NRG hits, Do You Wanna Funk' for Sylvester, and Right On Target' for Paul Parker, as well as a second solo album Mind Warp'. On November 12, 1982, he passed away.

In 1979 Patrick was contacted by John Coletti, owner of famed gay porn company Fox Studio in Los Angeles. Patrick jumped on this offer and sent reels of his college compositions from the 70s to John in LA. Coletti then used a variable speed oscillator to adjust the pitch and speed of Patrick's songs in-sync with the film scenes. The result was the VHS collections Muscle Up' and School Daze' released in 1979 and 1980. Afternooners' is the third collection of Cowley's instrumental songs, recorded in May 1982. These recordings were culled from two 23-minute reels in the Fox Studio vaults. All songs were originally untitled, so we've used the titles from Fox Studio's 8mm film loops. This compilation also includes three bonus tracks found in the archives of fellow Megatone Records recording artist Paul Parker and the attic of teenage friend Lily Bartels. Influenced by Tomita, Wendy Carlos, and Giorgio Moroder, Patrick crafted a singular sound from his collection of synthesizers, percussion, modified guitars, and hand-built equipment. The listener enters a world of forbidden vices, evocative of Patrick's time spent in the bathhouses of San Francisco. The songs on Afternooners' reflect the advances of the equipment available at the onset of the 1980s. Cowley's unadulterated electronic forms are stripped down and dubbed up. Lush electronic percussion, soaring synthesizer riffs and low slung funk grooves comingle on these magnificent soundscapes.

Featuring 70 minutes of music never before released on vinyl. All songs have been remastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, CA. The vinyl is housed in a gatefold jacket designed by Berlin-based artist Gwenael Rattke, featuring black and white photos of Patrick in his studio that opens to a full color array of x-rated scenes from the Fox Studio vaults. Included is a fold-out poster featuring a handmade collage using photography and xeroxed graphics of classic gay porn imagery and an essay from Drew Daniel of Matmos. For Patrick's 67th birthday, Dark Entries and Honey Soundsystem Records present a glimpse into the futuristic world of a young genius. These recordings shed a new light on the experimental side of a disco legend who was taken too soon.

Los Angeles-based ASHRR are back on 2020 Vision ahead of a new album and this time serve up their own superb version of The Romantics's 1983 hit 'Talking in Your Sleep.' In their hands, it becomes a club-ready sound with a vocal you may recognise as it featured in the Mad Max episode of Stranger Things. Add in some DFA-inspired punk funk vibes and with all the instruments reapplied while new layers of bass and synth are added and you have one fantastic new version. Balearic don Fernando steps up for two remixes, first stripping things back to a deep house sound and then bringing some dub disco vibes to the fore.

Ambient Maximalism in Synths, Strings, Harps, and Horns. A sonic excursion, taking inspiration from public parks across the globe, Big Majestic features Kronos Quartet soaring above desert vistas on West Coast Sky Forever, Shabaka Hutchings' kaleidoscopic shakuhachi and tenor saxophone meditations on Spiritual Sun and Primrose Hill, James McVinnie performing an electrifying synth organ epic on Blue Sky | Mirrored Glass, and the otherworldly voice of Lisel beckoning the listener into the unknown.

American Pulitzer Prize winning composer and sound artist Ellen Reid is set to release ‘Big Majestic,’ an album of music written for her acclaimed GPS-enabled work of public art, Ellen Reid SOUNDWALK, that reimagines urban parks as interactive soundscapes. The album features performances by the Kronos Quartet and Shabaka Hutchings. SOUNDWALK premiered in New York's Central Park, and continues to expand to urban parkland around the world, including Los Angeles' Griffith Park, London's Regent's Park & Primrose Hill, and Tokyo's Ueno Park. The project has already been featured on NPR, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the LA Times.

The records is released in two options. Both hvae 180g vinyl records. The first version has two black vinyls and the second limited edition (numbered 100 pieces) has one turquoise vinyl and the other red.

Over the last three decades, Auckland, New Zealand, has given birth to several generations of musicians, DJs, and producers who operated within the interzone between jazz, blues, soul, funk, Latin music, hip-hop, house, boogie, and broken beat. Across two slow-cooked albums that sit at the intersection of machine funk and vivid live instrumentation, Odyssey (2016) and their forthcoming sophomore release Long Road (2024), After 'Ours - the group project of pianist and composer Michal Martyniuk and drummer, guitarist and producer Nick Williams - have comfortably located themselves within this antipodean tradition.

Born and raised in Auckland, Nick Williams grew up surrounded by music from a young age. At home, his mother, Mary Anne, a record collector and DJ with deep, diverse vinyl crates, kept his ear sharp. By the time he was eight years old, he was regularly joining his musician father on stages across Australia in his blues rock band Slippery Sam. In his early twenties, Nick began leading the eleven-piece Auckland Latin-dub-funk fusion big band Tangent, who performed regularly until the late 2000s.

Michal Martyniuk, on the other hand, grew up on the opposite side of the world in Szczecin, Poland. After playing classical music for twelve years and attending jazz school, he relocated to New Zealand with his family in his teens. While studying at Auckland University Jazz school, Michal came into the orbit of the legendary New Zealand saxophonist, composer, producer, and band leader Nathan Haines, who brought him into the same world as future collaborators like Tama Waipara, Batacada Sound Machine, Sola Rosa and Nick.

Inspired by the rich stories of jazz, neo-soul, electronica, and dance music from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean and the open-eared Auckland scene they emerged from, After 'Ours formed in 2011. Born out of a friendship cultivated through playing together at bars and nightclubs around town and home studio sessions. "Nick had family and work, so I had to wait all day," Michal says. "We'd come to the studio at 10 PM and go till 3 AM. That's how we came up with the name.

Session by session, After 'Ours revealed itself to be a creatively fertile meeting of minds. "We both have our angles, but it works well in the end," Nick reflects. "It takes the music to a place we can't get to by ourselves."

Between 2011 and 2016, they wrote and recorded Odyssey with a cast of musical collaborators that included KP, Sharlene Hector & Kevin Mark Trail (UK), Matt Nanai, Nathan Haines, Jakub Skowronski, Nick's partner Ange Williams (nee Saunders) and British producer Mike Patto from the lauded UK future jazz group Reel People. Influenced by the smooth yacht rock of Steely Dan and Donald Fagan, the warm midtempo bounce of A Tribe Called Quest and J Dilla, and the complex jazz/RnB bop of Robert Glasper, Odyssey was a labour of love that emphasised community, warm-hearted hospitality, and care.

Seven years on, they're finally ready to return with Long Road, an album that contains some of their best work yet. As well as reconnecting with past collaborators Kevin Mark Trail and Ange Williams, Long Road sees After 'Ours calling on assistance from Louis Baker, Jakarta-based saxophone player Kuba Skowroński, bassist Dan Antunovich, Los Angeles-based drummer Chris Bailey and the journeyman British soul artist Omar Lyefook.

Across ten songs that plot a stargazed course through their antipodean spin on UK broken beat, jazz, modern soul, and blues rock, Nick and Michal build on everything they learned while writing and recording Odyssey. In the process, they take their joyful musical visions to sublime new heights.