quête:black one

180g black vinyl Star Birth and downloadcode for "Star Birth" and "Star Death". Gatefold.

'Star Birth' is a flung fisherman's net, mighty in scope, irrevocable as looking up from the stone floor of a cathedral – there is space, yet there is profound intimacy from the immediacy of the lyrics, our thoughts rattling around like panicky goldfish. Race has taken aspects of areas
previously explored, and made a quantum leap into the unknowable. With opening track Can't Make This Up, the gauntlet is flung down – 'what is need, what is greed / it's a new crush, the brain trust/ hive mind rewrite rewind/ falsehood streaming'

'Star Birth' is international maverick and music icon Hugo Race's 15th album with his band of True Spirits. It's a double album and the twin album's name is 'Star Death'. Star Birth was recorded during Australia's bushfire summer apocalypse of 2019 and mixed as the 2020 covid-19 pandemic hit. When the stars align it all makes sense, Hugo explains, adding that one oceanic evening while writing the album a bright star exploded right before his eyes, the sign of a sudden end and a new beginning...

Hugo's writes of trials, tribulations, hopes, fears, heartaches, loves, losses, highs and lows – 'everyday I die a little bit more, in a thousand ways I fight my little wars – and he sings with exquisite pathos and depth, like he's singing just for you about the times in which we live –
political disasters, our planet, the absence and the presence of spiritual values, broken promises, cracked hearts and if any of it really matters anyway. With hell raising lyrics like,Expendable, you'd have to wonder if anyone of us will make it through alive – 'hey sister, are
we all expendable? nobody wins, but so many of you think they do / don't try to fool yourself people, deep down you know the truth - everybody gets their one hot shot but no one's bullet proof'. But then The Rapture reminds us that there will always be stars dying in the glory of
new life – 'give us this day comfort and bread / implant in us the living word / empower us with divine love and deliver us from evil / for you are the one true light / the power and the glory / forever /amen'

Hugo's True Spirit deliver a lush, sonic love letter of rock, electronica and dramatic orchestration, based in blues, hypnotic repetition and sonic exhilaration. Michelangelo Russo is a huge part of this atmosphere; his approach to music is that of an artist with a palette of
mysterious implements and machinery, but the entire band and production is incredible from start to finish. Star Birth is 48 minutes of mind expanding, mind blowing, heel tapping tunes, with its sister album 'Star Death', a dub version of remixes that will send you searching for
your own exploding star somewhere in the sky…

In demand 7 inch sees a limited edition in translucent yellow vinyl.

Regarding the album: "This has not been off the decks since I first got it and have been hammering it to death on the show. One of the ESSENTIAL albums of 2011. Perfect in every sense and totally irresistable" Craig Charles (BBC 6Music) Two cover versions taken from the essential album GITANO REAL. I Believe in Miracles is an overwhelming take on the Jackson Sisters classic in a rumba funk fashion. Party stomper!! And on the other side, a longer trip departing from McFadden and Whitehead's seminal Ain't Non Stoping Us Now and touching the revered latin disco version of Charanga 76, only to end up as a fabulous clap-driven rumba stormer. Two very necessary sun-soaked tunes for any self-respecting dj on neat black vinyl. And yes, it's a limited edition!

GAMM150 is here and it's a big one.

Rahaan is back on GAMM and this time with his buddy DJ Emanuel with some nasty (!) post punk/funk disco.
The A-side runs down a timeless Garage classic...but with a gritty twist.
The B-side is just sex, orgy and disco crammed together on black plastic. Imma Phreak is just...phreaky! 


Gorillaz started the year with Episode 1 - ‘Momentary Bliss ft. slowthai and Slaves’ - of Song Machine, a whole new concept from one of the most innovative bands around. Now, six episodes in, Noodle, 2D, Murdoc and Russel have visited Morocco and Paris, London and Lake Como, as well as travelling all the way to the moon, and Gorillaz is ready to bring you the full collection titled Song Machine: Season One - Strange Timez, out on 23rd October 2020.

Song Machine is the ongoing and ever-evolving process which has seen Gorillaz joined by an expanding roster of collaborators captured live in Kong Studios and beyond. The result is an expansive collection of tracks embracing a myriad of sounds, styles, genres and attitudes from a breath-taking line-up of guest artists including Beck, Elton John, Fatoumata Diawara, Georgia, Kano, Leee John, Octavian, Peter Hook, Robert Smith, Roxani Arias, ScHoolboy Q, Slaves, Slowthai, St Vincent and 6LACK.
To date the project has seen over 100million streams on all tracks already and the band’s biggest period of sustained growth across both listenership and fanbase growth. All this before the album has even been announced!

Virtual band Gorillaz is singer 2D, bassist Murdoc Niccals, guitarist Noodle and drummer Russel Hobbs. Created by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett, their acclaimed eponymous debut album was released in 2001. The BRIT and Grammy Award winning band’s subsequent albums are Demon Days (2005), Plastic Beach (2010), The Fall (2011), Humanz (2017) and The Now Now (2018). A truly global phenomenon, Gorillaz have achieved success in entirely ground-breaking ways, touring the world from San Diego to Syria, winning numerous awards including the coveted Jim Henson Creativity Honor.

The band are recognised by The Guinness Book Of World Records as the planet’s Most Successful Virtual Act.

2 x 180g Black 12” vinyl
20 page hardcover 12” art book
Song Machine Season One Deluxe CD
Download card for the full deluxe album
3 x 12” art prints
1 x 12” label copy sheet











j 10. Désolé (feat. Fatoumata Diawara) Extended Version










j 10. Désolé (feat. Fatoumata Diawara) Extended Version

Libreville Records is proud to present a focus on legendary electronic swiss project Mega Wave Orchestra in the form of a compilation LP including unreleased material.Originally released privately in Geneva in 1988 as a box set containing five LPs by The Mega Wave Orchestra and five prints by the artist H. Richard Reimann. The Mega Wave Orchestra, the brain-child of musician, mathematician and composer Christian Oestreicher, was conceived as an multi-media electronic music big-band. It was comprised of seven multi-instrumentalists Christine Schaller, Vincent Barras, Jacques Demierre, Olivier Rogg, Rainer Boesch, Roger Baudet, and Benoit Corboz, with Oestreicher as arranger and producer.The Mega Wave Orchestra created a new hybrid music. It was a music with roots in the jazz and classical traditions, but one which also drew on the sonic freedom of musique concrete and the kind of total experience offered by psychedelia. The diverse backgrounds and specialisms of each of the band leaders/writers resulted in a wide variety of music across the five discs: from austere drones and granular aural detail to warm oddball fusion and gorgeous but cracked vocal jazz. There are useful contemporary comparisons to be made: zoned synth jazz like the Azimuth LP on ECM or Karin Krog’s Freestyle; Larry Heard’s sequencer dreamtime; the Valium minimalism of Pep Llopis or Jun Fukamaki; Dexter Wansel’s shimmering arrangements for Loose Ends, or even the FM sheen meets cold war threat of Donald Fagen’s Night Fly. Here, too, is the sound of music technology about to snowball and define its own aesthetic, unknowingly prefiguring auteurish bedroom producers like Black Dog or The Detroit Escalator Company.Lovely crafted tip-on sleeve. Remastered from Master tapes. 600 copies.

one per customer - limited to 150 copies on black vinyl

Fully remastered 7 inch reissue with replica artwork for the first time since its original release in 1971 - the sublime, raw and incredibly powerful gospel-soul song, ‘He's Forever (Amen)’ by The King James Version alongside the Sam & Dave channeling high energy gospel number, 'He's Coming'.

Original copies of this almost unattainable record trade hands for in excess of £375, so an official reissue will be welcome news to many that have been after this one for years. Black 7" dinked centre hole

From 1963 to 2014: "Peace Chant - raw deep and spiritual jazz" exhibits 51 years of music. A well matched anthology with sounds to dive into, hard rhythms to dance to and vocals to meditate on.

The Tramp Records crew has compiled 9 tracks in nice order and dramaturgy. Some tunes you might have never heard before unless you own one of the rare original vintage vinyl records. Peace Chant is released on two separate LPs with own catalogue numbers and on one CD. Some songs I can't get out of my mind:

The previously unreleased "Don't Give Up Your Smile Today" is opening the compilation. It's from Das Goldene Zeitalter, a band that didn't survive - but whose members had a huge influence on German jazz, soul, afrobeat and funk within the last years merging into groups like The Poets of Rhythm, The Whitefiled Bros., and The Malcouns. Boris Geiger aka. Bo Baral sings a Pharoah Sanders like tune, his voice deeply resonating, the rhythm section heavily grooving.

After the first three woolly recorded tracks Walt Bolen's "Peace Chant" with its dry and funky sounds with flute, two guitars and percussion is quite a pleasure to listen to. Organ and voice are Bolen's who used to play the keys in San Fernando Valley church when he was a child. "Peace Chant" was recorded for his own Ar-Que label in 1972 and is one of the few cuts with him as a leader. He has played sessions and clubs for years and today he is sitting at the church organ again.

This publication's oldest recording dates back to 1963: "Mozambique" by Luna Brothers Trio, a Caribbean and hypnotic instrumental. For my jazz trained ears it is rather unusual that the güiro (the gherkin played with a stick) is being played throughout the entire song. Heavily laid back cowbell, concas and timbales and the slightly detuned piano are wonderful! "Mozambique" sounds like from another star but its origin is Los Angeles, where the brothers Fred and Ricardo Luna had their night club band. You could imagine a bast skirt strip and at the same time the great Raumpatrouille (Space Patrol) landing on German B&W TV screens in 1966.

Hozan Yamamoto recorded crime jazz with the Japanese bamboo flute shakuhachi. He belonged to Tony Scotts "Music for Zen Meditation" in 1964, played with Ravi Shankar, avant-garde jazz bassist Gary Peacock and appeared at Donaueschingen Festival for contemporary music. Tokio university's open minded lecturer recorded the funky and modal "Spotlight on Sapporo" in 1972.

Melissa Guion’s second offering for Kranky retains the glassy gauze of her debut, 2016’s Precious Systems, but shaded starker and darker, framed by mechanical rhythms and humid industrial moods. She speaks of Sour Cherry Bell as something of a reckoning with her tools of creation: “I was curious to see how far I could go with them, even if that meant reaching the ends of their capacity to do what I wanted. But I never exhausted them and they never exhausted me.”

Utilizing her trusted combination of instrumentation, Guion tracked the record between her New Orleans home and rehearsal space, capturing chemistries both intimate and expansive. The songs sway between twilit shoegaze, downer ballads, and gothic pop, mapping a delicate palette of electric melancholies, though in retrospect she cites as her primary muse the notion of power: “lost and found, corporeal and cerebral, harnessed and exploited, of one and many, in this reality and the next.” Sour Cherry Bell reverberates beyond the here and now into scenes unseen, worlds unheard.

Rocksteady and Reggae have long been a part of the rare soul scene, since its inception in the early Sixties. It’s easy to hear the influence of early American R&B in the development of ‘Ska’ and as ‘Soul’ music took over as “the sound of young America”, in the mid-Sixties, it too tinged the sound of Jamaica. No more so than our dance floor anthem “I Feel So Bad” by the legendary JACKIE EDWARDS.
Edwards was born Wilfred Gerald Edwards in Jamaica in 1938 and by the age of 22 had already scored a No.1 record on the island. He’d had four chart-topping hits before signing to Chris Blackwell’s new ‘Island’ imprint in 1962. He became an integral part of Island Records, as a prolific artist, songwriter, producer and general helper. He wrote “Keep On Running” and “Somebody Help Me” for the British R&B band The Spencer Davis Group, both of which went to No.1 on the U.K. pop charts.
“I Feel So Bad” was released on the distinctive ‘red and white’ Island logo in 1967 and was adopted by the burgeoning U.K. underground soul scene, most notably at the Twisted Wheel club in Manchester. It has been played on the ever evolving Northern Soul scene ever since and, a half-century on, commands a price tag of £700+ for a mint original. Fortunately our devastingly good-looking “official” reissue can be bought for a more modest sum.
Jackie Edwards is also responsible for our flip-side “Baby Don’t Wake Me” which he wrote and produced for reggae singer DEL DAVIS at the turn of the Seventies. The combination of Jackie’s well-honed soul-induced musicianship and Davis’ gravelly soulful vocals create the perfect Northern/Crossover dancer.
Two fabulous reasons to make this one of the top reissue 45s of 2020!

Gondwana Records are delighted to announce the 6th release of our '7" Series', our first ever 7" vinyl collection series. Featuring bespoke artwork from Gondwana Records designer Daniel Halsall, cut at Calyx in Berlin, and manufactured at Optimal. This one is limited to strictly 500 copies and housed in a reverse board printed sleeve with classic 'dinked' centre holes.

Last Words and Fanfares were GoGo Penguin's breakthrough tracks, taken from their first album, Fanfares, they first introduced the band's trademark mix of jazz, dance and classical music influences to the world outside of Manchester. For this this very special release we feature two breathtaking alternate versions. Recorded in 2013 they feature the now classic line-up of GoGo Penguin with pianist Chris Illingworth, drummer Rob Turner and bassist Nick Blacka (replacing Grant Russsell) together with producer Joe Reiser - they are released here for the first and only time.

Over the years, the sonic world of Heist has grown into a place where energetic house, live instruments and worldly electronics move together in the most natural way. We're very proud of the fact that we can showcase artists that cross boundaries or simply create their own universe, while keeping a strong connection with the identity of the label.

Our next release, the 'Exposures EP' by Teleseen, fits perfectly into this aesthetic. Teleseen is the main project of nomadic DJ, producer and multi-instrumentalist Gabriel Cyr and draws influence from deep house, afro house, samba, batucada as well as the experimentalism and sound system cultures of his home town NYC. His sound leans heavily on polyrhythmic programming and he's nothing short of a synth wizard. His 'Exposures EP' features 3 originals, and a remix by Berlin based Italian house guru Black Loops.

The record features a number of collaborators and recordings of various instruments, ranging from percussive sections to synths and guitar. This live approach to electronic music is one that is deeply rooted into Gabriel's work. His upcoming release on Soundway as 'Thaba' is another good example of this approach and also shows how diverse his sounds really is.

The title track is a thrilling synth affair with tribal-like chants running through a vocoder. The combination of handclaps, crunchy synths and steady drums make for a thrilling afro house track that hints towards early motor city electronics.

Black Loops is known for his deep grooves and built his fame with his releases on Freerange, Pets and Shall not Fade. His take on 'Exposures' sees him upping the tempo to a pacey 130 bpm, where an introvert vibe of reverbed hits and bleeps take you into full dream mode. He expertly chops up the original into a contemporary track that fits somewhere between high tempo tech-house and minimalistic deephouse.

On the flip we get to hear more of the sonic world Teleseen has to offer. 'Dekalb' is a track that seems impossible to box into a genre. Its mood is set by a lovely section of free-flowing Rhodes chords and the chopped vocals and open synth- bass give the track a whole new feel. It is that ballsy electronic edge combined with dreamy textures and live rhythms that give 'Dekalb' its unique vibe.

The final track of the EP -'Transfer'- takes us down to a mid-tempo percussive workout with a balearic twist. The steady electronic groove and the free flowing guitar take you to yet another corner of Teleseen's beautifully crafted universe.

Enjoy the music and play it loud!

Yours Sincerely,
Lars & Maarten

The King & City label is the subject of three 12" reissues, starting with One Blood's classic Lovers Rock take of William DeVaughn's soul anthem, Be Thankful.

Taking the influence of reggae from the Caribbean diaspora within the cultural melting pot of 70s London, the birth of Lovers Rock, often-dubbed 'romantic reggae', is a uniquely black British sound, developed against a backdrop of riots, racial tension and sound systems.

A style suited to the London scene, it represents an apolitical counterpoint to the then dominant conscious Rastafarian sound and continued the soulful and commonly love-themed rocksteady style.

Active during the scene's peak, King & City was launched by Neville King and Lee Laing to champion the sound and alongside other producers like Dennis Bovell, created genre-defining hits.

Formed in 1979 One Blood was made up of the 5 Robinson brothers - Errol, Jerry, Lloyd, Trevor and Paul - and recording at the legendary TMC studios, went on to release two albums and countless singles.

Be Thankful pays homage to DeVaughn's original, with smooth vocals gliding atop tight drum and bass, vocal jumping up dub pom acapella to summer perfection. The tapes here passed to cohort Lexx, crafting a wonderful discodub that is all groove, expertly cutting back and forth...diamonds in the back, sunroof top.

Demon Records presents Distortion: 1989-1995, the first in a series of four expansive vinyl box sets chronicling the solo career of legendary American musician Bob Mould. Bob Mould’s career began in 1979 with the iconic underground punk group Hüsker Dü before forming the beloved alternative rock band Sugar and releasing numerous critically acclaimed solo albums. Volume one in this new series covers 1989 to 1995, beginning with Mould’s first post Hüsker Dü album Workbook and continuing through to Sugar’s final studio album File Under: Easy Listening.

Each album is presented with brand new artwork designed by illustrator Simon Marchner and pressed on 140g clear vinyl with unique splatter effects.

Includes a 28-page companion booklet featuring: liner notes by journalist Keith Cameron; a foreword by writer and actor Fred Armisen; a tribute from Richard Thompson; lyrics and memorabilia.

Mastered by Jeff Lipton and Maria Rice at Peerless Mastering in Boston.

Featuring an array of bonus tracks including Sugar’s 1995 collection of Bsides and non-album tracks Besides, along with Distortion Plus: 1989-1995 a new and exclusive collection of rarities and collaborations (pressed on clear vinyl).

From Mille Plateaux to Leaf, Staubgold and Raster-Noton, ~scape, or on his own label Ripatti, the Finnish artist Sasu Ripatti aka Vladislav Delay has been exploring various iterations of the dub culture vs. electronica, since 1997. His sonic crafts and unique signature sound has been sought after by an eclectic range of bands and artists, ranging from Massive Attack, Hauschka, Black Dice, Autopoieses, Animal Collective or AGF.

Somewhere between the old-school electronica culture, the soundscaping, the experimental paths of Lee Perry and Adrian Sherwood, ghostly clubbing anthems, minimalism, pop, jazz, without being, influenced, Vladislav Delay is building a drifting and coherent sound enigma.

Vladislav Delay met Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare (the most prolific Jamaican rhythm section and production duo) thanks to a series of jam sessions. Trumpet player Nils-Petter Molvaer had been asked by the Jamaicans to join them and he invited Delay alongside guitar player Eivind Aarset to tag along, which eventually turned into the Nordub project.

The result of these jam sessions turned into an album, mixed and mostly produced by Vladislav Delay, released on the label Okeh. It was also followed by an extensive series of live dates. This one-shot reunion was the beginning of another story: a trio composed by Delay, Dunbar and Shakespeare.

In January 2019, Vladislav Delay went to Kingston and spent some days at The Anchor studios, to record drums and bass with S&R, some voice takes and a series of atmospheric field recordings. Back to Finland, Delay started to experiment with this precious material, mixing and overdubbing, in the comfort and quiet of his studio, based on the island of Hailuoto, Baltic Sea, Northern Finland, giving another feeling to the Jamaican trip.

This became a tribute to the 'dub spirit', but in a very personal way, far beyond any influence or "the obvious". 500-PUSH-UP is two worlds collapsing, merging, also showing some intriguing approach of the Jamaican groove, used as a filigree, like the echo or the ghost of reggae, converging and conversing with a post-industrial and experimental approach. To file beside experiments - for instance - such as Lee Perry's 'Scientist Rids The World Of The Evil Curse Of The Vampires' or the On U-Sound productions.

Gil Scott-Heron was one of the foremost singer-songwriters of his generation. A committed
civil rights activist that also wrote a couple of unusual novels exploring negative elements of
the black experience and the punitive societal attitude against black people in the United
States, Scott-Heron recorded an exceptional body of work during the 1970s and 80s, and
although longstanding issues with drug addiction resulted in repeated bouts of imprisonment
and an ultimately shortened lifespan, he continued to produce noteworthy material into the
new millennium. Anyone that had the pleasure of seeing Scott-Heron and His Amnesia
Express band during the mid-1980s is unlikely to forget it; percussionist Larry McDonald,
drummer Rodney Young, saxophonist Ron Holloway and backing vocalist/keyboardist Kim
Jordan provide a full yet uncluttered backdrop to the man and his piano, as evidenced by
these stunning excerpts from the summer 1986 tour, with “Winter In America,”
“Johannesburg,” “Blue Collar” and “Shut ‘Em Down” being among the standouts.

Originally released in 2002, Comet is proud to present the legendary album Homecooking, reissued with a remastered version. Tony Allen talks about the album: After Black Voices and Psyco on Da Bus albums, I came back with HomeCooking which was an album filled with guests. I brought in Ty, who had remixed some of my work previously, to rap on the record, and Damon Albarn, who had already sung about me on 'Music is my Radar'. Since the early days I've been trying to find things that everybody will want to listen to. I've always been pushing Afrobeat in different directions. Here's another one again, another style, almost clean but still rough, raggedy and radical.''

This record is about absence. Absence of change, of better days, of delights and pleasures that are still to be invented. Longing for better times, missing something that hasn’t happened yet but needs to come, being nostalgic of the future like a cold empty bed longs for warm bodies. Cause the present is resisting, holding on to the comfortable violence of the status quo, closing the castle’s gates ; trying to keep its land, its power and its crown. We can already feel the breeze of the unknown, the urge of better times slowly unfolding, the flames getting stronger.But we’re not there yet. The road will be long and exhausting. I feel like I have been waiting for you in this cold empty bed for a hundred years already and I can’t wait to set it on fire.
Known for his dilapidated vocal electronica and releases on Jealous God, Blackest Ever Black and L.I.E.S.,
December returns to Veyl with ‘A Hundred Years Without You’,

Debut solo album from Danny Woods – The Chairmen Of The Board singer, during a stretch when the band temporarily disbanded
1972 reissue of this soul classic originally releases on the Holland Dozier Holland’s Invictus label Highlights include the singles ‘Let Me Ride and ‘Roller Coaster’ and ‘Two Can Be As Lonely As
One’, ‘It Didn’t Take Long’. Reissued on 140g black vinyl with original artwork and printed inner sleeve

GROUNDSWELLS’ is the third chapter in Wren’s seasonal lore exploration, and their first through Gizeh Records. These six melancholy-shrouded sonic ruminations swell between intimate performances devoid of adornment, and evolving soundscapes of auditory ruin. Tracing an elemental arch, 'GROUNDSWELLS' captures Wren delving into earthen awakenings.

Launching into a monochromatic dirge, ‘Chromed’ announces the LPs stylistic intentions, forgoing the trappings of traditional harmony with deliberate pendulums of pitch and tone. Swarms of percussion drag the track to its conclusion in a collage of insidious feedback, with oscillations sculpted by the record’s producer, Scott Evans of Kowloon Walled City.

Elsewhere, swift variance is displayed in Wrens’ deft handling of genre and form, refusing to be solely one of either. The record courses between rigid post-punk, broad waves of dreaded sludge, and austere choral reverberations. Pulsating Krautrock themes present in their previous work are revisited, with a focus on embracing archetypal motorik technique, as the LP stretches compositions to their furthest tensions through profuse repetition, straining the cracks between.

Inviting physical, elemental surrounds into ‘Subterranean Messiah’, Wren allow space for the sudden cloudburst of Middle Farm Studios in the introductory passage via location recording, embracing the interplay between source and locality. Combined with the painterly fretwork and ghostly chants of Fvnerals, the collaboration seeks an emotive new path of melodic vulnerability. In contrast, the closing elegy is layered with disharmonious cycles of agonised cello from Jo Quail. As with other conclusions on the LP, the track's commitment to strained repetition is rewarded with sonic climaxes of blackened psychedelia, led by stalagmitic spirals of atonalism.

Throughout the LP, Wren draws from their long-standing apologue, with a partnership of vocalists showcasing a lyrical and vocal interplay thick with a dense lore new to their compositions. 'GROUNDSWELLS' brings Wren to an equinox in their earthly contemplations. Ruminating on the decaying inanition that engenders renewal, this record is a revelry in the cyclical, repetitious infinity of planetary permanence.