Suche:bat

From the mountains of Utah to the trenches of Vimy Ridge, Elliott Brood's songs have travelled the gore and glory of history in equal measure for nearly a decade. With the stomp and thrash of their early albums, Elliott Brood carved their niche drawing from history and memory. As heavy and harrowing the past can be, for Elliott Brood, it is also a generous companion, giving the gift of appreciation for times of peace and grace. With Keeper, Elliott Brood's seventh album, the trio deals with the past in more personal terms. The title, which speaks to loyalty and longevity, sets the tone for an album that explores the strength of conviction, and how that strength is tested, again and again, over time. Thoughts of worthiness and dedication, and their emotional flip sides, inform a collection that sees the band exploring those battlefields much closer to home.

"For a whole decade, spanning between the second half of the ‘50s and the second half of the ‘60s, jazz took over the Italian screens. The Californian be-bop rhythms, filtered and reinterpreted in a typical Mediterranean key, became the perfect soundtrack to the Italy of the economic boom; the quintessential music for a country that was sailing through a moment of profound and exciting industrial, social and cultural renovation. A nation that was rapidly shedding its skin, changing its style, look and identity, but also its landscape, letting itself go to the inebriation of the economic miracle. The compilation was conceived like a sonic stream, a journey of discovery carefully sequenced from hundreds of soundtracks from the golden age of Italian jazz contained in the CAM Sugar archive.
33 tracks that go beyond music, telling the story of Italian cinema, society and of its unmistakable style and charm. A genre that even when nodding to Californian be-bop, to crime jazz or bossa nova still sounds surprisingly original and Mediterranean, elegant, and seductive, either with joyous peaks (the scat of I Cantori Moderni di Alessandroni or of I 4+4 di Nora Orlandi) or with enigmatic and nearly dramatic nuances (La strega in amore by Luis Bacalov, Il batticuore by Marcello Gigante). The compilation also offers a precious insight into the Italian jazz scene of the times, with its string of formidable soloists like Gianni Basso (sax) and Oscar Valdambrini (trumpet), two Piedmontese men on duty for the RAI television orchestra conducted by Armando Trovajoli; like Nunzio Rotondo (trumpet) a legendary and elusive figure who had a special bond with Piero Piccioni; or like Enrico Rava (trumpet), Franco D'Andrea (piano) and Gegé Munari (drums) who often recorded with Piero Umiliani. Not to forget international stars like Chet Baker and Gato Barbieri, who were often fortuitously dragged into the recording sessions also thanks to Umiliani’s never-ending curiosity."

Lambke creates a DIY and artist- first free space on the margins of an industry driven by sales and a particular kind of recognition, careful about how he embodies his practice of art-making, and the work his music is doing in the world. On Volcano Volcano he is joined by long-time collaborators Daniel Romano and David Nardi (also of Daniel Romano's Outift), and emerging superstar songwriter Carson McHone (Merge Records) for a joy-filled album rich in poetry and guitars,
community and friendship, and dreaming together a new world 're-ordered from below'.

A cold wind blows while a disembodied drum marches in distance, diving slowly into an orchestra warm-up that ends with a bang: Marmo Music welcomes back Massimo Pegoraro, aka Modus, this time with a special tape release that carries genuinely shaped musical fantasies by the enigmatic electronic music composer and DJ from Genova. Each tune brings a new shade of his polychrome musical universe. He wrote a library music leaning ode to Moondog, recalls forgotten WW1 battles with longing choirs’ chanting along a minimal droning dream house Cello tone, and drops a melancholic fairytale that pits footage of kids laughing at a street market against Fellini-Score spinet melodies. Three of 14 mesmerizing, profoundly written pieces of music, that tell multi-layered contes with Synth reverberations, jazz ambiances, experimental Brit pop sonics, and a sundry range of field recordings. Together they build an enthralling story arc, that displays the open-minded spheres of the broad musical cosmos of Modus. To open the doors to his universe extensive, he additionally wrote some author’s notes for each single composition, that evoke vibrant images on his inspirations and their sounding outcome. Check the spell below while listening to intensely produced explorer music, that brings you obscure ideas from afar who express all the many subtle spirits of Modus.

The Line Is A Curve is about letting go. The core of the record is that the pressures we face do not always have to be heavy burdens, but can be reframed; the more pressure a person is under, the greater the possibility for release.

The album plays like a chronicle of pressures - the mind-numbing pursuit of a comfortable life, the eternal striving for more, the pressures of the city, the country, the times. The pressures of maintaining relationships, of battling illness, addiction, poor mental health, the vacuous life of our online selves. As we move through these chronicles though, the mood brightens. The musicality becomes more expansive as the lyrical horizon broadens and we glimpse coastlines, high streets, scrap yards, train stations in the rain; the entire album begins to let go. We encounter the contributions of artists who I love and admire, guest vocalists and instrumentalists, and so we defeat the sense of isolation felt in the opening track with a sense of deeply connected community. More Pressure, the penultimate song, is the essence of the whole album and the epiphany that leads to Grace, which is a prayer, a surrendering; ‘Please move me, please move through me, please unscrew me, please loosen me up.’ But once we get to the end of Grace, and the album, we loop back to the start – to ‘Kiss off the day with a mute mouth. Pass the commute like I can die faster than you.’ Because no matter how much a person grapples with, realises, deeply understands, about life and their place in it, we still wake up in the morning back to square one. Life isn’t solved the minute you figure something out about it. It’s a daily operation to increase your resilience, cultivate a deeper acceptance, let go of what’s chasing you and lean in to the pressures. It’s cyclical, as I believe all things are. And instead of trying to fight the cycles, this album asks us to surrender to them. To let go.

These general themes, of acceptance, resilience, surrender are also about where I’m at in my personal life, in my journey towards a greater acceptance of myself as an artist and as a human being. Being more honest with the world and my community about who I am and letting go of some heavy heavy shame, which is a glorious thing.

This album has a beautiful heart, there is so much love running through it and I can’t wait for people to experience it.

- First vinyl reissue, available on LP for the first time in 20 years - Completely remastered audio and restored artwork - Side D lunar vinyl etching art // After leaving London in 1999 for the sleepy seaside retiree town of Weston-super-Mare, Coil co-founders John Balance and Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson set up shop in a palatial eight-bedroom estate to pursue the outer reaches of the group's heightening cabalistic chemistry. Among the staggering string of late-era masterpieces they produced is lunar opus Musick To Play In The Dark, widely hailed as an artistic zenith upon its release. The sessions that birthed it were in fact so fruitful that a second LP took shape during the creation of the first one. Aided by the recent addition of Welsh multi-instrumentalist engineer Thighpaulsandra, Coil mined further into the recesses of surrealist eldritch electronica Balance termed "moon music" - post-industrial spellcasting at the axis of narcotic and nocturnal energies. Musick To Play In The Dark² spans a full witching hour of bad acid sound design, synthesizer voyaging, opiated balladry, Luciferian glitch, and subliminal hymnals, alternately ominous, oracular, and absurd. Scottish gothic icon Rose McDowall guests on vocals for two tracks but otherwise the album is a hermetic affair, tapping into the group's limitless insular synergy. Opener "Something" is stark and incantational, a spoken word experiment for windswept voids. "Tiny Golden Books" unspools an aerial whirlpool of cosmic synth, both whispery and widescreen. "Ether" is an exercise in funeral procession piano and intoxicated wordplay ("It's either ether or the other"), while "Where Are You?" and "Batwings - A Liminal Hymn" lurk like liturgical murmurings heard on one's death bed, framed in granular FX and flickering candlelight. As a whole the collection skews more muted and remote than its predecessor, as if having grown accustomed to the nether regions of these darkening seances. But music box hallucination "Paranoid Inlay" captures the group's oblique comedic side, always glimmering beneath: over a warped, wobbly beat Balance intones an opaque narrative of serenity, Saint Peter, and suicidal vegetables, accompanied by spiraling harpsichord and stuttering squelches of electronics. "It seems concussion suits you," he repeats twice, like a macabre pickup line, before dictating a dear diary entry about risks and failures, finally concluding with as close to a self-portrait as Coil ever came: "On a clear day I can see forever / that the underworld is my oyster."

- First vinyl reissue, available on LP for the first time in 20 years - Completely remastered audio and restored artwork - Side D lunar vinyl etching art // After leaving London in 1999 for the sleepy seaside retiree town of Weston-super-Mare, Coil co-founders John Balance and Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson set up shop in a palatial eight-bedroom estate to pursue the outer reaches of the group's heightening cabalistic chemistry. Among the staggering string of late-era masterpieces they produced is lunar opus Musick To Play In The Dark, widely hailed as an artistic zenith upon its release. The sessions that birthed it were in fact so fruitful that a second LP took shape during the creation of the first one. Aided by the recent addition of Welsh multi-instrumentalist engineer Thighpaulsandra, Coil mined further into the recesses of surrealist eldritch electronica Balance termed "moon music" - post-industrial spellcasting at the axis of narcotic and nocturnal energies. Musick To Play In The Dark² spans a full witching hour of bad acid sound design, synthesizer voyaging, opiated balladry, Luciferian glitch, and subliminal hymnals, alternately ominous, oracular, and absurd. Scottish gothic icon Rose McDowall guests on vocals for two tracks but otherwise the album is a hermetic affair, tapping into the group's limitless insular synergy. Opener "Something" is stark and incantational, a spoken word experiment for windswept voids. "Tiny Golden Books" unspools an aerial whirlpool of cosmic synth, both whispery and widescreen. "Ether" is an exercise in funeral procession piano and intoxicated wordplay ("It's either ether or the other"), while "Where Are You?" and "Batwings - A Liminal Hymn" lurk like liturgical murmurings heard on one's death bed, framed in granular FX and flickering candlelight. As a whole the collection skews more muted and remote than its predecessor, as if having grown accustomed to the nether regions of these darkening seances. But music box hallucination "Paranoid Inlay" captures the group's oblique comedic side, always glimmering beneath: over a warped, wobbly beat Balance intones an opaque narrative of serenity, Saint Peter, and suicidal vegetables, accompanied by spiraling harpsichord and stuttering squelches of electronics. "It seems concussion suits you," he repeats twice, like a macabre pickup line, before dictating a dear diary entry about risks and failures, finally concluding with as close to a self-portrait as Coil ever came: "On a clear day I can see forever / that the underworld is my oyster."

- First vinyl reissue, available on LP for the first time in 20 years - Completely remastered audio and restored artwork - Side D lunar vinyl etching art // After leaving London in 1999 for the sleepy seaside retiree town of Weston-super-Mare, Coil co-founders John Balance and Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson set up shop in a palatial eight-bedroom estate to pursue the outer reaches of the group's heightening cabalistic chemistry. Among the staggering string of late-era masterpieces they produced is lunar opus Musick To Play In The Dark, widely hailed as an artistic zenith upon its release. The sessions that birthed it were in fact so fruitful that a second LP took shape during the creation of the first one. Aided by the recent addition of Welsh multi-instrumentalist engineer Thighpaulsandra, Coil mined further into the recesses of surrealist eldritch electronica Balance termed "moon music" - post-industrial spellcasting at the axis of narcotic and nocturnal energies. Musick To Play In The Dark² spans a full witching hour of bad acid sound design, synthesizer voyaging, opiated balladry, Luciferian glitch, and subliminal hymnals, alternately ominous, oracular, and absurd. Scottish gothic icon Rose McDowall guests on vocals for two tracks but otherwise the album is a hermetic affair, tapping into the group's limitless insular synergy. Opener "Something" is stark and incantational, a spoken word experiment for windswept voids. "Tiny Golden Books" unspools an aerial whirlpool of cosmic synth, both whispery and widescreen. "Ether" is an exercise in funeral procession piano and intoxicated wordplay ("It's either ether or the other"), while "Where Are You?" and "Batwings - A Liminal Hymn" lurk like liturgical murmurings heard on one's death bed, framed in granular FX and flickering candlelight. As a whole the collection skews more muted and remote than its predecessor, as if having grown accustomed to the nether regions of these darkening seances. But music box hallucination "Paranoid Inlay" captures the group's oblique comedic side, always glimmering beneath: over a warped, wobbly beat Balance intones an opaque narrative of serenity, Saint Peter, and suicidal vegetables, accompanied by spiraling harpsichord and stuttering squelches of electronics. "It seems concussion suits you," he repeats twice, like a macabre pickup line, before dictating a dear diary entry about risks and failures, finally concluding with as close to a self-portrait as Coil ever came: "On a clear day I can see forever / that the underworld is my oyster."

Fresh new collaboration between friends Handy x Shall Not Fade, bringing together artists from each label to produce a side each for the VA.

Lining up for Shall Not Fade we have London's 9th House & Berlins Ruff Stuff and batting for Handy we have Trouble Makers Adam Curtain, Bobby Cazanova & a collab from Arthur Dudley and the ever on-form Retromigration.

As it says on the tin – “Keep it in the Family”

UK techno legend Mark Broom releases ‘100% Juice’ LP on Rekids.

Following the acclaimed ‘Funfzig LP’ on Rekids in 2021 as well as his ‘Mutated Battle Breaks’ series on the techno focussed Rekids Special Projects, Mark Broom returns to Radio Slave’s imprint for his latest full length, ‘100% Juice’, dropping this April.

Title track ‘100% Juice’ leads the charge, barreling forward with phased hats and trippy bleeps, before ‘Slush’ carries the rest of the A-side with dense synths and stereo trickery. ‘Rainbow’ bridge sees muted chords drifting in and out of focus alongside rattling drum programming before ‘Reverse’ mutates dub techno inspired elements with swathes of spacious FX and pitch-perfect processing.

Opening the second disc is the aptly titled ‘Wonky Workout’, which sees hard-hitting kicks meeting freaked out leads, followed by the fast-paced ‘I Want’, which brings crunchy, shuffling percussion and effected vocal samples together to devastating effect. The final side of vinyl is the one-two punch of ‘Boxed In’ and ‘Wiggle Me This’, with the former bringing sharp keys, rumbling low end and glistening pads, while the latter closes out the LP with warped acid lines and crisp drums.
Releasing on labels such as Rekids, M-Plant, and Blueprint, the wildly prolific Broom has consistently beenat the forefront of the techno scene for decades with his gritty, groove-based output while, away from the dancefloor, his The Fear Ratio project with James Ruskin continues to win critical acclaim.

Micheal “Eyedea” Larsen and Gregory “DJ Abilities” Keltgen first met in the mid-90s and soon began a working relationship that would play a prominent role in the burgeoning Indie-Rap movement of the time. After numerous successes across nearly every notable MC or DJ battle of the late ‘90s and early ‘00s, including HBO’s Blaze Battle, the Rocksteady Anniversary, Scribble Jam, the DMC’s and more, they had already cemented their legacies both as individuals in the battle scene and as the dynamic duo, Eyedea & Abilities, for their live performances and showmanship. However, determined not to be dismissed as one-dimensional, they set out to prove they were to be taken just as seriously at writing and recording. Together, they developed a near symbiotic creative union that produced three albums—First Born; E&A; and By The Throat—before Eyedea tragically passed away in 2010, at the age of 28.

The release of their debut album, First Born, had revealed their talents to be much more versatile and expansive than previously expected. The boastful arrogance and punchlines that had become synonymous with battling were notably scarce on the album. Eyedea chose to tackle subjects that were more conceptual and philosophical in nature, focusing on matters of reality and altered states of perception while pushing his urgent, dense delivery into darker, more abstract terrain. Meanwhile, DJ Abilities was able to craft worlds of depth and emotion, pairing hauntingly suspenseful beats with meticulous turntablism. The resulting album was rich in ambition, ideas and humanity. First Born came at the forefront of an exciting new era of underground hip-hop, delivering messages that emphasized questions over answers, ambiguity over certainty, and self-expression over exploitation, to an audience that was eager to expand their horizons beyond the commercial programming and clichés of the time.

"I Can't Let Go" ist das erste Album der britischen Sängerin und Schauspielerin Suki Waterhouse und wurde von dem Grammy-nominierten Produzenten und Songwriter Brad Cook (Bon Iver, The War On Drugs, Snail Mail, Waxahatchee) produziert. Neben ihrer Tätigkeit als Schauspielerin (The Bad Batch, Assassination Nation, Misbehaviour) und Model (Burberry, Ferragamo, Tommy Hilfiger) katalogisiert die Britin ihre intimsten, prägendsten und bedeutendsten Momente ihres Lebens am liebsten in Songs. Die in London geborene und aufgewachsene 30-Jährige fühlte sich schon früh zur Musik hingezogen und sah das Medium immer als eine Möglichkeit, Kreativität auszudrücken und Geschichten zu erzählen. Bis heute haben Bands wie Oasis einen ganz besonderen Platz in ihrem Herzen, Suki hört aber auch gerne Songwriterinnen wie Sharon Van Etten, Valerie June oder Lou Doillon. Bevor sie sich mit dem angesehenen Produzenten Brad Cook für ihr Sub Pop-Debüt zusammengetan hat, erschienen bereits die auf eigene Faust veröffentlichten Singles "Brutally", "Good Looking" und "Valentine", die auch ohne großes Label im Rücken bis heute fast 20 Millionen Mal gestreamt wurden.

3x12"

Extraordinary musical talent returns with a deeply textured third outing on Blu Mar Ten Music.

Having made serious waves with the release of his debut album "Coeur Calme" in 2014 and the incredible 2016 follow up album "Zawadi", Kimyan Law steers his sound in a darker, more introspective direction with the twelve heavily themed set-pieces of his new album, "Yonda".

The album title, "Yonda", homophonically flits between a location in Kimyan Law's native Congo and definitions of something situated at a distance but still visible, foreshadowing the artist's move away from his typical uplifting palette into less playful territory.

While previous work seemed to be a personal exploration of joy-tinged melancholy, "Yonda", feels much more sober and pensive, infected with external events. In conversation with Kimyan Law the artist described one piece ("Krieg") as his "portrait of war", with the music moving through phases of violence, silence, panic, redemption and peace. Ever the allegorist, Kimyan Law relates themes of conflict and war not just to obvious geopolitics but also to his own physical struggles, and even an obsessive battle with the music itself, ("Yonda" has been more than three years in the making). In 2017 the artist wrote, "I've reached a point where I couldn't sleep because it bothered me so much... I have found myself unable to make any music except for Krieg".

An accomplished drummer in his own right, Kimyan Law's intricate rhythmic sensibility is the lifeblood that runs throughout the album, incorporating ever more outlandish sources of percussion recorded from his natural surroundings and filtered through technology.

"Yonda's opener, "Jaardin", is deceptively gentle, with off-kilter rhythms and pianos providing fertile ground for Elyn's delicate singing before the whole piece careens off into what can only be described as orchestral proto-jungle territory. It soon becomes apparent that this placid introduction is misleading, with subsequent tracks fluctuating between pounding tribal beats ("Arboreal Epitone" / "Kin"), chilling orchestration ("Byo" / "Krieg") and rehabilitated jungle forms ("Seven Ant Foley"). A constant mix of light and dark, futuristic yet primitive atmosphere hangs over the album, with waves of luscious synths and deeply musical string arrangements lovingly cloaked over the razor-sharp drum work.

Unusual conceptual themes litter "Yonda"; "Dor Rhythm" is about a Dung Beetle's journey, "Lampion" is about paper lanterns, "Nova" is about plant growth while "Kilele" is a song about peace, featuring Kimyan Law's own vocals in a new language he created himself, conjuring memories of Cocteau Twin's Liz Fraser.

While "Yonda" contains moments of incontestable beauty it can often be a difficult listen, an illustration of an anxious mind yearning for peace. An obsessive and intricate musician, Kimyan Law's use of African percussion, finely honed polyrhythmic patterns and celestial sprinklings of keys melded with slabs of sub-bass power and sheer energy makes for an intoxicating listen. As ever, Kimyan Law has delivered a profoundly serious piece of work that expands the vocabulary of his genre. Despite the darkness saturating the work, a soft light still breaks through the window. It is the east, and Kimyan Law is the sun.

Climate - atmosphere is what we say. Soul with beautiful expression, is what they say in the modern jazz scene in the US. It's a necessary component for good jazz, as well as for swing. But to achieve an organic atmosphere which is therefore vital and alive, a relationship of intentions and views, and a congeniality of thoughts are needed. When Tommasi was in Rome for a few days and had Santucci and Scoppa listen to the latest pieces he had composed, the three musicians ideas, aspirations, and agreement in taste appeared to exist right off the bat, and the idea to do an album together was born almost instantly.

Now, with all things said and done, a certain climate seems to have been achieved, with no lack of a swing enriched with heat and energy. The two horn players, who up until now have played and recorded with a band from Rome, the Modern Jazz gang, have really and fully understood the spirit of the pieces written by Tommasi, and even if it's the first time they have met with the trio of the pianist from Trieste, they demonstrate that they have merged and combined into one, more than anyone had hoped for. The album was recorded by forging ahead and overcoming various obstacles like that of a geographical distance that they were not used to (the horn players reside in Rome, and the others in Turin, Bologna, and Lucca); but now that the project has been achieved rehashing the difficulties that they had to get past in order to finish the piece is no longer important (and nor is it well wished for).

The debut LP from duo Sunflower Aquarium offers a full spectrum bloom into the electronic ecosystem. Dylan Batelic (Paper-Cuts) and Thomas Martin (Furious Frank) fuse together for a 7 track collection of low-slung immersive deepness, embodying a cycle of life via the ebbs and flows of sonic seasonal evolution. A collaboration of cyber synthesis; written simultaneously Melbourne through Adelaide during late 2021, the result a refined yet spontaneous take on dubbed downtempo through to driving dance deviance.

Beginning with a birth, the stand alone Intro’s saturated glow cultivates a vivid timbre and sun kissed sub-stratosphere. Sprouting melodic constructions continue to blossom throughout the record and growing pains are welcomed with open arms, a mature moodiness brooding delicately through assured drums and fleeting Janet vocal fragments. Broken beat patterns group together and tessellate, the woven sunken bass leaves space for flickering hi hat fissure in SA-124, this groove based atmospheric momentum evolving cohesively track after track. Bright, refined concepts that linger and dissolve in your subconscious for weeks. The B Side preserves the introspective tip but dives deeper, faster; Birds Of Paradise melting organic field recordings into blissful synth voices and ricochet breaks. Bubble (Contagious Mix) feels like a midnight highway dub drive, shooting and gliding fluently; coloured lights iridescently blurred as if it was all a dream... then the closing track, which induces a sharp sense of hypnosis. Traditional techno expressions flirt with your ears, layers of repetition locked and loaded, dwindling into the abyss; conclusion of the cycle.

Analog Africa delves deep into the scene of the Mexican's sonideros (sound-system operators) to present the "Rebajada" movement they've created using locally made pitch controls, speakers and sound effects.

"In 2010, I had asked Eamon Ore-Giron - aka DJ Lengua - if he would be interested in compiling a Latin project for Analog Africa, and if so, if he had a theme in mind. He replied, “Have you ever heard of rebajada?“ The question mark above my head, together with the wall of China, must have been the only other object visible from out of space because Eamon, probably noticing I got paralysed, continued, “Rebajada in Spanish means “to reduce, to lower”. It’s basically Mexican sonideros (soundsystem operators) slowing down the beat of a Cumbia to create a much more tangible music to dance to. I’ll send you a mix I made last year and let me know what you think.“ And so he did.

That mix was called Rebajada Mota Mix and I began listening to it on a loop. Although I was not immediately hooked it was intriguing from the get-go, and so I kept listening until magic began unfolding. Slowed down music allows you enough time to hear right through it, revealing itself in ways I had rarely experienced before. Everything became more transparent and I was noticing sounds normally only perceptible by bats. A near psychedelic experience. That mysterious mix included a few Ecuadorian songs by Junior y su Equipo - aka Polibio Mayorga (a cult figure in the sonidero scene), a couple of Mexican tunes, one Colombian, and various Peruvian songs, undoubtedly the driving force behind this project.

The sonidero who brought Peruvian and Ecuadorian music to Mexico was the legendary Pablo Perea from Sonido Arco-Iris, and although his fingerprints are all over the compilation Saturno 2000, this selection of songs in rebajada is exclusive to DJ Lengua. With the exception of a few classics from Polibio Mayorga and La Sampuesana – the queen of all rebajadas – most of these songs were probably never performed as such before, let alone released.

So how did rebajada come to be? In a nutshell; Rebajada started with two families of brothers – the Pereas and the Ortegas – who travelled all over Latin America and returned to Mexico with heavy loads of records which they would sell to the various sonideros always on the lookout for new tunes. Colombian beats especially seemed to fit almost perfectly with the Mexican dance steps – but they were just a bit too fast. As a result some sonideros began experimenting with equipment, and Marco Antonio Cedillo of Sonido Imperial created a revolutionary pitching system that could slow records down to an extent other players could only dream about. And so rebajada was born . . . or so we thought.

At the same time in north of the country, in Monterrey, sonidero Gabriel Dueñez almost got electrocuted by a short circuit that nearly set his record player on fire. As a result the platter started spinning in slow motion for the rest of the party, turning Cumbia into a different affair altogether. The youngsters went crazy for it and started harassing the sonidero with requests to record cassettes for them. Reluctant at first, Dueñez finally began recording a series of pirated cassettes called “Rebajada” which included mainly Colombian cumbia and porro in slow-mo exclusively. Those tapes took the city by storm and turned rebajada into a celebrated and defiant movement of the youth.

Of course it would not be a Mexican urban legend if it didn’t include dramaturgical elements, and so for nearly 30 years, until this day and probably for ever, both cities have been arguing and claiming ownership the creation of rebajada for themselves. But sonidera Joyce Musicolor, who never has time for such trivial arguments, got straight to the point: “Rebajada, and the equipment to perform it, is from here Mexico City but it was Monterrey that popularised it.“

Mats Gustafsson - tenor saxophone, fluteophone, flute, junk Jim O'Rourke - guitar, accordeon, junk A collection of improvised duets with guitarist Jim O'Rourke and reedist Mats Gustafsson. All of the material has been newly remastered for release on 2xLP& digital and marks the first ever vinyl pressing with previously unreleased tracks. Tracks A1, B3(excerpt), C1, C2 and D3(excerpt) were in parts or in its complete form released on Incus CD38 (1999) with a different mix and master. All other tracks are unreleased. Mastered in 2021 by Jim O'Rourke. Dedicated to Derek Bailey. CREDITS: Recording:1999 by Jeremy Lemos at ACME Studios, Chicago Production:Will & Siegmund Mix:1999 by Jeremy Lemos at ACME Studios, Chicago Re-Mastering:2021 by Jim O'Rourke at Steamroom Artwork:Hanns Schimansky

Friends Of Hell draws from the most seminal of doom sources, saluting the great works of Pentagram, Candlemass, Saint Vitus and Cathedral along the way. But something nastier and grubbier lurks within the Friends Of Hell sound: a viscous, blackened streak that owes its leathery scars to Venom, Bathory and Hellhammer. The resultant hybrid makes perfect, horrifying sense, as songs like rampaging opener Out With The Wolves and the harrowing crawl of Gateless Gate conjure devilry, disgust and riff-driven destruction in equal measure. Heavy as hell but defiantly gritty and underground in spirit, Friends Of Hell avows that the old school is the only school. Not just one of the finest and fiercest doom metal records in recent memory, but also a subtly subversive twist on that arcane formula, Friends Of Hell once again confirms the timeless nature and the unerring, infernal power of The Riff.

Following hot on the heels of his recent mini-album for Elephant Gait, Italian producer Joseph Tagliabue is back with a full-length album on Glasgow's Invisible, Inc.

With Un' Altra Forma Di Vibrazioni Tagliabue continues to expand on the cosmic foundations laid by such pioneering experimental forefathers as Franco Battiato and his ground-breaking abstract ambient work of the '70s and Klaus Schultze whose legendary Innovative Communications label birthed the “Berlin school” sound at the start of the '80s, then tracing a path toward later luminaries like Boards of Canada and Plaid. There's a personal, emotive and ethereal quality also present here conjuring feelings of 4AD's glory years and the likes of This Mortal Coil and Dead Can Dance. However, backwards-looking music this is not. It's fair to say the Milan-based producer is developing his very own distinct sound as he matures from one release to the next and regardless of his wide range of influences, it's Tagliabue's firm grasp of sound design and audio engineering that takes this album far beyond the realm of just “electronica” or “psychedelia” and plants it firmly into a distinctly forward-looking contemporary space of its very own that's as much music for the heart as it is music for the head.

Tagliabue provides some insight: “Un' Altra Forma Di Vibrazioni (meaning Another Form Of Vibration in Italian) is a concept album inspired by one of the most sensational scientific discoveries of recent years, namely evidence of the existence of the "Cosmic Web". The album is comprised of ten tracks, each linked to one another, much like the various forms of matter in the cosmic web, and whose meaning can only be understood by listening to them as a collective whole, rather than as separate pieces of music. The album therefore is a well constructed sonic experience fusing elements of ambient, psych, rock, experimental and trance and is designed to be listened to continuously from start to finish; the album's journey through the universal elements is reflected in each track, whose rhythms resonate in harmony with the phenomena they represent, whilst a backdrop of drones and mesmeric grooves contribute to an atmosphere of otherworldly mechanical oneirism."