Suche:as one

As one of the most characteristic sounding groups in Europe today, PERRY DEAR & THE DEARSTALKERS display their very distinctive sound that has made them one of the most in demand groups on the Big Beat scene. Influences range from JET HARRIS, THE DAVE CLARK FIVE, BRIAN POOLE AND THE TREMELOES to Billy Childish

“The first full length LP by Joshua Massad and Dylan Aycock. Massad is a tabla player living in India and studying under Zakir Hussain. Massad and Aycock came together in Tulsa to record live at the legendary Church Studio which was founded by Leon Russell in the ’70s. Over a few nights they captured some moments in the studio before it came under new ownership and just before Joshua moved to India. “Aycock improvising on 12-string with Massad accompanying tabla and sitar. A flowing river of sound, a meeting of the minds. The little touches that Dylan’s brother Jesse Aycock adds (bits of synth) really sweeten the deal as well. Track two recorded in Leon Russell’s legendary Church Studio.” —Aquarium Drunkyard “Track one is an improvisation recorded at the home of Joshua Massad’s friend who he was house sitting for and invited me to come play. When I showed up the door was open and he was deep in practice so no words were spoken. I set up a mic and just started playing. We played for fortyfive minutes straight and the twenty mins of the first track was culled from that moment. We clicked immediately and that was the first time we ever played together. Joshua is studying and teaching in India now where he’s been since 2019.” —Dylan Golden Aycock

Next on deck, straight from Producer Dan Ubick’s Lions Den Studio, comes two more re-imagined soul classics from Los Angeles’ own Night Owls. First up, we have soul phenom Eli “Paperboy” Reed taking on Ray Charles’ classic “You Don’t Know Me” and Rocksteady champions Jr. Thomas & The Volcanos, laying their beautiful soul harmonies to Eddie Kendricks’ timeless “If You Let Me.”

For Side A’s “You Don’t Know Me,” Ubick had a tough assignment - find someone who could bring his own innate soulfulness to a song sung by “The Genius” in his prime. The answer came from Massachusetts-bred Eli “Paperboy” Reed, who moved to Clarksdale, Mississippi at 18 to cut his teeth singing in juke joints all over the Delta. Then, moving on to spend a year as minister of music at Chicago’s Southside church of Soul legend Mitty Collier (Chess Records) and relocating back to the East Coast to record for Capitol Records, Warner Brothers, Colemine Records, and now Yep Roc, Dan had found his man. On “You Don’t Know Me,” Reed’s voice ranges from belted lows to soulful highs that perfectly sets the stage for this more upbeat and Roots Reggae-infused rendition. With a tip of the hat to Jamaican legend and producer Bunny “Striker” Lee, Night Owls take Charles’ classic soul and R&B standard to new territory. But that’s not all; Ubick also brought in Staten Island’s crown jewel, Eamon Doyle, who meticulously laid in all the vocal harmonies, faithful to Ray’s original. On Side B is Eddie Kendricks’ “If You Let Me” feat. Jr Thomas & The Volcanos (Colemine Records), re-done here with a nod to another legendary Jamaican singer, songwriter, and music producer, The Techniques’ own Winston Riley (Johnny Osbourne, Dave & Ansel Collins, Hortense Ellis, etc.). Originally debuted on Eddie Kendricks’ post-Temptations 1972 masterpiece People…Hold On (Tamla/Motown), Night Owls create a decidedly more moody and dubbed-out tone here, laying into a bass-heavy one-drop feel that perfectly sets the stage for Jr Thomas’ soulful lead and Volcanos members Alex Desért (Hepcat, The Lions) & John Butcher’s (The Expanders) spot on backing harmonies. While keeping much of the original harmonic language, Night Owls bring this much-loved classic to new heights, primed for the dance floor. It’s hard not to sway your hip and groove to this one!

Quantum´s upcoming album, "Down the Mountainside", contains eight very elaborate and intense compositions, spanning 45 minutes of music that shimmers in acoustic soundscapes one minute to explode into spastic grooves in the next. The lyrical themes deal with humans alter egos - or masks - that people in our society rely on in order to get by with their everyday lives, and how these affect them psychologically and eventually lead them towards a breaking point. There is also commentary on how this behavior affects the general attitude in the society we live in. Overall, with "Down the Mountainside", Quantum has created a timeless progressive rock album, which feels both fresh and innovative, which will appeal to old prog diggers as well as listeners of the more modern school.
The album features guitar solos from the brilliant Richard Henshall and Tom MacLean from the band Haken.

Quantum´s upcoming album, "Down the Mountainside", contains eight very elaborate and intense compositions, spanning 45 minutes of music that shimmers in acoustic soundscapes one minute to explode into spastic grooves in the next. The lyrical themes deal with humans alter egos - or masks - that people in our society rely on in order to get by with their everyday lives, and how these affect them psychologically and eventually lead them towards a breaking point. There is also commentary on how this behavior affects the general attitude in the society we live in. Overall, with "Down the Mountainside", Quantum has created a timeless progressive rock album, which feels both fresh and innovative, which will appeal to old prog diggers as well as listeners of the more modern school.
The album features guitar solos from the brilliant Richard Henshall and Tom MacLean from the band Haken.

5 years after his last and 3rd album, Lucas Arruda finally presents his long awaited new LP, Ominira.
Since the release of his first album on Favorite Recordings (Sambadi / 2013), Lucas Arruda has clearly established himself as one of the most talented contemporary artist and composer from Brazil. His music is filled with fusion style, mixing influences and elements from his Latin musical background, with his genuine admiration for Jazz, Soul, Pop and Funk music.
During these 10 years of collaboration with label honcho Pascal Rioux, Lucas Arruda’ music has always received great supports and feedbacks from international media and tastemakers, each album perfecting the level of composition and production. With Onda Nova (2019), Lucas dived willingly into Robson Jorge & Lincoln Olivetti influences, aiming to capture the true essence of Brazilian Funk and AOR tradition. Now a father and family man, he turned more deeply into his native influences when composing this new beautiful album. Fully composed and produced by Lucas, Ominira also features appearances from friends local musicians and artists such as Italo Vinicius (Drums), Thiago Arruda (guitars), Roger Rocha (sax), or Flavia K and Andre Motta on vocals.
"Ominira is about freedom, art and music. It's also about honoring my ancestors and my musical influences. I delved a little deeper into my African roots, in addition to Brazilian music and rhythms, and my longtime passion for Soul/Funk. After a long production process I feel like I made my best album. So, I present to you OMINIRA, a new chapter in my career. Have a nice trip!"

New Jackson marks his long awaited follow-up to 2017’s From Night To Night with its successor OOPS!... POP for long-time collaborators Permanent Vacation. A concise triumph in techno pop, its 9 tracks elevate his signature electronic sounds into anthemic new heights.
David Kitt is a prolific sonic polymath who’s enjoyed a colourful career making whatever he likes.
While releasing music under a vast array of aliases and collaborations for close to two and a half decades, New Jackson has remained his irregular home since 2011 for when ‘at one with the machines’. It offers a kaleidoscopic window into his love of dance music, and on his debut album under the alias From Night To Night (released in 2017 on Dublin’s All City label) he unfurled his singular vision; a dilated suite of nocturnal soul coaxed from his beloved electronic equipment with songwriter’s nous, sonically etched as blunted whispers coalesced from the dusky billows of Dublin bay. Further EPs and singles followed, alongside a beloved live show he toured globally, plus detours with his critically-lauded Garies duo (with Lumigraph) and a David Kitt solo album.
In the time since his New Jackson debut, he’s slowly distilled his studio methodology to help mine the true core of his musical self. Within this experimentation, he has stumbled upon the bounty that is OOPS!... POP, his most direct and euphoric body of work to date. Recorded across the span of five years and three different countries, Kitt has managed to transform his beloved alias into a leaner beast, tightening the screws around arrangements and songwriting to inspire an album sonically effortless in demeanour and spontaneously playful in structure and form. Aided by a stacked cast of collaborators including Rita Lynn, Donnacha Costello, Riche “Jape” Egan, Yenkee, Kean Kavanagh, Margie Jean Lewis, Meg Cronin and Fehdah, it bears the hallmarks of the studio albums of yesteryear in its dynamism and gratification while drawing on his rich bouquet of influences across a century of recorded music.
Opener SI SI SI lulls you in with its smothered vocoder’d croons and patient groove, BURNT DEEP next yields a surprising deep house turn, lit gently with casual hedonism. LIKE rewires the playbook entirely, shuffling along its minimal 80’s boogie groove with a cheeky grin, before lead single OUT OF REACH further mines the golden pastures with its glorious stuttering techno power-pop fit with that anthemic chorus. DAY IN SHOCK digi-dubs around the wonderful vocal turn of Fehdah in purest heads-down manner, then THE OK HOLE and STROBE both descend the psychedelic wormhole of anaesthetised breaks and electro with its entranced dancefloor gaze. I WANNA BE ADORED, the Madchester anthem from The Stone Roses, is then surprisingly reimagined as a lost kraut-pop robo sung classic while WITH THE NIGHT AT OUR FEET is our climactic conclusion, a mechanised symphony of dual proportions; a humane core of angelic harmonies chugging along in electro rhythm before soaring strings take us on our way.
New Jackson’s oeuvre, indeed David Kitt’s musical world, is vast; OOPS!... POP then might just be his opus across it all, a towering achievement of soaring catharsis in melody and song that soundtracks the most direct transmissions from his heart to yours

BALANCE OF POWER are back with new band members and a brand-new album! Founding members Tony Ritchie (bass) and Lionel Hicks (drums) are joined the band's new lead vocalist Hazel Jade as well
as guitarists Chris Young and Adam Wardle, who have since taken over the reins from guitarists Chris Masimore and Stoney Wagner, with whom the band worked on and recorded the upcoming album
"Fresh From The Abyss"
BALANCE OF POWER melden sich mit neuen Bandmitgliedern und einem brandneuen Album zurück!
Zu den Gründungsmitgliedern Tony Ritchie (Bass) und Lionel Hicks (Schlagzeug) gesellen sich die neue Leadsängerin Hazel Jade sowie die Gitarristen Chris Young und Adam Wardle, die inzwischen in die Fußstapfen der Gitarristen Chris Masimore und Stoney Wagner getreten sind, mit denen die Band am kommenden Album "Fresh From The Abyss" gearbeitet und es gemeinsam aufgenommen haben.
"Fresh From The Abyss" ist eine Kollektion von Songs, die entweder die Uhr anhält und auf einen bestimmten Moment in der Zeit verweist oder zurückblickt und die Unendlichkeit von Zeit und Raum, des Lebens und des Sterbens thematisiert.

Zwischen bezaubernder Zärtlichkeit und Brutalität, zwischen den Feuern der Unterwelt und den kältesten Dämpfen des Nordens, das ist das Wesen, das WINTERHORDE genannt wird. Gegründet im Jahr 2002 in Nordisrael, hat sich die Progressive Extreme Metal Gruppe weiterentwickelt und versucht, mit jedem Akkord, den sie spielen und aufnehmen, etwas Größeres zu werden. Nur der Himmel ist die Grenze. Ob durch die uralten Künste des geschwärzten Metal bis hin zu den Juwelen der Progression, WINTERHORDE sind auf dem Weg, das nächste Ding der artikulierten Extremität zu sein.

WINTERHORDE hatten das große Vergnügen und das Privileg, mit einigen der größten Bands des Metal wie JUDAS PRIEST, BEHEMOTH, ACCEPT, W. A. S. P, DIMMU BORGIR, KEEP OF KALESSIN, AMORPHIS, SATYRICON und vielen mehr auf den Bühnen verschiedener europäischer Festivals wie "Metal Days", "Rockstadt Extreme Fest", "OST Mountain Fest", "Metalhead Meeting", "Maximum Rock" und "Metal yard" aufzutreten.

WINTERHORDE bahnten ihren Weg in den progressiven Manierismus des Extreme Metal und veröffentlichten ihr Debüt "Nebula" (2006, Burning Star Records), dem eine komplette Europatour mit den finnischen Black Metalern CATAMENIA folgte. Das zweite Album "Underwatermoon" (2010, Twilight Vertrieb) wurde von V. Santura (DARK FORTRESS, OBSCURA, PARADOX, TRYPTIKON) aufgenommen und produziert. Anfang 2016 vollendete WINTERHORDE eines ihrer abenteuerlichen und höchst geheimnisvollen Epos, "Maestro" (Vicisolum Productions) wurde erneut von V. Santura produziert und von Jens Bogren gemastert. Kritiker und Fans begrüßten das dritte Studioalbum "Maestro", das im Mai 2016 veröffentlicht wurde.

Sechs Jahre später, und WINTERHORDE sind wieder bereit für die nächste Herausforderung. Voller Energie und einer neuen, überwältigenden Besetzung haben WINTERHORDE die Arbeit an ihrem neuen, vierten Studioalbum "Neptunian" geschafft.
Im Juni 2022 wurde die Single "The Greatest Plague of Earth" veröffentlicht.

Metal Temple zine:
"This is an expression of extreme passion, through a whirlwind, and a strong character. Winterhorde is back different, but preserving their miraculous nature"

Winterhorde's bassist and founder, Alexander Latman, comments on "The Spirit Of Freedom"
"This song deals with the unbreakable spirit of simple people, who are ready to die for keeping their land free. We wanted to show this spirit, not only in the warrior himself but also in his family members who are filled with pride of their fallen loved one. The simple people are those who sacrifice their lives for unnecessary wars waged by rich people's games. They die, but never give up their freedom and identity. The conflict of life versus freedom at any cost".

Sales Info:
- PR-Kampagne über die deutsche Agentur ALL NOIR für Print / Presse / Radio in der EU + O'Donnell Medien für PR in den USA
- frühere Musikvideos haben jeweils 5-stellige Ansichten auf YT erreicht
- neues Album gemischt und gemastert von Jaime Gomez Arellano (Ghost, Paradise Lost, Insomnium, Moonspell)
- Feat. Künstler auf Album: Kobi Farhi von Orphaned Land und Davidavi Dolev von Subterranean Masquerade

Reissue of early Japanese house outing by Junichi Soma, Shuji Wada and Katsuya Sayo. Comes with insert with liner notes.

All musical movements require a spark to set them alight; in the case of Japanese house music, that spark was provided by the forward-thinking resident DJs of The Bank in Roppongi, Tokyo. In 1989, to celebrate the ground-breaking club’s first birthday, the venue released a 12” EP featuring first-time productions from three of its DJs, Junichi Soma, Shuji Wada and Strong Katsuya AKS Katsuya Sayo.

Widely considered to be one of the first ever EP of house music produced in Japan, 1st Unit was never officially released. Instead, 500 of the 1000 copies pressed were given away at The Bank’s first birthday party, with the rest initially being sold not in local record stores, but rather the venue’s own in-house shop. Three decades on, the 12” is finally set to get its first worldwide release via Rush Hour’s Store JPN Series.

The record has its roots in The Bank’s willingness to give its ever-changing roster of DJs a free hand to play what they liked – at the time a rarity in Tokyo nightclubs, whose musical offerings usually revolved around strictly defined playlists. At The Bank in 1989, it was not only common to hear European body music and the kind of post-disco New York productions associated with Larry Levan’s sets at the Paradise Garage, but also acid house – something not offered at the time by other clubs in the city.

This cutting-edge blend of sounds, combined with the venue’s unique decor (it was modeled on the inside of a London bank, complete with a cashier’s window to take entrance fees), made The Bank a go-to spot for young party-goers, celebrities and forward-thinking Japanese musicians (Ryuichi Sakamoto was reportedly a weekly visitor).

When it came to celebrating the club’s birthday by cutting a unique record, it made sense for The Bank’s owners to turn to three of their most exciting resident DJs, who were assisted by Heigo Tani and Jun Ebi. The collective name, 1st Unit, was chosen to reflect the fact that all three resident DJs were debutants with no previous studio experience.

As this reissue proves, the music remains timeless, magical, and authentic to the sound of American house productions of the period – albeit with occasional twists,. Katsuya Sano’s EP opener, ‘I Need Love’, sounds like a twist on Larry Heard productions of the period – all jacking TR-909 drums, undulating analogue bass, dreamy JUNO synthesizer chords and evocative vocal samples.

The influence of Chicago acid house is also evident on Junichi Souma’s ‘Ubnormal Life’, whose unusual title contains what he says was an intentional misspelling. Driven forwards by restless drum machine handclaps, sweet chords and rising and falling melodic motifs, the track is an energetic and uplifting treat.

Perhaps the most influential of the three tracks at the time – within Japan at least – was Shuji Wada’s similarly misspelled ‘Endless Load’. Deeper and more melodic with a more expansive arrangement, the track’s combination of marimba-style lead lines, tribal drum patterns, dreamy chords and jazz-funk influenced bass offered a loose blueprint for the more successful and better-known Japanese deep house tracks that followed.

Maurice Fulton's outrageous remix of "The Fall" by Rhye has been cherished as a stone-cold masterpiece for the past decade. Out of print almost immediately, its legend has only grown and for too long it's been impossible to find a copy without parting with considerable cash. We've wanted to remedy this situation for years so we're delighted to announce that we've finally given it the Be With treatment.

The word ‘genius’ is bandied about liberally but it's fair to anoint Maurice Fulton with such lofty praise. Sheffield’s king of oddball disco, Fulton is one of our favourite artists, an outerspace-minded producer with roots in Baltimore club music who has no problem injecting dank interplanetary funk into the smoothest of acts. And so it goes with his remix of "The Fall". Rich and typically off-kilter, this is spellbinding disco par excellance. Fulton arms the track with a juddering electro-funk synth-bassline before shifting to a twanging disco reverb and conga-led, crash-cymbal-elevated groove.

Essential doesn't even cover it; it's just astonishingly good.

The gorgeous original, situated here on the flip, is a sublime serenade, all twinkling strings and sweet, sumptuous vocals over smooth, jazzy piano styles. It earned comparisons to Sade, Air and the xx upon initial release and it's still easy to understand why; it's warm and buoyant yet deeply melancholy. Elegantly downlifting, you could say.

Simon Francis remastered the original audio for both tracks and Cicely Balston's precise cut for Alchemy at AIR Studios ensures this 12" well and truly slaps. The immaculate Record Industry pressing will ensure this incredibly sought-after masterpiece finds a home in many more DJ boxes this and every year.

How do you follow up a work described in the Independent on Sunday as “the best debut album since Marquee Moon”? That’s the question facing singer-songwriter John Canning Yates, twenty years on from the critically acclaimed ‘The First Album’ by his band Ella Guru.
‘The Quiet Portraits’ will appeal to anyone who loves the beautiful melodic soundscapes woven by Brian Wilson, Burt Bacharach, and Tom Waits, while Yates’s unique vocals evoke the emotional fragility and compelling narrative of Neil Young, Paul Buchanan, Mark Linkous and Elliott Smith.
Mastered by Jason Mitchell (PJ Harvey, Robert Forster), and featuring guest contributions from pedal steel maestro BJ Cole and friend and multi-instrumentalist Andy Frizell (Kevin Ayers, Wizards of Twiddly), those dedicated followers of Ella Guru who stayed the path will find their patience very well rewarded. ‘The Quiet Portraits’ is a remarkable achievement from an unassuming, yet hugely talented artist.

It’s a welcome relief amid the rapidly changing musical landscape to find that all that has changed in John’s world is the number of musicians around him. The beautiful storytelling, the art of finding those magical musical moments that will remain with you for years to come: all of that has survived the passing of time intact.
Happiest with headphones on, working alone in the small hours from his Liverpool home, Yates has created another masterpiece.
He explains: “In the wee small hours, with loved ones safely asleep and the busy day done, there comes a hush. Within it, you can breathe and listen. Listen for the infinite possibilities. From those possibilities emerged these portraits. I have sought to find those precious moments: of love and peace in turbulent times, of truth and hope for calmer days ahead. I hope you find them too.”
Entitled ‘The Quiet Portraits,’ the new solo album from John Canning Yates tells tales of people and places, of time, family, history, belonging, forgetting and remembering.

The incendiary proto hard rock and ambitious epic journeys this album delivers are all the more uncanny and devastating when you realize Gary Del Vecchio was a mere 16 years old when the title track Buzzin was unleashed! Even more astonishing is how far he travelled over the next five years, documented in this brilliant selection of nine tracks from the classic daze of early 1970s underground rock. Ohio was a hotbed for hard rock at the time with bands like the James Gang, Glass Harp, Poobah, Left End, Damnation Of Adam Blessing… what you get here matches the style any of those bands laid down. Gary's music grabs you immediately and grows over time. Grabber and Grower… best of both worlds style! It makes sense that Gary later owned a recording studio, right out of the gate he was laser focussed on all the aspects involved in making music that stands the test of time. The guitar action is incredible, shards of sound flying free yet hitting the bullseye continuously, vocals confident with none of the macho posturing that ages poorly in much early hard rock. These tracks are all vividly recorded and meticulously mixed in a way that balances fiery performance and intelligent structure to maximum effect. The bass and drumming here are phenomenally inventive and propulsive, the several players involved across the album nail it in their support of Gary's vision. This is rock music born in the 'anything is possible' life affirming energy of the late '60s right on time with where the most enduring artists of the early '70s took it. Had he scored the major label deal he pursued with labels like Mercury or London at the time I am confident we'd be hearing his music on classic rock radio today! The music on this album is both uncompromising and accessible. In particular, the two long tracks Wasted King and Starman have all the moves needed to grab fans of Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and the likes by the throat and brain in the extended progressive epic department! RidingEasy Records sets a high bar when it comes to unleashing the best vintage hard rock you never heard… take my tip people, the ride this one takes you on is definitely an 11 on a scale of 1 to 10… Gary Del Vecchio really knows how to do it!

A limited edition, full-length split album celebrating a 2024 co-tour of Japan by underground cracked-psych purveyors Fuckwolf from San Francisco and legendary prog-benders Green Milk From The Planet Orange from Tokyo. Green Milk stretch a live performance of one of their extended signature jaw-droppers “Concrete City Breakdown” relentlessly across an entire side of LET’S SPLIT (裂けても) while Fuckwolf delve into a 6-part abstract song cycle, ranging from stoned incense burners to blown out fuzz rippers, echoes of Faust Tapes, Les Rallizes and 70’s mid-west outsider proto-punk abound. Green Milk From The Planet Orange formed in Tokyo in 2001 and continue to tour, record and perform some of neo-psychedelia’s most ambitious and masterfully performed rock music. Fuckwolf formed in San Francisco in 2002 and most recently released the criticallylauded underground scuzzy art-rock gem of 2022 ‘Goodbye, Asshole’ on Silver Current Records. LET’S SPLIT (裂けても) releases March 22nd on limited edition vinyl and digital from Silver Current Records. Catch Fuckwolf and Green Milk From The Planet Orange on tour together in Japan in late March and April 2024, including a Tokyo release party.

A limited edition, full-length split album celebrating a 2024 co-tour of Japan by underground cracked-psych purveyors Fuckwolf from San Francisco and legendary prog-benders Green Milk From The Planet Orange from Tokyo. Green Milk stretch a live performance of one of their extended signature jaw-droppers “Concrete City Breakdown” relentlessly across an entire side of LET’S SPLIT (裂けても) while Fuckwolf delve into a 6-part abstract song cycle, ranging from stoned incense burners to blown out fuzz rippers, echoes of Faust Tapes, Les Rallizes and 70’s mid-west outsider proto-punk abound. Green Milk From The Planet Orange formed in Tokyo in 2001 and continue to tour, record and perform some of neo-psychedelia’s most ambitious and masterfully performed rock music. Fuckwolf formed in San Francisco in 2002 and most recently released the criticallylauded underground scuzzy art-rock gem of 2022 ‘Goodbye, Asshole’ on Silver Current Records. LET’S SPLIT (裂けても) releases March 22nd on limited edition vinyl and digital from Silver Current Records. Catch Fuckwolf and Green Milk From The Planet Orange on tour together in Japan in late March and April 2024, including a Tokyo release party.

REISSUE OF THEE HEADCOATS' FINAL ALBUM IN THEIR ORIGINAL INCARNATION! Originally released by Friends Of The Buff Medway Fanciers Association Records in 2000! The final studio release by Thee Headcoats (until last year's Irregularis: The Great Hiatus) gets a long-awaited vinyl reissue! Includes eleven Billy Childish originals plus a cover of Bo Diddley's 'Great Grandfather'! Recorded at May Road & Red Studios. Engineered by Graham Semark. "Thee Headcoats, who put out their first album in 1989, have recorded raw, primordial romps that seem inspired by American Delta blues musicians like Sonny Boy Williamson or the Southern swamp rock of Hasil Adkins, while maintaining a decidedly English sound. They've recorded under a slew of monikers, and issued an amazing discography of full-lengths, EPs, 7"s, and what-have-you for virtually every cool indie label since they formed (including US-based labels like Sub Pop, Get Hip, Sympathy for the Record Industry, and K, among others). Whether he's covering songs with a Bo Diddley beat, garage rock chug, or playing one of his angry young man/dysfunctional family rantings ('The Day I Beat My Father Up', for example), Billy Childish has built up a solid and somewhat rabid fanbase by releasing songs that you wouldn't normally think would attract a huge audience to begin with. However, I Am the Object of Your Desire has the distinction of being the last album by this band, as their prolific leader Billy Childish moved on to a new band; they're called the Buff Medways, which is apparently an ancient and now extinct breed of chicken which had feathered legs. It's also the name of the UK imprint this record was released on. This collection kicks right off with the album-titled track reveling in pure Headcoats fashion: that warm, fuzzy vibrato guitar with Childish's fuzzy, electronically distorted voice (an effect repeated throughout the album); Johnny Johnson's soft, flowing bassline; and Bruce Brand's primeval drums. The group keeps this sort of mid-tempo riffage going for the next couple of tracks. Johnson plays a mean harp on 'Hurt Me (Slight Return)', but things don't really take off until 'In a Dead Man's Suit' and the swaggering, Texas blues 'Chatham Town Welcomes Desperate Men'. The band's punk roots show up in songs like 'An Image of You' and 'Your Crying Means Nothing to Me' while 'Come into My Mind' has a definite Kinks influence. All in all, an excellent album from this soon to be sadly missed band." - Review from 2000 by Bryan Thomas (All Music Guide)

Alcatrazz was Jimmy Waldo's teddy bear's name as a kid, from there the band chose the name; originally they were to go with "The Rosie O'Donnell Experience", but later felt that would indicate sympathy with the celebrity. The band's initial line-up consisted of Graham Bonnet (lead vocals), Yngwie Malmsteen (guitar), Gary Shea (bass), Jimmy Waldo (keyboards, vocals) and Jan Uvena (drums, vocals). Shea And Waldo were previously members of the group New England. Uvena had worked with Alice Cooper. Malmsteen had been in the Swedish Prog-Metal band Silver Mountain and had recently come to the US and joined the band Steeler for one album. Alcatrazz's material was written by Malmsteen, Bonnet, Waldo and Vai. Shea dubbed the group "Alcatrazz". Features all of their greatest hits.

Alcatrazz was Jimmy Waldo's teddy bear's name as a kid, from there the band chose the name; originally they were to go with "The Rosie O'Donnell Experience", but later felt that would indicate sympathy with the celebrity. The band's initial line-up consisted of Graham Bonnet (lead vocals), Yngwie Malmsteen (guitar), Gary Shea (bass), Jimmy Waldo (keyboards, vocals) and Jan Uvena (drums, vocals). Shea And Waldo were previously members of the group New England. Uvena had worked with Alice Cooper. Malmsteen had been in the Swedish Prog-Metal band Silver Mountain and had recently come to the US and joined the band Steeler for one album. Alcatrazz's material was written by Malmsteen, Bonnet, Waldo and Vai. Shea dubbed the group "Alcatrazz". Features all of their greatest hits.

FUJI||||||||||TA returns to Hallow Ground with his second full-length for the label after we had released his international breakthrough album »iki« in early 2020. Active since 2006, the Japanese composer and sound artist has become prolific since the release of »iki,« releasing a slew of records while also touring the world. His new album »MMM« is Yosuke Fujita’s most complex so far. Changing the set-up of his pipe organ by switching to an electric air pump allowed him to activate new sonic and compositional potentials of the instrument, while he also expanded upon his experiments with his own voice. »MMM« is a masterpiece of conceptual and formal rigour—a testament to how multi-layered and versatile the music of FUJI||||||||||TA can be.

Previous releases had already showcased Fujita's interest in working with the rhythmic potentials of the organ he built himself in 2009. Replacing its hand-operated air pump with an electric one allowed him to work with it more freely and simultaneously record its sounds. This marked the starting point for the opener »M-1,« for which he recorded the pipes by waving a gun microphone close to it, thus creating shifting rhythmic patterns. The piece engages in a perpetual play of repetition and difference, balancing sonic intensity with compositional dramaturgy. For »M-2,« the artist uses his voice and works with a singing technique he has developed over more than a decade: constantly exhaling and inhaling, he puts a strain on his internal organs in order to create what he calls a »third voice.« The resulting piece is built on a throbbing rhythmic foundation topped by wordless melodies.

»M-3« closes the album as a synthesis of these two pieces, but is far more than the mere sum of its parts. The subtle tonal shifts of the organ take on a more subdued role this time, and Fujita’s scat growling and singing reappears in processed form. »M-3« combines the rhythms and melodies of the previous pieces to let something entirely new emerge out of them, much like the album is based on perpetual changes and recombinatory strategies. In fact, Fujita explains, the acronymic title can be read in many ways: this album is minimalistic, but freely mixes and mingles different materials in magical and even metaphorical ways while also paying its dues to his wife and daughter—M. and M. Just like its title can mean a lot of different things, »MMM« itself is ever-evolving, traversing different moods and opening itself up to a plethora of interpretations at each of its many turns.

Mecca And The Soul Brother from Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth is considered by fans and critics as one of the finest hip hop albums of the early 90s. Songs like “Lots of Lovin”, “They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)”,”Anger In The Nation” and “It It Ain’t Rough, It Ain’t Right” have everything; funky basslines, solid production, convincing lyrics and lots of soul. Producer Pete Rock built his beats from obscure R&B, funk and jazz records and CL Smooth added his sometimes philosophical raps. Guest rappers on the album include Grand Puba (of Brand Nubian), Heavy D, Rob-O, Grap & Dida, and it reached #7 in the US R&B/Hip-hop charts and #43 in the US album charts.

Mecca And The Soul Brother by Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth is considered by fans and critics as one of the finest hip hop albums of the early Nineties. Songs like "Lots of Lovin", "They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)","Anger In The Nation" and "If It Ain't Rough, It Ain't Right" have everything; funky basslines, solid production, convincing lyrics and lots of soul. Producer Pete Rock built his beats from obscure R&B, funk and jazz records and CL Smooth added his sometimes-philosophical raps. Guest rappers on the album include Grand Puba (of Brand Nubian), Heavy D, Rob-O, Grap & Dida, and it reached #7 in the US R&B/Hip-hop charts and #43 in the US album charts.

Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour, once described by Rolling Stone as ""perhaps the most famous singer alive in Senegal and much of Africa"" and ranked 69th on the magazine's list of the greatest singers of all time. It is easy to say that Youssou N'Dour is an icon. ""The Guide (Wommat)"" is his most successful work commercially. The duet with Neneh Cherry, ""7 Seconds"", is still one of the most successful and important protest songs of the 20th century. The Guide (Wommat) is for the first time available as a 2LP-set. The album is available as a limited edition of 1500 individually numbered copies on yellow, red & orange marbled vinyl and includes an insert.

The Guide (wommat) by Youssou N Dour, released 19 April 2024, includes the following tracks: "Without A Smile (Same) ", "7 Seconds (Duet with Neneh Cherry)", "Generations (Diamono)" and more.

This version of The Guide (wommat) comes as a 2xLP. This release comes with (a) Insert(s).

The vinyl is pressed as a yellow disc. Another vinyl is pressed as a marble, red & orange disc.

Scottish Techno wizard Astro joins PIFF Records on their landmark tenth release, with 5 cosmic and groovy belters.

Having recently found success with his own Neptune Discs imprint and regularly performing up and down the country, Astro has firmly established himself as one to watch in the techno sphere.
Opening with the title track, Astro combines a relentless bassline with dubbed-out chords and spacey leads. Echoing space-age soundscapes and futuristic sounds of 70s kosmische musik and 90s techno, Astro makes good on the aesthetic promised by his artist name.

Astro brings down the tempo for the hypnotic Cloned Substance. A mesmerising hat pattern combines with delay-drenched leads and a bouncy bassline to create a track intent on capturing the listener in a state of trance.

Thunderstorm adheres to the tried-and-tested Astro combination of a thick bassline, spacey stabs, and continuously evolving drums. As to be expected, the results are spectacular. Irresistible grooves and rich soundscapes are the order of the day as Astro delivers once again.

A haunting and proggy FM-lead acts as the foundation for Pluto, underpinned by a sub-heavy kick and tranquil chords. The meditative ebb and flow of various elements masterfully expresses the solitude of the track’s namesake.

Planetary Blitz closes the EP as a digital bonus track. Expanding on the spaced-out motifs of the previous track (as reflected in the track title), Astro substitutes chord stabs and warm basslines for a driving blend of punchy kicks and a subtle glittery guitar.

As one of the most recorded session singers in the music industry LYNN DAVIS is finally stepping back into the spotlight after four decades of singing background for icons like George Duke, Marvin Gaye, Chaka Khan and Stevie Wonder.

BEAUTIFUL YOU was one of the outstanding soul tracks from last year and CAN I COME OVER a highlight from the year before. Now paired together on a 7” single - the release is made extra special with a beautiful portrait of Lynn, painted by the uber talented Arjan van Gent and on the back cover is Lynn’s musical biography, documented in full!

Did you know that for decades, record collectors across the Dutch-speaking region have overlooked a significant portion of their own musical heritage while avidly searching for rare grooves and breaks in bins filled with more exotic music? It's a fact! And that's where Harde Smart comes in. After delving deep into dusty crates of Belgian and Dutch music, Harde Smart's inaugural compilation in 2019, dedicated to music from the 1970s, brought to light a selection of smooth, jazzy, funky, and soulful gems from Flanders (the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium) and Holland. In addition to exquisite grooves and hard-pounding drums, these songs shared Dutch lyrics, offering a unique compilation of lyric-driven Flemish and Dutch music from back in the days.

Yet, nothing is as certain as the unexpected. This compilation marked the first time a Dutch album uncovered the authentic Afro-American funk and soul vibe, which, albeit sporadically, influenced the work of both popular and lesser-known singers and musicians in this corner of the world during the 1970s. Undoubtedly, influences also stemmed from French chanson and rock music of the era. This 21-trackalbum shattered all musical predictability, taking listeners on a strange and nostalgic journey, offering a revised collection of "essential homegrown classics" for local listeners while also captivating non-Dutch-speaking audiences.

With the second compilation, Harde Smart shifts its focus from the 1970s sound to explore the next decade, the 1980s. Vinyl aficionados No Sleep Richy and Micha Marva joined forces with Sjefke De Kok, one of Holland's premier crate diggers, to continue their musical odyssey. Digging even deeper into dusty bins filled with Dutch and Flemish records once again unearthed an exquisite selection of tracks-too weird to play, too rare to ignore. From butt-shaking boogie to weird disco adventures on wax, this album encapsulates all the good stuff of the 1980s: smooth and seductive alongside dark and wavy. Get ready for an atypical introduction into the Dutch lyric-driven music from the 1980's.

Limited To 140 Copies Worldwide*

This is the first release by Essex warrior Diplomat, who would later go on to making some serious noise on the hardcore/gabba label Deathchant as well as running Electro Avenue Records. He is still at the top of his game when it comes to production, recently releasing two EP’s on the Vinyl Fanatiks sister label, Amen Brother.

This EP originally came out on Vinyl Fanatiks in 2020, just as the whole covid thing happened. Due to everyone being at home, the record sold out quickly and only a box was saved for distribution at the time. A proper slice of UK hardcore rave – intense, plenty of stabs and crazy samples with a good dishing out of hip hop vocals. This one really is for the 1993 heavy stompers, a classic slice of the nice. Originally released in 1993 on Diplomat’s Immunity Records.

Only 140 have been pressed on 180g pink marbled vinyl.

Marbled Yellow Vinyl 2024 Repress

NEOACID07VA is an EP of collaborations between Jacidorex and 4 artists in very eclectic styles.

First track of the A-side with Raito use synths from 90's rave with nice grooves en percussions, sharp acid line and a huge kick.

A2 with Zahia is an electro-techno track with a heavy bass synth and an exploding clap.

B-side turns up the BPM with the first track produced with Dyen, nearing hardcore techno with gabbersynths & discorded kick.

The last track of this EP is the second collaboration between Jacidorex & Epidemie, the second generation of Belgian Acid scene. This one is an energic hard track, with hard floor kick, dark hovers and heavy acid lines.

The whole EP is a really good example of what Neoacid can propose as different kind of acid music.

Daga Voladora's last album came out in 2016. To alleviate such a long wait, only a couple of celebrated singles. Now, finally, Cristina Plaza (identity gracefully hidden under the Daga Voladora name that was before Gran Aparato Eléctrico and also a quarter of Los Eterno and half of Clovis) releases an album and does it, for the first time, in vinyl format. "Los manantiales" is the title of the happy and long-awaited return of an artist that never completely left.

"Los manantiales" ("The Springs") refers to all those sources from which I drink to make my songs: Stereolab, Broadcast, Galaxie 500, Cate Le Bon... And also some of the flamenco language. Flamenco in my own way, of course," explains Plaza. "Los manantiales" will also bring echoes of acts that the artist has not practiced as much such as Esclarecidos, Vainica Doble, Ana D or Kikí d'Akí. Deep voices for songs with substance.

But there is also that other idea of the spring that gushes forth when it can no longer be contained. "It has taken me so many years to make this album because I had a prejudice related to the previous one "Primer segundo" in which there was a coherence. Not finding that concept or thinking that this or that wasn't Daga Voladora, I couldn't get into it. Until I decided that maybe I didn't have to impose such a rigid direction on myself..."

Sketched in a town bordering Ávila where Plaza decided to get lost in the summer of 2022 and then finished off in a basement in Madrid for several months, the nine songs of "Los manantiales" make up a short album, premeditatedly short ("I don't like the songs to be longer than 2:50") but, above all, varied. Because, as can be sensed in the song Quise ser ( "I wanted to be a fictional hero, an expressionist painter, a promising actress"), here are all the imagined Cristinas and their different lives ("The song Lejos de la multitud is that longing of mine to be a vagabond"), an unmistakable sign that, as the artist confesses, "I am my own spring". And all this joyful dispersion comes from the premise with which Plaza approached the album: "I said to myself: 'Let's play'. I set out to have a good time. Suddenly, I wanted to do a dub track and I came up with Fosforito or a rock song like Lou Reed in the 80s and there was 'Me vi penando'. I wanted a rock record, an experimental record, something like Broadcast, and a musical! I wanted to do a thousand things!"

The result is a playful album, very enjoyable; but above all elegant and extremely precise. In both form and substance. Thus, the melodies are so rounded at first listen; the music would work perfectly on its own, stripped of lyrics that respond to the maxim, so often ignored, that there is really only one way to say things. "I have tried to refine the texts a lot. There are some phrases taken from Steinbeck, other things that emerge in a somewhat magical way. There's also Gary Snyder, Kerouac and his Dharma Bums, echoes of California..."

It's an album made, as usual with her, in the most absolute solitude (except for the collaboration of Andrés Arregui on sax and the final mix by Fino Oyonarte). Bareback. "I recorded everything with my computer, with my instruments, my analog keyboards, my rhythm boxes, little noises I make around... I don't make demos. I just do it. In a rough way. What I do do is repeat. The good thing about this method is that many things happen spontaneously and that's where they stay".

An album that, for all of the above, responds to the best notion of caprice. A whimsical whim, signed and finished off by the splendid cover designed by Beatriz Lobo, which feartures a painting ('La chica del King Creole') by the legendary artist Javier de Juan.

In "Los manantiales" there are many possible worlds, as many dreamed ones. Of course, those of Daga Voladora (not in vain, the album opens with a song titled Cristinópolis), but also those of any curious and sensitive listener who, by the way, will find more than one musical wink along the way. You just have to be attentive.

Yes! Tommy Guerrero’s revered Return Of The Bastard gets its first ever vinyl reissue. Endearingly simple but beautifully beguiling, it's lo-fi dusty break business with the most elegant guitars this side of Vini Reilly and Gabor Szabo. Tommy's breezy drum-machine guitar-soul should be prescribed to soothe an aching world. By rights, he should also be a Balearic god. Here's 14 tracks of drop-dead laconic beauty, all of them combining to create this unheralded masterpiece. Working with Tommy directly, the LP has been fully remastered and sounds as dazzlingly, heartbreakingly beautiful as it did back in 2007.

Coolly opening the album, "And The Folklore Continues" can be said to be both a titular and actual nod to his past work. As ever, there's heavenly Latin guitar stylings that make you swoon and the melancholic vibe is accentuated by the addition of some melodic wordless vocals from Tommy. Just divine. The sparkling "La Califas Perdido" follows, all dreamy melodic guitars and twinkling vibes over dusty drums and a fine bassline. The shuffling, conga-assisted "I Would Go With You" is a gentle, romantic gem whilst the brief but beautiful "No Time For Time" feels in a hurry to let us know that Tommy can work with more propulsive rhythms. In this case, they underpin Tommy's gorgeous, shimmering guitars wonderfully well.

The head-nod funk of "Calling For Ya!" (get it?) features Curumin delivering the clever title as a hypnotic vocal refrain peppered throughout, all hung around some buried spoken word vocals and gorgeous cello work from Lenny Gonzalez. "Bloodinthemud" is a low-down gritty funk workout whilst "Zapata's Boots" is a total low-key groover, all Latin percussion and Morricone muscle aided by a whistled Spaghetti Western melody. The startling instrumental "Mosaic Man" closes out the side with a lean slice of mellifluous, virtuoso guitar bliss.

The reflective "What Have I Been Doing Since I Was Gone?" opens the B-side in glorious fashion, the type of melancholic melodic head music that should soundtrack a bright walk on a cold winter's day. The hypnotic groover "Paper Switchblade" is a razor-sharp fuzz-funk whilst the beautifully downbeat "Never Forget To Remember" is a kaleidoscopic kalimba-koolout. Galloping cop-funk breaks workout "Run With The Hunted" is a rollicking ride and it's followed by the fresh chiming guitar funk of "New Terrain".

The upbeat and bright "40 Summers", featuring congas from Alfredo Ortiz, is as clean and poppy as Tommy gets and it really is a look he wears incredibly well. Just straight up guitar pop. "The Simple Man" a gorgeous, melancholic ballad, closes out the record with deeply yearning vocals from Tommy, a rarity and a treasured one at that.

Meticulously remastered and cut by both Simon Francis and Cicely Balston respectively, it has been pressed to the highest possibly quality at Record Industry in Holland. The original and iconic sleeve, designed by Natas Kaupas, has been restored here at Be With HQ as the finishing touch to this long overdue re-issue.

"Memorie d'Inverno" is the first collaboration album from Original Krash (Producer) & Casco aka Helmet (Performer) with the partecipation of various dope mc's and singers also the vynil exclusive include two remixes from leggendary prodcuers Dj Skizo (from Alien Army) and The Next One (from Zulu Nation and Rock Steady Crew).

"Memorie d'Inverno" is a concept album released for Outboard Music in June 22 and the title in italian stands for "Winter Memories".
The LP it's worked and founded on the classic style of Hip Hop where bassline, cuts and drums reign on the productions all made with the MPC5000 sampling original vynils. The songs are concived as a phootage of a memory, so made too survive forever in the ear of the listener. All the tracks has been mixed analogically by Matteo "Nost" Nolli at Nost Studio (excluded the two remixes made directly by the producers) with the supervision of Original Krash and the work on the sound it's an essential part of the LP and melted with the fact that most of the beats are sampled from Jazz and Soul defines the Hip Hop flavour of the album.

Thw philosophy and the work ethic behind "Memorie d'inverno" it could be perfectly resumed in the titles of the intro (True Knowledge Is The Future) and the outro (Today, Not Tomorrow) as a perfect closing circle. The message is don't waste your time around unuseful stuff and keep focused on what you like and really desire to reach, so you better tie the laces to your shoes, bust your back and study to obtain what you deserve beacuse no one is gonna do that for you.
Krash and Helmet thaks everyone who will support our business remebering to the one who hasn't already purchase the order that they really should beacuse... Italians Do It Better .

Released in July 1994 by Atlantic Records, Cracked Rear View is Hootie & the Blowfish's most successful album, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard 200 five times during the course of 1995. It was also the best-selling album of 1995 in the United States, selling 7 million copies, and since then has gone on to sell more than 10.2 million copies, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time.

AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine says Hootie & the Blowfish, on Cracked Rear View, "...deliver the goods, turning out an album of solid, rootsy folk-rock songs that have simple, powerful hooks."

The album played a pivotal role in shaping the career of its lead vocalist, Darius Rucker, who transitioned to country music in the mid-2000s as a solo artist. Cracked Rear View was an instant sensation, with chart-topping hits such as "Hold My Hand," "Let Her Cry," and "Only Wanna Be with You." The album has a distinctive sound, blending rock, pop, and a hint of folk, using Rucker's soulful, raspy baritone as its emotional core, and his heartfelt delivery to win over audiences.

This Analogue Productions (Atlantic Series) reissue of Cracked Rear View has the essential elements that make it a standout for your collection. We turned to Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound in Nashville for an exemplary cut direct from the master tape. Pressing on 180-gram vinyl is by Quality Record Pressings, and the album is housed in tip-on old style gatefold double pocket jackets with film lamination by Stoughton Printing.

Cracked Rear View's emotional depth and Rucker's distinctive voice left an indelible mark on the music industry, making Hootie & the Blowfish's debut album a timeless piece of musical history.

It's the year 2003. the world is bad and it would only be your fault if it stays that way. but the ärzte are doing what they've never done before: a double album. Everything has to be included! Punk, jazz, rumba, hard rock ... so many ideas, so many songs ... Even "Als ich den Punk erfand..." (When I invented punk ...) clarifies some aspects of human cultural history that have been clearly neglected up to now. The light-heartedly silly "Jag Älskar Sverige!" is a crowd favorite, "Geisterhaus" plays in the league of the great goth rock anthems, "Deine Schuld" provides the soundtrack to the clenched-fists-in-the-air resistance that is as permanently valid as it is double-edged, while "Die klügsten Männer der Welt" is more of a subtle dialectical critique. "Nothing in the World" is the official heartache cracker. There's also the bundle of pitch-black, cynical "Der Tag" with the blazingly amorous "Die Nacht" and two of the most good-humored zombie homage rock smashers of all time. And the absolutely compelling "Unrockbar" is instantly one of the signature hits of the best band in the world.

Ruutu Poiss with his second album “II” after his 2021’s debut full length “Palav Aed“, a welcome return to Wake Dream. Recorded in a concentrated period of time during the dark winter days of late 2022 and early 2023, “II” now finds it’s way to the public’s ears in the brighter days of the year.

An album as conceptual as it is emotional, with feelings of transformation and dreaming, hope and arrival, and an aesthetic that is both cinematic and hypnagogic, nostalgic and futuristic, it turns contradictions into harmonies, brings together the dark and the light, spinning and whirling freely around a steady core.

Recorded mainly with one synth and a collection of old drumcomputers, Ruutu Poiss once again shows his futuristic sonic virtuosity within the boundaries of a compact studio setup.

Es ist fraglich, ob unter den Pionieren der ersten britischen Punkrock-Welle noch jemand zu finden ist, der in der Gegenwart so aktiv und relevant ist wie TV Smith. Seine Band The Adverts galt 1976 bis 1979 als eine der wichtigsten Gruppen der Szene und hatte mit "Gary Gilmore's Eyes" einen veritablen Hit. Doch während es um viele der damaligen Protagonisten mit den Jahren still wurde und einige unter die Räder kamen, durchlief TV Smith eine eindrucksvolle Entwicklung und macht bis heute einfach immer weiter.

7” vinyl, mono, direct master tape to vinyl cut, 33rpm



This is the 3rd appearance of Odesa-based Hennadii Boichenko (ex-Indirect) on Muscut, after his contribution as a part of the Indirect band (Ab Pharmacy / Waltz - 2014, Ode To The Sea 7” single, “Sea Songs,” - is a record mixed and tape mastered by Dmytro Nikolaienko. This is also the first episode of a newly started series of analog production chain releases with master reel tape transfer to lathe cut (the label has only been sending digital master files to the record plant before that). This year, Muscut twists from electronic music to instrumental and eclectic ones with more similar releases in the queue - Cukor Bila Smert's recordings from 1990-1993, Nikolaienko's "Meta" (exploration of metallophone on tape loopings), Fleischesmarkt's - disbanded Odesan punk/kraut band from the late 2000s.

Although it felt like the world had stopped spinning, at times, it was during these days, months, and years of uncertainty that many of Venice’s “Stained Glass” songs were conceived. Each member of Venice was quietly and privately cataloguing their artistic interpretation of this new reality and uncertainty by recording or writing down little snippets of ideas, like guitar riffs, melodies, or lyrics…all of these came about while looking at life through a new lens.

They set up the writing circle using an electronic drum kit, small tube amps, direct acoustic guitars and bass and the sm58 stage microphones for vocals. This small and simple setup allowed the band to work on ideas at low-volume levels by using headphones or low-level playback through studio monitors without bothering the neighbors with live drums. “Lunches made by Michael’s wife, Danielle, and visits from their dog Sachi, kept us grounded and let us stay in the creative bubble without leaving that space”, says bassist, Mark Harris. Michael and drummer, Andre Kemp, who co-produced Stained Glass, would later re-record the drum tracks with real drums in a friend’s studio.

“The beauty of this approach on Stained Glass was that one person’s idea would be presented to the other 5 musicians and each guy added a different color to that idea”, says Michael. “Whether it was an unexpected drum beat, or a moving guitar line, those simple ideas turned into pieces of art, colored by the different musical and lyrical contributions. That only happens when you are working that idea out, together, and playing as one unit”.

That was the main inspiration for the album title; like a kaleidoscope, each guy's experience and taste in music was bringing a different color to the songs, but together their contributions made one piece of art, one song. Michael concludes, “if you zoom out, each song becomes its own color and all those songs or colors come together to form one big piece of art, one big piece of ‘Stained Glass’”.

Nia Archives is the star at the forefront of the latest era of jungle. Since her emergence in 2020, her collagist soundscapes have helped bring the sound to a new generation of clubgoers (though fair warning: don’t call her a “revivalist” – she’s the first to point out that the scene never went away). So when it comes to talk of the 24-year-old producer, DJ, singer and songwriter’s much-anticipated debut album, the odds are you’re thinking of a full-length record of weightless jungle tracks with basslines so intense they’ll leave your ears ringing.

But the reality of the Bradford-born, Leeds-raised artist’s first ever album – while very much replete with that exquisite jungle sound she does so well – is also doing something a little different. On the thrilling and freeing Silence Is Loud, Nia Archives is looking to make music for beyond the rave. As she explains: “I think music can be experienced in different ways, and there’s different kinds of music for different scenarios. Say you’re at a festival listening to music with thousands of other people, that can feel really uniting. But then you might listen to an album on your own in the bus, or in a taxi; and this project is definitely more a record to sit and listen to than a collection of club tracks.” Nia is intent that Silence Is Loud is taken in as a full body of work of something “more song-focussed, putting interesting sounds on jungle.” It means that this is a record which finds gloomy Britpop, warm Motown, soaring indie, a love for Kings of Leon’s Aha Shake Heartbreak, skittering IDM, Madchester, classic rock, old skool hardcore and more, woven and fused into her ragga and junglist tapestry, all layered with feeling, imbued with her songwriterly lyricism about loneliness, relationships, family, navigating her 20s, and the intense potential power of silence.

The vast sonic palette on Silence Is Loud comes down to Nia’s broad array of influences through her life. With her Jamaican heritage, Nia remembers hearing jungle as a child via her nana, as well as at Bradford Carnival, where she was drawn to the soundsystem culture, dancing carefree on the floats in the parade. The first album she ever bought was Rihanna’s debut, Music of the Sun, and she also went to Pentecostal church back then, and was obsessed with gospel. Aged 16, she moved to Manchester, where she didn’t really know anybody: and so, her solution to meeting people was going out. “Partying was a huge part of my life,” she says, “They used to do little freestyle cyphers at the house parties and I would join in – that’s kind of how I got into singing.” She had found music boring at school, but in meeting all these new people she became interested in making her own music as a hobby. “I was making boom-bap kind of stuff which I didn’t really like in the end,” she laughs, “My lyrics are quite deep, so on a hip-hop beat it all sounds really depressing. I wanted people to dance to my music.” And so she began experimenting with faster tempos alongside that melancholy songwriting, teaching herself how to make beats on Logic: “It’s all been a lot of trial and error, really.”

Nia went to study music in London, and was also interested in visual art, making collages and VHS: “Before the music, I was trying to make a visual archive of my life and the people around me,” she explains, “And then my music was like my diary, and a sonic archive, as well.” Hence, she paired the word “archives” with her middle name, Nia. To this day, in her spare time she’s working on pulling together a documentary on the global nature of the jungle scene.

Back on those first two EPs, Headz Gone West (2021) and Forbidden Feelingz (2022), she honed that junglist sound, painting it with new flecks of colour and vibrance. It was only after she started releasing work that she realised pursuing music could be a viable life path for her. The decision has been paying off ever since. Nia Archives placed third in the prestigious BBC Sound Poll for 2023, alongside garnering a nomination for the Brit Awards’ Rising Star prize, plus wins at the DJ Mag, NME, the MOBOs and Artist and Manager Awards. She has also toured the world – be it North America, Europe or Asia – and even opened a show in London as part of a little something called Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour. She’s renowned as a party-starter in her own right, too, with takeovers at Glastonbury, Warehouse Project and her own Bad Gyalz day event. She’s done official remixes for the likes of Jorja Smith, had a huge summer hit with her Yeah Yeah Yeahs rework ‘Off Wiv Ya Headz’, and worked with brands like Corteiz, Nike, Flannels, Burberry, FIFA and Apple. In just three years, it’s fair to say that Nia Archives has become a need-to-know name in dance music.

But Nia is not interested in being one fixed thing. Building on the terrain from her third EP, Sunrise Bang Ur Head Against Tha Wall, the universe of Silence Is Loud is not totally unfamiliar territory; but it’s still emblematic of a bolder scope than we’ve heard from the artist before. Working with Ethan P. Flynn (the songwriter and producer known for his work with FKA twigs and David Byrne), the resulting record is an impressive feat of deftly-sculpted textures; sometimes big and euphoric, like the wobbly, lusty bass of ‘Forbidden Feelingz’, or elsewhere notably gentle and quiet – see: the gorgeous, surprisingly drumless ‘Silence Is Loud (Reprise)’, a heartfelt number that sits somewhere in the school of Adele. “I really sharpened my songwriting skill on this project,” Nia says, “I was really intentional about what I was writing about, and I really loved co-producing with Ethan. His process is so different to anyone I’ve worked with before, and he’s got a kind of DIY set-up like me.” Flynn’s flat overlooks the Barbican, adding that unquantifiable futurist urban quality that the area holds to the music. The pair enjoyed the collaborative process so much that the album was done within three and a half months.

Perhaps this is why Silence Is Loud maintains an exuberant immediacy while still being sleek and spacious, interspersed with flourishes of metallic beats, lush melody and topped with her sugary but powerful vocal, floating over it all. There is an intimacy to the record, perhaps in part due to Nia writing most of her lyrics while sitting in bed in her flat in Bow (once a bedroom producer, always a bedroom producer). You can hear it on the refrain for lead single ‘Crowded Roomz’, which finds rippling guitar lines cutting taut through the beats as Nia refrains: “I feel so lonely crowded rooms.” The song is an examination of life on tour, constantly surrounded by people, but not necessarily those she can be herself around; more than that, the track is exemplary in the category of sad bangers.

Silence Is Loud often finds itself in that push and pull between melancholy and euphoria. There’s a celebration of her unconditional love for her younger brother (the title track), a rumination of an evening with an Irish boy she met by Temple Bar (‘Cards On The Table), or a letter to herself on the light and airy ‘Unfinished Business’, even coming to terms with a lover having a past they haven’t quite processed yet (“nobody comes with a clean slate”). The latter was recorded the week after a music festival, and accordingly captures Nia’s vocal in its not quite healed, husky state.

Nia’s work is always a snapshot of where she’s at when she’s making it. This might not be the debut album you were expecting, but that’s what makes Silence Is Loud so special. Nia Archives has learned the rules of her sound, and is unafraid to break them, pushing jungle and herself into new, unchartered territories that, in turn, go some way to map the history of the greats of British dance music. More than that, it plants her firmly in that lineage.

Yuval Havkin, also known as Rejoicer, is one of the foremost exponents of downtempo music, inspired by the fusion of jazz and hip-hop. His new album thus draws on his early influences while exploring the world of calm, melodic electronic music that borders on ambient.

This Is Reasonable has a chill-out feel to it, a record filled with melodies and atmospheres that, throughout its eleven tracks, conveys a sense of calm and floating, akin to ambient music. Stripped of the clichés of the genre, the album is built around subtle melodies and rich harmonies from keyboards and synths, which borrow as much from the spirit of jazz as from the inventions of electronica, whilst being supported by a gentle groove. This equilibrium is perfectly captured by Rejoicer's moniker, a term that evokes both the idleness of artificial paradises and a soft, caring form of spirituality.

Musical path
Yuval Havkin was born in Israel in 1985, and grew up in England before returning to his homeland. He began studying classical piano as a child, but was put off by such conservative teaching and turned to hip-hop and beatmaking in his teens. Throughout the 2000s, he learned his skills "on the job", working with musicians he met in Tel Aviv, a local scene that nurtured a sense of community and emulation. Back then, he was particularly impressed by the grooves and electronic inventions of Detroit producer Dabrye, who had a revelatory effect on him, before he discovered legendary musicians Madlib and Jay Dee aka J Dilla, who led him down the path of beatmaking.

Yuval Havkin's music career got off to a more serious start in the late 2000s with the creation of his own label, Raw Tapes, both based in Tel Aviv. Blending jazz, funk and hip hop, whilst still embracing pop influences, the label's productions showcased the richness of the new Israeli scene combining cool, elegance, playfulness, and a degree of research and inventiveness, thanks to the talent of artists and bands such as Duo Brothers, Maya Dunietz, iogi, Nitai Hershkovits, the Buttering Trio and Rejoicer, the artist's most personal project.

In 2018, Rejoicer's warm and engaging sounds caught the attention of the prestigious Los Angeles label Stones Throw, renowned for having signed his idols Madlib and J Dilla, not to mention Aloe Blacc and Peanut Butter Wolf (its founder). Two albums followed, Energy Dreams (2018) and Spiritual Sleaze (2020), both of which demonstrate his instrumental mastery, jazz culture and lush orchestrations. Both albums are on a par with more renown sampling prodigies of the beat scene, and gave him his first international recognition.

Now based between Los Angeles and Savyon, near Tel Aviv, this hyperactive and instinctive artist simultaneously pursues a career as a composer, musician and label owner, member of numerous bands and collective projects (Apifera, PlayDead, collaborations with Jimi Prasad and Avishai Cohen) while also offering his studios and production skills to other artists.

“Fela Kuti meets Aphex Twin”
This new Rejoicer album, which follows three earlier jazz-tinged records, marks a new and more personal musical direction for an artist who previously favored group work and collaborations. Following his meeting with Mathias Duchemin, founder of the Circus Company record label and a keen enthusiast of the new Israeli jazz scene, Yuval chose to delve into a more electronic and sequenced style of music, playing Prophet 6 and 8 synths, a Juno 60, a Minimoog and his Fender Rhodes keyboard, in contrast with the more organic sounds of his previous albums.

While a few tracks on this new album may sound like a laid-back version of some of the Warp label's early electronic classics by Aphex Twin or Boards of Canada, Yuval Havkin claims to have also been inspired by the great Fela Kuti, particularly in his search for harmonies between bass, keyboards and percussion, and by his elder trumpet-playing friend Avishai Cohen, a musician he particularly admires.

Beyond these various influences, This Is Reasonable is an album of compelling and bewitching melodies. The moods, peacefulness and sheer beauty of This Is Reasonable are, indeed, quite paradoxical, in stark contrast to the country's tragedies (the title explicitly refers to recent political disputes in Israel) and the war currently raging less than a hundred miles from his studio. A paradox fully embraced by the artist, who views his music as a response to the violence of our times.

Santana's seventh studio album Amigos remains one of the most important records in their discography. David Rubinson was hired as producer to create a tighter, more up-tempo, and vocally focused hit record. The jazz influences of ""Welcome"" and ""Borboletta"" were replaced by a new sound with a stronger R&B and funk feel with Mexican folk influences. The album became one of their biggest successes, reaching the Top 10 in many countries. The single ""Let It Shine"" put Santana back in the Top 10 of the Billboard Top 200 and ""Europa (Earth's Cry Heaven's Smile)"" became one of the most popular songs of the band's career. Amigos is available as a limited edition of 1500 individually numbered copies on purple coloured vinyl, housed in a gatefold sleeve and includes an insert.

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Amigos by Santana, released 12 April 2024, includes the following tracks: "Let Me", "Tell Me Are You Tired", "Let It Shine" and more.

This version of Amigos comes as a 1xLP in a(n) Gatefold Sleeve packaging. This release comes with (a) Insert(s).

Another great artist from the 80s back to vinyl: Roberto Buti has been involved in many important projects in the past, sometimes as a composer, sometimes as an arranger and many times by giving his voice for the project: “Xenon – Symphony”, “Next – You’re An Illusion”, “Reeds – In Your Eyes”, “Dr. Martini – You Are The One”, “Bob Robert – Storm In A Teacup”, just to name a few.

After almost 40 years, Mr. Buti is back in the 80s Italo Disco scene with a beautiful new track “You’re The Only One”. The vinyl release has an original production by Buti on the A side and as an alternative, the Flashback Remix (by Electro Potato) on the B side. Limited edition of 175 copies on the market.