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"For the first time, A Rush of Blood to the Head by Coldplay will be manufactured on EcoRecord. EcoRecord sounds and looks as great as a traditional vinyl record, but it’s been manufactured using 100% recyclable PET, instead of PVC. EcoRecords are also produced using injection moulding technology, with energy savings of up to 85% compared to the traditional vinyl process.
A Rush of Blood to the Head includes the singles In My Place, Clocks, The Scientist and God Put a Smile Upon Your Face. Produced by Coldplay and Ken Nelson, the album earned the band three Grammy Awards, including Best Alternative Album and Record of the Year (for Clocks)."

UEVPD - Usage/Efficiency/Variance/Platform/Domain - is the solo project of Dominic Goodman, a former member of Mosquitoes and currently one half of Komare.

The self-titled UEVPD debut LP, released on 22nd November via World of Echo, consists of eight sequentially numbered electro-acoustic tracks made over approximately five years, living recordings that have morphed in shape over time, each systematically stripped back to their elemental form before being deemed complete. From the outset, Goodman purposefully deployed a relatively limited array of equipment and adopted a determinedly minimalist approach to composition, a practice in restraint that privileges detail and nuance. Field recordings, made using a combination of dynamic, condenser, contact and electret microphones, geophones and hydrophones, were allied to a basic modular/analogue synth setup, allowing for little in the way of excess or indulgence.

The results are markedly defiant, displaying an expert exercise in control and restraint that lets in little light but plays a great service to space and time. This is patient, claustrophobic sound design that bears out the value in attentive listening, a meditation on the acceptance of passing time, change, growth, death and regeneration. As such, listeners might connect associative lines with the likes of Pan Sonic and Mika Vianio’s solo work, Emptyset and Civilistjavel (who’s Tomas Bodén shows up on mastering duties here), though this remains distinctively Goodman’s vision, a continuation of his interests shown in Mosquitoes and Komare that further pushes out into the murky unknown.

Before we pack away the poppers for another year, let Red Laser take you for one last spin on the waltzers.
Tried and tested at our recent road block parties in Manchester, these edits shine a light on four primo-grade Italo face melters. Fervently excavated by Bosco over countless visits to Bel Paese and streamlined for the hydrofoil, with some extra added calories for the club.

Opener 'Destiny' tweaks and shudders under analogue arpeggios, dazzling Strat chops and cosmic bass interplay before dropping into a simply glorious female vocal that, thankfully, gets plenty of airtime before Bosco calls close. A track so close to perfection we had to make it longer.
'Flavio', up next - and half sung in Italian so we only know a bit of what she's on about - is another supreme slice of Italo disco from the upper echelons that Bosco snaffled between glugs of Barolo and a face full of worm cheese. Sure to instigate group hugs, 4AM declarations of love, tears of happiness and huge pelvic thrusts dependant on environment and inebriation.

The tingles continue on side B with another supernova burning bright across the stars. 'Newsin' introduces itself with a joyous marriage of marimba and synth before yet another vocal proves Italians really do, do it better when it comes to writing some of the catchiest hooks and choruses in the universe.
'Lace', featuring the record's only male vocal appearance, has a romantic, proto-goth-new-wave vibe; like if Robert Smith and Richard Butler had a chem-sex love child after a wild night in Baia Degli Angeli.

Not sure who the woman in lace is, but we'd defo like to see her down The White Hotel one night...

Reissue of the debut full-length album by the leader of the Ukrainian band Edenian, Max Molodtsov, offers a 50-minutes long journey to the world of gloomy and hasteless, but atmospheric doom-death, where brutal elements are contrasted by melancholic interludes.The lyrics of the "Of Ruins..." album are based on the classical English poetry from the 19th century and the original author's verses. Mixed and mastered at Slow Burn Studio (When Nothing Remains, Crypt Of Silence).

"‘One of the most exciting composers alive.’ – Daily Telegraph

Nonesuch will release the original score for Ken Burns’s new two-part documentary, LEONARDO da VINCI, with new compositions by Caroline Shaw; the documentary airs on November 18 and 19 on PBS. The album features performances by the composer’s longtime collaborators Attacca Quartet, Sō Percussion, and Roomful of Teeth as well as John Patitucci. Shaw wrote and recorded new music for LEONARDO da VINCI, marking the first time a Ken Burns film has featured an entirely original score.

In celebration of LEONARDO da VINCI, New York City’s historic venue The Town Hall presents an evening of performances from Shaw’s score by Attacca Quartet, Sō Percussion, and Roomful of Teeth on October 29. The filmmakers will also preview excerpts from the four-hour film..

LEONARDO da VINCI is directed by Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon. The film, which explores the life and work of the fifteenth century polymath Leonardo da Vinci, is Burns’s first non-American subject. It also marks a significant change in the team’s filmmaking style, which includes using split screens with images, video, and sound from different periods to further contextualize Leonardo’s art and scientific explorations. LEONARDO da VINCI looks at how the artist influenced and inspired future generations, and it finds in his soaring imagination and profound intellect the foundation for a conversation we are still having today: what is our relationship with nature and what does it mean to be human?

“No single person can speak to our collective effort to understand the world and ourselves,” said Ken Burns. “But Leonardo had a unique genius for inquiry, aided by his extraordinary skills as an artist and scientist, that helps us better understand the natural world that we are part of and to appreciate more fully what it means to be alive and human.”

“To help give depth and dimension to Leonardo’s inner life, and to carry our viewers on his personal journey, we enlisted the composer Caroline Shaw,” McMahon says in the album’s liner note. “Caroline’s existing body of music—joyful, daring, at times transcendent, and wholly unique—seemed to speak directly to Leonardo, a seeking soul who, 500 years after his death, can come across as strikingly modern. A fully original score, we believed, would add crucial connective tissue to areas where the record of Leonardo’s life is thin and it’s possible to briefly lose his trail. The music Caroline created is dynamic, enthralling and filled with wonder.

“This soundtrack is a testament to the inspired efforts of Jennifer Dunnington, who marshaled it into being, the brilliant musicians and vocalists who, with the help of Alex Venguer, Neal Shaw, Colton Dodd and Tim Marchiafava, made it soar, and most of all Caroline Shaw, who might be Leonardo’s soulmate from across time,” he continues. “With her help, the Leonardo who emerges is no wizard shrouded in mystery, but a prideful, obsessive, at times lonely or flustered, occasionally ecstatic, and, in the end, content man who is in ways both modern and thoroughly of his time.”

“As we set out to explore Leonardo’s life, we realized that while he was very much a man of his time, he was also interested in something more universal,” said Sarah Burns. “Leonardo was uniquely focused on finding connections throughout nature, something that strikes us as very modern today, but which of course has a long history.”

Caroline Shaw is a musician who moves among roles, genres, and mediums, trying to imagine a world of sound that has never been heard before but has always existed. She is the recipient of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Music, several Grammy awards, an honorary doctorate from Yale, and a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. She has worked with a range of artists including Rosalía, Renée Fleming, and Yo-Yo Ma, and she has contributed music to films and TV series including Fleishman Is in Trouble, Bombshell, Yellowjackets, Maid, Dark, and Beyoncé’s Homecoming. In addition to three albums with Sō Percussion, Narrow Sea, Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part, and Rectangles and Circumstance, Nonesuch has released her two Grammy-winning albums Orange and Evergreen, both of which feature Attacca Quartet. “Two-Step” and “Ghost,” Shaw’s songs with Ringdown, her duo with Danni Lee Parpan, are available now on Nonesuch. Caroline Shaw is Wigmore Hall’s 2024-25 Composer in Residence."

Brilliant Hard En Geslepen is a one-off project by hip-hop group Osdorp Posse and metal band Nembrionic.

The groups sometimes played together during live performances in the past, but this usually degenerated into complete chaos. After recording two songs as an experiment, the idea arose to record a complete album. The result is a unique combination of metal and Dutch hiphop. Brilliant Hard En Geslepen is now available on vinyl for the first time!

Brilliant Hard En Geslepen is a one-off project by hip-hop group Osdorp Posse and metal band Nembrionic.

The groups sometimes played together during live performances in the past, but this usually degenerated into complete chaos. After recording two songs as an experiment, the idea arose to record a complete album. The result is a unique combination of metal and Dutch hiphop. Brilliant Hard En Geslepen is now available on vinyl for the first time!

It's only been 41 years since their inception but Donald D and Brother B, collectively known as The B Boys, have finally put together their debut album: We Get Down! The result is old school like it never left; pure emceeing with rock hard beats.

If you're having a backyard BBQ or just cruising around and you want some nostalgic Hiphop, The B Boys have exactly what you need!

LP im Klappcover mit bedruckter Innenhülle. Nach zwei Jahren ist Coyote Butterfly das erste Album mit neuen Songs von Simon Joyner, dem Singer-Songwriter aus Omaha, NE. Zwei Jahre, nachdem sein Sohn Owen im August 2022 an einer Überdosis gestorben war. Das bekenntnissreiche Album ist zunächst eine Hommage an Owen, aber was Joyner hier ebenso großzügig wie berührend teilt, ist ein intimer Einblick in den Versuch, Unfassbares zu begreifen. "Wie geht es jetzt weiter?" Diese Frage hat Simon Joyner auf nahezu all seinen Alben als Ausgangspunkt seiner Songs versucht zu beantworten. Er schrieb über das menschliche Dilemma im Allgemeinen. Um schwierige Wahrheiten zu erzählen nutze er die Fiktion seiner Charaktere, die sich durch persönliche Krisen in einer unzureichenden amerikanischen Gesellschaft kämpfen. Etwas durchgängig düsteres lag über den Erzählungen, die im Wesen allerdings nie nihilistisch waren. Das Brüchige, das auch Stilmittel seiner Musik, vor allem seiner Stimme ist, war etwas, das es anzunehmen und auszuhalten galt. Um die Eingangsfrage zu beantworten, um im Leben zu Bestehen, um zu überleben, müssen wir wissen, wo wir stehen. Auf seinem neuen Album Coyote Butterfly fehlt erstmals dieser fiktive Charakter. Es ist sicher sein persönlichtes Werk. Dennoch bietet es einen universellen Aspekt und die Antwort auf Frage, wie es weiter geht, ist diesmal die Platte und der Prozess des Songwritings und der Aufnahmen selbst. Coyote Butterfly wurzelt im Schmerz des Vaters Simon Joyner über den Tod des Sohnes, der sich überraschend kurz nach Veröffentlichung seines 2022er Albums "Songs From A Stolen Guitar" ereignete. Zwei Jahre hat es gedauert, bis sich seine Trauer zu Liedern formen konnte. Joyner fand so ein Ventil für seinen Schmerz und einen Kanal, um die unzähligen Emotionen zu verarbeiten, die seine Erfahrung umkreisen. Umgeben von einer Reihe enger Freunde, darunter David Nance, James Schroeder, Kevin Donahue, Ben Brodin und Michael Krassner, ist das Album sparsam, aber nicht karg. Eingerahmt wird es von zwei field recording-artigen Instrumentals. Dazwischen setzt sich Joyner in acht Songs mit Trauer, Angst, Scham und Liebe auseinander, legt die Kämpfe derjenigen offen, die im Kielwasser einer persönlichen Katastrophe zurück bleiben. Mit einem Album von solcher Intimität erinnert uns Joyner daran, wie wichtig es ist, Kunst zu nutzen, um das zutiefst Persönliche, auch vermeintlich Unfassbare in Schönheit umzuwandeln. Der Hörer ist eingeladen, sich mit ihm in solch eine Situation zu denken und das eigene Herz zu öffnen. Coyote Butterfly ist eine ehrliche, somit wunderschöne Beschwörung der Trauer eines Vaters, aber auch ein universelles Zeugnis für die Liebe und für das Leben, das nach einem Verlust weitergeht.

Black vinyl 180g made only in 100 numbered copies.

This record is different. It is different from what might be expected of Jan Emil Mlynarski by those who know him, from sold-out shows and platinum albums of his bands – Jazz Band Młynarski – Masecki and Warsaw Dance Combo, as an old-timer, curator and reenactor of pre-World War II Warsaw's plush dancehalls and backyards folklore. Quite likely they may not recognize him until the last song, when he removes his shaman mask and bows down: Yeah, that's really me, folks, your good ol' Jan Emil, the entertainer. They might not have even known that he ever played drums because in his flagship bands, clad in a white tux in the former or in a Peaky Blinder hat in the latter, he sings and plays mandolin banjo. In fact, Młynarski has been a drummer for a lot longer than a singer. He stands clear of the jazz mainstream but is active on the progressive scene. A record he contributed to, trumpeter Tomasz Dąbrowski's 2022 release The Individual Beings, was recognized by Downbeat magazine as "excellent" and awarded the highest rating of five stars.

However, this is the first instrumental record to bear his name. As an album by a drummer, it stands out from other records, especially as it features drums as the principal content rather than the performance by a band with a drummer as the leader. It's all about drums, there is neither an articulate melody – because the melodies that are there are only micro-linesencased in ostinato modules – nor is harmony as an intentional chord progression – because whatever harmony-wise there is, is rather a product of the counterpoint of overlapping voices. All sounds other than the drums make only a riverbed through which runs a raging stream of rhythms. And indeed, this record took off just with this stream. At first all the drums were recorded live onto an analog tape, all at once, without overdubs or editing. After that, synthesizer riffs were added, and the record was ultimately assembled on tape without the use of computers or complex postproduction, which sets it apart from most releases today.

Młynarski the drummer acknowledges that he follows the trail beaten by Art Blakey, Max Roach, Roy Haynes, and Billy Higgins, but he walks it in his own strides. He treats the jazz drumming with specific reversed engineering by decompiling the jazz drum kit originally compiled by the pioneer jazz drummers from an array of instruments that had made their way from a jungle to New Orleans, first to Congo Square and then to street brass bands.

This takes him back to the jungle, his drums don't sound like jazz drums, the snare is rare, and the hi-hat and ride aren't there at all. Instead, there are drums and bells from Nigeria, Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Côte d'Ivoire. He doesn't sound like a jazz drummer either, but like a gang of drummers, each playing their own rhythm, and it's hard to believe that all this is the work of one man.

Not only his drumware comes from the jungle, but also the software – his approach to rhythm and time. Its essence is polyrhythm and ostinato. The polyrhythmic matters were unveiled to Młynarski and Piotr Zabrodzki, his creative partner in many projects and co-composer/producer of this album, by the legendary eccentric veteran-drummer Władysław Jagiełło, who introduced them, aged thirteen, to his concept and practice of "17 Latino rhythms at once". Ostinato, an obstinate repetition of a phrase or rhythm, "arrests" time, turning its linear course into cyclical in-place rotations. This is specific not only to African music but also to cultural music of other regions and differs from Western artistic music in that it does not "run" to fulfil an aesthetic intention but "stays" to provide the framework for recurrent routines of communal proceedings.

So, this record is different. And, if you are different too, this is the record for you.

»Nuts of Ay«, the thirteenth album by the Berlin-based electronic pop duo Tarwater (Ronald Lippok and Bernd Jestram), is their first in a decade, since 2014’s »Adrift«. Beautifully poised and smartly dressed, it's an album that draws Tarwater’s various pasts into a high-definition present, while bringing the duo, yet again, into productive dialogue with all kinds of fellow travellers.

Tarwater’s music has always been marked by a hypnotic pop-ness, but that’s particularly evident on »Nuts of Ay«, where a song like »Hideous Kiss« weaves together jangling guitar, pastoral flute, and flittering electronics into a gem-like construction. While the lyrics of »Hideous Kiss« are written by the duo, »Nuts of Ay« also continues a longstanding Tarwater tradition of recasting the words of others in their own mould. This time, their remit is broad: poetry from Derek Jarman (»All Nuns«) and Millner Place (»Trapdoor Spider«); lyrics from Jean Kenbrovin (»I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles«), the late Shane MacGowan (»USA«) and, again, John Lennon (»Everybody Had a Hard Year«).

This cast of found and borrowed lyricists also finds collaborative echo in the guest musicians dotted throughout »Nuts of Ay«. Schneider TM turns up on the lovely, Felt-like »Spirit of Flux«, where guitars channel the tangled reveries of Vini Reilly and Maurice Deebank into lush pop. Carsten Nicolai joins, as Alva Noto, dappling »On Waves and Years« with intimate glitching textures; he also provides the album cover art. Elsewhere, Masha Qrella appears on »Down Comes the Goose«, and actor Lars Rudolph pitches in for »USA«.

It may have been ten years since the album's predecessor, but Lippok and Jestram have kept active with other projects. They’ve collaborated with Masha Qrella, Immersion, and Iggy Pop; worked on radio plays with Kai Grehn, some based on the writing of Nick Cave (»The Sick Bag Song«, featuring Tilda Swinton, Paula Beer and Alexander Fehling) and William S. Burroughs (»The Cat Inside«); and made music for several radio-tatorts (radio plays based on »Tatort«, a long-running German police TV series) by playwright Tom Peuckert.

Both voracious and committed in their creative energies, Jestram and Lippok report back from these experiments with »Nuts of Ay«, one of their most compelling, deeply lustrous, dreamlike albums yet. They say there was no concept for the album, which is surprising, perhaps, given its holistic mood, explaining it »grew together like a coral reef in the studio over a period of several years«. There’s something to be said for letting an album gather and mutate naturally, without an overarching framework in place, and »Nuts of Ay« certainly feels like an unforced collection of material that nonetheless inhabits a similar space, one where guitars twist like driftwood next to amorphous, aqueous electronics, Lippok’s droll yet completely convincing vocal delivery riding songs that pulse and plume with curious, unpredictable rhythms.

But you can also hear elements – submerged but still present – of other music that’s inspired the duo: they’ve drawn some connections for us with psychedelic folk, Bowie in Berlin, Burial, and the film music of Popol Vuh and Krzysztof Komeda. This music shares a strong sense of place – whether in the world, or the mind – and the twelve songs on »Nuts of Ay« have such similar presence; a shared mood, a shared world, a shared sense of the possibilities of what electronic pop music could, and should, be. A bold and brave pop experiment.

Artwork by Carsten Nicolai
Mastering by Bo Kondren, Calyx Berlin

»Trapdoor Spider«, »On Waves and Years« & »Breaking Day«: lyrics by Milner Place
»All Nuns«: lyrics by Derek Jarman
»USA«: lyrics by Shane MacGowan
»Down Comes the Goose«: lyrics from a traditional song
»Forever Blowing Bubbles«: lyrics by Jaan Kenbrovin
»Everybody Had a Hard Year«: lyrics by John Lennon

"Exhibit B: The Human Condition". It's really, really sick. It's really different from the last one and it's really different from the two before. But it's 100 percent EXODUS. Out of the last three, this one is faster, but it's also a little more melodic, and it's also a little bit more old school. Some of Rob's vocal patterns are just so old school; it's killer. The production is a little more, let's say, less sterile. Not less sterile, but less digital perfection, more organic. It's really, really lively. There is by far more melody on it as well. Thematically, it's a little different. The last one centered a lot on religion and this one is, as the title says, about the human condition; cruelty, ignorance, and inhumanity and brutality. Just the things that man has shown to be so adept at doing.” "Our goal in EXODUS is just basically to defy time, to defy age, to have every album just get more furious and more angry and more intense. A lot of people will ask me things like, 'EXODUS is achieving a lot of popularity again, do you think it's due to thrash metal coming back?`and I say, 'No. I think thrash metal's coming back because of EXODUS.'" The goal now, he says, is to remain "the most dangerous animal in the jungle." "We wanted to portray the violence of man at its finest, so we started with our own version of the Leonardo da Vinci sketch of Vitruvian Man, but done the ‘EXODUS’ way! I was pointed in the direction of Colin Larks of Rainsong Design for the cover and he killed it! To me, the artwork represents man and his affinity for bloodshed, ignorance, and all-around ability to be led like sheep to the slaughter. The image fits the songs on this record perfectly. The whole layout is going to be as sick as the record itself!" GARY HOLT, Exodus

"Exhibit B: The Human Condition". It's really, really sick. It's really different from the last one and it's really different from the two before. But it's 100 percent EXODUS. Out of the last three, this one is faster, but it's also a little more melodic, and it's also a little bit more old school. Some of Rob's vocal patterns are just so old school; it's killer. The production is a little more, let's say, less sterile. Not less sterile, but less digital perfection, more organic. It's really, really lively. There is by far more melody on it as well. Thematically, it's a little different. The last one centered a lot on religion and this one is, as the title says, about the human condition; cruelty, ignorance, and inhumanity and brutality. Just the things that man has shown to be so adept at doing.” "Our goal in EXODUS is just basically to defy time, to defy age, to have every album just get more furious and more angry and more intense. A lot of people will ask me things like, 'EXODUS is achieving a lot of popularity again, do you think it's due to thrash metal coming back?`and I say, 'No. I think thrash metal's coming back because of EXODUS.'" The goal now, he says, is to remain "the most dangerous animal in the jungle." "We wanted to portray the violence of man at its finest, so we started with our own version of the Leonardo da Vinci sketch of Vitruvian Man, but done the ‘EXODUS’ way! I was pointed in the direction of Colin Larks of Rainsong Design for the cover and he killed it! To me, the artwork represents man and his affinity for bloodshed, ignorance, and all-around ability to be led like sheep to the slaughter. The image fits the songs on this record perfectly. The whole layout is going to be as sick as the record itself!" GARY HOLT, Exodus

Opeth are one of the biggest acts in the Prog Metal genre with numerous top 10 albums worldwide, ”The Last Will and Testament” is their new album set for release November 22. Guest vocals by Joey Tempest (Europe), and guest flute by Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull). “A restless musical journey in a way mirroring my own relationship with music as a consumer of it," narrates band leader Mikael Åkerfeldt. "I pick up something here, dismiss something there. I worship and I hate music at the same time. This ambivalence leads me down some type of creative path of my own and then, all of a sudden, a collection of songs has been written. Best case scenario, these songs are good enough to impress the band. Good enough for the ”powers that be” in terms of the industry. Good enough for ”you”?! I love this record. I have to say it (write it). Maybe I’m proud even? There are some familiar ingredients in there I suppose. Most of our music has sprung from the same source, so I guess it’s not much of a shocker if it’s going to sound like ”us”. I’m a bit in awe of what we did with ”The Last Will and Testament”. It feels like a dream. There is some ”coherence" and ” songwriting skills” I hope, but what do I know? I tend to favour the ”strange” over the ”obvious”, but I feel like I’m in the minority, and that’s fine. So…fair warning! Don’t expect an instant rush (as per usual), but if you do ”get it” (have you got it yet?) right away, that’s ok too!"

In 2006, Danger Mouse is King Midas of the music world. He has an uncanny knack for creating jagged, dense, frenzied beats and odd, eerie, vivid soundscapes that never compromise the music's natural flow. Meanwhile, rapper and singer Cee-Lo, a veteran of Atlanta's Dirty South scene, has never been one to be constrained by hip-hop conventions, and is a willing partner in adventure. The result is an intrepid psychedelic blend of pop, hip-hop, soul, and rock that consistently challenges and delights. It's no wonder that "Crazy," with its modest riff, irresistible hook, and disarming opening line ("I remember when, I remember, I remember when I lost my mind") became a worldwide Internet sensation a full six months before the official release of St. Elsewhere. But that relatively simple soul-pop gem is the tamest track on this wide-ranging, often dark and introspective collaboration. (In fact, the duo considers Gnarls Barkley to be a wholly new creation, as opposed to a collaboration of existing artists.) "Everybody is somebody, but nobody wants to be themselves," Cee-Lo croons on "Who Cares?" He and Danger Mouse try very hard not to be their old selves as they creatively and confidently break down boundaries, but the brilliant cores of their musical personae--Cee-Lo's eccentric spiritual soul man and Danger's bold sonic explorer--remain. --Marc Greilsamer

At long last! Finally on vinyl! Can Fifteen Great Christmas Songs be collected together on one lovely 12-inch vinyl disc featuring bands and artists from the Damaged Goods archives? …you betcha bottom dollar they can! Each song has been recorded with the Christmas spirit in full flow and we’d guess the odd mince pie was consumed along the way as well. The full-on Christmas feeling that is flowing through these wonderful tracks is a joy to behold and we implore you to not just read these sleeve notes but to go crimble-crumble-crazy and actually buy this record and treasure it, not only this year but for many years to come. We are very proud to have put this album together as Christmas is our favourite time of the year. We love the feeling at special Christmas gigs - the over-inflated people and prices of things and the way everyone just has to go out and drink as much as they possibly can in the name of the good old lord Jesus. We did this for you, and only for you because we really, really care and want to share the joy that only Damaged Goods Records can bring you at this special time of the year. So enjoy some great music from the likes of Will Billy Childish, Miss Holly Golightly, Helen Love, Goldblade & Poly Styrene, The Courettes and so many more and remember, this LP is not just for Christmas it’s for LIFE! Ian Damaged, National Elf

Released to celebrate the 70th Anniversary of these sessions and the 75th Anniversary of Prestige Records, “Miles ’54” brings together 20 tracks recorded by the saxophone legend in 1954, across 4LPs.

Including cuts from the albums “Miles Davis with Sonny Rollins,” “Miles Davis Quintet,” “Miles Davis All Star Sextet,” and “Miles Davis Quartet” the album features Sonny Rollins, Charles Mingus, Horace Silver, Art Blakey, Thelonious Monk and more. Included are new liner notes by GRAMMY® Award-winning music historian Ashley Kahn and session notes by Dan Morgenstern, with mastering by Paul Blakemore.

Deluxe Edition = "Queen's Tassel Pink" Vinyl + bonus 7". Video Age make breezy and timeless songs that are so ineable, they can only be the result of a decades-long friendship and songwriting partnership. Across four albums, Ross Farbe and Ray Micarelli have gleefully worn their influences on their sleeve, writing inviting tunes that reference sounds ranging from disco to pop and indie rock. On their latest LP, Away From The Castle, the New Orleans duo have strayed from nostalgia and instead have honed their own unique musicality, making songs that sound like themselves with a taste of inspiration from classic singer-songwriters of the 60s and 70s. The album is a testament to the possibilities that come from getting out of your comfort zone, the freedom of writing vulnerably and unselfconsciously, and the joys of getting to work with your closest companions. After releasing and eventually touring their critically-acclaimed third album Pleasure Line in 2020, Farbe and Micarelli sought inspiration for their next project through collaboration. They worked with Drugdealer on his album Hiding In Plain Sight, Micarelli gigged throughout New Orleans' jazz and blues scenes, and Farbe recorded local artists at his home studio, most recently producing Esther Rose's new album Safe to Run. Feeling refreshed, they rented a cabin in Eunice, Louisiana with touring members Nick Corson and Duncan Troast, where they spent eight days in August 2022 jamming, cooking and writing together. Through this process, Video Age have made their best collection of tracks to date by perfectly alchemizing their influences and experiences into a record still tinged with nostalgia, but moving towards a more succinct and authentic voice. Away From The Castle is a document of a band having fun and rediscovering their love for making music together, but it's also their most honest and personal work yet-Video Age distilled to its purest form.

Mustapha Skandrani, a luminary of Algerian music, possessed a unique musical sense, able to transcend the borders of musical cultures to create a distinctive fusion of Arabic-Andalusian and European styles.

"Istikhbars and Improvisations", recorded in 1965 in Paris, is a solo piano album presenting a trans-Mediterranean crossover based on traditional Algerian vocal pieces known as istikhbars. Playing these istikhbars (which have roots in the Islamic Arab-Andalusian culture which flourished in Spain) on the piano - that quintessentially European instrument - Skandrani was greeted with derision by some purists. His powerful musical vision, however, perceives the European element involved in Arabic-Andalusian musical culture, a world of exchange and co-existence.

Skandrani's modus operandi on this release is to present each istikhbar, modal in nature, then to play an improvisation based on it, and its attendant mode. This A/B alternation continues throughout. The pellucid clarity of Skandrani's playing on this album may remind the listener of a modal Goldberg Variations, Bach and Glenn Gould transplanted to Andalucia. Other ears will hear the Arabic/Maghreb elements more strongly. Skandrani's precise touch and clear, symmetrical rhythmic sense links both worlds, assuring us that the Mediterranean is not a barrier, but a unifier, and that the differences between the cultures are not so vast. This is an admirable achievement, resulting in beautiful music of a rare charm.

Mustapha Skandrani was born in Algiers in 1920, and died there in 2005. He mastered a number of instruments at an early age, and his musical prowess led him to work with the great singers and ensembles of his day, in live performances, recordings, and radio broadcasts. Later in his life, he devoted much energy to education.

Originally reissued by Em Records as a limited edition of 200 in 2012, now available once again, in offset printed sleeve, with insert of Japanese and English sleeve-notes and rare photosMustapha Skandrani, a luminary of Algerian music, possessed a unique musical sense, able to transcend the borders of musical cultures to create a distinctive fusion of Arabic-Andalusian and European styles.

"Istikhbars and Improvisations", recorded in 1965 in Paris, is a solo piano album presenting a trans-Mediterranean crossover based on traditional Algerian vocal pieces known as istikhbars. Playing these istikhbars (which have roots in the Islamic Arab-Andalusian culture which flourished in Spain) on the piano - that quintessentially European instrument - Skandrani was greeted with derision by some purists. His powerful musical vision, however, perceives the European element involved in Arabic-Andalusian musical culture, a world of exchange and co-existence.

Skandrani's modus operandi on this release is to present each istikhbar, modal in nature, then to play an improvisation based on it, and its attendant mode. This A/B alternation continues throughout. The pellucid clarity of Skandrani's playing on this album may remind the listener of a modal Goldberg Variations, Bach and Glenn Gould transplanted to Andalucia. Other ears will hear the Arabic/Maghreb elements more strongly. Skandrani's precise touch and clear, symmetrical rhythmic sense links both worlds, assuring us that the Mediterranean is not a barrier, but a unifier, and that the differences between the cultures are not so vast. This is an admirable achievement, resulting in beautiful music of a rare charm.

Mustapha Skandrani was born in Algiers in 1920, and died there in 2005. He mastered a number of instruments at an early age, and his musical prowess led him to work with the great singers and ensembles of his day, in live performances, recordings, and radio broadcasts. Later in his life, he devoted much energy to education.

Originally reissued by Em Records as a limited edition of 200 in 2012, now available once again, in offset printed sleeve, with insert of Japanese and English sleeve-notes and rare photos

High Hopes - New album from the Mole.
High Hopes is 17 songs across 40 minutes on one slice of wax that, as advertised, sounds nothing like last month’s Ep, High Dreams. Here, rather than the long form dance form, is a continuation of the beat tape pacing from the last album, a collection of moments posing as ideas posing as a narrative stuffed with oddities and surprises that reward the close listen.
What’s heard on High Hopes is the Mole’s exploration of a love letter, from one person to a family, from the northern Pacific to the southern Atlantic, from a boy to a painted bird. Vancouver Island to Manantiales. The songs range from ambient sound bath and hip hop sludge, up to micro boogie and almost House before tumbling back down and forth again. Bubbling synths, MPCs swung out, samples chopped and chewed, bass and violins from Rick and Sophie, field recordings of birds and frogs and beaches, friends and family and fiestas. Did we mention the love ?! This album has got it all! Original collages from Antonio Carrau envelope this wax: jacket, sleeve and cookie. Antonio’s work is typified by playful combinations and bold statements about living in a embrace of analog and digital health. His co lages marry the corporeal world with an updated, digitalized age of reproduction, inducing feelings of gratitude for the simple everyday scenes we sometimes lose touch with when we forget to slow down. Good living, like breathing, requires inhaling as well as exhaling.
We can’t always produce content, make art, we must also pause, and listen. And enjoy. The Mole is joined by friends and colleagues on several songs included on High Hopes. Rick May plays bass on both Que Rico and album stand out GoinF4er. Sophie Trudeau (Godspeed You Black Emperor) plays and arranges violins on GoinF4er and Danuel Tate (Cobblestone Jazz) and Julz Chaz (Wagon Repair) both play Vibes and Emaxx throughout the album. Working with these incredible talents not only enriched this album, but fulfilled a long standing goal of the Mole’s; to work again with the musicians from whom he learned so much. People who helped inform the shape of Mole to come.
The Mole who was As High As The Sky. The Mole has been ‘recognized’ by the ‘global underground’ since his critically celebrated premiere album, As High As The Sky, but his earlier Eps (Wagon Repair, Philpot, Musique Risquee) got the attention of Top DJs, clubs, and festivals around the world first. His sound remains unique, fresh and deep: enjoying plays in a wide variety of spaces and places.
High Hopes is the Mole’s 5th solo album and his 2nd album for Circus Company (The River Widens) who have also proudly released two eps of Mole magic (Little Sunshine, High Dreams).
*Isn’t that too much time for one record? Short answer - No. Long answer - depends on the material. Due to the many quiet passages in the album, the groove spacing can be modulated and the needle can slow it’s progress towards the center/end resulting in longer sides with continued high gain and low distortion.