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Originally scheduled for release way back in March 1996, "The Raw Factor" by North Carolina native Omniscence is one of the last of the unreleased mid-90's albums to see the light of day. Despite being awarded The Source's coveted "Hip Hop Quotable" and dropping two well-received singles ("Amazin" and "Touch Y'all"), record label politics meant the full-length "The Raw Factor" album was never released and fans were left wondering what might have been.

28 years later, "The Raw Factor" is finally being released on vinyl, CD and digital stores. Featuring punchline-driven lyrics from Omniscence delivered in his unmistakable cadence, and backed by head-nodding production from Fanatic, the album is a must-own for fans of 90's Hip Hop.

Omniscence haunted the same early 90's cyphers and stages that many lyrical greats from the era had to cross. With a gruff delivery and equal adeptness with punchlines and metaphors, his high finish at the 1994 edition Battle For World Supremacy at the New Music Seminar assured heads across the culture were watching. After this, Omniscence locked in with producer Fanatic (who also laced tracks for Notorious B.I.G., Ma$e and Michael Jackson). The result was "The Raw Factor" album, fifteen plus tracks of jazzed out boom-bap, replete with crackin' drums.

Now Below System Records has not only given the album its first deluxe physical release (including 2xLP, CD and digital) as well as a slew of bonus/unreleased tracks.
















p Touch Y'all (Remix) feat. Sadat X
















p Touch Y'all (Remix) feat. Sadat X
















p Touch Y'all (Remix) [feat. Sadat X]

Dublin City, 1998. Prepare to be transported back in time to the vivid streets of Dublin. A city in social, economic and artistic transition.Set against an evocative sonic backdrop of jungle, drum and bass and breakbeat, SK83 weaves an elaborate narrative that captures the essence of adolescent life in Dublin in the late 1990’s.Delve into a captivating sonic journey that explores the bevy of emotions and events that colour a teenagers journey to adulthood - from love and loss, first-time experiences, the pitfalls of peer pressure and the unmistakable pull of the city's intoxicating rave culture.''My ambition for SK83 was to create an immersive musical and visual universe that brings the listener on a journey that captures the essence of adolescence. I wanted to reflect and re - live my own teenage experiences, and bring to life what is a shared universal experience for us all - but in this instance is told thru the lens of a young man in Dublin in the late 1990’s.'' — MathMan

Released Summer 2024

(2LP gatefold vinyl, 21 unmixed tracks) Dimitri Vegas, half of the world-renowned DJ duo & brother pair Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, went “solo” at Tomorrowland last summer. He played an exceptional 'vinyl only' set there. It was greatly enjoyed, which is why Mostiko and Smash The House have teamed up and immortalized this historic set.

To coincide with its 20th anniversary, Clint Mansell's haunting score to Darren Aronofsky's 2000 film, Requiem for a Dream, performed by Kronos Quartet, returns to vinyl. This was Mansell’s second of several collaborations with Aronofsky, following 1997’s π, and features arrangements by David Lang of Bang on a Can. The film stars Academy Award-winner Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly and Marlon Wayans, and was adapted from the 1978 novel by Hubert Selby, Jr. (Last Exit to Brooklyn), who also wrote the screenplay with Aronofsky. Set on the rusted mean streets of Coney Island, Brooklyn, Requiem for a Dream tells the parallel stories of four people pursuing their dreams of better lives. The reissue features the original soundtrack, plus two bonus tracks.

Clint Mansell, a musician, composer, and founding member of the band Pop Will Eat Itself, first worked with Darren Aronofsky on the score for his 1998 film π. Also released by Nonesuch are Mansell’s scores for Aronofsky's The Fountain (2006), nominated for a Golden Globe, and Noah (2014). His other scores include The Wrestler (2008), Moon (2009), Black Swan (2010), Filth (2013), Stoker (2013), High Rise (2016), for which he received an Ivor Novello nomination, and Loving Vincent (2017).

For more than 40 years, San Francisco’s Kronos Quartet – David Harrington (violin), John Sherba (violin), Hank Dutt (viola), and Sunny Yang (cello) – has combined a spirit of fearless exploration with a commitment to continually re-imagining the string quartet experience. In the process, Kronos has become one of the world’s most celebrated and influential ensembles, performing thousands of concerts, releasing more than 50 recordings, collaborating with many of the world’s most eclectic composers and performers, and commissioning over 850 works and arrangements for string quartet. A Grammy winner, Kronos is also the only recipient of both the Polar Music Prize and the Avery Fisher Prize. Most recently, in 2019, Nonesuch released Kronos’s ground-breaking collaboration with composer Terry Riley, Sun Rings, and, in 2017, Folk Songs, featuring Sam Amidon, Olivia Chaney, Rhiannon Giddens and Natalie Merchant.

‘The Gods We Can Touch’ is an elegant and celestial but provocative album about shame, desire and morality, all seen through the narrative prism of Greek mythology. In each of the album’s fifteen songs we meet a different god. In AURORA’s own words, “With every album I try to figure out what music means to people and why it’s so important,” she says. “I ask myself: ‘What would people wish to hear right now? What words do they need to hear? What could do good?’” In answering that question, she’s recorded an album that celebrates how spectacular each of us can be, by reminding us how unspectacular we also are.

We are excited to announce the release of the Complete James Brown Christmas Collection, a three-LP set featuring music from 1966-1970.

You absolutely don’t need to be a holiday music lover to fall in love with the music spilling out over these James Brown records, as most of the tracks are original compositions that hold their own against many of the grooves that Brown was recording during this high-water mark of his career.

With bonus tracks galore and fantastic liner notes by Alan Leeds (former James Brown publicist and tour manager), and mastered/cut by legendary mastering engineer Kevin Gray, this is a must-have even if you have to give yourself a well-earned, early musical present this year!

True Sneaker Social die-hard Etch returns with a monumental new album. Scream of the Butterfly shows the depth and breadth of one of the illest producers operating across the many spheres of club music with a distinct “you ‘kay?” slant.

From the moment the low-end pressure and loaded samples rear their heads on the opening track, Zak Brashill demonstrates his intent to sculpt Scream Of The Butterfly as a proper album — an end-to-end listening experience full of peaks and troughs which focus on sonic storytelling much more than club functionality. Throughout his imperious output to date, the man like Etch has displayed an affinity for sound design to match his instinct for what bangs on the spectrum of dubstep, garage, jungle and hip-hop, but now he’s gone postal on soundworld-building, with a grip of heavyweights drafted in to help set the scene.

Fellow Sneaker alumnus J-Shadow lends his maverick footwork science to ‘Star Fallen’, while UK rap anti-royalty Lee Scott brings his unmistakable Runcorn drawl to dusky head-nodder ‘Not Surprised’. UK bass-synth-ambient enigma E.M.M.A drops in for the moody, meandering midpoint ‘Stepford Lives’, and Killa P and Emz deliver blazing bars to the double dose of ‘Prayer Wheel (Left You Fi Dead)’ and ‘Heat Map’ respectively.

Elsewhere Brashill follows his own razor-sharp instincts into warping stop-start drum science, widescreen downtempo with teeth, seasick synth studies, moody-but-cosy 140 and lots more besides. Nothing comes as standard, but Scream of the Butterfly is ruff when it wants to be, subtle and spacious if the vibe demands it, and consistently packed full of the detail and intrigue that we’ve come to expect from one of the most inventive and reliably sick producers in the contemporary bassweight firmament.

Gospel melts into Soul in this dazzling collection of sides originally released by the Chess subsidiary.


Devised by the same team supporting the likes of Muddy Waters and Etta James at Chess, the vintage of Checker Gospel celebrated here is distinguished by its expertly raw, rugged, live feel — thumping bass and pounding drums, bluesy guitar and horns — and its keen engagement with contemporary realities and politics, with an underlying, unwavering commitment to the Civil Rights movement. Not forgetting its sheer, startling, richly diverse soulfulness.

Key architects of the Chicago Sound and Motown are amongst the scores of contributors: Charles Stepney, Gene Barge, Eddie Kendricks, and Leonard Caston Jr. are in the house… Morris Jennings, drummer on Curtis’ Superfly and Terry Callier’s What Color Is Love… Louis Satterfield from The Pharaohs and Earth Wind & Fire… Ramsey Lewis’ guitarist Byron Gregory… Phil Upchurch… Laura Lee…

Producer Monk Higgins joined Checker in 1967, bringing his experience of R&B and Gospel hit-making for the labels One-derful and Satellite, together with a loyal cohort of musicians. A protege of Willie Dixon, engineer Malcolm Chisholm set up the Ter Mar studio as if preparing for a live gig, carefully teasing measures of bleed into the microphones. With Ralph Bass from King Records running A&R, they knew exactly what they were after. ‘I’m using horns and an R&B sound in gospel recordings,’ said Bass. ‘We have no charts. All the musicians are given the chord changes. I want the cats to think when we’re cutting. I want spontaneity, and that’s what we’re getting.’ And: ‘There is more to gospel than just finding solace in the church. This follows the same message of Martin King, who was fighting for a new way of life. Kids are tired of hearing Jesus Give Us Help. They want a positive message.’

Focussed on the late sixties and early seventies, the twenty-five recordings here are all killer no filler, but try these four, random entry points: the heavy funk ostinato of the Violinaires’ Groovin’ With Jesus, working itself up into a post-James-Brown brass frenzy, sure to knock your socks off; Cleo Jackson Randle’s title track, for those who like their Gospel straight-up and hard-core; Eddie Kendricks’ achingly timely choral call-to-arms, Stand Up America, Don’t Be Afraid; the East St Louis Gospelettes’ heart-stopping, fathoms-deep rendition of Bobby Bland’s I’ll Take Care Of You.
A beautiful gatefold sleeve; a full-colour booklet with excellent notes by Robert Marovich; top-notch sound. Another knockout selection by Greg Belson and David Hill.

A shoo-in for soul compilation of the year.

Music from Pierre Chindemi archives. Ivrea born and based, founder and member of Drink To Me band.
Under several aliases (One Eye, Vülvá, Low Waves, Sui, Hawaii8, Bitch Volley) he produced more than one hundred tracks between 1999 and 2021.
Some were released on Stupro brucio Records, others online.
Many of them remained unreleased.
Cassettes, multitrack tapes, lost hard disks.

It was time to open this archive.

Take cover! It's impossible to get rid of the now legendary Stupeflip Crou (="crew"). Like a two-taste chewing-gum that's been stuck under your trainers since 1994, King Ju is back in force with Sons2ouf!!, an album meticulously selected from hundreds of unreleased tracks and alternative versions accumulated over the years. Always on the fringes of a bloated Game, Ju takes us on a tour of his strange cabinet of curiosities. Far from being a simple collection of sounds, the album is a real creation in its own right in the Stup discography. 'Mock-ups are often better than the final sound, like a sketch that's always more alive than a finished painting,' he explains. Here we find that first draft, bits of stuff not yet digested by the industry. Some of the nuggets are antediluvian, but they sound extremely lively, as if they had been written the day before. In Stupeflip's parallel world, time doesn't exist. We find the themes dear to Crou: childhood, rage, non- violence, the passage of time, a passion for music and nostalgia. As usual, the beat is cut with a meticulous flow, there's no time to take a breath, the Stup just does what it wants, churning out one bullet after another in a fusion of genres and styles that's as distinctive as ever. Specially dedicated to aficionados, the album celebrates 30 years of Le Crou! The Holy Grail for every Stup fan!

Into The Light is the new 2LP Black set from Whitesnake, and is based on David Coverdale's three solo records. The Into The Light album was originally released as David Coverdale’s 3rd solo album, in September 2000, and was his first solo record in 22 years. With an impressive musical lineup, David is joined on Into The Light by guitarists Earl Slick and Doug Bossi, bassist Marco Mendoza, who would later join Whitesnake, legendary drummer Denny Carmassi, who as well as Whitesnake, has played with Montrose and Heart, and Mike Finningan on keyboards, who had previously played with Jimi Hendrix in the 1960s. As well as plenty of unreleased songs and bonus tracks, the set includes “Too Many Tears,” a song David wrote with Adrian Vandenberg and originally featured on Whitesnake’s Restless Heart album. Also included is “River Song,” David’s tribute to Jimi Hendrix, and “With All Of My Heart,” a song David wrote for his wife, and in his own words, one of top ten songs that he’s written. Into The Light also features the singles “Slave,” “Love Is Blind” and “Don’t You Cry.” The box set will also include David’s first two solo records, WhiteSnake MCMLXXVII from 1977 and NorthWinds from 1978, the two titles he recorded immediately after leaving Deep Purple in 1976, in both remixed, expanded and remastered form.

Repress!

There was huge demand on the first issue - now released in a standard edition. Limited. Be Quick!

Hot double LP of beats and scattered rhymes (JPEGMAFIA, Retro X & Jeshi feature) from this highly inventive producer. Having gained notoriety for his work with Frank Ocean and Travis Scott among others, Only Diamonds Cut Diamonds is overjoyed, heady and nervous at once. It offers a proper introduction to the massively imaginative sound of Vegyn.

Ashley Henry präsentiert mit diesem Album eine spirituelle Jazzreise, die Hingabe, kollektive Träume und den Kampf um Freiheit vereint. Mit gefeierten Künstlern wie Judi Jackson und Aja Monet ist diese Platte eine kraftvolle Hymne an unsere Zeit, die Nina Simones Erbe widerspiegelt und gleichzeitig Inspiration am Puls der Stadt London und im kollektiven Träumen findet. Gelobt von globalen Medien ist Ashley Henry mit seinem charakteristischen Klavierspiel und seinen beruhigenden Gesangsklängen auf dem besten Weg, einer der einflussreichsten Jazz-Acts in Europa zu werden.

Auf 'Who We Are' arbeitet Henry mit einer Vielzahl zeitgenössischer Künstler zusammen, darunter die Grammy-nominierte Dichterin und Texterin Aja Monet, der Grammy-nominierte Trompeter Theo Croker, die Sängerin Judi Jackson und der Londoner Hip-Hop-Künstler MAK. Henrys lebendige Ausdrucksformen der Jazzkultur wirken ebenso schön wie bedeutungsvoll. Henrys tief verwurzelte Einflüsse und seine visionäre Überzeugung machen ihn zu einem der aufregendsten, neuen Londoner Musiker. Seit er mit Christine & The Queens weltweit auf Tournee war und Loyle Carner in ganz Großbritannien unterstützte, hat Henry viel Lob von den Kritikern bekommen. Unter anderem von The Guardian, Evening Standard, Clash und Wonderland.

Das wunderbare Album erscheint auf Naïve als Gatefold 2LP-Set und CD!

Repress!

This year, get ready for KONK! with the ultimate collection The Magic Force Of Konk 1981-1988. This white hot Limited Edition 3xLP set is a lovingly composed Deluxe retrospective, showcasing the Definitive Sounds Of A New York Jazz Punk Afro Funk Disco Machine.
The Magic Force Of Konk 1981-1988 is a testament to the bands artistic staying power, the music sounding as fresh now as it did then, from the crossover funk grooves of the ‘Planet Rock’ inspired ‘Konk Party’, to the innovative punk funk synth bass of club hit ‘Your Life’, the bands influence indisputably lives on in this specially created deluxe collection. This beautifully designed package is a feast for the senses, looking as good as it sounds and sure to please fans of Liquid Liquid, ESG, Pigbag, James Chance, Soul Sonic Force, LCD Soundsystem, to name but a few, or simply those intrigued by those tales of wild nightlife that have become synonymous with the vitality of 1980’s downtown New York City.

Over 1.5m albums sold in the UK and 3 consecutive no 1 albums for Noel Gallagher’s High
Flying Birds – plus a record breaking 10 consecutive chart-topping studio albums in the UK
for Noel.
- Debut eponymous album released 17th Oct 2011, debuted at no 1 with 122.5k sales and
achieved double Platinum status less than 6 months post release
- International Magic DVD release of the 02 Arena gig Feb 2012 certified Gold on shipment
-2011-2012 live schedule saw NG HFB visit 32 countries across 6 continents, playing 150
shows over a 15 month period. 406k headline tickets and 1.2m festival tickets sold
- Chasing Yesterday, released 2nd March 2015, no 1 album on release with 89.1k sales and
certified Platinum
- 2015-2016 18 month world tour covering 122 shows in 28 countries. Almost 400k headline
tickets and 1.25m festival tickets
- Who Built The Moon?’ released on 24th Nov 2017 - no 1 with 77,853 sales (almost 35k sales
ahead of no 2), Silver album after only 4 days and certified Gold 2 weeks post release
- Tour covering 59 shows in 17 countries with 245k headline tickets and 550k festival tickets
- Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds released a series of 3 multi-genre EP’s over the course
of 2019 and 2020
- 2019 saw a host of headline festival dates covering 150k tickets sold across the summer
plus tours of the USA and Australia with Smashing Pumpkins and U2 respectively

Hardcover Book which includes a 208-page book documenting Louisville's rich Black Gospel music legacy and access to a comprehensive digital archive.

In the mid-20th century, Louisville gospel music was occasionally recorded when members of the local gospel community pressed 45rpm records and LPs, and released them through grassroots record labels such as Sensational Sounds, Grace, Blessed, and D.J.S. Over the years, a substantial body of work was produced in our city, but those recordings are in danger of being lost forever.

The Louisville Story Program has been working with dozens of people in the local gospel music community to locate, digitize, and preserve hundreds of these recordings and to develop a book that documents and honors the legacies of the people and communities that produced them.

For decades, the passion, hard work, and support of countless people across dozens of Black church communities in Louisville have nurtured and sustained a rich gospel music ecosystem. This music has served as a central part of people's religious practice and as an expression of Black pride, joy, affirmation, love, dignity, determination, and hope. This legacy continues to this day.

With support from The Owsley Brown II Family Foundation and Owsley Brown III Philanthropic Foundation, LSP has partnered with members of the gospel community and a local advisory group of local gospel historians and luminaries:

To locate, clean, and digitize gospel records of local artists released by small local labels
To accompany the local Black gospel music community in developing a 4 CD box set that includes a 200+ page hardcover book with first-person documentation of their rich history
To create an accompanying double LP featuring 26 of those songs
To create and maintain a public-facing digital archive of 1,000 songs and 1,000 photographs
To celebrate the final release with a large concert at the Brown Theatre (September 28, 2024)