NAPPYNAPPA and Pat Cain’s Model Home project realigns with Dolo Percussion for SE, their second album on Future Times. A deviation from their self-released run of numerically-titled LPs, SE builds on the impact of REV b/w Flesh - released earlier in 2020 on the label - and shows the Future Times formation of Model Home in full Special Edition mode.
If you’ve been sleeping on Model Home, Nappa and Pat have become a prolific and potent unit of “liberated sound, vision and performance” emblematic of DC’s thriving musical underground community. Self-releasing nearly 20 albums in two years, Pat Cain and Nappa have perfected a sound; a raw expression that is wholly their own. A perfect musical balance attained through intense experimentations in sonic and lyrical imperfection.
Nappa’s blurry-eyed spoken word raps should be recognised alongside the powerful polemics of Moor Mother or the explosive experimentation of Pink Siifu, or fellow DC legend Sir E.U. Nappa is an artist deeply entrenched in the expression of rap but one that recognises there are so many sonic ways in which to frame his state of mind. Which is why the frazzled sound design of Pat Cain has made Model Home such a perfect backdrop for Nappa to express himself. Rap existing in unison with raw electronixxx, dancehall, noise, industrial and whatever else they throw in the mix.
Add the crisply-programmed drums and chaotic FX of Dolo Percussion into the Model Home mix and SE zones into a murky yet richly detailed space that leaves you going “WTF?” multiple times and hammering the repeat button again and again.
Spread over nine tracks, the Model Home trio approach the game from various angles; swerving from the dizzying Bounce triplets and smudged Nappa vox on “Omnipresent Love” to the spacious lyrical interplay n’ woozy moog of “Bag” via the warped Pan Sonic curdle of “Are You Shur?” and the hyper-kynetic rhythmic aerobics of “Topic.”
SE showcases Model Home at their most expressive; plunging deeper into their own weird universe. “Like the seed in the soil,” as Nappa raps on album closer “Cold Gettin’ Dogg.
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We are back on Boogie Butt with a soul track just like back in the days, this time with a Lord Funk & Samm Culley collaboration. We’re bringing back to your ears this giant artist, who crosses decades of music with its great personality and many groovy songs.
Samm Culley is an R&B, soul & funk keyboard player and a dope songwriter. His music career started within the band Tiny Tim & The Hits with Tom Price & Bill Collier. This trio soon left Tiny to form their own group The Diplomatics with Irving Waters as the lead singer. They later on became the legendary Skull Snaps.
Over the years, Samm co-produced and/or played with many unforgettable famous artists such as Hot Chocolate, The Fatback Band, George Kerr, Patrick Adams, Vaughan Mason, Reggie Griffin, De-De, Van Mc Coy, Lloyd Price & even later in Hip Hop music with Marley Marl or Freddie Foxxx.
“Let It Go” brings you back in 1970 with a great killer dance floor track for Bboys and soul lovers: the dru break is hot and on the same time, the guitar hook and bassline make you feel James Brown on the scene. Close your eyes and easily imagine John Shaft dancing on “Soul Makossa”.
The B side is the instrumental reworked by our well-known Lord Funk, with Samm on bass. Enjoy & play loud!
Big Crown Records is proud to present Ekundayo, Liam Bailey’s debut record on the label. This album is a long time in the making, and after listening, clearly worth the wait. It didn’t take a long time to record, but it did take years for all the stars to line up.
Bailey, born and raised in Nottingham, England, the son of an English mother and Jamaican father got his early influences from his mom’s record collection. Bob Marley and Dillinger, Stevie Wonder and The Supremes, The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix would eventually shape the singer/songwriter we know today.
Fast-forward to 2005, Liam is in London and doing the whatever-gig-you-can-get musician hustle with hopes of landing a record deal. And it was through this time that Liam first teamed up with Leon Michels, musician / producer luminary, and the co-founder of Brooklyn's own Big Crown Records. Liam flew out to New York and those first sessions together produced the now classic tunes “When Will They Learn” and “I’m Gonna Miss You” which still get spins at reggae spots around the globe. That trip helped kick off what was to follow next for Liam: a slew of record releases, label deals, and working with some wildly-notable mainstream producers. Even a just-famous Amy Winehouse heard one of Liam's apartment-made, lo-fi recordings through a friend and liked what she heard. Regardless of the audio quality, Liam's particular sound shone through—all guitar, warm-rough and genuine soul. She signed him to her label shortly after.
But, as the story can go with major labels, they already had an idea of the Liam they wanted to make, promote, and push. With the typical pay-day enticement, Liam did his best to fit into whatever shape they put him to. "'Maybe I can make it work,' that's what you're thinking," Liam remembers, "but, you quickly find out that you can't."
While Liam’s career went through a bunch of record industry twists and turns he and Michels stayed in touch and would regularly connect and collaborate. Finally, in 2019, the time was right to do a full-length album together. And this time, it would be free of any restricting major label presumptions and opinions. "This is the record we always wanted to make," says Michels. Set to release in November 2020, the album is called Ekundayo. And the word's meaning may be all you need to know to get to the essence of this project. It means "sorrow becomes joy" in Yoruba, a language spoken mostly in Western Africa. On the surface, Ekundayo is a weighty Reggae record, full of new and old textured riddims. But listen more in-depth, and you'll find subject matter that's more recognizable from a modern-day R&B record. An example of the former is the first single off the album. Sung to the most beautiful woman at the nightspot, "Champion" is a joyous anthem powered by a silly-thick Juno-bass throb and 808-proof drums. In short, "Champion" is dancehall-ready. But then there's a song like "Don't Blame NY." Moody and sparse with a somber drive, you might have to resist the urge to compare it to a Frank Ocean-ish type vibe. Liam's voice is in a different but fitting element here, showing stripped-back emotion and soulful restraint. Anyone who has lived and tried to thrive in New York won't have a hard time relating to the lyrics but they may join the masses who blame the city, while Liam points the finger at himself and sings praises to The Big Apple.
Credit to Leon's hand, elements of Jamaican production are everywhere, peppered throughout the record. Like the pitch-perfect organ stabs that push through the authentically positive "White Light," or the muted, percussive guitar strums that chug along in the back of "Fight." In the same vein of any fantastic singer/songwriter album, Ekundayo is a reflection of who Liam Bailey is, taking on topics and approaches he never would think of just a few years ago. Some evidence: "Ugly Truth" is about reconnecting with his biological father, a subject he once thought would be too personal to address. The journey from conforming to major labels to this latest record has been a long one for Liam, and a bit of a struggle. But struggle may be the only way we truly grow and evolve. With a new clarity of purpose, sound, and life, Liam has found joy out of those struggles. And it's called Ekundayo.
Repress
Exciting Bristol-based artist Myth debuts on Amsterdam's boutique imprint The North Quarter with his hard-hitting “Long Time Coming EP”. Both stripped-back and widescreen at the same time, the project captures the essence of the Dub & Jungle influences that are ingrained throughout the five-tracks. Myth's undeniable technical prowess and ear for an effortless groove are on display as he shows he's one of the the brightest talents in the scene today.
nine-sum sorcery is the debut release of Berlin-based sonic duo LABOUR, the ambitious project led by Farahnaz Hatam and Colin Hacklander gaining a reputation since 2018 for their large-scale works and collaborative pieces in large concert spaces and museums such as Kraftwerk Berlin, Martin Gropius Bau and Kunsthalle Zürich. Since 2020 they are residents on NTS with a monthly show.
Grounded in the rich and enigmatic digital soundworld of LABOUR, nine-sum sorcery features the renowned Kurdish singer, Hani Mojtahedy, a prolific performer and recording artist firmly grounded in the traditional vocal styles of both Kurdistan and Iran.
Following LABOUR’s now legendary closing of Berlin Atonal’s main stage in 2018 with their inaugural work, next time, die consciously (یگناگیب), the duo embarked on a grand journey with Hani Mojtahedy, towards a remarkable synthesis of traditions and practices, uniting computer music and avant-garde sensibilities with traditional vocal practice.
nine-sum sorcery is a long-form piece that unfolds over two sections, A and B, and can be understood as an occult incitation to the dark energies, natural, political and otherwise, that are released when oil is extracted from the ground. This ritual is focused through the enigmatic electronic and percussion composition from LABOUR which alternates between foreground and background for the haunting vocal performance of Mojtahedy, who interprets Kurdish and Persian verses.
This is first release on Studio LABOUR, the new independent label in Berlin that provides a platform for avant-gardists creating works based on sound.
Studio LABOUR seeks to contribute toward spaces of non-conforming social practices and identities, and revisits the nature of work as a potentially transformative activity.
From sound artists to electronic musicians to composers; visual artists to performance artists to critical theorists; the represented artists are united not via discipline or genre, but rather through individuated orientation towards radical perspective that are either based-in or engaged-with sound as a medium, at least in the instance of their release/work with the label.
'Kind of Strange' is taken from Edinburgh super group, Out of the Ordinary's debut album, 'Stranger Things Have Happened'. The original version is an eerily, atmospheric track with a classic film noir vibe, underscored with beats provided by Joseph Malik on the ones and twos, in collaboration with Check Masses members Vic Galloway, Saleem Andrew McGroarty and Philly Collins. Vocal powerhouses, Rosanne Erskine and Philly Collins will have you looking over your shoulder with their edgy, unsettling vocal delivery – was that a ghostly outline or just a curtain blowing in the breeze?
Combine all of these elements with the mighty Steven Christie's keyboard, Paulo ‘Brother’ Riddle’s anchoring percussion and Saleem Andrew McGroarty at the production controls, something rather special comes out of the speakers.
To prepare for their ‘North Street’ remixes, Jo Wallace and Darren Morris immersed themselves in continuous re-runs of iconic TV series, ‘Randall + Hopkirk Deceased’ and ‘Tales of the Unexpected’ enabling them to channel their inner John Barry. Throughout the track, Darren provides swirling, cinematic vamps and lush string arrangements echoing the Warsaw Concerto whilst Chris Greive’s haunting trombone and Vic Galloway, on his electric guitar, beautifully underpin the melody, transporting the listener back to a world of Black and White mystery and suspense.
Whiskey Pickle returns with yet another 12" of eclectic leftfield deepness, this time around from prolific Italian producer DJ Rocca.
The first cut off the record 'Detox' is reminiscent of the early 80’s electronic sound with nice mellow synths and a clever breakbeat. The next track is the title cut 'Tropicale 17' a lovely arpeggiated bell laden jam that sounds something like Kraftwerk lost in the Japanese wilderness.
Side B is dedicated to the epic twelve plus minute 'Chicken Lips Malfunction' Chicken Lips remix of 'Tropicale 17'. This is the jam that got those fowl fellas (Andy Meecham & Dean Meredith) back in the studio and boy was it worth it!
After their two acclaimed edits EPs, Mister T. Records are now joining forces with LA based producer DJ Duckcomb, to deliver a groovy selection of leftfield italo-disco cuts reworked for dancefloors. One year after the release of their 2nd EP, a tribute to Brazilian music, Mister T. records are now back with a 12” EP showcasing their love for obscure disco and Duckcomb’s amazing digging skills. This record aims to be a tribute to the very special sound of the late 80s electronic music and to both the artist’s and label’s lifelong passion for obscure italo disco.
Famous as a record collector, Duckcomb has also made himself a name by editing forgotten jewels from classic disco to islands reggae. Part of both duos Sharegroove and Trap.Avoid, he’s been
sharing his work and latest discoveries on his bandcamp and soundcloud for years and he has already released two EPs on Universal Cave and Pleasure of Love as well as edits on Cultures of
Soul and Emotional Rescue.
He’s now joining Mister T. Records with a 3-track EP compilation of hard to classify, slow-tempo, disco edits. On the A-side, Duckcomb partnered up with his longtime friend and DJ partner Dino
Soccio, boss of California label Pleasure of Love, for a powerful rework of the German protohouse tune “Holidays”, with a new dancefloor oriented beat and emphasized tropical influences.
On the B-side, he showed his editing skills working on two obscure downtempo tracks with that recognizable late 80s melancholic atmosphere. By removing not danceable parts, building DJfriendly grooves and removing unnecessary vocal parts, he managed to come up with a smooth italo ballad with acid accents on “S.O.S.” and a beautiful balearic new-beat jam on “King (of) a Beat”.
Right after the beautiful album " The Aquarius Years", Cali-Soul queen Tiombé Lockhart is back again on Mother Tongue with a special follow up.
"Sexy Suzy on a Sunday" receives two cosmic treatments from jazz-star Christian Scott and Intergalactic Don Carlos Nino.
Expect to be transferred into another (Soul) galaxy!
Ibiza Records has collaborated with Yardrock Productions to bring you this 4 track EP called 'Straight From The Yard Vol 1. We've gone into their back catalogue n picked choons that are reppin the 'Original London Jungle Sound' back in 2013-14.
Yep those kinda choons that give that 'back a yard' feeling with reggae/rnb samples with strong jungle breaks n some sic heavy reggae basslines resonating the essence of jungle musik to make you wanna skip n hop, skank n jump...
A. This track made in 2014 has both a reggae and David Rodigan samples on it with some dutty drum patterns n heavier leading basslines that reflect the jungle sound representing that upbeat jamaican vibez.
AA. Rough n Rugged: This track produced in 2014 showcases a more rave feel with the whistles n sirens. The reggae sample giving that steppers vibez alongside jungle breaks n basslines
AAA. Soundboy Killer: This track produced in 2014 has a classic Bitty Mclean reggae sample with that soundclash feel of yard. Heavy basslines, horns n drum patterns to kill any soundbwoy. With a slight soulful vibe with cymbals n flutes combining with jungle breaks
AAAA. Wha Grawn Blud: This track produced in 2013 has a sic intro with the jungle breaks n vocals giving an upbeat n grimy tones n strong drum patterns that inter mingle up holding that authentic jungle london sound of modern day jungle
Technically, Syrup are a hip-hop group with unmistakable leanings towards soul and jazz. The group consists of an MC (Turt), a pianist/singer (C.Tappin) and a beatmaker (Twit One).
Their music is rooted in the tradition of collectives like Native Tongues and Soulquarians, and they have come up with a pretty appropriate term to describe their sound, which is "cool bap". But if we put formalities aside and look at the bigger picture, Syrup are also a perfect example of how music can connect people beyond national borders, language and tradition. And furthermore, how Afro-American culture has influenced not only the musical taste but the views and opinion-making of generations of young people worldwide. The sheer existence of Syrup is also a big fat "Fuck Brexit!" which makes the group even more likeable. The story of Syrup begins in 2015 when Twit One is booked to play a dj gig in Bristol. Twit One is a producer, DJ, radio host, record friend and former bass-player from Cologne (where he also co-owns the Groove Attack Record Store). He is a member of a small group of pioneering producers, who during the 2010s laid the foundation for the European beat-scene as we know it today. Inspired by the likes of Dilla and Madlib these guys made it look cool to not be the rapper. And they recorded some pretty dope music, too, which we had the honour to release via Melting Pot Music as the "Hi-Hat Club" series (a title that Twit came up with). During that night in Bristol, Twit got acquainted with two young men by the name of Turt and C.Tappin. Two childhood friends who had moved from London to Bristol for their studies and had been avid fans of Twit's music for some time. "Back in Cologne, Twit told me about these MCs from Bristol with whom he might record some tracks" Olski remembers, "Needless to say that I never heard about them again until summer 2017 when the annual Radio Love Love boat party was about to happen and Turt and Tappin were actually coming over for the first time, to party and to rock the mic. A couple of months later we released "Hay Luv" a new Twit album that featured Turt and Tappin on two songs. On their next visit, the two were accompanied by Turt's brother Slim, a very talented beatmaker and one half of Summers Sons. We spent some quality time while mastering the 'Undertones' EP (including remixes by Twit One, FloFilz and Cap Kendricks) and shooting the album cover at the Groove Attack record store basement. Since then we released two more album by Summers Sons ("Uhuru" - a joint project with Tappin and "The Rain"), C.Tappin's debut EP "Ashes To Ashes" (with remixes by Reginald Omas Mamode IV, Hulk Hodn & Slim) and a KOOP beat tape by Slim. During the same time, Twit recorded two albums: "Dispo To Dispo" as Flatpocket (a project with Lazy Jones) and "Two", the long awaited follow up to the very first Hi-Hat Club album as Testiculo Y Uno (with Hulk Hodn)." In 2018, Turt and Tappin moved back to London (the Lightworks headquarter is now located in Streatham). They toured with Children of Zeus and shared stages with artists like Melodiesinfonie and FloFilz. But it wasn't until Brexit before the long talked about super group finally became a reality. At the final recording sessions in September 2019 we already knew that the next Eurostar ride would be a different one. Now with Covid-19 we have no clue when all three members of the group will be in the same room again – let alone rock a stage together. But fortunately, we were sitting on a big pile of great singles that we released over the summer months. The album "Rosy Lee" will follow in late September.
Michel Baumann is one of Germany's most respected artists. You probably know him as Soulphiction, his iconic alias Jackmate and head chief of Philpot - a label pushing the sounds of dance music in every possible way since the beginning of 2000.
Now making his debut on the very first release from 18437 Records, after teasing everyone with his recent 12" for Matthew Herbert's Accidental label, Jackmate is back in full swing.
Opening track Modulate Nightdrive is a mind expanding, deep techno affair. Remember when techno had funk and made you sweat? This is it.
Next up is CubanLinx, a percussive machine voodoo exercise. Last but not least, Test Drive shows why Jackmate is still relevant as a producer and worthy of your record collection.
The recipe is simple, a drum machine, a few thick bass notes and whack on some chords - voila - timeless dance music delivered by Michel Baumann.
Label info:
18437 Records is a brand new label by focused on the outer fringes of house and techno.
One of dance music’s most enigmatic figures returns home to Anjunabeats. GRAMMY-nominated producer Mat Zo is back with a brand new artist album set for release in October: ‘Illusion Of Depth’. At the age of 30, this is the London-born, L.A.-based producer’s third artist LP. He broke onto the scene in 2008 and has been causing an uproar ever since. In the early naughties, he penned Anjunabeats classics like ‘The Lost’ and ‘Synapse Dynamics’ which were far ahead of their time. They were followed by the likes of ‘Superman’, ‘The Sky’ and ‘Rebound’ (with Arty). He pushed the Anjunabeats sound to the mainstage, racking up spins from Pete Tong, Axwell and Armin van Buuren. It was his GRAMMY-nominated debut album ‘Damage Control’ that fully showcased Mat’s avant-garde approach in 2013. Featuring break-out hit ‘Easy’ with close friend Porter Robinson, the track took Mat mainstream: a Radio 1 A-List addition, Sirius XM BPM listing, a #1 Billboard Heatseeking record, an Essential Mix of the year nomination and, ultimately, a GRAMMY nod for best dance and electronic recording. Since then, Mat has grown his own stable. Self-releasing his second LP in 2016, ‘Self Assemble’, via Mad Zoo, Mat’s imprint nurtured a new generation of eclectic, genre-agnostic creators.
On the back of V- Necks re issue Auto and the Lost 1990s Recordings one half of the band V Neck Mark Churcher takes time out from from his Chicago Bee project to deliver his first full length album on Emote.
He teams up with the cult Brighton based experimental artist Alasdair Willis (The Vitamin B 12) who plays saxophone on 3 of the 11 tracks on the album.
The album has all the hallmarks of an Emote record and more. Likely to be listed as down tempo / abstract ambient and blending many different styles together.
If you are in tune with free jazz and abstract electronic tribal music you should find this good home spooky listening .
Supported by Chloe Alice Frieda of Alien Jams and Damo B of the Outer Limits Radio Show
Soul Mass Transit System returns to Time Is Now with the weighty ‘Blocked’ EP featuring a collaboration with legendary vocalist Killa P.
Mysterious producer Soul Mass Transit System has been pumping out some serious twelves this year, with killer cuts on labels such as Warehouse Rave, Time Is Now & Rhythm & Vibe. His latest outing ‘Blocked’ EP is the rising producers weightiest work to date, lead track ‘Blocked’ featuring legendary ex Roll Deep member Killa P does some serious damage, backed with three rolling UKG cuts of groovers and movers, best played loud.
- A1: Ogni Riferimento A Fatti Realmente Accaduti È Puramente Casuale
- A2: Uh Ah Brr
- A3: Arrivederci E Grazie
- A4: New Dehli Deli
- A5: Il Pacco
- A6: Passaggi Nel Tempo
- B1: New York New York
- B2: Buone Notizie
- B3: La Banda Del B B.q. (Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens)
- B4: Pioggia E Cemento
- B5: Massacro All'alba
- B6: Ogni Riferimento A Persone Esistenti È Puramente Casuale
Record Kicks reissues mythical Calibro 35's third album "Any Resemblance To Real Persons Or Actual Facts Is Purely Coincidental" sampled by Dr Dre in "Compton".
Completing the trilogy of Calibro 35's reissues, Record Kicks proudly presents "Any Resemblance To Real Persons Or Actual Facts Is Purely Coincidental", the third album by Italian cinematic funk heroes CALIBRO 35, whose title track was sampled by Dr.Dre in "One Shot One Kill" featuring Snoop Dog in his 2015 "Compton" album. After the reprint of the previous two records "Calibro 35" and "Ritornano Quelli Di (The Return Of)", this third and last reissue will be available on December 4th on a limited edition LP and digitally in a Deluxe Edition version. The digital Deluxe Edition includes 3 bonus tracks: the band's original compositions "Ballando In Balera" and "Appuntamento al Contessa" and a cover of Herbie Hancock's "Deathwish".
Recorded in Brooklyn in just five days, with "Any Resemblance" the Milan cult combo, while cultivating its damn-near-perfected cinematic vibes, experiments a more improvisational approach to writing. "Massacre at Dawn" comes straight from afro-funk territory, an homage to Brooklyn heroes Budos Band and Menahan Street Band. "Rain On Concrete" instead sounds like a French soundtrack composed some decades ago by Francis Lai or Jean Claude Vannier. There is also a more globally-inspired flavour to several tracks on the album: from the Indian vibe of the sitar-injected "New Dehli Deli," to the streets of San Francisco with the heavy weight of the clavinet on "Thank You and Good Bye," to the high impact horn riffs of Detroit's Motown Studio sound on "The BBQ Band" and "The Package", and then back again to Italy for retro-scat vocals on "Uh Ah Brrr", reminiscent of the best of Ennio Morrione's and Piero Umiliani's compositions from the 60s. Just like the previously reprinted "Calibro 35" and "The Return Of", 2012 "Any Remblance" LP is highly sought-after by collectors and soundtrack aficionados worldwide and by popular demand a reissue sees the light of day on a limited edition Gatefold LP that includes digital download of the bonus tracks.
Active since 2008, CALIBRO 35 enjoy a worldwide reputation as one of the coolest independent bands around. During their ten-year career, they were sampled by Dr. Dre on his "Compton" album as well as by Jay-Z and The Child of Lov & Damon Albarn, they shared stages worldwide with the likes of Roy Ayers, Muse, Sun Ra Arkestra, Sharon Jones, Thundercat and Headhunters and as unique musicians they collaborated with, among others, PJ Harvey, Mike Patton, John Parish and Stewart Copeland and Nic Cester (The Jet). Described by Rolling Stone magazine as "the most fascinating, retro-maniac and genuine thing that happened to Italy in the last years", Calibro 35 can now count on a number of aficionados worldwide, including VIP fans such as Dj Food (Ninja Tune), Mr Scruff and Huey Morgan (Fun Lovin' Criminals) among others.
In a world full of mash ups and cover versions and "first time on a 45" releases, Premier League Pressings is here to sort the wheat from the chaff and take you into the top tier of cheeky releases.
SIDE A - THE BELMONT SHADOWS - KISS HIM GOODBYE
The first Premier League Pressing features one of the best known tracks in popular culture. The Belmont Shadows beef up an acapella version with cuts and beats from one of the top DJ's and Producers on the West Coast. Back of the net!
SIDE B - WILSON DN - KISS HIM GOODBYE
On the flip PLP score again with a tough breakbeat-heavy Latin version that has never been on a 45. One of those creative playmaker types from Brazil!
Curling around the wall into the top corner of the net, Premier League Pressings have delivered their first victory. Look forward to more dominant performances!
‘The Other Side’ sees musical styles woven together into a lyrical tapestry of sound, blending improvisation with co-created original compositions. A truly unique ensemble in compositional process and performance style. On 5th June, Quest Ensemble will release their sophomore album ‘The Other Side’. With nods to influences as broad as the contemporary minimalism of John Adams and Steve Reich, the experimental melancholic textures of Radiohead to the progressive jazz precision of Brad Mehldau, ‘The Other Side’ inhabits its own soundworld somewhere in the gaps between chamber, jazz, folk and contemporary classical music. From the emotive ‘Moments’, the elasticated melodies of ‘Pendulum’, to the fluid lines and compelling urgency of ‘The Boatman’ and ‘Pedal Down’, Quest Ensemble’s compositions fuse layered melodies and rhythmic patterns to create contrapuntal webs of sound. The process involves sharing improvised ideas, building up layers of music on each instrument to create a patchwork of musical themes with a rich vein of surging Reichian rhythms underpinning each. Fusing their backgrounds in western classical, Indian classical, jazz and improvisational technique, Filipe Sousa (piano), Tara Franks (cello) and Preetha Narayanan (violin) are all graduates of the Guildhall School of Music Leadership Programme. In May 2014, Quest Ensemble released their much-lauded debut album ‘Footfall’, a collection of part-composed and part-improvised original compositions, steeped in the sense of place that inspired the sound and imagination of their stories.
- A1: Prelude
- A2: Satellite To Medusa
- A3: God Dang Burglar
- A4: Bye Gramps & Tv
- A5: Locked In To Medusa
- A6: Medusa & Bye Bye Spiro
- A7: Gramps In Bed & Od Chased
- A8: Sherman Fights Back
- B1: Pluthar Arrives
- B2: Pluthar Dies &…Good Morning
- B3: The Fibonaccis - Terrorvision
- B4: The Fibonaccis - The Friends Of Crime
- B5: The Fibonaccis - Sack Of Suet Suite
- B6: The Fibonaccis - Advice To A Mutant
- B7: The Fibonaccis - He Can’t Stop Laughing
180g blue colored vinyl LP vinyl,
WRWTFWW Records is giggling with pleasure as it announces the official reissue of Richard Band’s director’s cut soundtrack for sci-fi horror comedy classic TerrorVision (1986).The limited edition blue-colored 180g vinyl LP is housed in a heavy gatefold sleeve with full movie gallery, obi strip, and video store stickers. It includes liner notes by Richard Band himself.
People of Earth
Your planet is about to be destroyed...
We're terribly sorry for the inconvenience
Conceived as a late 1960s Lost in Space type score with a 80s electronic twist, TerrorVision is one of the most unique soundtracks in Richard Band’s discography. Part oddball adventure, part eerie soundscape, it mixes the fun and flashy colors of the era with synth explorations that flirt with minimalism and experimental music. Band composed with a Yamaha CS70 plus twin ARP 2800s, a mini Moog synthesizer, as well as DX5 and DX7 keyboards, creating a groovy twilight zone of electrifying alien funk. The soundtrack also includes 5 numbers by deliriously wild LA band The Fibonaccis. One of a kind - like the movie itself!
This is released in conjunction with the soundtracks of Empire Pictures’ Ghoulies and Troll, also out on WRWTFWW Records November 20th. Established by producer and director Charles Band in 1983, Empire Pictures quickly became notorious for the horror-comedy classics made during its brief but legendary lifespan. With wild special effects, outrageous humor and over-the-top horror action, Ghoulies, Troll and TerrorVision were three of Empire’s finest works, and each movie featured an unforgettable score by Charles’ award-winning composer brother Richard Band.
- A1: Lunchbag – Jazzstyle
- A2: Hazy Year – Notes
- A3: Flofilz – Uferlos
- A4: Illiterate – Cubensis
- B1: Melodiesinfonie - I Did This In 5 Minutes
- B2: Iamalex - About You
- B3: Made In M – Taipane
- B4: Juan Rios – Amatista
- C1: Les Geddit - Feels Like
- C2: Made In M - Flightmode On
- C3: Melodiesinfonie - I Drank Cafe´ Del Mar
- C4: Iamalex - Early Flight
- D1: Flofilz – Doorsteps
- D2: Theo Spazzatura - Make It Last
- D3: Juan Rios - Que´ Paso
- D4: Hazy Year – U
Beats on Boat vol. 1 is a double LP with 6 nationalities, 8 artists & 16 Tracks pressed on 180g vinyl and limited to 400 copies w/ FloFilz, Made in M, Melodiesinfonie, Juan RIOS, Hazy Year, Lunchbag (aka Theo Spazzatura), illiterate (aka Les Geddit) & iamalex.
The compilation accompanies the YouTube series which can be watched on our website: ear-sight com
All the artists involved have one track on each vinyl, celebrating their musical diversity. The first vinyl will be the sound you know and love of theirs. The second- will be the world premiere for the majority of the Musicians featured- taking a step out of their comfort zone into house, disco or their individual interpretations of those genres.
We set sail last summer to unite some of the best producers we know and came back with hours of dope sets and a 16 track double vinyl containing a lot of firsts - not only for us but also for most artists aboard- the C & D side are full of world premieres!
This vinyl is the blueprint of what’s to come here at ear-sight in the next couple of years, staying true to our lo-fi roots but also reaching out to new horizons and we feel so blessed to have taken this first step with these talented cats.
In these dark times of Covid we still have our music. We have the sounds to soothe us, distract and take our minds away from the chaos and uncertainty.
We can't dance like we used to but we can hear and feel. Our release must be found in another way, we must look within. We find solace and grant ourselves space and time in the music.
Sam McQueen (Indio co-producer with John Beltran, Indigo Aera, Delsin Records, Furthur Electronix) presents his debut album Dreams In Sepia for Mojuba sub label a.r.t.less and hits us with a real time soundscape of the moment, an epic-like document of these times. The rhythms are subtle, sometimes broken, the time structures often complex, this is not primarily dance floor orientated music. These sounds are way more cerebral, for the heads. They reflect perfectly the complexities of life we are experiencing in 2020.
The edges are rounded with occasional strolling bass lines and comfy chords. Slabs of keys and spaced out female vocals like a psychedelic journey that scares you at first yet comforts you soon after. Sam McQueen's mediatory sounds give an overwhelming sense of the moment. The music makes you take time out and listen. Its purposeful manner suggests there are more hours in the day, like time slowing down a pause, like the sun slithering slowly behind the horizon. These are sunset sounds for dark back-rooms.
Daytime or night, it works. This is the soundtrack for the other room, the deeper sounds not designed to make you dance. This music doesn't get in your face, it creeps up and smacks you on the ass. There are elements of early nineties UK Techno, a warmth and delicateness that pervades a distinct lack of four four dance floor in the beat structures, a softer tone throughout than the harder Detroit techno sounds of the same era but still nods and acknowledgements to the D in the layout and way the sounds present themselves. Think John Beltran, Symbols and Instruments, Black Dog or Kirk DeGiorgio, mid 90s Berlin sounds from Basic Channel / Rhythm & Sound, but in lockdown. Music for today's modern lacking landscape. The sounds often familiar, analogue, the drums, hi hats and snares, shimmer, jazz style. They accentuate and push the rest of the elements around them.
?In a bygone era this would be crudely classed as Chill Out music. In 2020 Covid era its about how it makes you feel as you relax and really listen to it. It is about emotion and empathy, a oneness, a new unknown and a deeper train of thought for the listener. Much like 2020, Sam McQueen lays the pieces round the edge of the jigsaw and lets you fill in the rest.
Myst launches his label and wishes to leave a trace of his past events through immersive records.
This first EP takes us back to the Prologue of our history and invites two emblematic artists: ABSL & Size Pier.
In these uncertain times, we still want to claim our ideals through this passion that brings us together. Chaines et Denuement will therefore be the first vinyl of a long series.
- A1: Kirilik - The Beginning Of Everything
- A2: John Beltran - The Morning Moves The Sun
- B1: Sebastian Mullaert - In The Mist We Appeared
- B2: Jakojako - Deine Augen
- C1: The 7Th Plain - For Cocteaux And Budd
- C2: Len Faki - Find Your Way
- D1: The Persuader - Remembering Water Pearls
- D2: Ralf Hildenbeutel - April
- E1: Moritz Von Oswald - Silence
- E2: Kangding Ray - Treize
- F1: Tin Man - Lovely Acid
- F2: Antigone - Indiana Police
In a year of global shift and continuous changes, Figure takes a leap of faith and extends its catalog by introducing a completely new compilation series to the label. The Open Space series will feature forward-thinking Electronica and Ambient from a well-curated list of seasoned producers. Compositions that invite to let the mind wander, weaving stories, and conjuring up emotions.
While these softer genres have already played a respected role in former Figure releases, for the first time in the label’s history they are now being given the center stage. Volume 1 sets the mark by providing producers whom we’ve come to love for their dancefloor-centric output with an open space to showcase another side of their skillset. Open Space remains open to various strains of Electronica and Ambient, ranging from the introspective synth-monologues (Sebastian Muellaert / Kirilik), drony dub-experimentalism (Moritz Von Oswald), alive and breathing takes on the genre (JakoJako), to singular compositions which slowly build their own lasting narrative and thus develop a genuine, emotive quality (John Beltran / Tin Man ). Len Faki himself proves the artistic breadth of Open Space, sharing a powerful and conscious message through a rare and delicate moment of him exploring the form of spoken words. Other contributions include Jesper Dahlbäck as The Persuader, Luke Slater as 7th Plain, or Ralf Hildenbeutel - a former production partner of Sven Väth and now a successful composer of film soundtracks. Unfairly reduced to background music, it is not the kind of Ambient featured on the Open Space series. It is an engaging body of music, bonded by its contemplative, enveloping nature. Open Space bands together an array of fascinatingly skilled producers, finally given the opportunity to present some of their most creative and emotional material yet to date.
Catz 'n Dogz are back with album 'Moments'. Written and recorded in the midst of this crisis. Twelve tracks form the backbone to this wide-spanning sonic journey that document the highs and lows of this time. Drawn out of their comfort zone, it's safe to say this shift in their creative paradigm resonates throughout 'Moments'. Inviting you to gaze deeper inside, the album floats in a haze of dreaminess and cottony serenity. Though seemingly simple, the track titles point at themes more complex and universal that will strike a chord with every soul.
Traversed by a vaporous jazz vibe and highlighting an obvious lean towards laid-back atmospheres, 'Moments' effortlessly alternates between. Lo slung house 'Sunrise' features James Yuill, the heavy-lidded, funky bass-heavy 'Memories' and the rolling brass anthem 'Time', in collaboration with Jaw - and more doped up trip-hop-ness. 'Life', the slo-mo chugger that will get the feels on alert, the chillax of 'Nothing' and 'Love,' and the luscious 'Moment' feat. Angelika Nowak, a sample-heavy, soul jam whose naive charm will prove hard to resist, even for the stonehearted.
Catz 'n Dogz explore inwards the heart's non-spoken spheres, where the pop-infused hip-hop 'Meditate' introduces Heather Chelan. A more personal affair 'Listen' makes for a playful interlude. 'It's OK' invites you to let go of the shame at shedding tears, a memorable cut with its joyful whistling, elated guitar riffs and rousing bass.
To close off this sonic micro-odyssey, 'Tomorrow' casts a spell of positiveness. With blazing synth lines and robotised talk, unfolds an anthem for tomorrow's world. One where music holds the crucial place it's always had. So be the kids' dreams, the person they want to be in the future. Be Batman, be a firefighter, be a rock star.
- A1: Road To Earth (With Peter Thomas)
- A2: It's The Music (With Afrika Bambaataa, Charlie Funk, Hektek & Deejay Snoop)
- A3: In The Dark (With Nichola Richards)
- A4: The Spell Of Ra-Orkon
- A5: Political Power (With Afrika Bambaataa, Charlie Funk & Donald D)
- A6: Drifting Stars
- B1: Not Get Caught (With Derobert)
- B2: Locked & Loaded
- B3: Catfight
- B4: Hot Stuff (With Afrika Bambaataa, Charlie Funk & Deejay Snoop)
- B5: The Showdown
COLOUR VINYL[16,77 €]
The Mighty Mocambos' new album "Showdown" sets another cornerstone in their prolific career as a globally active instrumental funk outfit. While maintaining their organic approach of recording real musicians live on tape, the group has refined their trademark sound with a dramatic edge, a hard hitting production and ventures into less obvious musical territories. While highly enjoying themselves as the tight unit they are, The Mighty Mocambos invited an exciting list of guests to contribute to their musical "Showdown": German film composer icon Peter Thomas, hiphop godfather Afrika Bambaataa, rap legends Charlie Funk aka Afrika Islan (member of the original Rocksteady Crew) and Donald D (of Ice-T's Rhyme Syndicate), plus Nichola Richards, Shawn Lee, DeRobert from peer label GED Soul in Nashville, Zulu Nation MCs Deejay Snoop & DJ Hektek and organ genius Guillaume Metenier all joined the group for their new musical adventure. "Showdown" is released on vinyl LP by Mocambo Records and on CD and digital incarnations by Légère Recordings.
About the Mighty Mocambos:
The Mighty Mocambos and their many incarnations have released dozens of 45s and several albums on their own imprint Mocambo Records and other labels such as Kay Dee, Truth & Soul, Tramp, Légère and Favorite Recordings, to name a few. They have collaborated with musical legends such as Afrika Bambaataa, Lee Fields or Kenny Dope, put new talent like Gizelle Smith and Caroline Lacaze on the map, brought Caribbean steel drums to funk clubs with their alter ego Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band, and have toured through all civilized parts of the continent and beyond for the better part of the last years. Their unique style and trademark sound are loved by peers, fans and critics alike and distinguishes them from mere retro-copycat-acts as well as overproduced plastic soul. The Mighty Mocambos continue to deliver their brand of funk with blazing horns, soulful guitars, driving drums and basslines combined with an extra bit of quirkiness. When not producing records for one of their many incarnations and collaborations, the band is touring steadily. Whoever witnessed a concert will tell you about the musicality, passion, energy, humour and joy that the band loves to bring to the people. Background What started out years ago as a take on "deep funk" and its associated vinyl culture has completely grown into its own oeuvre d'art. With the launch of their production studio and record label in 2006, things started to gain momentum. Apart from self-releasing the group's own recordings, Mocambo Records became a household name by putting out highly collectable vinyl 45s by today's best funk outfits as well as unearthing lost library funk treasures. The Mighty Mocambos however did not restrict themselves solely to their own label. Their interpretation of the Furious Five classic "The Message", released under a pseudonym on an obscure phantasy label without proper distribution, got picked up and remixed by Grammy- nominated producer legend Kenny Dope (Masters at Work, Bucketheads). Their first single with UK funk singer Gizelle Smith, "Working Woman", became an overnight smash and a prime-time club favourite of funk & soul DJs worldwide. Initially released on the Finnish private press imprint Old Capital, it got the remix treatment by Kenny Dope and a re-release on Kay Dee Records as well. After earning their credits through vinyl 45s, the band stepped up their game with the full- length "This Is Gizelle Smith & the Mighty Mocambos" in 2009. The album received rave reviews, got lots of airplay - and sold a bunch of physical copies too. Its success led to an extensive tour throughout Europe with club dates from Marseille to Oslo, performances at massive festivals such as the Printemps de Bourges in France and live radio appearances at respected FMs such as the BBC and Radio Nova. With the following album "The Future Is Here" (2011), the band stepped further into the spotlight and explored new sounds with features by hiphop legends Afrika Bambaataa and Charlie Funk, French singer Caroline Lacaze and German rare groove queen Su Kramer, while manifesting their unique raw funk sound and refining their unmistakable instrumental style that had long gained international reputation. The album was toured extensively, including a legendary performance with Afrika Bambaataa at Hamburg's Reeperbahn Festival (covered by ARTE TV), support gigs for Lee Fields and headline shows at renowned venues such as Amsterdam's Paradiso, Islington Assembly Hall in London, Paris' Bellevilloise, Tempo Club in Madrid, or at home at Hamburg's Mojo Club. After producing the critically acclaimed debut album "En Route" (2013) of French soul singer Caroline Lacaze, where their adapted their sound to deliver a stunning mix of French Beat, Soul & Psychedelic Rock, the band went on to record a full length under their moniker Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band. Their interpretation of 50 Cent's P.IM.P. had long become a cult classic and was often mistaken for the original sample. The group's approach in stretching the boundaries of funk by adding Caribbean steel pans caught the interest of Brooklyn's finest label Truth & Soul who signed the band for the album "55", an explosive mix of funk and hip hop cover versions as well as original compositions that showcase the band's singularity in today's funk circuit. The Mighty Mocambos' recent album "Showdown" (2015) sets yet another cornerstone in their prolific career as a globally active instrumental funk outfit. While maintaining their organic approach of recording real musicians live on tape, the group has refined their trademark sound with a dramatic edge, a hard hitting production and ventures into less obvious musical territories, with a diverse list of special guests ranging from German film composer icon Peter Thomas to hiphop pioneer Afrika Bambaataa.
- A1: Blue Rondo A La Turk
- A2: Strange Meadow Lark
- A3: Take Five
- B1: Three To Get Ready
- B2: Far More Blue
- B3: Unsquare Dance
- B4: Countdown
- B5: Eleven Four
- C1: Audrey
- C2: Brother, Can You Square A Dime
- C3: Ode To A Cowboy
- C4: Nomad
- D1: When It S Sleepy Time Down South
- D2: Calcuta Blues - Part 1
- D3: Maria
- D4: Back To Earth
- D5: Bossa Nova Usa
Take Five is probably one of the jazz titles that is best-known to a mass audience. It was composed by Paul Desmond and it appeared on the album Time Out by the Dave Brubeck Quartet.
Pianist Brubeck had studied veterinary medicine before turning to music, and in 1949 he formed an octet, and then in 1951 his famous quartet with Paul Desmond playing saxophone. He signed with Columbia in 1954 and built up an excellent reputation, but in 1959 he became famous around the globe thanks to two titles, Take Five and Blue Rondo à la Turk.
In France, the singer Claude Nougaro made the quartet’s work popular when he wrote the French lyrics for versions of Three to get ready (adapted as Le jazz et la Java) and Blue Rondo a la Turk (with the title A bout de souffle). Dave Brubeck was “quiet man”, far from the legends and excess often linked with jazz: he would spend six decades in a world where life, and jazz, was “cool.”
Hungarian “minimalist” instrumentalist/composer Tibor Szemző is considered a genius by many, although his accomplishments as an artist are sometimes overshadowed by the likes of superstars, Steve Reich and Philip Glass. Snapshot From The Island was originally released by Leo Records in 1987 and now 33 years later the album gets the proper reissue on his own label.
Snapshot From The Island is a wonderful excursion into ambient-electronic-acoustic dreamscapes which could also be considered an offshoot of what many call the “minimalist movement” The title track, “Snapshot From The Island” is a 24-minute tone poem featuring Szemző performing on computer drums and flutes of various pitch. Here, Szemző provides a soft rhythmic undercurrent to balance the somewhat ethereal and delightfully hypnotic motif as he also electronically emulates bird and animal sounds which magnifies the mood or imagery of a far away “Island” paradise.
Szemző is a true artist, a painter with a fertile imagination, as he invites the listener into his introspective world of thoughts and dreams. Szemző’s lush, yet subtle flute work evokes a surreal landscape on ”Water-Wonder”. On this piece, Szemző pursues circular passages while also intelligently utilizing a dash of echo to enhance the aura of a magical or mystical place, which for all intents and purposes seems timeless or otherworldly. “Let’s Go Out And Dance” is a dream-laden piece, featuring Szemző’s “cosmic” flute performances atop a soft pulse and László Hortobágyi’s synthesizer backwashes which conveys a sense of fulfillment or perhaps a scenario of – peaceful celebration. Again, Szemző offers up more visions of paradisen, which could very well have been a subtitle to this beautiful recording. The overall organic nature of Tibor Szemző’s music makes it all seem so real or something that our imaginations can easily grasp. There are no hidden clues or underlying mysteries behind all of this as Szemző’s artistry speaks for itself. A museum piece for the ears.
Tibor Szemző - flutes, voice, drum computer, sound installation
László Hortobágyi - synth. on "Let's go out and dance”
Mixed by László Hortobágyi and Tibor Szemző
Remastered by István Szelényi 2020
Who wouldn’t want to be soaking up the rays, Bali beachside right now, sippin’ on something strong, letting the music wash over you from the club behind? Well, following on from Austin Ato’s smasher for the label’s first release, Pantai People strap you in once again with a first-class ticket to that exotic, slice of summer we are all pining for, serving up four delectable edits from Marc Roberts.
- A1: Mala Morska Vila
- A2: Witches Firewall
- A3: Pearls From The Deep
- A4: King Of The Ocean
- A5: The Pendant/The Little Mermaid (Theme)
- A6: The Song Of The Siren (Theme)
- A7: The Sixth Sister
- A8: Statue Of Salt 1
- A9: Aquatic Babicka (Theme)
- A10: In Safe Hands
- A11: Aquatic Babicka (Song)
- A12: The Black Sea
- B1: Statue Of Salt 2
- B2: Carodejnice's Castle
- B3: The Song Of The Siren (Song)
- B4: Prince Of The Southern Empire
- B5: Games/Echoes
- B6: The Kiss
- B7: Ascension To Fireworks
- B8: Bird In A Cage
- B9: The Voice
- B10: Behind The Rock
- B11: Sunken Dagger/The Little Mermaid (Song)
- B12: The Pendant
2020 PRESS
The original orchestral/electronic score from Karel Kachyna’s 1976 Czech film adaptation of Hans C. Anderson’s The Little Mermaid, composed by Zdenek Liska (The Cremator / Fruits of Paradise) featuring Lenka Korinkova. Available for the first time since being originally pressed in 2011 as part of the ongoing Finders Keepers’ 15th anniversary retrospective. Check!
Liska's legacy in the history of European cinema is huge in volume but relatively modest in it’s celebrity. Having already composed nine scores for Kachyna’s films to add to his 1976 filmography of 150 completed soundtracks.
Back in 2005, five years before Finders Keepers Records released Zdenek Liška’s soundtrack to Malá morská víla for the first time, folklore and fairy tale fanatics around the globe celebrated the 200 year anniversary of the birth of one of the world’s most celebrated children’s authors of the published era. This Danish born writer’s stories have been translated into over 150 languages and have continued to enchant and inspire children and adults, arts and crafts, film and theatre, providing a creative binding substance in modern society’s social fibre. With a life story that entwines equal measures of tragedy, mystery, intensity and majesty to that of his own written work, Hans Christian Andersen’s early years balancing contradictory roles as a weaver’s apprentice, a soprano singer, a fledgling poet and an abused grammar school pupil with speculative links to the monarchy, manifested themselves in his written world of fantasy and fiction. His running themes of mutation, metamorphosis, rebirth, prejudice and class distinction are none more prevalent than in what are perhaps his two best known tales The Ugly Duckling, first published 11th November 1843, and the bittersweet surrealist tale of The Little Mermaid, printed in the third booklet of the first volume of Eventyr, Fortalte For Børn (Tales, Told For Children) in 1837.
One of the most idiosyncratic and haunting undiscovered scores in the annals of European cinematic history, Liska’s forward thinking score has all the hallmarks of a Broadcast record, some 20 years before the band first committed sound to vinyl..
Beautifully remastered with updated liner notes including rare photos ith the full cooperation of the seminal Barrandov studios in Prague.
Much about 'Beat Bop' is shrouded in mystery. Who really produced it? Why was Jean-Michel Basquiat relegated from rapper on the track to drawing the cover and labels? What are they actually rapping about for most of the ten-minute length?
These questions, however, are all part of the enigma and rich legend surrounding a song that is an undisputed piece of true hip-hop genius. The combination of graffiti artist Rammellzee and rapper K-Rob is a potent one, with each MC adopting a persona - hustler and B-Boy respectively - that they maintain against an unusual swirling backdrop that must be one of the best instrumentals ever committed to wax.
The original Tartown Record 1983 pressing was limited to 500 copies, a mere test pressing in the eyes of the assembled artists, with scarcity further driven by Basquiat's rising rep in the art world. Those few hundred copies – and a subsequent re-release on Profile Records (the same label where K-Rob played out the rest of his brief career) punched well above their weight in terms of lasting influence.
Consider the early vocal tones of the Beastie Boys (who also sampled the track), or the huge part it played in the sound of Cypress Hill and B-Real. His voice is almost homage to Rammellzee's on 'Beat Bop', while they also lifted the chorus of 'Shoot 'Em Up' and even a
sample of 'Cypress Hill' from the track too. It's unsurprising – this is a multi-layered, complex song that reveals a little more of itself each time you play it but remains damn funky.
This reissue boasts the vocal and instrumental versions in full, as well as both the full cover and label artwork from the original Tartown Release.
Beartrax is back on his own taste-making electronic label Melodize with a pair of fantastic new singles that get fine remix treatment by the cult underground figure that is Carl Finlow.
American Beartrax has been experimenting with electronic music for 10 years now, and has built up a fine reputation and discography that often leads to Beatport chart toppers and gets big support from high profile DJs.
Up first is Dream Riff, a low key roller with nice melancholic pads and crisp, crunchy hi hats as well as killer bass. It's a melodic musing that really carries your mind away from this world while keeping your body locked to the drums. Remixing is Carl Finlow, who has been an electro mainstay for decades. His version is haunting and minimal, with spooky bass notes and clacking hits that makes for a deep and atmospheric jam. Repentance closes out with nagging bass and a lead melody that is cautiously optimistic.
This is another classy EP from all involved.
"Matasuna Records" has found another musical treat from the African continent for its latest release - a song by the Ghanaian musician "Mawuli Decker". It was released in 1983 on the rare and sought-after album "Ayo Special" and is available for the first time as a 7inch vinyl single, which is supplemented by an edit from "Renegades Of Jazz". The esteemed London label "Kalita Records" was able to provide the audio material for new masters and is also acting as music publisher with the new "Kalita Music Publishing".
Mawuli Decker was born in 1949 in Ghana, where he also grew up. His musicality has been given to him from an early age, so that he not only attracts attention as a singer, but also plays drums, percussion and bongo. He played in various dance bands, which were very popular in Ghana especially from the middle of the last century onwards and made the Ghanaian highlife known beyond the borders. He has played in various dance bands such as New Planets, Sawaaba Sounds, The Tops, Caprice 73, The Volta Pioneers and others, which have performed in Ghana and other West African countries.
His first release was in 1975 with the band "Dzobi Soundz" on the Polydor label. Further releases of projects with his participation followed, until 1983 when he recorded his album "Ayo Special" at "Otodi Studio" in Lome (Togo) with an illustrious group of musicians.
He is still deeply rooted in music and performs in West Africa and is still very active in recording.
On the A-side is the original version of the song "Lololi-Lomko", sung in the "EWE" language, which is spoken in the south of Ghana as well as the southern parts of Togo. "Lololi" means "There's Still More Love" and "Lomko" stands for "Please love me" - classical themes that have appeared in countless songs in music history. Although a certain catchiness of the track cannot be denied, it doesn't seem cheesy at any point. Mawuli, who also contributes the vocals, creates perfectly formed harmonies through his compositions and arrangements, which are especially apparent in the bassline, guitars & brass and of course the vocals.
This was certainly also the idea behind the edit of "Renegades of Jazz" on the B-side, which did not want to break up and alienate the organic composition. Listening closely reveals the approach: a steady tempo, a more powerful bassline and additional drums and percussions bring the song back directly to where it belongs: to the dancefloors of this world!
Sutja Gutierrez is back on Lumière Noire. The finesse of his productions and his implacable stage performances have given him a special place within the Parisian label. In 2017, he released the EP "The Legend of Time" and one year later, he appeared on the compilation From Above with his track "Allodoxaphobia". He comes back here with an LP entitled PHYLAX SOCIETY, which confirms that Sutja Gutierrez is indeed an artist in his own right. Phylax means guardian in Latin, and the album’s title is directly inspired by the “Phylax Society”, a group of people who, in the late 19th century, wanted to create the ultimate canine breed, but who due their lack of consensus failed and dissolved. Later on, an ex-member eventually bred the very first German Shepherd. On this heartfelt record, as emotional as it is catchy, the artist deals with the feelings that come after the loss of a loved one, chiefly nostalgia and melancholia. The result is an ardent record where crooning is sincere and never a posture. The artist’s lo-fi psychedelic pop trademark oozes in every track of this album. Many of these songs feature his vocals, often doused in ethereal echoes or even shrewdly chopped and distorted in a way that reminds us of the great musique concrete experiments of the past. A DIY approach sometimes indebted to punk and post-punk music, all mixed with a vast variety of traditional pop instruments such as guitar, bass, electric keyboards and real drums, but also drum machines, synth bleeps, found sounds and other strange but fascinating samples. EMPTY FLOWER POTS, which was released as a single ahead of the LP, is definitely one of the album’s standout tracks. This catchy mid-tempo song is the perfect entry point into Sutja’s finely twisted world. A world in which you can find that particular balance between nostalgia and optimism. Oh, life is great, what is life? Life is death. . he sings. It is one of those songs that stays in your head for a while. Do not let the idea of alternative pop fool you, it is quite impossible to listen to any of these songs without reacting in some way or another through moving, dancing or thinking, regardless of the tempo or meaning. I’M DIGGIN’ might be the perfect example of this. Deceptively simple and far removed from dance music, this rock-infused number will not only have you singing along instantly, but you will also find yourself dancing and responding accordingly to the energetic mantra of this song... I'm digging for the truth, I am so diggin' into it. Truly, the dance floor is never too far, sometimes quite blatantly and sometimes in a more oblique fashion. Another case in point is PHYLAX SOCIETY, the eponym track which closes the album, a song in two parts, where a slo-mo club groove carries Sutja’s trademark singing to yet another level of uniqueness, with his surreal soundscapes, twisted melodies and everyday life sounds. An ode to humanity and an homage to the ones who are risking their lives every day in the mediterranean sea. It is rare to encounter an album which is immediately satisfying on one hand but also reveals more and more beautiful secrets with each listen. PHYLAX SOCIETY is clearly one of those special albums.
The electronic musician and Poker Flat founder's contemplative new studio album takes in minimal house music, moody techno and effervescent breaks across 11 unique tracks. His previous LP Paradise Sold alongside Langenberg was released in 2018 to critical acclaim, and described as "elegantly euphoric" by Mixmag. Never Ending Winding Roads is an entirely solo release however, with much of it produced during the months of enforced isolation due to the coronavirus pandemic. Many of the track titles reflect Steve's headspace during this time, with themes of solitude, contemplation and reflection brought to the fore perhaps more than with any of his previous work. Steve's formative musical years were spent during Germany's techno and acid-house heyday, with his love for a perfect groove as apparent now as it was back then. His DJ skills and a keen, innovative ear led him not down the typical path of the early nineties trance and harder dance scene, but instead towards a fresher, hybrid sound-merging stripped deep house, tweaked out acid and more minimal forms of techno and electronic music: a strand of music he fiercely champions to this day.
"My mindset when making Never Ending Winding Roads was completely different to any other project I have embarked on. I didn't have to tour, and instead could focus 100% on writing music without having the dancefloor as a constant influence. This allowed me creative freedom to explore a range of styles and emotions, and as a result, it is the album I feel most satisfied with to date." says Steve Bug.
With 11 brand new tracks, Never Ending Winding Roads is a meticulously produced and deeply engaging electronic album; one that explores various shades of house, techno and broken beat with Steve's celebrated attention to detail and consummate originality. Album opener Lucid Loops perfectly sets the tone, immediately ensnaring you with a hypnotic, undulating synth line and a faintly menacing undertone thanks to hushed, discordant strings and unnerving vocal stabs. This atmosphere of quiet paranoia permeates many of the tracks on Never Ending Winding Roads, most explicitly in the sinewy groove and sketchy, panic-inducing synth line of Locked Away In My Head.
This album more than perhaps any other in his career sees Steve experimenting with broken-beats, to incredible effect. Tracks like A Conscious Machine and Electro Harmonix are melodic, emotionally-rich cuts: burst of radiant optimism that juxtapose beautifully with the album's darker moments. Elsewhere tracks like Yellow Snake find Steve exploring deep, dubby territory, while album closer Upon Mountains is a cosmic, arpeggiated masterpiece: an 8bit computer game soundtrack reimagined as a poignant electro ballad.
Pudel Produkte 33 is like a time machine back to homely MFOC ages when Rephlex' very own IG-88 used to be a resident at this very Hamburg club and MFOC-promoter Raf jokingly insulted Richard D. James (with the Aphex Twin standing right behind him, mind you). Blessed times indeed, which quad-ratschulz perfectly emulates with his exquisitely constructed aural body made of braindancing melan-cholodies and thrilling electro boogie. Ralf & Florian meet AFX in an elevator and do have some sto-ries to share. An EP so good you are asking yourself if the upcoming Remix EP can top that (hint: it can). Meanwhile, the dancefloor dictator issues a strict buying order! (Superdefekt)
With 3 releases under their belt Council Work return with the 4th installment on the label, the 'Crouching Tiger EP'. Sticking with the formula of the last EP, there are 2 originals from the label owners themselves Frankel & Harper, coming in the form of stripped back UKG number 'Crouching Tiger' as the A1, and then bringing heavyweight moodiness on the A2 with 'Conquering Lion'. First up on remix duties on the B1 is Italian producer, DJ and Music On regular LEON with a dubby, rolling take on the title track. Hotly tipped UKG producer ZeroFG steps up to remix the B2 and brings some serious dub reggae vibes mixed with some rude garage flavours to round off the EP and give a great contrast to the original.
Third number in the DDS split series after a pair of releases courtesy of Betonkust/Uj Bala and DJ Overdose/Sematic4, "DDS03" sees Budapest duo SILF (alias Farbwechsel chief-operators Alpar & S Olbricht) and Den Haag-based pair Intergalactic Gary and Pasiphae join forces on a quartet of elusive, unpigeonholeable power moves.
Four years after the drop of their debut joint EP on Biorhythm, "Made of Glass", I-G and Pasiphae are back at it with two left-of-centre hybrids of futuristic techno on a whirring electro-industrial tip. An off-kilter jam percolating fine hints of spiritual elation and post-apocalyptic anxiety, "Microwaves" gets the ball rolling on a dichotomous note. To slo-scudding flocks of loud, bouncy kicks supersede skeins of brittle chimes and rattling drums, all woven together by subtle tectonic shifts of moody pads.
A further hi-intensity affair, "Indistinct Chatter" drives that essential heavenly/nightmarish duplicity to higher spheres of consciousness. Fusing lighthearted, daydreaming tonalities with brooding, cavernous onslaughts from the depths, the track has us navigating in a zone of its own, deftly oscillating betwixt moments of mystique-imbued euphoria and darkling introspection. A choice exponent of the Hague-based dyad's capacity at busting antiquated patterns and limitations.
Having slept in the label's vaults for a few seasons, the two tracks composing the B-side emerge from their slumber in all their time-proof bravura. An in-your-face trampler, the ten-minute long "Mono Miner" takes no byway to get its point across, all set to smash basements and warehouses by the dozen with its electrifying compound of 909-emulated gut churn and spinning synth arpeggios circling like birds of prey over your sore, rhythm-enslaved carcass.
Closing the journey on a much softer, hazier vibe, "Aces" steers us towards a realm of ambient wonder, where slo-drip cascades of tapping percussions and elegiac synth waters flow into warm, glimmering summer beds. A most contrasting, tranquillising finale to an EP defined by its propensity to change colours and intensity throughout.
Mini LP with insert.
The musical vagabond returns to spread his Gospel of L.O.V.E.
San “Dr.” Proper presents his third EP on Dopeness Galore with a selection of kindred sounds and spirits encountered around the earth while on tour. The result is an intriguing six-track EP that documents the musical collaborations that sparked to the pulse of cities like Casablanca, Bogota, Amsterdam and Medellin, straight back to the dungeon of Volkshotel where they fused these tracks in an Amsterdamic fashion.
“where we did some afternoon-jams alongside some after-effects to spread the gospel of sentiment and love.”
L.O.V.E. part 3 features upcoming artists such as Mr. Cruz, Bobbi, Elias Mazian, and V. Bannier as well as local musicians from studios around the world, moulding a colorful record with traditional Arabique, Latin-Americain and western influences to create that unmistakable Proper sound.
Recorded between 1985 and 1987, this album brings together the two founders and leading performers of candombe-beat, Ruben Rada and Eduardo Mateo. They hadn´t collaborated in a project since 1969. Both artists had reached their creative prime, with Mateo having released “Cuerpo y Alma” and Rada, “La yapla mata” (which included the classic song ‘Tengo un candombe para Gardel’). 140 gram vinyl with OBI & Insert
This initiative sprang from the artists themselves. But when it was time to create, they rarely got together in the studio, preferring to work on their own. Once finished, the album failed to make an impact, since neither of them promoted it.
This revival brings that semi-hidden treasure to light. It includes two tracks of the artists strictly performing a duet, the only recordings of Mateo and Rada working alongside each other and no one else. It also contains two additional tracks where you can relish Rada accompanied by Mateo’s guitar and Mateo backed by Rada’s percussion. It includes a track where Mateo commands the instruments (as in Mateo solo bien se lame) and another with Rada’s solo on vocals and percussion. There are instances when Rada’s band of that moment and “super-group” (with Osvaldo Nolé on keyboards, Ricardo Lew on electric guitar, Urbano on the bass and Osvaldo Fattoruso on drums), makes an appearance. Sometimes, Urbano comes forth as lead singer, completing the triad of singers of “El Kinto”. All excellent songs.
This album is exceptional and one-of-a-kind, an overflow of talent, musicality, swing, imagination, rhythm, spark, and transcendence.
Guilherme de Alencar Pinto
- A1: This Is No Ordinary Puppet Show
- A2: Melissa’s First Hora
- A3: The Woman Behind The Curtain
- B1: Into The Thunderhead
- B2: Easy Now Girl, Come On Now Girl
- B3: The Last Time We Went To The Shore
- D1: Sleep Now, The Dust Won’t Settle (Digital Bonus)
- D2: A Handkerchief For Those Sweet Deep Pools (Digital Bonus)
Much like a bird of prey, Oliver Moir (FKA Flora Tucker, AKA
Sandman) has hovered over CV’s operations for quite some
time, diligently picking at releases, parties here and abroad,
and mixes; waiting to strike. Now, and after what seems like
an aeon, Connection Veri¦ed is proud to present: I Rocked Till
the Midnight Hour at Melissa’s Bat Mizvah. The 8-track
ambient LP is a glowing excursion through Moir’s perception
of the world, as the album hums across vast plateaus, gently
weaving in and out of endlessly complex pads, and into the
pliant ears of listeners. Emotions gush as a mood of warm
introspection sets in, with Moir taking us onboard as he sails
across the glimmering sonic waves. The LP comes off the
back of a long but bountiful path through electronic music,
and CV is proud to exhibit it in full, with our ¦rst dedicated
ambient release.
Long sought after by collectors, DJs and lovers of hard salsa and boogaloo alike, 'Yo Traigo Boogaloo' is now lovingly reissued in replica form with the original cover art, remastered from the studio tapes, reproducing that magical MAG studio sound for today's aficionados to enjoy like it was 1969 all over again. Alfredo Linares is a globetrotting pianist, composer, bandleader and producer from Peru with a long, prolific career in latin music. His long sought after by DJs and collectors of hard salsa and boogaloo alike, 'Yo Traigo Boogaloo' is now lovingly reissued in replica form with the original cover art, remastered from the studio tapes, reproducing that magical MAG studio sound for today's aficionados to enjoy like it was 1969 all over again. Details: Alfredito "Sabor" Linares is a globetrotting pianist, composer, bandleader and producer from Lima, Peru with a long, prolific career in hot Latin music spanning more than half a century. Though Linares has come to recent international fame through his work with William "Quantic" Holland, he was already quite popular and famous in his adopted countries of Colombia and Venezuela in the 1970s and 80s during the salsa boom. However, his career began in Lima, backing timbalero Ñico Estrada at age 17 in 1961, and Alfredito's first notable recording as a sideman was a few years later on the now legendary 'El Combo de Pepe' album for IEMPSA/Odeon. Subsequently Linares would advance his career by recording two fabulous records under his own capable leadership as Alfredo Linares Y Su Sonora at the end of the decade for the MAG label. These releases capitalized on recent developments in New York Latin music, namely Latin jazz, boogaloo, descarga (jam session) and what would later be marketed as "salsa" with roots in the Cuban guaguancó and guaracha genres. One can hear direct inspiration coming from Joe Cuba, Ricardo Ray, and Eddie Palmieri, especially on the first album, 'El Pito', and yet by the second record, there are plenty of original tunes as well. More importantly there is a 'swing' and assertiveness to the playing (and arrangements) that prove every bit as authentic, tough and danceable as their New York inspirations. As Linares himself recounts, "In that era, we fought against a generation that was half-blind, because the people who understood what we were doing were few. We had to fight hard for our space in Perú, that's where the swing comes from." That special 'swing' also emanated from Linares' ace backing band, which happened to be a talented stable of MAG studio musicians who all understood Cuban and jazz music: percussionists Mario Allison and Coco Lagos, bassist Joey di Roma, Kiko Fuentes and Carlos Muñoz on lead vocals and Melcochita on coro (vocal chorus). According to Linares, the studio band was "open-ended, some musicians came some days, others on other days_Nilo Espinoza on saxophone, Betico Salas and Tito Chicoma on trumpets. Otto de Rojas played piano, and so did Charlie Palomares, who played vibraphone. Another good musician was guitarist Carlos Hayre." Though the recordings were cut "live in the studio" and many were basically composed on the spot, the intrinsic strength and maturity of the performances on 'Yo Traigo Boogaloo' stand the test of time as one of Peru's most important contributions to tropical music across the decades, establishing Alfredito Linares as a master of the idiom and serving as a harbinger for great things to come for him in Colombia and Venezuela. Long sought after by collectors, DJs and lovers of hard salsa and boogaloo alike, 'Yo Traigo Boogaloo' is now lovingly reissued in replica form with the original cover art, remastered from the studio tapes, reproducing that magical MAG studio sound for today's aficionados to enjoy like it was 1969 all over again. Pablo E Yglesias DJ Bongohead of Peace & Rhythm
Black 7" dinked centre hole vinyl. Fully remastered reissue with replica artwork of this super sought after slice of 1980’s disco, 'Rockin – Poppin Full Tilting' celebrating the 40th anniversary of it's original release.
A classic in it's own right, Midland brought it back to the forefront of people's minds, expertly sampling it in the 2016 summer anthem ‘Final Credits’, leaving many scrambling to find an original copy of the 7 inch. And with prices in excess of £125 it's high time an official reissue came around.
Mow Records proudly presents L’enfants De Kita, the third album from a series of five, all produced by label owner Mowgan. Each album features vocalists and performers with African heritage, channeling Mowgan’s passion for the continent’s diverse sounds into vibrant, highly emotive productions. On L’enfants De Kita he teams up with Fanta Sayon Sissoko, a female performer from West African nation Mali. Based in Toulouse, where the album was recorded, Fanta’s musical roots go deep - her father played guitar and ngoni for Baaba Maal and her grandmother is Kandia Kouyaté, one of Mali’s best-known griot singers.
Mowgan always dreamed of working with a female singer from Mali, enchanted by their vocal style. After moving back to France a few years ago he bumped into Eric Diaouré, an old friend who he worked with in his teens. Eric is also a musician and just so happens to be from Mali. Mowgan revealed his ambitions to Eric and a meeting with Fanta was arranged - within a few days they were in the studio together.
Like the other albums in this series, L’enfants De Kita is a fusion of Mowgan’s love for African music and his penchant for electronic sounds. Fanta’s raw, affecting vocals are complemented by Mowgan’s considered production throughout with additional instrumentation from a range of performers, including a group of schoolchildren on ‘Tubani’. Featured artists include Solo Sanou (whose album ‘Soya’ was the second release on Mow Records) playing percussion, Mamadou ‘Madou’ Dembele, a multi-instrumentalist who plays ngoni, Yohan Hernandez on guitar and bass plus Madani Touré aka Chanana (a famous Malian rapper from the nineties) contributing to lead vocals on the album’s title track, with Tim Xavier handling mastering.
Mowgan’s approach to creating albums is to get a vibe going with the singer, produce a batch of songs and then select the best seven for each LP. It’s a pressure-free attitude that has led to some truly heartfelt productions, which encapsulate the purity of the creative process when it’s liberated from rigid constraints. You can hear this freedom of expression throughout L’enfants De Kita, Fanta in her element as she sings with passion and grace across all seven tracks.
The album begins with the title song ‘L’enfants De Kita’, which pays homage to Fanta’s hometown, Kita, in Mali. It is the centre of griotism, the local style of passing on knowledge from one generation to the next via spoken-word storytelling. Chanana joins Fanta on this one, which is the most ‘western’ sounding cut on the LP, Mowgan’s deft touch taking us to the dance floor, while Chanana adds extra depth with his rapid-fire vocal refrain. The glorious ‘Tubani’ tells the story of Djene Tubani, a girl who thought she was a bird. She disobeys her parents and neglects her friends, but eventually learns the error of her ways. Fanta’s vocals are amplified by the voices of a group of schoolchildren, including her own daughter.
‘Mobaya’ is a reminder that we can possess wisdom and deep knowing, but we can also enjoy ourselves; dance, sing and party. This is a club-focused production with 4x4 beats and a traditional house feel, which provide a wonderful accompaniment to Fanta’s uplifting vocals. Next up is ‘Dakan’, a cut which is all about destiny: Everyone has been put on Earth for a reason and by working together we can all achieve our destiny. Layers of percussion skip over the warm low end, with a lively trumpet appearing in the second half.
‘Dounouya’ explores the notion that we live in a world where everyone faces negative criticism. Fanta encourages us to take responsibility and move forward no matter what others think of us with this inspiring guitar-led cut. ‘Djonya’ highlights the fact that slavery still exists in today’s world - modern slavery, hidden from public view but still very much alive. “Our Africa is going to be okay if we all hold hands, if we are all together, all united,” she says. Finally,‘Badeya’, a great outtro which focuses on unity. We are all one family on this planet and this song speaks of people coming together but also respecting ourselves above everything else. The pace is slow and the instrumentation perfectly balanced to allow Fanta’s vocals to flourish.
To accompany the 18 track, 2 x CD Planisphere – Atmospheres release, we’re delighted to present another duo of vinyl for the purists. Atmospheres 2 x 12” Vinyl Album Sampler will feature 5 remastered originals alongside the brand-new Atmospheres. George and Laurent continue to click in the studio, and as the excitement built over the last few months, we just knew they were going to create greatness once again.
Vinyl 1 will house the main track Atmospheres. Taking up Side A, this hybrid groove encapsulates that Planisphere sound beautifully. Theatrical, cinematic, melodic and intriguing. Ambient sequences join a tight breaks pattern before a more driving bassline takes over along with 4x4 beats, leaving us thoroughly gratified and wanting more. On the flip, we have two gems. B1 has So Many Ways, a track that found its way into sets from the bedroom to the mega-party and beyond. A real epic, progressive trance groove filled with swirling, captivating pads and a melody that juts melts into your soul. B2 hosts Lektrophony, a solid breaks track that locks you in with its hypnotic charm and 303 lines. A relentless groover, the breakbeats are so addictive and the acid lines give it a real nice touch. Another epic smasher that never disappoints.
Vinyl 2 features the mighty Deep Blue Dream on the A side. With its relentlessly powerful bassline and dreamy melodies, this one remains a go to track to keep the groove solid. Besides the epic flavour of the track, the break on this is huge. Descending into slow moving pads, the arps never really fades before it all builds and builds into a wonderful climax, revealing powerful, sweeping strings and pads. Over on the B1 slot we have Cyborganic which intros with a Pete Namlook-esque arpeggio sequence alongside a deep droning bass before punchy kicks and huge synths take over. A proper peak time slice full of energy and drive. Rounding up this must have vinyl set in the B2 position, we have the impressive The Lost Planet, which was originally found in a superb two-part release, Sounds From Outer Space back in 2000. This one has everything, a Balearic groove with a spacey vibe. Undertones of 303 lurk as sweet, dreamy pad melodies allow us to drift.
This 2-part sampler is a must have for all vinyl enthusiasts, with limited quantities, keep an eye out for pre-order on our website and socials.
Strut present the 4CD edition of Sun Ra's 'Egypt 1971' along with the original albums 'Dark Myth Equation Visitation', 'Nidhamu' and 'Horizon' released as individual LPs, documenting Sun Ra's first trip to Egypt with his Arkestra in December 1971. In the years leading up to 1971, Sun Ra wrote many compositions and poems specifically inspired by the ancient African Kingdoms and many others with associated mythological and heliocentric connotations. As such, a visit to Egypt and the opportunity for the Arkestra to play there was a matter of necessity. Ra's first ever concerts outside of the US had occurred in late summer and autumn of 1970 with performances in France, Germany and the UK and a second European tour was arranged for late 1971. At the end of that second tour, Ra caught wind of cheap flights from Denmark to Cairo. This release comprises recordings made by Arkestra member Thomas "Bugs" Hunter made in December 1971 in the streets around the Mena House Hotel, Giza, from a concert held at the house of Goethe Institute ex-pat Hartmut Geerken in Heliopolis, from a live Cairo TV channel broadcast and a concert at the Ballon Theatre in Cairo. The impact and significance of these few weeks upon Sun Ra can be measured by the growth and development of his output over the next few years; the immediate post-Egypt period included new studio and live recordings on the Saturn, Blue Thumb, Atlantic and Impulse labels and the 'Space Is The Place' movie. Ra also edited the three LPs of the 'Live In Egypt' series which were subsequently released on his Saturn record label and its affiliated twin, Thoth Intergalactic: 'Dark Myth Equation Visitation', 'Nidhamu' and 'Horizon'. These three albums are now reissued as single LP editions in their original artwork. The 4CD set features these albums alongside previously unreleased material from the December 1971 recordings. All tracks are remastered from the original tapes and the CD set also features a 24-page booklet featuring new sleeve notes and rare photos by Hartmut Geerken and background information on the recordings by Paul Griffiths.
Strut present the 4CD edition of Sun Ra's 'Egypt 1971' along with the original albums 'Dark Myth Equation Visitation', 'Nidhamu' and 'Horizon' released as individual LPs, documenting Sun Ra's first trip to Egypt with his Arkestra in December 1971. In the years leading up to 1971, Sun Ra wrote many compositions and poems specifically inspired by the ancient African Kingdoms and many others with associated mythological and heliocentric connotations. As such, a visit to Egypt and the opportunity for the Arkestra to play there was a matter of necessity. Ra's first ever concerts outside of the US had occurred in late summer and autumn of 1970 with performances in France, Germany and the UK and a second European tour was arranged for late 1971. At the end of that second tour, Ra caught wind of cheap flights from Denmark to Cairo. This release comprises recordings made by Arkestra member Thomas "Bugs" Hunter made in December 1971 in the streets around the Mena House Hotel, Giza, from a concert held at the house of Goethe Institute ex-pat Hartmut Geerken in Heliopolis, from a live Cairo TV channel broadcast and a concert at the Ballon Theatre in Cairo. The impact and significance of these few weeks upon Sun Ra can be measured by the growth and development of his output over the next few years; the immediate post-Egypt period included new studio and live recordings on the Saturn, Blue Thumb, Atlantic and Impulse labels and the 'Space Is The Place' movie. Ra also edited the three LPs of the 'Live In Egypt' series which were subsequently released on his Saturn record label and its affiliated twin, Thoth Intergalactic: 'Dark Myth Equation Visitation', 'Nidhamu' and 'Horizon'. These three albums are now reissued as single LP editions in their original artwork. The 4CD set features these albums alongside previously unreleased material from the December 1971 recordings. All tracks are remastered from the original tapes and the CD set also features a 24-page booklet featuring new sleeve notes and rare photos by Hartmut Geerken and background information on the recordings by Paul Griffiths.
Strut present the 4CD edition of Sun Ra's 'Egypt 1971' along with the original albums 'Dark Myth Equation Visitation', 'Nidhamu' and 'Horizon' released as individual LPs, documenting Sun Ra's first trip to Egypt with his Arkestra in December 1971. In the years leading up to 1971, Sun Ra wrote many compositions and poems specifically inspired by the ancient African Kingdoms and many others with associated mythological and heliocentric connotations. As such, a visit to Egypt and the opportunity for the Arkestra to play there was a matter of necessity. Ra's first ever concerts outside of the US had occurred in late summer and autumn of 1970 with performances in France, Germany and the UK and a second European tour was arranged for late 1971. At the end of that second tour, Ra caught wind of cheap flights from Denmark to Cairo. This release comprises recordings made by Arkestra member Thomas "Bugs" Hunter made in December 1971 in the streets around the Mena House Hotel, Giza, from a concert held at the house of Goethe Institute ex-pat Hartmut Geerken in Heliopolis, from a live Cairo TV channel broadcast and a concert at the Ballon Theatre in Cairo. The impact and significance of these few weeks upon Sun Ra can be measured by the growth and development of his output over the next few years; the immediate post-Egypt period included new studio and live recordings on the Saturn, Blue Thumb, Atlantic and Impulse labels and the 'Space Is The Place' movie. Ra also edited the three LPs of the 'Live In Egypt' series which were subsequently released on his Saturn record label and its affiliated twin, Thoth Intergalactic: 'Dark Myth Equation Visitation', 'Nidhamu' and 'Horizon'. These three albums are now reissued as single LP editions in their original artwork. The 4CD set features these albums alongside previously unreleased material from the December 1971 recordings. All tracks are remastered from the original tapes and the CD set also features a 24-page booklet featuring new sleeve notes and rare photos by Hartmut Geerken and background information on the recordings by Paul Griffiths.
(180 gram pressing) Kosmo Sound from Ghent presents its long-awaited debut album 'Antenna'. The instrumental sextet is inspired by the typical dub sound where their background in jazz is never far away. They mix heavy bass lines and tight drums with spacy melodies into an organic trip that sets every venue on fire. They have already performed twice as the support act for Dub legend Adrian Sherwood and became winners of Sound Track 2019.
Wah Wah 45s are proud to present a unique collaboration between the U.K.'s very own Afrobeat Ambassador, Dele Sosimi, and a producer who's been at the forefront of the South London electronic music scene for a decade now, Medlar.
The pair first joined forces five years ago, when Medlar was asked by Dele's label to remix the title track from his last album,You No Fit Touch Am. The result was possibly one of the most popular and cherished remixes to appear on the imprint. The producer's respect for the history of Afrobeat shined through in the mix of course, but it was his ability to finely balance that with his house music instincts whilst adding an infectious groove and classic 80s analogue synths that really stood out.
The track was an instant classic, and it soon became clear that the Afrobeat Ambassador and Peckham producer needed to make some music together. Having never actually met during the remix process, the dating began, and luckily the two were clearly a perfect match.
After some weeks of pinging ideas back and forth, and spending time in the studio together, it became obvious that this project was also something they could take out live. As so it has been, from their modest debut performance in East London last spring, to playing festivals across the UK and beyond. Never the same show twice, their shows are based around a bank of rhythms on MPC which come alive when combined with Dele's vocals and improvisational keyboard explorations, all of which are dubbed out live by Medlar. Their musical journey is always unpredictable, vibrant and often quite surprising!
With this in mind, when picking tracks they'd developed on the road over the last year to take into the studio,Full Moonevolved into what might be best described as a bossa nova meets country & western lounge track, suitable for sipping cocktails to on a beach, or perhaps in your back garden in the current situation!
"This is really great this track. Really great!" Gilles Peterson
The original version of the song dropped earlier this summer and has been championed by both Gilles Peterson and Moses Boyd on BBC 6Music. When it came to remix duties, there was only one production outfit who fitted the bill, and one who the label had been trying to coax a remix out of for a couple of years.
Lars Dales and Maarten Smeets, otherwise known as Detroit Swindle, have been turning out musical, soulful, tropical and always party starting house music for almost a decade now. Wah Wah label boss Dom Servini hooked up with the pair at a European festival a couple of years ago, and ever since has been waiting for the right project to come along that would spark their imagination.
"When we heard the original of 'Full Moon' for the first time, we really felt the retro style with the cr78 drum, the dreamy pads and that almost overly simple synth flute. For us, that really defined the direction of the remix and we looked for a hook that could make those elements pop in a more energetic way. The vocal is also super laid back so we chopped it up a bit to give it some more spice. I think it was when we wrote the chords for our remix that the dubbed out 80's synth vibe really started to take form. It turned out to be a really nice remix for this time of year and hopefully it'll warm some hearts when people hear it." Detroit Swindle
The follow up single,Gúdú Gúdú Kan,in turn received support from Tom Ravenscroft and Gideon Coe on BBC 6Music. It's Dele and Medlar's own take on an Afro-disco stomper. The title refers to the role the snare drum plays and its relationship with Ìyá Ìlù kan, or the kick drum. It's a simple but very effective metaphor for this unique musical collaboration where once again the pair forged a sound that's all their own.
Taking things back to The Shrine by way of a little Bugz style bruk magic, Daz-I-Kue's remix ofGúdú Gúdú Kanrestructures the tune more in the style of a Fela classic, albeit with a broken flavour and layers upon layers of keys galore! In doing so, Daz creates what we think is a sure fire future club classic.
For the first time you can enjoy the full length versions of both of these top class remixes on a single slab of gorgeous wax!
- A1: Volume (Lp1 Gyrate)
- A2: Feast On My Heart
- A3: Precaution
- A4: Weather Radio
- A5: The Human Body
- A6: Read A Book
- B1: Driving School
- B2: Gravity
- B3: Danger
- B4: Working Is No Problem
- B5: Stop It
- C1: K (Lp2 Chomp)
- C2: Yo-Yo
- C3: Beep
- C4: Italian Movie Theme
- C5: Crazy
- C6: M-Train
- D1: Buzz
- D2: No Clocks
- D3: Reptiles
- D4: Spider
- D5: Gyrate
- D6: Altitude
- E1: The Human Body (Lp3 Razz Tape)
- E4: Working Is No Problem
- E5: Precaution
- E6: Cool
- E7: Functionality
- F1: Efficiency
- F2: Information
- F3: Dub
- F4: Modern Day Fashion Woman (Version 2)
- F5: Danger
- F6: Feast On My Heart (Working Version)
- G1: Untitled (Lp4 Extra)
- G2: Cool
- G3: Dub
- G4: Recent Title
- G5: Danger!! (Danger Remix)
- H1: Crazy (Single Mix)
- H2: Reptiles (Channel One Version)
- H3: No Clocks (Channel One Version)
- H4: Spider (Alternative Mix)
- H5: 3 X 3 (Live)
- H6: Danger Iii (Live)
- E2: Modern Day Fashion Woman (Version 1)
- E3: Read A Book (Instrumental)
In the late-1970s Athens, Georgia was buzzing with a raw but sophisticated music scene. Traditional Southern rock had been the Georgia musical export for years before but the turn of the decade began producing new sounds from bands like the B-52’s, REM and Alt Rock luminaires Pylon.
Before they were a band, Pylon were art-school students at the University of Georgia: four kids invigorated by big ideas about art and creativity and society. However, Pylon were less of a band and more of an art project, which meant they had very specific goals in mind, as well as an expiration date.
While their time together as a band was short lived (1979-1983), Pylon had a lasting influence on the history of rock and roll. Throughout their brief history, they were able to create influential work that would help foster the post-punk and art-rock scene of the early 80s. Artists like R.E.M., Gang of Four, Sonic Youth, Sleater-Kinney, Interpol, Deerhunter and many more claim inspiration from the band.
Their 1979 single ‘Cool’ / ‘Dub’ reached legendary status, with Rolling Stone titling it one of the 100 Greatest Debut Singles Of All Time.
In 1980 the band released their first record, ‘Gyrate’, and began touring across the country in support of the release. The band would soon develop a following across the country and specifically in the bustling music scene in New York City. One of their earliest gigs was opening for the Gang of Four in the Big Apple.
Following the critical acclaim of their debut release, Pylon went back into the studio. They gleefully pulled their songs apart and put them back together in new shapes, revealing a band of self proclaimed nonmusicians who had transformed gradually but noticeably into real musicians. The resulting album, ‘Chomp’, was barely off the press when Pylon were booked to open a run of dates for a hot new Irish band called U2 (after previously playing two arena shows with them in the month leading to the album release). Most bands would have jumped at the opportunity but Pylon were sceptical. At a critical point in the life of Pylon, they opted to become a cult band rather than stretch their defining philosophy too far.
“We fully intended Pylon to be an almost seasonal thing that we were gonna do for a minute and then get on with our lives,” says Curtis Crowe, drummer for the band. “But it just never went away. It still doesn’t go away. There’s a new subterranean class of kids that are coming into this kind of music, and they’re just now discovering Pylon. That blows my mind. We didn’t see that coming.”
New West Records are proud to partner with Pylon to reissue ‘Chomp’ and ‘Gyrate’ back into the masses. Beautifully remastered from the original audio sources and pressed on vinyl (140g) for the first time in over 30 years.
New West Records also present ‘Pylon Box’, a comprehensive look at the band that features the remastered studio LPs ‘Gyrate’ and ‘Chomp’, the 11-song collection ‘Extra’ - which includes rarities and previously unreleased studio and live recordings - and ‘Razz Tape’, Pylon’s first ever recording: a 13-song unreleased session that pre-dates the band’s seminal ‘Cool’ / ‘Dub’ debut.
‘Pylon Box’ also includes a hardbound 200-page full colour book featuring pieces written by the members of R.E.M., Gang of Four, Steve Albini, Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney, Sonic Youth, Interpol, B-52’s, Bradford Cox of Deerhunter, Mission of Burma, Calvin Johnson of Beat Happening and K Records, Anthony DeCurtis, Chris Stamey of the dB’s, Steve Wynn of the Dream Syndicate and many more. Features an extensive essay chronicling the band’s history, with interviews with the surviving members of the band as well as members of R.E.M., B-52’s, Gang of Four, Method Actors and more. It also features never before seen images and artifacts from both the band’s personal archives as well as items now housed at the Special Collections Library at the University of Georgia and the Georgia Museum of Art, UGA.
The story of how Transatlantyk came to be is, in many ways, one typical of our times. We've grown accustomed to being isolated, even stranded, in recent months, and Technology has become our means of overcoming these aspects of quarantine.
For Lübeck-based producer David Hanke, a.k.a. Keno, and Los Angeles-based musician Tristan de Liège, their intercontinental relationship began long before the days of lockdowns and social distancing. The pair 'met' on-line through mutual friends back in 2018 and quickly realised they were, in a musical sense, kindred spirits. Their shared tastes meant that what started out as a single track quickly morphed into an EP, and finally the full length album that you're enjoying right now.
Tristan's experience as a neo-classical musician was the ideal foil for Hanke's skills with a sample and production expertise. Both shared a love of the more lush and cinematic end of instrumental Hip-Hop and Downtempo music. This sound partnership is evident throughout the album, but particularly on tracks like Nkosi, and the title track, where luscious string sections dance playfully with fractured, programmed beats; or the melancholic opener, Kouyou, where more laid back drums underpin muted horns and joyous harps.
The pair's perfectly formed fusion isn't the end of the story though, as French chanteuse Elodie Rama is on hand to provide not only some impeccable vocals, but also irresistible melodies to this already mellifluous long-player. Speak The Language sees this brilliant vocalist drift seamlessly between euphonious song and spoken word whilst delivering one of the ariose moments of the whole album. Elsewhere, on Dancing In The Dark, Elodie gives a slightly more sombre performance, combining with lavish strings and driving rhythms to a tee; and on To Find A Way offers up an even more emotional and almost heart-breaking performance, aided by wistful and forlorn instrumentation.
Transatlantyk is a body of work from an amalgamation of rare talents who combine beautifully to take us through myriad emotions; from the urgent and compelling Off The Mark via the pensive Forever We Were, and finally find their Way Across thanks to a shared love of graceful and refined musicality and a good song.
To this day the three have never actually met in person, but here's a last hopeful thought that one day soon, as we emerge out of the darkness, they can finally join together in a physical, as well as a musical, embrace.
It's back-to-backhits with the new Names You Can Trust split single series, the first of which features two up-and-coming acts in the blossoming Latin music scene of the Pacific Northwest. From Seattle via Argentina and Miami is Terror/Cactus, a futuristic electronic cumbia project from musician Martín Selasco. Selasco's machine-forward audio/visual performances combine a mixture of bugged out digital folklore, live percussion and the omnipresent sounds inspired by the canon of South American chicha concoctions. That balance is on display in the group's debut vinyl release "Churro vs Crow." A field recording of a Mexico City street scene playfully intermingles with the track's heavy production, an innocuous battle between a crow and a churro vendor breathes a little outdoor analog into an avant digital landscape.
On the other side of the spectrum, down south in neighboring Oregon, lies Portland's Orquestra Pacifico Tropical, an 11-piece ensemble formed by a crew of talented musicians from the lush local offerings of the Willamette Valley. The band's big sound is an explosive expression of their own roots, representing the heyday of tropical music that graced stages for decades in Central and South America. Clarinet, brass, electric guitars and that familiar percussive pulse are all alive on their NYCT debut "Regreso." Imagine a return to the cross-pollinated sounds of the psychedelic '70s, an echo from the Andes, the Amazon, through the central isthmus and back to the present, only this time landing in the City of Roses.
The sound of sound of T.E.W. is something out of time, with no context and far from any idea of business, all features that make their music so current. Every time someone put their records on a turntable, their music is able to open a way to suggestions, memories and reasonings that make us feeling their own language so deeply, a kind of sound that has really something to say.
On 2019 T.E.W. are back with a new Habitat release, iPHiiUNiCi 1/3, the beginning of a new musical phase from the duo that many people admitted as one of the absolutely most underestimate techno projects.
In 2020 the second episode: iPHiiUNiCi 2/3 and from the title we don't believe it will be the last of the series..
SUMMER OF SEVENTEEN are MONIKA KHOT (NORDRA, ZEN MOTHER), WILLIAM FOWLER COLLINS, DANIEL MENCHE, FAITH COLOCCIA (MAMIFFER), and AARON TURNER. (SUMAC, SPLIT CRANIUM).
Wildfires plagued Washington state during the summer of 2017, their smoke drifting westward toward the Seattle area and toxifying the air. Shortly before that trauma, MONIKA KHOT, WILLIAM FOWLER COLLINS, DANIEL MENCHE, FAITH COLOCCIA, and AARON TURNER had gathered at the latter two musicians' House Of Low Culture studio on idyllic Vashon Island with revered producer RANDALL DUNN. There they cut eight songs that capture the makeshift band's feelings of what COLOCCIA calls "a kind of doomsday lurking in the background." It's as if these highly attuned players had a premonition.
"Summer Of Seventeen" -which was edited and arranged by MONIKA KHOT, who records apocalyptic music solo as NORDRA and plays in the avant-rock band ZEN MOTHER—is a nuanced admixture of these musicians' sounds and a culmination of all of their previous collaborations. COLOCCIA and TURNER have created eldritch folk and chamber rock for over a decade in MAMIFFER while engaging in various solo and group projects that explore their profound spirituality in sound. MENCHE has been a fixture on the abstract composition scene for 31 years and COLLINS is a savvy explorer of drone and ambient forms. Their ephemeral summit meeting has yielded a masterwork for the ages.
A heaven/hell and beauty/beastliness dichotomy pervades the album—as if a titanic struggle was transpiring in that small studio. The fearsome trumpet fanfare that starts "Chorus Of The Innocents" heralds a baleful fate. With a subliminal industrial rhythm bristling beneath the eerie exhalations, the song submerges us in a slow-motion maelstrom, a horror-film facsimile of MILES DAVIS' "Bitches Brew". "Perceived Slight" threads death-metal screams through a stark, suspenseful atmosphere, with austere glints of guitar and beats like fists on a casket lid intensifying the dread.
Angelic chants and celestial drones perfume the air in several of the songs on "Summer Of Seventeen", countered with muted blast beats, serrated hums, jagged glitches, simulacra of grinding gears and lightning. It's as if no good deed goes unpunished. "Spirits Of Redeemer" could be an elegy for the human race while "Cultural Orphan" sounds like a symphony for a malfunctioning factory. The album ends with "Theatre Needs An Audience," a harrowing ballad somewhere between EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN and MERZBOW; it's a savage rent in the space-time continuum.
"Thinking about this record now," COLOCCIA recalls, "it seems like we were all sort of anticipating something like this current pandemic happening, although we were thinking about it as fire in the hands of man (literal fire, and also gunfire) that would overturn the normal running of things and reveal the current false beliefs systems holding up most of America."
That grave aura infiltrates "Summer Of Seventeen", However, a hopefulness bubbles beneath the foreboding architecture of sound and noise summoned here. The bunker is the new penthouse.
-Dave Segal, April 2020
Don’t you realise that it’s getting warmer and warmer by the minute, that DJ JA’s “Warm”EP for hundert is just the beginning of something new while things continue to heat up?
Just think about hearing it on the news, that feeling of your skin crawling, shrivelling, theshrill alarm sounds ringing inside your head and you trying to keep your cool while theheat is rising. Just relax though, consider the Y2K panic – how everyone breathed a
breath of relief on the 1st of January once the clock had struck midnight and everything just stayed the same. After all, that’s maybe what we really need to be doing instead: wait for things and nature and this planet to settle this on their own terms. Wasn’t it all just a
hazy craze back then, and isn’t the same happening now? Aren’t we all susceptible for either apathy or paranoia, that bittersweet ambivalence also at the core of this EP, which navigates between harsh and nervous sounds, providing both heat and the (figurative and literal) chilling cool that we so desperately long for? Remember to stay calm when you can and that nature couldn’t give a fuck about whether or not we start acting only when it’s far too late; just consider your own insignificance while the melodies stretch out beyond the horizon and into the aether. May we suggest however that you wake up, take the first letter of each sentence, put them all together in order to see through the heat of the moment and the chilling anxiety in order to feel what’s true, real, and present?
Automatic Tasty (Jonny Dillon) has been away from Central Processing Unit for five years now, releasing on labels such as AC Records and Furthur Electronix in the intervening time. However, new EP The Future Is Not What It Used To Be shows that the chemistry between label and artist is still in good nick by offering up four tracks of contemplative electro-boogie.
While the preceding CPU/Automatic Tasty drop may be 2015's The Life Parochial, The Future Is Not What It Used To Be actually has more in common with Sentimentalist's Choice, Automatic Tasty's CPU debut which came out back in 2013. This is not due to a huge stylistic shift - all three records bring together classic electro, techno and boogie sounds to create charming and melodious tracks - but more to do with the tone of the record. You see, while The Life Parochial was a squelchy machine-funk delight, The Future Is Not What It Used To Be is a more pensive affair befitting its title.
This isn't to say that The Future Is Not What It Used To Be is a muted EP. Far from it - this record contains some of the most gorgeous electro joints you'll hear all year. The vibe is established on its eponymous opening jam, a vocoder-laced production pitched somewhere between the more ruminative tunes on Posthuman's 2018 LP Mutant City Acid and contemporary boogie acts such as Funkineven/Steven Julien and Galaxians. The track is made by the beautiful, bittersweet timbre of its synths, and these are maintained on following number 'Romance In The Old Country'. Given the offbeat skip in its groove and sunset-glow ruefulness of the keys, 'Romance In The Old Country' is a cut which invokes the instrumentals of Jessy Lanza LPs - and even (whisper it) a little Sade.
The Future Is Not What It Used To Be is an EP of evocative track titles, but there may be none more accurate than first B-side 'Rising Sun'. Here, Automatic Tasty tweaks the wistfulness of the A-side cuts into something more uplifting. While a thoughtful quality remains in 'Rising Sun's soft synths and skittering 808s, the track is driven by the exuberant energy of the 'Woo! Yeah!' drum break to become the sort of tune you drop as dawn begins to break over the rave. 'Rising Sun's afterglow falls over the closing track 'Adventures In The World Of Becoming', a steady IDM-electro pulse that channels the spirit of Aphex Twin's seminal Selected Ambient Works 85-92.
'The future is not what it used to be - no past, no memory'. With this robo-voiced intonation, Automatic Tasty returns to Sheffield's Central Processing Unit with four moving, poignant machine-funk tracks.
- A1: Toshiko Yonekawa - Soran Bushi
- A2: Takeo Yamashita - A Touch Of Japanese Tone
- A3: Tadaaki Misago & Tokyo Cuban Boys - Jongara Reggae
- A4: Chikara Ueda & The Power Station - Cloudy
- A5: Chumei Watanabe - Downtown Blues
- B1: Kifu Mitsuhashi - Hanagasa Ondo
- B2: Monica Lassen & The Sounds - Incitation
- B3: Norio Maeda Jiro Inagaki & The All-Stars - Go Go A Go Go
- B4: Akira Ishikawa & The Jazz Rock Band - The Sidewinder
- B5: Masahiko Sato Jiro Inagaki & Big Soul Media - Sniper's Snooze
Back in stock!!
Active as a professional DJ in Japan since the late eighties, DJ Yoshizawa Dynamite is also a renowned remixer, compiler and producer. An avid record collector and an expert of the Wamono style, Yoshizawa published the Wamono A to Z records guide book in 2015 which instantly sold-out. The book unveiled a myriad of beautiful and rare records from a highly prolific, but still then unknown, Japanese groove scene.
After many years working as a record buyer for several stores, DJ Chintam opened his own Blow Up shop in 2018 in Tokyo's Shibuya district. A member of the Dayjam Crew and a specialist of soul, funk, rare groove and disco music, Chintam is also an expert of the home-brewed Wamono grooves. He supervised and wrote the Wamono A to Z records guide book together with Yoshizawa.
With this first volume of the Wamono series, our two DJs here guide you through some of the best and rarest jazz funk and rare groove tunes produced in Japan between 1968 and 1980. Put the needle on the record, turn up the volume and dig right now into the Wamono sound - the cream of the Japanese funk, soul, rare groove and disco music developed throughout the years since the end of the sixties in Japan!
Composed, produced, and arranged by Eartheater alone, Phoenix: Flames Are Dew Upon My Skin draws a path back to the primordial lava lake from which she first emerged, as it also testifies to the reincarnating resurrections the project has undergone over its first full decade of existence. While the album renews her focus on guitar performance and legible structure, Eartheater balances the unabashed prettiness of acoustic harmonic songs with the dissonant gestural embroidery of oblique instrumentals. Having fallen back in love with the idioms that first captivated her, she worked to crack open the techniques that had fossilized inside of her, while still seeking to apply the electro-alchemical knowledge she picked up along her journey. The result of a laborious revival in fire, Phoenix recontextualizes Eartheater’s combinatorial approach to production within her most confident abstractions, adjacent to some of her most direct songs to date.
Eartheater composed and workshopped most of Phoenix over a ten-week artist residency (FUGA) in Zaragoza, Spain, housed in a sprawling, cubic glass facility that looked out over wildflower-flecked mountains. Following an intensive period of recording and touring, the residency provided her with an unprecedented period of solitude in the small Spanish town. Her newfound sense of isolation ultimately became liberating, leading her to sidestep the crutches and steady grids inherent to electronic music, and to conceive pieces rooted in her guitar and her desire to perform with other players live.
Eartheater’s voice glows brighter than ever at the center of Phoenix’s arrangements — her familiar operatic highs are grounded by newly expanded velvety lows, leaping lucidly up and down octaves. Her intricate guitar work flits across baroque fingerpicked passages and latches into cyclical figures that meet her voice in lush harmonic progressions. From her own guitar parts, to the orchestral string arrangements she wrote for the Spanish conservatory group Ensemble de Camara, to the harp and violin lines performed by her close friends and collaborators Marilu Donovan and Adam Markiewicz of LEYA, Eartheater’s applications of acoustic instruments bring an extraordinary emotional emphasis to her compositions. Phoenix prepares for a future where electronic sound — or even electricity itself — isn’t guaranteed, but where her music could still come to life with a group of hands dexterously winding across instruments against the light of the fire. Eartheater drew inspiration for Phoenix from geological imagery, whose turbulence and potential for genesis mirror the trajectory of her own life and relationships. The album’s instrumental pieces directly reference these moments of upheaval, colliding audio of volcano and lightning storms with resplendent string and vocal arrangements. “Volcano” looks out over the album from its peak at the center, its tectonic plates colliding in towering melodies and layers of vocal harmonies, as piano accents crest and cascade down the mountainside. When Eartheater sings, “I’m still building mountains underground,” she is trying to reconcile the pinnacles of her ambition with the comforts of a simple existence buried beneath the surface. “Diamond in the Bedrock” finds her admiring the gemstone forming under intense pressure inside her, but rejecting the romantic promise that the diamond signifies, choosing instead to escape a relationship that has come to stifle her.
With the album’s subtitle, Flames Are Dew Upon My Skin, Eartheater imagines being tempered to a state of perfect equilibrium, suspended between melting and freezing, where fire could streak across her body and appear as a crystalline blush. This image captures the tension at the heart of the Eartheater project, as she decides how best to distill her passion and render it cool to the touch; to find beauty in simple pleasure, while keeping one eye fixed on the peaks that loom in the horizon. The album is mixed by Kiri Stensby and mastered by Heba Kadry, featuring photography by Daniel Sannwald.
Having studied the complicated art of dreaming on Live At The Robert Johnson earlier this year, DC Salas returns with another remarkable clutch of cosmic excursions. Linking up with long-standing Parisian chic beat connaisseurs Slowciety, it's time for Salas to show us a little 'Exquisite Chaos'…
Presentation (long version)
The clue is in the title; 'Exquisite Chaos' is smooth, classy, hi-definition piece of intergalactic drama. Sweeping synths, rocket-fuelled kicks and a bassline that could circumnavigate the universe many times over without needing to refuel, it's a classic DC Salas trip, the likes of which we've soaked up on labels such as Correspondant, Nein, BPitch and beyond.
It's backed up by the poignantly titled 'Undivided'. A call for unity, it's rattled with acid and sinewy synth lines all thrusting upwards with the positivity we missed for so long this year. Finally 'Forgotten Memories' if a full-on march into a neon unknown. Complete with flying flurries of breakbeats and rasping acid missives, it wraps up Salas's chaos theory exquisitely…. And it's backed by a remix from Roman Flügel.
Ensuring the EP climaxes with a fitting bang Flügel divides 'Undivided' into three movements, each one more bulldozing than the last. Supercharged with venomous acid and neck-snap breakbeats, it's Flügel at his most chaotic. And Slowciety at their most exquisite. We wouldn't expect anything less from DC Salas.
- A1: Le Grand Néon À Roulettes
- A2: Deviationist Muzak (Version 2)
- A3: Dancing Le Mômo
- A4: Unicazzz
- A5: L’horizon Perdu Du Cornet À Gidouille
- A6: Leviens Vendledi
- B1: Roll Over Fuzmanchu
- B2: Stigmates De La Ligne Crade
- B3: Flip-Side Of Sophism
- B4: Last Ghost Train To Nothing
- B5: Sardana Dels Desemparats (Version 7)
- B6: Vals Burlesco (Version 4)
- C1: Coucher De Soleil Sur L’adriatique
- C2: Des Rails En Mou De Veau
- C3: Despintura Fonica
- C4: Evaporisme Sonor
- C5: Ze Orthopedic Doo-Wop
- C6: Alzina Muntanera
- D1: Élévation De Marie-Madeleine
- D2: Don’t Touch My Blue Oyster Shoes (Version 2)
- D3: (Mc) 5 Pianos In Detroit
- D4: No Sympathy For Symphony
- D5: Le Cut-Up Populaire
- D6: Ha Passat Un Angel (Version 3)
Le nouvel album de Pascal Comelade, dont la réalisation court sur 3 ans , expose avec frénésie ses éternelles obsessions pour la Muzak dégénérée, la répétition combinée aux rhizomes, les guitares bruitistes,les trompettes en plastique, les boites de conserves,les pianos désaccordés (qui sonnent comme un orchestre),l’auto-réduction de jouets sonores, les orgues à piles et à distorsion intégrée,les déviations chromatiques, la mélodie degenre, le Riff conducteur et le grand trémolométaphysique. On y retrouve entre autre Richard Pinhas (pionnier de l’électronique en France et compagnon de route depuis 1974, des figures historiques du Bel Canto Orquestra, et pour la 1ère fois en 45 ans de production : la présence d’un quatuor à cordes et d’ un « assez long solo de piano ».
Pascal Comelade has been working for 3 years to achieve his brand new album. Not only it features all of his musical obsessions & trademarks , some long time partners and friends such as Richard Pinhas & members of his former backing band Bel Canto Orquestra but for the very time in 45 years, ladies and gentlemen there is “quite a long piano solo” and a string quartet in the album.
In the late-1970s Athens, Georgia was buzzing with a raw but sophisticated music scene. Traditional Southern rock had been the Georgia musical export for years before but the turn of the decade began producing new sounds from bands like the B-52’s, REM and Alt Rock luminaires Pylon.
Before they were a band, Pylon were art-school students at the University of Georgia: four kids invigorated by big ideas about art and creativity and society. However, Pylon were less of a band and more of an art project, which meant they had very specific goals in mind, as well as an expiration date.
While their time together as a band was short lived (1979-1983), Pylon had a lasting influence on the history of rock and roll. Throughout their brief history, they were able to create influential work that would help foster the post-punk and art-rock scene of the early 80s. Artists like R.E.M., Gang of Four, Sonic Youth, Sleater-Kinney, Interpol, Deerhunter and many more claim inspiration from the band.
Their 1979 single ‘Cool’ / ‘Dub’ reached legendary status, with Rolling Stone titling it one of the 100 Greatest Debut Singles Of All Time.
In 1980 the band released their first record, ‘Gyrate’, and began touring across the country in support of the release. The band would soon develop a following across the country and specifically in the bustling music scene in New York City. One of their earliest gigs was opening for the Gang of Four in the Big Apple.
Following the critical acclaim of their debut release, Pylon went back into the studio. They gleefully pulled their songs apart and put them back together in new shapes, revealing a band of self proclaimed nonmusicians who had transformed gradually but noticeably into real musicians. The resulting album, ‘Chomp’, was barely off the press when Pylon were booked to open a run of dates for a hot new Irish band called U2 (after previously playing two arena shows with them in the month leading to the album release). Most bands would have jumped at the opportunity but Pylon were sceptical. At a critical point in the life of Pylon, they opted to become a cult band rather than stretch their defining philosophy too far.
“We fully intended Pylon to be an almost seasonal thing that we were gonna do for a minute and then get on with our lives,” says Curtis Crowe, drummer for the band. “But it just never went away. It still doesn’t go away. There’s a new subterranean class of kids that are coming into this kind of music, and they’re just now discovering Pylon. That blows my mind. We didn’t see that coming.”
New West Records are proud to partner with Pylon to reissue ‘Chomp’ and ‘Gyrate’ back into the masses. Beautifully remastered from the original audio sources and pressed on vinyl (140g) for the first time in over 30 years.
New West Records also present ‘Pylon Box’, a comprehensive look at the band that features the remastered studio LPs ‘Gyrate’ and ‘Chomp’, the 11-song collection ‘Extra’ - which includes rarities and previously unreleased studio and live recordings - and ‘Razz Tape’, Pylon’s first ever recording: a 13-song unreleased session that pre-dates the band’s seminal ‘Cool’ / ‘Dub’ debut.
‘Pylon Box’ also includes a hardbound 200-page full colour book featuring pieces written by the members of R.E.M., Gang of Four, Steve Albini, Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney, Sonic Youth, Interpol, B-52’s, Bradford Cox of Deerhunter, Mission of Burma, Calvin Johnson of Beat Happening and K Records, Anthony DeCurtis, Chris Stamey of the dB’s, Steve Wynn of the Dream Syndicate and many more. Features an extensive essay chronicling the band’s history, with interviews with the surviving members of the band as well as members of R.E.M., B-52’s, Gang of Four, Method Actors and more. It also features never before seen images and artifacts from both the band’s personal archives as well as items now housed at the Special Collections Library at the University of Georgia and the Georgia Museum of Art, UGA.
Beyonce's sixth album Lemonade (when life serves you lemons, make lemonade) is an album that follows a clear story, the discovery of your partner cheating, the anger which is followed by her leaving him, reconciling, and ending with the beginning of a fresh start together. The music has a very Southern Blues feel to it overall (harking back to Beyonce's childhood and the roots of her parents), but also has a couple of the Beyonce-standard piano lead slower numbers, and a few feisty hip-hop leaning grooves that are a bit similar to the BEYONCE era tracks. Telling such a painful and personal story through the songs gives Beyonce's vocals amazing depth and power, from her vulnerability in Pray You Catch Me, the anger in Don't Hurt Yourself, defiance in Sorry, the sadness behind Sandcastles, acceptance in Freedom, to the hope tinged delivery of All Night - Lemonade delivers it all.
The hour-long film is composed of the music videos for every song strung together to form the visual story of the potential destruction of a relationship, the journey of emotions and self-discovery the wronged party goes through, and finding forgiveness. Beyonce did the 'visual' concept for the deluxe edition of B'Day and for BEYONCE, but Lemonade is heads and shoulders above them - the videos here aren't about Beyonce looking pretty, rather adding to the emotive tale of the songs.
- 12 TRACKS
- HEAVYWEIGHT VINYL
- FULL COLOR LABELS + PICTURE SLEEVE
- A1: John Foxx A Jingle #1
- A2: Thomas Dolby Airwaves
- A3: Repetition Stranger
- A4: Harold Budd Children On The Hill
- A5: The Durutti Column Sleep Will Come
- A6: Martin Hannett The Music Room
- A7: ? The Names Cat
- A8: ? Michael Nyman A Walk Through H
- A9: ? Interview With Brian Eno
- A10: ? John Foxx A Jingle #2
- B1: Un Entretien Avec Jeanne Moreau
- B2: Richard Jobson Armoury Show
- B3: Bill Nelson The Shadow Garden
- B4: The Durutti Column Piece For An Ideal
- B5: A Certain Ratio Felch (Live In Nyc)
- B6: Kevin Hewick & New Order Haystack
- B7: Radio Romance Etrange Affinite
- B8: Gavin Bryars White’s Ss
- B9: Der Plan Mein Freunde
- B10: Bc Gilbert & Graham Lewis Twist Up
- B11: John Foxx A Jingle #3
The cassette (TWI 007) is a faithful reproduction of the 1980 original, complete with PVC wallet, 16 page booklet and tracklist insert.
Les Disques du Crepuscule is proud to present newly remastered vinyl and cassette editions of iconic compilation album From Brussels With Love, which was the very first release on the Crepuscule label back in November 1980 – and is now celebrating its 40th anniversary.
Originally released as a deluxe cassette/book package in a PVC wallet, From Brussels With Love featured 21 exclusive tracks from the international avant-garde and new wave, as well as contributions from the celebrated Factory Records roster. Then, as now, the featured artists include A Certain Ratio, Gavin Bryars, Harold Budd, Thomas Dolby, Dome, The Durutti Column, John Foxx, Martin Hannett, Richard Jobson, The Names, Bill Nelson, Kevin Hewick + New Order, Michael Nyman and Der Plan.
Running for 78 minutes, the cosmopolitan ‘cassette journal’ was curated by Michel Duval, Annik Honore and Wim Mertens, and also includes extended interviews with Brian Eno and legendary French film actress Jeanne Moreau. The cover art by Jean-Francois Octave, with additional graphics by Benoit Hennebert, Marc Borgers and Claude Stassart in the booklet.
From Brussels With Love quickly sold 6000 copies around Europe, earning rapturous reviews in the UK music press. “This is a reminder – without really trying, without being obvious – that pop is modern poetry. Is the sharpest, shiniest collection of experiences. Is always something new” (Paul Morley, NME). More recently, Dan Fox of art magazine Frieze described TWI 007 as “a masterpiece of distinctly northern European post-punk eclecticism.”
To mark the 40th anniversary of From Brussels With Love, Crepuscule will issue 3 remastered editions.
There is also a deluxe 2xCD ‘earbook’ edition (TWI 007 CD) presented as a 10-inch square hardback book, with two full length audio CDs and 60 page book including rare images, posters, sleeve designs and period ephemera, plus a detailed history of the Crepuscule label between 1979 and 1984.
Mariah Careys 30-jähriges Karrierejubiläum geht weiter! Nach der Veröffentlichung der Doppel-CD "The Rarities" am 2. Oktober erscheinen am 6. November ihre Alben "Emotions", "Music Box", "MTV Unplugged EP" (erstmals auf Vinyl), "Daydream", "Butterfly" und "Rainbow" - neu gemastert - auf schwarzem Vinyl
After releases on Distinkkt, Blue Park, Woob.le Recordings
and a stream of free downloads and self releases Ali
Whitticase joins Motoring with an ear catching approach to
stripped back house music. The Birmingham based artist
has carved a distinctive sound pairing in§uences from
Europe’s minimalist expressions along with bold basslines
heard shaking Midlands dance §oors. Detective Sandy kicks
off the EP with crisp percussion, and a signature Whitticase
low end. Elements trail off into endless directions, subtly
teasing a hypnotic listen with a multitude of quirky sounds
held together by a seriously grooving bassline. Birmingham’s
Jordan Masters joins that side with a stripped back remix of
the title track, nimble hi-hats, shimmering percussive work
and §avours of minimal garage can be heard throughout, a
bouncing bassline delivers a rapid groove for a great balance
between ear engrosser and dance §oor mover. Jos of
EYA/Lonewolf records delivers his twist on Detective Sandy
for B1, a 90s inspired synth reigns through the entire
composition, sultry vocals, a darker rolling bassline and
sharp percussive elements all build into a suspenseful break,
where the listener is dropped back into the hypnotic twists
and commanding low end. (Premiered on Halycon Wax
08/10/2020) Saucy Thoughts rounds this EP off a Warm
and familiar atmosphere is paired with sublime skipping hi
hats which draw the ear. While Saucy Thoughts is more
chilled affair it still hits in all the right places, another bold
bassline builds throughout the track with deep accents
providing a bouncing groove before the track splits boldly
back into the §oating atmosphere. (Premiered on Rayzeh
02/10/2020)
Multi Natural is a new example of Christina’s organic chamber music. We enter nine composed chambers. Nine rooms to inhabit, constructed out of elements that are slowly fusing. The album is a string of semi constant metamorphosis. A gesture appears, is elaborated upon—or is halted and replaced by a new gesture. Multi Natural has multi focal points, quite dissimilar to Christina’s other works that tend to have a more linear path.
Within this album lives a composer who is not afraid to let the content take over. In this, obviously composed work, there is still a large space for all those sounds to act freely. It is almost like Christina is waiting for the music to compose itself. This technique speaks of respect and trust for the listener, since it gives thelistener freedom to personally connect the lines.
When you put the needle on this record, everything turns to stone. The music flows and nurtures. Sounds that come from various realities—molded into a mutual understanding. With each spin, new events catch the ears. Like looking at alandscape, perceiving new details close and far with every gaze.
When Christina warps both time and space for you, it comes to you as a gift.
Infernal Sounds welcomes Cluekid back to the fray, returning to release two of his most sought after dubs in 'Electric Avenue' & 'Horizontal'. The legendary producer throws you right back to the '08 days on the A side, taking you in with straight junglist sampling and a low-end wobble of a freshly set blamanche. 'Horizontal' displays the same sort of traits, but gives you an added dub-flex through the backdrop melody, and a low-end you'll feel right down in your stomach. It's an ultimate double XL.
- A1: Sun Is Shining
- A2: African Herbsman
- A3: Don't Rock My Boat
- A4: Soul Shakedown Party
- A5: Kaya
- A6: Mellow Mood
- B1: You Can't Do That To Me
- B2: Natural Mystic
- B3: Rebels Hot
- B4: Trenchtown Rock
- B5: Lively Up Yourself
- B6: Hammer
- B7: Caution
- C1: Reaction
- C2: Soon Come
- C3: Brain Washing
- C4: No Water
- C5: Chances Are
- C6: Mr Brown
- D1: Stop The Train
- D2: Touch Me
- D3: It's Alright
- D4: Try Me
- D5: Back Out
VOL. 2[27,69 €]
- A1: The City Is At Standstill
- A2: If Tonight We Could Only Sleep
- A3: She Painted Pictures
- A4: The Mourners Of St. Paul's
- A5: This Is Love
- B1: Is This Love?
- B2: Paperboats
- B3: Roadsigns And Redlights
- B4: Shall We Dance
- B5: Try Try Try
The much sought after debut album from Manchester's Liam Frost & The Slowdown Family is back by popular demand.
Includes the singles "The Mourners of St Paul's" and "The City Is At Standstill“
Pressed on 180g translucent blue vinyl.
Recently featured on Tim Burgess’s Twitter Listening Party
Released originally in 2006, Liam Frost is described by Guy Garvey as "the UK’s answer to Bright Eyes".
"Young, fun and riotously talented, Liam Frost And The Slowdown Family are a free-wheeling 21st century folk carnival" -- NME
There is definitely something "afro" inspired about this latest EP from Puma & The Dolphin, certainly in comparison to pretty much everything else I've ever heard from him, which includes a great EP on Canadian imprint Chambre Noir and some stellar inclusions on every one of Dj soFa's highly respected "Elsewhere" compilations.
I'm told that while immersed in domestic life during lockdown in Sofia, Bulgaria, the music evolved to take in what was happening at home and saw the inclusion of toy instruments, his own drum playing, the voices of his children playing and even the family parrots whistling and squawking in the background. These random ambient insertions when seen in the context of the hypnotic and percussive rhythms and timbres throughout are oddly reminiscent of the late, great Francis Bebey who, although culturally and physically a million miles removed, was also known for recording much of his work at home and who also featured the voices of his children playing.
In fact, it is as much the music's playfulness and simplicity that give the pieces their distinctive character, at times echoing the repetition and mesmerism of Raymond Scott's "Soothing Sounds For Baby" series. Yet, childrens' music this is not. There is a mysticism and depth on one hand and a willingness to experiment on the other that reminds me of pioneering experimentalist K. Leimer's early Eno-inspired tape outings as well (see "Supermarket" for example).
I asked Puma & The Dolphin's Nikko Names if he could share the story behind how these six tracks came together. He had this to say:
"This collection of pieces were created during a monotone period of my life which I have overlaid with colour: a time in which I surrender to the beauty of home life - watching my kids play, feeding the birds - entwining these sounds of my surroundings amongst the rhythmic layers of these pieces. Playing the drums to remind us of the next circle dance for four. There is something mystic to travel only in your head; a shamanic trip inside the body with no concepts and answers."
"Good stuff ... digging Am Am Am and Supermarket in particular" JD Twitch Optimo Music / Blackest Ever Black / Strut / On-U Sound
"Cool stuff" DJ SoFa Pingipung / Emotional Response / Kalahari Oyster Cult
East London record shop World of Echo debuts on the other side of the counter with a reissue of Two Wishes, the solitary 12" by Anglo-German collective, Mutabor!. Seemingly lost to time, Mutabor! were first brought to World of Echo's attention when drummer/singer, Gary Asquith, played at the shop's first birthday celebrations while promoting one of his other bands, Rema Rema. And so the story goes...
Mutabor! emerged wraith-like from the monochromatic grit of Berlin's art punk underground late in 1981 when Asquith left London to set up temporary residence in the city following a chance meeting with Malaria's Bettina Koster backstage at a Birthday Party gig at the Lyceum earlier that year. Beguiled by the possibilities of collaboration, musical and otherwise, he was soon to make his own contributions to what was an already fecund scene. Partnering with Koster, and Gudrun Gut and Manon Duursma also of Malaria!, Mutabor! were publicly birthed via an impromptu performance at punk rock polestar the Risiko. Asquith found himself playing percussion in what would be a first, while the rest of the band ossified in front of him in typically idealistic post-punk democracy. Little documentation of the performance survives beyond that which exists in the memories of those playing - that itself shaky enough - though there was clearly sufficient encouragement for them to commit to a recording session.
Later that winter, the four booked time at Music Lab, the studio operated by Harris Johns, for what would ultimately be their only studio visit. Two songs were laid to tape, and soon after a photoshoot was to take place at Koster's flat, resulting in a handful of images that, along with the music, comprise the sum total evidence of the band's existence. 1001 Nights and Treats both found their way to Peter Kent, a co-founder of 4AD who had recently left the label with the ambition of starting his own imprint. Entitled Two Wishes, the two track 12" was to be the first and only release on Loaded. It seems that Mutabor! were to represent a series of firsts and lasts, a trend that continues now as they open the World of Echo imprint.
It's fitting to think of Mutabor! in these prescient terms given how they sounded. Berlin at that time shared a spiritual axis with New York, the conceptual & aesthetic discordance of no wave and a nascent off-beat dance culture underpinning much of the respective creative activity. There are shared signifiers, but even in that context, Two Wishes sounds oddly out of step, moving to its own unusual rhythm. 1001 Nights stutters along on a tribal beat that seems to run independent of skronking sax, spidery guitar lines and deadpan vocal incantations, the ghosts of two songs meeting in some kind of incompatible voodoo union. On the reverse, Treats slows down and dims the lights further, as Asquith sardonically recites desirous threats as an increasingly malevolent sax and guitar grinds behind him. No surprise the darkness within the music given the parent bands and the backdrop of a crepuscular early 80s Berlin, though there remains a complex compositional element to these songs that suggests a broader spectrum of emotion - desire, romance, and ultimately, infinite possibility.
Recut and mastered, Two Wishes is now presented with the original front cover artwork alongside additional imagery, including a 16 page booklet, all culled from Asquith's own archive. A brief bolt of energy at a crucial juncture in music history, Mutabor!'s story is emblematic of the mutli-verse of post-punk and the creativity its ideology necessitated.
- A1: The Wailers - Sun Is Shining
- A2: Sly & Robbie - No Sympathy
- A3: The Wailers - Do It Twice
- A4: Max Romeo - Small Axe
- A5: Dennis Brown - Treat You Right
- A6: Ken Boothe - Mellow Mood
- A7: Johnny Clarke - Try Me
- B1: Don Campbell - Soul Captives
- B2: Horace Andy - Soon Come
- B3: Black Uhuru - You Can't Do That To Me
- B4: Annette Brissett - Can't You See
- B5: Gregory Isaacs - African Herbsman
- B6: Max Romeo - Mellow Mood (Instrumental)
- B7: Try Me (Instrumental)
- C1: Trench Town Rock
- C2: Lively Up Yourself
- C3: Rebel's Hop
- C4: Fussin' & Fightin
- C5: Chances Are
- C6: Soul Shakedown
- C7: Touch Me
- D1: My Cup
- D2: Brain Washing
- D3: Stop The Train
- D6: Redder Than Red (Instrumental)
- D7: Thank You Lord (Instrumental)
- E1: Soul Rebel
- E2: Rainbow Country
- E3: Soul Almighty
- E4: Mr Chatter Box
- E5: Back Out
- E6: 400 Years
- E7: There She Goes
- F1: Don't Rock My Boat
- F2: Reaction
- F3: It's Alright
- F4: Kaya
- F5: Go Tell It On The Mountain
- F6: Soul Almighty (Instrumental)
- F7: Soul Rebel (Instrumental)
- G1: Natural Mystic
- G2: Duppy Conqueror
- G3: No Water
- G4: Cheer Up
- G5: Stand Alone
- G6: Caution
- G7: Keep On Moving
- H1: Hammer
- H2: How Many Times
- H3: Mr Brown
- D4: Corner Stone
- H4: Put It On
- H5: Riding High
- H6: Hypocrites
- H7: Duppy Conqueror
- I1: Is This Love (Lp5 Tribute - Feat Gwen Guthrie)
- I2: No Woman No Cry (Dub)
- I3: Soul Rebel
- I4: Rainbow Country
- I5: African Lady
- I6: Bend Down Low
- J1: I'm Still Waiting
- J2: Soul Captives
- J3: Sun Is Shining
- J4: Could You Be Loved
- J5: Slave Driver
- J6: Nice Time
- D5: All In One
We’re proud to welcome Robert Owens and Queer On Acid to Takeout, who present a ‘double-A side’ release. 2 sublime pieces of vocal-house and techno which will make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck.
Robert’s hypnotic vocals weave between QoA’s beautiful production with both tracks enticing remixes from none other than in demand Fear-E, Polymod and MASC (Mark Archer & Shadow Child).
The music does the talking here, and with a limited vinyl run (which excludes the MASC remix) to support a huge digital package, we’re excited to have such quality on the new label.
Enjoy !
Worldwide Award winners First Word Records are pleased to welcome back Souleance; a duo that have been releasing music with us for a decade now, and triumphantly returning to the fold with some brand new music for 2020.
This vinyl / digital EP, 'Les Mouches', is their first release for First Word since the acclaimed beat-tape 'French Cassette' from early last year.
Expanding on the original Normand-Parisian super-duo of Fulgeance and Soulist, the Souleance crew now includes Vincent Choquet on synths and Guillaume Rossel on drums as part of their live outfit. Whilst sonically their style remains unchanged, the formation into a full band sees the Souleance sound become bigger, more realised and more formidable than ever.
The title track 'Les Mouches' sets off the EP in a playful disco manner - a chugging bassline, assorted synthesisers, disco claps and a four-to-the-floor drum track, inspired by the likes of Larry Levan and Candido. Meaning "flies", Les Mouches was a legendary Manhattan club that existed around the era of Studio 54, and was infamously a hangout spot for Imelda Marcos. The club itself was named after a play by Jean-Paul Sartre.
Next up is the single 'Aquarelle' (meaning watercolours), which contains more layers than a Bob Ross painting. With its various elements splayed across its aural canvas, sprinkled with some subtle scratches, it's four minutes of funk presented in Souleance's inimitable way.
'The Bounce' follows and enters a more soulful side of the dance, dropping the tempo a touch and inviting in a huge bassline, squelchy keys and intermittent vocal hooks.
'Mont Maudit' takes more of a latin jazz direction with big drums and cymbals rocking throughout, whilst an infectious piano hook cruises throughout, and an ethereal gospel choir switches up the proceedings mid-way.
Things get deeper still with the epic broken beat-esque 'Maneuevers'. Crunchy rhodes dominate this slightly tweaked-out rhythm, a delectable piece of heads-down nujazz fused with Souleance's unmistakable funk once again.
'L'Opuleance' closes out this EP with some more traditional Souleance fare - the tempo a little more head-nod, this one is comprised of some deliciously wobbly bass, chopped samples and hefty breaks.
This EP is essentially a set of grooves marinated in nostalgia whilst managing to sound entirely current. Analogue synths, live bass, sleek cuts and intoxicating drums. This is another round of sure-shot dancefloor fire from our favourite French family.
Previous support has come from OkayPlayer, Bill Brewster, BBC 6 Music's Gilles Peterson, Tom Ravenscroft & Huey Morgan, and various DJs on Worldwide FM, NTS & Le Mellotron,
'Say What's On Your Mind' by Rikki Aaron was the song that brought Rikki to prominence within the rare soul scene. We decided to allow UK based Ourra to give it some new life with a sprinkling of 80s boogie vibes. On the flip we've got a very raw stripped back version of the song. The song itself was originally written by Rikki whilst still at school in the 70s and is a timeless piece of classic soul music.
2020 Repress!
After two self released EPs, Eterna joins the Modern Obscure Music family. In another musical life, Eterna is a drummer and a sound engineer. Here the Barcelona based artist presents a varied EP that features beautiful melodies backed by distinctive instrumentation and percussive arrangements. Remix duties fall to the wonderful LA based experimentalist DNTEL, aka Jimmy Tamborello. Regatta features choppy textured beats, a bold keyed melody and a smooth bassline groove. The “Jimmy Tamborello” Remix from DNTEL is composed of competing parts that fit together surprisingly well. A menacing bass, powerful stop start beats and spacey synths meet on this remix. 277 is the deepest cut, with emotional strings, almost steel drum sounding keys and layered percussion. A Day In The Life rounds off the EP with walking paced sturdy beats, modulating synths and a springy bassline. This is a truly versatile EP from Eterna.
Claptrap label boss returns with a four-track release ‘Big Pharma’.
Following on from this years releases by Longhair and Dr Valentines Claptrap are back with Vanity Project’s new release ‘Big Pharma’. Vanity Project has been managing Claptrap with his partner in crime Dr Valentines since their first 12" release in 2017 and dropped his first full release, a self titled EP in 2018. Since then he’s been DJing & performing live shows around the UK and has most recently dropped the City Elastic EP on London’s Midnight People.
Big Pharma features four spaced out original house cuts ready for the dance floor. A1, 'Letters and Numbers’ opens the EP with a driving groove, tight drums and rubbery synths. A2 the title track ‘Big Pharma’ brings a hint of acid alongside a deeper thumping house groove. B1 Grow Slow, kicks off the second side with a mellow down tempo sizzler, prime for those outdoor coastal parties. The final track Index brings the EP to a close with swirling euphoric synth lines and a dance floor moving stomp.
Italian mainstay Leon makes a long-awaited debut on Hot Creations with Disco 3000. Set for release on 9th October, the three-track EP draws inspiration from a range of influences, most notably the early American house scene.
As the title suggests, Disco 3000 kicks things off in a feel-good fashion with punchy kick drums and an echoing lyric that states “making it for sure.” Groove It makes an appearance next, as spacey synths conjoin on a no-nonsense, up- tempo bassline to form a real peak-time dance number, before T-House rounds off proceedings with a fast-paced kick-hat backbone and infectious, echoing vocals.
A regular in the electronic music scene for more than a decade, Leon is no stranger to producing dance floor ready house music, having released on the likes of Relief, Defected and Crosstown Rebels to name a few. Performances at places such as Sunwaves and Pacha have helped cement his standing as one of the true heavy-hitters, whilst his recent releases, including those on Crosstown Rebels and Moan Records, have further confirmed his reputation.
With the indeed adventurous Aventure EP on Couldn’t Care More Harmonious Thelonious further explores the depths of his unique vision, merging African rhythms, European harmonies and American minimalism: The title track keeps the same yet ever-changing lighthearted melody effortlessly meandering back and forth over electrified beats while Some Blue Beats is more on the minimalist side, as controlled as eccentric. Ta Ta Ta keeps it darker, with hypnotic percussions, organ chords noir and a big bass. Advanced music. Play loud.
- A1: The 9Th Creation - Bubble Gum
- A2: Mavis John - Use My Body
- A3: Jimmy Bo Horne - Clean Up Man
- A4: Al Green - Tomorrow's Dream
- A5: Oby Onyioha - Enjoy Your Life
- A6: Chateau - Feelings
- B1: Lowell Fulsion - Tramp
- B2: Friday, Saturday & Sunday - There Must Be Something
- B3: Joe Simon - Drowning In The Sea Of Love
- B4: Bobby Byrd - Back From The Dead
- B5: Stevens & Foster - I Want To Be Love
- B6: Brother To Brother - In The Bottle
- B7: Lee Moore - Let's Do It
With current album ‘Automatic’, Mildlife have made a step-change from their debut. It’s more disciplined, directional and more danceable. As on ‘Phase’, they are unafraid to let a track luxuriate in length without ever succumbing to self-indulgence. The arrangements, tightly structured thanks to Tom Shanahan (bass) and Jim Rindfleish’s fatback drumming, permit space for the others to add spice to the stew, topped off with Kevin McDowell’s ethereal vocals as Mildlife effortlessly glide between live performance and studio
songwriting.
The two remixers tackling ‘Automatic’ track ‘Vapour’ here need little introduction. JD Twitch, one half of Glasgow’s Optimo Espacio and discerning curator of all things Caledonian and beyond, takes the reins for remix two, adding some clattering post-punk energy to the rhythm, turning ‘Vapour’ into something approaching a take-no-prisoners anthem.
Cosmodelica is the remix handle for Colleen Murphy (aka DJ Cosmo), the hostess of the hugely popular Classic Album Sundays series. She is fresh off the back of a superb Róisín Murphy reworking and her offering here is simultaneously faithful to the original while lending it some serious dancefloor power.
>>>>Cryovac Recordings is a loose collective of collaborators bound by a strong personal view of the techno sound. The outfit assembled to create this installment of Cryovac are diverse in approach and unified in spirit. They are the maintainers of their style, and leaders of their movements. Cryovac is based in Detroit and is a platform brought to life by the efforts of a vinyl community of craftsmen and artists. Cryovac endures to shine light on a path less traveled .
>>>> The E.P. starts with Jason Garcia’s “down like”a crispy 4/4 slide back rocker groove intermittently intersected by urgent synth, earsplitting climaxes, and compulsive samples that form rhythm. Body Mechanic follows up with a couple swigs of old school tec- funk surrounded by a dreaming synth lost in the memories of the fat boys. Flip to the backside where Garcia & Kretsch deliver “LA80s” a theme that is story told with dramatic synth, driving kick and bass, and triumphant rises and falls tying and dying together. Isaac Prieto’s “Searching” takes us out with a smooth minimal animal that shifts an easy melody and turns sleekly through a gauntlet of hi-hat , clap, and twisted sharp detunes.
Wonderful. „I wanted my first long form album to represent the joys of life, strength of positivity, the wonderfulness of nature, and celebrate how music plays an intricate part in sewing all of that together.“
From the subtle rhythmic brush strokes of South American music to the sounds of Bern’s underground scene. Mirabile Dictu pulls from those spheres of influence and more to succinctly capture the translation of Adriano’s surname perfectly.
- A1: Diana Krall Night And Day
- A2: Madeleine Peyroux Dance Me To The End Of Love (Album Version)
- A3: Till Brönner Stand By Me
- A4: Gregory Porter Hey Laura
- A5: Melody Gardot Baby I'm A Fool
- B1: Max Mutzke Me & Mrs Jones
- B2: Amy Winehouse You Know I'm No Good
- B3: Robbie Williams Beyond The Sea
- B4: Norah Jones Don't Know Why
- B5: Fever
- C1: Jamie Cullum Don't Stop The Music (Album Version)
- C2: Corinne Bailey Rae Put Your Records On
- C3: Mornin' (Album Version)
- C4: Frank Sinatra You Do Something To Me
- C5: Peggy Lee Black Coffee (Single Version)
- D1: Trombone Shorty (Troy Andrews) Backatown
- D2: Esperanza Spalding Black Gold (Special Guest: Algebra Blessett)
- D3: José James Trouble
- D4: Sarah Vaughan Tenderly
- D5: Aretha Franklin Ain't No Way
- E1: Chet Baker My Funny Valentine (Vocal Version)
- E2: Dusty Springfield The Look Of Love
- E3: Herbie Hancock Cantaloupe Island
- E4: Dave Brubeck Take Five
- F4: So Many Stars (Album Version)
- F5: Henry Mancini Moon River
- G1: Summertime
- G2: Etta James At Last
- G3: The Girl From Ipanema (Single Version)
- G4: Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 Mas Que Nada
- G5: Sarah Mckenzie Quoi, Quoi, Quoi
- G6: Quincy Jones Soul Bossa Nova
- H1: Nina Simone Feeling Good
- H2: Louis Armstrong What A Wonderful World (Single Version)
- H3: Us3 Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)
- H4: Lizz Wright My Heart (Album Version)
- H5: Je Veux
- H6: Soda Pop
- E5: Dinah Washington Mad About The Boy
- F1: Miles Davis Blue In Green
- F2: Duke Ellington Take The "A" Train
- F3: Curtis Stigers You Make Me Feel So Young
After his acclaimed debut EP « Cotonou » on Alma Negra’s record label, James Stewart comes back with his new EP Atlantic River Drive for Mawimbi Records, featuring two collaborations with Ghanaian kologo musician Ayuune Sule as well as two remixes from Simbad aka SMBD.
James Stewart met Ghanaian kologo musician Ayuune Sule, after booking several shows of kologo music star King Ayisoba in Lyon. Stewart was quick to witness the bluesy tone of Ayuune’s voice and his kindness as a musician, despite his impressive stature. Quite logically, Stewart invited Sule to record vocals on two of his ongoing demos at Bruno Patchworks’ recording studio (Voilaaa, Mr. President, Da Break), with the idea of making a rather unheard crossover between traditional kologo music and contemporary styles that would both appeal to Ghanaian crowds and a Western audience. Stewart then had a number of his arrangement ideas re-recorded by a talented cast of musicians, resulting in a brilliant mix of acoustic and electronic textures, sounding both vintage and modern.
Nodding to Eddie Palmieri’s landmark record “Harlem River Drive”, “Atlantic River Drive” is a stomping dancefloor track, drawing from the 6/8 feel of kologo music and the energy of contemporary club music. The track can be read as a tribute to the musical cross-pollinations between the African continent and its many diasporas, which Stewart has dedicated a long part of his life to, but also as a more intimate story about his life and family. All words were written by Stewart and then translated by Sule in his native Fra fra language from Northern Ghana.
“Where Are We Going?” is a two-part journey that reminds us that we should care about each other, about our communities while we don’t know what the future is made of. An important and much welcome message to navigate through these troubled, uncertain times. Referencing congolese N’dombolo tracks, the track has two parts and rich arrangements, with its first part going deep with syncopated clarinet hooks and playful percussion parts, and its second part moving to a four-on-the-floor pattern and an entrancing baritone saxophone solo.
The EP also features Worldwide FM and Brownswood maestro Simbad, who delivers two dancefloor-ready reworks of the track “Where Are We Going?” under his SMBD moniker, turning it into a spiritual, dubby journey, as well as an emotional house music track.
We met Franck Vigroux for the first time years ago at Berlin's Berghain during a soundcheck. At that time he performed with Mika Vainio, with whom Vigroux often worked together.
The first track on »Ballades sur lac gelé« dates back to that time. It was created under the impression of this collaboration and friendship with Mika Vainio. This album is dedicated to him.
Vainio's oeuvre is also significant in connection with the history of raster, so it was only logical and our wish to release this album by Franck Vigroux.
With the beginning of the corona pandemic, Franck Vigroux took up this early material again, he continued to formulate it and completed the present album »Ballades sur lac gelé«. The title already defines the theme of the ballad, a "song/poem with very minimal structures" (quote Vigroux).
"Ballade" is also a play on words with the French word "balade", in this sense a ramble, a ramble over a frozen lake. The reduced, cool structures reflect this. But at the same time, under the surface, the (often distorted) sound carpets steadily increase to immense power. Like ice that grows and tectonic forces that have to erupt, glacier-like.
Vigroux is very skilled at creating music in this minimalist setting. The intertwining of very few musical elements creates a kind of soundtrack that is multi-layered and at the same time universally intelligible.
»Ballades sur lac gelé« will be released on June 26th, 2020 as a digital pre-release exclusively on our sites. The physical formats, i.e. CD and vinyl, can be pre-ordered. The official worldwide release date will be announced at a later point in time.
Electronica duo Echaskech have been part of the Balkan Vinyl family since the very first releases back in 2010, but this is their debut solo outing. A mini-album of deep space electronica and cosmic ambience. A soundtrack across our solar system and interstellar travel onwards for 27 million light years.
Available on a limited edition of 30 hand-numbered cassettes.
A1: Dawn Over The Red Planet
A2: Kuiper Belt Life Support
A3: Andromeda
A4: Oort Cloud
A5: Machine Code
B1: Into Eta Carinae
B2: Disorder
B3: Pluto At Night
B4: Onset Of Panic
B5: Escape From Tau Ceti
B6: Messier 63
- A1: Special Fun - Polar
- A2: Ranko Feat Lola Rue - Everyday
- A3: George John - Hope (Solo)
- A4: Larry Houl - The Vinyl Frontier
- A5: Ari Bald - Cluster Of Islands
- A6: Explorer Of The Humankind - I Feel U
- A7: Atbin - Who Want To
- A8: Lydia Eisenblätter - Episode One
- A9: Marco Lazovic - From Here To Eternity
- B1: Malik Kassim & Midnight Flavor - Little Girl
- B2: Donnie Moustaki - Robot Jesus
- B3: Last Nubian - 1 Choice
- B4: Duktus & Byte Chop - Sloppy Jam
- B5: Kolja Gerstenberg - Fall In Love
- B6: Wild Re§Ection - You The Only One
- B7: Lootbeg - Hollow Earth Filler
- B8: Dj Safeword - Who Got Da Space Powda?
- B9: Native Cruise - Distant Planes
Marian Himburg, the artist known as Causa, believes that less is more, both in his productions and his release schedule. With a lean and heavy catalogue built from releases on labels like Crucial Recordings, Infernal Sounds, and Artikal Music UK, Causa is as focused on producing quality dubplate ammo as he is with proper releases. His second chapter for ZamZam is exactly what you’d hope: heavy 140 wares for dark dances- soon may they return!!
"Hiss" is nothing if not cinematic: a queasy melody circling in a dying orbit until it crashes into its first monstrous drop. Led by a squelching, lumbering single-note bassline that crushes like an unstoppable beast freed from its chains, no-nonsense kick-snare power and a steadily rising hum increase our fight-or-flight response until the very end.
Causa says the tune was created after “re-listening to my very first couple of beats and getting inspired by how little I cared about certain placements and how I worked drums at that time… I didn’t follow any rules - because I didn’t know any back then."
“Palms” is the perfect companion, another 140 stormer with drums seemingly built from white noise and distortion, funked-up by syncopated brush hats & an utterly swarming bassline. Add paranoid textures and a bizarre monosyllabic vocal pitched this way and that, and you have another dystopian side to fall in love with in the bunker or the ball.
Commodo is back with ‘Stakeout’ — a standout three-track follow-up to recent EP, ‘Loan Shark’.
Out October 23, ‘Stakeout’ picks up where ‘Loan Shark’ left off, tapping back into the conceptual, crime-ridden Wild West first imagined across tracks like ‘Contraband’ and ‘Hot Pursuit’; “If anyone is working on a 22nd century film noir at the moment, this would make the perfect soundtrack” wrote Bandcamp back in June.
This sentiment echoes across the ‘Stakeout’ tracklist, which again details tracks that marry precision bass-weight and deft, nimble sampling techniques with nuanced flashes of genius; Commodo is no ordinary producer. From the swirling unease and sharp crackle of the title-track to the oddball, industrial swing of ‘Transit’ and menacing, Batman-style lurch of EP closer ‘Crooked’ Law’, ‘Stakeout’ forms the fascinating concluding chapter of Commodo’s latest Black Acre odyssey.
Svart Records is proud to present the original soundtrack to the supernatural thriller series Requiem! Debuted by BBC One in the UK and NETFLIX globally, psychological horror series Requiem became an instant hit, not least because of it’s haunting, spine-tingling score. Conjured by award-winning composers Dominik Scherrer (The Missing, Ripper Street & Marple), and Natasha Khan of Bat For Lashes, Requiem is an eerie landscape of sharp, scraping cello, soothing harps and tense string sections. From the urban uncanny to folk horror, there is a distinct atmosphere in the fresh collaborative dynamic between the British-Swiss decorated grandmaster of unique television series soundtracks Scherrer, and the rising enigma of alt-pop, twice Mercury Music Prize-nominated singer/songwriter Khan. Of their alchemical and otherworldly creative chemistry, composer Dominik Scherrer recalls: “Natasha Khan and I spent some weeks in my studio in Brick Lane, coming up with themes and recording outlandish vocals and terrifying sounds. There is a cheeky element to the show, as well as a genuinely scary one. Together with a pastoral spookiness of the cello and strings themes started to give Requiem its own unique atmosphere. We experimented with deviant playing techniques and unconventional recording approaches, to complete a moody air of retro horror and pastoral spook.” Available for the first time on CD and LP, this highly celebrated “spooksome” score harkens back to the 1970s lo-fi soundtracks from BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop or 1970s horror soundtracks. Winning an Ivor Novello award for the “Best TV Soundtrack” in 2019, Requiem is a one of a kind treasure, now rightfully preserved and beautifully presented on lush vinyl and CD format by Svart Records. “Requiem promises much, not least in way of sound. Nominally just another spooksome BBC tingler – old castle in Wales, birds flying into windows, locked room, pagan symbols, creepy locals – it is rendered a whole cut above by not having the heroine’s every move into peril foreshadowed by dissonant eek-eek string” (The Guardian)
- A1: Instant Karma! (We All Shine On) (We All Shine On)
- A2: Cold Turkey
- A3: Isolation
- A4: Power To The People
- B1: Imagine
- B2: Jealous Guy
- B3: Gimme Some Truth
- B4: Come Together (Live)
- B5: #9 Dream
- C1: Mind Games
- C2: Whatever Gets You Thru The Night
- C3: Stand By Me
- C4: (Just Like) Starting Over (Just Like)
- C5: Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy) (Darling Boy)
- D1: Watching The Wheels
- D2: Woman
- D3: Grow Old With Me
- D4: Happy Xmas (War Is Over) (War Is Over)
- D5: Give Peace A Chance
John Winston Ono Lennon would have been 80 on October 9th 2020. In celebration of his life and the incredible pleasure his music has brought to millions in his lifetime, a new Best Of will be released. A multi-format collection, entitled GIMME SOME TRUTH., this set has been personally curated by the Lennon estate and mixes the biggest hits like the classic and timeless “Imagine” with campaigning songs such as “Give Peace A Chance” and the evergreen classics like “Happy Christmas (War Is Over)” and is culled from all of his solo albums including the posthumous “Milk And Honey”.
John Lennon is simply one of the most recognised and respected musicians of the modern era. As one half of perhaps the most successful songwriting partnerships of all time he deserves his place in history. That this partnership was with Paul McCartney in The Beatles means that he is also one of the most successful recording artists in history. With every succeeding generation falling for their genius, their legend continues to grow and they dominate the pop landscape.
Their split in 1970 allowed each of the band members, by now literally some of the most famous people on the planet, to find their own voice as solo artists and to grow beyond the confines of the band. For John Lennon, this meant throwing himself headlong into life with his new wife, Yoko Ono and eventually a new life in New York City.
Being a solo artist meant that he could delve deep within himself and realise music that was both deeply personal and challenging and which sometimes required a commitment from the audience too. His songs during his solo career mixed accessible pop melodies with sometimes stark and heart-rending simplicity and all points inbetween. His lyrics ranged from deep introspection and self-analysis to subjects that were more concerned with politics (of self, of relationships, of the campaign for peace, of the place of mankind as well as global politics). After a first rush of creativity, he took a step back from the limelight to care for his son, Sean, at home in New York, but when he was ready he returned to recording with one of his most successful and impactful albums. Double Fantasy, preceded by the single (Just Like) Starting Over had been released the month before his life was tragically cut short on 8th December 1980. But this album joins the rest of his solo canon as testament to one of the truly great and truly iconoclastic musicians and personalities of the era.
LOUIS 'SILKY' VINCENT released four 45s on the small HOOK UP label in the late '70s. All of them are very hard to find these days and included on this 8-track album. Incl. BREEZING, CHANGED MAN, GET DOWN 4 YOUR ACTION, and some more!
Key selling points:
- official release with the blessing of Silky Vincent
- incl. full album download code
After two years since her debut full-length release, Grand River presents her second album “Blink A Few Times To Clear Your Eyes” on Editions Mego. The 8 track LP shows an evolution towards a more experimental side of the Dutch-Italian composer which is here superbly combined with her ability of creating melodies previously heard on her 2xLP “Pineapple”, released on Spazio Disponibile in 2018.
“Blink A Few Times To Clear Your Eyes” expresses how acoustic instruments can be perfectly merged with electronic and analog synthesizers to become one new organic whole. The composer, whose birth-name is Aimée Portioli, brings the listener along on her personal explorational journey of expressions within a certain genre. The title of the album indicates the desire to explore what is new and see what is around us from different perspectives.
The album opens with the track “Side Lengths”, a complex and dreamy sequence made with one of her favorite synthesizers, the Yamaha DX-7. From there we are brought from extended panoramic sound design and cinematic ambiences, back and forth to synthetic melodies, field recordings, strings and for the first time ever, Aimée’s own modified voice in the closing track “All There Now”.
Recorded primarily at her home base in Berlin, Grand River’s music is pure, magnificent and elegant which documents a solemn atemporal story where her experiences are translated into another language.
Cosmic dance and spatial atmospherics are at the very centre of Zakmina’s productions, as the Lithuanian producer readies an appetizing EP for Dave Harvey’s Futureboogie, backed with a remix from the always on-point Gnork.
With releases already wetting our ears on Critical Monday, XXX and Roam Recordings, Zakmina spreads his wings across three new cuts. ‘Church Of Madness’ pumps with oodles of new beat drums and soaring synths, anchored by a fat arpeggiated bassline, whilst ‘Déjà vu’ is a first class chugger, its drums as big as 80’s shoulder pads, with glacial keys and breezy vocals comprising the seductive sensations on offer here.
The Balearic synth-pop vibes of ‘Running Amore’ complete the trio of originals from Zakmina, whilst Gnork lays down the lino and tweaks ‘Church Of Madness’ into a solid 808 drum driven ‘Ezoteric Breakdance’ Remix. The Hungarian producer, responsible for some killer releases on Lone’s Magicwire label, Unknown To The Unknown, as well as his own Earth Plates imprint, delivers a futuristic b-boy re-working that’s heady and exhilarating right off the bat.
- A1: Damage Machine - Hybrid Mind
- A2: Cenobit - Alles Ist Zu Spät
- A3: Quato - Energizer
- B1: Qualkommando - Trinity
- B2: Lawrencium - Speedtongram
- B3: Noizefucker - Darkstream
- C1: Nekrosystem - Karma Vibes And Witchcraft
- C2: Voldo - Panik Attacks Since 1980
- C3: X-Core - Devilbeat
- D1: Occulkot - Gateway To Annihilation
- D2: Qualkommando - Skullcracker
- D3: Pain Alliance Vs Komprex - Shadowrun
- A1: House Gospel Choir & Todd Terry - My Zulu
- A2: House Gospel Choir & Adelphi Music Factory - Hallelujah Anyway
- A3: House Gospel Choir & Todd Terry - Blind Faith
- A4: Latch
- B1: Salvation (Acoustic)
- B2: Salvation
- B3: Gypsy Woman (Place To Stay) (Place To Stay)
- C1: Everything Is Love
- C2: I Don't Know What You Come To Do (Feat Daniel Thomas)
- C3: Gabriel
- D1: No Defeat (Feat Becca Foulkes)
- D2: Most Precious Love
- D3: Battle
MEET THE CHOIR THAT HOUSE BUILT
The late great Frankie Knuckles once called house music: “church for people that have fallen from grace.” Anyone who has been caught up in the rapture of a true house classic can testify to its power to unify and uplift.
HGC is an electrifying House meets Gospel experience that never fails to get audiences clapping, dancing and singing along. HGC shows bring together a group of outstanding singers, a full house band and DJ, creating an effortless live fusion of the biggest house and gospel tunes that never fail to raise the roof!
House Gospel Choir’s magic is their ear for production, thanks to the songwriters, producers, vocal arrangers and selectors who make up the collective. The choir have been bubbling away in studios across London, working with a roll call of iconic dance music producers, from global house icons Todd Terry, DJ Spen, Grammy Award winner Alex Metric, to Toddla T and UK gospel icon Nicky Brown. Their monthly public Mass Choir open rehearsal, at Rich Mix in East London, has featured guest appearances from house and techno icon The Black Madonna, and electro pop singer Georgia.
The current House Gospel Choir has grown to over 150 members of all religions and backgrounds. They take us to church, literally and metaphorically and remind us, whatever spiritual inclination we may have, of the sonic swells in our ribcage that truly great harmonies can inspire.
We Are One has become the choirs mantra, Founder & Creative Director Natalie Maddix explains “We can’t all speak at the same time and have our voices heard, but we can sing together as one voice and be understood”.
“The choir have a really unique energy. Beyond the uplifting vibes of Gospel Music…they’re like family” Annie Mac
“I’m so crazy about them” – THE BLACK MADONNA
Between Christmas 2000 and New Year 2001 producers Ekkehard Ehlers and Stephan Mathieu recorded an album of warm, soft, delicately crackling electronic music in the space of that week. It was christened with the ambivalent title "Heroin" and was released on CD via the label Brombron in 2001 and later in 2003 re-issued on Kit Clayton's Orthlorng Musork on double-LP with remixes the pair had commissioned as expansions.
17 years later Heroin sees its first vinyl release to include all 13 tracks from the original CD track-list on this LP + 12“ set. The centerpiece "Herz" finally receives its long deserved vinyl treatment (side C, at 45rpm) and on the flip side Thomas Brinkmann contributes a mirror in a magnificent remix of that very piece on side D.
Ehlers and Mathieu were both highly prolific solo artists during the period 2000-2004, and in just two years after the initial release of "Heroin" each had produced over half a dozen new solo recordings: among them the serial masterpiece Ehlers' "Plays" (Cornelius Cardew, Hurbert Fichte, John Cassavetes, Albert Ayler, Robert Johnson) released as 5 stunning LPs in a series on Staubgold, while Mathieu's 'Full Swing Edits' spread over five 10" records plus his album 'FrequencyLib' on Mille Plateaux, 'Die Entdeckung des Wetters' on Lucky Kitchen and ‘The Sad Mac’ on Atsushi Sasaki’s Headz label were greeted to critical acclaim.
Both artists were expanding their conceptual sonic approaches in the glow of developing laptop technologies which would to these times in 2020 seem quite primitive, but these two in that period used the state-of-the-art to aid and abet their conceptual visions, while at times the duo used unorthodox experimentation - yet always had a distinctively melodic and musical form at its heart and soul.
Ehlers can be seen as a conceptualist, as a meta-musician who interrogates the mediums and methods of sound production - reflecting on the conditions and possibilities of improvisation (e.g. "Plays Albert Ayler") and exploits ideas of mutation and distortion of popular aesthetics played out within a ghostly form of divine pop beauty in his project März.
Mathieu, originally a drummer and co-founder of what has come to be known as the Berlin 'Echtzeitmusik' scene. His approach could be similarly described as working a critical analyst and researcher: Subtly and precisely working in the realm of processing as a method of intervening in melodious/harmonic analog sound sources.
Ehlers and Mathieu may not think too much about their singular productions and publications outcomes, but instead concentrate on the process and musical personality that characterizes their gesture- style itself stays in the background - and they usher a music from small minimal sound sources coaching a patient music of slow intervention - much like a refraction of light than a concrete painting or a blurred photograph - beatus accident.
And indeed, "Heroin" is an album that embraces the happy accident being made up of reduced, often very catchy and very direct micro hooks which seem laser-guided into a space accepting obvious melodic beauty in what feels like an observation of musics unfolding and revealing it's DNA, embed with for a kind of yearning for innocence and naiveté - as if Satie were on the jukebox in "The Crying of Lot 49". Not to say the music is "reduced", but rather: 'restricted' and born from acceptance of limitations, and the artists allowing the sounds to just "be.." with some incremental degrees of coercion.
The album not only sounds like that of 2 producers who are both dreamers and scientists, but that Ehlers and Mathieu chose to work with these means in a dialogue together to reduce pop music to its musical/tonal core, it is not Pop music anymore, rather a ghostly pointilistic itteration of song. "Heroin" is located at this transition, around that point at which tracks, that were or could have become pop compositions, irrevocably slip into a static harmonic nirvana. We are invited to follow the arch of Heroin in a slow-motion morphine musical haze.
Heroin sounded timeless when originally released and proof is that it remains so, one wishes that Ehlers and Mathieu would convene again for a week, a month or an entire year to continue this process of slow rumination, picking affectionately over the sounds they both love - and then maybe when everything is condensed, evaporated they would write more songs with those sonic refractive elements that remain.
Our much in-demand series of classic Brazilian 45’s are back! Featuring a vibrant new design, we’ve curated yet more wants-list regulars and unearthed fresh finds from Brazil that are destined to become collector’sitems in their own right.
Number 81 is our Brazil.45 series sees further digging into the magical world of Jorge Ben’s lesser-explored 1980’s productions. ‘Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma (A Lingua Dos Anjos)’ is taken from his ‘Al Al , Como Vai?’ album from 1980, which is arranged, produced, and features keys by the don, Lincoln Olivetti. The song contains trippy lyrics singing about flying saucers and angels.
‘Dona Culpa’ finds Jorge featuring on a cool mid-tempo groove track taken from Cauby Peixoto’s ‘Cauby! Cauby!’ album (also from 1980). Singer Cauby Peixoto had a long and stellar career, recording and releasing music from the mid-1950’s all the way up until his passing in 2016.
JAM CITY (Chicago, USA) & IZIPHO SOUL RECORDS (Surrey, UK) collaborate to bring you one of the finest discoveries of the year, tracked down and first played on Starpoint Radio’s Soul Sermon Show. Blown away on first listen, we knew what we had to do and quickly got to work with producer and writer Al Wordlaw. Back in the late 80s, the singer simply known as ‘RUSHING’ was a local sensation, performing to sold out crowds whenever he was booked for Chicagoland performances; no surprise when you hear these incredible vocals!
Both songs were recorded in 1987, but never released. Thankfully the original reels were kept and have been restored, transferred and mastered for a vinyl release thirty three years later!
Following up on their debut LP Kick Drunk Love for Marcel Vogel’s Intimate Friends imprint a few years back, we are proud to present the next installment in the sporadic KAMM legacy: Cookie Policies.
Far more sonically rich and musically adventurous than its predecessor, Cookie Policies sees the band make bold strides into new territories where classically hardwired categories such as jazz, indie rock, and electronica melt into one another with immaculate, timeless ease.
The band members’ positions are more clear cut as well this round, with Marc David Barrite (aka Dave Aju, who also did one of his coveted mix engineering jobs on the LP) on prominent lead vocals in many of the pieces, Alland Byallo on trumpet, Kenneth Scott on synth bass, and Marc Smith adding guitar sections while the others shared the arranging and programming duties. This makes for a deeper continuation of the otherworldly combination of their known individual production styles, as well as a musical whole truly greater than the sum of its parts.
The set starts off with “Bird Call”, whose opening ode to Morricone ok corral-meets-samurai showdown riffs flow into a loose and drifting psychedelic boom bap blip, building until a glorious change-up of key and energy brings the track to its peak and deconstructed back down. “Rachel, the Largest Bullfrog” then takes things in a sweeter, slightly more traditionally-structured direction where dusty indie-folk ballad vibes intersect with an array of twisted cosmic tones, bits of computer keyboard percussion, and deep rolling sub bass. “Buckle Down” then moves things back away from acoustic restraints into a beautiful synth-laden musing on potential regret, with an ultra-potent horn section from Byallo vs a nasty stacked Roland SH-101 finish.
“CCBPGC” cools things off for a few minutes with an ambient field recording slice-and-dice motif, which slowly but surely evolves into a slinking jazz noir groove from another dimension. The more traditional song structures return on the lovely “La Luna”, where Barrite’s pen and soulful voice take to nautical longing themes over apropos waves of sonic textures. The ebb and flow of the verse/chorus sections eventually rise and give way to an absolutely gorgeous denouement. “Shleem” then takes us into pure unadulterated soaring sci-fi soundtrack ambient blast-off bliss, while the epic closing track “The Soft Glow of Electric Sex” gives a hearty nod to early masters of sprawling psychedelic jam sessions, from Pink Floyd and Can to In A Silent Way-era Miles and Liquid Liquid, while bringing it clearly into futurist millennia. The gradual evolution of the piece into its grand finale is the stuff we true music-lovers live and die for. We hope you enjoy the ride as much as we do.
You have reached the Infolines. Tonight, we send you on a journey packin’ east to play in the magnificent halls where thespians and rock & roll once played. ‘The Theatre’ features a compilation of cuts that inspire those who listen to sweat in the soon to be humid weather of Detroit.
Bendersnatch is back again, this time with their funky groove ‘Vice Versa’, tooled as a call to the dance floor with a kick that cuts, and bleeps reminiscent of the second wave of techno. Remote Viewing Party brings us a break beat rhythm joined by instrumentalists Ezuch & Bcota with ‘Outpost’. The duo brings shows us their depth creating an atmosphere that will bring you chills, and tears that you will probably think is sweat running down your face. Newcomer Dev-Lish is joined by Maxlow with their head banger ‘Faith In The Machine, in a collaboration inspired by the Detroit birthed genre ‘sludge’. Evil grinding tones with huge bass and dark vocals will make you want to breath. Last, but not certainly least is Francois Dillinger. This artist has been churning out his art and making waves in the electro and techno communities. He brings to the table ‘Lost Loops’ with nothing short of huge bass, large spatial tones designed to hit all frequency ranges leaving room for the crowd to breath while being taken on a journey.
As always, keep an eye on this space and be sure to call in for the waypoint to the party.
Birthed from a radio show and event series with iconic Los Angeles radio station DUBLAB, SOS MUSIC’s goal is to provide a platform for diverse and forward-thinking electronic music, with a keen emphasis on womxn talent from around the world. In conjunction with Berlin-based !K7, the label’s debut release, SOS MUSIC Vol. 1 is a 14-track eclectic compilation showcasing dance music from some of the best producers working at the moment including rRoxymore, Violet, Nightwave, Umfang, LCY & Minimal Violence - lovingly curated to uplift and celebrate the global electronic community in a time of deep uncertainty in the music industry. SOS MUSIC Vol. 1 is international to its core, drawing on in?uences from the artists’ respective backgrounds including the UK, US, Serbia, Spain, Japan, Slovenia, Portugal, Germany & Canada.
SOS MUSIC was founded in Los Angeles by Maddy Maia (UK) and Tottie (Spain via the UK). Maddy has a long history in independent music, and is currently VP A&R in the US for famed British indie label Ninja Tune. Tottie is director of events and special projects at DUBLAB, and curates music, art and cultural programming that re?ects the diverse landscape of the city and beyond.
A shared love of underground music and culture, Maia and Tottie’s bond started strong via throwing events and later with hosting a monthly radio show; The SOS Music imprint is a natural next step in the pair’s progression as curators and its goal will continue early principles the duo stuck to- to seek out diverse underground talent and amplify their voice or community, whilst championing diversity on all sides of the industry. Maddy and Tottie’s music in?uences and styles span wide across the spectrum of experimental dance music, ranging from left?eld house, orchestral ambient sounds, not forgetting a nod to their youth growing up in the UK rave scene.
One year after the landing of his long-awaited eponymous debut album, French producer Zimmer is back with a massive remix package to make the pleasure last, and he’s certainly put on a great spread for the occasion.
Up on duty for this second round of synth-splattered, stargazing goodies, we find none other than Herr Gerd Janson in the saddle for a pair of ‘short' and ‘extended’ dance versions, expert vibist Lauer, Mexican outfit Zombies In Miami, US-based producer Amtrac, with French clique homeboys Kendal and You Man completing the set.
All synths blazing, Gerd Janson gets the ball rolling with a pair of prismatic reworks of ‘Rey’, tailored to take the dancers on a wildly fun and light-hearted space jaunt. No need for an intro, the ’short edit’ goes straight for the audio G-spot and takes no byway to get its point across - pure mellifluous, horizon-widening dancefloor carefreeness on the menu.
Don’t get too easily distracted by its title, the ‘extended version’ is no basement creeper but rather an enhanced summer-flavoured earworm that lays further emphasis on the drums and bass for optimal peak time functionality.
French duo You Man pick up the torch with an equally sturdy and emotional reshape of ‘Wildflowers (ft. Panama)’, nicely contrasting Panama’s suave vocals with thoroughly funk-oozing bass arpeggios that’ll melt any sweatbox down to the ground.
In comes Lauer’s reinterpretation of ‘Mouvement’ - a dynamic late-afternoon weapon meshing the hectic bounce of cascading synths and incendiary bass, hazed-out poolside vibes and pop-indebted melodic motifs. The result is a fast-paced heater primed for extended use from sunset to sunrise with vibrant variations in shades throughout.
A true solar-powered, mystique-imbued affair, Zombies In Miami’s take on ‘Mayans’ propels us in a fascinating continuum of pulsating rhythms, hyper-modern textures and smouldering ritualistic vibrations.
Adding his spin to ’Techno Disco’, rising talent Kendal shoots his shots with deadeye accuracy, luring you into a junglistic intro to better surprise you with his usual tsunami- like deluge of serpentine keyboard chords and epic buildups.
Topping off this variegated sonic journey, Amtrac takes us on a soul-healing trip with his revisit of ‘Make It Happen’ - laying down a particularly tasty downtempo pop jam for you to chill and dream yourself to sleep with, fully enlarged with his trademark streamlined, balmy signature.
Videosphere, the debut album by Kompakt’s latest signing, the London-based artist Lake Turner (aka Andrew Halford), swoons into focus with “The Sunbird”, a teasing drift of lilting, ambient tones, riding out a submerged piston-pulse rhythm. Across its brief 109 seconds, it manages to traverse evocative terrain – something mythopoetic, something both humble and grandiose, a glimpse of the other behind the sky’s curtain. “I wanted to conjure up something resembling an ancient ceremony or death procession,” Turner nods. “Like a hymn to the surroundings of a faraway hill.” It’s both sky-bound and earthen, a ritual incantation to call in the music of the spheres.
Turner was introduced to the Kompakt family by his sometime collaborator Yannis Philippakis of Foals. He’d previously made music in post-punk and indie groups Great Eskimo Hoax and Trophy Wife, but Videosphere is the first time he’s fully articulated his own vision of electronic music, aside from one limited lathe-cut 12”, 2018’s Prime Mover EP, on Algebra. The lush ambient-disco-techno dreams of Videosphere were constructed and completed in his London studio and at his parents’ arable and sheep farm in Worcestershire, which might help explain the hazy, unhurried pastoralism of the album.
“There was a slight bittersweetness in finishing the record (in Worcestershire) as my parents were in the middle of selling my childhood home,” he sighs, before quipping, “on the plus, I ended up shearing a lot of sheep over the summer.” A student of archaeology and ancient history, Turner is no doubt carefully attuned to the twisting cogs of history and memory, and it’s no surprise that Videosphere has a nostalgic, melancholic cast; much of its beauty rests in the way it tugs, gently, at the heart strings – see the tear-stained cheeks of the lush, dappled “Honeycomb”, or the sweetly sad electro-roundelay of “No Way Back Forever.”
It’s not all drift-dream hypnosis, though – Videosphere is very much grounded in the now. ““No Way Back Forever” is a nod to the linear nature of time,” Turner explains by way of example, “and the tipping point of the world climate crisis that scientists have now declared.” Jayne Powell’s vocals are sent spinning through the song, wound like candyfloss; she takes centre stage on the techno hymnal title track, too. Throughout, there’s a sense of forward movement, despite the life stasis we find ourselves collectively bound by in mid-2020; there’s also a yearning for the communal, for community, that’s captured in the album title, a nod to an object Turner encountered at London’s Geoffrey Museum, “a television set in the shape of a spaceman’s helmet from the 1970s.”
“The vision I loosely had was to make an electronic record that had a communal warmth and almost ceremonial or ritual feel. I wanted to examine the relationship of our archaic minds in the trappings of the modern world,” Turner concludes. “What the Videosphere also symbolizes for me is the oneness of humanity and community, prevailing.”
Eröffnet wird "Videosphere", das Debütalbum von Kompakts jüngstem Signing, dem in London ansässigen Künstler Lake Turner (alias Andrew Halford), mit "The Sunbird" - einem herausfordernden Strom aus Ambient Sounds, die zu schweben scheinen, um sich dann in einen subtilen, maschinellen Rhythmus zu verwandeln. In gerade mal 109 Sekunden gelingt es dem Stück, ein gewaltiges Terrain abzuschreiten - etwas Mythopoetisches, bescheiden und grandios zugleich, gibt uns eine Ahnung davon, was sich hinter dem Himmel verbirgt. "Ich wollte etwas heraufbeschwören, das einer alten Zeremonie oder Totenprozession ähnelt", sagt Turner, "wie eine Hymne an die Umgebung eines weit entfernten Hügels." Himmlisch und irdisch zugleich, eine rituelle Beschwörung von Sphärenmusik.
Der Kompakt Label-Familie wurde Turner von dessen zeitweiligen Mitarbeiter Yannis Philippakis (Foals) vorgestellt. Zuvor hatte er in den Post Punk- und Indie-Bands Great Eskimo Hoax und Trophy Wife gespielt. Bis auf eine limitierte lathe-cut 12", der "Prime Mover EP" auf Algebra von 2018, artikuliert Turner mit "Videosphere" zum ersten Mal seine eigene Vision von elektronischer Musik.
Die üppigen Ambient-Disco-Techno-Träume von "Videosphere" hat Turner in seinem Londoner Studio und auf der Schaffarm seiner Eltern in Worcestershire produziert, was den nebulösen, gemächlichen und beinahe pastoralen Charakter des Albums erklären könnte.
"Es gab einen bittersüßen Moment als ich mit der Platte (in Worcestershire) fertig geworden war, da meine Eltern gerade dabei waren, das Haus meiner Kindheit zu verkaufen", seufzt er, bevor er witzelt, "das Positive war, dass ich im Laufe des Sommers eine Menge Schafe geschoren habe". Als Student der Archäologie und der Geschichte des Altertums ist Turner zweifellos mit den sich unaufhörlich drehenden Rädern der Geschichte und der daran geknüpften Erinnerungen vertraut, und es ist keine Überraschung, dass "Videosphere" einen nostalgischen, melancholischen Einschlag hat; viel von seiner Schönheit liegt in der Art und Weise, wie es einem sanft ans Herz geht - die Tränen benetzten Wangen von "Honeycomb" oder der ambivalente Elektro-Reigen von "No Way Back Forever".
Trotz allem hypnotischen Driften und Träumen - Videosphere ist sehr stark im Jetzt verankert. "`No Way Back Forever`ist eine Anspielung auf die lineare Natur der Zeit", erklärt Turner beispielhaft, "und auf den Wendepunkt der globalen Klimakrise, den Wissenschaftler gerade ausgerufen haben". Jayne Powells Gesang wirbelt dabei wie Zuckerwatte durch den Song und steht auch im Mittelpunkt des technoid hymnischen Titelstücks. Überall ist ein Gefühl der Vorwärtsbewegung zu spüren, trotz der Stagnation, in der wir uns Mitte 2020 kollektiv befinden; trotzdem existiert eine Sehnsucht nach dem Gemeinsamen, nach Gemeinschaft, die im Albumtitel eingefangen ist - eine Referenz an ein Objekt, dem Turner im Londoner Geoffrey-Museum begegnete, "ein Fernsehgerät in Form eines Raumfahrerhelms aus den 1970er Jahren".
„Die lose Vision, die ich hatte, bestand darin, eine elektronische Platte zu machen, die eine soziale Wärme und eine fast zeremonielle oder rituelle Atmosphäre ausstrahlt. Ich wollte die Beziehung unseres archaischen Geistes in den Fallstricken der modernen Welt untersuchen", so Turner abschließend. "Was `Videosphere` für mich auch symbolisiert, ist die Einheit von Menschlichkeit und Gemeinschaft, die am Ende obsiegt".
Omena hits release no.30 and celebrates by bringing in Twovi aka Vito Loperfido to the family.
Vito released his first track, 'Giango' on Bosconi Records back in 2017 and followed up with 'In Memory of Love', on Chez Damier's Inner Balance, a release that showcased his talent for blending classic house with a fresh approach.
Fast forward 2020 and we got a new release 'Panama' ready.
These four tracks show why Vito is leading the wave of musical talent coming from Italy and he's not afraid of using inspiration from different sources.
The opening track Panama is an ode to a jazzy KDJ breeze while Santiago is a clever broken beat track with a few latin vibes sprinkled on top.
On the flip, Manchester producer Contours continue to turn music into gold with a singular remake of Panama.
It's a deep and rich version with his signature percussions included.
Last but not least Lima ends this fine EP, a track which takes us back to the golden days of Nuphonic.
GAMM150 is here and it's a big one.
Rahaan is back on GAMM and this time with his buddy DJ Emanuel with some nasty (!) post punk/funk disco.
The A-side runs down a timeless Garage classic...but with a gritty twist.
The B-side is just sex, orgy and disco crammed together on black plastic. Imma Phreak is just...phreaky! 

After more than 10 years in the techno scene with some successful releases on labels like Clergy, Mord, Arts, Skryptom, the French artist is back with 4 originals tracks in a unique combination of hypnotic emotions and energetic forces for launching the first release of his own imprint "Kmyle Records".
Soulful selector and skateboarder extraordinaire Hugh Hardie is back with his latest EP, ‘Learning To Fly’, consisting of four sublime cuts, hot on the heels of his recent‘7 Tunes In 7 Days’ lockdown project. Produced from his home studio in Bristol, Hugh’s new release features collaborations with DJ Marky and singer/songwriter Cimone.
Named after the Indian mountain city in West Bengal, opening track ‘Darjeeling’ is a faultless embodiment of Hugh’s trademark jazz-inspired groove. Filled with transcendent piano chord progressions, rolling breaks and an enchanting upright bassline, ‘Darjeeling’ is a classic example of the soulful liquid beats the Bristol-based DJ has become known for.
‘Said & Done’ sees the commanding vocal talents of Cimone take the lead as Hugh Hardie and DJ Marky team up on the buttons to create a smile-inducing bouncer drenched in feel-good summer vibrations. Infectious descending bass wobbles lay the foundations below swinging piano licks and sharp-edged, shuffling percussions. With DJ Marky being an avid supporter of Hugh and Cimone’s initial link up on ‘Raindrops’, it only made sense for the trio to jump on a track together.
‘Learning To Fly’ with graceful strings and arpeggiated plucks, leads seamlessly into a crisp drum track and driving bassline. Hugh’s delicate yet powerful and uplifting pieces of music explore a broad range of emotions, taking the listener on a stimulating musical journey.
Drawing for original jungle sounds whilst staying true to his soul-heavy style, ‘Late Night Harp’ does exactly what it says on the tin as captivating harp melodies and acoustic guitar riffs are infused with fizzing sub-heavy basslines and steamrolling breakbeats generating a no-holds-barred banger.
His ‘Learning To Fly’ EP is the second project to emerge from Hugh Hardie in the 2020 lockdown. His previous ‘7 Tunes In 7 Days’ extended EP saw him create a track from scratch every day over the course of a week, and received support from DJs across the board including the legendary LTJ Bukem. With the success of both his ‘Shadows & Silhouettes’ and ‘Colourspace’ LPs under his belt, Hugh’s dedication to ensuring that soul remains the main ingredient in his productions is cementing him as a staple figure in the world of liquid drum & bass.
(HET005.1 & HET005.2) HET returns with the Double E.P. actio I & II by hagen richter. He releases those 7 tracks on his own imprint.While HET005.1 – actio I reveals older projects, HET005.2 – actio II is settled to the latest stuff he’s been doing in his chambers. Reaching back to the approach on his prior E.P. (final chapter_HET003), each of the tracks on the two separate 12“ vinyls has its’ own tiny story to tell.An offer to carry on a little along the way. Distributed by ready made distribution – Mastering & Cut made by scapemastering‘s Stefan Betke – Artwork: OVL.
What does a contemporary album mean to us? Marc Pinol and Hugo Capablanca asked themselves this question when faced with the challenge of recording their first C.P.I. LP. To find the answer they went back to some of the most important records in their lives and listened to them from start to finish. At a time when the whole concept of an album might be at its lowest ebb for decades, they wanted to return to the old way of telling stories, recreating the notion of a narrative "journey" but doing so in their own original manner. 'Alianza' displays a wide range of emotions through only a few elements. There are no structures, barely any drums. It's a puzzling journey that moves through darkness and light, happiness and despair, hope and menace, as it unveils its own mysterious universe. Every track is a world in its own, yet all of them are linked by an invisible energy that reflects a coherent constellation. To achieve this, Hugo and Marc used a broad array of vocal timbres, including their own drone-treated voices, digitized vocals from an old vector synth, and those of several contributors. Most of the sounds on the album come from digital devices, as they wanted to "prove themselves" in the studio "by doing something as warm as we could while trying to avoid analogue if possible? The major part of 'Alianza' was recorded during the spring of 2018 in Barcelona, with further takes and additions recorded in Berlin, New York, Los Angeles and Switzerland. It features contributions from Spacemen 3's Will Carruthers, Tanja Siren, Veronica Vasicka, Anna Homler, Demetrio Martini and Pablo Sanchez. The album was mastered by Gordon Pohl in Dusseldorf. The artwork is by Dominic Brucia and features a picture by Tanja Siren. The album was created with the support of The Richard Thomas Foundation.
Charlotte de Witte mints her new KNTXT label with a suitably epic collaboration, joining forces with techno royalty Chris Liebing for ‘Liquid Slow’, due for release on 27th September. The CLR boss and German techno pioneer has been a regular at KNTXT parties over the years, not least at the sold-out stadium event at Antwerp's Sportpaleis last year where he will be returning to once again this November, alongside de Witte, just after the release of this new EP.
The influential pair spent time hanging out together at Awakenings Festival last year when they had the idea to collaborate. “I field-recorded the sound of a crane that was already taking stuff down next to us and thought it would be a good starting point“ says Chris. Whilst he admits the sample didn't made it on to this release, he teased a future collaboration saying "who knows, maybe there is more in the pipeline, I still have the recording". Current BBC Radio 1 resident Charlotte de Witte is once again in the midst of a non-stop summer that finds her taking her dark, stripped and powerful sounds to the biggest clubs and festivals in the world. She adds, “we have shared a lot of laughs, a couple of beers and a million different mixdown versions of both tracks. I consider Chris to be my friend and I’m very proud and honoured to have worked with him on this EP". Opener ‘Liquid Slow’ is seven minutes of heavy and hypnotic techno. It is stripped back to an acid bassline and earth rumbling kicks, with a meandering lead synth line and a darkly absorbing spoken word vocal over the top sure to lock in the dance floor for the duration. ‘In Memory’ ups the pressure with rumbling drums and bass sweeping you up as more acid twitches and tough hits nail down the groove. It is another powerful and compelling piece of techno from this vital pair.
This is the latest fascinating development in the story of Charlotte de Witte and her KNTXT brand. Now a label as well as a radio show and event series, KNTXT strives to be a progressive player within the vibrant techno scene.
JON SPENCER, THE BLUES EXPLOSION MAN who put the BELLBOTTOMS on BABY DRIVER! The Top Cat who spread the
Secret Sauce in BOSS HOG! The Rockabilly Right-Hook from Heavyweight Outlaws HEAVY TRASH! The Swank-Fucking Master of PUSSY GALORE!
Jon Spencer is back! Often imitated, never duplicated, the original NYC underground-rock legend returns from the wilderness with twelve red-hot hits, each more powerful than the last!
This is Garage Punk for Now People! A wizard’s brew of rhythm & blues and subversive dance grooves, weaponized with sci-fi skronk and industrial attitude, calibrated for the Revolution, a Molotov cocktail of sound guaranteed to destroy any post-modern hangover!
Pulsing with energy, clanging with excitement, and dripping with radioactive soul and raw emotion, Jon Spencer opens up his heart like never before, exploring man’s modern condition with caustic guitars and outerworld crooning, asking and answering the musical question, “Is it possible to torch the cut-throat world of fake news and pre-fab, plastic-coated teen rebellion with the power of rock’n’roll?”
THE ANSWER IS YES! SPENCER SINGS THE HITS!
This is the truth serum America has been craving, the beginning of a rock’n’roll rebellion that takes no prisoners and puts the squares on ice!
Recorded and mixed with Bill Skibbe at the Key Club in Benton Harbor, MI. Featuring the talents of Sam Coomes (Quasi, Heatmeiser) and M. Sord (M. Sord). On tour in the Europe in Autumn 2018!
Also known as the band with the funny dancing man, Future Islands will forever be stuck in heads because of *that* Letterman performance. This is their second album since Singles, the album off the back of the exposure. It shows the band still pursuing their retro synth pop sound but with one main alteration - they now have an actual human drummer in tow.
Five years after his critically acclaimed debut album Throwback, Glenn Astro returns with his deeply personal album Homespun.
Marking a change in course from his first release on Tartelet Records, Glenn Astro is set to showcase his sophomore album Homespun, a testament to a visionary artist who has come into his own. Made up of ten tracks spanning 45 minutes, the record twists and turns between electronic meditations, soulful vocals by Ajnascnet, and futuristic electro, carving out a world of spacey eclecticism that is as nostalgic as it is experimental.
“This album is in all facets different from the first one, which was a deliberate decision. No vintage sounds and references, no sampling, combined with futuristic sound design and song structures.I tried to keep it as current and intuitive as possible,” he says.
Known for his chunky beats and fuzzy textures, Glenn Astro has released on labels such as Ninja Tune and Apollo, leaving a distinctive signature on everything he touches.
But Glenn Astro has quietly been crafting a new sound for himself. Sometimes taking detours – morphing into his dark alter ego and experimenting with artist collaborations.
The sound of Homespun is a culmination of several years of reflection and artistic development – however, the album itself was produced in less than three months. “I set myself an ultimatum to finish the album within three months. If I didn’t make it, I’d
have to rethink my career path and keep music as a hobby, he says.
On the introspective first single and album title track “Homespun,” Ajnascent’s vocals lend a sincerity to the melancholic production. “It’s about the regret of not taking chances and giving in too much, but also about taking responsibility and being honest with yourself. Homespun is a nod to nostalgia and a desire for simplicity and prudence, being equally the culprit and the cure,” elaborates Ajnascent.
On “The Yancey,” an homage to J Dilla, Glenn Astro paints his vision of contemporary dance music with shimmering melodies, deep ambient soundscapes, and advanced drum programming. “Moreira” and “Look at You” feel like spaced-out electronic funk hybrids, while “Taking Care of Business” goes back to the future with Glenn Astro’s take on jungle. Other tracks such as “Mezzanine,” “Slow Poke Flange,” and “Viktor’s Meditation” provide the finest dubby electronics.
At the heart of Christian Stadsgaard's solo project Vanity Productions is a voracious emotive charge that's forever tempered by an austere and self-disciplined approach to composition. His new album for Posh Isolation, the label and project that he authors with Loke Rahbek, is the most thoroughgoing realisation of the tendencies and processes captured in the guise of Vanity Productions to date. Entitled 'But All Spiked,' the album presents a suite of five pieces that veer surely yet subtly through a complimentary range of acousmatic environments. Of his recent works its perhaps 'Only The Stars Come Out At Night' that most resembles a preliminary route in to the arena of his new album. Sometimes overtly, though often with a cryptic veneer, he modulates a central refrain across each piece that comes to engulf the stereo field with different intentions. Citing the influence of American minimalist composers, Stadsgaard has refigured some of the compositional practices towards his particular context and oeuvre. A medley of strings and electronics waver in and out of place on the opening piece, 'White Ribbons On The Ceiling,' introducing the careful preparation and treatment of sound as a means of articulating a profound though compassionate melancholy. The album is drenched in sorrow and seeks its expression with great economy. And it's around this detail that there's perhaps some slight indication of the album's turbulent personal context and the major life changes that underpin it. Stadsgaard's restraint proposes a wealth of wistful invocations. This control, once combined with the subdued presence of his penchant for glaring noise, is what organises 'But All Spiked' into the meditative and dynamic work that it is.
HET returns with the Double E.P. actio I & II by hagen richter. He releases those 7 tracks on his own imprint.While HET005.1 – actio I reveals older projects, HET005.2 – actio II is settled to the latest stuff he’s been doing in his chambers. Reaching back to the approach on his prior E.P. (final chapter_HET003), each of the tracks on the two separate 12“ vinyls has its’ own tiny story to tell.An offer to carry on a little along the way.
Following their live performances at the latest two Dimension Festival Editions and vinyl releases on international labels such as Slices of a dog, Money Sex, Odd socks and Sorry For This featuring a remix by none other than mr. Marcellus Pittman, Nas1 are finally back on Bosconi Extra Virgin with a new album titled Polaris Time. It’s a multi colored sonic adventure, moving from their hip hop and detroit house roots to a new palette of sounds including afro percussions and fresher synth lines blended together into a unique electronic soundscape that creates exotic, psychedelic atmospheres and unconventional, raw midtempo dance-floor tracks. The Album begins with the enchanting ballad of “L’ isola di Serie B” , moving deeper with the spaced out vibe of Domino Skii , landing on the more tropical and frivolous scenarios of “Cicci Briucci” and on the laid-back interlude of “Il Sangue Non Serve A Niente”.
In the beginning of the flip side appears instead the jazzy and uplifting first cut named “Frigo Deca”, followed by the freaky jam of “Come Thru” and the adventurous balearic tune “Hector Savage” ending with the ethereal closing skit “Il Sangue Non Serve A Niente (outro)"
Fans of Kyle Hall, Theo Parrish as well as John Talabot or Nicola Cruz are warned, absolutely not to be missed if you have been following Nas1 music so far.
To close the 3 EP reissue series of Neville King and Lee Laing's King & City label, the all female group Charisma are presented with their summer infused Lovers cut, Everything Is Fine.
Three Lewisham friends, Angela Richardson on lead vocals, with Geselle and Janie backing, were active from 1982 to 1990, but are really remembered for the early recordings made with Neville King. Their debut, Everything Is Fine rides the Lovers sound at its peak. Written with One Blood's Lloyd Robinson, with the rest of band of Robinson brothers providing the rhythm section, this is pure South London sound system music.
Recorded again at TMC (Tooting Music Centre) Recording Studios - working alongside the likes of Dillinger, Tradition and New Musik - Everything Is Fine rides a beautiful soul reggae rhythm as Trevor (Drums) and Lloyd (Bass) Robinson set the foundations, while One Blood provide the Dub mix.
A true love's lament, a song of hope, serenity and pure vibes. Label head Chuggy slides behind the mixing desk for an extended Discomix that stretches, loops and dubs the vocal and dub back forth, to close a glimpse at this uniquely British phenomenon, taking reggae closer to it's heart and soul.
A very welcome reissue of this amazing LP. Beautiful deep Brazilian music that soothes the soul.. Tip!!
The self-titled debut by the duo Jaime & Nair is a revelation of all sorts. Released in 1974 on CID under the influence of albums like "Clube Da Esquina" it is an expressive album full of charm through a gesture of swing. It shows an overall dreamy lullaby vibe with subtle touches of Brazilian folk and features well-known artists such as Wilson Das Neves, Orlandivo or José Roberto Bertrami as studio musicians. The outstanding and largely hailed song 'Sob O Mar' brings us back to a pure Brazilian soft-bossanova-beat adorned by luscious orchestral arrangements. It became a popular DJ tune for those in the know after being comped in the fantastic "High Jazz" series in the early 2000s, gaining this album grail status among collectors worldwide. An essential addition to any serious Brazilian music collection.
After a prolific year 2019 with two OSTs and a side project with Anton Newcombe and Emmanuelle Seigner (L’Épée), The Liminañas are back with a new single exuding the summer heat and the beach sun, ‘Calentita’, which features Nuria, a Spanish friend on the band, on vocal.
This sole vinyl edition is limited and includes 2 remixes as well as an alternative version.
Limited
Green Vinyl
'2016 - My Generation”?: a momentous comeback for Mirwais, two decades on from his classic “Production” album.
It all started in 2016 with an idea Mirwais had for a music video to promote his upcoming single ?“2016 - My Generation”?.
The idea led Mirwais and co-founder of graphic design studio H5/creator of the Oscar-winning ?“Logorama”? animated short
Ludovic Houplain? ?to work together on a fascinating ten-minute short entitled “?My Generation?”.
Since its 2017 release, the film “?My Generation?”, produced and scored almost liturgically by Mirwais, made the rounds of
festivals, winning several prizes worldwide.
It presents itself as a backwards travelling shot during which all of our pop culture moment’s gimmicks collide at 100 km/h:
sex, the net, art, politics, sports, stocks, big pharma and big porno – from Hitler’s speeches to Trump’s contemporary
analogues.
Flash forward to 2020, and it is this very six-minute ?pop-litical ?critique of our era’s societal excesses that Mirwais chose
as the music video for his new single ?“2016 - My Generation”?, set to be released during the coming fall’s American
presidential election.
A sonic deflagration that heralds a new album from one of Madonna’s most iconic collaborators, succeeding, two decades
later, the now-classic ?“Production”?. A punchy, percussive single poised between hard techno and electronic disco,
sprinkled with choirs and distorted, psychedelic synths ?“2016 - My Generation”? is a dance floor-ready opus bearing
Mirwais’ inimitable signature. This way of mixing genres, of conjugating past and future, and of making pop experimental
and vice-versa, cements Mirwais’ reputation as one of times’ most singular composers.
Two years in the making, Future Ruins, TOM And His Computer’s debut album, will be released on Trentemøller’s In My Room label in October 20th. As a 20 year veteran of the Copenhagen music scene, Thomas Bertelsen has been releasing music under the sobriquet of TOM And His Computer for five years, merging the newest technologies with the old, while squeezing fresh sounds out of equipment that’s not only obsolete, sometimes it’s barely functioning at all. “I switch back and forth between the digital and the analog worlds. I’ll utilize old guitar pedals as well as the newest software,” says Thomas Bertelsen, producer behind TOM And His Computer. “It’s never about the gear, though, but rather finding that one little sound that can trigger an idea for an entire track.” Future Ruins was also co-produced and mixed by Trentemøller. While previous offerings have taken listeners to the outer boundaries of what can be considered “electronic music,” including nods to dark wave, dream pop, krautrock and modern psych rock, Future Ruins presents those influences in a new way and represents a great leap forward for the Copenhagen based producer.
The result is a genre-less collection of songs showcasing TOM’s obsession with propelling sounds of the past into the present, and future, combining noise and edginess with his “commitment to fresh ideas with a clear sense of melodies,” according to Clash Magazine. “My tastes are eclectic and I like to flirt with many different sub genres,” says TOM. “The aim was to combine various styles while trying to maintain a common denominator,” which committing to a full-length offered as an opportunity.
The show business is dead, long live the show business. Where have you been? We missed you.
It was easy for them to take a break, it is even easier to come back. BIRTHDAY have returned.
A pop duo, the kings of cool. Their new record is extraordinary. What is left to say?
There is no business like show business.
Libreville Records is proud to present a focus on legendary electronic swiss project Mega Wave Orchestra in the form of a compilation LP including unreleased material.Originally released privately in Geneva in 1988 as a box set containing five LPs by The Mega Wave Orchestra and five prints by the artist H. Richard Reimann. The Mega Wave Orchestra, the brain-child of musician, mathematician and composer Christian Oestreicher, was conceived as an multi-media electronic music big-band. It was comprised of seven multi-instrumentalists Christine Schaller, Vincent Barras, Jacques Demierre, Olivier Rogg, Rainer Boesch, Roger Baudet, and Benoit Corboz, with Oestreicher as arranger and producer.The Mega Wave Orchestra created a new hybrid music. It was a music with roots in the jazz and classical traditions, but one which also drew on the sonic freedom of musique concrete and the kind of total experience offered by psychedelia. The diverse backgrounds and specialisms of each of the band leaders/writers resulted in a wide variety of music across the five discs: from austere drones and granular aural detail to warm oddball fusion and gorgeous but cracked vocal jazz. There are useful contemporary comparisons to be made: zoned synth jazz like the Azimuth LP on ECM or Karin Krog’s Freestyle; Larry Heard’s sequencer dreamtime; the Valium minimalism of Pep Llopis or Jun Fukamaki; Dexter Wansel’s shimmering arrangements for Loose Ends, or even the FM sheen meets cold war threat of Donald Fagen’s Night Fly. Here, too, is the sound of music technology about to snowball and define its own aesthetic, unknowingly prefiguring auteurish bedroom producers like Black Dog or The Detroit Escalator Company.Lovely crafted tip-on sleeve. Remastered from Master tapes. 600 copies.
Favorite Recordings presents Jazz Traficantes by LE DEAL, a new musical adventure from the finest French jazzmen with Florian Pellissier (Piano & Fender Rhodes - Camaraõ Orkestra, Cotonete,
Aldorande, Setenta), Yoann Loustalot (Flugelhorn – Bruit Chic, Old & New Songs, Aerophone, Lucky Dog), Théo Girard (Upright Bass – Pensée Rotatives, Discobole) and Malick Koly (Drums - The Wallace
Roney Quintet). Needless to say, they’re used to play all over the globe and quite often to New York. During one of these
trips to the Big Apple, they discovered that the legendary Van Gelder studio (where most of Blue Note, Verve and CTI albums were recorded) was still active and opened so they decided to book a few days session.
Here is the story told by Florian Pellissier: “The tracks had been written the night before. We were going to run through them and then record. A simple plan. Van Gelder had passed a while back, but he left the keys and secret codes with his faithful assistant Maureen before heading off to create the right sound up in heaven. Nothing had changed in the atmosphere or configuration, not even the way the mics were placed. The studio and its wooden beams still exuded New York’s sixties jazz, dimly lit streets and clubs where anything might happen past midnight. Maureen knew just how to capture the ambiance of the sessions and bottle the energy without spilling a drop, taking infinite care to collect each cymbal tone, drum roll and trumpet phrase, without losing a single vibrating bass string or the slightest keyboard pause.”
Indeed, the four contrabandists succeeded to deliver an outstanding album, filled with themes that’ll get stuck in your head, just like in the 19 minutes long performance “Mexican Junkanoo Suite” and its three
parts. But more than just beautiful melodies, LE DEAL truly managed to bring a sense of drama to their compositions, going into the deepest emotions through gutted arrangements, improvising with great attention to the articulation of their ideas. From the beginning to the end, musicians and engineers did their best to emulate the proper vintage sound. Jazz Traficantes could prove once and for all that
French Jazz can indeed cross the borders. The album will be available as Tip-On Deluxe Vinyl LP but also on CD & Digital with a bonus track, “Noche en la Carcel”
Madcap returns to Soul Deep with his much anticipated, Hide EP. Madcap has established himself as one of the top producers in the scene, with his signature sound that often pays homage to his roots in early Jungle in Hardcore Breaks. With releases on Soul Deep, Smooth N Groove, CIA, Mac II, Myriad, Symmetry, and AKO Beatz, Madcap continues to push his sound to new heights. The Hide EP takes us back to mid 90's, with it's tough Amen breaks, BIG 808 baselines, smooth atmospherics, and classic vocal embellishments. The vinyl release is limited, so make sure to grab this instant classic release before it's too late!
RICO PUESTEL debuts on his TIME IN THE SPECIAL PRACTICE OF RELATIVITY label with a mind-boggling journey of 41 minutes — split in two parts to fit on vinyl! HEPTAKAIDEKA is what it won't be and will be what it never was: Something from in-between worlds, a place beyond far beyond, where time dissolves into relativity...
Every modern electronic music presenter should be able to find joyful, elevated, convulsing or simply useful moments within the extent of this track that is designed to have its inherent connecting factors and starting points in place for every DJ set — letting it be just a few minutes, well-placed groove looping or bigger amounts of its entirety for diving into a long night, bringing it to an end or making it standing out in-between.
Starting off with a hazy half-grasp hint of what's to come, a mysteriously pervasive bionic loop emerges, slowly coalescing with a bone-dry groove on the rise. Taking up a first quadrant of the track, already gnawing into the long-term memory, it manages to gradually establish itself along the pathway while the "rhythmatics" endure some subtle layer-shifting with occult-like strings come sliding in from somewhere unknown like an admonitory subtext.
Being halfway through (and all the way in), everything smoothly crumbles down to its basic framework, still shaking off its own reminiscences while foregone vestiges almost perilously try to reassemble themselves. All of that leading to a clearly unforeseen yet fortunate drift into a 1980's-like synth peak time section after about 27 minutes being in that track, finally cherishing an evolving emotional felicity and the climax of its own being that tends to feel like an overarching salvation.
As everything being eventually finite, the track starts to bring to mind where it came from by assuredly falling back into a story told before with the well-established bionic loop that once used to run free, sounding somehow different and more tamed now. Ending with dignity, the consistently resurfaced admonitory strings lead the way to its conclusion and possibly new beginnings, solely leaving behind the heartbeat-like booming that carried it all, now fading away...
Coming into existence during a series of multiple productions of exuberant proportions with Rico making the studio his citadel-like stronghold, this is an extensive story of desires, instincts, pride, fall, mirth, solicitude, tension, détente and basically life itself while subtly yet versatilely entertaining on a dodgy yet accessible level throughout the wingspread of Techno, House, Minimal, Dub, Electronica and Ambient influences.
The CD version not only brings you the title track in the guise of its non-split completeness but eminently churns out the extra drumming dub treat DEKAEPTA for a pleasurable groove-delight as well as the trippy bonus beauty VOSEM' that transits as a precious component of infinity.
Der Wunsch nach Veränderung regt sich aus dem Inneren. Entweder man hört ihm zu - oder nicht. Aluna hat sich entschieden, zuzuhören. Nach dem vielfachen Lob der Kritiker als eine Hälfte des MultiplatinDuos AlunaGeorge etablierte die Grammy-ausgezeichnete Sängerin, Songwriterin und Produzentin auf ihrem Solo-Debütalbum ”Renaissance” ihren unbestreitbar charakteristischen und unberechenbaren Sound. ”Ich bin eine schwarze Frau, aber ich bin auch eine multikulturelle Frau, und ich habe an vielen verschiedenen
Orten gelebt und Erfahrungen gesammelt, und so dachte ich mir, das ist es, was ich mitbringen werde”, so Aluna. ”Renaissance” stellt den Höhepunkt ihrer Reise als ”schwarzes Mädchen aus einem damals ganz weißen, britischen Vorort” dar, zum Beginn einer regelwidrigen Revolution bei der sich festgefahrene Grenzen zwischen Kultur, Rasse, Geschlecht und Genre auflösen. Aluna war an jedem Aspekt des Albumprozesses beteiligt - vom Verfassen der Texte über Gesang, Schlagzeug- , Keyboard- und Gitarrenspiel bis hin zur Koproduktion von ”Renaissance” zusammen mit Singer/Songwriter Lido. Zusätzlich enthält das Album Feature-Beiträge von Princess Nokia, Jada Kingdom, SG Lewis, KAYTRANADA, Scott Storch, GRADES, Mr. Carmack und Rema. Mit über 2 Milliarden generierten Streams weltweit gehört Aluna zu den erfolgreichsten Künstlerinnen des
Dance & Electronic Genres. Zudem arbeitete sie kürzlich mit Größen wie DJ Snake, Disclosure, Flume, Jungle, Popcaan, oder Cautious Clay zusammen.
After being summoned from Ohio to London by Adrian Sherwood, Nick Riggio and Rebecca Magnetic have brought their Midwest musical experience to the South London electronic music scene with a unique creative vision. Fusing elements of techno, post-punk and psychedelic rock they explore spiritual connections and transcendence while Rebecca Magnetic's introspective vocals set against a tough backdrop of Detroit influenced rhythms and vibrations leave you in awe.
Their superb single 'My Future' is a brilliantly cosmic exploration of spaced out and spacious grooves. Crashing hits bring an edgy mood, while lurching drums drag you forwards.
Molten acid synths and the strained and pained vocals from Rebecca add further layers of intrigue to this most adventurous electronic trip.
First to remix is Oosh! man Dan Wainwright, and his version is laced up with sci-fi chords and echoing vocal sounds. The downtempo drum rotations are superbly heavy and trap you in a trance.
Next up, Retroforward is Al Mackenzie's solo remix/music project named after his successful Birmingham night.
Al is one half of Field Of Dreams. His 'No Future' remix is an airy and atmospheric remix that takes the track to the farthest edges of space on smooth, hypnotic grooves and beautifully astral melodies.
Lastly, Richard Sen has already been getting support for his remix from ALFOS man Sean Johnston, and he goes for a superbly rugged yet slow motion chugger that is dubbed out and expansive thanks to the arching guitar riffs that ring out to the heavens above fat-bottomed drums.
Whether experienced on the dance floor or in metaphysical states, this music is medicine for the mind and body.
Our lucky 13th release is here!
We have a powerful serving by Russian team Scruscru meets Meowsn.
Both have really cool releases under their belt on Sloth Boogie, NOmada, Nurvous & Star Creature Universal Vibrations.
So, here at Outplay we're very excited to bring you 'Surr Rendez-Vous EP'
A patchwork of creative sampling, wonky jazz chords and powerful synth melodies with a small sprinkling of tongue-in-cheek makes for a super cool four tracker.
The story of the tracks made us reminisce of the rise of the loose beat, broken house of a few years back, while this one still feels very contemporary.
Being a firm believer of letting the music speak for itself: enjoy!
Disco Bits are back with another party time 45.
Cannon & Mirrorball are in the edit suite once again re-touching and consensually grappling with funky old 70's grooves and late nite club accapellas to bring you the heat that your record box has been needing.
A - Hot Lovin' (Dont Stop Dont Quit)
On side A they they serve up some peaktime Studio 54 realness mixed with a bit of late 80's style hip house.
This is Cerrone meeting Sergio Mendes uptown, Saturday Night, whilst Chali 2na and his posse bumrush the show and grab the mic.
B - Shack Attack !
On the flipside the boys funk it up with some never fail drum breaks from the Disco Shack, vocal snatches of a houseparty classic and a swathe of brand new instrumentation.
The result is a jam is so dope you'll get a contact high by un-sleeving the wax.
Ain't no party like a Cannon & Mirrorball party, y'all !
Get 'em while you can.
Reissue of this long lost funky Afrobeat/Reggae classic from 1978
For fans of Fela Kuti, Peter Tosh, Bob Marley, Segun Bucknor
The year is 1978 and one hot thing from the musical underground is Reggae music from Jamaica, the USA or the UK, where most of the acts had musicians of Caribbean descent. Reggae had the groove, the rebel spirit, and the relaxed attitude all in one, to enchant a big part of the world’s inhabitants. And while at least Jamaica as a relatively poor and so-called "Third World“ country proved to spawn Reggae acts of the highest quality, literally nobody dared to look further and dig deeper into the underground except of a few maniacs who were not satisfied with spinning Marley over and over again. And maybe they stumbled over the 1970s Afro Beat sound from countries like Zambia or Nigeria and then got interested. What did they find in the simmering metropolises of this still mysterious continent? Somewhere in Nigeria, they would have certainly caught a glimpse of mind-blowing performances of The Sea Lions, a six-piece group mixing the then hip Reggae and Afro Beat styles to generate fresh and furious music with a hypnotizing atmosphere.
Polyrhythmic beat patterns build the foundation, the utterly fruitful soil for the heartwarming melodies wailed out by the guitars and the commanding vocals with their conjuring charm. Great organ work builds the link between the groove section and the melody instruments. You can imagine what a pleasant experience this band might have been live back in 1978 when their sole album "Free The People“ got released. And this album, of which copies in only good conditions already fetch prices of $450, while nice clean pieces might go up to $1200, lives up to the expectations one might have from watching a live show by the Sea Lions. The sound is vivid, transparent, powerful, and clean enough to make the music a real pleasure listening to, but earthy enough to present nothing but the band going wild here. The songs all have a similar pace, not too fast, but swinging and pulsating to spread their energy to and among the listeners. The melodies are simple but come from the depth of the heart. This feels typical for African 70s music and despite being kind of reduced, these melodies keep haunting you still even hours after the record been taken off the turntable and put back into its sleeve. They bring images of an ever pulsating city by night, warm climate, palm trees, people at the bar, a witches cauldron of sounds, smells, voice, and pictures. And you feel the magic floating through the air while this groove will not let you go so easily.
You can either dance your soul out to this ultimate reissue or you can sit down, listen and let the music tell you a story of the dark corners of the big city, the narrow alleys that lead you into a boiling labyrinth of mystical dreams. And in songs like "You Can Make It If You Try“ you will find the whole magic of the African world, a world so fascinating for us Europeans but still so unapproachable in some ways and dangerous for the weak. Do not try to resist, this is your pleasure. Grab a copy and the Sea Lions will carry you off to their place. I haven’t heard such a killer Afro Beat and Reggae album with songs this exciting and wild in a long time. If you equally love Peter Tosh, Bob Marley, Segun Bucknor, and Fela Kuti, look no further. Here is the spiritual essence of all these great artists merged into one giant act.
Three years after their last collaboration “Lost in the Moment”, part of Darius’ debut album Utopia, the French producer and Nigerian born future soul artist Wayne Snow unveil their stellar single “Equilibrium”.
The message of unity has never felt more relevant than the times we are living through right now. This project composed one year ago, serves as a stark reminder that we can all transcend above our differences and connect through the experience of music together, regardless of colour and race.
The undeniable synergy of both artists create a harmony magnified by the richness of their diverse cultures and musical background.
The beat instantly catches us in a warm and arresting atmosphere. The main melody reveals an uptempo rhythm gently interwoven in Wayne Snow’ emotive voice, born in Nigeria, living in Berlin in preparation for his next album. His lyrics infuse a carefree candor, which only suggests love and euphoria, fruit of an universal balance and a collective caring energy.
After multiple collaborations among “Helios” or the “Nightbirds” improvised live project (feat. FKJ and Crayon), the two artists reunite once again on “Equilibrium”. Heady and joyful, only few seconds are enough to form a timeless memory and make this track an instant classic. Darius holds Wayne’s powerful vocals, which travel through the composition as gospel pipe dreams. His Funk and Disco influences, embodied by his heart-warming and dynamic groove reminds us of his iconic project Romance (2014). Driven by a festive and upbeat energy, Darius finally renews himself with a return to his musical roots, whilst Wayne Snow steps up towards an audacious expression and a peek into his forthcoming artist album.
Lovers of pastel and retro aesthetics, we find the artist’s aesthetic language elevated through an impressive video treatment by the esteemed French director Alice Kong set for release on July 23rd. The audio release will precede a week earlier on July 16th, part of his forthcoming project.
- A1: Das Goldene Zeitalter - Don't Give Up Your Smile Today
- A2: Nu Art Quartet - Black Bandit
- A3: John Tinsey - Freedom Excelsior (Part 2)
- A4: Obie Jessie Quartet - Black King
- A5: Walt Bolen - Peace Chant
- B1: Genghis Kyle - Bakit Ba
- B2: Luna Brothers Trio - Mozambique
- B3: Hozan Yamamoto - Spotlight On Sapporo
- B4: The Milestones - Funk
From 1963 to 2014: "Peace Chant - raw deep and spiritual jazz" exhibits 51 years of music. A well matched anthology with sounds to dive into, hard rhythms to dance to and vocals to meditate on.
The Tramp Records crew has compiled 9 tracks in nice order and dramaturgy. Some tunes you might have never heard before unless you own one of the rare original vintage vinyl records. Peace Chant is released on two separate LPs with own catalogue numbers and on one CD. Some songs I can't get out of my mind:
The previously unreleased "Don't Give Up Your Smile Today" is opening the compilation. It's from Das Goldene Zeitalter, a band that didn't survive - but whose members had a huge influence on German jazz, soul, afrobeat and funk within the last years merging into groups like The Poets of Rhythm, The Whitefiled Bros., and The Malcouns. Boris Geiger aka. Bo Baral sings a Pharoah Sanders like tune, his voice deeply resonating, the rhythm section heavily grooving.
After the first three woolly recorded tracks Walt Bolen's "Peace Chant" with its dry and funky sounds with flute, two guitars and percussion is quite a pleasure to listen to. Organ and voice are Bolen's who used to play the keys in San Fernando Valley church when he was a child. "Peace Chant" was recorded for his own Ar-Que label in 1972 and is one of the few cuts with him as a leader. He has played sessions and clubs for years and today he is sitting at the church organ again.
This publication's oldest recording dates back to 1963: "Mozambique" by Luna Brothers Trio, a Caribbean and hypnotic instrumental. For my jazz trained ears it is rather unusual that the güiro (the gherkin played with a stick) is being played throughout the entire song. Heavily laid back cowbell, concas and timbales and the slightly detuned piano are wonderful! "Mozambique" sounds like from another star but its origin is Los Angeles, where the brothers Fred and Ricardo Luna had their night club band. You could imagine a bast skirt strip and at the same time the great Raumpatrouille (Space Patrol) landing on German B&W TV screens in 1966.
Hozan Yamamoto recorded crime jazz with the Japanese bamboo flute shakuhachi. He belonged to Tony Scotts "Music for Zen Meditation" in 1964, played with Ravi Shankar, avant-garde jazz bassist Gary Peacock and appeared at Donaueschingen Festival for contemporary music. Tokio university's open minded lecturer recorded the funky and modal "Spotlight on Sapporo" in 1972.
German techno and house composer Tim Engelhardt takes you on a deep dive into his peculiar-yet-relatable world of musical meanderings with ‘Idiosynkrasia’. True to the nature of idiosyncrasy, the album is more than the sum of its parts.
‘Idiosynkrasia’ is an ode to the inspiration Tim finds in all kinds of spaces and places: each cut woven from the same cloth of meticulously formed melodic structures and expertly crafted harmonies, gently amplified and unfettered by genre. From the opening track it’s clear that Tim has a profound awareness of rhythm and sound, his background as a pianist lending an easy fluidity to the album as it expands and contracts to tell a story which is gentle, humble and reflective.
Using granular processed recordings of piano, floating strings and other instruments to transmute emotions like love, nostalgia, vulnerability and longing, the album shifts through meditative, flow-state inducing tracks, morphing into cuts designed for dancing it all out.
Take it straight, mix it up or down: ‘Idiosynkrasia’ is cinematic in form and orchestral in structure, each track is marked with Tim’s unique sonic signature and careful attention to instrumentation.
Inhale the spirited and lively flow; exhale and surrender into epiphanic moments: this is an album which will catalyse deep breaths, reflection and a different way of thinking.
She Lost Kontrol is thrilled to announce the debut full length album by the collaboration between the Berlin based producer Unhuman and the performer – activist Petra Flurr .
The two artists return to the label after their single releases in the two volumes of Surviving in Europe and for Unhuman, after his mighty Aktion Mutante ep in collaboration with Violet Poison back in 2018.
Marking our 14th instalment on the label, ‘’Cause Of Chaos ‘’ comprises eight tracks filled of energy and steeped in to gothic nostalgia and electronic body music. The well-known artists create a mix of post-punk and synthesizer electronics shaped by their uncompromised textures, that glides through genres with ease and combines modern style with retro goodness. An abstract style of contamination seldom seen within the modern music spectrum.
The Deutsch Italo- Griechisch duo offers us an immersive, futuristic and solid sound, inspired by the music which the two artists grew up with, following a natural evolution to their roots in post-punk, electronic and guitar music. Absolutely an album that will find its space on the shelves of passionate collectors of DAF, Liaisons Dangereuses, Virgin Prunes and beyond.
Edition of 350 copies
Roman Flügel presents: Sister Midnight!
What started as a party series that saw Roman inviting friends and favorites is turning into a full-fledged label adventure now. Shaped to be the vehicle for old and new Roman Flügel music alike, unreleased surprises and previously released sure shots from the archives, it’s the first time after his involvement in the seminal Playhouse and Klang label universe, that he tends to such an enterprise himself - with the help and support of Running Back records.
Now, the journey of Roman Flügel’s own Sister Midnight label starts with the valuable Tracks On Delivery series. Originally released on the third jewel in the Playhouse crown (Ongaku Musik) from 2000 to 2002, it’s a meditation on and contemplation of techno. Remastered, recut and repackaged as a triple vinyl edition with the addition of two previously unreleased „Patterns“. Pristine sound design, hypnotic wizardry and dry then architecture let all of them appear as if they haven’t aged a day.
Or as Roman says himself:
“I’ve always tried to push myself into new territories since I started music production. Those new territories can surely be achieved by the endless possibilities of inspiration, chaos and will power. At the time of the production of my Pattern series as under the name Tracks On Delivery I was highly inspired by some of Andrew Weatherall’s Techno sets while visiting London for some of his Blood Sugar Parties. Tracks On Delivery is unthinkable without the crude ‚germanic‘ mixture of Detroit labels like Jay Denham’s Black Nation and Weatherall’s own UK Techno imprints like Emissions Output. The Pattern Series, back then created for the Frankfurt based Ongaku Musik label, and now I am very happy to be able to release 15 original Patterns along two unreleased Patterns on my own Sister Midnight label.“
Counterchange presents 'Eigenlicht' by Portuguese-German multi-instrumentalist, producer and award-winning film composer John Gürtler.
Gently teetering between krautrock-influenced synth mantras and saxophone improvisations, down-tempo electronica, sound design experiments and moments of rich ambience, 'Eigenlicht' is a diverse album of electro-acoustic music. The 11 tracks were recorded between two studios and on location at Berlin's infamous Teufelsberg, the abandoned Cold War era US spy-radio and radar outpost named 'Field Station Berlin', surrounded by forest to the west of the city.
A document of Gürtler's development, many of the pieces here were first laid down in his bunker-like former basement studios at Drontheimer Straße in north Berlin, before he eventually elevated above ground - both physically and musically - building his current Paradox Paradise studio and becoming an established film music composer. In 2019 John won the European Film Academy Award for Best Score, for his soundtrack for Nora Fingscheidt's debut feature 'Systemsprenger' (System Crasher).
In recent years John collaborated on a number of projects with acclaimed German producer and composer Phillip Sollmann aka Efdemin, performing live and releasing the 'Gegen Die Zeit' EP on Sky Walking, a subsidiary of Dial records where he also remixed Efdemin's 'Parallaxis' under the moniker The Borderland State.
In part an ode to the Macbeth Systems M5 modular synthesizer, with its three oscillators, much of the album features the towering instrument, whose uniquely rich tone and rumbling, pure bass end characterises tracks like 'Eigenlicht', 'M5', 'Synthetics' and 'Five Voice'.
"The M5's built in spring reverb and huge sliders and faders - as opposed to all the tiny knobs on Eurorack synths - make it as playable as any acoustic instrument."
John's primary background is in acoustic music, coming from woodwind and keyboard instruments, improvisation and composition. The leap into working with computers and electronic instruments found him exploring ways to make synths and samplers sound as organic as possible.
House and techno mainstay Loco Dice is stepping out with En Couleur, a brand new label reserved exclusively for his own music.
The first offering opens with 'Don't Run,' a twisted piece of afterparty techno. Weird fx and alien sound designs squirm in and out of a firmly rooted, rolling groove and pressurised hi hats add to the tension as the kicks grow ever more powerful. 'Nasty Train' explores high quality stripped back house grooves that ooze a certain sense of funk. The timeless hi hats are straight from Chicago while the crisp boom-bap drums, frazzled pads and muffled voices all add details that keep you locked until things grow more wild and unhinged at the mid point. Last of all, 'Ya Free Just Move' is a manic and pulsating acid workout that will leave the club in a frenzy.
- A1: Think
- A2: Don't Play That Song (You Lied) (You Lied)
- A3: I Say A Little Prayer
- A4: A Brand New Me
- A5: (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman (You Make Me Feel Like)
- A6: Angel
- B1: Border Song (Holy Moses) (Holy Moses)
- B2: Let It Be
- B3: People Get Ready
- B4: You're All I Need To Get By
- B5: Son Of A Preacher Man
- B6: Respect
In January 1967, a 24-year old Aretha Franklin signed to Atlantic Records and began one of the most legendary runs in music history, releasing five U.S. hit singles in that year alone. Rhino celebrates the 50th anniversary of Franklin's historic signing with an opportunity to hear her classic Atlantic masters like never before.
A BRAND NEW ME: ARETHA FRANKLIN WITH THE ROYAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA pairs classic vocals from some of the most iconic songs that the Queen of Soul recorded for Atlantic Records with new arrangements performed by The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, recorded the music at Abbey Road Studios in London, with brand new backing vocals led by Grammy®-winning singer Patti Austin.
The result is another timeless record that retains the soul, groove, and gospel power of Franklin's revered talent. Among the standout tracks are newly re-imagined versions of classics like the Billboard #1 R&B hits Respect,' Think,' Don't Play That Song (You Lied),' and Angel.'
The album was produced by Nick Patrick and Don Reedman, the masterminds behind the massive worldwide success of If I Can Dream: Elvis Presley With The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, which recently topped the charts in multiple countries and has sold more than 1.5 million copies.
- A1: City Of Sin (Feat Ed Sheeran - Intro)
- A10: Gucci Flip Flops
- A2: No Smoke (Feat Miguel, Travis Barker)
- A3: Five Hundred Dollar Candles (Feat Dom Kennedy)
- A4: The Light
- A5: Carmen Electra (Feat Mozzy, Osbe Chill, Tobi)
- A6: Dead Homies (Feat Red Cafe)
- A7: Good Daytonas (Feat Dom Kennedy)
- A8: Westside
- A9: 40 Ounce Love (Feat Just Liv)
- B1: Born 2 Rap
- B10: Gangsatas Make The Girls Go Wild (Feat Chris Brown)
- B11: Blood Thicker Than Water (Feat Trey Songz)
- B12: Rewind Ii
- B13: One Life (Feat J Stone, Masego)
- B14: Cross On Jesus Back (Feat D Smoke)
- B15: Roadside (Feat Ed Sheeran)
- B2: Welcome Home (Feat Nipsey Hussle)
- B3: Interlude. Help Me (Feat Sly)
- B4: I Didn't Wanna Write This Song
- B5: The Code (Feat Marsha Ambrosius)
- B6: Stay Down (Feat 21 Savage)
- B7: Hug The Block (Feat Bryson Tiller)
- B8: Ask For Me
- B9: Stainless (Feat Anderson Paak)
The Games new album - Born 2 Rap - gets a limited 3LP unoffical Record Store Day release!
• ***PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS A NON-DISCOUNTED TITLE***
• The Game, two-time GRAMMY® Award nominated multiplatinum Compton rapper, songwriter, producer,
actor, and entrepreneur. He locked down a place in the pantheon alongside greats of both coasts by a
combination of bar-for-bar bravado, provocative observation, hard-hitting hooks, and sharp introspection.
And now the prolific rapper returns with his 9th album fittingly titled, Born 2 Rap. Collaborated on the
album with artists such as Ed Sheeran, Miguel, Anderson .Paak, Nipsey Hussle, 21 Savage, Bryson Tiller,
Chris Brown, Trey Songz, and many more.
• The Game’s prior album 1992 debuted #1 on Billboard’s “Top Rap Albums Chart” and tied Drake for most
#1 album debuts since the chart began in 2004. Also, the album gave The Game his eighth #1 on
Billboard’s “Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Chart” tying him for third with 2Pac and Lil Wayne. He started this
impressive legacy with double platinum 2005 full-length debut, The Documentary. It not only bowed at #1
on the Billboard Top 200 and garnered GRAMMY® nods in the categories of “Best Rap Song” and “Best
Rap Performance By a Duo or Group,” but it also emerged as a classic avowed by Pitchfork among the
“Top 50 Albums of 2005”. The 2006 followup Doctor’s Advocate retained his spot at #1 on the Billboard
Top 200 and went platinum. Maintaining positions in the Top 10, he ignited a prolific string of blockbuster
releases—L.A.X. 2008, The R.E.D. Album 2011, Jesus Piece 2012, Blood Moon: Year of the Wolf
2014, The Documentary 2 2015, The Documentary 2.5. [2015], and 1992 [2016].
• “Born 2 Rap” has over 75 million streams worldwide and peaked at #2 on Billboard charts
Dutch groove connaisseur Ivano Tetelepta returns to his home base ESHU Records. Presenting four tripped out originals accompanied by two excellent reworks by befriended artists Jasper Wolff and Ion Ludwig. The pack perfectly captures the loosely and laid back attitude of the label and Ivano himself, doing their own thing as always. The a-side is all about the groove, a stripped down and playful rhythmic jam built for a hazy late night session with Ion Ludwig turning this inside-out, transforming the original into a lengthy minimal dub version. The early morning sun rays bring the vibes on the flipside where 'Loosen Up' is an atmospheric 90s feeling techno floater where Indigo aera head honcho Jasper Wolff shakes this up with a fierce techno twist. As special addition there's a 7" where Tetelepta shows one of his enlightening dub meditations and a rambling early Mills-esque tribal work-out. The whole bunch is mastered by Marco Spaventi and will be released digitally and in special 12"+7" pack.
- A1: Sofia Suicidou-Se (Da Serie Samba Policial) (Da Serie Samba Policial)
- A2: Pecou A Rosa - Samba
- A3: Um Assalto No Morumbi (Da Serie Samba Policial) (Da Serie Samba Policial)
- A4: Incendio (Da Serie Samba Reportagem) (Da Serie Samba Reportagem)
- A5: Frida - Poema/Frida - Samba
- A6: Brasilia Seculo 1 - Samba
- B1: Um Crime (Da Serie Samba Policial) (Da Serie Samba Policial)
- B2: A Lenda Da Chuva - Poema
- B3: O Sorriso Da Praia - Samba
- B4: Mar De Sal - Samba
- B5: A Morte Do Violao - Samba
- B6: E A Chuva Nasceu - Samba
- B7: Samba Gregoriano (Da Serie Samba Erudita) (Da Serie Samba Erudita)
A virtuoso pianist and composer of seminal works in early electronic and experimental classical music, Jocy de Oliveira’s musical output has had a great influence within Brazil and abroad. Her sole contribution to Brazilian popular music, her 1959-recorded album, ‘A Música Século XX de Jocy’ in many ways stands apart from the rest of her artistic oeuvre.
The original vinyl release marketed the record as adding to Brazil’s samba heritage with a ‘simple and original dialectic’, naming its style ‘vanguard samba’, which differs from both traditional samba and Bossa Nova, in its infancy at the time.
Listening to Jocy’s ‘20th century music’ in the context of the contemporaneous and vastly more influential Bossa Nova style is especially striking. Where Bossa Nova’s innovators incorporated influences from jazz and French piano music to a samba foundation, Jocy de Oliveira took a greater leap, wedding her century’s classical music to samba. Where Bossa Nova dawned a new epoch of poetic lyricism in Brazilian popular songs with great poets such as Vinicius de Moraes and themes of longing, love and nature, Jocy de Oliveira’s lyrics are concerned with scenes of urban tragedy and decay, presenting an alternative vision to Brazil’s stereotypical tropical paradise image almost 10 years before the emergence of the Tropicália movement.
The sounds and lyrics of Jocy’s landmark release still shock today. Put in the context of a conservative Brazil on the eve of Brasília’s inauguration, it is even more startling that this record ever got made. An unconventional mix of classical and popular musical influences combined with socially critical, ironic and at times journalistic lyrics make for a unique listening experience.
A unique representation of Brazilian popular music, Jocy de Oliveira’s masterpiece ‘A Música Século XX de Jocy’ is reissued for the first time. Meticulously remastered, the record is pressed on high-quality 45-RPM vinyl, with a modernised back cover and printed inner sleeve including previously unseen pictures taken for the record’s release in 1959.
Another all-time classic from the extensive back catalog of the legendary Miami songstress Gwen McCrae.
"90% Of Me Is You" is instantly recognizable, it's been sampled countless of times by some of the most seminal Hip Hop artists ever (Large Professor, Jaylib, Mobb Deep & more) & is a bonafide "Rare Groove" sure-shot that never loses it's appeal & is always in demand with DJ's & producers. Perhaps it's the pairing of the languid guitar & strings, or Gwen's sultry vocals & that steady breakbeat that keeps people hooked some 40 years after it's original release Whatever it is, it's classic material from start to finish!
Backed here with it's original b-side slow jam "It's Worth The Hurt" this super-rare 45 has been re-mastered, re-pressed & brought back for 2015's dance-floors in conjunction & with the permission of T.K. Disco / Henry Stone Music, Miami USA.
Our new slice of wax comes this time from outer space made somewhere between unknown galaxies and black holes. The spaceship’s pilot is 30drop, a mysterious alias that has been running its platform 30D for a long while now and is not often seen outside its realm. So it’s an honor for us to have 30drop onboard.
For this special occasion 30drop provides six cuts of futuristic techno but with a ravey approach in a time backspin that brings us back to the 90’s via Sci-Fi, reminding in some way of the early UR records, when Mad Mike and Jeff Mills worked together on the soundtrack of the future.
This is our first mini LP with 3 cuts per side. The first cut is Brain reset, the short drone intro soon leads to a relentless groove made of repetitive sequences over a fast groove. Intense and obsessive.
Mental Understanding brings more minimalistic ingredients, absence of hi hats, just kick drum and synth lines.
Brain effervescence showcases the infamous 90’s hoover sound bringing the rave element and 303 acid lines all merged in a lawless and dense mixture.
B side opens with Self awareness, starting with ethereal atmospheres, spiced with resonant bleeps and micro drones in a beat-less exercise.
Klapaucjusz brings back the 90’s feeling again with analogue arpeggios and melodies, again over a clean groove in a Detroit oriented number.
Closing the release, Knowledge, a space odyssey of strings, abstract synth lines and flotation.
A work that showcases the skills of this well-seasoned producer that stands apart from any trends, futuristic, atemporal and scientifically crafted.
W&P by 30drop
































































































































































