Suche:blue on blue

Formed in 1996, Goatsnake was an ultra-heavy, blues-doom powerhouse consisting of guitarist Greg Anderson (Engine Kid), vocalist Pete Stahl (Scream, Wool) and the mega rhythm section of Greg Rogers (drums), Guy Pinhas (bass) from underground heavy legends The Obsessed. The band’s tenure has ebbed and flowed for over two decades, leaving behind a legacy of legendary live shows and classic albums and EP’s.

VERY LIMITED QUANTITY OF BLACK VINYL FOR UK.

Goatsnake’s classic debut album— appropriately entitled 1 (one)— was originally released by Man's Ruin Records in 1999 on CD and LP formats. The album featured 8 songs that gracefully combined monolithic, Sabbath-y riffs with soulful vocals to create a monumental introduction to the band, and a style that would be influential for years to come.

Following the release of the first two parts of
CAN’s live series, Mute and Spoon Records
reissue a ‘Monster Movie’ on blue vinyl.

With the sounds of Jimi Hendrix, Captain
Beefheart and The Velvet Underground ringing in
their ears, Holger Czukay and Irmin Schmidt left
behind their careers in academia to form the
influential group in the late 60s.

Together with Michael Karoli, Jaki Liebezeit and
American singer Malcolm Mooney, they recorded
their debut album, ‘Monster Movie’, in a castle
near Cologne in 1968.

The record was then remastered in 2004 from the
original master tape for a CD release. It was
overseen by Holger, Irmin and Jono Podmore to
refine it to how it was always intended to be heard.

“‘Monster Movie’ is an amazing debut” - Pitchfork

“‘Monster Movie’ sounds like nothing else released
in 1969 - and still acts as a template for the future” - Sound Affects

“Had Can’s debut album, ‘Monster Movie’, been
their only one, it would have assured their place in
the history of German music and of rock as a
whole” - Shindig Magazine


Includes digital download code.

Sacred Bones is an independent record label and publishing company based in Brooklyn, NY that started over 15 years ago in the basement of a record store and has gone on to become a critically respected label that is synonymous with forward-thinking music and culture and won the 2020 Libera Award for Label of the Year. With over 300 releases under our belt, we’ve had the distinct pleasure to work with legendary artists the likes of Mort Garson, Patti Smith, Trent Reznor, and the late Genesis P-Orridge, as well as fostered the respective music careers of film directors David Lynch, John Carpenter, and Jim Jarmusch. We’ve also released career-defining albums by newer artists like Zola Jesus, SPELLLING, Molchat Doma, Marissa Nadler, Amen Dunes, and Jenny Hval, all while retaining our cult underground through smaller curated releases from some of the best punk and experimental artists.

Kalevala’s classic third album “Abraham’s Blue Refrain”, came out with the band’s revamped, more international name “Kalevala Orchestra”. The album was recorded in the spring of 1977 and produced by Tommi Liuhala together with the band, with lyrics by Jim Pembroke of Wigwam, who also plays the piano in the title track. The overall sweeping tone of this progressive and monumental record is dark and sombre with a spiritual weight to it. The songs themes and lyrics, sung in English which is rare for a Finnish band of the day, are on a grand scale imbued with deep sentiment and sacred intention. According to Lido, the album’s title track: “… actually describes my relationship to spirituality, and the song “Silver Fish” is also a self-portrait: “I’m a Pisces in the horoscope and I made this song to describe myself.” “Marketbox Street” and “Highland Temple” are Prog rock bangers that illuminate slightly different corners of the world taking the listener through far off valleys of feeling and meaning. With roaring hammond organ and crunching guitars that heap on the fuzz and then take flight into intricate but highly emotional solos from one beat to the next and back, Kalevala Orchestra mean business. “Abraham’s Blue Refrain” won’t let the keen listener down for one second and is altogether much more soul-searching and grandiose than their more obviously rocking “Boogie Jungle” album and remains an underrated cult favourite for that reason. Heavyweight Class-A Prog from Finland, sung in English with lyrics by one of the genre’s originators, Jim Pembrooke, with beautifully soaring guitar and piano, “Abraham’s Blue Refrain” is an unmissable thrill. On a par with bands like Camel, Bo Hansson and countrymates Haikara and Elonkorjuu, Kalevala’s music is an overdose of sentiment and spiritual emotion hammered out through epic Prog for those who know or soon will.

• 180 GRAM AUDIOPHILE VINYL
• INCLUDING PRINTED INNERSLEEVE
• 4-PAGE BOOKLET WITH LYRICS AND PICTURES
• 2019 ALBUM FEATURING ELEW, ERIC HARLAND, KASSA
OVERALL AND JAMAICAN SINGER CHRONIXX
• MASTERED & MIXED BY GRAMMY AWARD WINNING
PRODUCER BOB POWER (D’ANGELO, ERYKAH BADU)
• LIMITED EDITION OF 750 INDIVIDUALLY NUMBERED
COPIES ON TRANSLUCENT BLUE COLOURED VINYL

Star People Nation is a project described by Theo Croker himself as an intimate exploration of “the everyday rituals of blackness”. A translation of his personal, spiritual and creative experience, the album is a self-reflective collection of powerfully passionate and boundary-busting compositions that speak to our greater, shared human existence. The album features jazz pianist ELEW on “The Messenger”, which is a great combination of a smoky blues piano with a traditional swing rhythm, locking into the pocket and showcasing Croker’s mastery of the swing.

Star People Nation is available as a limited edition of 750 individually numbered copies on translucent blue coloured vinyl. The vinyl package includes a printed innersleeve and 4-page booklet with lyrics and pictures.

For the first time, 25 years of Steps hits come together on one package to celebrate the band’s incredible success. Including all their career highlights plus two brand-new tracks recorded exclusively for this release.

Repressed !

Fuzzed out and psychedelic covers of rare and classic tracks performed by San Francisco's Monophonics.
Monophonics are back with a six-song EP that fuses the complimentary and explosive soul, rock and funk influences, proving themselves to be the rightful inheritors of the Bay Area’s impressive psychedelic soul sound. Mirrors is comprised entirely of cover tunes, except that I doubt you’ve ever heard of half the deeply funky and soulful originals that inspired these soulful, tastefully produced, and timeless Monophonics treatments. “We wanted to do a couple songs that were more familiar to people and then shine some light on groups we’re big into,” lead singer, keyboardist and co-producer Kelly Finnigan explains. It takes a lot of guts to cover your favorite songs, your van jams, that song you play as a shot of inspiration to break-up a marathon studio session. “Not only are these great songs, but these are artists that we listen to and are influenced by.”

“It’s not about making records that sound old, it’s about making records that sound cool,” Kelly says. Not that he and the other five members of Monophonics mind if you confuse their albums for classic-era recordings. Even musician friends regular mistake a sweaty and greasy Monophonics original for an unheard Bar-Kays’ side, or a deep soul cover tune might pass for an original to a novice ear, except that Kelly makes sure to give credit where credit is due, which is what they do explicitly on this EP, Mirrors.

Even the familiar tunes, iconic, better said, receive a fresh treatment as instrumentals, despite their ubiquity as vocal songs. The EP opens with a ‘tip of the cap’ to The Main Ingredient’s version of “Summer Breeze” before the band unfolds a hazy, mellow-funk opus worthy of inclusion on a Bob James CTI album. The next four songs, all featuring vocals, range from the lowrider soul ballad, a cover of the The Invicibles’ “My Heart Cries” with a pleading and plaintive vocal by Nicole Smith, to the psychedelic blues stomp, “Lying,” originally by the archetypical psychedelic soul band nearly signed to Motown, Black Merda. Add in Kelly’s monster vocal take on Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons Northern Soul classic, “Beggin” (to be released as a 7” single with an instrumental version on the b-side), and the deep-funk pop-soul of Nu People’s “I’d be Nowhere Without You” with back-up vocals by Jeanine Jones and Veronica Johnson, and you have a highly-entertaining, toe-tapping, backbone-slipping, masterclass in deep funk and soul.

The final tune is the band’s singular take on the Mamas and the Papas hippie standard, “California Dreaming,” as an explicit and heartfelt tribute to their fans in Greece. The discerning music lovers of Greece fell in love with Monophonics after their 2012 hit “Bang Bang” resulting in multiple tours of the Mediterranean, where these native Californians imbibed on the fine ouzo, good vibes, and Grecian hospitality. Gifted a prized bouzouki (a traditional Greek guitar) by a local fan, Monophonics’ guitarist Ian McDonald and band infused this classic pop song with a soulful cinematic air and Mediterranean flavor, evoking a tune from an imagined Fellini film with a soundtrack by David Axelrod.

Catch the band on the road this Spring to hear some of these songs, favorites and new tunes from their forthcoming LP.

The third release from Night Dreamer’s essential “Direct-to-Disc” sessions sees an incredible meeting between legendary US saxophonist Gary Bartz and leading UK spiritual jazz ensemble, Maisha, featuring two Bartz classics and three brand new joint songs written by both Bartz & Maisha in close collaboration.

Having cut his teeth playing with the likes of Charles Mingus, Max Roach, Art Blakey and finally in 1970, Miles Davis at the peak of his electric period, Gary Bartz became a leading figure of the early-to-mid 70s spiritual jazz movement, releasing a string of ground-breaking albums on legendary NYC jazz label Prestige Records with his NTU Troop, featuring classics such as “Celestial Blues”, “Uhuru Dance” and “I’ve Known Rivers”, before collaborating on Blue Note Records with the Mizell Brothers on the anthemic jazz funk of “Music Is My Sanctuary”. An oeuvre much loved by soul jazzers and hip hop fans alike.

Led by drummer Jake Long, Maisha have been central to the UK’s jazz explosion, and have fast become the UK’s most exciting and in-demand young spiritual jazz ensemble, from steller shows at Jazz re:freshed, Total Refreshment Centre & Church of Sound and supporting the Sun Ra Arkestra, to releasing their critically acclaimed debut LP, ​“There Is A Place” ​on Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood Recordings in 2018. Theirs is an organic & explosive sound that blends influences from afrobeat and broken beat to Persian music, with a deep love and understanding of jazz, particularly the heritage of spiritual jazz led by titans such as Pharoah Sanders, Alice Coltrane and of course, Gary Bartz.

Which makes this collaboration even more special. Bartz was first invited to share a stage with Maisha by Gilles Peterson to headline the inaugural We Out Here festival. Their chemistry was rich and instantaneous, certainly a two-way street, with the young musicians reinvigorating the legend’s performance and wowing the intergenerational festival audience. A European tour followed, including a London Jazz Festival highlight at the Royal Festival Hall, celebrating the 50th anniversary of his album “Another Earth”, originally featuring fellow legends, Pharoah Sanders, Charles Tolliver, Stanley Cowell, and John Coltrane’s own bassist, Reggie Workman.


Now the relationship has evolved into a special straight-to-disc recording for Night Dreamer Records, that captures the vitality of their collaboration. Whilst Bartz and Maisha reinvent classic Bartz compositions “Uhuru Sasa” and “Dr Follows Dance”, extending the pieces into long piece improvised grooves, their recording session gave birth to three brand new joint compositions, written the very same day. These include the propulsive “Leta’s Dance” that magically combines the Bartz’ soulful musical lyricism with Maisha’s African-jazz influences, and the organic jazz

funk of “Harlem to Haarlem”, featuring a hot solo from guest trumpeter Axel Kaner-Lidstrom of Cykada & Levitation Orchestra fame.

Like previous Night Dreamer efforts from afrobeat star Seun Kuti & Egypt 80, and the beautiful collaboration between Brazilian stars Seu Jorge & Rogê, the album was recorded in Haarlem’s Artone Studio, a stones throw from Amsterdam, in just one-take, straight-to-disc, avoiding post-production embellishments and retaining the purity of the performance lost in modern recording techniques.

This record really is an event, in and of itself, a meeting of talents, minds, generations and zeitgeist moments, captured in a unique and pure manner. The music does not disappoint, as Maisha have been inspired to reach new heights whilst we find Bartz truly reinvigorated, and both artists in tune to the spirit of the other.

Recorded direct-to-disc @ Artone Studio, Haarlem, The Netherlands on Tuesday 29th Wednesday 30th October 2019

Rose City Band is celebrated guitarist Ripley Johnson. A prolific songwriter, Johnson started Rose City Band to have an outlet to explore songwriting styles apart from Wooden Shjips and Moon Duo, where he is often not the lead songwriter. Rose City Band allowed him to follow his musical muses as they greet him and not be bound by the schedule of bandmates and demands of a touring group. Stepping out from behind the psychedelic haze that envelops his other output, Rose City Band"s lean yet richly textured arrangements lay bare the beauty of his songcraft. On Earth Trip, Johnson reveals more of himself than ever before, coloring the project"s country-rock twang with a melancholic, wistful undertone. It charts a journey of personal growth and introspection with surprising honesty, from pining for summers spent with friends to meditations on space, stillness and the splendor of the natural world. It continues Rose City Band"s celebration of summer warmth and the great outdoors, seen from a new vantage point, and with newfound appreciation for the freedom and joy that nature provides. Earth Trip was written during a period of sudden shocks and drastic lifestyle changes for Johnson. Forced to cancel extensive touring plans for 2020, the guitarist found himself home for an extended period for the first time in years. No longer in constant motion, he was able to experience and enjoy the simple pleasures of home life, of being in one place: hikes in nature, bathing outside, and waking with the dawn. Forming new connections to his surroundings, from tending to a garden to sleeping out under the stars, Johnson found hope and healing in a more mindful relationship with the natural world. Themes of recalibration and finding personal space are equally mirrored in Earth Trip"s lean production. Recorded at his home studio in Portland and mixed by Cooper Crain (Bitchin" Bajas, Cave), Johnson makes deft use of space while experimenting with new sonics. Shimmering pedal steel, woozy harmonica melodies, and stately piano enhance the album"s introspective tone without ever clouding arrangements. Psychedelic elements that nod to Johnson"s other projects and influences still appear throughout, but hover at the edge of perception, a subtle halo adding colour and texture to Johnson"s songwriting rather than taking centrer-stage. He elaborates: "I told Cooper I was trying to capture that feeling when you take psychedelics and they just start coming on - maybe objects start buzzing in the edges of your vision, you start seeing slight trails, maybe the characteristics of sound change subtly. But you"re not fully tripping yet. He got the idea right away and his mix really captures that feeling." Johnson"s lithe guitar playing throughout treads a fine line between country and cosmic, taut melodies spiralling out into long reverb trails or free-form solos buoyed by a breeze, radiating summer warmth. Through its daring honesty and masteful arrangements, Earth Trip cements Johnson"s place as a singular songwriter of inimitable skill. It"s message of mindfulness and our interconnectedness to the environment expands on a long country and blues music tradition that draws a symbiotic relationship between storyteller and the land, capturing the beauty of the natural world while also emphasising our responsibility in preserving it for future generations

The fourteen original compositions on "Old Love And New" were all composed by Ulita Knaus, created for poems by her favorite poets - these are timeless texts, always emotional and sometimes political. The songs already seem like rediscovered standards from the great songbook era of Cole Porter or the Gershwins, also because Ulita's band swings so fabulously. It is often downright spooky how much these lyrics and their songs fit into our time. Relaxation and evolution, rights for all and bicycles for two - the fact that these subjects are so haunting and relaxed on "Old Love And New" is of course also due to the musicians behind it. "An excellent band with sensitive arrangements accompanies Ulita in a great and sensitive way," said the European jazz legend Rolf Kühn. “Old Love and New”, an album full of poetry and swing and love - already a classic and certainly the peak so far in Ulita Knaus’ remarkable career.

Over the course of the last five years, the Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio have established themselves as the world's premier funky organ trio. The organ trio, along with founder and manager Amy Novo, continues to devise the perfect blend of raw, passionate music and engaging industry practices. Through a firm partnership with label Colemine Records, the trio has garnered Billboard charting albums, sold out shows, tens of thousands of albums sold, and millions of streams. Lofty accomplishments for an instrumental organ trio. Now, with permanent drummer Dan Weiss behind to kit, DLO3 is proud to present Cold As Weiss, their third studio album to date that finds them tighter than ever, and continuing to push funky instrumental music to a new generation of fans.

Norwegian magic with style and enchanting voice! In 2021 LIV KRISTINE‘s EP „Have Courage Dear Heart“ was released and now the
re-release „Enter My Religion“. The album will be released for the first time as a vinyl with an extra single, as a cassette with two bonus tracks and as a double CD with unreleased tracks and demo recordings. The songs were also adorned with universal influences. Sitar sounds introduce the title track, which comfortably gets under your skin with its insinuating melody arcs and LIV KRISTINE‘s delicate voice. The opener „Over the Moon“ (PETER TÄGTGREN) hints at powerful metal, but then develops into a driving pop song. „Fake a Smile“ is an airy ballad, with LIV KRISTINE‘s voice charmingly taking center stage and setting the tone for most of the songs on the album. The title track „Enter my Religion“ is a mid-tempo anthem with a wise appeal to your inner self, your self-esteem, happiness and creativity. The pace continues with „All the Time in the World“. Straighter and more guitar-driven is „My Revelation“. Pleasing harmonies are in the foreground in the warm and soothing composition „Coming Home“. ‚Streets of Philadelphia‘ - BRUCE
SPRINGSTEEN‘s theme song to the Oscar-winning movie was interpreted as a tribute. The arrangements being technically based on the original, LIV KRISTINE adds new and softer accents to the track. „You Take Me Higher“ is extraordinarily different and more dance-oriented, with a subtle drum‘n‘bass overlay. With „Trapped in Your Labyrinth“ and „Fake a Smile“ LIV KRISTINE spoils her listeners
with profoundly sensual ballads and rock songs. The fairy-like singing, accentuated by piano sounds, envelops music lovers in a web of security, melancholy and longing.

„Enter My Religion“ convinces as a spicy and varied album. The blond Norwegian succeeds in creating a fine album with romantic touches, which never slips into kitsch. Simply authentic, profoundly philosophical, surprising and absolutely LIV KRISTINE - luminous and enlightening.

Norwegian magic with style and enchanting voice! In 2021 LIV KRISTINE‘s EP „Have Courage Dear Heart“ was released and now the
re-release „Enter My Religion“. The album will be released for the first time as a vinyl with an extra single, as a cassette with two bonus tracks and as a double CD with unreleased tracks and demo recordings. The songs were also adorned with universal influences. Sitar sounds introduce the title track, which comfortably gets under your skin with its insinuating melody arcs and LIV KRISTINE‘s delicate voice. The opener „Over the Moon“ (PETER TÄGTGREN) hints at powerful metal, but then develops into a driving pop song. „Fake a Smile“ is an airy ballad, with LIV KRISTINE‘s voice charmingly taking center stage and setting the tone for most of the songs on the album. The title track „Enter my Religion“ is a mid-tempo anthem with a wise appeal to your inner self, your self-esteem, happiness and creativity. The pace continues with „All the Time in the World“. Straighter and more guitar-driven is „My Revelation“. Pleasing harmonies are in the foreground in the warm and soothing composition „Coming Home“. ‚Streets of Philadelphia‘ - BRUCE
SPRINGSTEEN‘s theme song to the Oscar-winning movie was interpreted as a tribute. The arrangements being technically based on the original, LIV KRISTINE adds new and softer accents to the track. „You Take Me Higher“ is extraordinarily different and more dance-oriented, with a subtle drum‘n‘bass overlay. With „Trapped in Your Labyrinth“ and „Fake a Smile“ LIV KRISTINE spoils her listeners
with profoundly sensual ballads and rock songs. The fairy-like singing, accentuated by piano sounds, envelops music lovers in a web of security, melancholy and longing.

„Enter My Religion“ convinces as a spicy and varied album. The blond Norwegian succeeds in creating a fine album with romantic touches, which never slips into kitsch. Simply authentic, profoundly philosophical, surprising and absolutely LIV KRISTINE - luminous and enlightening.

"Alabama's native son, Early James, will release his sophomore album, Strange Time To Be Alive, on 19th August, 2022. The lyrical wordsmith conjures the ghosts of great southern gothic writers from Eudora Welty to William Faulkner, while channeling the haunted spirits of Tom Waits and Townes Van Zandt. The album evokes a timeless amalgam of forsaken blues, wistful folk, and Tin Pan Alley crooning, anchored by the singer’s unmistakable voice that sways from gravel-filled shouts to pained, forlorn whispers – and songs that tread in the waters of darkly themed broken hearts, with the wry humor of the sad clown.
On the road again since August 2021, Early James will continue touring consistently through 2022. Confirmed upcoming tour dates are with The Black Keys and The Ghost of Paul Revere. Previously, Early James has played Newport Folk and toured with The Lone Bellow, The Marcus King Band, Zachary Williams, and Shovels & Rope. "

Anna Tivel's ‘Outsiders’ is a meditation on otherness, a deep dive into the myriad forces that keep us from connecting in real ways, and a celebration of the ones that draw us together. From space exploration to schizophrenia, power imbalance to potent honesty in an old van, these songs are meant as a small prayer of recognition for loneliness and love, and all the ways we try and fail and try again to see each other clearly and let ourselves be seen. "Tivel's characters are common but unforgettable, and her prose paints their worlds in colors that are vivid but always in balance ... Her images linger, and become populated with the energy of the real." - Ann Powers, NPR 2019's album 'The Question' named Paste's Number 1 “Essential Folk Albums from 2019” ahead of Big Thief and Bedouine.

Jeder Song hat die Kraft, Erinnerungen wachzurufen und das Gefühl von Heimat durch Musik nutzbar zu machen: von der psychedelisch-funklastigen Single 'Something's Going On' bis zur kongregativen Energie des neuen Tracks 'We Give Thanks' verschmilzt 'Could We Be More' die Afro-Londoner Synergie, die so natürlich die Wärme und Identität von Kokoroko untermauert. Die Mehrfach-Preisträger Kokoroko sind auf soulige, bläserlastige Sounds mit westafrikanischen Wurzeln und Londoner Einflüssen spezialisiert. Sie spielten bereits auf vielen europäischen Festivals (von Glastonbury über Meltdown bis Elbjazz und Jazz á la Villette) und freuen sich darauf, ihre Reichweite in 2022 und darüber hinaus weiter auszubauen. Die Band trat in mehreren BBC-Fernsehshows auf, ihre beiden Boiler Room-Sets wurden zusammen fast eine halbe Million Mal angehört.

- 'This female-led, multicultural collective of under 30s is a vital example of not only jazz's new form but the shape of things to come.' - The Guardian
- 'Drawing influence from West African highlife and jazz, wellmarinated in enough polyrhythm seasoning to induce fires on the dance floors they play.' - OkayAfrica
- 'Afrobeat, jazz, soul and ’70s psych-leaning funk - luminescent!' - Cool Hunting

A real gem for collectors and fans of PINK FLOYD. On this double LP, world stars of rock history have joined hands to bow down to one of the greatest bands in music history with their versions of the legendary work "THE WALL". The complete THE WALL album interpreted by IAN ANDERSON, ADRIAN BELEW (King Crimson), ALAN WHITE (YES), RICK WAKEMAN (YES), ROBBY KRIEGER (THE DOORS), STEVE LUKATHER (TOTO), BILLY SHERWOOD (YES), TOMMY SHAW (STYX), DWEEZIL ZAPPA and many more.

Originally released in July 2021 on blue vinyl – this is a yellow vinyl re-press – original notes below

During 2019, Blondie was invited to perform in Havana, Cuba as part of a cultural exchange through the Cuban Ministry of Culture. This was a 40 year ambition come especially for songwriter & guitarist Chris Stein, who had longed to visit Cuba for most of his life. Artist and director Rob Roth documented this special moment and career highlight by shooting a short film titled “BLONDIE: VIVIR EN LA HABANA”.
The film is broken up into 3 parts — Water, Fire and Air — and present a meditation on the experience as well as highlights from the two-night live musical performances with special guests Alain Perez, David Torrens and Cuban Fusion Pioneers Sintesís at Havana’s famous Teatro Mella.
With narration from Blondie founding members Debbie Harry, Chris Stein, and Clem Burke, providing a glimpse into the passion and beauty they discovered in Havana and the magic moments of performing alongside incredible Cuban artists. “BLONDIE: VIVIR EN LA HABANA” goes beyond the atypical short form film and live music documentary by presenting a portrait of the legendary band’s first experience in Havana and of the magical exchange between musicians from the two cities each call home and their intertwined influences.

The sound track for the film features Cuban musicians Carlos Alfonso, Ele Valdés, María del Carmen Ávila, Alejandro Delgado, Juan Carlos Marin, Jamil Schery, Degnis Bofill, Adel González

Released in July on limited edition pale blue vinyl to accompany the film which will feature throughout 2021 in many prominent Film Festivals inc the Tribeca Film Festival.

Coming out on July, Jazz Codes is Moor Mother's second and latest album for Anti- and a com?panion to her celebrated 2021 release Black Encyclopedia of the Air. Jazz Codes uses free jazz as a starting point but the collection continues the recent turn in Moor Mother's multifaceted catalog toward more melody, more singing voices, more choruses, more complexity. In its warm, densely layered course through jazz, blues, soul, hip-hop, and other Black classical traditions, Jazz Codes sets the ear blissfully adrift and unhitches the mind from habit. Through her work, Ayewa illuminates the principles of her multidisciplinary collaborative practice Black Quantum Futur?ism, a theoretical framework for perceiving and adjusting reality through art, writing, music, and performance, informed by historical Black ontologies.The songwriter, composer, vocalist, poet, and educator Camae Ayewa spent years organizing and performing in Philadelphia's underground music community before moving to Los Angeles to teach composition at the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music. She released her debut album as Moor Mother, Fetish Bones, in 2016, and has since put out an abundance of acclaimed music, both as a solo artist and in collaboration with other musicians who share her drive to dig up the untold. She has performed and recorded with the free jazz groups Irreversible Entanglements and the Art Ensemble of Chica?go, and made records with billy woods, Mental Jewelry, and YATTA.

For their Drag City debut, the enigmatic duo expand into eight-armed wonder; all the better to reach ever-deeper into their bag o' tricks. Slinky and sliding elegantly, the kids forge tunes with a harmony of ambiguity and nostalgia, effortless yet precise, and rounded with thick bottom - a dancing clash of cognition and dissonance! Since 2015, Kamikaze Palm Tree have been a relative mystery. Now, in times no less mysterious, Drag City welcomes them, celebrating the energy of their second LP, where KPT play their offbeat strain of 21st century rock. Making MINT CHIP, Dylan Hadley and Cole Berliner reach deeper into their bag of tricks than ever before, dialoguing with an absurd shared intent they haven't yet paused to question. The off-center pieces gathered together for Good Boy have given way to pulsing aquatic compositions on MINT CHIP. Cole's guitar tones, wire thin, bell-like, bluesily downtuned, slinky and sliding elegantly, arc purposeful around their peripherals. Dylan's kit work, effortless yet precise, grounded with heavy bottom, drives and interacts organically with all the emerging structure, nailing down finely detailed frames and canvases to backdrop her singing and the unremitting landing of melodies and songs. With the addition of Josh Puklavetz, things that didn't make sense before - like bass - are now on the beach, fully lotioned, essence to essence. Violin and clarinet (Laena Myers Ionita and Brad Caulkins, respectively) round out the tonal spectrum. All strung together in the foothills of Altadena's Wiggle World Studios with Hartling back in the engineer's seat and Tim Presley producing the proceedings!