Search:before the show

Emmanuel Mario returns to Karaoke Kalk with his third album under his Astrobal moniker for the Berlin-based imprint. »L’uomo e la natura« (»Man and Nature«) sees the prolific drummer and producer, who has worked with artists such as Laetitia Sadier and label mate Pink Shabab, take a different musical route than before. The French electronic music composer pays homage to the spirit of library music while also making concessions to different strains of pop and even classical music. With only two of the ten songs putting words to the music, »L’uomo e la natura« is a masterful exercise in the evocation of atmospheres: expressing much while saying very little outright—show, don’t tell.

The album was born out of a desire to push the envelope. »I wanted to make music that was both pop and ambitious in its chord progressions as well as surprising in its construction,« explains the Paris-based artist. Taking inspiration from library music artists such as Alessandro Alessandroni or Bruno Nicolai as well as the more cosmic strains of electronic instrumental music, he strove »to create a soundtrack that would immediately bring to mind outer space.« The first of the three singles released ahead of the full album, »L’abeille pourpre,« captures this spirit with funky rhythms and an overjoyed interplay of different melodies, all tied together by wordless yet terminally catchy vocals.

The second single, »Miami 2064,« traverses through many different moods in its six-minute run-time: Starting off as neo-noir synth-wave piece, it then proceeds to pay its dues to the masters of the cosmic music tradition such as Tangerine Dream or, of course, Jean-Michel Jarre before slowly descending back to Earth with guitars and dreamy synthetic vocals, playfully punctuated by a plethora of wistful melodies. It is the perfect encapsulation of the open-ended approach Mario follows throughout the entire album, taking full creative licence in regards to songwriting and arrangements. »I wanted to surprise myself,« he shrugs. He succeeded.

»L’uomo e la natura« rewards multiple listens not only emotionally, but also intellectually. »I also wanted to talk about politics and ecology, because it’s impossible not to,« Mario notes. Some of the track titles express this more openly than others and the two title tracks sung by Mario and Nina Savary use French and Italian lyrics, respectively. However, as a whole the album leaves things open to interpretation. Does »The End of Capitalism« sound elegiac or triumphant? And what do you actually make of this musical vision of the Floridian metropolis, whose mere existence is threatened by climate change already today, four decades from now? Mario doesn’t necessarily answer these questions—he doesn’t tell, he shows.

Volume 1 of this expertly curated project of 90s Italian House - put together by Don Carlos.

If Paradise was half as nice… by Fabio De Luca.

Googling “paradise house”, the first results to pop up are an endless list of European b&b’s with whitewashed lime façades, all of them promising “…an unmatched travel experience a few steps from the sea”. Next, a little further down, are the institutional websites of a few select semi-luxury retirement homes (no photos shown, but lots of stock images of smiling nurses with reassuring looks). To find the “paradise house” we’re after, we have to scroll even further down. Much further down.

It feels like yesterday, and at the same time it seems like a million years ago. The Eighties had just ended, and it was still unclear what to expect from the Nineties. Mobile phones that were not the size of a briefcase and did not cost as much as a car? A frightening economic crisis? The guitar-rock revival?! Certainly, the best place to observe that moment of transition was the dancefloor. Truly epochal transformations were happening there. From America, within a short distance one from the other, two revolutionary new musical styles had arrived: the first one sounded a bit like an “on a budget” version of the best Seventies disco-music – Philly sound made with a set of piano-bar keyboards! – the other was even more sparse, futuristic and extraterrestrial. It was a music with a quite distinct “physical” component, which at the same time, to be fully grasped, seemed to call for the knotty theories of certain French post-modern philosophers: Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari, Paul Virilio... Both those genres – we would learn shortly after – were born in the black communities of Chicago and Detroit, although listening to those vinyl 12” (often wrapped in generic white covers, and with little indication in the label) you could not easily guess whether behind them there was a black boy from somewhere in the Usa, or a girl from Berlin, or a pale kid from a Cornish coastal town.

Quickly, similar sounds began to show up from all corners of Europe. A thousand variations of the same intuition: leaner, less lean, happier, slightly less intoxicated, more broken, slower, faster, much faster... Boom! From the dancefloors – the London ones at least, whose chronicles we eagerly read every month in the pages of The Face and i-D – came tales of a new generation of clubbers who had completely stopped “dressing up” to go dancing; of hot tempered hooligans bursting into tears and hugging everyone under the strobe lights as the notes of Strings of Life rose up through the fumes of dry ice (certain “smiling” pills were also involved, sure). At this point, however, we must move on to Switzerland.

In Switzerland, in the quiet and diligent town of Lugano, between the 1980s and 1990s there was a club called “Morandi”. Its hot night was on Wednesdays, when the audience also came from Milan, Como, Varese and Zurich. Legend goes that, one night, none less than Prince and Sheila E were spotted hiding among the sofas, on a day-off of the Italian dates of the Nude Tour… The Wednesday resident and superstar was an Italian dj with an exotic name: Don Carlos. The soundtrack he devised was a mixture of Chicago, Detroit, the most progressive R&B and certain forgotten classics of old disco music: practically, what the Paradise Garage in New York might have sounded like had it not closed in 1987. In between, Don Carlos also managed to squeeze in some tracks he had worked on in his studio on Lago Maggiore. One in particular: a track that was rather slow compared to the BPM in fashion at the time, but which was a perfect bridge between house and R&B. The title was Alone: Don Carlos would explain years later that it had to be intended both in the English meaning of “by itself” and like the Italian word meaning “halo”. That wasn’t the only double entendre about the song, anyway. Its own very deep nature was, indeed, double. On the one hand, Alone was built around an angelic keyboard pattern and a romantic piano riff that took you straight to heaven; on the other, it showcased enough electronic squelches (plus a sax part that sounded like it had been dissolved by acid rain) to pigeonhole the tune into the “junk modernity” section, aka the hallmark of all the most innovative sounds of the time: music that sounded like it was hand-crafted from the scraps of glittering overground pop.

No one knows who was the first to call it “paradise house”, nor when it happened. Alternative definitions on the same topic one happened to hear included “ambient house”, “dream house”, “Mediterranean progressive”… but of course none were as good (and alluring) as “paradise house”. What is certain is that such inclination for sounds that were in equal measure angelic and neurotic, romantic and unaffective, quickly became the trademark of the second generation of Italian house. Music that seemed shyly equidistant from all the rhythmic and electronic revolutions that had happened up to that moment (“Music perfectly adept at going nowhere slowly” as noted by English journalist Craig McLean in a legendary field report for Blah Blah Blah magazine). Music that to a inattentive ear might have sounded as anonymous as a snapshot of a random group of passers-by at 10AM in the centre of any major city, but perfectly described the (slow) awakening in the real world after the universal love binge of the so-called Second Summer of Love.

For a brief but unforgettable season, in Italy “paradise house” was the official soundtrack of interminable weekends spent inside the car, darting from one club to another, cutting the peninsula from North to centre, from East to West coast in pursuit of the latest after-hours disco, trading kilometres per hour with beats per minute: practically, a new New Year’s Eve every Friday and Saturday night. This too was no small transformation, as well as a shock for an adult Italy that was encountering for the first time – thanks to its sons and daughters – the wild side of industrial modernity. The clubbers of the so-called “fuoriorario” scene were the balls gone mad in the pinball machine most feared by newspapers, magazines and TV pundits. What they did each and every weekend, apart from going crazy to the sound of the current white labels, was linking distant geographical points and non-places (thank you Marc Augé!) – old dance halls, farmhouses and business centres – transformed for one night into house music heaven. As Marco D’Eramo wrote in his 1995 essay on Chicago, Il maiale e il grattacielo: “Four-wheeled capitalism distorts our age-old image of the city, it allows the suburbs to be connected to each other, whereas before they were connected only by the centre (…) It makes possible a metropolitan area without a metropolis, without a city centre, without downtown. The periphery is no longer a periphery of any centre, but is self-centred”.

“Paradise house” perfectly understood all of this and turned it into a sort of cyber-blues that didn’t even need words, and unexpectedly brought back a drop of melancholic (post?)-humanity within a world that by then – as we would wholly realise in the decades to come – was fully inhuman and heartless. A world where we were all alone, and surrounded by a sinister yellowish halo, like a neon at the end of its life cycle. But, for one night at least, happy.

Berlin’s Moses Yoofee Trio have confirmed details of their first new material since their 2023 mini-album, Ocean. ‘WHIP.wav’ will be released digitally on October 18, 2024, and represents the first taster for their debut full-length, MYT, set to be released by Nils Frahm’s LEITER on February 7, 2025. The German group recorded much of the album over ten days in April 2024 at Glaswald Studios, in the countryside outside Stuttgart, before returning to Berlin to polish the results and record two further tracks at LEITER’s Funkhaus studio. Available on vinyl and via all digital platforms, the album was produced by the trio with long-time collaborator and mixing engineer oh.no.ty. ‘WHIP.wav’, the original version of which was previously shared to social media to great response, is a perfect showcase for the band’s unique brand of sophisticated jazz, its laidback summer grooves lit up by Moses’ fluid piano lines, while drummer Noah Fürbringer’s deft rhythms lock in with Roman Klobe-Barangă‘s understated bassline. At just 100 seconds long, it’s also as succinct and straightforward as MYT’s title – and indeed many of its tracks – which reveals a lot about the Moses Yoofee Trio. The new album’s tracks display a remarkable determination to distil their work to its essence, allowing their prodigious talents and graceful versatility to flourish in uncluttered surroundings. Their goals, they state concisely, are “emotions, moments and bangers”, and careful attention was paid to arrangements to ensure nothing superfluous made the cut. Before coming together as a band, all three members were already deeply involved in the music scene, touring, recording, and producing for a wide range of artists and bands. They connected in 2020 when Moses met Roman at Berlin’s Jazz Institute, and it was the latter who suggested they jam with his friend Noah, who was living in southern Germany at the time but frequently visited Berlin. Amid the extended lockdowns of the Covid-19 pandemic, the trio embraced the chance to fully immerse themselves in the creative process. Since then, Moses Yoofee Trio have cultivated an extraordinary reputation for their shows, and this year they won the German Jazz Prize’s prestigious Live Act of The Year award. Recent highlights include a 2,500-capacity Elbjazz Festival booking beside Hamburg’s harbour, a riotous appearance at London’s Jazz Festival, and an intimate gig before 200 people at the German capital’s now redundant Tempelhof Airport on the rooftop of an air traffic control tower. Despite their own work as a trio, all three musicians remain busy elsewhere, with Moses, like Roman, often working with chart-topping Berlin-based Peter Fox, a frontman for reggae/dancehall/hip hop crossover act SEEED, and accompanying him on his extensive solo tours. Noah, meanwhile, plays with another renowned artist, German-American rapper Casper, as well as Sweden’s acclaimed Petter Eldh and German comedian / actor / musician Teddy Teclebrhan.

. The idea for the band was originally conceived by singer-guitarist Joe Woodward whilst writing and recording songs in his kitchen on a 4-track recorder, and over time eventually found help from like-minded friends, Elliot Roberts and Cam Wheeler. The three of them would spend their nights experimenting with cassette recording with the admirable if not challenging aim to recreate the symphonic sounds of Phil Spector on a DIY budget. With growing confidence and having amassed a small catalogue of songs, a few aborted attempts were made to get a live band together before they found help from a second guitarist, Eli Allison, who had recently relocated from Cornwall. As necessity would dictate, the first shows as a quartet made use of a drum machine, but the ideal formation for the band wasn’t truly complete until meeting Nia Abraham, whose live drumming would add a more physical quality to the band’s sound. At the beginning of 2024, they began working more purposefully towards an end goal with the writing and recording of the five-song Nowhere Near Today EP. Though retaining some of their home recording practices, they also made use of a studio facility based in a disused shopping centre basement that was made available through SHIFT, a local artist collective connected to the band. The acquisition of an 8-track Tascam 488MKII, along with the natural reverb of SHIFT’s empty concrete space allowed for further opportunity to experiment with both cassette recording techniques and their still developing live sound, the two environments permitting an all-too-rare creative freedom. The process was transformative for the group, their Spector-inspired ambitions now taking on a more defined shape that skirted around the edges of psych, noise-rock and industrial-pop in a way that increasingly became their own. For a debut EP, the results are impressively realised, a confluence of expansive tremolo guitars, a deliberately primordial rhythm section and a contrasting vulnerable vocal performance that’s both melodic and bracing. It’s a record born both of private experimentation and public performance, who they are on stage and what they express on record informing the other but still distinctly each their own thing, shifting then dovetailing like the waves of feedback that wash through Nowhere Near Today. Still a young band, it’s tomorrow they feel a lot closer to.

Grateful Dead archivist Dick Latvala considered this show to be the finest outing on the entire Spring 1977 tour, and, as any Dead Head knows, that is high praise indeed! At the time this was released on CD, the Dead weren’t sure a market existed (ha!) for three and four-CD packages, so this four-LP set leaves off eight songs from the show, but consider what songs are here: a phenomenal “Help on the Way”/”Slipknot!”/”Franklin’s Tower” comes after one of the definitive renditions of “Sugaree” and a terrific “The Music Never Stopped,” with Phil Lesh’s slithering bass leading the way in recording engineer’s Betty Cantor-Jackson’s mix.

But sides E, F & G offer one of those sublime (and, in this case, never to be repeated) sequences of songs that only the Dead could pull off in concert; after the rarely-performed “Sunrise,” a medley of “Estimated Prophet”/”Eyes of the World”/”Wharf Rat”/”Terrapin Station” (a truncated version two months before its official release)/”Morning Dew” brings the show home, as Jerry Garcia’s soloing on “Morning Dew” reaches heights seldom attained even by him. This was a knockout release on its first very limited vinyl run (check out those resale prices), and we’ve improved on it with a fresh mastering job by Jeffrey Norman (in his own words, “the sound is better than the original heard on the Brookvale release”), and lacquer cutting by Clint Holley and Dave Polster at Well Made Music.

Pressed on 180-gram black vinyl at the plant we’ve been using to great acclaim for all of our Grateful Dead releases, Gotta Groove Records, and limited to 2000 hand-numbered copies!

It’s safe to assume no one in the audience at Carnegie Hall on March 30, 1974 anticipated what Miles Davis would play at the concert documented on Dark Magus: Live at Carnegie Hall. Recorded near the tail end of his electric period, the double album remains the darkest, most ferocious statement of Davis’ career — a visionary effort that foresaw developments in jungle, noise-rock, funk, and drum ‘n’ bass.

Initially issued in Japan in 1977, Dark Magus waited two decades for U.S. release. Now, more than 50 years after Davis and his ensemble blew minds at the famous New York venue, it gets its first-ever domestic issue on vinyl — and on a definitive-sounding pressing at that.

Mastered at Mobile Fidelity's California studio, housed in a Stoughton gatefold jacket, and pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing, this numbered-edition 180g 33RPM 2LP set of Dark Magus invites you to pull up a seat and wrap your head around an exhilarating performance that simultaneously functions as an audition, experiment, release, and magnificent explosion of jazz-rock fusion. We hope your turntable and speakers are up to the challenge.

This collectible reissue presents the improvisational magic that unfolded onstage — the skronking tonalities, wah-wah-pedal bluster, acid-washed effects, furious drumming, run-the-voodoo-down grooves, menacing riffs, crashing cymbals —with incredible detail, color, and pace. It also captures the band’s unbelievable energy, rendering both instruments and on-the-fly changes with revealing depth, definition, and dynamics. At its core, MoFi’s audiophile set takes you deep into the boundless mystery, promise, and uncertainty of Davis and company’s efforts like never before.

The story behind Dark Magus is nearly as unbelievable as the spur-of-the-moment compositions that resulted when Davis brought drummer Al Foster, bassist Michael Henderson, percussionist James Mtume, horn virtuoso Dave Liebman, and guitarists Pete Cosey and Reggie Lucas together, and, in a new twist for the concert’s second half, added guitarist Dominique Gaumont and tenor saxophonist Azar Lawrence to mix. That the latter two instrumentalists had never seen each other until that night adds to Davis’ legend — and penchant for bold, unorthodox moves.

Ditto Davis’ own actions that spring evening, which reportedly included showing up to the show an hour late and taking the stage with his back facing the crowd. The strategy worked. Davis inspired the group to play in a bold manner that few, if any, had heard before. Dark Magus is a rhythmic bonanza. Rooted in Afro-centrist techniques, avante-garde sensibilities, and exploratory moods, the songs eschew set arrangements and solos, and, for the most part, melodic devices.

For Davis, Dark Magus represented a personal triumph amid a period marked by health issues, addictions, and critical decline. The latter slight would be corrected, but not until decades later when Dark Magus saw Stateside release in 1997 via a CD reissue. Of course, the free-form patterns, unpredictable passages, dense structures, and distorted blues that course through the songs — titled after Swahili numerals — are not for everyone. And certainly not for the fainthearted. Though Dark Magus contains majestic moments marked by quiet restraint and something on the level of balladry, its rich and radical concoction of tormented thwacks, thumps, cracks, clatters, wails, bleeps, burbles, stomps, and enigmatic beats remains its adventurous heart and soul.

Primal and enigmatic, fierce and jagged, forceful and revolutionary, jolting and terrifying, Dark Magus seemingly attacks from any and all directions. Turn it up loud and let the prophetic brilliance of this inimitable and relentlessly funky album wash over you.

Filled with aural magic and enchanting musical spells, Sorcerer is true to its name. The third of five albums by Miles Davis’ legendary Second Great Quintet — and the second record in a still-unprecedented string of eight consecutive releases within a four-year period that forever changed the face of jazz — the 1967 effort mesmerizes with instrumental colors, subdued musings, and subtle details. These crucial characteristics blossom with vibrant realism on Mobile Fidelity’s 180g 33RPM SuperVinyl LP.

Sourced from the original master tapes and pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing, this numbered-edition audiophile edition of Sorcerer joins the ranks of other essential Davis records given supreme sonic and packaging treatment by Mobile Fidelity. Longtime listeners will immediately recognize a wealth of information and depth of tonality unavailable on prior versions. The myriad shadings, interwoven textures, and relaxed nuances that tie the post-bop set’s warm compositions together are rendered with utmost realism. Credit goes to MoFi’s engineers as well as the label’s groundbreaking SuperVinyl profile that features the lowest-possible noise floor as well as sublime transparency, dead-quiet surfaces, and superb groove definition.

By any measure, this is a reference reissue. You’ll hear poetic lyricism pouring out of Wayne Shorter’s horn, the breadth and definition of the notes spreading across an enormous soundstage. Never before have drummer Tony Williams’ rim shots ricocheted with such purpose or his light percussive work mirrored that of a feather touching skin. Similarly, Herbie Hancock’s piano runs occupy their own space, where their relationship to the central rhythms and front line becomes clearer.

Prizing inflection and nuance more so than heady solos or uptempo flights, Sorcerer mesmerizes with cerebral properties and cascades of emotional interplay. Such beauty emerges in the mellow ballad “Pee Wee,” an indelible statement of restrained authority and sophisticated expression. The swirling title track unfolds as jazz shadowplay, Hancock, Shorter, and Williams mirroring one another’s moves with guile and purpose. The opening “Prince of Darkness” showcases the ensemble’s reach and communication, every musician going in seemingly different directions yet ending up on the same page.

A lasting example of Davis’ visionary insight, Sorcerer is comprised entirely of pieces written by his band mates. Indeed, save for the closing “Nothing Like You” — a brief tribute to Davis’ eventual wife, who also graces the cover, recorded in 1962 and adorned with vocals from Bob Dorough — the album represents a further maturation and refinement of a quintet that stands as one of the finest in jazz history.

MoFi SuperVinyl
Developed by NEOTECH and RTI, MoFi SuperVinyl is the most exacting-to-specification vinyl compound ever devised. Analog lovers have never seen (or heard) anything like it. Extraordinarily expensive and extremely painstaking to produce, the special proprietary compound addresses two specific areas of improvement: noise floor reduction and enhanced groove definition. The vinyl composition features a new carbonless dye (hold the disc up to the light and see) and produces the world’s quietest surfaces. This high-definition formula also allows for the creation of cleaner grooves that are virtually indistinguishable from the original lacquer. MoFi SuperVinyl provides the closest approximation of what the label’s engineers hear in the mastering lab.

"Double Vinyl edition of their 2016 live album • 15 tracks – including two performances not on CD (one featuring Robert Buck) Their greatest hits and more – performed live!

For over 40 years, 10,000 Maniacs have been doing what they do best – Playing Favorites!

Originally released on CD and Digital in 2016, Playing Favorites documented their dynamic live shows. Recorded before an adoring crowd in Jamestown, NY, Playing Favorites included hits and fan favorites from the group’s storied and influential career. The 6 piece band (Jerome Augustyniak, Dennis Drew, Jeff Erickson, Steven Gustafson, John Lombardo, and Mary Ramsey) was augmented by strings, horns, and backing vocalists, making their lush sound even fuller and more engaging.

For Record Store Day, Playing Favorites returns on an Opaque Red double LP. 15 tracks, including two previously unissued performances not on the CD/Digital release: “Candadee-i-o” from the Playing Favorites era and “Angels Of Stone,” a recording from 2012, recorded at Lake Forest College, Illinois, featuring original guitarist and founding member Robert Buck. (Buck sadly passed away in 2000 He was also named one of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time by Guitar Player.)

As the Maniacs continue to perform, devotees in cities across the country are able to experience the band in concert. For those who can’t be there, they don’t have to miss the show. Every 10,000 Maniacs fan can be Playing Favorites—in the venue, at home, or both!"

After almost two years without a release, Naarm 5-piece Zombeaches return with a post-punk whirlwind of a track. A Taste of Oxygen immediately hooks you with its chaotic garage rock sound, with frantic drums, and scratchy guitar lead. The reverb and distortion partnered with a commanding vocal performance create a hypnotic feeling, drawing you in completely.
What sets this track apart is the energy switch from the raw, aggressive energy in the verses entirely flipped to a more brooding chorus with beautiful harmonies, before being taken right back to the madness of the verses, almost experiencing whiplash as a listener.
Amongst this sonic chaos, lyricist James Young shows off his impressive songwriting skills, detailing how exciting and colourful the big city looks from the outside, only to realise how unhealthy the lifestyle can be.
A Taste of Oxygen is our first taste of their upcoming album, which is set for release later this year. This track sounds like it was made to be experienced live in a sweaty, crowded venue, so definitely keep an eye out for that opportunity

Say It Loud Records has the honor of presenting the reissue of the Catalan monkfish masterpiece Variacions en fu-remoll de la 5ª simfonia inèdita de Roger Linn. Extraño Weys it has been the most elusive group on the scene. But the hit on the table that they made 6 years ago in an exclusive 10” and that has become a collector’s item is back in the form of a reissue!

An elegant 12” vinyl with two bonus tracks never before released on plastic, the delicious “Jade” by the crazy Gordo del Puru and “Say it Extraño” with the North American MC Akua Naru. A title that is a tribute to the creator of the first MPCs, the key piece on which the productions of the album are built by Viktor Pizza. It is precisely these productions that show the solidity of the project. With an exquisite work of the sampler and an infinite number of references on vinyl, VP has built a storyline that modulates atmospheres and moods over 6 tracks where the two main mc’s, Sir JKLZ1 and Patxi Vazili, draw their obsessions.

REMASTERED REISSUE of the legendary Pentagram 6th album with brand new artwork and coloured vinyl. Show 'Em How is the sixth album by American doom metal band Pentagram. It was released in 2004 by Italian label Black Widow Records. This album featured Bobby Liebling on vocals backed up by three members of Internal Void. Now it's time for a brand new remastered version with new artwork designed by Luca Solomacello.

Royal Blue Vinyl. REMASTERED REISSUE of the legendary Pentagram 6th album with brand new artwork and coloured vinyls. Show 'Em How is the sixth album by American doom metal band Pentagram. It was released in 2004 by Italian label Black Widow Records. This album featured Bobby Liebling on vocals backed up by three members of Internal Void. Now it's time for a brand new remastered version with new artwork designed by Luca Solomacello.

Jamwax proudly presents the reissue of Laurel Aitken’s iconic 1966 single, showcasing two R&B dancefloor gems: Last Night and the soulful classic Don’t Break Your Promises. Originally released on the Rainbow label in the UK, this 7-inch record captures the essence of Aitken’s versatility and his pivotal role in bridging the Jamaican and British music scenes.

Last Night draws direct inspiration from the sounds of The Mar-Keys (1961) and Georgie Fame (1966), reflecting the influence of R&B rhythms on Aitken’s work. This release marked a milestone in his career as he gained increasing popularity in the UK, particularly among the mod and skinhead subcultures.

As for Don’t Break Your Promises, it is a cover of Milson Luce’s 1956 release on the Argo label. The song was already a hit in Jamaica, having been licensed the same year by Dada Tewari on his Downbeat imprint. Following Aitken’s rendition, the song inspired several Jamaican covers, including versions by Dandy (1972, Trojan), The Chosen Few (1973, Studio One), and John Holt (1973, Bunny Lee).

Nicknamed the "Godfather of Ska," Laurel Aitken was born Lorenzo Aitken on April 22, 1927, in Cuba. He moved to Jamaica at the age of 11 and became a central figure in the development of ska during the 1950s and 1960s. Before shaping the emerging ska sound, he recorded mento and calypso, laying the foundation for his groundbreaking contributions. His prolific recording career in England included numerous singles on legendary labels such as Blue Beat, Pama Records, and Trojan Records. Aitken’s legacy as a pioneer of Jamaican music and his influence on British subcultures firmly establish him as a key figure in the global evolution of ska and reggae.

Originally released in 1966
Licensed courtesy of Cherry Red Records Limited

Mint Condition - A record label focused on excavating the outer fringes of classic House and Techno. Unreleased mixes, classics, overlooked gems and never heard before material, mined from the last 30+ years of contemporary dance music are the order of the day. From Chicago, Detroit and New York, London, Leeds, Berlin and beyond. Mint Condition have got their digging hats on to bring you exclusive heat and those rarer than rare jams that have been in your wants list for years. Dig in......

Following on from highly successful releases on seminal labels such as Surreal, Low Pressings and their own Geek imprint, Andy Davies & Dave Clements, aka Spincycle, unleashed 'Making Faces' on Bushwacka's legendary Oblong Imprint. Originally released in 2002, this release perfectly showcases the duo's unique take on the tech-house & garage sounds that fuelled the UK underground. Over the next 2 decades this classic would become an in demand rarity, as the eye watering discogs prices will attest, so a reissue has been long overdue.

'Making Faces' opens with infectious bongo led percussion, building with crisp hats and snares, the heavyweight bass is deep and warm, dreamy chords add to the atmosphere, before a soaring lead line that oozes with techy soul, builds and drops in all the right places. Next up, UKG inspired 'Twister' is more raw and uncompromising in its approach. Energetic swinging rhythms underpin a monstrous sub bass line to die for, as if that wasn't enough, the duo manage to add yet another rolling bass line showcasing production and programming skills of the highest order.

This is indeed a killer 12", packed with energy and heat that sounds as fresh and exciting as ever, and what's more your dancefloors will shudder!! 'Making Faces' has been legitimately re-released with the full involvement of Spincycle, lovingly remastered by London's Curve Pusher from the original DATs especially for Mint Condition. 100% legit, licensed and released. Dug, remastered, repackaged and brought to you by the caring folks at your favourite reissue label - Mint Condition!!

Christened ‘High Tide’ after the sudden rising of the LA River basin during a particularly epic and rare rainfall, this cosmic slop funk jam was born from the minds of Devin Flynn (Pixeltan) and Eddie Ruscha (Secret Circuit), two individuals with a deep connection to Los Angeles’ tap water sources. While traipsing through the aisles of an Atwater Village bodega, the two mustered up a plan to create a rhythmic piece so delectable as to turn peoples’ heads inside out and pummel the senses with a wobbly Jah Wobble bass sound and a toy drum machine ‘no toy’ style back beat. They figured if they laced it up with enough electronic scuzz, the masses would be sure to want to sip from its nectar.

When DFA got wind it was all systems go and, from then on, all relevant parties knew that they should sit on the track for at least five years before it was released, otherwise the world at large would not be ready for it. The remixes are by Eddie himself - as Secret Circuit - and Dr. Dunks, aka Eric Duncan, a fellow Angeleno (at least at heart). Eric and Devin rolled through the streets as small children, shredding curbs and tagging local ice cream trucks, so it was inevitable they would reconnect and jam on ‘High Tide’.

Devin Flynn is an animator, musician and teacher who has worked on projects like Gary Panter’s web series Pink Donkey & The Fly and MTV2’s Wonder Showzen. He has previously released on DFA with Pixeltan, a trio - Flynn, Hisham Bharoocha of Black Dice and singer Mika Yoneta - that recorded with The DFA at the label’s inception, creating two seminal singles.

Eddie Ruscha is another DFA veteran, having remixed artists including Wolfram and Museum of Love. He has been making music for decades, as Secret Circuit and with myriad other aliases and collaborators, in addition to recording under his own name. He has released on labels like Beats in Space and Emotional Response, among others.

For fans of Young Marco, Suzanne Kraft, Prins Thomas, Khotin, Gaussian Curve.

While 1995's Washing Machine LP moniker was a thinly-veiled jab at the corporate aesthetic ("no, you cannot turn Sonic Youth into a household appliance brand", the band even considered changing its name to Washing Machine but settled on the album title instead), their major label relationship was indeed a curious buzzpoint of talk on the street after their intake to DGC in 1990. It wouldn't be fair to say that this state of existence propelled the band to reinforce its independent mindset by releasing a series of opaque-looking, French-language-dipping, highbrow-looking releases on their own that focused on the more abstract improv/compositional side of the band; in all truths they had been heavily steeped in self-releasing spillover material prior to that. But after a pressure pot of the early 90's indoctrination into a new operational mode for the band and its visibility, and the forces around it attempting to shape their direction, it seemed like a good time to create a strong show of radical concept.

The Anagrama EP became the first in a series of the SYR label's Perspective Musicales releases seemingly cementing Sonic Youth's connectivity to an increasing public awareness in experimental composers of the 20th century (French or otherwise). The irony was that many of those original avant composers being rediscovered by the indie audience (Partch, Neuhaus, Reich, Messaien) often found themselves on major labels anyway! So, perhaps this reverse approach was a necessary concept/comment given the music biz climate of the 90's. Regardless of how apples and oranges fell in Xenakian probability/theory, it was clear that both Sonic Youth's stature in progressive music, aided by now unlimited taperoll time thanks to a home base studio downtown established after their Lollapalooza stint, gave the band plenty of trailblazing time for their self examination of untraveled avenues.

"Anagrama" unfolds into nine minutes of delicate textures, starting with thick drone segueing into moments reminiscent of the post-crescendo flutter/comedown of "Marquee Moon's" trail-out; Thurston, Lee and Kim's guitars all circling round each other taking delicate pokes and stabs before drifting into some post-rock rhythmic moves tapered with delicate percussive guidance from Steve Shelley. "Improvisation Ajoutée" reaches further out into dissolve with whirring oscillations, guitars hissing and clanking radiator-style in a short blast format that continues into "Tremens" and a spooked-out landscape of gelatinous notes snaking up slowly. The sparseness of attack is colorful, textures emit and linger, silent spots shine, all flanked by tasteful drumming that provides the thread to all the abstraction. Shelley's approach here is interestingly sideways to any kind of usual rock action, it's tempered, mutant and metronomic simultaneously. The finale track "Mieux: De Corrosion" is a real pedal-palatte showcase. Here, Plutonian guitar wash flanges upwards to buoy a myriad of colorful eruptions of amp-spuzz, chopped up tone blasts and general confusion. Out of the blue, some metallic one-note choogle kicks in and threatens to explode into some Judas Priestly motion, before it all sputters into aural glass showers, clang, and finally a ferocious wave of more flange hiss that crashes down on a dime.

This initial foray into SY's Perspectives Musicales series continued onward with releases featuring other co-conspirators, peaking with the ambitious 2CD Goodbye 20th Century that finally connects the band into full-on interpretations of other composers' pieces (as well as displaying their own new ones). The whole series is not so much an outlet for another "side" of the band, but a run that went hand in hand building new approaches of songcraft onto their own, more overground direction which included Jim O'Rourke (who hopped on during SYR3), adding additional density to A Thousand Leaves and other LPs of his era. Fans of the '86 Spinhead Sessions as well as the recently-exhumed later jams of In/Out/In will take in the sounds of SYR1 with glee.

John Gosling (aka Mekon) the English big beat/industrial musician and electronica producer, is set to launch his new label Hua Hua (pronounced wah wah) with an 11-track compilation album this July. A quick scan at some of the featured artists showcases a line up of legends - eighties rap sensation Schooly D sitting alongside Primal Scream mainstay Bobby Gillespie and John’s recently departed punk hero Alan Vega - even Roxy Music’s saxophonist and founder member Andy Mackay makes an appearance. And while John’s electronic alter ego Mekon is always on hand to remix and arrange, he’s far from the only producer behind the proverbial wheel.
“It’s stuff I had lying around and now I am finding ways to get it out of my system,” he says. “It’s all been brought to the world with brilliant new artwork by Isabelle de Jour, who also features on various tracks.”
Gosling is well known as a member of both Psychic TV and Coil (for the album Transparent). Gosling founded the groups Zos Kia with John Balance and Bass-o-Matic with William Orbit before recording as Mekon. He has also remixed under the name Sugar J. And that’s before we get to the fact that he has soundtracked some of the most forward-thinking fashion shows in the world - crafting the soundscapes for Alexander McQueen shows since the show Dante in 1996. Firstly working hand in hand with the late great Lee “Alexander” McQueen, then with his successor Sarah Burton. In the mid-to-late-nineties he was a core member of the group Agent Provocateur along with Matthew Ashman (originally of Bow Wow Wow), Dan Peppe, Danny Saber (of Black Grape) and Cleo Torez. He has also worked with artists such as Roxanne Shanté ('Yes Yes Y'All'), Marc Almond ('Delirious'), and Afrika Bambaataa. His third album “Something Came Up” featured artwork by Alexander McQueen.
John is as passionate about Suicide and Alan Vega and what he describes as “the new stuff”. Besides, he says, “that’s how people listen to music now. I think kids – my kids anyway – listen right across the board. People don’t see genres anymore. So it’s my definition of good music.” It’s safe to say that this is very much Volume 1. “Yes, it doesn’t cover everything and Volume 2 will be completely different.”

- Karen Dalton performance featuring seven never before heard songs - Limited pressing on Sky Blue colored vinyl - Old style, Tip-On Jacket, and 8pp heavy insert featuring a treasure trove of newly discovered photos, and a 6,000 word essay by Kris Needs // In 1962, Karen summoned Richard Tucker to join her in Colorado, extolling the healthier lifestyle, and plentiful gigs at Boulder folk club The Attic. Upon his arrival, the pair solidified their personal and professional relationship, riding horses in the mountains, and performing as a duo at parties and venues throughout Denver and Boulder. Stories of the spell they conjured - and rumours of tapes! - have circulated among friends and musicians who witnessed them, but until now, no recorded evidence had turned up. Shuckin' Sugar is the glorious result of three reel to reel tapes that miraculously found their way to us in November, 2018; which featured two complete shows from The Attic in January '63, and a benefit concert for The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) recorded the following February. Their gigs would often include brief solo sets from Karen and Richard, in addition to the duets, and all seven solo songs of Karen's found on the three reels are included here, as well as five duets, sequenced as close to how it all went down as humanly possible. To describe the record would take a poet, but all I can say is that unveiling a missing chapter in the Karen Dalton story - with six songs we've never heard her sing before - is cause for celebration in Delmore's world.

Anathema's phenomenal live album with the Plovdiv Philharmonic Orchestra reissued on vinyl.

'A band that have mastered the art of aural seduction'- Metal Hammer

In May 2012 Anathema released 'Weather Systems', which became the most acclaimed and successful album of the band's celebrated career. The album

scored high in numerous critics end of year polls around the world and cemented the band's reputation as one of the most exciting and progressive

band around. Following the release of the album the band embarked on a lengthy tour. The European leg opened with a triumphant one-off show at the ancient Roman

theatre of Philippopolis with the Plovdiv Philharmonic Orchestra in September 2012. This incredible show was recorded, and the results were later released in

2013 on Kscope as 'Untouchable'. It is now reissued on double vinyl in a wide spine sleeve. The release of 'Untouchable' follows an extensive worldwide headline tour,

including performances at Download Festival, ArcTanGent and Wembley Arena with Opeth in support of their 2017 studio album 'The Optimist'. The release

won the Album of the Year at the Progressive Music Awards '17, reached the top 10 in the Polish charts, top 20 in Germany, top 40 in the UK, and has 6

million track streams on Spotify. This built on the success of their previous Kscope material, which also won at the Progressive Music Awards, including

Album of the Year, Live Event of the Year & Multimedia Package of the Year for 2010's 'We're Here Because We're Here', 2012's 'Weather Systems' and 2013's 'Universal'.

'A beautiful bit of live magic' - Kerrang

'Sumptuous live recording of a band at their zenith' - Prog

Established in 2014, These Wicked Rivers are Derby’s entry to the new wave of rock and roll that is sweeping across the United Kingdom. Drawing influence from the well of rock legends and blues greats, the band have made quite an impact since their inception with their unique brand of blues-infused modern rock steadily picking up plaudits for their gutsy live performances across the UK and beyond.

The ensemble received a slew of positive reviews for their debut EP ‘The Enemy’ back in 2015 and followed it up with 2017’s ‘II’, gaining them attention within the emerging UK rock scene as well as airplay on Planet Rock radio. Debut album ‘Eden’ was released in May 2020 and brought new levels of critical acclaim, including a Classic Rock Magazine ‘High Hopes’ feature as well as a coveted ‘Track of the Week’ accolade.

On the live circuit the lads have forged an ever-growing fan base through supports with the likes of Massive Wagons, Those Damn Crows, Kris Barras and Hayseed Dixie, as well playing stand-out performances at festivals such as Planet Rockstock, Steelhouse Festival, Stonedead Festival and Giants of Rock. 2024 has proven to be their busiest year yet, kicking off in January with a hometown show that sold out in just 5 hours. Eden's highly anticipated follow up, 'Force of Nature' dropped 1st March 2024 via Fat Earth Records, reaching no. 3 in the UK Rock Charts which called for an almighty (sold out) celebration at Matlock Bath's Grand Pavilion. The band ventured to Europe for the first time in April, delivering 'Peace, Love & Lampshades' to sell-out crowds across France, Germany and The Netherlands before another successful UK tour in May which saw the 'Rivers "Family" of fans continue to grow