Boris Barksdale's first full length on the label is the final joyride of the human mind. Over two sides of screwed proto-beat, street electronics and twisted metal ambiance, Mind Over Matter picks apart the medias domination of the world we live in, drawing on internet advertising campaigns and social commentary to show you how messed up things have really become.
The record builds on from Boris' inclusion in Natural Sciences' Future Works & Age in Decline compilation series.
Originally released in 2002 in partnership with NME to celebrate their 50th anniversary and 50 years since NME printed the first ever singles chart in the UK. 1 Love saw the cream of British artists come together to pick their favourite number one to cover. Having appeared on the 1995 HELP album, Oasis continued their support of War Child with an acoustic rendition of Slade’s Christmas classic ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’. Stereophonics chose ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ with Kelly Jones’s gravelly vocal complementing this stripped back version of the track written by Prince, performed by The Family and taken to number one by Sinead O’Connor in 1990.
Hope was first released in partnership with The Daily Mirror in April 2003 as a response to the Iraq War, the artist community came together for War Child once more with some of the biggest names in music recording an album of exclusive tracks in just three weeks to raise vital funds to give hope to the children of Iraq. The vinyl release of Hope features alternate artwork using the original concept designed by Nick Robertson that has never been used before. Hope is part of a series of four re-releases by War Child Records making the amazing music artists have donated to the charity available on DSPs and vinyl for the first time. All proceeds from these releases will directly fund War Child’s life saving work with children affected by conflict.
"War Child Presents Heroes is the ultimate covers album - an unprecedented coming together of music’s greatest ever legends and with their favourite artists of the time to support children whose lives have been torn apart by war. The album concept sees the biggest heroes in music history select a personal favourite track from their own back catalogue and nominate an act from the next generation to create a modern reworking of that classic song
War Child Presents Heroes is part of a series of four re-releases by War Child Records making the amazing music artists have donated to the charity available on DSPs and vinyl for the first time. All proceeds from these releases will directly fund War Child’s life saving work with children affected by conflict."
After this endless seeming period of release abstinence your favorite imprint is back with a special ep by our friend and musical mastermind Speckman!
With his debut EP „Big City Days“ the producer and Golden Pudel resident Speckman shares his vision of the dancefloor, where he creates outbreaking sound textures on a soulful base and unfolds his unique and modern approach on dance music.
Dive right in with „Desperate Housevibez“, a dreamy & breaky intro to get you right in the mood. Next stop is „Something Still“ - heavy on the bottom, quirky at the top.
We finish the A side with „Big City Days“, the melancholic yet upbeat centerpiece of the EP.
Flip the record and you’ll hear the bubbly „Run“, a checked out synthie banger. With the outro „Meow“ Speckman goes back to his roots and let’s you of the hook easy.
As we emerge into the Now with a fresh perspective and renewed vigour, Red Laser Records usher in a novel epoch of Manctalo movements for our post-COVID enjoyment.
Entrusting piloting duties to four well decorated RL commandos, the EP serves to remind us all that despite everything that's happened, we can still find solace in red lasers, smoke machines and high-powered strobe lights.
Splitting open the collective dancefloor inertia is Kid Machine's 'Only Machines Allowed'.
A cybernetic b-boy jam straight outta the planet MEGOH circa 4044. Guided by electrified vocoder lines and a plutonium-grade, armoured groove this impenetrable battle rocket should issue the much needed power boost to get your body kinetics firing again when they release the e-barriers to hedonism.
Returning star fleet lieutenant Count Van Delicious has been collecting entities from the outer galaxies since his appearance on RL EP 9 ('Dark Fruit' w/ Senor Chugger).
Here he announces his return with an end-credits epic, an #inabiteveryoneelse theme from this young vet on a pants-off permo-buzz, up-scrolling through technicolored c64 visuals and deploying his now trademark zoopa-arps, euphoric synth stabs and thunderous low end shudder to deadly effect.
Meanwhile, Ste Spandex continues his cybernetic realignment surgery, dissecting a well circulated disco meme and adding voluptuous gender-neutral enhancements that'll be getting the next generation of androids frisky, despite their lack of reproductive organs. Fizzling synths, spherical repetition and a multi-dimensional mix of high voltage rhythms leaving that vocal line permanently downloaded in your memory cloud. No sharing necessary.
Scottish deep space observer Ernesto Harmon provides some cosmic ruggedness to close off our mission. Reinforced & galvanised low-end rhymix coalescing with humanoid synth expression and an infinite, carbon-free energy source keeping momentum plateaued through the morning after the night before. There's no off switch baby!
For astral travellers seeking solace in the new Now, EP12 kindly acts as an upgrade to your possibly dormant dancing system as you stumble out into the new nocturnal environment. Hopefully reminding us that the simple act of moving alongside one another in a pitch black, laser-guided club space hasn't changed that much...
Limited press, with artwork which could be the next top selling NFT, we urge our RL family to bag this collectable chronicle from the Red Laser Corp.
Emerging when humanity needs him most, and currently adopting the body of a 60 odd-year old carpenter with a penchant for animation and Red Stripe; Terry Perace teams up with Red Laser's own Pharaoh Brunson to form a new perpetual EP series.
The Peraceamid project begins with EP 1. 4 x Hyper-ancient, super-hi-tek audio tools for us Earth dwellers to utilise, corrupting RL's standard "Manctalo" vigour with abandan.
(A1 - Terry Perace - Trip Pop 2020)
Perace himself, ditching the Carpenter attire and hardwiring himself straight into basic circuitry, conjures up skeletal, repetitive reduxes, born outta the oldest primordial gloop, churning together into embryonic life form rhythms that have now existed since the earliest signals of dual-cell organisms on our planet.
(A2 - Kid Machine S.D.M (Terry Perace's InSlaved mix)
Terry sparkles his Martian magic across Kid Machine's S.D.M from the 2020 'Magico' LP. An already high Manctalo watermark now given further accreditation by the highest Elders of Ancient Egypt which Terry confers with on the regular. Welcome to the top of the pyramid gee!
(B1 - Marcus Paulson - Wrecked in Utrecht)
The elusive Marcus Paulson we so far know very little about other than that he's an unconfirmed UFO enthusiast from Warrington...Terry received 'Wrecked In Utrecht' when he accidentally plugged a random USB drive into his earhole (he's not that up on our basic tech yet) in Pharaoh's studio at Hidden. An otherworldly Manctalo vortex and a holographic, plasma-soaked acid track designed to provide a cross-planetary bridge to raves and free parties on Cygnus.
(B2 - Ste Spandex - Examples of You)
Terry's been warmly applying his cosmic voodoo on Red Laser veteran Ste Spandex, nudging him further into the inter dimensional discipline of sonic energy manipulation, the fruits of which are a hyper-driven re-vamp of a '98, Earth-based club classic which he blasts into 5D thru the galvanised circuitry of his palladium-boosted studio.
Licensed and published by Red Laser Records here on Earth. First volume in a perpetual series...
Dimensions Recordings present an all-new dancefloor-ready remix package of tracks from Charles Webster's 'Decision Time' LP.
The release of Charles Webster's highly-acclaimed 'Decision Time' in late 2020 marked his first album project in almost 20 years.
An undeniable master of his craft, Webster delivered a body of work that was well worthy of the wait and saw support from the likes of Mary Anne Hobbs, Gilles Peterson, Joe Muggs and Tom Ravenscroft. With collaborators ranging from Shara Nelson (formerly of Massive Attack), to Ingrid Chavez (Prince muse & Madonna songwriter) and of course the infamous Burial, the British DJ/producer demonstrated that his ability to draw the right partners to exactly the right projects and execute them perfectly, has only improved with time.
In this vinyl remix package, Webster once more demonstrates his draw, drafting in an impressive cast of remixers to deliver a varied set of fresh takes on his original works.
Tokyo duo Dazzle Drums, South Africa's Jazzuelle, UK stalwart Mark E and the global trotting DJ Luciano present their unique takes on three cuts from Webster's incredible full length release.
Another essential piece of wax for your crates, this one drops on vinyl & digital via Dimensions Recordings on April 1st 2022.
Spain’s fastest-rising band, Belako are announcing a very specialedition of their 2020 album ‘Plastic Drama’. The new, deluxe double LP will be released on 8th April via BMG and includes exclusive remixes by the likes of Wolf Alice, The Vaccines, Hinds and Crystal Fighters.
Hailing from the small town of Mungia near Bilbao, Belako have been playing non-stop in Spain and beyond these past few years, building a dedicated fanbase in their native country, which has quickly been spilling out into other parts of Europe and the US.
2020’s ‘Plastic Drama’ was the band’s fourth record, but the first since signing a major international record deal, and certainly their most ambitious to date. Self-produced by the band, ‘Plastic Drama' searches for “the real meaning of things in a world that translates everything into assembly lines, manufacturing and the exploitation of living beings,” say the band. “It’s about the harsh reality our generation is facing and the only good use of new technology, which is the ability to spread the word and call for action. The title of the album has another message, as it also reminds us the first world issues we’ve come so keen to complain about. We can only hope for a more responsible human legacy”.
They were named best new band by Rolling Stone Magazine (ES) and ‘Plastic Drama’ picked up top UK support from the likes of 6 Music, Clash, DIY, Dork, The Line Of Best and NME who hailed the record as ‘a bold next step from a band who have never been afraid of the weird or the wonderful. Belako step up and earn their place among the major players of the scene’.
Relentless in their craft and a ferocious live act at their core, Belako were the first band to tour Europe in the summer of 2020, breathing new life into old forgotten Spanish cinema drive-ins across the country for their live shows. The ‘Belako Pandemic Tour’ documentary was premiered at the San Sebastian International Film Festival and will soon arrive on digital platforms.
Having supported the likes of DMA’s, QOTSA and Liam Gallagher at Finsbury Park, and played major international festivals such as Primavera, SXSW, Rock En Seine & Benicassim, Belako’s explosive live performances have excited crowds from small dive bars in their early days to huge international festivals. Their anything-can-happen stage attitude showcases the power, electricity and punk ethos of this exciting young band, which also lead to them being the first ever Spanish act to be booked for the main stage at Reading & Leeds Festival.
Fast forward to 2022, Belako reinvigorate ‘Plastic Drama’ with a 50-date world tour to be announced shortly, kickstarted with the release of their new deluxe edition album in April, featuring remixes by some of alternative music’s biggest names. The band will also celebrate the release with an album launch party on the rooftop of Madrid’s prestigious Riu Plaza on April 6th. Details for all UK dates this summer will be revealed in the coming weeks.
Tubby did three original dub albums, “Dub From The Roots, “The Roots Of Dub” and the third is “Brass Rockers” with Tommy McCook ’pon the flying cymbals. Where he mixed it with the horn going in and out in a dub way and one named “Shalom Dub” you can call Tubby’s too because he mixed the versions as they were off the forty fives.
King Tubby and Producer Bunny “Striker” Lee are intertwined in the birth of Dub Music. After discovering a mistake that made a “serious joke” (more of which later…) they went on to release the first pressings of this new musical genre namely “Dub Music”. Tubby’s vast knowledge of electronics and Bunny’s vast catalogue of rhythms would lay the foundations of what today is taken as a standard…. The Remix / Version cuts to an existing vocal tune.
Osborne “King Tubby” Ruddock was born in Kingston, Jamaican the 28th January 1941 and grew up in the High Holborn Street area of downtown Kingston. He studied electronics at Kingston’s National Technical College and also on two correspondence courses from the USA. When he had qualified, Tubby began repairing radios and other electrical appliances in a shack in the back yard of his mother’s home. His work in the early days included winding transformers and building amplifiers for Kingston’s Sound Systems. Tubby built his first Sound System in 1957 playing jazz and Rhythm and Blues at local weddings and birthday parties His reputation as a man who knew and understood both electronics and music grew steadily and as the sixties drew to a close. Tubby purchased his own basic two track equipment. He installed this alongside his dub cutting machine, a homemade mixing console and his impressive collection of Jazz albums in the back bedroom of his home at 18 Dromilly Avenue which he christened his music room.
Dynamic Sounds upgraded to sixteen track recording in 1972 and Tubby purchased, again with the help of a deal brokered by Bunny Lee. The old four track equipment and the MCI console from their Studio B. The four tracks now gave him far wider scope to work with and he began to create a new musical form where the bass and drum parts were brought up while the faders allowed Tubby to ease the vocal and rhythm in and out of the mix. It was only a matter of time before Tubby’s dub plate experiments began to make it on to vinyl and the first ever long playing King Tubby releases would feature a collection of his mixes to a selection of Striker’s rhythms. So please sit back and enjoy this historic set of sounds. Lovingly restored and with a few extra gems added to the CD editions. These releases were the first to carry the name of King Tubby and the first to credit the great musicians that contributed so much to the rhythms that made these albums possible.
Hope you enjoy the set……
A work collection which can be said as the origin of Nausicaa's film music which was created based on the image of the original cartoon in film production. Jacket illustration is an illustration of director Miyazaki Hayao drawn for Animage's appendix poster Tolumekia Campaign
Historically informed violin player, prize-winning street musician, new age experimentalist, chamber ensemble performer and conservatoire deviant. The career of Valentina Goncharova (b. Kyiv 1953) shares parallels with those associated with the broader new music movement of the 20th century and the dissemination of home recording technologies.
Valentina’s was a youth spent immersed in the world of classical music study under soviet rule, first in Kyiv- later in Leningrad & now St. Petersburg, from the age of 16. With the supervision of professors M. Vayman and B. Gutnikov she learned concert violin and developed alternate playing styles alongside skilled pianists. A student of the Leningrad conservatoire during the years 1969 - 1983, her repertoire included music for violin and later expanded to contemporary music composition.
The improvisatory nature of free jazz and then-budding experimental rock circles also intrigued Valentina during this period in Leningrad. Departing from the rules of the conservatoire, she briefly performed in underground rock clubs alongside future members of the industrial group Pop- Mechanika (Popular Mechanics). This perpetual state of flux is central to the variety found within ‘Recordings Vol. 1’, though as opposed to any degree of uncertainty Valentina’s practice is one
in flux by way of earnest curiosity.
Pushing further into an exploration of solo electro-acoustic sounds, she took to home taping on a modified Olimp reel to reel recorder. Intrigued by the manipulability of dubbing and the fresh sounds of DIY effects chains, Goncharova developed pickups alongside her husband Igor Zubkov. Her infatuation with the music of Stockhausen, Xenakis, Ganelin Trio and Pierre Boulez channels through considerations of space and erratic sound design, the 3 movements of ‘Metamorphoses’ embodying this textural approach to musique concrete.
The compositional skills developed in Leningrad unfold in the romantic gestures of ‘Higher Frequencies’, whilst manipulated cello combines with synthesise keys across ‘Passageway To Eternity’.
The slow, pulsating drone soundscapes recall the likes of Robert Rutman’s US Steel Cello Ensemble or even deep listening pioneer Pauline Oliveros.
The juxtaposition of written notation and improvisatory flare is central to Goncharova’s sound world. This period of home recording documents a confluence of minimalism, free form and flirtations
with new age tropes (inc. bell chimes and cavernous vocal mantras).
Experimenting with unusual performance techniques, such as shouting into amplified cello strings, Valentina’s home studio functioned as a place to foster full artistic and creative freedom
away from any academic strictures.
Relocating to Estonia in 1984, and in parallel to the deeply personal music of ‘Recordings Vol. 1’, Valentina performed at jazz festivals and gave classical concerts across Eastern Europe. In a sense, the recordings on these discs offer only a glimpse into her lifelong body of work. Over the past few decades she has taught at Tallinn Music College, expanded and updated post- Soviet popular music repertoire, collaborated with the Russian Philharmonic Society of Estonia and given concerts and charity events alongside the Catholic Church.
Hers is a life dedicated to the exploration of sound, a career forged through careful study and ceaseless intrigue. In a time where technological interconnectedness has allowed for music of the pas
to be continually mined and evaluated through new lenses, Shukai present an artist whose tendency for private home-taping had allowed recordings to go unheard for thirty years.
West London's post-punk scene is showcased with an EP built on the raw energy of like-minded collective spirits of the time by the short-lived Hamburger All-Stars.
Primarily revolving around the ideas of Justin Adams, a recent arrival in London with his band, The Syndromes, they soon found themselves recording at Street Level Studios - a basement squat in then run-down Little Venice. With producers Kif-Kif Le Batteur (Here And Now / Planet Gong) and Grant "Showbiz" Cunliffe (Blue Midnight / The Fall), their open-minded techniques allowed Adams to develop his increasing interest in the "studio as instrument" principles he loved from the likes of Brian Eno and Lee Perry.
Not a band as such, but friends and musicians from other bands all contributing including The Impossible Dreamers, Alternative TV, Gong and more, this "All-Stars" collective would later go on to be part of, form or affiliated in The Invaders Of The Heart, The Pretenders, Moodswings and Mutoid Waste.
Appearing on just 2 releases, the now rare split 7" and LP for the aptly named 100 Things To Do / Fuck Off Records, the songs initial vocals soon shift into funk and dub improvisations. One Million Hamburgers, Swinging London Pt 2 and Studded Leather Jacket almost fall away into atmospherics, with guitar, bass, percussion and horns augmented by Dr Rhythm machine, shortwave radio and heavy doses of Space Echo that capture the period's rawness and naivety to perfection.
"Marvin Gaye's Trouble Man adapted and conducted by Low Res"
Marvin Gaye was extremely proud of his pioneering film score for the “blaxploitation” film “Trouble Man”. In 1982, he commented:
“The "Trouble Man" film score was one of my loveliest projects and one of the great sleepers of all our time. I'll probably be dead and gone before I get the probable acclaim from the "Trouble Man" album, musical track, that I feel I should get. And put to a symphony, if someone took my album and did a symphony on it, I think it would be quite interesting.”
American musician Daniel Zelonky (AKA “Low Res”) had been captivated by this record for decades. Given the opportunity to recreate and conduct the entire film score live with a 36 piece orchestra at Voohuit, a beautiful classical venue in Gent, Belgium he set about meeting this daunting challenge: to be faithful to the feeling of the original and yet to create something "new", to expand upon certain elementts in a formal way, no "jamming" on the themes.
After a very successful performance, the resulting recordings were augmented in studio with additional instrumentation, and with the vocals of Blackwolf, singer of the late, lamented "Kings Go Forth" (Luaka Bop Records).
We think that the crate-digging denizens of the original soundtrack, and the curious Marvin Gaye fans alike will find much to enjoy in this 50th Anniversary tribute to Marvin's Blaxploitation masterpiece!
In March 2020, Tahiti 80 had a plan to start recording their new album in the studio. That plan, of course, along with everything else in the world, got derailed. But the five-piece group was resilient and resourceful. They quickly shifted to a socially distanced plan B that included file swapping and virtual sessions, all refereed by producer Julien Vignon. The result, due for release in March 2022, is the buoyant Here With You, a collection of eleven upbeat songs that unfold like a prescription for a post-pandemic panacea.
“When lockdown in France happened, we said, 'We're not going to stay at home not doing anything,'” says singer-guitarist Xavier Boyer. “And our new plan became a hopeful thing, waking up every morning and seeing what the other guys had worked on. It wasn't always easy, but this new method allowed a freer approach where we could really go all the way with an idea without being influenced by each other’s suggestions. It must've been overwhelming for Julien, who ended up selecting all our arrangements. But he stayed positive all the way through.”
To help stay inspired and focused during their time in isolation, the band created a mood board, with the centerpiece a photo of an early '90s rave in the UK.
Boyer says, “Whenever you see pictures from this era, people seem very innocent. There are no cell phones and everybody is in to what they are experiencing. We kept that picture in mind as a kind of mantra that would help everyone feel connected to this idea of people celebrating, gathering and just having fun. We were missing the connection with people, and thought it would be great if we could create music that would inspire that kind of emotion.”
Indeed, the songs on Here With You are brimming the feeling of communion that we've all been missing over the past two years. It's there in the catchy opener Lost in the Sound, which walks the walk with Chic guitar flicks, urban nightfall sparkles and an inviting chorus (“Your heart grooves like a thousand 808s on the right time”). It's there in the Jackson 5-style syncopated bounce of “Vintage Creem,” the lush, dreamy “Breakfast in L.A.” and the panoramic sweep of “UFO.” And it's there in the first single “Hot,” which matches an irresistible groove with a neon-lit, percolating arrangement that evokes the disco clubs of 1979.
What's remarkable is that though Tahiti 80 displays a clear affection for sounds of the past, from bubble gum to '70s soul, they never trade in mere pastiche. Their take is more a slightly warped and playful carnival mirror mash-up of classic pop styles, given depth through Boyer's hang-gliding, coolly emotive vocals and lyrics that often rub against the euphoric grain of the music.
“I like to think of songs as a three-minute drama,” says Boyer. “This concept of drama definitely adds different levels to our music. There's the melody, the lyrics, then the production that can maybe emphasize or counterbalance the interaction between the yin and yang in a song.
“There's a difference between the very upbeat, sunshine-y soft rock and the lyrics, even on our past albums,” he continues. “Not dark, but a little more melancholy, and also looking for some kind of motivation, talking to yourself. Like with a lot of Motown songs, you get that feeling where you body’s dancing while your mind’s reflecting, reminiscing.”
That alluring blend of happy-sad has been a signature part of the Tahiti 80 sound from the time Boyer and bassist Pedro Resende formed the group in 1993, as students at the University of Rouen. Taking their name from a souvenir t-shirt given to Boyer's father in 1980, the duo recruited guitarist Mederic Gontier in 1994, and with the addition of drummer Sylvain Marchand a year later, the lineup was complete. The foursome released a self-produced and self-financed EP, 20 Minutes, in 1996, which resulted a record deal with French label Atmospheriques in 1998. Their full-length debut Puzzle, produced with Ivy's Andy Chase and mixed by Tore Johansson, went gold and featured the international hit “Heartbeat” that established the band throughout Europe and Asia.
In the years since, Tahiti 80 – with the additions of Raphaël Léger on drums and Hadrien Grange on keys - has released eight acclaimed albums. The band has fused what MOJO called a “glorious entente of old and new technology” (including singles like “Yellow Butterfly,” “1000 Times,” “Sound Museum,” “Crush!” and “Big Day,” which was featured on a FIFA video game soundtrack), while collaborating with such producers and arrangers as Richard Swift, Tony Lash and Richard Anthony Hewson, who famously arranged The Beatles' “Long and Winding Road.” Boyer has also put out two solo albums, the first under the anagram Axe Riverboy and the second under his name. In 2019, the band released Fear of an Acoustic Planet, a stripped-down reimagining of some of their best-loved tracks from the previous twenty years. It served not only as a look back but a reminder of their formidable songwriting skills.
Boyer is definitely a student of the timeless three-minute pop song format pioneered by '60s artists like The Beatles and The Beach Boys. He says, “I see it as kind of a frame for a painting. Most of the songs on this album, I wrote a verse, pre-chorus and chorus. There aren't many middle eights. I wanted it to be very concise. I feel like people have less attention. There's so much music. It's too easy to switch off or skip to another track, so I want to hook the listener. The three-minute song is kind of an easy code to crack, but at the same time you have to figure out a new way to tell the stories that we've heard before.”
And the stories on Here With You are very much about the longing for connection. Of the album title, Boyer says, “In the world right now, that can mean a lot of different things. Like missing our fans, missing going to concerts. In a way, it can be a statement of what happened last year, and a wish of 'I want to be here with you again.' It's our ninth album. We've had some had some very open, conceptual titles like Puzzle, Activity Center. Sometimes they were more specific like Fosbury orWallpaper for the Soul. Here with You, seems more personal, more engaging in terms of relationships. When I suggested that title, everyone in the band said, 'Yeah, that's it.'”
Until Tahiti 80 can resume a full tour schedule, Boyer says he hopes the new record will make that personal connection. “If I see from the point of view as a music fan, sometimes I see albums I like as companions throughout my life. So if we can be a part of people's existence, even if it's a song that reminds them of the time they were driving with the windows open and it was sunny. Or a sad song that resonates with them after a breakup. That's what we're all looking for when we're making music. You do this very personal thing and you want it to touch as many people as possible.”
2023 Repress
"banging piece of sound art" - The Observer
"...a fascinating piece of Brutalist techno that pivots between crisp machine-like minimalism and granulated noise." - Clash
"A piece of immediately engaging techno it reveals more of itself with each listen." - CMU Daily
Nik Colk Void is well established with her work as one half of Factory Floor, one third of Carter Tutti Void (alongside Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti) and with the late Peter Rehberg as NPVR, but perhaps surprisingly, "Bucked up Space" is her first solo album release.
Void explains, "When Peter Rehberg initially asked me to produce a record for Editions Mego, I didn't feel quite ready and asked if we could make a record together instead. Collaboration is so ingrained into what I do, I only felt ready to make this album after working through ideas live, using the audience in place of the collaborator."
Bucked Up Space combines Void's love of improvisation with the driving force of beat-driven music absorbed from performing in galleries, residencies and clubs across the UK and Europe. She goes on to say, "You find out more about yourself when you explain your ideas to others, and that's how I felt the live performance worked for me."
The process steadily teased out a language and Void employed a variety of tactics in the recording process including a methodical approach of collecting data at her home studio in a manner not dissimilar to keeping a diary. Her microscopic focus on raw instrumental noise, layered and reformulated, resulted in a sound catalogue that Void divided into groups for their tone, density and texture.
These initial pieces were taken to a studio in Margate to put them into a more cohesive compositional context. Something that pragmatically started as cold and detached was given warmth, unity and emotion in the studio. Via improvised repetition co-existing alongside organised production, Void conjures new sonic muscle with tracks such as 'Interruption Is Good' and 'FlatTime'. Initial recordings are rendered into sequences initiating the organic rhythms, triggering awkward jerks of high hats and percussion, or used to activate the margins of post effects detectable in the tracks like 'Demna', 'Big Breather' and 'Oversized'.
Void explains: "It was important to me that the simplicity in the work disguised a lot of complexity, I want this work to be absorbed instinctively."
The sleeve image, a still from We Are City by Brazilian artist Maria de Lima, was chosen to illustrate Bucked Up Space, which Void describes as "a distorted reality, the space that lives at start of an idea, then floats in public view, before returning to inform my understanding of the idea. Once the idea is out in the world, it moves and morphs into something else entirely."
Written, performed and produced by Nik Colk Void, the album was engineered by James Greenwood, mastered by Rashad Becker and tracks 1, 4, 5, 7 and 9 were mixed by Marta Salogni.
Bucked up Space is the result of the ideas and resulting sounds of free exploration morphing into a personal structured album that fearlessly moulds patience, listening and restraint. It's a sharp focussed work embracing collective action through the lens of the self. All this, and also one of the best abstract dance records you will hear in some time!
Loraine James' new ambient-minded alias, Whatever The Weather, follows her 2021 solo LP Reflection (Hyperdub). In contrast to her club music sensibilities, this mode embraces keyboard improvisations and vocal experimentation, foregoing percussive structure in favor of shaping atmosphere and tone. From this divergent headspace emerged new coordinates and climates, a new outlet: Whatever The Weather. A longtime fan of ambient-adjacent Ghostly International artists such as Telefon Tel Aviv (who she'd ask to master the album), HTRK (whose singer Jonnine Standish features on Nothing), and Lusine (whom she remixed at the start of 2021), James saw the label as the ideal home for this eponymous album of airy, transportive tracks as they began to formulate. The titling on Whatever The Weather works in degrees; simple parameters allowing James to focus on the nuances as a mood-builder. Her suspended universe fluctuates; freezing, thawing, swaying and blooming from track to track. James describes her jam-based approach for the sessions as "free-flowing, stopping when I felt like I was done," allowing her subconscious to lead. The improvisations have an intrinsic fluidity to them, akin to sudden weather events passing over a single environment - the location feels fixed while the conditions vary. The album opens at "25°C," a sunshower of soft hums and keys. As the longest piece, it serves to establish stability, the inflection point where any move above or below this temperate breeze breaks the bliss. Given James' proclivity for organized chaos in her production, this scene is fleeting, naturally. From that utopia, we plummet to the most melancholic read on the meter, "0°C," its isolated synth line traversing a hailstorm of steely beats and static. Next, the dial jumps for the propulsive standout "17°C." Like a timelapse of springtime in the city, the single accelerates across a frenzy of frames; car horns, screeching brakes, and crosswalk chatter fill the pauses between rapid jolts of multi-shaped percussion. For portions of the work, James leans neo-classical, rendering pensive vignettes of cascading piano keys and warm delay. "2°C (Intermittent Rain)" ends the A-Side on a short and stormy loop; a resulting sense of reset permeates the B-Side's opener, "10°C." The producer mingles intuitively on echoed organ, locking into and abandoning atypical rhythms that suggest her jazz-oriented interests. "4°C" and "30°C" display the range of James' vocal experiments. The former chops and pitches her voice to a rhythmic, otherworldly effect, the latter reveals James at her most straightforward (she cites Deftones' Chino Moreno and American Football's Mike Kinsella as inspirations), singing tenderly and unobstructed for nearly the duration before beats collide in the climax. Whatever The Weather closes at "36°C," while a sweltering heat by any standards the track eases along comfortably on a chorus of synth waves, acting as an apt bookend for this evocative, sky-tracing collection that started in a similar state. Cyclical, seasonal, and unpredictable, true to its namesake.
Growing up in the Californian sprawl and the vast suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona, Caleb Dailey largely dismissed the country and western music that surrounded him. Instead, he was drawn to independent rock, experimental zones, and other genre-defying forms, which led him to create skewed rock music with Bear State and establish the “minimal art label” Moone Records with his brother Micah Dailey in 2013. But in the early half of the 2010s, Dailey began to hear things differently. Drawn into the left-of-center works of artists like Gram Parsons and Blaze Foley, a more idiosyncratic take on country, folk, and roots music began to swirl in his imagination.
Wandering into the form’s cowboy chords and lonesome scenes, Dailey found himself wondering what his own country album might sound like. The result is his debut solo album, a collection of covers called Warm Evenings, Pale Mornings; Beside You Then. Produced by John Dieterich of Deerhoof, Keiko Beers, and Dailey himself, it’s a melancholy charmer, rooted in traditional ideas but free roaming in its scope. Laced with synths, pedal steel, acoustic guitars, and commanded by Dailey’s full and woozy voice, it owes as much to the busted waltzes of Lambchop and the homespun lo-fi folk of Little Wings (whose Kyle Field appears on the album via a spoken intermission) as it does to the songwriters and performers who provide its source material, which include Parsons, Foley, Elvis Presley associate Chips Moman, steel guitarist Buddy Emmons, and others.
“The subversive nature of country music isn’t as much at the surface as some other genres,” Dailey says. “But the deeper down the ‘country hole’ I went, the more I wanted to be part of it. It is truly a strange world.”
The hands of Dailey and his collaborators, which includes a wide roster of DIY experimentalists like James Fella of art punks Soft Shoulder, Jay Hufman (Gene Tripp), Lonna Kelley of Giant Sand, Japanese DIY hero’s Koji Shibuya and Tori Kudo, Nicholas Krgovich, Markus Acher of The Notwist, and more, that strangeness is accentuated. Dailey doesn't aspire to retro Nashville fetishism or sanctioned notions of “realness” so much as a genuine outsider authenticity. Take his version of Gordon Lightfoot’s “If You Could Read My Mind” for example: a highlight of the record, it pairs familiar genre signifiers like pedal steel and guitar strums with warbled synths. Then there’s his read of “Dreaming My Dreams,” originally made famous by Waylon Jennings (who also did time in the Arizona desert), which morphs from a mournful ballad into a wash of far-off sonic noise.
The attention here is on the songcraft itself, with Dailey inhabiting these songs and turning them inside out to reveal unexpected tenderness and playfulness.
Recorded at home with an acoustic guitar and 4-track, Dailey began open correspondences with his collaborators, who fleshed out ideas and added touches, often working with skeletal frames before Dieterich and Dailey shaped it into a cohesive whole. “John is the reason this album exists,” Dailey says. “He sculpted all these parts together in such an otherworldly way. He is truly a magician.” Deeply allergic to insincerity, Dailey avoids any trace of irony. He’s created a cohesive gem out of disparate parts, uniting Americana songcraft with experimental disassemblage. From this bric-à-brac, he’s made something touching and beautifully strange.
The Carpi-Chicago connection is back to work. Sometimes it just takes a simple riff of a funk guitar to wreak havoc in Soul People minds and that's exactly what happened here. A riff you hear your mate playing one night while having the very last drink and the next day a project is born. Deep vocals, strings stabs, subtle motherf... Fender Rhodes and driving basslines. A Philly inspired dancer you'll can't wait to throw on your decks.
As many of you will probably know, on the flip side of our releases we are use to place the plain instrumental version of the main side. This time it's different. We have worked on "Open Up" with a different approach. Synths, special effects, a pinch of electro claps all marching on a groovy breakbeat inspired by the great James Gadson and backed by an 808 kick. Listen from the Youtube link below and judge by yourself.
Diskotopia is ecstatic to launch our 11th year with a bombastic new LP from label co-founder BD1982. Initiation Insight follows 2021's seminal Distance Vision LP - which garnered inclusion in Bandcamp's Best Electronic Music, JunoDaily's Best New Albums, and coverage in The Wire, RA, and Louder Than War - surveying the previously-plotted sonic ley lines and expanding upon them in drastically robust and kaleidoscopic directions.
Musically, the tracks across Initiation Insight have been composed with an ear towards ritualistic structures, with the album's themes touching upon spirituality, hermetic philosophy, dreams, and human evolution in the face of impending natural destruction.
On this release, BD1982 favors stylistically nomadic production and a drive for emotion over genre constraints to explore further depths of songwriting and structures not yet heard in his previous material. Tribal-informed industrial and molten-electro styles coalesce with both future-facing and ancient-rooted textures – spread across an underlying current of soundsystem-savvy sonics.
Initiation Insight proves to be another major step in the evolution of BD1982's sound, a caustic yet covalent natural mutation that will appeal to fans of Killing Joke, My Bloody Valentine, PJ Harvey, Cabaret Voltaire, Samhain, and Tricky alike.
Mastered by Dominic Clare at Declared Sound.
Available as a limited-edition cassette.
Kristine Leschper's The Opening, Or Closing Of A Door, is a paean to the
sensory world and is the first Leschper has released under her given
name, having retired the moniker Mothers after eight years of performing
and releasing music under it
Though both projects are guided by Leschper's idiosyncratic approach to
songwriting, they couldn't sound more different. While Mothers drew inspiration
from the stark, skeletal sounds of post-punk and contemporary folk, Leschper's
new work is practically baroque, integrating an array of synthesizers, strings,
woodwinds, and over a dozen percussive instruments.
The at-home recording process gave Leschper freedom to set her personal ethos
to music divorced from the pressure of an audience. As she worked on The
Opening, Or Closing Of A Door, the constellation of ideas that had guided her
personal transformation began to cohere into something communicable through
music
Dear is Pauwel's big step forward. His debut album on Unday (due April 2020) is a mature collection of songs about loss in all its different facets. Pauwel openly confronts his demons, without ever losing sight of the essence: rock-solid and captivating folk songs between hope and despair, comforting and disquieting at the same time. Dear turns out a record to cherish and completely disappear into.
Shortly after Pauwel finished his previous EP, his mother passed away. A few weeks later, Europe went into lockdown for a second time. Pauwel wanted to cope with this turbulent episode on his debut on Unday Records, but the isolation during the pandemic only cast more doubts. During the darkest winter months, the 31-year-old songwriter realized that loss comes in many guises: lovers come to leave, suddenly leave or turn out to have become strangers. "Dear" is the account of this dark period in Pauwel's life. A reckoning with all the bad that happened to him and his peers. It is also a bridge to whatever comes next, a hopeful glance at the future.
On 'Dear', Pauwel expands his musical universe considerably, without losing his characteristic melancholy and distinctive voice. With the help of musicians Sander Smeets, Koen De Gendt and David Broeders - his new backing band - the rough folk diamonds were polished into mature songs. The stunning voice of Catherine Smet (aka Bluai) serves as a comforting echo on a handful of songs.
"Dear" was recorded at three different locations by producer Bert Vliegen (Whispering Sons, Sophia). The opening track "Murderer" and the haunting "Bones" were created in a hut in Walcourt. The bulk of the record was recorded during an intense week at the GAM Studio in Waimes. While the TV news showed apocalyptic images of the floods in the province of Liège around the clock, Pauwel and his band finished the songs. Rich, spacy arrangements ("Lazy"), rambling country-rockers ("Deer" & "Sister") or a tearful one-taker on Fender Rhodes ("Mother"): during this session "Dear" finally came together.
Seabear return with a new album. After a hiatus of 12 years - the bands most 'recent' LP dates back to 2010 - the much loved Icelandic collective presents »In Another Life«, a mesmerizing collection of songs, oscillating between indie pop and classic singer-songwriter material.
Sometimes, a long break is all it takes. Seabear, the band featuring the talents of Guðbjörg Hlín Guðmundsdóttir, Halldór Ragnarsson, Kjartan Bragi Bjarnason, Örn Ingi Ágústsson, Sindri Már Sigfússon (aka Sin Fang) and Sóley Stefánsdóttir (aka Sóley), did exactly that. Producing an album takes up a lot of energy. You do promotion, you tour quite a bit and afterwards you... well, you just do different things. "We had all focussed on other projects", Kjartan Bragi explains. "Solo careers, playing with other projects, other forms of art, working 'normal' jobs to make a living etc. It's nice to finally come together again with old friends and make music." During the break, music has been an integral part of the members’ daily lives. Sóley started a remarkable solo career (she just released her fourth solo-album), as did Sindri, under the name of Sin Fang, while Guðbjörg worked with Sigur Rós. However, all this was made possible by the disarming folk music of their 2007 debut LP »The Ghost That Carried Us Away«.
"We stayed in touch all along", adds Sindri. "During dinners etc. one question came up again and again: What would Seabear sound like today? After accomplishing so much together, we were indeed thinking a lot about the past, how it all began. This is what sparked the reunion and is also reflected in the lyrics, resurrecting our youth, hopes and dreams."
Now, in 2022, the band is ready to set a mark in the musical landscape once again – with 11 new songs coming straight from the heart, aimed at all who value emotions, the warmth and intimacy of songwriting, big yet subtle soundscapes, capturing the smallest tones and feelings.
"We have all matured on our different paths apart. It's exciting to make something new", says Kjartan. "We are 6 friends coming together again 10 years later to make songs and have fun doing it. We are now in a more relaxed environment to compose the music."
The songs on »In Another Life« sound and come across like a musical diary of sorts. A diary found by accident, split across 11 records, without any further info and all details scratched out. There is just the music to speak for itself. Even if you are familiar with Seabear's previous music: the opener »Parade« will make you wonder who came up with this wonderful tune, full of assuring harmonies, delicate melodies and compositional surprises. Seabear once more are delivering the perfect soundtrack for all kinds of emotional states. With driving yet subtle drums, intimate, yet fleeting vocals and lyrics, an orchestral sense of production, emphasizing small details rather than counting on the big "studio bang". An approach which came naturally: "The album reflects our relaxed attitude when it comes to recording and exchanging ideas."
»In Another Life« indeed feels like the start of a new chapter. Full of hope. And hopefully, all Seabear fans won't have to wait as long anymore in the future.
Kadi Yombo, published in 1989, is the most successful album in the quest for a fusion between tradition and modernity in Bwiti harp music of the Tsogho people of Gabon. Combining beating rattles with a layer of synthesizers, Papé Nziengui blends in a contrapuntal dialogue characteristic of harp playing: male song in appeal and female choir in response, male voice of the musical arc and rhythms of female worship. But above all it’s Tsogho ritual music and modern studio orchestration. The result is an initiatory itinerary of 10 musical pieces which are all milestones likely to be simultaneously listened to, danced, meditated on, and soon acclaimed. In the years since, Nziengui has traveled he world from Lagos to Paris, from Tokyo to Cordoba, from Brussels to Mexico City to become a true icon, the emblem of Gabonese music.
Like Bob Dylan, "electrifying" folk and Bob Marley mixing rock with reggae, some purists have criticized Nziengui for having distorted the music of harp by imposing a cross with modern instruments. They even went so far as to claim that Nziengui was just an average harpist covering his shortcomings with stunts that were only good for impressing neophytes; like playing a harp placed upside down behind his back or playing two or three harps simultaneously. Sincere convictions or venomous defamations, in any case, Nziengui never gave in to such attacks, imposing himself on the contrary to pay homage to the elders (Yves Mouenga, Jean Honoré Miabé, Vickoss Ekondo) while instructing the maximum of young people. He is thus the promoter of many young talents, the most prominent of which is certainly his nephew Jean Pierre Mingongué. In a conservative society where the sacred is confused with secrecy, exposing the mysteries of Bwiti in broad daylight can be punished by exclusion or even execution.
Papé Nziengui has always claimed that he faces such risks because he never felt enslaved to a community that governs his life, that regulates his conduct, that has a right of censorship over his activities. Like Ravi Shankar, the famous sitarist, Papé Nziengui is a man of rupture but also of openness, a transmitter of culture. As proof, he has established himself in Libreville, Gabo’s capital, as the main harpist for sessions and concerts, accompanying the greatest national artists (Akendengué, Rompavè, Annie-Flore Batchiellilys, Les Champs sur la Lowé, etc.) as well as foreign artists (Papa Wemba, Manu Dibango, Kassav', Toups Bebey, etc.). In 1988, he was the first harpist to release an album in the form of a cassette produced by the French Cultural Center (Papé Nziengui, Chants et Musiques Tsogho). At the same time, he created his own group (Bovenga), combining traditional music instruments (musical bow, drums, various percussion instruments, etc.) in the framework of a true national orchestra, which gave the first concert and the first tours of a traditional music that was both modern and dynamic, thus "democratizing" the harp, to the dismay of certain purists.
On the other hand, in modern music, dominated by the logic of profit or even commercialism, artistic creation must often be adjusted for a specific audience based on reason rather than heart. But instead of allowing himself to be distorted, Papé Nziengui has always tried to produce music that is not a caricature, worthy in its expression as in its content, of the sacredness and transcendence of the music of the Origins. This is what makes Nziengui not only the musician, but the man someone whose age hasn’t altered any of his freshness or authenticity
Kadi Yombo, published in 1989, is the most successful album in the quest for a fusion between tradition and modernity in Bwiti harp music of the Tsogho people of Gabon. Combining beating rattles with a layer of synthesizers, Papé Nziengui blends in a contrapuntal dialogue characteristic of harp playing: male song in appeal and female choir in response, male voice of the musical arc and rhythms of female worship. But above all it’s Tsogho ritual music and modern studio orchestration. The result is an initiatory itinerary of 10 musical pieces which are all milestones likely to be simultaneously listened to, danced, meditated on, and soon acclaimed. In the years since, Nziengui has traveled he world from Lagos to Paris, from Tokyo to Cordoba, from Brussels to Mexico City to become a true icon, the emblem of Gabonese music.
Like Bob Dylan, "electrifying" folk and Bob Marley mixing rock with reggae, some purists have criticized Nziengui for having distorted the music of harp by imposing a cross with modern instruments. They even went so far as to claim that Nziengui was just an average harpist covering his shortcomings with stunts that were only good for impressing neophytes; like playing a harp placed upside down behind his back or playing two or three harps simultaneously. Sincere convictions or venomous defamations, in any case, Nziengui never gave in to such attacks, imposing himself on the contrary to pay homage to the elders (Yves Mouenga, Jean Honoré Miabé, Vickoss Ekondo) while instructing the maximum of young people. He is thus the promoter of many young talents, the most prominent of which is certainly his nephew Jean Pierre Mingongué. In a conservative society where the sacred is confused with secrecy, exposing the mysteries of Bwiti in broad daylight can be punished by exclusion or even execution.
Papé Nziengui has always claimed that he faces such risks because he never felt enslaved to a community that governs his life, that regulates his conduct, that has a right of censorship over his activities. Like Ravi Shankar, the famous sitarist, Papé Nziengui is a man of rupture but also of openness, a transmitter of culture. As proof, he has established himself in Libreville, Gabo’s capital, as the main harpist for sessions and concerts, accompanying the greatest national artists (Akendengué, Rompavè, Annie-Flore Batchiellilys, Les Champs sur la Lowé, etc.) as well as foreign artists (Papa Wemba, Manu Dibango, Kassav', Toups Bebey, etc.). In 1988, he was the first harpist to release an album in the form of a cassette produced by the French Cultural Center (Papé Nziengui, Chants et Musiques Tsogho). At the same time, he created his own group (Bovenga), combining traditional music instruments (musical bow, drums, various percussion instruments, etc.) in the framework of a true national orchestra, which gave the first concert and the first tours of a traditional music that was both modern and dynamic, thus "democratizing" the harp, to the dismay of certain purists.
On the other hand, in modern music, dominated by the logic of profit or even commercialism, artistic creation must often be adjusted for a specific audience based on reason rather than heart. But instead of allowing himself to be distorted, Papé Nziengui has always tried to produce music that is not a caricature, worthy in its expression as in its content, of the sacredness and transcendence of the music of the Origins. This is what makes Nziengui not only the musician, but the man someone whose age hasn’t altered any of his freshness or authenticity
DESTRUCTION liefern brutalsten Thrash Metal seit über 40 Jahren!
Die deutschen Thrash Metal Urgesteine DESTRUCTION feiern ihr 40-jähriges Bestehen und liefern eine neue, knallharte Ansage in Form ihres neuen Albums Diabolical.
Mitihrem kompromisslosen, eigenständigen und eingängigen Thrash Metal zählen DESTRUCTION zu der illustren Runde der GERMAN BIG 4 - gemeinsam mit Kreator, Sodom und Tankard, den Legenden des
Deutschen Thrash. Auch auf ihrem fünfzehnten Album Diabolical fahren DESTRUCTION schwere Geschütze voll ehrlichem
und kompromisslosen Thrash Metal auf, welcher sich unnachgiebig den Weg in die Hörkanäle der Hörerbahnt und mit asiermesserscharfem Sound ein Massaker anrichtet, welches sich niemand entgehen lassen sollte!
"Gregory Porter’s GRAMMY-nominated debut studio album Water was released in 2010, and is now re-issued on Blue Note.
The album was recorded in the summer of 2009. The tracks include love stories, such as Illusion and Pretty, or protest for African-American civil rights, such as 1960 What? which recounts the 1967 Detroit riots. Gregory Porter also covers saxophonist Wayne Shorter's Black Nile with added lyrics. He also did an a cappella rendition of Feeling Good, made famous by Nina Simone in particular. Water was hailed by fans and critics alike, elevating Gregory Porter to the status of the next great male jazz star and marking the beginning of his successful career:
“Porter aptly refers to Water as “an album of love and protest,” though love is the clear victor. From the starkly beautiful “Illusion”, a hushed ode to a lost paramour; and rapturous “Pretty”, reminiscent of “A Taste of Honey”; to the percolated joy of “Magic Cup”, Porter knows how to get to the heart of the matter."" - Christopher Loudon, JazzTimes."
Loraine James' new ambient-minded alias, Whatever The Weather, follows her 2021 solo LP Reflection (Hyperdub). In contrast to her club music sensibilities, this mode embraces keyboard improvisations and vocal experimentation, foregoing percussive structure in favor of shaping atmosphere and tone. From this divergent headspace emerged new coordinates and climates, a new outlet: Whatever The Weather. A longtime fan of ambient-adjacent Ghostly International artists such as Telefon Tel Aviv (who she'd ask to master the album), HTRK (whose singer Jonnine Standish features on Nothing), and Lusine (whom she remixed at the start of 2021), James saw the label as the ideal home for this eponymous album of airy, transportive tracks as they began to formulate. The titling on Whatever The Weather works in degrees; simple parameters allowing James to focus on the nuances as a mood-builder. Her suspended universe fluctuates; freezing, thawing, swaying and blooming from track to track. James describes her jam-based approach for the sessions as "free-flowing, stopping when I felt like I was done," allowing her subconscious to lead. The improvisations have an intrinsic fluidity to them, akin to sudden weather events passing over a single environment - the location feels fixed while the conditions vary. The album opens at "25°C," a sunshower of soft hums and keys. As the longest piece, it serves to establish stability, the inflection point where any move above or below this temperate breeze breaks the bliss. Given James' proclivity for organized chaos in her production, this scene is fleeting, naturally. From that utopia, we plummet to the most melancholic read on the meter, "0°C," its isolated synth line traversing a hailstorm of steely beats and static. Next, the dial jumps for the propulsive standout "17°C." Like a timelapse of springtime in the city, the single accelerates across a frenzy of frames; car horns, screeching brakes, and crosswalk chatter fill the pauses between rapid jolts of multi-shaped percussion. For portions of the work, James leans neo-classical, rendering pensive vignettes of cascading piano keys and warm delay. "2°C (Intermittent Rain)" ends the A-Side on a short and stormy loop; a resulting sense of reset permeates the B-Side's opener, "10°C." The producer mingles intuitively on echoed organ, locking into and abandoning atypical rhythms that suggest her jazz-oriented interests. "4°C" and "30°C" display the range of James' vocal experiments. The former chops and pitches her voice to a rhythmic, otherworldly effect, the latter reveals James at her most straightforward (she cites Deftones' Chino Moreno and American Football's Mike Kinsella as inspirations), singing tenderly and unobstructed for nearly the duration before beats collide in the climax. Whatever The Weather closes at "36°C," while a sweltering heat by any standards the track eases along comfortably on a chorus of synth waves, acting as an apt bookend for this evocative, sky-tracing collection that started in a similar state. Cyclical, seasonal, and unpredictable, true to its namesake.
Three years after Stroom TV released his debut album Modified Perspectives, Kolàr released, Loops & Pieces, a documentation of sounds he has been working on in the period 2017-2020. According to Kolàr, this tape, also his first release for Dauw, was full of vaporous drafts transforming into solid forms with the help of time and distance. Compared to his previous work, the music on Loops & Pieces is much more stripped down and minimal, yet the dreamy character remained.
On Liquid Rhythm, we see Kolàr combining approaches of both albums. Using synths and acoustic instruments, he created 10 songs reflecting his typical playful yet melancholic aesthetics.
The Vanguards led by James Davis were Lamp Records only top 100 Billboard Charting group and gave the band plenty of touring and concert appearances in the 1970s. “Good Time Bad Times” along with the flip “Man Without Knowledge” is arguably their rarest and most sought after outing for the label and so with the help of Now & Again with the Blessing of Herb Miller Soul Direction bring you these tracks fully licensed and ready for your turntables
The disjointed space between personal happiness and global sorrow is
where Smrtdeath's new album it's fine makes its home
Written and recorded during the pandemic, one of the most dramatically isolating
experiences of our lives, the album finds Smrtdeath's Mike Skwark in a
surprisingly contented state, newly coupled up and living in bliss.'It's Fine' was
produced by Matt Malpass, who Skwark calls "fucking incredible." He's a Grammynominated producer who has worked extensively with Blink 182, along with other
artists surfing across similar genre borderlines as Smrtdeath, like Trippie Redd,
Machine Gun Kelly, and 311. His bombastic approach to sound blends perfectly
with Smrtdeath's near-spiritual use of harmony.
it's fine is loaded with amazing featured artists, a who's who in the pop punk
scene. The first song recorded for the album , "Adding Up," features Blink 182's
Mark Hoppus on vocals and guitar, and his presence brings an epicness to the
track. On "Sober," it's clear that falling in love has helped him grow up—but not too
much. Skwark calls the song, which features both Lil Lotus and Lil Aaron, the
result of "an internal conversation I've been having." It balances both the
seriousness of the subject with the fun he wants to leave behind perfectly.
"I like this album the most out of anything I've done, and I want everyone to like it
the most," Skwark says. He hopes to tour the record when the pandemic allows,
with a live band. "I want to do something less familiar to everyone, something
more like, Whoa. Something where I'm larger than myself," he says.
Dengue Fever on Vinyl! This Deluxe Reissue contains 5 bonus tracks not
availble on the original release / w download
Fronted by amazing vocalist Chhom Nimol, Dengue Fever has surprisingly
universal appeal - Chhom herself is already quite accustomed to seizing the
hearts of listeners (including the King and Queen of Cambodia), as she comes
from a family best considered as a Cambodia pop music dynasty– not unlike a
Cambodian version of the Jacksons. The rest of the band is no flake-fest either,
consisting of Zac Holtzman (Dieselhed) and his brother Ethan on Farfisa organ,
Senon Williams (Radar Brothers), David Ralicke (Beck) and seasoned drummer/
engineer Paul Smith. Their covers stay remarkably true to the crazy party music
spirit of the '60s- and '70s-era originals. But there are also original songs, some of
which veer off into the darkened corridors of lost love and ghostly noir
romanticism, dissolving sometimes into spaces of genuine bleakness and
tragedy — all in the Khmer tongue. Far from mere novelty or cheap Orientophile
thrill, Dengue Fever keeps listeners on their toes, dancing to their way-out tones.
The Deluxe Reissue contains 5 bonus tracks not availble on the original release.
Kadi Yombo, published in 1989, is the most successful album in the quest for a fusion between tradition and modernity in Bwiti harp music of the Tsogho people of Gabon. Combining beating rattles with a layer of synthesizers, Papé Nziengui blends in a contrapuntal dialogue characteristic of harp playing: male song in appeal and female choir in response, male voice of the musical arc and rhythms of female worship. But above all it’s Tsogho ritual music and modern studio orchestration. The result is an initiatory itinerary of 10 musical pieces which are all milestones likely to be simultaneously listened to, danced, meditated on, and soon acclaimed. In the years since, Nziengui has traveled he world from Lagos to Paris, from Tokyo to Cordoba, from Brussels to Mexico City to become a true icon, the emblem of Gabonese music.
Like Bob Dylan, "electrifying" folk and Bob Marley mixing rock with reggae, some purists have criticized Nziengui for having distorted the music of harp by imposing a cross with modern instruments. They even went so far as to claim that Nziengui was just an average harpist covering his shortcomings with stunts that were only good for impressing neophytes; like playing a harp placed upside down behind his back or playing two or three harps simultaneously. Sincere convictions or venomous defamations, in any case, Nziengui never gave in to such attacks, imposing himself on the contrary to pay homage to the elders (Yves Mouenga, Jean Honoré Miabé, Vickoss Ekondo) while instructing the maximum of young people. He is thus the promoter of many young talents, the most prominent of which is certainly his nephew Jean Pierre Mingongué. In a conservative society where the sacred is confused with secrecy, exposing the mysteries of Bwiti in broad daylight can be punished by exclusion or even execution.
Papé Nziengui has always claimed that he faces such risks because he never felt enslaved to a community that governs his life, that regulates his conduct, that has a right of censorship over his activities. Like Ravi Shankar, the famous sitarist, Papé Nziengui is a man of rupture but also of openness, a transmitter of culture. As proof, he has established himself in Libreville, Gabo’s capital, as the main harpist for sessions and concerts, accompanying the greatest national artists (Akendengué, Rompavè, Annie-Flore Batchiellilys, Les Champs sur la Lowé, etc.) as well as foreign artists (Papa Wemba, Manu Dibango, Kassav', Toups Bebey, etc.). In 1988, he was the first harpist to release an album in the form of a cassette produced by the French Cultural Center (Papé Nziengui, Chants et Musiques Tsogho). At the same time, he created his own group (Bovenga), combining traditional music instruments (musical bow, drums, various percussion instruments, etc.) in the framework of a true national orchestra, which gave the first concert and the first tours of a traditional music that was both modern and dynamic, thus "democratizing" the harp, to the dismay of certain purists.
On the other hand, in modern music, dominated by the logic of profit or even commercialism, artistic creation must often be adjusted for a specific audience based on reason rather than heart. But instead of allowing himself to be distorted, Papé Nziengui has always tried to produce music that is not a caricature, worthy in its expression as in its content, of the sacredness and transcendence of the music of the Origins. This is what makes Nziengui not only the musician, but the man someone whose age hasn’t altered any of his freshness or authenticity
The next release on Cultivated Electronics Ltd shines a light on some of the fresh talent emerging from within the Electro scene across this double-vinyl 12" which will be pressed on balck and colour vinyl editions. IMOGEN has enjoyed a whirlwind rise, and her reputation as one of the most talented newcomers is well recognised. Her discography includes releases on Earwiggle, Shared Meanings and fabric where she is also a resident DJ, and presents a monthly radio show on NTS. She opens the compilation with the tough beats and twisted melodies of 'Anatta'. ARMEC (Robbie Mecrow) is an Electro and Acid producer from Manchester who has already impressed with releases on Nebulae, Echocentric, Further Electronix and most notably 20/20 Vision. His beat-led track 'Acute' delivers a serious punch with plenty of sub-bass. Russia's SERGEY TIMOSHOV is the promoter and resident DJ at Warehouse, held weekly at the Propaganda club in Moscow. Here he utilises that experience in fine style for his club-ready 'Electro Beats 1'. UK artists OBSERV and CYPHON collaborated on their debut EP for Gunfinger Food last year, but here they deliver 1 track apiece. Obzerv brings pure destruction on his tumultuous track 'Octro'. While Cyphon, known for his live hardware sets, supporting artists like Assembler Code, Radioactive Man and Afrodeutsche, plus releases on International Chrome and Blind Allies brings dark phunk to 'Nightmare'. KHALILIAN is probably best known as one half of US duo Joonam (with Elon Admony) who have been self-releasing on their Balagan label for the last few years. 'Valda' pitches things down with Detroit-esque chords and a deep, subterranean atmosphere. TOM FAZAK is a 21 year old DJ/Producer from Cardiff now based in Bristol. Better known as a DJ, he's spent the past 9 year collecting records and garnering inspiration from all aspects of dance music. For the last 3 years he's focused on production and draws on cosmic influences for his contribution, 'Weightless'. LINDSAY GREEN is one half of Co-Accused, long-standing residents of Glasgow's prolific underground club scene via their club nights in Paisley's Club 69 and the launch of their Co-Accused Records label in 2021. Going solo for the closing track, 'Creepin' bridges to gaps between Electro, Techno and Acid.
- The complete 1967 Film Score by Akira Ifukube - "Element X" Radioactive Green Colored Vinyl - New artwork by Ross Murray - 12" x 12" Art Print - Heavyweight Gatefold Packaging with Matte Finish // Prepare to plunge into panic with Waxwork Records' release of KING KONG ESCAPES Original Motion Picture Score by Akira Ifukube (Godzilla, Mothra vs. Godzilla, War of the Gargantuas, & more) Directed by the king of kaiju, Ishiro Honda, KING KONG ESCAPES follows evil genius, Dr. Hu, on his mission to manipulate Kong into retrieving radioactive Element X from the North Pole. The film stars Rhodes Reason, Linda Miller, Mie Hama, & Akira Takarada. Waxwork Records is honored to release the complete original film score by Akira Ifukube (Godzilla 1954, Mothra Vs. Godzilla, Destroy All Monsters, and many others) as a deluxe vinyl album officially for the first time outside of Japan. Enjoy the dynamic orchestrations that range from tranquility to combat as King Kong fights monsters and the wicked influence of Dr. Hu. We are thrilled to present the official King Kong Escapes score with 180 gram "Element X" colored vinyl, deluxe packaging, new artwork by Ross Murray, heavyweight gatefold jackets with matte coating, a 12"x12" art print, and more!
Tephra is the latest mesmerizing, propulsive EP by Philadelphia-based rave conjurer Furtive. With captivating woozy arpeggios, high-pressure textural progression, and sharp scintillating sound design, Furtive’s release is a fresh and powerful entry on Mild Fantasy - the brainchild of NYC-based DJ/producer Elle Dee.
Furtive is a full-gonzo rave rat, intractably committed to the dancefloor as a producer, DJ, and DIY event organizer. Tephra showcases a canny approach to creative techno dynamics most familiar to die-hard dancefloor supplicants who’ve both been in the booth and worshiping in front of the speaker stacks.
The EP kicks off with its namesake track: Tephra is a pressure-building whirlwind of dense, textural progression and explosive tension-and-release dynamics. Mounting from a muscular low-end pattern up to a dramatic break, Tephra is a proper warp-drive weapon.
With Strobe Bubble Romance, Furtive dives into pedal-to-the-metal rave acceleration with jagged arpeggio interplay and sharper sound design. In gentler, more romantic contrast, Iris Blur brings back a dizzying melodic progression to even out the blistering pulse of the former.
Question Accelerator (No Answers) is a trippy twist in the EP, comprising a high-torque psychedelic drum and bass journey. As a digital-only bonus, Furtive closes the release with Lullaby, a haunting ambient exploration.
A ferociously productive producer with over a decade of experience bending sounds, Furtive cut their teeth as a DJ and promoter in Washington, DC’s warehouses, where they also played a turnkey role in putting on some of the District’s zaniest techno parties. They’ve supported internationally celebrated non-nonsense acts and held court in dingy watering holes with eclectic selections and a steadfast focus on pacing, dynamics, and surprises. Beyond the fog and strobe lights, Furtive creates art in various mediums, including linocuts, render art, inky drawings, and tattooing.
LTE presents its debut release titled Long Term Evolution, a 6-track compilation bringing together pieces from six artists from around the world. Music we fell in love with, sounds we find appealing, paths to explore. Between now and then.
LTE is a newly-born music label from Prague. Its goal is to build a platform for local and foreign musicians, producers and sound artists. Label's focus lies on contemporary electronic music and a wide spectrum of genres. Learning, trying and experimenting. Putting love, time and effort.
Bad times, good timing.
Two monster sounds from The Trinikas circa 1969, the culmination of the female four piece’s short-lived career.
Recorded in Missouri and sneaking out on the Pearce label, ‘Black Is Beautiful’ was a post-hippie dance anthem that later made a short-lived appearance on their native west coast Century label.
A horn-led classic with a four-part vocal and a truly funky drummer in attendance, it’s a spiritual blast.
The B-side of the original single is dusted off here too; a funkier cut that’s turned up in a few DJs’ setlists thanks to a re-issue via Numero and Jazzman.
‘Remember Me’ with its staccato guitar, upbeat horns and swirling organ is an infectious head-nodder.
Remastered for full-on soul supremacy.
Stalactite is a collaborative recording project by renown Japanese artist and multi-instrumentalist Susumu Mukai AKA Zongamin and producer Drew Brown, whose discography ranges from his own group Off World to a variety of integral productions for artists such as Blonde Redhead and Beck. Their self-titled debut for the ESP Institute is a grand gesture, a broad stroke that illustrates both singular focus and vast complexity, which is no easy feat considering the almost oppressive immediacy and availability of tools at the disposal of contemporary artists. There’s a level of creative confidence and discipline needed to work so fundamentally, and whether or not the listener has an appetite refined enough to process the tasteful subtleties throughout this production, these same subtleties accumulate regardless and land that listener in a highly considered and developed space. The deceptively naive melodic approach consistent across these nine tracks can feel transparent, familiar to a point the listener can anticipate its path, but when listening with acute focus we find a variable range of texture, temperature, depth and negative space. As alumni of the Minimal, Cold Wave, Synth Pop era, Susumu and Drew successfully personify a motley crew of synthesizers to work in concert, reduced to their core personalities and presented as their most honest selves — austere, shy, cinematic, percolating, bulbous, glistening, cantankerous, rubberized, clumsy and animated. Each masterfully paired with complimentary counterparts, these players assemble into a sound-stage we typically find in live recordings, enveloping and inviting us to the center of an acoustic cavern to wade through sonic impressions of monolithic stalactites.
Joe Tatton, keyboard player with UK/US funk/soul jazz kings The New Mastersounds, releases this new 7 inch single in March 2022 and this time there is a lovely double A-side 7" physical vinyl option. Two tracks that showcase Joe's skills as a pianist and vocalist and confirm his talent for writing quality original compositions.
"Timeline" is Joe's spotlight on today's social media obsessed society delivered in the style of his musical hero Mose Allison. The latter was the legendary Mississippi born/New York based jazz/blues musician and singer whose wry and intelligent lyrics married to amazing original music shone a light on society and the world from the mid-1950s until his death in 2015. Mose was a huge influence on musicians like Georgie Fame, Van Morrison and Ben Sidran and was and still is one of Joe Tatton's favourite musicians of all time. This song is the title track for Joe's debut solo album due for release later this year on Rodina Music.
"Stomp" is a slow bluesy instrumental funk burner that has a New Orleans swagger about it and features Joe's grand piano solo followed by JTQ band member Gareth Lockrane cutting loose on the flute. If you like music by Allen Toussaint, Ramsay Lewis and Herbie Mann, you'll be feeling this one.
Joe Tatton has been a member of The New Mastersounds now for 16 years now and has recorded over a dozen albums and many singles with them playing organ, piano and keyboard. Annually, he tours 8-9 months a year with the band, mainly in the USA but also across Europe and Japan too. Prior to joining The New Mastersounds, Joe held down the keyboard role with UK jazz-funk kings The Haggis Horns appearing on their first two albums "Hot Damn!" and "Keep On Movin". He's also featured on piano/keyboards on the worldwide hit single "Put Your Records On" by Corinne Bailey Rae.
Over the years he has played live sets with Maceo Parker and Fred Wesley as well as Art Neville, George Porter Jr and Zigaboo Modeliste of The Meters. He's always maintained his own trio under his own name as a side project, releasing singles and EPs via ATA Records (UK) and Color Red Music (USA).
A few years ago, he needed to find the time and place to record them. So in 2020, between New Mastersounds gigs, he managed to book a few days at a studio near Nashville USA, "The Rockhouse", run by Grammy winning engineer Kevin Mckendree. He hooked up with a couple of Nashville session musicians, Steve Mackie (double bass - longtime Dolly Parton bassist) and Kenneth Blevins (drums), and put down all his original songs and also a cover of Mose Allison's "Ever since the world ended", the first single released last year
Now comes the second double A-side single and a further taste of what's in store from Joe and the band later this year when the "Timeline" album drops later in the year. However this time, there's a lovely little black vinyl offering for all the record lovers out there. Just a small first pressing which will no doubt sell out very quickly so people need to jump on it super fast. Once they're gone, they're gone.
"Time line / Stomp" double A-Side single by the Joe Tatton Trio. Released worldwide on Rodina Music - March 31st March 31st 2022.
Music Heads by Radio Trip is and remains one of the most far out releases we have ever had on Jalapeno Records.
In the Noughties, the label was approached with some incredible music by the super talented Mixmonster and Schoolmaster, founding members of the Israeli jazz funk band 'The Apples'. Produced under their 'Radio Trip' moniker, the album was a glorious cut & paste journey into sound, with overtones of musique concrete, brought to life by their fascination with vinyl culture, turntablism and sampling.
Their source material knows no bounds and draws from a diverse palette. Traditional middle eastern meets blues, jazz meets rock, hip hop meets psychedelic, and more all come together into one blossoming, cheerful trip, where the cultures of the world collide.
At the time, music piracy was in its heyday and the vinyl market was supposedly in a death spiral, so it was only released on CD and digital.
Now released for the first time on a very limited vinyl LP run, this gem of an album may be one of those moments you discover a touch of genius in a world where formulaic music is churned out with no soul in it's bones.
Planet Mu presents ‘ADDLE’ – Bogdan Raczynski’s first album of new music in 15 years. Marking a change from the high-octane jungle tekno braindance for which he is most commonly known, here we find the Polish American musician in a more melodic and zen-like place of peace, which is ergonomic and decluttered, whilst also bittersweet and tinged with melancholy. ‘ADDLE’ is closest in spirit to 2001’s tender ‘myloveilove’, or the light-hearted ditties of this year’s ‘BANANS’ EP, but is also a markedly new milestone. A robust and bottom-heavy rhythm section juxtaposes with sad electronic tear jerkers, at points laced with the soft cooing wail of his vocals, which are loaded with a haunting, heavy and almost wounded emotion. Bogdan comments “Calm is great. You need to take a breather in the eye of the storm now and then. But the real growth happens in turbulence, when your feelings oscillate in and out of sync. It’s not dry land you’re after. You’re trying to build a new island while on a piddly raft. Beleaguered and weary you lay the foundation with your bare hands while the rain lashes your back; a new place for you and yours to moor yourself to until the next storm hits. ‘ADDLE’ is about that storm, its adjacent periphery, and what you look like, in and out, when you set foot. As space and time push against you, that process of adapting becomes an anchor. Among that state of being addled, out of flow, seemingly untethered, there is beauty.”
Although less unhinged and riotous than some of his previous work, ‘ADDLE’ is no less impactful. Lean, punchy and purposeful, this seemingly simple combination of beats and melody belies a razor sharp skill, which bursts with verve and virtuosity. Across its eight unique and moving tracks the listener experiences tenderness, feelings somewhere between unease and comfort, and a sense of reflection, with Bogdan seemingly gazing at twinkling stars, but with his view distorted by welling-up. Sonically, spaces range from razor-sharp choppage, juddering heavyweight head-nodders, bit-crushed siren squall and something akin to Philip Glass’ ‘Candyman’ score played through a high-tech-fairy-tale music box. There’s also a warming, life-affirming moment as close to deep house as Bogdan will ever comfortably get, neck-snapping metallic percussion, Casiotone on steroids and reverberant warehouse throb. Booming drum machines are a prominent factor too – reminiscent of early hip hop instrumentals – but spirited off somewhere, lost in purgatory. Bogdan Raczynski (born 1977) is a Polish-American electronic musician. Raczynski’s work draws inspiration from the chaotic breakbeats of jungle and hardcore rave as well as traditional Polish music and other sources. He has collaborated with Bjork, remixed Autechre, CLPNG and Jonsi from Sigur Ross, and toured with Aphex Twin, who commented how “his records are so underrated.” Bogdan was also a roster mainstay of Richard James’s seminal Rephlex label, with additional releases on Warp, Ghostly, Disciples and Unknown to the Unknown. A keen proponent of tech, he created a sample pack using pollution and recently collaborated with Polyend on a custom made banana-themed tracker.
Haze - released via Ki Records - is Greek producer and composer, Hior Chronik's latest creation. Aligning with his previous critically acclaimed album, Descent, Haze creates an electro-ambient world which accentuates modern classical minimalism. It is an album which deeply embodies tranquility, fulfilment and meaningful connection, aspirations born out of Hior Chronik's past in Athens, and realised by his relocation near to a forest in Berlin, where he can truly feel at-home, surrounded by the awe-inspiring beauty of nature. Through 15 tracks, Hior Chronik guides his listeners in an immersive journey which features magical soundscapes built using DX7 and Roland synthesizers, beats from the Lofi drum machine and Volca samples. Inspired by the best of his previous work in moody electro soundscapes, alongside his own history as a listener and lover of early 90's electronic music, artists like, Lali Puna, Solvent and Remote Viewer, this album demonstrates a new dimension to Hior Chronik's artistry which exudes light optimism.
Ten years into his role as poster boy for pop soul and peak-hour R&B, Syl Johnson did an unlikely about-face and cut the most inspiring and powerful song he'd ever touch. Issued on 45 in September of 1969, "Is It Because I'm Black" struck an immediate chord within the black community, forcing the song up the charts by sheer volume of call-in requests. It would be Syl's biggest hit for Twinight, climbing as high as #11 on the Billboard R&B chart during its 14-week stay, marking the defining moment of what had become more than just an occupation. Syl had his hands on a career and worked tirelessly rehearsing his next opus, an album of songs reflective of the changing times. With "Is It Because I'm Black" still bolding the pages of Billboard, the coming LP's title appeared to Syl plain as day _ or, in this case, black as night. Issued in April 1970 _ a full 13 months before Marvin Gaye's What's Going On _ Is It Because I'm Black can rightly be called the first black concept album, a distinction few give it credit for. But that factoid, whatever its meaning then or now, failed to inspire music buyers: Johnson's record never got a whiff of the two million copies Gaye's did in its first year of availability. Syl lays the blame squarely on the record's lack of marketability to a white audience. The album's cover didn't exactly move units either. Photographer Jerry Griffith dragged Syl to a burned-out building on 43rd Street to shoot the back cover image, and he finger-painted the iconic title over a stock photo of an eroding brick wall. The title track, coupled with the politically charged "I'm Talking About Freedom" and ghetto conscious "Concrete Reservation" sealed the album's cool reception as the work of an "angry black man." Which is unfortunate, as "Together Forever," "Come Together," and "Black Balloons" are positively uplifting, forming their own pot of gold at the end of a grayscale rainbow. The album's closer burns the brightest. "Right On" devolves into a full-on party track, ending with Syl riffing on the line "I'm gonna keep on doing my thing," as if to answer his critics before their needles reached the run-out groove.
Repress
Bump 'n Grind Wax's newest relief channels a collective sigh of relief, one that promises to remind the world that joy and love can triumph through togetherness.
Bristol's sonic luminary, Rob Smith (aka RSD), has offered his support in this dynamic cover of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together." With a hint of lover's rock and a dash of neo-soul, RSD invites Denise Morgan to voice this timeless tune. On the A-side, prominent piano runs, synth stabs, and RSD's iconic drum section frame Morgan's deliciously-soulful approach to this classic. RSD brings the magic for the B-side version, "Let's Dub Together." With a blown-out bassline, Denise's tricked out vocal samples, and a thoughtful caressing of the track's timing, reverb, and echo, RSD adds his undeniable signature to the latest BnG Wax tribute.
A formidable architect behind the now-beloved "Bristol Sound," Rob has been an irreplaceable thread in the development of bass-heavy dance music since the 1980s. From raves to basements, lounges to sound system dances, Rob has pushed the limits of music technology to forge a vital link between the past and future. He is a pioneer who has explored the intersections of nearly every genre through dubbed-out breaks, drops, and quintessential remixes. BnG Wax is honored to have his fingerprints on one of our releases.
Swarm Intelligence continues to push techno into unchartered territories with a bold new self-titled EP and label. The debut EP explores emergent technology and dystopian themes. Autonomous weaponry is hinted at in the title of the first two tracks before the resultant human resilience of ‘The Glory Is You,’ and finally AI’s awakening and gaining of sentience on ‘Edge of Chaos’. Opener ‘Lethality’ is an intense and arresting weapon. Slamming kicks and frosty synths create a wall of impenetrable techno sound that will strike fear into any dance floor. ‘Slaughterbot’ is just as punishing and dark. Mangled vocals are locked in a prison of caustic synths and tortured drums as a post-apocalyptic meltdown plays out all around. There is subtle drum funk to ‘The Glory Is You’ that lifts you above the drama. Lithe kicks bring a sense of energy as haunting sequences, bright stabs and fizzing synths weave their way in and out of the mix. The brain-frying ‘Edge of Chaos’ closes down with monstrous effects, laser-like synths firing across the track and seriously weighty and distorted drums powering things along. Swarm Intelligence is the sound of an unknown techno future made brilliantly real.
Instinct has been one of the key protagonists in garage's ongoing renaissance. Not only have his tunes given a fresh take on the much loved old sound, but there have been plenty of them, too. Now he's back with yet another full length, and once again it's packed with heat. There are deep shufflers that nod to the original US garage sound, as well as darker, 2-step tinged get downs. More so than before, there seem to be plenty of reversed bass stabs and MC vocals, old school signifiers and jungle breaks that pay homage to the roots of the sound while never simply copying it. The heart aching vocal of 'Don't Know' is our fave and a likely candidate for one of this summer's standout tunes.
The previously unrecorded Drone Mass was described by its composer, the late Jóhann Jóhannsson, as “a contemporary oratorio”. Written for voices, string quartet and electronics, it was commissioned and premiered by the American Contemporary Music Ensemble, aka ACME, who toured and recorded with Jóhannsson for almost ten years. Now they have made the world premiere recording of this richly atmospheric work, in collaboration with Grammy Award-winning vocal ensemble Theatre of Voices, conducted by Paul Hillier, also a multiple Grammy Award-winner. The members of both ACME and Theatre of Voices worked closely with the composer many times, both in the studio and in multiple live performances and tours, before his untimely death. Drone Mass is an extraordinary, mysterious accomplishment which at times bears comparison with the meditative minimalism of composers such as Arvo Pärt or Henryk Górecki. Beginning with strings and voices, but slowly integrating Joìhannsson’s electronic techniques into its landscape, the work represents what the Icelandic composer called “a distillation of a lot of influences and obsessions”.
Meaning all things magick and supernatural, the root of the word occult is that which is hidden, concealed, beyond the limits of our minds. If this is occult, then the Occult Architecture of Moon Duo’s fourth album - a psychedelic opus in two separate volumes released in 2017 - is an intricately woven hymn to the invisible structures found in the cycle of seasons and the journey of day into night, dark into light.
Offering a cosmic glimpse into the hidden patterning embedded in everything, Occult Architecture reflects the harmonious duality of these light and dark ener¬gies through the Chinese theory of Yin and Yang.
In Chinese, Yin means “the shady side of the hill” and is associated with the feminine, darkness, night, earth. Following this logic, Vol. 1 embraces and embod¬ies Moon Duo’s darker qualities — released appropriately on February 3, in the heart of winter in the Northern Hemisphere.
According to guitarist Ripley Johnson, “the concept of the dark/light, two-part album came as we were recording and mixing the songs, beginning in the dead of winter and continuing into the rebirth and blossoming of the spring. There’s something really powerful about the changing of the seasons in the Northwest, the physical and psychic impact it has on you, especially after we spent so many years in the seasonal void of California. I became interested in gnostic and her¬metic literature around that time, especially the relationship between music and occult qualities and that fed into the whole vibe.”
Adds keyboardist Sanae Yamada, “the two parts are also intended to represent inverted components of a singular entity, like two faces on the same head which stare always in opposite directions but are inextricably driven by the same brain.”
Red Vinyl[23,24 €]
Calexico's Joey Burns and John Convertino return in 2022 with their luminous 10th studio album, El Mirador; a hopeful, kaleidoscopic beacon of rock, bluesy ruminations and Latin American sounds, to be released on April 8.
Convening at longtime bandmate Sergio Mendoza's home studio in Tucson, Arizona, the ensemble recorded throughout the summer of 2021, crafting one of their most riveting and whimsical productions to date. Convertino, who now resides in El Paso, and Burns, who relocated to Boise in 2020, channeled cherished memories of Southwestern landscapes and joyful barrio melting pots into an evocative love letter to the desert borderlands that nourished them for over 20 years.
The song, subtitled “A Garden of Personal Mirrors”, was written in 1968 by the film’s marketing strategist Mike Kaplan. Kubrick proposed it immediately following an unsuccessful pitch by MGM Records, who wanted to release a single to tie in with the film, and amid reports the Beatles were also writing a song. Presented by Wave Theory as a historical release, 2001: A Garden of Personal Mirrors adds a new chapter to the film’s mythology. This limited edition 7” vinyl will be available for the first time ever on 26th November 2021
2001 is infamous in the annals of film music history for the way that Kubrick abandoned Alex North’s original score in favour of classical and popular pieces that have become synonymous with the movie. Following a digital release last year that caught the imagination of the film’s fans, Wave Theory is now releasing a limited edition vinyl that will give the opportunity for soundtrack aficionados to own a piece of movie history.
Mike Kaplan explains, "The Single's intent was to capture the different responses 2001 was generating from audiences and the media, the many levels of interpretation and appreciation, from its hypnotic visuals to its metaphysical illuminations. We also wanted to instil curiosity among audiences who had not yet seen what was becoming a cultural phenomenon.”
Co-founder of Wave Theory Records Dan Jones said, “Attempting to write any music for Kubrick would be a daunting task, as Alex North — and now we discover Mike Kaplan — were both to discover. Both of them are examples of the complex creative interactions that Kubrick’s films distilled.”
Clear Vinyl
The Psychedelic Romance experience is birthed, combining future-facing electronic music, art and healing. The venture is a collaboration between former Trouw & De School resident JP Enfant, energy practitioner & artist Cuevawolf and artist & label manager Maren Monika Brombeiss. It will offer an immersive sensory experience to its audience via an event series and label, with music produced at 432hz, a frequency known to uplift emotional wellbeing.
The trio linked in Amsterdam last year. JP had been previously running Psychedelic Romance events at the legendary Trouw, an opportunity he used to explore the musical terrain linking techno, UK bass and ambient. Over the years, the cream of the underground scene was invited to play, from Pearson Sound to boundary-pushing dubstep/bass producer 2562. He met Cuevawolf by chance mid-way through 2020, after fate would have the Mexican artist “stuck” in the Dutch capital during the pandemic. The click was instantaneous. Seasoned music industry professional and yoga practitioner Maren Monika completed the triangle. Together they seek to combine their passion for cutting-edge electronic music with consciousness-raising events and healing.
The label strand of Psychedelic Romance comes to life via JP Enfant’s ‘Somewhere Else EP’, a veritable musical Rubik’s Cube encompassing techno, ambient and bass. The five-track work includes a remix of lead track ‘Muzieklokaal’ from Bristol’s acclaimed experimental producer LCY, who reworks the playful original into a dynamic pastiche of industrial breaks and techno.
Dubbed a “local legend” of the Amsterdam scene by RA, JP Enfant has built up a credible reputation with gigs across Europe including Berghain, Melt Festival and fabric. His nuanced approach to techno has seen releases on Planet X, a.r.t.less and DGTL Records.
The conscious ethos of the project runs through every thread of Psychedelic Romance. Alongside the music being produced at 432hz, a frequency believed to support a calm body and mind, at upcoming Psychedelic Romance events, Cuevawolf will play the crystal singing bowls, which will transition the night from an uplifting sound healing session into an immersive electronic rave experience, led by JP. “Our goal is to create purposeful healing frequencies through music and art that ultimately raises and harmonizes our audience’s vibration,” Cuevawolf explains. “The idea is to marry electronic music and spirituality providing a safe space for transcendental and self-healing experiences that evolve onto a dancefloor.”
Psychedelic Romance hosted an intimate family and friends gathering during ADE week at Amsterdam’s Pamela, with music led by JP and emerging Amsterdam selector DJ Corridor. On the label front, other artists slated for appearances on Psychedelic Romance include Dutch techno artist Mary Lake and ascendant Austrian talent Arthur Robert.
"The stakes are high; if I mess up the last bar, the whole recording is ruined." As Dutch pianist Nicolas van Poucke acknowledges, there is an electricity in the room whenever the lathe is on. Direct-to-disc recording generates tension and release unlike other methods, not least in the final moments of a 20-minute solo piano recital. Described as "the young freethinker" of his generation, van Poucke relished the challenge. Having spent day one setting up to record works by Frédéric Chopin, van Poucke changed tack on day two to perform two Beethoven piano sonatas - Sonata No. 12 Opus 26 in A flat major, and Sonata No. 23 Opus 57 in f minor, also known as the "Appassionata".
For fans of great jazz soloists like Keith Jarrett and Bill Evans asmuch as for classical aficionados, van Poucke’s recordings make thebest of the process in capturing a sense of timelessness in the music.
Black Vinyl[27,10 €]
Birthed in the bohemian enclave and epicentre of strange vibrations that is Calderdale in West Yorkshire, Hexen Valley’s story began in summer 2021 when a new formation of Gnod came together in a co-op house at the 200-year-old Nutclough Tavern. As always, the line-up of the collective shifted and morphed to fit circumstances, and soon they embarked on intensive jamming that was eventually captured by Sam Greenwood in Hebden Bridge Underground studios. Inspiration struck not only from the chemistry of the four musicians in this confined room but all around - the band’s Paddy Shine cites the likes of shop noticeboard messages and pub conversations in Hebden as lyrical sparks; channeling by his reckoning the ‘valley fever’ that exists somewhere in the chasms and contrasts between the amazing light and vivacity of the valley summit and the comparative darkness of the towns below. Meanwhile, musical shapes were making themselves known seemingly of their own volition, from ‘Still Running’, which takes shape across a sonic hinterland between Daydream Nation-style kineticism and sludged-out aggression to ‘Bad Apple’ - an entirely spontaneous piece of potent and angular post-punk intensity. Perhaps most surprisingly of all, Lou Reed’s tour-bus favourite ‘Waves Of Fear’ is hammered out with fearsome gusto into a salvo of first-take catharsis and alchemy, fit to transcend all or any oppressive atmospheres that surround.Hexen Valley is the sound of a band whose fearsome intensity is only matched by their evolutionary drive. It’s Gnod at full power, and it’s a haunted place you might struggle to leave
Red Vinyl[27,10 €]
Birthed in the bohemian enclave and epicentre of strange vibrations that is Calderdale in West Yorkshire, Hexen Valley’s story began in summer 2021 when a new formation of Gnod came together in a co-op house at the 200-year-old Nutclough Tavern. As always, the line-up of the collective shifted and morphed to fit circumstances, and soon they embarked on intensive jamming that was eventually captured by Sam Greenwood in Hebden Bridge Underground studios. Inspiration struck not only from the chemistry of the four musicians in this confined room but all around - the band’s Paddy Shine cites the likes of shop noticeboard messages and pub conversations in Hebden as lyrical sparks; channeling by his reckoning the ‘valley fever’ that exists somewhere in the chasms and contrasts between the amazing light and vivacity of the valley summit and the comparative darkness of the towns below. Meanwhile, musical shapes were making themselves known seemingly of their own volition, from ‘Still Running’, which takes shape across a sonic hinterland between Daydream Nation-style kineticism and sludged-out aggression to ‘Bad Apple’ - an entirely spontaneous piece of potent and angular post-punk intensity. Perhaps most surprisingly of all, Lou Reed’s tour-bus favourite ‘Waves Of Fear’ is hammered out with fearsome gusto into a salvo of first-take catharsis and alchemy, fit to transcend all or any oppressive atmospheres that surround.Hexen Valley is the sound of a band whose fearsome intensity is only matched by their evolutionary drive. It’s Gnod at full power, and it’s a haunted place you might struggle to leave
Repress
After huge releases on big labels like Apollonia, Rawax and many others iO (Mulen) is back to his main label dropping a big LP. The "Lucky Fish" album consists of three different vinyls full of killer grooves: between smooth deep house and techy bangers, cooked in unique iO (Mulen) style. These cuts were tested on dance floors around the world for a long time, so now we have no doubt that all of them are lethal weapons for any set. Hurry up, it's limited and of course vinyl only as always.
Repress
After huge releases on big labels like Apollonia, Rawax and many others iO (Mulen) is back to his main label dropping a big LP. The "Lucky Fish" album consists of three different vinyls full of killer grooves: between smooth deep house and techy bangers, cooked in unique iO (Mulen) style. These cuts were tested on dance floors around the world for a long time, so now we have no doubt that all of them are lethal weapons for any set. Hurry up, it's limited and of course vinyl only as always.
Platform 23 presents Ani-Roy, a project from friends Aniruddha Das and Gary "Roy" Stewart, who recorded two 12's of improvisational acid-house meets drone and samples in 1990.
They met over a love of principally reggae and post punk at Trent Polytechnic, Nottingham in 1982, and started combining equipment, to make tape loops and delays for exploring the basics of dub, all the while building their own Sound System.
This learning and experimenting converged their interests in early possibilities afforded for programming sounds and effects. They moved to London / Birmingham respectively and continued their collaboration until all things aligned in 1990. Coming together with Andrew Campbell, a community / social entrepreneur based in Nottingham - and with access to the Marcus Garvey Centre studios - they recorded two improvisational jams to 2 16 track; Ani arranging drum and bass lines, programming 'counter melodies' with a TB-303, and Roy looking after the ominous ambient loops, melodies, riot and Prince Far I samples.
The fact there were so many "versions" compelled Andrew to put the results out on two 12's instead of one. Fari 116 and Tilt were self-released on hand-stamped white labels.
Archival testaments, but set apart from the burgeoning acid house scene - here they are re-mastered and reissued some 30 years later by Platform 23.
25 years of perpetual, subtle and occasionally lunatic compositional, recording- and production-wise workouts finally result in the first and withal last album „Asphalt“ from the realms of Rico Puestel's childhood pseudonymous getaway „Tetzlaff“.
„Asphalt“ tells genuine stories of mobility and industrialisation, freedom and boundaries, the reciprocity of humanity and technology within the tension of past, present and future. Beneath its overall nostalgic and somehow timeless electronic retro charme it has been inspired by different currents, questions and approaches from philosophy to diverging sciences that shaped this long-haul monument of creation.
Following numerous artistic and technical ordeals, the consistently analogue production went through an emotional roller coaster ride while growing up, defined by the diverging poles of magic momentums and withering setbacks and combined with a fear of never finishing what once has been initiated, wanting to become reality some day.
Years and years of striving and searching for the right gear and recording setups to make this miniature album sound the way it should, never left out the central aspect of one perceptible and pure storytelling. Each song, as intimate, neat and almost predictable it might appear, has been elaborately designed moment by moment, second by second, byte by byte, revised hundreds of times, scrapped and recreated, dismantled and reconstructed.
„Asphalt“ enters and exists stage as a conceptual and musical unicum of its own that claims its self-fulfilling destiny by an endless circularity of endings and new beginnings...
Lauded London 6-piece Melt Yourself Down are back armed with a new approach for their fourth studio album Pray For Me I Don’t Fit In. Created for misfits, by misfits, Pray For Me I Don’t Fit In sees Melt Yourself Down embrace a celebratory punk agenda. Having realised they are never going to fit the mould, the group deliberately draw on their myriad influences, speaking all languages musically and lyrically. Led by the potent sounds of Sax pioneer Pete Wareham, the punchy sax hooks pay homage to the traditional horn sections of late 60’s early 70’s era of Jazz, Soul and Rock n Roll, while showcasing African pentatonic scales and dance-inducing rhythms with raw 70’s rock and punk. This album sees vocalist Kushal Gaya celebrate his diversity - tonally, texturally, and emotionally while embracing lyrical depth. Recorded and produced by band favourite Ben Hillier (Blur, Depeche Mode & Nadine Shah), delivering his distinct musical depth, resonance, and dark drive so essential to Melt Yourself Down’s sound. This album is the band’s most cohesive work to date.
Nas King's Disease II Album Following the Grammy Award winning album, King’s Disease, the king returns to his throne with the second coming, King’s Disease II. The star-studded project offers tacit game on life, love, and loss, uplifting through action and lived experience in a way only Nas can. This is a body of work for the fans, for the day 1’s that contributed to the legacy. Alongside the decorated production savant, Hit-Boy, Nas remains rooted in lyrical prophetism while proving that he constantly reinvents the wheel. The sequel to last year’s King’s Disease features Ms. Lauryn Hill, Eminem, EPMD, Hit-Boy, Charlie Wilson, YG and more.
10 Track LP - Japanese multi-instrumentalist Masahiro Takahashi's latest album, Flowering Tree, Distant Moon, is a meditation on seasons and distance. Recorded in isolation at his temporary home studio in Toronto, following the coldest winter he’d experienced to date, this is a collection of hushed, lush color wheel electronic vignettes.
Flowering Tree, Distant Moon was created using an array of instruments including software synthesizers, granular samplers and a shruti box. The original Not Not Fun cassette run sold out quickly and this Telephone Explosion re-release will be Takahashi's first official vinyl offering.
The songs shimmer and sway, unspooling in sparkling arcs and alternating between reverie and lullaby. Inspired by blooming apple trees, gagaku music, the nostalgia of immigrants and longing for home, Flowering Tree, Distant Moon moves from soothing to surreal, a swirl of quiet melody and imagined landscapes, as transportive for its listeners as its maker.
Tammo Hesselink inaugurates his newly launched imprint Rear View Memory, intended for occasional dumps of personal works. On this first release the Dutch producer combines his rhythmic side with his modern hypnotic techno approach. The A side contains two UK techno inspired tracks that lie between soundsystem-ready dj tools and atmospheric floaters. The B side contains a percussive techno-not-techno roller and a halftime drum & bass workout in collaboration with Romanian producer DYL.
Vinyl Edition of 300 copies
Aesthetical in collaboration with Sync presents "Detect" by Marco Monfardini.
Originally developed as an audio/video live performance, Marco Monfardini based his research for Detect on the decoding of inaudible sounds, sound generated by electromagnetic emissions left from electronic devices and inaudible to the human ear. By using various electro-smog detectors Marco Monfardini creates a sort of detection mapping where electromagnetic emissions are the starting point for the sonorous development of each single composition.
A path that creates a parallel with our lives by questioning how much these emissions affect unconsciously our choices, tastes and perceptions, seeking a relationship between the massive use of technology in everyday life and our emotional state.
The album Detect is developed in 15 tracks in continuous play, an imperfect, faulty mosaic inhabited by invisible beings manifesting themselves in the form of sound streams, mutable entities that find a definitive form in the pattern of the compositional structure.
The album opens with “aR1 detection", sounds of pure detection place themselves in the sound space giving the initial coordinates for the exploration of unconscious parallel areas. The boundaries transform and gradually expand until they flow into the structure of "kernel variations", a growing rhythmic pattern decodes the impulses projecting a perspective that dissolves in the unstable and fluctuating electromagnetic emissions of the subsequent "[a]3020t detection", "binary defect "and "core[2] ". “[A.box]emission” confronts the use of sound downloaded random from internet sample banks and the emissions generated during the download itself, micro sound fragments arrange themselves in an organized and regular pattern, shaping a rhythmic structure. The first part ends with the short “[sa]6030” and “[det]x1a”, absence and presence provide an alternation of movements, inaudible and elusive signals all trying to establish a contact with our perception. “det : scan” opens the second part of Detect, a sort of scanning, leaving EMF (electromagnetic field) textures, a static multilayer that progressively expands until it dissolves into the rhythmic emissions of a common smartphone “[4s]detection”.The track “[rs]zone” " is pushing itself deeper, two minutes of sound speleology that reveal the existence of sound artifacts that seem to vanish getting in contact with the light accented by the bass drum of "[det] 0100+" a constant, rhythmic pumping, a luminous pulsation that reveals an apparent void, which seems to subside entering in the winding and waving atmosphere of "conductive [area]" and "[s3] microfunktion". Detect comes to the end with “[emf]terminal” a mirror of the unarrestable technological acceleration intercepting the flow of data that feeds the system of communication , digital micro waste suffocates the living space by centering up the invisible in an unconscious map.
[a] A1
[c] A3
[e] A5 core[2]
[f] A6 [A.box]emission (2)
[g] A7
[i] B2 [4s]detection
[j] B3
[k] B4 [det]0100+
[l] B5 conductive[area]
[m] B6 [s3]microfunktion
[n] B7 [emf]terminal
dutch sound artist albert van abbe now joins the raster family, with an unexpected collaboration with founder olaf bender aka byetone titled DUAL. having spent time working side by side in ’s-hertogenbosch at the willem twee studio, the result of their collaboration is both smooth and haptic, rounding out as an expressive camaraderie between the two veteran producers. jovial and innocent, DUAL alludes to the experimental research process of finding common ground. fully embracing the haphazard richness of live recordings, the result is a remarkable fusion of contrasting outputs; intricate collaborative efforts and byproducts woven together with an eager indifference towards expectation. the artists embrace a skewed navigation through pronounced highlights, intricate lulls and moments of temporal stasis, intermittently punctuated as a means of intentionally avoiding notions of rigid perfection. with ‘real-time’ approach directing DUAL’s creation, the pair effectively shies away from any meticulous planning, and the music runs free and negates any rigid parameters one might have expected. quirky titles exude the collaged form of the release, and underline its innocent charm. as a whole, DUAL focuses on the creative process and fully engages listeners with its own dialogue, though it is very outspoken, at times even abrasive.
Repressed! When asked at the time about what to expect from this collaboration with Edo G, the legend Masta Ace fired back without hesitation: “People are gonna be surprised when they hear the mixture of styles. We both have a different approach. It’s like the old Reeses commercial... Ya got peanut butter walking down the street. Coming from the other direction is chocolate. Someone trips and blam, a peanut butter cup was born. Something new and amazing was created that no one had ever thought of!” When one thinks of Boston and New York, the first thing that comes to mind is the infamous Red Sox/Yankees rivalry. But this time when Boston met New York, it was a collaborative effort to bring the world one of the tightest Hip Hop efforts of 2009. Two of the game’s most exceptionally creative and well-rounded artists, Edo. G and Masta Ace brought the two cities together with Arts & Entertainment. Like their home cities, these artists have a long history and have influenced the world. Hailing from Brownsville, Brooklyn, Masta Ace got his proper introduction setting off the quintessential Juice Crew posse cut, “The Symphony.” Not long after, Edo G’s debut Life Of A Kid In The Ghetto and it’s lead single “I Got To Have It” went to the top of the Billboard Rap Singles chart with heavy rotation on Yo! MTV Raps. Both Ace and Edo have continued to stay relevant, drop albums, tour the globe, and influence up and coming artists everywhere. Joining the duo on Arts & Entertainment was a notable list of prominent artists from NYC and the Bean including Posdnuos of De La Soul, Large Professor, DJ Spinna, KRS-One, Marsha Ambrosius, Mr. Lif, Akrobatik, Chester French, Double O of Kidz in the Hall, M Phases, and more. The album continues to be a fan favorite to this day, especially the never-gets-old cuts “Little Young” and “Dancin’ Like A White Girl,” and this re-issue is sure to be well received once again.
Belgian Metal frontrunners EVIL INVADERS are ready to unleash their third album, Shattering Reflection, on April 1, 2022 via Napalm Records! It took the band almost five years to craft a new record and it has been undoubtably worth the wait. EVIL INVADERS have found the perfect balance between fast, mid and slow tempo songs focusing on strong choruses, touching lyrics and even some progressive touches that will grab every Heavy Metal fan by the throat and screaming for more! EVIL INVADERS’s Shattering Reflection is promising to be a game-changer for the Belgian 4-piece as the band seems to have found their own formula to turn Heavy Metal into another extreme direction. Shattering Reflection takes off with a fast Heavy Metal banger “Hissing in Crescendo”, followed by the epic anthem “Die For Me”, already destined to become an EVIL INVADERS’s all-time classic. A calmer side is explored on tracks like mid-tempo opus ”Forgotten Memories“, creating a dense, heavy wall of sound with piercing vocals and ditto lyrics underlined by guitar solo virtuosity. That thrilling epos stands in line with “In Deepest Black”, which showcases even more how the band has managed to craft a pure classic Heavy Metal anthem with melodic guitar lines and catchy choruses, creeping relentlessly into the listener’s head. It also proves how Joe has matured as his vocals have entered a whole new dimension, both in the high and the low ranges. On the contrary, ”Sledgehammer Justice“ is a furious outburst of classic Thrash/Speed Metal in which the Belgian quartet goes full throttle with hammering rhythms and guitar solo madness! Another album highlight is the dark opus ”The Circle“, creating a horrifying atmosphere with stomping drums and excellent guitar lines. Fans of King Diamond will definitely dig this one! Throughout the album the band manages to keep the balance between fast Extreme Heavy Metal with sharp shredding and mosh-worthy tracks, as well as very melodic, more intense and chorus-oriented midtempo anthems. Shattering Reflection has turned out to be a monster of an album that will prove that in a new generation of Metal bands, EVIL INVADERS have been able to develop and mature record after record, just like the great classics did in the good old days. You will want to hear this record and also find out how EVIL INVADERS will deliver this masterpiece live on stage! credits
Album - 3 singles - vinyl “Make all the uncertainty and adventure of growing up sound like the best days of your life” - UPSET “A ripper that channels sounds from all throughout punk history” - Brooklyn Vegan "On a take-no-prisoners assault" - Tom Robinson, BBC 6music “California compacted into three rowdy minutes” - The Rodeo “Scorching slacker pop” - CLASH Reminders approach punk rock from where they know it best: a forgotten seaside town. Formed on the Isle of Wight in 2017, the band cut their teeth writing songs about teenage lust and suburban boredom, gaining attention after they independently released Water Sports and Major Cities. Fresh-faced and excited, the then-teenagers coined their sound 'beach punk'; a tongue-in-cheek ode to their hometown that they stand by today. Firmly solidifying their identity as breakneck but bubblegum, a pop-tinged punk band, Reminders work to introduce themselves to anybody willing to listen. After an unexpected hiatus during COVID which delayed the release of their album, the band are now raring and ready to go with their new label home at Venn and forthcoming tour dates. Already championed at radio by BBC Radio 1, BBC 6Music and BBC Introducing, as well as landing placements on esteemed Spotify and Apple Music editorial playlists alike, they were labelled 'scorching slacker pop' by the influential CLASH Magazine, dubbed 'About to Break' by UPSET Magazine, and have already shared stages with rock legends and pop stars Liam Gallagher, The Killers, and Camila Cabello. Debut album Best Of Beach Punk released 1st April 2022
Die Popband aus Thal schaffte trotz Pandemie mit ihrem Partyhit „Marie“ und der Folgesingle „Sono il Destino“ den Durchbruch im gesamten deutschsprachigen Raum. Mit „Marie“ gelang ein Hit für die
Geschichtsbücher! Ihre aktuelle Single „Bowie“ stürmt derzeit die Charts.
Doch was ist die Essenz von ALLE ACHTUNG? Optimismus, Lebensfreude und eine geballte Ladung Liebe, verpackt in einer Symphonie aus harmonischem Krawall. Genau diese Gegensätze machen ALLE ACHTUNG zu einem Unikat und inspirieren den Titel
ihres kommenden Albums.
„Liebe & Krawall“ erscheint am 1. April 2022 und beinhaltet die Hits „Marie“, „Bowie“ und „Sono Il Destino“ sowie noch nie gehörte Titel mit garantierten Hitpotential. Was meint die Band mit ROMANTISCH
RANDALIEREN? Ist das COOL ODER NICHT? Was klar ist: wer tanzen, träumen, lachen, weinen oder mitschreien möchte, für jede Emotion ist gesorgt.
Nach über 12 Millionen Streams, einer Gold- und Platin-Auszeichnung in Österreich und Auftritten in TV- Shows wie dem ZDF Fernsehgarten, der Roland Kaiser Show, den ORF Stars am Wörthersee, ORF
Studio 2, ORF Guten Morgen Österreich, ATV Heinzl & die VIPs, der ARD Silvestershow, ORF Gartenparty der Stars und vielen mehr, war ALLE ACHTUNG auch zwei Mal für den Amadeus Austrian Music Award nominiert.
Roxy Music veröffentlichen am 1. April eine neue Half-Speed gemasterte Version ihres gleichnamigen Albums „Roxy Music“.
Mit dem ursprünglich 1972 erschienenen, bahnbrechenden Klassiker der Band konnten sich Bryan Ferry und Brian Eno innerhalb der Art Rock Bewegung etablieren. Ihre Vorliebe für Glamour kam in den Texten zum Ausdruck und wurde auf dem Albumcover im Stil der 1950er Jahre verewigt. Das Album landete in den britischen Top 10 Charts und wurde zu einem der bedeutendsten Art Rock Alben aller Zeiten.
'Das Album wurde von Miles Showell in den Abbey Road Studios neu gemastert. Um die verbesserte Audioqualität widerzuspiegeln, wurde das Artwork überarbeitet und mit einer glänzenden Laminierung
versehen, sodass das Album nicht nur eine Schallplatte, sondern ein Kunstwerk ist.
Das Album erscheint als 1LP.
Roxy Music veröffentlichen am 1. April eine neue Half-Speed gemasterte Version ihres Albums „For Your
Pleasure“.
Im Jahr 1973 folgte nach dem Debutalbum von Roxy Music das zweite Album mit dem Titel „For Your Pleasure“. Für die Produktion des Albums konnte die Band mehr Zeit im Studio verbringen, was zu einer
aufwändigeren und experimentelleren Produktion führte. Brian Enos Mischung aus Tape-Loop-Effekten ist in „The Bogus Man“ unüberhörbar und „Do the Strand“ wird als die typische Roxy Music-Hymne gefeiert.
Das Album schaffte es bis auf Platz 4 in den britischen Albumcharts.
„For Your Pleasure” wurde von Miles Showell in den Abbey Road Studios neu gemastert. Um die verbesserte Audioqualität widerzuspiegeln, wurde das Artwork überarbeitet und mit einer glänzenden Laminierung versehen, sodass das Album nicht nur eine Schallplatte, sondern ein Kunstwerk ist.
Das Album erscheint als 1LP.
Chris Imler likes to play drums standing up. He‘s the dandy with the killer offbeat, or, as one major German newspaper once put it, the "Grand Seigneur of the Berlin Underground". He has been making his mark on countless Berlin musical affairs since long before the fall of the Wall, with The Golden Showers, Peaches, Oum Shatt, Driver &Driver, Die Türen, Jens Friebe, to name but a few. He has also been perfoming across Europe as a solo artist for the past decade.
In "Operation Schönheit" (German for "Operation Beauty"), he has recorded his most, well, beautiful album to date. But Benedikt Frey's warm production subverts its own beauty with a multitude of clanking and ingling synth sounds, making the work very much about the cosmetic surgery it performs on itself. It's all in the tradition of the more experimental and electronic side of post-punk in which Imler and his unique groove are rooted. It doesn't take insider knowledge of Berlin's post-punk underground to realise that that Imler groove consists of rhythm that sings, vocals that dance and a look that fits, as illustrated by "Disappoint Me", his latest video: https://youtu.be/YeVJ75ljjB8
Elsewhere - such as in "Movies" - the rhythm sings, less electronically reduced, into the acoustics of an old, high-ceilinged Berlin apartment; metal clatters, a zither trembles and Imler plays with the metronome. Sometimes he moves ahead of time, sometimes trails behind it. He always manages to be in his very own groove, which carries everything along. And this is precisely the essence of the Imler rhythm, which lends itself to being applied to the very rhythm of life: Stretch and compress your time and loop it according to your own groove! Optimise nothing but feel everything! And dance to it! Even when contemplating everyday information overload, as Imler's high-speed mumbling suggests in the hectic yet smooth opening track "Temperature".
But being the ultimate night owl he is, Imler manages to make even the odd bout of paranoia seem like a good thing: like some kind of krauty, groovy B-horror-soundtrack-inflected high-pressure environment, "Whip Me" is a cross between Conrad Schnitzler and Bauhaus. In the title track, whose lyrics were written together with Jens Friebe, he intones: "You want to be something greater / You break your leg / When it heals again / You break it again" and sounds like the most gleeful fatalist you can imagine. Because in his city, one can still lose oneself better than anywhere else - a night easily becomes a whole universe that can be traversed, marvelled at and played with, and one might find one's old self again only when hearing "church bells" and "small birds singing". At least that's how Imler illustrates it in "Emptiness full of stars", and it seems likely that those "stars" are the human companions of the Berlin night in question.
And so once again Imler becomes Berlin's most important cultural ambassador: that scene of the eternally, and somehow successfully, failing creatures of the night, once the envy of the international postmodern bohème, has, despite many claims to the contrary, not been completely "optimised away", and its attitude to life is perfectly summed up in Imler's groove. And, of course, his look. "Schau Hin" (German for "Look!"), he sings in the track of the same name, masterfully dubbed out with the help of Melbourne's Leo James.
Quite right! Look - and listen.
Yours, Johannes von Weizsäcker (The Chap)
Embrace is the sixth studio album by Dutch trance DJ and producer Armin van Buuren. The album features hits like “Another You (ft. Mr. Probz)”, “Off The Hook (ft. Hardwell)”, “Looking For Your Name (ft. Gavin DeGraw)” & “Heading Up High (ft. Kensington)”. Other notable collaborators include Angel Taylor, Cosmic Gate, Eric Vloeimans and many others. The album was originally released in 2015 through Van Buuren’s own label Armada Music. Critics noted how the record has a poppy, commercial appeal, but still allows the emotional essence of trance music to shine through.
Embrace is released as a limited edition of 2500 individually numbered copies on black & white marbled vinyl. It comes with a
4-page insert with pictures, lyrics and credits, and the run-out groove contains secret inscriptions.
NAPPYNAPPA is a prolific artist from Washington DC with a highly creative and free approach. ONDAMICUNDERDACOZMIKLYTZ coalesces his expressive hip hop soundscapes with layers of eclectic influences. The album features production from long-time collaborator Black Moses, as well as Pat Cain, Zac Clare, Tooth Choir, Jelani Kwesi and RICTHESUPERSONIC.
NAPPYNAPPA is one half of the group MODEL HOME alongside Pat Cain. He has featured on over twenty albums in the last two years alone, including the celebrated Disciples compilation ‘One Year’, the acclaimed ‘SE’ on Max D’s Future Times label and ‘both feet en th infinite’, released by Don Giovanni Records.
Berlin and London based avant-pop duo Private Agenda will release their second full-length album – A Mannequin – on Lo Recordings on 22 October via digital, limited-edition LP and music box formats.
Berlin and Reunion based duo, Amine Mesnaoui and Labelle are set to release their debut album on revered London independent imprint Lo Recordings on the 1st of April 2022.
‘African Prayers’ is a collection of seven new compositions, which includes lead single ‘Bleu Noir’, that aims to bring a contemporary and fresh interpretation to the Lila Ritual of the Moroccan Gnawa masters - also known as the Ritual of the Seven Colors.
With a firm belief they can deliver a sound that finds its anchor in heritage and yet escape folkloric clichés and stereotypes, the two musicians have strived to make something that is rich in meanings, minimal but complex, simple but deep. This is a record that is universal and invites the listener to the depth of meditation, to the dance, even to the spiritual state of trance.
Mesnaoui plays a prepared piano that is modified by different objects, which are inserted into its strings while Labelle simultaneously plays electronic instruments and further processes the piano sound. These instruments are not native to the traditional context
"Ten years after signing his first record deal with Big Machine Label Group’s The Valory Music Co., arena-packing superstar Thomas Rhett — dubbed “the most reliable maker of No. 1 singles in country music” (Variety) — has five studio albums, 18 MULTI-PLATINUM and GOLD-certified No. 1 hits, 12 BILLION streams and the longest current active streak of consecutive No. 1s in the format (Mediabase/Country Aircheck Chart). He has been honoured with eight ACM Awards including Entertainer of the Year, two CMA Awards, five GRAMMY® Awards nominations, plus trophies from the CMT Music Awards, Billboard Awards and iHeartRadio Awards, in addition to being recognized with two CMA Triple Play awards for penning three No. 1 songs within a 12-month period. Thomas Rhett is delivering his sixth studio album WHERE WE STARTED on April 1. Inspired by his return to the road, the set marks a similar return to his in-the-moment mix of tempo, transcendent romance and tip-of-the-spearsonic trailblazing, as Country’s resident good-life philosopher.
RADIO: BBC Radio 2, Absolute Radio Country, CountryLine Radio, Downtown Country, Smooth Country
PRESS: MTV UK, The Express feature, Why Now, 1883, Atwood, Darkus, Maverick, country specialist outlets, UK bio written by Lisa Verrico (The Times)
SOCIALS: TW: 2.4M, FB: 2.4M, IG: 4.4M, TikTok: 802.5K
Available as a 2 LP black vinyl."
"The soundtrack of the much celebrated smash hit movie of 2018 - MAMMA MIA! Here We Go Again - is to be released on vinyl for the first time as a double picture disc set, emblazoned with the movie's cover image of the whole cast on disc one and a second disc with a scene from the movie.
To be released on 1st April through UMC/Polydor, this double-LP picture disc set features all sixteen songs from the film's original soundtrack, including ‘When I Kissed The Teacher’, ‘One Of Us’, ‘I've Been Waiting For You’, ‘Fernando’ as well as two extra tracks not featured in the movie - ‘I Wonder (Departure)’ sung by Lily James Jessica Keenan Wynn and Alexa Davies and ‘The Day Before You Came’ sung by Meryl Streep."
From Dreams To Dust, the latest studio album by The Felice Brothers was recorded in the fall of 2020 in an old one room church in Harlemville, NY - Produced by The Felice Brothers and mixed by Mike Mogis
The record ranges over a variety of topics and themes, including isolation, the world of dreams and delusions, environmental collapse, and the inward and outward chaos of modern life.
2022 180g vinyl repress of 'Flight to Denmark', the best-selling SteepleChase album by legendary US pianist Duke Jordan Charlie Parker's favourite pianist and the composer of the famous "Jordu", Duke Jordan (b. April 1, 1922 in New York) ended his five-year seclusion from the jazz scene when he was invited to play and record in Denmark in 1973. This first recording by Jordan for SteepleChase turned out to be an enormous success which brought Jordan back in the spotlight. "I am convinced that this is Duke Jordan's finest record." - Jazz Journal
"A totally captivating listening experience." - Billboard
"Flight to Denmark is an essential album for anyone who enjoys substantial piano music." - Coda
Personnel: Duke Jordan (piano), Mads Vinding (bass), Ed Thigpen (drums).
Sweden's The Vertex were, along with The Moderns, one of the country's first mod-revival bands
Smalltown teens with big time dreams, they spat out mod/punk/pop stompers in the early 80's, before gradually digging themselves deeper into the psychedelic sounds of the 60's and then closing business in 1987. But their legacy and legend has grown ever since. With singles like "Tonight The Sky Will Be Ours" and "John", the band regularly appears on compilations and today their releases are highly
sought after collectibles all around the globe. For the first time a retrospective with The Vertex is now being presented, including previously unreleased material.
A repress to celebrate the 6th birthday of Svalbard's incredible debut 'One Day All This Will End'
Svalbard have grown ever more maximalist with their approach to melody and intensity in the relatively short period of time they have been together. From the almost gruff-punk-goes-black metal-goes post-rock leanings of 'Unnatural Light', to the tale of two halves presented by 'The Vanishing Point' which swings from a haunting gaze to an almost positive post- hardcore resolution, Svalbard weave
disparate influence into a seamless whole with aplomb.
The Fall returned to Rough Trade in 1983 to release a pair of singles ("The Man Whose Head Expanded" and "Kicker Conspiracy") and Perverted By Language, their sixth proper studio album. Perverted By Language hints at the band's shift towards a distinctly pop approach, one that they would perfect via their Beggars Banquet output that immediately followed. Yet again, the force and panic of their initial Rough Trade recordings remains the foundation for much of the album. A transitional recording in the absolute best sense, Perverted By Language is The Fall both as they were and as they would become.
The emergence of Brix Smith is often cited as the impetus for The Fall's move toward outward pop, and she first makes her first appearance with the band on Perverted By Language. Nowhere is her presence felt more than on "Hotel Blöedel," where she handles lead vocal duties alongside Mark E. Smith whose mangled violin accompaniment roots the song's cold romanticism in his unmistakable brand of strange. "Garden" provides a new take on The Fall's stretched-out tendencies – using ringing, clean guitars to build a nearly 10-minute epic more subtly than ever before. The opener, "Eat Y'self Fitter," is wholly classic Fall: a playfully circular bass line drives the album's strongest vocal spout, complete with emphatic breaks where Mark E. Smith issues the song's spiteful decree with equal parts glee and scorn.
Features new collaborations with Laraaji, Janie Cowan, Masayoshi Fujita, Qasim Naqvi, Brad Weber, Hanna Benn, and PRINTtEXT. A coproduction of Anchorage Museum, National Geographic Society, and Temporary Residence Ltd. What does the Earth sound like? In Stations, the 10th volume in the Field Works series, producer Stuart Hyatt approaches that question with a team of scientists working on the EarthScope experiment. Using sophisticated ground recording
devices, Field Works has created a new type of music in which human voices sing along with the actual voice of the Earth. Stations features an all-star ensemble of vocalists and instrumentalists, including Hanna Benn, Janie Cowan, Masayoshi Fujita, Stuart Hyatt, Laraaji, Qasim Naqvi, and Brad Weber. The deluxe vinyl edition includes a bonus digital album of peer reviews by Deantoni Parks, Green-House, Olga Wojciechowska, Afrodeutsche, Nathan Fake, Ben Chatwin, Sophia Loizou, Amulets, Penelope Trappes, and Alva Noto. Stations was commissioned by The Anchorage Museum and The National Geographic Society. “For those interested in the intersection between field recordings and music, this is a must-have.” A Closer Listen // “A beguiling and quietly astonishing piece of work.”
24 Songs. A new project from The Wedding Present. A new 7” single every month throughout 2022. 24 Songs sees David Gedge writing with legendary Sleeper guitarist Jon Stewart for the first time, and a more perfect union could not have been predicted. The notion of a monthly 7” single is not new to The Wedding Present, but 24 Songs shows us that even classic concepts can be reinvented. The series also continues the band’s association with photographer Jessica McMillan, who has created stunning images and films as a visual accompaniment to the recordings.Explaining 24 Songs, David Gedge said: “In 1991, The Wedding Present were rehearsing in a studio in Yorkshire when we hit upon an idea that immediately thrilled us all. Our bass player Keith Gregory had been a member of the ‘Sub Pop Singles Club’ - a service that allowed subscribers to receive 7”s released by that Seattle label on a monthly basis. Keith wondered if we, as a band, could attempt a similar thing. In that instant, The Wedding Present’s Hit Parade series was born and, during 1992, we managed to release a brand new 7” single each and every month. “The Hit Parade went on to become something of a significant milestone in the history of the band and it’s a project about which I’m often asked. As its thirtieth anniversary approached, I began to wonder if we should celebrate it in some way. A ‘Hit Parade Part 2’ didn’t feel quite right, though. Then, someone said to me: “Other bands have released music in similar ways but there has been nothing like the Hit Parade.” And they were right! A 7” single a month seems, somehow, very ‘Wedding Present’. So, inspired by that little idea from three decades ago, we’ve embarked on this new project, 24 Songs. “Even though The Wedding Present have never been known for taking the easy route, the idea of recording 24 tracks and releasing them in this way could seem daunting to any band. However, I’ve been inspired by the music that has been written since Jon and Melanie joined the group. The thought of celebrating this exciting new line-up with an exciting new series has motivated us all… and I suppose we also didn’t want any of these songs to be hidden away in the middle of an album!”
Very limited new repress coming, note new price. It’s unusual for an act to hit its peak after four decades. Yet here it is. The band’s climb to become Britain’s most dazzling live band - shows are played at full energy without the breaks lesser combos need to breathe, drink or chatter – was unexpected, and public awakening to their humour, skill and brilliance demands revision of post-punk history. The Nightingales emerge as the industrious ant to their peers’ workshy grasshopper personae, appearing victoriously at the finish line to puzzled realisations that they’d ever even been in the race. The Nightingales have notoriously had a new label for each new album, a fact which might reasonably call for consumer caution, but they don’t fit in with anything like a scene, they speak their own musical language, and while they bust out slogans about being “slightly superior to others of their ilk” . . . the truth is, they have no ilk. Faust’s Hans-Joachim Irmler adds keyboards and The Lovely Eggs’ Holly Blackwell’s languid voice features on one song, but the album’s real shock is that the band has now gelled to an unspoken, nearly psychic interplay. Captain Beefheart, one of Robert Lloyd’s musical heroes, is best known for the difficult-but-classic Trout Mask Replica, and like that album, this one contains nary a ‘hit’, yet here every song sticks in the brain and grooves . . . outclassing Beefheart’s masterpiece with its effortless charm. John Peel noted, “Their performances will serve to confirm their excellence when we are far enough distanced from the 1980s to look at the period rationally and other, infinitely better known, bands stand revealed as charlatans". It’s doubtful he would have bothered with such a pre-emptive defence if he’d been able to witness the explosive growth of the band during their second incarnation. Perish The Thought will be promoted by a far-flung tour, from Scotland to Serbia, with some dates already sold out. Guest supports include Stewart Lee, The Wolfhounds and Near Jazz Experience. Several videos for songs from the album were made.
Very limited new repress coming, note new price. An air of the unsettled is a staple of Robert Lloyd’s career, from The Prefects’s dank dexterity and jittery paranoia of the first Nightingales’ release, Idiot Strength, onward through four decades of top-notch recordings. If the unique persona of Lloyd and crew always came across on their ten albums and countless line-ups, it was largely as an acquired taste of the musical cognoscenti. Labels good and bad seemed to feel, at one point or another, a public duty and a point of pride to release a Nightingales album before returning to the business of business. Four Against Fate is remarkable. It’s the work of what’s now the band’s longest-serving line-up. The instrumental precision of any version of Nightingales has been one of the band’s defining hallmarks, but the psychic interplay of a group can take a few albums to kick in with full majesty - here’s proof of that. The rhythm section of Fliss and Andi functions now on a purely intuitive level. Jim’s work now ranks with that of any guitarist in modern ‘rock’ music, not just in originality, but also across an egalitarian mass of inspiration. Each member sings. Although Robert’s voice functions as the band’s superego, Fliss takes lead in several songs. Few bands today sound as much like a single unit as do Nightingales, but this group has the bonus of a distinct and credible musical language, exemplified by The Desperate Quartet, which comes across as both a medieval war march and the anthem of looming apocalypse. When at the song’s halfway point, American classical musician Clara Kebabian’s violin and Mark Bedford’s (of Madness) double bass overtake the Robert, Fliss, Jim and Andi, it’s a jawdropper of such intense perversity that it alone defies the listener to not play the album again from the start. Not that this album lacks ‘hits’ - The Top Shelf, Everything Everywhere All Of The Time, Devil’s Due and The Other Side are stunners. Robert claims Four Against Fate is the first of his album on which he skips no tracks on playback! Finally, the world has awakened to one of British music’s last treasures. After forty years of new labels, this is the first time Nightingales have released an album on the same label as their last full-length.
7" Black Vinyl limited to 1000 copies.
Teenagehood, brotherhood and a genuine love for alternative music has united THE GOA EXPRESS from the off. Hailing from the industrial town of Burnley and adopted by the Manchester culture carriers, their teenage years can be viewed as something of a hedonistic pilgrimage into the underbelly of suburban rock and roll- their first gig having been 3 songs blasted out their mates garage, the next on top of a local vintage shop where the floor nearly caved in: “when there’s fuck all, you make do with what you got”. The intensity of this friendship has resulted in the occasional bust up along the way, yet it only adds to the burning chemistry that the band offer on record and on stage. Together, brothers James Douglas Clarke (Guitar + Vocals) and Joe Clarke (Keys), along with Joey Stein (Lead Guitar), Naham Muzaffar (Bass) and Sam Launder (Drums) all contribute to a fuzzy wall of diverse sound, becoming harder to pin down with their constantly evolving, psych-umbrella’d, rock and roll. What sets THE GOA EXPRESS apart from other musicians who sit comfortably within scenes is that their identity as a band has been growing organically long before the 5 of them decided to pick up instruments and teach themselves art of killing time. Their genuine joy in the everyday; their attitude and antics seem to hark back to the glory days of the NME- if they talk about a night out, you want to be there because these lads ooze charm and wreak havoc. This purist, old school approach to creating music through unified experiences and stimulated good times is married with the plain fact that they are very much young people of this generation, and while they see its flaws its hyperreality, its sheep-like tendencies, they still understand the importance in the immediacy of pop music: of a banging riff, or a glorious chorus and how effective this can truly be, and they want everyone along for the ride. With influences ranging from Spacemen 3 and The Brian Jonestown Massacre to French existentialism, from Beat Literature to long hours working at the Bookies to the journey into the sunrise on the night bus home, it is their ability to be all these things at once which makes THE GOA EXPRESS a guitar band for the 21st Century. Nothing is ever a compromise because they are so unapologetically themselves in everything they do- proud Northerners with a DIY foundation that aren’t afraid to look into the often dim future and see themselves shining brightly in it, unforgiving and unpretentious. So far, the band have released 3 singles with great success. The first: ‘Be My Friend’, produced by Ross Orton right next Sheffield’s famous ‘City Sauna’ brothel, presents itself to us as a cheeky, snarling pop song, holding undertones of raw cynicism laden with psychedelic sunshine. Ross Orton’s studio was also right next door to where the band recorded their last single ‘The Day’ with Nathan Saoudi of Fat White Family at ‘Champ Zone.’ Both these producers have been able to give these instant pop classics a grittier feel, capturing the essence of the unfettered lifestyle the band were living at the time that they were able to capture themselves in the music video for ‘Be My Friend’. After signing with Ra-Ra Rok, (WU-LU/Bingo Fury) the band released anthemic summer hit ‘Second Time’, that went straight to the 6 music B-List before quickly heading up to the A-List 2 for 2 weeks. This was followed by the release of its B-Side ‘Overpass’ that almost immediately caught the eyes and ears of BBC Radio 1’s Jack Saunders, who had the band on his ‘Next Wave’ Segment. Closing the year that saw them play to 1000 strong crowds at festivals like Latitude & End of the Road, the band headlined their biggest headline show to date at Manchester’s Gorilla. Its fair to say that this really is only the beginning.
Catalina Matorral is a duo; Marion Cousin and Borja Flames make up its double head and four hands. At the beginning of the 2010s, they were called June et Jim -- they released some disturbing EPs before joining the label Le Saule (a small, chivalrous table whose holy grail is everything unheard, where folk- singing is avant-garde and avant-garde is synonymous with enchantment). Their first LP, Les Forts (2012), evoked the songwriting of indie-hobos inspired by Latin America, contributing to the rejuvenation of French music. Noche Primera (2013) went even further by vibrating in various reveries, from African songs to Spanish medieval music, from Purcell to Bach. It blew hot and cold under a psychedelic candlelight. The record in question has been maturing for seven years in eccentric barrels, marinating in the shadow of Marion and Borja's respective evolutions, nourished by their individual obsessions. Marion fixated on songs and dances from the Iberian Peninsula. This gave birth to a minimalistic, organic record featuring the cellist Gaspar Claus, where humming trembles among frowning pizzicatos, thin drones and throbbing arpeggios. She went on to release another album with the electronic duo Kaumwald, an oeuvre at the crossroads of vernacular narratives and experimental music, simmering everyday songs in an insolently modern production. Meanwhile, Borja leaned towards an intellectual, synthetic and furious pop; made two albums to awaken the dead, somewhere between Moondog and Battiato. They are two conceptual, electrifying and dance-inducing recordings for the phosphorescent masses. ...chimeric narration, heady verses, pop fragments, horizontal synths, distorted technologies. One would think they're listening to an opera composed by Robert Ashley or Laurie Anderson, based on an improbable libretto written by anthropologist Jeanne Favret-Saada, and performed by holograms of Brigitte Fontaine and Areski -- who unexpectedly regurgitate bits of blunt folk, binary jazz, baroque songs and ghostly madrigals. Micro-events, great enchantments. This record was written and recorded by two people, tinkering feverishly for seven years. It was blessed with the furtive appearances of faithful friends: Gaspar Claus played the cello; Igor Estrabol the clarinet, trumpet and flugelhorn; Renaud Cousin the drums; Ernest Bergez played the violin and whimsically mixed the tracks like a bonesetter-scientist. At the crossroads of worlds, eras and moods, Catalina Matorral invents a curiously rural science fiction that confounds poetry with white magic and puts French music in a permanent tension between the cosmos and manure...
Los Yesterdays made a big debut on Penrose with their first single and it is still getting heavy plays by soul DJs all over the place. Now they return with another perfect delivery of mid-tempo excellence that will appeal to fans of Eddie Holman and Billy Stewart. 'Nobody's Clown' pirouettes on splashy cymbals with natty chord riffs and twirling drums that dance their way into your heart. On the flip is the more forlorn and beautifully pained 'Give Me One More Chance.' It's about a love lost, like all the best tunes, and frankly, given the performance, it is a chance Mr Victor Benavides well deserves.
American blackened Electro-Industrial Act 6th Circle is back with new LP "The Idle Construct", another masterful forty-minute crucible of insurgent post-industrial darkness laced with haunting atmospheres and seismic, disorienting beats. Officially licensed from Sonic Groove Records, "The Idle Construct" is 6th Circle's most tenebrous and atmospheric release to date, seeing its first ever proper release on a physical format worldwide via Sentient Ruin as a limited edition black vinyl pressing, after its initial and so far digital-only release in 2021. "The Idle Construct" sees 6th Circle further evolve and deconstruct its dark sonic canvas, pushing its foreboding atmospheres and anachronistic grooves deeper into lightless realms, and taking the listener further into a dark future dystopia of bitter disillusionment and grim alienation. The dark flame of defining acts like Skinny Puppy, Front Line Assembly, and :Wumpscut:, burns more vigorously than ever within these ten caustic tracks of industrial insurrection, but what defines 6th Circle's unrivaled approach to the craft is not so much its masterful evocation of an unrivaled past glory, rather the fearless exploration of its still unaccomplished and uncharted possibilities in the present. Facing us is a dark electro-industrial beast levitating from the void and pulsing with the wrath of a dark age lurking ahead. A work which projects the genre into the future with spasms of sheer experimentalism and exploration, fusing themes and visions of the occult, magick, evil, darkness, political unrest, violence, chaos and the supernatural into a monstrous synthetic labyrinth of sound
Old Souls Carnival is the most accomplished Medline's album so far, presenting his new direction in composition and his multi-instrumentalist approach. The project is driven by a strong spiritual background with a deep 70's soul jazz fusion influence, raised into a movie soundtrack dimension.
Each piece reveals a facet of Medline's music, origins, tastes and character. Playing with shamanic and exotic harmonies, hybridized with distorded psych funk sound and solidely pulsed by unique polyrythmic drum beats.
The natural flows of his expression speaks deeply and truely to the senses, traducing 6 months of gathering emotions, traducing feelings, during meditative recordings sessions on the world evolution and reality. The entire album was produced, mixed and mastered by Medline at the family's house, in Messac, offering a perfect immersion in his spiritual and material universe.
The fabulous and mysterious handmade drawings of Stéphane Carricondo, are the perfect rendition of Medline's mestized artwork. Rich with a wide variety of colors and influences, channeled by Medline's own hands, this first 12" record released on his label My Bags lives up to expectation. This French-Chilean producer always works outside of boundaries and styles frames, and with this LP shows that extraordinary projects can be expected from him for years to come.
His first single Come On, Let’s Go was recorded in July 1958 at Studio B of the Gold Star Recording Studios. Phil Spector was also recording To Know Him Is To Love Him with the Teddy Bears, and dropped by Studio B to say hello to Ritchie. Released a couple of weeks later, Ritchie’s debut quickly became a number one in Los Angeles. The record went on to be named ‘Pick Of The Week’ in September’s issue of Billboard, soon reaching #42 on the national charts. Valens’ follow-up was Donna, which went to #2 on the charts in January 1959. Not only was the record a hit, it was almost eclipsed when radio DJs discovered the Bside, La Bamba, which Valens described as “an old Mexican folk song they play at weddings”.
This also became a hit, though it only reached #22 – although when La Bamba, the 1987 biopic of Valens was released, the title song went to Number One. From this point on Valens spent most of his time touring the West Coast and beyond, and also managed time for several TV shows and a movie appearance in Go, Johnny Go! So put this record on right now. Let’s go!
In 1955 Connie Francis recorded a set of demos which were turned down by nearly every record label around. Skilled in mimicking contemporary femal vocalists, she had yet to develop a distinctive style of her own. Eventually, MGM Records offered her a contract and with inspiration from her father, she recorded Who's Sorry Now. The track was singled out in 58 by Dick Clark who played it on his American Bandstand show. By April it had reached #1 in the UK, and #4 in the US charts. Her career went on to flourish when the songwriters Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield penned Stupid Cupid which again topped the UK charts at #1. She would go on to rack-up a further seven Top 40 hits before the end of the decade while managing to fit in the recording of an Italian songs album at the iconic Abbey Road Studios in London.
When producer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Diogo Strausz arrived in France for the first time, he already had an impressive CV. First, as part of the duo Balako, his music was released on Razor-N-Tape, Barefoot Beats and Greco-Roman after gaining the attention of Joe Goddard of Hot Chip. His tracks also have been played by Gilles Peterson on BBC 6. He also produced Brazilian indie artists such as Castello Branco and Alice Caymmi and remixed a track by Brazilian legend Gal Costa. Arrived in France, it is by signing the co-production of the disc "Les Bruits de la Ville" of Voyou or tracks for Julia Jean-Baptiste that he drew attention.
Freshly signed on Goutte d'Or Records, affiliated label of Cracki Records, to whom we can thank for Agar Agar, Saint DX or Alma Elste, Diogo Strausz will present his first EP Flight of Sagittarius in April 2022. Flight of Sagittarius is both retro and current. Between the old school boogie of Marcos Valle and the jazz funk of Azymuth but also the sunny groove of Nu Genea or the electro-funk productions of Guts.
Aerosmith veröffentlichen am 8. April mit „1971: The Road Starts Hear” frühe, bisher unveröffentlichten Aufnahmen aus ihrem Proberaum.
Boston 1971: Eine der ersten Aufnahmen von Aerosmith in ihrem Proberaum - nur die Band mit ihrer Crew und Freunden, aufgenommen mit Joe Perrys Tonbandgerät. Das Talent der zukünftigen Hall Of Fame-Band zeigt sich bereits in diesen ersten, rohen Mitschnitten. Die Aufnahmen entstanden ein Jahr
bevor sie bei Columbia Records unterschrieben und zwei Jahre vor ihrem Debütalbum „Aerosmith“, welches viele der Songs aus den frühen Aufnahmen enthält - einschließlich ihrer legendären Hymne ”Dream On”.
Lost somewhere between the mysterious alleys of 70s Istanbul and the scorching sun and crystal blue sea of Jaffa, Tel Aviv, Şatellites self-titled debut album is set to be released on Batov Records on April 1st.
The Şatellites’ sound shimmers between traditional Turkish folk and instrumentation, ethereal psychedelic guitar leads and groovy dance floor baselines. The resulting concoction of songs draws on cross continental influence yet at its core is a desire to illuminate the vivid qualities of classic Turkish music, honouring the Anatolian folk and psych artists from this golden era of music. From the funky disco beat of Disko Arabesque to the celestial lead guitar in Yağmur Yağar Taş Üstüne, the band add fire and flair to time-honoured pieces of Turkish music giving them new meanings. Covering important tracks such as female singer Kamuran Akkor’s track Olurmu Dersin, and musician and guitarist Zafer Dilek’s Yekte, the album covers an array of original pieces of different musical styles and sounds, that once have and continue to flow out of Turkey. The band boasts six members; Ariel Harrosh (Bass) Lotan Yaish (Drums), Yuli Shafriri (Vocals), Tsuf Mishali (Keys and Synths), Tal Eyal (Percussion) and Itamar Kluger (Diwan saz, both electric and acoustic, electric baglama, Greek 4 double string bouzouki). They came together some years after band leader Itamar Kluger discovered the saz whilst travelling the Kaçkar mountains in Turkey’s eastern region. The saz being a long necked, plucked stringed instrument native to the rural areas of the country, which remains an integral part of Şatellites’ union, and plays predominance throughout the bands’ album and music.
In the same way the guitar was electrified in the 1930s, the electrification of the saz in the 1960s led to an explosion of rock music dredged in middle eastern influence, a musical genre fittingly called “Anatolian Rock” and based on the principles of Anglo-American and psychedelic rock music, yet incorporating the style, rhythm, and scales of traditional Anatolian folk music.
As such, throughout the creation of the album, the band conceived the idea of intertwining differing elements such as the groove of funk, the rhythm of disco, and reverb of psychedelic, with traditional middle-eastern rhythm and structure, opening up the wealth of Turkish music to the western world, so that anyone and everyone can relate to something from the album. With that said, Şatellites emphasise that their music is not fundamentally Turkish music, on the contrary, they merely try to sound as close to the genre as possible. Their sole aim is to honour this amazing culture and to present it to the world in a more accessible and attainable form.
Rudolf Abramov hit all Optimo Music's buttons at once. Drums, energy, songs, instrumentals, super production, Post Punk echoing, dance floor destroying, home listening friendly, and completely unique.
Who are they and what are they about? Read on...
Rudolf Abramov is a duo based in Berlin. They seem to open a door to unexpected musical encounters. It's an almost impossible task to sum up their sound in a comprehensible way, but in their own words their music is 'a response to a seemingly endless conflict about disgust, acceptance and love.' Since the duo likes to invite other musicians and fellow humans to add to their pieces, this often creates another layer to their unexpected musical encounters.
"Losing Perspective" is the result of a journey that began with a week-long recording session outside the city. Back in Berlin the skeletons of the track gradually grew in flesh, experience and emotion, describing this time in a vibrant and ever-changing city; a city where the faded colours sometimes seem more appealing than the unifying glow of the new.
In order to preserve for ourselves the conflicting colours in their fantastic disharmony, we have therefore watched the pieces change rather than moving them in a particular direction. The result is a number of tracks with different facets that derive from different moods and voices, indulging in diversity.
At the end of this process, we look back at this colourful collage and connect our own very personal history with it and both resolve in harmony. When asking the cat from our studio’s courtyard for example, she said that "Losing Perspective" was about stray tomcats who have lost their old home port to a newfangled establishment wandering randomly through the days in search of songbirds, distraction and rest. And we feel like she kinda has a point there.
Terracotta Vinyl LP[22,65 €]
The Ninth Wave's upcoming second album Heavy Like A Headache arrives off the back of a sold-out UK tour toward the end of 2021 and Scottish Album Of The Year nominations for their Faris Badwan (The Horrors)-produced EP 'Happy Days!' and their critically acclaimed 2019 debut full-length Infancy. Produced by the band themselves and mixed by Max Heyes (Massive Attack, Doves, Primal Scream), Heavy Like A Headache explores feelings of grief, anxiety, anger and loneliness, and represents the 4-piece's most triumphant and diverse body of work to date. Celebrating honesty and real life, The Ninth Wave want their listeners to find comfort in their music. They want their fans to feel safe; to be confident in who they are, and to know they're not alone.
The band will play three album celebration shows in Manchester, London and Glasgow around album release. Recent singles have received multiple spins from Radio 1's Jack Saunders, 6 Music and an addition in NME's A-list, coverage in key publications such as Wonderland, The Line of Best Fit, DIY and more. 'What Makes You a Man' will be featured in the upcoming series of Netflix's Umbrella Academy. Their releases have seen countless editorial support from Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer and Amazon Music, including Spotify's New Music Friday, The Indie List, The Other List, All New Rock, Melomania and Scotify playlist additions.
Recycled Black LP[22,65 €]
The Ninth Wave's upcoming second album Heavy Like A Headache arrives off the back of a sold-out UK tour toward the end of 2021 and Scottish Album Of The Year nominations for their Faris Badwan (The Horrors)-produced EP 'Happy Days!' and their critically acclaimed 2019 debut full-length Infancy. Produced by the band themselves and mixed by Max Heyes (Massive Attack, Doves, Primal Scream), Heavy Like A Headache explores feelings of grief, anxiety, anger and loneliness, and represents the 4-piece's most triumphant and diverse body of work to date. Celebrating honesty and real life, The Ninth Wave want their listeners to find comfort in their music. They want their fans to feel safe; to be confident in who they are, and to know they're not alone.
The band will play three album celebration shows in Manchester, London and Glasgow around album release. Recent singles have received multiple spins from Radio 1's Jack Saunders, 6 Music and an addition in NME's A-list, coverage in key publications such as Wonderland, The Line of Best Fit, DIY and more. 'What Makes You a Man' will be featured in the upcoming series of Netflix's Umbrella Academy. Their releases have seen countless editorial support from Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer and Amazon Music, including Spotify's New Music Friday, The Indie List, The Other List, All New Rock, Melomania and Scotify playlist additions.
At the beginning of the eighties reggae music became increasingly in tune with what was happening in Kingston’s dance halls… probably more so than at any time since the sound system operators had started to make their own shuffle and boogie recordings in the late fifties. The international audience and the critics were too busy looking for a new Bob Marley to appreciate what was happening downtown and failed to acknowledge that this was a return to the real, raw roots of the music. Brash, confident, young record producers who were totally in tune with the youth audience stepped forward and seized the moment…
Oswald ‘Ossie’ Thomas began his apprenticeship in the music business at the age of fourteen and served his time as a record salesman for Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee and Winston ‘Niney The Observer’ Holness before moving on to Miss Sonia Pottinger’s Tip Top Records.
“I ended up working in three record stores on Orange Street from 1976 to 1981… Yeah man! Me deh ‘pon me bicycle till I buy my motorcycle! Them days records were coming out left, right and centre… every day!” Ossie Thomas
It was during his time with Miss Pottinger that Ossie began to produce records for himself and in 1979 Ossie and Phillip Morgan began the Black Solidarity label based deep in the Kingston ghetto on Delamere Avenue. Phillip initially inspired Ossie to start the label and soon Triston Palma, Phillip Frazer and “a youth named Gary Robertson” joined in although Gary later left for Canada.
The Soul Syndicate rehearsed in the Delamere Avenue area and Tony Chin gave Ossie a cut of a rhythm that he used for Triston Palma’s ‘A Class Girl’… the label’s inaugural release. The record was a sizeable success and paved the way for hit after hit after hit on Black Solidarity. Ossie worked with just about everybody who was anybody during this critical period of the music’s development including vocalists Robert Ffrench, Little John, Sugar Minott, Frankie Paul and most notably Triston Palma.
“But Delamere must be considered as a music street sheltering as it does such artists as Junior Byles, Don Angelo, Triston Palma, Phillip Frazer and producer Ossie of the Black Solidarity label…” Beth Lesser
And the man who had made his name in the business selling other people’s records now became one of the most important and influential record producers of the era.
With grateful thanks to: Paul Coote, Nick Hodgson & Hasse Huss
Recorded in 1991 by the quintet of vocalist Billie Ray Martin and Birmingham-based electronic musicians Brian Nordhoff, Joe Stevens, Les Fleming and Roberto Cimarosti, Electribal Soul was conceived as the sequel to the band’s 1990 debut album, Electribal Memories.
Electribal Memories had yielded the hits ‘Talking With Myself’ and ‘Tell Me When The Fever Ended’ and pushed Electribe 101 to the forefront of a crossover electronic scene that fused dance music with pop savvy. They were snapped up by Phonogram, managed by Tom Watkins and hailed as “the next band to meet the Queen” by i-D. The band took the coveted support slot for Depeche Mode on their epochal World Violation tour and supported Erasure at Milton Keynes Bowl. Seen as the next big thing, everything pointed toward enduring critical success for Electribe 101, and the band settled into putting their second album together.
“There was a degree of confidence among us when we came to write the second album,” recalls Billie Ray Martin. “To me, the songs we put down sound like some of our finest moments.” More immediately lush and warm than the dancefloor-friendly structures of Electribal Memories, the clue to the sound of Electribal Soul lies in the second word in its title: soul. Songs like the aching sensuality of opening track ‘Insatiable Love’ or the emboldened defiance of ‘Moving Downtown’ showcase Billie Ray Martin’s distinctive vocal range as it moves from haunting quiet to dramatic, euphoric rapture. Lyrics from ‘Moving Downtown’ had found their way into ‘Pimps, Pushers, Prostitutes’ by S’Express, and the song would appear as ‘Running Around Town’ on Martin’s 1996 solo album. The strikingproduction on the version of the song presented on Electribal Soul suggests classic late sixties soul influences, such as those of legendary Motown producer Norman Whitfield, with the long shadow cast by Kraftwerk never being far away.
‘Deadline For My Memories’, the song that provided the title for Martin’s first solo album, was originally intended for the second Electribe 101 album. Its lyrics document a sense of freedom and liberation from the darkness of a bad relationship, accompanied by jazzy piano and organ sounds over a quiet rhythm and discrete electronics. In contrast, ‘A Sigh Won’t Do’ finds Martin in soothing vocal mode, despite its devastating message about the final ending of a strained relationship, her lyrics framed by restrained and subtle beats and sounds.
To spend time with Martin’s voice on Electribal Soul is to find yourself moved deep into the ordinarily impenetrable emotional corners of your own psyche. “I was into big ballads at the time and listening to all kinds of US and UK singers, and I was also young enough to want to prove myself as a belter of ballads,” explains Martin of the classic soul edge the album showcased.
Electribal Soul heads into darker territory with ‘Hands Up And Amen’. Originally written by Martin in Berlin in the period before moving to London and forming Electribe 101, the song was then perfected and enhanced by the band’s production nous. ‘Hands Up And Amen’ savagely documents the mugging of a woman in Queens, NY at gunpoint, only to resolve itself with a middle section that nods reverently toward gospel tradition. The song coalesces around a regimented break and burbling synths, finally ending with layers of urgent synth sounds.
Meanwhile, a cover of Throbbing Gristle’s ‘Persuasion’ takes us into a seedy world of sexual coercion and creepy infatuation, predating Martin’s chilling version of the track with progressive house unit Spooky two years later. Supported by a minimal, nagging rhythm and barely-fluctuating sounds, Electribe 101’s take on ‘Persuasion’ makes for uneasy listening, even though Martin manages to inject a sort of twisted sympathy for the protagonist as the song progresses.
That Electribe 101 were as comfortable offering complicated, nuanced tracks like ‘Persuasion’ alongside pop house bangers like ‘Space Oasis’ – written by Billie Ray Martin with Martin King before Electribe 101 was formed – is testament to the way the band wove their way effortlessly through electronic music reference points. Framed by light, jazzy piano melodies and string sounds, the energy of ‘Space Oasis’ soars so high that it could easily reach the moon, while highlighting how well-suited Martin’s voice has always been to club music. We hear the same reminder of her dance music credentials on ‘True Memories Of My World’, finding her describing a Hollywood actress who reflects on being used by directors to sell her ‘tears’.
Hooking up with the Birmingham-based Nordhoff, Stevens, Fleming and Cimarosti after placing a Melody Maker ad in 1988 (“Soul rebel seeks musicians – genius only”), it was clear that Martin had found a group that recognised the unique power and importance of her voice. Having worked with genres as diverse as reggae, rock and R&B, the four producers proved to be perfect collaborators, presenting carefully-sculpted backdrops that emphasised the towering emotional dexterity of her voice.
“Listening back to these tracks now, I was reminded of what a bunch of great musicians they were,” says Martin. “They had a rule that if a part still sounded good after a day or two then it could stay. If it bothered the vocals, it would go.” Even more so than on Electribal Memories, Electribal Soul places Martin at the captivating centre of these pieces, surrounding her voice with everything from dubby rhythms to chunky R&B beats to nascent trip hop breaks; wiry, acid-hued synths uncoil gently without ever dominating, while horn samples and lush, disco-inflected strings provide a rich, naturalistic accompaniment for Martin’s emotional outpourings.
The band finished mixing the album at London’s Olympic Studios in 1991. They were assisted by Apollo 440’s Howard Gray on production duties for ‘Deadline For My Memories’, ‘Insatiable Love’ and ‘Space Oasis’, with Gray supported by talented engineer Al Stone. Pre-release promo tapes were issued and an enthusiastic energy started to build around the band’s anticipated second album.
It was not meant to be. Against a backdrop of a worsening relationship with Tom Watkins, and a disinterested Phonogram, instead of receiving a positive reaction to the new tracks, Electribe 101 were swiftly dropped by their label. Electribal Soul languished, unreleased, and the band yielded to pressures that had been building and split up. After collaborating with Spooky and The Grid, Billie Ray Martin went on to release her seminal debut solo album in 1996, with it securing the era-defining hit ‘Your Loving Arms’, while the other group members continued to work together as The Groove Corporation.
Thirty years after the songs were recorded, we’re now finally able to hear what the second and final chapter of Electribe 101’s story sounded like. Electribal Soul shows that the band had really only just got started when they dropped their first album in 1990. Heard only by a select and privileged few, what followed elevated the band’s music to a completely new level, making Electribal Soul musical buried treasure of the most precious and rare variety.
Electribal Soul will be released on LP, CD and digital formats on 18th February 2022 through Electribal Records. The physical formats include extensive liner notes from Billie Ray Martin, and the album sleeve features unseen archive photographs by Lewis Mulatero from the original 1990 sessions with the band that were never used in the sleeve designs for Electribal Memories.
Les Disques du Crepuscule present a new, remastered vinyl edition of Quart de Tour, Mon Amour, the highly collectible debut album by enigmatic Belgian duo Piscine et Charles, originally released by the label in 1984.
This remastered 2021 reissue retains the original cover art, as well as adding text and previously unseen images from the Piscine et Charles archive, plus a digital copy (MP3). A limited edition of 500 copies only has been pressed on turquoise vinyl.
A duo comprising Dominique Outers and Luc Raemdonck, Piscine et Charles taped their debut album at Daylight Studio in Brussels with engineer Didier de Roos (Univers Zero, Tideline), along with several guest musicians and classical singer Lucie Grauman. A concept album of sorts, Quart de Tour, Mon Amour (which translates as Quarter Turn, My Love) combines literary lyrics with music described as a ‘neat fusion of coldwave, electronics and lounge-jazz, predating acid-jazz by about five years and conjuring impressive atmospheres.’
Despite failing to reach a wide audience at the time, the album has since become a sought-after collector’s item, with the title track recently appearing on acclaimed anthology set Uneven Paths: Deviant Pop From Europe on Dutch label Music From Memory. ‘A very unique sound, Piscine et Charles explore a poetic, romantic and enigmatic musical realm where synth-pop meets jazz and spoken word.’
First Word Records is very proud to welcome back Don Leisure, with a brand new 25-track album 'Shaboo Strikes Back'.
Five years have passed since the first 'Shaboo' album was released. A collection of beats and pieces that documented the road trip of Don's youth - hip hop music interspersed with Asian radio station jingles of old, dedicated to Bollywood actor, Nasser 'Shaboo' Bharwani - Don Leisure's late uncle.
This album was heralded as "the best album of its kind since J Dilla's 'Donuts'" and deemed "unmissable" by the folks at Piccadilly Records. It also had strong support from BBC 6 Music's Tom Ravenscroft ("very, very good this indeed"), Huey Morgan ("my beat of the week"), Worldwide FM's Lefto ("defo down with this"), Rob Da Bank ("this is wicked") and the likes of Mathieu Schreyer (KCRW, LA), Alex Ruder (KEXP, Seattle), Kid Fonque (5FM, South Africa), Om Unit, Jon1st, Mr Thing, Rob Luis (Tru Thoughts), Dom Servini (Wah Wah 45s), Tim Parker (NTS) and tons more from across the globe.
Don Leisure is a DJ and producer based in Cardiff, Wales, sometimes known as one half of Darkhouse Family, along with Earl Jeffers. He's been a prolific beat-maker for many years, releasing under a variety of monikers for labels such as Metalheadz, International Anthem, Fat City, Izwid, Earnest Endeavours and Group BraCil. His most recent release was a remix for Gruff Rhys, which was released on Rough Trade.
In 2020 he was nominated for the Welsh Music Prize for his 'Steel Zakusi' project, and has dropped several releases for First Word, including the acclaimed 2019 'Halal Cool J' album and various Darkhouse Family projects, including collabs with artists as diverse as Charlotte Church, Om'Mas Keith and Children of Zeus's Tyler Daley, additionally to remixes from DJ Spinna and label-mate, Kaidi Tatham. As a DJ he has provided mixes for BBC 6 Music, NTS, Rinse FM, Solid Steel and Boxout FM in India, as well as performing at The Jazz Cafe, Fabric and on Boiler Room.
'Shaboo Strikes Back' is a much-awaited sequel to the 2017 smash, and again features a modest 25 tracks. Psychedelic fuzzy samples and phat beats aplenty, Don Leisure once again takes us on a far-out trip across soundscapes. A real tapestry of flavours, from jazz to reggae, and from the soulful to the spiritual, this time round he's invited a few special guests to join him on his travels - most notably Welsh legend Gruff Rhys provides the vocals on 'Neon Drizzle (Hotel Shaboo)', whilst acclaimed multi-instrumentalist Angel Bat Dawid and Jazzman-signed harpist Amanda Whiting lend their talents to 'All Praises Due'. There is even a special cameo appearance from his young daughter, (aka Shaboo's great-niece!), Naima, on 'Naima's Dream'.
Once again, this is a journey into sound.
'Shaboo Strikes Back' is released on vinyl & digital by First Word Records, March 2022.
Dedicated to Nasser 'Shaboo' Bharwan
x 24: Neon Drizzle (Hotel Shaboo) feat. Gruff Rhys
The debut album from Conduct, ‘Borderlands’, (nominated for ‘Best Album’ in DJ Mag’s annual awards.
Organic clashes with electronic in a whirlpool of tribal head banging, fragile introspection and beautiful sonic architecture.
Striving to show the world what can be achieved at 170 beats per minute, Conduct’s palette is a dramatic juxtaposition between electronic and acoustic instrumentation, with a cinematic approach to composition influenced by the likes of Hans Zimmer and Jesper Kyd. While it’s common for drum & bass producers to concentrate on dance-floor impact, Conduct‘s primary focus is the evocation of an emotional response in the listener, creating a body of work that lasts far beyond the club.
Following their critically acclaimed 2016 debut album, ‘Borderlands’, (nominated for ‘Best Album’ in DJ Mag’s annual awards), Conduct’s highly-anticipated second major work drops in 2017 via Blu Mar Ten Music.
‘Oma' is an immense LP, taking its sonic cues from 'Borderlands' while expanding them into far wilder territories. Organic clashes with electronic in a whirlpool of tribal head banging, fragile introspection and beautiful sonic architecture. Skittering rhythms, rock solid basses, angelic vocals and heartbreaking instrumentation are guaranteed to make 'Oma' one of the most notable drum & bass albums of 2017 and Conduct one of its prominent acts.
Striving to show the world what can be achieved at 170 beats per minute, Conduct’s palette is a dramatic juxtaposition between electronic and acoustic instrumentation, with a cinematic approach to composition influenced by the likes of Hans Zimmer and Jesper Kyd. While it’s common for drum & bass producers to concentrate on dance-floor impact, Conduct‘s primary focus is the evocation of an emotional response in the listener, creating a body of work that lasts far beyond the club.
Poets of the Fall are back and announce their greatly anticipated 9th studio album "Ghostlight", out worldwide April 29th. Poets of the Fall is a Finnish rock band from Helsinki founded in 2003. With their previous eight studio albums, they've gained several #1 spots on the charts, performed worldwide to an enthusiastically loyal fanbase and have become one of the most internationally successful bands from Finland. Their music videos have been viewed hundreds of millions of times on YouTube, and their songs are streamed over two million plays per month on Spotify alone. The first Single Requiem for My Harlequin can be described as a massive power-drama that hurls you into a dizzying carnival ride, a thick Metallic Power-ballad full of of crunchy guitars, big symphonic arrangements and the silky-smooth golden vocals the band is famous for.
Pressed on recycled vinyl.
Andy Cooper, member of Californian Hip Hop group Ugly Duckling recently released his solo project "Hot Off The Chopping Block" on LP and digital. Now here's your chance to get Andy's and Oonops' favorite handpicked tracks plus two unreleased fiery and exclusive instrumentals on your favourite format of choice.
Judee Sill was an American singer and songwriter. She released two albums and partially completed a third album before her death in 1979. Sill encountered Graham Nash and David Crosby and toured with them for a time as their opening act, a year before the release of her debut album. She was hired by the Turtles to write songs, on which a few of them appeared on her debut album, such as 'Lady-O'. Two of Sill's biggest influences were Bach and Ray Charles.
Judee Sill's eponymous debut album of the same name was originally released in late 1971. Backing musicians include John Beck and Jim Pons from the Leaves. The majority of the album was produced by Henry Lewy, noted for his work with Joni Mitchell throughout the 70s. Graham Nash handled the duties for the single 'Jesus Was a Cross Maker' with his production designed to aim for radio airplay before the release of the album. Judee Sill featured Sill's voice in multiple overdubs, often in a four-part chorale or fugue. The songs are delivered in an acoustic style on guitar and, for 'Jesus was a Cross Maker' and 'Enchanted Sky Machines,' on piano. The songs on the album feature elements of folk, country, and gospel, but also strong classical influences.
France pianist Vanessa Wagner continues her exploration of the minimalist repertoire by introducing her audience to pieces, many rare or unpublished, by acclaimed composers, young pianists, and genre-bending personalities from the ambient and electronic scenes. In France or even Europe, Vanessa Wagner is practically the only "classical" pianist to tackle this contemporary and timeless repertoire. Study of The Invisible features interpretations of pieces by a spectrum of composers that includes Suzanne Ciani, Harold Budd, David Lang, Bryce Dessner and Phillip Glass.
Described by Le Monde as ‘the most delightfully singular pianist of her generation’, and by Libération as ‘one of the most curious and captivating pianists on the French scene, Vanessa Wagner is able to balance parallel careers. As well as performing a classic solo, chamber and concert repertoire on stages all over the world, through her output on InFiné she is continuously exploring paths that are equally personal, but perhaps more intimate. Study Of The Invisible sees her breaking new ground in a musical tradition, in a way that no other ‘classical’ pianist in France and Europe currently does. Often described as ‘minimalist’, it’s a musical tradition that covers a multitude of singular styles and musical personalities and that spans generations.
Study Of The Invisible seeks out the mysterious world that lives behind the score, the imperceptible links that unite these silences and harmonies, but also the inner resources that this music can bring to light. With this record and this journey, whose apparent melancholy ultimately proves to be powerfully comforting, Vanessa Wagner continues to give a new scale to a music which proves to be above all radiant and luminous.
*are Vinyl exclusive tracks
Sublime funky jazz album by Harold Vick under the Sir Edward name - first time reissue from the 1973 edition on Funky Drummer Bernard Purdies short lived Encounter Label !
One of the great unsung saxophone hero's: Harold Vick worked as a sideman with Hammond Legends Jack McDuff, Jimmy McGriff, Big John Patton, and Larry Young. He played on and off with Walter Bishop, Jr. and also worked with Philly Joe Jones, Howard McGhee, Donald Byrd and Ray Charles and appeared with Dizzy Gillespie, King Curtis, and from 1970 to 1974 with Aretha Franklin. He played in Jack DeJohnette's jazz-rock band Compost from 1971 to 1973,recording with them in 1972 which is about the same time as this recording and that is probably the reason it is under the pseudonym of "Sir Edward". Add to that an absolutely top notch band, including bassist Wilbur "Bad" Bascomb, Jumma Santos on percussion and the mellow vibes of Omar Clay and this is a must have soulful jazz outing.
The music is a funky mix of some of the big Soul tunes of the day, with versions of Donny Hathaway and The Stylistics and a nod to the CTI stylings of the day with a get down version of "People Make The World Go Round".
Clear Vinyl Repress!!!
The landmark hundredth single on Phantasy, Erol Alkan’s ‘Automatic’ accompanied with two remixes that further take the London DJ and producer’s psychedelic club vision in distinct directions. The original 12" pressing, limited to 100 and hand-numbered, sold out in less than an hour.
Palms Trax builds on the sensual reverie of Alkan’s production with an electrifying rework full of touches both French and personal. Throwing out a gloriously chic bassline, the Berlin-based producer sprinkles carefully considered sweeps, stabs and filters on a trip to timeless house euphoria.
Mirroring the first ever artist to release on Phantasy in 2007 where Alkan remixed 'Engine', LA Priest proves a perfect candidate to reconstruct the label’s centenary single, a task he approaches with typically esoteric nous. Coaxing a heavenly aura from the original’s glorious loops, Sam Eastgate’s collection of reengineered and self-made analogue equipment soon progresses to melt Automatic’s rhythm into sticky cosmic bliss.
A masterful mix of timeless American soul with vintage 1970s African samples in a most rewarding way – musical traveler Eamon teams with production duo Likeminds for No Matter The Season, his second album for Now-Again. “I’ve been singing since I was a tike, promoters used to call me ‘the boy wonder’, but with this record it felt new, almost like I was singing every note as if my life depended on it,” says Eamon from his home in Southern California, a far cry from his native Staten Island, New York City. But you wouldn’t know his birthplace from the way he sings, especially on No Matter The Season, where Eamon put a new spin on vintage samples from the Now-Again catalog, crafting beats from various African rhythms such as Amanaz’s Zamrock, the Hygrades Nigerian funk, and Ayalew Mesfin’s Ethiopian tezetas. Shortly after the release of his last Now-Again project, Captive Thoughts, he began working with the production duo on two original compositions that appear on No Matter The Season. But as time went on, he came upon the idea of completing the album by sending the duo samples from the Now-Again catalog to work with. Which were expanded upon with a multitude of live instruments. “There was something special about combing through the African records at Now-Again,” Eamon reflects. “I had never heard the variety of funk and soul that existed in places like Lagos and Addis Ababa, it was like a history lesson in Rhythm & Blues. I was hearing the godfathers of the movement here in the US. I wanted to pay my respect to that lineage. Since singing in my father’s doo-wop group as a kid, I’ve always used music from the past to create and express something new in the present. But to be able to do that across continents and get back to the roots…that was really impactful for me.” Likeminds, helmed by Chris Soper and Jesse Singer, two East Coast transplants to LA who are as comfortable chopping up samples on an MPC as they are playing classic instruments, using vintage microphones, or recording to tape, offer up what could be described as a West Coast spin on the revivalist soul sound championed by Daptone Records. “For sure, the album is soaked in an old school feel, but to still tap into the depths of my soul today is always the end goal,” Eamon states. All but two tracks are based on Now-Again samples, using the classic rhythms as accompaniment to showcase Eamon’s emotional singing style that is still as honest and raw as when he was a 16, singing about heartbreak. The end result, No Matter the Season, is a celebration of the musical relationship between Africa and America and the thrilling soul music that relationship has spawned since the 60s and 70s. “My hope is people know that I’m not leaving anything on the table in this chapter of my career,” Eamon reflects. “Only thing I can do is pour my heart out on every single line. Even though I’m writing and screaming to the heavens about my joy, my pain, my love…these are songs for everyone, everywhere, anytime. You’re gonna walk away feeling something. This is why I titled the album No Matter The Season.”
Taken from "Echoes Of Africa" the most requested track from the album, "People All Around The World, Can Make It" is dealt with themes of climate change with their strong afrobeat/funk personality, are intoxicants, choral aphorisms, reminiscent of American funk bands of the '70s. It doesn't take much to change direction, to erase the negative effects caused by the recent years' globalisation …We can Make it!
Perfect Location Records in close collaboration with Cherushii’s family is proud to present Nobody’s Fool, Starlight Express, and Manic on vinyl for the first time as 3 EPs. Originally released by Cherushii on her Bandcamp in 2015 and 2016, these 3 EPs encompass the radiant love, fluent creativity, and unapologetic joviality of not only the musical world of Cherushii, but also the person behind the music.
The hand-drawn artwork, which has become iconically synonymous with the Cherushii sound, are original creations by Cherushii’s sister, Sabrina Fox. With this reissue, we offer a continuation of the same visual candy with a new front cover by Sabrina: the nudibranch pattern. Chosen by Sabrina after a dream visitation, the nudibranch is a curious, resilient creature which harnesses its profound coloration to flourish in the oceanic infinity. It can only do so, however, once it sheds its shell.
Inside of 3 EPs you will find the original covers belonging to Nobody’s Fool, Starlight Express, and Manic as gloss sleeves for the respective EP.
3 EPs also features some of Cherushii’s talented friends and mentors, from her production with Golden Donna, lyrics by her longtime friend Kara Marie, and an appearance by her childhood music teacher Marcia Miget, to remixes by 100% SILK all-stars Bobby Browser and Magic Touch.
It is our hope that this vinyl reissue, with its beautiful, large gloss prints of Sabrina’s artwork, will further disseminate the legacy of Cherushii while contributing to the posthumous archive of a musical mastermind, viciously devoted and missed friend, and beloved sister.
In loving memory of Chelsea Faith 1983-2016
i F1 Manic (Magic Touch Mix feat. Colored Craig) Vinyl Edit
i F1 Manic (Magic Touch Mix feat. Colored Craig) Vinyl Edit
Limited edition of 300 with stamped vinyl and risograph printed insert.
The first release of Séance Centre's "Speculative Ethnography” series is an EP of Burroughsinspired analog rhythm-scapes, conjured from the nocturnal Parisian imagination of Shelter (Alan Briand).
Recorded directly to cassette 4-track late at night in Briand’s apartment in Paris with a gathering of temperamental vintage gear, Le Sommeil Vertical captures a somnambulant journey into vibrant analog nether-regions. The hazy sonics harken back to ‘80s DIY cassette culture, but refracted through a prism of fourth world melodics and early IDM rhythm experiments.
The tracks are titled after Burroughs’ Cities of the Red Night, and the book acts as a talisman for the album, setting sci-fi surrealism within expansive arid psychic landscapes. The trance-inducing terrain, mapped out in warm
1/4” tape, moves through phased backstreets, AFX-arrondissements, and dub municipalities. This ismusic on the nod, an elixir for the sleepwalking flaneur. Alan Briand has been with Séance Centre from the start, as designer and European emissary — a
wunderkind of many talents, we’ve always trusted his ears as well as his eyes. We’re pleased to release this mesmerizing EP as a limited edition pressing with risograph printed insert and designed for future archives
Notching up their tenth studio album release with Outside Looking In through 100 Percent Records, the 8-piece Midlands-based Soul band Stone Foundation continue their rich vein of form. Their last three albums all charted within the Top 40 and Outside Looking In seems certain to repeat the trick.
Throughout their nearly 25 years together, the band have always been known for their collaborative spirit and inclusive approach. Outside Looking In is true to that. Recorded (as always) at Paul Weller’s Black Barn Studio, and featuring the man himself with a few Backing Vocals and instrumental contributions, the album also features a knockout guest lead vocal from legendary disco diva Melba Moore on ‘Now That You Want Me Back’. The album also boasts slots from Sulene Fleming, Laville, Sheree Dubois and Graziella Affinita; whilst Stone Foundation always bring a fresh new approach to each record, and a point of contrast to what came before, some things just do not need to be altered.
Notching up their tenth studio album release with Outside Looking In through 100 Percent Records, the 8-piece Midlands-based Soul band Stone Foundation continue their rich vein of form. Their last three albums all charted within the Top 40 and Outside Looking In seems certain to repeat the trick.
Throughout their nearly 25 years together, the band have always been known for their collaborative spirit and inclusive approach. Outside Looking In is true to that. Recorded (as always) at Paul Weller’s Black Barn Studio, and featuring the man himself with a few Backing Vocals and instrumental contributions, the album also features a knockout guest lead vocal from legendary disco diva Melba Moore on ‘Now That You Want Me Back’. The album also boasts slots from Sulene Fleming, Laville, Sheree Dubois and Graziella Affinita; whilst Stone Foundation always bring a fresh new approach to each record, and a point of contrast to what came before, some things just do not need to be altered.
Notching up their tenth studio album release with Outside Looking In through 100 Percent Records, the 8-piece Midlands-based Soul band Stone Foundation continue their rich vein of form. Their last three albums all charted within the Top 40 and Outside Looking In seems certain to repeat the trick.
Throughout their nearly 25 years together, the band have always been known for their collaborative spirit and inclusive approach. Outside Looking In is true to that. Recorded (as always) at Paul Weller’s Black Barn Studio, and featuring the man himself with a few Backing Vocals and instrumental contributions, the album also features a knockout guest lead vocal from legendary disco diva Melba Moore on ‘Now That You Want Me Back’. The album also boasts slots from Sulene Fleming, Laville, Sheree Dubois and Graziella Affinita; whilst Stone Foundation always bring a fresh new approach to each record, and a point of contrast to what came before, some things just do not need to be altered.
"_Acid blues punk meets freeform drone raag transcendentalism" JONNY HALIFAX is an untutored aleatoric free blues outsider. His new collection of sound is an instrumental departure into godless raag brut improvisations, layered, manipulated and sculpted into heavily immersive feral sonic collages. Invocations of an hallucinatory apocalyptic near future. Previously the creator of junkshop blues skronk one man band HONKEYFINGER, which then mutated into the gospel fuzz psych of Julian Cope endorsed JONNY HALIFAX & THE HOWLING TRUTH with their ""slitherin' electro -programmed slide guitar driven mung worship", alongside the ambient drone metal noisescapes of DEATHENTEREDINERROR, now THE JONNY HALIFAX INVOCATION channel heavy meditations on the present into an uncompromising free blues transcendentalism that burn raga-shaped holes into your chakra with searing psychedelic intensity. Inspired by Henry Flynt's avant bluegrass experiments fusing country blues with eastern acoustic musical stylings, Spacemen 3's contemporary sitar music, and the monolithic drone doom immersion of Sunn 0))), THE JONNY HALIFAX INVOCATION build hypnotic instrumental soundscapes using lap steel and homemade slide guitars, harmonica and alto sax. Underpinned by layers of acoustic and electronic drone instruments and fed through an arsenal of pedalboard electronics that would make Dave Gilmour weep. The blues are transmogrified, unhinged, reduced and re-imagined as intoxicating, trance-inducing, feedback-drenched noise paintings. AÇID BLÜÜS RÄÄGS Volume 1 plays like a psychedelic western movie soundtrack, frenzied electric lap steel guitar suites play to melting cowboy minds. Flaming tumbleweeds blow in slow motion across wide open concrete vistas. Jodorowsky's El Topo meets Ballard's High Rise in an apocalyptic knife edge disintegrating urban landscape. Shut your eyes and conjure the best nightmares you've never had. The JONNY HALIFAX musical CV also includes studio contributions to releases by Andrew Weatherall's TWO LONE SWORDSMEN, UK metal behemoths ORANGE GOBLIN, hardcore thrash upstarts HECK (formerly BABY GODZILLA), and pan european psych noise titans MELTING HAND.
Rare Nigerian Afrobeat-Funk from 1976.
First vinyl reissue since 1976.
First Ever Release Outside Of The African Continent.
Comes With Insert/Liner Notes.
180g BLACK vinyl limited to 500 copies (w/obi strip) - Non-Returnable.
THE FRIIMEN MUZIK COMPANY (also known as FRIIMEN) was formed after the Biafran war in 1973-1974 in the town of ABA in the eastern part of Nigeria. Aba was the Number 1 Music Hub in the entire Eastern Region of Nigeria. While bands and artists like ‘Ofege’ and ‘Fela Kuti’ ruled the LAGOS scene, bands like ‘Friimen’ and ‘The Apostles’ were ruling the ABA scene.
Before forming the band, most of its members were already working together as freelance session musicians backing up solo artists on several recordings and concerts (or were playing in military bands that gradually became civilian bands because the war had just ended). FRIIMEN members’ credits were numerous and they played, wrote or performed on recordings from well-known acts like The Funkees, The Jets, The Apostles…and countless others.
When they started concentrating on writing their own songs, the group instantly took off and became an overnight hit that resulted in them doing multiple successful nationwide tours. FRIIMEN would go on to record three albums: Free Man (1976), We Can Get It On (1978) and Merry Man (1979). All three albums were released on the Aba based label Anodisc Records (THE key label to be on if you wanted your music heard and out there), Anodisc also released hit records by ‘Sweet Unit’ and ‘Voice Of The Cross’ but The Friimen Muzik Company was the label’s signature band.
The Friimen Muzik Company was so solid that every new group or artist wanted the Friimen to back them up in the recording studio. As a result, Anodisc Records received tons of demo cassettes from aspiring artists…the label would then first consult the Friimen members to see if these new acts were worthy of giving a chance to record and release an album for Anodisc. Over the course of the years the band went through several line-up changes…but in 1980 the band finally broke up and their story came to an end.
The album we are presenting you today (Free Man from 1976) was recorded at the famous Decca Studios in Lagos and comes swinging right out of the gate with a set of no less than EIGHT monster tunes. Expect nothing less than crazy afrobeat and over the top melodic funk influenced by a wide array of artists (both local and international). Mesmerizing solos, captivating grooves, impeccable sequences that turned many heads…everything you need to get a dancehall into a complete uproar. The musicians’ skills are just plain incredible! FREE MAN is a quintessential record that every serious collector or fan needs to have in his/her collection.
This reissue also comes with an insert featuring pictures of the band and extensive liner notes from band-member Arthur Freds.
Tracklist:
Release Yourself , Free Man , My Dreams , Funky Workshop , Word of the Lord , We'll Get Our Share , You Can't Change Anything , Gimme Some Time
First Fragment was founded in 2007 by Phil Tougas (Chthe'ilist, Atramentus, Funebrarum) & brothers Gabriel Brault-Pilon and David AB. From day one, the trio sought to create a brand of extreme technical death metal that combined counterpoint-based riffing, neoclassical lead guitar work, power metal-inspired passages as well as flamenco & swing sections in a desire to branch out and establish their own unique voice in the Quebec scene. Their critically-acclaimed 2016 debut album "Dasein", released through Unique Leader, built upon the foundation established with the band's notorious EP "The Afterthought Ecstasy", self-released in 2010, Dasein was the culmination of almost 10 years of hard work and dedication to their craft. First Fragment have since honed their craft and perfected their sound through expanding upon their extensive musical influences, further blurring the line between flamenco-inspired technical death metal and neoclassical power metal. The result is "Gloire Éternelle" - an ambitious conceptual album that is unmistakably First Fragment, yet at the same time, impossible to categorize and pigeonhole. Boasting baroque-influenced guitar counterpoint, flamenco sections, unique slap-bass-driven swing grooves (which the band trademarked by name as "swingdowns"), face-ripping lead guitar work and bombastic drumming. Add a highly aggressive dual vocal approach and a lyrical approach soaked in abstract poetry (sung all in french), sprinkle with a ton of fretless bass solos and the result is the ultimate shredfest. A word which may be perceived positively or negatively depending of the listener, but nevertheless, a shredfest with soul, memorability, identity, purpose and conviction. For fans of : Yngwie Malmsteen, Cacophony, Racer X, Spawn of Possession, Capharnaum, Theory In Practice & Necrophagist
First Fragment was founded in 2007 by Phil Tougas (Chthe'ilist, Atramentus, Funebrarum) & brothers Gabriel Brault-Pilon and David AB. From day one, the trio sought to create a brand of extreme technical death metal that combined counterpoint-based riffing, neoclassical lead guitar work, power metal-inspired passages as well as flamenco & swing sections in a desire to branch out and establish their own unique voice in the Quebec scene. Their critically-acclaimed 2016 debut album "Dasein", released through Unique Leader, built upon the foundation established with the band's notorious EP "The Afterthought Ecstasy", self-released in 2010, Dasein was the culmination of almost 10 years of hard work and dedication to their craft. First Fragment have since honed their craft and perfected their sound through expanding upon their extensive musical influences, further blurring the line between flamenco-inspired technical death metal and neoclassical power metal. The result is "Gloire Éternelle" - an ambitious conceptual album that is unmistakably First Fragment, yet at the same time, impossible to categorize and pigeonhole. Boasting baroque-influenced guitar counterpoint, flamenco sections, unique slap-bass-driven swing grooves (which the band trademarked by name as "swingdowns"), face-ripping lead guitar work and bombastic drumming. Add a highly aggressive dual vocal approach and a lyrical approach soaked in abstract poetry (sung all in french), sprinkle with a ton of fretless bass solos and the result is the ultimate shredfest. A word which may be perceived positively or negatively depending of the listener, but nevertheless, a shredfest with soul, memorability, identity, purpose and conviction. For fans of : Yngwie Malmsteen, Cacophony, Racer X, Spawn of Possession, Capharnaum, Theory In Practice & Necrophagist
First Fragment was founded in 2007 by Phil Tougas (Chthe'ilist, Atramentus, Funebrarum) & brothers Gabriel Brault-Pilon and David AB. From day one, the trio sought to create a brand of extreme technical death metal that combined counterpoint-based riffing, neoclassical lead guitar work, power metal-inspired passages as well as flamenco & swing sections in a desire to branch out and establish their own unique voice in the Quebec scene. Their critically-acclaimed 2016 debut album "Dasein", released through Unique Leader, built upon the foundation established with the band's notorious EP "The Afterthought Ecstasy", self-released in 2010, Dasein was the culmination of almost 10 years of hard work and dedication to their craft. First Fragment have since honed their craft and perfected their sound through expanding upon their extensive musical influences, further blurring the line between flamenco-inspired technical death metal and neoclassical power metal. The result is "Gloire Éternelle" - an ambitious conceptual album that is unmistakably First Fragment, yet at the same time, impossible to categorize and pigeonhole. Boasting baroque-influenced guitar counterpoint, flamenco sections, unique slap-bass-driven swing grooves (which the band trademarked by name as "swingdowns"), face-ripping lead guitar work and bombastic drumming. Add a highly aggressive dual vocal approach and a lyrical approach soaked in abstract poetry (sung all in french), sprinkle with a ton of fretless bass solos and the result is the ultimate shredfest. A word which may be perceived positively or negatively depending of the listener, but nevertheless, a shredfest with soul, memorability, identity, purpose and conviction. For fans of : Yngwie Malmsteen, Cacophony, Racer X, Spawn of Possession, Capharnaum, Theory In Practice & Necrophagist
Like the creeks that run and tributaries that trickle throughout singer-songwriter Ian Noe’s homelands in Eastern Kentucky, water flows throughout his new LP. Thoughtfully and intentionally named, River Fools & Mountain Saints highlights Noe’s storytelling prowess through 12 country rockers and Appalachian ballads, depicting contemporary and historical life in the region. Broader in scope and brighter in tone than his lauded debut, 2019’s Between the Country, River Fools & Mountain Saints boasts a fuller sound with more diverse instrumentation. Produced by Andrija Tokic (Phosphorescent, Alabama Shakes, Hurray for the Riff Raff, Benjamin Booker, AHI), and featuring "Little" Jack Lawrence (The Raconteurs) on bass and Derry deBorja (Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit) on keys, this album explores the themes of Nature, Appalachia, Division, Death, and Redemption. They recorded on reel-to-reel tapes in short spurts over the course of two years, without the pressure of time, which enabled a wider range of experimentations, collaborations, and sounds.
Last copies of ultra limited version on half & half black/red vinyl. Only around a 100 available!
“I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig” reasoned George Bernard Shaw. “You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it.” True to form, Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs have left the wiser of us aware that they are no band to be messed with. This is made manifest on ‘Viscerals’, their third proper, and an enormous leap forward in confidence, adventure and sheer intensity even from their 2018 breakthrough ‘King Of Cowards’.
Incisive in its riff-driven attack, infectiously catchy in its songcraft and more intrepid than ever in its experimental approach, ‘Viscerals’ is the sound of a leaner, more vicious Pigs, and one with their controls set way beyond the pulverising one-riff workouts of their early days. Yet Pigsx7 have effortlessly broadened their horizons and dealt with all these new avenues without sacrificing one iota of their trademark eccentricity, and the personality of this band has never been stronger, whether on the Sabbathian and philosophical warcry of ‘Reducer’, the debauched, Jane’s Addiction-tinged swagger of ‘Rubbernecker’, the Melvins vs Sonic Youth demoltion derby of ‘New Body’ or even the demented MBV-meets-Twisted-Sister party-banger from hell that is ‘Crazy In Blood’.
“We’re a peculiar bunch of people - a precarious balance of passion, intensity and the absurd” notes vocalist Matt Baty. Such is the unstoppable character of this unique and ever-porcine outfit; still the hungriest animals at the rock trough.
If you’re going to listen to one Damata album this year, why not listen to the only one? ‘What’s Damata’ is the debut album of this Guitar Trio, and is a compilation of compositions and excerpts from improvisations recorded in January 2019. The albums attitude, while handled with a lot of caution, suggests that everything is allowed in this music, which points towards the prudence of Brian Eno and Maria Kannegaard, the freedom of Supersilent and the harmonies of Aphex Twin and Olivier Messiaen. A lot of the music has a cinematic character to it, and may at times sound like a homage to Ambient Music, Drum’n’Bass and Scandinavian Jazz and Jazz-Rock, all while preserving the organic sound from the guitar trio format and the playfulness found in improvised music. This playfulness has also planted its seeds in the mixing process; a tune might suddenly accelerate or the drums might be replaced with drum machines. The titles on the album is no exception, which one can read from titles like ‘Oslo, 32. August’, ‘Her Piece’ and ‘I Say Damata, You Say Matoma’. Further, the order of the tunes is different from each format, meaning that the vinyl track order is different than the track order on streaming services. ‘What’s Damata’ is available on vinyl, CD and streaming services through the Oslo label Dugnad Rec.
"The follow up to Self Esteem’s acclaimed 2019 debut album Compliments Please, Prioritise Pleasure is a record that reminds us all of the importance of being our unapologetic selves, putting your insecurities out there in the hope that it can be the first step towards healing them. Honest disclosure has always been Self Esteem’s forte, and so each track on Prioritise Pleasure handles difficult themes with nuanced perspective, comforted and counter-balanced with an array of rhythmic flourishes that speak to the eclecticism of her experience and influence. Self Esteem has moved on considerably since that her acclaimed debut. With NME DIY and Source magazine front covers, 6 Music A list's andTune of the week on Radio 1 with both Annie Mac and Greg James, things are really moving now. TV appearances include Channel 4 - Sunday Brunch - live performance, interview & show guest
19.10.21: TX Sky - Never Mind The Buzzcocks – guest panellist 21.10.21: TX – BBC 1 - Match of the Day – guest and performance. The album is released on a CD Mintpack, Black LP."
Released in 1983 on a miniscule run of 300-self-financed LP’s, Dennis Taylor’s ‘Dayspring’ remains a lost masterwork of transcendental instrumental guitar. An important missing link between the 60’s folkloric experimentalism of John Fahey and Robbie Basho, and the new age atmospherics mined by William Ackerman and Michael Hedges in the early 80’s. Though Taylor’s guitar playing remains crisply unadorned on these 10 tracks, his technique and his compositions stretch beyond the folk roots of the genre. He crafts a soundworld that is both immersive and familiar. His pastoralism has a spaciousness - a pianistic drift - that feels truly timeless.
Taylor cut his musical teeth through the 60’s and 70’s playing with garage rock bands, and later finding his footing in the world of jazz/folk fusion. Sometime in the early 70’s, Taylor found his most profound inspiration to date when he witnessed a live performance from Takoma Records luminary, Leo Kottke. Enraptured by Kottke’s ability to fill the room so completely, with the sound of just one instrument, Taylor was determined to follow a similar path. Thus, he began composing music for solo guitar. He spent nearly a decade writing and honing his pieces, finally entering a studio in 1982 to commit them to tape. Taylor likened the recording experience to “a living room concert.” He recorded each song in a single take, in the order they appear on the album. Paying out of pocket for the recording sessions, studio time was at a premium, so Taylor had arrived prepared. And the results speak for themselves.
Dennis Taylor’s guitar playing is clean, precise, and masterfully proficient. And yet, ‘Dayspring’ is not merely a document of technical ability. His compositions are deeply
expressive. Taylor’s deft fingerpicking is married to achingly beautiful melodicism. His arpeggios chime and roll with painterly expression. Across the breadth of ‘Dayspring’, Dennis Taylor strikes a perfect balance between wistful nostalgia and bold expansion. Though Taylor initially hoped to release his album with new age progenitors Windham Hill, he ultimately decided to release the album on his own. He self-financed a pressing of 300 LP’s, which were largely distributed locally in his hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska. And now, Morning Trip is supremely proud to bring this album back to light. An important missing piece in the expansive tapestry of instrumental guitar music, finally restored.
Freda Payne’s two-step classic rare groove “Tell Me Please” gets it’s long overdue first release on 7” single. Since first recorded and released in 1978 it has remained only as an album track from Freda’s “Supernatural High” LP that year. This Skip Scarborough composed song also featured on Expansion’s ‘Skip Scarborough Songbook’ but a 7” edition has never appeared before. It is accompanied by a Pam Sawyer/Marilyn McLeod song
“I Get High (On Your Memory)” produced by Tony Camillo. Originals of this on Capitol Records from 1977 exchange hands for small fortunes making both these songs on one 7” single an essential purchase. Both high quality definitive luxury soul.
Among the greatest lyricists hip-hop has ever seen, Gift Of Gab was one half of iconic duo Blackalicious, and inspired countless listeners before his untimely passing in 2021. As the last project Gab released commercially during his lifetime, "Rejoice! Rappers Are Rapping Again!" is an important contribution to the famed emcee’s extraordinary discography. Originally released on digital outlets in 2018, the 8-track EP is a triumphant celebration of lyricism as an art form, bursting with whirlwind flows and dazzling wordplay.
Now, "Rejoice! Rappers Are Rapping Again!" is available on vinyl for the first time. Featuring memorable appearances from R.A. The Rugged Man and A-F-R-O on the standout single “Freedom Form Flowing”, the collection is a compelling reminder that even toward the end of his life, Gift Of Gab remained at the peak of his powers.
The band describe themselves as a spaced out, instrumental loungerock outfit, with added vibes of folk music, jazzy surf, psychedelia, free improvised chill-out, jangly post-rock and travelling bass. Not much for us to add here, apart from possibly a pinch of krautrock. "Tellus" is the quartet's fourth album, and their debut on Rune Grammofon. Being something of an allstar team from the fertile psychedelic spacedrone scene in Haugesund on the westcoast of Norway, the members also pay their dues in bands like Electric Eye, Lumen Drones (ECM), Undergrünnen and The Low Frequency in Stereo, whose album "Futuro" we released back in 2009. On "Tellus" they are joined by Sigbjorn Apeland, a much esteemed musician largely operating in a landscape of folk music, church music and improvisation. He is a member of Nils Okland band (ECM and Hubro) and has collaborated with him for 30 years, also appearing on his two albums for Rune Grammofon; Straum (2000) and Bris (2004). Also appearing on "Tellus" is Ståle Liavik Solberg, a central force on Oslo's thriving improvised music scene. He has performed worldwide with numerous Norwegian and international musicians and curates the excellent Blow Out! festival. With "Tellus" ATS heads into the Hardangervidda (the big plains connecting the eastern and western parts of southern Norway) terrain of wide open spaces, spare vegetation and unruly weather conditions, especially during the winter. The album was recorded in a small studio in Haugesund during two days of heavy rain showers and stormy winds rumbling outside the windows. Per Steinar Lie - Lap-steel and electric guitar Oystein Braut - Guitar, organ and Mellotron Julius Lind - Double bass Orjan Haaland<
Hooversound hits the ground running with its first 2022 release, this time introducing UK artist RAVETRX to the table with a heavyweight EP that’s been doing the rounds on NTS, BBC Radio 6, and Rinse FM.
If the first track is a raver’s drive into the sunset, cruising through ecstatic trance vocals and euphoric jungle breaks, the rest of the A-side plants the listener right at the heart of the warehouse, where kick drums land chest first and hi-octane acid stabs fill the air. The B-side takes us deeper with eyes-down, knees-up techno slammers, with previous label collaborator Mani Festo making an appearance on ‘Feels Good Inside.’ Wrapping things up, ‘Tribe Sequence Calling’ shakes off the tension with distorted guitar riffs and a slouchy 4/4 beat.
Reissue of The White Stripes second album (originally released in June 2000), which found the band recording in the comfortable confines of Jack White's Third Man Studios, then housed on the ground floor of his house in Southwest Detroit. The on point covers of Son House and Blind Willie McTell pair wonderfully with both the minimal downtempo somber numbers and the maximum energy explosions of unadulterated power. A 13 track album pressed on 180gm black vinyl and housed in a tip on sleeve. Both releases will have promo/marketing activity.
It was a blessing to make contact with California gospel music icon Leonard Lothlen.
The concept behind this release was to place two gospel compositions recorded fifty years apart on one record! Musically diverse, both inspirational. IN THE PRESENCE features DERICK
HUGHES’ powerhouse vocals with a nod of respect to the late great Bishop Rance Allen
Leonard’s first record in the group G.C.’s from 1971, LET US PRAY is a proven rarity with only a handful of copies documented as sold online. Uniquely trippy in sound with the sweetest
of harmonies. Limited edition of 300 copies.
Take cover: there’s a storm coming !
With its lyrical thunderbolts, lightning-flash fretwork and ground-shaking grooves, Black Wind Howlin’ is a record to blow your roof off – and Samantha Fish is stood at the eye of the hurricane. Released on September 20th through Ruf Records, Black Wind Howlin’ flips a finger at the cliché of the ‘difficult second album’, firing off 12 classic tracks that chart Samantha’s evolution as songwriter, gunslinger
and lyricist. While lesser artists work to a template or settle into a pigeonhole, Samantha shifts her shape across the Black Wind Howlin’ tracklisting. She can be brutally rocking on cuts like the tourbus snapshot of Miles To Go (“Twelve hours to Reno/ten hours til the next show”), the swaggering Sucker Born (“Vegas left me weary, LA bled me dry/skating on fumes as I crossed the Nevada line…”) and the
venomous Go To Hell (“Oh, this ain’t my first rodeo/You hit yourself a dead end/ Your voodoo eyes, ain’t gonna cast a spell/ So you can go to hell!”). And yet, elsewhere, backed by the versatile production of Royal Southern Brotherhood guitarist and longtime collaborator Mike Zito, you’ll find Samantha shifting gears to the aching slide- guitar balladry of Over You (“Echoing words, said I’d never make it on my own…”) and the redemptive country strum Last September (“Don’t
remember the curves of my face/Can’t feel the warmth in my embrace/Well I’m here to remind you…”). She might stop off for a gritty cover of Howlin’ Wolf’s.
Who’s Been Talkin’, and co- wrote Go To Hell with Zito, but all other tracks are Samantha’s self-penned originals, and it’s a mix to keep listeners on their toes. “I wanted this record to have a modern rocking sound,” she explains of the lightfooted vibe. “I also wanted it to have elements of Americana, country and roots.”
Therefore she had support from a first- call band that included Royal Southern Brotherhood rhythm section Yonrico Scott (drums) and Charlie Wooton (bass), back- up guitar and vocals from Zito, plus guest appearances from Johnny Sansone (harmonica), Bo Thomas (fiddle on Last September) and Paul Thorn (vocals on Go To Hell). So here it is. Harder, darker, bolder and better than even its revered predecessor (Runaway), this is the sound of an artist on the brink of the huge-time with both hands on the wheel.
Limited Edition 3-panel digipak CD compilation of 26 of Juliette Gréco's most famous recordings, including the complete contents of her legendary LP Nº7 (Philips B 76 515 R), which was selected by MOJO Magazine as her best album.
An emblematic figure of French song with a career spanning seven decades, Juliette Gréco (1927-2020) is famous for having given the most celebrated performances of songs by authors such as Raymond Queneau, Jacques Prévert, Léo Ferré, Boris Vian and Serge Gainsbourg.
"Resistance activist, fashion trendsetter, singer, beatnik, talent scout, actress, lover and, as she said, 'famous before she had done anything', Juliette Greco will be remembered as the first and the last of her kind, and among the most influential people of the 20th century, even for those unable to name a single song to which her name would be linked." - David Hutcheon, MOJO Magazine, 2020
[a] 1 Sous Le Ciel De Paris [1959 Version]
[l] Sous Le Ciel De Paris [1951 Version]
'Legacy: A Tribute to Leslie West' will be released on CD, Silver vinyl and digitally.When Leslie West passed away in December of 2020, he left behind a towering legacy of epic recordings that few rock guitarists can match
But there was more to West than great songs (although, to be sure, he created a ton of them); there was his brilliant, idiosyncratic sound, a gargantuan earthmover that razed arenas and stadiums across the globe. More than just paralyzing tone, though, he also had a touch nobody could beat. Stinging, swooning and sensual melodies leapt from his fingertips – with a deft flick of his wrist, he sounded like a Delta bluesman had picked up a violin. These elements and more helped to make West one of the most significant, influential and
irreplaceable guitarists of the rock era.Originally, the album was intended to be a retrospective celebration of West's music on which the guitarist himself would perform some of his best-loved cuts with notable guests, along with a collection of new tracks. Two weeks before recording was set to commence, however, the guitarist passed away. While grieving the loss of her husband, Jenni was comforted by the constant stream of phone calls from famous musicians who
expressed their condolences, and without fail, each one said the same thing: "If you do any kind of tribute to Leslie, please let me know."An astonishing array of West's admirers – who also happened to be friends and peers – came together to celebrate the trailblazing musician on the aptly titled 'Legacy: A Tribute to Leslie
West'. Executive produced by Jenni West, Bob Ringe and John Lappen, the album features dizzying, heartfelt performances by Slash, Zakk Wylde, Dee Snider, Bachman & Bachman, Martin Barre, Joe Lynn Turner, Charlie Starr, Elliot Easton, Robbie Krieger, Mike Portnoy, Eddie Ojeda, George Lynch, Marty Friedman, Steve Morse and Yngwie Malmsteen, among others. Each track on its own is a corker,
but taken together the 12 cuts on 'Legacy: A Tribute to Leslie West' are a stunning and heartfelt testament to the true impact the guitarist had on musicians of all stripes, and as such, it's essential listening for both longtime fans and newbies.
Print coverage in Guitar Techniques, Rock Candy, Record Collector
The Hip Hop world had long been looking for a breath of fresh air when four legendary emcees stepped up, together, as EMC. EMC consists of the Midwest phenom Stricklin, the widely respected Lyricist Lounge duo Punchline & Wordsworth, and the Brooklyn-bred, battle-tested Juice Crew all-star Masta Ace. The Milwaukee born and raised Stricklin garnered attention in the late 90s while signed to Tommy Boy Records, and Punch and Words were integral in the success of the groundbreaking MTV program “The Lyricist Lounge Show” and have released EP’s both as a group and as solo artists. After the three toured extensively with Ace in 2001, the four became extremely close. Both the rappers themselves and the fans recognized the chemistry and, according to Masta Ace, “the group idea was a natural progression of the relationships we had all made from being on the road together. It wasn’t just about the music with us, we are pretty much like brothers.” EMC started a feeding frenzy in 2007 with the release of the 12” single “E.M.C.” and the subsequent 2008 full-length album The Show. With more than 20 tracks and appearances by Sean Price, Little Brother, Ladybug Mecca (of Digable Planets), DJ Eclipse, and Money Harm (of Product G & B), The Show satisfied even the most Rap-hungry fan. And while the album proved to be a showcase of lyrical talents, the beats themselves delivered as well, with production by Marco Polo, The Are of K-Otix, Ayatollah, Nicolay, Koolade, and more. Stricklin’s personality combined with the cleverness of Punchline, the wordplay and work ethic of Wordsworth, and the leadership of the Music Man himself Masta Ace, proved to be a massive success and this sought after album is now back in print and ready to be devoured by hungry rap fans once again.
With ‘Love on My Mind’ - the six-song mini-album, mixed by Claudius
Mittendorfer (Tennis, Parquet Courts, Johnny Marr) - Bambara condense all the energy and darkness that have made them so compelling and rearrange it into something defiantly new.
Opening track, ‘Slither in the Rain’, all hissing high-hat and spectral
synthlines, is a true statement of intent. It’s minimal and atmospheric,
foregrounding Bateh’s raw vocals as he introduces one of ‘Love on My Mind’s main characters years after the events of the album are over, a lonely man who throws bottles at airplanes and dances a two-step in the pattern of a figure-8. While Bateh has always been adept at character sketches, tracks like ‘Slither’ introduce a newfound vulnerability that runs true through the entire album and cause the songs to hit on a more human level.
Similarly, ‘Point And Shoot’ - in which each stanza describes the louche, lawless scenes of “rooftop girls / standing shoulder-to-shoulder, naked figures with their hips / cocked,” busted up jaws, and couches full of burnholes captured by the snapshots of ‘Love on My Mind’s female lead - displays an autobiographical intimacy that is not as apparent in Bambara’s previous releases. This tenderness is echoed on ‘Birds’, a rare love song (from which the EP’s title is derived), and album closer ‘Little Wars’, a gripping finale of loneliness and isolation.
But while these songs may display a softer side of Bambara, it’s important to note that they haven’t lost the thrill of what attracted so many people to them in the first place. ‘Mythic Love’ (featuring vocals from Bria Salmena), with its driving bassline and ricocheting guitar lines, brings to mind past rave-ups like ‘Serafina’ and ‘Sunbleached Skulls’ but obliterates them in the process, while ‘Feelin’ Like A Funeral’ - a dangerously oscillating tale of a city knifing - is probably the most thrillingly anthemic song the band have ever recorded.
Taken together, ‘Love on My Mind’ amounts to another massive step forward for Bambara - the boldest thing they’ve ever done - and the sound of yet another breakthrough.
“Engrossing, dark and irresistible… an adventurous group, who just keep getting better all the time.” - CLASH
“Never anything less than captivating.” - Upset
“What Athens, Georgia bunch Bambara do, they do very well… the trio’s commitment to the dark side is never in question.” - DIY
“Bambara are ice cold and sharp as a knife’s edge.” - Loud & Quiet
“Brooklyn based doom-mongers delight… the trio go further than most in their quest to rattle.” - Q (4/5)
For fans of Daughters, Protomartyr, IDLES, King Krule, Ice Age.
Previous album released on Dead Oceans. Previous album was a collaboration with Brian Eno. Past press coverage from Pitchfork, SPIN, The Guardian, Drowned in Sound, Dusted, The Quietus, and many more. Since the release of his last album 2017’s Finding Shore, a collaboration with Brian Eno pianist and singer-songwriter Tom Rogerson’s life has undergone a number of dramatic transformations. While writing his new album Retreat to Bliss, Rogerson had a child, lost a parent, and received his own diagnosis of a rare form of blood cancer. The new decade brought him from Berlin to the Suffolk of his childhood, composing profound pieces of minimal songwriting in the church next to his parents’ home. Rogerson studied composition at the Royal Academy of Music under mentors like Harrison Birtwistle, and he made his live debut as an improvising pianist in 2002, before releasing an improvised record with Reid Anderson (Bad Plus) and Mike Lewis (Happy Apple, Bon Iver) in 2004. He formed the band Three Trapped Tigers in 2007, expertly blending elements of electronic, jazz and noise rock into a cohesive whole. The band earned a reputation for innovative live shows and went on to perform and collaborate with artists like Brian Eno, Deftones, and the Dillinger Escape Plan. It was working with Eno, another Suffolk native, that eventually led Rogerson back to his roots and back to a place where he could write Retreat to Bliss, his solo debut album. “All my life, the piano has been my constant companion, my confessor, my best friend, and my worst enemy,” Rogerson explains. “I’ve always written music on and for the piano, but it felt too personal, too private to release.” Indeed, listening to Retreat to Bliss feels almost like eavesdropping, as though you’re crouched in the belfry of a Suffolk church, bearing witness to a form of musical bloodletting. For the first time in his noteworthy career, Rogerson has combined masterful piano playing and subtle electronics with the texture of his own voice, an attempt to express deeply private emotions that were difficult to articulate using instrumental music alone. “The last few years have brought some struggle, some joy, and a lot of change. My response has been to retreat to what I trust the most: the piano, my voice, and the landscape I grew up in. That’s how the album got its title, and how I came to be ready finally to release a solo record.” The eleven tracks that make up Retreat to Bliss were recorded by Leo Abrahams (Brian Eno, David Byrne, Grace Jones) over the course of just a few days, a process that emphasized spontaneity and the artist’s own commitment to improvisation. Secular yet devotional, intensely personal yet profound, the experience of listening to Retreat to Bliss seems to evade characterization. It’s physical and emotional, a glimpse into the mind of an artist who has chosen exposure over withdrawal, who uses his command of the piano to chart an unflinching path forward, never looking back. UK press campaign by Someone Great. Press Quotes "A meeting of minds that is full of rewarding surprises, challenging and surprising one another, and their listeners, with music that feels alive and wondrous…” Pitchfork // "Both mournful and dazzlingly optimistic, a taste of the conflict found so ofen in nature and reflected so elegantly across the course of the record.” The Line of Best Fit // "Many avant-garde instrumental albums exist to craf a mood; Rogerson and Eno merge these moods, sounds and themes together efortlessly and radiantly on Finding Shore” Exclaim // Track List 01 Descent 02 Oath 03 Buried Deep 04 Toumani 05 Drone Finder part 2 06 Chant 07 Rapture 1 08 Open Out Span Wide View 09 A Clearing 10 Retreat To 11 Coda
First vinyl pressing is Limited to 1500 copies in 2 Colour variants. Transparent Aquamarine and green twisted stripe and transparent blue and cherry twisted stripe vinyl (Indies Only). Gatefold sleeve. Full download included as well. CD package is a 4 panel digipack, with a 4 page booklet. New Heavy Sounds is proud to present the new album by Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard. now known simply as MWWB. There has been some speculation amongst fan circles that the final part of the trilogy of albums that preceded this, marked the end of Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard’s five-year mission. Not so. We can categorically confirm that having officially slimmed their name down to the acronym, MWWB are continuing their voyage through the far reaches of the galaxy. The first phase of that journey is their new album ‘The Harvest’. ‘The Harvest’ is the band’s fourth album, and of course it is a record shot through with the trademark heavy MWWB sound, and their unique blend of metal and shoegaze. However it also sees the band adding more experimentation, a progressive approach, and going a bit more left field conceptually. To some extent, it shares similarities with Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’. Not only by having the mix of experimentation and melodicism as that seminal record, but also in the way that it has been engineered and constructed as a seamless piece. Nine tracks flowing into one another. Space age riff monsters segueing into shorter musical interludes, where John Carpenter, rubs shoulders with Pink Floyd and a maelstrom of moog and mellotron. There are surprises, and of course a bucketload of heavy shit. With ‘The Harvest’ MWWB have refined and honed their sound, it’s a carefully crafted distillation of ideas, written, conceived and sequenced to be listened to in its entirety (preferably in one sitting). MWWB have always loved film scores and this new album is in many ways, the soundtrack to a film. MWWB provides the musical narrative (the song titles also provide a pointer) and the listener's imagination does the rest. ‘Oblok Magellana’ and its spooky atmospherics set the scene. before things really kick in with the riffs of title track ‘The Harvest’. A grooving Sabbathian chug intro’s Jessica Ball, who at the top of her game throughout. Her voice simultaneously sweet yet dark; almost neofolk; which when put against those riffs, is always a startling juxtaposition, nevertheless it perfectly crystallises MWWB’s distinctive dynamic. ‘Interstellar Wrecking’ is a succinctly crafted nugget of John Carpenter-esque drama, you can imagine the thundering mothership forging its way through the universe on some nameless quest before encountering ‘Logic Bomb’ and its fat fuzzed-up ride through light and shade guitar/vocal interplay. Ball’s voice soaring and shimmering throughout. ‘Betrayal’ gives a nod to Pink Floyd’s ‘On The Run’ but with its freaky spoken word and four on the floor kick it’s almost a dance track, yet there’s no incongruity here. ‘Altamira’ is epic MWWB, adding large doses of psych into a melodic concoction of dreampop and metal. Ball’s vocals here are many layered and textured effortlessly gliding through the weight of the backing. ‘Let’s Send The Bastards Whence They Came’ is another little gem. A plaintive repeating synth figure that builds with bass, drums, mellotrons and synths into ‘Strontium’ which rounds off the album’s ‘heavy’ numbers, a blend of monster grooves, and Ball’s swooning vocals. Finally, and outstandingly, Jessica strips things back to a distorted guitar and voice on ‘Moonrise’. Shorn of the layers of fuzz, it is a simple, beautiful and fitting catharsis to an epic voyage. MWWB are a thrilling proposition. They demonstrate that you can seamlessly mix crushing power, experimentation and delicate vulnerability into something that transcends any genre. MWWB are Jessica Ball, vocals and synths. Paul Michael Davies, guitar and synths. Stuart Sinclair, bass and Dom McCready, drums.
First vinyl pressing is Limited to 1500 copies in 2 Colour variants. Transparent Aquamarine and green twisted stripe and transparent blue and cherry twisted stripe vinyl (Indies Only). Gatefold sleeve. Full download included as well. CD package is a 4 panel digipack, with a 4 page booklet. New Heavy Sounds is proud to present the new album by Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard. now known simply as MWWB. There has been some speculation amongst fan circles that the final part of the trilogy of albums that preceded this, marked the end of Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard’s five-year mission. Not so. We can categorically confirm that having officially slimmed their name down to the acronym, MWWB are continuing their voyage through the far reaches of the galaxy. The first phase of that journey is their new album ‘The Harvest’. ‘The Harvest’ is the band’s fourth album, and of course it is a record shot through with the trademark heavy MWWB sound, and their unique blend of metal and shoegaze. However it also sees the band adding more experimentation, a progressive approach, and going a bit more left field conceptually. To some extent, it shares similarities with Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’. Not only by having the mix of experimentation and melodicism as that seminal record, but also in the way that it has been engineered and constructed as a seamless piece. Nine tracks flowing into one another. Space age riff monsters segueing into shorter musical interludes, where John Carpenter, rubs shoulders with Pink Floyd and a maelstrom of moog and mellotron. There are surprises, and of course a bucketload of heavy shit. With ‘The Harvest’ MWWB have refined and honed their sound, it’s a carefully crafted distillation of ideas, written, conceived and sequenced to be listened to in its entirety (preferably in one sitting). MWWB have always loved film scores and this new album is in many ways, the soundtrack to a film. MWWB provides the musical narrative (the song titles also provide a pointer) and the listener's imagination does the rest. ‘Oblok Magellana’ and its spooky atmospherics set the scene. before things really kick in with the riffs of title track ‘The Harvest’. A grooving Sabbathian chug intro’s Jessica Ball, who at the top of her game throughout. Her voice simultaneously sweet yet dark; almost neofolk; which when put against those riffs, is always a startling juxtaposition, nevertheless it perfectly crystallises MWWB’s distinctive dynamic. ‘Interstellar Wrecking’ is a succinctly crafted nugget of John Carpenter-esque drama, you can imagine the thundering mothership forging its way through the universe on some nameless quest before encountering ‘Logic Bomb’ and its fat fuzzed-up ride through light and shade guitar/vocal interplay. Ball’s voice soaring and shimmering throughout. ‘Betrayal’ gives a nod to Pink Floyd’s ‘On The Run’ but with its freaky spoken word and four on the floor kick it’s almost a dance track, yet there’s no incongruity here. ‘Altamira’ is epic MWWB, adding large doses of psych into a melodic concoction of dreampop and metal. Ball’s vocals here are many layered and textured effortlessly gliding through the weight of the backing. ‘Let’s Send The Bastards Whence They Came’ is another little gem. A plaintive repeating synth figure that builds with bass, drums, mellotrons and synths into ‘Strontium’ which rounds off the album’s ‘heavy’ numbers, a blend of monster grooves, and Ball’s swooning vocals. Finally, and outstandingly, Jessica strips things back to a distorted guitar and voice on ‘Moonrise’. Shorn of the layers of fuzz, it is a simple, beautiful and fitting catharsis to an epic voyage. MWWB are a thrilling proposition. They demonstrate that you can seamlessly mix crushing power, experimentation and delicate vulnerability into something that transcends any genre. MWWB are Jessica Ball, vocals and synths. Paul Michael Davies, guitar and synths. Stuart Sinclair, bass and Dom McCready, drums.
EVEN THE CHIMERA is the debut album by Wild Terrier Orchestra, a new project by Dimitris Papadatos, aka Jay Glass Dubs, based on interchangeability and open improvisation. A newer, freer incarnation of Papadatos’ creative intent, the project acts more like an open container of disparate and idiosyncratic contributions from a mutable cast of musicians and artists. Often times not provided according to a pre-planned structure, these contributions are actually more likely to arrive in the form of free improvisations, unconnected musical segments and fragmented splinters of sound. This allows Papadatos to aggregate all the constituent parts according to an intuitive process that bridges between the detailed craft of electronic music production and surrealist techniques such as the Cadavre Exquis and the Cut-Up. It’s both a harmonization of contrasting tones and a research for commonality within difference, although none of the wild terriers are ever nearly tamed. Unsurprisingly, the main inspiration for this new chapter came from a a pinnacle of avantgarde literature: poet Andreas Embirikos’, considered Greece’s first surrealist and all-out paradoxical figure. Specifically, this release is guided and instigated by his poem OKTANA, in which Embirikos inscribes a manifesto for a hedonistic utopia years ahead of any accelerationist theories, bursting with contradicting presences and mutating identities. Written in the aftermath of the Greek civil war, the poem calls for a time of eternal poetry and spiritual intoxication that can only be reached through a painful process of violent deconstruction. Thus, EVEN THE CHIMERA was born: a culmination of Papadatos’ decades long research on traditional Greek and Byzantine music, free jazz and free improvisation. Firmly spread between two side-long tracks, the contributions of American singer and musician Cruel Diagonals on vocal duties as well as Greek artist and musician Fotini Korre on ney suggest the existence of a filament that connects the west and the east through the creation of ‘’possible musics’’. This happens in accordance to Papadatos’ practice of a counterfactual approach to the process of what music history dictates. It is also directly shaped by the musician’s frequent dwellings in the isle of Cyprus, a land in which the clash of worlds and culture has often taken both violent and beautiful shapes. The long drones, acoustic ghosts and unbalanced choirs that form the album seem to call from the Mediterranean itself, not only from its history but also from its possible futures and unreal narrations, invoking it as a nexus of diversity and possibility.
Unreleased Alternative version 1978. Not included on album FaSHION Music due 1st April
TV on the Radio's "Province" and Beverly Glenn-Copeland's "Ever New" were released more than 20 years apart, with little in common sonically, but here, they’re intrinsically linked as studies in formative musical heroes for artists with dazzling voices. For Bartees Strange, TV on the Radio is an inspiration for where he could take his own genre-bending brand of guitar-driven rock. For Anjimile Chithambo, Glenn-Copeland is a reflection of themself in every way - a Black trans musician writing profoundly resonant songs focused on identity and rebirth, and the expansiveness you can find within. "Province" began with Eric Slick, who was the producer behind the track. The multi-instrumentalist, solo musician, and Dr. Dog drummer had been obsessed with Return to Cookie Mountain, TVOTR's third record, as a kid, and found himself revisiting it again and again. This past year, he made his own rough acoustic cover of "Province," before deciding to reach out to Bartees Strange and having him contribute vocals. TV on the Radio was pivotal for Bartees -- the moment he saw the band perform is seared into his memory. He came across their performance on The Late Show with David Letterman while channel surfing one night when he was a kid, and was immediately enraptured by their performance. He hadn't known what he wanted to do musically until he saw them perform, and it changed the possibilities of his life. Here, in his interpretation of the song, his voice is cavernous here, fleshed out atop a bed of Mellotron, Moog, and MPC instrumentations from Slick and celestial swells added by Ohmme's Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart. Anjimile's interpretation of Glenn-Copeland's "Ever New" came together in a more solitary way, recorded alone in their Boston apartment. In his cover, the original seven-minute new age ballad from Glenn-Copeland's revolutionary 1986 album Keyboard Fantasies is trimmed down, sonically simplified to its core. Anjimile moves it more into a folk territory, building out the sonic world with the delicate, tender acoustic guitar lines and finger picking that's been an identifier across their own catalog. It's a more muted, subtle palette translating Glenn-Copeland's epic of springtime bloom and rebirth, but emanates that same tenderness. Anjimile's stunning vocal performance ushering the hymn into new direct clarity.
All Away Lou is the new band from Lou Hanman; a 40 something, queer, English woman living in Philadelphia, PA, still playing punk rock three decades in because it's fun and she needs it! The force behind UK punk favourites Caves & Flamingo 50. Lou emigrated to the US 6 years ago to pursue music full time, touring & recording drums, bass, guitar for the likes of RVIVR, Mikey Erg, Thin Lips, Katie Ellen, Queen of Jeans, Worriers. After a significant songwriting drought, the pandemic and a break from touring gave Lou the space to focus on her own musical output and spend some time recording at Headroom Studios in her current hometown of Philadelphia, PA with Kyle Pulley and Jackie Milestone. While she records everything herself, All Away Lou is very much a band, and an opportunity to get loud, sweaty and rock out as soon as the possibility arises. The name simply comes from never feeling at home, always away. She had felt the culture shock of moving to the states from the UK (especially of the political landscape after November 2016) and a breakup that underpinned the realization that life was not turning out the way she had hoped. Lyrics on the record reflect this point in Lou’s life: the need to return to a feeling of “home” and have the courage to change her mind, take a new path and not settle for things that didn’t feel right. All Away Lou will be taking the album on the road with dates in the UK & Ireland supporting Jeff Rosenstock & Fresh in April 2022.
P.E.’s sophomore album, ‘The Leather Lemon’, ushers in a new era for the New York band. A wild ride through chewy bubblegum pop, sweeping synthetic orchestrations and mutant club beats, the album slides ever closer to the fully-realized pop sensibility only winked at with their debut album, ‘Person’ (2020), and subsequent releases.
Recorded primarily at Schenke’s Studio Windows in Brooklyn, NY, ‘The Leather Lemon’ was cultivated from a fertile creative period between spring 2020 and summer 2021, which also yielded 2021’s acclaimed ‘The Reason For My Love’ EP.
Digging into mystery, romance and sex appeal, the album centres its sound within a Bermuda Triangle of dance music, electronic composition and experimental rock. Members Jonathan Schenke, Bob Jones and Jonny Campolo play within pop parameters, building upon free-form collaboration to create a fluorescent groove machine that harnesses the energy of their frenetic live shows.
Singer Veronica Torres explores her softer side, expanding her vocal repertoire from spoken word and jagged growls to cherubic and sensuous psalms.
Sax virtuoso Benjamin Jaffe’s chiseled experimental tone is heard in an extended solo of true romance in ‘Tears in the Rain’, a sombre surrealist duet penned by Torres and Andrew Savage, singer/guitarist of Parquet Courts.
It is a reckoning record for the times; an album of psychedelic resurfacing, real-time response to world events, and soft, sympathetic magic. This is a collection of songs shaped by five individuals who embrace music-making as a way to centre themselves in times of uncertainty; it’s resilience and imagination given shape. ‘The Leather Lemon’ is a true sweet-and-sour listening experience, an album as bright and clear as it is fractured and fun.
Rare Nigerian Afrobeat-Afropop Album.
First vinyl reissue since 1985.
Solo Album by Ofege Frontman Melvin Ukachi.
First Ever Release Outside Of The African Continent.
180g BLACK vinyl limited to 500 copies (w/obi strip). Non-Returnable.
Melvin Ukachi needs little introduction, the Lagos (Nigeria) based vocalist and bandleader is a living legend. Melvin is known for his fantastic solo albums, his vocals for the afrobeat star-groups M.F.B. and Ozzobia…but his biggest legacy is without a doubt him being the singer and bandleader of Ofege.
Melvin formed Ofege in the early 1970s (when he and the other band members were all still a bunch of teenagers). Due to their vibrant combo of sweet harmonies, hooks & fuzz, Ofege would become one of the most legendary Nigerian groups of all time, with expressive sales and national stardom to follow. At the turn of the century (and because of tracks appearing on various compilations) Ofege would receive international acknowledgment for being the first of their kind and THE ultimate West-African psychedelic funk band!
Melvin Ukachi recorded four milestone albums with Ofege: ‘Try and Love’ (1973) ‘The Last of The Origins’ (1976), ‘Higher Plane Breeze’ (1977) and ‘How Do You Feel’ (1978). When the Ofege story came to an end, Melvin recorded two astonishing solo albums: ‘Evolution-Bring Back The Ofege Beat’ (1981) and ‘I am Ok’ (1985). Both of his solo recordings have now become much sought-after holy grails for collectors and fans alike.
On the album we are presenting you today (I AM OK from 1985) the listener is treated to Ofege’s trademark sound…but we’re also shown a perfect glimpse of the late 70’s afrobeat works combining soul, jazzy rhythms, William Onyeabor style laid back electro funk synths & fluid boogie-danceability. The female backing vocals and handclaps by Princess Bunmi Olajubu (Femi Kuti) also deserve a special mention because they add so much depth and grooves to this amazing record.
Expect some serious local ‘all-star’ guest musicians on this record as well. Next to him playing the synth, Jake Sollo also produced this gem of an album! To top things off the tracks were recorded and mixed at the legendary RAS Studio in Akwa, Nigeria…all slickly engineered by John Malife (Black Children Sledge Funk Band, T-Fire, BLO).
‘I AM OK’ was released on CRS Nigeria in 1985 and is a total Afro-pop-funk classic that begs for a special place in your record collection. It’s tight, funky and Melvin’s soulful vocals are to die for. This record is a monster!
Tracklist:
I'm Ok , I Don't Mind , Come and Dance , We are Fine , Keep on Loving Him , Wanted , I Wanna Hide You
2022 Catalog Vinyl Re-Pressings, mastered for VINYL by DAVE OTERO (Khemmis, Cephalic Carnage, Cattle Decapitation, Allegaeon and more). The Harvest Floor is the sixth full-length studio album by Metal Blade Records' death-grind heroes Cattle Decapitation. Released on January 20, 2009, the album was recorded and mixed at Sharkbite studios in Oakland, California, with engineering and production handled by Billy Anderson (Melvins, Mr, Bungle, Fu Manchu, Clutch, Neurosis and more). Features guest performances from members of Exhumed, Dystopia, Swans and more). The Harvest Floor was first album from Cattle Decapitation to debut on a Billboard charts (Heatseekers @ #16). Every Cattle Capitation record since, has appeared on Billboard.
2022 Catalog Vinyl Re-Pressings, mastered for VINYL by DAVE OTERO (Khemmis, Cephalic Carnage, Cattle Decapitation, Allegaeon and more). HUMANURE is the fourth full length release from Metal Blade Records' CATTLE DECAPITATION. The album features guests performances by Gabe Serbian, Justin Pearson and Robert Bray of The Locust. Many view HUMANURE as the turning point in CATTLE DECAPITATION's development from underground vegan and animals rights activists to grind / death metal hierarchy. HUMANURE undoubtedly set the tone for Cattle's subsequent rise, situating the band in 2022 as one of the top in the field.
Red Wine Vinyl[26,68 €]
They say the best thing for a new band to really find out who they are is to go out and play as much as possible. They see what works and what doesn’t with the crowd as well as watch their peers perform and can learn from the best. For the past 2 years, WORMWITCH, has done just that. Having toured North America with The Black Dahlia Murder, Numenorean and appeared at last year’s prestigious Psycho Las Vegas Festival with Danzig, Dimmu Borgir and many more, the Vancouver 3-piece took it all in and regrouped in the Fall of 2018 to start writing their new album. Heaven That Dwells Within is the follow up to 2016’s Decibel Magazine Year End charting, Strike Mortal Soil. The riffs are stronger, the overall feel the album darker and their love of black metal dimly shines through much more on their past release. The album was mixed and mastered by V. Santura (Triptykon, Schammasch), giving it that much of a gloomier touch. With a tour right out of the gate with Cloak and Uada followed by a European run, the future, though dark in music, can only be bright.
Nothings Real, So Nothing’s Wrong is Kevin’s 10th full length record. His career began in the early 2000s with the band Miracle Of ’86. Along the way Kevin has amassed a loyal and rabid fan base. He has built an interesting career with the ability to play as a solo artist, his own band – The Goddam Band – and as a member of Bad Books alongside Manchester Orchestra, and as a touring member of The Front Bottoms and Brand New. In 2015 Kevin started his split 7” series – artists involved included Craig Finn, The Front Bottoms, Matthew Caws (Nada Surf), David Bazan, Meredith Graves and many others. This helped open up a new audience. Kevin has toured the world as a headliner and toured with a wide variety of artists including Manchester Orchestra, Frightened Rabbit, John K Samson, Julien Baker and Pinegrove to name a few. Also, Devine has appeared at numerous festivals including Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, Ohana, Shaky Knees and many more. From Kevin: Nothing’s Real, So Nothing’s Wrong is a grown-up break-up record, for strugglers by a struggler. It’s a record about fatherhood written during a pandemic. It’s a kitchen-sink 10th album pivot, painstakingly brought to life by two career-long collaborators and their shared and split obsessions. Lyrically evocative, excavating and unflinching without irresponsibly printing your journals.
Nothings Real, So Nothing’s Wrong is Kevin’s 10th full length record. His career began in the early 2000s with the band Miracle Of ’86. Along the way Kevin has amassed a loyal and rabid fan base. He has built an interesting career with the ability to play as a solo artist, his own band – The Goddam Band – and as a member of Bad Books alongside Manchester Orchestra, and as a touring member of The Front Bottoms and Brand New. In 2015 Kevin started his split 7” series – artists involved included Craig Finn, The Front Bottoms, Matthew Caws (Nada Surf), David Bazan, Meredith Graves and many others. This helped open up a new audience. Kevin has toured the world as a headliner and toured with a wide variety of artists including Manchester Orchestra, Frightened Rabbit, John K Samson, Julien Baker and Pinegrove to name a few. Also, Devine has appeared at numerous festivals including Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, Ohana, Shaky Knees and many more. From Kevin: Nothing’s Real, So Nothing’s Wrong is a grown-up break-up record, for strugglers by a struggler. It’s a record about fatherhood written during a pandemic. It’s a kitchen-sink 10th album pivot, painstakingly brought to life by two career-long collaborators and their shared and split obsessions. Lyrically evocative, excavating and unflinching without irresponsibly printing your journals.
Ruth B is releasing her sophomore album "Moments In Between" via Downtown Records. With the breakout success of her debut single “Lost Boy,” Ruth B. emerged as an immediately captivating artist who drifts between moody realism and a dreamworld of her own making. An occasional poet who created her own storybooks as a child, the Canadian- Ethiopian singer/songwriter/pianist infuses all her songs with a raw emotional honesty, even as she lets her imagination wander into fantastically charmed terrain. On her sophomore album Moments In Between, Ruth pushes that dynamic to a new level of boldness and sophistication, embracing her most beautifully strange impulses while delivering her most impactful work to date. As the daughter of immigrants from Ethiopia, Ruth grew up on music from her parents’ native country and later discovered the artists who would become formative influences on her songwriting, such as Stevie Wonder and Lauryn Hill. After taking up piano at the age of eight and singing her entire life, Ruth began writing songs in her late teens and soon came up with “Lost Boy.” Initially posted on Vine in 2015, the Peter Pan-inspired piano ballad quickly went viral, with listeners undeniably drawn to Ruth’s heart-on-sleeve storytelling. By the end of 2015, she’d released her gold-certified debut EP The Intro, which led to such triumphs as winning Breakthrough Artist of the Year at the 2017 Juno Awards. Made with producers like Joel Little (Lorde, Taylor Swift) and Mike Elizondo (Fiona Apple, Regina Spektor), her gold-certified full-length debut Safe Haven arrived in 2017 and earned her three Juno nominations, including Album of the Year and Artist of the Year. Executive-produced by Patrick Wimberly (Solange, Blood Orange, Ellie Goulding), Moments In Between finds Ruth also working with producers like Ido Zmishlany (Demi Lovato, Shawn Mendes), Justin Raisen (Angel Olsen, Santigold), Doug Schadt (Maggie Rogers, Ashe), and D’Mile (a five-time Grammy Award-winner known for his work with Khalid and Ty Dolla $ign). In a departure from the minimalist alt-pop of Safe Haven, the album unfolds in a more elaborate and kaleidoscopic sound, yet never overshadows the understated power of Ruth’s vocals or the pure vulnerability of her songwriting. “For me writing songs has always been therapeutic, and I hope that hearing my songs helps other people in the same way,” she says. “Whether they’re feeling lonely or heartbroken or happy, I want them to know that someone else understands what they’re going through.”
