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THE FULL 'GOTHIC EP' PRESENTED ON THE VINYL FORMAT FOR THE
FIRST TIME, CONTAINING A COMBINATION OF SPECIAL REMIXES &
ALTERNATE STUDIO VERSIONS OF PARADISE LOST CLASSICS
Creators, pioneers & purveyors of the whole Gothic Doom Metal scene which
subsequently came to prominence in the early 90's, Britain's Paradise Lost rose
from humble Northern roots to become one of the UK's leading artists in the
metal genre throughout the decade & beyond, remaining as relevant & revered as
ever to this day after a career spanning over three decades. The band's first two
albums were released on Peaceville, in the shape of 1990's influential deathly
debut 'Lost Paradise', followed up by the more atmosphere- focussed genre
classic, 'Gothic' in 1991. 'Gothic EP' was originally released in 1994 & combined
the tracks from the 1990 'In Dub' two track 12" release bookended by alternate
studio remixes from the 'Gothic' studio album. The two tracks which formerly
featured on the studio debut received extensive remixing & all new arrangements
in the shape of 'Rotting Misery (Doom Dub)' & 'Breeding Fear (Demolition Dub)'.
This edition of 'Gothic EP' is presented on black vinyl with design-work from the
original 1994 CD release.

Between the late 70s and the early 80s, pop music was in a transitional phase. After a return to the roots of punk, rock was morphing into new wave, while disco was rapidly declining and the electronic revolution, already on the rise, was ushering in the transition from analog to digital. This period also saw the emergence and relatively brief flowering of a commercially dominant style that mixed soul influences (especially Stevie Wonder and Ear th Wind & Fi re) , folk/pop songwriting and jazz sensibilities in equal measure, creating a hybrid easy on the ears but also emotionally and musically rich. It was the style represented by artists like Christopher Cross, Michael McDonald, Gino Vannelli and Kenny Loggins, who were all influenced by black music. They belonged to a larger trend that took place in all major music producing countries, including Italy where, like so many other things, the style was not merely imported or copied, but reshaped into a specifically local version based on the nation's tastes and cultural traditions. In Italy, a soulful and sophisticated approach to pop music was embraced not only by established names like Mina, Alan Sorrenti and Loredana Berté, but also, and perhaps most importantly, by an entire generation of writers, arrangers and musicians who had grown up listening to early fusion, to Steely Dan's refined recordings, and to Quincy Jones's productions. So, with this compilation we hope to give new exposure to artists and songs that, despite having moderate or little success when first released, must be regarded as among the creative peaks of Italian pop music. "Paisà Got Soul" features pop veterans Peppino Di Capri, Mario Lavezzi and Alberto Radius alongside atypical singer-songwriters (Enzo Carella, Enzo Cervo, Gino D'Eliso), Italo-disco heroes (Stefano Pulga), international hit composers (Beppe Cantarelli, who has co-written for Aretha Franklin and Mariah Carey), Brazilian-born naturalized Italians (Jim Porto) and complete unknowns (Franco Camassa, I Ricci, Massimo Stella).It brings together little gems that in most cases are no longer available on the market, or only available in their original and now very rare vinyl format. We believe they all deserve to be rediscovered today, partly because of the recently renewed interest in "yacht rock", as this music style has been retrospectively named, and partly because they provide further evidence that Italian artists rework international music styles in creative and original ways.

Compiled and conceived by David Nerattini partnered by Pierpaolo De Sanctis

‘Black Pride’ is the seminal Lovers Rock tune from Brown Sugar pressed loud for the first ever time on this new one-off press limited-edition (just 1,000 copies worldwide) 12” on Soul Jazz Records!


Brown Sugar formed in London in 1976 made up of teenagers Pauline Catlin, Caron Wheeler and Carol Simms. After Brown Sugar Caron Wheeler became known worldwide as the vocalist in Soul II Soul and Carol Simms launched a successful solo career under the name ‘Kofi'. “Black Pride” was originally released on the Lovers Rock label, a fledgling reggae label formed by musicians Dennis Bovell and John Kpiaye and producer Dennis Harris. Brown Sugar were unique – not only were they one of the most important of the first wave of lovers rock groups, they were the only group who managed to successfully blend together a reggae roots consciousness with a lovers rock sensibility. The classic ‘Black Pride’ perfectly reflects this unique sound.

On textstar+ Jan Jelinek brings together the material from the CMYK series, four EPs he released between 1999 and 2002 under the pseudonym farben (the German word for both colours and paints), on a vinyl double LP for the first time. The selection of tracks has been remastered from the original tapes, joined by two additional pieces that appeared on compilations during the same period.

A Polaroid. Still life with tangled leads and consumer electronics, late twentieth century. Black and various shades of dirty white are the dominant non-colours. The image’s spatial depth remains diffuse, the links between its elements speculative. A note stuck to the wall (a legend, perhaps, or an all-explaining blueprint in text form?) is impossible to decipher. You can’t see what connects the picture’s signs. You have to hear it.

farben says: Every sound is a text. A bearer of meaning in search of a reader. Hoping the ideas inscribed in its autonomous existence will be understood as intended. While its beauty lies precisely in misunderstanding, in reading the coded message a new way every time. A thousand colours of sound, a thousand different ways to hear, to see, to understand.

On textstar+ Jan Jelinek brings together the material from the CMYK series, four EPs he released between 1999 and 2002 under the pseudonym farben (the German word for both colours and paints), on a vinyl double LP for the first time. The selection of tracks has been remastered from the original tapes, joined by two additional pieces that appeared on compilations during the same period. Another new element is the Polaroid, showing the origins of a world: Jelinek’s home studio in Berlin at the time.

farben says: Move your body! The project has its roots in Jelinek’s love of house as a reductionist vision of soul. Of four to the floor as a proposition that can be accessed anywhere. Of electronic dance music as a realm of possibility that can be continually expanded. farben was written as contemporary house music. As a text about excitement and euphoria. The arrangements were made directly while recording to DAT, on a twelve-channel mixing desk. Several track titles suggest a link to live concerts, coupled with the context of machine music and bedroom recording. Others affirm pop music’s most extravagant stock phrases about various states of love.

Jelinek produced the tracks with the aim of making music for dancefloors. An idea that failed very productively. In the locations to which it was originally addressed, the project barely figured. But people did listen, and they listened all the more closely to this music that opened up new acoustic and associative scope for house. farben is the opposite of genre: a music spawning new terms (clicks & cuts, micro-house) that never manage to fully capture it.

farben says: Signifiers. The four CMYK EPs are designed as a network of references that cannot be missed but that can also never be precisely deciphered. The vectors of sound, word and image point to Isaac Hayes and Ornette Coleman, to Detroit and the first generation of the Red Army Faction, to Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. So multifarious that they are distorted to the point of recognition. Overall we hear sonic docufictions whose appealing vagueness derives precisely from this oscillation between clarity and ambiguity, which is also the source of their poetry: the lyricism of the pure circulation of signs.

The artwork is based on photographs of former Red Army Faction members, broken down into the four colours of the CMYK model. The motifs dissolve into individual dots of a single colour, so close to the faces that their expressions are only hinted at. Taken together, the individual colours compose a new whole out of fragmentary material, defying definition and thus maintaining their vibrancy. The same occurs on the level of sound. The sampler Jelinek used for these tracks had to be fed with floppy disks, imposing a memory limit of 1.44 megabytes per audio quotation from soul or jazz records. As a necessary consequence of this, the individual references, like the dots of colour, are dissolved into details and abstractions. They appear as splinters that recombine in new ways to create new meanings. The joy of collapsing metaphors.

farben says: New departures. Even two decades after its original release, textstar+ does not come across as an epitaph to the modern era. Instead, it appears as a euphoric affirmation of the utopias of the twentieth century, translated into new sound texts via the aesthetic strategies of abstraction, collage, networking and speculation. 1.44 megabytes of history, one thousand signifiers, one album. From “Live ...” to “... Love”.

Arno Raffeiner, 2021

Adrian Quesada announces the release of ‘Boleros Psicodélicos’,
a sprawling and singular tribute to the golden era of balada music.
The brand-new album from the GRAMMY-nominated guitarist,
producer and Black Pumas co-founder serves as a celebration of
the super funky, slightly delirious and deeply soulful sounds that
transcended the cultural boundaries of Latin America throughout
the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Featuring vocals from Puerto Rican icon, GRAMMY-winner and
former Calle 13 member iLe, Colombian-American visionary
Gabriel Garzón-Montano, Mexican R&B star Girl Ultra, as well as
Angelica Garcia, Gaby Moreno, contributions from living legends
such as Marc Ribot and Beastie Boys musician Money Mark, and
many more, ‘Boleros Psicodélicos’ consists primarily of original
Adrian Quesada compositions, as well as covers of La Lupe’s
‘Puedes Decir De Mí’, Jeanette’s ‘El Muchacho De Los Ojos
Tristes’ and other balada classics.

All twelve tracks were produced, engineered, mixed and largely
performed by Adrian Quesada, honouring and extending the
influence of a personal obsession that he has cultivated over the
past 20 years.

Similar to his acclaimed 2018 album ‘Look At My Soul’, which
traced the deep roots and relationship between Latin and Texas
music, Adrian Quesada sees every song on ‘Boleros Psicodelicos’
as both a history lesson and a step towards a newly imagined,
more united future: “I always wanted to pay tribute to that sound
that I was already hearing in my head without realizing that people
had already done it. Balada changed the face of Latin music
forever. If something like that happened today, it would be normal
because everyone’s connected on Instagram. Think how powerful
this sound had to be for everyone to be connected through the
songs. As someone who grew up speaking two languages and
living on both sides of the border, I love how much music can
transcend barriers and boundaries. It really is a universal
language, especially back then.”

First Word Records continues its series of special collaborative releases for it's 15th anniversary with an absolutely firing double-header from 14KT and Tall Black Guy.
On this limited 7" vinyl, the two renowned US beat-makers revisit two of their previous First Word singles, turning out flips of each other's tracks, also featuring a multitude of talent, in the form of Moonchild, Muhsinah, Stro Elliot and James Poyser of The Roots.

Following on from the first volume in 14KT's jazz project 'IAMABEENIE', here he flips TBG and Moonchild's collab, 'I Will Never Know', originally from Tall Black Guy's 2017 sophomore album 'Let's Take A Trip'. The original neo-soul bump is transformed into a deliciously epic latin affair, drenched with deep Brazilian vibes throughout - this is one to draw for at those steamy get-downs; a slinky slab of dancefloor fire.

Tall Black Guy returns to First Word for the first time in a minute, and takes on the Muhsinah-lead joint 'The Power Of Same', the lead single from 14KT's 2019 acclaimed album, 'For My Sanity'.

As to be expected, TBG delivers his unmistakable blend of dope dubbed-out spacey soul and boom bap kicks & snares, complete with guitar licks from Stro Elliot, and keys from James Poyser. Two of the dopest producers in the game, this one is completely 1000% essential.

When dubwise music really started to come into its own in the early to mid 70s, it made overnight stars of backroom boys who had hitherto worked behind a mixing desk to serve those who were beginning to hoist reggae to an international stardom that it had long deserved, but that it had only achieved on short and non-sustained bursts until Chris Blackwell decided to throw a lot of promotion and money at the work of Bob Marley and his fellow Wailers in 1972. Of those men, there was no bigger star than the late Osbourne Ruddock, the great King Tubby’s and the man who, from a tiny home-made studio in the Waterhouse district of Kingston, Jamaica, did more than most to reposition the boundaries that production and mixing of Jamaican recordings.

Sub Signals Vol.2 is a deep dive into underground bass, guided by artist and producer Gaudi. Featuring predominantly unreleased originals and versions by some of the biggest names in the worldwide dub collective, it intricately combines analogue elements with digital grooves to stunning effect.

Much more than just a compilation, the Sub Signals series is a celebration of the evolution of the sound of dub, from its original roots in reggae to its fusion with a much wider spectrum of sounds and influences. Gaudi curated the first volume back in 2006 for the cult Canadian label Interchill, sourcing tracks and dubs from High Tone, Zion Train, Manasseh, Almamegretta, Noiseshaper, Creation Rebel, Greg Hunter, Dubadelic and more.

15 years on, Gaudi has created the second volume, blending contributions by established reggae names Steel Pulse, Dennis Bovell and African Head Charge with next generation dub producers Alpha Steppa, Radikal Guru and Paolo Baldini Dubfiles, headline acts Groove Armada, Dub FX and The Orb with underground artists Deadbeat, Pitch Black and SUBSET, to create a seamless 75 minute mix.
“With Volume 2, I wanted to create a deep vibrational experience by shaping an aural trajectory that encompassed the many aspects of dub and its related sub-frequencies. To achieve my goal, I reached out to the artists I regularly work with to ask for contributions, in some cases digging in their archives to find what I was looking for.”

As a solo artist, Gaudi has recorded over 20 albums, while as a producer he has hundreds of productions under his belt. He has worked with legends of the reggae and electronic music worlds including Lee "Scratch" Perry, Horace Andy, Dub Pistols, Hollie Cook, Youth, Mad Professor, Prince Fatty, Lamb, Trentemøller and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

Dedicated to the sound of dub in its many forms, Gaudi’s latest excursion of his Sub Signals series is pure bass therapy, designed to excite your eardrums and worry your woofers.

In the post-pandemic era that we now live in, some artists have used its abnormal reality as an abstract muse or a reason to expand their repertoire into unseen territory or styles. Fortunately, the Charlotte, NC native with the gritty, gospel-flecked croon does neither. Instead, Hamilton returns with familiar collaborators (9th Wonder, Jermaine Dupri, James Poyser) and his signature Southern grit and lyrics, planting those winning elements, ten toes down, into contemporarily-rendered, yet unabashedly-influenced,1970s-era soul. Sometimes those aspects are shimmering and glossy, such as the awe-struck, surrendering ode, "White Hennessy," the buoyant Curtis Mayfield-channeling title track and "Real Love," a boom-bap-heavy groove with a mellow, half-spoken and half-sung tribute to the emotion (with FL's Rick Ross anchoring the bridge). His Generation X roots are also in display on the bass-dropping and ice-flossing "I'm Ready," with ATL's own Lil Jon.
"Back in the black." "Black Power!" "Give me five on the black-hand side." "Always bet on Black." In a literal sense, the color black is created by the complete absence of light or the total absorption of all shades. It represents solemnity, sophistication or literal all-encompassing darkness. But for the people residing within its varying hues, blackness signifies all that is meaningful, fly and pertinent to their culture and way of life. The rich contrasts of black life, and the layers of emotion in-between, are what Anthony Hamilton is exploring throughout his seventh studio album, Love Is the New Black

Justin K Broadrick (Godflesh, Jesu, JK Flesh) breathes new life into his FINAL project for an album on Helm’s ALTER label. Formed in 1984 out of an obsession with the industrial, noise & power electronics acts of the early eighties, FINAL made its public debut at the legendary Mermaid pub in Birmingham when Broadrick was just 14 years old. A string of cassette releases via his Post MortemRekordings label established the name within the underground noise scene of the time until increased activity with his various groups (Napalm Death, Head of David and later Godflesh) meant that FINAL naturally fell by the wayside before the end of the decade. Broadrick reactivated the project in 1993 during the British ambient “isolationism” period and FINAL's sound became focussed more on texture, producing beatless ambient work with a number of albums for labels like Sentrax, Utech, No Quarter and Neurot. ‘It Comes To Us All’ is the first FINAL album to appear on vinyl since 2015’s ‘Black Dollars’ on Downwards and continues to explore the textural nature of Broadrick’s ambient work - this time through a filter of blown-out harmonic noise that reconnects the project with its harsher roots. Rather than channelling the angst of early power-electronics, the noise here rumbles along blissfully through 8 untitled tracks, sombre in tone and at times beautiful. Melodies sampled from pop music are put through a process of decay, stripped of their form and worn down with a rusty, melancholic afterglow. Reducing all its parts to slow-motion shadows of their former selves, ‘It Comes To Us All’ is an exploration of the decay of all living things that we face collectively, day after day.

Australian hip-hop/neo soul duo SO.Crates are a boom-bap prayer sent live and direct from the heart of two of the culture’s most committed students. The group features Melbourne based beatmaker and DJ Skomes alongside California-via-Adelaide MC & poet Cazeaux O.S.L.O, not to mention the MUSE, a forever changing third party who completes the creative trinity of the Crates. With a legacy built on releasing a steady flow of cold-crush records and delivering uplifting live performances to the party people, SO.Crates prove that hip-hop’s golden era is not a lost date in time, but a foundational state of mind. Functioning as a considered preview of what to expect from the album to follow, the hypnotic first release 'Stars' is an auditory exploration of what happens when two opposing charges collide; the joyful and the melancholy. Here, layers of instrumentation, samples and vocals sit atop a foundation of grounding beats — the track's roots from which piano samples, live trumpet and vocal embellishments spring. "When Skomes gets in his stride, it's always a bit of a happy/sad feeling. It can go either way, like a mood ring", says Cazeaux O.S.L.O. "I guess you could say we make mood ring beats, and 'Stars' is no exception".

EXTENSIVE COLLECTION OF SIGH'S EARLY DEMOS, EP's & RARITIES,
PRESENTED ON DOUBLE CD FORMAT - INCLUDES INTERVIEW & LINER
NOTES COURTESY OF MAINMAN MIRAI KAWASHIMA ON THE
FORMATIVE YEARS OF THE JAPANESE LEGENDS.Cult Japanese black
metal legends Sigh formed in 1989/90, featuring mainman Mirai
Kawashima, Satoshi Fujinami & Kazuki Ozeki
Following initial demos, Shinichi Ishikawa was brought into the band, & Kazuki
removed from the line- up. It was following this shift that the band set about
recording the masterpiece debut 'Scorn Defeat' for Euronymous' Deathlike Silence
Productions, going on to become one of the country's greatest & most revered
metal exports. With a journey through the strange & the psychedelic,
incorporating a whole eclectic mix of genre styles & experimentation throughout
their career, Sigh has remained a vital creative force in the avantgarde field.
However, at its core, Sigh has always remained true to its roots of old school
metal. 'Eastern Darkness' contains a comprehensive collection of Sigh's early rare
works showing their swift musical evolution as well as the strong utilisation of
keyboards in their compositional process throughout. The collection includes the
band's legendary demo tapes, 'Desolation', & 'Tragedies', plus their EP's & rarities,
as well as contributions to various compilation releases in the mid 1990's.
Considering Sigh's well- known regard for UK legends Venom throughout their
career, 'Eastern Darkness' also contains the band's own tribute to the 1980's black
metal pioneers, in the form of tribute 'To Hell & Back', originally released on tape
in 1995.
This edition of 'Eastern Darkness' is presented on double disc CD format &
includes a 12- page booklet featuring an interview with Mirai Kawashima about
the early years of the band, along with his recollections of the origins of each title
contained within the release, three decades on from Sigh's formation.

Best known for his work with CL Smooth, and his remixes for Public Enemy, House of Pain, Mary J Blige and Mick Jagger to mention a few. Hailing from the little town of Mt. Vernon, NY, right next to the Bronx, Pete Rock & CL Smooth pretty much got together in their local high school when Pete noticed CLs dope and unique voice. After high school, Pete hooked up a weekend hip-hop show on WBLS-FM and was considered one of NYs premier DJs during his four year stint on the show. All Souled Out was Pete & CLs debut EP, it was the phenomenal production by Pete Rock which really drew people to this EP. If the legendary DJ Mark The 45 King was the first producer to incorporate horns, Pete Rock was the first to really perfect this new style of production with his trademark echoing horns laced throughout his music. This was done very nicely on two of the cuts off the EP, Creator and Mecca & The Soul Brother, and people were taking notice in a big way.
After the solid Mecca/Creator 12 inch, the duo unleashed one of those all-time classic LPs every MC dreams of having, Mecca & The Soul Brother featuring the monumental: They Reminisce Over You, Straighten It Out, Ghettos Of The Mind, and Lots Of Lovin. Songs to make you cry - damn, they were playing TROY at funerals everywhere. One of the greatest hip hop records ever made ...it never leads my box man...- (Tim Westwood)

Pete Rock on hip hop: Hip hop to me today is still important but we are going through a phase right now. Hip Hop as been injected by a virus, and right now weve got to find a cure to this. Which brings along myself. (Frank 151)

The Press ...from downtempo, funkdified sounds to hypnotic hip-hop beats, this is a wonderfully crafted album - (BPM July 2001)
This hypnotic ... album represents hip hops incredible ability to morph and manipulate a hodgepodge of sounds to create something unique...although the sound is now industrial, electronic and everything but natural Pete's version of hip hop will remain a classy affair that merges the elements of an orchestra, the roots of black music and the cacophony of the streets. - (Mass Appeal July 2001)

Having scooped the prestigious Record Store Day Unsigned 2020 award, her debut album 'In The Blue Corner' was released as a limited edition run on turquoise sparkle vinyl in November 2021. Now available on a full digital and physical release including a new vinyl pressing on dusk blue coloured vinyl. "Loving this. Really cool voice_ love the voice!" Craig Charles (6Music) // "The most original sound. Like Little Richard, Mark Ronson, Nina Simone and Nick Cave all got locked in a New Orleans speakeasy" Record Store Day Unsigned Panel 2020 // "Wow, I mean what's not to like about that? That is sensational! How groovy is that?! Mark Radcliffe, BBC 6Music // "What a voice!" Robert Elms, BBC London // "Her voice is stunning, powerful and unique, and her stage presence hits the back of the room at any venue she plays" DJ Anne Frankenstein, Jazz FM // Included in Craig Charles' Funk and Soul 'Ones to Watch 2022' list. From London via Lagos, charismatic chanteuse Sister Cookie will take you on an eclectic excursion into the roots & fruits of black music. Old sounds, new tricks. Sensuous, seductive and moody. As well as possessing a distinctive voice that's tender and sweet when it needs to be, she's a composer and self-taught pianist who writes honest and raw songs about pain, heartbreak, suffering - all that bad (meaning-good) stuff. A mainstay on the vintage Soul & R'n'R circuit since 2015 with slots at Wilderness, Latitude, Red Rooster, Port Elliot and more under her belt - as well as touring across Europe with her band - Sister Cookie has so far been supported by Craig Charles, Mark Radcliffe & Cerys Matthews at 6Music, Robert Elms on BBC London plus plays on Resonance, Jazz FM and Amazing Radio. Craig Charles is a big supporter on BBC 6 Music and has played current single 'Ain't No Good (But It's Good Enough For Me)' several times. Steve Lamacq and Lauren Laverne have also given the track multiple plays. The track has also been playlisted at Jazz FM. Singles from the album have been played many times across European radio stations including France Culture, Rock Radio (Greece), Radio Nova (Portugal), Mach 5 (Italy), HR Radio Sijeme (Croatia). She's performed at some of the UK's most esteemed venues including the 100 Club and Union Chapel, The Round Chapel and has enjoyed a number of stints as a guest vocalist with The Soulful Orchestra, Jim Jones & The Righteous Mind, Future Shape Of Sound & MFC Chicken. Sister Cookie Is going to be part of the judging panel for Record Store Day Unsigned competition in April, the competition she won in 2020.

Philadelphia’s DEVIL MASTER’s roots in ritual magick have never been more prominent than on their highly anticipated new album Ecstasies Of Never Ending Night. Recorded live to analog tape by Pete DeBoer (Blood Incantation, Spectral Voice), Ecstasies expands on the warped riffing and dark atmospheres that have already propelled DEVIL MASTER as one of the underground’s most unique and unfettered bands. From the band’s blackened punk maelstrom of “Acid Black Mass” to the spiraling death rock of “Abyss In Vision” and the layers of refined atmosphere on the closer “Never Ending Night”, lead guitarist Darkest Prince of All Rebellion shines across a collection of fiery, tumultuous riffs - Lyrically, vocalist Disembody Through Unparalleled Pleasure laces Ecstasies with life-affirming blasphemy and existential dread. Ecstasies of Never Ending Night witnesses DEVIL MASTER at its core. Vocalist Disembody Through Unparalleled Pleasure has assumed the role of bassist, strengthening the songwriting alongside Darkest Prince and founding member/rhythm guitarist Infernal Moonlight Apparition. Fresh blood was required and found in drummer/keyboardist Festering Terror in Deepest Catacomb (a.k.a. Chris Ulsh of Power Trip and Iron Age). Ecstasies of Never Ending Night proves to be a crucial addition to the pantheon of evil satanic metal. In the end, magick reigns!

Improvisation and experimentation are at the core of Robocobra
Quartet’s DNA, almost intentionally at odds with their roots as a
post punk band.
 Including members with no musical training alongside European
music conservatoire innovators, the result is a groove-driven but
cerebral blast, invoking the likes of Fugazi, Talking Heads and
contemporaries such as Squid and Black Country, New Road.
 The eclectic free nature of their live shows allows them to
channel hop from moments of joy and playfulness to periods of
intense fury, creating a unique sound that has earned them
invitations to Montreux Jazz Festival and Latitude.
 Robocobra Quartet have a rule: No Guitars Allowed. Their
unique sound, concocted and self-produced in Belfast, Northern
Ireland, sees that ‘middle’ space filled by other instruments such
as saxophones, samplers, keyboards and sound effects,
swirling around the melodic basslines and powerful drum
rhythms which prop up the core of each of their songs.
 On top of this music sits a single vocal from behind the drum kit
amid a fury of rhythm, sometimes marrying perfectly with the
pulse of the drums and occasionally at complete odds with it.
 Live dates / tour to be announced.
 “I genuinely don’t think there is another band like ‘em, anywhere
in these islands” - Tom Robinson
 “Free-floating musical explorers” - Hannah Peel
 “Fugazi meets Mingus.” - Drowned in Sound
 “Exploratory pioneers.” - BBC Radio 3 Late Junction
 “A cunning marriage of jazz, spoken word and punk” - The
Quietus

Back in stock !

There is geological time and deep-space time. The natural world's time, and quantum time. Humans started measuring time with the stars and seasons. Then came hourglasses and sundials. The first mechanical clocks weren't in Europe until the late 13th century. Then came industrial time, a wristwatch for all and then everything had a time. A time for everything. All feeding into our recently digitised time and its marching nanoseconds. Let us not forget however another way to measure time: That would be K&D time.
Yes, you can rush, but isn't it so much nicer to amble? This onception of time may well have its roots in those smoke mists, softly blowing through the pre-history of 1995, and if that was time - then we need space. In particular, one Viennese front room that has turned its bass bins out to the cosmos. That sweet smoke, shrouding the desk and sampler. A few old keyboards (as a friend skins up at the back) unnoticed on the couch - just passing through...
Those days of K&D time had been thought to have gone. But one of times tricks is to hide itself in music. Not long ago (after a box of DATs had been found, and a DAT player prised back into service) back through the music wormhole our heroes fell into that smoke laden room of 1995. The remix time hadn't arrived nor the intense touring schedule. It was before the K&D sessions release and all that came with it, before the solo projects of the Peace Orchestra and Tosca. This was a time before all of that. A time for literally living in the studio and experiencing the joy of creating tune after tune. Just the sound and the smoke and no boundaries.
It was before people started asking about when the album was coming out. Which developed its own time specific answers. The 90s answer was soon, 00s answer was not sure and then: never! from 2010 onwards. The truth was, an album had been finished by the spring of '95 and all recorded onto DAT and placed in a box. K&D pressed up 10 copies and gave 4 away to some suitably eccentric individuals. Then the room's doors opened and in a tremendously big cloud of smoke time rushed in, K&D rushed out, and the years went rolling by. The days got filled with remixes, touring and life.
Then in early 2020 that chance moving of a box at the back of a room exposed the DATs and their time transporting properties. As K&D went through them they ended up comfortable and back in the room and that wonderful haze of 1995. The music was transferred from the DATs and K&D painstakingly rebuilt every molecule that made up the original 10 copies. From the very first takes of the mixes printed onto tape, to the solid slab of black virgin vinyl, to the abused by many plays, white cover. Even down to the labels that says "'Unverkäufliche Musterplatte" (Testpressing - Not For Sale) in rather rude German.
It now looks, feels and sounds pretty much exactly the same as those original 10 copies did in 1995. The only thing that couldn't be don is the original clouds of smoke those 10 copies were bathed in. That will be left to the listener to wrap it in the fresh harvest of 2020. In one way it's a musical time warp space travel. In another, if the music becomes classic and timeless, then it's of its time, whatever the time. So as the rooms bass bins are once again turned out towards the cosmos, K&D are happy and proud to release what they thought were lost moments. Drop through the worm hole, take your place on the couch. The friend who is skinning up, always just passing through, listening to an album for the future called 1995. It all makes sense if you measure in K&D time.

At the beginning of the eighties reggae music became increasingly in tune with what was happening in Kingston’s dance halls… probably more so than at any time since the sound system operators had started to make their own shuffle and boogie recordings in the late fifties. The international audience and the critics were too busy looking for a new Bob Marley to appreciate what was happening downtown and failed to acknowledge that this was a return to the real, raw roots of the music. Brash, confident, young record producers who were totally in tune with the youth audience stepped forward and seized the moment…

Oswald ‘Ossie’ Thomas began his apprenticeship in the music business at the age of fourteen and served his time as a record salesman for Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee and Winston ‘Niney The Observer’ Holness before moving on to Miss Sonia Pottinger’s Tip Top Records.

“I ended up working in three record stores on Orange Street from 1976 to 1981… Yeah man! Me deh ‘pon me bicycle till I buy my motorcycle! Them days records were coming out left, right and centre… every day!” Ossie Thomas

It was during his time with Miss Pottinger that Ossie began to produce records for himself and in 1979 Ossie and Phillip Morgan began the Black Solidarity label based deep in the Kingston ghetto on Delamere Avenue. Phillip initially inspired Ossie to start the label and soon Triston Palma, Phillip Frazer and “a youth named Gary Robertson” joined in although Gary later left for Canada.

The Soul Syndicate rehearsed in the Delamere Avenue area and Tony Chin gave Ossie a cut of a rhythm that he used for Triston Palma’s ‘A Class Girl’… the label’s inaugural release. The record was a sizeable success and paved the way for hit after hit after hit on Black Solidarity. Ossie worked with just about everybody who was anybody during this critical period of the music’s development including vocalists Robert Ffrench, Little John, Sugar Minott, Frankie Paul and most notably Triston Palma.

“But Delamere must be considered as a music street sheltering as it does such artists as Junior Byles, Don Angelo, Triston Palma, Phillip Frazer and producer Ossie of the Black Solidarity label…” Beth Lesser
And the man who had made his name in the business selling other people’s records now became one of the most important and influential record producers of the era.
With grateful thanks to: Paul Coote, Nick Hodgson & Hasse Huss

Take cover: there’s a storm coming !

With its lyrical thunderbolts, lightning-flash fretwork and ground-shaking grooves, Black Wind Howlin’ is a record to blow your roof off – and Samantha Fish is stood at the eye of the hurricane. Released on September 20th through Ruf Records, Black Wind Howlin’ flips a finger at the cliché of the ‘difficult second album’, firing off 12 classic tracks that chart Samantha’s evolution as songwriter, gunslinger
and lyricist. While lesser artists work to a template or settle into a pigeonhole, Samantha shifts her shape across the Black Wind Howlin’ tracklisting. She can be brutally rocking on cuts like the tourbus snapshot of Miles To Go (“Twelve hours to Reno/ten hours til the next show”), the swaggering Sucker Born (“Vegas left me weary, LA bled me dry/skating on fumes as I crossed the Nevada line…”) and the
venomous Go To Hell (“Oh, this ain’t my first rodeo/You hit yourself a dead end/ Your voodoo eyes, ain’t gonna cast a spell/ So you can go to hell!”). And yet, elsewhere, backed by the versatile production of Royal Southern Brotherhood guitarist and longtime collaborator Mike Zito, you’ll find Samantha shifting gears to the aching slide- guitar balladry of Over You (“Echoing words, said I’d never make it on my own…”) and the redemptive country strum Last September (“Don’t
remember the curves of my face/Can’t feel the warmth in my embrace/Well I’m here to remind you…”). She might stop off for a gritty cover of Howlin’ Wolf’s.
Who’s Been Talkin’, and co- wrote Go To Hell with Zito, but all other tracks are Samantha’s self-penned originals, and it’s a mix to keep listeners on their toes. “I wanted this record to have a modern rocking sound,” she explains of the lightfooted vibe. “I also wanted it to have elements of Americana, country and roots.”
Therefore she had support from a first- call band that included Royal Southern Brotherhood rhythm section Yonrico Scott (drums) and Charlie Wooton (bass), back- up guitar and vocals from Zito, plus guest appearances from Johnny Sansone (harmonica), Bo Thomas (fiddle on Last September) and Paul Thorn (vocals on Go To Hell). So here it is. Harder, darker, bolder and better than even its revered predecessor (Runaway), this is the sound of an artist on the brink of the huge-time with both hands on the wheel.

First single in three years from Belfast’s Robocobra Quartet.

For fans of Black Country, New Road, Black Midi, Squid, Fugazi, Dry Cleaning.

“Fugazi meets Mingus.” - Drowned in Sound
“Exploratory pioneers.” - BBC Radio 3 Late Junction
“A cunning marriage of jazz, spoken word and punk” - The Quietus

Improvisation and experimentation is at the core of Robocobra Quartet's DNA, almost intentionally at odds with their roots as a post-punk band. Including members with no musical training alongside
European music conservatoire innovators, the result is a groove-driven but cerebral blast, invoking the likes of Fugazi, Talking Heads and contemporaries such as Squid and Black Country, New Road.

The eclectic free nature of their live shows allows them to channel-hop from moments of joy and playfulness to periods of intense fury, creating a unique sound that has earned them invitations to Montreux Jazz Festival, Latitude and as far out as the Inversia Festival in the polar north of Russia.

Extensive live UK and Europe dates and album launch tour to be announced.

Zone 6 Agege - the album title, K.O.G. shares, refers to a little coastal suburb in Accra the capital of Ghana, where he “grew up and the vibe, culture and social structures enhanced and developed my creativity and love for art,” adding that the album is his “ode or a tribute to my nature, nurture and future” – is his first solo release for Heavenly Sweetness. It was recorded in November, 2020 at Yellow Arch studios (Sheffield) by David Haynes and produced by Tom Excell and Guts. Two years ago, K.O.G. released Wahala, Wahala (the album title, Swahili for trouble, or problem, also on Heavenly Sweetness) with The Zongo Brigade. Zone 6 Agege is a dramatic development: as much homage to the Accra-born artist’s musical roots, as an expansive engagement with music of the Black Atlantic, most notably hip-hop and dub/reggae.

Since their debut 45 back in 2019, Night Owls have consistently taken the bar up a notch re-imagining classic funk & soul with a Jamaican twist. With eight sold out 45’s in a span of three years and regular airplay on BBC6, KCRW and more, we’re happy to announce this much anticipated LP “Versions” comprising all their groove filled singles to date. This all-star production team comprised of Dan Ubick (The Lions, Connie Price and the Keystones, De La Soul) on Guitar & Percussion, Blake Colie (Arise Roots,The Lions, Hollie Cook) on Drum Kit, Dave Wilder (The Lions, Ziggy Marley, Macy Gray) on Bass, and Roger Rivas (The Aggrolites, Jason Mraz, LBDA) on Organ & Piano, team up with many of today’s top soul singers to bring their signature take on beloved chart topping hits and deep cuts. Featuring vocalists Afrodyete (Breakestra),Terin Ector (Orgone), Durand Jones (The Indications), Malik “The Freq” Moore (The Lions),Alex Désert (Hepcat,The Lions), Jesse Wagner (The Aggro- lites), Jamie Allensworth (Jungle Fire), Sy Smith (Macy Gray, Sheila E.), Chris Dowd (Fishbone), John Arthur Bigham (Fishbone, Soul of John Black), Kevin Sandbloom, Kendra Morris and Destani Wolf (Matisyahu,The Pharcyde), each track was carefully selected by producer Dan Ubick to match the featured vocalists strength resulting in a heavy soul and dub infused LP that surely won’t want to leave your turntable!

Les Disques du Crepuscule presents a new double vinyl remaster of two seminal albums by German synth wave pioneers Gina X Performance, whose groundbreaking singles Nice Mover, No G.D.M. and Kaddish remain enduring electroclash staples after four decades of club supremacy.

Remastered for vinyl in 2021 by Zeus B. Held and Lars Lafeyette Fassbender, the double album set is housed in a gatefold sleeve with new artwork and pressed on clear and green vinyl + digital copy. This pressing is limited to 1000 copies only worldwide. The inner sleeve features a brand new interview with Zeus.


Formed in Cologne in 1978, the core of Gina X Performance composed vocalist Gina Kikoine and producer/keyboard/vocoder wizard Zeus B. Held. ‘I had in mind science fiction-inspired tracks,’ explains Zeus.‘Really cold sounding music, with no blues-ey chords or melodies, no guitar and nothing rocky.’

Originally issued on German imprint Crystal 1979, icy, noirish debut album Nice Mover spawned two radical Eurodisco hits, with gender-bending single No G.D.M. becoming a firm favourite at the legendary Blitz Club in London’s Soho. At the same time Zeus B. Held also became an in-demandproducer, working with John Foxx, Fashion, Rockets and Dead or Alive.

The third GXP long player, Voyeur, from 1981, followed a brief spell on EMI and saw the duo return to their experimental, avant-gardist roots, the material by turns seductive, provocative and confrontational. Since then countless electronic artists have acknowledged or betrayed the influence of Gina X Performance, including Depeche Mode, Propaganda, Ladytron and Peaches.
Critical praise for Gina X Performance: “Pioneering electro-pop from 1979 with hints of Kraftwerk, Nico and Studio 54-era Grace Jones” (Mojo); “Like an artier Moroder” (Uncut); “No G.D.M. is one of the most influential songs to come out of the Continent” (Q); “Disco for the intellect” (NME)

A guitarist, a composer, a sought-after musical enabler and sideman? Of course, he's all of those things and more, but none of those descriptions really do the seven-time Juno Award-winning musician justice.

Like all of Steve's albums, 'Gone, Long Gone' features brilliant instrumental performances from some of the finest players in roots music. Jeremy Holmes holds everything together on bass with drumming split between Gary Craig and Jay Bellerose (both drummers play together on 'Six Skeletons'), while Kevin McKendree and Chris Gestrin laid down the piano, organ and other keyboards.
Keri Latimer joins in on vocals on two songs, and Steve's old 'Birds of Chicago' band- mate, Allison Russell joined in to sing on a few as did Steve's daughter Casey Dawson. John Prine alumnus Fats Kaplin also dropped in to add some sweet fiddle and mandolin.
'Gone, Long Gone' is just the first of three new albums that Steve created during the lockdown. The next two will come to light over three month intervals throughout 2022. Be on the lookout for a moody, psychedelic pedal steel excursion coming up next!

‘Primordial Waters’ is Jamael Dean’s debut album on Stones Throw, following ‘Black Space Tapes’ (2019) and ‘Oblivion’ (2020).

Gatefold double LP. Cover photo by renowned photographer B+ (Brian Cross).

‘Primordial Waters’ sees the prodigiously talented young musician take his explorations in jazz and hip-hop to new heights. Inspired by Orisha stories and Jamael’s Los Angeles roots, the album is heavily infused with Yoruba spirituality and celestial themes. Several of the
tracks interpolate traditional Yoruba songs and feature vocals from frequent collaborator Sharada Shashidhar.


The album was mixed by Leaving Records’ Zeroh and mastered by Grammy Award-winning audio engineer and Low End Theory founder Daddy Kev.

Jamael performed on Kamasi Washington’s 2018 album ‘Heaven and Earth’ and has toured with Thundercat,

Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and Carlos Niño. Extensive touring is planned for 2021 and 2022, including a residency at LA’s Gold Diggers, a double headline bill with Mndsgn at the Jazz Cafe, and several European jazz festivals and club shows in November 2021.

For fans of Sun Ra, The Comet is Coming, Kamasi Washington, Moses Boyd, Joe Armon-Jones, Nubya Garcia, Sons of Kemet, Alice Coltrane.

How can one explain the lasting popularity of the bass clarinet in musical circles from Vienna to Brussels? Perhaps because its frequency range articulates an alternative to conventions of popular music, where "bass" is reserved primarily for rhythmic impulses and the very foundation of the music. Viennese bass clarinetist Susanna Gartmayer's playing can by no means be reduced to just this, rather, it scutinizes the entire sound universe: she can do rhythm and drone, not to mention melody and noise, often all at once. Who would be a more fitting collaborator than Stefan Schneider, with his minimalist rhythms and subtle cosmic exploration?

Together, Schneider and Gartmayer form the project So Sner, which owes its existence to a concert in 2015 at the Approximation Festival in Düsseldorf. Gartmayer's bass clarinet polyphonies so impressed Schneider that he quickly suggested a collaboration. That same year, they began recording the album "Reime" in Kraftwerk's former Kling Klang studio, which in 2015 became workspace and concert venue simply called Elektro Müller. The second part was recorded in the summer of 2020 in Düsseldorf-Kaiserswerth at Stammhaus church, whose interior wood paneling facilitated organic acoustics.

Susanna Gartmayer has been active as a musician and composer in various realms between experimental rock music, improvisation and multimedia sound performance since the early 2000s, releasing the album "Smaller Sad" with Christof Kurzmann and "Black Burst Sound Generator" with Brigitta Bödenauer in 2020. In addition to his solo project Mapstation, Düsseldorf-based musician and producer Stefan Schneider has been pursuing new avenues of experimental music in the here and now for over 20 years, in numerous collaborations with Sofia Jernberg, Krautrock pioneer Hans-Joachim Roedelius, or visual artist Katharina Grosse among others.

So Sner's sound is equally oriented towards experiment and tradition, whose roots can be traced back to the UK of the early 80s: an era in which soul and synth, jazz and industrial, avant-garde and polyrhythm were blended with the help of intellectualism and punk attitude in such a way that manifold sketches of possible music emerged which are only being colorized today. Like So Sner - from the very first stomp to the very last drop.

Olaf Karnik, Cologne, October 2021

Pressed on DJ-friendly 7” vinyl in multiple colors - "Wakanda Funk Lounge” is a svelte four-song slab of hologram funk. Inspired to create a new, unofficial soundtrack to Marvel's Black Panther, SassyBlack says the EP “is about black freedom... Star Trek and Star Wars have always had bars and concerts. There’s no culture without music. And so when M’Baku invites me to come and perform in one of Wakanda’s funk lounges, this EP is the music I'd perform there." SassyBlack has been described as a “blaxploitation, sci-fi warrior queen.” She's also a multi-talented, space-aged songwriter, beatmaker, composer, and singer. Her music has been described as “electronic psychedelic soul,” with roots in experimental hip-hop, R&B, and jazz. Before going solo, she recorded and performed as half of the Afrofuturist hip-hop duo THEESatisfaction. Her music has received attention from Okayplayer, Afropunk, The Fader, Pitchfork, Bitch magazine, and others. The “Wakanda Funk Lounge” EP is a limited-edition, individually-numbered 7” single. Every copy is a different color. The cover was designed by visual artist Wutang McDougal. Drop the needle on any track and discover funky new tunes that remind us Wakanda’s main export is “VIBE-ranium.” This record is perfect for DJs who love 45s.

Prong’s distinctive industrial Metal sound influenced subsequent bands such as Korn and Nine Inch Nails.

Former New York club CBGB’s soundman Tommy Victor founded Prong in 1987 as his outlet for sonic fury. Having their roots in the Thrash Metal and Hardcore scenes, Prong carved a niche for themselves - groovy, angry, massive; just perfect mosh music.

The trio wrecked stages and impressed audiences all over the world. They built on their signature sound with their 4th full length album Cleansing. Aptly titled, the album indeed cleansed their sound, resulting in 12 stripped down, highly effective musical precision bombs. The single “Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck” became one of their significant highlights.

Cleansing is produced by Terry Date and feat. ex-Killing Joke members Paul Raven and John Bechdel. Prong will be performing the album live around the globe in 2019.

This is a limited 25th anniversary edition of 666 individually numbered copies on silver & black marbled vinyl.

Soul Jazz Records new ‘Life Between Islands’ collection coincides with the launch of Tate Britain’s exhibition of the same name. This landmark exhibition explores the links between Caribbean and British art and culture from the 1950s to now.

Soul Jazz Records album, sub-titled “Soundsystem Culture – Black Musical Expression 1973-2006,” focuses on the most important Black British musical styles to emerge out of the distinctly Caribbean world of sound systems. The album features an all-star line-up including Dennis Bovell, Shut Up and Dance, Cymande, Digital Mystikz, Brown Sugar, Funk Masters, Janet Kay, Ragga Twins and more.

The album is a lightning-rod journey across Roots Reggae, Jungle/Drum & Bass, Jazz-Funk, Lovers Rock, Jazz, Dubstep and more. Much of Soul Jazz Records’ catalogue comes out of these genres and this album is partly an overview of some of Soul Jazz’s earlier releases (including Digital Mystikz’ long-deleted groundbreaking and now highly-collectible single, ‘Misty Winter’) alongside some choice rare and classic tunes that span over 30 years of sound system culture.

Many of the tracks represent how Black British artists defined their own identity with songs such as Brown Sugar’s righteous ‘Black Pride’, ‘I’m In Love with A Dreadlocks’ and Tabby Cat Kelly’s powerful ‘Don’t Call Us Immigrants’. Aside from being musically rooted in the distinctly Jamaican-born phenomenon of the sound system, much of this identity is also shaped by the triangular relationship of being British-born, of Caribbean heritage, and with an equal love of African-American Jazz, Funk and Soul, as evidenced with many Lovers Rock tunes reggae covers of American soul tunes (such as those of Jean Carn, William de Vaughan and Rose Royce featured here). This stateside influence can also be heard in groups such as the Funk Masters, a group formed by reggae radio DJ Tony Williams, whose jazz-funk music successfully crossed over into New York’s clubland, as well as the great Cymande, whose unique street-funk became staple material for numerous US hip-hop artists in the years that followed.

In the early 1990s, jungle and drum and bass artists took the essence of reggae’s soundsystem culture – MCs, dubplates, crews – and applied them to their own music, applying heavy reggae bass lines to intense double-speed drum breakbeats. At the forefront of this new movement were the duo Shut Up and Dance, working closely with The Ragga Twins, aka Deman Rocker and Flinty Badman, both MCs for North London’s infamous Unity reggae soundsytem. In the early 2000s, dubstep, spearheaded by Digital Mystikz, became the latest instalment in this ever-evolving soundsystem culture.

Svart Records is proud to unleash the debut album from Dutch female Black Metal duo Doodswens! “Lichtvrees” (translation: fear of light) will be unveiled to the world on the 14th of January 2022. Doodswens Black Metal is a bleak, distorted wave of negative energy according to the tenets set by the Scandinavian originators but with their own new organic reflection of darkness. Their name translated as “Death Wish,” Doodswens breathe new life into the dust of the past, inspired by the rawness of the ‘90s and capturing the black hearts of a new throng of acolytes as they ignite the gloom. Founded in Eindhoven in 2017 by Fraukje van Burg (vocals and guitar) and Inge van der Zon (drums), Doodswens initially erupted into the underground scene in 2019 with their demo, which sent a shiver through its decaying corpse. With their debut album “Lichtvrees,” Doodswens opens up the cesspit of the human condition, giving voice to our bleakest emotions through old-school Black Metal like a freshly dug grave. Proudly expressing feelings of inner negativity and depression, Doodswens have taken the promise of their underground roots and crystallized their very own atmospheric war of sound on “Lichtvrees,” making it an enthralling and captivating inception. With deathly conviction and intense passion they bring their music alive on stage, playing at Roadburn Festival and many esteemed nocturnal events, their cult infamy leading them to be picked for a support slot on Marduk’s upcoming tour of Europe. If you like your Black Metal served especially cold, but with wide-screen atmosphere, then Doodswens could be your new moonless catharsis. “Lichtvrees,” is a highly conceptual work which deals with life and death, reaching enlightenment and fulfilling the symbolical “death wish” that Doodswens represents. Cast your shadow in the unholy light of “Lichtvrees” and discover a rising new star in the Black Metal cosmos.

Introducing Jackson + Sellers and their debut album Breaking Point, on ANTI records. Jade Jackson and Aubrie Sellers, two rising stars who aligned during the pandemic to write one of the most compelling duo albums of the last decade. Drawn together by instant chemistry, cosmic forces and their ability to write intuitive romantic breakup songs for each other, their album is a window into the dissolution of two different relationships and the formation of another: a perfect, platonic, creative union. United in their desire to write a record that reflected their expansive musical interest from 70s rock to raucous roots to indie pop, their LA written, Nashville recorded album is a masterclass in unexpected vocal har?monic convergence. With Breaking Point, Jackson + Sellers will establish themselves as two individual artists who together, share a deep friendship, musical kinship and the ability to craft tight singular pop rock songs that will embed themselves in your ears for the rest of time.

On his aptly-titled Mascot Records’ debut, What Happens Next, roots singer-songwriter and guitarist Davy Knowles boldly steps forward with timeless and cohesive songwriting; sleek modern production; and a lyrical, play-for-the-song guitar approach informed from soul, folk, rock, and blues. The 12-song album is just as influenced by The Black Keys, Fantastic Negrito, Gary Clark Jr., as it is Muddy Waters, Junior Kimbrough, and R.L. Burnside. It is a cohesive body of work rather than a collection of disparate songs. On What Happens Next, Knowles’s poetic songwriting, and his soulfully emotive singing steal the show. The 12-song body of work offers forth a peaks-and-valleys album experience winding through brawny riffs, jazzy blues balladry, and vintage soul before concluding with one of Knowles’s most personal songs released to date. Throughout it all, his guitar playing is brilliantly understated, his rhythm work is deft and dynamic—beefy on the rockers, and subtly supportive on the slower tunes—and his leads are economical but feature juicy blues bends and thick as molasses lead guitar tones."What Happens Next" is released on CD and digitally on October 22, 2021 and on vinyl on December 3, 2021 via Mascot Label Group/Provogue Records.

Lu's Jukebox is a six-volume series of mostly full-band performances recorded live at Ray Kennedy's Room & Board Studio in Nashville, TN. Each volume features a themed set of songs by other artists curated by the multi-Grammy award winner, Lucinda Williams. The series aired as ticketed shows through Mandolin in late 2020 with a portion of ticket sales benefitting independent music venues struggling to get by through the pandemic. Like thousands of artists, Williams cut her teeth and developed her craft by playing in small, medium and large clubs throughout the country, and the world. These venues are vital to the development of artists and their music. Williams has never forgotten her roots, and often performs special shows in some of her favorite halls. This year, the Lu's Jukebox series will be made widely available on vinyl and CD. Volume 2, Southern Soul: From Memphis to Muscle Shoals, features covers of Al Green, Percy Sledge, Bobbie Gentry, Ann Peebles, Tony Joe White & more. It is scheduled for a July 9th, 2021 release.

"Emotional Rescue presents the first ever reissue of Sugar Minott’s rare 12” of I Remember Mama. Recorded in Soho in mid-80s London, the Boogie meets Reggae song comes in vocal and instrumental mixes, as well as a wonderfully teasing long Discomix by NAD aka Dan Tyler (Idjut Boys).

Having grown up and become a star out of Kingston, JA, with over 50 albums and hundreds of singles for the likes of Studio One and Black Roots labels, the legendary vocalist was a pioneer of the Dancehall and then later Lovers Rock sounds.

Based in London for much of the 1980s, a chance meeting in the Wackies offices he met producer Steve Parr, who had recently opened the Sound Design Studio next door.

Hatching the idea to create a label to showcase their capabilities, Parr played all the instruments except the distinctive sax by friend Andy MacDonald, while Minott’s delivery is at his prime, storytelling in the Jamaica tradition of hardship and praise.

Released on 7” and 12”, they have striking differences. The “Sound Design” instrumental / version sees the studio team craft a disco meets reggae in a cod-style to wonderful, almost Balearic effect.

The collaboration with Dan Tyler continues, as he again works his desk dubbing magic. Extending and editing between the two mixes, teasing the instrumental before finally bringing the sax and vocals together for a ‘discodub’ finale. "

Grey Vinyl

Polymorphism Records continue their intercultural and cross-genre work with their third release E Source. Female vocals return to the label with four original tracks by Russian artist Sestrica, who brings in her characteristic emotional narrative. A remix by Konx Om Pax and
a rework by Antwood make up the crew boarding on a galactic grey/silver vinyl.

PM003 takes off with electro-to-techno beats fuelled by a mild, wrapping acid melody in Today We Meet, where the uplifting countdown to launch can be felt. Sentimental Value gets
us deeper into the spatial trip. Darker samples and a heavier bassline give extra gravity to the anthem of the journey across sonic galaxies. Floating to slow, surrounding sounds and loops we land on a calmer planet called Intention. Its tidal sensation is created by an
orchestral combination of meditative vocals and other layers of composition. New Era enters an orbit of elegant syncopation within a rotating reverb stardust. Ancestral beeps subtly acknowledge legacy to be taken forward to the next odyssey.

Musician and graphical artist Konx Om Pax from Glasgow beautifully introduces nostalgia to New Era with playful breaks and scratches, getting us back to our roots in this excursion visiting alien territoires. Sestrica’s vocals from her original track are drawn into the remix as
echoing words rendering a mysterious aura, travelling through a deep trance of diverse yet harmonic rhythms and effects. A journey within a journey.

Canadian producer Antwood’s rework of side A jumps into an epic vortex of more experimental, unexpected sounds. The album-closer builds up towards absolute chaos, to then create a vacuum to emptiness. A supermassive (tribute to black holes intended) drop
leads to the last minutes of the EP: up tempo cyber-influenced sounds that bring us to a bright futuristic landscape ironically far from a dystopian prophecy.

Purely coincidental fact: the last track of PM002’s originals being Crisis Apparition and its homologue in PM003 New Era, hope seems to be peeking through current times to send an accidental message with this first series of the label.

Mind the overuse of Space metaphors; in this year 2021 where humans are going farther and further in exploring new places out there, it is a tribute and celebration to discover new musical journeys like this out here, on Earth.

Environmental sustainability and social justice are core values of Polymorphism Records. Following their strong interest in contributing to a good cause, shown from the early days, all Bandcamp digital sales are donated to projects such as Team Trees or The Ocean Cleanup.meet f B3 E Source side A (Antwood rework)

REPRESS!

Marcos Valle - Mentira

Valle is a Brazilian singer, instrumentalist, songwriter and record producer of the highest order. His roots lie in Bossa Nova and he was one of the youngest talents in the scene, extensively touring the USA and residing there for many years. Valle's music crosses touches many styles including samba, rock, soul, jazz, boogie and disco.

Signed by Odeon in 1963, he recorded ten studio albums for them between 1964 and 1974. He also recorded for Verve, Warner and Som Livre among others.

Mentira is a re-record of his own song 'Mentira Carioca' - released four years earlier by Odeon - and appears on his 1973 LP 'Previsão Do Tempo' on Odeon.


Toni Tornado - Me Libertei

This is the second track that we have re-issued by the one and only Toni Tornado, master of Brazilian Funk.

His career began as 'Tony Checker', lip syncing to rock 'n' roll hits and touring extensively outside of Brazil. Whilst in New York he met Tim Maia and became involved in the 'Black Rio' movement. Toni also worked with Ed Lincoln and Antonio Adolfo amongst many others. He had a successful acting career and starred in many soap opera's.

It appears alongside 'O Jornaleiro' on his sought after BR-3 LP from 1971 on Odeon. 'Me Libertei' has never been released on a 7.

Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry’s 2002 album Jamaican E.T. marked his ‘comeback’. 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. In 2003, the album won a Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album.

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. Up until his passing, Perry was active in producing and performing his music.

Jamaican E.T. is available on black vinyl.

White Light, White Heat, White Trash is the fifth album by American punk rock band Social Distortion, which was originally released in 1996. The album is produced by Michael Beinhorn.

This album received the highest chart position, entering the Billboard
200 Album Chart at #27. In the first week of its release, it sold over
30.000 copies. It includes the hits “I Was Wrong”, “Don’t Drag Me Down” and a praised cover version of the Stones’ “Under My Thumb”. Stylistically, the album is considered a return to their hardcore punk roots. Social Distortion is one of the best-selling punk rock bands and continue to receive worldwide respect and support.

White Light, White Heat, White Trash is available as a 25th Anniversary Limited Edition of 4000 individually numbered copies on silver & black marbled vinyl.

Interiors, the title of this new release from Ultramarine, may have a topical resonance for many listeners who have found themselves in involuntary confinement during the past year, but the five tracks on this EP were actually recorded in 2011, and they represent a significant opening out of the duo's evolving musical perspective.

Ian Cooper and Paul Hammond, who had become friends while growing up together in the Essex countryside, formed Ultramarine in 1989. Throughout the 90s their distinctive music, an enticing blending of acoustic with electronic instruments, secured a loyal following and won critical acclaim. Then, throughout the whole of the next decade, Ultramarine lay dormant. Interiors documents their reawakening, with Cooper and Hammond exploring approaches to music-making made possible by recently developed software, designed specifically with live performance in mind.

Four of the five tracks to be heard here were issued digitally last year. But as Paul Hammond has pointed out, "with Ultramarine the whole point is to create an artefact, so the form and the look of the finished product is central." That's an outlook shared passionately by Simon Lewin's label Blackford Hill, and the music now available on this vinyl record is appropriately enhanced with cover art by printmaker Katherine Jones. Her imagery matches the music neatly in its nuanced interplay of solidity and shadow, line and colour, geometric form and organic growth.

Ultramarine returned refreshed in October 2011, bursting back into public awareness with "Find A Way," issued as a 7" single on their own label, Real Soon. Clive Bell, writing in The Wire, extolled its engaging mix of electronic beats with cool vocals and tropical percussion. More generally Bell embraced Ultramarine's thoughtful hybrid electronica as "music you could enjoy at home without feeling your intelligence was being scorned, or that if you were not physically in a club, you were wasting your time."

On Interiors, the roots of that slinky single are laid bare on the purely instrumental track "Find A Way Back." Its two distinct parts stretch out the beats and flaunt those tropical flourishes, shuffling and flexing, vibrant and heady, languid and sultry. This is techno filtered through the fabric of magic realism, an exotically spiced concoction, chilled and ready to be savoured at home.

With the diagrammatic clarity of its punchy thrust and spooling loops "Even When" distils the essence of Cooper and Hammond's way of working with their musical material: layering and shaping, nurturing textures, plaiting rhythms and juggling accents. The cumulative impact is almost sculptural in its physical immediacy and looming presence. In contrast, on "By Return" the duo skew the outcome, projecting a selection of limber figures into dub's auditory hall of mirrors. They are clearly revelling in the reverb, relishing the recoil and decay.

Interiors ultimately opens out onto "Decoy Point (Version)." With its ozone saturated ambience, this closing track evokes marshland and mudflat soundscapes, seabird mews, maritime signals and tidal wash. Cooper and Hammond feel deep attachment to the Essex landscape and, in particular, to the local history and physical features of the Blackwater estuary. Blackford Hill provides an accommodating home for Ultramarine's ongoing project Blackwaterside, which has featured to date a 7" vinyl record plus 28-page booklet, and a photo film with soundtrack. Now, delving into the Ultramarine archive, this welcome incarnation of Interiors offers a fascinating glimpse of the duo finding their bearings, at a vital stage along the way.

Legendary Brazilian group Orquestra Afro-Brasileira are reborn for first new album in over fifty years, produced by Beastie Boys collaborator Mario Caldato Jr.

Led by maverick composer Abigail Moura, Orquestra Afro-Brasileira were one of the most influential yet overlooked groups in Brazilian music history. Operating for almost thirty years until 1970, they released just two albums - the first of which, Obaluayê, has recently been reissued by Day Dreamer Records - and left behind a legacy of Afro-Brazilian consciousness that continues to resonate today.

Combining Yoruba spirituality, folk tales, Candomblé chants and West African percussion with the instrumentation of the big band jazz tradition in the United States, the Orquestra placed Afro-Brazilian heritage in a new and vital context. Weaving emancipatory narratives into complex poly-rhythms and powerful, syncopated horn lines, the group educated and enlightened all those who saw them perform.

For Abigail’s protégé and percussionist on the group’s 1968 album Carlos Negreiros, the message of the group’s music had a profound impact: “I became aware of what it is to be black,” he says, “discovering the extraordinary potential of the Afro-Brazilian culture in the making of the national ethos.” Now the last remaining member of the original Orquestra, Carlos was tracked down by producer Mario Caldato Jr. - whose credits include Beastie Boys, Marcelo D2 and Seu Jorge among others - to oversee the first new album of Orquestra Afro-Brasileira material since 1968.

“I was overwhelmed with the percussive rhythms, beautiful deep vocals and combined energy,” Caldato Jr. explains. “It felt like the most authentic Brazilian roots music I had ever heard. It was raw and dynamic, a pure organic sound and energy. It was a spiritual experience.”

Alongside arranger Caio Cezar, Carlos assembled his Orquestra to record five tracks at Berna Ceppas’ Estudio Maravilha 8 studio in Rio De Janeiro. With percussion, horns and vocals cut in single takes over three days, the session captured the intuitive, pure and natural spirit of the group in full flow.

Following the success of the initial session, five additional tracks were recorded at the iconic Estudio CIA dos Tecnicos in Copacabana to complete the album. Mixed by Caldato Jr., 80 Anos is a contemporary incarnation of Abigail Moura’s vision, bristling with the flair of the original recordings.

• Horace Andy is a legendary Jamaican roots reggae singer-songwriter, known for his
distinctive vocal style, hit songs such as ‘Skylarking’, and his acclaimed collaborations with
Massive Attack.
• ‘The King Tubby Tapes’ was first issued on Jet Star Records’ ‘Charm’ imprint. The album
contains selections from Horace Andy’s 1979 album ‘Pure Ranking’ and a second LP of dub
remixes. Includes performances by legendary reggae session musicians such as Robbie
Shakespeare, Carlton “Santa” Davis, Tony Chin and Bernard “Touter” Harvey.
• Demon Records is proud to present the first vinyl reissue of ‘The King Tubby Tapes’, pressed
on 140g black vinyl.

52 Beats is project initially started on Bandcamp with Snips uploading 1 beat per week over the course of a year with an accompanying behind the scenes video. This is the final release of the entire project as a limited run cassette. Musically Snips stays true to his Hip Hop roots chopping samples and keeping the sound rooted in traditonal Boom Bap which birthed his style

Triple Black Vinyl, 12”x24” Poster, Vinyl “Bumper” sticker, DL card. An essential rock artefact tracing The Groundhogs from their pre - ‘Thank Christ For The Bomb’ blues roots to the final live show for the classic line up of Tony McPhee (guitar and vocals), Pete Cruikshank (bass) and Ken Pustelnik (drums). Never before heard recordings from the Warner Brothers’ vaults including a vintage 1969 set from their show at the Richmond Athletic Ground (AKA The Crawdaddy Club) and their final explosive set at the Pocono Raceway track. Includes the live debut of what would become the anthemic ‘Cherry Red’ and McPhee’s seismic destruction of ‘Amazing Grace’. A career-spanning gem from the ultimate heavy rock power trio book-ending 976 days and 250-plus live shows. “In their stage act they concentrate on being as heavy and as hard-hitting as possible.” The Scene magazine. “Performing on stage we feel that the emphasis is on excitement so we play the numbers that involve the greatest amount of movement and dynamics,” Tony McPhee told Star Pop.

On 18th April, 1980, after decades of anti colonial struggle, the Zimbabweian flag was finally raised at midnight at the Rufaro Stadium in Harare. Not long after, the words "Ladies and Gentlemen, Bob Marley and The Wailers!" rang out, and Zimbabwe's independent future began.

In the years that followed, Africa was to produce it's own reggae superstars, as the likes of Alpha Blondy, Majek Fashek and Lucky Dube swept across the continent and beyond, and there's no doubting Bob Marley's explosive impact on this particular narrative.

Marley's unswerving commitment to liberation and unity ranged from the sweeping spiritual sentiments of iconic hits such One Love and Redemption Song to the galvanising, focused tone of 1979's 'Zimbabwe', and his status as global superstar ensured that his (self funded) part in the countries' epochal celebrations meant that the history of reggae in Africa would always be viewed through the prism of his influence ( Wiki/African Reggae : "In 1980, world-famous Jamaican reggae musician Bob Marley performed in Harare, Zimbabwe, and that concert is often credited as marking the beginning of reggae in Africa")

But in fact, the recorded history of reggae produced in Africa stretches back over a decade before Marley's arrival on the continent, and showcases broad pan - diasporic interflows between the Carribean and Africa, with the UK and the US communities playing influential supporting roles, all helping shape the evolution and development of the genre in Africa from late 60's inception to Marley's arrival in 1980, and then well beyond.

Reggae Africa : Roots and Culture, 1972 - 1981 tries to capture a sense of that evolution, starting in 1972 as Mebussa's ultra rare 'Good Bye Friends' effortlessly captures triangular, transatlantic cultural interflows, with the short lived Nigerian group's bitter sweet chords echoing classic US soul, but laid over a gritty, skanking Jimmy Cliff - esque proto reggae rhythm.

Trying to work out the precise provenance of Black Reggae's 'Darling I'm So Proud of You' (1975) isn't easy, but involves Paris based / African focused label Fiesta, some proper OG co-branding exercise with Bols Brandy ( "Bols Brandy presents Black Reggae") - and deeply infectious, lilting Rocksteady.

By 1976, glorious Nigerian sister duo Lijadu Sisters are echoing the chunky roots of a Dennis Brown or U Roy on 'Bobby', and in 1977, bespoke Nigerian drummer Georges Happi is introing 'Hello Friends' with the soon to be universal signature reggae tom roll intro, before veering leftfield with snatches of spoken Afro - English vocal in between the hooky choruses.

Nigerian giant Chrissy Essien's 'I'll Be You Man' (1979) combines floaty Lovers vibes with catchy ska shuffle, and in the same year, Cameroonian afro-funk/disco heavyweight Pasteur Lappe' drifts seamlessly into skanking, Lovers infected reggae on 'Babbette D.O. ( Rastawoman )' (before a sprawling electric guitar solo reminds us how unselfconsiously eclectic so much African music of the era was.)

And finally bookending the compilation, in chronological terms, fellow Cameroonian Tala AM also swaps his funk and soul for the rootsy and infectious 'Hop Sy Trong' (1981), again highlighting the diverse and eclectic approach to this timeless Carribean musical genre taken by African musicians in the years before that Bob Marley year zero event in Zimbabwe.

The beast is back in black! And it‘s ready to crush the known boundaries of melodic metal!

Beast In Black, the international battalion of ground-breaking melodic metallers, is ready to blow your mind with their third album ominously titled ‘Dark Connection‘.
If you're into melodic and atmospheric heavy metal with an insanely catchy twist, this is the album you're looking for. There's no other creature like this walking the earth. None other bears these sharp edged riffs or piercing choruses. Not with these epic sci-fi, fantasy and cyberpunk stories to tell. Beast In Black is a wholly unique form of heavy metal evolution.
Dark Connection is an album which gathers all the elements from past, present and future of Beast In Black leader, Anton Kabanen. The raw melodic energy of early Battle Beast remains, but now Beast In Black are crafting their own sound within the genre thanks to the utilisation of wildly melodic guitars and multilayered synthezisers.

Remember the glory days of 80's metal? When you could spend hours and hours staring at the cover art of a heavy metal album as you start to discover what all the lyrics are about? Beast In Black is right there with you.Dark Connection is a deeply intricate heavy metal record. As you start to invest time into the songs, you’ll realise that there's something interesting happening at every layer, from the music to the cover art and also the lyrics. It's all tied up into one, to ensure the ultimate audio-visual metal experience.
”It's not a concept album in the traditional sense, but there are a few ongoing themes on the album. One of them might be familiar for fans of Beast-albums from even earlier than Beast In Black”, Anton teases.

”What if I told you that we're back in the world of cyberpunk? Indeed, there are tracks like Highway to Mars and Moonlight Rendezvous, which will let you into the cyberpunk worlds of the Armitage III anime-series and even some Blade Runner themes. In that sense we're back into the themes of the early Battle Beast albums.”
”Cyberpunk is all over the place on Dark Connection. You will feel it in the mood of the album, it's right there in the cover art and we have even carefully prepared a huge music video for you which is visually pure cyberpunk.”
Anton also gives his praises to insanely talented Beast in Black singer Yannis Papadopoulos, who delivers the best vocal performance of his career on Dark Connection.
”It's always a privilege to work with Yannis. He‘s one of those rare singers who can do anything! If he hasn't tried out something before, he figures out the perfect technique to do it in no time.He is a very physical and dedicated singer. He is ready to try 30 different takes on a song if he feels like that's what a perfect result requires. He doesn't just do one or two takes. He does as many as it takes!”
Thirteen songs, a mountain of irresistible melodies and influences from the retro roots of music to a plethora of futuristic themes and atmospheres. Every single song from Dark Connection could be a single. Beast in Black could create a music video for every last track. That's just how much dedication and passion has been immortalised in these songs.

All these moments on Dark Connection won't be lost in time, like tears in rain. Beast is Black has created a lifetime heavy metal exprience. Are you ready to face this eternal beast?

The beast is back in black! And it‘s ready to crush the known boundaries of melodic metal!

Beast In Black, the international battalion of ground-breaking melodic metallers, is ready to blow your mind with their third album ominously titled ‘Dark Connection‘.
If you're into melodic and atmospheric heavy metal with an insanely catchy twist, this is the album you're looking for. There's no other creature like this walking the earth. None other bears these sharp edged riffs or piercing choruses. Not with these epic sci-fi, fantasy and cyberpunk stories to tell. Beast In Black is a wholly unique form of heavy metal evolution.
Dark Connection is an album which gathers all the elements from past, present and future of Beast In Black leader, Anton Kabanen. The raw melodic energy of early Battle Beast remains, but now Beast In Black are crafting their own sound within the genre thanks to the utilisation of wildly melodic guitars and multilayered synthezisers.

Remember the glory days of 80's metal? When you could spend hours and hours staring at the cover art of a heavy metal album as you start to discover what all the lyrics are about? Beast In Black is right there with you.Dark Connection is a deeply intricate heavy metal record. As you start to invest time into the songs, you’ll realise that there's something interesting happening at every layer, from the music to the cover art and also the lyrics. It's all tied up into one, to ensure the ultimate audio-visual metal experience.
”It's not a concept album in the traditional sense, but there are a few ongoing themes on the album. One of them might be familiar for fans of Beast-albums from even earlier than Beast In Black”, Anton teases.

”What if I told you that we're back in the world of cyberpunk? Indeed, there are tracks like Highway to Mars and Moonlight Rendezvous, which will let you into the cyberpunk worlds of the Armitage III anime-series and even some Blade Runner themes. In that sense we're back into the themes of the early Battle Beast albums.”
”Cyberpunk is all over the place on Dark Connection. You will feel it in the mood of the album, it's right there in the cover art and we have even carefully prepared a huge music video for you which is visually pure cyberpunk.”
Anton also gives his praises to insanely talented Beast in Black singer Yannis Papadopoulos, who delivers the best vocal performance of his career on Dark Connection.
”It's always a privilege to work with Yannis. He‘s one of those rare singers who can do anything! If he hasn't tried out something before, he figures out the perfect technique to do it in no time.He is a very physical and dedicated singer. He is ready to try 30 different takes on a song if he feels like that's what a perfect result requires. He doesn't just do one or two takes. He does as many as it takes!”
Thirteen songs, a mountain of irresistible melodies and influences from the retro roots of music to a plethora of futuristic themes and atmospheres. Every single song from Dark Connection could be a single. Beast in Black could create a music video for every last track. That's just how much dedication and passion has been immortalised in these songs.

All these moments on Dark Connection won't be lost in time, like tears in rain. Beast is Black has created a lifetime heavy metal exprience. Are you ready to face this eternal beast?

Diving into the archives of Alter Ego - the Italian experimental ensemble of Manuel Zurria, Paolo Ravaglia, Aldo Campagnari, Francesco Dillon, Oscar Pizzo, and Eugenio Vatta - Die Schachtel is thrilled to present Microwaves, a never before released body of recordings of works composed by Atli Ingólfsson, Giovanni Verrando, Yan Maresz, and Riccardo Nova, made with Pan Sonic (Mika Vainio and Ilpo Vaisanen) in 2005. Resting at the outer reaches of avant-garde chamber and electronic music, the LP’s blistering structures, tones, and textures - plowing forward with frenetic energy - remain radical and ahead of their time, more than 15 years after they were first laid to tape.

A modular chamber ensemble with a pointedly anti-academic approach to music, over the course of its activities - running roughly between 1990 and 2010 - Alter Ego developed a devoted following among some of the most forward thinking voices in experimental music, all the while collaborating widely with artists spanning a vast range of practices and disciplines, including Robin Rimbaud, Philip Jeck, Matmos, Gavin Bryars, Andrew Hooker, William Basinski, David Moss, Alvin Curran, Terry Riley, and near countless number of others.

Alter Ego’s diverse activities can be understood as interventions with the disposition toward formality within contemporary chamber music, often pairing themselves with artists working well beyond their own context as a means to develop highly original interpretations of a specific composer’s work. In 2004, this process led them to instigate a collaboration Pan Sonic, the Finnish duo of Mika Vainio and Ilpo Vaisanen, pioneers of a remarkably distinct form of rhythmic, experimental electronic music, and regarded by many as one of the most visionary and irreverent projects working in the field during the '90s and 2000s.

Initially conceived with Fausto Romitelli in 2004 before being sidelined by the composer’s untimely passing the following year, Microwaves acts, in part, a remembrance in sound, featuring four works by some of his closest friends, the composers Atli Ingólfsson, Giovanni Verrando, Yan Maresz, and Riccardo Nova. Each composition, Ingólfsson’s Snap, Verrando’s Harmonic Domains #3, Maresz’s Link, and Nova’s Thirteen13x8@Terror Generating Deity, have roots in a pallet of samples and fragments drawn by each composer from existing works by Pan Sonic. Upon completion, these compositions then entered into a collaborative process between Mika Vainio and Ilpo Vaisanen (Pan Sonic) and Alter Ego (Manuel Zurria, Paolo Ravaglia, Aldo Campagnari, Francesco Dillon, Oscar Pizzo, and Eugenio Vatta), and were performed collectively by both groups during an extensive tour that year.

Distinct and free-standing, while operating as a seamless whole, the four works encountered across the album’s two sides - built from the sounds of flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, electronics, and further treatments - present an engrossing intersection between electronic and acoustic sound that diverges from most standing conceptions of electroacoustic music. Each composer’s carefully rendered structures rise and fall within the startling, conversant interplay between the two groups, finding perfect balance - between the frenetic and restrained - in what can only be regarded as one of the most striking and singularly unique expressions of contemporary chamber music realized during the 2000s.

Vast in scope, visionary in concept and artistry, and sonically engrossing, Die Schachtel is thrilled to present these never before heard recordings from the archives of Alter Ego. Microwaves is available on black vinyl, in a limited edition of 350 copies.

In four short years of existence, Green Lung have risen from the murk of the UK heavy underground to become a true cult band with a devoted following. Debut album Woodland Rites, released independently in early 2019, quickly garnered attention, resulting in a single being named ‘Track of the Week’ in the Guardian, plays on Daniel P. Carter’s Radio One Rock Show, a tour with fellow UK heavies Puppy and festival appearances across Europe. This brought the band to the attention of the wider music industry, and after multiple offers (including one from a major label) the band decided to stay true to their roots and sign with the Finnish audio wizards at Svart Records, home to several of their doomy inspirations including Reverend Bizarre and Warning. Svart’s deluxe reissue of the album, and the preceding EP Free the Witch,sold out several runs. Two years later, the folk horror-obsessed fivesome have re-emerged from their mulchy catacombs armed with dozens of freshly-whittled riffs. Black Harvest, the sequel to Woodland Rites, is a more colourful, widescreen reimagining of the band’s sound - Dawn of the Dead to its predecessor’s Night of the Living. Recorded at Giant Wafer Studios in rural mid-Wales over the course of two weeks with longtime producer Wayne Adams (Petbrick, Big Lad), it’s a more expansive and textured record than anything the band have done before, boasting a cinematic quality and more attention to detail.

Belched from Hell’s depths into the rustic charms of the Witch County, Suffolk thirty long and disturbing years ago, CRADLE OF FILTH are undisputed giants of the heavy metal realm. Imperious purveyors of a perennially unique strain of dark, dastardly and wilfully extreme metal, with deep roots in the worlds of gothic horror and occult curiosity, the band led by Dani Filth has weathered three decades of tumult and trial, earning a formidable reputation as both a singular creative force and one of the most riotously entertaining live bands the metal world has ever produced.
From primitive early works like 1992 debut »The Principle Of Evil Made Flesh« to more expansive and theatrical classics like ‘Cruelty And The Beast’ and ‘Midian’, CRADLE OF FILTH defied trends and constructed their own idiosyncratic world of foul grandeur, becoming one of the UK’s most notable metal bands in the process. Since then, they have traversed the world countless times, hoovering up plaudits and praise from an ever-expanding international fan base. Resolutely prolific, the band’s catalogue has grown in depth and stature all the while, irrespective of line-up changes or the whims of the faithful.
In more recent times, CRADLE OF FILTH have hit an unmistakable hot streak of creativity and urgency. As a new line-up coalesced around the creation of 2015’s »Hammer Of The Witches«, fresh impetus propelled the band to new heights, as the revitalised crew became more in demand around the world than ever before. 2017’s ‘Cryptoriana - The Seductiveness Of Decay’ repeated the trick with even more explosive flamboyance. Until a global pandemic brought the music industry to a jarring halt, CRADLE OF FILTH were almost permanently on the road and absolutely fucking flying. As a result, it should surprise no one that the band’s brand new album, ‘Existence Is Futile’, is yet another monumental and electrifying journey through the dark.
Buoyed by these recent triumphs, CRADLE OF FILTH recorded »Existence Is Futile« during 2020, piecing the record together in isolation, at Grindstone Studios in Suffolk with studio guru Scott Atkins (Devilment/Benediction/Vader). Although instantly recognisable as the work of these veteran blackhearts, the thirteenth CRADLE OF FILTH album is a wholly different beast from its immediate predecessors. Pitch-black, perverse and at times absurdly brutal and extreme, it hangs together with mesmerising fluidity. It is also absolutely rammed with giant, rousing melodies and moments of jaw-dropping invention. No one could mistake the venomously catchy likes of ‘How Many Tears To Nurture A Rose?’ or monstrous ballad ‘Discourse Between A Man And His Soul’ for anything other than CRADLE OF FILTH, of course, but ‘Existence Is Futile’ confirms that the band’s exploratory instincts remain as sharp as ever.
Underpinned by its huge and disarmingly organic production, »Existence Is Futile« is plainly the darkest and most unsettling album CRADLE OF FILTH have made in a while. Eschewing the band’s trademark twisted storytelling in favour of horrified glimpses into the mortal void and ruminations on the inevitable destruction of life on Earth, its poignancy and relevance to the cluster of nightmares facing humanity in 2021 is impossible to ignore, even if Dani Filth insists, not unreasonably, that he didn’t anticipate a global pandemic when the news songs were being written.
With the best possible timing, CRADLE OF FILTH were already due to make a new album during those long, lonely months of lockdown in 2020. Having grabbed the opportunity with both hands, Dani avows that unavoidable isolation from the rest of the world was the best possible incentive to get the job done, while also adding plenty of eerie atmosphere to the whole experience.
Sonically speaking, ‘Existence Is Futile’ is easily the most powerful and dramatic record CRADLE OF FILTH have ever made: it’s the sound of band’s enviable onstage chemistry spilling over into the studio, propelling each member of the band to new levels of intensity. Combined with the expected labyrinthine arrangements and moments of spellbinding bombast, ‘Existence Is Futile’ may be the most vivid representation of the CRADLE OF FILTH experience yet.
Also, diehard fans will be thrilled to learn that horror icon Doug 'Pinhead' Bradley makes a welcome return to the CRADLE fold, lending his dulcet tones to the epic ‘Suffer Our Dominion’, and to one of the forthcoming new record’s bonus tracks, as Dani explains.
“There are also two bonus tracks in addition to the album, one of which is the culmination to the ‘Her Ghost In The Fog’ trilogy, which began on »Midian«.
For this we had little hesitation in enlisting our friend and actor Doug Bradley to reprise his narrative role. Doug lives in Pittsburgh, which he refers to ‘The Pit’, thus we directed his narrative over Skype from his local studio. He adopts this almost David Attenborough-ish role on ‘Suffer Our Dominion’, which is possibly the most politically astute song we’ve written of late. As a band we usually shy from branching into politics, but it’s something that needed spouting. The fact we’re fucking our ecology up and desperately need to address the situation pronto…”
So, if we’re all going to perish in the fire of our own stupidity, we might as well have a suitably deranged and destructive soundtrack to do it by.
A bewitching, fearless nosedive into the abyss, the band's thirteenth studio album confirms the ferocious efficacy of CRADLE OF FILTH in 2021. Bold, brave, wildly imaginative and heavy as hell, the band’s latest runaway train-ride through the flames is the perfect album for these most imperfect of times. As Dani concludes, “Be like the virus! Mutate and survive!”

Belched from Hell’s depths into the rustic charms of the Witch County, Suffolk thirty long and disturbing years ago, CRADLE OF FILTH are undisputed giants of the heavy metal realm. Imperious purveyors of a perennially unique strain of dark, dastardly and wilfully extreme metal, with deep roots in the worlds of gothic horror and occult curiosity, the band led by Dani Filth has weathered three decades of tumult and trial, earning a formidable reputation as both a singular creative force and one of the most riotously entertaining live bands the metal world has ever produced.
From primitive early works like 1992 debut »The Principle Of Evil Made Flesh« to more expansive and theatrical classics like ‘Cruelty And The Beast’ and ‘Midian’, CRADLE OF FILTH defied trends and constructed their own idiosyncratic world of foul grandeur, becoming one of the UK’s most notable metal bands in the process. Since then, they have traversed the world countless times, hoovering up plaudits and praise from an ever-expanding international fan base. Resolutely prolific, the band’s catalogue has grown in depth and stature all the while, irrespective of line-up changes or the whims of the faithful.
In more recent times, CRADLE OF FILTH have hit an unmistakable hot streak of creativity and urgency. As a new line-up coalesced around the creation of 2015’s »Hammer Of The Witches«, fresh impetus propelled the band to new heights, as the revitalised crew became more in demand around the world than ever before. 2017’s ‘Cryptoriana - The Seductiveness Of Decay’ repeated the trick with even more explosive flamboyance. Until a global pandemic brought the music industry to a jarring halt, CRADLE OF FILTH were almost permanently on the road and absolutely fucking flying. As a result, it should surprise no one that the band’s brand new album, ‘Existence Is Futile’, is yet another monumental and electrifying journey through the dark.
Buoyed by these recent triumphs, CRADLE OF FILTH recorded »Existence Is Futile« during 2020, piecing the record together in isolation, at Grindstone Studios in Suffolk with studio guru Scott Atkins (Devilment/Benediction/Vader). Although instantly recognisable as the work of these veteran blackhearts, the thirteenth CRADLE OF FILTH album is a wholly different beast from its immediate predecessors. Pitch-black, perverse and at times absurdly brutal and extreme, it hangs together with mesmerising fluidity. It is also absolutely rammed with giant, rousing melodies and moments of jaw-dropping invention. No one could mistake the venomously catchy likes of ‘How Many Tears To Nurture A Rose?’ or monstrous ballad ‘Discourse Between A Man And His Soul’ for anything other than CRADLE OF FILTH, of course, but ‘Existence Is Futile’ confirms that the band’s exploratory instincts remain as sharp as ever.
Underpinned by its huge and disarmingly organic production, »Existence Is Futile« is plainly the darkest and most unsettling album CRADLE OF FILTH have made in a while. Eschewing the band’s trademark twisted storytelling in favour of horrified glimpses into the mortal void and ruminations on the inevitable destruction of life on Earth, its poignancy and relevance to the cluster of nightmares facing humanity in 2021 is impossible to ignore, even if Dani Filth insists, not unreasonably, that he didn’t anticipate a global pandemic when the news songs were being written.
With the best possible timing, CRADLE OF FILTH were already due to make a new album during those long, lonely months of lockdown in 2020. Having grabbed the opportunity with both hands, Dani avows that unavoidable isolation from the rest of the world was the best possible incentive to get the job done, while also adding plenty of eerie atmosphere to the whole experience.
Sonically speaking, ‘Existence Is Futile’ is easily the most powerful and dramatic record CRADLE OF FILTH have ever made: it’s the sound of band’s enviable onstage chemistry spilling over into the studio, propelling each member of the band to new levels of intensity. Combined with the expected labyrinthine arrangements and moments of spellbinding bombast, ‘Existence Is Futile’ may be the most vivid representation of the CRADLE OF FILTH experience yet.
Also, diehard fans will be thrilled to learn that horror icon Doug 'Pinhead' Bradley makes a welcome return to the CRADLE fold, lending his dulcet tones to the epic ‘Suffer Our Dominion’, and to one of the forthcoming new record’s bonus tracks, as Dani explains.
“There are also two bonus tracks in addition to the album, one of which is the culmination to the ‘Her Ghost In The Fog’ trilogy, which began on »Midian«.
For this we had little hesitation in enlisting our friend and actor Doug Bradley to reprise his narrative role. Doug lives in Pittsburgh, which he refers to ‘The Pit’, thus we directed his narrative over Skype from his local studio. He adopts this almost David Attenborough-ish role on ‘Suffer Our Dominion’, which is possibly the most politically astute song we’ve written of late. As a band we usually shy from branching into politics, but it’s something that needed spouting. The fact we’re fucking our ecology up and desperately need to address the situation pronto…”
So, if we’re all going to perish in the fire of our own stupidity, we might as well have a suitably deranged and destructive soundtrack to do it by.
A bewitching, fearless nosedive into the abyss, the band's thirteenth studio album confirms the ferocious efficacy of CRADLE OF FILTH in 2021. Bold, brave, wildly imaginative and heavy as hell, the band’s latest runaway train-ride through the flames is the perfect album for these most imperfect of times. As Dani concludes, “Be like the virus! Mutate and survive!”

We welcome a new member to our Resident Evil soundtrack vinyl family with a deluxe four-disc box set for the most recent mainline game.

Resident Evil VII: Biohazard looked back to the series’ survival horror roots while looking forward technologically, being the first full RE Engine title and optionally playable in VR. By shifting to a first-person perspective, introducing a new protagonist and featuring a distinct setting, RE7 refreshed the formula and won plaudits in the process.

The game’s international composition team comprised Miwako Chinone, Brian D’Oliveira, Satoshi Hori, Akiyuki Morimoto and Cris Velasco. The score is lower key and more ambient than its predecessors without skimping on the anxiety and intensity that Resi games are known for. Jordan Reyne & Michael A. Levine also contributed a chilling rendition of the folk song "Go Tell Aunt Rhody."

All music has been specially mastered for vinyl and will be pressed onto audiophile-quality, heavyweight 180g discs. These will be housed in spined inners sleeves that slip into a deluxe gatefold box set.

Sleeve artwork and design was by Capcom and Boris Moncel of Blackmane Design.

Lu's Jukebox is a six-volume series of mostly full-band performances recorded live at Ray Kennedy's Room & Board Studio in Nashville, TN. Each volume features a themed set of songs by other artists curated by the multi-Grammy award winner, Lucinda Williams. The series aired as ticketed shows through Mandolin in late 2020 with a portion of ticket sales benefitting independent music venues struggling to get by through the pandemic. Like thousands of artists, Williams cut her teeth and developed her craft by playing in small, medium and large clubs throughout the country, and the world. These venues are vital to the development of artists and their music. Williams has never forgotten her roots, and often performs special shows in some of her favorite halls. This year, the Lu's Jukebox series will be made widely available on vinyl and CD. Volume 2, Southern Soul: From Memphis to Muscle Shoals, features covers of Al Green, Percy Sledge, Bobbie Gentry, Ann Peebles, Tony Joe White & more. It is scheduled for a July 9th, 2021 release.

"Pianist Nate Morgan (1964-2013) was a central figure on the Los Angeles jazz undergound. A core member of the circle around the legendary bandleader, pianist and community organiser Horace Tapscott, Morgan had been part of Tapscott’s U.G.M.A.A. (Union Of God’s Musicians and Artists Ascension) since he was just a teenager, and was a key member of the Pan Afrikan People’s Arkestra, known as ‘The Ark’. Through the 1980s and 1990s he kept the PAPA flame alive, organising the Ark’s sprawling songbook, running legendary jam sessions, and keeping LA’s deep jazz roots well watered. By the early 2000s he was bringing hard won knowledge to a new generation as part of the Build The Ark collective. He was a musician’s musician, at the beating heart of the radical, community-minded Los Angeles jazz network that Tapscott and his associates had first put together in the early 1960s.

Retribution, Reparation was the second of the two LPs Morgan recorded for Tom Albach’s storied Nimbus West imprint. His first, Journey Into Nigritia had been a declaration of arrival laced with energies drawn from Cecil Taylor and Coltrane. One year later, with nods to Herbie Hancock (‘One Finger Snap’) and Ellington (‘Come Sunday’), Retribution, Reparation was a confident statement of purpose. Politically charged with pan-Africanist and Black nationalist sentiments inspired by Marcus Garvey, and titled with uncompromising directness, the album focusses the sound world of the Ark into a surging, restless masterpiece of spiritualised modal jazz. With Danny Cortez on trumpet and Ark stalwart Jesse Sharps on saxophones the frontline is explosive (this set is also one of the few places the extraordinary Sharps can be heard in a small group setting), while Fritz Wise and Ark regular Joel Ector hold down the rhythm section. Morgan’s forceful, Tyner-like chords and virtuosic solos and bind the music together. From the poised drama of the opening dedication to Tapscott’s U.G.M.A.A. (‘U.G.M.A.A.GER’) to the propulsive militancy of the title track, Retribution, Reparation spreads the word: ‘Advance to Victory, Let Nigritia Be Free!’"

The Daddies of riff, of shuffle, of southern swing, oozing back beat and
funky chicken, all true ‘Sons of Memphis’, these six experienced performers, in the pure Stax/Atlantic style, roll out a profound Deep Soul, carried
by a hot and groovy base, a V8 sounding drumbeat, a haunting trombone,
a charismatic and powerful vocals, a Hammond Leslie roaring in unison
with the spring reverb guitar and its sixties tremolo.
With their Zoot suits, black and white Derbys, dark glasses, this Take 6 knows
the songs, history and all the tricks of the soulman’s trade, with that little extra, the irresistible French touch blazoned by their Pyrenean roots in the B arn
region.
This energetic combination is an incredible firework display on stage, and with
them the Deep Soul remains what it must always be... A music of hope! A
shared experience! The ultimate music of the soul!

John Prine’s Grammy Award-winning album, Fair & Square, is available on vinyl for the first time in over sixteen years. There are three special double LPs: standard black, opaque green and a limited amount of “Irish Edition”—green and orange vinyl with a matte jacket featuring embossed lettering.
Originally released in 2005, Fair & Square won Best Contemporary Folk Album at the 48th Grammy Awards and achieved the fastest rise to number one in the history of Americana radio. The record marked Prine’s first album in nine years, following 1995’s Lost Dogs and Mixed Blessings. Rolling Stone declared Fair & Square “an excellent set of songs full of rootsy warmth and unpretentious wit,” while The Washington Post praised its relatability: “this low-key masterpiece arrives not just as a reminder of Prine’s cleverness and mischievous wit but also as a confirmation of his deeply human values. These are values rooted in the enduring mystery and majesty of everyday, ordinary lives.”
Prine is a four-time Grammy winner and Lifetime Achievement Award honoree, a seven-time Americana Music Award-winner, a PEN New England Lyrics Award recipient and member of both the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Since his debut in 1971, Prine released over 18 albums and has had his songs recorded by Johnny Cash, Carly Simon, Bette Midler, Bonnie Raitt, Norah Jones, George Strait, Miranda Lambert, Zac Brown Band and many others, while drawing effusive praise from Bob Dylan, Kris Kristofferson, Bonnie Raitt, Roger Waters, Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen and more.

Originally from Philadelphia, invited to New York by Miles Davis, playing at Antibes in 1960 with Charles Mingus and Eric Dolphy, here is trumpeter Ted Curson in 1971... in Paris. With him, a legendary trio: Georges Arvanitas (piano), Jacky Samson (double bass) and Charles Saudrais (drums). A new transatlantic alliance in the service of jazz of all kinds: classic, modal, fusion and even free... Pop Wine is – between Coltrane and Miles with a nod to roots in the club the Caveau de la Huchette – an explosive cocktail but which leaves no stains!

In 1960, trumpeter Ted Curson played with Charles Mingus and Eric Dolphy on stage at the Antibes jazz festival. Eleven years later he was in Paris to record one of the gems of his discography, with a hard-hitting French trio: Georges Arvanitas (piano), Jacky Samson (double bass) and Charles Saudrais (drums).

Arvanitas was also someone who had travelled widely. Originally from Marseille, he had accompanied visiting American musicians in Paris before moving to the States. It was when he came back that the charismatic trio was created with Samson and Saudrais and who recorded, in 1970 on Futura, the unforgettable In Concert and then, the following year, Pop Wine with Ted Curson.

Pop Wine: don’t be fooled into thinking you are going to hear jazz musicians trying to play pop after uncorking too many bottles. For, although the album occasionally tends toward fusion, it is first and foremost a wonderful jazz recording; and a recording with enough fizz to make your head spin!

There are five tracks in total: Quartier Latin reminds us a little of Olé Coltrane (Curson, like the saxophonist, is originally from Philadelphia), Flip Top where the trumpet and piano play out a chase scene through the streets of Paris, Pop Wine where funk and cool jazz meet on the barricades of black and white, L.S.D. Takes A Holiday which breaks out in a style close to free jazz, and finally Lonely One, with the impression that ends this unclassifiable album. Unclassifiable, unless we decide to elevate Pop Wine to the rank of a great vintage.

There has always been a Reggae inuence in the music of El Michels Affair. From their cover of "Hung Up On My Baby" done in a Reggae style, to the general sound and approach that permeates Leon's production style. While recording Bailey's 2020 Ekundayo album, they did some straight forward reggae tunes inspired by different eras alongside some modern R&B tracks that would t more comfortably next to Frank Ocean than Jacob Miller. It is this same notion that old and new can live so comfortably together that birthed the idea of Ekundayo Inversions. Traditional dub came out of reggae in the late 60s and early 70s when pioneers like King Tubby and Lee Perry started taking the multi track recordings of songs and running them back through the board adding effects and additional instrumentation. These recordings are called "dubs" or "versions" and are typically instrumentals with ourishes of vocals from the original tracks. El Michels decided to use the blueprints left behind and make something using the inuences of today. He wound up straying so far from the traditional format that it didn't seem right to use the word `Dub', hence Ekundayo Inversions. All the songs are tied together by WhatsApp messages between Leon and Liam that perfectly narrate the story of this record and their working relationship. One of the highlights on Ekundayo Inversions is a guest appearance from the legendary Lee "Scratch" Perry on the "Ugly Truth" version. L$P switches between singing and talking, proclaiming his powers one minute and playing with the track's title the next. On "Awkward take. 2" Leon takes one of the most experimental songs from Ekundayo and actually straightens it out. A track that once seemed to be oating in space has now been anchored by the addition of drums and bass. "Faded", a version of "Paper Tiger", is given the full EMA treatment with the addition of emotive horns over an uncomfortably sparse rhythm track peppered with Liam's voice drenched in delay and echo. "Champions" features a verse from Black Thought of The Roots and halfway through, El Michels sends the rhythm section 50 years back. At the end of the day, Ekundayo Inversions is a testament to how strong the original songs are. Whether they're in a R&B style, reggae style, stripped down to their bare bones, or loaded with production, the songs will move you.

The Ember, The Ash is 鬼 from Unreqvited’s post blackened death metal project that explores the heavier, darker, deeper and weirder sides of the DSBM genre. "Throughout all of Unreqvited’s manifestations, 鬼’s roots in post-hardcore ring out in the form of bright, building riff-walls that welcome the dawn of a new day. More of a DSBM artist through his general emotional intensity that escapes the prison of despair, Unreqvited becomes a candle in the depths of darkness. Surely, there needs to be a place to store overwrought feelings in order to arrive at a place of hope, and that’s where The Ember, The Ash comes in. 鬼 has added the new band to his list of rock and metal ventures, and it is arguably the gloomiest yet. While his songwriting still very much mimics the building of a staircase, it is one that aims steadily downward to the pits instead of upwards to the heavens." - INVISIBLE ORANGES

Spanning four decades over 32 years, The Trojans have constantly evolved, re-inventing themselves through several incarnations
while always remaining one happy family.
Formed By Gaz Mayall in the Autumn of 1986 after the demise of his first band, Gaz's Rebel Blues Rockers, The Trojans filled a gap
on the ska scene of the time of the time with a sound that encompassed ska and reggae with a dash of soul, funk, R&B and world roots.
During the first few years they recorded several albums that were well received on the UK underground, all on Gaz's own
independent label Gaz's Rockin' Records. The first was 'Ala-Ska' which featured the classic single 'Gaelic Ska' and launched a whole
new genre of Afro-Celtic fusion that has since become a hallmark of The Trojans' sound.
The 12 tracks included here cover the three main incarnations of The Trojans line-ups and features guest appearances from Prince
Buster, Jennie Bellestar and Zoe Devlin. Now available exclusively for RSD 2019 on 180g vinyl - a very limited Red edition and a
limited Black version

Emotional Rescue and HMV Record Shop (Japan) end their DISCO REGGAE LOVERS 7" series with reggae legend Sugar Minott and this utterly unique UK soul-boogie rarity, I Remember Mama.

Reggae star, vocalist, producer and sound system operator, Kingston JA born Minott released over 50 albums and hundreds of singles for the likes of Studio One, Wackies, Suffering Heights and his own Black Roots label.

His distinctive soulful voice pioneered the Dancehall style and following his UK hit "Hard Time Pressure" he moved to London in 1980, adopting the rising Lovers Rock sound. On a visit to Wackies' offices in Soho he met Steve Parr, who had recently opened a studio next door.

Keyboard player for the likes of Desmond Dekker and Geno Washington, Parr moved into composition, mixing, sound engineering and production, before setting up the Sound Design Studio in Dean Street.

Principally a studio, the meeting with Minott hatched the idea to create a label to showcase their capabilities. Produced by Parr, he played all the instruments except the distinctive sax by friend Andy MacDonald.

With Minott's heartfelt lyrics, this marriage created a one-off, a ground-breaking synthesised 4/4 rhythm track with funk groove and soulful vocals. Released on 7" and 12", the versions noticeably differ and is the perfect closing to the DISCO REGGAE LOVERS series.

Nothing can beat the thrill of thrash at its best, and no one is keeping the spirit and sound of the genre alive quite like Berlin’s Space Chaser. Marking their ten-year anniversary with their third full-length, Give Us Life, they are returning in force and once again establishing their importance in the scene. While they predominantly take their lyrics seriously they also have moments of fun, such as on “Army Of Awesomeness”, but the band are primarily drawn to dystopian sci-fi stories with roots in real-life physics and the works of Carl Sagan, and as they point out “it’s still a lot of fun to sing about a dying sun turning into a black hole and becoming a galaxy devouring behemoth.” The title track might possibly contain the most epic theme ever covered, describing the emergence of life and its inevitable death from the smallest to the largest possible scale.

‘Royal’ is the long awaited second full-length album from Jesse Royal, an artist who has been helping to return Jamaica to its rightful place at the top of the worldwide reggae scene. Along with his peers and friends Protoje, Chronixx, Koffee, Kabaka Pyramid, Jah9, Lila Ike, and others, Jesse Royal has brought back many of the soulful elements of the genre, while remaining at the cutting edge of the moment. The record’s 3rd single, “Rich Forever,” a collab with dancehall superstar Vybz Kartel, perfectly illustrates this with a modern roots sound that surprises at every turn. Recent major hits, “LionOrder” (with Protoje) and “Natty Pablo,” are both included here, along with a host of new songs that are destined to become favorites in the Jamaican diaspora and well beyond. The album also features prominent guest turns by Stonebwoy, Kumar (formerly of GRAMMY winning band Raging Fyah), and rising stars Samory I, and Runkus.

The Jamaican reggae group The Wailing Souls was formed in 1965. They released their debut album Wild Suspense through Island Records in 1979, after their singles releases through Channel One became popular. Wild Suspense became a roots reggae stemple, renowned for its staggering musicianship. The album contains a mix of Studio One do-overs (such as “Row Fisherman” and “Feel the Spirit”), a handful of self-productions with added horns (“Bredda Gravalicious”, “Very Well”) and tunes by Rudolph “Garth” Dennis (“Slow Coach”) and George “Buddy” Hayes (“Wild Suspense”). Wild Suspense, overall, contains a reflective and thoughtful body of music, with beautiful harmony singing and majestic instrumentation.

Soul Jazz Records are releasing this 20th anniversary edition of their classic Studio One Soul on unique Record Store Day EXCLUSIVE coloured vinyl + download code. This new edition is a one-off special pressing exclusively for Record Store Day 2021.

Owned and founded by Clement "Coxsone" Dodd, Studio One's output serves as a comprehensive guide to the history of Reggae music.

Studio One Soul tracks the link between American Funk and Soul and Jamaican Reggae at the legendary Studio One Records.

Curtis Mayfield, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, The Temptations, King Floyd, Booker T and The MGs - all these artists had a huge influence on Jamaican artists and this album contains versions of songs by all of them. Featuring classic and rare Reggae Funk and Soul cuts from the Reggae giants alongside rarer cuts, Studio One Soul spans over 20 years of classic Reggae from the Rocksteady Funk through to the deep Roots music.

With his ongoing commitment to like-minded archivist label Finders Keepers Records, industrial music pioneer Steven Stapleton further entrusts us to lift the veil and expose “the right tracks” from his uber-legendary and oft misinterpreted psych/prog/punk peculiarity shopping list known as The Nurse With Wound List.
Following the critically lauded first instalment and it’s exclusively French tracklisting both parties now combine their vinyl-vulturous penchants to bring you the next ‘Strain Crack & Break’ edition which consists of twelve lesser-known German records that played a hugely important part in the initial foundations of the list which began to unfold when Stapleton was just thirteen years old.
From the perspective of a schoolboy Amon Düül (ONE) victim, at the start of a journey that commenced before phrases like kosmische and the xeno-ignant Krautrock tag had become mag hack currency, this compendium is devoid of the tropes that united what many would accurately argue to be the greatest progressive pop bands in Europe
(namely CAN, Neu! and Kraftwerk) and rather shatters the ingredients across a ground zero landscape for both inquisitive fans and socially rehabbing musos to begin to assemble a unique self-styled identity. If Krautrock was the music that journalist told us lurked behind schlager (German pop) in the 1970s, then this record includes the music that skulked behind Krautrock and perhaps refused to polish its backhanded name belt.
Including lesser-known artists like the late Wolfgang Dauner, whose career proceeded and outlived the kosmische movement while consistently informing and outsmarting them whenever they got stuck in their metronomic ruts, or how about Fritz Müller, the man who
was to Kraftwerk what Stuart Sutcliffe was to The Beatles but had more in common with Yoko and quite rightly couldn’t give a stuff about the Fab Four’s Hamburg roots.
Elsewhere we have a plethora of German bands made for German audiences as they try and shed secondhand flower power Americanisms and feel the benefits of much harder drugs and the realisations of difficult second album budgets while Kommune 1
newsflashes wipe smiles from everybody’s faces and replace them with opioid chic or acid-sarcastic grins. Bonzo Cockettes show us their Big Muffs and drummers ask for extra mics while Conny Plank goes for parliamentary office and gives babies good firm handshakes for the camera.
‘Strain Crack & Break: Volume Two’ is the sound of Steve Stapleton’s sponge-like mind and the dividends of anyone who was brave enough to even peek inside those brick-thick gatefold covers never mind drop the needle.
Over forty years since Nurse With Wound’s first album was released, Finders Keepers Records and Steve Stapleton take connoisseurs of our kind of music back to the disused elevator shaft towards ground zero. Arriving at the same checkout from different departments, Finders Keepers and Nurse With Wound continue to sing from the same hymnal with this ongoing collaborative attempt to officially, authentically and legally compile the best tracks from Steve’s list, where many overzealous erds have faltered (or simply, got the wrong end of the stick).
After ‘Strain Crack & Break: Volume One’ merely scratched the surface of this DIY dossier of elongated punk-prog peculiarities, this second lavish metallic gatefold double vinyl compendium drives a much deeper groove which, in accordance with Steve’s wishes, focusses exclusively on individual tracks of German origin - the country whose music forged the prototype of the NWW inventory in the form of his secondary school vinyl wantlist in the early 1970s, comprised of disassembled free jazz, unshowered stoner psych, hypnotic prog, deranged monk funk and fuzzed out Deutschmark bin bonzo beats.

Surfdog Records and Brian Setzer have announced that for the first time, Setzer’s classic 2003 album Nitro Burnin’ Funny Daddy will be issued on vinyl. It will be released on limited edition 180 gram, red transparent vinyl on 25th June 2021.
Only Brian Setzer could cut an album with more lyrical honesty and musical diversity than anything he's ever done and then title it Nitro Burnin' Funny Daddy. Not that the name is misleading; Nitro is in fact packed with explosive performances. There's more than enough volatile picking and singing to mark this as a highlight of a catalog already crowded with great albums he's delivered as leader of the history-making Stray Cats and on his own too.

But there's more: street-corner doo-wop, heartbreak balladry, a foot-stomp hoedown, several lyrics that will shock and stun longtime fans, and always, somewhere in the mix, the blues. Every track is distinctive, none sounds like any of the others, yet all of them are pure Setzer. And it's all compressed into a tight trio format -- Setzer and his big band colleagues, standup slap-bass powerhouse Johnny Hatton and rhythm dynamo Bernie Dresel on snare and cymbals -- whose sound evokes Les Paul, Junior Parker, and even Earl Scruggs as much as Louis Prima or Eddie Cochran.
Originally released in 2003, Nitro Burnin’ Funny Daddy was Brian Setzer’s eleventh solo album and when it was released he said it was the most personal record he had ever done. The album followed his big-band release Boogie Woogie Christmas from the previous year and saw him back to his rockabilly best, taking in doo-wop (“To Be Loved”), bluegrass (“When The Bells Don’t Chime”), rootsy-rock (“Don’t Trust A Woman (In A Black Cadillac)”) and going on a cinematic Wild-West romp (“Wild Wind”).

If Black Sabbath had been born and bred in an Ohio mobile home and raised on a steady diet of smoke and acid - the result would sound exactly like Mistreater
In 1981 the group independently recorded and released the “Hell’s Fire” album. Today the album is considered a US metal classic and is considered one of the strongest metal albums ever made by metal aficionados - original copies are hard to find and there’s a hefty price tag if you’re lucky enough to find a copy for sale. Mistreater are from Creston (population 2000) and were far outside everything and everybody associated with the “hip” music scene in Ohio. Mistreater either didn’t know or care about the scene in nearby Cleveland where bands like proto-punk rockers Electric Eels, Rocket From The Tombs and Styrenes made waves. Pere Ubu and Dead Boys sprang from these roots. The Pagans ruled the Cleveland area during the punk days. Earlier, The Choir, Raspberries and The James Gang were pivotal Cleveland bands. As local audiences were receptive, the city was a major stop-off for touring bands. Similarly, radio station WMMS also had open ears. Nowadays, The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame is located in Cleveland. It goes on – Cleveland and its surroundings were happening. Mistreater was into none of this… Their music was by outsiders for outsiders. More brutal, raw and louder than everyone else. Rough-edged and without gloss, the Mistreater of Hell’s Fire was not aiming for the mainstream. The riffs are stoner hard knock-outs and the guitar leads are psyched out punches rooted in heavy psychedelia. Sweden’s On The Dole Records are proud to present the first ever reissue of “Hell’s Fire”. And in true OTD fashion no expenses were saved. The band was interviewed for the extensive liner notes, rare photos were found, the sound is remastered and carefully restored, and the non album single b-side “Baby Blue” is added as a bonus. This is a US metal / D.I.Y masterpiece that should be heard by everyone into hard, loud music and massive guitar riffs. It’s like Greg Sage of The Wipers had gone metal. It would have been the ultimate soundtrack to Tim Hunter’s “River’s Edge” movie with Dennis Hopper. Mistreater were young and had no contacts or knew ways to reach out with their music back then… Now the time has come for the resurrection of Mistreater. Mistreater is not in the nearby Rock’n’roll Hall Of Fame in Cleveland. But they should be. This OTD reissue goes to prove it.

Death Drives A Cadillac was Spike In Vain’s second
album, never officially released and unheard in its final
form until now. Like many hardcore bands circa ’84 and
’85, the group was ready to further expand its palette and
ease off the thrash tempos. Recorded roughly a year after
Disease Is Relative with a bigger budget, the album is even
more wide-ranging, and the songs are more fleshed out.
“Despair grew inside her, I grew inside her. She named
me Spirit Death, and this is my song” sings Chris Marec,
the vocalist on half of this LP. Though less “young” than
their debut, that album’s darkness lingers, but here has a
more removed, observational quality, with many songs
sung in character or in the third person, along with a
tendency for anthropomorphic allegory. It has a bit less to
do with screaming for death to come than with a growing
resignation to being the other, a recognition of inescapable
alienation and its relation to childhood trauma. —all with
a heaping side of absurdity and a sense of wonder at the
gradually unfolding endtimes.
That said, many of the tracks wouldn’t be out of place
on the debut, and some feature exotic tunings. Bits of roots
music come into play as well—gospel, blues, and country
figure to some extent in a third of the songs, sometimes
in convoluted, Beefheart-esque ways, and at other times
toying with genre archetypes as a cat does a mouse.

I Be Trying might be the title of the new record from two-time GRAMMY nominee Cedric Burnside, but it's also a mission statement in an era when plenty of us have discovered what "the blues" really means. Recorded over three days at Royal Studios in Memphis (the home studio of Al Green and Hi Records in the 60s and 70s), this album is the ultimate statement of purpose for a critically acclaimed artist who has proudly carried the mantle of Mississippi Hill Country blues around the world. Over thirteen tracks, Burnside delivers his bruised but unfettered truth over blistering guitar and deep pocket drums-a sound birthed in his soul but developed and perfected on the road. But no matter how far he travels, the righteous sound he makes could only come from one place. I Be Trying is the sound of modern Mississippi. Produced by second-generation Memphis soul trailblazer Boo Mitchell ("Uptown Funk") and featuring guest appearances from Luther Dickinson (North Mississippi Allstars) and Zac Cockrell (Brittany Howard), I Be Trying takes the sound that Burnside learned from his grandfather, blues legend R.L. Burnside, and reinterprets it into a modern, bold Black American sound that expands the sonic landscape while respecting and honoring its roots.