Nashville, TN based songwriter Michaela Anne returns with her new
album Oh To Be That Free, the follow up to her 2019 Yep Roc debut
Desert Dove
The record was produced by Michaela and Aaron Shafer- Haiss. 'I wrote this
collection of songs as a simultaneous reckoning and healing," says Michaela
Anne. "They came after a period in my life of self sabotage and unraveling by my
own doing. But during the making of this record, life altering experiences
occurred and a deeper layer of meaning for these songs appeared. Between the
time we started to record and the very final mastering, I conceived, grew and
birthed my first child. In the middle of this pregnancy, and the middle of making
this record, my mother suffered a devastating and debilitating hemorrhagic
stroke. These songs became healers for me as though I had written them for my
future self."
Go Sailor were a great, short-lived band from the mid-90s who represent
a key link in the US indie music chain
Featuring Rose Melberg (Tiger Trap, The Softies, Gaze, Brave Irene, Knife Pleats),
Linton (Henry's Dress, The Aislers Set) and Paul Curran (Take A Day fanzine,
Crimpshrine, Monsula), they released three great singles and a few compilation
tracks, and then went their separate ways. But what records they are! Basic and
lovely in their song- writing, they're perfect snapshots of where indie- pop was
during that last burst of pre- internet indie activity. Touching on time- honored
themes of friendship and love (lost and found), they resonate with honesty and
purity of intention. The trio reunited in the early 2010s to play to enraptured
crowds at the NYC and Athens Popfests, and their appearance at the Slumberland
20th Anniversary show was the stuff of legend. This album compiles all three of
their 7" singles (for Slumberland, Yoyo and Lookout!) and compilation tracks and
was first released on vinyl in 2011. Due to pressing plant issues it quickly went
out of print, so we are very happy to bring you this new edition, back on vinyl
where it belongs with a new insert featuring liner notes and lots of cool band
pictures and ephemera. Pressed on Watery Blue Color Vinyl.
The Library Steps is a new pairing of an old rapper named Jesse
Dangerously and a young producer named Ambition
The duo is named in remembrance of the now demolished stone stairs of the
Halifax Memorial Library entrance, where among a loose and ragtag assortment
of the city's rappers they would gather across generations every Friday as the
doors locked, to freestyle, beatbox, and play tapes in a cipher called Public Rhyme
Distribution. Jesse and Ambition have been members of the Canada- wide
collective Backburner since 2001 and 2009 respectively, but only started making
songs as a rapper/producer duo in the spring of 2017. It took them more than a
decade of intention to pair off as a team. All of the beats and rhymes for Rap Dad,
Real Dad were created in the next few months as a time capsule of that season's
preoccupations. The beats are jazzy, soulful, and moody, with a prominent nod
factor, and the rhymes are confessional and witty, vulnerable and boastful,
intimate and intimidating. Under their fingernails, no microscope is needed to
detect the DNA of golden era rapper/producer teams like Pete Rock & CL Smooth,
Gang Starr, a gentler Beatnuts, or any group that was part of Native Tongues or
Hieroglyphics. Just as present are the influences of turn- of- the- century
underground boundary pushers like Sage Francis, Aesop Rock, MF DOOM, and
Buck 65, and for that matter, just about everyone who was on Roc-A-Fella at its
peak. Refracted here, those chosen ancestors and more recombinate into a hiphop that challenges, from unexpected angles, traditional modes and narratives of
masculinity. They are your rap dads, and they just may be your real dads, too.
Following on from their ground-breaking 1988 self-titled EP, Godflesh's
debut full-length was an absolute game-changer and still stands as one
of industrial metal's most defining documents to this day
Drawing from post- punk and industrial acts like; Swans, Big Black, Killing Joke
and Throbbing Gristle as much as the more metallic and punk influences that
informed guitarist/ vocalist Justin Broadrick's previous band Napalm Death, the
pounding, drum- machine powered sonic assault of 'Streetcleaner' sounded like
nothing else at the time, breaking down people's perceptions of what a metal
band could sound like. You can still feel the album's broad influence everywhere
from the dense atmospheres of post- metal to the abrasive beats of modern
industrial and techno outfits, but despite its many imitators, there's still nothing
else that quite captures the feelings of paranoia, anxiety and urban decay that
'Streetcleaner' so deftly articulates.
They are as their name suggests, an act who strike unexpectedly
And they are sensational...an enervating wall of noise given a focus by the
incredible presence of singer, the Burkina Faso griot, Kaito Winse. The best kind
of buzz." -- Louder Than War
Avalanche Kaito: A Burkinabe urban griot (vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Kaito
Winse) meets a Brussels noise punk duo. A new alloy that deconstructs both
traditional and futurist knowledge.
This thrilling ensemble is releasing their self-titled debut album hot on the heels
of their acclaimed 4- song EP Dabalomuni (January 2022), that The Wire called
"freaked, juddering electronic punk."
A mysterious matrix that echoes disparate (but strangely compatible) sonic
strands: deep griot traditions, Fugazi, Can, 70s era Zappa, Black Midi, the full
throttle rush of Nyege Nyege Tapes.
Bobby Oroza puts his desire for the profound on wax with his sophomore album Get On The Otherside. Musically, he has updated the formula we were introduced to on the first record. But lyrically, songs are bravely rooted in the more complicated, ubiquitous inner tangles of life like self-examination and coming to terms with the vastness of the human experience. With Coronavirus bringing the world to a halt, Bobby-a father and husband-had to do something. No tours to play or studio time to fill, Bobby found himself back in the construction yard, doing blue-collar work to provide for his family. "I was super grateful for the work-a lot of my colleagues didn't have an option like that," Bobby admits. More than a few personal hardships forced him to acknowledge and work through some brutal truths. And what came of it? Well, for one, this new record Get On The Otherside which pretty well describes what Bobby's been through: He had to demolish his ego, his old ways of thinking, and his tried approaches to anchor into a refreshed perspective with new understandings. As Bobby tells it, "I had to do some real self-searching, come to terms with what was wrong, and how much of it I was responsible for." So how does this translate to the new album? Moments of clarity as to where the real value in life lies on "I Got Love," encouraging numbers like the title track "The Otherside", and declarations of self actualization on "My Place, My Time." Even the more straightforward love songs are outside the box lyrically like "Sweet Agony" and "Loving Body." If you have never had the pleasure of catching one of Bobby's live shows you may have no idea that he is a maverick on the guitar. He lets us in on a little of that on "Passing Things" with a solo that possesses the same restrained and space that his lyrics do. As we'd expect, the songwriting still has that raw, direct edge to it. But an evolution has taken place. There are new points of view on familiar territory which in Bobby's words "For me to love, I needed to take a bigger view of love. One with less ego and more empathy" really hold true. The result is a record with Bobby's new found humility on full display and a message of encouragement to anyone who is struggling and can't see a way out. It still may be hard to nail down and define Bobby and his sound. He's no one thing more than the other. But what he's showing us now, on Get On The Otherside, is that we can also label him a soulful, philosophical optimist. Someone who can say a lot with a little, and who wants us all to know that it's us that has to do the hard lifting to truly live a life in love-both with the world and with yourself.
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Pan Daijing's exhibition-performance Tissues premiered in the Tanks at the Tate Modern in autumn 2019. A five-act immersion in performance, sound, movement, space, and most of all emotion in its most distilled and conflicted states, Tissues engaged with the conventions of opera and tragedy to present a searing representation of the embattled human psyche in space and time. While the ambitious multi-sensory artwork made use of the range of Daijing's artistic capabilities, music, particularly the voice, was at its formal and emotional core. The vinyl and digital release of Tissues on PAN serves as a record of that work, in the form of an hour-long audio excerpt: an invaluable archival document from Daijing's expansive live practice. Tissues is both a solitary work and a formal study in relation. Composed, directed, designed, written, and performed by Daijing (alongside a cast of twelve dancers and opera singers), the work_its libretto written in a mixture of old and modern Chinese_lingers inside a single human perspective. Daijing conjures states that are by turns delicate and severe, the tension between opposing modes animating the work as it unfolds. And yet, for all its interiority, Tissues foregrounds an intimate relationship with its audience through details like its engulfing visual landscape and its rattling, confrontational narrative arcs. Daijing uses the opera form as a prism through which to question the boundaries of music itself: perhaps, she proposes, music is much more than simply what is heard. It is in the relationship between voice and electronics that this limit is most clearly breached. Across the four acts gathered in this documentation, a counter-tenor, a soprano, a mezzo-soprano, and the artist herself voice a mixture of stunning laments and cries over an instrumental landscape, built out from industrial texture. Meant to be heard in a single listen, rather than track by track, the work unfolds through tender hollows and agitated peaks. At its crescendo, the operatic vocals melt away and the synthesizers themselves seem to howl with grief. Daijing uncovers an essential, sometimes painful, music in all that surrounds us, inviting something like catharsis but also a greater understanding of the thing she and her cast conjure and draw close. A tissue, after all, is both a disposable object one uses to wipe away a tear, and the building block of our fleshy human forms. Daijing reaches and excavates the roiling core of what it is to be alive and full of feeling. Music from Tissues, an opera of five acts at Tate Modern, London on Oct 2nd, 4th and 5th, 2019 Composed, written, produced and directed by Pan Daijing. Performed by Anna Davidson, soprano ; Marie Gailey, mezzo soprano, Steve Katona, countertenor and Pan Daijing, additional vocals. The recording is mixed by James Ginzburg , Jan Urbiks and Pan Daijing, mastered by Rashad Becker. *2xLP comes in a gatefold cover, and includes an obi strip and a booklet containing images from the performance & liner notes, as well as a postcard granting access to exclusive video documentation*
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Ted K. Kaczynski is notorious for both tragically murdering three people (and wounding an additional 23) via bombs sent in the mail and for his numerous writings on the evils of technology he composed during his primitive residency in the woods of Montana. Film director Tony Stone's choice to have the renowned electronic artist Blanck Mass score the film is somewhat ironic and creates an obvious tension perfect for the controversial and complex subject matter. 2020 saw the first Blanck Mass movie score, for the soundtrack to Nick Rowland's acclaimed cinematic debut Calm with Horses. This expansion into new areas of melodic composition and textural exploration won Blanck Mass many new fans, with the BBC's acknowledged number one film buff Mark Kermode proclaiming the work the soundtrack of the year. In 2021, Blanck Mass won the prestigious Ivor Novello Award for Best Original Film Score and has firmly established himself at the forefront of the latest wave of experimental soundscape wizards. Recording during lockdown at his studio in Edinburgh, Scotland, Blanck Mass's Ben Power was in the perfect setting for a musical piece intended to capture the isolation central to Kaczynski's story. Power was also working with a director in a time zone 10 hours behind and thus many sessions required working in the middle of the night, which added a fitting intensity to the composition process. He said of the project "I wanted it to feel like an `epic'" and drew on the legends Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone for inspiration in encapsulating the energy of the perceived good vs. evil. The gentle madness of sound achieved is exquisite and slowly builds in intensity and desperation as the score moves along. Power is able to perfectly capture the complexity, the terror and the deep emotionality of the film while presenting an often breathtakingly beautiful and always masterful album that stands on its own as a work of art. For Fans of Tim Hecker, Oneohtrix Point Never, DJ Shadow, Coil, Arca, Andy Stott, Fuck Buttons.
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The Staples Jr. Singers were part of a vanguard of soul gospel artists in the 1970s that broke from tradition to testify with the groove. They found their inspiration in the secular music they heard on the radio, and wrote songs that were nothing but stone cold soul.
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Homemade ambient synth songs that will lead you to a state between deep relaxation and pleasant chemical high. Subtle, sincere, but also strange, Leoni Leoni's music has a powerful attraction and a unique bewitching force. The synthesizers sizzle, the drum machine moves forward sometimes throbbing. Upon it, the Bernese musician and producer sings about life, about love, in their banality and magnificence. With 4 homemade cassettes released since 2019, Leoni Leoni has established herself as a major figure of the Swiss underground. With dozens of concerts across Switzerland and France, she distills to perfection her music in the weirdest places, the craziest parties. A bit of magic, the scent of drugs, the caress of a summer white night... let yourself be carried away.
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Equipe de Foot is a French duo of singer-songwriters who record pop
songs and play them much louder on stage
Since their formation in 2015, Alex & Mike have played hundreds of gigs, from the
sweaty basements of their hometown of Bordeaux to the stages of nationally
renown festivals and European venues, making a solid name for their band, and
little by little becoming part of the new wave of French rock. Equipe de Foot now
admit that their flaws might be their greatest strength, and bring their love for
English and American indie pop music and production to the forefront in their
songs. For 'Geranium' they have chosen to work with producer and sound
engineer (and fellow Beatles fan) Johannes Buff (Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo,
The Drones, Dalek and other various amazing projects) at Shorebreaker studio in
Tarnos, France. A meaningful choice both in terms of technical and artistic skills,
Johannes was able to assemble Equipe de Foot's good old wall of guitars, as well
as reach the heart of their pop songs to make the whole thing gloriously shine,
without altering the charming homemade vibe emanating from their beloved
demos.
The album is a constant rollercoaster, alternating lo- fi ballads and powerful
anthems, but always with a twist, be it a pitched loop on a chorus or an auto
tuned solo trumpet at the end of a sad piano song.
The past couple of years have provided an ideal breeding ground for periods of reflection. Of rediscovery. And for the reignition of dwindling flames. Perhaps this is why the meeting of Tom Churchill and 2Sox is the perfect match at the perfect time. A collision of minds stoking a fire that has sizzled away into a 12” slab of choice cuts. Introspective and deep, yet not forgetting what a dancefloor wants.
Tom started making music in the mid-90s, inspired by the house and techno records he was buying as a teenager growing up in Cardiff. Co-founder of cult 90’s label, Headspace Recordings and sister label Emoticon; Tom and partner Raeph Powell were responsible for some faultless releases in the 00’s. More recently, Tom has been one half of The Nuclear Family; a production, label and events project launched with Laurence Hughes in 2013. Much of what Tom has put his hand to over the years has been hot in demand. Incredibly, this is his first physical, solo release under his real name since 2002. Despite the 20 year gap, Tom’s enthuse for all things deep and electronic has arguably never been stronger.
“These tracks have been heavily inspired by two things - reconnecting with my surroundings and rediscovering my record collection - both of which have been made possible by the events over the past couple of years.” Tom says.
“As well as spending more time outdoors around my home on the west coast of Scotland, I recorded a lot of DJ mixes and radio shows during the first lockdown, which meant I spent a lot of time digging through older records. This reignited some creative energy that had been lying dormant for a while.
Before 2020 I’d been sporadically using a rented studio space to make music, but in that Spring I put together a basic, compact setup so I could work at home. My influences are pretty clear with these tracks - I’ve drawn on the palette of classic deep house, 90s techno and electro throughout - but while there are some retro elements and familiar sounds, I’ve tried to put my own twist on things. Being surrounded by nature and working exclusively on headphones has made for a more intimate sound, and these tracks are the most personal I’ve ever done.”
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First ever reissue of one of the most sought after titles in the catalogue of Peruvian's label MAG, in high demand not only among Latin music collectors but also among those interested in the most exotic and experimental psychedelic sounds around. - It includes 'Astronautas a Mercurio', a cosmic descarga full of electronic effects, filtered voices and fierce guitars with wah wah and raw distortion, as well as guarachas, cumbias and descargas. - Details: Hugo Macedo was a member of the first sonora in Peru, directed by his brother: the Sonora de Lucho Macedo. His brothers were the singers of the band while he performed as a timbalero. After nine years he founded the Sonora Casino of Hugo Macedo in 1964, later incorporating his wife, Lucía "Pochita" Rivera as a vocalist. "Trompeteros" was released on the Peruvian record label MAG in 1972. Previously, the Sonora Casino had already recorded several albums for Philips since the mid-60s. At the time their repertoire was fed by rhythms such as cha cha cha, bolero, guaracha... Their MAG period would start in 1970 with the album "Pochita y la Sonora Casino de Hugo Macedo" in which Hugo Macedo's wife was granted with an important visual presence on the front cover, with a similar follow-up on "Trompeteros", creating some confusion since vocalist Pachito Nalmy was the actual main singer on the record. The vocalist, who hails from Callao, demonstrates here a great vocal versatility as captured on songs like 'Guajira del amor', with a heavy rhythm that will surely delight boogaloo lovers, or the bolero number 'Pasa, pasa', being both songs own compositions of the multitalented Nalmy. Guarachas, descargas and cumbias complete the offering of this fantastic album, one of the strongest tropical LPs in the MAG catalogue. But the real banger here is the almost magical 'Astronauts to Mercury', a cosmic descarga full of electronic effects, filtered voices and fierce guitars with wah wah and raw distortion, closer to the sound of any psychedelic recording than the classic tropical sound of La Sonora Casino, and right next to those elements, an impressive brass section that boosts the intensity of the song to the highest levels. It is not surprising that "Trompeteros" has become in recent years a highly sought-after album not only by Latin music collectors but also by those after the most exotic and experimental psychedelic sounds around... Pablo Iglesias aka DJ Bongohead
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ECHT! is an instrumental, futuristic four-piece inspired by the concepts absorbed in electronic music and musical production. Unquestionably the place where ECHT! really stand out, is on stage. Their live performance is a fusion between inventiveness and efficiency. Their setlist gathers original tracks but also covers that have always been part of the band's DNA.
Following on their debut album 'INWANE' released in 2021, ECHT! are now revealing two covers from producers they particularly love, 'MSMSMSM' by Sophie and 'The Goose That Got Away' by Objekt. ECHT! pay homage to the club culture with their own interpretation. While being faithful to the atmosphere and the sounds of the two original tracks, they add the organic energy that is typical of live music. Moreover, the live recording of the performances gives depth to the record. These two interpretations are the perfect representation of the band's broad influences from drum 'n' bass, trap, hip-hop, electronic music & jazz where energy and creativity are perfectly merged together.
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The project "Records Without Conception" shows toğrul's process of finding his sound. The album is not based on a concept, a statement or an overriding mood. The tracks are rather to be understood as portraits from protracted explorations of basic patterns in electronic genres and modular sound synthesis. The results are a not self- contained body of work, but rather discussions of various demands on sound and music that were experienced by the artist himself between the years 2018 and 2021. With his debut album, the German and Azerbaijan based producer wants to capture the process of this artistic searching and finding.
Surreal constructions of contrasting sounds evolve between the grids of genres. An experimental style and contemporary references across Contemporary RnB, Electro, Glitch and IDM form a sound logic of its own, which is additionally grounded by the singers Alice Dlugosch & Mariama Ceesay in two independent tracks.
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Subsequent to their formidable collabo with Max Delius a few months prior, Andreas Schuller and Jay Nagel deliver the next tracks for RFR. “Bionic Jelly” still moves in style within the croudian sound biotope, yet places the tooly aspect a little bit more in the foreground.
“It’s a match” starts restrainedly with dubby breakbeats, being driven forward by echoes and reverb. Rattling percussions jump on the sonic carpet and little by little increase the intensity of this funky opener. Yep, that fits!
„Stomache Grind“ comes around the corner way more relaxed than its title may suggest. Nothing indigestive is presented here, in contrary a digestif made of all the ingredients which crouds are famous for: Melody, broken beats, elaborately composed dub patterns and a dose of finesse.
Heavy 90s vibes in the final track of this EP. Kinda reminiscent of Luke Vibert in his best Rephlex days. Minimal, interlaced and mystical. “Shifting Space” not only moves space, but also time. Because this is what’s needed in order to enjoy the true depth of this track.
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"The dazzling symphonic album he always threatened to produce" UNCUT 5/5
"A soulful symphonic masterpiece" ROLLING STONE
Originally released in Japan only on CD in 2002, Plush's Fed lives up to the cult-like adulation it has garnered ever since. A stunning symphony of Bacharach-inspired pop, Toussaint-swing andMelody Nelson-era-Gainsbourg, it's an album bound together by Liam Hayes' maverick genius, an uncompromising Brian Wilson-esque quest for sonic perfection. Positively indulgent in every way, this sumptuous record has long deserved to be treated to a deluxe vinyl edition. Lovingly overseen by Hayes and recent collaborator Pat Sansone (Wilco/The Autumn Defense), it will finally be available on the format it should've always been, this Record Store Day 2018. Remastered and presented as a double LP - cut specially at 45rpm - it comes housed in a beautiful gatefold jacket with expanded artwork throughout.
Its expansive, singular vision infamously took years to realise, involving Earth Wind & Fire's horn arranger (the legendary Tom Tom MMLXXXIV) amongst other elite personnel. Recorded with five different engineers (including Steve Albini and John McEntire), Hayes meticulously extracted every ounce of pop from each note. A long list of renowned studio ringers (including soul drummer Morris Jennings) and Chicago regulars (McEntire, Rizzo, Parker) among many others provide playing of demonstrably professional precision. As such, Hayes' complex, meandering melodies are rendered far more coherent and satisfying than they otherwise might have appeared, bringing his epic, anguished pop to a rarely seen level of perfection and depth. This unstinting dedication to the overarching vision was rewarded handsomely - artistically, at least.
However, as might have been expected, his deluxe approach resulted in a bill too steep for any American or European label to ultimately support. It has since seemed unlikely that it would see the light of day on either side of the Atlantic. Yet we were determined not to allow Hayes' lifetime achievement to go unnoticed or let music fans across the world miss out on one of the finest albums of this century.
A wide-eyed opus of stunning intensity, Fed oozes Hayes' impeccable influences without ever becoming overwhelmed by them. Incredibly, it touches upon Blaxploitation soul, Boz Scaggs-soft-rock, hints of jazz and blues, timeless baroque and skewed pop. In one long minute, the stabbing, soulful "So Blind" moves through five different melodic segments, horns shift easily from haunting backdrop to explosive forefront, smoothly giving way to strings as Hayes' voice casts its bewitching spell. The ambitious soul of "Having It All" has been described as the diffident cousin of Marvin Gaye's "Save The Children" whilst the breezy "Greyhound Bus Station" is pure 70s AM Gold, evoking the easy warmth of Jimmy Webb's beloved Land's End period. The sublime resignation of "No Education", a beautifully slow number that begins, "Never read a book in my life/ But I feel just fine" is post-rock ballad heaven. Arriving towards the end, the title track arrives as a majestic suite, moving from a horn-and-guitar-led instrumental via shifting melodies to Hayes' compelling vocal bursts.
An album of such brilliance, Fed can comfortably sit alongside such staggering statement pieces as David Bowie's Young Americans, Randy Newman's 12 Songs or Harry Nilsson's Nilsson Schmilsson. Indeed, for all the sprawling elements that went in - lengthy guitar builds, exploding horn sections, solemn strings, female backup chorus - it is a deeply personal and original record. Employing a distinct "more is more" aesthetic, he demonstrates remarkable restraint in producing an album of such intimacy. "My creation has drowned me," he memorably sings on languid opener "Whose Blues", yet he navigates the shifting styles and ideas with enviable ease.
OFFICIAL RE-ISSUE, DONE IN COOPERATION WITH THE FAMILY OF BOBBY COLE !!!
If you lived in New York during the 1950s through the 1990s and liked jazz, you knew about Bobby Cole. He played piano, sang, composed, arranged and, in 1967, released an album of original compositions titled "A Point of View" (Concentric Records). He had fans but avoided becoming mainstream. He stayed contemporary without becoming current. Jazz, folk, rock, modern dance scores…he wrote and performed them all. He smoked too much, drugged too much, drank too much. He was also cerebral, curious, a prodigious reader of poetry, philosophy, theology, and an uncommonly intelligent and literate lyricist.
On a December night in 1996, he had a heart attack while walking to work. An ambulance brought him to New York Hospital where, a few hours later, he died. Bobby Cole performed throughout Manhattan for forty years, but he spent most of the 1960s headlining at Jilly's, the midtown bistro owned by Frank Sinatra and his friend Jilly Rizzo. Sinatra called Bobby "my favorite saloon singer."
Bobby Cole caught the attention of Judy Garland, who visited Jilly's one night in 1964. She was hosting a weekly television show, and in the midst of a feud with her special materials arranger, Mel Torme. Three weeks later, Mel was out, and Bobby was in. He performed on Judy's show with his Trio. Bobby was scarcely 30 years old and it was his first time on television, but he was unruffled, sophisticated, and so damn cool. After Judy's show ended, Bobby occasionally arranged and conducted for her until she died.
Today, Jilly's is called the Russian Samovar and the piano is in the same spot. My husband and I ate there a few years ago. As we enjoyed our meal, I talked about Jilly's in the Sinatra era. Jilly had an apartment on the upper floor. I pointed up to the apartment and the balcony, where Jilly and Frank would sometimes drop water-balloons on unsuspecting pedestrians below. Another story described Jilly's as "tough, and you had to be tough to work there. Bobby Cole was tough. Frank and Jilly used to throw firecrackers at him to see if they could rattle him, but nothing rattled Bobby Cole. He ignored them and kept on playing." In the 1980s, Bobby headlined at a club called the Café Versailles. His daughter sometimes visited with her friends. She recalled that when she and her father would exit the club after work, a panhandler would be waiting for him. Bobby, who fought his own losing battle with the bottle, would slip the guy twenty dollars and wryly admonish him, "Be sure not to spend it on food." The night my husband and I visited the Russian Samovar there was a guy playing piano there, very young, and trying hard. I talked to him a little bit between his numbers about Bobby and the history of Jilly's and he was sweet, but I could tell he didn't care. I felt like one of those old people who bore young people to death with stories about things that happened before they were born – which, let's face it, is what I was. Nonetheless, when we were ready to leave, I put twenty dollars in his tip jar and said, "This is with compliments from Bobby Cole." After we left my husband said I should have added, "Be sure not to spend it on food."
The second album from Wehrmacht, “Biermächt” saw the band maturing while still retaining their Thrashcore roots. Released in mid-1988, “Biermächt” featured a slightly cleaner production than the one found on their debut album. To some fans this rendered the album with much less intensity, but to our ears the sound was still very powerful. The massive reverb used on the first album made “Shark Attack” sound like a true shark attack and only added to the overall intensity. This time around the drums are more compressed and some blast beat parts tend to get lost in the overall blur of things. But on the same token, the guitars are much sharper sounding. Marco Zorich and John Duffy were truly evolving as guitar heroes. The thing that is really great and different compared to “Shark Attack” are the funny bit songs. We love them and enjoy them. A lot of the songs on “Biermächt” were leftovers from their demo days, including the phenomenal “Night Of Pain”, one of our all time favorite Thrash songs ever, but newer stuff like “Radical Dissection” and “Balance Of Opinion” showed the band handling a more mainstream Thrash sound somewhere in the middle of a Slayer/Kreator sound and Metallica/Megadeth. There is a certain progressiveness to those songs that hint to a more elaborate musical future. “Biermächt” is a very strong Crossover/Thrash album with a laid back party vibe to it. The sound, however, is very in-your-face. This is not a subtle album by any means. It’s not that they were the funniest bunch around (their side project Spazztic Blurr went a lot further). But Wehrmacht did have their own specific sound (mostly because of the vocals and guitars). Especially after all these years it becomes obvious all Crossover lovers and Thrashers from those days do in fact have this album and hold it dearly. The album has historic importance as well as huge sentimental value. Biermächt is a landmark in eighties Crossover Thrash and should be checked out immediately by all newbies.
Repress coming in June of this sold out LP from last year. LP, 45 RPM, Limited Edition. Style: Post Rock, Downtempo, Shoegaze. The last widely available Hood album was 2005’s critically acclaimed Outside Closer on Domino Records but the Leeds post-rockers actually released a later collection of songs entitled “The Hood Tapes”. This was presented at the time as a tour-only CD available at their final burst of shows and later part of their highly sought after Recollected box set. Until now the standalone album has been impossible to find even on CD and has never been issued on vinyl. In the sleeve notes to the Recollected set, the band describe the album as ‘something made in a hurry in order to have something to sell on the road’ but “The Hood Tapes” is a lot more than that. It contains all new music that seems to straddle their career from scratchy experimental New Zealand weirdo lo-fi to the stuttery and staccato r&b influenced pop they sprinkled over that last Outside Closer missive. “The Hood Tapes” could also be seen as a series of sketches of potential future musical avenues open to the band who eventually instead chose to remain silent and although key band members still operate under such names as Bracken, The Declining Winter and A New Line (Related), there has never been any further work issued under the Hood umbrella. “The Hood Tapes” therefore is an overlooked key component to their storied history and this essential release brings it in line with their more well-known work.
The Mankunku Quartet's 1968 album 'Yakhal' Inkomo’ clocks in at just over 30 minutes of jazz perfection. This compact, and to-the-point, album would sit comfortably in amongst some of the best works in the catalogues of any of the quintessential jazz labels such as Blue Note, Prestige and Impulse. 'Yakhal' Inkomo’, however, was originally released on the South African record label World Record Co., which resulted in it becoming an elusive and sought-after piece for jazz collectors. First press copies sometimes fetch as much as £1,000 on the collectors' market. It has been long regarded as one of the finest South African jazz albums and DJ / broadcaster Gilles Peterson cemented this when he included it in his "best of genre" focussed radio show, 'The 20 - South African Jazz'.
Tenor saxophonist Winston "Mankunku" Ngozi recorded the session on 23rd July 1968 at the Manley van Niekerk Studios, in Johannesburg. It was recorded by Dave Challen and produced by Ray Nkwe. The session is built up of two original works by Mankunku on the A-side, 'Yakhal' Inkomo' & 'Dedication (To Daddy Trane and Brother Shorter)', and on the B-side, the Horace Silver composition 'Doodlin', and a John Coltrane number 'Bessie's Blues'. What is striking is how the Mankunku-penned compositions not only hold their own next to Silver and Coltrane but they are, arguably, the better tracks on the record - a testament to the beautiful writing and playing of Mankunku.
'Yakhal' Inkomo' features the great musicians; Agrippa Magwaza on bass, drummer Early Mabuza, and pianist Lionel Pillay. Pillay was of Indian descent, making this a mixed-race group, thus the very recording of the album was an act of resistance as it broke the apartheid restrictions of the time. The title of 'Yakhal’ Inkomo' means “the bellow of the bull”, the Black audience would have understood this as coded community symbolism and an act of protest but it escaped the attention of the white government.
For this edition, we have enlisted the services of Abbey Road Studios mastering, and lacquer-cutting engineer Miles Showell to cut a special half-speed master from the audio taken off the original master tapes. Miles has previously worked on our Arthur Verocai, Marcos Valle and Ian Carr re-issues, and once again we are blown away by the richness and clarity of Miles' work. We have also presented it as a replica copy using the cover artwork and labels from the primary World Record Co. original version.
On the sleeve notes, Ray Nkwe the producer and the President of the Jazz Appreciation Society of South Africa writes "This is the LP that every jazz fan has been waiting for" and Ray was not wrong, it's a stone-cold timeless jazz classic.
• Half-speed mastering at Abbey Road Studios
• Repressed with an OBI strip as well as a deluxe tip-on sleeve
• One of the finest South African jazz albums
• "This is the LP that every jazz fan has been waiting for" Ray Nkwe
On textstar+ Jan Jelinek brings together the material from the CMYK series, four EPs he released between 1999 and 2002 under the pseudonym farben (the German word for both colours and paints), on a vinyl double LP for the first time. The selection of tracks has been remastered from the original tapes, joined by two additional pieces that appeared on compilations during the same period.
A Polaroid. Still life with tangled leads and consumer electronics, late twentieth century. Black and various shades of dirty white are the dominant non-colours. The image’s spatial depth remains diffuse, the links between its elements speculative. A note stuck to the wall (a legend, perhaps, or an all-explaining blueprint in text form?) is impossible to decipher. You can’t see what connects the picture’s signs. You have to hear it.
farben says: Every sound is a text. A bearer of meaning in search of a reader. Hoping the ideas inscribed in its autonomous existence will be understood as intended. While its beauty lies precisely in misunderstanding, in reading the coded message a new way every time. A thousand colours of sound, a thousand different ways to hear, to see, to understand.
On textstar+ Jan Jelinek brings together the material from the CMYK series, four EPs he released between 1999 and 2002 under the pseudonym farben (the German word for both colours and paints), on a vinyl double LP for the first time. The selection of tracks has been remastered from the original tapes, joined by two additional pieces that appeared on compilations during the same period. Another new element is the Polaroid, showing the origins of a world: Jelinek’s home studio in Berlin at the time.
farben says: Move your body! The project has its roots in Jelinek’s love of house as a reductionist vision of soul. Of four to the floor as a proposition that can be accessed anywhere. Of electronic dance music as a realm of possibility that can be continually expanded. farben was written as contemporary house music. As a text about excitement and euphoria. The arrangements were made directly while recording to DAT, on a twelve-channel mixing desk. Several track titles suggest a link to live concerts, coupled with the context of machine music and bedroom recording. Others affirm pop music’s most extravagant stock phrases about various states of love.
Jelinek produced the tracks with the aim of making music for dancefloors. An idea that failed very productively. In the locations to which it was originally addressed, the project barely figured. But people did listen, and they listened all the more closely to this music that opened up new acoustic and associative scope for house. farben is the opposite of genre: a music spawning new terms (clicks & cuts, micro-house) that never manage to fully capture it.
farben says: Signifiers. The four CMYK EPs are designed as a network of references that cannot be missed but that can also never be precisely deciphered. The vectors of sound, word and image point to Isaac Hayes and Ornette Coleman, to Detroit and the first generation of the Red Army Faction, to Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. So multifarious that they are distorted to the point of recognition. Overall we hear sonic docufictions whose appealing vagueness derives precisely from this oscillation between clarity and ambiguity, which is also the source of their poetry: the lyricism of the pure circulation of signs.
The artwork is based on photographs of former Red Army Faction members, broken down into the four colours of the CMYK model. The motifs dissolve into individual dots of a single colour, so close to the faces that their expressions are only hinted at. Taken together, the individual colours compose a new whole out of fragmentary material, defying definition and thus maintaining their vibrancy. The same occurs on the level of sound. The sampler Jelinek used for these tracks had to be fed with floppy disks, imposing a memory limit of 1.44 megabytes per audio quotation from soul or jazz records. As a necessary consequence of this, the individual references, like the dots of colour, are dissolved into details and abstractions. They appear as splinters that recombine in new ways to create new meanings. The joy of collapsing metaphors.
farben says: New departures. Even two decades after its original release, textstar+ does not come across as an epitaph to the modern era. Instead, it appears as a euphoric affirmation of the utopias of the twentieth century, translated into new sound texts via the aesthetic strategies of abstraction, collage, networking and speculation. 1.44 megabytes of history, one thousand signifiers, one album. From “Live ...” to “... Love”.
Arno Raffeiner, 2021
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A question popular among followers of Thrash Metal is undeniably this, “Which is considered the fastest Thrash Metal album of all time?”. There would be a high percentage of answers supporting “Reign In Blood”, Darkness Descends” or “Pleasure To Kill”. Now here’s a startling reality. Wehrmacht’s debut album makes those albums sound as if they were meant to be listed under progressive Metal. The sheer ferocity of these guys is enough to convince you why they were considered the fastest Heavy Metal band in the underground. So what is it that makes this record worthy of being called an underground classic? Right from production to musicianship, the concoction of several different ideas results into one colossal and inevitably unique style of their own. Many of you would probably wonder that there might just be a natural leaning towards sloppy playing especially considering my description of their astoundingly fast nature earlier. But the major surprise here is that all the musicians are extremely tight and precise with no single riff, solo or beat falling out of place. Tito Matos is one of the most versatile Thrash singers one has ever heard till date. His clarity of words and ability to keep up with the rest of the band with his lightning fast singing is simply commendable. The songs in here are all ridiculously speedy pieces of Thrash Metal with practically little or no remorse for the listener. The title track with that brilliant rendition of the famously eerie “Jaws” theme kicks off the onslaught with a tearing main riff that shreds away with speed and precision. Teutonic, Bay Area and a few east coast Thrash Metal bands have been instrumental in forging the whole genre altogether but taking the intensity a couple of notches higher was undoubtedly achieved by bands like Cryptic Slaughter, Soothsayer and finally Wehrmacht. For a year that was 1987, “Shark Attack” was way ahead of its time and has been highly regarded as the release that influenced many a band in the Grindcore and Black Metal genres. To testify this statement of mine, U.K Grindcore pioneers Napalm Death have covered Wehrmacht on one of their studio compilations, thus proving the exemplary effect this band had in the years to come. Yet the irony still stands out as to why only the most devoted of Thrash Metal/Crossover freaks know about this band. As for some of you guys, quit wasting your time listening to the senseless offshoots of Grindcore and shitty Black Metal and get a hold of this classic instead.
Inspiration can strike anyone at any time, and more often than not from somewhat peculiar quarters. Rarely more so than when Sam Grant - thus far best known as guitarist and producer of Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - finally set about work on a solo project that had been pursuing him for some years. “I want people to imagine that feeling of rubber - its physical memory, the unnatural vibe of it. It’s so tactile but alien. It’s an odd analogy, but that’s what this music is for me.”A specific gravity is one more property that rubber has going for it, and that much is certainly true of Rubber Oh’s debut album ‘Strange Craft’, the result of his elasticated fixation, and his debut album of deliriously tuneful sci-fi tinged psychpop. It’s a unique soundworld in which an emphasis on beguiling melody marries a kaleidoscopic grandeur. Widescreen gems like the warped interstellar voyage that is Children Of Alchemy and the unshakeable earworm Hyperdrive Fantasyare all vibrant colour and celestial energy, setting their psychic stall out somewhere between the incandescent headspace of a ‘70s sci-fi TV show and the red-light-fever of the overheated ampstacks Grant has been historically more familiar with.Ultimately, for Grant as well as everyone else, Rubber Oh amounts to one strange trip - “Many of the lyrics are about alchemy, journeying and vessels, as interchangeable metaphors for knowledge and wisdom” he says. “I wanted to mesh the land and sea, the cosmos and the psyche across the tracks as one single plane” Mission accomplished, in short. This Strange Craft is fuelled up and ready to accept all comers on a ride into extensions through dimensions01
The Howling is a collaborative project started by writer Ken Hollings and sound artist Howlround devoted exclusively to their shared love of text, audiotape and trash aesthetics. An intense collision of spoken word and analogue tape effects, the Howling's first performance took place at the Iklectik in September 2019 as part of a special programme to celebrate The Tapeworm's 10th anniversary.
Despite the pandemic, they have managed to continue working and conferring together since then, sharing sound files, texts and mixes online, which has resulted in All Hail Mega Force, their first full-length release for The Tapeworm. The two extended tracks contained on this audiocassette reflect their shared interest in Fluxus and how informal rules and permutations can be set up to work themselves out through loops and repetitions. A straight line connects Terry Riley's tape experiments in Paris from the early 60s with their experimental recordings in the Wimpy Bar on Streatham High Road, one of their favourite meeting places. 'The idea of instant, disposable one-off creations appealed to us a lot at the time,' The Howling explain, 'particularly as both pieces were conceived and developed during different phases of Covid lockdown in the UK.'
The title and source material are derived from the kid's adventure movie MegaForce, starring Barry Bostwik and Michael Beck. Designed to sell a range of Mattel hi-tech action toys, MegaForce tanked at the box office but lives on in the collective consciousness of those who share with The Howling a special love for Trash and Trash Aesthetics.
The two tracks also share similarities in approach and realization.
'All Hail Mega Force' was created by reading combinations of the words 'All Hail Mega Force' into a voice memo recorder, transferring it to tape, cutting the whole thing as a single long loop and then stretching it across three reel-to-reel machines simultaneously, using two pencils and a pint glass full of loose change to try and maintain sufficient playback tension. Over time the loop started to degrade, which accounts for the increasingly slurry and unpredictable playback, plus frequent ruptures caused by the tape becoming jammed and having to be tugged through the machine workings by hand. Twenty-four minutes later and the result was a completed new work and a slight backache.
The text for 'Are You Man Enough For Mega Force?' was recorded live in the Wimpy Bar on Streatham High Road, 28 November 2021. It was cut to tape and looped on 3 December 2021 at Warrior Studios, Loughborough Junction. Dragged by motor and then by hand across two tape machines with copious amounts of closed input feedback provided by a third rushing in to fill the gaps. One take with no effects or overdubs, but one tiny edit in the middle when something fell over.
The second release on Eternal Soul features a limited coloured vinyl and digital Ep of tracks from the mighty old school partnership of Dj Fokus and Voyager, who drop four cuts filled with classic original DnB vibes in their own distinctive styles.
First up, Dj Fokus brings a huge classic track back from the Day with 'Online' which has stayed true to its original golden era style, but with a new line of code in the beats to give it a fresh twist. Also straight out of the vault is the completely unreleased track, 'Inteliqo' which was made around 1995 in the legendary Monroe studios, but stayed
hidden on DAT until 2021. Both tracks have those authentic 90's vibes and are sure to drop!
Following on are two tracks from Voyager that feature his distinct style and rolling beats. 'Aurora remix' takes the original deep atmospheric stepper and drops a rolling Amen into the mix that adds a new take on lifting the lush pads and melodies of the original into a more upfront style. Finishing the selection is a revisit to Voyager's original 'Aurora', which has been remastered and fattened up on the mix for a deeper journey into atmospheric bliss in his own unique style.
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Two years may seem like a very short stop gap between original release and reissue, but when the music comes at this kind of grade who's complaining? Much like his contemporaries such as Fred P and DJ Qu, Patrice Scott's take on deeper-than-deep house conjure up ambient fantasies coloured with twinkling synth lines and slowly exhaled pads. It's not all fuzzed-out bliss though, as "2000 Black" sneaks a warm and snarling bassline amidst the soothing elements around it. "Mind Rhythms" especially shines with its combination of heavy groove and intricate melodies bubbling away under the surface.
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Emotional Rescue celebrates a decade of reissues by again pulling deep from the well with the first of several French avant albums over the coming year. The self-styled "Ethno-Industrial" Vox Populi! present their 1989 Aither album, remastered and repackaged with love nearly 30 years later.
Initiated by artist Axel Kyrou in 1982, Vox Populi! was soon joined by long term collaborator Pacific 231 on a series of coldwave/industrial cassette only recordings. Things changed considerably, however, with the meeting of the siblings, Mitra and Arach in 1984.
The consequential use of "traditional" instruments and, especially, his wife Mitra's Persian folklore vocals gave a specific tonality, incorporating the band's expanding passion for oriental sounds, electronics and psychedelic music.
Involving numerous musicians and friends in often-spontaneous studio sessions, the melting pot of varied cultural backgrounds added ethnic, electronic, concrete music, funk, dub and experimental flavours.
This feeling of the subjective absence of the artist was achieved via a communal way for making music, but still with an aim to entertain while leading the listener to experience something unique - mind elevating, non-egotistical, ethereal music - all pushing the intellect towards a more artistic transparency.
Welcome to Aither.
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"When Aniruddha Das (DSPSSSSD) and Gary ""Roy"" Stewart (Dubmorphology) met at Nottingham Trent Polytechnic in the mid-80s, they started on a life-long friendship and musical collaborative partnership that continues today.
While Das went on to acclaim as part of Asian Dub Foundation, Stewart is an artist and experimental sonic musician, producing projects featuring sound design and immersive works, for the likes of Tate Museum.
Together they perform as Dubnoiz Coalition, exploring the outer limits of improvised bass, noise and distortion, which has seen them perform across the globe.
In 1990 they took their first steps in a recording studio, mixing the early influences of Acid House with their interest in drone and sound effects, to create two pieces, Tilt and Fari 116.
Recorded as improvisational jams and dubbed live to the mixing desk, they were pressed as very limited white labels. Here Tilt is all bubbling acid and taut percussion, recorded to a 2” 16 track. Using samplers, drum machines, Roland TB303 and sync box, Ani arranged the drum and bass lines, as well as programming the 'counter melodies' with the TB303, with acid modulations and sometimes in odd time signatures, while Roy looked after the samples and drones.
Archival testaments but set apart from the burgeoning acid house scene and simply great music, here remastered and reissued some 30 years later by Platform 23.
"
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"This fabled 11 minute+ version of Brazilian icon Joyce's groundbreaking "Feminina" was recorded at Columbia Studios, New York in 1977, for the as yet unreleased Natureza album. Produced, arranged and conducted by the great Claus Ogerman (Frank Sinatra, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Billie Holiday... the list goes on), Natureza would have ostensibly been Joyce's big break to international stardom, but mysteriously it was never released. With Joyce came fellow Brazilian icons Mauricio Maestro, Nana Vasconcelos and Tutty Moreno, and Ogerman employed North American jazz legends Joe Farrell, Michael Brecker, Buster Williams and Mike Manieri. In anticipation of the monumental forthcoming Natureza album release via Far Out Recordings, this astonishing version of a true classic gets it's first proper 12" release for Record Store Day 2022. In the spirit of making the release special for RSD, rather than make it a single sided 12", Far Out boss called up Joyce to talk about the recording, recorded the conversation, and pressed it to vinyl on the B side."
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Ethereal, sensual, subtle. Maria de Fátima is that new favourite singer you think you just discovered, but who had actually always been there. This Brazilian muse from Tijuca (Rio de Janeiro) has worked and recorded with artists such as Milton Nascimento, Gilberto Gil, Arthur Verocai, Airto Moreira & Flora Purim, Chico Buarque, Lincoln Olivetti or José Roberto Bertrami (Azymuth).
We're immensely proud to bring you a deluxe reissue of her only solo album Bahia com H, one of the finest pieces of Brazilian music released outside of Brazil. The album was recorded in 1981 in Uruguay, where Maria had settled with her then husband synthesizer wizard Hugo Fattoruso (OPA), who also takes on production duties. Bahia com H combines Maria's own compositions with her unique takes on some Brazilian classics by Ary Barroso, Denis Brean and Gilberto Gil amongst others, compositions which gain a new significance with Maria's ethereal interpretation and the blended elements of Candombe, provided by the all-star line-up of Uruguayan musicians who joined in for the recording.
First vinyl reissue, preserving the original artwork in its gatefold sleeve, fully licensed and with sound sourced from the original analogue tapes.
Additionally we include a 12-page booklet with photos from Maria’s private archive and liner notes by the mighty producer, journalist, Grammy voting member and living jazz encyclopedia Arnaldo de Souteiro.
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A brand new multi genre label. Releasing Jungle, Hardcore and Jungle Techno that pay's tribute to the orginal 90's vibe but presents it with a modern take. TufStuf focuses on the harder and faster side of rave, with rough layered breakbeats, deep sub bass, and emotive and catchy melodies.
With already some very experienced, talented and create producers signed to the label there is many exciting things to come. The second EP focuses hard and heavy amen Jungle with deep soundscapes, melodic vibes and emotive vocals with plenty of heavy basslines as well.
EP comes with a 12 x 12 inch full colour double sided artwork insert.
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"Robot Hive/Exodus" is the second of initially four albums reimagined and individually curated by a band member, in this case Dan Maines, and reissued as part of the Clutch Collector's Series. The first album in this new series was Blast Tyrant, curated by Jean-Paul Gaster. TheRH/E artwork is in the vein of the original "Blast Tyrant" yet strikingly different. The vinyl release is remastered and manufactured on 180-gram colored vinyl which in turn is stored in extra heavy sleeves. The gatefold jacket is printed on metalized polyester paper, and each album includes a numbered insert autographed by the band. As an extra special element this 2xLP includes a 7" with two tracks: "What Would a Wookie Do?" and "Bottoms Up, Socrates". These two songs were originally among the 16 songs written and recorded for Robot Hive/Exodus back in 2005 but were left off the final album for time purposes. We are glad to have these recordings return home as part of the RH/E Collector’s Series limited to 7,500 units worldwide.
Robot Hive/Exodus (Ltd. Collector's Series/2LP+7"):
- The 12" colors are "Metallic Silver" with "Metallic Gold"
- Bonus 7" with two additional tracks
- Remastered Audio
- Limited Edition
- 2xLP 180g Colored Vinyl
- Artist Autographed Numbered Insert
Here is a quote from Dan, who quarterbacked this project re the two tracks on the 7" (the 7" is black vinyl in its own sleeve):
"What Would a Wookie Do?", and "Bottoms Up, Socrates" were among the 16 songs written and recorded for Robot Hive/Exodus back in 2005. For time purposes these two were left off the final album. We are glad to have these recordings return home as part of the Robot Hive/Exodus Collector’s Series.
For the label’s next release, the team at Leng Records has decided to offer-up something a little bit different: a 12” compilation of little-known and hard-to-find Balearic gems selected by friend of the label Paul Beckett.
Plucked from the dusty corners of his collection, the five tracks on show are quietly colourful, tactile and musically rich excursions that effortlessly blur the boundaries between genres and sound terrific blasting from speakers on a humid Mediterranean or Adriatic afternoon.
First up is Ray & John’s languid, subtly disco-tinged ‘Day By Day (Instrumental)’, which originally featured on the flipside of the Italian duo’s sole single from 1984. Rich in rubbery bass guitar, sequenced synth-bass, sharp disco guitar licks, Fairlight stabs, dreamy chords and occasional chanted vocals, it sounds like Please-era Pet Shop Boys reclining at a Rimini pool party after copious amounts of happy pills.
It’s followed by Angel’o’s ‘Angelo’, a turn-of-the-80s gem picked from the band’s long-forgotten album, Dream Machine. Marked out by warming electric piano motifs, squelchy synth-bass and hazy lead vocals, the track successfully mixes krautrock and space rock sounds with the then fresh sound of synth-pop.
Next up is All Trouvee’s ‘Darling’, a thoroughly overlooked 1987 single whose minimalistic sleeve artwork lists each of the now-classic – and then cutting edge – synthesizers used to make the sun-soaked blend of mid-80s synth disco, AOR pop and sunset-ready jazz-funk piano solos.
Equally as impactful is Angel’s ‘Tomorrow Night’, a classic – if little-known – chunk of glossy, laidback synth-pop from 1980 that sounds like something you’d hear on AM radio stations in the early hours of the morning. Its’ sound – all delay-laden Linn drums, synth-horns, Nile Rodgers style guitar licks and echoing lead lines – was actually far sighted for the time but would become more familiar to listeners as synth-pop boomed in the mid 1980s. Those who buy the digital version of the EP will also have access to a longer, club-style mix as well as the short version featured on the 12”.
Rounding off a fine package is ‘Feeling Action’ by Eggs Time, a deliciously warm and woozy chunk of fretless bass-sporting Italian pop/West Coast jazz-rock fusion plucked from a real since of buried treasure: an Italian compilation called – for reasons that aren’t clear – Moby Dick. There’s certainly a tinge of both yacht rock and blue-eyed soul about the track’s gorgeous blend of FM synth sounds, eyes-closed jazz guitar solos, unfussy beats and sweet female lead vocals. It provides a fittingly horizontal finish to a collection packed to the rafters with long-overlooked, sun-baked treats.
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For Richard Dorfmeister and Rupert Huber, the idea of rebirth is a creative driving force – an artistic device which not only informs their work, but anchors it. As the avant-garde electronic group Tosca, the two artists have lived many musical lives, from their early electronic experiments with tape decks to the blissed-out dub compositions with which they have made their name.
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LowEnd 001 - Existense Is Absurd is the first chapter in the collaborative effort between JohannesK and Duncan Macdonald. With a focus on hypnotic but driving techno, the release features two tracks each from the label founders. Respectively the 2 artists have released on labels such as Key Vinyl, Hayes, ARTS, Krill and more. The focus is an overall aesthetic product that is in balance with sound and art design, with the design again focusing on artists and friends.
Existense is Absurd (a reference to the building Johannes and Duncan live in) is made up of 4 tracks of varying characteristics. The trippy and hypnotic grooves of Time and Cyclopes, with bubbling textures and cinematic ambience, contrast the more pumping Applied Force and Consciousness.
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Kavinsky is a zombie who came back from the dead after his Testarossa crashed in 1986.
His first song, "Testarossa Autodrive", was an instant success, and was followed by two singles. In 2007, he was chosen by Daft Punk to open their now legendary "Alive" tour.
In 2011, his track "Nightcall", produced with Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, became the theme song for the film "Drive", and consequently a worldwide success.
Kavinsky's first album, "Outrun", was released in 2013, followed by a collaboration with The Weeknd on the song "Odd Look".
In 2022, Kavinsky is back with "Reborn", his second album recorded at the famous Motorbass studio in Paris, due March 25th. "Renegade" which was recorded in collaboration with Victor Le Masne and Gaspard Augé (half of Justice) reinvents the French producer’s unique recipe: dark mood but with a thunderous groove. With a vocal assistance from Cautious Clay, « Renegade » announces one of this years’ most anticipated comebacks.
A product of generations of underground music in L.A. and beyond, The Linda Lindas' debut, Growing Up, channels classic punk, post punk, power pop, new wave, and other surprises into timelessly catchy and cool songs sung by all four members-each with her own style and energy. A handful of cuts have already been previewed at shows and enthusiastically approved by diehard followers in the pit at L.A.'s DIY punk institution The Smell and Head in the Cloud festival goers at The Rose Bowl alike. The Linda Lindas are stoked to unleash Growing Up. The Linda Lindas first played together as members of a pickup new wave cover band of kids assembled by Kristin Kontrol (Dum Dum Girls) for Girlschool LA in 2018 and then formed their own garage punk group just for fun. Sisters Mila de la Garza (drummer, now 11) and Lucia de la Garza (guitar, 14), cousin Eloise Wong (bass, 13), and family friend Bela Salazar (guitar, 17) developed their chops as regulars at all-ages matinees in Chinatown, where they played with original L.A. punks like The Dils, Phranc, and Alley Cats; went on to open for riot grrrl legends Bikini Kill and architect Alice Bag as well as DIY heavyweights Best Coast and Bleached; and were eventually featured in Amy Poehler's movie Moxie. When the pandemic put a pause on shows, The Linda Lindas went on to self-release a four-song EP, make their own videos and grow a following beyond Los Angeles. But they never expected or could have even dreamed that their performance of "Racist, Sexist Boy" for the Los Angeles Public Library in May 2021 would take them from punk shows to TV shows. A month later, when the school year ended and summer began, The Linda Lindas got to work on their first full-length LP. Having written a mountain of new material individually while sheltering in place and attending class virtually, the band was more than ready to enter the studio where Mila and Lucia's dad (and Eloise's uncle and Bela's "uncle") Carlos de la Garza oversaw recording and production. The Grammy-winning producer's work includes Paramore, Bad Religion, Best Coast, and Bleached.
- FIRST EVER official vinyl reissue - definitive version with Nancy's involvement - Definitive reissue of Nancy & Lee's classic 1968 duet album - Includes the bonus tracks, "Tired Of Waiting for You" and "Love Is Strange," from the album sessions - Newly remastered from the original analog tapes by GRAMMYr-nominated engineer John Baldwin - Vinyl pressed at RTI - Q&A with Nancy & GRAMMYr-nominated reissue co-producer Hunter Lea - Never-before-seen photos from Nancy Sinatra's personal archive - Beautifully packaged and expanded gatefold LP featuring a 20-pg booklet // "We had sort of a love/hate relationship. Maybe it was a sexual tension because we never had any kind of affair. I don't know exactly what it was, but it worked." - Nancy Sinatra Light in the Attic is thrilled to announce the first official reissue of Nancy & Lee: the highly-influential 1968 duet album from Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood. This definitive edition of Nancy & Lee features newly-remastered audio by the GRAMMYr-nominated engineer John Baldwin and includes an array of exclusive content, including a new interview with Nancy, never-before-seen photos, and two bonus tracks from the album sessions: an ethereal cover of The Kinks' "Tired of Waiting for You" and an uptempo version of "Love Is Strange" (first made famous by Mickey & Sylvia in 1956). This release marks the official debut on vinyl for both tracks. After a string of successful duet singles with Lee Hazlewood, including "Sand," "Summer Wine," "Jackson," and "Some Velvet Morning;" the pair released the duet album Nancy & Lee in 1968. The album features the lush, orchestral arrangements of Billy Strange and the famed Los Angeles session musicians, The Wrecking Crew, at the peak of their powers. The unique vocal blend, the iconic cover and the selection of classic songs attracted a huge following and sold over a million copies.
- FIRST EVER official vinyl reissue - definitive version with Nancy's involvement - Definitive reissue of Nancy & Lee's classic 1968 duet album - Includes the bonus tracks, "Tired Of Waiting for You" and "Love Is Strange," from the album sessions - Newly remastered from the original analog tapes by GRAMMYr-nominated engineer John Baldwin - Vinyl pressed at RTI - Q&A with Nancy & GRAMMYr-nominated reissue co-producer Hunter Lea - Never-before-seen photos from Nancy Sinatra's personal archive - Beautifully packaged and expanded gatefold LP featuring a 20-pg booklet // "We had sort of a love/hate relationship. Maybe it was a sexual tension because we never had any kind of affair. I don't know exactly what it was, but it worked." - Nancy Sinatra Light in the Attic is thrilled to announce the first official reissue of Nancy & Lee: the highly-influential 1968 duet album from Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood. This definitive edition of Nancy & Lee features newly-remastered audio by the GRAMMYr-nominated engineer John Baldwin and includes an array of exclusive content, including a new interview with Nancy, never-before-seen photos, and two bonus tracks from the album sessions: an ethereal cover of The Kinks' "Tired of Waiting for You" and an uptempo version of "Love Is Strange" (first made famous by Mickey & Sylvia in 1956). This release marks the official debut on vinyl for both tracks. After a string of successful duet singles with Lee Hazlewood, including "Sand," "Summer Wine," "Jackson," and "Some Velvet Morning;" the pair released the duet album Nancy & Lee in 1968. The album features the lush, orchestral arrangements of Billy Strange and the famed Los Angeles session musicians, The Wrecking Crew, at the peak of their powers. The unique vocal blend, the iconic cover and the selection of classic songs attracted a huge following and sold over a million copies.