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In 1990, Eric Clapton performed 18 nights at one of his favorite venues - the famous Royal Albert Hall in London. During the 18 run of shows Clapton performed with three different line-ups: a rock band, a blues band, and an orchestra. Eric returned to the same venue in 1991 with the same three line -ups and played a further 24 shows. The huge undertaking of rehearsing for performances of three distinctly different genres was made even more challenging by the line-up for the rock shows varying from 4, 9 or 13 band members.

Clapton has always played with superlative musicians, and these shows were no exception. The bands included Johnnie Johnson, Jimmie Vaughan, Chuck Leavell, Nathan East, Greg Phillinganes, Steve Ferrone, Ray Cooper, and Jerry Portnoy. Additionally, legendary special guests joined Clapton on stage: Phil Collins in the rock ensemble; Robert Cray, Buddy Guy and Albert Collins for the blues shows.

The Orchestral performances were arranged and conducted by Michael Kamen the highly regarded and successful composer who had worked with Clapton previously (Lethal Weapon, Edge Of Darkness). The set list included the epic 30 minute ‘Concerto For Guitar’ that Kamen composed especially for Clapton - released now for the first time.

Many of the performances in both years were filmed and recorded. The huge volume of audio and film material from the archive has been painstakingly restored and upgraded by Clapton’s team of Simon Climie (audio production and mixing), producer Peter Worsley (Slowhand at 70 and The Lady In The Balcony), and director David Barnard (The Lady In The Balcony).

This remarkable series of shows will finally be given the release that they deserve. A full concert of each genre (Rock, Blues, Orchestral) has been assembled from the hours of material available and will be released on audio (CD, LP, digital) and with an accompanying film on Blu-ray and DVD.

The Clapton classics performed with the rock band include ‘White Room’, ‘Lay Down Sally’, ‘Wonderful Tonight’, ‘Pretending’ and ‘Layla’. The Orchestral show features a stunning version of ‘ Layla’, plus stand-out highlights of ‘Bell Bottom Blues’, ‘Edge Of Darkness’ and ‘Sunshine of Your Love’. Great covers of ‘Cocaine’, ‘I Shot the Sheriff’ and ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’ also feature. The 14-song Blues set includes standards such as ‘Sweet Home Chicago, ‘Have You Ever Loved A Woman’, and ‘Key To The Highway’.

The limited-edition ‘Definitive 24 Nights’ deluxe box sets include 47 songs and almost 6 hours of music on 6 CDs or 8 LPs and 3 Blu-ray’s.

'In Thy Domain' is a concept album and audio-visual work by British artist Fred Mann. The 12-track, double-vinyl album is a cinematic voyage tracking the evolution of mankind, key themes of human advancement, technology, life after AI, and beyond.

The album traverses multiple genres - including ambient, electronica, broken-beat techno, and experimental drone - to create an immersive musical experience that mirrors the dynamism of human evolution.

The work aligns with the latest scientific knowledge, drawing inspiration from the tipping points of human civilization and the defining timelines that have shaped our species. The music is complemented by a series of artworks and scrapbook images, visible in the vinyl gatefold, which symbolize each track and its corresponding era.

Many of the tracks feature additional production, synthesizers, flute and clarinet by Chris Taylor (Grizzly Bear / Warp), and additional production and drum programming by Inland (Ed Davenport / Counterchange).

Fred Mann premiered ‘In Thy Domain’ live in Prague, October 2019, alongside Alessandro Cortini for Dietl Archive x Polygon.

The album version comes presented on heavyweight double vinyl in a gatefold sleeve designed by the artist himself.

During the year 2021, Charlemagne entrusted us with numerous archives recently found on audio cassettes dating from the 70s and 80s. After a long process of listening and selection, Matière Mémoire is pleased to present the first volume of these archives to you.

ALL MUSIC, instruments & voices by charlemagne palestine
Except CD2 track4 by Simone Forti & Charlemagne Palestine
Track selection by Karbé dinel / Cassette digitization by Lionel Hubert
Mastering by Frederic Alstadt at Mont analogue Mastering
COVER PICTURE BY Henry Ughetto "Pour charlemagne palestine" 1998

VERVE BY REQUEST SERIE: remastert vom analogen Originalband, audiophiles 180-Gramm-Vinyl von Third Man Pressing/Detroit, Gatefold-Sleeve.

Durch die letztjährige Grammy-Nominierung der Jazzharfenistin Brandee Younger sind in jüngster Zeit viele Jazzfans wieder auf das schmale, dafür aber umso erstaulichere Œuvre ihres großen Vorbilds Dorothy Ashby aufmerksam geworden. Ihr wohl exzentristischstes, zugleich aber unglaublich zugängliches Album nahm sie 1970 für Cadet Records auf: “The Rubáiyát Of Dorothy Ashby”. Auf ihm vertonte sie Vierzeiler des persischen Dichters Omar Chayyām (1048-1131), wobei sie auf reizvolle Weise Spiritual Jazz, Funk und Blues mit Elementen asiatischer und afrikanischer Musik verschmolz. Neben ihrer Harfe spielt Ashby hier auch die japanische Koto und sang.

Dorothy Ashbys ”The Rubáiyát Of Dorothy Ashby” erscheint am 12. Mai zeitgleich mit der verschobenen LP Archie Shepp - Kwanza (Verve By Request) 00602448476180.

- 2023 Edition - Pressed on Clear Red Wax - LP housed in an expanded Stoughton tip-on gatefold jacket - Includes fold-out poster, sticker and insert, along with a download card for full album, non-album single B-side "The Cowboy Song" and an unedited October 1978 BBC audio interview with John Lydon // Reissue of the pioneering group's debut album First Issue. In 1976 Johnny Rotten and the Sex Pistols set the agenda for punk's year zero with 'Anarchy In The UK', a song that summed up the spirit, sound and attitude of the band in one shocking package. Two years later, the Sex Pistols were in tatters, but Rotten was as unsentimental as you'd hope. He reverted to his real name - John Lydon - and set about forming a band whose very identity kicked against press and media manipulation. Featuring bassist Jah Wobble, drummer Jim Walker and guitarist Keith Levene, his new group were Public Image Limited. The public image would be limited. PiL were a very distinct prospect from the Pistols, founded with a greater thought for rhythm, and with a sound that turned the page from snarling punk to a more experimental sound fusing rock, dance, folk, ballet, pop and dub. But that's not to say Lydon's new outfit lacked vitriol. 'Public Image' hits out against the notorious British tabloid press, who never gave Lydon an easy ride, and against his own Sex Pistols public image - "You only saw me for the clothes I wore". The debut single (and the album that followed) operated as a theme song and a manifesto: "_my entrance/My own creation/My grand finale/My goodbye," as the lyrics had it. It is, essentially, the sound of four people letting loose in a studio - and not caring what anyone else thought. The album was never officially released in the USA back in the day, its sound considered too un-commercial by major-labels for an American release. First Issue has been lovingly reproduced from the original UK 1978 release and this special reissue also comes with a clutch of post-punk era treasures. The 2023 LP edition includes an expanded gatefold jacket, an archive replica fold-out poster, a PiL sticker, insert, and Download Card for the album, the archival BBC interview, and "The Cowboy Song." All of which were approved and coordinated with John Lydon and his personal management.

eine auf 300 Exemplare limitierten, farbigen Vinyl-Edition (gold with black dust) im Gatefold (mit Heißfolienprägung) und inklusive 24-seitigem Vinyl-Booklet, 8 Bonustracks
Die physischen Formate enthalten Bonus-Audiomaterial und Booklets mit exklusiven Archivinhalten. Der Bonusinhalt enthält die folgenden Raritäten: Coverversionen, Proben und Live-Tracks.

einerauf 500 Exemplare limitierten, farbigen Vinyl-Edition (stone grey marbled) im Gatefold (mit Heißfolienprägung) und inklusive 24-seitigem Vinyl-Booklet, 8 Bonustracks
Die physischen Formate enthalten Bonus-Audiomaterial und Booklets mit exklusiven Archivinhalten. Der Bonusinhalt enthält die folgenden Raritäten: Coverversionen, Proben und Live-Tracks.

Ground Groove, the third full-length release from the LA-based, Iranian-American producer and DJ, Maral, begins with an invocation: the sprawling, achingly heavy Feedback Jam opens the floodgates of history. Conventional (linear) spacetime collapses, crushed beneath the track’s lumbering 4/4 heartbeat and successive waves of distortion. As each wave recedes, samples trickle forward in the mix — seeking, perhaps, to fill the void. Voices and instruments rise and fall in uncanny reverse. Overlapping, implied melodies flicker into focus, then flit away. Feedback Jam is at once an initiation ritual, and a thesis statement for the record that follows.

Drawing upon a vast personal archive of Iranian folk, classical, and pop recordings (some sourced from mixtapes made by her parents in the eighties/nineties), Maral presents, on Ground Groove, a further refinement of the signature “folk club” sound she developed as a live DJ— a sound she would later codify on Mahur Club (2019) and Push (2020). By collecting, dissecting, and re/presenting sonic fragments from Iran, Maral practices a kind of dance-floor ethnomusicology. The subject of her inquiry: Iranian


culture and contexts, throughout history and in the present. But, crucially, this inquiry is instantiated within and throughout the body of the listener, whether this listener is dancing in the club, or riding the train, nodding along with headphones on.

Maral speaks of being in collaboration with her samples, treating each as a distinct bandmate, often consulting with an artist’s catalog (or even a single recording) as one would a trusted creative partner. In so-doing, Maral claims to seek to transcend the self. In this regard, her output neatly triangulates contemporary dance and heavy music with much of the traditional religious music that she samples. Broadly speaking, each of these idioms addresses a desire —shared by audience and performer alike—to transcend the self through volume, repetition, and movement.

Having, in her youth, studied the Setar under Nader Majd (the founder of Virginia’s Center for Persian Classical Music), Maral cycled through various genres (ex: punk, emo, dub) in her adolescence and early twenties, all the while expanding her knowledge of, and appreciation for, Iran’s diverse musical traditions during regular summer trips to Tehran. In college, Maral taught herself to make beats with a ripped copy of Ableton (which remains her DAW of choice), eventually transitioning to playing and hosting various club nights. Forever abiding by an autodidactic, DIY impulse to create art and foster community, Maral relocated to Los Angeles in 2013, where she quickly immersed herself in the city’s numerous overlapping music scenes.

Collaboration (beyond sampling) has proven an important component of her process, with notable spoken word contributions from the likes of Lee Scratch Perry and Penny Rimbaud, as well as a 2021 Panda Bear collab track (On Your Way), which the Animal Collective founder co-produced. Maral is equally attentive to the visual components of her records (album art, music videos, etc.), drawing upon the work of peers and friends for inspiration.

Indeed, the genesis of Ground Groove can be traced back to an audio-visual collaboration between Maral and the artist Brenna Murphy, originally commissioned for the 2021 Rewire Festival — a project that would eventually serve as the album’s foundation. Tracks eight through eleven on Ground Groove comprise Maral’s half of this installation, with tracks one through seven composed afterwards, inspired by the fruits of Maral and Murphy’s collaboration. Murphy’s visuals will be released alongside Ground Groove as a visual accompaniment. Additionally, Murphy designed the album’s art, directed the video for the lead single (the aforementioned Feedback Jam), and is featured on track six, Shy Night.

Composed largely on Ableton, Ground Groove features more frequent and more prominent live recordings from Maral (guitar, bass, and vocals) than either Push or Mahar Club. The cult favorite Roland MC-909 groovebox rears its head on Mari’s Groove. Mixed by Trayer Tryon (Hundred Waters) and mastered by Daddy Kev, the attention to sonic quality on Ground Groove constitutes another significant step in Maral’s development as a studio artist.

Ground Groove’s eleven tracks are “grooves” in the obvious sense, in that they are each driven by a persistent, propulsive rhythm, but the album’s title may just as well suggest the glacial passage of time—the scope of human history, in which individual voices, like streams, carve paths (impossibly) through earth and stone, winding their way to the vast sea of the present.

Kalita are proud to unveil the second volume in their "Borga Revolution!" compilation series, focussing on the phenomenon of "Burger Highlife", a crossover of West African melodies with synthesizers, disco and boogie that took over Ghanaian airwaves during the 1980"s and beyond. Featuring both highly sought-after recordings by artists including Atta Frimpong and D.J. Lawyer Okyere, as well as seminal performances by greats such as Pat Thomas, A.B. Crentsil and Alan Cosmos, Kalita once again come to the rescue of audiophiles, DJs and music-lovers alike with "Borga Revolution! - Volume 2". Spread over a double-LP housed in a gatefold sleeve. Accompanied by a 12-page booklet featuring extensive interview-based liner notes on each artist and never-before-seen archival photos.

Lifted From Hubbard's Lauded 1979 Lp 'the Love Connection', This Sublime Piece Of Melodic, Deep, Soul/Jazz Will Have Ears And Minds Open With It's Instantly Recognisable Opening String Sequence.

Used To Devastating Effect On Pepe Bradock's All-time 1999 Deep-house Classic 'deep Burnt', Those Sweeping Strings Capture Us And Lead Us Into A Epic Journey With The Wondrous Vocal Stylings Of The Legendary Singer Al Jarreau.

This Is Prime Early Morning Music, Pushing All The Right Buttons & Spreading Light Wherever It Is Played, A Beautiful Beautiful Record Indeed! What Is Essentially An Extended And Rearranged Version Of Hubbard's 1967 Original, The '79 Version Of 'little Sunflower' Boasts A Sumptuous Arrangement & Production From The Mighty Claus Ogerman (Ben E King, Mel Torme, Bill Evans, Antonio Carlos Jobim & More).

A Truly Wondrous Piece Of Music, Reissued On A Single Side In It's Full 12" Length Of 9+ Minutes From The Source Archive Audio. Fully Legit, Licensed And Reissued With Love By Above Board Distribution And Columbia Records/Sony Bmg For Record Store Day, 2019.

Dana Kelley, aka DKMA, is a much revered writer, producer, remixer, performer and creative force whose releases have become timeless classics and Holy Grails amongst DJs, music heads and collectors alike. A true artist and innovator, his productions possess the unique ability to engage, transport, challenge and enthral as only next level musicians can.

Grounded in the deep, soulful US House sound of the mid '90's, his earliest releases can be found on Strictly Rhythm, before moving on to produce under his DKMA alias as well as releasing music as Callisto on Guidance. Although Dana sadly passed away in 2013, he left us with a remarkable body of work that has remained both exciting and relevant throughout the last 2 decades and beyond.

Boston Boy Vol.2 is the 2nd in a series of compilations that focuses on Dana's visionary work as DKMA, during his most compelling and creative phase between 1997 and 2002. The compilations themselves are collated from an incredible & far reaching archive of over 20 of Dana's original DATs that have been generously shared with us by the Kelley Family. In the archive, some of Dana's most sought after & cherished works were uncovered, restored and meticulously assembled alongside previously unheard archival material.

The tracks themselves are bold, clever and inventive, characterised by a need for innovation. Passages of deep soulful house underpin more forward thinking electronics without ever losing dance floor appeal. Jazz solos sit imaginatively on top of gritty swinging rhythms, deep infectious b-lines, eerie textures and chord sequences are warm and effortlessly soulful yet with a sound design, sonic range, dynamism and a technical prowess that most could only dream of.

These compilations celebrate the life, vision and art of one of house music's most hallowed producers. Unique and essential, these collections pull together DKMA's most coveted works. Respectfully sourced, restored and compiled from all audio sources courtesy of the Kelley family and Above Board Projects.

Mastered by Frank Merritt at The Carvery, London, with special artwork by Atelier Surplus featuring a special unseen image of Dana from his family's photo albums.

Red Vinyl

It has been exactly ten years since Finders Keepers first intrepidly entered Andrzej Korzyński’s cavernous musical vault, but it is only today that we are able to proudly announce the safe retrieval on what we consider the true heavy psych holy grail of the Polish composer’s mind-bending oeuvre. By cruel coincidence this welcome event has sadly come during the same year as the composer’s tragic passing. However, in true Korzyński style, alongside his previous Finders Keepers releases, the legacy he has left behind in this one final lost soundtrack project alone has come with musical riches beyond anyone’s wildest expectations.

The comprehensive elusive archive of the deeply psychedelic soundtrack to Andrzej Żuławski’s forbidden film Diabeł (The Devil) is perhaps the most detailed dossier one could wish to find – including audio sketches, rejected proposals and pre-butchered variations that play out like an intense and veritable creative conversation between the director and the maestro, both of whom are widely recognised as true mavericks of socialist-era Poland’s fertile artistic landscape. Never intended for anything as conventional as a straightforward movie tie-in promotional disc (state owned Eastern European record labels rarely did this), the music in this archive has required special forensic inspection. Let’s say the devil is in the detail. The 7” record you are now holding is more than just a companion piece, and it is far from a selection of the (non-existent) poppy title themes to promote a full feature-length album. This standalone release is wholly unique in its own right, giving Finders Keepers listeners a final access all areas snoop into the mind of one of the pillars of our alternative musical community.

As those familiar with Żuławski and Korzyński’s long-running relationship will understand (a methodology best exemplified in the schizoid soundtrack to the film Possession), their exchanges were deeply nuanced and often complicated, with lots of artistic “tennis” thrown into the mix. The key plot in this behind-the-scene fable is that after delivering his original off-kilter psychedelic score to the director, maestro Korzyński was asked to make the music “totally unique, like something from another planet”, to which Korzyński took his tapes, pulled down the vari-speed to a guttural grind and continued to recompose over the top using avant-garde electro-acoustic techniques while deploying psychedelic skills of guitarist Winicjusz Chróst. This limited record release proudly boasts Korzyński’s original uptempo awkward psychedelic pop music prior to the doom laden growls that make the official films soundtrack a true Goliath of Eastern European soundtrack composition. Which, when recontextualised, will stand as a veritable face-melter for stoner rock fans. As one of Finders Keepers deepest conquests, we are delighted to share The Devil Tapes… What is a grail without the wine.

2023 re-issue, 140g vinyl, reproduction of the classic Tele Music sleeve, full colour insert with liner notes and archive photographs

Wow! Tonio Rubio's Rhythms is a stone-cold killer, a heavyweight library breaks LP and the inaugural release in Be With's new partnership with legendary French library label Tele Music. Yes, you lucky people, there's lots to come. For this extremely special 50 year anniversary re-issue, we've reproduced the classic Tele Music sleeve with a full colour insert featuring rare photographs, fresh liner notes and personal memories of Tonio from the likes of Jean-Claude Vannier, Jean-Claude Petit and Janko Nilovic.

Sumptuous opener “Latin Leitmotiv” is all funky phasing effects and a killer montuno, with what sounds like piano and bass in tandem, stoking straight up Latin fire. The gritty hard funk of blaxploitation groove "Red Medium" is dripping in wah-wah attitude and head-nod oddness. The atmospheric, exotica-tinged "Dead Slow" emulates the languid, sensual afro groove of Quincy Jones’ wild masterpiece “Gula Matari” whilst the proggy, electric jazz fusion epic "Rock 73" is 9+ minutes of moody, rolling menace.

But the *real* highlight of this cult classic - and why it has long been *so* desirable - is the devastating, deep, hypnotic minimalist groove of "Bass In Action N°1". Very much in conversation with Quincy's rendition of "Hummin'", the loping, rumbling bassline and sweet electric piano over clean, crisp drums making it one of those tracks that sounds like a hip-hop beat 20 years ahead of time. Sensational. “Bass In Action N°2“ features Tonio's own vocal scat performance. Remarkable.

Antonio "Tonio" Rubio Garcia got his start playing the double bass in jazz clubs. In 1962, Tonio joined the Golden Stars, the first backing band of France’s teenage idol Johnny Hallyday. A genius musician with a unique guitar sound, he played on standards of French chanson including Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot’s "Bonnie and Clyde", Françoise Hardy’s "Tous les Garçons et les Filles", Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin’s "Je T’aime, Moi Non Plus" and Serge and Charlotte Gainsbourg’s infamous "Lemon Incest". Tonio also lent his brilliance to such legendary figures as Janko Nilovic, Jean-Claude Petit, Hervé Roy, and Jean-Claude Vannier. The latter remembers Tonio as “a secretive, mysterious man, with an endearing personality, albeit difficult to reach out to. His virtuosity as a bass player allowed me to write very innovative basslines, because he was able to play any of my eccentricities!”

The audio for Rhythms has been remastered by Be With regular Simon Francis whilst Christopher Stevenson has brought the original and iconic Tele Music sleeve back to life in all its striking glory as the finishing touch to this long overdue re-issue.

Limited edition 180g audiophile vinyl pressing
The album presented here, originally issued as Walkin' (Prestige PRLP-7076), is a
key work in Miles Davis' discography. It contains the product of two rather
different sessions. The first date yielded just two tracks, although they were long
enough to fill up one side of an LP. The other session included Miles' classic
composition "Solar". Curiously, although it would become a jazz standard, Miles
never recorded it again.
"The undeniable strength and conviction present in Miles Davis' performances on
Walkin', underscore the urgency and passion with which he would rightfully
reclaim his status as a primary architect of bop. Walkin' is a thoroughly solid
effort." - ****1/2 Lindsay Planer, AllMusic

arbitrary presents the third in the Black Box series of releases by Mads Emil Nielsen. The release, which showcases a more sample- and grid-based side of the Danish musician/composer’s work, is part of a sequence of publications with music and audio originally made for theatre, radio soundtracks and more.

Black Box 3 is based on sound pieces produced for Sprækker (Cracks), a dance performance & installation in Denmark, 2021. The starting points for these pieces are improvisations recorded with contemporary dancers, in which Nielsen guides the listener through a corpus of synthesizer recordings, everyday sounds and radio archives. These original recordings were reworked for this LP and edited into the six tracks in early 2022.

Written & produced, recorded and mixed by Mads Emil Nielsen, Copenhagen, 2021 / 2022. Acoustic sounds on Installation – 2 by Victor Dybbroe. Mastered and cut by Kassian Troyer at D&M, Berlin. Graphic design by Mads Emil Nielsen. Thanks to Aaben Dans, Thomas Eisenhardt, Catherine Poher, Chris Watson, Antoine Hubineau.

Many Worlds Interpretation is a collection of cosmic Americana for electronics, guitar, and percussion culled from Jon Iverson’s extensive home-studio archive. 1984, Los Osos, California. In a small cinderblock cottage, hand-painted with bright psychedelic flora, Jon Iverson created vibrant new worlds. He spent long days and nights immersed in sound, perfecting home recording on his 8-track reel-to-reel, combining his love for kosmische and Berlin School electronics with an infatuation with ethnographic sounds and expansive guitar music. In a duo with fellow sonic traveler Thomas Walters, Iverson released missives from the studio on a self-titled LP released on country legend Guthrie Thomas’ Eagle Records. That release featured
three electro-acoustic compositions (“Naningo”, “River Fen”, and “Fox Tales”) as well as a gathering of guitar duo tapestries. Many Worlds Interpretation re-imagines those interplanetary works alongside several unreleased compositions that also feature synthesizer, guitar, and percussion, creating a re-visioned album which leans into Iverson’s electronic studio wizardry.

All songs have been carefully transferred from analog tape to high resolution digital, retaining their vintage studio warmth, but mixed and mastered for modern ears and audio systems. The album is pressed at 45rpm, further enhancing the audiophile experience.

Artist Statement

I worked in a Harley Davidson parts warehouse in the summer of 1976 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The goal was to save enough money to buy transportation for college and a Teac 4 track 1/4" reel to reel tape machine. By September there was a rusting monkey-vomit green car in the driveway and shiny new Teac with a Sony condenser microphone in the bedroom. At this point I had been playing guitar for a dozen years and like most children of the sixties, dreamed of joining
a band.

Went to college instead to study business.

But all was not lost. 1978-1979 was spent as Weird Al Yankovic's roommate and we recorded and created enough songs to play shows around San Luis Obispo, California, where we were attending college. Many of those recordings have yet to be heard by the public, including the first performances of My Bologna and many other parodies of pop songs of the day. We sent tapes to Dr. Demento, we auditioned for The Gong Show and were barred from playing at the local college after one memorable performance. Wild times.

I, however, was more intent on working on "serious" music, with albums from Vangelis, Tangerine Dream and Jean Michel Jarre providing inspiration. DJing at the local college radio station and then public radio outlet provided exposure to an endless stream of obscure albums (Sky Records from Germany was a particular favourite). Most of them would never make it to the air, but my buddies and I would pass them around like exotic treasure.

Fast forward a couple more years and I had picked up a Mini-Moog and eventually a Prophet V synthesizer as well as starting a collection of instruments from around the world. The Teac and synths formed the basis for a growing DIY studio that had taken over a modest-size garage (pictured on the cover) that had been converted into a two room cottage in Los Osos, California.

The Teac was eventually joined by a rented Otari 1/2" 8-track and then finally a vintage MCI JH-100 2" 16-track. The compositions on this album were recorded on these three machines between 1982 and 1989. At some point an Apple II computer with Alpha Syntauri sound card and keyboard were added and then later the first personal computer sampling hardware/software kit, the Decillionix DX-1. The DX-1 forms the rhythm track for “Fox Tales” and the Alpha Syntauri was programmed to create the pulsing synth for “Naningo”. “River Fen” was tracked with both the Alpha Syntauri and the Prophet V.

I knew this music wasn't commercial, but didn't care. It was inspiring working with the first computer-based synths and semi-pro gear. Home studios were still rare in the early 80s until the Tascam Portastudio blew the DIY door wide-open. But I was more interested in sound quality so stuck with reels of tape instead of lower fidelity cassettes.

During the time these songs were recorded, I was also collaborating with my good friend and mandolinist, Tom Walters. “River Fen”, “Naningo” and “Fox Tales”, were solo recordings that also ended up on the first Iverson & Walters album, First Collection. The other four pieces on this new LP were never fully finished or released until now.

— Jon Iverson, September 2022

Clear Vinyl

"Monstas brings out our street and theatrical sides to a fiasco, combining Grime/Dub MC's and tunes to make a Soundtrack-like experience. The release also marks an end of a Trilogy - which allows us to wrap up our sonic architect skills, and to start from scratch, to dive deep in the unknown - audio and visually."
- TRAKA

Tehran-born, Manchester-based artist Parham Ghalamdar provides a suite of raw & candid amateur-performed Persian folk, pop songs and poetry - all pulled from the audio on his parents archive of homemade VHS recordings documenting intimate, joyous & illicit gatherings in turn-of-the-century Iran.

"Beautiful Apparitions is a collection of audio excerpts from digitized VHS tapes recorded by my parents in early-noughties Iran. The footage depicts the secret double lives of Iranians drinking, dancing, and singing to celebrate life when owning a VHS player was illegal in the Islamic Republic. The footage is an amateur performance of pop and folklore songs about love, loss and life. Although many Iranians must have recorded such vivid moments, they are rarely made available publicly. Such tapes would usually have been well hidden, lost, or purposefully destroyed."

— Parham Ghalamdar

With I was born by the sea, Richie Culver brings to a close a period of intense introspection and emotional reckoning with a debut album that serves as both an optimistic statement of intent and a final glance back at the painful places it explores. Following recent work with Blackhaine and Pavel Milyakov, I was born by the sea picks up where Culver’s EP for Italian label Superpang, Post Traumatic Fantasy, leaves off, painting an unabashed portrait of contemporary malaise, detailing a life lived behind closed doors, pinned under the crushing weight of austerity, sapped of the strength to do anything other than gaze out to sea and all the grey possibilities it represents. Where Post Traumatic Fantasy saw Culver returning to his hometown of Hull after a period spent entangled in London’s relentless sprawl, his first full length project reaches further back to his formative years working in a caravan factory and going to raves in and among Hull’s outskirts. Unspooling like a fever dream, I was born by the sea is the anxious clutter of a racing mind spoken clearly, a stark reflection on how it feels to have too many ideas and too much time to act on them.

Though unquestionably a snapshot of a time of significant difficulty, Culver reflects on this period with tender empathy and pitch-black humour, stitching together unflinching observations from England’s neglected corners, ‘there’s more mobility scooter repair shops and bookies than there are bookshops,’ and devastating vignettes of everyday struggle, ‘tears on the tin foil’, with surreal depictions of industrial grit, ‘skimming stones in a small pond by the slaughterhouse’. His DIY approach to production stretches the rough sinew that connects these fragments of memory, a process he describes as using a paired back collection of synths and drum machines to the best of his ability, ‘but to the least of their capabilities,’ wringing out visceral sound with self-taught urgency. During the album’s most impressionistic passages it’s as though Culver has transposed past internal turmoil into powerfully resonant noise, the Sisyphean sonics of ‘Create A Lifestyle Around Your Problems’, which evokes in its concrète clatter and MRI machine barrage the sound of making the same mistake again and again, or the stuttered jumble of ‘Its Hard To Get To Know You,’ its garbled vocal modulation and frayed edges of distortion channeling the paranoia of somebody listening to muffled voices through thin plaster, climbing the walls of their bedroom with the curtains closed, a nervous breakdown in stereo.

In counterpoint to this glides the ever-present spirit of the dance floor, which haunts the record from the moment it is invoked in its first few seconds. Opening onto a sea wall of bright synthesis, the stuttering vocals and bass tone chops of ‘Nervous Energy’ dump us directly into post rave ecstasy, the echoing cry of a voice amplified by loudspeaker carrying the loose energy and surge of crowds moving in darkness. The incessant, dead phone line beep of ‘Pigeon Flesh’ builds to a pulse that suddenly swells into an anxious technoid surge, shapeshifting at lysergic speed into head shrinking audio hallucinations, a descent into the void of the present via machine music hypnosis. Even ‘Its Hard To Get To Know You’ summons the ego death drive of hardcore techno within its scorched textures, flickering indiscernibly between attritional noise and frazzled hardware stomp. Paying homage to both the parties of his youth and a countless succession of Sundays spent offering himself up within Berghain’s hallowed architecture, Culver’s experiments in addressing his formative relationship with rave provide an energetic glimpse at where he might take his sound next.

Between spikes of propulsive energy and grim mood pieces Culver returns to suspended passages of aching, glacial drift, the cold swell of the North Sea, accompanied by some of his heaviest testimonials. The gauzy ebb of ‘Daytime TV,’ its tumbling loops reminiscent of boats bobbing off a distant shore, sees the artist at his most checked out, slumped in front of his television, seven days a week. ‘I used to dream of doing something,’ he admits, ‘anything to get out of this town.’ ‘Love Like An Abscess’ pairs swirling currents of ambient shimmer with violent images of baseball bats lying next to beds and blood-stained mattresses, next to which Culver pleads in a desperate mumble, ‘let our love grow, like a broken abscess.’ Yet it’s with the album’s final word and title track that Culver reveals a glimmer of cautious optimism, a parting gesture of exposition and closure. ‘I knew I had to get away,’ he asserts, ‘so I did and I never looked back.’ What follows builds from a low throb, the flutter of a tiny heartbeat, to a resonant glow, embellished with unfurling synthetic burbles, oil rigs sparkling in the distance, golden light spilling across the sea. In reckoning with the place he had to escape, Richie Culver is now free to look towards the promise of something new, something hopeful.

Etceteral are a Slovenian experimental trio (saxophone & electronics, drums, visuals) who create a propulsive, polyrhythmic futurist jazz. It is a sound marked by abstract modular explorations, hypnotic drumming, ricocheted horn textures and crystalline production. Interzones between Dub, Krautrock, Afro-rhythms, free improvisation and quantized electronic music are brightly lit on this thrilling second album. The idea of musical elasticity is central to Rhizome, the sophomore album of the Slovenian audio-visual electronic jazz trio Etceteral, the newest member of the Glitterbeat family, who debuted in 2020 with the album Ama Gi for Kapa Records. Following a series of domestic and international gigs, the band consisting of Bostjan Simon (saxophone, synth, electronics), Marek Fakuc (drums) and Lina Rica (visuals) returned to the studio, taking their ambition to meld audio and visuals to a whole new level on their debut for the tak:til imprint. On Rhizome, the band explores the interzone between groove-driven contemporary jazz, quantized electronic music, abstract modular explorations and free improvisation. Like rubber that is able to stretch and be returned to its original shape, Etceteral expands its arrangements to the point of no return, pushing its sonic architecture to the maximum without ever letting it collapse onto itself. "I like to think in terms of sonic rubber bands. We can stretch our music both rhythmically and harmonically, change tonality and return to the main theme through a different key. This process opens up new space for discovery. We recently listened a lot to Joshua Abrams and Evan Parker, musicians who know how to make their music airy and spacious," says saxophonist Simon