In 2012, ten years after its inception, Stand High Patrol released their first album: Midnight Walkers, which featured a multifaceted take on contemporary dub – a versatile sound with heavy bass, named dubadub. Following the success of their first LP, plus several EPs and singles released on Stand High Records, Pupajim, Rootystep and Mac Gyver now return with their second self-produced album, with sleeve art by Kazy.
Recorded in a home studio between June 2013 and July 2014, A matter of scale has brought the emergence of new influences. The three dubadub musketeerz intensify the genre crossovers and strengthen the foundations of their creative process. Theirs is an open approach, free from conventions.
Supported by the rich range of Pupajim’s vocals, the sounds travel incessantly between eras. The dubadub experience takes on new dimensions; jazzy rhythms and melodies stand alongside digital reggae, hip-hop beats, bass music and progressive dubs.
A matter of scale shows how Stand High Patrol design and compose their own music. The album reflects the undeniable penchant of the crew for experimentation and their obvious desire to break down barriers.
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The internationally renowned alternative Bluesman, famous for his outrageous one-man live show and songs featured in Breaking Bad (plus many other soundtracks), has now brought his blues growl and rough sound up to peak industry production and style...of around 1974.
This album sits style-wise alongside the greats of the genre: Tom Waits, Randy Newman, Dr John. It also has the unmistakable blues harmonica, voice and wit all his own.
Fans also purchase Seasick Steve, Jon Spencer , and other alt-Blues recordings.
Son Of Dave is a unique genre bending 21st century Blues innovator who has been bringing his 9+ albums and shows to modern generations internationally over two decades and selling over 20,000 hard copies, 50,000 DD, and streaming 3 million annually.
UK PR has secured radio plays at BBC6Music, BBCRadio2, Jazz FM, RadioX Canadian PR has secured charting college station support and national CBC plays.
UK autumn tours include dates supporting Sleaford Mods (not your average blues circuit) 2020 and 2021 singles were playlisted at Spotify curated Nu-Blue, Bluestronica and other alt-Blues type playlists.
Former member of multi-million selling Crash Test Dummies all through their heyday
Has been chosen support for Iggy & The Stooges, Supergrass, Rag&Bone Man,
John Spencer, UB40 and many more. Not the same old Blues in other words.
A very long list of achievements.
* Pressed on special RSD color wax.
* Includes bonus limited edition flexi of an ultra rare recording performed by Roky Erickson.
* Pressed at RTI.
Texan Roky Erickson was one of the true mind-blowing pioneers of psychedelic music. The original leader of the Austin-based 13th Floor Elevators formed in 1965, Erickson and band invented a brand new style or rock & roll, one that was slightly unhinged while it explored the consciousness-expanding influence of LSD on music. After three years, the group imploded with mental issues and legal challenges, ending with Erickson being incarcerated for several years in the Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Rusk, Texas. When he was released in the early '70s the musician continued on his own trail, recording songs that had come to him in his far-flung cerebral wanderings. Erickson, who passed away May 31, 2019, is now celebrated on this 12-track tribute to one of the most original rockers ever.
The participants range the whole world of modern music, and each chose one of Erickson's originals to stamp their own imprint on. They include Billy F Gibbons, Lucinda Williams, Mosshart Sexton (a/k/a Alison Mosshart & Charlie Sexton), Neko Case, Mark Lanegan & Lynn Castle, Jeff Tweedy, Margo Price, Gary Clark Jr & Eve Monsees, Ty Segal, Chelsea Wolfe, The Black Angels and Brogan Bentley. The album is co-produced for release by Bill Bentley, executive producer of the 1990 Roky Erickson tribute album Where The Pyramid Meets The Eye on Sire Records, and Matt Sullivan, co-founder/owner of Light in the Attic Records.
The songs range from Erickson's debut iconic original, "You're Gonna Miss Me," recorded when he was a member first in The Spades and then the 13th Floor Elevators during the early '60s in Austin, to some of Erickson's later songs, like "If You Have Ghosts," which heard him exploring some of the outer limits of the human psyche. Each new recording is a stunning modern take on the sound that Roky Erickson gave the world over a half-century of writing, recording and touring. No one has ever equaled those explorations.
This truly is the music of the spheres, as Erickson once sang about his sound, as seen through the eyes and ears of those who are united in their love and respect for a person who dedicated his life to rock & roll. Roky Erickson, through the trials and tribulations of a man both imbued with greatness and haunted by darkness, never quit in his quest to share with others what he heard and saw. As he sang on the 13th Floor Elevators last recording, "May the circle remain unbroken."
The original Rio beach boy returns in style, with a new record of unabashedly feel-good Brazilian party music. Featuring Azymuth bassist Alex Malheiros (responsible for some of Brazil’s all-time funkiest low-end licks), a horn section including Valle’s go-to high-trumpeter Jesse Sadoc, and percussion master Armando Marcal, Sempre has all the masterful composition, exceptional musicality, and forward-thinking ideas you’d expect from the Brazilian titan, and it’s fresher than a fruity caipirinha in the Copacabana sunshine.
Updating Marcos Valle’s seminal boogie-era sound, Sempre spans ecstatic disco, cosmic samba, and late-night jazz-funk, drawing obvious comparisons to some of Valle’s late-seventies and early-eighties output. ‘Estrelar’ (1983), for example, an ode to the joy of exercise, has become one of the biggest Brazilian disco hits of all time. But lyrically the new album is more closely reminiscent of Valle’s progressive early seventies’ releases. Heralding love, tolerance and living in the present, while satirising political corruption, the new release recalls a time in which Valle, together with his brother Paulo Sergio, was writing subtly subversive lyrics in order to bypass the censorship imposed by the military dictatorship, which ruled over Brazil between 1964 and 1985.
The album marries compositional genius with pure pop perfection. From the blistering brass arrangements on up-tempo disco hit ‘Olha Quem ta Chegando’ and the infinitely classy ‘Vou Amanhã Saber’, to the nine-minute synth heavy instrumental funk stepper ‘Odisséia’, which gradually morphs into an interplanetary samba jam, the songs are tightened and given an extra coat of gloss, by London based producer Daniel Maunick (son of Incognito frontman Bluey). More moments of boogie delight come in the form of ‘Minha Roma’ (a musical nod to the famed ‘Estrelar’), and the sunshine anthem title-track ‘Sempre’.
Translating as ‘Ever’, Sempre is a testament to the continual drive for development and reinvention that has defined Marcos Valle’s astounding six-decade career. Ever changing, ever moving forward, he began as one of the second-wave of early bossa nova composers in the sixties, writing the world famous bossa standard ‘Summer Samba (So Nice)’ for his sophomore album ‘Samba 68’. After a brief stint in the States, Valle returned to Brazil, and the early ’70s saw the release of four ground-breaking Valle albums which incorporated progressive rock, psychedelic influences, pop, jazz, soul and cinematic arrangements. These albums would see Valle work alongside a number of hugely influential Brazilian bands, including Milton Nascimento’s backing band Som Imaginaro, the prog-rock band O Terco and jazz funk legends Azymuth. Returning back to the US in ‘75, Valle resided in LA, writing music for the likes of Eumir Deodato, Airto Moreira, Chicago, Sarah Vaughn and Leon Ware, before returning to Brazil once more, where after releasing a handful of hit pop records, he took a hiatus from recording.
Since the mid-nineties, Marcos Valle has been experiencing a renaissance with London based label Far Out Recordings, where his approach to music has remained, as always; decidedly open to new influences, possibilities and technologies. Sempre is Marcos Valle’s fifth album for the label, following 2010’s critically acclaimed Estatica.
Just in time for summer, Sempre is out on Vinyl LP/ CD on 28th June 2019 on Far Out Recordings, and Marcos Valle and band will be touring Europe in May /June (see below for dates).
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After enduring a year like 2020, no one could have possibly expected Al Jourgensen to stay silent on the maelstrom of the past 12 months. As the mastermind behind pioneering industrial outfit Ministry, Jourgensen has spent the last four decades using music as a megaphone to rally listeners to the fight for equal rights, restoring American liberties, exposing exploitation and putting crooked politicians in their rightful place—set to a background of aggressive riffs, searing vocals and manipulated sounds to drive it home.
As Jourgensen watched the chaos that befell the world during the height of a global pandemic and the tensions rising from one of the most important elections in American history, he seized on the opportunity to write, spending quarantine holed up in his self-built home studio—Scheisse Dog Studio— along with engineer Michael Rozon and girlfriend Liz Walton to create Ministry’s latest masterpiece, Moral Hygiene (out October 1 on Nuclear Blast Records). Anchored by last year’s leadoff track “Alert Level”—which asks listeners to internalize the question “How concerned are you?”—the 10 songs on this upcoming 15th studio album cover the breadth of the current dilemmas facing humanity, while ruminating on the sizable impact of COVID-19, the inevitable effects of climate change, consequences of misinformed conspiracies and the stakes in the fight for racial equality. And most importantly doing so with the lens of what we as a society are going to do about it all.
Moral Hygiene comes on the heels of Ministry’s acclaimed 2018 album AmeriKKKant (hailed by Loudwire as Jourgensen’s own “state of the union” address) that was written as a reaction to Donald J. Trump being elected president—though Jourgensen says this new album is more informational and reflective in tone. “With AmeriKKKant I was in shock that Trump won. I didn’t know what to do, but I knew I had to do something. Because I believe if you are a musician or an artist you should be expressing what’s going on around you through your art. It’s going to happen whether you do it consciously or unconsciously. Moral Hygiene however has progressed even further into a cautionary tale of what will happen if we don’t act. There’s less rage, but there’s more reflection and I bring in some guests to help cement that narrative.”
In addition to recruiting long-time cohort Jello Biafra (Jourgensen’s partner in the side project Lard) for the quirky earworm “Sabotage Is Sex,” other guest appearances include guitarist Billy Morrison (Billy Idol/Royal Machines) on a rendition of The Stooges hit “Search & Destroy.”
Another standout track is “Believe Me,” featuring a throwback vocal style from Jourgensen that harkens back to his singing on Twitch and cult classic “(Every Day Is) Halloween.” The song came out of a jam session with Morrison, Cesar Soto and sampling from Liz Walton, and reminded Jourgensen of his formative days at Chicago Trax Studios where communal ideas were constantly informing early Ministry records. “’Believe Me’ had such an old school vibe I wanted to bring back old school vocals. …It’s funny how things come back to you,” says Jourgensen, also reflecting on Ministry turning 40 in 2021.
With the release of Moral Hygiene, Jourgensen is more positive than before. “This may sound crazy but I’m more hopeful about 2021 than I have been in two decades at least,” he says. “Because I do see things changing; people are starting to see through all the bullshit and want to get back to actual decorum in society. We could just treat each other nicely and be treated nicely in return. I never thought Ministry would be in the position of preaching traditional values, but this is the rebellion now.”
The soundtrack for TEKKEN 4 was unconventional for the series and more broadly, breaking new ground in the types of electronic music heard in video games. This double LP features 35 tracks from arcade and console releases by Akitaka Tohyama, Yu Miyake, Satoru Kosaki, Hiroshi Okubo and Keiki Kobayashi (collective credits include Katamari, Ridge Racer and many more.)
TEKKEN 4 features brand new vinyl sleeve artwork by illustrator Samuel Donato aka DXSinfinite. Tracklists have been curated by four-time Guinness World Record-holder, multi-game world champion and all-round fighting game community legend Ryan Hart.
On ‘Phantom Rhythm’, Gong Gong Gong’s raucous debut, the
minimalist Beijing duo created a drummer-less sound that was
more than the sum of its parts, inspired by back-porch blues,
Sahelian guitar music, New York no-wave, Cantonese lion
dance percussion and, seemingly most incongruously, techno.
With ‘Phantom Rhythm Remixed’, Gong Gong Gong bring to life
a concept they’ve planned since the release of their acclaimed
first album, curating their favourite China-connected electronic
music producers to remix ‘Phantom Rhythm’ in its entirety.
The globe-spanning collaboration features Yu Su (Vancouver /
Kaifeng), Zaliva-D, Simon Frank, Howie Lee (Beijing), Mong
Tong, Scattered Purgatory (Taipei), Knopha (Xiamen), Wu
Zhuoling (Chengdu), Angel Wei (Copenhagen) and P.E.
(Brooklyn).
The album traces a common thread, organically expanding the
palette of Gong Gong Gong into ambient club tracks, thumping
dance music, cinematic soundscapes and doomy, bit-crushed
psych.
Gong Gong Gong are the duo of Tom Ng and Joshua Frank.
Formed in 2015 in Beijing, China, they make music from the
sparest of means: one guitar and one bass, interweaving riffs to
create forward-charging, drumerless grooves. Their inspirations
extend from Bo Diddley to African and Southeast Asian folk
music, psychedelic drone and the structures of electronic music.
“A couple of misfits and a brash bouquet of sound” - Pitchfork
“Spare and savage” - The New Yorker
“String-focused, hypnotic, spitfire tracks” - Stereogum
“A rare kind of intimacy you don’t often find with driving,
ramshackle funk” - Loud And Quiet
“Depending on your ear, the Beijing-based guitar-and-bass duo
could sound like The Feelies’ stuttering post-punk, Bo Diddley’s
rock and roll boogie or Tinariwen’s droning desert blues” - NPR
If your brain has a shortlist of bands that instantly evoke New Wave, Suburban Lawns deserve a slot right next to the likes of Devo, Talking Heads and the B-52's. After putting out two singles on their own Suburban Industrial imprint, the Lawns signed to I.R.S. Records and released their debut LP in 1981. While the band gained cult status thanks in part to a Jonathan Demme-produced music video which aired on Saturday Night Live, their self-titled album would sadly be the five-piece's only full-length statement.
Suburban Lawns' asymmetrical aesthetic is personified by co-vocalist Su Tissue, whose mesmerizing stage persona was at once childlike and terrifying. Her unique style embodies the awkward/arty female singer of the Reagan era, while the group's male vocals – courtesy of Frankie Ennui, Vex Billingsgate and John McBurney – maintain the satirical themes of Southern California's postwar mirage of limitless sprawl.
Suburban Lawns' catchiness can be attributed to their drum-tight performance and taut songwriting. Listen to the vocal trade-offs on "Anything," which could have easily come out on any purely Punk label from LA at the time, while Tissue's deadpan delivery on "Janitor" glides into the best art-warble this side of Lene Lovich, broaching the possibility of nuclear annihilation with a murmured "Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom."
From a West Coast scene dominated by 7-inch singles and EPs, the Suburban Lawns' lone LP remains in a class with precious few. It's not surprising that they found acceptance in the Hollywood punk scene, despite their Long Beach roots, and would influence other bands such as Minutemen. This is not a disc that will get parked in your collection hoping to get pulled once in a while; this is a record you will play.
Ltd Edition, Double LP!
After 12 amazing years together, the UK’s most successful folk band
Bellowhead called it a day in 2016 going out in characteristic style with a
sell-out show at the London Palladium.
It took a few years and a global pandemic, but to the delight of their many fans,
the band reassembled for a one-off worldwide concert stream in December
2020, marking the 10th anniversary of their 3rd album ‘Hedonism’.
Hudson Records are excited to release the release of that live session recording
- ‘Reassembled’ - which will be the bands’ first release on double vinyl LP and
will also be available on CD and digital.
The band re-connected online during the lockdown in 2020 and for the sheer
fun of it remotely made and released ‘New York Girls At Home’ - all from their
respective homes around the UK.
This unplanned performance was warmly received and ignited another idea: to
reunite in person for a one-off broadcast performance. ‘Reassembled’ features
a host of favourites, including New York Girls, Roll Alabama, London Town and
Roll the Woodpile Down
Ric Robertson is an American original, pulling influences from the greats
that came before, but wholly responsible for building his own
creative universe.
His new full-length record ‘Carolina Child’ is nothing short of an opus, taking
his wealth of musical proclivities from the mountain music of his home state of
North Carolina, all the way to the jazz and funk of his current homebase in New
Orleans and fueling it into a gonzo vision of Americana that is equally innovative as it is simply beautiful to hear.
As a songwriter, Robertson takes his inspiration from the fragility of our inner
lives and the small moments packed with meaning that surround us. This is
John Prine by way of New Orleans, Harry Nilsson in a Nudie suit, a stoned Dr.
John lost in Nashville, Bill Monroe on mushrooms listening to Bessie Smith. It’s
a riot of juxtapositions and a chaos of imagination anchored by Robertson’s
soft, flowing voice, and his uncanny knack for chronicling our lost lives.
‘Carolina Child’ was produced by Dan Molad of Lucius, and features Jess Wolfeand Holly Laessig from Lucius plus a whole host of Robertson’s friends and
picking partners including Dori Freeman, Oliver Wood (The Wood Brothers),
and Logan Ledger.
Listening to the album’s ten tracks, it’s clear that Robertson one of the best
kept secrets of Americana is poised for a breakout moment with ‘Carolina
Child’. Step into his boundlessly creative multi-verse and you’ll find nothing
short of American songbook excellence.
After two stellar Split EPs with Das Komplex, Brazilian sound wizard ROTCIV delivers his first Solo EP on Luv Shack Records. With 4 intricate original cuts and a Massimiliano Pagliara remix, the Elev8tion EP is a bold testament to modern EBM.
The titular track sets the stage with a firework of dramatic synths, brash elektro beats and a fluttering acid line, finding a perfect balance between dancefloor appeal and leftfield quirkiness.
Italian maestro Massimiliano Pagliara remixes "Elev8tion" in a straightforward fashion, opting for a percussion heavy drummachine pattern, a driving bassline and additional synth melodies, yet incorporating the original 303 to great effect.
On "Unbelievable", ROTCIV lays out a complex carpet of alternating arpeggios, heavily automated synth melodies and an array of weird vocal snippets, atop a minimalistic electronic drum track. "Muquifo", which literally translates to flophouse or dump (or shack?), is a slow burning breakbeat track with eerie strings and tripped out acid melodics, making it a hot contender for future afterhours.
"The Morning After" is a similarly low slung track, with a broken beat and a distinct industrial flair, yet the synth melodies strike a more hopeful chord and have an almost
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In 1979 as a 15-year-old Eddie Piller was perfectly placed to be at the epicentre of the Mod revival. An inquisitive passion
for music, a family connection to Mod royalty The Small Faces, and an attitude that saw him travelling his home city, then
the country and then the world to take in the sounds that were emerging. In the years since, Piller has been a legendary
figure within the music industry setting up and continuing to own the ground-breaking Acid Jazz label, signing multiplatinum artists such as Jamiroquai and The Brand New Heavies collaborating on compilations with Martin Freeman and as
an award winning broadcaster even setting up his own Totally Wired Radio station. In The Mod Revival he looks back at the
movement that set him on his way.
• Mod is a sixties youth movement original built on sharp clothes, American soul music and nights on the town, that has never
really died. The originals added young British groups to their likes and then moved on, but their influence echoed on
through the 1970s in Northern Soul clubs, and in the sixties influenced bands of the pub rock era. When punk arrived, it was
supposed to sweep away the past, but instead the Sex Pistols were covering the Small Faces. The Clash brought in Mod DJ
Guy Stevens to produce London’s Calling, The Buzzcocks sounded closer to the Hollies than The Ramones and in The Jam’s
Paul Weller there was a musical and sartorial nod to the past of The Who, The Beatles and pop art arrows.
• Weller had spent the 1970s becoming obsessed by mod and saw punk as having a similar youthful energy to the era he had
missed by being born a decade too late. For others Weller’s style proved an inspiration, and as the Jam broke through in late
1978, they saw a wave of bands follow in their wake, and they themselves influenced others to form their own groups. But
there were other things. In bleak late 70s Britain the glorious optimism of the 1960s looked bright and shiny, and as it was
only a decade or so in the past, it was easy to pick up original records, clothes and books for pennies, and as you bought
these you met other like-minded souls who did the same. For those a little too young for punk, it was a community of gigs,
scooters, clothes, bands and records, and for many it developed on through.
• Eddie never stopped being a mod and has a unique perspective having now lived through four decades of being intimately
involved in the music that has emerged from the mod scene. In this part two double vinyl edition (Part 1 and its CD
equivalent reached #14 in the UK compilations charts) Ed guides us through some of his favourite music from the scene. He
guides us through a plethora of bands whose influences include The Who, The Kinks and the Jam, to sixties soul and R&B,
those with an eye on psychedelia. The records have a vitality and a certain stylish swagger to them, that marks them out as
mod. In the deluxe booklet, Piller has written a 5000 word note describing what it meant to him and has granted access to
his own scrapbooksfrom his many years of gig-going from which pages and memorabilia are reproduced.
• Eddie Piller’s Mod Revival is a personal appraisal from the founder of The Modcast, on what the mod explosion of the late
70s and 80s means to him…
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
‘Ruminations feels like a direct line into the spirit of Right Now. Oberst reckons with having the fabric of his life ripped apart by a disease of the flesh he couldn’t control or understand. Perhaps that sounds familiar? He paints a startling picture of how surreal life becomes when backlit by illness… these songs are heartrendingly beautiful, filled with the beauty of day-drunkenness and Proustian flights into memory and waking up in the afternoon and realizing that, however imperfect the day is, it’s a day.’
– GQ (2020)
Conor Oberst’s critically acclaimed 2016 solo album, Ruminations, will be released in a double-LP expanded edition – featuring five bonus tracks, four previously unreleased, as well as an etching on side D – on Record Store Day, June 12; it will be made available widely in all formats on July 23. The five bonus tracks were recorded during the Ruminations sessions; while full band versions of them were released on the 2017 companion album Salutations, these solo acoustic recordings are now included for the first time on Ruminations.
Ruminations was recorded in the winter of 2016, when Oberst found himself hibernating in his hometown of Omaha after living in New York City for more than a decade. He emerged with the unexpectedly raw, unadorned album, which NPR called one of his ‘most personal records… a collection of brave, dark songs… unmistakably moving and contain[ing] some of Oberst's best lyrics and imagery.’ The Sunday Times further said it was his ‘rawest album yet. Political and very, very personal’, calling Oberst ‘one of the best songwriters around’, and including the album in its list of best of the year.
“I wasn't expecting to write a record,” said Oberst in 2016. “I honestly wasn’t expecting to do much of anything. Winter in Omaha can have a paralyzing effect on a person but in this case it worked in my favour. I was just staying up late every night playing piano and watching the snow pile up outside the window. Next thing I knew I had burned through all the firewood in the garage and had more than enough songs for a record. I recorded them quick to get them down but then it just felt right to leave them alone.”
In the Nebraska studio he built with his Bright Eyes bandmate and longtime friend Mike Mogis, Oberst recorded all the songs in the span of forty-eight hours. The results are almost sketch-like in their sparseness, and they ultimately became the songs that comprise Ruminations. These tracks do not have the multi-layered instrumentation of the most recent Bright Eyes and solo albums: This is Oberst alone with his guitar, piano, and harmonica; the songs connect with some of the rough magic and anxious poetry that first brought him to the attention of the world.
Having already unearthed three collections of archival ‘70s recordings by Catherine Christer Hennix, Blank Forms continues their annual illumination of the visionary Swedish composer’s music by turning to more recent work with this first-time vinyl edition of Hennix’s “Blues Alif Lam Mim in the Mode of Rag Infinity/Rag Cosmosis,” a 2014 piece first released as a CD in 2016 (Important Records).
The double album captures the April 22, 2014 premiere of Hennix’s composition by by the Chora(s)san Time-Court Mirage, her expanded just intonation ensemble, featuring a brass section of Amir ElSaffar, Paul Schwingenschlögl, Hilary Jeffery, Elena Kakaliagou, and Robin Hayward; live electronics by Stefan Tiedje and Marcus Pal; and voice by Amirtha Kidambi, Imam Ahmet Muhsin Tüzer, and Hennix herself. Intended to reveal the blues’ origins in the eastern musical traditions of raga and makam, “Blues Alif Lam Mim in the Mode of Rag Infinity/Rag Cosmosis” has its roots in Hennix’s 2013 realization of an “Illuminatory Sound Environment,” a concept developed in 1978 by anti-artist Henry Flynt on the basis of Hennix’s own “The Electric Harpsichord.”
As Hennix explains in Other Matters, Blank Forms’ 2019 collection of her writings:
“Rag Infinity/Rag Cosmosis presents fragments of ‘raga-like’ frequency constellations following distinct cycles and permuting their order, creating a simultaneity of ‘multi-universes.’ When two such ‘universes’ come in proximity of each other and begin unfolding simultaneously along distinct cycles, there is a kaleidoscopic exfoliation of frequencies as one universe is becoming two, but not separated—the effect of cosmosis is entrained, binding two or more frequency universes into proximity where their modal properties interact and blend, creating in the process entirely new microtonal constellations in an omnidirectional simultaneous cosmic order with phenomenologically ‘transfinite’ Poincaré cycles (cyclic returns to initial conditions).”
As with Hennix’s best work, the organic unfolding of this quivering drone belies a precision that opens onto the infinitesimal. Upon its mesmerizing ebb and flow, the vocalists incant a devotional poem written in Arabic by Hennix and featuring quotations from the Quran. Also reproduced on the album’s gatefold jacket, Hennix’s reduction of the sacred text to its most elegant formulation invites the contemplator to bring their inner knowledge to the composition for use as a prompt for meditation. Yet the piece offers depth to even the most secular listener willing to immerse themselves in music brimming with such serene intensity.
Catherine Christer Hennix (b. 1948) started her creative life playing drums with her older brother Peter, growing up in Sweden where she heard jazz luminaries, such as John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, Dexter Gordon, Archie Shepp, and Cecil Taylor perform from 1960 to 1967. Directly after high school, Hennix went to work at Stockholm’s pioneering Elektronmusikstudion (EMS), where she developed early tape music, incorporating computer generated speech done at the Royal Technological University (KTH), where she was an undergraduate student. After traveling to New York In 1968, she met artists Dick Higgins and Alison Knowles who invited her to stay at the Something Else Press Town House where she had the opportunity to meet, among others, composers John Cage, James Tenney, and Phil Corner. During the following years she developed fruitful collaborative relationships with many composers in the burgeoning American avant-garde, including, most significantly, Henry Flynt and La Monte Young. Young introduced Hennix to Hindustani raga master Pandit Pran Nath and she would later study intensively under him as his first European disciple. While Hennix continued to make music performing alongside Arthur Russell, Marc Johnson, Henry Flynt, and Arthur Rhames, she also served as a professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at SUNY New Paltz and as a visiting Professor of Logic (at Marvin Minsky’s invitation) at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. In recent years Hennix has led the just-intonation ensemble the Chora(s)san Time-Court Mirage, which has featured musicians Amelia Cuni, Amirtha Kidambi, Chiyoku Szlavnics, Hilary Jeffrey, Amir El-Saffar, Benjamin Duboc and Rozemarie Heggen. She currently resides in Istanbul, Turkey pursuing studies in classical Arabic and Turkish makam.
Lloyd Altamont Thomas Robinson recorded many songs as a singer first for Studio One in 1963 and later for many labels and Jamaican producers including Duke Reid,
Lloyd Daley, Sir JJ and more. Robinson was part of the duo Lloyd and Devon, whom had quite a few good songs under their belt including a hit for Derrick Morgan's Hop label,
"Red Bum Ball.". With Glen Brown, under the name Lloyd & Glen, he wrote and recorded many outstanding Rocksteady & early Reggae tracks, some quite heavily influenced by
Black Soul including the two sublime tracks featured here. He went on to record the big dancehall hit “Cuss Cuss” in 1984 on the Harry J. label.
Glenmore Lloyd Brown, began his career as a vocalist in Sonny Bradshaw’s jazz group before recording duets with Hopeton Lewis, Dave Barker, and Lloyd Robinson.
Later, Brown became the founder and owner of the Reggae/Dub labels Pantomine and South East Music. A sought after producer he worked with many with many
Reggae greats including U Roy, Gregory Isaacs, Big Youth, I-Roy, Prince Jazzbo, Johnny Clarke, Lloyd Parks, and Little Roy.
The heavy rhythms of his Dub productions resulted in his being known as "The rhythm master".
As “Lloyd & Glen”, they composed, sang and recorded together about 15 tracks, ranging from Ska to Rocksteady to Soul on a variety of labels between 1966 and 1968.
Most of these songs are outstanding, many are just sublime with a strong American Soul influence.
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Exclusive vocal c/w instrumental mixes of Betty Lou Landreth’s ‘I Can’t Stop’ on this lead-single for the forthcoming Backatcha re-release of Betty Lou Landreth's in-demand 1979 album, "Betty Lou” (cat# BK037 – to be announced). Expanded to a double album, it features the original studio recordings along with bonus material and alternative takes. The late Betty Lou Landreth had already paid her singing dues long before she walked into Studio A at Detroit’s Superdisc, touring with the USO and performing with R&B and Jazz players on the live circuit.
‘I Can’t Stop’ producers Joel Palmer and Charlie Gabriel recruited some of Motor City’s top fellow musicians for the session, including Gabriel’s longtime friend and housemate, trumpeter Marcus Belgrave, arranger Travis Biggs, drummer J.C. Heard, Motown Funk Brothers’ pianist Joe Hunter and trumpeters Herbie Wilson and John Wilson, keys player Emmanuel Riggins, bassist Hubie Crawford, the Body sisters and many more.
"We just got together to cook up a gumbo. Detroit, New Orleans, funk, jazz, torch, country and some great, great musicians to bring the flavours together."
Joel Palmer, 2021.
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After 15 years of releasing music under the Frank Black pseudonym, Black Francis returned in 2007 with the new album ‘Bluefinger’.
Whilst recording the album, Black was "gripped by the spirit of Herman Brood“ – the fabled Dutch musician and artist. The result is a collection of 11 loud and rowdy songs inspired by Brood including the single ‘Threshold Apprehension’.
Now available on vinyl for the very first time, this reissue features the complete album pressed on 140g marbled blue vinyl.
• Within a year of her ground-breaking Double-Album “Bad Girls”, Donna Summer left Casablanca
Records to become the first Artist signed to the new Geffen Records label.
• Always ready to embrace new sounds and experiment with different musical genres, Donna
Summer’s 1991 album “MISTAKEN IDENTITY”, was released on Atlantic Records and produced by
Keith Diamond, who was brought in to inject a more street style, which was prevalent at that time.
• Keith Diamond had produced highly successful singles and albums for Billy Ocean, Michael Bolton,
Mick Jagger, Sheena Easton, Don Johnson and James Ingram; the latter having been heavily
involved with Donna’s 1982 album ‘Donna Summer’.
• The album includes the singles ‘Work That Magic’ and ‘When Love Cries’, as well as the tracks ‘Cry
Of A Waking Heart’ and ‘Heaven’s Just A Whisper Away’, which showed how her amazing vocals
could make very good contemporary songs sound great.
• This special edition revisits the original album on 180g Yellow Colour vinyl.
Acid Dad is an American alternative-rock band composed of singer-guitarists, Vaughn Hunt and Sean Fahey, and drummer, Trevor Mustoe. Vaughn first started recording the band in his Bushwick, NY basement releasing singles “Brain Body” and their first EP “Let’s Plan a Robbery.” Appearing live in the New York City rock scene in 2016, Acid Dad quickly moved to a world stage with their self-titled debut album, released by Greenway Records in 2018. During 2020, the band spent their time building a new studio space in Queens, NY, while continuing to independently produce all their own music, art and even building their own guitars. With a new space and vision, the band produced their second LP, “Take It From The Dead,” set to be co-released in June 2021 by Brooklyn’s Greenway Records and psych powerhouse LEVITATION’s label, The Reverberation Appreciation Society. “Take It From The Dead” features an array of different influences ranging from 90’s neo-psych, modern post-punk and 70’s rock-n-roll. Acid Dad has crafted a record that sounds new, yet feels nostalgic. In contrast to their earlier work, they make use of slower tempos and expand their sound to include songs that are both more intricate and more hypnotic. To accompany the new record, the band spent the last year collaborating with video artist Webb Hunt, producing psych and glitch art videos that form a visual counterpart to the dreamy distortions of their sound. Take It From The Dead is out June 11th via Greenway Records / The Reverberation Appreciation Society on Deluxe LP & CD.
Old 97s are an American alternative country rock band from Dallas, TX, fronted by lead vocalist and primary songwriter, Rhett Miller. Formed in 1993, they have since released twelve studio albums, two full EPs, and have one live album. Starting out as a popular bar band before being spotted by Bloodshed Records, they are pioneers of the alt-country movement during the mid-to-late 90s. Their Bloodshot debut LP brought them to the attention of Elektra Records, who hoped that alt-country could be a new post-grunge trend.
In 2005, Blender magazine ranked the band’s then most successful single, 1999’s “Murder (Or a Heart Attack),” as the 176th greatest song “since you were born.” Their music has been featured in a number of film and TV series, including The Break Up, Clay Pigeons, Slither, Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide, Ed, Scrubs, Veronica Mars and Scorpion. Old 97s recorded three albums for Elektra, before moving on to New West and ATO Records subsequently.
Their fourth studio album, Fight Songs was recorded at Kingsway in New Orleans and released on April 27, 1999. The album is more-slick and pop-oriented than their previous efforts. For the release of this deluxe worldwide debut on vinyl, ROG had six-time Grammy® award-winning producer and engineer, Vance Powell, remix the 12-track album as the band originally intended; stripping off the slick 1990s-style production and sheen that helped the album get on the radio in 1999. With the assistance from the band we are also able to offer previously unreleased 1998 pre-production demos on a 3rd LP that helps to round out the complete story of this classic 1990’s alternative country record.
The ethereal harmonies of Eve were ever present, but the psychedelic girl group feel of their previous band, Honey Ltd, was replaced with funky grooves and a stoned country rock vibe that permeated Los Angeles in the early 1970s. In the late 1960s, four teenage girls from Detroit hitch-hiked to Los Angeles to follow their dream. Known as the Mama Cats, their combined voices, created a magical instrument, a holy harmonic vehicle built upon the inspiration and improvisation of four close friends. Their ethereal voices and heavenly harmonies sounded like no one. Upon meeting Lee Hazlewood in Los Angeles, he was bowled over, offering them a recording contract on his label, Lee Hazlewood Industries (LHI), renaming them, Honey Ltd. Their sole 1968 LP never saw the light of day. Out of the ashes of the group, the three remaining members continued on under the name Eve. In the spring of 1970, Eve and producer Tom Thacker went into the studio to record "Take It And Smile". The ethereal harmonies were ever present, but the psychedelic girl group feel of the Honey Ltd album were replaced with funky grooves and a stoned country rock vibe that permeated Los Angeles in the early 1970s (Think John Philips "Wolfking Of L.A.). Backed by another amazing group of musicians, the recording sessions included members of the Wrecking Crew, Elvis' TCB band, Ry Cooder, Sneaky Pete and Glenn Frey from the Eagles. Featuring songs by James Taylor, Fred Neil, The Gibb Brothers, Burt Bacharach, Bob Dylan, Mac Davis and a handful of amazing originals including the beautiful "Dusty Roads" and the title track "Take It And Smile," co-written with Glenn Frey. Upon its release, the album failed to find an audience. After recording one last song, "So Tired" for The Vanishing Point soundtrack, the girls went their separate ways, each continuing to sing professionally with artists that include Bob Seger, Neil Young, Tina Turner, Loretta Lynn and countless others. Remastered from the original analog tapes by GRAMMYr-nominated engineer John Baldwin, the reissue is complimented by a new Q&A interview with Eve members Laura Creamer, Temmer Darigan & Joan Glasser and GRAMMYr-nominated reissue producer Hunter Lea. This record is the first release in a new series of full albums reissues from the LHI (Lee Hazlewood Industries Records) catalogue that Munster will be releasing over the next months. All the releases include liner notes and exclusive interviews with the artists, rare photos, and restored original artwork
Countless incredible records were made in Kingston between 1968 and 1971 that has never been able to lose the stigma of being described as 'Skinhead Reggae' but in Jamaica the term never meant anything. However Bunny Lee's Aggro Sound's both at home and away.
They were tougher then tough ,rougher then rough ,kicked like a 'bovver' boot and were sharper then a razor cut trim.
Raw, pure and undiluted every time...some even troubled the UK national charts..
To say the man and his music dominated at the time would be a complete understatement.
'Striker' was everywhere...travelling between Kingston, where he opened his Agro Sounds record shop at 101 Orange Street and London where he set up his Unity label with the Palmer Brothers for the exclusive release of his productions and his Jackpot subsidiaries with both Trojan and Pama records.
Ubiquitous does not start to come into it.
We sincerely hope that this compilation helps to point you in the direction of some of the best music from this often overlooked period from one of the greatest producers EVER!
'The Aggro Man' himself Bunny Lee
Previously only available as an ultra-rare USB drive release, Demon Records presents the first reissue of ‘Live At
The Hotel Utah Saloon’.
Recorded in 2007, the album captures an intimate solo performance by Black Francis at San Francisco’s historic Hotel Utah Saloon venue. Featuring renditions of songs from across the Black Francis / Frank Black catalogue including ‘Headache’, ‘I Heard Ramona Sing’, ‘All My Ghosts’ and ‘Wave Of Mutilation.
This reissue features a brand new remix of the complete show by Jason Carter and is pressed on two 140g red vinyl.
Schmer brought these two together to battle it out for Schmer019: Snazelle vs Loveland : Get this special 6 track maxi EP of pure techno and YOU will be the winner.
Brooklyn based techno producer and Snazzy Fx boss. Much of the hardware Dan uses in his productions and live sets was designed and built by him. His focus as an artist is on electronic music as a vehicle for achieving transcendent states. This comes out in his sets as a respect for both the funky and hypnotic aspects of dance music. As a DJ and live act, Dan has performed throughout Europe and is a regular fixture in NYC.
2018 saw Dan release the "Exposure to a Steady Stream Ep" on Jacktone records. Fact Magazine included the track " Broken Saucers" in their best of September round-up.
In early 2019 Nina Kraviz and Dan released their collaboration "u ludei est pravo"on the trip compilation "Happy New Year! We Wish You Happiness".
In August, Schmer released his newest EP, "Swarm Draze".
Jasen Loveland is a mercurial force about whom little is known with any certainty. Much of Loveland’s life and exploits are shrouded in an opaque and often contradictory mythology that includes many other characters who may or may not be Loveland himself. Born sometime around 1950, Loveland seems to have been operational within the dance music community for decades, allegedly interning for Giorgio Moroder in Munich after finishing a medical degree in the 1970s. It is rumored he was the individual who did the actual synth programming on “I Feel Love”, however this was never confirmed. Documentation of Loveland’s past was further obscured by a “studio fire” while operating out of Chicago in the mid-1990s that destroyed all of Loveland’s memorabilia from the past, except for a handful of lo-resolution, poorly-scanned photographs Loveland (an early user of Hyperreal.org and the #mw.raves listserv) had emailed to a friend. Fortunately, Loveland was able to save his two favorite synthesizers, a battered Roland TB-303 and it’s demented sibbling, the MC-202, but the rest of Loveland’s equipment, and the documentation of his past, was lost in the blaze, leaving Loveland homeless for several months. Regardless of the veracity of his tales, Loveland’s music speaks for itself; the intense, maniacial vibes that pervade the ouvre are undeniably suited for the most far-out, dancefloor head trips, thus making it only a matter of time before he joined the Interdimensional Transmissions family.
Most recently, Loveland has been presenting DJ-style musical performances under the name “Loveland & Friends”, which has become an umbrella term for all projects related to his work, including JL-303, DJ Curtis Chipp, Chip Curtis, MIDI Master, Remote Perception, The Limit, Acid Musik Department, The Gaze, Ace of Fades, East German Chemistry, The Universal Vision, Clonus, Gamma Polaris, R.O.M. and DJ Kline, and Da House Band. Many of these, such as the DJ Kline project (with Prof. Dr. Alice B. Kline, a self-described “unremarkable scientist” and researcher at CERN), seem to be collaborations or ghost productions, although even this is not clear. In fact, the only confirmed Loveland collaborations are LW Productions (with Clay Wilson) and Pervocet (with Patrick Russell), the latter presented as a 12” by Interdimensional Transmissions, Detroit.
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COS might not be the first genre defying progressive music group you’ve heard who share both wordless onomatopoeic vocals and a snappy three letter title (complete with philosophical leanings and alchemic penchants) but on listening to this first ever custom Cos compendium you might have just discovered a new favourite!
Perhaps it’s no coincidence that COS share close spiritual, stylistic or social connections to the aforementioned bands, as one of the few long-withstanding single-syllable ensembles to remain utterly idiosyncratic and incomparable within their hyper-focussed and impenetrable creative bubble. But as a 1970s group that effortlessly MIX head-nod prog, synth-driven jazz, cinematic sound-designs, dislocated disco, arkestral operatics and high-brow conceptual anti-pop grooves, it’s easier to remember the name COS than thumb the vast amount of genre-dividers in your local record shop which COS COULD occupy. With the crème de la crème of Belgian jazz/prog/psych/funk within their ranks, their combined idea-to-ability ratio litters the Cos-ography with concepts that aficionados, future fans, collaborators and critics still haven’t began to unravel.
With their earliest roots in the compact jazz group Brussels Art Quintet the group spent their sapling years creating art-school prog under the name Classroom, this flourishing collective, cultivated by multi-instrumentalist mainstay Daniel Schell, would soon shed its leaves, dropping band-members and typographics reducing its moniker to simply COS (a multi-purpose, globally recognised word, with links to Alchemy and philosophy, with a hard phonetic delivery to suit the groups heavier rhythmic approach). In it’s new skin COS also shed all forms of orthodox language to find its true exclusive voice. Fronted, in the conventional sense, by the daughter of author and part-time jazz player Jean De Trazegnies, the bands wordless singer changed her name to Pascale SON, to accentuate the French word for “sound”. Drawing comparisons with sound poets like Polish jazz legend Urszula Dudziak or Hungarian Katalin Ladik, but retaining the crystalline femininity (and funk) of Flora Purim, while effectively sharing an imaginary lyric book of non-words with Damo Suzuki, Magma or a future Liz Fraser... To use the word “unique” would, by COS academic standards, be lazy journalism.
‘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.
Beautifully presented translucent blue heavyweight vinyl LP, cased in 4 panel printed outer and inner sleeves.
Subexotic Records presents our first project with talented producer Onepointwo. Konstantinos Giazlas (aka Onepointwo) hails from Thessaloniki, Greece, and sites influences from the late 50s electronic experimental sounds, motorik,krautrock, lush shoegaze melodies and modern electronica. Talking about hiscreative outlook, Kostas says: "I continually look to emulate a musical journey into space, time, memories and frequencies". This journey is conducted with the use of minimal electronics, abstract and distorted shortwave radio signals, dystopian soundscapes, all carefully wrung out from criss-crossing digital and analogue sources, fused with a passion for heavyeffects and percussive sounds. Fashioned from a collection of tracks hitherto believed to be lost to a cruel computer malfunction, Synchronization was salvaged from a final reboot. No editing, no tweaking, no second chance - these tracks have reached terminal velocity. Luck is on our side, as what remains reveals a series of intricate yet powerful soundscapes, with finely wrought motifs that repeat and build to create Onepointwo's trademark shimmering psychedelic impact. His previous discography includes Keene (Poeta Negra) / SANS (Lotus RecordShop Editions) and various appearances & remixes on domesticlabel compilations. 2020 brought about 2 album releases on highly regarded cult UK labels Miracle Pond and Woodford Halse, garnering a slew of positive reviews, including warm praise in Electronic Sound Magazine.
Eugene Synegal's early career as a teenager was the guitarist of Sam & The Soul Machine before moving to Los Angeles to join the group Sage and later in the 1970s recording on Lee Dorsey's Night People and The Neville Brothers records.
These previously unreleased recordings were birthed in the early 1970s, sometime during Eugene's trips back and forth between Los Angeles and New Orleans. A couple years after these recordings were immortalized onto 1/4" reel-to-reel tape an unusual crime scene involving Eugene and his girlfriend reads as if it was a chapter taken directly out of a pulp fiction novel. An Australian socialite named Patrica Galea, remained unsolved for 30 years. The robbers took $400, two diamond rings, a $1,400 cigarette lighter and two mink coats. They failed to collect Galea's $6,402 which was hidden in her freezer. This money was sent from Australia and was being used to fund Eugene's album as well as starting a new music publishing company in Hollywood. This was the life of Eugene. Playboy extraordinaire, jet-setter and guitar chops that would turn the head of Hendrix!! Around 2006 the owner of the West Hollywood apartment expressed a desire to learn more about its history and met with detectives who were unable to locate the file since it was buried in the cold cases section. The files were found, the case was reopened, solved and two men were arrested in 2007.
These recently unearthed 1970s recordings by Eugene are a reflection of his pure soul as well as a blend of psychedelia and funk that the band Sage was experimenting with in Los Angeles during that time period.
From a historical sense, these two recordings are significant because it bridges the historical and influential New Orleans music scene during the early 70's with the psychedelic rock and folk scene that was emerging just walking distance from the West Hollywood apartment that Eugene was living in with Galea during that time.
Eugene's unique guitar style paired with a deep-rooted gospel sensibility is a window into the artistry and songwriting capability of this incredibly talented man.
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Oliver Wood is a mainstay of modern-day American roots music. The frontman of the Wood Brothers since 2004, he's spent the 21st century blurring the boundaries between folk, gospel, country-soul, and Americana, earning an international audience and a Grammy Award-nomination along the way. Always Smilin', his debut as a solo artist, continues that tradition while also shining new light on Oliver's sharp songwriting, savvy guitar chops, and a voice that evokes the swagger of a Saturday evening picking party one moment and the solemnity of a Sunday morning gospel service the next. Always Smilin' is an album of bridges, mixing a wide range of collaborations with a uniquely personal touch. Guests include bandmates from Oliver's musical past and present, from mentor and co-writer Chris Long (who performed alongside Oliver in King Johnson, the roots-rock band that dominated Atlanta's music scene around the turn of the millennium) to percussionist Jano Rix (Oliver's partner in The Wood Brothers). Blues heroine Susan Tedeschi, Hiss Golden Messenger's Phil Cook, Medeski Martin & Wood's John Medeski, Tedeschi Trucks Band's Tyler Greenwell, Nashville staple Phil Madeira, and singer/songwriter Carsie Blanton also make appearances, with Rebecca Wood — Oliver's wife — handling the album's handmade linocut cover art. For Oliver, the goal was simple: to collaborate freely with a mix of old friends and new partners, embracing a new level of independence.
“Montreal’s genre-defying post-rock combo BIG|BRAVE could very well be the most noteworthy recent heavy curiosity to come out of the city in recent years.” - NOISEY
“…combines elements of Björk, Neurosis and Sunn O))) into a cohesive whole; but this whole is an ever evolving and challenging sonic mass.
- THE QUIETUS
Minimalism and instinct, structure/freedom and meticulous timing form the cornerstones of their precise, rhythmical sound.
Lyrically, the album explores the weight of race and gender, endurance and navigating other people’s behaviours, observation and protest. The band further comment “this album involves what it means navigating the outside world in a racialized body and what it does to the psyche as a whole while finding individual worth within this reality.”
This time featuring the core trio Robin Wattie, Mathieu Ball and Tasy Hudson, for their most collaborative record they’ve made so far. The band elaborate “having cut our teeth in very different musical backgrounds respectively, our intuitions vary, which has an interesting effect on our individual approaches and ears.”
For this record, BIG | BRAVE once again made the trek down to Rhode Island to record with Seth Manchester at Machines with Magnets. They remark “we fully trust his instinct as an engineer and his creative output, getting to experiment with textures, concepts, layers, and with pretty much every single recorded sound, the process of making records with Seth is an absolute journey and pleasure.”
With the initial seeds planted in 2012, with no other goal than simply experimenting with the instruments in their possession, Robin Wattie and Mathieu Ball started writing subtle ambient/minimalistic folk songs together. When long time friend Louis Alexandre Beauregard joined on drums, the goal still remained to play as tranquil as possible. After an incident where Wattie’s acoustic guitar broke, and having borrowed a friend’s electric as a replacement, larger amps that Ball had in storage from previous bands started to get incorporated to the outfit. Now with amplitude as a compositional tool, BB never lost interest in the power of minimalism and fragility. It became clear that loud volume would become just as effective as the lowest possible ones and the juxtaposition of both would become something BB still uses as their main MO to this day.
After self-releasing Feral Verdure in 2014, the band had the opportunity to open for Thee Silver Mt Zion in Montreal QC. After which, Efrim Manuel Menuck found something meaningful in the members and the band and invited them to open on future shows with Mt Zion and with Godspeed! You Black Emperor.
In 2015, the band entered the studio with Menuck and recorded “Au De La”. With no home for the record, they decided to take a chance in writing to Southern Lord. As luck would have it, Greg Anderson happened upon their email among hundreds and responded. Since then, the band has had a home with Southern Lord Records. (Along with Au De La, Southern Lord has released Ardor in 2017, A Gaze Among Them in 2019 and VITAL in 2021).
After Beauregard’s departure in 2018, the band traveled down to Rhode Island with Loel Campbell on drums to make a first record with Seth Manchester at Machines with Magnets. After the album’s release, with Campbell unable to tour, Tasy Hudson joined the ranks and the band spent most of the year touring their 2019 album “A Gaze Among Them”.
In 2020, the core trio of Ball, Wattie and Hudson once again made the trek down to Machines with Magnets to record their 5th LP “VITAL”.
Since their inception, the band has had many honours and privileges of touring a number of times in North America and Europe with bands such as Sunn O))), MY DISCO, The Body, Thou, Primitive Man and Thee Silver Mt Zion.
Back in print ! Spittle Records present an expanded reissue of Massacre's Killing Time, originally released in 1981. Following the breakup of Cambridge's avant-rock legends, Henry Cow, guitarist Fred Frith moved to NYC in 1979, and soon found himself deep in the heart of the city's robust post-punk and free-jazz scenes. He performed with Bill Laswell and Fred Maher, from the group Material, as a power trio of sorts under the moniker of Massacre. The group quickly garnered a reputation around town, and around the world for that matter, as a heavy and heady band that experimented greatly with rhythm, time signatures, and tone. As Frith himself put it, "the group was a direct response to New York. It was a very aggressive group, kind of my reaction to the whole New York rock club scene." Massacre released one album, Killing Time, before disbanding for nearly 20 years. Their first wave as a group crashed fast and furiously and this one album, recorded in part live in Paris, and in part at Brooklyn's OAO Studio, is a perfect encapsulation of early '80s NYC. In addition to the original album, first released on Celluloid in 1981, this deluxe three-sided double LP includes eight bonus tracks recorded live between '80 and '81 at The Stone in San Francisco, and Inroads and CBGB in NYC. Avant-jazz-post-punk-noise of the highest order from several legends and one of the most important projects Frith and Laswell were ever involved in.
In the Italian panorama of the '70s, Chrisma (Christina Moser and Maurizio Arcieri) skirted the common rules of Italian pop (the aura of progressive rock or the first wave of prolific folk singers); in fact, they created Italian new wave from scratch. After the release of their 1977 debut album Chinese Restaurant (SPITTLE 051LP) -- so far from the punk revolution and so deep into the algid dynamics of the Mittel-European sound -- came Hibernation, their creative peak on which they embrace the revelation of the man-machine and venture into the realms of incomparable robots Kraftwerk. Again the album was produced by Niko Papathanassiou (brother of the Greek legend Vangelis), and it features very sophisticated cover artwork created by famous photographer Mario Convertino. Chrisma, so far ahead of their time, crafted an opus that should be considered at the same emotional level as the most famous synth-pop bands from the UK and Germany. Highlights include "Vetra Platz," a long digital ride worthy of the most famous Kraftwerk singles; "Calling" and "Gott Gott Electron," a primeval couplet of furious post-punk numbers; and the lush "Lover," with Miss Moser still in top form. This reissue includes the original artwork with a silver background. RIYL: T. Rex, Nico, Kraftwerk.
The Spaces Between were formed out of creative studio sessions in the summer of 2020 and comprises of bona fide house legend Terry Farley, electronic music producer Wade Teo and renowned author and co-owner of Club Chi’ll Records, Ian ‘Snowy’ Snowball. The idea for ‘Ghosts’ came from Terry’s idea to reference the Jazz greats who have gone to glory leaving behind their astonishing musical legacies. Within days of emailing a comprehensive list of jazz artists to Chicago House luminary and The It/ Jungle Wonz member, Harry Dennis, an answer with Harry’s sparse, haunting vocals was received. These were laid down over a bed of live instruments and electronic sounds and the combined talents of The Spaces Between created the compelling jacking jazz vibe of ‘Ghosts’.
Snowy ran the track past Jo Wallace at F*CLR Records – it was love at first listen. Jo suggested the track should be part of an EP with remixes from the newly reformed Black Science Orchestra. It was agreed and provided an ideal opportunity for Ashley to work with Terry once again, reinforcing the Junior Boy’s Own heritage.
The first incarnation of Black Science Orchestra began life in 1992 when Ashley Beedle joined forces with Rob Mello and their debut release, ‘Where were you’ exploded onto the global dance scene via the iconic UK house label JBO. Broken in the US by the Godfather of House, Frankie Knuckles, ‘Where were you’ entered into the hallowed halls of immortal dance music. Black Science Orchestra has become one of the most respected deep house acts of the 1990s, with the revered album ‘Walter's Room’ and the legendary genre crossing 'New Jersey Deep' track that is considered one of the top dance tracks of all time and rarely leaves discerning DJs' record boxes. Fast forward 29 years and original BSO founding fathers, Ashley and Rob decided that both they and the world needed the sound of Black Science Orchestra again and decided to reform, inviting long time musical and studio accomplice Darren Morris to join the collective now in its 6th incarnation!
When presented with the original version of ‘Ghosts’, Rob, Ashley and Darren loved it and all heard various ways it could be reworked in a true Black Science Orchestra way. Donning their pandemic production hats and remotely getting their feet back under the studio desk again, they worked together to create distinctly different remixes ranging from the deep, spacy electronic to the tough and psychedelic sleazy funk. With original BSO productions included on this EP, 'Ghosts' has helped square off the circle and the Black Science Orchestra conductors are back and mean dance floor business!
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The first release from Toronto’s newest and most exciting Record Label, EastSide Edits! Limited run pressing of hand-stamped white labels, exclusive to release 001. Blessed by some of the top DJ’s in the world, this is sure to sell out fast! Donuts for the 45 slingers, and donuts for the House DJ’s, EastSide Edits brings a unique twist to the 45’s world by catering to both markets on each release. Carefully selected familiar Edits that work well in both environments is the name of their game! This first release has gained a lot of attention, with the test pressings being championed by some of the top turntable legends in the game. DJ Koco’s recent doubles routine and feature play of the B-side to this record has his massive following asking where to find it.
Side A is brought to you by the young wonder from New York, Pinto NYC. Pinto has been making quite the name for himself, signing music to some stellar House labels across the world, including the legendary Nervous Records, Glasgow Underground, and Simma Black. His upbeat and funky edit of “Rock with you” brings familiarity and energy sure to light the dance floor on fire! Creative sampling and pumping drums are his signature sound. This one hooks the listener early and smashes it home!
Side B is brought to you by the incredibly talented Toronto Disco duo, LeBaron James. LeBaron James are at the top of their game, pumping out high quality Disco Edits to a whole host of successful labels. Home base for them has been the incredibly successful Spacedisco label, run by Juno award winning Toronto artist, Hatiras. Their super catchy Disco edit of “Never gonna give my love again” will have you singing at the top of your lungs, feeling like you’re front and center at Studio 54! The vibe gets pushed even further into overdrive with the onset of a smooth and sexy sax solo that carries through the tail end of the record. This one has already proven to catch the ears of some major players across the globe! Don’t sleep on this white label. House DJ’s have responded overwhelmingly, and after watching DJ Koco’s Instagram routine we are confident that every 45 slinger in the UK will be digging for doubles on this one!
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Tape Crackers: An Oral History Of Jungle Pirate Radio. Rollo Jackson is a London-based filmmaker who grew up immersed in the city's dance music culture of the mid-90's. His films, whether for the likes of Hot Chip, Man Like Me, or Warp Records bare the traits of someone whose formative years were spent clad in the brash hues of a Versace print shirt and the bright white of a fresh pair of Reeboks. Whatever his subject, the spirit of too many late nights spent doing homework to the crackling sounds of pirate radio, or of weekends spent in booming, sweaty warehouses on the outskirts of London is always threaded throughout. Rollo presents a documentary DVD entitled Tape Crackers, an oral history of Jungle music and an affectionate, touching, and, at times, incredibly funny, tale of bedroom obsessiveness. Told through Michael Finch's tape collection which he recorded while growing up in Islington, North London, it's also an untold (or more accurately unheard) history of UK underground music of the last 10 years - Jungle, Garage and Grime are all knitted into the story through the MCs and DJs who manned the decks and mics. Movers of the underground today such as Riko Dan and B Live are on some of the tapes played in the film. The D90s might be dusty but this music still sounds ultra-crisp. Warning, may contain: late days of Dream FM, middle days of Kool FM/MC Ruff and DJ Uproar on Dream FM/MC Fize and DJ Swiftly/Riko Dan on Pressure FM/Evil B on Rude FM/DJ Target and Maxwell D on Rinse FM/DJ Brockie, MC Five-O and MC Moose on Kool FM in 1993/DJ SL with Strings, Koji and Flinty Badman (Ragga Twins) + Demon Rockers.
Grup Ses presents Program #03: A Mixtape of Rare & Unreleased Beats
İstanbul based producer Grup Ses returns with the final episode of 'Program' trilogy for Sucata Tapes. Program #03 focuses on productions of Grup Ses between 2008 and 2021.
Grup Ses project dates back to 2007 which at the time focused on v/vm style edits and breakcore infused mash ups. Starting from 2008 Grup Ses started to build a version of Stones Throw & Brainfeeder influenced beatmaking mixed with a touch of humour. A blend including all kinds of local recorded material like records, tapes, radio broadcasts etc., which became the building blocks of signature Grup Ses sound.
This hour long mixtape showcases styles Grup Ses visited last 10+ years. Enjoy!
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Andrés Vargas Pinedo is a prominent composer of Amazonian popular music from Peru. He is blind and has excelled as a player of the quena and the violin. He was born in the city of Yurimaguas but he developed as an artist in Lima, for thirty years he has worked as a traveling musician on a street in the San Isidro district of Lima. Throughout his career, he has formed and joined various popular music groups. This compilation presents fifteen songs of his authorship, belonging to his first two groups: Conjunto típico Corazón de la Selva and Los Pihuichos de la selva, active between 1965 and 1974, and which helped define the sound of Amazonian popular music.
These years saw the emergence of an Amazonian popular music movement led by Vargas Pinedo as well as groups such as Los Solteritos, Flor del Oriente or Selva Alegre. These artists based their music on the rhythms of the Amazonian folklore (pandilla, sitaracuy, movido, cajada, chimayche) and were nourished by influences from the coast and the highlands of Peru, as well as by the tropical rhythms of Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador, achieving a musical synthesis that is an invitation to collective celebration and endless dance. A sound that is defined by a constant and hypnotic rhythmic base of kick and snare drums, upon which the quena and violin develop imaginative melodic lines. Sometimes there is a singing voice, sometimes the voices playfully appear as sounds that identify Amazonian popular speech or that emulate jungle animals.
The fifteen tracks gathered in 'El fabuloso sonido de Andrés Vargas Pinedo: Una colección de música popular amazónica' (1966-1974) / 'The fabulous sound of Andrés Vargas Pinedo: A collection of Amazonian popular music' (1966-1974) are a good introduction to the work of an essential creator of Peruvian music, whose sound expresses the spirit of the Amazonian people and summarizes the transition from tradition to the popular in the context of the emergence of a record industry of Amazonian music. Andrés Vargas constitutes a fundamental basis for the music of the Amazon, as his work synthesizes diverse influences, having that original root as its main motive.
This compilation is presented in vinyl format and includes a brochure with extensive information and photos. The audio has been remastered directly from the original tapes. Edition of 300 copies. Art by Jordy García (Blumoo Posters).
Psychedelic Percussion definitely sticks to his title. With the help from Paul Beaver of Beaver & Krause (famous keyboard wizard and sound engineer for the likes of Stevie Wonder), vibe master Emil Richards (check is two fantastic album on Impulse! with The Microtonal Blues Band featuring Joe Porcaro, father of the famed Toto brothers) and Gary Coleman (percussionist in the famous Wrecking Crew), Blaine goes wild in the studio with drums, gong, xylophone, organ, bongos, congas and timpani. Unusual textures and tones lead the way to 12 instrumental exotic numbers similar in a way to Raymond Scott most visionary experiments. This is pure madness, a record full of breaks and still unsurpassed in many ways. Blaine was an American drummer and session musician, estimated to be among the most recorded studio drummers in the history of the music industry, claiming over 35,000 sessions and 6,000 singles. His drumming is featured on 150 US top 10 hits, 40 of which went to number one, as well as many film and television soundtracks. He became one of the regular players in Phil Spector's de facto house band, which Blaine nicknamed "the Wrecking Crew". Some of the records Blaine played on include the Ronettes' single "Be My Baby" (1963), which contained a drum beat that became widely imitated, as well as works by popular artists such as Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, the Beach Boys, Simon & Garfunkel, the Carpenters, Neil Diamond and the Byrds.
Re-mastering by: Ray Staff at Air Mastering, Lyndhurst Hall, London
Morgan was one of the most active artists in the Los Angeles underground jazz scene, and a member of the late great Horace Tapscott‘s artist collective Union of God’s Musicians and Artists Ascension (UGMAA). He performed alongside Tapscott, and other Nimbus recording artists like Jesse Sharps, who he introduced to Tapscott. He also performed with Arthur Blythe, Gary Bartz, Azar Lawrence, as well as soul icons Willie Hutch (notably on the Foxy Brown soundtrack) and Rufus & Chaka Khan. Most recently he contributed to Carlos Niño’s 2016 album Flutes, Echoes, It’s All Happening!, and was a part of Niño and vocalist Dwight Trible’s soul-jazz group Build An Ark (which also featured Tribe’s Phil Ranelin).
Journey Into Nigritia was Morgan’s debut as a leader, and the first of three recordings he released for Nimbus West. The album has a strong post-Coltrane spiritual feel, with some modal-based melodies, and some fiery solos from saxophonist Dadisi Komolafe. The record also features a solid rhythm section featuring bassist Jeff Littleton and drummer Fritz Wise.
Review by T J Gorton
At the dawn of the Reagan years, LA jazz pianist Nate Morgan recorded his first album for Nimbus West. Journey Into Nigritia portrays an artist marked by the icons of his day, and striving for reinvention. Although he came from a solid jazz background, coming up through the Pan Afrikan People's Arkestra, Morgan found more exciting work with pop bands in the seventies, including glory years with Rufus w/Chaka Khan. On Journey into Nigritia, Morgan re-embraces jazz. Included in the band are Jeff Littleton on bass, Fritz Wise on drums, and Dadisi Komolafe on alto sax.
The collection opens with the Trane-ish Mrafu. Komolafe blasts off in short order, and while the modal chording recalls Tyner, Morgan shows flashes of the nimble loquacious gift that define him. While Alice Coltrane incense perfumes "Morning Prayer, Morgan's devotional sincerity and personnel expression triumph.
Suitably complex with yearning minors, Mother features the trio performing a memorable composition. Littleton's deep-note sustain contrasts Wise's shimmering cymbals, while Morgan tells heart-wrenching truth. With a somewhat solemn theme, He Left Us a Song regularly bursts through into straight-ahead fast break sprints up and down the court. The unexpected "Study in C.T. offers an homage to Cecil Taylor and Morgan's musical roots with free improvisations on a dense and spiky theme. The exhilarating result has Morgan exploring his own way, with a winking slinging of jagged bass chords halfway through.
While a quarter century's experience has nurtured Morgan's prodigious gifts beyond this ambitious debut, Journey Into Nigritia offers enjoyable insights into his artistic evolution, while adding another precious title to the discography of one of the most woefully under-recorded greats of our time.