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This album brings together some of the finest music ever released on Black Jazz Records which in its short four-year history, between 1971 and 1975, released over 20 superlative albums which all successfully blending spiritual jazz, funk and soul jazz of the highest calibre. Similar to other independent jazz labels at the time, including Strata-East Records and Tribe Records, Black Jazz focussed on a number of key artists, most of whom first established their career during this period, and all of whom are featured here. Featuring The Awakening, Doug Carn, Walter Bishop, Chester Thompson, Kellee Patterson and more. Black Jazz Records was founded in Oakland, California, by pianist Gene Russell and percussionist Dick Schory.

The label released twenty albums between 1971 and 1975. Artists who recorded for Black Jazz Records included Cleveland Eaton (bassist for Ramsey Lewis), keyboardists Doug Carn and Chester Thompson, vocalist Kellee Patterson, saxophonist Rudolph Johnson, bassist Henry Franklin, and spiritual fusion group The Awakening. The label was distributed and financed by Ovation Records, based in Chicago. Schory founded Ovation in 1969, shortly after leaving RCA. Schory was a Grammy-nominated percussionist who was also known for his development of the stereo recording techniques including Dynagroove and RCA Victor’s Stereo Action. Schory also pioneered quadrophonic sound, and a number of Black Jazz Records were in quadrophonic and other formats such as ¼” tape and 8-track.

Black Jazz launched in 1971 with Gene Russell’s ‘New Direction’. Russell was the creative force behind the label, acting as producer, engineer and A&R and focussed on developing new solo artists. The most successful of these was Doug Carn, who released four albums featuring his wife, Jean Carn, as vocalist. She later changed her name to Jean Carne and became a successful soul singer signed to Gamble and Huff’s Philadelphia International empire.

Calvin Love is a Canadian singer-songwriter, composer, and producer from Edmonton, Alberta, now based between Edmonton and Los Angeles. With a sound that blends noir-tinged folk‑pop, crooning rock ’n’ roll, and cinematic storytelling, Love has become a distinctive voice in the international indie landscape. His music has drawn comparisons to Roy Orbison, Leonard Cohen, and Bryan Ferry, with Aquarium Drunkard describing his work as “a crestfallen soundtrack of near‑escape… like Chris Isaak trapped in a David Lynch film.”
Since his debut New Radar (2012), Love has released a run of acclaimed records including Super Future (Arts & Crafts, 2015), Highway Dancer (2018), Night Songs (2020), and Lavender (2021). Along the way, he has collaborated with renowned producers and artists such as Gus Seyffert (Beck, Roger Waters, Black Keys) and the late Richard Swift (The Shins, Damien Jurado), while earning coverage from outlets including SPIN, The Fader, Interview Magazine, and Stereogum.
A seasoned live performer, Love has toured extensively across North America, Europe, and Asia, appearing at festivals such as SXSW, Pop Montréal, Strawberry Festival (China), Endless Daze (South Africa), and Sled Island. He has shared stages with Morrissey, Mac DeMarco, Courtney Barnett, Jonathan Wilson, The Divine Fits, and Jim James, performing in iconic venues like Carnegie Hall, The Troubadour, and Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
In early February 2026, Love releases his seventh studio album, Throw My Shadow To The Sun — a bold, visceral statement that captures him at a new creative peak. Self‑produced and recorded by Reverend Baron at The Ladder Factory in East Los Angeles, the album channels raw, unfiltered energy into a late‑night rock ’n’ roll atmosphere built on moody grooves, gritty textures, and Love’s unmistakable croon.
The sessions brought together a formidable live band: Josh Da Costa (Drugdealer) on drums, Brent Randall (Vanity Mirror) on bass, Davey Chegwidden (De La Soul, Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, Too Short) on percussion, Jeremy Brian Gill (Curtis Harding) on tenor saxophone and flutes, Daniel E. Garcia (Reverend Baron) on lead guitars, and multi‑instrumentalist Laena Myers (White Fence, Orville Peck, El Mariachi Bronx) on violin.
From the hypnotic sway of “Underneath It All,” to the reverb‑drenched sax of “Forever Feels,” to the heavy sludge‑rock crush of “Setting Sun,” Throw My Shadow To The Sun draws from the lyrical storytelling of Dire Straits, the laid‑back blues of JJ Cale, and the timeless melodic drama of Roy Orbison. The result is a cohesive, lived‑in record that transforms fleeting moments and late‑night impressions into something enduring and cinematic.

On her new album, Land of the Forgotten, Brit Taylor takes us to her much discussed and misunderstood homeland, Appalachia, with songs that reveal the complex heart and complicated people of the place. Taylor is an accomplished singer-songwriter who has been performing professionally since she was a child. She has always taken the bull by the horns; Taylor has spent seven nights a week singing on Broadway, cold-called record execs, and she even formed a cleaning business to help finance her first album, Real Me, on which Dan Auerbach (The Black Keys) co-wrote five of the songs. Only three years later she found herself being produced by two of the most sought-after producers in Nashville: Grammy winners Sturgill Simpson and David Ferguson. Since then she has made her Grand Ole Opry debut, gained a devoted following as she toured the whole country, and garnered praise from the likes of NPR, Billboard, Rolling Stone, and American Songwriter.  Land of the Forgotten will be released March 6th 2026 by RidgeTone Records, LLC Under Exclusive License from Cut A Shine Records, LLC Marketed and Distributed by Thirty Tigers

Vijan, originally released in 2003 by I Grade Records, is a seminal release from the “golden era” of St. Croix roots reggae, now available for the first time on 12” vinyl courtesy of Before Zero Records.

Produced by the legendary combination of Vaughn Benjamin and Laurent “Tippy I” Alfred, Vijan balances the raw, spiritual intensity of Vaughn’s songwriting with the sophisticated, melodic arrangements that became the hallmark of the I Grade sound.

This album features an incredible lineup of musicians who helped shape the sound of Virgin Islands reggae. The production credits boast the textured guitar layers of Tuff Lion , the deep, driving bass of Kenyatta Itola , and the rhythmic precision of Dion “Bosie” Hopkins. Uniquely, this album also showcases Vaughn Benjamin’s versatility as a multi-instrumentalist, contributing drums, bass, and keys on standout tracks like “All Ye Naashan” and “Thanks for Life”.

Akae Beka’s inimitable style of rich, deep, multi-layered songwriting and uncompromising devotion to RasTafari is on full display here. At the point of his untimely passing in 2019, Vaughn Benjamin had released over 70 albums, solidifying his place as one of the most prolific reggae artists ever known. Vijan remains
a glowing highlight in this expansive catalogue, capturing a specific moment of creative brilliance in the early 2000s.

The vinyl reissue allows listeners to engage with the album’s analogue richness and features the striking original artwork by Marcus Wilson, presented here as a 12” square masterpiece.

Drummer/producer Teppo Mäkynen's 3TM returns with a new album, "Lake", on 29 November on Helsinki's We Jazz Records. The album is the much awaited follow up to 2017's successful 3TM debut "Form", which was awarded as the "Jazz Album of the Year" in Mäkynen's native Finland. "Lake" was preceded by the ambient electronic album "Abyss" in August, which set the mood for what's to come next: A compact yet far-reaching body of work bringing together the trio's acoustic jazz sound and ideas rooted in abstract electronic music in a remarkably boundless way.

"Lake" is a collection of 9 Mäkynen-penned originals ranging from the looping, hypnotic compositions such as first single "Laws Of Life" to the delicacy of tracks such as "Woods". There is a sense of long form narrative here, evident in glorious, slowly evolving tracks such as "Lake" and "A Pile Of Broken Dreams". The overall sound is swinging, melodic, deep and futuristic. It's acoustic jazz and abstract electronic music understood deeply and used as the base of a new sound, which goes beyond the usual distinctions of "acoustic jazz" or "electronic music". This is music for the present day, moving forward.

3TM's "Lake" will be available as white and black vinyl versions, complete with printed inner sleeve featuring Mäkynen's essay about the theme of the album. On vinyl, "Lake" will also be available as a 2LP bundle with "Abyss", and the CD version includes both discs, "Lake" and "Abyss".

In the 3TM trio formation Mäkynen is joined by sax man Jussi Kannaste and bassist Antti Lötjönen, both Finnish scene mainstays. The band will celebrate their new release at Helsinki's We Jazz Festival on 7 December.

Ace’s small but ever-evolving “Black America Sings…” series has been quiet of late, but it springs back into action this month with the 2-LP and CD releases of “Highway Of Diamonds” – a second dip onto the catalogue of Bob Dylan, as reimagined by some of the foremost African-American artists of the 20th century.

From almost the start of his songwriting career, Dylan’s words and music have impacted on black American music, with ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’, speaking to an America that was still mostly segregated and becoming an anthem for all colours and creeds. As Dylan’s own career progressed, so did the number of covers he received, with a significant amount coming from what might be termed ‘non-traditional’ sources such as those heard here.

The 20 songs on “Highway Of Diamonds” continue the story that was told in part on the earlier “How Many Roads” compilation, with an almost entirely different selection of artists lending their voices to some of the best songwriting of the 20th century, and an almost entirely different selection of songs (with the exception of ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’ itself, which provides a common thread linking the story told across the two sets).
Big names from the worlds of soul, gospel and jazz, timeless songs and, for many, new ways of appreciating ever-durable material make “Highway Of Diamonds” as essential a purchase as its predecessor.

As ever, the great audio is complemented by a handsomely illustrated package on both CD and double vinyl, with a plethora of illustrations and in depth song-by-song-and-track-by-track annotation by Ace legend Tony Rounce.

Detroit producer-MC Black Milk’s breakthrough album Popular Demand makes its long-awaited return to vinyl. Originally released in 2007, this project introduced Black Milk’s signature balance of warm soul chops, crisp drum programming, and sharp lyricism — earning praise from XXL, Pitchfork, and Okayplayer as one of the defining independent hip-hop releases of its era.
Unavailable on wax for several years and long sought after by collectors, Popular Demand now returns fully remastered for vinyl with updated packaging, making it available to new audiences and longtime fans alike.

Grupo um celebrate 50 years with release of lost dictatorship-era album nineteen seventy seven!

First time release - vinyl comes with printed innersleeves

Brazilian avant-jazz vanguardists Grupo Um celebrate their 50th anniversary, sharing a second previously lost 1970s album from the vaults. Nineteen Seventy Seven (titled after the year it was recorded) is another rip-roaring instrumental fusion treasure from the band which spawned from within Hermeto Pascoal’s famed mid-1970s São Paulo collective.

Like their debut album Starting Point, Grupo Um’s Nineteen Seventy Seven was recorded when Brazil's military dictatorship was at its most repressive. “There were no open doors to those who dreamt to be protagonists in creative instrumental music”, remembers drummer Zé Eduardo Nazario, “even popular composers and singers had to submit their songs to censors and many records were banned and confiscated from the stores.”

Just like Hermeto Pascoal's Viajando Com O Som (1977) and Grupo Um's previous album Starting Point (1975), both of which remained unreleased until the 21st century, Zé Eduardo asserts that the 1977 album was flatly 'without any chance to be released at that time."

Recorded at Rogério Duprat’s Vice-Versa Studios in São Paulo, the group were under both time and space restraints, “we chose the small Studio B,” Lelo Nazario recalls, “which had a Tascam (TE AC) 12x8 console and a 4-channel AMPEX AG 440 machine. Therefore, we had to record without overdubs, everything straight to tape.”

Expanding from a trio to a quintet, original Grupo Um members Lelo Nazario (keys), Zé Eduardo Nazario (drums), and Zeca Assumpção (bass) were joined by saxophonist Roberto Sion and percussionist Carlinhos Gonçalves. Carlinhos, Zé and Zeca had already played together in the group Mandala, while brothers Lelo and Zé had just finished a stint backing Hermeto Pascoal during his years in São Paulo.

Lelo was deeply immersed in modular synthesizer experimentation during this period, working extensively with the ARP2600 and EMS Synthi AKS. These electroacoustic explorations formed the sonic foundation for "Mobile/Stabile," one of his first compositions to merge modular synthesis with Brazilian music, a fusion that would ripple throughout the Brazilian jazz scene. The piece premiered at the first São Paulo International Jazz Festival in 1978, performed by Grupo Um with guest trumpeter Márcio Montarroyos. In a shocking moment, festival organizers interrupted the show mid-performance, sparking fierce backlash from both audience members and journalists who denounced the incident as artistic censorship during Brazil's era of political and cultural repression. The version on Nineteen Seventy Seven is the first recording of the composition.

Nineteen Seventy Seven combines Afro-Brazilian rhythm, modular synthesis and a plethora of whistles, percussion and effects pedals. Album opener “Absurdo Mudo” - so titled for the absurd difficulty it poses to the musicians performing it - starts out in a cloud of mysterious dissonance, before the haze breaks for a glorious keyboard and saxophone interplay atop an uptempo samba groove. “Cortejo dos Reis Negros (Version 2)” (Procession of the Black Kings), based on the maracatu rhythm, inverts the traditional jazz song structure by beginning with improvisations, which are followed by the theme and a final coda. “The studio also had two Parasound electronic reverb units,” Lelo notes, “and the timbre is very audible on the soprano sax and percussion.”

Grupo Um’s daring music represents a manifesto of resistance during the dictatorship years, but it’s one which remains just as relevant today. As Lelo puts it: “For me, the aesthetic issue has always been about combining contemporary avant-garde languages with Brazilian music, independent of categories and commercial interests. The result of this fusion takes music to a new level.”

Recording credits (1977)
Recorded at Vice-Versa B Studio, São Paulo, November 9, 1977
Produced by Lelo Nazario and Zé Eduardo Nazario
Engineered by Ricardo “Franja” Carvalheira



Lelo Nazario – Wurlitzer electric piano, acoustic piano, signal generator, percussion

Zé Eduardo Nazario – drums, percussion

Zeca Assumpção – electric bass

Carlinhos Gonçalves – percussion

Roberto Sion – soprano sax, clarinet

Release credits (2025)
Produced by UTOPIA Studio, São Paulo
Project Coordination in Brazil by Irati Antonio (Utopia Studio)
Tape Restoration and Digital Mastering by Lelo Nazario at Utopia Studio, July 2025
Liner Notes by Lelo Nazario and Zé Eduardo Nazario
Photography by Jorge Las Heras, Lelo Nazario, and artists' personal archives
Photo Restoration by Lelo Nazario
Artwork and Design by Alessandro Renaldin

This 2xLP is available for the first time on vinyl and features star- studded guest appearances from talented friends, including Black Thought, Norah Jones, Thundercat and more.

Melodies International’s next record features a previously unreleased collaboration between the Ariwa camp (Mad Professor’s label and studio) and rising UK R&B artist Abel Miller — a Lovers Rock cover of the classic 1960s Philadelphia soul track “Everytime I See My Baby” by The Delfonics.

A few years ago, Mad Professor teamed up with frequent collaborator and multi-instrumentalist virtuoso Black Steel — who regularly records bass, guitar, keys, and vocals for Ariwa Studios (“he can play anything” Mad Professor tells us) — to record a series of Lovers Rock covers of songs by The Delfonics. Mad Professor’s love for 60s and 70s US soul is no secret and shines through much of his production, but he realised he had never heard this particular song, originally written by Thom Bell and William Hart. For the session, they brought in Ashanti Selah on keys and Horseman on drums, with Abel Miller delivering the lead vocals. Mad Professor and his son Joe Ariwa recorded and produced the track.

Since their first reissue project with Mad Professor a few years back (Ariwa Sounds: The Early Sessions LP), he has occasionally performed with the Melodies crew — most recently on Floating Points’ Sunflower Soundsystem this past summer. At their Osaka gig a couple of years ago, he closed the show with this track, immediately blowing everyone’s minds. When asked what it was, he told the team that Melodies could release it!

The 7” single will be available in November, featuring the original studio version on one side and the live dub version Mad Professor performed in Japan on the flip (vinyl exclusive). Mastered by Frank Merritt at The Carvery, with printed sleeve artwork by Nevil Bernard.

Supergroups existed before Emerson, Lake & Palmer formed in 1970. And, as we all know well, many came after. But few, if any, matched the English trio’s chemistry and its elevated combination of virtuosity, vision, and verve. Having influenced a multitude of followers, ELP’s prowess was obvious from the start. The band’s self-titled debut stands as a towering statement of creative imagination, execution, and discipline more than five decades after its original release.

Mastered at MoFi’s California studio, housed in a Stoughton jacket, and pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing, Mobile Fidelity’s numbered-edition 180g 33RPM LP of Emerson, Lake & Palmer presents the benchmark album in audiophile sound. Clear, dynamic, and balanced, this collectible edition honors the perfectionist approaches that both informed the playing and recording of the record.

Distinguished with black backgrounds, this reissue brings to light the epic scope, tonal depth, and mind-bending degrees of musicianship on display. Aspects — textures, nuances, effects, melodies, tempo changes — that go hand-in-hand with the trio’s compositions and interplay are rendered amid broad soundstages and delivered with pinpoint detail. Whether you’ve owned multiple copies of this touchstone or seeking out your first version, you’ll relish the presence, separation, imaging, and crispness that help make every song come across as if the group has set up shop in your listening space.

Opening the door to the seemingly infinite possibilities of progressive rock while steering clear of excess, Emerson, Lake & Palmer achieved a rare feat in that its complex, cerebral music didn’t prevent it from attaining mainstream success. The gold-certified effort launched the career of a band that would sell tens of millions of records. It also landed a Top 50 single in the form of the ballad “Lucky Man,” whose vocal harmonies, folksy strumming, multi-tracked instrumentation, and breakthrough Moog solo almost feel quaint in the face of the other fare on the album.

Comprised of genre-defying originals and hybrid arrangements of two classical pieces, the album Rolling Stone originally and rightly said is “best heard as a whole” matches outrageous ambition with the otherworldly skills of three musicians who remain among the finest to ever pick up their respective instruments. While Emerson soon drew the lion’s share of headlines for his ability on keys — clavinet, Moog, piano, Hammond organ, and pipe organ included — Greg Lake’s aptitude on guitar and bass, along with well as Carl Palmer’s monster talents behind the kit, created a three-headed hydra that devoured everything in front of it.

That extends to the radical reinterpretation of Bela Bartok’s “The Barbarian” that begins the LP, a performance that in less than four-and-a-half minutes runs the gamut from distorted to churchy to angular and blustery. More classical flourishes, keyboard wizardry, hard-rock heaviness, and gothic signatures emerge throughout “Knife-Edge,” which reimagines music by Leos Janacek and J.S. Bach — and ultimately invites you to explore a cathedral of sound teeming with separate bursts of keys and percussion.

And did someone say “drumming”? Check out Palmer’s monster salvo on “Tank,” a rhythmic showcase that marches out with knee-bent notes and mirror-reflected passages. Or dive into the mythological suite “The Three Fates.” Replete with three parts and Emerson playing the pipe organ at Royal Festival Hall, it shoots off sonic fireworks via sophisticated arpeggios, jazz improvisations, dancing counter-meters, sizzling chords, and a few explosions. Please don’t hold anyone at MoFi responsible if your system cannot handle it; this is heady stuff.

Indeed, everything on Emerson, Lake & Palmer is there for a purpose. Whether you aim to attempt to dissect all of the notes, shifts, and polyrhythmic bluster or just want to absorb this album as one living, breathing organism, this version invites you to do both as many times as you desire.

There’s no mystery to this one, it’s another phat Krash Slaughta 45 remix – in this case of a Wu-Tang Clan classic to follow recent cheeky versions of Guru and MF DOOM on 7″. You may remember the original Da Mystery Of Chessboxin’ as an archetypal RZA production characterised by clashing sword samples and a skeletal piano motif with the grit coming from the ‘Clan’s vox and the crunch of the boom-bap drums. KS’s remix is utterly different – as we’ve come to expect – and sees him provide a beat that matches the energy of the original vocals rather than provide a counterpoint to them. Out go (most of) the swords and keys and in come guitars and furious scratching. Side B’s the radio edit, the A’s the ‘Full Phat’ version, cop it in black or yellow wax and remember – in the front, in the back, Killa Beez on attack!

For his last solo record ‘Through a Room’, Bill Nace shifted his usual saturated guitar sound and added tapes, hurdy gurdy, doughnut pipe, bird calls and the mysterious Japanese taishōgoto. Setting up for the final night of his three day residency at OTO with only the taishōgoto soundchecked, Nace hoped that Parker would arrive with his small soprano as its opposite. “I’ve been interested in state change, you know, playing until there’s a shift in time.” Known for his development of multiphonics to produce a constantly shifting pattern, Evan Parker has evolved an instantly recognizable sound - his work the soprano most distinct. Happily, it was the soprano Evan brought with him and as soon as the two start to play they entwine - taking off in a double helix of keys and reed primed for endless reconfiguration. Space warps under the velocity of playing, the pitch rising unrelentingly. It felt like unending lift off in the room, sheer energy until the last note makes remember your feet have been on the floor the whole time. Total time bending shredding.

–

"They had never played together before. They had never even met each other before this springtime 2024 concert at London’s Café Oto.

Evan Parker, circular breathing maestro of the saxophone, a legend in the universe that is Free Improvisation since the late 1960s and Bill Nace, one of the most intriguing experimental “noise” guitarists of the 1990s/2000s underground scene.

For those of us who have been enamored by the live and documented work of both these gents, this Café Oto duo was a must-hear event. It could have gone anywhere musically and that would have been totally fine. Particularly with Evan having a history of being thrown into a variety of challenging collaborations throughout his career, employing the learned elegance of trust in his own sensitivity to listening, responding, leading, following, sparring, intertwining, dialoguing, creating in the instant and, essentially, dignifying the non-hierarchical grace of chance.

The aesthetics of socialist consideration in Evan Parker’s playing, in his community of expanded and personal technique, for a younger player such as Bill Nace, strikes an exemplary model. This notion of respect would be entirely the reason Nace, when offered a residency at the most critical “new music” room in England, would request to play in duo with Parker.

Bill Nace came to prominence mostly during the apex of experimental music activity in and around Western Massachusetts in the early days of the aughts, with a focus on visual art and free improvisation guitar action. He could be found in the daytime hours, his head hanging down over a notepad, penning fine-tuned illustrations and abstract line drawings, while in the evenings he’d be attending any number of basement noise gigs, many of which he’d be participating in. His guitar style came across as being informed as much as by the physicality of his writing utensils in friction to the page as it was to his hearing and redefining of radical recordings ranging anywhere from the Black Unity Group to Black Flag.

Utilizing various metal files and other small cylindrical objects Bill would allow his guitar and amplifier to be in tandem with the improvisatory movements of his body as the instrument balanced, intentionally and, at times, precariously, upon his lap. The performances came across thrilling and daring and they would be mostly in the context of venues nothing more than a low-ceilinged damp and dank New England basement, a clutch of people hanging onto rusty pipes or sitting up on dilapidated washer/dryer machines, the shards of Bill’s “file guitar” sounds ringing out like the most alive music on Earth.

By the time Bill reached Café Oto in early 2024 he had relocated to Philadelphia all the while releasing a succession of collaborative LPs on his Open Mouth label to present his developing progression of solo and collaborative work. He also would find himself considerably engaged with playing the electric taishōgoto, a keyboard-activated string instrument from Japan which can exist as a one, two, four, five, or six string oblong sound object. Bill’s approach to the taishōgoto would not be too unlike his approach to the traditional electric guitar, though no outboard implements such as files, sticks, and rocks are utilized. The similarity would lie wholly with Bill’s full immersion of high velocity action-playing where, with the taishōgoto, an electric drone beauty occurs. The flurry of sonics and resultant harmonics emanating from the amplifier (which Bill opts to dial into with borderline loud-as fuck volume settings) furthers the meta-mantra properties of the instrument in an astounding display of drone dynamism.

This sound world of Bill’s two-stringed taishōgoto on this Café Oto night worked beautifully with Evan Parker’s improvisatory saxophone conceptions. The duology achieved instant lift off at ground zero only to find it’s eventual finale as if it were organically ordained. Time seemingly morphed from its ancient human construct of control, rendered inconsequential to the torrential transcendence of the room wildly activated by the magic resonance of the multi-directional pan-spatial sonance of the music as if it were some beatific blessing. It was one of those nights where art as a liberating force of spirit gifted the listeners with an offering of exaltation and joy. It was entirely mystical and mind blowing. A night of Total Music."

Thurston Moore, London, 2025

Zwölf Jahre nach dem gefeierten Album All Is Fever melden sich Naked Lunch mit Lights And A Slight Taste Of Death eindrucksvoll zurück. Die österreichische Band um Sänger und Songwriter Oliver Welter präsentiert ein Werk, das tief geht - musikalisch wie emotional. Der Titel deutet es an: Licht und Tod, Hoffnung und Abgrund, Intimität und Explosion - alles ist da. Welter verarbeitet persönliche Krisen, Krankheit und Wiedergeburt, aber auch Liebe und Lebensfreude. Die Songs sind radikal ehrlich, poetisch und musikalisch vielschichtig. Von zarten Balladen wie Come Into My Arms bis zu hymnischen Popmomenten wie To All And Everyone I Love oder We Could Be Beautiful entfaltet sich ein Klangkosmos, der berührt und fordert. Produziert wurde das Album gemeinsam mit Wolfgang Lehmann, dessen sensibles Verständnis für Musik Welters Vision perfekt ergänzt. Unterstützt von langjährigen Weggefährten Alex Jezdinsky (Drums) und Boris Hauf (Keys/Sax), entstand eine Platte, die sich kompromisslos in die eindrucksvolle Diskografie von Naked Lunch einreiht. Lights And A Slight Taste Of Death ist eine musikalische Tour de Force - intensiv, verletzlich, kraftvoll. Ein Album, das zeigt: Naked Lunch sind lebendiger denn je

Zwölf Jahre nach dem gefeierten Album All Is Fever melden sich Naked Lunch mit Lights And A Slight Taste Of Death eindrucksvoll zurück. Die österreichische Band um Sänger und Songwriter Oliver Welter präsentiert ein Werk, das tief geht - musikalisch wie emotional. Der Titel deutet es an: Licht und Tod, Hoffnung und Abgrund, Intimität und Explosion - alles ist da. Welter verarbeitet persönliche Krisen, Krankheit und Wiedergeburt, aber auch Liebe und Lebensfreude. Die Songs sind radikal ehrlich, poetisch und musikalisch vielschichtig. Von zarten Balladen wie Come Into My Arms bis zu hymnischen Popmomenten wie To All And Everyone I Love oder We Could Be Beautiful entfaltet sich ein Klangkosmos, der berührt und fordert. Produziert wurde das Album gemeinsam mit Wolfgang Lehmann, dessen sensibles Verständnis für Musik Welters Vision perfekt ergänzt. Unterstützt von langjährigen Weggefährten Alex Jezdinsky (Drums) und Boris Hauf (Keys/Sax), entstand eine Platte, die sich kompromisslos in die eindrucksvolle Diskografie von Naked Lunch einreiht. Lights And A Slight Taste Of Death ist eine musikalische Tour de Force - intensiv, verletzlich, kraftvoll. Ein Album, das zeigt: Naked Lunch sind lebendiger denn je

Miles Kane, gefeierter englischer Rocker und Mitbegründer von The Last Shadow Puppets zusammen mit
Alex Turner von den Arctic Monkeys, veröffentlicht mit Sunlight In The Shadows sein erstes Easy Eye
Sound-Album in Zusammenarbeit mit dem GRAMMY-prämierten Produzenten Dan Auerbach (The Black
Keys). Das Album wurde gemeinsam mit Auerbach, Patrick Carney, Daniel Tashian und Pat McLaughlin geschrieben. Überlagert von üppigen, kreischenden Gitarren und vollgepackt mit Hooks, bewegt sich
das Album auf dem schmalen Grat zwischen rauem, energiegeladenem Rock und entspannten CrooningHymnen, alles mit einer Prise von Miles’ charakteristischer Tremolo-Gitarre und einer ganzen Menge Spaß.
Über die Entstehung von Sunlight In The Shadows sagt Miles: „Alle Wege, die ich in den letzten 20
Jahren gegangen bin, haben hierhergeführt“.

"Bandleader Lina Langendorf has been known in Sweden for a long time as one of the most skilled and forward thinking saxophone players. She has been staying in both Mali and Ethopia for longer periods and has performed in concerts with legendary artists like Alemayehu Eshete, Vieux Farka Touré and...Mulatu Astatke who, at his club African Jazz Village (in Addis Ababa/Ethiopia), introduced Lina to people in the audience with the words: 'Amazing saxophone player, big respect! We should play together some day'. Some minutes later they go on stage together. Joined by the legendary piano player Dawit Yifru and the bass player from Roha Band, Giovanni Rico Bonsignori. 'Fantastic. You're so strong. Everybody loves you, they say you are ethio-jazz' was Mulatu's words after the jam session.
Lina has also been invited to the live club Le Hogon in Bamako numerous times for jam sessions and concerts with Toumani Diabaté and his band. And for Lina, these jam sessions in Addis and Bamako has been a crucial part of shaping (and sharpening) her musical vision. Last year she was also touring the UK as part of James Yorkston, Nina Persson and the second hand orchestra.
But it wasn't until feb 2023 we got to hear her own music. The debut album with her newly formed band Langendorf United was co-released between Italian label Black Sweat records and Swedish label Sing A Song Fighter and it immediately resonated with music lovers around the world (Radiohead drummer Philip Selway called it 'as if Tinariwen and Fela Kuti had a Blue Note session').
But the band is not just the composer/Saxophone star and band leader Lina Langendorf. Oh, no. The other four musicians are all highly praised musicians in various jazz bands in Sweden and Norway and together they form this sacred thythmic unity with the pulsating bass at the centre.
Langendorf United's music is vibrant and spiritual and on fire!"

Lina Langendorf - saxophone
Daniel Bingert (son of legendary South American musician Hector Bingert) - keys, guitars
Martin Hederos (The Soundtrack Of Our Lives, Tonbruket) - keys, viola
Ole Morten Vågan (Trondheim Jazz Orchestra) - upright bass
Andreas Werliin (Fire!, Wildbirds & Peacedrums) - drums

Die wilden Söhne Manchesters, Wode, kehren mit ihrem vierten Album „Uncrossing The Keys“ zurück und erweitern damit selbstbewusst ihren ohnehin schon beeindruckenden Sound, der auf einer düsteren Grundlage aus wildem Black Metal und eisernem Heavy Metal basiert. Nachdem sie sich von der eher geradlinigen Methodik ihres Debütalbums weiterentwickelt haben, haben Wode im Laufe ihrer Diskografie kontinuierlich Elemente aus verschiedenen dunklen Ecken des Undergrounds hinzugefügt, wobei ihr Songwriting schlanker, aber auch komplexer, fokussierter und melodischer denn je geworden ist.
„Uncrossing The Keys“ hat die Musik von Wode nicht milder gemacht, der Sound ist nach wie vor von Flammen und Wut durchdrungen, aber sie haben ein breiteres Spektrum an Stimmungen angenommen und malen mit schwärzeren, satteren Farbtönen als je zuvor. Zerklüftete Post-Punk-/Goth-Einflüsse leuchten düster in neuen Tracks wie „Saturn Shadow“ und dem verträumten Trance des atmosphärischen Instrumentalstücks „Phantom“. Das düstere Tempo und die majestätisch-nachdenkliche Stimmung der Single „Transmutation“ erinnern mit ihrer düsteren Unterströmung sowohl an Paradise Lost als auch an Amorphis, während das melancholisch-hymnische „Under Lanternlight“ mit dynamischen Melodien im Stil von Sentenced durchdrungen ist. Die Gitarren tragen manchmal einen traurigen Schimmer, ihre Hooks sind sowohl von Melancholie als auch von Bedrohung durchzogen und schweben mit Momenten elegischer Schönheit und dunkler Klage über dem Gemetzel. Der höllische, raue Gesang erhebt sich wie rituelle Gesänge aus einer anderen Zeit.
Wode beschwört Bilder einer Welt herauf, die sich ständig am Rande der Dämmerung befindet, und wirft im Verlauf der neun Tracks von „Uncrossing The Keys“ einen langen, kalten Schatten. Es herrscht ein Gefühl von Erhabenheit und Verfall, als hätte die Band ein Tor zu einem Reich geöffnet, in dem verfluchte Städte unter blutroten Himmeln schwelen und ihre Mauern ewig verlassene Hymnen widerhallen lassen. Als Ergebnis eines ständigen Evolutionsprozesses hat Wode einen wahrhaft gespenstischen und imposanten Blackened Heavy Metal geschaffen, der ein dunkles Banner hoch über einem riesigen und öden Königreich hisst.

Classic 1970 Psych Folk album
Remastered from Original Master Tapes
Features Pink Floyd's
Nick Mason - Part producer and drums on ‘The Grail’
Rick Wright - Keys on ‘Lady with Bullets In Her Hair’
Chimera “Holy Grail” pressed on 180 gram RED Vinyl Incl. Sleeve not