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In March 2020, Tahiti 80 had a plan to start recording their new album in the studio. That plan, of course, along with everything else in the world, got derailed. But the five-piece group was resilient and resourceful. They quickly shifted to a socially distanced plan B that included file swapping and virtual sessions, all refereed by producer Julien Vignon. The result, due for release in March 2022, is the buoyant Here With You, a collection of eleven upbeat songs that unfold like a prescription for a post-pandemic panacea.

“When lockdown in France happened, we said, 'We're not going to stay at home not doing anything,'” says singer-guitarist Xavier Boyer. “And our new plan became a hopeful thing, waking up every morning and seeing what the other guys had worked on. It wasn't always easy, but this new method allowed a freer approach where we could really go all the way with an idea without being influenced by each other’s suggestions. It must've been overwhelming for Julien, who ended up selecting all our arrangements. But he stayed positive all the way through.”

To help stay inspired and focused during their time in isolation, the band created a mood board, with the centerpiece a photo of an early '90s rave in the UK.

Boyer says, “Whenever you see pictures from this era, people seem very innocent. There are no cell phones and everybody is in to what they are experiencing. We kept that picture in mind as a kind of mantra that would help everyone feel connected to this idea of people celebrating, gathering and just having fun. We were missing the connection with people, and thought it would be great if we could create music that would inspire that kind of emotion.”

Indeed, the songs on Here With You are brimming the feeling of communion that we've all been missing over the past two years. It's there in the catchy opener Lost in the Sound, which walks the walk with Chic guitar flicks, urban nightfall sparkles and an inviting chorus (“Your heart grooves like a thousand 808s on the right time”). It's there in the Jackson 5-style syncopated bounce of “Vintage Creem,” the lush, dreamy “Breakfast in L.A.” and the panoramic sweep of “UFO.” And it's there in the first single “Hot,” which matches an irresistible groove with a neon-lit, percolating arrangement that evokes the disco clubs of 1979.

What's remarkable is that though Tahiti 80 displays a clear affection for sounds of the past, from bubble gum to '70s soul, they never trade in mere pastiche. Their take is more a slightly warped and playful carnival mirror mash-up of classic pop styles, given depth through Boyer's hang-gliding, coolly emotive vocals and lyrics that often rub against the euphoric grain of the music.

“I like to think of songs as a three-minute drama,” says Boyer. “This concept of drama definitely adds different levels to our music. There's the melody, the lyrics, then the production that can maybe emphasize or counterbalance the interaction between the yin and yang in a song.

“There's a difference between the very upbeat, sunshine-y soft rock and the lyrics, even on our past albums,” he continues. “Not dark, but a little more melancholy, and also looking for some kind of motivation, talking to yourself. Like with a lot of Motown songs, you get that feeling where you body’s dancing while your mind’s reflecting, reminiscing.”

That alluring blend of happy-sad has been a signature part of the Tahiti 80 sound from the time Boyer and bassist Pedro Resende formed the group in 1993, as students at the University of Rouen. Taking their name from a souvenir t-shirt given to Boyer's father in 1980, the duo recruited guitarist Mederic Gontier in 1994, and with the addition of drummer Sylvain Marchand a year later, the lineup was complete. The foursome released a self-produced and self-financed EP, 20 Minutes, in 1996, which resulted a record deal with French label Atmospheriques in 1998. Their full-length debut Puzzle, produced with Ivy's Andy Chase and mixed by Tore Johansson, went gold and featured the international hit “Heartbeat” that established the band throughout Europe and Asia.

In the years since, Tahiti 80 – with the additions of Raphaël Léger on drums and Hadrien Grange on keys - has released eight acclaimed albums. The band has fused what MOJO called a “glorious entente of old and new technology” (including singles like “Yellow Butterfly,” “1000 Times,” “Sound Museum,” “Crush!” and “Big Day,” which was featured on a FIFA video game soundtrack), while collaborating with such producers and arrangers as Richard Swift, Tony Lash and Richard Anthony Hewson, who famously arranged The Beatles' “Long and Winding Road.” Boyer has also put out two solo albums, the first under the anagram Axe Riverboy and the second under his name. In 2019, the band released Fear of an Acoustic Planet, a stripped-down reimagining of some of their best-loved tracks from the previous twenty years. It served not only as a look back but a reminder of their formidable songwriting skills.

Boyer is definitely a student of the timeless three-minute pop song format pioneered by '60s artists like The Beatles and The Beach Boys. He says, “I see it as kind of a frame for a painting. Most of the songs on this album, I wrote a verse, pre-chorus and chorus. There aren't many middle eights. I wanted it to be very concise. I feel like people have less attention. There's so much music. It's too easy to switch off or skip to another track, so I want to hook the listener. The three-minute song is kind of an easy code to crack, but at the same time you have to figure out a new way to tell the stories that we've heard before.”

And the stories on Here With You are very much about the longing for connection. Of the album title, Boyer says, “In the world right now, that can mean a lot of different things. Like missing our fans, missing going to concerts. In a way, it can be a statement of what happened last year, and a wish of 'I want to be here with you again.' It's our ninth album. We've had some had some very open, conceptual titles like Puzzle, Activity Center. Sometimes they were more specific like Fosbury orWallpaper for the Soul. Here with You, seems more personal, more engaging in terms of relationships. When I suggested that title, everyone in the band said, 'Yeah, that's it.'”

Until Tahiti 80 can resume a full tour schedule, Boyer says he hopes the new record will make that personal connection. “If I see from the point of view as a music fan, sometimes I see albums I like as companions throughout my life. So if we can be a part of people's existence, even if it's a song that reminds them of the time they were driving with the windows open and it was sunny. Or a sad song that resonates with them after a breakup. That's what we're all looking for when we're making music. You do this very personal thing and you want it to touch as many people as possible.”

Ltd. Pink Vinyl initial pressing. Lucius returns with their highly-anticipated new album Second Nature. Produced by Dave Cobb and Brandi Carlile, the album features ten new songs, with writing contributions from BRIT Award and Mercury Prize nominated Jenn Decilveo, amongst others. The new album is a portrait of singer and songwriters Holly Laessig and Jess Wolfe's shared reflection, chronicling each other's seismic life shifts_motherhood, divorce, unplanned career pauses. On Second Nature, Wolfe explains, "It is a record that begs you not to sit in the difficult moments, but to dance through them. It touches upon all these stages of grief_and some of that is breakthrough, by the way. Being able to have the full spectrum of the experience that we have had, or that I've had in my divorce, or that we had in lockdown, having our careers come to a halt, so to speak. I think you can really hear and feel the spectrum of emotion and hopefully find the joy in the darkness. It does exist. That's why we made Second Nature and why we wanted it to sound the way it did: our focus was on dancing our way through the darkness." Recorded primarily at Nashville's historic RCA Studio A, the 10-song album was written by Laessig and Wolfe and features their longtime band members Peter Lalish, Dan Molad alongside Solomon Dorsey with additional contributions from Drew Erickson, Rob Moose and Gabriel Cabezas with mixing by Rob Kinelski and Molad as well as Carlile and Sheryl Crow on backing vocals. Second Nature is Lucius' third full-length album and first since 2016's Good Grief. Widely acclaimed since their debut album, The New York Times declares, "Luscious, luminous, lilting lullabies," while NPR Music asserts, "gorgeous, joyful songs" and Pitchfork praises, "powerful voices and a keen sense of melody." In addition to their work in the band, Holly Laessig and Jess Wolfe have recorded with Sheryl Crow, Harry Styles, The War on Drugs, Ozzy Osborne and John Legend and toured extensively alongside Roger Waters.

Lucius returns with their highly-anticipated new album Second Nature. Produced by Dave Cobb and Brandi Carlile, the album features ten new songs, with writing contributions from BRIT Award and Mercury Prize nominated Jenn Decilveo, amongst others. The new album is a portrait of singer and songwriters Holly Laessig and Jess Wolfe's shared reflection, chronicling each other's seismic life shifts_motherhood, divorce, unplanned career pauses. On Second Nature, Wolfe explains, "It is a record that begs you not to sit in the difficult moments, but to dance through them. It touches upon all these stages of grief_and some of that is breakthrough, by the way. Being able to have the full spectrum of the experience that we have had, or that I've had in my divorce, or that we had in lockdown, having our careers come to a halt, so to speak. I think you can really hear and feel the spectrum of emotion and hopefully find the joy in the darkness. It does exist. That's why we made Second Nature and why we wanted it to sound the way it did: our focus was on dancing our way through the darkness." Recorded primarily at Nashville's historic RCA Studio A, the 10-song album was written by Laessig and Wolfe and features their longtime band members Peter Lalish, Dan Molad alongside Solomon Dorsey with additional contributions from Drew Erickson, Rob Moose and Gabriel Cabezas with mixing by Rob Kinelski and Molad as well as Carlile and Sheryl Crow on backing vocals. Second Nature is Lucius' third full-length album and first since 2016's Good Grief. Widely acclaimed since their debut album, The New York Times declares, "Luscious, luminous, lilting lullabies," while NPR Music asserts, "gorgeous, joyful songs" and Pitchfork praises, "powerful voices and a keen sense of melody." In addition to their work in the band, Holly Laessig and Jess Wolfe have recorded with Sheryl Crow, Harry Styles, The War on Drugs, Ozzy Osborne and John Legend and toured extensively alongside Roger Waters.

Der offizielle Soundtrack zur dritten Staffen von Star Trek Discovery auf Blue/White Marble Vinyl. Jeff Russo komponierte bereits die Soundtracks der ersten beiden Staffeln der Erfolgsserie.

The artistic oeuvre of Berlin-based Sonja Deffner is as extensive and diverse as its contexts are high-profile: If the classically trained musician could in recent years be heard as a member of the groups Jason & Theodor, Die Heiterkeit, Globus and PTTRNS, as part of Christiane Rösinger's touring band, or as a recording musician on Andreas Spechtl's (Ja, Panik) albums, she has at the same time produced an acclaimed graphic work, video works and made her theater debut. Under the name Kalme, Deffner now presents her solo debut »Neue Sprache«, which feels like a culmination: Deffner doesn't need much space to present an artistic position of spectacular incisiveness and maturity.

The formal language of Kalme's debut evolves with reference to experimental pop and R&B, but equally informed by ambient electronics or dub techno. Analog and digital sound synthesis meet Deffner's characteristic use of field recordings, acoustic instrumentation (clarinet, percussion) meets musical post-production, sampling meets expressive synthesizer playing. At the center of the album, however, are Deffner's remarkable lyrics, written in German for the first time. Deffner creates a language of stark, emotional poignancy that is as conspiratorial as it is precise. The themes of the tracks develop between the poles of movement and stagnation, understood as motifs of biographical as well as musical ways of being or relating. In this forcefield, personal and political considerations coincide again and again, for example when Deffner reflects on her experiences with the social conditioning of femininity and motherhood.

The album title »Neue Sprache« (»New Language«), then, describes a search for forms of articulation of solidarization: language as a tool of a new relationship to the world that allows testimony to individual experience without reproducing categories of repression. In this way, Kalme's debut simultaneously achieves a radical intimacy, just as, on the other hand, the confrontation of language and sound repeatedly opens up fissures that deny any semblance of comfort. »Neue Sprache« does not stop at this modernist gesture, however, but unquestionably takes a stand. That's what Kalme's »Neue Sprache« ultimately is: the taking of a position. A statement.

Eight Miles High was originally released in 1969 by the Dutch rock band The Golden Earring. It was the first album they released under their slightly shorter name, formerly being The Golden Earrings. The album is titled after their cover of The Byrds’ “Eight Miles High”, of which the full 19-minute version is included. It is the longest track The Golden Earring ever recorded. They recorded the full album at the Olympic Sound Studios in only 5 days time

Das 3. Studioalbum „In The Meantime“ der Ausnahmekünstlerin Alessia Cara ist jetzt auch auf Vinyl erhältlich und beinhaltet 18 fulminante Tracks darunter die introspektiven Singles ”Best Days” und ”Sweet Dream”. Fans weltweit können sich wieder auf ein musikalisches und lyrisches Meisterwerk freuen!

Seit Alessia 2015 mit der Hymne ”Here” zum Star wurde, ist die Singer/Songwriterin mit ihrem Publikum gereift und hat die Höhen und Tiefen der Jugend und des jungen Erwachsenseins mit erstaunlicher
Klarheit eingefangen. Die Debütsingle der Grammy-Gewinnerin, ”Here”, erreichte Platz 5 der Billboard
Hot 100 und verkaufte sich drei Millionen Mal. Ihr mit Platin ausgezeichnetes Debütalbum „Know-ItAll“ lieferte mit „Scars to Your Beautiful” einen weiteren Hit, und mit ”Stay”, einer schwindelerregenden
Club-Kollaboration mit Zedd und einem unvergesslichen Beitrag zu Logics ”1-800-273-8255” fügte sie ihrer
Sammlung weitere Platin-Plaketten hinzu. Die aus Brampton, Ontario, stammende Top-Künstlerin kehrte
2018 mit ”The Pains of Growing” zurück, das einen Juno Award für das beste Album und den Songwriter
des Jahres gewann und Cara als eine der führenden Singer/Songwriterinnen ihrer Generation zementierte.

Spain’s fastest-rising band, Belako are announcing a very specialedition of their 2020 album ‘Plastic Drama’. The new, deluxe double LP will be released on 8th April via BMG and includes exclusive remixes by the likes of Wolf Alice, The Vaccines, Hinds and Crystal Fighters.

Hailing from the small town of Mungia near Bilbao, Belako have been playing non-stop in Spain and beyond these past few years, building a dedicated fanbase in their native country, which has quickly been spilling out into other parts of Europe and the US.
2020’s ‘Plastic Drama’ was the band’s fourth record, but the first since signing a major international record deal, and certainly their most ambitious to date. Self-produced by the band, ‘Plastic Drama' searches for “the real meaning of things in a world that translates everything into assembly lines, manufacturing and the exploitation of living beings,” say the band. “It’s about the harsh reality our generation is facing and the only good use of new technology, which is the ability to spread the word and call for action. The title of the album has another message, as it also reminds us the first world issues we’ve come so keen to complain about. We can only hope for a more responsible human legacy”.

They were named best new band by Rolling Stone Magazine (ES) and ‘Plastic Drama’ picked up top UK support from the likes of 6 Music, Clash, DIY, Dork, The Line Of Best and NME who hailed the record as ‘a bold next step from a band who have never been afraid of the weird or the wonderful. Belako step up and earn their place among the major players of the scene’.

Relentless in their craft and a ferocious live act at their core, Belako were the first band to tour Europe in the summer of 2020, breathing new life into old forgotten Spanish cinema drive-ins across the country for their live shows. The ‘Belako Pandemic Tour’ documentary was premiered at the San Sebastian International Film Festival and will soon arrive on digital platforms.

Having supported the likes of DMA’s, QOTSA and Liam Gallagher at Finsbury Park, and played major international festivals such as Primavera, SXSW, Rock En Seine & Benicassim, Belako’s explosive live performances have excited crowds from small dive bars in their early days to huge international festivals. Their anything-can-happen stage attitude showcases the power, electricity and punk ethos of this exciting young band, which also lead to them being the first ever Spanish act to be booked for the main stage at Reading & Leeds Festival.

Fast forward to 2022, Belako reinvigorate ‘Plastic Drama’ with a 50-date world tour to be announced shortly, kickstarted with the release of their new deluxe edition album in April, featuring remixes by some of alternative music’s biggest names. The band will also celebrate the release with an album launch party on the rooftop of Madrid’s prestigious Riu Plaza on April 6th. Details for all UK dates this summer will be revealed in the coming weeks.

Repress

"Bravery is being the only one who knows you're afraid. KRTM is back with his second work for the label addressing his beautiful knowledge of mixing different purely Rave scenes in one single place.
The artist shows his growth and the brave desire to show to the world his creativity without any filter, for us Artists like this means everything as express fully who we are today, but at the same time reflects what is the sound of our Rave for the future. KRTM is back with a very personal work, "Playtime".

Second release of the new "Live At Fabrik Hamburg" series on Jazzline in
cooperation with the legendary venue and NDR Kultur - is this previously
unreleased concert from jazz great Gil Evans with a 16-strong all-star
cast from 1986
It will be released as a double CD in a three-piece digipak and as a triple LP in a
triple gatefold cover that includes detailed liner notes by Michael Laages. By the
1980s, the Gil Evans Orchestra's repertoire had developed into a distinctive blend
of Jimi Hendrix melodies, the band members' own compositions and occasional
references to Gil's older recordings. This concert in Hamburg contained four
songs by Hendrix, with only one ("Up From The Skies") being part of an original
studio album. The regular performances in Europe meant that the audience of the
band was getting younger and was also well acquainted with rock music.
A year and a half after this performance, Gil Evans passed away. He will rightly be
remembered forever for the brilliant albums he recorded with Miles Davis and
under his own name. In reality, however, he lived three quite contrasting musical
lives. As was the case with his Monday evening concerts in New York's Sweet
Basil, this Hamburg performance is a reminder of the lively late phase of Gil
Evans. Here a great all- star ensemble played an outstanding concert of eight
pieces in over two hours.

Wenn eine internationale Wochenzeitung einen Musiker als »weißen Papst der schwarzen Kunst« betitelt, klingt das verdächtig nach Altersmilde eines Bluesers in den besten Jahren, der die guten schon hinter sich hat. Von wegen! Bei Johnny Winter schlugen die Beurteilungen während seiner Tournee 2011 den Tonfall der frühen Jahre an, als das Blatt "Rolling Stone" den hageren Mississippi-Barden als »schielenden Albino mit langem, fließenden Haar« beschrieb, »der so ziemlich die flüssigste Gitarre spielt, die man jemals gehört hat«.

Ob gewollt oder nicht: man ließ Winter damit ein wenig an dem Rocker-Lorbeer schnuppern, der für den jungen Clapton und Jimi Hendrix reserviert war. Doch Winter lässt hören, dass er nur den Blues wollte, kratzbürstig, um Howlin' Wolfs oder Muddy Waters’ geigenden Höhlengroove zu beschwören, und doch fingerfertig genug an den Saiten, um mit verblüffend geschmeidigem Spiel Tongirlanden herbeizuzaubern, die haarscharf zwischen zwei Taktstriche passen.

Ziemlich cool bleibt Winter, wenn man persönliche Leidenskurven aus seiner Musik herauszulesen versucht: »Wenn ich Blues spiele, geht es mir gut«, diktierte er jüngst einem Journalisten ins Oktavheft. Dass dies auch vor über 40 Jahren schon so war, beweist das Debüt-Album auf beiden Seiten.

Aufnahme: 1969
Produktion: Johnny Winter

To a degree, all musicians are a product of their environment, the places they record and the venues they play. For proof, check out the alumni of the n-wave era CBGBs venue in New York, Cabaret Voltaire’s Western Works studio in Sheffield or more recently London’s Total Refreshment Centre.

We can now add to that list the Constellations Workshop in Colwick, Nottingham, a project that provides employment through making studio furniture, for out-of-work musicians. It was here, after-hours, that the music on Brown Fang’s impressive and ear-catching debut album took shape.

Both members of Brown Fang, bassist John Thompson and guitarist Henry Scott AKA Henry Claude, have a long association with the Constellations Workshop. Though their musical projects are manifold – Thompson having toured with the likes of The Nectarine No9 and The Selecter, with Scott being both a mainstay of Nottingham jazz circuit and recording ambient music as Fang Jr – the work provided by the community-minded project has kept their heads above water and allowed them a space to record in when the shutters go down and the bandsaws get switched off.

Yet the music showcased on Sherwood Pines is more morning-fresh and sun-kissed than industrial and sawdust-sprinkled. Combining the pair’s brilliant musicianship – think languid bass guitars and Pat Martino-esque jazz guitar licks – with saucer-eyed electronics, occasional downtempo drum machine rhythms and plenty of glistening special effects, the set’s eight tracks are as blissful and becalmed as an early morning saunter through Sherwood Forest on a misty autumn morning.

For proof, check epic opener ‘Tracing Paper’, a slow-build ambient soundscape in which bubbly electronic lead lines and colourful chords sashay around Scott’s sparkling, laidback guitars, and the beguiling ‘That’s All You Can Think’, a subtle tribute to Steve Reich masterpiece ‘Electric Counterpoint’ in which slow-burn, stretched out synthesizer sounds wave in and out of a gradually evolving cycle of delay-laden electric guitar motifs.

The band’s love of classic American minimalism – as well as a shared love of the Duratti Column and Robert Fripp – comes to the fore on ‘HDMI I Love You’, which boasts a deliciously dubby bassline, Tangerine Dream style synths and the deepest of ambient chords, while ‘I Nearly Married a Human’ and ‘Fridgewords’ balance bespoke electronics – languid, dewy eyed and comforting – with Scott’s gorgeously laidback, slow-release guitars.

Every great album needs a triumphant conclusion, and Sherwood Pines is no different. You can hear everything that makes Brown Fang great on ‘Goodbye Donkey Jacket’, from the pin sharp, effects laden jazziness of Scott’s guitars and the fluid dexterity of Thompson’s bass, to the pleasingly spacey pulse of the synths and the gentle rhythms of the soft-focus machine drums. It’s a confident, ear-catching conclusion to a debut album that’s been years in the making.

"We’ve reached book IV in Rupert Clervaux’s series of “Zibaldone” audio diaries, at which point we find him telling a different kind of story.

“The first three all had very specific themes, while this one feels a little bit looser and doesn’t have just one thematic thrust,” he tells me, which maybe explains why listening feels a bit like annotating. I’m underlining, emphasizing, drawing arrows from here to there, highlighting symbols and noting motifs, realising, questioning, eureka-ing. An impressionistic meaning’s been encoded in and we’re lucky to be given the space to play that most poetic and boundless of all mental games: narrativization.

There are no wrong answers, but Rupert offers some clues either way. If there’s any cipher here it’s “something like a meditation on the concept of ‘depth’––in all its connotative forms.” Think below the surface, (the) underground, yawning oceans, being ‘down in the dirt’, soil, roots, rootlessness, pulling at the dregs, collapse, profundity, stable and unstable horizons, distance, perspective, intuition, not to mention relative opposites: to be shallow, to be above, to be beyond.

It’s got me thinking of Bresson’s “Bring things together that have as yet never been brought together and did not seem predisposed to be so.” His: “Dig deep where you are. Don't slip off elsewhere.” Rupert has realized these—two favourite goals of mine!—here.

This is music that catches you at your own periphery, gives pause, has you offering a little “huh” to, asking “I wonder why” to. Again, it’s got me musing on another mindworm, this time from New York publisher and multi-sensory reading room Dispersed Holdings: “Feeling-making-knowing feedback loop; cartography of feeling; water as text, read to know the land beneath and around it, and body as reader.”

Is it ok to offer up these other contexts out of context? I think so, because Zibaldone IV articulates a similarly swirly tone. Like, we’ve got Rebecca Solnit talking through Kropotkin’s “Mutual Aid” and later calling out to Michael Ruppert a ways away, and “Easy Rider” is playing in the wings. We’ve got Susan Sontag magically contextualizing Mariah Carey with poet Thylias Moss triangulating in order to sketch out (Rupert again) “something a little more interesting than wilful eclecticism or that laboured and patronising kind of pop-savvy.”

Are we following? Whether yes or no Vanessa Bedoret follows on with a performance of a performance of Moss’s 'Water Road’: to be once or twice removed, via strange transitions, purposeful confusions, and, suddenly, seagulls. We’re on a boat with Ingeborg Bachmann—and how I wish I could actually be! But maybe thanks to this music I can as literature, films, friends, lethargy, coincidences, little mental links, eternal wormholes, lingering notions come together to imagine something better."

Text by Natalia Panzer

Planet Mu presents ‘ADDLE’ – Bogdan Raczynski’s first album of new music in 15 years. Marking a change from the high-octane jungle tekno braindance for which he is most commonly known, here we find the Polish American musician in a more melodic and zen-like place of peace, which is ergonomic and decluttered, whilst also bittersweet and tinged with melancholy. ‘ADDLE’ is closest in spirit to 2001’s tender ‘myloveilove’, or the light-hearted ditties of this year’s ‘BANANS’ EP, but is also a markedly new milestone. A robust and bottom-heavy rhythm section juxtaposes with sad electronic tear jerkers, at points laced with the soft cooing wail of his vocals, which are loaded with a haunting, heavy and almost wounded emotion. Bogdan comments “Calm is great. You need to take a breather in the eye of the storm now and then. But the real growth happens in turbulence, when your feelings oscillate in and out of sync. It’s not dry land you’re after. You’re trying to build a new island while on a piddly raft. Beleaguered and weary you lay the foundation with your bare hands while the rain lashes your back; a new place for you and yours to moor yourself to until the next storm hits. ‘ADDLE’ is about that storm, its adjacent periphery, and what you look like, in and out, when you set foot. As space and time push against you, that process of adapting becomes an anchor. Among that state of being addled, out of flow, seemingly untethered, there is beauty.”

Although less unhinged and riotous than some of his previous work, ‘ADDLE’ is no less impactful. Lean, punchy and purposeful, this seemingly simple combination of beats and melody belies a razor sharp skill, which bursts with verve and virtuosity. Across its eight unique and moving tracks the listener experiences tenderness, feelings somewhere between unease and comfort, and a sense of reflection, with Bogdan seemingly gazing at twinkling stars, but with his view distorted by welling-up. Sonically, spaces range from razor-sharp choppage, juddering heavyweight head-nodders, bit-crushed siren squall and something akin to Philip Glass’ ‘Candyman’ score played through a high-tech-fairy-tale music box. There’s also a warming, life-affirming moment as close to deep house as Bogdan will ever comfortably get, neck-snapping metallic percussion, Casiotone on steroids and reverberant warehouse throb. Booming drum machines are a prominent factor too – reminiscent of early hip hop instrumentals – but spirited off somewhere, lost in purgatory. Bogdan Raczynski (born 1977) is a Polish-American electronic musician. Raczynski’s work draws inspiration from the chaotic breakbeats of jungle and hardcore rave as well as traditional Polish music and other sources. He has collaborated with Bjork, remixed Autechre, CLPNG and Jonsi from Sigur Ross, and toured with Aphex Twin, who commented how “his records are so underrated.” Bogdan was also a roster mainstay of Richard James’s seminal Rephlex label, with additional releases on Warp, Ghostly, Disciples and Unknown to the Unknown. A keen proponent of tech, he created a sample pack using pollution and recently collaborated with Polyend on a custom made banana-themed tracker.

Als Jóhann Jóhannsson im Winter 2018 überraschend in Berlin starb, endete auch ein hochinteressantes Zusammenspiel der Künste. Jóhann Jóhannsson hatte es gewagt, hatte Musik und Literatur, Musik und Theater, Musik und Film in seinen Kompositionen miteinander kommunizieren lassen, sehr innovativ, oft melancholisch, immer tiefgründig, klassische und elektronische Elemente verschmelzend.
Den Philanthropen und Kunstsammler Richard Thomas interessierten genau solche Grenzgänge. Er stellte sich vor, dass ein Werk entsteht, bei dem die bildende Kunst und die Musik in einen Dialog treten, sich
jedoch nicht gegenseitig übermalen, einander in Produktion und Interpretation nicht nachlaufen, sondern eins werden. Und er hatte einen Künstler vor Augen, den Berliner Maler Thilo Heinzmann, der seinerseits sofort an Jóhann Jóhannsson dachte.

(Re-Issue)

This reissued standard vinyl edition of Jóhannsson’s brilliant and seven years in the making work 'Last and First Men' is replacing the limited edition box set, that has originally been released with the album. Please note the Blu-Ray and art prints from the limited edition box set are not included. While composing haunting, elegiac concept albums of lost utopias and working for TV and film the Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson was thinking about a project on an even larger scale since 2010 - a multimedia work that would include his own visual concept, direction and music. Based on the cult science fiction novel by Olaf Stapledon, Jóhann Jóhannsson's opus magnum Last and First Men artfully combines music, film and narration from Tilda Swinton, sitting somewhere between fiction and documentary to form a poetic meditation on memory and loss.

In the vast musical archive that is Roman Flügel’s discography, Ro70 holds a special place. Written, performed and produced between January and July 1995, it is his debut album as a full-fledged solo artist. Enquired and inspired by a certain David Moufang from Heidelberg, who used to share a classroom with Jörn Elling Wuttke at the SAE Institute and revealed himself to be an Acid Jesus fan and also of the Roman IV 12“ project, it seemed like a good fit for his (and Jonas Grossmann’s) Source Records label.
In the days before file sharing that meant going back and forth with various DATs in his mom’s Volkswagen Polo Fox for actual listening sessions between Darmstadt and Heidelberg. The time was as special and idiosyncratic one as was the sound of Source Records and of course Ro 70 itself. While the rave-olution was ready to eat its kids with the commercial outlook of former underground phenomena looked bright and the scene’s prophecy seemed grim, enterprises like Source and artist like Roman Flügel were defying any competition out of those corners with their own means.
Listening back to the ten tracks of Ro 70, it proves them, their taste and artistic vision right. Probably still being put into the ambient, downtempo, electronica or chill out sections of most record shops, this music could have been made, relished and cherished anytime between 1995 and now. Made in Roman’s home studio in his parent’s house or in the Klangfabrik studio in Egelsbach, this was made for before or after the rave – or for people who din’t want to have to do anything with it at all. His signature is all over it. Well balanced soundscapes with an almost uncanny presence and clarity. Bittersweet symphonies that doesn’t seem to be in an inferior position to modern classical or electronic studies.
It is also a very personal testament to a time in the artists’s life that was ready to get caught in the maelstrom of the oscillating techno city called Frankfurt am Main and its halcyon days between the Delirium record shop, Sven Väth’s marathon sets, the early days of the label triumvirate Playhouse, Klang & Ongaku. In a musical journal without lyrics, those memories will have to stay pantomimic and private. All for the better, that we can at least still listen to them.

With the two-part EP Mediterranean Dreams, Perugia producer and composer Feel Fly revisits his musical roots and pays tribute to the sounds and ‘sun-kissed nostalgia’ that informed his style.


Mediterranean Dreams Part 1 collected four tracks, and added that Feel Fly touch of emotive chord progressions and layered production onto cosmic disco grooves to powerful dancefloor effect. Now with Mediterranean Dream Part 2, Feel Fly switches the tempo both up and down, to fully demonstrate his affinity for club moments of all shapes and sizes.


Nebula flies out the gate with full intent, recalling classic Detroit techno while pushing the vibe even more wide-screen - it’s driving, melodic dance music that delivers on the fine details as much as it does on the life-affirming, big picture sentiment.


Optical Bells opens in meditative style, not unlike a new dawn in a Tibetan monastery, before each element of the track slowly reveals itself and assumes its place. It’s an arrangement technique that Feel Fly employs masterfully, and gives the impression of a camera lens moving into focus, or a storyteller setting the scene. The revolving chord changes pull you in and while whisking you away, you’re compelled to engage with the moment - like being asked to dance by a mysterious stranger.


The B side kicks off with Luce Eterna Ai Sognatori, still keeping the tempo high while cherry-picking disco house drum patterns and piano synths with a slight Italo flavor to create an irresistible slice of dancefloor dessert. This is a soundtrack for Sognatori, in whose dreams anything is possible.


The EP finishes up with a superb cut of echoey balearic dub in the form of Templum Dub. Putting the drums through its mixing desk paces, Feel Fly reanimates the drum kit with delays, phasers and flangers, and wraps it up in hazy drifting pads that could accompany any moment of contemplation - from that morning espresso to a midnight phone call.


Mediterranean Dreams Part 2 acts as the perfect compliment to its prequel Part 1, and shows a producer at the height of his powers, reimagining his musical roots and composing a love letter to the sounds and stories of his youth.

Clear Vinyl

The Psychedelic Romance experience is birthed, combining future-facing electronic music, art and healing. The venture is a collaboration between former Trouw & De School resident JP Enfant, energy practitioner & artist Cuevawolf and artist & label manager Maren Monika Brombeiss. It will offer an immersive sensory experience to its audience via an event series and label, with music produced at 432hz, a frequency known to uplift emotional wellbeing.

The trio linked in Amsterdam last year. JP had been previously running Psychedelic Romance events at the legendary Trouw, an opportunity he used to explore the musical terrain linking techno, UK bass and ambient. Over the years, the cream of the underground scene was invited to play, from Pearson Sound to boundary-pushing dubstep/bass producer 2562. He met Cuevawolf by chance mid-way through 2020, after fate would have the Mexican artist “stuck” in the Dutch capital during the pandemic. The click was instantaneous. Seasoned music industry professional and yoga practitioner Maren Monika completed the triangle. Together they seek to combine their passion for cutting-edge electronic music with consciousness-raising events and healing.
The label strand of Psychedelic Romance comes to life via JP Enfant’s ‘Somewhere Else EP’, a veritable musical Rubik’s Cube encompassing techno, ambient and bass. The five-track work includes a remix of lead track ‘Muzieklokaal’ from Bristol’s acclaimed experimental producer LCY, who reworks the playful original into a dynamic pastiche of industrial breaks and techno.

Dubbed a “local legend” of the Amsterdam scene by RA, JP Enfant has built up a credible reputation with gigs across Europe including Berghain, Melt Festival and fabric. His nuanced approach to techno has seen releases on Planet X, a.r.t.less and DGTL Records.

The conscious ethos of the project runs through every thread of Psychedelic Romance. Alongside the music being produced at 432hz, a frequency believed to support a calm body and mind, at upcoming Psychedelic Romance events, Cuevawolf will play the crystal singing bowls, which will transition the night from an uplifting sound healing session into an immersive electronic rave experience, led by JP. “Our goal is to create purposeful healing frequencies through music and art that ultimately raises and harmonizes our audience’s vibration,” Cuevawolf explains. “The idea is to marry electronic music and spirituality providing a safe space for transcendental and self-healing experiences that evolve onto a dancefloor.”

Psychedelic Romance hosted an intimate family and friends gathering during ADE week at Amsterdam’s Pamela, with music led by JP and emerging Amsterdam selector DJ Corridor. On the label front, other artists slated for appearances on Psychedelic Romance include Dutch techno artist Mary Lake and ascendant Austrian talent Arthur Robert.

180g LP + 10" im Gatefold mit Thermographie, bedruckten Innenhüllen und Download Coupon. GY!BE kehrt mit einem weiteren Soundtrack für unsere Zeit zurück, wie ihn nur dieses unnachahmliche und ehrwürdige Ensemble schmieden kann. Das neue Album besteht aus zwei fesselnden, 20-minütigen, LP-Seiten füllenden Epen aus lärmgetränktem Breitwand-Post-Rock, während die beiden begleitenden 6-minütigen Stücke der 10" die Band aus Kanada in ihrer verheerendsten, eindringlichsten und elegischsten Form zeigen. Unerbittliches Tuckern blüht auf, während einige der hochfliegenden, brennenden Melodien der Band inmitten von Geigen- und Basskontrapunkt abprallen und zusammenlaufen. Field Recordings und aufgewühlte, halb-improvisierte Passagen umrahmen diese inbrünstigen Epen. Ergreifende Atmosphären, geräuschhafte Orchestrierung, Drone, hypnotische Swingtime-Crescendos, unaufhaltsam geschichtete Türme aus verzerrtem Klargesang: STATE'S END verkörpert jede geliebte Facette der Band. Fünfundzwanzig Jahre später ist dieses neue Album so vital, mitreißend, zeitgemäß und unerbittlich wie jedes andere in der geschichtsträchtigen Diskographie von Godspeed You! Black Emperor. So wie STATE'S END die ganze Bandbreite der klanglichen Trademarks von Godspeed vereint, so umspannt auch das Album-Artwork die gesamte visuelle Geschichte der Band: die körnige, monochromatische Fotografie der letzten Veröffentlichungen findet ihren Weg auf die Innenhüllen, während das Klappcover auf die ikonischen Grafiken früherer Klassiker wie Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada und Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven zurückgreift. STATE'S END ist mit Illustrationen von William Schmiechen versehen, wobei die Taijitu-Blumen auf der Vorderseite und die Tränengaskanister auf der Rückseite des Covers in erhabener, thermografischer, schwarzer Tinte auf dem Doppelvinyl-Albumcover abgebildet sind. Das leuchtende Kreuz von Godspeeds Debütalbum F#A#INFINITY taucht auch auf der Innenseite des Klappdeckels wieder auf, als wiederkehrende Hommage an das elektrifizierte Hügelkreuz in der Heimatstadt der Band in Montreal. STATE'S END wurde im Oktober 2020 in Montreal im Homebase-Studio der Gruppe, Thee Mighty Hotel2Tango, von Jace Lasek aufgenommen und abgemischt, dem altgedienten und preisgekrönten Indie-Produzenten (und Mitbegründer von The Besnard Lakes), der mit Godspeed bei dieser Aufnahme zum ersten Mal zusammenarbeitet. Danke fürs Zuhören. UNSERE SEITE MUSS GEWINNEN. (R.I.P. D.H.) ENG audiophile 180gLP + 10" in gatefold jacket with thermography, colour flood interior, artworked inners, DL card. GYBE returns with another soundtrack for our times, like only this inimitable and venerable ensemble can forge. As the heretical impudence of the anarcho-punk title implies, Godspeed harnesses some particularly raw power, spittle and grit across two riveting 20-minute side-length trajectories of noise-drenched widescreen post-rock: inexorable chug blossoms into blown-out twang, as some of the band's most soaring, searing melodies ricochet and converge amidst violin and bassline counterpoint. Field recordings and roiling semi-improvised passages frame these fervent epics, and two shorter self-contained 6-minute pieces find the band at its most devastatingly beautiful, haunting and elegiac. Poignant atmospherics, noisedrenched orchestration, drone, hypnotic swingtime crescendos, inexorably-layered towers of distorted clarion sound: STATE'S END encapsulates every beloved facet of the band. Twenty-five years on, this new album is as vital, stirring, timely and implacable as any in Godspeed You! Black Emperor's storied discography. Just as STATE'S END summons the gamut of Godspeed's constituent sonic trademarks, so the album artwork spans the entirety of the band's visual history: the grainy monochromatic photography of recent releases finds its way onto the inner sleeves, while the gatefold cover art harkens back to the iconic graphics of earlier classic records like Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada and Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven. STATE'S END features illustrations by William Schmiechen, with the front cover taijitu flowers and back cover tear gas canisters rendered in raised thermographic black ink on the double-vinyl album jacket. The illuminated cross from Godspeed's debut F#A#8 also makes a reappearance on the inside gatefold drawing, in recurrent homage to the electrified hilltop landmark crucifix of the band's Montreal hometown. STATE'S END was recorded and mixed in Montreal in October 2020 at the group's homebase studio Thee Mighty Hotel2Tango by Jace Lasek, the veteran awardwinning indie producer (and co-founder of The Besnard Lakes) who works with Godspeed for the first time on this recording. Thanks for listening. OUR SIDE HAS TO WIN. (R.I.P. D.H.)

This album is a tribute to Pastor Wylie Champion, who died while we were in the process of releasing this, his first record, and his wife, Mother Champion, who died a few months earlier. We met Pastor Champion a few years ago while we were putting together another release, The Time for Peace Is Now: Gospel Music About Us. We found him in a collection of YouTube videos from the 37th Street Baptist Church in Oakland, California, put together by the pastor there, Bishop Dr. W.C. McClinton. There was quite a lot of talent in those videos, and among them was Pastor Champion whom we liked so much that we decided to make a record with him. Pastor Champion wasn’t like any other pastor you’ve ever met. As an itinerant preacher, a carpenter, and a father of five, he made a name for himself traveling up and down the California coast with his electric guitar. He traveled alone and he played alone, well into his seventies. The easiest way to describe him would be as an outsider gospel artist. Other than these bare facts, we never learned much about him—except that he was also the brother of the well-known soul singer Bettye Swann. In fact, most of what we knew about him we got from his sister’s Wikipedia page. We decided that because we met Champion through the 37th Street Baptist Church, we would record him there too. We recorded him live on a two-track Nagra reel to reel, as we wanted the album to be analog in the style of traditional gospel recordings. Over the course of two evenings (when the workday was done), Champion taught his band—musicians who had never played together before—a handful of songs, a small selection of the nearly 2,000 fragments of songs and sermons that he regularly performed. We listened in as they all got more familiar with the material and each other over time. At some point, we mentioned to Champion that he would have to be interviewed by someone to write notes for the album. He wasn’t too pleased with this idea, saying he’d had a hard life and he didn’t want to talk about it. Over the next few months, we kept asking Champion to talk to someone about his life. He told us that he didn’t want to talk about growing up in Louisiana, his mother being accosted by the Klan, or that his father was a gambler. He didn’t want to talk about being jailed for 90 days for using a whites only bathroom, being in gangs or having a street name. We told him that was fine—he could talk about what he wanted to talk about. And he told us that he didn’t want to talk about anything. You know, there are times when you make a record where it’s already made in your mind before you start. But then in the end, the record you thought you were making is not the record you made. We spent years puzzling over this one, trying to figure out what it was saying, who it was for, and how to get people to pay attention to it. But Champion knew that this record wasn’t going to be for everyone. He didn’t really care. The important part for him was just getting the message out there in the same way that he always had, travelling alone with his electric guitar. “I want to say what I mean,” he said, “be practical, precise, to the point, and, at the same time, diplomatic.” In other words, he just wanted to be a good man. God bless Pastor Champion and Mother Champion, peace be with them and their family. Love to all.

Chris Imler likes to play drums standing up. He‘s the dandy with the killer offbeat, or, as one major German newspaper once put it, the "Grand Seigneur of the Berlin Underground". He has been making his mark on countless Berlin musical affairs since long before the fall of the Wall, with The Golden Showers, Peaches, Oum Shatt, Driver &Driver, Die Türen, Jens Friebe, to name but a few. He has also been perfoming across Europe as a solo artist for the past decade.

In "Operation Schönheit" (German for "Operation Beauty"), he has recorded his most, well, beautiful album to date. But Benedikt Frey's warm production subverts its own beauty with a multitude of clanking and ingling synth sounds, making the work very much about the cosmetic surgery it performs on itself. It's all in the tradition of the more experimental and electronic side of post-punk in which Imler and his unique groove are rooted. It doesn't take insider knowledge of Berlin's post-punk underground to realise that that Imler groove consists of rhythm that sings, vocals that dance and a look that fits, as illustrated by "Disappoint Me", his latest video: https://youtu.be/YeVJ75ljjB8

Elsewhere - such as in "Movies" - the rhythm sings, less electronically reduced, into the acoustics of an old, high-ceilinged Berlin apartment; metal clatters, a zither trembles and Imler plays with the metronome. Sometimes he moves ahead of time, sometimes trails behind it. He always manages to be in his very own groove, which carries everything along. And this is precisely the essence of the Imler rhythm, which lends itself to being applied to the very rhythm of life: Stretch and compress your time and loop it according to your own groove! Optimise nothing but feel everything! And dance to it! Even when contemplating everyday information overload, as Imler's high-speed mumbling suggests in the hectic yet smooth opening track "Temperature".

But being the ultimate night owl he is, Imler manages to make even the odd bout of paranoia seem like a good thing: like some kind of krauty, groovy B-horror-soundtrack-inflected high-pressure environment, "Whip Me" is a cross between Conrad Schnitzler and Bauhaus. In the title track, whose lyrics were written together with Jens Friebe, he intones: "You want to be something greater / You break your leg / When it heals again / You break it again" and sounds like the most gleeful fatalist you can imagine. Because in his city, one can still lose oneself better than anywhere else - a night easily becomes a whole universe that can be traversed, marvelled at and played with, and one might find one's old self again only when hearing "church bells" and "small birds singing". At least that's how Imler illustrates it in "Emptiness full of stars", and it seems likely that those "stars" are the human companions of the Berlin night in question.

And so once again Imler becomes Berlin's most important cultural ambassador: that scene of the eternally, and somehow successfully, failing creatures of the night, once the envy of the international postmodern bohème, has, despite many claims to the contrary, not been completely "optimised away", and its attitude to life is perfectly summed up in Imler's groove. And, of course, his look. "Schau Hin" (German for "Look!"), he sings in the track of the same name, masterfully dubbed out with the help of Melbourne's Leo James.

Quite right! Look - and listen.

Yours, Johannes von Weizsäcker (The Chap)

Vinyl Edition of 300 copies

Aesthetical in collaboration with Sync presents "Detect" by Marco Monfardini.

Originally developed as an audio/video live performance, Marco Monfardini based his research for Detect on the decoding of inaudible sounds, sound generated by electromagnetic emissions left from electronic devices and inaudible to the human ear. By using various electro-smog detectors Marco Monfardini creates a sort of detection mapping where electromagnetic emissions are the starting point for the sonorous development of each single composition.

A path that creates a parallel with our lives by questioning how much these emissions affect unconsciously our choices, tastes and perceptions, seeking a relationship between the massive use of technology in everyday life and our emotional state.
The album Detect is developed in 15 tracks in continuous play, an imperfect, faulty mosaic inhabited by invisible beings manifesting themselves in the form of sound streams, mutable entities that find a definitive form in the pattern of the compositional structure.

The album opens with “aR1 detection", sounds of pure detection place themselves in the sound space giving the initial coordinates for the exploration of unconscious parallel areas. The boundaries transform and gradually expand until they flow into the structure of "kernel variations", a growing rhythmic pattern decodes the impulses projecting a perspective that dissolves in the unstable and fluctuating electromagnetic emissions of the subsequent "[a]3020t detection", "binary defect "and "core[2] ". “[A.box]emission” confronts the use of sound downloaded random from internet sample banks and the emissions generated during the download itself, micro sound fragments arrange themselves in an organized and regular pattern, shaping a rhythmic structure. The first part ends with the short “[sa]6030” and “[det]x1a”, absence and presence provide an alternation of movements, inaudible and elusive signals all trying to establish a contact with our perception. “det : scan” opens the second part of Detect, a sort of scanning, leaving EMF (electromagnetic field) textures, a static multilayer that progressively expands until it dissolves into the rhythmic emissions of a common smartphone “[4s]detection”.The track “[rs]zone” " is pushing itself deeper, two minutes of sound speleology that reveal the existence of sound artifacts that seem to vanish getting in contact with the light accented by the bass drum of "[det] 0100+" a constant, rhythmic pumping, a luminous pulsation that reveals an apparent void, which seems to subside entering in the winding and waving atmosphere of "conductive [area]" and "[s3] microfunktion". Detect comes to the end with “[emf]terminal” a mirror of the unarrestable technological acceleration intercepting the flow of data that feeds the system of communication , digital micro waste suffocates the living space by centering up the invisible in an unconscious map.

[a] A1

[c] A3

[e] A5 core[2]
[f] A6 [A.box]emission (2)
[g] A7

[i] B2 [4s]detection
[j] B3
[k] B4 [det]0100+
[l] B5 conductive[area]
[m] B6 [s3]microfunktion
[n] B7 [emf]terminal

Mit „Sweet Unknown“ veröffentlicht die US-Amerikanische Gruppe Ceramic Animal ihr viertes Studioalbum am 04. März 2022. Die aus Doylestown/Pennsylvania stammenden Brüder und Freunde lassen sich nicht auf Genre beschränken: Von Glam, über Post-Punk und Psych Rock, bis zu 70er Pop & Folk sind alle Einflüsse dabei.

Ceramic Animal besteht aus den drei Brüdern Chris Regan (Gesang, Gitarre), Erik Regan (Schlagzeug), Elliott Regan (Gesang, Keyboard) und deren Kindheitsfreunden Anthony Marchione (Gitarre), sowie Dallas Hosey (Gesang, Bass).

Nachdem sie ihre ersten drei Studioalben komplett selbst finanziert, produziert und veröffentlicht haben, schreiten sie nun auf neuen Wegen und kollaborieren mit dem Grammy-ausgezeichneten The Black Keys Frontmann Dan Auerbach als Songwriter und Produzent. Zudem veröffentlichen sie das Album bei dem von Dan Auerbach gegründeten Label Easy Eye Sound. Der Titeltrack ist eine von Roy Orbison inspirierte Meditation über die andere Seite. ”Lyrisch und klanglich verkörpert ’Sweet Unknown’ ein Eintauchen in eine ungewisse, aber wunderschöne Dunkelheit”, sagt Schlagzeuger Erik Regan.

Das gesamte Album taucht in eine Welt ein, in der intime Liebende sich allmählich verlieren und einander
gegenüber kalt werden und in der flackernde Erinnerungen an bessere Zeiten den einzigen Trost bieten.

Liebe, was sonst?
Warum sich immer entscheiden, wenn man beides kann. Sich in die Wolken träumen und dabei mit den Beinen fest am harten Betonboden stehen, bedrückend-raue Musik machen, die das Leben dennoch feiert und liebkost. Love A.M. denken groß und klingen groß. Packen düstere Synthie-Sounds und E-Drums mit schneidenden Post-Punk-Gitarrenriffs zusammen, wickeln das ganze dick in Dream-Pop-Zuckerwatte ein. Haben keine Scheu vor eingängigen Melodien, aber wissen auch, dass Ohrwürmer allein nicht genug sind.

In seiner mehr als drei Jahrzehnte umspannenden Karriere hat sich der Komponist und Multiinstrumentalist Arjen Lucassen weltweit als treibende Kraft des Progressive Rock etabliert. Der vielseitig begabte Niederländer ist vor allem für sein Rockopernprojekt Ayreon bekannt, widmet sich aber auch regelmäßig musikalischen Nebenprojekten, die alle verschiedenen Aspekte seiner musikalischen Persönlichkeit erforschen.Lucassen ist bestrebt, bei Star One eine gleichbleibende Sängerbesetzung beizubehalten. Für 'Victims of the Modern Age' hat er die hochkarätige Besetzung der Leadsänger des ersten Albums 'Space Metal' (2002) wieder zusammengeführt: Russell Allen (Symphony X), Damian Wilson (Headspace, Threshold), Floor Jansen (ReVamp, ex-After Forever), und Dan Swanö (Nightingale, Second Sky, ex-Edge Of Sanity). Die unterschiedlichen Gesangsstile dieser großartigen Vokalisten, die von hochfliegenden Power-Vocals über eindringlich-melodische Passagen bis hin zu brutalem Growl reichen, verleihen jedem Song eine atemberaubende Vielfalt an stimmlichen Texturen.Was die Instrumente betrifft, so spielte der Holländer die Rhythmusgitarren, die Hammondorgel, das Mellotron, die Solina-Streicher und die analogen Synthesizer selbst ein und lud Schlagzeuger Ed Warby (Ayreon, Hail of Bullets, Gorefest) und Bassist Peter Vink ein, die kraftvollen Rhythmusspuren zu liefern. Außerdem holte er sich die einschüchternden Solokünste des ehemaligen After Forever-Keyboarders Joost van den Broek und des Gitarristen Gary Wehrkamp (Shadow Gallery), die beide charakteristisch glühende Soli beisteuerten. Zusätzlich zu dieser formidablen Besetzung rekrutierte Lucassen drei weitere Sänger - Mike Andersson (Cloudscape, Full Force, Silent Memorial), Rodney Blaze und den ehemaligen Black Sabbath-Frontmann Tony Martin - für einige Bonustracks des Albums.Zum ersten Mal ist 'Victims of the Modern Age' auf Vinyl als Gatefold 2LP+2CD & LP-Booklet erhältlich, sowie als Ltd. 2CD Digipak und Digitales Album (2CD).

Gerald Clayton gehört zu den wichtigsten Modern-Jazz-Pianisten unserer Zeit. Auf seinem zweiten BlueNote-Album will sich der sechsfach Grammy-nominierte Musiker mit den Auswirkungen der abstrakten Kraft der Zeit auseinandersetzen.

Bei der spannenden Umsetzung in mal lyrische, mal swingende, mal treibende Jazz-Klänge unterstützen ihn niemand Geringeres als sein berühmter Mentor Charles Lloyd am Saxophon, sein Vater John Clayton am Bass, Justin Brown am Schlagzeug und erstmals MARO als Vokalist.

Zu hören sind Originale, Stücke des katalanischen Komponisten Federico Mompou und von Geralds Onkel Jeff Clayton sowie zwei atemberaubende Solo-Klavierversionen des Standards „My Ideal“

Die „britischen Eagles“ sind im Anflug. Am 15. Oktober erschien„Enjoy The Ride“, das neue Werk der
Frontm3n!

Das zweite Studioalbum von Peter Howarth (The Hollies), Pete Lincoln (Ex-The Sweet) und Mick Wilson (Ex-10cc) beeindruckt mit tollen Melodien, eindrucksvollem Harmoniegesang, frischem Sound und feinstem Songwriting!

Anders als bei ihrem 2018er Debutalbum, als das Star-Trio den Fans in der Mehrzahl noch tolle NeuArrangements der Mega-Hits ihrer „alten“ Bands servierten, enthält die neue Scheibe zwölf nagelneue,
selbstgeschriebene und von Mick Wilson fein produzierte Songs, die dennoch 1:1 nach Frontm3n klingen und auch Fans von Toto und den Eagles komplett auf ihre Kosten kommen lassen. - Jetzt auch als 2LP!

Die Popband aus Thal schaffte trotz Pandemie mit ihrem Partyhit „Marie“ und der Folgesingle „Sono il Destino“ den Durchbruch im gesamten deutschsprachigen Raum. Mit „Marie“ gelang ein Hit für die
Geschichtsbücher! Ihre aktuelle Single „Bowie“ stürmt derzeit die Charts.

Doch was ist die Essenz von ALLE ACHTUNG? Optimismus, Lebensfreude und eine geballte Ladung Liebe, verpackt in einer Symphonie aus harmonischem Krawall. Genau diese Gegensätze machen ALLE ACHTUNG zu einem Unikat und inspirieren den Titel
ihres kommenden Albums.

„Liebe & Krawall“ erscheint am 1. April 2022 und beinhaltet die Hits „Marie“, „Bowie“ und „Sono Il Destino“ sowie noch nie gehörte Titel mit garantierten Hitpotential. Was meint die Band mit ROMANTISCH
RANDALIEREN? Ist das COOL ODER NICHT? Was klar ist: wer tanzen, träumen, lachen, weinen oder mitschreien möchte, für jede Emotion ist gesorgt.

Nach über 12 Millionen Streams, einer Gold- und Platin-Auszeichnung in Österreich und Auftritten in TV- Shows wie dem ZDF Fernsehgarten, der Roland Kaiser Show, den ORF Stars am Wörthersee, ORF
Studio 2, ORF Guten Morgen Österreich, ATV Heinzl & die VIPs, der ARD Silvestershow, ORF Gartenparty der Stars und vielen mehr, war ALLE ACHTUNG auch zwei Mal für den Amadeus Austrian Music Award nominiert.

"Ten years after signing his first record deal with Big Machine Label Group’s The Valory Music Co., arena-packing superstar Thomas Rhett — dubbed “the most reliable maker of No. 1 singles in country music” (Variety) — has five studio albums, 18 MULTI-PLATINUM and GOLD-certified No. 1 hits, 12 BILLION streams and the longest current active streak of consecutive No. 1s in the format (Mediabase/Country Aircheck Chart). He has been honoured with eight ACM Awards including Entertainer of the Year, two CMA Awards, five GRAMMY® Awards nominations, plus trophies from the CMT Music Awards, Billboard Awards and iHeartRadio Awards, in addition to being recognized with two CMA Triple Play awards for penning three No. 1 songs within a 12-month period. Thomas Rhett is delivering his sixth studio album WHERE WE STARTED on April 1. Inspired by his return to the road, the set marks a similar return to his in-the-moment mix of tempo, transcendent romance and tip-of-the-spearsonic trailblazing, as Country’s resident good-life philosopher.
RADIO: BBC Radio 2, Absolute Radio Country, CountryLine Radio, Downtown Country, Smooth Country
PRESS: MTV UK, The Express feature, Why Now, 1883, Atwood, Darkus, Maverick, country specialist outlets, UK bio written by Lisa Verrico (The Times)
SOCIALS: TW: 2.4M, FB: 2.4M, IG: 4.4M, TikTok: 802.5K
Available as a 2 LP black vinyl."

Sweden's The Vertex were, along with The Moderns, one of the country's first mod-revival bands
Smalltown teens with big time dreams, they spat out mod/punk/pop stompers in the early 80's, before gradually digging themselves deeper into the psychedelic sounds of the 60's and then closing business in 1987. But their legacy and legend has grown ever since. With singles like "Tonight The Sky Will Be Ours" and "John", the band regularly appears on compilations and today their releases are highly
sought after collectibles all around the globe. For the first time a retrospective with The Vertex is now being presented, including previously unreleased material.

It comes with all the necessary ingredients, rythym, hooks and singalong vocal parts

We are bursting with pride and joy. We believe we remain ever so brilliant. Being the Grand Masters of alternative rock comes with great responsibility. We've done our part and now it's up to you to play it loud, enjoy and be safe!

Very limited new repress coming, note new price. It’s unusual for an act to hit its peak after four decades. Yet here it is. The band’s climb to become Britain’s most dazzling live band - shows are played at full energy without the breaks lesser combos need to breathe, drink or chatter – was unexpected, and public awakening to their humour, skill and brilliance demands revision of post-punk history. The Nightingales emerge as the industrious ant to their peers’ workshy grasshopper personae, appearing victoriously at the finish line to puzzled realisations that they’d ever even been in the race. The Nightingales have notoriously had a new label for each new album, a fact which might reasonably call for consumer caution, but they don’t fit in with anything like a scene, they speak their own musical language, and while they bust out slogans about being “slightly superior to others of their ilk” . . . the truth is, they have no ilk. Faust’s Hans-Joachim Irmler adds keyboards and The Lovely Eggs’ Holly Blackwell’s languid voice features on one song, but the album’s real shock is that the band has now gelled to an unspoken, nearly psychic interplay. Captain Beefheart, one of Robert Lloyd’s musical heroes, is best known for the difficult-but-classic Trout Mask Replica, and like that album, this one contains nary a ‘hit’, yet here every song sticks in the brain and grooves . . . outclassing Beefheart’s masterpiece with its effortless charm. John Peel noted, “Their performances will serve to confirm their excellence when we are far enough distanced from the 1980s to look at the period rationally and other, infinitely better known, bands stand revealed as charlatans". It’s doubtful he would have bothered with such a pre-emptive defence if he’d been able to witness the explosive growth of the band during their second incarnation. Perish The Thought will be promoted by a far-flung tour, from Scotland to Serbia, with some dates already sold out. Guest supports include Stewart Lee, The Wolfhounds and Near Jazz Experience. Several videos for songs from the album were made.

"Absence of the loved one is a theme running through both films, but during the creative process we never discuss with the Havels the themes, symptoms or attributes of the characters. We do not specify any meanings. Our collaboration is intuitive, based on interconnectedness. We neither explain things to each other nor analyse. From the outset we have a common goal: to quieten the viewers’ perception, to attune them to certain vibrations by visual, musical and acoustic repetitions, thus enabling them to focus on every tiny detail, every subtle aesthetic quality, so that by the end of the film they have a sense of reconciliation. In fact it is a state similar to meditation or prayer. The aim is being shown Mercy. Each time, the linking of the filmed images with Irena and Vojtech’s music has uncovered a new quality that we have named: a commentary on eternity. Characters cease to be determined by their senses, psychological motivations, or the times they live in. They find liberation in the stream of eternal time." /Václav Kadrnka

"We would like to thank all our friends, sound engineers and musicians. The main thanks go to director Václav Kadrnka, his family and all his collaborators for the precious opportunity to assist them in creating both films. We have worked on our music for the film Saving One Who Was Dead for three years. We met with Václav, discussed the screenplay while it was being born and many other things. We have gradually prepared several working versions that included compositions for piano, Indonesian gamelan, gongs, Tibetan bowls, bells and mini-bells. Yet, step by step, we made it simpler and simpler and eventually only kept violas da gamba, organ and chanting. Everything else was redundant. We made most of the recordings of the compositions for viola da gamba in a church in Prague. The composition for organ was recorded in Milan where we performed a concert shortly before the pandemic arrived in December 2019. We tried to record it in various churches in Bohemia but it was not until the church in Milan that we found the best sounding organ.

As for Little Crusader, we recorded the music for the film after it was completed. We had several versions and used the piano version for this album. Together with Václav, we searched for instruments that would work the best for this Medieval story. Eventually, we opted for harmonium with simple chanting which accompanies the character little boy Jenik. Violas da gamba intertwine, move close and then apart from each other the same way as paths of little boy Jenik and his father who is searching for him. Simple chanting and Tibetan bowl accompany scenes with little boy Jenik’s mother who awaits them at home. Trombone and saxophone are like metal swords and the knights’ armor. Violoncello and viola da gamba walk in the rhythm of horse’s hooves, in the rhythm of heartbeat of both the horse and his rider – a father searching for his lost son."
/ Irena and Vojtěch Havlovi

Big Joe Williams is seen by many as the ultimate incarnation of the Delta Country Blues player, and several of his songs have become standards in the Blues canon. Known for being rough on his guitars, it's one of the reasons for the ongoing tinkering that led to the construction of his first nine string instrument. This fine studio album was released in 1962 on the Folkways Label after being recorded the year before. It contains King Highway Blues, a slow and at times almost spoken track. Where as Somebody's Been Foolin' is fairly driven along by Ransom Knowling's Bass. In 1968 Downbeat Magazine, simply stated that "Big Joe Williams' Blues is a beautiful experience". Listen to this album and you'll agree.

Surface Air is the lovechild of a long relationship between Malka Tuti & Black Merlin. After remixing Tapan and Shari Vari for the label, as well as being part of Spectral Empire who released Iron Muscle with us on 2018, George has always been an inspiration for us, both sonically and spiritually.

His new record, Surface Air, in which the A-side is accompanied with vocals from Dallas artist Aura Nox, is a slow burning deep record for the late emo hours of the night, for you trippy after hour or your late night drive. On the B-side you can also find a Remix from an artist we’ve been following for years here in MT, and that when his name came up in a conversation with George (BM) as a possible remixer, excitement levels went through the roof.

The Remix Wata Igarashi delivered is a stripped down epic ambient track, ala late 90’s Pete Namlook endeavours with some 2022’s Wata Igarashi unique sonic aesthetics.