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METAL HAMMER - 8/10 review “Mangled post-Bathory riffs and Marzia’s blasphemous bark collide with the darkly serene shimmer of wilfully corrupted shoegaze and nobody escapes with their San(ci)ity intact. This is a profoundly heavy work, yet laced with elegant moments of restraint…A dark star is born.”

Debut full length for one woman band Marthe on Southern Lord.

True Valkyrian metal inspired heavy riffing in a dark atmosphere of feasting ravens over a thunderous battleground.

The war cry belongs to a distorted horde of crust punk and black metal venture.

The dust settles over the power of Bathory, the melancholy of Tiamat and the stench of Amebix.

Antifascist. Feminist. Misanthropic.

Includes cover of Siouxsie and the Banshees ‘Sin In my Heart’

Centricity Music recording artist Jordan Feliz quickly became a household name when his first radio single “The River,” the title track from his critically-acclaimed debut, became a smash hit. Spending an unprecedented 12 weeks at No. 1, the chart-topping single was named ASCAP’s “Christian Music Song of the Year” and garnered Feliz his first RIAA Platinum® certification. Thanks to his charismatic vocals and signature blend of soulful pop, each of his seven subsequent radio singles has landed in the Top 10 with “Witness,” “Glorify” and “Jesus Is Coming Back” notching three more No. 1’s for the singer. In addition, the California- native has been nominated for five Dove Awards, taking home the trophy for 2016’s “New Artist of the Year,” and has amassed nearly 500 million lifetime streams. Along with his heartwarming children’s hardcover book, Beloved, and his headline tours, Feliz has also shared stages around the country with some of the biggest names in Christian music, including TobyMac, Michael W. Smith, For KING & COUNTRY, Matthew West and Crowder.

With the debut album "Mechanical Spin Phenomena", MNEMIC introduced themselves to the metal world impressively: Their music, made of heavy Thrash riffs, Progressive elements, modern synthesizers and electronic samples created both a hard and spacy atmosphere – therefore the band decided to describe their sound as Fusion Future Metal. Crushing songs like 'Ghost' and 'Liquid' got stuck in your head so easily and the comparisons to bands like FEAR FACTORY, MESHUGGAH or STRAPPING YOUNG LAD were drawn soon. But MNEMIC are not a simple copy of those acts – they are a band with their own ideas and self-contained style. "The Audio Injected Soul" shows MNEMIC grown and more mature. Less complex than "Mechanical Spin Phenomena", the band worked a lot with melodies and set a high value on creating catchy refrains. The result is amazing songs like 'Dreamstate Emergency', 'Door 2.12' or 'Deathbox' groove like hell and unify brutality with melody. Finalized by a dynamic cover version of DURAN DURAN's 'Wild Boys', "The Audio Injected Soul" is all in all a perfect package of ten punishing Modern Metal songs that will catapult MNEMIC to the major league of the genre! Tue Madsen, who again took care of the producing in his Antfarm Studios in Aarhus/Denmark, additionally provided the album with a clear and explosive sound that displays the effect of each track fully.

Amputechture Beneath the technical flash, the fury, the fearless creative brinkmanship of the first two Mars Volta albums lay a potent seam of the blues, an existential vexation that powered every twist and turn of Omar and Cedric’s imaginations. That mournful vibe would come to the surface of the group’s third full-length Amputechture, a simmering/blistering set that was unquestionably the group’s darkest yet. There was no overarching theme here, no interlinking concept binding the songs together, though Cedric concedes that, lyrically, the album was influenced “by a lot of stuff I was going through, a really bad break-up and a lot of other crazy stuff, and trying to put that feeling into the record.” But Amputechture – its name another of the late Jeremy Michael Ward’s invented words – was no downbeat bummer. Opener Vicarious Atonement might’ve been a deliciously gloomy, slow-burning thing, capturing Cedric in delirious duet with Omar’s swooning guitar lines, accompanied by squalling saxophone by Adrian Terrazas-Gonzales and dream-frequency fuckery by the group’s new sonic manipulator, former At The Drive- In member Paul Hinojos. But second track Tetragrammaton swiftly set pulses racing, an epic-in-miniature and containing more ideas within its 16 minutes than most bands manage over an entire career, its proggy, complex guitar figures tessellating in infinite configurations and converging as if conforming to mathematical formulae from another reality. The raw material Amputechture was hewn from started life on the road. Omar now travelled with his own mobile recording studio – a little Neve ten-channel tape recorder and an array of microphones – and was able to work on new ideas on tourbuses, in hotel rooms and during soundcheck (and, occasionally, after the show was done). After touring for Frances The Mute was complete, Omar relocated to Amsterdam, staying with his photographer friend Danielle Van Ark and her partner, Nils Post. It’s here that he demoed Amputechture, flying in engineer Jon DeBaun, drummer Jon Theodore and his brother, Chino, to work on these raw sketches. He later returned to Los Angeles, where the album was finally recorded. Omar ceded guitar duties to his dear friend and kindred spirit John Frusciante, instead assuming the role of musical director. “I wanted to hear the sound of the band,” he says. “I thought, I’ll be able to sit at the console, feel the air of the speakers moving, the unified sound of everything, and not feel distant from it. It was fun, but it was also challenging.” Part of Omar’s new method was to teach the musicians their parts only moments before the tapes rolled. “To keep things fresh, and to keep everyone on edge,” he says, before chuckling. “No, not on edge – on their toes. Amputechture would prove The Mars Volta’s most diverse set yet, drawing into the group’s tornado of influences moments of fiery jazz spirituality and esoteric folk introspection, finding space for passages of devastating subtlety and also their most fierce and full-on moments to date. The aforementioned Vicarious Atonement found its meditative mood echoed by Asilos Magdalena, an intimate, acoustic piece that invoked traditional Latin folk music, as Cedric sang in Spanish a sorrowful tale of a lost soul’s quest for sanctuary within a Magdalen Asylum, a refuge set up by the Catholic church for “fallen women”. The shadowy, sinister closer El Ciervo Vulnerado, meanwhile, tapped into the darker side of spiritual jazz to further explore the album’s themes of redemption and religious myth and magick. Elsewhere, the interplay between guitar and clarinet on Viscera Eyes created complex, unsettling counter-melodies, while the coiling, ornate Meccamputechture – Cedric’s wild fusion of sacred texts, occultism and dystopian science fiction – proved a great showcase for Ikey Owens’ swarming, infernal organ runs, in concert with Frusciante’s arcane guitar-play. But it was Day Of The Baphomets that would prove Amputechture’s most ambitious and most defining epic. Cedric’s lyrics tore into the hypocrisy of religious cant and myths of sin and punishment. “I wanted to make a song that was like the movie The Believers, where this cabal stole kids and did some occult shit with them,” he explains. “But I wanted it to be like, ‘What if the people you hire to do jobs you don’t wanna do rise up one day and then pull some shit like that?’ Like it was the guerrilla warfare, them taking over – wouldn’t that be some fucked up shit? And the music just lent itself to that – the big intro, the bass solo, and all of the ruckus that occurs.” That ruckus was some of the most thrilling Mars Volta music yet, as Omar directed his musicians to rumble through fiery modes of wild tribal groove, ransack-the-palaces riot- rock and supreme progressive experimentalism. Amputechture, then, is the sound of The Mars Volta in imperial mode: fearless, insatiable, unstoppable.

A1 - Desire
Opening the EP in quietly epic fashion, Desire begins with a delightful beat pattern with adistinctive cymbal hit set over warm bass tones and whale song samples. A smooth, thoughtful bass melody is introduced which joyfully intersects with gorgeous piano keys while swirling strings and atmospheric vibes layer and recede like tides of the ocean, creating a truly unique journey of a track that will linger anywhere it may be heard.

A2 - Voidscaping
Instantly setting the scene with crisp, striking breaks, Voidscaping is an atmospheric treatfor the senses with serene throwback pads reminiscent of the halcyon days of Good Looking. Bringing the piece up to date for the Spatial era is the typically intricate blending of reflection and intrigue ASC conjures with his sampling and reverb work, effortlessly thickening the soundscape with memories old and new.

AA1 - Let Go
Opening with the vibrant sounds of twilight nature and metallic bongos, ASC sparinglydeploys a glorious choral vocal before the breaks take off with an energetic pattern drivenby constant, playful hi hats. As the track develops, questions are asked of the listener bythe curious atmosphere, gradually unraveling with strings, synths and trademark vocalusage, offering a new perspective with each listen.

AA2 - Meltdown
A darkly, anxious undertone floods the mix as Meltdown grips the listener from the first barwith skillfully sequenced minimal breaks, hi hats that whoosh in and out like evening crickets you can't quite track, and intense ambient padwork. A longing female vocal occasionally yearns over the various melodies which enter at will, discreetly developing the mood with purpose, unfurling a stream of aural consciousness from this incredible producer.
Words by Chris Hayes (Spatial / Red Mist)

A1 - Deep Sea
Hefty jungle breaks shudder and thud as Aural Imbalance chartsa path through the depths with a shimmering backdrop of glorious synths and padwork that dance gleefully around asymphony of gentle rhythms. An over-arching earworm melody develops and rises above the mix, intersecting with the break pattern which gradually adds to its own character and texture with muffled breaks beneath, all combining to create this superb EP opener.

A2 - Echoes In Time
Flexing his breakbeat skillset in style, Aural Imbalance cuts andchops fine analogue jungle breaks effortlessly as Echoes In Time showcases his ever evolving production talents on Spatial.Wisps of airy pads are floated in the mix that slowly rise around the listener, somber in tone with delicate keys, bells and micro-melodies that build the atmosphere with a wondrous clarity feware capable of achieving.

AA1 - Sense of Space
A DJ-friendly intro opens with a plinky melody and hi hats asserene pads slowly usher in rumbling, weighty amen breaks, edited to perfection as is fast becoming trademark for Aural Imbalance's breakwork on the label. As the soundscape develops, a softly, hopeful xylophone melody innocently shuffles around subtle keys and synths to cap off a tale of two vibes effortlessly moulded into another sublime atmospheric collage.

AA2 - Regolith
Closing the EP with a stunning analogue break-laden workout, Regolith sees Aural Imbalance delve deeper still into the oldschool brand new vibes of Spatial with a beat pattern that immediately makes an impression. Scattered and flecked across the mix, the edits juggle restless snares and hats with a dense kickdrum and subtle 808 bass, while a tranquil blend of ambient atmospherics circle inquisitively above.
Words by Chris Hayes (Spatial / Red Mist)

A1 - Consensus Reality
JLM opens another stellar EP for Spatial with Consensus Reality, acheery, optimistic track which opens with lush keys, and filtered breaks. Soon we are treated to long synths brimming with optimism while melodies are formed from a slew of elements entangled in joyous harmony. This is a special track before we even mention the amazingly crisp apache breaks which are introduced and toyed with to the conclusion in JLM's inimitable style.

A2 - Salva Veritate
An eerie vibe immediately grips the listener for a remarkably intense atmospheric journey in the shape of Salva Veritate. Whooshing, reverberating synths punctuate a dense soundscape laced with tensionand intrigue. The hefty Hot Pants breaks drive the track perfectly with atuneful 808 rumbling below, as blippy sub-melodies and keys add further texture to the mix to complete an immensely memorable production from JLM.

AA1 - Hotspot
Mellow keys with a hint of jazz open Hotspot, as JLM adds further flex tohis repertoire in another impressively detailed journey through sumptuous atmospherics. The track quickly bursts into life in full flow with chunky breaks driven by juddering snares nestling over smooth 808 basslines andswathes of strings & pads that swoop across the mix to create a dreamy paradox of lively calm.

AA2 - Nova
A soothing way to close the EP as JLM opens Nova with long, relaxing synthwork before the delicate beat patterns begin with a symphony offiltered effects and soft notes punctuating the soundscape. Extended reverse cymbals and subtly used reverberating vocal samples add textureto proceedings as the cosmic breaks flow, as we have become accustomed to from JLM's exceptional output on Spatial.
Words by Chris Hayes (Spatial / Red Mist)

Sabaton – Live in Amsterdam
Das ultimative Heavy Metal-Erlebnis: Wir feiern die größte Tour auf die sich Sabaton jemals begeben hat.Erlebe die explosive Kraft von Sabatons legendärer Bühnenshow in „Sabaton – The Tour To End All Tours“.
Die elektrisierende Konzertaufnahme wurde während ihrer Europatournee im legendären Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam im Jahr 2023 aufgenommen. Sie fängt die Essenz von Sabatons monumentaler Bühnenpräsenz ein und zeigt die Fähigkeit der Band, Geschichte zu erzählen - Geschichten durch Heavy Metal.

long content, you may need to expand row to see all... 10th Anniversary colour reissue of the 2014 album featuring “Just One of the Guys”, “The Voyager”, “She’s Not Me” and more on Translucent Sea Blue 1LP. This is the former Rilo Kiley frontwoman's third solo album & documents her struggle to cope following the death of her estranged father in 2010 and the subsequent break-up of Rilo Kiley. 'The Voyager' finds the always relatable songwriter at her sharp-witted best, singing about her experiences with honesty and incisiveness.

1980 in Las Vegas gegründet, zog es M.I.A. 1981 nach Orange County wo sie begannen Shows im berüchtigten Cuckoo's Nest zu spielen. Sie veröffentlichten erstmals zusammen mit Genocide das mittlerweile klassische Split-Album Last Rites For... auf Smoke Seven in 1982. Nach einer kurzen Pause kam die Band 1983 wieder zusammen und nahm im November in den Greencarton Studios ein Demo mit sechs Songs auf. Sie wurden schnell für ihre energiegeladenen Live-Shows bekannt, bei denen sie schnellen, gitarrenbetonten Hardcore mit der einzigartigen melodischen Stimme von Sänger Mike Conley und dem typischen südkalifornischen Punk-Sound verbanden. Nach einem Auftritt mit den Dead Kennedys bot Jello Biafra an, ihr nächstes Album Murder In a Foreign Place im Sommer 1984 auf seinem Label Alternative Tentacles zu veröffentlichen. Später veröffentlichte M.I.A. noch Notes From the Underground (National Trust 1985) und After the Fact (Flipside 1987). Anlässlich des 40-jährigen Jubiläums des Albums hat sich Modern City Records mit Alternative Tentacles zusammengetan, um ,Murder In a Foreign Place" im Jahr 2024 wieder auf den Markt zu bringen. 19 Tracks umfasst das Reissue, welches neben dem Originalalbum auch zwei Studio-Out-Takes und die kompletten Demos von Greencarton enthält. Der unveröffentlichte Track Help Me Up erscheint hier zum ersten Mal überhaupt! Limitiertes blaues Vinyl mit blauer Schrift auf Cover-Artwork plus 24seitigem Booklet!

1980 in Las Vegas gegründet, zog es M.I.A. 1981 nach Orange County wo sie begannen Shows im berüchtigten Cuckoo's Nest zu spielen. Sie veröffentlichten erstmals zusammen mit Genocide das mittlerweile klassische Split-Album Last Rites For... auf Smoke Seven in 1982. Nach einer kurzen Pause kam die Band 1983 wieder zusammen und nahm im November in den Greencarton Studios ein Demo mit sechs Songs auf. Sie wurden schnell für ihre energiegeladenen Live-Shows bekannt, bei denen sie schnellen, gitarrenbetonten Hardcore mit der einzigartigen melodischen Stimme von Sänger Mike Conley und dem typischen südkalifornischen Punk-Sound verbanden. Nach einem Auftritt mit den Dead Kennedys bot Jello Biafra an, ihr nächstes Album Murder In a Foreign Place im Sommer 1984 auf seinem Label Alternative Tentacles zu veröffentlichen. Später veröffentlichte M.I.A. noch Notes From the Underground (National Trust 1985) und After the Fact (Flipside 1987). Anlässlich des 40-jährigen Jubiläums des Albums hat sich Modern City Records mit Alternative Tentacles zusammengetan, um ,Murder In a Foreign Place" im Jahr 2024 wieder auf den Markt zu bringen. 19 Tracks umfasst das Reissue, welches neben dem Originalalbum auch zwei Studio-Out-Takes und die kompletten Demos von Greencarton enthält. Der unveröffentlichte Track Help Me Up erscheint hier zum ersten Mal überhaupt! Limitiertes blaues Vinyl mit blauer Schrift auf Cover-Artwork plus 24seitigem Booklet!

The year 1996 saw the release of Arab Strap’s first single, “The First Big Weekend,” and debut album The Week Never Starts Round Here. Into an underground rock milieu preoccupied at the time with slo-core, math rock, and all things Pet Sounds, the duo of Malcolm Middleton and Aidan Moffat couldn’t have sounded more alien.

In many ways, The Week Never Starts Round Here bears all the marks of a debut: it’s raw, unguarded, and crammed with ideas. It also firmly establishes the particular set-up that would define Arab Strap’s sound over the course of eleven years, with Middleton handling the music while Moffat provides the vocals and lyrics. Even this division of labor—more common to rap music than to the shoegazers and increasingly ubiquitous “collectives” of indie rock—seemed to defy expectations.

The sound of Arab Strap is a distinct brand of existential miserablism. Middleton’s cleverly arranged foundation of nocturnal guitars and rudimentary drum machines provides a canvas for Moffat to relay, in a thick Scottish dialect, his many sloshed, candid confessions. Long before artists like Mike Skinner chronicled the picaresque days of lads getting pissed and getting laid, Arab Strap’s vivid tales of lovers, lager and shame were being broadcast on college stations everywhere.

The Week Never Starts Round Here is an album full of drugged-up kisses and dried up egos; it chronicles the conquests and knockbacks of weekends that last forever, and it does so unapologetically, poetically, and profanely. Indie rock would never be the same.

Find Your Way was Gabrielle’s acclaimed first studio album, originally released back in 1993. It features the internationally successful single, ‘Dreams’, which reached no.1 in the UK, no.2 in Australia, and featured in the top 10 across multiple territories around the globe, along with a further three UK Top 40 singles; “Going Nowhere”, I Wish” and “Because of You”. The album itself reached number 9 on the UK Albums Chart and has achieved a Gold BPI certification, in addition to 272 million global streams since release. Never re-pressed on vinyl, this is a highly sought after vinyl reissue amongst Gabrielle’s fans, and supporters of Black Story in general. Now releasing as a limited edition ultra-clear 140g 1LP worldwide.

‘Feels’ is Animal Collective’s sixth studio album, originally released in 2008. The album features all four band members - Avey Tare, Deakin, Geologist and Panda Bear.
‘Sung Tongs’ is the band's fifth studio album. Originally released in 2005, the album features Avey Tare and Panda Bear.
Both albums available on 140g black double vinyl in poly inner sleeves and gatefold jackets with matte UV finish, plus digital download card.

Parallel zum digitalen Release veröffentlicht die Schweizer Künstlerin LEILA ihre zweite EP "Generation" zusammen mit der ersten "Burnout" EP (2023) als Doppel-EP erstmals auf Vinyl. Auf inhaltlicher Ebene gehen "Burnout" und "Generation" sowieso Hand in Hand, kreist Leila lyrisch doch auf beiden Projekten um die grossen Themen, die ihre Altersgruppe im Jetzt beschäftigen. Es geht um Einflusslosigkeit und Lethargie, um schnelles Erwachsenwerden und zähes inneres Ausbrennen, um Leistungs-, Entscheidungs- und Performance-Druck, um die verzweifelte Suche nach dem eigenen Platz in einer wirren Welt.

LEILAs zweite, millionfach gestreamte Single "Gun To My Head" ging im gesamten deutschsprachigen Raum viral und führte zu einem Signing beim Berliner Indielabel Grönland Records. Dort erschien die "Burnout" EP mit allen sieben bisherigen Singles, die LEILA prompt auf die "Amazon Music - Newcomer To Watch 2024" Liste beförderte. Nach dem Miley Cyrus-Cover "Mother's Daughter" und Supportgigs mit Kaffkiez begann der Zyklus der neuen "Generation" EP.

LEILA ist eine DIY-Allround-Künstlerin, deren Dramaturgie vom Spiel mit Kontrasten lebt, von erfrischender Ungeplantheit, Brüchen und antizyklischer Roughness, von spitzen Blues-Cords im pixeligen Bedroom-Pop-Gewand, dem Clash zwischen kraftvoller Klarheit und verwaschener Fluidität. Ihre englischsprachigen Texte performt sie mit einem subtil trotzigen Akzent, der manchmal an Tove Lo, Fever Ray oder Dolores O'Riordan erinnert. Die aus Bern stammende Mehrsprachlerin ist binnen weniger Monate ohne grosse Starposen zum Sprachrohr einer bikulturellen, diversen, gefühlsbewussten Generation junger Menschen geworden. Ihre Songs verbinden Pop-Appeal mit radikaler Naivität und einer eigensinnigen Ästhetik der Unordnung. Zwischen zarten Gitarrenballaden, sehnsuchtsvollen Electronica-Flächen und wütenden Garage-House-Passagen entfaltet LEILA ihre künstlerische Perfektion meist in den Momenten absoluter Nahbarkeit. LEILA ist bis heute bekennender Ultra des Nuller- und Zehnerjahre-Pop (Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus) und sich keineswegs zu cool, diese Obsession auch zum Ausdruck zu bringen. Sie hat durchaus emotional reagiert, als ihr Paris Hilton auf TikTok zu folgen begann oder Billie Eilish sie kürzlich zu ihren engen Instagram-Freund*innen hinzufügte.

ZEKE ist eine Punkrock- und Hardcore-Institution, die 1992 in Seattle gegründet, immer noch aktiv ist. Sie machen das, was sie am besten können: lauten, schnellen und schweren Punkrock mit einem Hauch von Blues. In Anlehnung an Motörhead brachten ZEKE aber ein gewisses Punkrock- und Hardcore-Element in das Genre, das viele Bands nach ihnen aufgegriffen haben.
RPM Online schrieb, „Zeke sind wirklich, wie keine andere Band auf der Welt“ und „It's not fast, its fucking hypersonic hardcore“, während Maximum Volume empfiehlt „... they are the kings of the underground.“ Vive le Rock aus Großbritannien freut sich, dass „das Quartett dem Brexit den Stinkefinger zeigen wird“ und auch das Ox Fanzine aus Deutschland bestätigt: „Sie sind in Topform, so wie wir sie 1996 bei „Super Sound Racing“ gefeiert haben.“ Mit den Originalmitgliedern Blind Marky Felchtone (Gesang und Gitarre) und Donny Paycheck (Schlagzeug) sowie Jason Freeman (Bass) und Jeff Hiatt (Gitarre) ist „Snake Eyes“ so kompromisslos wie eh und je, mit einem furiosen Wirbelwind-Rhythmus als Fundament und eine Flutwelle schneller Gitarren. Feltchtones messerscharfe Stimme ist sogar noch giftiger als vor zwei Jahrzehnten. Beim Titeltrack ‚Snake Eyes‘ verlangsamt die Band das Punk-Tempo etwas zugunsten einer hochoktanigen Rock-Affäre, die an Hellacopters erinnert aber trotz allem zu schnell bleibt. Auf der B- Seite gibt es pure Intensität mit 'The Knife' und man kann sich vorstellen, wie ZEKE einen durch die Nacht fahren und tun, was auch immer sie im Hintergrund tun. Wenn es vorbei ist, fühlt man sich benommen und verwirrt. Wie einer dieser Masochisten, die den Schmerz lieben, will man sich diesem erneut hingeben.
Die Titel sind nicht auf den Streaming-Plattformen verfügbar.

Early 2009 Single Versions of these songs (featuring Robo on drums in his final recording with the Misfits), were released on the "Land of the Dead" 12-inch maxi-single in 2009, (featuring a green variation of the cover art, and "Land of the Dead" as the title track on Side A).The 2011 "Devil's Rain" album versions of both tracks are included on this Ltd. Ed 12-inch maxi-single with a blue variation of the cover art, and "Twilight of the Dead" as the title track on Side A. Like "Land of the Dead" and "The Devil's Rain" the cover art was rendered by Arthur Suydam (Marvel Zombies) with art direction by John Cafiero. Certainly black vinyl (2021 pressing)

Few bands are as focused on potential challenges, on what is yet to come, as The Ex. Which is pretty remarkable for a band celebrating 45 years of existence, a turbulent journey filled with an impressive series of highlights. However, nostalgia has never been this band's forte, as they like no other succeed in reinventing themselves, finding new alliances and fascinating challenges along the way. Stay out of that comfort zone for long enough and it just might disappear. The pandemic was a standstill for many, including The Ex. Or perhaps it was more a kind of recharging, as the band is back on national and international stages with new music, ready to return to the studio. So, in 45 years they did more than 2000 concerts in 45 countries. It was time for a new 45rpm 7" single. From the brand-new set they are playing full-on this year, they picked two blinking tracks: `Great!' and 'The Evidence'. Urgent, willful, adventurous, open hearted and joyfully obstinate. As such, The Ex remains true to that one, indestructible adage: forward in all directions!

On 4 October 2024 Universal Music Recordings and Decca Records are making Jamaican/British jazz saxophonist Joe Harriott’s album ‘Movement’ available again for the first time since it was released in 1964. Long sought after by collectors and connoisseurs, original copies now sell for upwards of £1,000.

This new edition was mastered at Abbey Road using high definition 24bit/192kHz audio files, copied directly from the original stereo analogue master tapes (previously only the mono version has been on vinyl). Images of those tapes are included in the package alongside new sleeve notes written by noted author, compiler and documentary maker Tony Higgins, who also acts as Executive Producer for Decca’s ‘British Jazz Explosion’ series.

Recorded in 1963, ‘Movement’ was released as part of the Lansdowne Series, overseen by the influential Denis Preston, one of the UK’s first independent record producers, and engineered by Adrian Kerridge. Of the nine tracks, seven are Harriott originals, whilst the other two were written by another pioneer of British Jazz, Michael Garrick. Playing alongside Joe were bassist Coleridge Goode (b. 1914 Jamaica, d. 2015 London), drummer Bobby Orr (b. Scotland 1928, d. 2020), pianist Pat Smythe (b. Scotland 1923, d. 1983), and trumpet/flugelhorn player Ellsworth ‘Shake’ Keane (b. St. Vincent 1927, d. 1997).

Born in Jamaica in 1928, Joseph Arthurlin Harriott was a pupil at the Alpha Boys School (alma mater to Harold McNair, Dizzy Reece, and a myriad of Ska greats). He arrived in Britain in the early ’50s, initially touring with the Ozzie Da Costa Band, followed by a brief spell with the Ronnie Scott Big Band, and sessions backing the likes of George Chisholm, and Lita Roza.

By the mid ’50s Joe was a big enough draw to release records under his own name, and whilst these early recordings conform to the then popular bop style, the following decade would see him release albums whose titles chart his development; ‘Free Form’ in 1960, and ‘Abstract’ in 1963.

‘Movement’ is a testament to Joe Harriott’s visionary approach to jazz. It blends structure with freedom, tradition with innovation, and individual expression with collective creativity. His development of free-form jazz represents a significant contribution to the genre, paralleling yet distinct from the work of Ornette Coleman and other American free jazz artists. It is an essential listen, not only for fans of British jazz, but jazz fans in general.

It is perhaps best summed up by the epitaph that now adorns Joe’s gravestone; “Parker? There’s them over here can play a few aces too.”

“Everything here is a gem. Neneh triumphs with a seamless and unorthodox blend of hip-hop, R&B, dance music, and pop” 4 ½/5 Allmusic

Coloured vinyl reissue of Neneh’s second album – first UK reissue on vinyl since its release in 1992. On release the album gained favourable reviews (4/5 in both Q and Rolling Stone) with Allmusic labelling the album “magnificent and risk-taking”.

The singles “Money Love” and “Buddy X” charted internationally with album track “Trout” featuring Michael Stipe and receiving heavy airplay on US alternative radio. Portishead’s Geoff Barrow co-wrote and co-produced “Somedays” and “Move with Me” appeared on the soundtrack of the 1993 Sharon Stone film Sliver.

The Swedish-born, UK-based artist started her musical career in The Slits going on to gain global recognition as a solo artist with her 1988 single ‘Buffalo Stance’ from the album “Raw Like Sushi’. Always irreverent, unpredictable and stylish, she has now released five studio albums and collaborated with Peter Gabriel, Massive Attack, Michael Stipe, Lenny Kravitz, Geoff Barrow and Four Tet, won two Brit Awards and been nominated for a Grammy.

Blu’s music has been championed by outlets like XXL, Pitchfork, Okayplayer, HipHopDX, and more. In recent years, he has been interviewed by Billboard, Complex, LA Weekly, Noisey, Red Bull Music Academy, and more. Blu has collaborated with prominent artists like The Roots, Logic, Miguel, MF DOOM, Madlib, Anderson .Paak, Lupe Fiasco, Freddie Gibbs, Aloe Blacc, Roc Marciano, Slum Village, 9th Wonder, and more. Classic 2014 album on gatefold 2LP vinyl, now available after years out of print. Good To Be Home features guest appearances by Evidence, Fashawn, Alchemist, Casey Veggies, MED, Planet Asia, Oh No, Pac Div, Strong Arm Steady, Thurz, Visionaries, Chace Infinite, Cashus King, and more. L.A. rapper Blu burst onto the scene in the late 00s with the widely acclaimed Exile collaboration Below The Heavens, igniting a West Coast hip-hop renaissance in the process. With his cool Cali demeanor and undeniable lyrical talent, Blu drew praise from fans and tastemakers alike, launching a remarkable career that continues thriving to this day. His first ever double album, the 2014 masterpiece Good To Be Home is an essential part of this story. An unapologetic celebration of Los Angeles music and culture, the album takes listeners on a vivid journey through Blu’s storied stomping grounds. With sweeping strings and hypnotic bass lines supplied by producer Bombay, Good To Be Home features a host of West Coast hip-hop luminaries, including Evidence, Fashawn, Alchemist, Casey Veggies, MED, Planet Asia, Oh No, Pac Div, Strong Arm Steady, Thurz, Visionaries, and more. A cohesive collection with 20 tracks and no filler, this classic release is now available again on vinyl after years out of print.

Debut album from Los Angeles duo Los Yesterdays, Sweet Soul music meets Mexican Folklorico "Sweet soul music also known as lowrider oldies on the West Coast, rolas and souldies are typically early 60s-style tunes that emphasize vocal harmonies. Most songs are slow-to-midtempo, many are ballads, and the sub-genre is generally stripped down compared to the highly produced Motown hits of the time....there is a generations-long appreciation for sweet soul music among California’s Latino communities. Eastern Los Angeles teens.... helped foster a love of sweet soul in the early 60s by covering soulful ballads by artists like James Brown... Those sounds... were kept alive by record collectors and people who spent evenings cruising along East Los boulevards." BILLBOARD // Los Yesterdays are a Chicano soul band from Los Angeles based around the creative collaboration between Gabriel Rowland and Victor Benavides. They began working together when Rowland a drummer by trade, then creaky and exhausted from waking up at dawn to work construction decided to channel those struggles into song. He contacted Benavides, a former bandmate of Rowland’s deceased brother, to record the soul ballads that Southland Chicanos call “oldies.” Los Yesterdays filter love-struck R&B crooning through guitar-strumming Mexican balladeering; the result is something that sounds like the Los Angeles of yesterday and today the indelible, immovable Los Angeles of cruising Whittier Boulevard, of cold drinks on the porch on blazing summer nights, of watching a blue-orange toxic sunset and wondering if they are thinking about you. Los Angeles changes; Los Angeles stays the same. Los Yesterdays have changed, outgrown their childhood barrios and the bands of their early 20s and their private garage hermitude; Los Yesterdays are Frozen In Time. Tracks: A1. Nobody’s Clown A2. Frozen In Time A3. Something Happened A4. I Can’t Feel A5. Brown Boy B1. Last Request B2. I Want You To Stay B3. But You Did B4. Name On Me B5. Love Is A Game For Fools

Dawn Richard and Spencer Zahn share a common collaborative ethos, a genuine sense of musical curiosity, and a cosmopolitan eagerness to escape the conventions of genre. That shared vision first brought them together on 2022’s Pigments icy and warm, stripped-down and grand, familiar and otherworldly and now it has reunited them for Quiet in a World Full of Noise. By turns intimate, soul-baring, spectral, and startling, Quiet in a World Full of Noise blends atmospheric and orchestral soundscapes with mellifluous soul, jazz, and journalistic vocalizing driving it all home with stark, confessional lyricism. The new album finds Richard at her most raw and exposed. This year, Richard’s musician father experienced mini strokes while being diagnosed with cancer; and last year, her cousin Cisco was fatally shot seven times in New Orleans. Richard channels the emotional impact of these traumatic experiences of loss into her lyrics and vocal performances, which are left bare and human here, raw and unprocessed across the album. Quiet expands the definitions of what constitutes progressive, avant-garde R&B by rewriting them altogether. On paper, Richard and Zahn’s audacious, impressionistic musical collaborations feel like a surprising match. Richard, a New Orleans–reared visionary, has had an improbable journey from late 2000s reality television and mainstream pop with girl group Danity Kane to become one of the most prolific, experimental, and visible indie R&B singer-songwriters of the last decade and a half, with seven solo albums under her belt. Zahn is an East Coast–raised multi-instrumentalist and composer working at the intersections of jazz, Americana, classical, and ambient pop. His growing solo discography includes People of the Dawn, Sunday Painter, Pale Horizon, and Statues I & II, as well as the duo’s first release, Pigments. “Pigments was one of the best projects I’ve ever made,” Richard says, “and the furthest I’ve ever been pushed as an artist.” The album was a critical hit, hailed as Best New Music by Pitchfork and receiving praise from Stereogum as Album of the Week, NPR Music, Bandcamp Daily, The Fader, Bitter Southerner, and Edition, among many other publications. The making of its follow-up, Quiet in a World Full of Noise, began in 2023 in upstate New York. Fresh from a break-up, Zahn sat at his piano and poured himself into writing and recording instrumental compositions. “I wrote all these stream-of-consciousness pieces on piano, and they were eerie, spacious piano tracks,” he said. He used a piano that had been unconventionally tuned to the room rather than to standard pitch. These oddly-tuned, eerie instrumental recordings were never intended to be an album. Six months later, he listened to the recordings again and sent them to Richard who immediately recognized their potential and said, “Oh, this is the next album.” Richard went into the studio the next day and wrote and recorded melodies and lyrics to Zahn’s piano recordings. Zahn brought in gifted musicians like Bryan Senti on strings (violin, viola, and violoncello da spalla) and CJ Camerieri on brass (French horn, flugelhorn, and trumpet). In some cases, like on the track “Life in Numbers,” Zahn used only the original first-take piano recording and scratch vocal, resulting in an intimate close-up of both Richard and Zahn.

Cindy is to release a new six song EP called Swan Lake on 4th October via Tough Love. The title isn’t a nod to the folktale or ballet in any real way, but to the fact that it all has ended up in the collective imagination as an object, vaguely recognizable, a little suggestive, and mostly blank. Karina Gill, Cindy’s songwriter, likes to make use of that kind of resonance to connect sound and experience. The six songs on this EP continue the stripped-down habits of previous Cindy releases, while adding a few departures and left-turns. Cindy likes to work at the essentials and the elements here say exactly what’s needed. In other ways, these songs present a soft filigree that’s unusual for their recordings. Oli Lipton (Now, Violent Change) on guitar and Will Smith (Now) on bass play counterpoint melodies to Gill’s structures. Staizsh Rodrigues (Children Maybe Later, Almond Joy, Peace Frog) sings vocal harmonies that both offset and deepen Gill’s voice and delivery. There are playful drums by Mike Ramos (Tony Jay, Sad Eyed Beatniks) and coolly elaborate guitar lines from Stanley Martinez (Famous Mammals, Violent Change, Non Plus Temps). Gill’s songs strike this balance too: almost nonchalant reporting tied up in unexpected knots. A ride in an elevator connects up with questions about peace and/or the nature of things; the title track wonders about associative thinking and associative feeling; The Bell is an account of one of those times when everything makes sense but you can’t explain it; and there’s the scene of a party viewed with admiration for how friends can love each other. As Gill herself says: "People have told me that they can’t quite identify my influences. Me neither. The foundational layers of music of the past and my past have been metabolized like breakfast and turned into more me, sorry to say. But I experience the music of people I’m connected with and it impacts me in the moment. There’s the music I’m around – April Magazine, Sad Eyed Beatniks, Violent Change, Katsy Pline, collaborating with Mike on Flowertown – that I can feel a direct line from. Then there’s music that is being made far away but feels close, like Lewsberg, specifically, for this EP. " CINDY – UK Tour Dates: Oct 31st WOE is 6 @ Walthamstow Trades Hall, London w/ Cuneiform Tabs & Bobby Would. Nov 1st Coventry, UK Just Dropped In Records, 2 Halifax, UK The Grayston Unity, 4 York, UK The Fulford Arms, 5 Gateshead, UK The Central Bar, 6 Glasgow, UK The Glad Café, 7 Manchester, UK Rat & Pigeon, 8 Cambridge, UK NCI Centre.

Limited to 500 copies on gold vinyl with download. 56 years on since it's original release, ‘Scratching The Surface’ is The Groundhogs extraordinary debut album. A landmark in the British blues movement in the 60s, the record released in 1968 includes their fierce reworking of Muddy Waters’ ‘Still A Fool’. Limited edition and remastered for vinyl.

The second studio album from The Groundhogs, now slimmed to the classic three piece line up of Tony TS McPhee on guitar, Pete Cruikshank on bass and Ken Pestelnik on drums. The beginning of their domination as the hardest working band on the circuit, a testament to their creativity as they re-tooled the blues into a neo-psyche groove. Breaking from their traditional influences, the first stepping stone for the power trio who would blossom with ‘Thank Christ For the Bomb’, ‘Split’ and ‘Who Will Save The World?’. Inspired by a Yardbirds’ freak out, hearing authentic Indian drumming and the magic that existed between this legendary trio, ‘Blues Obituary’ is a juggernaut of riffs. According to Tony in Zig Zag’s John Tobler’s sleeve notes to the 1987 re-issue of ‘Blues Obituary’ it was the BBC’s John Peel producer John Walters that forced the band’s hand. “He decided he hated the blues,” McPhee told Tobler, “We figured it was time to get away from it.” “A deep excursion into musical depths further down than Canned Heat ever dared go.” The re-issue also includes a mono-friendly single cut of ‘BDD’ plus its original B-side ‘Gasoline’, an aching solo Tony TS McPhee track

Bones Shake are a scuzzy, fuzz enthused garage rock trio formed in Manchester in 2011. They play everything to the extreme; violent bottle-neck blues riffs, drums kicked, pounded and exploited and squeals of reverb drenched vocals which when combined, will help save your soul. With a relentless energy, they’ve never taken their foot off the gas. In July 2022 they released Bleed to critical acclaim, itself the follow up to 2019’s debut LP Sermons. Purge sees the trilogy complete. Through tirelessly playing across the UK and Europe, their cult following makes them one of the best not so kept secrets in the underground scene. Wherever they go they fill out venues and have now played the infamous Raut Oak festival twice. With a string of previous releases under their belt, they have gone from strength to strength and attracted attention worldwide. Imagine a desert dive bar, the only bar in a hundred miles, the soundtrack as the shots fly is Purge. Talking about the LP, Bones say that “we needed to purge ourselves of these songs so we stuck two fingers up, lodged them at the back of the larynx and spewed out a new album.” Opener ‘Banshee’ wastes no time in providing that proverbial kick to the face these guys are infamous for. With a gnarly vocal and guitar interplay you’re hooked from the first note; the intensity rises with every rotation and if this one doesn’t leave you breathless you are not listening loud enough. ‘One Kiss’ is a filthy little blues number that taunts and teases, while ‘Pretty Little Things’ takes you on a journey through their sound bringing out all the bumps and grinds you could possibly muster. ‘The Creeper’ is a bit different to their usual, adding a sense of intrigue and unease that draws you in deep. Lead single ‘Let Go’ is an adrenaline fuelled expedition through all the best parts of their sound, with a few surprises thrown in for good measure. ‘Passive Intervention’ changes track a little, keeping you aurally attentive while title track ‘Purge’ is the experience that can’t be surmised, get the volume up high and release. With its rolling, thunder-esq. drums, closer ‘Stench’ rounds things off in the best way; leaving you wanting more. Purge is without doubt their strongest and most visceral release to date, dare you miss out on this experience

‘What makes Sex Swing so powerful is that they transcend the limitations of rock music. Their sound is so full of possibilities, violence, sexuality, sacrifice, even religion. If there was a future to look forward to for heavy guitar music, this is it’ The Quietus The locals call it Sop Ruak – eighty thousand square miles of mountains and mystery and unholy medicine. “It really is an endless seam of activity,” Sex Swing frontman Dan Chandler explains of Golden Triangle – both the title of their new album and the region between Myanmar, Thailand and Laos that inspired it. To know this contradictory corner of the world is to understand fully why the cult-beloved noise-rock artisans turned to it when writing their hotly-anticipated third full-length. The real-life Golden Triangle is a groundswell of both natural wonder and drug production, and who combines beauty and narcotic brutality better than Sex Swing? For a decade now, this
collective of revered UK underground musicians, comprising members of Earth, Mugstar, The Keep and Jaaw, have been pulling audiences into drug- like slipstreams with their alchemy of pummelling rhythms, towering guitars, and unrelenting saxophone through which glimmers of light occasionally pierce through. No wonder their Golden Triangle is an album telling distortion-shrouded tales from one of the most storied, enigmatic places on the planet, with enough invention within to fill eighty thousand miles and more.
Where does this violent, hypnotic aural travelogue take you within the Sop Ruak? The seven tracks that make up The Golden Triangle see the band – completed by bassist Jason Stoll, drummer Stuart Bell, guitarist Jodie Cox, synthesist/guitarist Oli Knowles and saxophonist Colin Webster – adventure first to ‘The Confluence of the Ruak and Mekong Rivers,’ full of shimmering orchestration and feather-light ambience. Then come stops in ‘Myawaddy’, named after a small town embroiled in bloodshed on the border of Myanmar
and Thailand, and ‘Boten, Route 13’ – sparked by stories of a seemingly endless stretch of road from Laos into China. Before long, listeners are plunged into ‘Hpakant’, one of the album’s most invigorating and singular moments, lyrically inspired by a jade mine in Myanmar, where the spoils of forced labour are exchanged for prostitution and methanphetamine. The result is a mesmerising slow-burn of sax, snaking rhythms and sinister spoken word courtesy of the Scottish-born Bruce McClure, who “took the theme and turned it into a sci-fi story of exploitation and vice,” explains the frontman. It’s a track that, like the rest of Golden Triangle, underlines the evolution Sex Swing have undertaken since forming in 2014. From the raw and primitive sounds of the self-titled debut full-length, followed up by the coruscatingType II in 2020. Sex Swing’s third effort retains those early primitive elements and adds layers of structure and complexity. Golden Triangle initial formation was that of programmed beats and bedroom recordings shared electronically in the height of the pandemic. Those ideas were then completed during intensive writing sessions at a secluded farm in Oxfordshire.
Album credits consist of recording by Stanley Gravett at Holy Mountain Studios in Hackney, mixing by Wayne Adams at Bear Bites Horse, mastering from James Plotkin, and the continued aesthetic collaboration with artist Alex Bunn. Golden Triangle bristles with a rawness familiar to fans of the British sonic punishers, but adds new elements indicative of a group never resting on their laurels or sitting in one place. Why would they, after all? There’s an entire world of mountains and mystery and unholy medicine out there to be explored. The Golden Triangle, it seems, is just the beginning.

‘What makes Sex Swing so powerful is that they transcend the limitations of rock music. Their sound is so full of possibilities, violence, sexuality, sacrifice, even religion. If there was a future to look forward to for heavy guitar music, this is it’ The Quietus The locals call it Sop Ruak – eighty thousand square miles of mountains and mystery and unholy medicine. “It really is an endless seam of activity,” Sex Swing frontman Dan Chandler explains of Golden Triangle – both the title of their new album and the region between Myanmar, Thailand and Laos that inspired it. To know this contradictory corner of the world is to understand fully why the cult-beloved noise-rock artisans turned to it when writing their hotly-anticipated third full-length. The real-life Golden Triangle is a groundswell of both natural wonder and drug production, and who combines beauty and narcotic brutality better than Sex Swing? For a decade now, this
collective of revered UK underground musicians, comprising members of Earth, Mugstar, The Keep and Jaaw, have been pulling audiences into drug- like slipstreams with their alchemy of pummelling rhythms, towering guitars, and unrelenting saxophone through which glimmers of light occasionally pierce through. No wonder their Golden Triangle is an album telling distortion-shrouded tales from one of the most storied, enigmatic places on the planet, with enough invention within to fill eighty thousand miles and more.
Where does this violent, hypnotic aural travelogue take you within the Sop Ruak? The seven tracks that make up The Golden Triangle see the band – completed by bassist Jason Stoll, drummer Stuart Bell, guitarist Jodie Cox, synthesist/guitarist Oli Knowles and saxophonist Colin Webster – adventure first to ‘The Confluence of the Ruak and Mekong Rivers,’ full of shimmering orchestration and feather-light ambience. Then come stops in ‘Myawaddy’, named after a small town embroiled in bloodshed on the border of Myanmar
and Thailand, and ‘Boten, Route 13’ – sparked by stories of a seemingly endless stretch of road from Laos into China. Before long, listeners are plunged into ‘Hpakant’, one of the album’s most invigorating and singular moments, lyrically inspired by a jade mine in Myanmar, where the spoils of forced labour are exchanged for prostitution and methanphetamine. The result is a mesmerising slow-burn of sax, snaking rhythms and sinister spoken word courtesy of the Scottish-born Bruce McClure, who “took the theme and turned it into a sci-fi story of exploitation and vice,” explains the frontman. It’s a track that, like the rest of Golden Triangle, underlines the evolution Sex Swing have undertaken since forming in 2014. From the raw and primitive sounds of the self-titled debut full-length, followed up by the coruscatingType II in 2020. Sex Swing’s third effort retains those early primitive elements and adds layers of structure and complexity. Golden Triangle initial formation was that of programmed beats and bedroom recordings shared electronically in the height of the pandemic. Those ideas were then completed during intensive writing sessions at a secluded farm in Oxfordshire.
Album credits consist of recording by Stanley Gravett at Holy Mountain Studios in Hackney, mixing by Wayne Adams at Bear Bites Horse, mastering from James Plotkin, and the continued aesthetic collaboration with artist Alex Bunn. Golden Triangle bristles with a rawness familiar to fans of the British sonic punishers, but adds new elements indicative of a group never resting on their laurels or sitting in one place. Why would they, after all? There’s an entire world of mountains and mystery and unholy medicine out there to be explored. The Golden Triangle, it seems, is just the beginning.

Crypt of the Wizard is proud to present Necro Soft - Don't Test the Unmaker's Patience on vinyl and digital formats. What if the devil recorded a record? Would it scream for attention as loud as it could, with all knobs turned to 10? Would it be just another relentless wall of noise vying for your shortened attention, only to be forgotten while the next hot thing is being released, but this time, once again, promising a more raw and extreme experience than previously imagined? Seems unlikely. Satan is a subtle seducer. Luring and waiting are his tactics. His is the insidious rhythm that runs down your leg, causing your foot to tap while your lying lips are still saying, "This isn’t really my kind of thing." All sequins and satin, laughter and fun, while whispering in your ear about his plans for the final destruction of the infinite universe so quietly, you forget to stop enjoying yourself. Necro Soft’s debut LP Don't Test the Unmaker's Patience is crafted from this very notion. Rising from Copenhagen’s unrelentingly creative Mayhem scene with connections to bands such as Ryg Din Sidste Bøn and Gabestok, you already know you’re in for something special. With the devil at the helm and influenced as much by contemporary black metal as by the UK big beat scene of the 1990s, bands such as The Prodigy are seldom listed as having an impact on underground metal records, but here we are! A shimmering wash of drum machine rhythms and perpetual pop production designed to ensnare listeners with its irresistible beats while subtly corrupting their souls. Listening to Necro Soft is akin to entering some kind of damned Heavy Metal disco, high as a kite, and fixating on the glittering mirror ball in the ceiling before noticing that the floor is sticky with blood.

Crypt of the Wizard is proud to present Necro Soft - Don't Test the Unmaker's Patience on vinyl and digital formats. What if the devil recorded a record? Would it scream for attention as loud as it could, with all knobs turned to 10? Would it be just another relentless wall of noise vying for your shortened attention, only to be forgotten while the next hot thing is being released, but this time, once again, promising a more raw and extreme experience than previously imagined? Seems unlikely. Satan is a subtle seducer. Luring and waiting are his tactics. His is the insidious rhythm that runs down your leg, causing your foot to tap while your lying lips are still saying, "This isn’t really my kind of thing." All sequins and satin, laughter and fun, while whispering in your ear about his plans for the final destruction of the infinite universe so quietly, you forget to stop enjoying yourself. Necro Soft’s debut LP Don't Test the Unmaker's Patience is crafted from this very notion. Rising from Copenhagen’s unrelentingly creative Mayhem scene with connections to bands such as Ryg Din Sidste Bøn and Gabestok, you already know you’re in for something special. With the devil at the helm and influenced as much by contemporary black metal as by the UK big beat scene of the 1990s, bands such as The Prodigy are seldom listed as having an impact on underground metal records, but here we are! A shimmering wash of drum machine rhythms and perpetual pop production designed to ensnare listeners with its irresistible beats while subtly corrupting their souls. Listening to Necro Soft is akin to entering some kind of damned Heavy Metal disco, high as a kite, and fixating on the glittering mirror ball in the ceiling before noticing that the floor is sticky with blood.

CECILIA is a nomadic soul. Like in an existentialist epic that traverses different ages on a phantom thread of love, spirituality, desire and rage. She inhabits different bodies, inserts herself in a whole array of different characters. Some are fictional, some are as real as the artists that inspired her, and whose influence appears in CHOEUR under the guise of tiny fragments, direct quotes, dedications and spectral presences. Cecilia channels the poetry of different lives that might have been her own or might have only existed in dreams, and does so within a collection of songs that twist the path of traditional French and Italian songwriting into the inmost recesses of electronic mysticism. The composition of CHOEUR took place mostly around January 2023, a pretty precarious time in the artist life, and happened in a spontaneous and ritualistic manner that could appear as somewhat odd in the realm of electronic music production. Birthing out of ego-free solo jams in hyphened states of consciousness and audience-less performances, these moments of do-or-die energy intake served to funnel the wilderness of her emotions into extremely tight arrangements, ultimately allowing a dramaturgy of fierce and beautiful songs into existence. Striving for the sublime, CECILIA trained her whole body for a paradoxical procedure of disconnection and reconnection. A crucial pin in Melissa Gagné’s system of 7-year creative cycles, CHOEUR marks her debut on Haunter Record as much as the first step towards the possibility of a new artistic identity. A labour of love if there ever was one. CHOEUR is made of Awe, Chants and Ravishment, of Pain until Vision. CHOEUR prays Earth, Water, Stars, Sea. CHOEUR feels Spirits, Lightning, Thunder, Dawn, Dusk, Blood, Flowers. CHOEUR invokes a Return, to Grace. CHOEUR loves Mud and longs to Play. CHOEUR lives in a Dream created by a Dream. CHOEUR lives in a Body created by Love. CHOEUR is about a broken heart, open and ecstatic, about the beauty and the sadness that all is not what could be, about wandering and wondering why were the stars made so beautiful?

Twelve (plus one hidden bonustrack) irresistible and completely stubborn punk rock gems:
melodic and furious but also idiosyncratic and full of swagger and bravado. Plus the anthem
'Altied Kwoad' with Heideroosjes singer Marco Roelofs.

Twelve (plus one hidden bonustrack) irresistible and completely stubborn punk rock gems:
melodic and furious but also idiosyncratic and full of swagger and bravado. Plus the anthem
'Altied Kwoad' with Heideroosjes singer Marco Roelofs.

"A group of tried-and-true musicians got together and found the sort of camaraderie and kinship you typically only find once in a lifetime. They didn’t overthink it. They didn’t waste a second. They simply left their blood, sweat, and tears on tape—like they’ve always done. For as much as Better Lovers represents the union of former Every Time I Die members Jordan Buckley guitar,Steve Micciche [bass], and Clayton “Goose” Holyoak [drums] with The Dillinger Escape Plan and Killer Be Killed frontman Greg Puciato [vocals],and musician (Fit For An Autopsy/END) and GRAMMY® Award-winning producer, Will Putney [guitar], it really cements the bond of five friends around a shared vision. That vision is as uncompromising, unapologetic, and undeniable as anything they’ve individually done, yet it’s refined by experience and a commitment to a future together. They’re in it for the long haul... “To me, this band is refreshing,” exclaims Jordan. “Looking back, I’m so happy everything got me to where I am. The pandemic and the last few years made me hungrier and more grateful. This isn’t a hobby. This isn’t temporary. This is the next evolution for each of us. Greg and Will rejuvenated me and made me even more confident.



Now, everybody needs to know we’re a wild animal that just broke out of the zoo—there’s no trying to put it back in the cage.” “Better Lovers definitely feels like its own thing,” states Greg. “I’m in so many lanes right now, so it was important that one lane didn’t step on another. However, nothing I’m doing is this vicious. This is full-on scathing. It’s been really fun. I forgot how much I liked that.” As the story goes, Jordan ended up back in Buffalo, NY, jamming in a basement rehearsal spot with Steve and Goose during the winter of 2022. After working with Will on the last two Every Time I Die records, they shared a handful of early demos with him to produce. As the year progressed, Jordan caught Greg on the road with Jerry Cantrell in Las Vegas, mentioning the new music. Once ideas solidified, he shared them with the vocalist who replied at 3am one night in December. “The text said, ‘Let’s give these motherfuckers what they want’,”chuckles Jordan. “I went to bed smiling and laughing. There is no one like Greg on stage, off stage, or over text. Once I told Will, he was like, ‘Can I play?’ We said, ‘Of course!’ That’s how it was born.” “Once I pick up the scent, I’ll go for the kill,” smiles Greg. “We’ve all hung out, gotten to know each other, and it’s all fire now. Everyone has already been through shit. You know yourself better. Your ego isn’t as big as it used to be. You can share your opinions. It’s a cool dynamic.” Fittingly, they introduce this era with the single “30 Under 13.” A seasick guitar groove bleeds into an incisive riff punctuated by Greg’s vitriolic and venomous screams, “Hold onto me, try to let go of me, let go of what you’ll never be. ”This barrage unpredictably subsides on a haunting clean vocal, only to ramp back up into a pit-splitting thrash crescendo and rapid-fire solo played at warp speed. “We always try to up our game,” notes Jordan. “This is the next step for all of us. There’s just constant forward motion, and we don’t want to compromise that. We want to keep going. We’re doing a lot of shit we haven’t done before in Better Lovers. I’m not going to spoil it for you, but get ready.” “For some reason, this song got me,” recalls Greg. “Once that happens, you have the toe of the dinosaur skeleton in the dirt. You start brushing it away, and soon you have a fucking T-Rex.” The name might give you a hint of what’s coming—or it might not. So, what does the future hold for Better Lovers? Well, it’s entirely in their control. Expect a lot of touring. Expect more music. Expect these five guys to leave a trail of destruction in their wake—really would you want anything less? “We feel like we’re going to explode if we sit around any longer,” Jordan leaves off. “This is my life’s work. I learned all of my lessons, passed all of the tests, and took all of the right turns and the wrong turns. It turns out what I thought were wrong turns got me here, and that’s all that matters. I have no regrets. I know this is what I’m supposed to be doing.” “I just want you to view this on its own merits,” Greg concludes. “I hope it reaches some new people. For me, the enjoyment is making the music and putting it out. The second it’s released, I don’t look back. You drop the bomb and keep flying the plane. You don’t circle back to see how much destruction you cause. You keep moving, which is what we’re going to do.” "

Rarefied return after a deliciously jazzy release from their sister label.This time label mainstay Zygos is at the helm for a release that blends Rarefied's penchant for outer-national sample digging, trap rhythmic formations, and psychedelic soundfields for a three track EP that feels like some other-wordly VHS tape found in the woods.

Over the past tne years, MxPx have sold well over a million records in the US. PANIC features their trademark sound, while adding more mature themes lyrically. The first single, "Heard That Sound" is being played all over the west coast. This track is also the lead off track on this years Warped Tour compilation