This is some serious top shelf material out of Baltimore and a certified masterclass in sweet symphonic soul. Optimistics was originally released in 1970 on Turbo and it’s every bit as essential as The Chi-Lites, The Delfonics and The Moments yet nowhere near as known. Those original copies are ridiculously rare and, of course, the prices are equally ridiculous.
Optimistics is a killer LP throughout, beloved of discerning hip-hop producers worldwide and routinely championed by the legendary Pete Rock. The genius George Kerr has handled the production on what is an album of beautiful, naïve soul for mind and body. It’s bursting with goodness and, like the best of its genre, it radiates a heart-breaking ambience that cuts right to the core.
The band of Billy, Harold, James, Charles and Jerome are described on the back cover as “five young, black knights who have embarked on a musical crusade and they're gonna slay a lot of dragons along the way”. We’re not entirely sure how many mythical serpents were dispatched during the making of this album but we can certainly attest to the sense of evangelical drive.
Evergreen opener “You Put Something New In My Life” is a heart-stopping ode to a transformative love. A ballad with spine-tingling chord changes and melodic switch-ups to spare, its sweeping strings and precise drums complement the falsetto delivery perfectly.
It’s followed by the equally beguiling “Let’s Love”. Another string-drenched harmony ballad, it revolves around delicate piano and distinctive guitar lines, crying out to be recontextualised by the best sampling technicians. Closing out the A side, the wonderfully restrained “Love Is God Almighty” is harp and horn-driven, barely-there soul from a higher plain. Heavenly.
Ushering in the flipside, “Should I Let Myself Go”, sampled recently by Knxwledge, is sensational guitar-soul with a yearning that could bring the most hardened soul to tears. It’s followed by the uptempo, Temptations-funk of “Man” and quietly-great “If I Could Influence Man”, where the competing vocals ride a chugging, funky breakbeat and delicious guitar licks. The refreshing, groovy “Say It Baby” is an appropriately positive, upward looking closer. Its sentiment and feel speaks directly to both the band name and the title of this, their only album. Truly optimistic.
The whole LP is a winning blend of slow, spine-tingling ballads and joyously upbeat tracks. It’s a case of A+ vocals, melodies and harmonies over beautiful playing and arrangements. It deserves to be canonical.
This fresh reissue has been mastered with the usual care by Simon Francis and cut by the legendary Pete Norman. The artwork has been lovingly reproduced by the Be With team.
Optimistics should be known to a much wider audience. We’ve hopefully gone some way towards rectifying that.
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“This album will be part of the everlasting impact the Tribe collective had on our culture, on our hope and possibilities.” - Herb Boyd
Strut and Art Yard present the first compilation bringing together the modern era recordings of Tribe, Detroit’s acclaimed independent jazz collective.
Tribe began as a musical ensemble in 1971 co-founded by Saxophonist Wendell Harrison and trombonist Phil Ranelin that soon expanded into a broad amalgam including a live collective and independent record label. Ignored by the mainstream, many African American jazz artists in Detroit and across the US began creating their own small imprints and Tribe emerged alongside other cultural entities to express selfdetermination goals in the city: saxophonist Ernie Rodgers with his sessions at Rapa House; John and Leni Sinclair’s Artist Workshop; Bruce Millan’s Repertory Theater; the Hastings Jazz Experience and the Strata Corporation led by Kenny Cox. Harrison’s ideas of independence, self-determination and education were central to the Tribe ethos: “I might be possessed with a drive to get the knowledge out,” explained Harrison, “because I see this as sustaining the future of the jazz diaspora, the jazz tradition.” Tribe album releases like Harrison’s ‘An Evening With The Devil’ (1972) and Harrison and Ranelin’s ‘A Message From The Tribe’ (1973) became early ‘70s milestones in Detroit jazz.
In 1977, Harrison teamed up with pianist/composer Harold McKinney to form Rebirth Inc., aided by Detroit cultural warrior John Sinclair, a continuation of the Tribe community ethos. Musically, it formed a link with radio station WDET and began an outreach program to teach children and to publish Harrison’s jazz instruction books. Harrison continue to record extensively as a leader with his own labels, WenHa and Tribe, documenting the collective through sessions led by Phil Ranelin, Harold McKinney, Pamela Wise and more.
The ‘Hometown’ compilation places the spotlight on this later era of Tribe and Rebirth Inc., with rare and previously unreleased recordings from Harrison’s WenHa / Rebirth Studios and the SereNgeti Gallery And Cultural Center. Among many highlights, Harold McKinney and his “McKinfolk” family of musicians contribute the pulsing ‘Wide And Blue’ and dance celebration ‘Juba’; Phil Ranelin re-works his classic ‘He The One We All Knew’; Poet Mbiyu Chui (Williams Moore), pianist Pamela Wise and percussionist Djallo Djakate spark on the uncompromising ‘Ode To Black Mothers’ and the rallying cry of ‘Marcus Garvey’: “If we ever get together we will astound the world.” Harrison himself evokes the power and majesty of juju on ‘Conjure Man’.
‘Hometown’ comes as a 2LP gatefold and 1CD digipak fully remastered by Technology Works from the original session recordings. Both formats include exclusive sleeve notes by journalist Herb Boyd with rare photos from Wendell Harrison’s personal archive.
With a third album, ‘Return To Telepathic Heights’, released this year on Gerd Janson’s Running Back label, techno outlaw A Sagittariun returns to themes of a space western nature with a closing epilogue, ‘A Fistful of Bitcoins’.
An extended player that traverses Tucumcari, Vietnam’s Black River, and the ultimate, and final leg, of the journey; to Devils Tower in Wyoming.
Vital Sales Points:
- full picture sleeve, designed by Jonny O (Rocket Recordings/Goat)
- global PR and marketing campaign from Hype Filter
- last A Sagittairun album for Gerd Janson’s Running Back label received excellent reviews in Mixmag, DJ Mag, The Wire & more…
Selected DJ feedback:
Robag Whrume – Good one!
Shanti Celeste – love this!
Nick Höppner – Sounding great
Brendon Moeller – Dope AF!
Johanna Knutsson – Beautiful stuff
Ed Davenport – Some heavy stuff here, Road To Devils Tower is a special cut!
Bruce (Livity Sound) – Real digging the slow bits, proper gear!
John Osborn – The Sacred Chao is heaven!
Interstellar Funk – Really like ‘A Fistful Of Bitcoins’
Neil Barnes (Leftfield) – very nice and imaginative EP
Fabrice Lig – Really nice EP, love it
DJ Octopus – Great one!
Vincent Neumann – Ooh, so nice!
Ell Weston (Banoffe Pies) – Superb selection
Cormac – Black River is super nice
Cooper Saver – wow, love these
Bill Brewster – lot’s of nice gear on here, good work
96 Back (CPU) – wonderfully bleepy and dubby
Tensnake – lovely release
Kirsti (Null & Void) – So consistent, another great release from A Sagittariun
Neurot Recordings are proud to reissue the landmark collaboration Neurosis & Jarboe, which was originally released in 2003. This latest version is fully remastered and with entirely new artwork from Aaron Turner.
Very limited silver metallic and black swirl 2LP - Non-Returnable
Steve Von Till explains the idea behind the remastering; "Bob Weston (Chicago Mastering Service, and member of Shellac) worked closely with Noah on making these new versions sound as good as the possibly can. Noah has the most trained critical ear for fidelity out of all of us being an engineer himself. We recorded this ourselves with consumer level Pro Tools back then, in order to be able to experiment at home in getting different sounds and writing spontaneously. The technology has come a long way since then and we thought we could run it through better digital to analog conversion and trusted Bob Weston to be able to bring out the best in it....This new mastered version is a bit more open, with a better stereo image, and better final eq treatment."
He continues about the original artwork..."Aaron felt he could create something that would unify the energy of both Jarboe and Neurosis in an elegant manner. We let him do his thing and I think it definitely adds to mystery of the album and sets it apart from the rest of our catalog."
When two independent and distinct spheres overlap, the resulting ellipse tends to emphasise the most striking and powerful characteristics of each body. Such is the case with this particular collaboration between heavy music pioneers Neurosis and the multi-faceted performer Jarboe (who performed in Swans and who has collaborated with an array of people from Blixa Bargeld, J.G. Thirlwell, Attila Csihar, Bill Laswell, Merzbow, Justin K. Broadrick, Helen Money, Father Murphy, the list goes on...) The musicians pull from one another some of the most harrowing and unusual sounds ever heard from either artist at the time - a sentiment which also rings true to some 15 years later.
Neurosis & Jarboe opens with a high-pitched whirring sound winding up as Jason Roeder's ominous tom-drum beat and Noah Landis' slinking synth line writhe in unison until Jarboe drops in, drawling in her characteristic, corrupted Southern belle voice, "I tell ya, if God wants to take me, He will." From there on in, the album is a series of abrupt shifts and cleverly juxtaposed themes that flows in a rhythm of its own. The sinister and ethereal sounds, vocal coos and electro-pulses of "His Last Words" seem like the perfect soundtrack to a David Lynch film. On "Erase," song parts are dissected and grafted one atop the other, continually building tension as Jarboe wails and yelps with Banshee fervor.
The project began with the artists working in seclusion, recording the elements that would best highlight their own characteristic integrity and personality, rather than either attempting to mimic one another's familiar elements. As recorded ideas were passed back and forth, the collaboration proved to bring out the most unhinged and urgent talents of all those involved.
Throughout the album, that signature "Neurosis note" - the sound of something simultaneously recoiling and erupting, the apocalyptic tone announcing the birth of a new world - reaches its apex and becomes evermore icy and eviscerating. Guitarists Steve Von Till and Scott Kelly trim their tones for cleaner, chorus-drenched effects layered between the thunderous distortion blasts of bassist Dave Edwardson. Likewise, Jarboe's operatic wail and other vocal contortions sound perfectly suited to the eruptive emotional fray of the music.
The collaboration is a deeply textured mosaic that is a culmination of merged aesthetics from two major influences on free-thinking sounds. It unlocked the hidden potential of electronic music as a new force in heavy rock. At a time when groups like Oneida, Wolf Eyes and Black Dice were beginning to experiment with technology in making mind-numbing leaden electro-drone freed from any essence of "dance music," Neurosis & Jarboe redefined all notions of their past - and outlined the course of heavy music to come. It's interesting to look back through the lens of this release, and think about these ideas and concepts in the present.
Neurosis & Jarboe remains the meeting point of all art that takes us beyond ourselves.
Black Truffle invite you to an evening of drunken revelry in the Batcave! After a chance meeting at a local supermarket in Poughkeepsie, New York, Joe McPhee and Graham Lambkin have performed together as a duo extensively in recent years, in addition to their joint work excavating some of the wildest tapes from McPhee’s archive for Lambkin’s now defunct Kye label. Live in the Batcave documents an evening the two friends spent together in the company of Joe’s brother Charlie and Lambkin’s son Oliver in November 2017 at Charlie’s house in Poughkeepsie. The LP captures seven increasingly drunken snapshots of the four shooting the breeze, playing flutes and whistles, drumming on anything at hand, and playing records.
Edited together in Lambkin’s distinctive style of lo-fi domestic tape collage, the multiple simultaneous cassette recordings of the shenanigans abruptly cut in and out and fall out of sync, creating disorientating, woozy echoes. Mics are bumped, stories are told, drinks are poured, text messages arrive, and AACM-esque flute jams are interrupted by violent bursts of laughter and wet-mouthed sound poetry. All the while, classic soul records play, initially in the background, but coming increasingly to the fore until the record culminates in a strangely moving free-associative singalong. Presented in a gatefold sleeve with extensive photographic documentation and liner notes from Joe McPhee, Live in the Batcave is a truly unique document that exists somewhere between free jazz, audio verité, performance art, and everyday life. File next to your copy of Das Kümmerling Trio. ‘Our music was born from the sounds of jazz, funk, soul, noise … sounds with no other reason so exist, except because they did, sounds which occurred like putting one step in front of the other to see if the way was clear to take the next step. The plan was, there is no plan, just start at the beginning, end at the end and party like it’s 1999’ – Joe McPhee
The legendary Disk Union Japan and180gpresent the best of today's Brazilian music!
An essential album from contemporary Brazil, Xenia's first solo effort pays tribute to the sounds of the black diaspora, masterfully blending soul music with jazz, samba, r&b and electronic flavors.
Latin Grammy nominated album
180gheavy vinyl, comes with download card
Xenia França is a singer from Bahia, Brazil. She has been nominated for the 2018 Latin Grammy for this debut album Xenia, and for the song "Pra que me Chamas?", a favorite among listeners. Part of an art scene concerned with reviving and disseminating the African-Brazilian culture, the singer became a reference of female empowerment and behavior, especially among black women.
Xenia has performed at major Brazilian festivals, such as Recbeat, Coala, Coma and Queremos, among others. In 2018 she took to Central Park's SummerStage Festival in NYC, and has also performed in Philadelphia and at the Pablo Toblón Theater, in Medellin, Colombia.
Her first solo effort here, "Xenia", is an essential album from contemporary Brazil, paying tribute to the sounds of the black diaspora, masterfully blending soul music with jazz, samba, r&b and electronic flavors, now available for the first time outside of Brazil!
Klein's offbeat singular vision continues to defy classification. Her acclaimed, self-released records – Lagata, Only and CC – along with Tommy for Hyperdub and her theatre musical Care, have allowed glimpses into Klein's uniquely spirally perspective on vocal abstraction, disarming experimentalism and pop culture wonderment. Yet these chapters have also served as masks to conceal the artist's own personal crises of self-belief, misrepresentation and belonging.
An 18-month writing process led to her new album Lifetime. It's an unexpectedly literal body of work which Klein compares to "giving someone your diary." Lifetime embraces the inevitable cycles of existence, phasing through moments of brutality, vulnerability, estrangement and unexpected fortitude. Lifetime embraces the inevitable cycles of existence, phasing through moments of brutality, vulnerability, estrangement and unexpected fortitude. Every sound in Lifetime is intentional, every influence—from 'King of Gospel Music' composer James Cleveland, to early 18th century tonalities in the b side, the work of 'race film' pioneer Spencer Williams, the residue of the religious experience is deeply personal. The 12 songs of the album are pieced together like a puzzle; seamless transitions connect each of its compositions in a reverse chronology, while every chord from every song is echoed someplace else.
What's been hinted at in Klein's live performances is now realised in full for Lifetime. Less vocal work allows her to be even more expressive, and in eschewing a tendency towards brief, truncated sketches, each song serves as its own long conversational piece, committed to realities of a lived experience. The artist who once grappled with self-doubt has set about breaking the cycle of insecurity for others like her, while mindfully chipping away at the conventions of classical music.
Like its artwork, Lifetime addresses intersecting life cycles: the inner and outer selves, hypermodernity versus history, living nightmares and dream states, while seeking the light and darkness in both. Part 1 opens with unmistakable Klein flourishes on the title track. Gusty pads, anxious, frayed-edge static arcs, and craters of deep negative space, all of which melt down to the clean slate of "Claim It," which is a tribute to embracing one's own blessings. "Listen And See As They Take" and "Silent" form their own microcosm, as the sound of crackling kindling burns backwards into imposing structures of distorted strings and disembodied marching drums, before returning to heat and ash again. "For What Worth", in collaboration with sound artist and saxophonist Matana Roberts, explores the kinship between two artists whose shared exploration of lineage leads them both toward uncharacteristically sweet clarity.
Part 2 is further steeped in black expressive styles of the past. "Enough is enough" links the Lifetime narrative to the broader diasporic black experience, inhabiting every chamber of a harmonica with ghostly notes of the present and past, as fragmented gospel chords reflect spiritual bonds between self and the divine. "We Are Almost There" begins the journey with nothing but the looped structures of multitude of voices. The drums and dischord of "Never Will I Disobey" wordlessly create the conditions for "Honour," a near 10-minute composition where crossed boundaries and crossed wires are exposed in real time, and sharp expressions of hurtfulness, accountability and corrupted expectations are rendered beautiful in representational form, via sustained synth tones which hum, jab and flit in natural disharmony. The interlude "Camelot Is Coming" draws on the choir tradition to prelude the spoken word recounts the cycles of trauma and death that form "99." Lifetime closes with the dystopian swirl of "Protect My Blood" a composition which details an excruciating rift, before blooming into serenity as it draws to a close.
Klein's Lifetime is laid bare, from the end to the beginning, and cycled over again. From her place within her family, to their place within her, to viewing the fragility of culture through the lens of memory. It's a lifetime, an embodiment of young livelihood, and an end as much it is a beginning.
One of the key figures in the Austrian house scene is definitely Roman Rauch. The MPC wizard has released quality tracks on cult labels like Philpot, klamauk, Quintessentials, Dirt Crew and Faces Records during this decade.
After 3 remixes and a collaboration with Precious K as Twinpeaks, he will return this autumn on the Viennese based imprint fortunea with a 5 track ep, called Blackout.
The A-side features the title track and a remix by New York’s Let’s Play House chief Jacques Renault. Roman delivers here his typical signature sound of crackling, dustfilled funk and r&b samples in combination with weighty rhythm sections. Jacques’ take is from it’s mood similar. But what stands out here is the addition of congas and a heavy compressed and funky bassline, that puts the dancefloor into a tribal gathering.
The B-side starts in a low-key deep house direction with „Oh Yeah“. A smooth warm bass chimes together with psychedelic rhodes and twirling low-cutted synth progressions. In contrary to this, Janefondas member Precious K takes these elements and transforms them into 2 different versions. The „More Dips Remix“ is a garage influenced party grenade, while the digital exclusive „Rawmix“ turns this tune into an exuberant, dirty warehouse experiment.
The vinyl is limited to 300 copies. There will be no repress!
Mastering by Patrick Pulsinger.
Support by Laurence Guy, Krewcial, Tensnake, Franck Roger, Loz Goddard, Baldo, Orlando B, Nice 7, Severino Panzetta (Horse Meat Disco), Replika, Tim Toh, Drei Farben House, Michael Reinboth, Clandestino, OOFT!, Sean Brosnan, Lars Berenroth
From Far Out Recordings’ in-house producer, Daniel Maunick’s debut solo album Macumba Quebrada conjures scenes of collective hedonism from start to finish. Spanning Afro-Brazilian spiritual dance ceremonies, late-eighties Detroit techno parties and jungle and broken beat raves in nineties London, Maunick celebrates our instinctive, age-old desire to come together and lose our sense of self.
Daniel Maunick practically grew up behind the mixing desk. As the son of Brit-funk legend Jean-Paul ‘Bluey’ Maunick (of Incognito fame), he found himself immersed in music from an early age, and quickly became involved in London’s drum n’ bass, acid-jazz, house, broken beat and soul scenes, releasing his first production at the age of sixteen on Gilles Peterson and Norman Jay’s Talkin’ Loud label. Since then, he has produced albums by the likes of Azymuth, Marcos Valle, Terry Callier, Incognito, Ivan ‘Mamao’ Conti and Sabrina Malheiros.
Reflecting his dual residence between Rio de Janeiro and East London, Macumba Quebrada features deep house stompers and broken bangers littered with Brazilian rhythms - in the form of both dusty percussion and Maunick’s intricate drum programming. But the album sees Daniel draw inspiration from across the black music continuum, and the rich histories of communal celebration in Detroit techno, Chicago house, London D’n’B and New York disco. Bringing all this together in explosive peak-time club tracks, moments of eerie ambience, South American swing and tribal earthiness, Macumba Quebrada expands on Maunick’s recent vinyl-only EPs ‘A Vicious Circle’ and ‘Sombra Do Dragao’, with a 13-track double LP and 14-track CD and digital release.
Taking its title from a syncretism of South American spiritual practices, the cover art is photograph taken by acclaimed French photographer and self-taught ethnographer Pierre Verger, who travelled the world documenting civilizations that would soon be effaced by progress. Settling for good in Salvador, Brazil, Verger became initiated into the Candomblé religion, eventually officiating rituals and ceremonies within the community. Without having become an ordained priest, Daniel Maunick shares both Verger and Far Out Recordings’ love for Brazil: its people, its culture and its music.
"He's been producing Azymuth and all kinds of great musicians in Brazil, and finally his debut album is about to be released." Gilles Peterson (BBC 6 Music)
"This one is a good one. Thanks!" Derrick Carter
"Wow couple of killers on there so it sounds!! Thanks a lot" ?? San Soda
"He is always brilliant!" Voclov (Neroli)
"Energetic, summery and full of groove. "It's like Theo Parrish went to Brazil and never decided to come back." Errol (Touching Bass)
"Super dope release from Daniel! proper Venom / Viper Squad vibes!!" Pablo Valentino (MCDE/Faces Records)
"Organic and bumpy...healthy dance music!" Mad Mats (Local Talk)
"really diverse, great sound" Chris Todd (Crazy P)
"super dope" Nick Tyson (XOA)
"Keep em coming man! ... Nice one" Earl Jeffers
"Feeling this! As always with Mr Maunick." Opolopo
"Dirty Trix is real nice!" Jkriv (Razor N' Tape)
"This is great!" Danny MoodyManc
"He's right on the money with this one, isn't he? Deep, profoundly funky stuff that Larry Heard would be proud of. You can feel it!!!!" Mark Webster (BBC 5 LIVE)
"this is so dope" Alex Attias (Visions Recordings)
"Love these tracks" Serkan Cetin (SunSplash)
"Great release, I love It! I-Robots approved!" I-Robots
"This is excellent. Dirty Trix and Somra Do Dragao are the ones!" Dane (The Love Below)
‘Synth Expressionism/Rhythmic Cubism’ LP from Chicago’s Jamal Moss aka Hieroglyphic Being is a collection of idioms that have no past and no future, his jarring use of polyrhythmic polyphony imbues a sense of timelessness.
The prolific catalog of Moss’ covers many musical dialects from his hometown and beyond. Never standing in one artistic sphere for too long, this adventure for On the Corner Records sees Hieroglyphic Being exploring a multitude of expressions of the American Avant-garde.
Abstractions Of The Future Past — Afro-Cubism: The Designation, conceived by an African With A Mainframe — An Etude Of Effigy — A Hieroglyphic Being.
Rhythmic Cubism: In this ‘Dissertation Of Disorientation’ Neal Andrew Emil Gustafson temporal considerations are put aside as polyrhythmic propulsion is the current flowing through the work. As prelude the fastidious ‘Rhythmic Cubism’, Moss enacts a flurry of white noise and musical coda as it phases in-and-out of synchronicity.
The disjointed dance of an alternative Black Music, ‘The Spiritual Or ‘Electromagnetic Worlds’ takes the meter down a fraction to exonerate a granular groove of visceral refracted complexity. Sonorus static sits alongside spastic shards of synthesis to reveal a melancholic medley before its conclusion.
‘Apocrypha’ collages distinct rhythmic source materials in an entrancing abstraction of ‘Hypersonic Hemiola’. An assertion of Art Blakey proportions. Perpetually pushed forward through the building of distorted percussion, Moss precludes into syncopated synapsis before and end of reductive symmetry.
Evolving into a studdered off-kilter groove, ‘The Redemption Project’ flows as a dissipating organ medley dissolves into a deluge of layered sonic textures, creating an indiscernible metric center before fading to a distant vanishing point.
Departing with a common-time ‘Timbuk2’ takes off like a classic Chicago Acid track, then makes a left turn towards the center as it drives the rhythmic motion into a dystopian dreamland, as the sax line surges forcing the track to break free from it’s charted course.
The Fragmented Fantasy of The Synth Expressionism/Rhythmic Cubism LP is a conclusive work that has no end, a conundrum of conceptual calculated improvisation. Drifting through time, this fragmented abstraction of Afro-Cubism leaves room for posterity, as each listen summons a new perspective on the suite. Something ever so common in the work of Jamal Moss. Charting new sonic directions, the very nature of its precedent makes it a truly Hieroglyphic affair.
Words By Neal Andrew Emil Gustafson
Destiny is made. Realised. Driven by the acts of vision. Hireroglyphic Being is a seer. Atomic resonance echoing from the big bang defies the conceptual reality of purity. The nuclear static of ‘white noise’ is HBs canvas. Channeling poly rhythms into the universe. Experience, repetition and eternal decay. From purity back to the absolute by way of a deluge of slurry across time. Infinite layers of distortion and refracted complexity. This is HBs canvas. Sound of eternity channelled through a bass bin, represented by its own impure reflection and fragments. Always more than it's whole but never as was before.
This album seeks to reach beyond ideas and emotions, beyond the comprehension of a human archetype. Beyond ultimate history, forwards and back. To ends and a singular beginnings. Timbuk2 is the frenetic intersection where the call and response of these ideas lock and dissipate back into the void.
Carla dal Forno announces her second full-length album, Look Up Sharp , on her own Kallista records.
Dal Forno beckons a bold new era in her peerless output pushing her dub-damaged DIY dispatches to the limits of flawless dream-pop. In a transformative move towards crystal clear vocals and sharpened production, Look Up Sharp is an evolutionary leap from the thick fog and pastoral stillness of her Blackest Ever Black missives, You Know What It’s Like (2016) and The Garden EP (2017). Three years since her plain-speaking debut album, the Melbourne-via-Berlin artist finds herself absorbed in London’s sprawling mess. The small-town dreams and inertia that preoccupied dal Forno’s first album have dissolved into the chaotic city, its shifting identities, far-flung surroundings and blank faces. Look Up Sharp is the story of this life in flux, longing for intimacy, falling short and embracing the unfamiliar. Dal Forno connects with kindred spirits and finds refuge in darkened alleys, secret gardens and wherever else she dares to look.
In her own territory between plaintive pop, folk and post-punk dal Forno conjures the ghosts of AC Marias, Virginia Astley and Broadcast through her brushwork of art-damaged fx and spectral atmospheres. The first half of the record is filled with dubbed-out humid bass lines, which tether stoned hazes of psychedelic synth work as on ‘Took A Long Time’ and ‘No Trace.’ These are contrasted with songs like ‘I’m Conscious and ‘So Much better’ that channel the lilting power of YMG and are clear sequels-in-waiting to dead-eyed classics like ‘Fast Moving Cars.’
The B-side begins with the feverish bass and meandering melody of ‘Don’t Follow Me,’ which takes The Cure’s ‘A Forest’ as its conceptual springboard. It’s the clearest lyrical example since ‘The Garden’ of dal Forno’s unmatched ability to unpick the masculine void of post-punk and new wave nostalgia to reflect contemporary nuance. Look Up Sharp reaches its satisfying conclusion with ‘Push On’ - dal Forno’s most explicit foray into an undiscovered trip hop universe between Massive Attack and Tracey Thorn. The album’s last gasp finds personal validation in fragility: ‘I push on / I’m the Place I’m Going,’ a self discovery lifted by reverberant broken beats and glass-blown vocals.
Adding further depth to Look Up Sharp are the instrumentals, which flow seamlessly between the vocal-led pieces. ‘Hype Sleep’ and ‘Heart of Hearts’ drink from the same stream as The Flying Lizard’s dubbed-out madness and the vivid purple sunsets of Eno’s Another Green World. While ‘Creep Out of Bed’ and ‘Leaving for Japan’ funnel the fourth-world psychedelia of Cyclobe’s industrial-folk into the vortex of Nico’s The Marble Index.
Conceived as a whole, Look Up Sharp is a singular prism in which light, sound and concept bend at all angles. A deeply personal but infinitely relatable album its many surfaces are complex but authentic, enduring but imperfect, hard-edged but delicate. A diamond. Look up sharp or you’ll miss it.
- A1: Main Theme
- A2: Steel Thy Shovel
- A3: One Fateful Knight
- A4: Strike The Earth! (Plains Of Passage)
- A5: The Rival (Black Knight - First Battle)
- A6: For Shovelry! (Boss Victory)
- A7: The Starlit Wilds (Campfire Scene)
- A8: The Adventure Awaits (Map Screen)
- A9: In The Halls Of The Usurper (Pridemoor Keep)
- A10: The Decadent Dandy (King Knight Battle)
- A11: High Above The Land (The Flying Machine)
- A12: The Spin Controller (Propeller Knight Battle)
- A13: An Underlying Problem
- B1: The Claws Of Fate (Mole Knight Battle)
- B2: No Weapons Here (Village)
- B3: Watch Me Dance!
- B4: Spin Ye Bottle (Minigame)
- B5: A Thousand Leagues Below (Iron Whale)
- B6: The Bounty Hunter
- B7: Of Devious Machinations (Clockwork Tower)
- B8: The Schemer (Tinker Knight Battle)
- B9: The Destroyer (Tinker Tank Battle)
- B10: The Donor's Despair (Hall Of Champions)
- C1: Backed Into A Corner (Hall Of Champions Boss)
- C2: The Requiem Of Shield Knight
- C3: Waltz Of The Troupple King
- C4: The Defender (Black Knight Village)
- C5: Courage Under Fire - Armorer Village
- C6: Fighting With All Of Our Might
- C7: Flowers Of Antimony (The Explodatorium)
- C8: The Vital Vitriol (Plague Knight Battle)
- C9: La Danse Macabre (Lich Yard)
- C10: The Apparition (Spectre Knight Battle)
- D1: A Cool Reception (The Stranded Ship)
- D2: The Stalwart (Polar Knight Battle)
- D3: End Of Days (Endgame Map Screen)
- D4: The Fateful Return (Tower Approach)
- D5: The Inner Struggle (Tower)
- D6: The Forlorn Sanctum (Tower Lair)
- D7: The Possessor (Enchantress Battle)
- D8: The Betrayer (Enchantress Final Form)
- D9: A Return To Order (Ending)
- D10: Reprise (Credits)
Shovel Knight began as a modest, yet highly promising Kickstarter project in March 2013. Billed as 'a groundbreaking love letter to 8 bits!' by Indie developer Yacht Club Games, this 2D side-scrolling platform game released in June 2014 to universal praise and accolades. Fans and industry professionals praised Shovel Knight for its charming retro-2D visuals, humorous story, fun characters and strong gameplay design, which all came together to offer a game that is nostalgic yet very modern. The efforts of Yacht Club Games paid off when Shovel Knight was won the prestigious 'Best Independent Game' award at The Game Awards 2014. The game's chiptune soundtrack, composed by Jake Kaufman and Manami Matsumae, is integral to the game's modern-retro identity and has been similarly praised for its outstanding arrangements, memorable melodies and strong technical composition. This definitive soundtrack contains all music from the original Shovel Knight game released in June 2014, with a vinyl tracklist crafted by Jake Kaufman himself. The package cover and inner-gatefold have been designed exclusively for the soundtrack by Hitoshi Ariga; an interview with co-composer Manami Matsumae; and character artwork from the game.
Vinyl Only
Jack On Black consists of Jib Rafill and Joe Le Groove, the pair met 6 years ago when Joe was djing in Malta. Their love electronic music, machines and old school sampling techniques sparked a desire to collaborate and organically work towards writing various genres of music, including Dub, House, Techno, Downtempo and even Film Scores.
Their music is made from passion, a love of technology and Roland outboard gear. Both have been on the scene for many years and separately have their own unique journeys and projects. Joe Le Groove started producing in the mid-nineties and was taught the basics by Darren White aka D-Bridge. He currently has projects on labels such as Desolat, Defected, Moon Habour,Snatch, Defected, Heidi's Jackathon
The pair also have released music on Cesare vs Disorders Serialism and written scores for forthcoming independant films.Their sets are performed live using outboard gear, mics, turntables and EFX. Expect the unexpected from this unlikely duo...
Plutonian Funk is an EP that has been crafted for lovers of House & Techno. It has been destroying dance floors across the world by a handful of the scenes elite, such as Seth Troxler, Quenum Richy Ahmed, tINI, Cesare vs Disorder, Carlo Lio, Victor Calderone, Marco Carola, Audiofly, Dubfire and more.
The EP is split across vinyl and digital, all the tracks on vinyl will never be released on digital format.
The boys have been working hard over the past few years to develop their sound and forthcoming live performances with visuals
Enter Jack On Black…
FETISH features legendary POISON IDEA members Steve “Thee Slayer Hippy” Hanford and Eric “Vegetable” Olson, and later-era Poison Idea guitarist Brandon Bentley.
Engineered by legendary producer Billy Anderson (Melvins, Neurosis, Cattle Decapitation, Sick of it All, High on Fire, etc.)
It also includes 3 of the members of the Portland punk rock machine that is LONG KNIFE, Colin Jarrell, Scott Goto, and Chris Reid.
With a single already out and a vicious onslaught of new material put together, we here at Blackhouse are honored to be putting out their debut full length album, “WORLD EATER” in its entirety in physical form.
- A1: My Baby Just Cares For Me
- A2: Love Me Or Leave Me
- A3: The Other Woman - Live At Town Hall
- A4: Don’t Smoke In Bed
- A5: It Might As Well Be Spring
- A6: Cotton Eyed Joe - Live At Town Hall
- A7: Blue Prelude
- B1: I Loves You Porgy
- B2: Nobody Knows When You’re Down & Out
- B3: Black Is The Color Of My True Loves Hair - Live At Town Hall
- B4: Wild Is The Wind - Live At Town Hall
- B5: Chilly Winds Don’t Blow
- B6: Come On Back, Jack
- B7: Solitude
- C1: He Needs Me
- C2: Little Girl Blue
- C3: The Gal From Joe’s
- C4: Memphis In June
- C5: No Good Man
- C6: Summertime - Live At Town Hall
- C7: You Can Have Him - Live At Town Hall
- D1: Mood Indigo
- D2: African Mailman
- D3: I Love To Love
- D4: Stompin’ At The Savoy
- D5: Can’t Get Out This Mood
- D6: Just Say I Love Him
- D7: That’s Him Over There
- E1: Work Song
- E2: Gin House Blues
- E3: Rags And Old Iron
- E4: I Want A Little Sugar In My Bowl
- E5: Hey Buddy Bolden
- E6: You Better Know It
- E7: Do Nothin’ Till You Hear From Me
- E8: You’ve Been Gone Too Long
- F1: Plain Gold Ring
- F2: Forbidden Fruit
- F3: Exactly Like You - Live At Town Hall
- F4: Fine And Mellow - Live At Town Hall
- F5: Willow Weep For Me
- F6: Trouble In Mind - Live At Newport
We've reached a pivotal moment for Local Talk.
What better way to celebrate a centenary of forward thinking releases than to present one of the best kept secrets out there, MLiR aka Modern Life Is Rubbish this time joined by Arnau Obios.
After making a serious impact with their remarkable 'Swedish Lo-Life' and 'Trans-World Junktion' releases on fellow Swedish label Studio Barnhus, we're thrilled to have them onboard for our 100th release on Local Talk.
Yes, that is correct, we’re celebrating the big 100. Since the very beginning we've covered everything from the deeper shades of house to the jackin' and the gritty club jams, released some slower BPMs and also the uplifting, vocal and organic house.
As you probably noticed - we love it all.
The 100th release main track 'Lajbans' is one of those sublime tunes that is bridging the gap between all styles of dance music and got the MLiR trademark, it's epic and manages to offer plenty of subtle details to keep you locked for the full 9 minute experience.
Accompanied with the original is a masterclass in dub 'Lajbans (Bellaterra dub)'.
You got the versatility of the original carefully stripped back but also absorbing layers upon layers of seductive sonic moods, it's a trip for sure and you don't want it to end.
Once again MLiR proves why they will be a force to be reckoned with for years to come...
Artwork by Leolyxxx
Mastered by Sasse at Blackhead Studios
DJ Oonops presents Volume 2 of his extensive compilation covering genres from Dub, Jazz, Funk, Soul to Beats and Hip Hop featuring pretty well known artists as well as zooming newcomers. He spent more than one year to select artists from around the globe who reflect the sounds of his "Oonops Drops" broadcast on Brooklyn Radio (NYC).
Be that jazzy beats or virtuoso live jazz drums, keys and guitars from Japan by Kazumi Kaneda, RF and 45 a.k.a. Swing-O, a first-time- on-vinyl dub remix by Great Britain's Coldcut or a brass cover version of Rihanna's "Stay" by Sly5thAve out of the US. Most of the tracks are exclusives or first time available on vinyl for this compilation, like the song "Measly Peace" by Magic In Trees out of Nashville, German beatmaker Twit One with an ill Jazz instrumental or London based rapper and singer Amy Tru featuring Nubya Garcia.
Also you gonna hear a unique and rump-shaking cover version of Blackstreet's "No Diggity" by T Bird & The Breaks, John Turell's powervoice over some heavy beats by Soopasoul, Kinny with a catchy tune, Igor Zhukovsky from The Soul Surfers & MRR Drumetrics with an exclusive, pumping psychedelic drum track and Schemes from Montreal who take all the credits at the moment from the web by Vice, Okayplayer, Music Is My Sanctuary and many more. For the artwork Oonops collaborated once again with San Francisco based artist Lindsey Kustusch who mirrored the atmosphere of New York City on point with her oil painted artwork.
Be sure to get your hands on this limited peace of work before it's gone like Volume 1. About Oonops: beside his vinyl only show on Brooklyn Radio he is spinning banging club sets to relaxed mixtures for vernissages, museums or theaters. And furthermore he works as a product designer and he's listed in the top 50 of Germany's best table tennis players and focuses all his skills in an event which will bring all this together.
Jatinder Singh Durhailay and David Edren released Tea Notes as a cassette back in April of 2018. London-based Jatinder Singh Durhailay is a painter and student of Indian Classical music. He has trained in both the sitar and the Hindi singing technique, Dhrupad. He also plays two traditional Sikh instruments; the bowed, stringed Dilruba and Taus. Poetic Pastel Press issued his solo debut, The Last Ballad Of Mardana, in 2017. David Edren`s expertise lies with machines and modular synthesis. His Kosmische and New Age-Inspired electronics have featured on numerous cassettes, and compilations, produced for imprints from the current Belgian underground, such as Jj Funhouse, Social Harmony, and Ultra Eczema. These recordings appearing, since the turn of the millennium, either under his own name, or the moniker DSR Lines. Jatinder and David’s collaboration, Tea Notes, is a celebration, a meditation, on both the beverage, and the communal time shared imbibing. The coming together to partake in its ritual. Each of the six tracks represents a different infusion. The opening piece is a tribute to semi-oxidised Oolong, from China`s Wuyi Mountains, with hammered dulcimer-like glissando. Gongs shimmering, gently crashing, as if signaling a change in the weather. A calm of thin, stretched synths and Ai angels introduces Tulsi from India. The Holy Basil of Hinduism, used in the worship of Vishnu, Krishna, and Rama. A traditional herb of Ayurveda and Siddha medicine. Automated arpeggiated sequences raising a vibrating wall of hallucinatory sound. Pairing swooning strings with a racing robot heart. Ceylon is a modern twist on the classical raga. Serving to tell the story of a tea smuggled into Sri Lanka in the 19th century. Plants stolen from South West China, where the brew had been enjoyed since the days of the Shang Dynasty (1766 to 1122 BC). The contraband founding fresh industry in its new home when the indigenous coffee crops failed. Muted organ and sleepy, treated sine wave microtones describe Kava, the Polynesian fireweed root, whose extract serves as both sedative and euphoriant.Shincha are the first young leaves of the season. Picked in Southern Japan and steamed to prevent oxidization, retain their flavour and green / gold colour. Their musical counterpart finds Edren establishing an ecclesiastical drone, while Durhailay`s strings chart an ancient romantic ache. Sonic stars shine. Singing out to the infinite, the universe, before dissolving into knots of Radiophonic Workshop noise.Melodies treated with subtle sustain and delay denote Pu-Ehr, from the Yunnan province. The only truly fermented black tea - made distinctive by the action of bacteria, moulds, and yeasts. Its musical themes hovering in the vapour trails, the atmospheres, they themselves create. Spiraling, soaring, reaching for the heavens, while pretty music box glitches - tiny chimes turned in on themselves. Catching, reflecting, like light at play on fresh running water. (words: Robert Harris)
With the release of their first two albums and live shows supporting Snarky Puppy, Roy Ayers, Marcus Miller, Larry Mizell & the Blackbyrds, Butcher Brown, Yellowjackets and more, Resolution 88 have already established themselves as one of the UK's leading exponents of funk jazz. Their music is synonymous with the silky, buttery sound of the Fender Rhodes. They're also a bona fide band, a refreshing change in a musical world increasingly occupied by online collaborations and viral videos. They're best mates who love to hang out, play together and make their own music - that sincerity is evident in their songs and their chemistry on stage.
'Revolutions' represents a lot of firsts - the first time Resolution 88 have recorded to multi-track tape, the first time that they've included a real string and brass section, the first time they've included special guests on record and the first time they've pressed an album on vinyl. Imagine a combination of an undiscovered Herbie Hancock album from the mid' 70's, rare-groove samples from the golden era of hip hop (ATCQ, Pharcyde etc) and the new London sound of bands like Yussef Kamaal.
Every track on'Revolutions'represents an aspect of music on vinyl. On'Pitching Up'you hear the DJ pitch the record up from 33rpm to 45rpm.'Out Of Sync'simulates a clumsy attempt at beat-matching. The hypnotic, circling sax line that opens the title track'Revolutions'(echoed by the strings at the end) evokes the mesmerizing sensation of watching the record label artwork whirling as it spins on the platter.'Runout Groove'fades in and out; the drum beat mimics the distinctive, perpetual rhythm tapped out by the stylus as it reaches the runout groove. On the second side,'Sample Hunter'unexpectedly deviates from the main section into Rhodes-drenched interludes; the type of moment that producers searched high and low for back when hip hop was great.Marcus Tenney's (Butcher Brown) lyrics on 'Dig Deep'are all about the thrill of digging for records and'Matrix'is inspired by the hidden messages sometimes left in the matrix markings on record pressings. On'Tracking Force', you can hear the beat twist and morph as the stylus skates over the record. Finally,'Warped Memories'closes out the album with a wistful, melancholy melody. Sit back with a glass of Japanese whisky and a Cuban cigar (or whatever your chosen poison is), stick the album on and enjoy it from start to finish - although if you're listening to it on vinyl, you'll need to get up to turn it over to the B-side ;)
Raised in the multicultural and mind-broadening London borough of Enfield, Loraine James grew up hearing everything from steel pan music to Metallica, from jazz and electronica to drill and grime, and the results of this exposure can be heard on ‘For You And I’. In part the album explores the complexities of being in a queer relationship in London - “I’m in love and wanted to share that in some way … to make songs that reflect layers of my relationship.” – and as a whole ‘For You and I’ is rhythmically free flowing and sprawling, with melodies that evolve into rippling keys, feeling like a live jam session with a jazz mentality, contrasting the delicate and abrasive. Opener ‘Glitch Bitch’ is a warm ear-worm, brandishing swirling textures with undulating keys and compressed percussion, with an introspective theme revisited soon after on third track ‘So Scared’, whose glitched percussion and syncopated dub bassline build to a frantic meltdown melody. On ‘London Ting // Dark As Fuck’, inspired by Dizzee Rascals's ‘Boy In Da Corner', James explores the darker side of her production with her frequent collaborator Le3 BLACK laying verses over the skeletal track. ‘Hand Drops’ is an instrumental, about public displays of affection in a queer relationship. ‘Sensual’ reflects on intimacy with vocals by UK singer Theo, who's lyrics capture love and gentleness over a soft, minimal production of ethereal keys and scattered glitches. The albums’ title track is also the most colourful, it’s ecstatic and effusive chaos driven by fervent synths expressing elation and the joyful side of her relationship, while ‘My Future’ is a more reflective moment, where warping synths wash in and out with compressed kicks, as the artist considers the dangers that may come with her relationship : “I wanna tie the knot / But the rope is dangerous”. ‘For You And I’ is a deeply intimate and personal offering, expressing happiness, anxiety, joy, sensuality and fear through a vivid sound palette and an experimental sense of rhythm.
Keiji Haino,Jim O'rourke,Oren Ambarchi
In the past only geniuses were capable of staging the perfect...
- A1: In The Past Only Geniuses Were Capable Of Staging The Perfect Crime (Also Known As A Revolution) Today Anybody Can Accomplish Their Aims With The Push Of The Button Part 1
- B1: Decorously Decorously Decorously Decorously Decorously Decorously Decorously Decorously Decorously Decorously To Make Something Beautiful And Then To Smash It Decorously
- C1: Head-On Collision If It Still Has Bones It Shall Move Forward (Which Is Different To Progress)
- D1: In The Past Only Geniuses Were Capable Of Staging The Perfect Crime (Also Known As A Revolution) Today Anybody Can Accomplish Their Aims With The Push Of The Button Part 2
For its 50th release, Black Truffle presents the 9th album from one of the label’s core ensembles, the power trio of Keiji Haino, Jim O’Rourke and Oren Ambarchi. Drawn from a November 2015 performance at Tokyo’s now-defunct SuperDeluxe, the record’s opening piece drops us immediately into the maelstrom, abruptly cutting into an extended episode of Ambarchi’s pummelling drums, O’Rourke’s fuzzed-out 6 string bass and Haino’s roaring guitar and electronics. Eventually settling into a hypnotic bass and drum groove over which Haino unleashes some almost Ray Russell-eque skittering atonal screech, these opening 13 minutes act as a potent reminder of the trio’s power. Alongside showcasing the steady development of a unique language for the guitar-bass-drums power trio, the group’s succession of releases over the last decade has demonstrated a constant experimentation with new instruments, which continues here with O’Rourke use of Hammond organ (played at the same time as his roaming, sometimes knotty basslines). On the album’s second piece, the organ plays a key role, furnishing a harmonically rich shimmer over O’Rourke’s angular 6 string bass chords, Haino’s distant, chirping electronics and Ambarchi’s crisp cymbal work; arriving somewhere halfway between Albert Marcoeur and Terje Rypdal, this piece is undoubtedly a highlight in the trio’s catalogue so far. Sides two and three are given over to slow-burning, multi-part epics that range from spacious reflection to furious tumult. Where the trio’s previous 2LP set (This Dazzling, Genuine “Difference” Now Where Shall It Go?, 2017) was primarily instrumental in focus, here we find Haino’s voice taking the spotlight on the expansive third side, intoning, wailing and exhorting in Japanese and English over a backdrop that moves from hushed bass and organ atmospherics to rolling toms and cymbal crashes before arriving at an ecstatic finale of searing guitar, tumbling drums and reverb-saturated bass. The fourth side returns to the hypnotic grooves of the opening piece, fixing on an relentless riff and riding it into oblivion under Haino’s roaming psychedelic soloing and jagged chordal slashes.
- A1: Friendly Fires
- A2: Dirty Disco
- A3: C.p
- A4: Loose Talk (Costs Lives)
- A5: Inside Out
- A6: Melt Close
- B1: Hit
- B2: Babies In The Bardo
- B3: Be Brave
- B4: New Horizon
- C1: Knew Noise
- C2: Up To You
- C3: Girls Don’t Count
- C4: After Image
- C5: Human Puppets
- D1: Charnel Ground
- D2: Haunted
- D3: Je Veux Ton Amour
- D4: One True Path
- E1: Loose Talk (Costs Lives) (Live)
- E2: Human Puppets (Live)
- E3: Knew Noise (Live)
- E4: Friendly Fires (Live)
- E5: Girls Don’t Count (Live)
- F1: New Horizon (Live)
- F2: Haunted (Live)
- F3: You’re On Your Own (Live)
- F4: One Step Backward (Live)
- G1: Always Now
- G2: Visitation
- G3: Regions
- G4: The Wheel
- G5: No Abiding Place
- G6: Once Before
- H1: There Was A Time
- H2: Wretch
- H3: Sutra
- I1: Fallen Monument
- I2: Are You There?
- I3: Virtually Everything
- I4: Tape Loop
- I5: Subferior
- I6: In The Garden Of Eden
- I7: Cry
- J1: Red Voice
- J2: Floating
- J3: Reading Uni Jam With New Order 1981
Factory Benelux is proud to present a deluxe 5 disc vinyl box set edition of Always Now, the debut album by cult Factory Records group Section 25, produced by legendary sonic architect Martin Hannett and sleeved by Peter Saville.
All tracks are newly re-mastered from the original quarter-inch tapes. The first 1000 copies of the box set are pressed in coloured vinyl: disc 1 (black); disc 2 (clear); disc 3 (yellow); disc 4 (red); disc 5 (silver). The outer case in printed in PMS 123 with spot varnish.
The 16 page booklet features unseen images by noted photographer Philippe Carly and texts by founder members Larry and Vin Cassidy. Also included is the first ever interview with guitarist Paul Wiggin, whose sudden departure in late 1981 saw Tony Wilson try (and fail) to recruit pre-Smiths teenager Johnny Marr as replacement.
Recorded as a trio at Pink Floyd’s Britannia Row studio in London in January 1981, Always Now combined austere post-punk rhythm and noise with elements of Can, Krautrock and modern psychedelia. Key tracks include Friendly Fires, Dirty Disco and New Horizon, along with C.P. (a collaboration with Hannett) and Hit (extensively sampled by Kanye West for the track F.M.L. on his 2016 album The Life of Pablo).
Disc 2 gathers together several non-album singles from 1980 and 1981, including Charnel Ground, Je Veux Ton Amour and debut EP Girls Don’t Count – the latter produced by mentors Rob Gretton and Ian Curtis (of Joy Division).
Disc 3 offers a complete live show professionally recorded at Groningen (Netherlands) on 26 October 1980, as part of a Factory package tour.
Disc 4 is part-improvised second studio album The Key of Dreams, recorded and produced by the band themselves a few months after Always Now, and released by Factory Benelux in June 1982.
Disc 5 consists of further experimental material recorded in 1981 and self-released on a cassette called Illuminus Illumina. This final disc closes with an extended (and previously unreleased) live encore jam recorded with all four members of New Order at Reading University on 8 May 1981.
“One of the best albums Britain's second city has unleashed” (Uncut);
“In 1980 their bass-driven mantras were thoughtlessly dismissed as second-rate Joy Division, but hindsight judges them more kindly. The wind-dried skeins of their blasted guitar harmonics and skimped electronics gauntly cling to the songs’ skeletal frames. With telltale titles like Babies in the Bardo their Buddhist interests hang heavy over these early stirrings. But, combining a bass-led drone with a characteristic groaning vocal, Charnel Ground succinctly pins down Section 25's pre-disco appeal” (The Wire)
incl. Download Code
Moon Boots a.k.a Pete Dougherty returns with his second studio album ‘Bimini Road’ on September 6 via Anjunadeep. An ambitious and evocative follow-up to his acclaimed debut First Landing, Bimini Road combines delectable club-ready grooves with soulful songcraft into a seamlessly organic whole. Inspired by notions of mysterious lost civilizations, ancient magic utopias and the sci-fi landscapes of the mind, ‘Bimini Road’ is a joyously celebratory listen that builds off the ‘deep textures and funky melodies’ (Mixmag) of his album 'First Landing', a disco house masterpiece supported by KCRW, Annie Mac and others. Featuring familiar faces KONA, Black Gatsby and Nic Hanson among the featured vocal talent, ‘Bimini Road’ also includes new collaborators like rising US talent Niia, Kaleena Zanders and notable British sing-songwriter Little Boots. OutJuly 9, ‘Tied Up’ is the first single off the album, a sexy slice of deep house pop sure to ignite dancefloors and bedrooms alike. Moon Bootsembarks on his Live Bimini Road Tour this Fall, with dates across North America and Europe. Born in Brooklyn, Moon Boots’ musical obsession started not long after he could walk. His early love of piano lead to a passion for keyboards and synthesizers. Teenage nights lost in the work of Daft Punk, ATribe Called Quest and Herbie Hancock followed. Inspired by legends like Frankie Knuckles and Derrick Carter, he moved to the house music epicenter of Chicago, where he tirelessly passed out demos to local DJs and scoured the web for like-minded people with whom he could share and expand on his sound. Heplayed in a synth-pop trio whose demo caught the attention of Lupe Fiasco, and after a stint touring alongside the hip-hop icon, Dougherty went back to DJing with a renewed focus. The stars aligned when he had a chance encounter withPerseus, founder of an adventurous label, French Express. A fellow junkie and fan of French House and R&B-infused dance music, Perseus became a friend and mentor, the Splinter to Boots' Donatello. The label eventually disbanded but Boots has stayed true to his mission of making dance tracks that can’t be confined to one style. Pete blends the music he loves --jazz, house, funk and soul -- into songs that last longer than their runtime. Songs not just for DJs, but for everyone.
Atmomatix Records return to black wax with arguably their biggest release to date. Taking three favourites from their growing back catalogue and reaching out to some of the scenes most respected for remix treatment was always going to come up trumps. Add a fresh original from the ever collaborating head honcho Critical Event into the mix and it is easy to see why this is getting pressed. Zero T features once more on a velvet smooth rolling twist up of Humanature's jazzy "Upside Down" from last year. It has all the warmth and grit we have come to expect from Irishmans's output and sets the tone perfectly for the remaining tracks. Remix competition winners Bert H and High N Sick take on the second Humanature track on this release "Cosmos" flipping it around with fresh vocals silky piano licks whilst retaining the sumptuous atmosphere of the original. Macca makes his spectacular Atmomatix debut with a vintage remix of fan favourite "Take Your Soul Away" by Low:r and Hiraeth. Pure euphoric amen scattered bliss, Macca builds on the vibe of the original to create a 3am hands in the air piece of classic liquid. Rounding out the release is a collaboration from Critical Event, Humanature, Hiraeth and Pixel entitled "Never Let Me Go". The close friends linking in perfect harmony to bring forth a soothing glide through their unified take on the Atmomatix sound.
Untameable Anatolian feline fuzzy folk funk finally uncaged. A spontaneous Turkish-Norwegian-Dutch expedition, where seafaring jazz cats entangled with fugitive roadies and Tee-Set mods, makes the story of Durul Gence’s highly anticipated/ill-fated Asia Minor Mission group the stuff of lost-rock legend and remains one of Turkish music’s great “what ifs?” The black cat is finally out of the bag...
Having forged a celebrity status as one of Turkey’s premier percussionists and bandleaders, Durul Gence assembled the underground fusion group known as Asia Minor Mission (AMM) in early 1972 (with Irfan Sumer, Oguz Durukan and Ugur Dikmen) while trying to escape the constant daze of paparazzi camera flashes that followed him across Turkey. During a far-fetched post-gig brainstorm the group pondered relocating to Norway (based on fact that none of them had ever visited the country) when a local seaman who claimed to have recording studio connections in Oslo overheard them. Enlisting the roadie services of a streetwise Istanbul taxi driver friend on the run from the police AMM took the plunge, accepting the sailor’s offer of passage on his next sailing.
In these new idyllic surroundings, the same region that played host to fellow Turkish percussionist Okay Temiz, Durul found the peace he desired discovering a muse in Norway’s welcoming creative climate. Much like Barıs Manço and Mogollar in France, Cem Karaca and Gökçen Kaynatan in Germany, Gence’s relationship with Norway rekindled a passion for composition in ways he couldn’t have imagined in his homeland, opening doors thought previously unreachable. As a potential prodigal son for Anadolu pop Durul joined a wider pop-cultural diaspora alongside electronic pioneer Ilhan Mimaroglu, Tülay German (aka Tuly Sand) Kardasllar’s “Alex” Wiska (collaborator with Krautrockers Can) and Maffy Falay from the band Sevda.
Despite a blooming fan base and original repertoire the Nordic dream was not to be and after two years without a studio session, AMM called it quits during a tour of Holland after which Durukan and Dikmen went home to join Cem Karaca’s band Dervisan - Dikmen’s keyboards feature on Finders Keepers releases by Turkish singer Selda (FKR011). Retreating to the city of Delft to ponder his next move, Durul met Peter Tetteroo, former vocalist from successful Dutch psych-pop combo Tee-Set, who also found himself in a lonely boat after the demise of his long-running group. As an AMM fan, Tetteroo suggested they record two Gence penned AMM demos for Dutch Philips signed exotic songbird Sasi Naz at Peter’s home studio. A session was hastily arranged and a talented, yet unconfirmed, guitarist was enlisted. Durul maintains it was the work of Ferry Lever from Tee-Set/After Tea, something Ferry has denied, and with Tetteroo having died in 2002 the question remains. Upon entering the humble studio Durul stumbled upon a skeletal drum kit. Lacking hi-hat, toms or even a snare he cobbled together a bongo and a tambourine and set to work. Together, under the watchful eye of Tetteroo, the pair jammed stripped back versions of the AMM live staples Black Cat and Boo Song, with an added freak factor otherwise missing from their jazzier approach. Laid down in just 30 minutes, with Gence’s accomplished guide vocals and fuzzy overdubs, the rudimentary but professional recordings never made it to Philips execs and the tapes returned to Turkey under Durul’s arm as one of only two documented AMM recordings (the other being a live performance in Oslo’s Hennie-Onstad Art Centre in May 1973).
Unintended for commercial release, curiouser and curiouser, Finders Keepers proudly present these previously unheard tracks sourced directly from original tapes, which stand as a testament to the inimitable talent of Gence and the only studio document of the mythical AMM Turk jazz funk troubadours, representing a pop-psych Hollandaise holiday postcard which has taken five decades to be delivered. 45 revolutions later... The cat’s got the cream.
Available on vinyl for the first time in 40 years, Outernational Sounds proudly presents a cornerstone document from the Los Angeles jazz underground, Flight 17 – the first appearance on record of the legendary Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, led by their founder and mastermind, Horace Tapscott.
"The Arkestra would allow the creativity in the community to come together, would allow people to recognize each other as one people and ask, “Now what can we do to make this community better? What can we do for this community together?”...That’s how the Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra – the Ark – began, with the knowledge that we wanted to preserve the black arts in the community."
Horace Tapscott
Horace Tapscott’s Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra (P.A.P.A.) was one of the most transformative, forward-thinking and straight-up heavy big bands to have played jazz in the 1960s and 1970s. Countless musicians passed through its ranks, and in Tapscott it was led by a musical visionary who should be ranked with the very greatest names in the music. If P.A.P.A. doesn’t have the interstellar rep of that other famous Arkestra, and if the name Tapscott doesn’t ring bells like Monk or Tyner, there’s a reason why: in an industry dominated by record labels, a band that doesn’t record doesn’t count. And the Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra didn’t record for nearly twenty years. But recording success was never their concern – they weren’t about that.
First formed as the Underground Musicians Association in the early 1960s, Tapscott always wanted his group to be a community project. From their base in Watts, UGMA got down at the grassroots. They played for the people, organising fundraisers in parks and coffee houses, hosting teach-ins and workshops for young and old, and mixing it with radical theatre groups, firebrand poets, political radicals, Black separatists, community groups and churches. They lived communally, supporting each other and their people, and built an ark for the Black arts in the heart of the city. The group was renamed the Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra in 1971, and soon after they established a monthly residency at the Immanuel United Church of Christ which ran for over a decade, while still playing all over LA and beyond. But through all this, they never released a note of music.
It was the intervention of Tom Albach, a fan of Tapscott and the group, that finally got them on wax. Determined that their work should be documented, Albach founded Nimbus Records specifically to release the music of Tapscott, the Arkestra, and the individuals that comprised it. The first recording sessions in early 1978 yielded enough material for two albums, and the first release was Flight 17. From the surging avant-gardism of Herbie Baker’s title track to the laid- back summertime groove of Kamonta Lawrence Polk’s ‘Maui’, or Roberto Miranda’s uptempo Latin jam ‘Horacio’, Flight 17 showcased the radical voices of the Arkestra’s members. Led out by Tapscott’s hard-swinging piano, this is the first flight on wax of the West Coasts’ foundational community big band – energised, hip and together. Open up the gates and prepare for departure!
This edition of Flight 17 contains two tracks previously only available on the 1997 CD edition: ‘Coltrane Medley’ and ‘Village Dance’, recorded live at the Immanuel United Church of Christ. It is released as a limited vinyl-only edition on a 180g pressing by Pallas. Fully licensed from Nimbus West founder Tom Albach.
- A1: Crazy Stockings On The Moon - The Swinging Astronauts
- A2: The Moon Man Is Back (Feat. Moon Man)- La La Wilson Band
- A3: Baby As Time Goes By - The Moon-Dawgs
- A4: Wir Fliegen Weiter (Mondsong) - Hase Cäsar
- A5: Walking On The Moon (Men Are Starving) - Rev. Jamel & Bob Johnson
- A6: Sputnik (Feat. North South Connection) - Sidney Owens
- B1: Moon Child - Ernest & D.l. Rocco
- B2: Mondgesicht - Orchester Ambros Seelos
- B3: Moon Child - Scott Cunningham Band
- B4: Voyage To The Moon - Black Fox
- B5: Mars In 75, Pt. 1 - Sunny Man Kado
When the Tramp Records crew read the internet-sweeping spam/story of Nigerian Astronaut and Air Force pilot Abacha Tunde, they knew that they had to spring into action to help this unfortunate fella out. Dr. Bakare Tunde, the cousin of Abacha Tunde explained the situation as follows: "My cousin was the first African in space when he made a secret flight to the Skylab Space Station in 1979, shortly before it crashed to Earth. 19 years later he was on his second spaceflight, this time to a secret Moon Base located on the far side of the Moon. In 1999 his crew members returned to earth, but his place was taken up by return cargo. There have been occasional supply flights to keep him going since that time. Although he is in good humor, he wants to come home, now, after 20 years in space."
After this hilarious story the idea of a compilation album was born - and "Trip To The Moon" is the result. The goal to raise three million dollars to cover the cost of Abacha Tunde's return flight may never be achieved. Nevertheless, a 41 year experience in the music business is the basis for a fantabulous track listing of 11 amazing and highly underrated Rare Grooves about the Moon!
The Swinging Astronauts open the set, followed by La La Wilson's equally great rhythm & blues rocker "The Moon Man Is Back". With The Moon-Dawgs, this album makes a slight turn into the 1960s garage rock era while Hase Cäsar (backed by none other than the famous Ingfried Hoffmann and his orchestra!) contributes one of two songs of german origin. Now it's time for some funk: Rev. Jamel & Bob Johnson's "Walking On The Moon (Men Are Starving)" criticizes the US government for spending millions of dollars for their space program instead of supporting their own people. "Mars in 75" is deepfunk at its best although some may lament the lack of production. Sidney Ownen's breakbeat-laden "Sputnik" is sought after in collector's circles and needs no justification as to why it is included on this album. Ernest & D.L. Rocco's "Moon Child" is our personal favourite, closely followed by the hypnotic groove of "Mondgesicht" by legendary german saxophonist Ambros Seelos. Scott Cunningham's name should ring a bell as he was featured on several Tramp compilations over the past few years. Finally, the album closes with a psychedelic folk track titled "Voyage To The Moon".
Tramp Records is absolutely convinced that this album will surely be the best way to shorten the wait for Abacha until a rescue space mission finally brings our African soul brother back home.
Key selling points:
- deluxe gatefold LP with detailed liner notes and unseen photographs
- the vinyl LP comes with a full album download code
- most of the songs appear on a 12" album for the very first-time
- A1: Outlander – The Skye Boat Song (Appalachian Version) Feat. Ray Yabrough
- A2: Brianna And Roger Theme
- A3: Circles
- A4: An American Dream
- A5: River Run
- A6: Do No Harm
- B1: Fraser’s Ridge
- B2: Bear Killer Feat. Jaraneh Nova
- B3: The Familiar Blacksmith
- B4: Brianna In The Snow
- B5: Stephen Bonnet Theme
- C1: The Handfasting Ceremony
- C2: Fraser Family Reunion
- C3: Life In America
- C4: The Debutante
- C5: Welcome To The Tribe
- D1: Dangerous Diversion
- D2: The Tale Of Otter Tooth Feat. Jaraneh Nova
- D3: Failed Rescue
- D4: Man Of Worth
- D5: Return To Brianna
Season Four of Outlander continues the story of time-travel 1960’s Claire Fraser and her 18th century husband Jamie Fraser as they try to make a home for themselves in the rough and dangerous ‘New World’ of America. The score to the series is composed by American film and television composer Bear McCreary (The Walking Dead, Cloverfield, Black Sails). The settings of the series were a challenge for the composer, because each culture and geographical location offers other potential musical influences for the score. The score supports all these different locations and he even used the banjo this time. As it was one of the most exhilarating creative challenges of his career you’ll hear the integration of both bagpipes, fierce Afro-Cuban polyrhythms and French baroque ornaments. Above all the typical folk music will set the tone for all the settings in the movie.
Outlander Season 4 is available as a limited edition of 500 individually numbered copies on coloured (gold & black mixed) vinyl. The package contains an insert.
- A1: 10 Commandments
- A2: I’ll Take You There
- A3: Message From The Black Ark Studios
- A4: Holyness, Righteousness, Light
- B1: Babylon Fall
- B2: Mr. Dino Koosh Rock
- B3: Hip Hop Reggae
- B4: Evil Brain Rejector
- C1: Jah Rastafari, Jungle Safari
- C2: Love Sunshine, Blue Sky
- C3: Clear The Way
- C4: Congratulations
- D1: Shocks Of Mighty
- D2: Jamaican E.t
- D3: Telepathic Jah A Rize
Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry’s return to his most spaced-out work, that marks his 2002 comeback album Jamaican E.T. The extra-terrestrial is back with some groovy reggae which creates a bridge between dub, roots and hip hop. But in the end it never ventures to far away from the traditional reggae. The album continues in showing his fascination with aliens, drugs and religion. His own voice is often multi-layered and contrasting with each other. It’s a wonderful record and it shows that even after all those years he was still capable in recording an album which stands out during the time of release.
Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry was a pioneer in the 1970s development of dub music and worked together with artists such as Bob Marley and the Wailers, The Clash and The Beastie Boys. Nowadays he’s still performing and recording music.
Jamaican E.T. is available as a limited edition of 750 individually numbered copies on orange coloured vinyl.
The 2 songs are remixed by south London-based artist Klein (Hyperdub), and Tokyo-based
experimental hiphop musician Killer Bong (Black Smoker Records)
Mastered by Bunsho Nishikawa, who is known for his works with goat and Tenniscoats,
among others.
The ominous clockwork nursery song “Kazega Fuitara Sayonara” (Goodbye When The
Wind Blows) was originally written by Koichi Yamanoha and released under the name of
Grimm Grimm via Kevin Shields (My Bloody Valentine) and Charlotte Marionneau (Le
Volume Courbe)’s Pickpocket Records / Honest Jons in 2014.
London-based Tokyo-born singer-songwriter experimentalist Koichi Yamanoha has been
operating under the guise of Grimm Grimm since 2013. The project is an outlet for his
fragile, haunted, otherworldly forays into baroque folk, futurist lyricism and electroacoustic
oddities. His debut album, “Hazy Eyes Maybe”, was released by ATP Recordings in 2015. A
track “Last Word Is Mine” from the album was used over the end credits for the Aaron
Brookner / Jim Jarmusch directed documentary film “Uncle Howard” (2016), featuring
William Burroughs. His sophomore album, “Cliffhanger” was released in June 2018.
And currently the 3rd album has been mixed and co-produced by Marta Salogni.
The virtual 3D music video for Klein remix has been directed and edited by London based
film maker Kenichi Iwasa. He filmed the footage in Tottenham using Super 8, 3rd
generation iPhone and 4K Camera, and created the zero zone virtual world with glitchy SFX
work by William Cunningham. Iwasa is also known for his legendary Krautrock Karaoke
night as well as being a sought after collaborator throughout Europe.
Producers at the heart of the broken beat revival, EVM128 and James Rudie met through the CDR project, and soon after started to mess about collaborating with Gonzi. After coining the concept of INPUT, they found a home via Tony Thorpe at Studio Rockers and the seed was sewn. The concept is simple, make a beat, pass it on, and let someone else add to it. Its about letting go of self and letting the music go somewhere it wouldn't have gone otherwise. It was a labour of love until each track felt right. Talented musicians, producers, singers and rappers came on board to fulfill the brief, and the end product is a modern day broken masterpiece. It's about collaboration, whether in the mixing and arrangement, performance, keys, percussion, synth, bass, - everything was a joint effort.
INPUT is released on Studio Rockers on 19th July 2019 as a double vinyl release.
A LITTLE ON THE ARTISTS INVOLVED :
Written by curator EVM128, James Rudie and Gonzi are both killer producers who met me at CDR and also became part of Co-Op presents Selectors Assemble with IG Culture and Alex Phountzi. You can hear them both on Naughty Groove and Gonzi on Gut Level.
ISHFAQ is an elusive producer that has been making beats for time but is still under the radar. He's a force to be reckoned with. Watch him cos he's dangerous! Hear him all over Naughty Groove on Keys and on Complete Me ft Natalie May. He just knows where to fit into a tune... He has an acute ear!
TurboJazz met me after Djing together in Milan and working together on remix jobs, where I remixed Turbo's 'Please You' ft David Blank on Local talk Records. In return Turbojazz remixed the EVM Beyond ft Uk Soul legend, OMAR. It was only natural to get them involved with this project.
iLL Smith aka MR K is a heavyweight producer making serious waves in the new Dubstep 140 low end scene. He gave me a couple tracks that were broken beat he had been sitting on and said "You should do something with these". One of which is GOLD which I only really added a Clap to and worked the arrangement and first mix down. I called on Daz I Kue for a rapper I'd heard on one of his tracks which had the right energy. Daz hooked me up with Nesha Nycee, a fierce rapper from Atlanta Georgia. She smashed it straight away and the tune just worked. This was probably the easiest out of all of them!
Nesha Nycee is a REAL rapper.
Shy One is a friend of mine and has worked with me on music a few times in the past. I always love when she sends me a beat, she has that lo fi dirty grime kind of approach, then I add my style to it and it just seemed to bode well. We worked together on Mother Nature on the Nova LP and this track for INPUT (One Design) which we were sitting on for a while. Tony got Steve Edwards (All Seeing I, Sheffield) on the vocals. This was an unexpected turn on this track that we couldn't have imagined, but it worked! This track is the epitome of INPUT in that, it went somewhere completely different!
Steve Edwards is a singer songwriter from Sheffield who works on projects with All seeing I. He has a great energy and the lyrics made me cry! Really amazing heartfelt lyrics that speak of now and has a positive uplifting vibe to it that we can all relate to. It will stick in your head for ages believe me.
Natalie May met me through soundcloud. She's been releasing UK Funky tracks for a while and worked with Rudimental. She reached out to me after hearing the Nova LP and the stuff on CoOp presents. She went to the studio with me after already writing to some instrumentals. Very professional and on point in the studio. Her voice is sweet and the perfect juxtaposition to the rough bass and drums on 'Complete Me' and when ISHFAQ got his hands on it, well... Nuf said really !
Daiva from the Lithuanian band KeyMono has worked with me for a good few years. We met in Lithuania when I was teaching music production to young people through MTV, I met their manager Istvan. She was on my Naked Truth EP and the Nova LP. I Love working with Daiva she's great! Her voice is amazing as is her professionalism. She sounds somewhere between Erykah Badu, Little Dragon and Fatima. She's always my go to for any collaboration! Hear her on 'The Edge'. The lyrics were written by Kermit (Black Grape / Ruthless Rap Assassins).
Renato Paris.. wow ! I mean what!!? We sent the backing track and two days later he sent back the vocal and we fell over! He has a voice that echo's Stevie Wonder and Omar! Really professional work ethic too. Still cant get over how good he is. This guy can REALLY sing and play keys. Watch out for more from me and Renato... Bruk meets RnB / Jazz.
We have created something special and unique where you can hear each persons input in the
tracks. We love it and hope you will too.
Enzo Elia – one who knows how to conceive Italo driven audible passion with the machines that surround him. His releases on cult labels Compost, Free Range and Black Pearls Records have long spoken to us here at KOMPAKT.
We welcome this summer heater which is “Gilli 88 EP”. A tribute to the 80s phenomenon…THE PANINARO. Without any ideological basis or connection to a particular lifestyle THE PANINARO was based around fashion imagery and luxurious clothing. Enzo found this translatable to today’s social network dynamics and is prime for the retrofuturistic dancefloors of today that are inspired by the golden days of Italo-Disco.
“Low Red” is a Italo-Pop gem conceived with Quique Aldebaran and Quique on vocals that takes inspiration from the legends that were – the mighty Suicide. An instrumental version dives deeper into the groove for DJ play persuasion. “Aj Squinza” takes a classic 80’s disco approach with sound-scaping synths that endlessly jam with an everchanging rhythm. “Volpinata” succumbs to a classic EBM groove that finds its way out of focus due to fat synth melodies that engorge this elevating track.
Remastered 6 song mini LP originally produced in the
mid-80s *very in-demand with funk record collectors and
DJs worldwide. Featuring 6 upbeat synth-driven, boogie
funk dance tracks *first officially licensed vinyl reissue*
Colours of the Rainbow contains the best 6 tracks from two rare South African LPs by recording artist Bibi
the Kid Msomi: 4 tracks from the 1985 album Searching, and 2 tracks from the 1986 LP What Kind of Love
is This?
South African funk music from the 80s has recently gained recognition as some of the best funk
productions in the world; yet so many titles remain virtually unknown outside of South Africa, especially
due to the scarcity of the original pressings (due in part to the destruction of any music perceived as
subversive by South African government censors at the time).
The level of musicianship on these recordings is simply world-class. Even Paul Simon was trying to work
with Bibi Msomi while recording his Graceland album in South Africa (read more about it in this exclusive
interview).
Combining American and South African funk influences, these 6 upbeat dance tracks feature popular
synths and drum machines of the day. The subversive lyrics and infectious grooves on these recordings
address the political turmoil during the peak Apartheid years in a way that was just subtle enough to slip
under the radar of stringent government music censors. Deep messages of freedom and universal
brotherhood are backed by some of South Africa's greatest musical talent, including:
Mac Mathunjwa (Street Kids, Neville Nash), Sello Mphatsoane (Bayete), The Hot Soul Singers, Cisco the
Champ Mokoena, Blackie Sibisi (Step Ahead, Brenda & The Big Dudes), Alistair Coakley (Hotline, Stimela),
Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Jantshi Mayo (Sipho Mabuse), Peter Mokoena (Pure Magic), Solly Ledwaba
(Juluka), Joey Mabe (Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens), Deborah Fraser (Brenda Fassie), Zamo
Mbutho, Banzi Kubheka (Banjo, CJB), Cyril Mnculwane (CJB), and Stimela vocalists: Marilyn Nokwe, Tu
Nokwe, Hlengiwe Maphumulo, Beaulah Hashe.
Meticulously re-mastered with love for maximum impact on the dancefloor; we hope you enjoy the
songs contained on this spiritual boogie masterpiece.
- A1: Black Gold Intro
- A2: House Of Flying Daggers - Inspectah Deck, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah & Method Man
- A3: When The Fat Lady Sings - Gza
- A4: Special Delivery - Ghostface Killah
- A5: Last Call - Ol\' Dirty Bastard & Master Fuol
- A6: Plo Style - Method Man & Carlton Fisk
- A7: Wind Cries - Gza & U-God
- A8: Street Rap - Inspectah Deck
- A9: Live Today - Ghostface Killah & Rza
- B1: Crosstown Happening - Method Man & Busta Rhymes
- B2: Not A Game - Raekwon
- B3: Vibrations - Inspectah Deck. Gza, Masta Killah, Rza, Method Man, Raekwon & Ghostface Killah
- B4: 10 Bricks - Raekwon, Ghostface Killah & Cappadonna
- B5: Kff2000 - Gza
- B6: Holla - Ghostface Killah & Allah Real
- C1: True Kings
- C2: Pali
- C3: 9 Was 6
- C4: Collector\'S Material
- C5: Heart
- C6: Jam Pt. 1
- C7: Summer
- C8: Mary
- C9: Experience
- C10: Today
- C11: Soul
- C12: Spangled
- D1: Traffic
- D2: Ladyland Jam
- D3: The Switch Up
- D4: Somewhere
- D5: Jam Pt. 2
- D6: Villanova
- D7: Foxy
- D8: Cherokee
- D9: New Rising Sun (Outro)
- D10: I Can\'T Wait - Ol\' Dirty Bastard
- D11: Hey Joe - Gab Gotcha
In a landscape increasingly dominated by surface-level sonics and a lack of true organic – man-made-machine-driven - sound, the newly found and London-based Gaia Tones project rises with an unforgiving grasp over the science of improvisation and mystery. Like a gust of wind from Mother Nature herself, the duo comprised of John Swing and David Soleil-Mon breathe a new, highly perceptible form of life into the UK’s long ‘dub and ‘bass’ dynasty.
Contrary to the consumer plastics found across much of the ‘digital’ musical spectrum, the two artists impose their own vision and aesthetic to a framework of sound that has somehow always existed but never fully explored before. Heady, stoned-out and surely emanating from physical matter, their two debut tracks are set to redefine the standards going into the next decade.
The A-side “Lychees”, stutters its own brand of dread paranoia over a sea of complex, morphing percussion that together create a whole new palette of exploratory sound, loosely tied up into a hazy, nomadic groove. On the flip, “Wonkadonk” feels like its natural extension, evolving that familiarly off-kilter assembly of drums to work around a devotedly dystopian swell of bass that pushes further and further out into the ether.
In the end, the universe tends to unfold as it should.
Label artwork by Egidio Sterpa
A cryptical presence hiding behind many different aliases spread across a range of underground labels: co-owner of LiveJam Records alongside EMG, John Swing begins producing with a live and spontaneous approach that pushes the boundaries and general conceptions of club music while digging deeper into the techniques of the past.
The production process through ananlog equipment that John Swing so strongly supports with an uncompromising attitude is the key to his underground success and esteem.
With a back catalogue of over seventy releases including collaborations with established artists such as Mr. G and Ben Sims, the London based talent has been receiving recognition by established artists including Floating Points, Gerd Janson, Levon Vincent, Theo Parrish and many others.
Inspired by London's Plastic People and it's bonding vibes, through a well refined spectrum of musical knowledge John Swing engages with the dance floor in a physical yet emotional way: the strength and power of pure house is blended with black soul music in a constant crossover between underground aesthetics and cherry-picked funk and disco. His subtle understanding of the dance floor guarantees a deep-rooted experience for the mind, body and soul.
Sigma acts as the sequel to 2018’s critically acclaimed Equals release and features musical contributions from original Alarm guitarist Dave Sharp and
Billy Duffy from The Cult. The album includes the single “Brighter Than The Sun” and as Mike Peters articulates “is a lyric that tries to encapsulate how it feels when someone you
love has survived an immense ordeal and come through to the other side brighter, stronger and more capable than before”. To find strength through adversity
is a capability we all have inside of us should we choose to call upon it. The accompanying video tries to reflect this kind of stimulus and to try and
capture the kind of solar power that emanates from within, the blinding force that stimulates life and everything positive that revolves around it.
Early in 2019 Mike Peters from The Alarm was awarded with an MBE by His Royal Highness Prince Charles Prince of Wales at Buckingham Palace for his
services to charity having raised thousands for cancer care projects in the UK and abroad and dedicating his life to giving hope for families affected by cancer
The Alarm will be heading out on their Sigma LXXXV Tour this summer, taking in 30+ North American dates through July and August, with support from
Modern English and Jay Aston’s Gene Loves Jezebel. Throughout the Sigma LXXXV Tour, Love Hope Strength (co-founded by Mike Peters), will be hosting
bone marrow drives at each concert aimed at finding donors for people suffering from Blood Cancer who need a transplant for a second chance at life
Previous support for Equals from Billboard, Classic Rock, Classic Pop, Uncut, MOJO and more Classic tracks Strength and The Stand were used on the closing
tracks on two episodes of the hit Netflix series 13 Reasons Why, combining for 3M+ streams.
INXS live on the Coffee Break Concert series at the Cleveland Agora on 27th June 1984.
Following the April 1984 release of their fourth album, The Swing, INXS began to make commercial headway outside Australia. They toured relentlessly to promote the album, and had an international hit with Original Sin.
The performance captured here, on 27th June 1984, was part of the WMMS Coffee Break Concert series, a live radio simulcast on 100.7 WMMS in Cleveland. It captures them at the peak of their early game, and is presented here with background notes and images
L’Illustration Musicale, Sonimage, Técipress-In Editions (Timing), Musax, Freesound,
Montparnasse 2000 in France but also De Wolfe and Chappell in England, every of these
sound illustration labels have in common to bring out as a legendary spectre the name of Jacky
Giordano and his aliases. Widespread practice in the library music world, Joachim Sherylee,
chosen for the In Motion album, is one of his plentiful aliases (with José Pharos, Jacky
Nodaro, Gruppo Sounds, Rubba...) used by the french composer, that we regain as well for
Black Devil with Bernard Fèvre or even for the Shifters with Yan Tregger.
For his enthronement on the mythical English label De Wolfe, it's under the obscure name of
the Rubba collective that Jacky Giordano aka Joachim Sherylee sneaked in the londonian De
Wolfe studios with the companionship of British colleagues such as John Hyde (aka John
Saunders, James Harrington, Astral sounds or even Wozo) and his wife Monice Hyde (aka
Monica Beale), Alan Howe (aka John Collins), Robert Poole and Tim Broughton.
Published in 1980, the In Motion: Modern Progressive Group Sounds Played By Rubba LP
and its minimalistic and utilitarian red record cover which contains 13 tracks, mainly composed
by Joachim "Giordano" Sherylee and was never reissued since then. This record became cult
over time; it will have taken that the Hip-Hop world seizes it in order to dig out from the
disregarded and underestimated musical gems graveyard. First of all with beatmaker Madlib
and Freddie Gibbs in 2011 with the track “Thuggin'”, in which he sampled the track “Way Star”,
also used more recently by Mil and the rapper Westside Gunn on his track “Brains Flew” by
(1964 Version).
Nearly 40 years after, the Farfalla Records label, after publishing Timing Archives, presents
another aspect more progressive and psychedelic of the multi-faceted composer Jacky
Giordano by fully reissuing at last this coveted, mysterious and mesmerizing "Rubba". Very
desired by crate-diggers, In Motion appears in the want-list of plenty enthusiasts in this
enigmatic world of the library music. (Erwann Pacaud)
Black Truffle is honoured to announce the first ever vinyl reissue of David Rosenboom’s legendary Brainwave Music, originally released on A.R.C. Records in 1975 and here expanded to a double LP with the addition of over 40 minutes of contemporaneous material. Pioneer of live electronics, innovator in music education, collaborator with artists as diverse as Jon Hassell, Jacqueline Humbert, Terry Riley and Anthony Braxton, Rosenboom is renowned for his ground-breaking experiments with the use of brain biofeedback to control live electronic systems.
Each of the three pieces that make up the original Brainwave Music LP integrates biofeedback with musical technology in different ways. In the side-long opening piece “Portable Gold and Philosophers’ Stones”, four performers have electrodes and monitoring devices attached to their bodies to receive information about brainwaves, temperature, and galvanic skin response. This information is analysed and fed into a complex set of frequency dividers and filters, manned by Rosenboom, but essentially played by each of the performers through their psychophysiological responses to the situation. The result is a slowly unfolding web of filtered electronic tones over a tanpura-esque fundamental, possessing the unhurried, stately grandeur of an electronic raga. In “Chilean Drought”, three different variations of a text about a drought in Chile, each read by a different voice in a different style, are associated with the Beta, Alpha, and Theta brainwave bands. Alongside an insistent piano accompaniment, we hear a constantly shifting combination of the three vocal recordings controlled by the relative preponderance of each of the brainwave bands in the soloist whose brainwaves are being monitored. “Piano Etude I (Alpha)”, the earliest piece included here, is based on research into the link between Alpha brain wave production and the execution of repetitive motor tasks. As Rosenboom plays a very rapid, incessantly repeated pattern in both hands – deliberately designed to be difficult to execute without being in an alert, non-thinking state similar to that associated with strong Alpha brainwave production – two filters controlled by monitoring his brainwaves process the piano sound, moving gradually higher in frequency as the average Alpha amplitude increases, resulting in a hypnotic, constantly shifting blur of repeated notes reflected through the shimmering, watery lights of the filters. For this reissue, the original LP is supplemented with an additional LP containing an unreleased 1977 live recording of Rosenboom’s “On Being Invisible”, in which the composer himself performs on an array of electronics that are fed information from his brainwaves. Stretching out over 40 minutes, the piece begins in similar territory to “Portable Gold and Philosophers’ Stones” but eventually becomes far wilder, building up to pointillistic bleeps and dense layers of electronic fizz that unexpectedly cut to near-silence. As Rosenboom explains, the piece creates a situation in which the ‘performer’s active imaginative listening became one of the ways to play their instrument, as well as an active agent in how self-organizing musical forms might emerge.’ Enriched with archival images and new notes from the composer, this expanded reissue of Brainwave Music is essential listening for anyone interested in the history of live electronic music and alive to the possibilities it might still contain.
- One 140 gram RED Vinyl Disc in plain white paper inner sleeve
- 4/color Single-pocket jacket - shared with 093624903444
- 4/c over 4/c Lyric Insert - shared with 093624903444
- 2/c (PMS 186 + Black) 2.0' x 4.0' FYE Exclusive Marketing Sticker
- 1/c (Black) UPC sticker and affix directly on jacket over existing barcode.
Global superstar Michael Bublé is scheduled to release(pronounced love) as his first studio album in two years on November 16th following a two year break from public life to spend time with his family.
The Canadian singer-songwriter returned to the studio with a new perspective on life and a renewed commitment to honouring the music he has always loved.
I didn't anticipate returning to recording or performing and I was fine with that. My entire world view has changed completely these last few years. I wanted to spend all my time with my wife and kids. That was my focus. During that time, I also learned how much love and humanity is out in the world from the prayers and good wishes we received. But slowly, along with understanding what my priorities in life are, I began to feel a new commitment to express the emotions and lessons I've embraced. Whether I am the narrator, the observer, the main character, the dreamer, the broken hearted guy at a bar or having the night of a lifetime, I have stories to tell on this record. It's all there in the songs. I have had so many blessings in life and one of them is that I hold the torch to keep these songs alive for generations to come. I take the responsibility very seriously. My end game for the new record was to create a series of short cinematic stories for each song I chose and have it stand on its own. I'm so proud of what we accomplished,' commented Bublé.
Bublé co-produced his new album and brings new love to several rich classics from the American Songbook. The album opens with the idealistic and dreamy 'When I Fall In Love.' It also includes a haunting take on another Rogers & Hart standard, 'My Funny Valentine.' Other standouts are an ebullient 'When You're Smiling,' a swinging 'Such A Night' as well as Bublé's hand-picked favorites including 'Unforgettable,' 'Help Me Make It Through The Night,' and 'I Only Have Eyes For You.' Two standout tracks are Charlie Puth's swinging 'Love You Anymore' and an achingly poignant 'La Vie En Rose' -a Bublé duet featuring singer Cecile McLorin Salvant. A touching Bublépenned original 'Forever Now' demonstrates his songwriting skills, which were previously shown in such Bubléwritten hits like 'Home,' 'Haven't Met You Yet' and 'Everything.' The album closes with a show-stopping version of 'Where or When.'
was produced by David Foster, longtime collaborator Jochem van der Saag and Michael Bublé. The trio brought Bublé's visions to life with luscious arrangements surrounding his rich vocals. Michael Bublé has sold over 60 million records worldwide, performed hundreds of sold-out shows around the globe, and won four Grammys and multiple Juno Awards during the course of his extraordinary career.
Danish drummer Terkel Nørgaard presents his trio consisting of some of the key players in the Copenhagen scene and adding ECM-recording American star trumpeter Ralph Alessi on the lineup. Not merely a "feature", Alessi and the Danes form a coherent band unit capable of producing memorable and highly inspired contemporary jazz which links to the Nordic tradition of dynamic sound ranging from delicate minimalism to powerful avantgarde eruptions. The album Terkel Nørgaard "With Ralph Alessi" will be out via Helsinki's We Jazz Records on May 17.
On the new album, the Danish trio plus Alessi achieve something that can always be regarded a remarkable feat. They deliver a highly inspired set of music which links the album onto the ever-evolving lineage of jazz music, and at the same time introduce a new band capable of stunning the listener in the here and now. Terkel Nørgaard "With Ralph Alessi" will be released on vinyl (black / mint colored), CD and digital formats.
Following on from big recent releases from Neue Grafik & Oliver Night, CoOp Presents Sivey, with an all-new double-header of heat, 'Nobody Else' and 'Somebody Samebody'.
For those that don't know, Manchester-based Sivey became a player in the future beats scene a couple years back, releasing music with the LA-based collective Soulection, as a solo artist and via collaborations with Evil Needle, which came to fruition after a series of online beat battles, as well as releases and remixes with labels like Astral Black and Ninja Tune.
His last wave of output was greeted with enthusiasm by fans of soulful beats championed by artist collectives such as HW&W and Darker Than Wax, and saw Sivey subsequently spinning at events across the UK, and perform shows as far afield as Los Angeles and Tokyo.
Rooted in hip hop production, Sivey's largely instrumental tracks have brought together elements of millennial R&B, neo-soul, UK garage, jazz and 80s funk. In the few years since his previous releases, Sivey has continued to experiment with new ways of exploiting his diverse influences in his productions. As his listening habits became increasingly orientated around jazz and obscure 70s fusion records, his own productions began to reflect the shift.
The recent resurgence of the broken beat movement was something that also inspired him, admiring the balance between musicality and danceability of the genre. He made his first experiments with bruk in 2017 and found that it mixed perfectly with what he'd already been creating. Eager to share the results with the world, it made perfect sense for his first offerings of this ilk to find a home here with us at CoOp Presents.
These two tracks exemplify the ever-evolving progression of Sivey's sonics; the familiar deep keys and synth sounds of his previous productions are there, but nestled alongside more uptempo grooves, and the lush rhythmic complexity of bruk. Tied in with his love for jazz fusion, 'Somebody Samebody' sees Sivey reinterpret a late 70's track by Japanese guitarist, Kazumi Watanabe; this one also enlisting the help of Trian Kayhatu on keys. As well as the original tracks, prolific Selectors Assemble crew member Danvers adds in his own tasty heads-down version of 'Nobody Else', and label co-founder IG Culture (who recently received a Worldwide Award for 'lifetime achievement'!) provides a dope bruk-funk flip of 'Somebody Samebody' to close out the set.
- A1: Heroes
- A2: Post Requisite
- A3: Heroes In A Half Shell
- A4: More Feat. Anderson .Paak
- A5: Capillaries
- A6: Burning Down The House Feat. George Clinton
- A7: Spontaneous Feat. Little Dragon
- A8: Takashi
- A9: Pilgrim Side Eye
- A10: All Spies
- A11: Yellow Belly Feat. Tierra Whack
- A12: Black Balloons Reprise Feat. Denzel Curry
- A13: Fire Is Coming Feat. David Lynch
- A14: Inside Your Home
- A15: Actually Virtual Feat. Shabazz Palaces
- A16: Andromeda
- A17: Remind U
- A18: Say Something
- A19: Debbie Is Depressed
- A20: Find Your Own Way Home
- A21: The Climb Feat. Thundercat
- A22: Pygmy
- A23: Carrots Feat. Toro Y Moi
- A24: Ff4
- A25: Land Of Honey Feat. Solange
- A26: Thank U Malcolm
- A27: Hot Oct
New Fly-Lo.. First outing since 5 years!
Drawing the lines between the galaxies of hip-hop, funk, soul, jazz, global dance music, tribal poly-rhythms, IDM and the beat scene of his hometown L.A, Lotus creates a universe that is uniquely his own. Calling on an all-star cast from the cosmos, Anderson .Paak, George Clinton, Little Dragon, Tierra Whack, Denzel Curry, David Lynch, Shabazz Palaces, Thundercat, Toro y Moi and Solange; Lotus takes these artists on an astral plane to explore his world of fire.
- A1: Alan Parker - Heavy Water
- A2: Alan Parker - Ice Breaker
- A3: Alan Parker - Solid Satin
- A4: Alan Parker - Punch Bowl
- A5: Alan Parker - Frozen Steam
- A6: Alan Parker - Black Light
- A7: John Cameron - Range Rover
- B1: John Cameron - Swamp Fever
- B2: John Cameron - Safari So Good
- B3: John Cameron - Survival
- B4: John Cameron - Afro Waltz
- B5: John Cameron - Sahara Sunrise
- B6: John Cameron - Rockin Rhino
- B7: John Cameron - Heat Haze
- B8: John Cameron - Afro Metropolis
2019 re-issue, 180g vinyl, remastered from the original tapes
Be With have raided the KPM archives to re-issue another of our favourites from the KPM 1000 series. They say: Hard Afro Pop featuring large percussive rhythm section and front line. We say: One of the best-loved of all the KPM LPs. Afro Rock was recorded at Morgan Studios by John Cameron and Alan Parker in London in 1973 as a collection of stripped-down African rhythms, virtuoso jazz instrumentation, fuzzed up wah wah guitars and spaced out library breaks. The percussion is effortlessly funky, and those flutes so melodic, it’s as if the LP was crafted with the beat lovers of the future firmly in mind. As Cameron himself described it in Unusual Sounds, this is “heavy duty drum-and-bass salsa music”. As with all of our KPM re-issues, the audio for The Road Forward comes from the original analogue tapes and has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis. We’ve taken the same care with the sleeves, handing the reproduction duties over to Richard Robinson, the current custodian of KPM’s brand identity. And don’t worry! Those KPM stickers aren’t stuck directly on the sleeves!
Danish drummer Terkel Nørgaard presents his trio consisting of some of the key players in the Copenhagen scene and adding ECM-recording American star trumpeter Ralph Alessi on the lineup. Not merely a "feature", Alessi and the Danes form a coherent band unit capable of producing memorable and highly inspired contemporary jazz which links to the Nordic tradition of dynamic sound ranging from delicate minimalism to powerful avantgarde eruptions. The album Terkel Nørgaard "With Ralph Alessi" will be out via Helsinki's We Jazz Records on May 17.
On the new album, the Danish trio plus Alessi achieve something that can always be regarded a remarkable feat. They deliver a highly inspired set of music which links the album onto the ever-evolving lineage of jazz music, and at the same time introduce a new band capable of stunning the listener in the here and now. Terkel Nørgaard "With Ralph Alessi" will be released on vinyl (black / mint colored), CD and digital formats.
We are delighted to present our fourth release on 12” format, a very special collaboration with legendary Jamaican trombone player Vin Gordon.
"Bowl go, packy come" is an old Jamaican proverb equivalent to “what goes around comes around”, or in a more positive form “one good turn deserves another”. In this EP it symbolises the migrations and cultural exchanges between Jamaica and UK and back from UK to Jamaica and the rest of the world, pretty similar to the life journey of Vin Gordon himself. The music and the artwork here try to represent that continuum of exchange between both shores.
The Ep contains two uptempo instrumental tracks that are a mix of classic Jamaican sounds with a UK influence, combining classic live instrumentation and modern programming. Each track comes with it’s own dub version mixed analog live by Ojah in traditional fashion.
Also available complementing this release is ALDBS7008 “What Goes Around Comes Around”, a 7” that contains an additional Hammond and melodica solo version and an additional dub of the “Packy” riddim.
Limited edition of 600 copies, 180g heavyweight 12” vinyl, hand-numbered, served in a spined sleeve with outstanding artwork by Victor Castro.
Hammond & melodica recorded by Nik Torp at Squat Sound Studio, London, UK, 2015
Percussion & keys recorded by Ojah at Rollover Studios, London, UK, 2015
Trombone recorded by Jamez at Black Lindy Studio, London, UK, 2015
Guitars recorded by Puppa Shan at Discoinferno, Madrid, Spain, 2018
All tracks produced, mixed and mastered by Oscar Pablos “Ojah” at Alchemy Dubs Studio, London, UK, 2018
Graphic design by Victor Castro
French modern-classical quartet astrïd return on May 10th with the first part of a new release entitled A Porthole.
Conceptually the two records work in unison, focusing on portholes into the abyss, with part one delving into the depths of the deep sea. The tracks are named after various strains of seaweed, the artwork depicting dark waves and uncertainty. Part two will follow in a years time and will turn its attention to the night sky and constellations.
A Porthole continues astrïd’s signature style of billowing guitars, strings and woodwind. Each element intertwined with another, linked perfectly together through restrained jazz-tinged percussion. 2017’s highly-acclaimed release ‘Through the Sparkle’ with renowned pianist Rachel Grimes (of Rachels) set the bar extremely high for this release but astrïd have matched the depth, melody and quality of that record here.
Part one of this journey features some sublime compositions with Cyril Secq’s expressive and bold guitar playing carrying the pieces into chamber music territory, joined seamlessly by a variety of other instruments that swell and soar and fit perfectly into the story being told. Everything seems to have its place, nothing is overplayed or out of step here, there is an organic nature to the way this quartet plays and interacts with one another as melodies circle back and fade away in the same beautiful breath.
A Porthole is a deeply charming record, exercising glorious, nuanced refrain and offering a sort of hope rarely found in music these days.
• Aqua blue vinyl - limited to 300 copies w/ download code
• The album was mastered by Harris Newman (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Tindersticks etc)
• The artwork is extracted from an original one of a kind monotype print by Gizeh overlord Richard Knox.
DJ, producer, singer-songwriter, one-half of world-touring soul duo Myron & E (Stones Throw), founder of boogie outfit The Pendletons (Bastard Jazz), part of electro-funk duo Lucid Paradise, and an endless string of collabos. Over 2 decades in the game means multi-faceted artist Eric Boss knows his way around music. Having been there, done that, gotten the t-shirt and watched the fat lady sing, it's finally time for E to take center stage and deliver his finest effort yet with solo record "A Modern Love", an effervescent collection of raw funk, sweet soul, west coast vibes and classic hip hop, produced by Björn Wagner and Steffen Wagner (The Mighty Mocambos / Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band).
"A Modern Love" has all the ingredients of a future classic. High-profile guests Check: with Gift Of Gab (Blackalicious) rapping on "I Wanna Ride", a track with more bounce than a lowrider chevy on Santa Monica boulevard, and soul siren Gizelle Smith featuring on "Spiders", a spooky number that will get you jumping out of your seat like you've been attacked by giant 8-legged arachnids. Need some dancefloor action "Get Next To You" gets down to serious bizniz with crisp drums and a catchy hook guaranteed to get the party started. Something for lovers We've got it covered with "Is It Love", where Eric waxes lyrical about his sweetheart over a honey-drenched soul beat.
From reggae-flavored vibes being served in inspirational number "Your Life Is Up to You" to the slow-burning grooves of "Merry Jane" which features singer Ishtar, the 10 tunes on "A Modern Love" all attest to Eric Boss' talent and versatility. Judging by how quickly the limited edition 45 of album opener "Closer To The Spirit" sold out when it was released, it seems safe to say Eric Boss is a king Midas with the golden touch when it comes to providing fresh grooves for contemporary ears, and "A Modern Love" is set to prove so once again.
Black Vinyl[14,50 €]
Released on CD by Aurora Borealis back in 2010, we're overjoyed to finally see this on vinyl.
- limited edition of 300 copies - 180g black vinyl - reverse board heavyweight sleeve - includes download code and printed insert - mastered for vinyl by James Plotkin - cut at The Carvery, London
An ode to the Lovecraftian lore of Shub Niggurath, 'Black Goat of the Woods' was conceived as "the soundtrack from some lost low budget horror movie, rediscovered on an old and faded VHS cassette found mouldering in a deserted house in the depths of the woods".
The one man project of J.R Moore, Black Mountain Transmitter has released several albums, all to great critical acclaim, and the quality of his work speaks volumes. The original AB 'Black Goat of The Woods' CD version was the first official release and a reissue of the long sold out and much sought after limited CDr.
On describing the recording, Moore said: "The music was certainly very much influenced by that certain breed of 70s horror films. Things like the soundtrack to the original "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", Giuliano Sorgini's atmospheres in "Living Dead At The Manchester Morgue"; Carl Zittrer's soundscapes in "Deranged", "Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things" and "Dead Of Night", and of course people like Fabio Frizzi in Italian horror and the BBCs Radiophonic Workshop's electronic sounds in something like "The Stone Tape" and countless creepy old TV productions..."
An excellent, macabre and psychedelic release that spans electronica, soundtracks and experimental genres in its 40 minute playing time, 'Black Goat of the Woods' pays perfect homage to the dark denizen of the nocturnal glades, and is a true paean to backwoods horror.
Laid back and chilled out, Andrew never lets anything or anyone bother him. He has an air of mystique about him which others often envy.
(Andrea Solitario) ANDREW SOUL Andrew from his real name, Soul as the part where his inspiration come from, is a native italian producer born in 1986.
Music has been the first and everlasting love for this guy who soon came into his city's underground scene: he was 15 years old when he walked into a club for the first time. Then everything came by itself: a fusion of house and techno, the passion for the acidized sounds filled his mind and his heart.
But listening wasn't enough: the love for the music was to much for not to create something.
So Andrew started a path made by wicked grooves, dropping acid synths and emotional vibes, huge baseline, soulfoul vocals, roland tr-707 on the drums: these featuring characterize at best Andrew's sound.
The love for the analog sound push him over the years to purchase some vintage drum machine and keyboards, to make his sound as better as he can, and to add to his sound some cool old flavour.
Having DJd for years in his native Italy, Andrew turned his hand to production a few years back and promptly set about making some of the most emotive and engaging analogue house and techno around.
Vinyl collector, record lover, for him there's nothing better than watching a wax riding a turntable and listen the music that come from it.
As an eclectic artist, in his sets, Andrew likes to mix from deep to techno, through the house, but people never know what to expect from his large underground music knowledge; old, classic, brand new tunes and own productions makes his set really sophisticated and different each time.
After working on music collaborations for several years, with some friends , early 2011 was time to start sharing solo productions with his first release on Paulatine Records, wellknowed Uner's label. 4 tracks that take attention of many wellknowed djs, like X-Press2 that played the tracks at MOS and on their radioshow, Adam Port who said "Finally something different..." and many others..
Then two vinyl release: first one on the great Barcelona based Kiara Records "Too Much Love Will Kill You", Julien Chaptal on remix, and second one on the New York based imprint Stranjjur Inc, on remix Kris Wadsworth and Baldo; "Close To You" placed 29th on RA Chart.
A great tune with the close friend Frank Naht alongside a remix for Fabio Monesi on friend's label Blackrose Records, and an EP on Espai Music to follow.
End of 2012 was good: EP come out on the Defected's sub label "Tenth Circle"
November 2012 was also time for releasing on Safari Numerique with David Labeji on remix, and the track "No Way" played by Richie Hawtin.
2013 full of work and innovation, with 2 remixes on italian Moan Rec for Meeph, and U.S. based Undulate Recordings for Frank Nath, a really deep EP on his new family Popcorn Records, and jacking mode on for the new release on Safari Numerique.
2014 starts with a vinyl only release on Popcorn Records Ltd, special collaboration with Peter JD and remixes from Amir Alexander and Franco Cinelli.
The path is long and Andrew's research is still long way to end...
Available on vinyl for the first time in 40 years, Outernational Sounds is proud to present a masterpiece from the Los Angeles jazz underground - Horace Tapscott's burning, spiritualised 1978 set, The Call.
One of the unsung giants of jazz music, the composer, bandleader, arranger, pianist and community activist Horace Tapscott was the undisputed keystone in the grassroots Los Angeles jazz scene. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, his radical community arts and music formations the UGMA (Underground Musicians Association, later changed to UGMAA - Union of God's Musicians and Artists Ascension), and his protean big band, the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, were at the epicentre of music, culture and politics in the Los Angeles area.
From their 1960s base at the Watt's Happening Coffee House on 103rd St, to their decade-plus- long 1970s residency at the Immanuel United Church of Christ on 85thE St and Holmes Ave, Tapscott's groups were the beating heart of underground music in LA. Hundreds of musicians passed through and played their part. Major figures in LA jazz such as Arthur Blythe, Azar Lawrence, Jimmy Woods, John Carter, Bobby Bradford, Sonny Criss, Ndugu Chancler and dozens of others all paid dues or just got down with Tapscott, not to mention the core Arkestra regulars who have since become celebrated names - Nate Morgan, Jesse Sharps, Adele Sebastian, Dadisi Komolafe, Gary Bias, to mention only a few.
Tapscott and the Arkestra were down on the ground - playing fundraisers in park and street, organising teach-ins and workshops for young and old, mixing it with radical theatre groups, firebrand poets, political radicals, Black separatists, community groups and churches. They lived communally, and built an ark for the Black arts in the heart of the city. But as a result of this grassroots community focus and Tapscott's antipathy to the music industry, the Arkestra didn't record for nearly two decades. That only changed when long-time jazz fan Tom Albach started Nimbus Records. The label was initiated specifically in order to document Tapscott and his circle, and the first three records showcased Horace and the Arkestra.
The Call was put together from two studio sessions in April 1978, one at Hollywood Sage and Sound, one at United Western - the latter session had the addition of a string section, who can be heard on the moody Cal Massey composition 'Nakatini Suite' and Jesse Sharps' swinging modal trip, 'Peyote Song No. III', with its swirling soprano solo. In keeping with the communal nature of the Arkestra, the other two compositions, 'The Call' and 'Quagmire Manor at Five A.M.' are also by Arkestra members. But at the centre of the music is the builder of the Ark, the visionary whose original call to action started a movement whose legacy continues to this day - Horace Tapscott.
Heed The Call!
- A1: Odeyemi - Oni Suru
- A2: Prince Nico Mbarga & Rocafil Jazz - Sickness
- A3: Osayomore Joseph & The Creative 7 - Obonogbozu
- B1: Felixson Ngasia & The Survivals - Black Precious Colour
- B2: Sina Bakare - Africa
- B3: Saxon Lee & The Shadows International - Special Secret Of Baby
- C1: International Brothers Band - Onuma Dimnobi
- C2: Don Bruce & The Angels - Kinuye
- C3: Etubom Rex Williams & His Nigerian Artistes - Psychedelic Shoes
- D1: Rogana Ottah & His Black Heroes Int. - Let Them Say
- D2: Sir Victor Uwaifo & His Titibitis - Iziegbe (Ekassa No. 70)
- D3: M.a. Jaiyesimi & His Crescent Bros Band - Mundiya Loju
As part of their 20th Anniversary celebrations, Strut present the first new volume in their pioneering 'Nigeria 70' series for over 8 years, bringing together rare highlife, Afro-funk and juju from the '70s and early '80s. Compiled by collector and DJ Duncan Brooker, this new selection of tracks is receiving its first international release outside of Nigeria.
The compilation returns to a fertile heyday in Nigerian music when established styles like highlife and juju became infused with elements of Western jazz, soul and funk and musicians brought a proud new message post-independence. Brooker places the spotlight particularly on some of the incredible Ukwuani musicians from the Delta State region as guitarist Rogana Ottah and Steady Arobby's International Brothers Band forged their own fluid brand of highlife and soulman Don Bruce drew on the US R&B greats for a series of great albums and explosive stage shows at his residency at Hilton Hotel in Abuja.
Elsewhere, the album explores the close connection between Nigeria and Benin's music, most famously through Sir Victor Uwaifo, appearing here with a killer mid'80s ekassa jam, as well as highlife hitmaker Osayamore Joseph on 'Obonogbozu' (Joseph made headlines in Nigeria for very different reasons in 2017, surviving a one month kidnapping ordeal).
Other tracks include 'Sickness' a 1979 lament on how all countries share troubles by Prince Nico Mbarga, the Nigerian / Camerounian star behind the smash hit 'Sweet Mother'; reggae singer Felixson Ngasia switches to funk and disco for a heavy workout with potent lyrics around black identity; another major highlife great Etubom Rex Williams unleashes a punchy psych funk gem with 'Psychedelic Shoes' and Africa 70 member Pax Nicholas vocals a simmering Afrobeat groove from Jacob Lee's Saxon Lee & The Shadows International Band.
'Nigeria 70: No Wahala' iis released on 29th March 2019 on CD, 2LP and digital. All tracks have been restored by See Why Audio and mastered by The Carvery. The package features comprehensive sleeve notes including exclusive interviews with some of the original artists.
The Indigenous - A Minimal Jazz House Track With A Climax. Perfect For Starting Out Or Finishing Off A Set.
Stand Alone - A Driving Track With Chaotic Vibe That Fits Nicely In An Up Tempo House Set
Adrift - Minimal Techno That Builds Into An Atmospheric Groove.
Red & Black Flowers - Some Call This Chicago House And Others Say It Leans More To Techno. A Stormer With A Detroit Chord And Vocal Samples From the Warning'.
These Tracks Were Recorded At The Vibenotic Recording Studio With The Following Instruments: Clavia Nord Lead 3, Korg Minilogue, Elektron Monomachine Sfx-60, Machinedrum Sps 1uw Mk Ii, Analog Keys And Digitakt.
- A1: Gypsy's Curse
- A2: Fake Fur
- A3: The Ride Pt.2
- A4: Where Water Flows
- A5: The Black Light
- A6: Sideshow
- A7: Chach
- A8: Missing
- B1: Minas De Cobre (For Better Metal)
- B2: Over Your Shoulder
- B3: Vinegaroon
- B4: Trigger
- B5: Sprawl
- B6: Stray
- B7: Old Man Waltz
- B8: Bloodflow
- B9: Frontera
- C1: El Morro
- C2: Man Goes Where Water Flows
- C3: Glowing Heart Of The World
- C4: Too Much Sprawl
- C5: Rollbar
- D1: Minas De Cobre (Extend-Omix)
- D2: Minas De Cobre (Spatial Mix)
- D3: Minas De Cobre (Acoustic Mix)
- D4: Lacquer
- D5: Drape
- D6: Bag Of Death
+ download coupon
2LPX version is an indies only format.
An Album About Crossing Physical And Metaphorical Borders That Has Never Been Timelier: Calexico's Classic Album 'the Black Light' Turns 20 This Year. This Limited Celebratory Anniversary Edition Includes All New Artwork By Victor Gastelum, Extensive Linernotes, And 11 Bonus Tracks.
What Was Surprising About The Black Light (and What Set Its Architects Apart From Their Indie Rock Peers) Was The Album's Unusual Willingness To Wade Into The Rapids Of American And Mexican Culture, Fully Immersing Itself Midstream. From The Outset, With 'gypsy's Curse', The Record Combines Guitar Twang And Flamenco Flourishes; And By Its End, Almost An Hour Later, It's Contrived A Skillful And Instinctive Union Of Smoky Bar Room Jazz, Arthouse Indie Rock, And Compelling Mariachi Brass In 'frontera'. If Calexico Falls Short As A Name, It's Only In The Fact That - Alongside Their Mining Of Mexico's Fertile Musical Past - Joey Burns And John Convertino Weren't Just Digging Into California's Songbook...they Were Unearthing America's Too.
- Anniversary-edition On 180g Heavy Double Vinyl Including 11 Bonus Tracks
- Limited Clear Double Lp On 180g Heavy Vinyl
- New Alternative Artwork By Victor Gastelum
- Gatefold Cover With Embossed Logo And Silver Print And 8 Page Booklet
- Limited To One Pressing Only
Due to overwhelming demand for our 5LP boxset which sold out on the day of release, here are the first ever official individual re-issues of all five of the iconic Lansdowne recording sessions by the legendary UK jazz combo, the Don Rendell/Ian Carr Quintet.
The five albums; Shades Of Blues (1965), Dusk Fire (1966), Phase III (1968), Change Is (1969) and Live (1969), have reached almost mythical status in the collector's world. Regarded as holy grail artefacts for even the seasoned aficionado, the collective second hand market value comes to an astonishing £6000.
The complete Don Rendell & Ian Carr Lansdowne recording sessions are now available as individual LPs. We located and acquired the original analogue master tapes from the Universal vaults and created masters at Abbey Road Studios to produce audiophile quality 180g pressings replete with replica artwork - shape, design, and even paper stock. No stone has been left unturned to deliver this absolute labour of love to the highest possible standard! Inside is a link to a printable online pdf which contains never before seen photographs, interviews with the remaining living band members and liner notes from BBC Radio 3 presenter and award-winning jazz writer Alyn Shipton.
The band played together for seven years and during this fruitful time they made a plethora of deeply melodic, post-bop British jazz compositions that later on took influences from Indo and more spiritually guided jazz. Produced by the influential Denis Preston and recorded at his Lansdowne Studios in London, the band was primarily made up of saxophonist Don Rendell, trumpeter/composer Ian Carr, and pianist/composer Michael Garrick. This is UK jazz at its absolute finest and is a treasure not to be missed.
Due to overwhelming demand for our 5LP boxset which sold out on the day of release, here are the first ever official individual re-issues of all five of the iconic Lansdowne recording sessions by the legendary UK jazz combo, the Don Rendell/Ian Carr Quintet.
The five albums; Shades Of Blues (1965), Dusk Fire (1966), Phase III (1968), Change Is (1969) and Live (1969), have reached almost mythical status in the collector's world. Regarded as holy grail artefacts for even the seasoned aficionado, the collective second hand market value comes to an astonishing £6000.
The complete Don Rendell & Ian Carr Lansdowne recording sessions are now available as individual LPs. We located and acquired the original analogue master tapes from the Universal vaults and created masters at Abbey Road Studios to produce audiophile quality 180g pressings replete with replica artwork - shape, design, and even paper stock. No stone has been left unturned to deliver this absolute labour of love to the highest possible standard! Inside is a link to a printable online pdf which contains never before seen photographs, interviews with the remaining living band members and liner notes from BBC Radio 3 presenter and award-winning jazz writer Alyn Shipton.
The band played together for seven years and during this fruitful time they made a plethora of deeply melodic, post-bop British jazz compositions that later on took influences from Indo and more spiritually guided jazz. Produced by the influential Denis Preston and recorded at his Lansdowne Studios in London, the band was primarily made up of saxophonist Don Rendell, trumpeter/composer Ian Carr, and pianist/composer Michael Garrick. This is UK jazz at its absolute finest and is a treasure not to be missed.
- This is the debut album from American hip-hop trio,
pioneers of jazz, hip-hop and house fusion
- 11 track vinyl LP has been reissued on 180g
heavyweight classic black vinyl with printed inner
sleeve.
- Includes the classics 'Black is Black' and Because I got
It Like That'
- Cult classic originally released in 1988 on the Warlock
label
- Founders of the Native Toungues, a 1980/90's hip-hop
collective with members from De La Soul, Tribe Called
Quest and Q-Tip
- A1: I Made A Date (With An Open Vein)
- A2: I Can Tell You're Leaving
- A3: Ferrari In A Demolition Derby
- A4: Ain't Nothing Wrong With A Little Longing
- B1: Excursions Into Assonance
- B2: Everytime I Close My Eyes (We're Back There)
- B3: Love Is A Velvet Noose
- B4: My Husband's Got No Courage In Him
- B5: Riding
- B6: Lord Bless All
Alt. folker Will Oldham - better known as Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - is set to drop a joint record with gently psychedelic crew Trembling Bells
Just four years after their debut album Carbeth, Trembling Bells are amassing a formidable body of work at a startling velocity. Just twelve months after the release of their critically acclaimed third album The Constant Pageant, the Glasgow quartet return to share the billing with a similarly restless creative spirit. A few thousand miles separate Will Oldham and Trembling Bells' drummer and principal songwriter Alex Neilson, but their stories intersect as far back as 2005, when the young Leeds-raised Neilson found himself playing drums on Alasdair Roberts' No Earthly Man, with Oldham producing. In time, a friendship between mentor and student became one between two kindred musicians. Neilson augmented his work with free-psych-drone practitioners Directing Hand by playing with the Bonnie 'Prince' Billy band. The drummer's eagerness to experience new epiphanies yielded unforgettable memories. In Big Sur, he recalls, 'we took mushrooms at midnight, then visited a natural hot spring built into the dramatic cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The stars were as vivid as frozen fireworks.' All of which is worth dwelling on, because without that background of mutual openness and empathy, it's hard to imagine The Marble Downs existing.
Neilson recalls a conversation about a 'collaboration' in the summer of 2010, though stresses that it 'was nothing too formal at first'. By the end of that year, a limited-edition seven-inch New Year's Eve Is The Loneliest Night of the Year showed what an inspired match the vocals of Trembling Bells singer Lavinia Blackwall and Will Oldham made. The cut-glass precision of the classically-trained student of medieval music and the worldly, careworn tones of Oldham created an unlikely chemistry. It must have seemed that way to Neilson too. He set about assembling a cache of songs with the purpose of further harnessing that chemistry. The result is an album that has, once again, redrafted the boundaries of what Trembling Bells can achieve together. Indeed, genre-lines aren't terribly helpful this time around. Yes, Trembling Bells' love affair with traditional music remains a constant — most emphatically so on the unaccompanied Blackwall/Oldham two-hander, My Husband's Got No Courage In Him. Then there is Blackwall's musical setting of Dorothy Parker's poem Excursion Into Assonance — and the thorough-going new-found classicism of Neilson's increasingly assured songwriting. Albeit delivered with Trembling Bells' rain-lashed sense of abandon, Love Is A Velvet Noose sounds like a standard of sorts — a warped consequence of Neilson's increasing fascination with the songbooks of Cole Porter and Hoagy Carmichael. 'I'm not saying I stand any chance of emulating them,' he adds, 'but the appreciation is definitely there.'
The knowledge that Oldham and Blackwall would be sharing centre-stage on The Marble Downs gave Neilson extra impetus to flex his songwriting muscles. I Can Tell You're Leaving finds both vocalists on irresistible form, dissecting their dying relationship with no heed to the other's feelings. 'You treat me like a child,' sings Oldham. 'I need a man,' she responds, barely catching breath. 'Now like Merle Haggard, you'll see the fighting side of me,' he later promises. 'I guess that's one of the lighter moments on the album,' ponders Neilson, 'I was trying to get a Planet Waves-era Bob Dylan feel there, with the piano and walking bassline.'
Here and elsewhere, the band — Blackwall, Neilson, bassist Simon Shaw and guitarist Mike Hastings — has never sounded more psychically attuned to one-other. On the slow-reveal sonic establishing shot of I Made A Date (With An Open Vein), two minutes of manic modal chaos elapses before Oldham takes the narrative reins of a majestic call-and-response folk-rock epic. The electrifying free-folk portent of Riding — a revival of the Palace Brothers classic — is no less compelling, calling to mind the words of broadcaster Stuart Maconie when he praised Trembling Bells for their ability to invoke simultaneously 'the charm of folk music and the power of rock.' Ditto Ain't Nothing Wrong With A Little Longing, in which Neilson slams down a four-to-the-floor beat over a synergy of demonic krautrock keys and a dialogue between Oldham and Blackwall that scales Nancy & Lee levels of romantic intrigue.
With nine songs gone and one remaining, the album's sonic undulations find an arresting denouement in the form of an inspired cover. Adapted from Robin Gibb's 1970 solo masterpiece Robin's Reign, Lord Bless All sees Trembling Bells tease out the hymnal qualities of Gibb's original with a slow volcanic upswell which — on four minutes — explodes into heavy psychedelic technicolour. What pleases Alex Neilson when he listens back is 'a sense of a common vocabulary and identity being forged.' If, by that, he means that there isn't another band on the planet that quite sounds like Trembling Bells, it would be hard to disagree. The evidence is right here.
'I didn't know anything about Trembling Bells. I just heard them and was knocked out. I instantly became a fan.' Paul Weller
'Trembling Bells are my kind of band.' Joe Boyd
"Jesus fucking shit! These jamz claw so hard at the tatties below methinks the Lord misnamed them, having intended to say Trembling BALLS." Will Oldham
'A poetic incantation of British identity far brighter than Michael Gove's GCSE syllabus.' Stewart Lee
'This time, I'm attempting to reclaim the art of songwriting from the charity shop bargain bin.' Alex Neilson
Third LP of Cabaret Contemporain, French band (featuring Fabrizio Rat on keys) who use acoustic instruments (piano, guitar, bass, drums, contrabass) to produce a « hand-crafted » club music infused with techno. Inspired by Jeff Mills, Robert Hood or Drexciya, the five members already had a career on classical scene; their idea is not to replay classical techno tunes but to create a new path for the electronic music. 2 tracks featuring with the label boss, Arnaud Rebotini.
« Ballaro », which opens Cabaret Contemporain's third album, begins with light percussions, which seem to turn on themselves, while being conveyed by reverberations close to dub. After a few minutes of convolutions, the piece gets out of hand, transporting the listener into a rich form of pulsating trance, irrigated by a soaring melody and punctuated by persistent piano tones. « La selva »; more subdued, has the same energy, the track ending in an even more powerful way, a kind of paroxysm.
Finally, the strangest and most minimal « Cactus », features a singular groove, which evokes the most brutal house from Chicago, or the sometimes obsessive techno from Detroit. Just like other tracks such as « Transistor » or « TGV », fuelled by sweat and trance, Séquence Collective bears all the intensity of a techno cut for clubs' dancefloors. The only difference being that their music is not played with synths, drum machines or software, but with acoustic instruments. Dual curriculum The band is composed of five musicians and a sound engineer: Fabrizio Rat on piano, Giani Caserotto on guitar, Julien Loutelier on drums, Ronan Courty and Simon Drappier on double bass and of course Pierre Favrez on console. They are all in their thirties and met at the prestigious Paris Conservatoire in the late 2000s. However, all the musicians in the band have a double curriculum and navigate freely between the institutional realm and the underground or pop music scenes. Through classical or contemporary music, jazz and improvisation, rock and experimentation, they share a common passion for the original and futuristic techno of the 1990s, that of Jeff Mills, Robert Hood or Drexciya, which they have decided to reinvent and further in their own way. Not as a simple stylistic exercise practiced by virtuoso musicians, but rather as a new path for modern music, and for their generation. « The original idea » they say, « was to make club music by hand, like craftsmen. Like in the early days of jazz, our band managed to transform itself into a kind of dancing machine. Our music is therefore functional because it is danceable, but also mental and abstract, while offering several layers of listening. You can dance and play, have a purely physical and sensory connection to the music. But you can also immerse yourself in its listening, perceive refined harmonies or more complex rhythmic superpositions »
If the tones of Cabaret Contemporain are truly unique it is because each member of the band has developed a very personal approach through the use ''prepared'' instruments. The strings of their piano, guitar or double bass may recall strange machines with literally incredible sounds, obtained using objects such as chopsticks, clothes pegs, foil, hangers, a tiny pie mould or many other utensils from a DIY store. A collective energy
Cabaret Contemporain is first and foremost a live band that has been performing in venues and festivals since its inception in 2012 (Nuits Sonores, Siestes Electroniques, L'Aéronef, Le Trabendo, Philharmonie de Paris, Gaîté Lyrique, Rewire, Dancity, Barcelona Accio Musical...), both at traditional jazz and contemporary music venues, and more often at electro music hubs. When facing the audience, the band, which plays each of its sets in one go, without a break, shows an intense physical presence, which competes with the musical power of DJs who share the stage with them. Their performance, full of tension and repetition, which requires maximum concentration and a state close to trance from the musicians, is sometimes, according to them, « a mental journey and a mystic experience ». A dimension that brings to mind the historical techno culture and its dancers who, communicating on the dancefloor, were carried until the early hours of the morning by the power of the beat. An album inspired by the stage Since their beginnings, their compositions on record have drawn their energy directly from the practice of their concerts, whether referring to Terry Riley (2014) or Moondog (2015), an EP and an album dedicated to the repertoire of the two American artists, the original compositions of Cabaret Contemporain (2016) and Satellite EP (2017), as well as this new album. Séquence collective can be listened to as a condensed transcription of their inventions and their live experiments. The tracks, more than half of which were improvised during sessions held in the former Vogue studios near Paris, were recorded in live conditions, « like an old school rock band » they say. As usual, they invited a new musician to join them in the studio. After collaborating with Étienne Jaumet or Château-Flight, Arnaud Rebotini, César winner for best film music, added a welcome synth touch on two tracks (Pro- One, Prophet 600), which boosted the group's formidable collective energy. The album ends with « October Glide », again performed with Rebotini, a lyrical and lively track, built on a powerful and slow progression of timbres and percussions, which would ideally find its place at the core of a techno party « peak time »
First Word Records are thrilled to announce a brand new addition to the label - LA beatmaker and producer 14KT.
Known for his deft, soulful hip hop production, KT has broadened his palate for his FW debut to create 'For My Sanity', the first offering from his jazz-influenced project IAMABEENIE.
The album will be released in early 2019, but we couldn't wait that long to share this taster of what 14KT created as a form of escaping from his "normal" ways of making music. Case in point: the first single taken from the project - 'The Power of Same' feat. Muhsinah.
Strongly rooted in KT's spiritual practice, 'The Power of Same' is a bass and synth-heavy ode to consistency and unconditional love, laced nicely together by his signature drum lines, harmonious guitar riffs (played on the track by Stro Elliot) and the unmistakable sound of James Poyser (The Roots). Vocal powerhouse Muhsinah adds layers of emotion via her endearing delivery of the core message, and, deep in the background you can hear KT sharing a very personal routine with us all - giving thanks to God.
How much of a personal project this is, in 14KT's words "This was inspired by a bible study plan I was reading called The Power of Same. It spoke about the power of being consistent in our lives. I thought about how consistently God's love and my family's love have gotten me through my journey of life. Once I made a "skeleton" of the song, I reached out to the brother James Poyser who I was extremely blessed to work with. My brother Stro Elliot was living right down the street from me at the time. One night he walked over to my house, I played the record for him, he picked up my electric guitar and played the first thing that came to mind - which was perfect. I played the record for my brother Tall Black Guy, who suggested I reach out to Muhsinah to add vocals. I sent the record to her and two days later she sent me exactly what you hear. Amazing. That was definitely the spirit of God working. Huge shout out to my Playlist family. Love y'all."
To date, 14KT has released seven solo albums, as well as his collaborative hip hop album, 'Takin' Ls' with emcee Ozay Moore, R&B/soul album, 'Saturn Return' with singer/songwriter AB, and 'The Big Knock', together with Mayer Hawthorne as Jaded Incorporated.
Last year saw another duo collaboration album with Michigan rapper Ro Spit, entitled 'RSXGLD', a project held in high regard by the global hip hop community.14KT is also part of Jazzy Jeff's Playlist Retreat, alongside our very own Eric Lau, Tall Black Guy and Kaidi Tatham, who also turns out an unmistakably dope remix on this 7" single.
A very warm welcome to the family, KT!
'The Power Of Same' is available on 7" and all digital platforms on March 1st 2019.
Heavy-weather, beyond-good-and-evil soundsystem poetics, channelling raw and rootical techno, Isolationist abstraction, and dub at its most turbulent and raw-nerved and space-time-warping. New worlds ahead... Equal parts tuff, tail-thrashing dancehall pressure - see 'Hell Dub' - and art-of-darkness ambience and introspection, culminating in the slow-burning, third-eye-opening 23-minute dreamweapon, 'Vertigo'. Part of the Young Echo crew, Ossia embodies the best tradition of Bristol underground music in that he doesn't pay much mind to tradition, just does his own thing. Yes, Devil's Dance shares DNA with those sullen masterpieces we will always associate with the city, from blunted 90s street-soul/hip-hop to sub-loaded dubstep - but like his forebears Ossia is ultimately a mongrel breed, drawing from his own, very contemporary and idiosyncratic well of influences: grime, jazz, steppers, dub, post-punk and industrial abrasion, concrète minimalism... Devil's Dance could easily be not just a forbidding, but a suffocating proposition. But even at its most angst-ridden it feels lithe and aerodynamic, its darker impulses both intensified, and offset, by a pure soundboy's delight in detail and colour and higher dancefloor mechanics. The music pulses with energy, a fever to communicate...and Raki Singh (violin), Jasmine (vocals) and Ollie Moore (saxophone) add vivid flesh-tone to the punishing, plasmic electronics. The record was mixed at an infamous, subterranean Bristolian recording studio, using an arsenal of spring and plate reverbs, modded pedals, tape-delays and compressors: systems of black magic crucial to the album's intense presence and physicality and carefully modulated dread. In the end what we are witnessing, and experiencing vicariously, is a purging, an exorcism: find the devil, dance with the devil... and then chase, chase, chase him out of the earth
Jason Leder, otherwise known as Method One has been a mainstay of the American Drum & Bass scene for a very long time. Originally hailing from the east coast his earliest claim to fame was remixing DEEE-LITE - "Call Me" in 1994 for Elektra records after Lady Miss Kier heard his cassette demo. Eventually he headed out west to San Francisco where he has remained for over 20 years.
The Stomping Grounds EP is Jason's tribute to the music that originally inspired him. Two harder tracks that echo Tango & Ratty era Formation Records and two deep & melodic atmospheric tracks that nod towards golden era Good Looking. A Method One release is a rare treat and is his first solo release since 2015's "Blackwood" EP on Auxiliary Transmissions.
Check other releases from Method One on - Doc Scott's 31 Records, Seba's Secret Operations, Samurai, Auxiliary and Commercial Suicide amongst others.
Mutima is the debut album led by bassist Cecil McBee recorded in 1974 and first released on the Strata-East label. In his review for Michael G. Nastos called it "A landmark recording in early creative improvised modern music" and states "McBee as a pure musician has staggering technique, rich harmonic ideas, and an indefatigable swing, but it is as a composer that he is set apart from other musicians of this mid-'70s era... Mutima (translated as "unseen forces") undoubtedly solidified his stature and brilliance as a major player". Dustygroove now calls it: 'A great bit of spiritual soul jazz - and one of the few albums as a leader recorded by the legendary bassist Cecil McBee! Cecil's joined here by a large group of players that includes Billy Hart on drums, George Adams on tenor, Onaje Allen Gumbs on piano, Jimmy Hopps on percussion, Art Webb on flute and Dee Dee Bridgewater on vocals - adding in just a touch of soulful color to the record as she did on a few other 70s sides like this.' Plus: 'The music's got that essential Strata East sound, with a rich and spiritual vibe on all tracks, and slight bits of funk hiding somewhere in the mix! Tracks are long and freely expressive - but never too outside, either.' A long lost classic we call it. And this latest reissue is the best vinyl version ever since it first appeared almost 45 years ago!
For The Best Part Of Two Decades Now, South London Afro-dub Dons Soothsayers Have Been Preaching Their Politically Charged Good Vibrations To A Growing And Loyal Fan Base. Their Live Shows Are Legendary And Vary From Off-the-cuff Community Friendly Gigs In Brixton, To Festival Headline Slots And Tours Across Europe And Beyond. Having Recently Filled London's Jazz Caf To Much Acclaim, And In Anticipation Of Their New Album, Tradition, Out On Wah Wah 45s In June, Soothsayers Unleash The Second Single To Be Taken From It. It's A Double Header Of Sorts That Shows The Band's Knack Of Reinterpreting A Cover Version Or Two For The Dance Floor.
Sleepwalking Is A Take On Fela Kuti's 1971 Classic Black Man's Cry. It's A Chant Of Frustration Aimed At Disenfranchisement From The Process And Features Afrobeat Ambassador Dele Sosimi On Guest Vocal Duties.
It Questions If We Are Sleepwalking Into The Abyss, And Is A Revolutionary Song About Taking Power Back Into Our Own Hands! Although It's Challenging To Do Justice To A Bob Marley Cover, On Natural Mystic Soothsayers Cradle The Spirit Of The Originator And Turn It Upside Down, Transforming The Familiar Into A Journey Back To Africa Via Their Trademark Groove.
Spiritual Jazz Flutes And Percussion Combine With The Floating Vocals Of The Mighty Cornel Campbell, While The Song's Main Melody Is Emphatically Reproduced By Soothsayers Horn Section To Stunning Effect.
- A1: After Trouble (Cuts By Hulk Hodn)
- A2: Alte Schachteln (Skit)
- A3: Bucks O'plenty
- A4: Loddery
- A5: 10 Kracher Für Ein Beatset (Skit)
- A6: One From The Tap (Feat. C.tappin)
- A7: Revale
- A8: Krötenwanderung
- A9: Runnin Out
- A10: Bad News
- B1: Poorsessions
- B2: White Vs. Black Vs. Blue Love
- B3: O.g
- B4: Viech (Skit)
- B5: Galaxy Girl
- B6: Nocheinerfürdenregen
- B7: Something Smells French
- B8: Duess 2 Pay
- B9: Dispo Ii Dispo
Bei Flatpocket Dreht Sich Alles Um Die Scheine Oder - Um Es Genau Zu Nehmen - Um Das Nicht Vorhanden Sein. Das Erste Album Von Flatpocket Hieß "geldfundphantasyen" Und Erschien Im Jahr 2012. Sechs Jahre Später Sind Twit One Und Lazy Jones - Die Beat-genies Hinter Dem Projekt - Immer Noch Pleite Genug, Um Ein Ganzes Album Darüber Zu Machen: "dispo Ii Dispo". Obwohl Flatpocket Durch Samples Und Dialoge Die Ganze Zeit Über Geld Spricht, Ist Der Subtext Eigentlich Die Ablehnung Des Materialismus Aus Einer Künstlerrischen Perspektive. Klanglich Ist Es Ein Halbes Beat-tape, Ein Halbes Hörspiel Und Ständig Dope. Inklusive Features Von Hulk Hodn, C.tappin Und Bob Marley.
- A1: Black Bells Group - Sweet Sidney
- A2: Charly Kingson - Nanga 'Boko
- A3: Gyedu Blay Ambolley - Highlife
- A4: Dikalo - Fine Biscuits
- A5: Mekongo President - Angona Mana
- B1: Fotso - French Girl
- B2: Tala Am - Sugar Lump
- B3: Jk Mandengue - Chibidaba, Chibidaba
- B4: Jide Obe - Too Young
- B5: Mulamba - Dashiki (Version Instrumentale)
It's that time again. The skies are calling and its time to board our trusty jet for the 5th outing of Africa Seven's premiere class compilation Africa Airways. For volume 5 its time to brace yourselves for 10 slices of Afro boogie goodness.
We up the boogie time groove with The Black Bells Group (the first band of lead singer Sidney 'Patrick Duteil' who went on to become the godfather of French hip-hop and a well know TV presenter. Here the groove is swinging... the perfect opener. Next up is German-based Cameroonian musician and cousin of Manu Dibango, Charly Kingson with this bass-synth boogie stomper. Big brass and jazzy trumpets add layers of sparkle too.
Next its time for some highlife inspired boogie from Ghanian Gyedu Blay Amboley. Highlife fused with reggae, disco, boogie and jazz just as the lyrics say.
Next we pair up with Africa Seven friend Eko once more under his Dikalo guise. The Cameroonian master musician is on fine form with his heavy brass and deep percussion with a driving afro boogie groove. To round off Side A its off to Cameroon again to groove with Jean 'Mekongo President'. Think Bernard 'Chic' Edwards on the bass with some African style and you can see it's the bottom end groove and afrobeat drums that power this gem along.
We open the second side slowly and purposefully with the highly sought after 'French Girl' from Fotso. Drippy bass synth grooves and a wondrous percussion and drum shuffle pair with piano riffs to make this a unique sounding track. Our friend Tala AM is next with the foot-stomping 'Sugar Lump'. JK Mandengue is next with most definitely the catchiest chorus you will hear today. Nigerian Jide Obe gets synth and clavinet rich with his doe to sensible dating advice 'Too Young'. We close off the album with a track from label good friend Jo Bisso under his Mulamba guise. Sounding like a long lost TV theme from a late night TV show circa 1977. Let's get down and boogie with the brand new dance in town folks... the Dashiki.
Until Volume Six takes flight it is time to unbuckle those seat belts folks.
James Place returns with his new LP "Still Waves To A Whisper" (the fourth release on Umor Rex). Flitting between the dreamworld of hauntological synth music and hypnotic techno functionality, Still Waves To Whisper showcases James Place's continuing development of dramatic (and varied) sound worlds.
Musically, Still Waves To A Whisper contains both some of the most immediately danceable and straight up beautiful tracks of James Place's career. Utilising voice samples from the same source as his last album, Voices Bloom, opener 'Known Cry' is a heavenly coda of sunlight bursting through clouds, warm synths drifting across restrained pulses. 'Timing and Lighting' went through countless live iterations before the current version was tracked for this album, a tunneling exploration of rhythm with a dose of sardonic humor. 'Move In Blue (Homeward Mix)' is James Places' rework of a track from 2017's Voices Bloom, obsessively remixed and revisited, here littered with additional melodies and populated by newly sampled voices. Closing track 'Names' is perhaps the most outright beautiful James Place recording to date. A stripped back rework of a live version of Living On Superstition's 'Another Mourning In America', the tune is based on a melodic line written after the studio recorded version. Interwoven with a sampled vocal, and rinsed of all of the original song, 'Names' is left behind a stark and compelling descendant. The digital release includes a remix of 'Move In Blue' by Persuasion aka Devon Hansen.
The title, Still Waves To A Whisper, stems from a conversation between Place and another artist on methods to ease anxieties and the benefits of a focused practice. The hope's for this music to continue that conversation on a larger scale.
All songs written, produced and recorded by Phil Tortoroli between 2015 — 2018 in Brooklyn, NY. Vocals by Sam Sally and an unknown guest.
Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studio, NY. Photos & Design by Daniel Castrejón.
Visions Recordings is happy to welcome the Italian trio Jaxx Madicine for a single with two jazz/house influenced tracks aimed for the dancefloor with enough music and fat beats to make you wanna fly and dance .Their specific mix of vintage and modern sounds keep the bouncy feeling that deejays love to play in their sets . Round bass, Fender Rhodes , piano and warm keys are the ingredients to this delicious meal we invite you to share with us.
The name Jaxx Madicine suggests a wide range of influences - 'Jaxx' obviously being a tilt of the hat to the original rhythms and basslines born out of Chicago house while the 'XX"s suggest a keen passion for jazz.These are the two main ingredients used by the projects founders Turbojazz and Parker Madicine, who are joined by the talented and mysterious Veez_0 - a young Italian piano player that you're bound to hear more from in the near future.Turbojazz plants his roots in the rhythms and futuristic sounds of the Broken Beat golden age while Parker Madicine leans more towards the sounds and timbres of Detroit's spacey atmospheres. These two musical worlds are married by Veez_o's incredible playing and harmonic backing. To get a proper idea of what this is about you should consider George Duke in his peak cosmic period jamming in a studio with 'High Tech Jazz"-era Underground Resistance before joining Pete Rock for dinner and then heading to a Roy Ayers concert. Absolutely delicious !
Smoke Vinly[16,77 €]
Released on CD by Aurora Borealis back in 2010, we're overjoyed to finally see this on vinyl.
- limited edition of 300 copies - 180g black vinyl - reverse board heavyweight sleeve - includes download code and printed insert - mastered for vinyl by James Plotkin - cut at The Carvery, London
An ode to the Lovecraftian lore of Shub Niggurath, 'Black Goat of the Woods' was conceived as "the soundtrack from some lost low budget horror movie, rediscovered on an old and faded VHS cassette found mouldering in a deserted house in the depths of the woods".
The one man project of J.R Moore, Black Mountain Transmitter has released several albums, all to great critical acclaim, and the quality of his work speaks volumes. The original AB 'Black Goat of The Woods' CD version was the first official release and a reissue of the long sold out and much sought after limited CDr.
On describing the recording, Moore said: "The music was certainly very much influenced by that certain breed of 70s horror films. Things like the soundtrack to the original "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", Giuliano Sorgini's atmospheres in "Living Dead At The Manchester Morgue"; Carl Zittrer's soundscapes in "Deranged", "Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things" and "Dead Of Night", and of course people like Fabio Frizzi in Italian horror and the BBCs Radiophonic Workshop's electronic sounds in something like "The Stone Tape" and countless creepy old TV productions..."
An excellent, macabre and psychedelic release that spans electronica, soundtracks and experimental genres in its 40 minute playing time, 'Black Goat of the Woods' pays perfect homage to the dark denizen of the nocturnal glades, and is a true paean to backwoods horror.
Originally starting out in the late 90s, Paris-based 8 piece, Cotonete originally gained fame for renditions of tracks from their contemporaries, the likes of: Deodato, Lalo Schiffrin and Banda Black Rio. Replicating the heavy grooves, sweaty jazz-funk with a nod to the Brazilian warmth and beach breeze. Before bowing out of the game thinking the fun was over….
Fast forward to more recent times, having had their flame reignited by Melik Bencheikh, head honcho of Paris vinyl emporium, Heartbeat Vinyl. He encouraged the band to get back together and over the last two years the band released four EPs of original material - including the collaboration with Dimitri from Paris - quickly becoming collectors items, and now gearing up for 2019 they are finally ready to present a full body of work, their album debut 'Super Vilains'.
- A1: Daisy Fields
- A2: Sruthi Dub Resonance
- A3: Barefoot
- A4: Pollinator (Eternal Opuscule #120)
- A5: Stamens (Eternal Opuscule #121)
- B1: Oregano In Dub Minor
- B2: Sunken Forest
- B3: Daisy Dub
- B4: Beat Resonance (Eternal Opuscule #118)
- B5: Gyration (Eternal Opuscule #119)
- C1: Time Zone Conversations
- C2: Deeping Breathely
- C3: Oregano In E-Minor
- C4: All That Spins (Eternal Opuscule #124)
- D1: Sruthi Box Resonance
- D2: Galaxea
- D3: Be As You Are
- D4: Be As You Will (Eternal Opuscule #126)
- E1: Sundog Suite
- E2: Pear Strings
- E3: Pair Of Seeds (Eternal Opuscule #122)
- F1: Spiral Activator
- F2: Final Oscillator (Eternal Opuscule #117)
- F3: Sundog Reprise (Eternal Opuscule #125)
It gives me the greatest honour to finally be able to announce the release of this amazing triple vinyl masterpiece by log(m) and Laraaji on Invisible, Inc.
It's been over a decade since Laraaji first joined forces with log(m) in their Canadian studio in early 2007. In those ten years the trio recorded many hours of music. Over time these recordings, beginning essentially as live jams, were polished, dissected, processed, re-arranged and then finely and painstakingly distilled down to the 105 minutes of music that now form this album, which finally reached completion just earlier this year. The wait has been more than worth it.
The Onrush Of Eternity is a melding of minds like no other. Ever the pioneer of experimental ambience, Laraaji's signature hammered dulcimer, zither, mbira, auto harp, sruthi drone box and of course his exceedingly positive vibes are here combined with log(m)'s unique vision of gronky hi-tech psychedelic space dub. The resultant voyage into deeply meditative ambience and trance-inducing dub is as unexpected an outcome as it is a bona fide "Eureka" moment. It sounds neither like log(m) OR Laraaji....but of course like both. It is one of those rare collaborations that is, without a doubt, even greater than the sum of its already great parts.
Log(m) started making waves in the early '90s as Legion Of Green Men with their visually striking 12"s, complete with eternal opuscules (locked grooves) and mathematically inspired titles, all lovingly issued on their own Post Contemporary imprint. These deservedly got the attention of Richie Hawtin who promptly asked the duo for an album on his own classic Plus 8 Records. 20+ years later and the music (much like their name) has morphed into something more sophisticated: even more complex, atmospheric and deeper than ever.
Laraaji's reputation of course precedes him: he first came to wider attention when Brian Eno released his "Day Of Radiance" as part 3 of his Ambient Series in 1980. Since then, Laraaji has released over 40 albums, yet his stellar path seems still to be on the ascendant - a recent landmark being the 2017 "Sun" series of albums for the wonderful All Saints' Records.
This unique triple LP in tri-fold sleeve is limited to 200 copies on coloured vinyl and 300 copies on black vinyl featuring ten of log(m)'s signature eternal opuscules and cryptic engravings on all three discs.
A welcome branching out into the reggae universe, Rocafort is proud to present The Circle of Confusion featuring the legendary sweet falsetto voice of Cornel Campbell. Lausanne Switzerland meets Kingston Jamaica in this heartfelt, stripped back, feel-good homage to the late 70s roots reggaestyle.
The Circle of Confusion are a Swiss production duo: Seb.K (Shakedown productions) and Phil'eas (Black Diamond Sound). Diehard reggae fans, they dared to contact their favourite Jamaican singer and got a result with Campbell delivering the lyrics on the spot, written on the day of Nelson Mandela' death. There's depth and feeling in this wonderfully lilting, plaintive song, typical of Campbell's social consciousness and beautiful soul. Hard to believe it was all strung together in a shiny, clean Swiss studio when the sound is so simply warm and Jamaican. Beautiful run on the keyboards by Jah Lou.
If you were moved by the Rhythm and Sound album of 2001, you will not be disappointed with this splendid roots collaboration. We can only hope there's more to come.
White Shadows In The South Seas is the title of a book written in 1919 by Frederick O'Brien as part of a trilogy he wrote based on his experiences living in the Pacific islands in the early part of the 20th century. His book was taken as the starting point for a film to be directed, initially, by Robert Flaherty (famous at the time for his groundbreaking documentary / fiction film Nanook Of The North) with W.S.Van Dyke as his support. The film, ultimately, apart from the title, had little to do with O'Brien's book and Flaherty left the film after a few months leaving Van Dyke to finish it.
I purchased O'Brien's book, along with many others, from Basement Books, a secondhand bookstore in Melbourne/Australia. Part of my 'Islomania' and on going fascination with all things Pacific. When I discovered there was a 1929 silent film based on the book I sought it out and started to present it as part of my 'Live Music/Silent films' repertoire. Tabu by Frederick Murnau, which coincidently also had Flaherty as co-director originally, was the first film I ever wrote / improvised a score for and presented as a live film/music performance. My repertoire extends to over 23 films now.
My eclectic and diverse musical and artistic interests extend into 'Hawaiian', 'Exotica', 'Ambient' and 'Electronic' Music. I have produced several volumes of so called 'Electronic, Ambient, Exotica' on CD and Vinyl, including Kiribati, Globe Notes, Rayon Hula ( on Vinyl, CD and digital format ) and most recently, New Globe Note on Vinyl and White Shadows In The South Seas on CD.
White Shadows In The South Seas features some of the music presented in my live screenings of the 1929 silent film.
The film is the story of Dr. Matthew Lloyd, an alcoholic doctor who is disgusted by the exploitation by white people of the natives on a Polynesian island. The natives dive for pearls, however, numerous accidents occur and one diver dies. In anger, Dr. Lloyd punches Sebastian, the employer. As revenge and to prevent further interruption of his activities, he tricks Dr. Lloyd onto a ship with a diseased crew (thinking they are ill) and his men rough him up and send the ship off into a storm. Dr. Lloyd survives and is washed ashore on an island where none of the natives have ever seen a white man before. Lloyd is rescued and ultimately falls in love with the chief's daughter, who is Taboo, hence Lloyd is prevented from pursuing his love for her. An incident occurs and a young boy is thought to have drowned but Lloyd is able to revive him, earning him points and permission with the chief's daughter. Lloyd begins to realise that the local islanders have no sense of the value of the black pearls which grow in abundance around their island and he starts to dive for them and collect them. One morning the white man Sebastian unexpectedly turns up on a scooner and starts to offer the islanders trade for their pearls. Llloyd tries to interrupt the encounter and is shot and dies. His wife and the islanders morn for his dead body and, symbolically, the passing of a way of life.
Mike Cooper plays - Electric and acoustic lap steel guitars / electronics / Zoom Sampletrack / Kaos Pad / Casio SK1 / Korg Drum Machine / Self Made Instruments.
It also features field recordings made on Pulau Ubin by Mike Cooper during a month as Artist In Residence for The Artist Village / Singapore.
I would like to acknowledge and thank Lawrence English (Room40 Records) for his assistance and encouragement with the original recordings and the CD version of White Shadows In The South Seas.
All music written and played by Mike Cooper PRS/MCPS - except Po Mahina (trad. Arr. Cooper) and Hilo Hanakahi (trad. Arr. Cooper)
Recorded and Mixed at the Steelworks in Rome 2012/2013.
A White Shadow In The South Seas
In February 2014 'A White Shadow In The South Seas' was the title of an audio-visual installation I made at the Teatro In Scatola in Rome, Italy, presented as part of a series of sound installations titled 'Visitazioni' produced by Proposte Sonore.
The essay below, as well as our collection of Hawaiian shirts, Exotica and Hawaiian vinyl records, was an inspiration for this installation.
'..the transformation and reconstitution of the souvenir commodity as an indigenous ethnic art form and a scarce relic of Hawai'i's romanticized past...' from - Clothing and Textile Reasearch Journal - From Kitsch to Chic by Marcia A. Morgado.
And....
Michael Thompson's Rubbish Theory (1979)
' ...a critical aspect of Western culture is the pre-disposition to see objects in terms of two overt categories: the transient and the durable. Objects identified as transient have finite life spans and lose value over time, whereas those identified as durable have infinite lives and over time increae in value....category assignments are arbitrary, but once assigned a category membership determines relative value. Fashion apparel-by defenition-is assigned to the transient category; paintings commonly are designated durables....how is it that transient objects.. ( e.g. Hawaiian shirts and vinyl records ) ..sometimes become durables.
Objects assigned to the rubbish category are largely invisible, have no value and, ideally, no life span. Fashion for example, no longer worn and relegated to the back of the wardrobe has fallen into the covert rubbish category. But rubbish can be rescued and transformed. Thompson says ' What I believe happens is a transient object gradually declining in value and in expected life span may slide across into rubbish. Here it exists in a timeless and valueless limbo where it has a chance to be re-discovered and be successfully transformed to a durable. Such transferes are radical: objects gradually slide from transcience to rubbish, but the transformation from rubbish to durable involves an all-or-nothing leap across two boundaries, that separating the worthless from the valuable and that between the covert and the overt. Things drift into obscurity but they leap into prominence.
The delightful consequence of this hypothesis is that in order to study the social control of value we must study rubbish.
The rubbish-to-durable transformation is accompanied by the development of highly specialized knowledge derived from the discovery of subtle variations and complex details that went unnoticed in the objects transient stage. The discoveries initiate renewed interest in the object and its market value begins to climb. As prices soar beyond the reach of ordinary people, the object becomes available only in high priced collectors' markets. Furthermore, as market values rise, the aesthetic value of the object undergoes a reassessment as well, and it becomes increasingly apparent that the objects intrinsic beauty has been overlooked. Ultimately the object is re -assigned as a durable and becomes recognized as a timeless classic.
Exotica, Ambience and Pacificism - A dialogue with Mike Cooper & Professor Philip Hayward Deputy Pro Vice Chancellor of Research Southern Cross University, Lismore, Australia.
- A1: Ohne Titel
- A2: Ländliches Kouzert
- A3: Vier Brüder Auf Der Bank
- A4: Blaue Dominante, Öl Auf Kupfer
- A5: Susanna Im Bade
- A6: Marktfrau Mit Gemüse
- B1: Halbakt Im Gegenlicht
- B2: Aargauische Kleinlandschaft
- B3: Van Der Rande, Massstäblich
- B4: Goffersberg Mit Traktor
- B5: Selbstbildnis Mit Frau Und Söhnen
- B6: Ohne Titel
Black Truffle is excited to announce the release of the first-ever vinyl reissue of Ruedi Häusermann's Galerie Randolph, a masterpiece of solo multi-tracking originally released on CD by Unit Records in 1995. Born in 1948 and residing in the medieval Swiss town of Lenzburg, and virtually unknown outside of the German-speaking world, Häusermann is a multi-instrumentalist and enormously prolific composer who works primarily in the medium of absurdist music-theatre. A virtuoso wind player and free improviser who also composes for traditional classical instrumentation, his work is characterised by subtly surreal humour and the unlikely combination of extended technique and simple, at times almost child-like, melodic ideas. Named after his rehearsal room in Lenzburg, Galerie Randolph uses an enormous array of instruments to craft a work of singular compositional vision. Each of the twelve pieces begins from the same two elements: a woozy, sliding scatter of tones played on a home-made contraption stretching two guitar strings between the top of Häusermann's alto saxophone and an amplified cup, and a series of uneasy block chords sounded on accordion and reeds. On each piece these two elements (whose pitch gradually raises throughout the record) are complemented by entirely different material, all of it played by Häusermann. Ranging from layered flutes to one-finger piano melodies to unintelligible vocals to musique concrete interjections to free jazz saxophone explosions, these additional layers combine with the endlessly returning idée fixe of the foundational elements to create a truly dream-like listening experience, a gently deranged realm in which we lose all sense of linear time. Calling up the most unlikely combinations of possible predecessors - Erik Satie, Gerry Mulligan, and Helmut Lachenmann perhaps -Galerie Randolph ultimately defies comparison. Almost unknown except to a select group of cognoscenti such as Jim O'Rourke, yet destined to become a cult classic, Galerie Randolph is an instance of that most rare thing: music the likes of which you have never heard before.
Presented in a deluxe gatefold sleeve with gorgeous archival images by the composer. Design by Stephen O'Malley. Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M, Berlin
Key selling points: - Black Truffle is excited to announce the release of the first-ever vinyl reissue of Ruedi Häusermann's Galerie Randolph, a masterpiece of solo multi-tracking originally released in 1995, the album utilises an enormous array of instruments to craft a work of singular compositional vision.
- Calling up the most unlikely combinations of possible predecessors - Erik Satie, Gerry Mulligan, and Helmut Lachenmann perhaps -Galerie Randolph ultimately defies comparison.
- Each of the twelve pieces begins from the same two elements: a woozy, sliding scatter of tones and a series of uneasy block chords sounded on accordion and reeds. On each piece these two elements are complemented by entirely different material, ranging from layered flutes to one-finger piano melodies to unintelligible vocals to musique concrete interjections to free jazz saxophone explosions, these additional layers combine with the endlessly returning idée fixe of the foundational elements to create a truly dream-like listening experience, a gently deranged realm in which we lose all sense of linear time.
- Almost unknown except to a select group of cognoscenti such as Jim O'Rourke, yet destined to become a cult classic, Galerie Randolph is an instance of that most rare thing: music the likes of which you have never heard before.
- Galerie Randolph is presented in a deluxe gatefold sleeve with gorgeous archival images by the composer with design by Stephen O'Malley. Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M, Berlin
- A1: The Time Is Now For Change- Recorded April 27, 1974
- A2: Time Is Running Out- Recorded November 11, 1973
- B1: Of Times Gone By - Recorded April 27, 1974
- B2: Black Destiny - Recorded April 27, 1974
- B3: 13Th And Senate - Recorded April 27, 1974
- B4: He The One We All Knew Pt. 1 - Recorded April 28, 1974
Phil Ranelin's first record as a leader is worlds away from his later 1976 offering, Vibes From the Tribe. The Time Is Now is a vanguard jazz record, full of the spirit, determination, and innovation inspired by John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, Cecil Taylor, Pharoah Sanders, and Archie Shepp. Recorded in 1973 and 1974 and released at the end of 1974, the set shows Ranelin to be an imposing composer and frightfully good trombonist. The original album contained six compositions that are a deep musical brew of avant-garde improvisation, hard bop jazz esthetics, and soulful melodic ideas that were superimposed as a jump off point for both harmonic and rhythmic (read: Latin) invention. The stamp of Detroit is all over this thing. Tracks like the title and "Black Destiny" reflect the anger and vision of the era, while moving it all in a positive musical direction. Soloists on the set include the rest of the Tribe collective -- Marcus Belgrave and Wendell Harrison -- as well as local players who deserved far more than they received in terms of national recognitions: bassist Reggie "Shoo-Be Doo" Fields, trumpeter Charles Moore, pianist Keith Vreeland, drummer Bill Turner, and others including Ranelin himself. The arrangements on The Time Is Now were ahead of their time, clustering a rhythm section as part of the horn's front line ("13th and Senate" and the title track) and a stylistic angularity that reflected both musical history and futurism in jazz and R&B ("Time Is Running Out" and "Times Gone By"). The Time Is Now is a must for any vanguard jazz aficionado or anyone interested in the strange, rhythm-oriented evolution of Detroit music. Thom Jurek/AMG
The story of Seattle's rise to global rock supremacy in the late 80s and early 90s begins with Green River. Made up of Jeff Ament (bass), Mark Arm (guitar/vocals), Bruce Fairweather (guitar), Stone Gossard (guitar) and Alex Shumway (drums), the
quintet put out three 12's and a 7' single during its brief existence.
Green River's influence on Seattle's music scene spread far and wide thanks to the members' dispersion into bands including Pearl Jam, Mudhoney and Love Battery, as well as the punk glam sludge rock songs they left behind. 'By '83, '84, there was
definitely a movement that was happening within hardcore, like Black Flag slowing down for My War,' says Arm. 'The Replacements and Butthole Surfers were rearing
their heads, and they're very different bands, but they're not hardcore - the Replacements are pretty much straight-up rock, and Butthole Surfers were God knows what. Sonic Youth's Bad Moon Rising was around, and a lot of really
interesting post-hardcore things were happening.'
Green River, formed in 1984, were part of that evolution, with a sound that straddled a lot of different genres - blues, punk, bloozy straight-ahead rock. The mini-LP 'Dry As A Bone' - which came out in 1987 - and the band's lone full-length
'Rehab Doll' - which came out in 1988 - were released as a single CD with a few bonus cuts, including their sneering cover of David Bowie's 'Queen Bitch' and their marauding version of Dead Boys' 'Ain't Nothin' to Do', in 1990 - but they've been
unavailable on vinyl for years.
Now, these slices of Seattle music history are not only back in print, they're accompanied by items from the vaults that had been forgotten about for decades.
'Dry As A Bone' was recorded at Jack Endino's Reciprocal Recording in 1986 and it shows the band in furious form, with Arm's yowl battling Fairweather and Gossard's
ferocious guitar playing on 'This Town' and 'Unwind' opening as a slow bluesy grind then jump-starting itself into a hyperactive chase. The deluxe edition includes Green
River's cuts from the crucial Seattle-scene compilation 'Deep Six', as well as long-lost songs that were recorded to the now-archaic format Betamax.
'Rehab Doll', recorded largely at Seattle's Steve Lawson Studios., bridges the gap between the taut, punky energy of 'Dry As A Bone' and the bigger drums and thicker
riffs that were coming to dominate rock in the late 80s. This new edition of 'Rehab Doll' includes a version of 'Swallow My Pride' recorded to 8-track at Endino's Reciprocal Recording, which features a more accurate depiction of how the band
sounded when they played live. 'When I listen to these mixes, I think, 'This is how we actually sounded - this is the kind of energy we had,'' says Shumway.
Green River's place in American music history is without question but these recordings paint a more complete picture of the band - and of rock in the mid to late 80s, when punk's faster-and-louder ideals had begun shape-shifting into other ideas.
CDs in digipack with 12-page booklet. 2LP formats in gatefold jacket with custom dust sleeve and digital download code.
"It's been nearly five decades since Joe McPhee assembled a group of musicians to perform the weekend concerts that would become Nation Time, his debut LP. It was December 1970, thirty-one-year-old McPhee was inspired by Amiri Baraka's poem 'It's Nation Time,' and the students at Vassar College didn't know what hit them. 'What time is it?' shouted the bandleader. 'C'mon, you can do better than that. What time is it?!'
"The music on Nation Time came out of the fertile, but little-known creative jazz scene in Poughkeepsie, New York, McPhee's home base. Two bands were deployed, one with a funky free foundation featuring guitar and organ, the other consisting of a more standard jazz formation with two drummers and the brilliant Mike Kull at the piano. Across the concert and the next afternoon's audience-less recording session, the band was ignited by McPhee's passion and his gorgeous post-Coltrane / post-Pharoah tenor. On 'Shakey Jake,' they hit a James Brown groove filtered through Archie Shepp, while the sidelong title track is as searching and poignant today as it was during its heyday.
"Originally released in 1971 on CjR, an imprint started expressly to document McPhee's music, Nation Time has a sense of urgency and inspiration. Additional material from those December days would later appear on Black Magic Man, Hat Hut's first release. In fact, the first four records on this seminal Swiss label all featured McPhee.
"Nation Time was largely unknown a quarter century or so later, when it was first issued on CD through Atavistic's Unheard Music Series. On Corbett vs. Dempsey, we reissued the album along with all known tapes leading up to and around it as a deluxe box set, but the standalone LP has long remained incredibly rare. Now is the time for a new generation of freaks to lose their shit when settling into the cushy beat of 'Shakey Jake' and answer McPhee's call with the only appropriate response: It's NATION TIME."
– John Corbett
Malfunctioning speakers, & digital dreamscapes, SQUIRRELS ON FILM's 4th release explores the outer reaches of techno with impolite, reckless abandon.
Psychedelic sound explorer Its Own infinite Flower, who was
responsible, along with head squirrels Solar & C.l.a.w.s., for San
Francisco underground punk rave/happening Hostile Ambient
Takeover, unleashes his first official release, The Plumes of Love (ARE BLACK!). After contributing a track to 2017's Spacetime Continuum/ Juju & Jordash curated Air Texture V compilation, this four track EP of abstract tech-noise brings the sounds Its Own Infinite Flower refined in the basements & warehouses of the Bay Area's underground music scene to the wider world, whether it's ready or not.
'Drone, Drugs 'n' Dissonance' creeps into life as a thunderstorm of
white noise, out of which a cold-rave pulse somehow metastasizes into something resembling techno, although this is a deformed, uncivilized, unwanted mutation, separated at birth & raised in a toxic wilderness. It builds slowly before turning up in a rage of digital distortion, a black metal dub party held at the edge of a melting glacier. 'Oh, Empire of Roses' is a Dada Phycho Jazz Electro number. Dissonant synth chords snake around each other in a playful ouroboros of manic future funk, never knowing if it's starting or stopping, coming or going. Relentless bass throbs through the track, which almost threatens to bubble into classic acid electro before fizzling out. On side two there is 'Devotion to a Peacock Angel,' an angular breakdance groove for the characters in the bar scene in Star Wars. Electro dub rhythms keep stay grounded as everything else rips apart in all directions over the course of the track. On 'Misfortunes of El Dorado' a soundsystem bangs in the next room, only the deepest bass escaping, shaking reality until it's torn apart in waves of distortion, a classic techno synth string wandering over the top of everything in a full blown Techno Jazz Odyssey.
SQUIRRELS ON FILM continues its adventure at the edges of techno
with the mind bending stylings of Its Own Infinite Flower's debut EP,
fitted with another beautiful hand-drawn, full color sleeve by New York artist Bert Bergen. The Plumes of Love (ARE BLACK!).
Limited Lenticular 10y Anniversary Edition w/ heavyweight vinyl, printed inner sleeve + digital companion album of unreleased demoes and outtakes from the album
Late of the Pier announce a special 10th anniversary edition of their cult debut album Fantasy Black Channel, produced by Erol Alkan and released in 2008 to great acclaim. Fittingly, the reissue - released on a limited lenticular sleeve, pressed on to heavyweight vinyl and accompanied by a digital companion album of unreleased demoes and outtakes from the album recording sessions. It's set for release through Alkan's Phantasy Sound label, landing in stores on January 18th, 2019.
LOTP (Sam Eastgate, Andrew Faley, Ross Dawson and Sam Potter) were a band of inter-dimensional musicians who landed in the late noughts, whose wild journey took them from the quiet North West Leicestershire countryside to the stages of Coachella, Tokyo and beyond, touring with the likes of Soulwax and Justice. Their music was a mutant take on pop that described the chaos of being a teenager by looking forwards and backwards over and over again until the present moment started to make sense. Following the release of Fantasy Black Channel they put out singles 'Blueberry' and 'Best In The Class' in 2010, picking up fans from Mike Skinner to Dave Grohl along the way. Talking in a 2014 interview, Grohl exclaimed, 'They blew my fucking mind. They're called Late of the Pier. They made one record and disappeared. They use crazy computers and then they rock and it sounds like dubstep for one minute, then it's a crazy prog thing, and it's like, 'Wow'.'
Jac Berrocal, David Fenech and Vincent Epplay return with Ice Exposure, their second album for Blackest Ever Black. A sequel and companion piece of sorts to 2015's Antigravity, its title couldn't be more apt: sonically it is both colder, and more exposed - in the sense of rawer, more volatile, more vulnerable - than its predecessor, capturing the combustible energy and barely suppressed violence of the trio's celebrated live performances with aspects of noir jazz, musique concrète, no wave art-rock, sound poetry and spectral electronics all interpenetrating in unpredictable and exhilarating ways. While there are moments of great sensitivity and even a cautious romanticism, the prevailing mood is one of anxiety, paranoia, and mounting psychodrama: close your eyes and Ice Exposure feels like a dissociative Hörspiel broadcasting from the seedy backstreets of your own troubled mind. Before he picks up an instrument or opens his mouth, Berrocal's unique and compelling presence can be felt: a combination of studied, glacial cool and anarchic, in-the-moment intensity that has served him well over a long and storied career. It was honed during his time as a theatre and film actor, and in the 70s Paris improv scene, it powered his influential Catalogue group in the 1970s, numerous seminal, sui generis solo sides, and far-sighted collaborations with the likes of Nurse With Wound, Lol Coxhill, Pascal Comelade and James Chance which have seen him come to be valorised by two generations of avant-garde agitators and eccentrics. Now in his eighth decade, it comes with an added gravitas, perhaps, but no less energy or vitality. On Ice Exposure, his lyrical, instantly recognisable trumpet playing is a key feature - see especially the ghostly, dubwise take on Ornette's 'Lonely Woman', the dissolute exotica of 'Salta Girls', and the sublime echo-chamber soliloquy 'Opportunity'. But more often it's his voice that commands centre-stage, whether casually discharging surreal poetic monologues or moaning in animal despair - a vocal tour de force that transcends language and culminates in the Dionysian frenzy of 'Why', Berrocal's half-spoken, half-howled exclamations jostling with David Fenech's slashes of dissonant guitar, over Badalamenti-ish, panther-stalk drums. Fenech's origins are in the mail-art scene of the early '90s, when he led the Peu Importe collective in Grenoble, and since then, in addition to his own recordings he has worked as a software developer at IRCAM and played with Jad Fair, Rhys Chatham and many others. Together with Vincent Epplay he is responsible for Ice Exposure's inspired arrangements and vivid, vertiginous sound design. Epplay is a visual artist and composer with particular interest in aleatory composition, concrete, and the reappropriation of vintage sound and film material. He and Fenech fashion a remarkable mise-en-scene for Berrocal to inhabit, one that embraces cutting-edge electronics while also paying homage to the best traditions of outlaw jazz and libidinous rock'n'roll ('Soundcheck' invokes the brutish spirit of Berrocal's hero Vince 'Rock N Roll Station' Taylor). On 'Blanche de Blanc', Berrocal's voice is framed by a groaning, ghoulish orchestra of industrial drones, while 'Equivoque' evokes the most humid and hostile Fourth World landscapes and 'Panic In Surabaya' lives up to its name, a hectic, pulse-quickening concrète collage that leaves you gasping for air. This is a searching and singular trio operating at the absolute peak of their powers, with an interplay that transcends studio and stage and occurs at an almost telepathic level. Ice Exposure is a triumph of that group mind, an underworld dérive as life-affirming as it is unnerving and psychologically precarious.
Panic In Surabaya
Bremen finds two luminaries of the Swedish punk underground, Jonas Tiljander (Brainbombs) and Lanchy Orre (Totalitär, Brainbombs, Teenage Graves, etc), coming together to explore the dark side of kraut and progressive rock, early electronic and drone music, whilst also invoking the fathomlessly bleak interior landscapes conjured by Nico/Cale on The Marble Index and Desertshore.
'Following a trio of sprawling, planet-gargling double-LPs, 2013's self-titled LP on Skrammel, and Second Launch (2015) and Eclipsed (2017) on Blackest Ever Black, Bremen - J. Tiljander and Lanchy, previously best known for their contributions to Brainbombs' long rapsheet of genius-and- brutality, but latterly exponents of a rarefied cosmic melancholy - return with Enter Silence, their most concise, and powerful, album to date. Once again the Uppsala multi-instrumentalists combine elements of trogged-out psychedelic rock with a deadly serious Arctic minimalism and weeping modal improvisations that owe more to the outer limits of jazz and burnt-out free music from Japan. It's connoisseur's space music, grown-up and grievously honed; outwardly inclined towards the epic but studded with details that reward attention and introspection. There's always been a strong undercurrent of sadness animating Bremen's work, and that existential burden is present and correct on Enter Silence, culminating in the all-out cosmic anguish of 'Palladium'. Even 'The Middle Section', whose ragged chords are nothing if not the sound of optimism and defiance, sounds like it's navigating some kind of unsayable trauma. But this band has always allowed plenty of room for bonehead slash-and-burn as well: see here especially the Stoogeian/39 Clocks-ish rock'n'roll of 'Aimless Cruising' and the pulpy quasi-cinematic tension of 'Sinister', or the brilliant 'Too Cold For Your Eyes', a blast of voidal motorik that sounds like a cranked-up Clean. It's a cold, cold world out there'
- A1: Queen\\\'S Intro
- A2: Holy Lands
- A3: Young Genius
- A4: Black Lion
- A5: Tall Tales
- A6: Mantra
- A7: Pharaoh\\\'S Intro
- A8: Atlantc Black
- A9: Inner Flight
- A10: Wise Man, Wiser Woman
- A11: Prosperity\\\'S Fear
- B1: Flipped Out
- B2: Voila
- B3: Suite Haus
- B4: The Newbies Lif O
- B5: The Royal Outro
- B6: The Count O
- B7: Buterss\\\'S
- B8: Turtle Tricks
- B9: The Fifh Monk
- B10: Brighter Days Beginning
- B11: Universal Beings
Universal Beings is jazz drummer / producer Makaya McCraven's new album - his most ambitous, elegant and refned work yet.
Recorded at 2 intmate live sessions and 2 pop-up 'studio' sessions across the 'new' jazz hotbed cites of New York, Chicago, London, and Los Angeles, Makaya collaborated with an all-star cast of improvisers (15 musicians in total,
including Shabaka Hutchings, Nubya Garcia, Je Parker, Miguel AtwoodFerguson,Tomeka Reid, Brandee Younger and Carlos Nino) to create source material for the signature style of 'organic beat music' producton he debuted on the groundbreaking 2015 release In The Moment.
The result is this epic, 2xLP/CD set that represents another breakthrough in Makaya's career as a recording artst, as well as a defnitve new work of the excitng global groundswell of next-generaton, Black musicians re-vivifying and
re-artculatng 'jazz' in 2018.
Jan Bertil Svensson: co-founder of the legendary Börft Records, member of arch techno-primitivists Frak, the man responsible for Villa Abo and all-round underground don active in the field of machine music since 1987!
Whilst Jan's output will always conjure comparisons to Techno with a capital T, he has (and continues to) plough a singular and peculiar path in the realm of electronic music. For the Glasgow-based Full Dose, he presents his first ever solo 12' under the name of J.B.S: a four tracker of sluggish, minimal funk that bears the hallmarks of his most classic work as Villa Abo, and adds dashes of the brutal grit that his Studio SS project is infamous for. If there's any sort of recurring theme in Svensson's work, it's playfulness and humour, a particular Scandinavian form of sonic banter that cuts right through the po-faced, black-clad heteronomy of much of today's electronic landscape. The music on this record, with it's odd blend of stripped-back synth pop and brutish dungeon funk evokes exactly that: a body of work that doesn't even seem capable of taking itself too seriously, yet evades anything resembling a recognisable piss take. After all, nobody said that humour and credibility in music had to be mutually exclusive, and J.B.S is a master at weaving the two together at will.
In a world where dance music is often subjected to ludicrous conceptual analysis, sometimes the combined effect of hot circuitry, sincerity, vivaciousness and an anomalous attitude are the only thing for it. But then again, this is not just dance music either...
- A1: Let There Be Flutes
- A2: Midlander (There Can Only Be One...)
- A3: Why Is A Frog Too
- B1: Mind That Gap
- B2: Run On The Spot
- B3: Bentley's Gonna Sort You Out!
- C1: Ragtopskodacarchase
- C2: Whoosh
- C3: Who Put The Bom In The Bom Bom Diddleye Bom
- D1: Spacehopper
- D2: Return Of The Hardcore Jumble Carbootechnodisco Roadshow
- D3: On Her Majesty's Secret Whistle
- D4: Spy Who Loved Moose
Limited Edition: 500 x 2 LP Gatefold Pressing. Bentley Rhythm Ace formed in Birmingham in 1996 when ex Pop Will Eat Itself bassist Richard March and DJ Michael Stokes discovered a shared love of obscure, oddball and eccentric tunes. Utilising lo-fi cut and paste sampling techniques combined with analogue synths and some wild turntable action their debut EP was picked up by Fatboy Slim's Brighton based Skint Records and released to widespread acclaim. The BRA live show added Fuzz Townshend on drums and James Atkin (ex EMF vocalist) on keyboards and the latter years of the 90s saw BRA firmly established as festival favourites with appearances at Glastonbury, Reading, V, T in the Park, Montreux Jazz and Fuji Rock amongst many others. Their irreverent approach mixed with big beats, thundering bass, wild synths and esoteric samples proved to be a hit with fans and critics alike. 1998 saw Bentley Rhythm Ace crowned 'Best Dance Act' in that year's NME awards. Their eponymous debut album was given a worldwide release after the Bentleys signed to Parlophone records and the band toured extensively in the UK, Europe, Japan, Australia and USA. As well as releasing a highly regarded DJ mix album on Ministry of Sound, and releasing a second album for Parlophone (featuring vocals from Black Grape/Ruthless Rap Assassins frontman Kermit), BRA also produced well received remixes for the Beastie Boys and Supergrass as well as soundtracking several TV shows and adverts. This "21st Birthday - Bonus Tracks Edition" of the album has been compiled by Richard March of the band and includes the original 11 track album along with 2 bonus tracks remastered and repressed to vinyl for the first time in almost two decades! Presented in a deluxe gatefold sleeve, complete with original artwork and comprehensive sleeve notes for all thirteen tracks written for this release by Richard March. Bentley Rhythm Ace (21st Birthday - Bonus Tracks Edition)
The godfather of acid house, DJ Pierre, is back - bringing four heavyweight Chicago cuts to the fore, two of which, 'Pinball Machine' & 'The Spirit' are unreleased, exclusives.
'Sexy Aquarian' showcases Pierre's unique style putting his trademark spin on this classic vocal, combining it with a bumping bass and dizzying acid lines, to trigger old memories whilst giving you something new for your mind, your body and your soul.
Next up 'Pinball Machine' goes in heavy on the percussion - filling those speakers with a barrage of weighty toms, crisp hats and crunched up snares. The frenzied synth line bounces around relentlessly, pinging off the sides of your brain like a sonic arcade.
Take to the flip for a lesson in how to take jackin' house to another level. 'Whats Mine is Mine' delves beyond the beat, mixing sassy vocals and spiritual organ stabs, with a touch of swing reminiscent of an era long gone.
Closing out the EP, 'The Spirit' utilises another treasured vocal layering it behind punchy drum programming, a rumbling bass and atmospheric touches that add an ethereal tinge to the track.
DJ Feedback:
The Black Madonna - We Still Believe / Liaison Artists - Excellent!
Eli Escobar - OH yes.
PBR Streetgang - 20/20 Vision - classic
Andy Caldwell - Nettraxx / Cr2 Records - Ooh so so sublime. Good shit here!
Tony Humphries - The Zanzibar / New York - Nice peak time banger.
Danny Howard - BBC Radio 1 / Nothing Else Matters - Aceeeee. Wicked vocal!!! Love the vibe
- A1: Dave Porter - Breaking Bad Main Title Theme (Extended)
- A2: Rodrigo Y Gabriela - Tamacun
- A3: Working For A Nuclear Free City - Dead Fingers Talking
- A4: Glen Phillips - The Hole
- A5: Darondo - Didn't I
- B1: Mick Harvey - Out Of Time Man
- B2: The In Crowd - Mango Walk
- B3: Ticklah - Nine Years
- B4: Fujiya & Miyagi - Uh
- B5: The Silver Seas - Catch Yer Own Train
- C1: The Walkmen - Red Moon
- C2: The Be Good Tanyas - Waiting Around To Die
- C3: Los Cuates De Sinaloa - Negro Y Azul: The Ballad Of Heisenberg
- C4: Calexico - Banderilla
- D1: Far East Movement - Holla Hey
- D2: The Black Seeds - One By One
- D3: Blue Mink - Good Morning Freedom
- D4: Yellowman - Zungguzungguguzungguzeng
- E1: Chuy Flores - Pollos Hermanos Veneno
- E2: Los Zafiros - He Venido
- E3: Vince Guaraldi & Bola Sete - Ginza Samba
- E4: Teddybears Feat. Eve - Rocket Scientist
- F1: Prince Fatty - Shimmy Shimmy Ya
- F2: Son Of Dave - Shake A Bone
- F3: The Association - Windy
- F4: Quartetto Cetra - Crapa Pelada
- F5: America - A Horse With No Name
- G1: Alexander - Truth
- G2: Ana Tijoux - 1977
- G3: Bang Data - Bang Data
- G4: Fever Ray - If I Had A Heart
- H1: Apparat - Goodbye
- H2: Thee Oh Sees - Tidal Wave
- H3: Taalbi Brothers - Freestyle
- I1: Whitey - Stay On The Outside
- I2: The Peddlers - On A Clear Day You Can See Forever
- I3: Knife Party - Bonfire
- J1: Tommy James & The Shondells - Crystal Blue Persuasion
- J2: The Limeliters - Take My True Love By The Hand
- J3: Marty Robbins - El Paso
- J4: Badfinger - Baby Blue
First time on vinyl
10th Anniversary of the Breaking Bad TV Series
5 x 10' vinyl in 5 different jackets, 1 relating to each season
Each 10' is the same colour, Strictly Limited Edition Albuquerque Crystal Coloured (transparent with a hint of turquoise) Vinyl!
Lift off box-set with Breaking Bad logo on front with special drip-off varnish
Exclusive Breaking Bad Poster & Pollos Hermanos plastic ID badge
Booklet with exclusive pictures and extensive liner notes by Thomas, the musical supervisor of Breaking Bad
One run only of this very exclusive BOX-SET
Individually numbered the manufacturing qty for Worldwide is est 4000 with 800 for the UK - we could get some more
PLEASE ORDER BY 12.00 TUESDAY 25 SEPT TO BE GUARANTEED YOUR QTY
Available worldwide
Weight ESTIMATED 950g
All the essential Breaking Bad songs by Badfinger, Calexico, Far East Movement, America, Fever Ray, Apparat, Whitey, Knife Party, The Peddlers and others
Various dialogies by Walter, Jesse, Skyler, Mike, Gus, Saul and many more
This release will be heavily promoted on social media, including the social media accounts of Breaking Bad (facebook, over 11 million followers!!!).
MOV proudly presents the OST - BREAKING BAD (MUSIC FROM THE ORIGINAL SERIES) 5 x 10' BOX-SET!
A TOP PRIORITY RELEASE with WORLDWIDE RIGHTS!
So far only the score music has been released on vinyl and now finally, for the very very first time, the original soundtrack music is released on vinyl!
Breaking Bad is widely regarded as one of the greatest television series of all time and celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2018.
The legion of fans have been waiting for this to be released for a long time. There will be a huge demand for this exclusive BOX-SET!
This release was never released in any other format (CD, vinyl, digital) before and will only be available on vinyl!
OST - BREAKING BAD (MUSIC FROM THE ORIGINAL SERIES) is presented in a beautiful Lift off box-set with Breaking Bad logo on front with special drip-off varnish. The box-set includes a selection of defining songs, devided in five 10' records on coloured vinyl, each representing a season with accessory artwork. The numbered box-set also includes a booklet, poster and Pollos Hermanos plastic ID Badge. Next to all essential Breaking Bad songs by Badfinger, Calexico, Far East Movement, America, Fever Ray, Apparat, Whitey, Knife Party, The Peddlers and others, the 10' records also include various dialogies by Walter, Jesse, Skyler, Mike, Gus, Saul and many more. The box-set is a ONE-RUN-ONLY and is STRICTLY LIMITED!
Breaking Bad is an American neo-western crime drama television series created and produced by Vince Gilligan. The show originally aired on the AMC network for five seasons, from January 20, 2008 to September 29, 2013. The series tells the story of Walter White (Bryan Cranston), a struggling and depressed high school chemistry teacher diagnosed with lung cancer. Together with his former student Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), White turns to a life of crime by producing and selling crystallized methamphetamine to secure his family's financial future before he dies, while navigating the dangers of the criminal world. The title comes from the Southern colloquialism "breaking bad", meaning to "raise hell" or turn toward crime. Breaking Bad is set and filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Walter's family consists of his wife Skyler (Anna Gunn) and children, Walter, Jr. (RJ Mitte) and Holly (Elanor Anne Wenrich). The show also features Skyler's sister Marie Schrader (Betsy Brandt), and her husband Hank (Dean Norris), a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent. Walter hires lawyer Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk), who connects him with private investigator and fixer Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks) and in turn Mike's employer, drug kingpin Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito). The final season introduces the characters Todd Alquist (Jesse Plemons) and Lydia Rodarte-Quayle (Laura Fraser).
Breaking Bad is widely regarded as one of the greatest television series of all time. By the time the series finale aired, it was among the most-watched cable shows on American television. The show received numerous awards, including 16 Primetime Emmy Awards, eight Satellite Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, two Peabody Awards, two Critics' Choice Awards and four Television Critics Association Awards. For his leading performance, Cranston won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series four times, while Aaron Paul won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series three times; Anna Gunn won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series twice. In 2013, Breaking Bad entered the Guinness World Records as the most critically acclaimed show of all time.
- 1: Lamb With A Wolf Mask
- 2: Museum Of The Two Of Us
- 3: Nari Yuko Jin
- 4: Nobody`s Gold
- 5: My Black Jacket
- 6: Friendly Enemies
- 7: The End Of Metaphor
- 8: Dirty Dirtiness
- 9: The Place Where Designers Go To Die
- 10: Bean Tale
- 11: The Night Before The Typhoon
- 12: Gangsters, Seoul
- 13: Day Drinking At A Seaside Town
- 14: Bats We Are
The demons of night are out again: Seoul's one-stop shop creative collective Byul.org returns this fall with its third international album, entitled Nobody's Gold, out via Alien Transistor (worldwide) and the group's own Club Bidanbaem imprint (South Korea). Comprising 14 new songs, it's a dizzying, haunting affair that channels the group's manifold influences and references points (from post-punk to Stockhausen and back via club culture) and yet sounds intriguingly coherent.
Moving in and out of the shadows, Nobody's Gold breaks forth as pure sonic landscape - a universe of its own, folding and unfolding into both more experimental patterns, yet also with occasional hooks and dark catchy structures, gracious build-ups flickering among the hazy roar and thunder. After the screak and squeal of 'Lamb with a Wolf Mask,' the foreboding sounds of 'The Museum of The Two of Us' segue into a synthesized party tune about a missing friend being chased by police ('Nari Yuko Yin'), one of several vocal tracks with a sinister edge. Taking things up another notch, 'Friendly Enemies' is probably the closest this group will ever get to creating a stadium-ready anthem. On the other end of the spectrum, 'The Place Where Designers Go To Die' is a magnificent void with an immense and irresistible undertow...
Never too jolly (not even while 'Day Drinking at a Seaside Town' or during takeoff via epic pop tune 'Bats We Are'), Nobody's Gold compiles soundscapes with a very tangible, corporeal presence - iridescent sonic sculptures placed in unlikely settings (e.g. outer space, see: 'Dirty Dirtiness'), born at the fringes where night blends into day and vice versa.
Inspired by everyday life, half-remembered drug/club experiences, Pascal Quignard's disturbing La haine de la musique, Stockhausen and Bill Evans, the new LP sees the collective remain true to its DIY foundations while repeatedly questioning our listening habits and 'the exaggerated love for the concept of love,' as they put it.
Founded around the dawn of the millennium as a group of poetry-loving friends who'd occasionally meet for drinks, Byul.org has long become an extremely prolific and versatile collective within Seoul's scene: Main song-writer TaeSang Cho and his mates Yu Hur, Jowall, YunYi Yi, SuhnJoo YI, HyunJung Suh, and SoYoon Hwang went from publishing to recording, from releasing tunes to design, art direction and more. Although their list of clients includes Atelier Herme`s and the Venice Biennale (they did the Korean Pavilion twice), the group still remains a drinking circle of close friends at its core: Pals who simply like to create and carouse and dream and live and perform and play tunes together.
- A1: Thore Pfeiffer - Alles Wird Gut
- A2: Coupler - A Plain Of Reeds
- A3: The Black Frame - The Uncertainty Principle
- B1: Kenneth James Gibson - Gone Too Soon
- B2: Morgen Wurde Feat. Maria Estrella - Schien Immer
- C1: Gregor Schwellenbach - Rot 2
- C2: Last Train To Brooklyn - Bluebird
- C3: Max Würden Feat. Luis Reichard - Zweitens
- C4: Thomas Fehlmann - Karenina
- D1: Leandro Fresco - Araña De Vidrio
- D2: Yui Onodera - Cromo 3
- D3: Triola - Adren
- D4: Max Würden - Core
Boum Boum Boum! 25 years of KOMPAKT. When a record label still thrives after a quarter of a century thanks to a focus of what was expected to be a short lived music phenomenon called TECHNO, then it stands to prove two things; that it techno has taken its place amongst serious, multilayered musical genres like rock'n'roll, pop and folk music. And that KOMPAKT has never been only for techno, but KOMPAKT stands as a broad-minded, genre-defying entity that has set out to cross-pollinate all kinds of musical inventions within the realm of electronic music. Through its course, KOMPAKT has sent 'Around The World', all kinds of sub-genres, concept series and crossover adventures based on the non- negotiable 4/4 beat. And back again.
Without a doubt, the 100% kickdrum-free POP AMBIENT series is the most endearing and enduring concept that I have had the pleasure to curate. From the start, I felt there was a strong need to add a certain pop- elegance - ensouled by discourse as much as hedonism - to a sound that was recognized as 'Chill Out' music that could be heard in seedy techno club back rooms and forgotten festival areas. Over the years, I like to imagine that POP AMBIENT has crystallized into a highly recognizable trademark sound and a multi-facetted musical universe of its own.
So once again, I had the pleasure to put together this year's edition by plowing through an ocean of sonic jewelry that had been submitted from all over the world by new and old friends. The task was clear: for this special edition, I must create a homogenous listening experience that would both appeal to our trusting followers, to continue our tradition while integrating new micro facets , variations and influences from neighboring musical universes as possible. Obligatory while being innovative. Conspirative while being cosmopolitan. Albeit the headline 'Ambient' might sound a little too humble for a compilation that encompasses aspects of neo classic, atonal music and the most beautiful aural kitsch imaginable, it still helps as a necessary means of orientation in the best possible sense. Same goes for another dear tradition: Veronika Unland's abstract-floral cover design that keeps on pleasing our sore eyes year after year.
Although each and every POP AMBIENT edition doesn't shy away from diving into the relevant question of 'What is contemporary discourse music' - in the end it all boils down to that elevated moment where all theory dissolves into ambient air, into a higher state of cosmic bliss. POP AMBIENT is sacral music for non-believers.
Wolfgang Voigt Cologne, October 2018
Bum Bum Bum. 25 Jahre KOMPAKT. Wenn ein Musiklabel, das seine inhaltliche Ausrichtung im Wesentlichen auf den anfangs als schnelllebig und vor allem kurzlebig apostrophierten - hype' Techno setzt, nach 25 Jahren in jeder Beziehung immer noch voll im Saft steht, dann zeigt das zwei Dinge: Das erstens mittlerweile jeder bemerkt haben du¨rfte, dass Techno eben kein kurzftristiger hype ist, sondern vielmehr ein vielschichtiges, ernstzunehmendes Genre, das sich ebenso wie Rock'n'Roll oder Schlager fest in der Musikgeschichte etabliert hat.
Und zweitens, dass KOMPAKT nie nur ein reines Technolabel war und ist, sondern ein nach vielen Seiten aufgeschlossenes Experimentierfeld, das sich von Anfang an der Grenzu¨berschreitung und dem musikalischen Erfindungsreichtum verschrieben hat. U¨ber die Jahre wurden unter dem KOMPAKT-Signet etliche Subgenres, Konzeptreihen und Crossoverwagnisse auf Basis der unverhandelbaren geraden Bassdrum - around the world' und wieder zuru¨ck geschickt.
Eine der wohl scho¨nsten und nachhaltigsten Konzeptreihen du¨rfte wohl die bassdrumfreie POP AMBIENT-Serie sein, die ich als KOMPAKT-- Altvorderer' nach wie vor die ja¨hrliche Freude habe, zu kompilieren. Dabei hat sich u¨ber die Jahre aus dem anfa¨nglichen Bedu¨rfnis der seit den fru¨hen 90er Jahren in den sogenannten - Chilloutrooms ' grossra¨umiger Technoclubs, - Lounges' und - Muzakkneipen' entstandenen - Entspannungsmusik' etwas entgegenzusetzen, eine eher von Pop-Eleganz, Diskurs und Hedonismus beseelte, eigene Spielart ambienter Musik, eine vielschichtige programmatische Musik mit hohem Widererkennungswert entwickelt.
So hatte ich auch im Jubila¨umsjahr einmal mehr die Qual der Wahl, aus den aus aller Welt kommenden, grossartigen Klangpreziosen guter alter sowie neuer Freunde die subjektiv besten zu einem homogenen Ho¨rerlebnis zusammenzufu¨hren. Dabei ist mir immer sehr wichtig, einerseits den Erwartungen der treuen Ho¨rerschaft im Bezug auf Traditionsverpflichtung gerecht zu werden und andererseits auch immer mo¨glichst viele Mikrofacetten, Varianten und Einflu¨sse angrenzender Stile und Universen aufzugreifen. Innovativ und verbindlich. Konspirativ und weltoffen. Auch wenn der U¨berbegriff Ambient, fu¨r eine Kompilation die sowohl Aspekte von Neuer Klassik, Atonalita¨t und Kunstmusik mit den allerscho¨nsten Seelenkitschklangwelten zu vereinen sucht, zu eng gefasst ist, so hilft er doch bei der notwendigen Orientierung im besten Sinne. Ebenso wie die Tradition gewordenen, wunderscho¨n abstrakt-floralen Kunstblumenwelten der von Veronika Unland gestalteten Cover, die ein ums andere Jahr auch die Augen in Verzu¨ckung versetzten.
Auch wenn jede Kompilation sich aufs Neue an den relevanten Fragen zeitgema¨sser Diskursmusik abarbeitet, so ist der erhabene Moment am Ende doch der, in dem sich alles zu Gunsten eines - ho¨heren, kosmischen' Ho¨rerlebnisses, im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes in ambiente Luft auflo¨st.
POP AMBIENT ist die sakrale Musik der Ungla¨ubigen.
Wolfgang Voigt / September 2018
"In 2016, 21 years after Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. were founded in Osaka, Japan, there was a major shift in the line-up and "Next Generation" was added to the bands name. We now view the first 20 years of the bands career as chapter one in our story, and we are now turning the page to start chapter two. In 2018, it's time to re-record our classics with this new line-up, we just opened the door to the next stage!' (Kawabata Makoto 2018)
Twenty four years into their existence, Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. have circled the globe at least a few dozen times, released over 100 albums in their various guises and played thousands of shows.
In recent years, they've experienced seismic line up changes which has given them yet another new lease of life ... or a rebirth if you will. Original members Kawabata Makoto (guitar, speed guru) and Higashi Hiroshi (synthesizer, noodle god) are now joined by Jyonson Tsu (vocal, midnight whistler), Satoshima Nani (drums, another dimension) and Wolf (bass, space & time) and as anyone that has seen the new line up live will testify, things have gone even more cosmic ...
'Reverse Of Rebirth In Universe' sees the band return to their old label Riot Season for the first time since 2012's 'IAO Chant From The Melting Paraiso Underground Freak Out' (CD still available). Both label and band have gone on some wonderful journeys during that time apart but both felt the stars were finally correctly realigned to renew their partnership in all things weird.
Long time AMT fans will immediately recognise some of the song titles listed on the album sleeve here. But the songs themselves have been reworked and transformed far away from their original versions. New boy Jyonson Tsu's quiet, almost whispered vocals bring a whole new aura to proceedings, despite the familiar riffs hidden in the depths below them. It's so laid back in places it's practically horizontal, with only occasional trademark piercing guitar squeals threatening to destroy the peace and calm. The whole of side two is taken up with the twenty minute epic 'Black Summer Song' .. and if this is an indicator to where the AMT mothership is heading going forwards we're all in for another fucked up and magical ride.
If you stepped off the AMT ride over the years, possibly overwhelmed by the amount of releases they were once firing out ... it could be time to step back on it and check out where they're currently at. In a world that's more messed up than ever, we could all use a little break away from the norm, and nobody takes you as far away from the norm as possible as Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O.
After a five year release hiatus, in 2018 Yura Khlop is putting out music under his SE62 alias again. "Jazzed EP" is the second release in the SAFT X series and the Kiev based producer has delivered a class record.
The A-side opening track; "Swing Tool" is built around more jazzed out samples than the other tracks. SE62 cleverly plays original notes together with a hazy sample that serves as the core element. "Jazzed EP" will be available through all specialized retailers in the autumn of 2018. On A2 we find "July". Again a very dance floor oriented record with taints of emotion. The very present chord and bassline dominate the tracks structure until at one point; a beautiful sample is introduced. Positive sounds for lovers of classic deep house.
The title track "Jazzed" is a signature piece of thumping deep house, using swinging MPC style drums and an evolving digital piano riff. This together with some submerged sounding sample shots, create a dance floor worthy ambiance. After "Jazzed", we find "Pitch Black", a sample-heavy jam that is based around a set of characteristic drums. A swinging chord and an infectious chord progression do the trick on this true dance floor record.
*Black vinyl press* Reissue of his debut album from 1980. Beautiful experimental sound design which results in proto-techno soundscapes. A gem in the genre!
Minimal Wave is honored to present a reissue of Sympathy Nervous' pioneering debut album originally released in 1980 on Vanity Records out of Japan. Sympathy Nervous was Yosihumi Niinuma's lifelong project which he started in his Tokyo living room in 1979. Through Sympathy Nervous, Niinuma was able to channel his energy into what he loved - building his own synthesizers and speakers from scratch. Niinuma was inspired by German Krautrock and through his music created intense proto-techno soundscapes. Now finally available for the first time ever, remastered from the original tapes used for the 1980 release, is the timeless masterpiece in its entirety.
- A1: The Sound Of Confusion
- A2: 2.35 (Version 1)
- A3: Losing Touch With My Mind
- A4: Amen
- B1: That's Just Fine (Vocal Version)
- B2: Come Down Easy
- B3: Mary Anne
- C1: Feel So Good
- C2: 2.35 (Feedback Version)
- C3: Hey Man
- C4: It's Allright
- D1: 2.35 (Version 2)
- D2: Things'll Never Be The Same
- D3: Transparent Radiation (Organ Version)
- D4: Repeater (Demo)
Double LP on heavyweight 180 gram audiophile black vinyl in a wide spined sleeve with new artwork layout. Re-mastered by John Rivers at Woodbine Studios especially for vinyl release. Includes a bonus track not on the CD version and new artwork design. Never has a record been so aptly titled, or so perfectly descriptive of a band's particular vision of the universe. For all that, the original appearance of Taking Drugs was in fact a bootleg on the semi-legendary/semi-notorious Father Yod imprint in 1990, later supplemented with contemporary outtakes and cuts for the Bomp reissue in 1994 and one further song for the Space Age version in 2000. The original seven tracks, dated January 1986 and the first recordings to feature Pete Bain on bass, are collectively known as the Northampton Demos, understandably named for the recording location in a studio outside said English city. Both Sonic and Pierce have been on record as long preferring these takes to the eventual versions that surfaced for the most part on Sound of Confusion. Certainly it's a fine set of performances, showing a definite step toward the more familiar sound of the group and away from the rougher takes on For All the Fucked Up Children of the World. "The Sound of Confusion," aka "Walkin' With Jesus," rips along with fierce energy, Pierce's singing and the rampaging, primitive wail and rumble of the band just wonderful. "Losing Touch With My Mind" takes things to an even higher level, a huge wallop of feedback and beat (Natty Brooker's drumming in particular delivers just what the doctor ordered), Pierce delivering the lines with a flat, cutting drawl. On the slightly lighter tip, "Come Down Easy" is more or less fully in place (aside from singing about it being 1986!), possessing a more upfront but less vocally distinct feel than the Perfect Prescription take. The tracks that surfaced on the later reissues come from a variety of different sessions, including the original take on "Feel So Good" and a good live version of "Things'll Never Be the Same," one of several cuts featuring Brooker's drumming replacement Rosco.
- A1: I.o.t.a. (Instrument Of The Ancestors)
- A2: Play It Up
- A3: Overload
- A4: Blam
- A5: Williehook (Skit)
- A6: Aerosol
- A7: Vital Transformation
- B1: You Can Always Count On Me (Ft Shana Jenson)
- B2: These Are The Things I Really Like About You (Ft Dudley Perkins)
- B3: Canadian Hillbilly
- B4: Conmigo (Reprise)
- B5: Bobbie's Dittie
- B6: Ciao
Georgia Anne Muldrow returns with a modern soul classic in the
making - 'Overload', via Flying Lotus's Brainfeeder record label.
An incredibly talented vocalist, songwriter and producer,
Georgia Anne Muldrow effortlessly spans jazz, soul and hip hop
and, during her 12 year career, has collaborated with Madlib,
Erykah Badu, Dev Hynes aka Blood Orange, Bilal and Robert
Glasper.
'Overload' was executively produced by Flying Lotus, Aloe Blacc
and Dudley Perkins.
For fans of NxWorries, Erykah Badu, The Internet, Madlib.
Notable collaborations on 'Overload' include Dudley Perkins,
Shana Jenson, Moods, Lustbass and Mike & Keys (50 Cent,
Nipsey Hussle, Snoop Dogg, G-Eazy), who contribute
production to four tracks including the sleek, anthemic title
track alongside Khalil (Dr Dre).
CD digipack. LP pressed on 180g heavyweight black vinyl in an
artworked innersleeve housed in a 3mm spined outer sleeve
with digital download card included.
Artwork by Martin Norwood (Nice Dreams Studio). Layout by
Adam Stover.
'No one sings a heavy love song like Georgia Anne Muldrow' -
Pitchfork Best New Track
'Beautifully poised between classic 90s R&B and something
strange, disorientating and psychedelic.' - The Guardian
- A1: The Intro (Feat. Mr Brown)
- A2: Still
- A3: Honey Dip
- A4: Breathe (One)
- A5: Mirrors
- A6: Breathe (Two)
- A7: The Outro
- A8: Honey Dip (Remix)
- B1: All I Do
- B2: West Coast
- B3: Down With Clowns
- B4: Firmer Funk Boogie
- B5: Both Hands Free
- B6: Waiting Forever (Feat. Kristoffer Eikrem & Tarjei Kjerland Lienig)
- B7: Radioactive/Dirtyhans Beat
- B8: Supreme Jazzblaster
- B9: Kiss Me
2nd Reissue
Fredfades & Ivan Ave's debut release
This time on black vinyl
300 copies
For fans of J Dilla, MNDSGN, Madlib, Yogisoul
Contains 17 tracks produced by Fredfades using the SP-1200 and MPC 2000XL. The A-side is all vocal tracks by the Norwegian lyrical genius Ivan Ave who is widely known for his projects with MNDSGN (Stones Throw). The B-side is a mesh of Fredfades instrumentals.
Format: 180g vinyl, mastered at half speed, heavy cardboard old Stoughton tip-on sleeve, obi, sticker, liner notes - First ever reissue of important Swiss jazz album Stuff Combe 5 + Percussion by Stuff Combe available on 180g vinyl mastered at half speed, with liner notes by Alain Morisod. - For fans of jazz, soul jazz, funk, sci-fi, bossa nova, spaced out sounds, jazz ensembles, collective wizardry, deep solos, Swiss magic, Francy Boland, Benny Bailey, Geneva Tracklisting A1 Space Trip A2 Boss Turquoise B1 Eastern Blue B2 St-Thomas Info We Release Jazz is very happy to present its fourth release (following Ryo Fukui's Scenery and Mellow Dream and Le Cercle Rouge's soundtrack by Eric Demarsan), the official reissue of 1974's Stuff Combe 5 + Percussion, a hard to find soul jazz jewel from a cast of illustrious jazzmen led by glorious Swiss drummer Stuff Combe. The limited edition 180g vinyl LP is mastered at half speed, cut at Emil Berliner Studios, housed in a black and silver Stoughton tip-on sleeve, and comes with liner notes. Recorded in Geneva, Stuff Combe 5 + Percussion finds Stuff Combe conducting an all-star ensemble consisting of Bob Jacquillard on bass, Francy Boland (The Chet Baker Quintet, arranger for Count Basie, Benny Goodman and the list goes on) on piano and electric piano, bebop and hard-bop legend Benny Bailey on trumpet, and Tony D'Adario on saxophone. The sessions ooze with funk, spaced out sounds, breathtaking solos, and moments of absolute collective wizardry. It's soul jazz at its best with sci-fi and bossa excursions! Born in Bern in 1924, Etienne Stephen Jean Gustave 'Stuff' Combe had a wonderfully prolific career, playing all over Europe and the US and working with Buck Clayton, Bill Coleman, Stan Getz, Kenny Clarke, Oscar Pettiford , Art Taylor, Dizzy Reece, and Lucky Thompson just to name a few.
Fantastic 80s pop music with a soul and funk touch and an outstanding singer. A must have for fans
of Billy Ocean, Barry White and similar artists. Perfect playing, perfect production, perfect songwriting.
On the edge of the lightfooted disco movement there was sophisticated funk music and one of the often
overlooked protagonists oft he scene was Mr. Sterling Harrison, born in 1941, passed in 2005. His legacy contains
two solo albums from the early 80s and this, dear friends of funk music, is his second from 1981. Copies in good
shape fetch prices up to 800 Dollars so we should give this current reissue on EVERLAND warm welcomes. Is it all
worth the enthusiasm Oh, you can bet it is. Sterling Harrison had left behind the 70s and was ready for the 80s.
The sound is up to date, clear, clean and powerful. The music still shows the fire of the earlier funk records but the
synthesizer passages, the whole production proves that we are now entering a new age. 80s Synthie Pop is part of
the mix, despite the main ingredients are soul, funk and a bit of disco here and there. The vocals are overwhelming,
sung with great emotions and a feeling for the freaky edge of soul. The tunes here come as diverse as they can be,
each one with his very own face, but they all have the same spirit courtesy of Sterling Harrison. Each one should
have had a spot on the top ten pop charts in 1981 but in this case this album would probably be legendary in
another way. This music will drive every 80s black pop enthusiast wild. When after all these powerfully driving pop
and dance tunes, with a more relaxed reggae groover in between, your feet ask for a break, just go for a sweet soul
ballad in the best Barry White style. Smooth and slick, yet still performed with depth and spirit, such a song might
calm you down until the next dancefloor sweeper will hit your ears. The overall atmosphere of this record is truly
happy and enlightened. Good vibrations pour from every note, played here by a team of highest order musicians. A
perfect record for 80s black pop aficionados who admire Billy Ocean's 80s albums for example. This record is a
typical example of the contemporary pop music of its era, but this is what makes it even more charming. And the
songs will definitely stick to your mind after just a few spins without losing their fascination. A true gem for true
music lovers.
In the sweltering North-Eastern Brazilian state of Pernambuco lies the coastal city of Recife, where Amaro Freitas is pioneering the new sound of Brazilian jazz. For the prodigious young pianist, the spirit of his hometown runs deep. From the Afro-Brazilian maracatu born on the sugar plantations of slavery, to the high intensity carnival rhythms of frevo and baião, Amaro's heavily percussive approach to jazz is as indebted to these Pernambuco traditions as it is to Coltrane, Parker and Monk.
As with many of the greats before him, Amaro began playing piano in church aged 12, under the instruction of his father, leader of the church band. As his natural talents became obvious, the young prodigy quickly outgrew his father's instruction. He won a place at the prestigious Conservatório Pernambucano de Música but had to drop out as his family could not spare the money for the bus fare. Undeterred, Amaro gigged in bands at weddings and worked in a call centre to fund his tuition. The transformative moment came at age 15 when Amaro stumbled across a DVD of Chick Corea concert, 'he completely blew my mind, I'd never seen anything like it but I knew that's what I wanted to do with a piano'.
Despite not actually owning a piano, Amaro devoted himself to studying day and night - he would practice on imaginary keys in his bedroom, until eventually striking a deal with a local restaurant to practice before opening hours. By the age of 22 Amaro was one of the most sought-after musicians in Recife and resident pianist at the legendary jazz bar Mingus. It was during this time he met and begun collaborating with bassist Jean Elton and the pair went in search of a drummer. 'We kept hearing about this crazy kid who was playing in 7/8 or 6/4, we knew we had to meet him'. Hugo Medeiros joined, and the Amaro Freitas Trio was born.
'I want to show the simplicity of music, to break the stigma that the piano is for a particular social class. Yes, it's a difficult instrument, which many people do not have access to, but with it you can express everything.'
Following his critically acclaimed debut album Sangue Negro (black blood), the title of his sophomore release Rasif is a colloquial spelling of Amaro's home town. A love letter to his native northeast, Amaro explores its traditional rhythms through the jazz idiom, employing complex mathematical patterns reminiscent of some of the most challenging works by fellow Brazilian masters Hermeto Pascoal, Egberto Gismonti and Moacir Santos.
Preferring to see the piano as a though it were a drum with 88 unique tones, Amaro's intelligence and emotion intertwine on every track, from album opener 'Dona Eni': a scorching reconstruction of the baião rhythmic structure, played in seven measures instead of two, to the serene homage to the coastal reef and its ecosystems on the title track 'Rasif'. 'Aurora' is a suite of three parts, representing the sun's journey from the light and soft of the rise, to the aggressive dissonance at its midday zenith and descending chromatic cadences as the sun sets.
Due for an Autumn release on Far Out Recordings, Rasif sees Amaro Freitas take a deserved step onto the world stage. Having already made a name for himself in Brazil, Amaro and his phenomenal band will embark on their first European tour later this year.
Amaro Freitas - Piano
Hugo Medeiros - Drums & Percussion
Jean Elton - Double Bass
Henrique Albino - Baritone Sax, Flutes & Clarinet
All compositions by Amaro Freitas
Produced by Amaro Freitas
Recorded by Bruno Giorgi @ Carranca Studio, Recife, Brazil
Mixed and mastered by Bruno Giorgi @ Quarto Studio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Executive producer and management: Laercio Costa
"It's Maths classes. A red-haired boy sits in the back, rhythmically tapping his fingers on a table like a madman. Although other students' eyesight is focused on the formula being written on the black-board, the boy could not care less. Out of a corner of his eye he notices as the sequence of numbers slowly begins to melt off the blackboard, glittering with colours, and finally spills all over the floor like a fractal leakage from some other dimension. Students from the first rows, scared, put their legs up - and then you start to hear the rhythm. The sounds, once set free, feedback from the walls and find their way to all chinks and cracks, circle all around to finally reach the teacher's ear. The lady cannot stop the upcoming fury, grabs Krzysztof Ostrowski (number 28) by his ear and circumventing the leakage she leads him out of the classroom. It's not the first nor the second time such thing happens. Years later, the boy finally sits by the machine; subtle light comes through the window slightly ajar, the curtain dances with the wind. Krzysztof, bent, is programming the rhythm."
It's warm and bright Autumn of 2018 and Krzysztof emerges again, this time on vinyl released by Jacek Sienkiewicz's label Recognition. The experimental style of "Primary Fluctuation" might come as a surprise to many of Jacek's followers, but there are surely some common features for the two art-ists - from attention to detail to a kind of serious melancholy present in their music. Ostrowski's rec-ord is a journey through futuristic polyrhythm, with enough space for menacing basses or unorthodox samples, reminding the aesthetics of fusion of broken techno and bass music championed recently by the labels like Timedance or Livity Sound. Four tracks (five in digital version) make up a cohesive, intriguing and surprising record, announcing series of special releases prepared by Recognition for the forthcoming months. ,
With a knack for crafting up-front, jacking house music, Danish producer Niles Cooper proves he's right at home with the Super Tuff family. Just after his first release on his own Pale Springs imprint, his follow-up EP for Brooklyn's Super Tuff appropriately pays homage to its NYC influences. The title track "House Gospel" is a heartbreaking peak hour track full of old-skool NYC garage flavor. It is impressively followed by a remix from Berlin's Black Loopsia certified deep house belter. On the B-side, "Floor Juuc" is a rolling early morning chugger with a bassline reminiscent of "I Get Deep." Rounding out the record, Cooper shows his versatility with "If We Try We Can Start Anew" jumping into darker DnB territory with well-cut breaks and moody ambient chords reminiscent of Burial. Welcome home Niles!
To put it simply, 'True Meanings', the fourteenth Paul Weller solo album, the twenty sixth studio album of his entire career, is a record unlike any he has ever made before.
'True Meanings', is released on September 14th and is an album characterised by grandiose-yet-delicate, lush orchestration: an aesthetic to which Paul's better-than-ever voice, singing some of his most nakedly honest words, is perfectly suited. A dreamy, peaceful, pastoral set of songs to get lost in, it is both an album that a lot of his faithful audience have been wanting him to make for a long time, and an album that many new people outside of that audience will relate to.
On the 25th May this year, Paul Weller turned 60: a milestone that has unquestionably had an impact on the feel, both lyrically and musically, of 'True Meanings' which comes across being the most singer-songwriter-style album he has ever made. However, it is also the most collaborative: with more guests than any record he's been involved in before.
As well as all the members of Weller's band, Rod Argent of the Zombies provides Hammond organ on 'The Soul Searchers' and piano and Mellotron on 'White Horses'; folk legends Martin Carthy and Danny Thompson add picked guitar and double bass respectively to 'Come Along'; Little Barrie plays lead guitar on 'Old Castles'; Lucy Rose sings backup on 'Books'; and 'Movin On' is the result of a 'scratchy demo'on Paul's phone that was sent to Tom Doyle of the White Label project. Even Noel Gallagher makes a sneaky appearance.
Perhaps most surprisingly of all, especially given how personal and introspective 'True Meanings' feels, lyrics for four of the fourteen songs here were written, to Weller's melodies, by others. Connor O'Brien from Villagers came up with the words to opener 'The Soul Searchers', while 'Bowie', 'Wishing Well' and the closing 'White Horses' are all the work, lyrically, of Erland Cooper from Erland & The Carnival.
'True Meanings' was produced by Paul Weller except 'The Soul Searchers', which was co-produced by Paul and Conor O'Brien and 'Movin On' which was co-produced by Weller and White Label. The album was engineered and recorded by Charles Rees and mixed by Jan Stan Kybert.
The album was recorded in just over 3 weeks at Paul's own Black Barn Studio, with the aforementioned, revolving cast of characters dropping in for a day here and there. The orchestration was added soon after, and that was that. It is always a good sign when the recording of an album is swift, and here you can just hear that the man at the centre of these songs is as focused and inspired - more inspired, even - than he has ever been.
Spectral Empire are George Thompson (aka Black Merlin / Karamika) and Kyle Martin (Vactrol Park / Land of Light). With the release of Iron Muscle they are celebrating 10 years since their debut ep Innerfearence saw the light of day in 2008 on the now defunct THISISNOTANEXIT record label. Legend tells all track were made around the same time (2008-2009), at what was back then Kyle's studio in Archway, London, however opinions remain divided over the validity of this info. What is remembered for a fact is that they'v used practically every home appliance and improvised noise they could find, record and harness, in order to create the feeling of what they describe as a ' Robot walking' for the title track Iron Muscle. Anything from kitchen drawers to DVD's and cutlery was sampled and then drenched in effects and manipulated in order to create what came out as a cinematic futuristic piece to dive into again and again, a soundtrack for an unwritten sci-fi movie, or just a dramatic soundtrack for your everyday lives.. With See the invisible, rules do not apply. An arpeggiated groove sitting on a steady half time 60bpm beat, its like the perfect soundtrack to the perfect car chase. Mediterranean riverbed guitars- not-guitars, sirens, and a heavy (dreamy) atmosphere fill the voids and keeps the track pushing forward throughout... The 4th track on the record is a never before seen the light of day epic remix by Die Wilde Jagd, that back then still included Ralf Beck (Unit 4) as an active member of the band (back when they were still known as Der Rau¨ber und Der Prinz). The release will be a vinyl only release, and is already getting massive support from the likes of Vladimir Ivkovic, Michael Mayer, John Talabot, Red Axes, Manfredas, Trevor Jackson, Lena Wilikkens, Man Power and many more...
'they've quietly found themselves elevated into the psych scenes premier league.' Drowned In Sound
'when they go pedal-to-metal it rarely fails.' Mojo Magazine
'The Lucid Dream are rapidly becoming major players in an ever-increasingly crowded psych scene..utterly seductive.' The Quietus
'one of the most enthralling bands in the UK.' Far Out Magazine
The Lucid Dream return in October with the release of their 4th album, 'Actualisation'.
Driven by fans raising £10,000 to help replace all equipment robbed after a Paris show in early 2017, a new album became the instant focus in the summer of 2017 for a rejuvenated The Lucid Dream.
'Actualisation' is soaked in the influence of acid house, amalgamated with dub and kosmische. It will again see them acknowledged for venturing into pastures new, setting themselves apart from 'genres', 'scenes' or what any other act are currently doing.
The album was penned over the summer of 2017 by Mark Emmerson (vocals/guitar/synths), using only the classic Roland 303/808 synths, bass and vocals as tools for writing. Inspiration for the writing was formed via continuous listening to the Chicago to UK acid house works of 1986-1992, the focus predominantly on the groove.
Several months on from those writing sessions and The Lucid Dream have completed their 4th album in 5 years. A record made for the dancefloor.
Recorded at Whitewood Studios, Liverpool, with Rob Whiteley, the album is produced alongside long-time collaborator Ross Halden (Ghost Town Studios, Leeds), with mastering via Dean Honer (All Seeing I/I Monster/The Moonlandingz).
The confrontational techno-punk of 'Alone In Fear' opens the album, a 9-minute attack fuelled by the frustration and anger spawned by Brexit, government and a realisation of what 2018 Britain currently is.
Recent single 'SX1000' (the first work from the album, unveiled via 12' vinyl in April this year) is the band's first move into pure acid house. The acid house fusion runs throughout the record, represented furthermore by 'Ardency', a track already praised by live critics when aired live for the first time earlier this year as 'even on first hearing, would've raised the roof of The Hacienda'.
The 2-part opus of 'Zenith' follows, commencing with a space-dub/house instrumental groove before building into a track that will go for your head as much as your hips. Only 'Breakdown' harks back to sounds of old for the band, a little reminder of the skull-crushing impact they can make when stripped to the bare bones. 'No Sunlight Dub' closes the album, a dark-dub that invites the classic acid-house tool (Roland 808) into the dub. The track makes a stop-off into drum 'n' bass/jungle along the way before rounding up in a manner suited to Lee Perry, King Tubby, Augustus Pablo and other Jamaican greats.
The Lucid Dream formed in Carlisle, Cumbria, in 2008. A string of sold-out 7s was followed by the debut longer player, 'Songs Of Lies and Deceit', in August 2013. The initial vinyl pressing of the debut album (500 copies) sold out within 2 days, and was backed by a main stage slot at Kendal Calling, and supports to Death In Vegas and A Place To Bury Strangers (full UK tour).
The bands 2nd album ('The Lucid Dream') was released in March 2015 to further acclaim. This included 2 BBC 6 Music sessions and plays across most shows on the station, as well as plays from BBC Radio 1 (Huw Stephens) and BBC Radio 2. Further press followed from Uncut, The Skinny, Louder Than War, and Drowned In Sound, who named the album #7 UK album of 2015. Supports to Clinic and A Place To Bury Strangers also coincided.
3rd album, 'Compulsion Songs' was released in September 2016, on Holy Are You Recordings. The vinyl pressing of the album sold-out within a day, prompting an immediate 2nd press, with pre-sales of the album topping 1,000 before release. The album was backed by a headline UK tour, and a main slot at Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia (for which they were singled out for major plaudits from The Quietus, The Skinny and Drowned In Sound). The album again received acclaim from the likes of Mojo, Uncut, Classic Rock Magazine, BBC Radio 2 (Huey Morgan) and across the board on BBC 6 Music (Lauren Laverne, Marc Riley, Tom Ravenscroft, Gideon Coe, Stuart Maconie).
'Actualisation' is released on 19th October 2018 (CD/download/ltd red vinyl/standard black vinyl), via Holy Are You Recordings.
'they've quietly found themselves elevated into the psych scenes premier league.' Drowned In Sound
'when they go pedal-to-metal it rarely fails.' Mojo Magazine
'The Lucid Dream are rapidly becoming major players in an ever-increasingly crowded psych scene..utterly seductive.' The Quietus
'one of the most enthralling bands in the UK.' Far Out Magazine
The Lucid Dream return in October with the release of their 4th album, 'Actualisation'.
Driven by fans raising £10,000 to help replace all equipment robbed after a Paris show in early 2017, a new album became the instant focus in the summer of 2017 for a rejuvenated The Lucid Dream.
'Actualisation' is soaked in the influence of acid house, amalgamated with dub and kosmische. It will again see them acknowledged for venturing into pastures new, setting themselves apart from 'genres', 'scenes' or what any other act are currently doing.
The album was penned over the summer of 2017 by Mark Emmerson (vocals/guitar/synths), using only the classic Roland 303/808 synths, bass and vocals as tools for writing. Inspiration for the writing was formed via continuous listening to the Chicago to UK acid house works of 1986-1992, the focus predominantly on the groove.
Several months on from those writing sessions and The Lucid Dream have completed their 4th album in 5 years. A record made for the dancefloor.
Recorded at Whitewood Studios, Liverpool, with Rob Whiteley, the album is produced alongside long-time collaborator Ross Halden (Ghost Town Studios, Leeds), with mastering via Dean Honer (All Seeing I/I Monster/The Moonlandingz).
The confrontational techno-punk of 'Alone In Fear' opens the album, a 9-minute attack fuelled by the frustration and anger spawned by Brexit, government and a realisation of what 2018 Britain currently is.
Recent single 'SX1000' (the first work from the album, unveiled via 12' vinyl in April this year) is the band's first move into pure acid house. The acid house fusion runs throughout the record, represented furthermore by 'Ardency', a track already praised by live critics when aired live for the first time earlier this year as 'even on first hearing, would've raised the roof of The Hacienda'.
The 2-part opus of 'Zenith' follows, commencing with a space-dub/house instrumental groove before building into a track that will go for your head as much as your hips. Only 'Breakdown' harks back to sounds of old for the band, a little reminder of the skull-crushing impact they can make when stripped to the bare bones. 'No Sunlight Dub' closes the album, a dark-dub that invites the classic acid-house tool (Roland 808) into the dub. The track makes a stop-off into drum 'n' bass/jungle along the way before rounding up in a manner suited to Lee Perry, King Tubby, Augustus Pablo and other Jamaican greats.
The Lucid Dream formed in Carlisle, Cumbria, in 2008. A string of sold-out 7s was followed by the debut longer player, 'Songs Of Lies and Deceit', in August 2013. The initial vinyl pressing of the debut album (500 copies) sold out within 2 days, and was backed by a main stage slot at Kendal Calling, and supports to Death In Vegas and A Place To Bury Strangers (full UK tour).
The bands 2nd album ('The Lucid Dream') was released in March 2015 to further acclaim. This included 2 BBC 6 Music sessions and plays across most shows on the station, as well as plays from BBC Radio 1 (Huw Stephens) and BBC Radio 2. Further press followed from Uncut, The Skinny, Louder Than War, and Drowned In Sound, who named the album #7 UK album of 2015. Supports to Clinic and A Place To Bury Strangers also coincided.
3rd album, 'Compulsion Songs' was released in September 2016, on Holy Are You Recordings. The vinyl pressing of the album sold-out within a day, prompting an immediate 2nd press, with pre-sales of the album topping 1,000 before release. The album was backed by a headline UK tour, and a main slot at Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia (for which they were singled out for major plaudits from The Quietus, The Skinny and Drowned In Sound). The album again received acclaim from the likes of Mojo, Uncut, Classic Rock Magazine, BBC Radio 2 (Huey Morgan) and across the board on BBC 6 Music (Lauren Laverne, Marc Riley, Tom Ravenscroft, Gideon Coe, Stuart Maconie).
'Actualisation' is released on 19th October 2018 (CD/download/ltd red vinyl/standard black vinyl), via Holy Are You Recordings.
The second in a series of all-time CLASSIC hip-hop anthems from the Nervous vaults, pressed onto high quality dinked 45's.
Remastered from the original source material and featuring the unedited 'dirty' version on the A-side, and the full instrumental on the B-side, these 45's are for the heads who know what time it really is! 'How Many Emcee's Must Get Dissed' is that raw, NYC, Beatminerz flavour, even the video that dropped on MTV in 1993 is legendary featuring the whole Black Moon mob in their native Brooklyn posting up with their crew. Everyone remembers that Timberlands & Philly Blunts rap from the mid 90's onwards, raw SP1200 beats, dusty loops and samples pulled out of crates in the darkest corners of the five boroughs, a truly creative period in rap music and popular culture with many artists who came up in the era shaping the future of music from the streets upwards. Black Moon are one such group, their indelible mark on music is still felt today, the blend of streetwise raps and sturdy, murked out, jazzy beats supplied by the Dewgarde brothers is timeless. They sure don't make em like this anymore and if they did we're sure Black Moon would continually crush the competitors as they always did. Essential New York rap classics right here! Don't front. Fully legit, licensed and reissued by Above Board distribution in conjunction with Nervous Records, NYC. 2018.
- A1: Play (Feat. B. Bravo & Rojai)
- A2: Blackberry (Somebody Told Me) (Feat. B. Bravo & Rojai)
- A3: It's Alright (Feat. B. Bravo & Rojai)
- A4: Nice Touch (Feat. B. Bravo, Rojai & Sally Green)
- A5: Sweet Tea (Feat. B. Bravo, Rojai & Sally Green)
- B1: Favorite Song (Feat. B. Bravo & Rojai)
- B2: Those I Like (Feat. B. Bravo & Rojai)
- B3: Pure Delight (Feat. B. Bravo & Rojai)
- B4: Rain On My Window (Feat. B. Bravo & Rojai)
- B5: Tonight's The Night (Feat. B. Bravo & Rojaik)
2018 was the hottest summer on record...so let's see if we can cool things down while still keeping it warm all over (and over). Enter Kool Customer: a new collab from LA's beatsmith B.Bravo and the Bay's croon daddy Rojai, coming out September 21 on Bastard Jazz. The vibe: think West Coast Boogie Funk A la Dam-Funk, thrown in Styrofoam cup with some 80s synth steez, then escorted to the strip club (at 3AM) dressed head to toe in a white tux lined with gold chains.
The LP's kick-off "Play" is an ode to bed springs, as is the grand finale "Tonight's the Night"— but what happens in between the sheets Prepare yourself for the smooth basslines and raspy bars of "Sweet Tea," the creamy licks and buttery synths of "Pure Delight," and the heads down r&b of "Rain on My Window." You can also envision yourself cruising in a low-rider when throwing on the breezy "Blackberry (Somebody Told Me)," or surfing (slash exhaling) a cloud above the city on the woozy "Nice Touch." Expertly produced beats are nestled up to warm vocals and crafty lyricism about life and love and lust in 2018 a plenty here.
Metaphors aside, the debut from Kool Customer finds two talented musicians doing what they do best: chilling you out while making you move, in perfect unison. Also, keep an eye out for the super-special deluxe pack, that might just come in handy when you need it most. Ooh La La.
- A1: Orlando
- A2: Saint
- A3: Take Your Time
- A4: Hope Feat. Puff Daddy & Teishi
- B1: Jewelry
- B2: Family Feat. Janet Mock
- B3: Charcoal Baby
- B4: Vulture Baby
- C1: Chewing Gum Feat. Feat. A$Ap Rocky & Project Pat
- C2: Holy Will Feat. Ian Isiah
- C3: Dagenham Dream
- C4: Nappy Wonder
- D1: Runnin' Feat. Georgia Anne Muldrow
- D2: Out Of Your League Feat. Steve Lacy
- D3: Minetta Creek
- D4: Smoke
Producer, multi-instrumentalist, composer, songwriter and vocalist Devonté Hynes returns with his fourth album as Blood Orange, Negro Swan, released on Domino on August 24, 2018.
Raised in England, Hynes started out as a teenage punk in the UK band Test Icicles before releasing two orchestral acoustic pop records as Lightspeed Champion. In 2011, he released Coastal Grooves, the first of three solo albums under the moniker Blood Orange. His last album, Freetown Sound, was released to critical acclaim in 2016, and saw Hynes defined as one of the foremost musical voices of his time, receiving comparisons to the likes of Kendrick Lamar and D'Angelo for his own searing and soothing personal document of life as a black man in America. He has collaborated with Solange Knowles, Skepta, fka twigs, Carly Rae Jepsen, A$AP Rocky, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Blondie, and many other artists, and was recently one of four artists invited to the Kennedy Center to perform alongside Philip Glass. In addition to his production work, he scored the film Palo Alto, directed by Gia Coppola.
Negro Swan was written and produced by Hynes. Says Hynes:
'My newest album is an exploration into my own and many types of black depression, an honest look at the corners of black existence, and the ongoing anxieties of queer/people of color. A reach back into childhood and modern traumas, and the things we do to get through it all. The underlying thread through each piece on the album is the idea of HOPE, and the lights we can try to turn on within ourselves with a hopefully positive outcome of helping others out of their darkness.'
- A1: Schntzl - Lindbergh
- A2: Brzzvll - De Vlijtige Kip
- A3: 2 Times Nothing - Fuckbox
- A4: Labtrio - Elevator
- B1: Glass Museum - Tribal Coffee
- B2: Steiger - Part One
- B3: De Beren Gieren - Oude Beren
- B4: Black Flower - Artifacts
- C1: Commander Spoon - Introducing - Part Iii
- C2: Compro Oro - Bombarda
- C3: Stuff. - Strata
- C4: Mazzle - Hikari Park
- D1: Madame Blavatsky - Steak In The Neck
- D2: Collective Conscience - Takeoff
- D3: Beraadgeslagen - Suikerbeat
- D4: Pudding Oo - Hiza Hiza Hey
Vol.2 Black Vinyl[24,79 €]
Vol.2 Limted Red Vinyl[26,01 €]
Vol. 3 Black Vinyl[24,16 €]
Vol. 3 Transparent Violet Vinyl[27,52 €]
"It´s More Like Jazz For DJ´s"
2lp In Gatefold Sleeve With Liner Notes. 180gr Vinyl. Including Download Card. An Outstanding Collection Of Musical Gems From Belgium's Thriving Jazz Scene. Compiled By Belgian Dj And Eclectic Connoisseur Lefto.
Here at Death & Leisure we are on a continuing mission to surprise and experiment, and so with our new release we present something very special, Blackmoon1348 and The Tibetan Monks of The Tashi Lhunpo Monastary. This project sounds like nothing else, it fuses heavy drone guitar sounds with traditional tibetan throat singing and live instrumentation.
BlackMoon1348 in collaboration with the Tibetan Monks of the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery (Tibet/ India). 2017 BlackMoon1348 embarked on a cultural experimentation of cultural diversity in the arts, forming a collaboration of ancient Tibetan ceremonial practises and instrumentation with sub-harmonic drones and industrial soundscapes. The music amalgamates sacred mantras that date back to the early teachings of Tibetan Buddhism practised in the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, with heavy detuned western instruments, synths, and electronic music for the first time in recorded history. The Tashi Lhunpo monastery was once home to the Panchen Lama who subsequently 'disappeared' under the oppressive Chinese rule of Tibet. A handful of the Tashi Lhunpo monks were fortunate to escape into exile and have since re-built the monastery in Mysore, South India - now flourishing with over 400 monks practising within the monastery. Tibetan Buddhism is an outlawed ancient tradition within Tibet - monks, nuns, and Tibetans cannot openly practise their heritage and traditions, forcing Tibetans to inhabitable plateaus, with such areas are now under 'Chinese Re-development', the land being stripped of natural resources for China's ever growing economy and totalitarian rule. Tibetans face persecution for as little as owning a Tibetan flag, or picture of the Dali Lama, with such actions landing you in jail, tortured, poised, and/or being released just before the point of death. It is important for us to remember and celebrate the traditions of the Himalayas and its sacred, peaceful practises.
The music was recorded live in one take at Flesh and Bone studio in Hackney for NTS Radio's Black Impulse show. Engineered, mixed, and mastered by Oliver and Owen at Flesh and Bone, capturing the raw, ethereal essence of the collaboration and ceremonial sounds buried deep within the Himalayas. This was the first time in history for such collaboration of tradition, ideology from Adeline Rozario and orchestrated by David Kerry of BlackMoon1348 who created this music to diversify and bring together ceremonial instruments, diversifying the metaphysics of transcendence through ceremonial Tibetan practises.
It is important to understand that BlackMoon1348 are not attempting to change the fundamental meaning or belief of the Tashi Lhunpo Monks, or assume to have a deep-rooted understanding of the ancient traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, This is our understanding of Tibetan culture and practices as truly and honestly as we see and feel it, and our attempt to spread this beautiful, sacred, culture, and keep it alive within today's society.
Liberation through hearing.
On her debut EP, Brussels-based multi-instrumentalist Esinam gives us an entrancing insight into her eclectic world of jazztronica.
Released 21st September via Sdban Ultra, her self-titled EP carries influences from different worlds geographically, culturally and musically. Blending traditional and modern instruments with her soulful voice, the acoustic sounds of the instruments are allowed to evolve and take on new dimensions, opening up a kaleidoscopic spectrum of sound and colour.
Esinam Dogbatse is part of a new generation of musicians bringing forth a cultural blend of music. Having opened for the likes of Nakhane and Témé Tan at Les Nuits earlier this year, Belgian rapper Baloji invited her to guest on his latest critically acclaimed album '137 Avenue Kaniama'. She has also supported Alsarah & The Nubatones, Selah Sue and Melanie De Biasio on her sold-out shows at Ancienne Belgique.
For the recording of the EP, Esinam joined forces with Jules Fradet from Studio Planet (Damso, Afrikan Prötökol). Producing and playing most of the instruments herself, the EP was mastered by LA-based producer Kelly Hibbert aka Almachrome (J Dilla, Madlib, Little Dragon, Flying Lotus, Ebo Taylor, Mark de Clive-Lowe and Arca).
Lead track 'Birds Fly Under a Heavy Sky' is a mesmerising opener that smoulders effortlessly against a backdrop of subtle beats and sensual rhythms, with Esinam's soft vocals and hypnotic flute providing the groove.
On 'Do Not Go Into That Black Night', she is dark and direct. It's a magnetic take on jazz noire that doesn't distract from the sultry inflections of her voice, while 'Gavoé' recalls the spirit of her Ghanaian roots in a ballet of instruments that display a level of personal freedom and sensitivity. Through merging different genres of music, we are warmly welcomed into Esinam's musical universe.
Esinam teamed up with Senegalese DJ and producer Ibaaku on the highly charged 'Electric Lady', who provided some distinctive musical hues. A track drenched in afro-futurist colours, sonic samples and collages freely mix with electric and raw sounds, supporting the energetic playing of the flute. The structure of the song remains true to Esinam's signature sounds: surprising ruptures, poetic atmospheres and constant affirmation of groove.
When Esinam performs live, she juggles traditional instruments such as the tama, kalimba and pandeiro, which she loops and blends with the sound of her flute and voice. It sometimes triggers dance, sometimes contemplation
- A1: Dinah Washington - Mad About The Boy
- A2: Lavern Baker - Love Me Right
- A3: The Shirelles - Will You Love Me Tomorrow
- A4: Etta James - I Just Want To Make Love To You
- A5: Gladys Knight & The Pips - Every Beat Of My Heart
- A6: Mary Wells - Bad Boy
- A7: Aretha Franklin - God Bless The Child
- A8: Martha Reeves & The Vandellas - My Baby Won't Come Back
- B1: Nina Simone - I Put A Spell On You
- B2: Marlena Shaw - Women Of The Ghetto (Album Version)
- B3: Lorraine Ellison - Stay With Me (Baby)
- B4: Martha Reeves & The Vandellas - Dancing In The Street
- B5: Betty Wright - Clean Up Woman
- B6: Minnie Riperton - Lovin' You
- C1: Diana Ross - Love Hangover
- C2: Kellee Patterson - I'm Gonna Love You Just A Little More, Baby
- C3: Dee Edwards - I Can Deal With That
- C4: Gwen Mccrae - Let's Straighten It Out
- C5: Millie Jackson - All The Way Lover
- D1: Lyn Collins - Don't Make Me Over
- D2: Donna Summer - Love To Love You Baby
- D3: Tina Turner - Whole Lotta Love
- D4: Erykah Badu & The Roots - You Got Me
- D5: Amy Winehouse - Back To Black
- D6: Jil Scott - Brotha
LP in printed innersleeve + download code. STUFF.'s highly anticipated new album is a cross genre groove, spanning broken hip-hop, electronica and jazz-influenced future funk, bringing forth a completely different and exciting sound.
STUFF.'s highly anticipated new album is a cross genre groove, spanning broken hip-hop, electronica and jazz-influenced future funk, bringing forth a completely different and exciting sound.
With fans that include Plaid, Kev Beadle, Kutmah, Lefto and Gilles Peterson, STUFF. began life in 2012 when drummer Lander Gyselinck was asked to play live music in-between DJ sets. Collecting together like-minded musician friends, they would keep the vibe of the room bubbling, with spaced-out jams and improvisation, taking elements of funk, RNB, electronica, jazz and hip-hop, forming their own compositions as a result.
Hotly tipped in Belgium as one of the country's brightest new hopes, they released their first EP the same year, which included the track D.O.G.G. and it caught the attention of bloggers, 22tracks and DJs across Paris and Brussels. Supports slots with D'Angelo and Robert Glasper soon followed and the band would go on to share the stage at the Dour Festival with Hiatus Koyote, Flying Lotus and Lefto.
In 2014, STUFF. were invited to perform a Boiler Room session for the prestigious global, online music broadcasting platform, the first European live band to do so.
The band's self-titled debut album, released in 2015, received critical acclaim, with the Belgian press citing the release as the "record of the year" and "the best thing that happened musically in Belgium since the last 25 years". Mastered by Daddy Kev (Flying Lotus, Thundercat, Jon Wayne), several tracks from the album received airplay on leading dance and electronica radio stations across Europe, and included support from Gilles Peterson on BBC Radio 6 Music and Phil Taggart on BBC Radio 1.
STUFF. have performed sold out shows across Europe and have gained a growing reputation for their explosive eclectic live sets, playing over 150 shows on such diverse stages as the North Sea Jazz Festival (Netherlands), Pukkelpop (Belgium), Secret Garden Party (UK), Shambala festival (UK), Dimensions (Croatia) and Fusion (Germany). The band were also personally invited by Gilles Peterson to perform at On Blackheath, London.
Accolades in Belgium include two MIA's (Belgian Music Industry Awards) for 'Best Musician' (Lander Gyselinck) and 'Best Artwork' (Rinus Van de Velde).
STUFF. are Andrew Claes (ewi/sax), Lander Gyselinck (drums), Joris Caluwaerts (keyboards), Dries Laheye (bas), Mixmonster Menno (turntables)
Released on Leeds Jazz & Soul labelATA Records, the debut LP fromThe Lewis Express takes the rich legacy of the soul-jazz outfits of the 1960s as the initial blueprint of their sound. Taking inspiration from the likes of Ramsey Lewis, Young-Holt, Eddie Cano, Ray Bryant and Cannonball Adderley, they present a collection of tracks that range from introspective spy film themes to burning Brazilian jazz.
Primarily based in Leeds, The Lewis Express is comprised of many of the musicians that have graced previous ATA releases: George Cooper, Piano (Abstract Orchestra) Neil Innes, Bass (The Sorcerers, The Magnificent Tape Band, Tony Burkill), Sam Hobbs, Drums (Dread Supreme, Tony Burkill, Matthew Bourne) and Pete Williams, Percussion (The Sorcerers, The Magnificent Tape Band, Tony Burkill). Recorded over an intense two-day session by the band of the same name, "The Lewis Express" is a nod to the classic soul jazz recordings of The Young Holt Trio / Young-Holt Unlimited and Ramsey Lewis, from who this group take their name. But, delivered with a distinctly European feel. As with many of the classic Ramsey Lewis cuts, this album was recorded live, capturing the rich inter-relationship between the players.
Kicking off the album isLove Can't Turn A Man, a slow burner that introduces the piano of George Cooper as he works over a rock solid backbeat.Cancao De Momentois an up-tempo Brazilian Workout in the style of Milton Banana with rhythmic piano punctuated by percussion.Brother Move Onis probably the most recognizable as being in the soul jazz vein, with nods to such classics as Ramsey Lewis'The 'In' CrowdandSoulful Strutby Young Holt Unlimited, particularly the latter. Moving intoHawkshaw Philly(their nod to session music legend and leader of The Mohawks, Alan Hawkshaw) the band create what sounds like a rare library cut.Theme From The Watcheris a nod to the cinematic soul-jazz of the 60s, conjuring up the sort of imagery that coincides with the black and white spy thrillers, espionage and intrigue.Last Man In The Chain Ganghas a very strong Ramsey Lewis feel and offers some of the most powerful piano playing of the whole album. The final track,Straight Seven Strut, is the only vocal track of the album. The staccato swing and French vocals lend it some of the qualities of 60s yé-yé music but with a far jazzier backbone, spiced with percussive handclaps.
Over the last several years, the Zappa Family Trust and UMC have lovingly been restoring Frank Zappa's iconic catalog together by reissuing his classic albums on CD and pressing long-out-of-print records back on vinyl. Next up in the ongoing vinyl initiative, coming on the heels of the reissue of his enigmatic Burnt Weeny Sandwich, is Zappa's 1970 stylistically diverse and subversive album, Chunga's Revenge, which will receive a 180-gram audiophile repressing on black vinyl on July 20. Supervised by the ZFT, the record, which has been unavailable on vinyl for more than three decades, will be press pressed at Pallas In Germany and feature reproductions of the original artwork. Chunga's Revenge, although released under Frank Zappa's own name, introduced a new Mothers lineup that included former Turtles members Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman, aka Flo and Eddie, as well as keyboardist George Duke, drummer Aynsley Dunbar and multi-instrumentalist Ian Underwood. The album is one of Zappa's most eclectic efforts, encompassing the improvisational title track, the raucous guitar jam "Transylvania Boogie," the bluesy "Road Ladies" and the jazzy "Twenty Small Cigars," along with more conventional rock numbers like "Tell Me You Love Me," "Would You Go All the Way" and "Sharleena."
Halleluja Mystic Garden contains two long sides of blissed out, super tight AMT jams that somehow stretch into the future while staying strongly rooted in the group's celebrated psychedelic history. Hallelujah!, another essential AMT classic including vocals from Cotton Casino ! First pressing of 500 copies. Packaged in a heavy duty single pocket sleeve with silver metallic inks. Part 2 will be released later this year on Important Records.Cotton Casino : voice, astral mama
Kawabata Makoto : guitar, fretless bass, bouzouki, organ, rhythm machine, electronics, tapes, speed guru Higashi Hiroshi : synthesizer, noodle king Mitsuko Tabata : guitar, guitar-synthesizer, voice, kisses & hugs Satoshima Nani : drums, another dimension S/T "Wolf" : bass, tapes, space & time recorded at Acid Mothers Temple, Jun. 2016 - Mar. 2017 produced and mixed by Kawabata Makoto
"Manchester has produced some of the world's most loved artists and bands - from indie to acid house - listened to by millions around the world.
Ad Hoc Records continues this musical tradition, as a record label dedicated to showcasing the very best of Manchester's music scene - with a firm 21st century, 'post-everything' mentality. First, Banana Hill's very own: Cervo (Black Acre/Lumberjacks in Hell); with its pulsing beat and bassline, Hesse Groove makes you want to discover a new part of town late at night. Next, is Taurtollo with an outstanding, universal composition that will be sure to delight ears and dancefloors. Penultimately, Paul Chamber's brings a raw, Fela Kuti sampling afro-house cut sure to get your head bobbing. Lastly, Ad Hoc regular Yadava (Church/Banoffee Pies/So Flute) brings the relaxing jazz-funk number Kadampa 125. If this doesn't get you moving whilst simultaneously achieving a zen state of mind, nothing will."
First Ever Vinyl Reissue, Limited Edition To 500 Copies Only, Bonus Tracks Not On The Original Lp, Remastered Sound, Insert With Liner Notes By Nick Rossi And Photos, Beautifully Housed In Three Back-flapped 1960s Uk Style Picture Sleeve ! The Wynder K. Frog Story Evolves Around Mick Weaver. After He Switched From Piano To Organ He Joined A Band Named The Chapters That Would Soon Be Renamed Wynder K. Frog And Perform Material From James Brown's Flames, Booker T. And The Mgs Or Even Songs Learned Through Georgie Fame's Recordings And Graham Bond's Repertoire. Wynder K. Frog Moved To London And Became Regulars In The City's R&b Scene Playing At Swingin' London's Clubs Like The Tiles Or The Marquee. A Contract With Island Records Was Secured And -under The Wings Of Producers Like Chris Blackwell, Guy Stevens, Jimmy Miller Or Gus Dudgeon- Wynder K Frog, A Name That Would Eventually Be Used As A Pseudonym For Weaver More Than A Proper Band Name, Did Some Some Amazing Hammond Organ-ized Recordings And Issued In Three Lps And A Bunch Of Cool 45s.
At The End Of The 1960s, Weaver Would Quit The "band Scene" To Become One Of The Most In Demand Session Musicians And Throughout His Career He'd Be Heard Backing Names Such As Eric Burdon, Roger Chapman, Dave Gilmour, Keef Hartley, Alexis Korner, Ralph Mctell, Taj Mahal Or Otis Rush A.o, But His Lps As Wynder K Frog Are Classic Hammond Sound From The 1960s Uk And Will Appeal To Those Into Brian Auger, Graham Bond, The Artwoods, Zoot Money, Jimmy Mcgriff, Booker T. & The Mgs And The Likes.
Out Of The Frying Pan
Released At The End Of The Summer Of 1968, And With A Host Of Session Musicians That Included The Brass Section Of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Producer Gus Dudgeon Helped Weaver / Wynder K Frog To Improve The Results Obtained On The Debut Lp And Get One Step Closer To The Live Action. The Formula Was More Or Less The Same, Instrumental Hammond A Go Go Covers Of Hits From The Era, Including The Rolling Stones' "jumping Jack Flash", A Funked Up Version Of The Classic Tommy Tucker Blues Number "hi Heel Sneakers", An Exploding Cover Of "tequila" Or The Standard "green Door", But It Also Included The Sensational Weaver-penned "harpsichord Shuffle".
Remastered And Resissued Double A Sider For Soul Aficionados, B Boys And Jazz Funk Lovers.
Both Instantly Recognisable Across The Generations, The A Side Sees A Reissue Of One Of The Most Feel Good Records Out There In - 'express Yourself'. Most Famously Sampled By The Mighty N.w.a. In '89.... 'whatever You Do, Do It Good'.
On Flip You Get Pure Funk Destruction In The Form Of The Meters - Just Kissed My Baby. An Insatiable, Groove Laden Intro Which Has Been Prime Sampling Material Throughout The Years - Most Notably In Public Enemy's 'timebomb'.
Limited repress on Black vinyl, with a large / dinked centre hole.
* "Of all the dubplates in my bag from this last few years, the ones I've selected most often have Walton's name scribbled on the sleeve. 'Black Lotus' is a unique creative statement; I'm very proud to release it on Tectonic and to support Walton, who I believe is a true talent." Pinch
* On July 6th Tectonic recordings presents the game-changing second album by 26 year old Mancunian Sam Walton, better known as simply Walton.
* 'Black Lotus' follows his inclusion on Tectonic's landmark 100th release - Riko Dan's 'Hard Food' EP, plus the 'Praying Mantis'/ 'Koto Riddim' 12' (also on Tectonic) and the 'Taiko' EP on Kaizen - the latter two of which hinted at the album's sound, but didn't fully prepare us for the brilliance to come.
* Abstract electronics, grime, dubstep and new styles that don't even have a name yet coalesce perfectly on this classic in the making. It finds Walton at peak power, reaching just as far (if not more so) than anything on the Pan, Different Circles, Boxed or Tectonic catalogues for pure futurism and new-terrain-traversing brilliance.
* Spacious and modern sounding, with just the right amount of grit, on 'Black Lotus' Walton has taken things the next level - setting an impressive new high bar. This is the best music to take inspiration from far eastern culture since Photek's seminal 'Ni - Ten - Ichi - Ryu' and 'The Water Margin'.
* Cinematic may be a term bandied about too often, but on this record it unquestionably applies, with the whole thing playing out like an epic movie, full of highs, lows, action, reflection and changing scenes.
* The album kicks off with 'Black Lotus', which makes it quickly evident that this isn't just another generic longplayer; a weightless/sino style intro segues into a mystical kalimba line, which is then is enveloped by huge waves of synthesized, pitched-down brass.
* 'Point Blank' offers locked, harsh mechanical funk, full of aggravated excitement, before sleek, spacious grime and disguised pop garage achieve twisted anthem status, on the hugely satisfying 'Koto Riddim'.
* 'No Mercy''s Yakuza crime riff is perfect for Riko Dan's threatening menace, especially at the point his voice gets distorted into a guttral and unsettling, demon-like wretch.
* 'Mad Zapper' is abstract, comprised of simple yet challenging beats, tones and stutters, whilst 'Angry Drummer''s taiko/kumi-daiko style percussion has a rousing, heavy thump.
* 'Pan' sounds equally enthralling whether soundtracking a dark movie scene of impending danger, or carying enratptured ravers on a danceflor journey, especially one suited to the synapse-prodding drama of a high production, lazer-heavy festival set.
* Choppy drums and bouncy bass tones are laced with the georgeos melody of 'Ehru', and 'Vectors' is sleek 'n' deep breakbeat-garage-meets-IDM.
* Although already known for elements of musicality, Walton raises his game even higher with the beautiful closing track 'White Lotus', which has a wow factor akin to hearing Aphex's Twin's 'Jynweythek Ylow' for the first time.
* 'The title came from the idea that I wanted it to be sweet and melodic in areas, but dark and grimey at the same time', recalls Walton. 'I never really listened to much Japanese and Chinese music before working on this, and that element originally came from listening to a lot of Sino grime stuff. It wasn't until I was deep into the process of making the album that I started listening to loads of traditional stuff on YouTube for melodic ideas, which changed how it turned out. The whole dubstep techno crossover thing was also a big influence.'
* 'I'm really happy to have Riko Dan & Wen on there', he adds. 'I've done a few remixes of Riko tunes which have had a great response, so it's been wicked to get some original material done together. The track with Wen was first started a while back, so I'm glad it was finally finished and will see a release.'
* Walton has been steadily gaining serious clout through releases since 2011 on Hyperdub, Keysound, Tectonic and Kaizen, with supporters including Mumdance, Logos, Slimzee, Laurel Halo, Wen, Hodge, Mary Anne Hobbs, Giles Peterson, Paleman, Teki Latex, Commodo, Loefah and Kode9. Key club, festival and radio shows include FWD at Plastic People, Fabric, Outlook, NTS, Rinse and BBC 1xtra.
- A1: Horace Andy - Illiteracy
- A2: The Heptones - Be A Man
- A3: The Manchesters - Natty Gone
- A4: The Gladiators - Down Town Rebel
- A5: Willie Williams - Calling
- B1: Roland Alphonso & Brentford All Stars - Sir D Special
- B2: Keith Wilson - God I God I Say
- B3: Alton Ellis - Almost Anything
- C1: Bobby Kalphat & The New Establishment - Adis A Wa Wa
- C2: Peter Broggs - Sing A New Song
- C3: Mystic Revelations Of Rastafari - Let Freedom Reign
- C4: Larry & Alvin - Free I Lord
- C5: Ernest Wilson & The Sound Dimension - Freedom Fighter
- D1: Jackie Mittoo - Happy People
- D2: Prince Lincoln - Daughters Of Zion
- D3: High Charles - Zion
- D4: Winston Jarrett - Love Jah Jah
This Is The Second Installment Of Deep Roots Rastafarian Reggae At Studio One And Features Classic Music From Some Of The Most Important Figures In Reggae Music - Alton Ellis, The Heptones, Jackie Mittoo, The Gladiators - Alongside A Host Of Rarities And Little-known Recordings, Such As A Truly Rare Mystic Revelation Of Rastafari Seven-inch Single, Willie William's First Ever Recording 'calling' And Horace Andy's Righteous (and Equally Rare) Masterpiece 'illiteracy. Black Man's Pride 2 Extends The Legacy Of Studio One's Ground-breaking Path In Roots Reggae Which Began At The End Of The 1960s And Continued Throughout The 1970s. The Album Tells The Story Of How The Rise Of Studio One Records And The Rastafari Movement Were Interconnected, Through The Adoption Of The Rastafari Faith By Key Reggae Artists - Everyone From The Skatalites And Wailers In The 1960s, Major Singers Such As Alton Ellis And Horace Andy At The End Of The Decade, Through To Major Roots Artists Such As The Gladiators In The 1970s - And How Clement Dodd Consistently Recorded This Heavyweight Roots Music Throughout Studio One's History.
The Sleeve-notes To This Album Also Discuss The Links Between Rastafari And Studio One In Time And Place, Noting How Both The Religion And Clement Dodd's Musical Empire Had Their Roots In The Intense Period Of Pre-independence Jamaica In Kingston, Expanded In The 1960s Following The Visit Of Haile Selassie In 1966, And How Roots Music Then Came To Dominate Reggae Music In The Early 1970s. Also Discussed Is How The Outsider Stance Of Both Reggae Music And The Rastafari Movement Relate Back Many Hundreds Of Years To The Original Rebel Stance Of The Maroons, Escaped Slaves Who Set Up Self-sufficient Enclaves In The Hills Of The Jamaican Countryside.
Austin Based Experimental Collective Thousand Foot Whale Claw Is Back With The New Cosmic Full Length black Hole Party, Out June 29, 2018. Featuring Members Of S U R V I V E, Troller, Single Lash And Future Museums, This Is The Supergroup's Second Lp And Their Most Accomplished Work To Date. Inspired By Progressive 70's German Kraut-rock, Thousand Foot Whale Claw Maintains A Classic Style While Establishing An Original Voice. With Album Art By Renowned Contemporary Sci-fi/fantasy Illustrator Kilian Ang, black Hole Party's Aesthetic Is Cohesively Curated Throughout Its Dense, Multi-layered Track List, Ranging From Serene Sound Baths To Driving Dance Beats.
Tfwc Was Founded In San Marcos, Tx By A Core Group Of College Friends Who Bonded Over Loose Collaborative Jams Of Effects Driven Improvisations. Eventually These Unstructured Practices Evolved Into Refined Studio Sessions And Intense Live Performances, Leading To A Rich Discography And Enthusiastic Fanbase. Balancing Repetition With The Unexpected, Tfwc's Sustained Motifs Slowly Reveal The Band's Signature Free-form Experimentation. Known For Heavy Walls Of Guitar And Electronic Drones, Tfwc Spirals Into Circular Rhythms And Looping Riffs Stacked With Shredding Guitar Solos And Ambient Soundscapes. Explorations Spurring From A Central Theme Is The Basis For The Band's Compositional Approach, Always Seeking New Instruments, Sound Sources And Production Techniques For Each Piece. Recorded And Engineered At Stassney Studios In Austin, Tx With Producer/artist Dylan Cameron, black Hole Party Has Become The Band's Most Defining Body Of Work Thus Far.
On black Hole Party, The Polished Structure And Acute Development Of All Six Tracks Is Distinct And Tangible, Making This Record More Composed Than Any Of Their Previous Releases. Propulsive Songs Such As deridium Rail' And The Album's Title Track Are Driven By Four-on-the-floor Dance Beats And Arpeggiated Synthesizers, Contrasting Songs Like genesis Effect' That Predominantly Features The Natural Tones Of 12-string Acoustic Guitar And Harmonium. The Wide Variety Of Sonic Flavors Is Reflective Of Tfwc's Vast Musical Tastes, Refusing To Settle On One Approach And Allowing The Band's Idiosyncrasies To Shine Regardless Of Genre. To Classify Tfwc As An Instrumental Psych Band Is Only Partially Accurate, However There Are A Lack Of Proper Terms To Fully Encapsulate The Band's Broad Scope. Black Hole Party Is The Latest And Brightest Collection Of Songs From Thousand Foot Whale Claw, Meant To Be Enjoyed In A Multitude Of Environments For All Fans Of Expansive Listening.
One of Australia's most dynamic up & coming acts acts, The Goods have become vital members of Sydney's rising soul/electronic scene in just a few short years. With word spreading internationally and the band recently joining forces with Brooklyn-based label Bastard Jazz Recordings, The Goods are gearing up to release their hotly anticipatedMake Your MoveEP as they put the finishing touches on their debut album out later this year.
Consisting of founding members Badmandela and Rosario, along with the more recent addition of vocalist Black Tree, The Goods first burst onto the scene in 2016 with the release of their self-titled double EP rooted in a steady stream of hip-hop, space funk, low slung house and soul. Recognised by outlets such as Complex, MTV, VICE and Indie Shuffle, The Goods have also been heralded for their smashing live sets, sharing stages with the likes of Oddisee and Onra, in addition to highlight performances at various music festivals.
TheMake Your Move EPdocuments The Goods' exploration into faster tempos and broken rhythms, and was created in a much more collaborative spirit than their previous work. With Black Tree now an official member, the trio has tapped back into their roots as improvising musicians, with experimentations and ideas developed during their live shows making their way back into the studio, and fine-tuned into the tracks on this new EP.
Led by the bumping, soulful vibes of singles "Make Your Move" and "Glow", the new EP is an exciting taste of what's to come from The Goods in 2018.
HESITATION is the culmination of a slow-burning penpal friendship between Reckno founder Chris Catlin (aka Yaaard), and Kit Records honcho Richard Greenan (sometimes Devon Loch). Meeting in London in 2016, the pair recorded a woozy slab of improvs, using a battered organ, guitars, a saxophone and whatever else came to hand. These takes were then stitched together into a seven track LP over the following two years.
Veering from shoegaze to crystal clear electronics and fuzzed out jazz, the results pull two ways: slow and fast, meditative and exuberant. Here is a place where time bends and bubbles, drunk synthetic choirs follow an endless skywards pulse, and plaited melodies hover in warm air like motes of dust.
Recommended if you like the heart-on-sleeve whistle alongs of Tenniscoats, Zappa's foggier guitar serpents or the creeping black magic of early Sebadoh. HESITATION is a joint release between Kit Records, Reckno and videogamemusic.
Next up on the ever-eclectic XVI Records, a shadowy figure steps into the spotlight: enter the mysterious Captain Over, whose dark yet soulful bruk-infused tracks soundtrack the next stage of their voyage towards the sun. For his debut outing, Captain Over calls on the abstract vocal stylings of the legendary Trim (Roll Deep, 1800 Dinosaur) on opening track 'SICK'.
Showcasing why he's one of the most iconic and forward-thinking MC's to grace the mic, Trim's dulcet tones twist through a jungle of shuffled beats and subterranean sub-bass, an eerie child-like melody drifting overhead.
Clack Clack and No One Ever Really Flies inhabit a more dancefloor friendly space, their unique syncopation, fierce instrumentation and relentless energy open up the dancefloor for some real get loose moments.
On the remix, they hand the controls over to XVI homestay Books (following on from the success of his previous 'Feel It In My Bones' and 'High Praise Edits Vol 1' releases which won praise from the likes of The Black Madonna, Moodymann, Gilles Peterson and Seven Davis Jr) Books expertly crafts a cosmic footwork jam, full of his trademark soulful chords and eerie midnight saxophone licks.
As he prepares to launch his forthcoming EP 'No-One Every Really Flies' into the cosmos ; Captain Over is beginning to cement his place as one to watch in the UK underground - a sequel EP featuring grime upstart Nico Lindsay is scheduled for release later in the year, with several more collaborative works in progress.
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Sharif Laffrey can charm the snake out of any basket. This is his first offering for the ESP Institute. Side A's Tangier is a long drawn-out exercise, an endurance test of the highest order. Over the span of some thirteen minutes, elements bob and weave intermittently and layers overlap haphazardly—the type of exciting dynamic that's born out of restriction—as if putting down a live jam without enough hands to work the console, yet Sharif perseveres. As touch and go as this arrangement may be, there is something that undoubtedly glues it all in place; the combination of his massive rolling 16th-note bassline and his tough-as-nails drumkit is so good that, upon first listen, we spat out our tea and insisted on its release. On side B, Everything Is Nice carries on with loose arrangement, dirty production and layers of inexplicable spoken- word samples (a Sharif calling card by now) but this time we're lead to a melancholy place, the blue comedown to Side A's antagonistic trial. With his ESP Institute debut, Sharif leaves you mentally unhinged, as if you've smoked something interesting and arrived bewildered in some Saharan labyrinth. These two songs will guide you through the medina to score the black meat.
Ryan Parks is a mixed media artist, music producer/performer,
and CEO/founder of critically robust cassette tape label, HARSH
RIDDIMS. He was born in College Park, GA and grew up skating
all around Atlanta, soaking up the dense kaleidoscopic cultural
ooze found both in and outside the perimeter of Atlanta. Aside
from his visual practice, which usually takes shape as mixed
media (Jacob Lawrence/Matisse inspired in my opinion!) collage,
he has been releasing music as FIT OF BODY for seven years. Fit
of Body crafts soulful house ballads that draw on freestyle, Bell
Hooks, old school Detroit techno, jazz, and southern rap passed
through a No Wave paradigm. Fit of Body has previously released
work on CGI, DKA, Ransom Note, and his own label,
Harsh Riddims.
It's been over 10 years since the release of Gui Boratto's breakthrough full length debut 'Chromophobia'. As to what its title suggests, he shook up the techno game with a contrast of lushly coloured minimal grooves and melody, whilst many will recall that the album included the highlight single Beautiful Life' which became a dance floor anthem for that era. Four albums in and countless EPs and remixes under his belt, the Brazilian producer's unique savoir-faire in carving out a functional album out of diversely routed singles and features is back at it on his fifth studio LP, 'Pentagram'. Here Gui Boratto lays down a nuanced 12-track narrative that reinvigorates his signature sound into a refreshingly different perspective that feels all too familiar - including the return of Beautiful Life' vocalist (and Gui Boratto's wife) Luciana Villanova on the single "Overload".
Through his signature kaleidoscopic approach, Boratto delivers an album built as a far-reaching hub-and-spoke system, broadly inclusive as can be. From the opening cut, 'The Walker' - hot on the trail of Tears For Fears 'Elemental' (one of Boratto's "favourite 80's bands") - to the hi-NRG euphoria of 'Forgotten' and its pounding tech alter ego 'Forgive Me'. "I was going into 2 different directions", Boratto says, "the typical indie- electronic-rock' Boratto kind of production like It's Majik' or Like You' and a much more techno approach." He goes on, "I decided to split them into two twin sister songs. When I play live I always put these two songs together."
The Brazilian Producer further embraces the pop-friendly essence of his past work on tracks like 'The Phoenix', featuring vocalist Nathan Berger, and 'Overload', both melding acidulous synthlines with laser-precise breaks, vox hooks and drops calibrated for extended radio and club use, although sieved through his distinctive rainbow-hued musical prism. For the symbolists out there, the album's pared-down closer '618' duration accidentally happens to equate the proportions of the said pentagram. "Coincidence" Boratto questions, and capsulises, "not so ufanista and supporter of Brazilian neo-concretism, but I guess the brazilian sculptor Lygia Clark also inspired me a lot. Not the meaning of her sculptures, but the shape of the hinge of most of her work. I've wanted to transmit the scientific pentagram's point of view. It's not a religious kind of thing."
Whereas 'Spur' (a field-tested 808 and 909-heavy "purist track", "very, very old school" Boratto insists) and 'Alcazar' are sheer smooth-edged four-to- the-floor epics, the album also shares its lot of startling moments, such as with the John Barry'esque 'Scene 2' (with a hint of Amon Tobin, 'Easy Muffin' style, throw in) and its refined string-laden buildup, 100% fitted for a 007 opening credit sequence, or with 'Hallucination' (feat B.T.) and the further James Holden-ish title-track 'Pentagram' (think 'The Idiots Are Winning'), "one of those exercises I did when I got my Buchla modular synth" Boratto analyses, "I think I've used more then 30 different snares, with different delays and reverbs. The whole song is alive". And so is 'Pentagram' in its entirety: alive and definitely just as manifold and hopeful as its architectonics are the stuff of science and dreams all at once.
Es ist zehn Jahre her seit der Veröffentlichung von Gui Borattos bahnbrechendem Debütalbum - Chromophobia . So wie der Titel vermuten ließ, war das Album mit seinen kontrastreichen Minimalgrooves und den üppig gefärbten Melodien ein Schocker im besten Sinne. Ihr erinnert euch sicher noch an die Hit-Single - Beautiful Life , eine Dancefloor-Hymne aus dieser Zeit. Nach vier Alben und unzähligen EPs und Remixen ist das einmalige Savoir-faire des brasilianischen Produzenten, aus vielfältigen Singles und Features stimmige Alben zu schaffen, auch auf seinem fünften Studioalbum - Pentagram zu hören. Hier legt Gui Boratto ein Zwölf-Track-Narrativ vor, das seine Handschrift auf erquickende Weise wiederbelebt. Wiederbelebt wird auch die Stimme von - Beautiful Life (die der Frau Gui Borattos gehört) auf dem Stück - Overload .
Durch seinen charakteristisch kaleidoskopischen Ansatz liefert Boratto ein Album, das gebaut ist wie die Speichen deines Fahrrads, von dem Opener - The Walker - direkt auf der Spur von Tears For Fears - Elemental (einer von Borattos - favourite 80's bands ) - zur Hi-NRG-Euphorie von - Forgotten und seinem stampfenden Counterpart - Forgive Me . - Ich bin in zwei unterschiedlichen Richtungen gegangen , sagt Boratto: - den typischen ,Indie-Electronic-Rock'-Weg wie in - It's Majik oder - Like You und den Techno-Weg. Er fügt hinzu: - Ich hab mich entschieden jedem Track seinen Zwillings-Track an die Seite zu stellen. Immer wenn ich live spiele lege ich die zwei Stücke zusammen.
Der brasilianische Produzent erschließt weiter die Pop-Essenz seiner vergangenen Arbeit auf Tracks wie - The Phoenix (feat. Nathan Berger) und - Overload . Beide kombinieren zwitschernde Synthi-Melodien mit lasergenauen Breaks, Hooklines, Drops und sind wie gemacht für die Rotation und den Club. Und für die Symbolisten da draußen: die Länge des reduzierten Closers - 618 beträgt zufälliger Weise genau die Proportionen des besagten Pentagramms. - Fügung , fragt Boratto und fasst zusammen: - Ich bin kein Anhänger des brasilianische Neo-Konkretismus , aber ich glaube die brasilianische Künstlerin Lygia Clark hat mich sehr inspiriert. Nicht die Bedeutung ihre Skulpturen aber die Form der meisten ihrer Arbeiten. Ich wollte den wissenschaftlichen Blickwinkel auf das Pentagramm übersetzen. Nicht im religiösen Sinne oder so."
Während - Spur (ein erprobter - purist track auf der Basis von 808 und 909, - sehr, sehr old school , wie Boratto betont) und - Alcazar glatte Vierviertel-Epen sind, hält das Album auch Überraschungsmomente bereit. Z.B. das John Barryschen - Scene 2 (auch eine Spur von Amon Tobins - Easy Muffin ist darin zu hören) und seinem Streicher-Aufbau, der hundertprozentig geeignet wär für eine Eröffnungssequenz in einem Bond-Film. Auch - Hallucination (feat. B.T.) oder der James-Holden-hafte Titeltrack - Pentagram (wir denken da an - The Idiots Are Winning ) wäre da zu nennen. - Einer dieser Übungen, die ich gemacht habe, als ich meinen Buchla-Modular-Synthesizer bekommen habe, war , erinnert sich Boratto, - mehr als 30 verschiedene Snares, Delays und Reverbs zu verwenden. Der ganze Song sollte am Leben sein. Und so ist - Pentagram im Ganzen: lebendig und sicher genau so vielfältig wie sein Bauplan, der auch der Wissenschaft und den Träumen zugrundeliegt.
Volume 1[12,56 €]
Miss Kittin & The Hacker are the Electro duo of Caroline Hervé and Michel Amato from Grenoble, France. The pair met during the early 90s at a rave and soon after bought turntables and began DJing. In 1996, they started writing music heavily influenced by 1980s synthpop and post-punk bands like Fad Gadget, DAF, Liaisons Dangeuresues, and Yazoo, as well as Italo Disco. Bored by the techno scene at the time, they set out out to lighten the serious tone and bring a campy sexiness to the dour musical landscape. Upon hearing their demos DJ Hell signed them to his Munich-based International DJ Gigolo label and released their first 2 EPs in 1998 and 1999. Their debut album 'First Album" was released in 2001 followed by . in .
Lost Tracks Vol. 2' contains 4 previously unreleased demos recorded between 1997 and 1999. The duo fused 80's European New Wave/Italo Disco with 90's Detroit Electro acts like Le Car and Dopplereffekt. By utilizing verse-chorus structures, they playfully shook up the loop based hard techno and electro that was popular at the time. Their studio set up at the time was a Korg MS-20, Roland SH-101, TR-606, TR-808, Siel DK80, and Boss DR-660 drum machine. The songs are direct, spontaneous, seemingly improvised in places. Miss Kittin sings about falling in love in the new millennium, snuff movies and controlling the unknown trip to death, all in her cheekily derisive French accent.
All songs have been transferred from the original DAT tapes by the band and remastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios. The vinyl comes housed in a glossy jacket featuring a black and white photo of the duo taken in 1996. Each LP includes a postcard with liner notes from Miss Kittin and The Hacker designed by Eloise Leigh. As Miss Kittin says of these demos, We were naive, innocent, adventurous and we didn't expect anything in return'
Twenty-eight Years Ago, Pissed-off Twelve-year-olds Around The Universe Discovered A New Planet, A Black Planet. Public Enemy's Aggressive, Benihana Beats And Incendiary Lyrics Instilled Fear Among Parents And Teachers Everywhere, Even In The Border Town Of Laredo, Texas, Home Of The Future Founders Of The Latin-funk-soul-breaks Super Group, Brownout. The Band's Sixth Full-length Album (out May 25th) Fear Of A Brown Planet Is A Musical Manifesto Inspired By Public Enemy's Music And Revolutionary Spirit.
Chuck D., The Bomb Squad, Flava Flav And The Rest Of The P.e. Posse Couldn't Possibly Have Expected That Their Golden-era Hip Hop Albums Would Sow The Seeds For Countless Public Enemy Sleeper Cells, One That Would Emerge Nearly Three Decades Later In Austin, Texas. Greg Gonzalez (bass) Remembers A Kid Back In Junior High Hipped Him To The Fact That Public Enemy's bring The Noise' Is Built On James Brown Samples, While A Teenaged Beto Martinez (guitar) Alternated Between Metal And Hip-hop In His Walk-man, And Adrian Quesada (guitar/keys) Remembers Falling In Love With Public Enemy's Sound At An Early Age. when I Got Into Hip Hop, I Was Looking For This Aggressive Outlet . . . And I Didn't Even Understand What They Were Pissed Off About, Because I Was Twelve And Lived In Laredo . . . But I Loved It And I Felt Angry Along With Them.'
Joseph Abajian (fat Beats' Owner) Must Have Sensed The Deep Hip-hop Well Lying Beneath The Versatile Band's Latin-funk Veneer. i Thought Their Sound Would Work Covering Public Enemy Songs,' Abajian Says, And, it Was Good To Know They Were P.e. Fans . . . We Came Up With A Track Listing And They Went To Work.' Despite The Band's Eagerness To Work On New Original Material (an Album Of Original Songs Is Slated For Next Year), They Couldn't Pass Up The Opportunity To Pay Homage To This Iconic And Influential Posse.
Translating Sample-based Music To A Live Band Turned Out To Be More Of A Challenge Than They Anticipated. Adrian Tried To Get Inside The Bomb Squad's (public Enemy's Producers/beat-making Team) Head In Order To Find The Inspiration To Reinterpret P.e.'s Songs: imagine The Bomb Squad Going Back In Time And Getting The J.b.s (james Brown's Funky Backing Band) In The Studio And Setting Up A Couple Analog Synths And Then Playing Those Songs.' While Some Songs Closely Follow The Original Musical Blueprint, Others Use The Source Breakbeats As Jumping-off Points Later Sweetened By Trombonist Mark speedy' Gonzales' Horn Arrangements, Synth Wizardry Courtesy Of Friend-of-the-band Peter Stopschinski, And Dj Trackstar's Turntable Scratches. But Don't Listen Expecting To Hear Paint-by-numbers Recreations Of Classic Public Enemy Jams. our Approach Is Never In The Tribute Sense,' Adrian Explains. we've Always Taken It And Made It Our Own, Whether It's The Brown Sabbath Thing Or This Public Enemy Thing.' Coming Off Numerous Tours As Brown Sabbath And Even A Stint Backing The Late Legend Prince, Brownout Is Arguably The Tightest And Funkiest Band On The Road Today And They're Psyched To Bring This Revolutionary Music To The People. For A Band Without An Overt Political Agenda, They Collectively Couldn't Resist The Opportunity To Play This Music Live, Especially Now. if There's Any Way That We Can Use The Already Political And Protest Nature (of P.e.'s Music), We Would Like To Try,' Beto Says. the Album's Title, Fear Of Brown Planet Is Definitely A Relevant Idea Today And We're Not Afraid To Put It Out There, Because We Want To Speak Out.' By Reinterpreting These Hip Hop Classics In Their Unique Style And Channeling The Spirit Of Public Enemy That First Echoed Around The World And Captured Their Imaginations All Those Years Ago, Brownout Is Doing Exactly That.
Face Time is the second release from the trio of Oren Ambarchi, Kassel Jaeger, and James Rushford, following on from their 2016 debut Pale Calling. Recorded at the GRM studios in Paris in June 2017, the record immediately returns to the idiosyncratic sound-world of the trio's first release, a simmering stew of electronic smears, pitched-down animal moans, and mysteriously emotive microtonal organ chords. But before long the record takes an unexpected turn, as sounds that initially enter as occasional percussive pitter-patter build to a halting rhythm. Equally reminiscent of Basic Channel-style dub techno and the sound of a microphone loose in a pocket, these stumbling rhythmic figures provide the framework for the remainder of the record's two sides, occasionally receding into the background to allow squelching electronics, chiming bells, distorted autoharp, inchoate grunts and the sound of a Cristal Baschet to take centre stage, but each time returning with the inevitability of a an idée fixe.
Eschewing any clear sense of form, the two side-long pieces move seamlessly through episodes with the organic flow of improvisation, embracing the happy accidents of events conjoined by chance and lingering on liminal moments. Gradually washing out into a cavernous roar, the record's final moments are suddenly enlivened by shimmering metallic percussion and a sequence of woozy synth chords, combining with the muted rhythms and a distant thunderstorm to become a sort of oneiric tribute to the work of Wally Badarou. Bringing together three of contemporary experimental music's most individual voices, Face Time is an essential slice of outsider electro-acoustics. Cover design by Stephen O'Malley. Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at D&M, Berlin.
First released in 1995 on Jonah's own Aba Christos Tafari Records,Intergalactic Dub Rockis a trip. While the 90s rave continuum buried down the hole of cosmic sci-fi culture, dub's fascination turned elsewhere after 80s touch-stones like Shaka'sBrimstone & FireandCaptain Ganja and the Space Patrol(re-issued by Bokeh last year). But Jonah takes things way far on this, his most adventurous outing: let your needle cruise along these bleeps and strings of 50s space travelling dreams, and the flutes and melodicas of planet earth, hear them clang with the hardest dub FX units the UK could buy at the time. It's one of the most righteous and outward-looking steppas LPs, now liberated from the hands of Discogs-types with a previously CD-only bonus track, 'White Nile'.
Inyotef, Bongoman, Jahman Dan, Kheru - Jonah Dan goes by many names and many trades - akete nyabinghi master, vocalist, producer and filmmaker. For many years he was the go-to studio percussionist for the UK dub scene, collaborating with basically everyone: Paul Fox, Jah Warrior, Robert Tribulation, Jah Fingers, Tony Roots, Alpha and Omega. Along with Bush Chemists (stars of BKV 020...) and Disciples, he toured the continent, spreading the message of UK dub and laying the seeds for a lot of the EU scene today. At some point his Aba Christos Tafari Records morphed into Inner Sanctuary, one of the greatest 90s labels still in operation, go check.
Danny McLewin (Psychemagik) and Jamie Cruisey have a new label of original signed artists called SPIRITS. The first release is from Mexican hotness 'Lokier' of She Made Monster and 'Jason Greer' aka 'The Machine', one of the Californian undergrounds best kept secrets. They met in 2015 at a festival in London and after spending a few days together, became musically obsessed with each other. That summer, as Jason bounced around Europe, he stayed with Lokier in Barcelona for some weeks and after long night walks, some tapas and absinthe bars they came up with their first EP together.
A1 "White Room's" slo-mo headnod film score, kick starts the EP, brooding synths buzzing with electric cocaine gloss, their oscillators fluttering like cyborg butterflies around the pulsating strobelight beat. Creepy.
A2 "Stained Glass" hits tough straight out the gate with subterranean bubbling acid bass and charges headlong into deep psychedelic territory with a goth-inspired guitar, reverb on 11, turning the track into a next-level robo-Giallo monster!
B1 "Pearly Hate" begins as if a menacing swarm of bionic rave bees is slowly surrounding you, the tension of their impending drone amping up steadily as your brain thinks: Do I run This midtempo Carpenter-esque jam is atmospheric putty in the hands of sleazoned DJ's and sounds like the beginning of a long, strange trip.
B2 "Red Floor" is a chugging, barely restrained dark disco beast, flagrantly wearing its Weatherall and Neu Beat-ing heart on its tattered sleeve, elliptical melodies keeping you from your sanity with a solid drop for the dancefloor - another one for DJ's who ride it rough.
Thus completes the first release for new label SPIRITS. Four tracks exploring another corner of otherworldly analogue hedonism for extra-dimensional travel. Keep your ear on "Red Floor", as its potential for dancefloor uplift is proven and Machine-ready! Stay jacked in for more missives soon...
Ivan Smagghe:
"When your best Mexican chola low-rider meets our favourite Californian mechanic, you get a proper slice of (Lokier and) Machine funk. This is grease electronics, black leather under the very dark sun of 'Pearly Hate' or in the bright isolation tank of 'White Room''
With MEL011, it is Melodies International's immense pleasure to direct their focus towards both Soul and House royalty, selecting and reissuing two of Frankie Knuckles' scarcer remixes of an all-time classic: Womack & Womack - MPB (Missin' Persons Bureau). Now known as Zekkariyas and Zeriiya, partners Cecil and Linda Womack, two eminent members in an extensive lineage of music artistry (i.e. Bobby Womack was Zekkariyas' brother, Zeriiya is Sam Cooke's daughter) engaged in one of music history's most successful and exciting singing and song writing partnerships in the early 1980s. Zeriiya says her process with Zekkariyas flowed like water, their shared complicity and talent led them to write and produce strings of chart topping hits and classic albums as Womack & Womack but also for other renowned artists of the time such as Patti Labelle, Teddy Pendergrass and the O'Jays to only name a few. The original version of Missin' Persons Bureau was first released in 1988 on 'Conscience' (Island Records), a classic album with impeccable instrumentation and thoughtful and relatable narratives that reflect on the nature of life, true friendship, love or in the case of MPB, it's subsequent loss. Following the release of the LP, Island records founder Chris Blackwell introduced the idea of getting Missin' Persons Bureau reworked by House legend Frankie Knuckles and whilst the Womacks weren't originally set on the idea of having their songs remixed by other artists, Blackwell, who Zeriiya describes as a 'record label manager seriously involved in making sure the project is what the creators really want it to be", had earned their trust. With these remixes, Frankie managed to turn a radio hit into underground club classics. The Paradise Ballroom mix conserves the essence of the original, reinterpreting the rhythm section whilst drawing it out over 8 minutes, with expert tension building and release clearly aimed at the dance floor.
On The 50th Anniversary Of The Band's Inception At An Event In Harlem, Ny To Commemorate Malcolm X's Birthday On 19 May 1968, Influential Spoken Word Artists, Poets And Commentators The Last Poets Are Set To Make A Glorious And Relevant Return With Their First Album In Over 20 Years, 'understand What Black Is'.
Produced By Ben Lamdin (nostaglia 77) And Brighton Legend Prince Fatty, Whose Speciality Is Traditional Reggae And Dub Production's, 'understand What Black Is' Is A Ten-track Album Which Speaks Of A Revolutionary Struggle Defined By Both Race And Identity, That Has Never Sounded More Relevant. Released On Studio Rockers, There Will Also Be An Accompanying Single Featuring Remixes Of The Title Track "understand What Black Is" By Mala (south London Collective Digital Mystikz) And Uk Dance Music Innovators Dego And Kaidi.
Since The Initial Line-up Of Dahveed Nelson, Gylan Kain And Felipe Luciano Formed In East Harlem's Marcus Garvey Park, The Last Poets Have Produced Under Various Guises Over The Subsequent Years. However, It Was Their Seminal Output, Namely 1970's 'the Last Poets' Under Both Umar Bin Hassan And Abiodun Oyewole That Secured Their Legacy, Becoming One Of The Most Important Influences In Early Hip Hop.
Throughout The Last 20 Years, The Band Have Remained Largely On Hiatus. But Their Influence Could Still Be Felt With Their Tracks Being Sampled By The Notorious B.i.g, Nwa, A Tribe Called Quest, Dr.dre And Snoop Dogg. Umar Has Recorded Various Solo Albums And Featured On Common And Kanye West's Grammy Nominated 'the Corner'. Abiodun Appeared On The Red Hot Organization's Album, Stolen Moments Which Was Named "album Of The Year" By Time. He Also Conducts Weekly Open House Poetry Readings, Where He Constructively Critiques Upcoming Poets, Helping To Nurture Them. He Has Also Conducted Classes At Columbia University, Where He Teaches Creative Writing.
The Inauguration Of Donald Trump As Us President In 2016 Inspired Hassan And Oyewole To Resurrect The Group To Create A Brand New Record, Modern And Edgy, And Deeply Relevant And Reflective Of Our Times.
Tracks On 'understand What Black Is' Include 'how Many Bullets', Which Bridles With Defiance As Oyewole Works Through A Litany Of Injustices Suffered By Black People In The Us: " You've Tried
To Blow My Brains Out With Bigotry, Chopped Off My Wings, So I Couldn't Fly Free, And Dared Me To Be Me, Took My Drum, Broke My Hands, Yanked My Roots Right Up Out Of The Land, And Riddled My Soul With Jesus" 'what I Want To See' Describes A Utopia - A Refuge From Hurt And Those Who'd Make "our Vision Blurred, And Our Faith Obscure", Whilst The Title Track 'understand What Black Is' Aims To Transcend Ethnicity: "understand What Black Is....it's The Source From Which All Things Come...black Is A Hero, Not A Villain."
The Album Even Takes Reference From Prince's 2003 Album Of Instrumentals, 'news', Which Hassan Drew Comparisons From With His Own Childhood Experiences: "that Poem Took Me About A Year To Write....i Just Kept Writing And Writing But Not Getting Too Far And Then I Heard That Album And The Musicianship Was Amazing. I Was Left Wondering If It Was Jazz, Classical, Rock Or Maybe Something New But All Those Images That I Write About Came To Me From Listening To That Album. I Loved Prince In That Movie Purple Rain Because My Father Was A Talented Musician But He Was Into Brutalising Mama At Times And In The Movie There's A Jerome And My Name Is Jerome, So It Was Like He Was Telling My Life Story As Well."
The Album Acts As A Body Of Work Between Individual Members Each Speaking Of Their Own Personal Journeys, But Feeding Into The Much Larger Narrative Of Struggle And Oppression, Alongside A Fervent Hunger For Social Change. These Are Struggles And Tests Of Personal Resolve That Have Directly Shaped And Moulded The Bands' Unique Sound Over The Course Of An Impressive 50 Years, And Their Powerful And Influential Commentary Remains As Relevant As Ever.
Mercury Music Prize album of the year 2014
Deluxe remastered gate-fold double-LP with three bonus tracks (black vinyl version).
Noted for their hypnotic melodies, visceral bass-lines and tidal rhythm, Manchester-based leftfield piano trio GoGo Penguin are pianist Chris Illingworth, bassist Nick Blacka and drummer Rob Turner. Their music has been described as acoustic-electronica but they draw equally on rock, jazz
and minimalism, game soundtracks and glitchy-electronica to create their unique music. They are now one of the most successful bands in contemporary music, topping the jazz charts globally and playingsold out shows around the world and have just announced their biggest tour yet including the Royal Albert Hall in London (Nov 12).
Originally released in March 2014, v2.0, was their breakthrough album and the first to feature the rebooted line-up with new bassist Nick Blacka, pianist Chris Illingworth and drummer Rob Turner. It was named a Mercury Prize album of the year 2014 alongside albums from Damon Albarn, Young Fathers and Jungle.
The extended version was first released on 2xLP for RSD 18 on clear vinyl. This version features the same extended tracklist on black vinyl.
Newly remastered for vinyl (by the original engineer)
2xLP deluxe gatefold edition.
v2.0 includes the hit singles, Hopopono, Garden Dog Barbecue and Kamaloka as well as the remarkable One Percent and live favourite To Drown in You. Included here for the first time is theincessant 'Break' featuring a killer groove that offers a notdto the one and only Squarepusher, 'Wash', a haunting slice of the band at their most ambient and the wonderful 'In Amber', the first track that the new line-up wrote completely together.
Tint is the first new solo recording from Joe Talia in over a decade. Australian-born but now based in Tokyo, Talia is known to many listeners as a drummer (frequently collaborating both live and in the studio with artists such as Oren Ambarchi and Jim O'Rourke) and as a recording and mixing engineer responsible for dozens of releases across the fields of contemporary experimental music, wayward pop, and jazz. Alongside James Rushford, he is also responsible for one of the most legendary releases in the Kye records catalogue, the creaking electronic morass of Manhunter (2013).
Lovingly crafted over many months in his tiny Tokyo studio, Tint is an album-length electroacoustic suite that brings together Talia's expertise as percussionist, studio engineer, and performer on analogue electronic instruments (primarily modular synth and Revox tape machine). Ranging from minimalist austerity to kosmische lushness, Tint refreshingly refuses the dark and moody sonic palette of much contemporary electroacoustic music in favour of an airy, at times almost weightless sound-world of gliding tones, skittering percussion, and burbling field recordings. Drawing inspiration from Jean-Claude Eloy's epic concrète love letter to Tokyo, Gaku-No-Michi, Talia makes extensive use of his own recordings of his new home, but removes any sense of audio verite, abstracting them into transparent glosses of outdoor ambience or unidentifiable chimes and creaks. Flowing seamlessly between distinct episodes, Tint is compositionally controlled while retaining a sense of played spontaneity, eventually building to a maelstrom of analogue synth zaps and tape manipulated percussion that reflects Talia's deep engagement with the relentless yet constantly shifting dynamics of free jazz.
Far Out Monster Disco Orchestra returns with Black Sun, its second full-length album of 100% original, unadulterated disco sophistication, featuring all three original members of pioneering Brazilian jazz-funk trio Azymuth, a full orchestra with arrangements split between Arthur Verocai and Azymuth's late maestro Jose Roberto Bertrami, plus members of the legendary Rio funk group Banda Black Rio.Since its critically acclaimed self-titled debut album in 2014, the FOMDO imprint has released a string of remixes by some all-time greats of dance music, including John Morales, Theo Parrish, Mark Pritchard, Marcellus Pittman, Andres, Dego, Volcov, Kirk Degiorgio and Al Kent. To huge effect in clubs and festivals around the globe, some of the more recent remixes teased the new album material, which for the first time, is presented in its original, soul-heavy incarnation, alongside instrumental versions highlighting the album's stunning arrangements and compositional brilliance.Far from a throw-back - with disco music firmly entrenched in the modern club vernacular - Black Sun is ecstatic dance music at its finest.
"The kind of melancholia I'm talking about, by contrast, consists not in giving up on desire, but in refusing to yield. It consists, that is to say, in a refusal to adjust to what current conditions call 'reality' - even if the cost of that refusal is that you feel like an outcast in your own time." (Mark Fisher, Ghosts Of My Life, Zero Books 2014, p. 24) In Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures', the author Mark Fisher outlines - to put it in a big way - a resistant melancholy. This stands in contrast to leftist melancholy resignation', as well as something which Fisher does not talk about: its common masculine counterpart, habitual post-left cynicism - as in seen it all before'. Fisher calls this hauntological melancholy. Haunting, spooks, ghosts and apparitions are an almost constant presence on I Started Wearing Black', the second album by the Cologne-based artist Sonae (pronounced so-nah'). The term hauntology shares a fate with retro-futurism when it comes to inflationary overuse and abuse. It's a conceptual container that looks good and can hold a lot, indeed, too much. Furthermore, hauntology has its peak season behind it, a term on the threshold of its expiration date. Nevertheless, I would like to rehabilitate hauntology and use it properly to characterize I Started Wearing Black', because the term is rarely as compelling to describe music as is the case here. The most recent other example could be Asiatisch' by Fatma Al Qadiri, but with a completely different frame of reference. What are the ghosts of this music It rustles, crackles, ruffles, crunches, rattles, scrapes, sometimes a beat emerges from the constant noise, sometimes an obscure voice mumbles incomprehensibly, sometimes a melancholy piano figure is prevented by this noise from coming too much to the foreground. It definitely is eerie - to bring into play another term used by Fisher in the title of his latest book, The Weird and the Eerie'. In British pop-jargon, eerie first occurred to me more often when referring to particularly leftfield, spooky and... well... ghostly dub, a bass-heavy, echoing noise, from Augustus Pablo to Creation Rebel to Burial. Unlike the Wald & Wagner records by Wolfgang Voigt, Sonae is not a kind of neo-romantic veiling with a tendency for escapist nebula. It is more a noise of latency. The noise signals a latent - not necessarily acute - threat, a latent uneasiness about... yes... about what About a System Immanent Value Defect' That's the name of a track on I Started Wearing Black' where something that sounds like a French Horn (or a foghorn) battles for attention through or against the background noise. An email from Sonae: The piece 'System Immanent Value Defect' should actually be called 'I See Turkey'. I wrote it for my fellow student Elif - she is a pianist and Gezi Park activist from Istanbul. Through her I witnessed the inner conflict and agitation that political circumstances can create: her feelings of guilt when there was an attack, with her safe in Germany as a student, watching the events from afar. It was horrible. When her mother begged her not to come home because she feared for her safety, I felt a cold shiver run down my spine. I started with the piece from this mood, beginning with the piano, then the noise (modulated sinusoidal curves), which reminded me of waves and the then heatedly discussed Mediterranean sea: atmospheric, melancholy motifs. In contrast is the anger, the pressure, represented in corresponding sounds - hopefully audible! - During this time I started to think about world views as they can be found around the globe, in how far they held by societies and their political representation. I realized that I know of no political system that is actually about the people and what would do them good. It's always about positions, power, money. I thought that was a lot more frightening on a global scale than merely viewing Turkey in isolation. That's why the piece is called "System Immanent Value Defect", because our world suffers from precisely that. Everywhere, it's all about the wrong things.' Between the wrong things there are happy moments. In the title track, after 184 seconds of rattling and hissing, a beat is unleashed, like an arrow released from a spanned bow, a beatific relief, if there is such a thing. White Trash Rouge Noir' first meanders along spookily, then after 144 seconds it transforms itself into a distant cousin of Einstu¨rzende Neubauten's Yu¨ Gung', but there is no Big Male Ego to be fed here, and the black in the album title is a completely different type of black from that of the Neubauten. Furthermore, I Started Wearing Black' was finished long before the black dresses were worn at the Golden Globes as a sign of protest against sexual violence. Sonae writes that she herself started wearing black some time ago. Her reasons are so-called personal ones: ... resulting from an individual situation (lovesickness), I started to wear black (gaining weight and feeling ugly).' The political dimension of gaining weight, feeling ugly and therefore dressing in black in I Started Wearing Black' lurks within the noise and never becomes explicit and only rarely manifest - or a manifesto. Sonae writes about the track We Are Here': A piece for minorities... in this case, considering the current pop-feminist discourse, explicitly for women. Female artists have long been saying loud and clear that 'we are here' and 'electronic music is not a boys club!' But this pop-feminist moment should only be seen as one part of the dedication of the piece. It is for minorities, for the oppressed, who didn't belong enough.'
Klaus Walter
One of the earliest MC5 singles! Packaged in new envelope style sleeves, with rare unseen band photos! The Motor City 5 pressed on black vinyl at Third Man Pressing in the Motor City! Includes brand spankin' new liners by David Fricke of Rolling Stone, who says, "In a 1966 live recording, the MC5 played 'Looking at You' like Motown raga. At United Sound, the band hit the zigzag riff at light speed and stayed there, framed by searing lead guitar and explosive drumming. 'Borderline' was a frantic jigsaw of power-chord jolts and sheet-like harmonies detonated again, at the Grande, for the live recording of the MC5's first LP, Kick Out the Jams."
Elevate Melodies are back with four toe-tapping, finger-snapping, dancefloor slaying heaters, all on wax.
Side 1 takes off with the Griffes' remix of Jay Airness' She Staying', all sumptuous keys, sun dappled strings and peak-time beats propelling the track ever forward. Venice Beach then takes on Sly Moore's seismic Muoosic', dropping the tempo and creating a super low-slung slab of electro funk, one for the 100bpm crew.
On the B side, Lord Funk takes on Black Les Grues De Nantes' from Victorius, turning it into a jazzy workout with slap-bass, chopped up vocals and dusty vinyl crackles giving it a classy 90s feel. And rounding out the selection is New York DJ and producer P-Sol who applies his midtempo skills to Law and Theory' from label boss Jay Airness, creating an atmospheric groove with some real funk and jazz flourishes.
Limited to 500 copies.
This is the 2nd various artists compilation from the esoteric Black Lodge collective out of Los Angeles, showcasing a variety of sounds one is likely to hear at their monthly gatherings. This comp contains a mixture of acidic jacking warehouse bangers from veteran producers TX Connect and Jasen Loveland alongside a more acid chicago house inspired jakbeat track from Black Lodge co-founder Kosmik and an EBM/electro dance cut from the Belligerents.
Dapayk Solo, Berlin based producer and veteran of the minimal techno scene, announces the release of his 10th studio album 'The Calling'. This latest project will be the producer's first solo album since
2015. The 8-track double 12inch LP will be available via Dapayk Solo's label Mo's Ferry Productions and comes with a free download voucher for the extended 12-track digital album.
The first track on this LP 'The Calling' shares its name with the album and starts off with a pang of energetic, chopped beats before exploding into a brassy melody, continuously gaining momentum.
'Blackout' immediately announces itself as a next generation Detroit House anthem. The rolling synths, hi hats, and vocals make this one of the most outstanding tracks on the album. 'Aurora' stays true to its name with a buildup composed of throbbing ethereal synths that give the track an otherworldly vibe. 'Flood' transports listeners to the dancefloor with its pulsating bassline combined with Komplement's quaint vocals.
The second part of the album begins with 'After All', one of the most enticing tracks on the album. It combines the groovy rhythm of four to the floor percussion with tantalizing vocals by VARS before New Release Information 'Low Tinnitus' reverts to Dapayk's signature minimalist sound. The transition into 'Wanderer' continues the momentum built up by the previous tracks. The closing 'Walk With Me' is a deep-house jam that features a rhythmic shaker layered under Mental Bend's powerful vocals.
Dapayk Solo, alias Niklas Worgt, isn't afraid to try new things. With 5 aliases under his belt, he continuously strives to experiment with different styles and production techniques to create innovative sounds. Throughout the span of two decades he went from producing drum'n'bass to house to ultimately crafting the groovy, edgy techno sound that he's now known for.
With more than ten LP releases and over 70 single releases on his record, he is one of the main protagonists in the world of underground electronic music. In 2017, he released an LP titled 'Harbour' with his wife Eva Padberg under one of his many projects, Dapayk & Padberg. While that album aimed to steer away from traditional club beats, 'The Calling' sees Dapayk reassume his deep, dark, and infectious sound. While Dapayk is often categorized as a minimal producer, the LP proves that he is capable of extending beyond the scope of a single genre. 'The Calling' is just another example of why Dapayk has managed to stay in the scene for so long: he loves electronic music and he's great at
making it, too.
- A1: Erotica
- A2: Fever
- A3: Vogue
- B1: Rain
- B2: Express Yourself
- B3: Deeper And Deeper
- C1: Why's It So Hard
- C2: In This Life
- C3: The Beast Within
- D1: Like A Virgin
- D2: Bye Bye Baby
- D3: I'm Going Bananas
- D4: La Isla Bonita
- E1: Holiday Pt.1
- E2: Holiday Pt.2
- F1: Justify My Love
- F2: Everybody Is A Star
- F3: Everybody
- F4: Finale
In October of 1992 Madonna released her 5th studio album, the provocative Erotica. Released by her own multimedia entertainment company in conjunction with her book, Sex, this was the most bold and audacious move yet in Madonna's storied career. Following the release of the album and book in 1993 The Girlie Show World Tour commenced, culminating in 8 sold out shows in Japan, one of which was recorded live and broadcast the world over. Recorded at the Fukuoka Dome on December 8, 1993, The Girlie Show documents this historic tour with the complete show of that night! An epic 3LP box set featuring tracks from Erotica as well as a bunch of vintage classics, available on black vinyl or limited edition WHITE, RED, and GREEN vinyl.
Damian Lazarus' magical live project The Ancient Moons returns today with their new single Five Moons.
The band led by Lazarus, is comprised of Ben Chetwood on drums, Rob Gentry on keyboards, and new vocalist J Appiah. On Five Moons they are also joined by the Australian punk sensation Chela for a dubbed out, soulful excursion into the darker recesses of the dancefloor.
The Ancient Moons first debuted in 2014 with Lover's Eyes, and followed that with the acclaimed album 'Message From The Other Side', dubbed a 'a journey into techno's dreamiest recesses' by The Fader and a 'psychedelic masterpiece' by Vice. Since then The Ancient Moons have travelled the world with their highly immersive live show, supported Roisin Murphy on tour and played at Glastonbury festival and Melt! amongst others.
Last year the band resurfaced, after locking themselves away to record in the Italian countryside, with I Found You, which nabbed a BBC Essential New Tune and stunning remixes from Black Coffee and Patrice Baumel. Today Five Moons offers another glimpse into this summer's forthcoming album..
DsorDNE (pronounced Disordine) is a project from Torino, Italy that evolved as group out of the electronic experimental post punk project Novostj in 1987. At the core of DsorDNE is Marco Milanesio, musical engineer and co-founder of the HAX record label, joined by a revolving cast of musicians. Their spectrum ranged from experimental to structured electro-poetry and Soundtrack like instrumental electronic music. In 1987 they released their first track on a split-single with The Legendary Pink Dots. Between 1987 and 1994 they released 6 full length albums, 3 split-EPs and appeared on various cassette compilations. à Un Sole (Itâs a Sun) was the groupâs only vinyl full length originally released in 1990 on HAX. Itâs 8 tracks of electro-beat poetry and experimentation recorded between July 1989 and January 1990 by Marco Milanesio (music) and Roberta Ongaro (vocals) with guests Claudio Burdese (guitar), Danilo Beltrame (guitar) and Cristiana Bauducco (vocals). The album is broken up into two distinct halves. Side A contains four chunks of hard hitting, percussive patterns and rushing bass sequences. Dark, moody female vocals force their monologues through the machinery in their native Italian tongue. The traditional song structure is carefully avoided by giving lyrics equal opportunities be they recited, half-sung, whispered or spoken. Side B displays moodier moments, less savage attacks and subtler sensuality, veering towards the more melodic and existential. All songs have been remastered by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. The record is housed in an exact replica of the original jacket featuring a black and white drawing with silver metallic spot color housed in a clear PVC plastic cover with a three color screen-printed design. Each copy includes a 11x11â double-sided lyrics sheet with English translations as well an 8x11â sheet with original press notes from 1990 by Marco Pustianaz.
Created at the footstep of Mount Victoria, Groeni wanted to challenge themselves compositionally and sonically with Nihx. Nihx explores the characteristics of points of conflict between opposing forces. As in the past, and as with many electronic outfits, the music had been written 'in the box', so to speak. To counter this technique the three members of Groeni (Al, Mike, and James) each wrote numerous compositional sketches that were more or less complete as frameworks before entering them into the digital realm. With similar inspiration the band wanted to create unique and personalised sounds away from the computer to sample and use with most of the sonic treatment happening also away from the computer. The vast majority of the drum sounds are made from samples of Mike's ever expanding synth collection, numerous sounds are manipulated feedback from guitars or vocals among other things. The entire record was written and recorded across three home studios in Wellington, NZ and has been almost 2 years in the making.
'Nihx' comes out worldwide on limited black, white marbled vinyl (including download code) & digital.
Aroop Roy has been making waves with his unique sounds for the past few years, with a wealth of successful releases and a busy gig schedule at the helm of some of the best clubs around the world. By fusing elements of Jazz, Afro, Latin, Funk and Soul with the deeper end of House and Disco, Aroop has forged his own style with EPs on revered labels including G.A.M.M, Basic Fingers, Freestyle and Lazy Days. For his Delusions Of Grandeur debut he pulled out all the stops, delivering three original tracks which further show his diversity as an artist and ability to produce left of centre, quality underground music without losing sight of the dancefloor.
Things kick off with Save Our Love, a track that's absolutely brimming with energy thanks to punchy Wurlitzer chops, tension-building Philly strings, and a rock-solid disco groove.
Next up we have What I love which sees Aroop take an altogether more freaky approach flipping an uptempo rolling break, distorted synth line, cross-rhythm stabs and rasping vocal cuts into an edgy dance floor workout.
Closing this brilliant EP is the low-slung bump of Walk That Walk featuring original vocals from Oakland, CA based Blacktroniks who delivers his flow on top of a bass-heavy slice of deep electro boogie.
'Rockin live ruff and tuff', this is the untrammelled counterpart to Dadawah, six years later in 1980, fresh from the Black Ark: free, rawly spiritual trance-music, a full-force nyabinghi freak-out.
The drummers are headlong and rollicking, thunderous and explosive. Even more so than Dadawah, the mix is ecstatically echoey, giddily dubwise without let-up. Ras Michael himself sings from the mountain-top, like he just don't care — at the top of his lungs, in voices, screeching like a bird — with the delirious abandonment otherwise owned in reggae by Lee Perry.
Amongst the uncredited performances swirled into proceedings, there are squiggles of flute straight from the Upsetters song-book, the minor-key organ stabs and abstraction of electric space-jazz, and sax-playing more attuned to the Headhunters than the Blazing Horns. (I Ya I in particular is a stunning fifteen minutes.)
This is the real thing, music without affectation. Pure reggae. Sun Ra fans should love it, anyone with ears to hear.
Prepared and manufactured at Abbey Road, D&M and Pallas, beautifully presented in rigid, old-school, tip-on sleeves, with matt-coated fronts and untreated-paper backs, 180g vinyl.
'These sounds are sounds of inspiration and love and culture to the universal benefit of mankind... So therefore meditate and stop hate.'
Very hotly recommended.
- A1: Contract On The World Love Jam
- A10: Power To The People
- A2: Brothers Gonna Work It Out
- A3: 911 Is A Joke
- A4: Incident At 66.6Fm
- A5: Welcome To The Terrodome
- A6: Meet The G That Killed Me
- A7: Pollywanacraka
- A8: Anti Nigger Machine
- A9: Burn Hollywood Burn
- B1: Who Stole The Soul?
- B10: Fight The Power
- B2: Fear Of A Black Planet
- B3: Revolutionary Geneartion
- B4: Can't Do Nuttin' For Ya Man
- B5: Reggie Jax
- B6: Leave This Off Your Fu*Kin Charts
- B7: Side Wins Again
- B8: War At 33 & A Third
- B9: Final Count Of The Collision Between Us & The Damned
Khan presents: Jammin Unit - Remote Car Babe
Jammin' Unit is not only my brother but one of the most prolific producer of electronic music since the early days of techno. He is one half of legendary electronic super group Air Liquide and made his way into history books with tracks like 'If The Was No Gravity' and 'Revelation' lately featured on Nina Kraviz - Fabric 91 mix.
'Remore Car Babe' was originally released on clear 10' via Temple Records NYC in 1997 and is now remastered by the man himself for our 2018 ears. Re-issued on 12' black vinyl for more gain and better audio quality.
In his own words he describes the 4 track e.p. as: 'The sound was created for headphone listening during remote car racing. Enhancing the feel of speed and aggressiveness was the goal'.
To me it feels like a manga comic strip eched on vinyl. No headphone necessary to go on this speed racing trip of extacy and pounding bliss.
A re-issue I am especially proud of to hear on dance-floors around the globe.
'Don't eat before going to sleep but Do eat before going out!'
Yours sincerely,
Khan (Of Finland)
Southend quartet Ghost Music release their evocative debut album I Was Hoping You'd Pass By Here via Arlen on 19 January. They create careful, considered songs, weaving lo-fi lullabies with gliding guitars and understated arrangements. Influenced by Silver Jews, Flying Nun and K Records, they explore themes of nature, love, loss and a melancholic English romanticism embellished with beautifully spectral melodies and executed with startling subtlety.
Despite this record being their debut, the band has produced a veritable wealth of music over the past 20 years in various guises. Ghost Music revolves around the songwriting partnership of Matt Randall and Lee Hall, who had played together in the 90s with John Peel favourites Beatglider. More recently Randall has received critical acclaim as Plantman, with his three albums Closer to the Snow, Whispering Trees and To The Lighthouse receiving praise from The Guardian, Uncut and Mojo. When Randall and Hall reunited to collaborate on another album together, they brought in the talents of Roy Thirlwall on bass (Melodie Group) and Leighton Jennings on drums (Dark Globes) to complete the band.
The original idea would be that the songs would be 'ghosts' and create 'ghost music' to resurrect and dust off old songs that they had already started. Lee had found the beginnings of 'Home Dog' on a dusty old 4-track and he had recorded 'Strange Love' on his iPhone in 2014, whilst Matt had written 'My Cloud' as far back as 1997 (the night he moved out of his parents' house). As the album began to take shape, the ghostly premise took a back seat, as they began to breathe new life into the songs they found the impetus to write new ones.
Randall explains the songwriting process; 'When we were in Beatglider together and in the past we'd made a 'thing' out of writing long songs with a lot of changes. This time we pared it back a bit and stuck to the melodies more. We really wanted to make a proper guitar record. Lee's my favourite guitarist and it was lovely to see him stretch out on these songs with his diamond fingers.'
Not afraid to wear their influences on their sleeves, Ghost Music's sound is instantly familiar, echoing beloved bands from the 90s such as Pavement ('Home Dog' has a definite 'Range Life' feel), Galaxie 500 ('Blindspot'), Yo La Tengo ('Heart Shaped Holiday' is influenced by the languid YLT songs that peak after a short intro) and even old-school rock'n'roll ('Strange Love' was born out of an appreciation for the instantly engaging opening riff in 50s songs). Yet Ghost Music's work never feels derivative, being instead effortlessly emotive, melancholic and affecting, creating a world of sound that is hugely reassuring and a tonic for the modern age.
The title track "Empty Dancefloor" combines a thumping kick drum, stuttering hats and mesmeric chords, a combination that prove to be the perfect backing track to a captivating synth solo. It's extremely difficult not to find yourself lost in this enchanting track. Fracture" is a track where Skygaze really showcases his ability to combine broken beat, complex drum patterns with bewitching chords, magical marimbas and a curious bassline.
It is a track that really keeps you guessing throughout and one that can really add variety to any DJ set.
First up on remix duties is Jonna, who has put his own stamp on "Empty Dancefloor".
jonna is a DJ, Producer & one of the Label owners of City Fly Records, his sets are prominently House but take in influences from Disco, Techno, Hip-Hop, Funk, Jazz... Basically any music with Soul.
His first artist EP dropped early 2016 on 'Shadeleaf Music' & featured the incredibly talented Erik Rico on vocals with remixes by Atlanta's Kai Alce. The EP achieved great success & Sold Out in the first Month & was supported by heavyweight's Recloose, Derrick Carter, Jimpster & Osunlade to name a few.
Collab Singles (with Samwell) 'Henry Western' Featuring Lady Blacktronika followed on City Fly which was supported heavily on BBC 6 Music, that followed by 'Alright' on 'Future Society', a compilation curated by Seven Davis Jr on R2 Records and more recently the Luke Soloman Edit of 'Through The Night' again on Shadeleaf Music.
He has been busy in the studio since with a release on Secret Crunch (Austria) & 2 EP's forthcoming on Marcel Vogel's excellent Intimate Friends (NL).
The remix of "Empty Dancefloor" is one that is done in the unmistakable Jonna style, it's got groove! By chopping and changing the chords from the original, Jonna has created an entirely new melody, which when combined with rolling bongos and punchy bassline, you can't help but tap your feet.
The all too familiar synth solo from the original resonates throughout and pulls the track together, creating a guaranteed hit on any dance floor. Last, but certainly not least is Chicago based, Garrett David. The Smart Bar Resident has taken time out from his A&R / House buying duties at the famous Gramaphone Records to conjure up a bumping, yet dreamy remix of "Fracture".
He has previous releases on labels including Distant Hawaii, Residual Recordings, Night Sea Journey as well as his own imprint Stripped & Chewed and has really brought some Chicago flavours to the table with this one.
The current resurgence of jazz in all its' forms has certainly been impossible to ignore in recent times - from the chart-bound, mainstream crooning of Gregory Porter, to the left field 'jazz not jazz' soundscapes of Kamasi Washington, Moses Boyd, Nubya Garcia and Snarky Puppy proves this is a worldwide phenomenon. One artist who has been been ploughing this furrow in the southern hemisphere for longer than most is Lance Ferguson. As the driving force behind The Bamboos, Cookin' On 3 Burners, Lanu, and the Black Feeling series, these are the varied and versatile projects on which he has built an enviable reputation.
Menagerie 'They Shall Inherit' saw the light of day in 2012 (Tru Thoughts Records) and established the fact that jazz of the contemporary type could reach back to it's essential roots and present itself, refreshed and vital for a contemporary audience.
Lance himself explains: "The Arrow Of Time' draws its inspiration conceptually from the themes of space exploration, human evolution and the future of humankind. It's pretty big stuff to be underpinning an album of modal Jazz tunes - but the main message is one of hope, and I hope that comes across in the music"
Late 2017 saw the 2 track album sampler 'Evolution/Arrow Of Time' create a genuine buzz of anticipation, being playlisted on Jazz FM, and also supported by Jamie Cullum (BBC Radio 2) and both Don Letts & Gilles Peterson on their BBC 6 Music shows - having as it does the spirit of deep jazz, but combining an accessible sound that reached way beyond the usual jazz hungry audience - due in one part to Evolution's immensely catchy hooks, with the voice of Fallon Williams focusing the listeners attention on the philosophical themes Lance highlighted above. Now the album, laid out in its' entirety can be experienced, attempting to encapsulate the music with the written word feels like a somewhat futile exercise, so it is best to consider Lance Fergusons' final thoughts about its inspiration, influences and ongoing appeal.
"The sound of record labels like Strata East, Tribe and Black Jazz has been a massive influence on Menagerie. To me that sound is timeless, exciting and just as vibrant as a musical format in 2018 - and the proof is that we're hearing more and more young musicians embracing it"
Captivating, ethereal and majestic, Mammal Hands (saxophonist Jordan Smart, pianist Nick Smart and drummer and percussionist Jesse Barrett) has carved out a refreshingly original sound from a disparate array of influences: drawing on spiritual jazz, north Indian, folk and classical music to create something inimitably their own. Hailing from Norwich, one of Britain's most isolated and most easterly cities, they have forged their own path away from the musical mainstream and their unique sound grew out of long improvised rehearsals. All three members contibute equally to the writing process: one that favours the creation of a powerful group dynamic over individual solos. Their records are entrancing and beautiful affairs, while their hypnotic live shows have seen them hailed as one of the most exciting bands in Europe as they push their unique line-up to the outer limits of its possibilities.
Shadow Work is their third album and the first they have self-produced. Recorded at 80 Hertz Studios, Gondwana Records home from home in Manchester, it is the result of 18 months of intensive touring and mammoth writing sessions. The energy from their exhilarating live performances has fed into the writing process and yet there is a quiet reflective side to this album, giving it an expanded emotional range that draws the listener deep into Mammal Hand's sound world. One that builds on the sound of their previous recordings, Animalia and the beautiful Floa, but is wider than ever, with the use of prepared piano strings, more prominent effects and field recordings all adding to the band's most ambitious and accomplished album to date. The striking artwork is by Daniel Halsall and reflects the organic, natural influences underpinning the band's music alongside a darker, modern minimalism.
- A1: James Booms - Psalms 20
- A2: The Upsetter - Proverbs Of Dub
- A3: Errol Walker - Better Future
- A4: The Upsetter - Future Dub
- A5: Zap Pow - River
- A6: Earl Sixteen - Freedom
- B1: The Hombres - Africa
- B2: The Upsetter - Foundation Dub
- B3: Leo Graham - Voodooism
- B4: The Upsetter - Dubism
- B5: The Black Notes - African Style
- B6: Lloyd & Devon - Wolf Out Deh
- B7: The Upsetter - Shepherd Rod
2022 is the 40th Anniversary of Iron Maiden’s Iconic third album The Number of The Beast. The first Iron Maiden album to feature Bruce Dickinson on vocals, The Number of the Beast was also the band’s first album to hit the number 1 spot in the UK. The album spawned the crossover hit singles Run To The Hills and The Number of The Beast, and introduced the band to a truly global audience.
To celebrate this milestone anniversary Iron Maiden release a very special 3LP collectors vinyl featuring the original album with revised track list plus the legendary 1982 live show from Hammersmith Odeon ‘The Beast Over Hammersmith’.
The original album replaces Gangland with Total Eclipse in a revised track list. The accompanying double live album The Beast Over Hammersmith is presented on vinyl for the first time.
This collectible 180g 3LP vinyl set is packaged in a double gatefold sleeve featuring a special ‘split’ cover image and many rare photos from the time. Also, featured are excusive sleeve notes from Steve Harris.
The fourth release on Trevor Jacksons Pre- Label is by SKULL. A visceral journey into experimental noise and no wave avant grade beatscapes
The last SKULL release 'SNAPZ' appeared on Jacksons own Output Recordings label in 1999. A seminal collection of tracks that had previously featured on the first two legendary Mo wax 'Headz' compilations (also featuring Autechre, Beastie Boys, Air, and DJ Shadow) as well as tracks that had also appeared on Kevin 'The Bug' Martins notorious Macro Dub Infection albums during the mid 90's.
Reactionary sonic statements aimed at the coffee table world of Trip Hop, fuelled by his dissatisfaction and dissillustionment with Hip Hop of the time, Trevor pushed himself into uncomfortable and far more extreme areas than he had before, areas he felt unable to explore with his Underdog productions, which were mainly being utilised for major label remixes at the time.
Influenced as much by the industrial pioneers, post punk and new wave of the past as the burgeoning post rock scene in the mid 90's, This new set of previously unreleased recordings originally produced between 1996-2000 are equally as intense and visceral as the early releases. Dusty samples, raw beats, tape loops, and primitive effects combine to sound as relevant now as when they were initially created.
Air Lows is the debut solo album by Silvia Kastel. The Italian artist has been a fixture of the underground since her precocious teens, clocking up many miles in Control Unit with Ninni Morgia ('It's like Catherine Deneuve dumped two cases of post-Repulsion psychiatric notes over Pere Ubu's Dub Housing, lit the fuse and, ahem, stood well back" - Julian Cope), including collaborations with the likes of Smegma, Factrix, Gary Smith, Aki Onda and Gate (Michael Morley of The Dead C). Both solo and in her work with others, Kastel has explored the outer limits and inner workings of no wave, industrial, dub, extreme electronics, free rock and improvisation. Air Lows is both her fullest and most refined offering to date, a work of vivid, isolationist electronics which draws deeply on her past experience but assuredly breaks new ground. Prompted by a late-flowering interest in techno and club music, Kastel sought to create something which combines a steady rhythmic pulse with the otherworldly sonorities of musique concrete, and avant-garde synth sounds inspired by Japanese minimalism and techno-pop (Haruomi Hosono's Philharmony being a particular favourite). The formal artifice of muzak / elevator music, the intros and outros of generic popular songs, the extreme light-heavy contrasts of jungle, the creative sampling of hardcore, and the very 'human' synths in the jazz of Herbie Hancock's Sextant and Sun Ra: all were touchstones for Air Lows' conception and composition, and all strains of music addressing - or complicating - the relationship between the human and the technological. By extension, visual inspirations also proved important: anime, and the avant-garde fashion of Rei Kawakubo. What does that shirt or dress sound like Though used sparingly, Kastel's voice remains her key instrument, whether subject to dissociative digital manipulations as on 'Bruell', delivering matter-of-fact spoken monologues, or providing splashes of pure tonal colour. Recorded between her expansive Italy studio and a more compact, ersatz set-up in Berlin, Air Lows gradually takes on some of the character of the German capital: you can hear the wide streets and uninhabited spaces, the seepage of never-ending nightlife, the loneliness. Air Lows is The Wizard of Oz in reverse: the glorious technicolour J-pop deconstructions of its first half leading inexorably to the icy noir of 'Spiderwebs' and 'Concrete Void'. These later tracks are reminiscent of 2015's magnificent 39 12', Kastel in the role of numbed, nihilistic chanteuse stalking dank, murky tunnels of reverb and sub-bass. But in fact there is contradiction and emotional ambiguity to Air Lows from the outset, and throughout - a sense of both infinite space and acute claustrophobia; energy and inertia; fluency and restraint.
This special collector's edition electronically reproduced stereo 7' single (only 200 copies), comes in two fantastic coloured vinyl options (100 x red vinyl and 100 x purple vinyl). A refreshingly new take on mono to stereo conversion. Elvis fans growing up in the 1960's and 1970's unwittingly listened to his 1950's catalogue in electronically reprocessed stereo, love it or loathe, it was pretty much all there was back then unless you could afford to track down expensive mono copies. To better understand where the electronically reprocessed stereo versions originate from, we need to go back to 1961, at which point RCA had begun the process of taking Elvis' 1950's mono masters and converting them into a stereo sounding effect. By 1960 when Elvis returned from the army, he was recording in true stereo and as far as RCA were concerned, mono was a thing of the past. You just need to listen to the sound quality of the 1960 'Living Stereo' version of the 'Elvis Is Back' album, to appreciate just how much the recording industry had moved on in just two years. Such was the demand for stereo records in the early 1960's most major labels had created their own process for converting mono into stereo or 'fake' stereo as it became known, with some labels producing better results than others. Opinions on Elvis' 1960's electronically reprocessed stereo versions are mixed, with some recordings making the transition from mono to stereo effect better than others. Some DJ's actually preferred playing the electronically reprocessed stereo versions, believing they gave a wider fuller sound on the dancefloor. By late 1970's, RCA had once again begun to re-issue original mono masters, giving many fans their first opportunity to hear how these tracks were originally issued. By the time compact discs had arrived on the scene in the 1980's, electronically reprocessed stereo was well and truly dead and buried. Very few electronically reprocessed stereo recordings ever made it onto a digital format and the few that did are now highly collectible. Recorded at RCA Studio 1, New York on the 30th of January 1956, My Baby Left Me is a driving powerhouse rockabilly masterpiece with a real Sun Records vibe to it (produced by Steve Scholes with Elvis on vocals and acoustic guitar, Scotty Moore on electric guitar, Bill Black on bass and D.J. Fontana on drums). Our flip side Blue Moon Of Kentucky is another rockabilly classic which first appeared as the opposite side to That's All Right (Sun 209) in 1955 (Elvis' first single). Blue Moon Of Kentucky was recorded on the 7th of July 1954 at Sun Records (produced by Sam Phillips with Elvis on vocals and acoustic guitar, Scotty Moore on electric guitar and Bill Black on bass). Both tracks have been painstakingly re-engineered to create a stereo effect sound. The result is a bigger, sharper sound that jumps straight outta the grooves at ya! One reviewer described the process as - it's as if a veil has been lifted off the tracks'. Both tracks are taken from the forthcoming album titled 'Elvis Presley - The 50's In Stereo' (mono to stereo re-visited). For best results play this killer double-sider very loud!!!
































































































































































