Joe Nora exemplifies Californian cool from the bay to LA. With a wide production palette that varies from dusty instrumental and alternative hip hop to breezy indie R&B, his range falls under a vibe that only he personifies. On his forthcoming album, Puzzle Face delves into the journey of navigating confusion and rebuilding oneself after facing adversity.
The fourth album by Love Battery, 'Straight Freak Ticket' (1994), now out for the first time on vinyl! Remastered by Jack Endino (Nirvana, Soundgarden, etc.) 'Straight Freak Ticket' is the 4th album by Seattle alternative rock band Love Battery. It was originally recorded in 1994 and released only in USA and on CD format - now it is being released on vinyl for the first time. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer called the album "a solid, well-produced album of guitar-based rock with catchy hooks and a strong dose of psychedelia." USA Today labeled the album "a psychedelic tour de force and dramatic leap forward," writing that "the antigrunge guitar riff-o-rama of Ron Nine and Kevin Whitworth propels the Seattle quartet's most adventurous and listenable tunes to date." The band, featuring members of Mother Love Bone, Green River, Skin Yard, The Presidents of the USA, is: Ron Nine - Vocals, Guitar Kevin Whitworth - Guitar Jason Finn - Drums Bruce Fairweather - Bass
Favorite Recordings proudly presents this new official single reissue of “Feel So Good Inside”, by Lamar Thomas. A killer deep-disco and very rare collectable single, fully coordinated for reissue by French respected DJ and Tropical rare-groove specialist, Waxist Selecta.
Lamar Thomas is an American singer, composer and producer who made a short solo career in the 70s, and then formed the duo Thomas & Taylor. He has also penned few songs for Johnny Bristol, Garland Green, Nancy Wilson, Maynard Ferguson, or Johnnie Taylor among others.
In 1980, he recorded this 2 tracks single for MCA Records, who released it on a 7inch left almost unnoticed at that time. 30 years later, this brilliant disco production has become a classic rare-groove title for a few DJs and diggers, with among them, French collector and DJ, Waxist Selecta (aKa Julien Minarro).
Schooled about this rarity by DJ Klas (aKa Josh Goldman), he then made it a real favorite in his various DJ sets. Curious to learn more about this forgotten piece, he also liaised with Lamar through the web, and discovered that all the masters had burned in a California fire at Universal.
As Julien already worked on an upcoming reissue project with Pascal Rioux and Favorite Recordings (more details in 2015), he offered him and Lamar to arrange a proper official reissue and produce a new master from his own vinyl copy. Coming out in a 12inch version built for dancefloors, the package also includes a great extended mix by Waxist.
"Rave-up & turn on! Fueled by a classy high-stepping image and hot instrumental licks born of old R&B and Northwest stalwarts the Kingsmen, Wailers and Sonics, this collection shows their always excellent material ranging from '60s punk to sunshine pop. Includes their debut single!
In many ways they were one of the quintessential Northwest bands. Their credentials were impeccable - leader Don Gallucci was a classically trained pianist who, as a younger teenager, played keyboards for the Kingsmen on "Louie, Louie." Early guitarist Pete Oulette had been in the Raiders and his replacement, Jim Valley, had founded the white hot Seattle band the Viceroys. When Valley got the call to become "Harpo," his slot was filled by Charlie Coe, who had played with the Raiders and Jack Ely and the Courtmen. And the last Goodtime guitarist was Joey Newman, who had made his mark with the Enchanters and Merrilee Rush and the Turnabouts.
Their only hit single, "I Could Be So Good to You," a Jack Nitzsche song, was their only national hit (#56) in spring 1967. Their Nitzsche-produced Epic album So Good was a curious amalgam of Overman originals and British Invasion covers.
Their earlier sound is much more raw – "You Were Just a Child" could have been a national hit. The dynamics and bridge in this are killer, as is the pulverizing fuzz bass. "I'm Real" may be the punkiest Don and the Goodtimes got; Note the cool reference to LA disc jockey "The Real" Don Steele. Other cuts like like "Make It" are as Northwest as they come. Rough and raunchy, this hot instrumental was the B side of their first single."
To celebrate 50 years of this mighty band - A brand new studio album by the legendary Johnny Moped! Green vinyl limited to 425 copies! First up, that title - Quonk! What's that all about? Johnny - I have no idea where the name Quonk! come from! it seemed rather weird for a possible album title. Slimy - Incidental noise that's picked up _. We are a bit like that _ Johnny Moped's Quonk! is very Quonk le Donk (saucepan lid landing on head) and it's available soon from all Damaged record outlets. Marty - This one's for Toad really. It was his call and it's a great title for a Moped album. Robot - The band suffers from Quonking pretty regularly, so we thought we'd make a whole album of it. It's been five years since your last album Lurrigate Your Mind. How come it's taken so long to write and record this one? Johnny - it must have taken up to five months to rehearse for that album. Around the same time as previous albums. Slimy - Toads are slow moving creatures. Marty - Because we're old and very very lazy. Robot - That's pretty quick for us, it was over 30 years between 'Rock 'n' Roll Rookie' and Cycledelic. We wanted to make sure it passed quality control before letting it loose on the world. It sounds like you had a fun time recording it. Is that the case or was it more painful this time round? Johnny - We did have a lot of fun recording those albums starting from Real Cool Baby and Lurrigate Your Mind. Classic albums! I have enjoyed recording all of our albums from Cycledelic up to our latest album (problems aside!) Slimy - Creating Quonk! was fun _ always thrills me when the sounds come together _ Johnny and his band have a plethora of tunes. Yeah! It was alright. Marty - Bits were really easy and other bits were really hard. A lot of the songs on any Moped album really only take shape in the studio. And Dick Crippen helps a lot with how they turn out. I'm very proud of this album and the band and Johnny have worked really hard to make the best record we can. Robot - Yeah it's always fun making a Moped record. Johnny's totally at home in the studio environment...and the pub across the road. Give him the lyrics, he takes hold and delivers the goods in one take. There are some brilliant songs on the new LP. Can you tell us what 'Oh Jane' is about? Johnny - Jane is a traveller on that song, nothing to do with an ex-girlfriend of the same name! Slimy - That's about Johnny's love life. Marty - Over to you Rob.. Robot - Johnny wrote it about his love affair with a certain TV starlet who spends most of her time cruising around the world. I'll give you a clue - it ain't Susan Calman! 'Things May Happen' is being released as a single. What inspired you to write that song? Johnny - I did not write 'Things may happen', that is a Slimy Toad song; but I did not have a problem with it being released as a single. Slimy - The extraordinary lightness of being ... just the path and what's on it. Marty - This is Toad's one and it's a cracker! Robot - I think it's about the possibility of London buses running on time, or Crystal Palace winning a trophy. Johnny turned 70 last year, celebrating in style with a gig at London's 229 Venue. Some people have said it was the best Moped gig ever. How was it from your point of view? Johnny - Yes it was a gig at the 229 club to remember for all the right reasons, it was a blinder of a gig. Slimy - I thought Johnny's birthday gig was a rip-roaring success _ I enjoyed it _ The next Moped gig will be the best Moped gig ever and the one after that. Marty - It's not the best gig as far as how we performed. But as far as the turn out and the size of the crowd that came along to celebrate Johnny's birthday it was the best vibe of all the gigs for certain for me. Robot - Yeah I think it was up there with the Koko gig a few years back, great sound and a great crowd, yeah one of the best. This year marks the 50th year of Johnny Moped. What have been the high (and low) points for the band in the last five decades? Johnny - Not much was happening with the band gigwise. we were in hiatus between 2006 up to 2016 when we were getting gig bookings thick and fast, including mini-German tours and three dates in Norway and one in Sweden. Slimy - The constitution of these thoroughbred punk rockers is testimony to getting up and rocking out _ Johnny is not stopping he's class. Marty - I've only been in the band since 2017 and before that was the driver and shit carrier and before that a fan and also the band are my mates. So not one low point for me at all. Robot - I don't recall any low points...being in the band is one long high. You'll be back out on the road this summer. Any message for fans who'll be coming to see you? Slimy - You better believe it! You enjoyed that you bums or I'll kill you! Tomcats! Marty - Be afraid. Be very afraid! Robot - Enjoy the show...things may happen!
To celebrate 50 years of this mighty band - A brand new studio album by the legendary Johnny Moped! Green vinyl limited to 425 copies! First up, that title - Quonk! What's that all about? Johnny - I have no idea where the name Quonk! come from! it seemed rather weird for a possible album title. Slimy - Incidental noise that's picked up _. We are a bit like that _ Johnny Moped's Quonk! is very Quonk le Donk (saucepan lid landing on head) and it's available soon from all Damaged record outlets. Marty - This one's for Toad really. It was his call and it's a great title for a Moped album. Robot - The band suffers from Quonking pretty regularly, so we thought we'd make a whole album of it. It's been five years since your last album Lurrigate Your Mind. How come it's taken so long to write and record this one? Johnny - it must have taken up to five months to rehearse for that album. Around the same time as previous albums. Slimy - Toads are slow moving creatures. Marty - Because we're old and very very lazy. Robot - That's pretty quick for us, it was over 30 years between 'Rock 'n' Roll Rookie' and Cycledelic. We wanted to make sure it passed quality control before letting it loose on the world. It sounds like you had a fun time recording it. Is that the case or was it more painful this time round? Johnny - We did have a lot of fun recording those albums starting from Real Cool Baby and Lurrigate Your Mind. Classic albums! I have enjoyed recording all of our albums from Cycledelic up to our latest album (problems aside!) Slimy - Creating Quonk! was fun _ always thrills me when the sounds come together _ Johnny and his band have a plethora of tunes. Yeah! It was alright. Marty - Bits were really easy and other bits were really hard. A lot of the songs on any Moped album really only take shape in the studio. And Dick Crippen helps a lot with how they turn out. I'm very proud of this album and the band and Johnny have worked really hard to make the best record we can. Robot - Yeah it's always fun making a Moped record. Johnny's totally at home in the studio environment...and the pub across the road. Give him the lyrics, he takes hold and delivers the goods in one take. There are some brilliant songs on the new LP. Can you tell us what 'Oh Jane' is about? Johnny - Jane is a traveller on that song, nothing to do with an ex-girlfriend of the same name! Slimy - That's about Johnny's love life. Marty - Over to you Rob.. Robot - Johnny wrote it about his love affair with a certain TV starlet who spends most of her time cruising around the world. I'll give you a clue - it ain't Susan Calman! 'Things May Happen' is being released as a single. What inspired you to write that song? Johnny - I did not write 'Things may happen', that is a Slimy Toad song; but I did not have a problem with it being released as a single. Slimy - The extraordinary lightness of being ... just the path and what's on it. Marty - This is Toad's one and it's a cracker! Robot - I think it's about the possibility of London buses running on time, or Crystal Palace winning a trophy. Johnny turned 70 last year, celebrating in style with a gig at London's 229 Venue. Some people have said it was the best Moped gig ever. How was it from your point of view? Johnny - Yes it was a gig at the 229 club to remember for all the right reasons, it was a blinder of a gig. Slimy - I thought Johnny's birthday gig was a rip-roaring success _ I enjoyed it _ The next Moped gig will be the best Moped gig ever and the one after that. Marty - It's not the best gig as far as how we performed. But as far as the turn out and the size of the crowd that came along to celebrate Johnny's birthday it was the best vibe of all the gigs for certain for me. Robot - Yeah I think it was up there with the Koko gig a few years back, great sound and a great crowd, yeah one of the best. This year marks the 50th year of Johnny Moped. What have been the high (and low) points for the band in the last five decades? Johnny - Not much was happening with the band gigwise. we were in hiatus between 2006 up to 2016 when we were getting gig bookings thick and fast, including mini-German tours and three dates in Norway and one in Sweden. Slimy - The constitution of these thoroughbred punk rockers is testimony to getting up and rocking out _ Johnny is not stopping he's class. Marty - I've only been in the band since 2017 and before that was the driver and shit carrier and before that a fan and also the band are my mates. So not one low point for me at all. Robot - I don't recall any low points...being in the band is one long high. You'll be back out on the road this summer. Any message for fans who'll be coming to see you? Slimy - You better believe it! You enjoyed that you bums or I'll kill you! Tomcats! Marty - Be afraid. Be very afraid! Robot - Enjoy the show...things may happen!
Cherry Red Vinyl, limitiert auf 1000 Exemplare. Die Punk-Veteranen von Hot Water Music freuen sich, die Veröffentlichung ihren brandneuen Albums Vows anzukündigen, welches am 10.05.2024 via End Hits Records erscheint. Unter der Leitung des erfahrenen Produzenten Brian McTernan gibt es auf Vows hochkarätige Gastauftritte von Thrice, Dallas Green (City and Colour // Alexisonfire), The Interrupters, Daniel Fang und Brendan Yates (Turnstile) und Popeye Vogelsang (Calling Hours // ex-Farside). Drei Jahrzehnte, 10 Alben und immer noch ein fester Pfeiler des amerikanischen Punks - Hot Water Music sind nach wie vor eine Quelle des Einflusses und der Inspiration für Bands auf der ganzen Welt. Auf dem kommenden Album Vows bleibt das Ziel der Band dasselbe wie immer: kontinuierliche Weiterentwicklung mit einem scharfen Blick in die Zukunft. "Das Thema, das während der Arbeit an diesem Album immer wieder auftauchte, war das Wachstum - wie das Schreiben eines Songs, die Aufnahme eines Albums oder das Dasein in einer Band so ist, als würde man einen Samen pflanzen und ihm beim Wachsen helfen", so die Band. "Wir denken, dass das viel damit zu tun hat, dass wir zurückblicken und erkennen, dass wir es in 30 Jahren geschafft haben, etwas Besonderes zu schaffen, das wir alle wirklich lieben" Darüber hinaus markiert "Vows" ein weiteres brillantes Kapitel in der fortgesetzten Zusammenarbeit mit dem gefeierten Produzenten und Hardcore-Legende Brian McTernan, der mit der Band an "A Flight And A Crash" (2001), "Caution" (2002) und "The New What Next" (2004) gearbeitet hat, die oft als Hot Water Music-Klassiker bezeichnet werden. Ohne zu wissen, wie es weitergeht, begann die Band mit dem Schreiben der neuen Songs mit der einfachen Absicht, Musik zu veröffentlichen, um diesen hart erarbeiteten Meilenstein zu feiern, sei es eine Single, eine EP oder ein ganzes Album. Sie waren sich jedoch absolut sicher, dass sie keine neue Platte nur um der Sache willen machen wollten; diese Platte musste aufregend, unerbittlich und vor allem notwendig sein. "Jeder hat viel Zeit damit verbracht, über die Reise nachzudenken, die uns hierher gebracht hat, und darüber nachzudenken, was wir von nun an tun wollen, während wir dieses Album machen", fasst die Band zusammen. "Wir hoffen, dass sich dieses Album für jeden, der es hört, wie eine Feier unserer Geschichte und Zukunft anfühlt. Das ist es definitiv und so fühlt es sich für uns an."
Cherry Red Vinyl, limitiert auf 1000 Exemplare. Die Punk-Veteranen von Hot Water Music freuen sich, die Veröffentlichung ihren brandneuen Albums Vows anzukündigen, welches am 10.05.2024 via End Hits Records erscheint. Unter der Leitung des erfahrenen Produzenten Brian McTernan gibt es auf Vows hochkarätige Gastauftritte von Thrice, Dallas Green (City and Colour // Alexisonfire), The Interrupters, Daniel Fang und Brendan Yates (Turnstile) und Popeye Vogelsang (Calling Hours // ex-Farside). Drei Jahrzehnte, 10 Alben und immer noch ein fester Pfeiler des amerikanischen Punks - Hot Water Music sind nach wie vor eine Quelle des Einflusses und der Inspiration für Bands auf der ganzen Welt. Auf dem kommenden Album Vows bleibt das Ziel der Band dasselbe wie immer: kontinuierliche Weiterentwicklung mit einem scharfen Blick in die Zukunft. "Das Thema, das während der Arbeit an diesem Album immer wieder auftauchte, war das Wachstum - wie das Schreiben eines Songs, die Aufnahme eines Albums oder das Dasein in einer Band so ist, als würde man einen Samen pflanzen und ihm beim Wachsen helfen", so die Band. "Wir denken, dass das viel damit zu tun hat, dass wir zurückblicken und erkennen, dass wir es in 30 Jahren geschafft haben, etwas Besonderes zu schaffen, das wir alle wirklich lieben" Darüber hinaus markiert "Vows" ein weiteres brillantes Kapitel in der fortgesetzten Zusammenarbeit mit dem gefeierten Produzenten und Hardcore-Legende Brian McTernan, der mit der Band an "A Flight And A Crash" (2001), "Caution" (2002) und "The New What Next" (2004) gearbeitet hat, die oft als Hot Water Music-Klassiker bezeichnet werden. Ohne zu wissen, wie es weitergeht, begann die Band mit dem Schreiben der neuen Songs mit der einfachen Absicht, Musik zu veröffentlichen, um diesen hart erarbeiteten Meilenstein zu feiern, sei es eine Single, eine EP oder ein ganzes Album. Sie waren sich jedoch absolut sicher, dass sie keine neue Platte nur um der Sache willen machen wollten; diese Platte musste aufregend, unerbittlich und vor allem notwendig sein. "Jeder hat viel Zeit damit verbracht, über die Reise nachzudenken, die uns hierher gebracht hat, und darüber nachzudenken, was wir von nun an tun wollen, während wir dieses Album machen", fasst die Band zusammen. "Wir hoffen, dass sich dieses Album für jeden, der es hört, wie eine Feier unserer Geschichte und Zukunft anfühlt. Das ist es definitiv und so fühlt es sich für uns an."
They’re back! This time the Finnish seers Mahti venture even deeper into the unknown on their third release Musiikki 3, assisted by the creativity of English musicians Richard Dawson and Sally Pilkington.
LIMITED MIRAGE BLUE/GREEN MARBLE COLOURED VINYL LP WITH DOWNLOAD CODE. NON-RETURNABLE.
The music reaches for space and roots at the same time bringing forth Mr. Dawson's earthy guitars and angelic voice while Ms. Pilkington weaves ethereal layerings with her synths and joins occasionally the choir.
Hannu Saha conjures ancient Karelian spirits with his kantele while Muumu, Lehtibabba and Mätky mesmerize the listener with their unique mix of electro, rock and noise.
The end result is an album full of Musiikki unlike you've never heard before!
“These ancient musicians played their ‘mahti’… and the sound they produced was called ‘musiikki’”
Hannu Saha - string kanteles ,Tomi Leppänen - sequencer/drum brain/synthesizers , Jussi Lehtisalo - noise/vocals, Teemu Elo - guitar/synthesizers, Richard Dawson - guitar/vocals , Sally Pilkington - keyboards/vocals
"“A jazz artist to watch” (NPR) and “a virtuoso in the truest sense of the word” (JazzTimes), Morgan Guerin spent nearly a year crafting his multi-dimensional Tales Of The Facade, layering instruments and sounds track upon track. And while an impressive amount of the album is performed solely by Guerin, he also enlisted stellar collaborators, including Georgia Anne Muldrow, Melanie Charles, Cisco Swank, Zacchae’us Paul, J Hoard, and Kokayi. Despite Guerin’s widespread acclaim as a jazz artist, it would be reductive to call this a ""jazz album." "It touches a lot of different periods and styles of music," Guerin explains. "Wayne Shorter and John and Alice Coltrane are big influences, but so are people like Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Minnie Riperton, and Kendrick Lamar. I wanted all of those sounds to be represented. ” What’s left in the grooves obliterates concepts of genre even as it celebrates genres themselves. Now signed to Candid, Guerin’s music will finally reach an audience as vast and diverse as his musical vision."
Terzo is the third album by Il Sogno Del Marinaio, the avant-rock trio formed by legendary bassist Mike Watt (Minutemen, Firehose, Stooges), cult Italian experimentalist Stefano Pilia (Massimo Volume, In Zaire, Afterhours, Rokia Traore) and drummer Paolo Mongardi (Zeus, Fuzz Orchestra, Fulkanelli). This new batch of recordings is an incredible document of a band that’s creating their own path, ascending to new heights while bending the traditional
rock format.
Recorded at Casa Hanzo in San Pedro (US) and completed at Blindsun in Bologna (IT) the album features collaborations with Ramon Moro on trumpet and Petra Haden on vocals. Mixed beautifully by thighpaulsandra (Coil, UUUU, Spiritualized) and mastered by Giovanni
Versari with artwork by Michelangelo Setola. Terzo is the sound of a band that’s completely confident in their chops, their past suggesting that new possibilities have now been found and that the only territory that needs exploring is free-spirited, magical, restless and uncompromising. “Il Sogno Del Marinaio’s strength is in its effortless balance between Watt’s formidable past and his still potent future.” - Pitchfork.
Experimental Japanese operator Lemna returns to Mantis with another five intricately sculpted cuts that toy with tension, release and the mysterious atmosphere of the forest at dawn. Lemna adopts a considered, patient approach to her music practice, creating interlocking rhythms which take cues from Autonomic fragmentation as much as techno hypnosis, but it's the spatial pressure and textural sound design which makes her music truly fly. Taking predawn walks in woods at the foot of the mountain she calls home, she drew inspiration from five different organisms within the vibrant ecosystem around her to create a collection of tracks she aptly refers to as 'Nocturnal Assembly'.
Before Circus Lupus landed on DC’s venerable Dischord Records, the group’s original Midwest lineup recorded a full album’s worth of songs less than a year after forming. With the demise of DC’s Ignition in the late ’80s, bass player Chris Thomson headed to Madison, WI for college. Before leaving DC, he dove headfirst into being a vocalist fronting the short-lived throwback punk / hardcore project Fury. Thomson served up pointed and profound Tony Cadena-inspired screeds about betrayal, disappointment and poseurs all set to a soundtrack of furiously primitive and chaotic music supplied by members of the DC punk band Swiz. Brief yet influential, this band marked Thomson’s switch to vocals, putting him on course to front Circus Lupus and claim a notable spot in the DC punk timeline of the late 20th century. Soon after arriving in Madison, Thomson was invited to join a new project started by friends Chris Hamley, Arika Casebolt, and Reg Shrader. Circus Lupus marked a change in direction from the familiar sounds of DC punk that Thomson had been associated with for years. The newly formed group looked to noisier Touch & Go and Homestead bands for inspiration, aligning themselves with bands from Chicago, Louisville and Milwaukee. One early supporter of the band described the new group as “profoundly familiar yet uncategorizable. Like if the Germs had gone to college and never got pulled into hard drugs and suicidal behaviors.” The original Circus Lupus lineup played a dozen shows and recorded these songs with Eli Janney at Inner Ear studios in August of 1990 while on a brief tour. Within a year, the band would decide to permanently relocate to Washington DC, where they felt they had more opportunities. Shrader opted to move to Chicago and would ultimately join the Touch and Go band Seam. Old friend Seth Lorinczi (Vile Cherubs) would become their new bass player, forming the version of the band that most listeners are familiar with. While a few of these ended up on their first single, the rest were shelved, some later to be rerecorded with Lorinczi and released on Dischord. L.G. Records is proud to have helped this notable recording see the light of day. The original tapes were recovered by Ian MacKaye and transferred by Darren Edwards. Tim Green remixed and remastered the original recordings at Louder Studios in California.
Black Truffle is pleased to announce The Mountains Pass, a major new work from Olivia Block. A key player in Chicago’s vibrant experimental music scene since the late 1990s, Block has developed an extensive body of work grounded in a personalised, at times emotive approach to the studio-based practices of the musique concrète tradition, while also encompassing improvisation, orchestral pieces, sound installations, and a sustained engagement with the piano. On The Mountains Pass, recorded by Greg Norman at Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio and meticulously edited and constructed over the course of three years, Block pushes into new terrain, introducing her singing voice and drums played by Jon Mueller into flowing assemblages that move seamlessly from ruminative organ tones and fragmented piano airs to explosions of sizzling synths and thundering percussion. Like many of Block’s past works, which include, for example, a sculptural installation using the sound of oyster beds, The Mountains Pass draws inspiration from nature and the animal world. Time spent in a particular mountain range in Northern New Mexico informs this suite of pieces, whose lyrics and titles refer particularly to animal life in the area. Beginning with bursts of white noise and delicate synthetic pops and squeaks, opener ‘Northward’ very soon reveals the special direction the album will take, as lyrical piano lines are joined by Block’s fragile voice, singing words written from the perspective of f2754, an endangered Mexican gray wolf who wandered more than five hundred miles from Arizona to New Mexico in 2022. The fragment of song quickly breaks off, leaving us with a ghostly electronic hum. ‘The Hermit’s Peak’ follows, one of two epic pieces at the album’s core. Beginning with chiming, almost harpsichord-like tones, it moves through episodes of spacious, ruminative piano, Jon Mueller’s sparkling cymbals, stuttering cut-up piano sounds, and a climax of keening organ and trumpet tones (performed by Thomas Madeja). Continuing the exploration of vintage keyboard and synth tones heard on Block’s Innocent Passage in the Territorial Sea (Room 40, 2021), the music sometimes suggests the great outer-limits works of 70s Italian prog figures like Franco Battiato or Arturo Stalteri in the languorous drift of synthesizer, organ, and piano tones and the meticulous yet organic flow of its construction. ‘Violet-Green’ opens the second side with another epic journey, its lyrical content concerning ‘a mysterious bird die-off and a forest fire’. Block’s crystalline voice and rich piano chords at times call up the restrained chamber songs of Janet Sherbourne, but fragmented and threaded through passages of woozy pitch-bent keyboards, hypnotic distant thuds, tinkling bells, and searing distorted synth tones. On ‘f2754’, the freedom of the roaming wolf surges through dense layers of rapid keyboard attacks and long organ tones over a propulsive drum performance straight out of Animal Magnetism-era Arnold Dreyblatt. This distinctive sound world is then reencountered in a darkened mirror image in the uneasy, metallic shimmer of the closing ‘Ungulates’, named in reference to a heard of elk roaming through the mountains. Like Battiato’s Clic or Gastr del Sol’s Upgrade & Afterlife, The Mountains Pass inhabits the underexplored terrain where the beauty of song coexists with a radical formal openness, illuminating the deep musicality and warmth that have been present in Block’s work all along.
Keepsakes returns to Perc Trax for his first full EP for the label,following his appearance on the 'Forever 2' various artists release back in 2020.
On 'Rant 4 Cash' James Barrett (aka Keepsakes) turns his attention to the lies and fakery of the current dance music scene, with lead track 'Scene Analysis' refusing to hold back when it comes to calling out the issues facing today's techno scene. A deep Green Velvet style vocal floats over a swinging junkyard percussion groove to drive the original mix forwards.
Label boss man Perc can't resist remixing such a memorable vocal track and swaps the swinging groove of the original with a pounding kick heavy rhythm to add even more intensity to the raw rage of the original mix.
Flip the record over and the B-side serves up another two punchy groove based tracks, pairing Keepsakes' unique brand of swinging percussion with cut up vocal shouts and grinding synth lines. B1 track 'Industry Anthem' repeats and warps the word 'money' as an extension of the cash grab call out of 'Scene Analysis' whist closing track 'Prey For Hype' uses other-worldly robotic vocal shouts over a tough kick led groove to finish the EP on an energetic high.
The Lunar Effect lift up cosmic spirits with "Sounds of Green & Blue" album, out in April via Svart Records The Lunar Effect, sonic architects known for their gravitational pull of fuzzy, snarling riffs and psychedelic visions, proudly announce the release of their latest album, "Sounds of Green & Blue," available to pre-order now through Svart Records. “Sounds of Green & Blue” is a galactic journey through sound that showcases The Lunar Effect’s evolution and marks a pivotal chapter in their musical odyssey. Formed in 2016, The Lunar Effect burst onto the scene with a distinct blend of grunge and retro hard rock. With a flair for hair and a penchant for barbed and growling riff work, the London-based quartet quickly garnered attention for their dynamic sound and Blues rock reverence. In 2019, they crash-landed onto the Stoner Rock scene with their debut album, "Calm Before the Calm,” firmly establishing themselves as a force to be reckoned with. "Sounds of Green & Blue" sees The Lunar Effect expanding their sonic scope and bending all the elements and eras of Classic Rock into their own unique mold. The album is a testament to their musical growth and willingness to explore new territories while maintaining the brooding vintage sound that defines them. Each track is propelled into orbit by the low-end buzz of distorted chords, powerful enough to blow the moon-dust off your amp. The first single from the album, "Pulling Daisies," is a bristling sojourn that encapsulates the band's celestial rock influences. The track combines classic Blues tones, fuzzy guitars, swirling ethereal vocals, and a dusty, hypnotic rhythm that transports listeners from the past into a screaming, paisley, future wonderland. "Pulling Daisies" sets the controls for the heart of the moon, showcasing The Lunar Effect's ability to craft immersive and soul side musical experiences. From the heyday of The Beatles, Floyd, Zeppelin and Sabbath to newer artists like Graveyard, Radio Moscow and Red Fang, The Lunar Effect have created a masterclass in Psychedelic Rock that takes you firmly by the collar. With a palette that also includes shades of the 90s Grunge scene like Nirvana and Soundgarden into their heady mix, The Lunar Effect paint their own trippy world, where genres blur into their unique brew of heart-felt space rock. "Sounds of Green & Blue" by The Lunar Effect is proudly released by Svart Records, a label known for its commitment to uncovering high-quality, diverse, and boundary-pushing music. Svart Records continues to be a platform for artists who defy conventions, push the boundaries of their respective genres, and break out of the underground.
Black Vinyl[24,79 €]
The Lunar Effect lift up cosmic spirits with "Sounds of Green & Blue" album, out in April via Svart Records The Lunar Effect, sonic architects known for their gravitational pull of fuzzy, snarling riffs and psychedelic visions, proudly announce the release of their latest album, "Sounds of Green & Blue," available to pre-order now through Svart Records. “Sounds of Green & Blue” is a galactic journey through sound that showcases The Lunar Effect’s evolution and marks a pivotal chapter in their musical odyssey. Formed in 2016, The Lunar Effect burst onto the scene with a distinct blend of grunge and retro hard rock. With a flair for hair and a penchant for barbed and growling riff work, the London-based quartet quickly garnered attention for their dynamic sound and Blues rock reverence. In 2019, they crash-landed onto the Stoner Rock scene with their debut album, "Calm Before the Calm,” firmly establishing themselves as a force to be reckoned with. "Sounds of Green & Blue" sees The Lunar Effect expanding their sonic scope and bending all the elements and eras of Classic Rock into their own unique mold. The album is a testament to their musical growth and willingness to explore new territories while maintaining the brooding vintage sound that defines them. Each track is propelled into orbit by the low-end buzz of distorted chords, powerful enough to blow the moon-dust off your amp. The first single from the album, "Pulling Daisies," is a bristling sojourn that encapsulates the band's celestial rock influences. The track combines classic Blues tones, fuzzy guitars, swirling ethereal vocals, and a dusty, hypnotic rhythm that transports listeners from the past into a screaming, paisley, future wonderland. "Pulling Daisies" sets the controls for the heart of the moon, showcasing The Lunar Effect's ability to craft immersive and soul side musical experiences. From the heyday of The Beatles, Floyd, Zeppelin and Sabbath to newer artists like Graveyard, Radio Moscow and Red Fang, The Lunar Effect have created a masterclass in Psychedelic Rock that takes you firmly by the collar. With a palette that also includes shades of the 90s Grunge scene like Nirvana and Soundgarden into their heady mix, The Lunar Effect paint their own trippy world, where genres blur into their unique brew of heart-felt space rock. "Sounds of Green & Blue" by The Lunar Effect is proudly released by Svart Records, a label known for its commitment to uncovering high-quality, diverse, and boundary-pushing music. Svart Records continues to be a platform for artists who defy conventions, push the boundaries of their respective genres, and break out of the underground.
From the bouncy, catchy acts at Motown (like The Temptations, The Marvelettes, and Stevie Wonder), to the horn-driven, gritty soul of Stax/Volt (such as Otis Redding and Booker T. & The MG’s), there was much diversity within classic soul. This essential LP edition contains 25 of the most legendary original songs of the idiom. If you’re looking for a way to start a soul music collection on vinyl, this would be a fantastic set to begin with. Here you can find the most influential artists, from the genre’s inception in the 1950s until 1962. The track listing covers the period when R&B was giving way to soul music. It includes smashes and classic soul anthems by such celebrated figures as Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Ike & Tina Turner, Ben E. King, and Marvin Gaye, to name a few. The underlying virtues of the R&B/soul music exposed here are represented by a direct emotional delivery, a pride and artistic integrity, and a feeling within the music which transmits itself to the listener. You can call it soul or R&B, it can be more or less intense, lively or educational, but it has to have those ingredients to truly succeed. From the explosion and growth of American soul, and its lasting impact upon the U.S. charts since then, this defining era is still regarded as one of history’s greatest musical movements. All of this remastered material represents a formidable slice of American popular culture, allowing listeners to experience some of the finest and most emblematic tunes of the soul genre.
Smudge All Stars is Richie Stevens' audio intelligence collective. Richie is the son of the late John Stevens, a pioneer of British free jazz, and a gifted drummer, percussionist and producer in his own right. His talents have found him in constant demand, working with everyone from Horace Andy and Joss Stone to Boy George and Damon Albarn. Now, with Smudge All Stars, Richie leads a funk/soul ensemble that draws on his friendships with many leading black British, Jamaican and US musicians.
Smudge All Stars is Richie’s musical vision writ large. This is a party album in the old school P-funk tradition, all instrumentation is recorded live with Stevens calling on the original Horny Horns Fred Wesley and Peewee Ellis to help build a fat brass groove for the authentic P-Funk vibe and George Clinton vocals for the ultimate seal of funk approval.
The 8-track musical extravaganza commences with ‘Brutal Funk’; a rousing psychedelic funk workout that encompasses a delicious groove cooked up by the famed Jamiroquai member DJ D-Zire and the powerful vocals of British soul singer Mary Pearce. ‘Up is Just a Place Feat. George Clinton’ continues the party vibes by bringing none other than the P-Funk master himself together with Mary Pearce, MWS, Derek 'Dr Mouthquake' Green and the decorated British soul singer-songwriter Omar for a full flavoured aural delight. Cue tight rapping, funky beats and scratching alongside slap bass and a slice of synth for good measure.
Other highlights include, ‘Freaky Toe’ which opts for a smoother groove than its predecessors with seductive vocals courtesy of Soul II Soul’s Charlotte Kelly. ‘B Side’ sees Mary Pearce join Derek 'Dr Mouthquake' Green for another upbeat affair, accompanied by the legendary American trombonist Fred Wesley (James Brown, Parliament-Funkadelic) who adds a distinctive touch to the track.
For fans of: The Menzingers, Green Day, The Lawrence Ams, Joyce Manor, Teenage Bottlerocket, The Flatliners, Pop-Punk. Broadway Calls begins their 2024 campaign with another big support tour and more new music to go along with it. This time we've packaged it with their other recent singles to make a nifty 4-song 7" EP. These Oregonian lumber-punks live in the woods and probably eat squirrels, so they thought it would be funny to put a mom with a machine gun on the cover. Uhhh, try that in a small town?
This is long overdue. I mean, looooooonnnnnng overdue. A solo album by Jim. The trap kit - so straightforward, so mysterious. What"s inside those things? Air and light - from which century? Which continent? Which planet? Depending on how and when you hit them it can be a vibration sent through a prehistoric breath, particles of Saturn"s atmosphere, the dead, wet leaves you walked through on the way to the first day of school. These are the memories of the drums on this record. Infinite and personal. Editing each other as they muscle to the front or soft shoe to the shadow. Cymbals can override/cancel everything out - wipe your memory clear or make the memory clearer. Drums are the instrument where you can feel the presence of the player the most - the full body - and sense the thoughts of the player the most. The instrument with the most choices to be made sends out the most brainwaves. A bouquet of brainwaves is on this LP. Jim oversees it all, surveys from the lost place we"re in, the void - the drumless song. We trust. We trust, Jim. His big green eyes search for the right tool (mallet, brush, etc), eyes that search you like you"re a song he wants to join, wants to see if he can add to or understand. Before humans, drums were playing - these drums. Genesis was a solo drum piece. After humans, these drums, this album. Someone - the last man - is out in a spaceship at the edge of space. He plays a single chord on a synth to set time free from its bind and then lets go. This album sets time free, lets it frolic, lets it graze, lets it remember. This is a record of thoughts, memories, surgery. A deft surgical operation you may not even realize is happening as it"s happening but you"re back on your feet when it"s over. Memories refreshed. Did you really even listen to it? -Bill Callahan, November 2023
This is long overdue. I mean, looooooonnnnnng overdue. A solo album by Jim. The trap kit - so straightforward, so mysterious. What"s inside those things? Air and light - from which century? Which continent? Which planet? Depending on how and when you hit them it can be a vibration sent through a prehistoric breath, particles of Saturn"s atmosphere, the dead, wet leaves you walked through on the way to the first day of school. These are the memories of the drums on this record. Infinite and personal. Editing each other as they muscle to the front or soft shoe to the shadow. Cymbals can override/cancel everything out - wipe your memory clear or make the memory clearer. Drums are the instrument where you can feel the presence of the player the most - the full body - and sense the thoughts of the player the most. The instrument with the most choices to be made sends out the most brainwaves. A bouquet of brainwaves is on this LP. Jim oversees it all, surveys from the lost place we"re in, the void - the drumless song. We trust. We trust, Jim. His big green eyes search for the right tool (mallet, brush, etc), eyes that search you like you"re a song he wants to join, wants to see if he can add to or understand. Before humans, drums were playing - these drums. Genesis was a solo drum piece. After humans, these drums, this album. Someone - the last man - is out in a spaceship at the edge of space. He plays a single chord on a synth to set time free from its bind and then lets go. This album sets time free, lets it frolic, lets it graze, lets it remember. This is a record of thoughts, memories, surgery. A deft surgical operation you may not even realize is happening as it"s happening but you"re back on your feet when it"s over. Memories refreshed. Did you really even listen to it? -Bill Callahan, November 2023
Anna Gréta goes gentle...into her second album on ACT, “Star of Spring”. The Reykjavik-born pianist, singer and a songwriter, who has lived in Stockholm since 2014, has her own way of approaching the art of quiet, artful, deeply personal songs, often drawing inspiration from the beauty and power of Iceland’s natural landscape. Her 2021 ACT debut "Nightjar in the Northern Sky" was named after a bird, and this follow-up album lands gracefully on a flower, the “glory of the snow”, also known as the "star of spring", which symbolises the ending of winter and the arrival of spring.
But look closer, and there are always other levels of meaning. Her "Nightjar”, the rare bird she once saw in front of the northern sky, was a metaphor for the search for the things which are special and essential. In fact, almost all of Anna Gréta's lyrics have more than one significance, and her storytelling has now taken a leap forward on "Star of Spring". She says of the little flower on the title track: "I wasn't just inspired by the way it takes over the meadows in spring and turns them from green to blue, but also by the fact that it blooms because it is compelled to do so. It cannot do anything else."
Anna Gréta's starting point to creating music was and is the piano. She first studied classical music, then switched to jazz. She only started singing later, when she was writing the songs for Nightjar and wanted to express herself in words. Anna Gréta's debut as a singer, pianist and songwriter earned her international acclaim: Downbeat Magazine called it „an album with the metamophoric diversity of a year’s seasons and a voice like the everchanging colours of the Northern lights“, France Musique “a remarkably immersive experience” and Jazzwise “starkly beautiful”.
On "Star Of Spring" Anna Gréta has further developed her individual style. Her vocal lines can resemble piano motifs, often doubling them and resonating with an impressively quiet vibrato, sometimes quirkily reminiscent of Björk, at other times with the brooding ease of Norah Jones. The album also bears a very distinctive production style. For each of the songs, Anna Gréta has created her own little world of choirs, rhythmic textures and various smartly used keyboard instruments. The album ranges from the hymnal and elegiac - in "She Moves" or in the title track - to the playful and cheerful "Space Time" or the extremely pared-down melancholic ballad "Denouement". And even if the general mood of the music exudes above all warmth and comfort, Anna Gréta also deals with serious topics, such as the forced birth control of women in Greenland during the 60s and 70s in the song "The Body Remembers".
There is a directness of expression and emotionality, even sensuousness about the new album, and that is not least because Anna Gréta’s band has developed and become a properly played-in unit with the experience to take this album’s more complex arrangements in its stride. The sheen and brightness of her piano playing is contrasted with a deeper voice, that of her father Sigurður Flosason's bass clarinet, on three tracks. "This album is more playful and experimental," she says. "A lot of things were easier for me than on the first album. And while I was still completely focussed on my own world then, now I was even more conscious and aware of what was going on around me."
The result is music that is rooted in jazz, but at the same time goes far beyond it in a very subtle and deeply touching way.
When the grunge explosion of the early `90s elevated Seattle's flannel-clad misfits out of the divey clubs of downtown and into the mainstream, a new generation of restless artists filled the void left in the Pacific Northwest's underground music scene. The under-21 crowd making music in the wake of Nevermind seemed even less enamored with the slick production values, classic rock nods, and testosterone-fueled moshing culture that came with the Zeitgeist, favoring their own kind of Revolution Summer-style pivot away from the popular sounds of the era towards a more emotionally nuanced, melodic, and inclusive style of punk. The Puget Sound trio Lync perfectly captured the spirit of that era, blending the passionate chaos of the DC and San Diego scenes with the rough-hewn DIY pop sensibilities of Olympia's thriving indie community into one unified sound. Though they were only a band for two years, they helped define the next era of the Northwest underground, inspiring countless other artists and instigating the creation of beloved records from the region. After being out of print for over a decade, the band's sole LP These Are Not Fall Colors has been remastered and expanded into a 2xLP with the inclusion of "Can't Tie Yet"_a compilation track from the album's recording session_into a deluxe edition available courtesy of Suicide Squeeze Records. Originally released on K Records in the summer of '94 just a few months before the band called it quits, These Are Not Fall Colors is a boisterous collection of scrappy basement-show anthems played on duct-taped-together gear. Led by the off-kilter melodies of late singer/guitarist Sam Jayne and hammered into place by the driving bass of James Bertram and drum battery of David Schneider, the album's eleven songs channel that undefinable sound of the early `90s before descriptors like "post-hardcore" and "emo" became pejorative terms. Sure, you get a sense of the more sophisticated mid-tempo punk approach on songs like "B" and "Silverspoon Glasses," and maybe catch wind of wistful songwriting on "Pennies to Save" and "Cue Cards," but Lync seemed to cull their ideas from whatever bits of inspiration they could find in the gray gloom and geographic isolation of western Washington, absorbing it all and churning it together into a style uniquely their own. Despite Lync's short existence, modest aspirations, and DIY approach, their work had a ripple effect. Jayne would go on to make music under the moniker of Love As Laughter. Built to Spill's Doug Martsch was so enamored by the album that he enlisted Bertram and Schneider to serve as his rhythm section on the There's Nothing Wrong with Love tour. These Are Not Fall Colors engineer Phil Ek would go on to help record and produce records by Fleet Foxes, Band of Horses, and The Shins. Early bassist Isaac Brock and These Are Not Fall Colors album art contributor Jeremiah Green would go on to form Modest Mouse. Bertram and Green would also go on to form the revered indie rock group Red Stars Theory. At times it feels like you could pick any major Northwest indie rock group from the `90s and `00s and trace their DNA back to Lync. The deluxe edition of These Are Not Fall Colors comes pressed on 180g vinyl and packaged in a gatefold cover with printed inner sleeves and expanded artwork by Jesse LeDoux. The 2xLP also features an 18x24 poster with extensive liner notes by Brian Cook. Altogether, this new version of These Are Not Fall Colors not only brings this celebrated classic back into analog libraries of old fans, it also provides new context and appreciation for Lync's ongoing impact on both a local and international level.
Of the countless accolades and analyses that surround Blue, no point is more significant than the fact that the 1971 Joni Mitchell album continues to become more popular, revered, referenced, and relevant with each passing day. Such vitality is not only extremely singular; it is the ultimate measure of great art and, in the context of Blue, indisputable proof of the record's accessibility, integrity, and timelessness. If the most brilliant and everlasting music seeks to find truths shared by all of humanity, Blue can be said to be universal doctrine.
Sourced from the original analogue master tapes, pressed on MoFi SuperVinyl, and strictly limited to 12,000 numbered copies, Mobile Fidelity's UltraDisc One-Step 180g 45RPM 2LP box set presents the landmark album with reference-grade detail, tonality, and directness. Marking the first time the beloved LP has received audiophile-quality treatment, it's one of six iconic 1970s Mitchell records Mobile Fidelity is reissuing on definitive-sounding vinyl and SACD sets.
Everything about Blue sounds more intimate, involving, and inescapable on this transparent pressing, which benefits from a virtually non-existent noise floor and superior groove definition. Mitchell's voice, positioned front and center, and primarily accompanied by minimalist acoustic guitar, piano, and dulcimer playing, comes across clearly and prominently. Suspended notes and radiant chords double as question marks, commas, and phrases. The in-the-room presence and spatial dimensionality make absolute the full-range spectrum of introspective emotions — hurt and distress, self-awareness and joy, difficulty and uncertainty, warmth and desire — Mitchell navigates, queries, and contemplates throughout the record. The defencelessness the singer once spoke about is laid bare here like never before.
The packaging of the Blue UD1S set complements its distinguished status. Housed in a deluxe box, both LPs come in special foil-stamped jackets with faithful-to-the-original graphics that illuminate the splendor of the recording. This UD1S reissue exists as a curatorial artifact for listeners who prize sound quality and production, and who desire to engage themselves in everything involved with the album, including the unforgettable cover photograph of a ruminative Mitchell shot by Tim Considine.
Deemed the third Greatest Album of All Time by Rolling Stone; universally celebrated by critics, fans, artists, and educators; and defined by a spell of disarmingly vulnerable songs that are at once confessional, intense, spare, honest, painful, hopeful, and exquisite, Blue charts love, spiritualism, independence, and loss like no record before or since. Widely considered the album that established the singer-songwriter template, the largely autobiographical LP changed everything shortly after its original release in June 1971. Amazingly, it continues to do so more than five decades later.
An incalculable influence on generations of artists, it stands as the through-line from Carole King, Elton John, James Taylor, Joan Armatrading, and Leonard Cohen to Patti Smith, Carly Simon, Emmylou Harris, and Rosanne Cash to 21st century contemporaries like Brandi Carlile, Taylor Swift, Sharon Van Etten, and Courtney Barnett. Teetering between agony and optimism, it is — to borrow a phrase from Mitchell's eternal "A Case of You" — a bottomless "box of paints."
The beauty of the stripped-down arrangements, intoxicating melodies, and Mitchell's wisdom on Blue didn't go unnoticed. Critical acclaim, coupled with the depth of the material and Mitchell's reputation, propelled the album into the Top 20 in the U.S. and Top 10 in the U.K. Yet while so much pop music diminishes with age, Blue has defied norms and headed in the opposite direction. Its 50th anniversary year witnessed an outpouring of tributes, reflections, and testimonials that helped frame the record's escalating importance and symbolism — apt in an age in which women have become the prominent trailblazers in rock, R&B, and hip-hop.
Perhaps most succinctly, in a 2021 article celebrating the LP, the Los Angeles Times declared: "In 1971, nothing sounded like Joni Mitchell's Blue. 50 years later, it's still a miracle." Nothing, indeed. Yet "miracle" suggests Blue partially owes to a divine agent or inexplicable circumstance. And though Mitchell's bracing conviction and forthright sincerity can appear otherworldly, her musical approach and lyrical storytelling is nothing if not personal and human. What we hear is pure truth — no matter how aching, complicated, or stark.
Much has been written about the circumstances that inspired the songs on Blue: Mitchell's romances; her time overseas; her disdain for celebrity; her lingering sense of loss at having given up her daughter for adoption; her treatment by the very same industry that her music made uncomfortable; her prolonged search for resolution. These situations and experiences pushed Mitchell to question everything — especially big-picture concepts that have always obsessed mankind: fulfilment, autonomy, love, honesty, being.
"I wanna make you feel free," Mitchell sings on the record-opening "All I Want." Mission accomplished. Blue is liberation — and the start of a freedom that continues to impact music, culture, and identity today.
More About Mobile Fidelity UltraDisc One-Step and Why It Is Superior
Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab's UltraDisc One-Step (UD1S) technique bypasses generational losses inherent to the traditional three-step plating process by removing two steps: the production of father and mother plates, which are created to yield numerous stampers from each lacquer that is cut. For UD1S plating, stampers (also called "converts") are made directly from the lacquers. Since each lacquer yields only one stamper, multiple lacquers need to be cut. Mobile Fidelity's UD1S process produces a final LP with the lowest-possible noise floor. The removal of two steps of the plating process also reveals musical details and dynamics that would otherwise be lost due to the standard multi-step process. With UD1S, every aspect of vinyl production is optimized to produce the best-sounding vinyl album available today.
For a few years Leo Robinson was the sort of hidden secret you sometimes come across in local music scenes. First in Manchester and now in Glasgow, he’d pop up regularly on DIY bills or as local support to a touring act, quietly blowing them off stage with his rich baritone vocal and homespun lo-fi tales of folklore and animism. With The Temple – his debut on PRAH Recordings – he looks set to cross over from being a cult concern.
“There's a spectrum within the album between fully mythologising or symbolising my lived experience, and just stating it in very matter of fact terms - that push and pull between the need to abstract and the need to break through the abstraction and have an honest moment with oneself” he explains. “This is one of the themes of the album as well as part of the process. The aim was to take all these anecdotal or symbolic elements and merge them into one narrative and one world, in a way that you can find your way through the record as if it were a landscape or language with its own logic.”
The record takes on a pastoral, slightly baroque nature that Robinson partly attributes to a friend screening a lot of ‘70s BBC material in his book shop that they used to hang out at. There are also elements of jazz, flickering to life in “The Spring”’s piano-led finale and coda.
Thematically, Robinson likens it to a Jungian ‘Hero's Journey’, his voice possessing a character who goes through several defined stages of consciousness. From conception and the beginning of an earthly life, the first half of the album recognises the development of the protagonist’s narrative and identity, before “The Pink Light”’s freeform departure from the hitherto more song-based suite devastatingly shatters this. The second half of the album then sees the protagonist witness “the uncontainable” water; learning that true divinity lies not in the individual self or lofty notions of gods and temples, but in the unremarkable nettles, insects and dogs on the roadside riverbank - referenced on tracks “The Cormorant” and “The Spring”.
Although now residing north of the border, The Temple was written while Robinson was finding his feet in Manchester, having moved there to go to art school as a teenager (as a visual artist, he has exhibited at the Tiwani Contemporary in London and Cardiff’s Chapter Arts Centre). As a result, many of the tracks bear out the shadows of his experiences in the northern city – at their most visible and explicit on the beautifully fragile storytelling of “The Pavement”. Written the day after the Manchester Arena Bombings, it recalls Robinson waking up to go to work on a hot summer’s day to discover that his street had been blocked off for terrorism investigations; it then progresses through the rest of his day, amidst the grimly surreal aftermath of the previous night.
Having written the chords, melodies and lyrics to the album, Robinson fleshed out the tunes by scoring out parts for the additional instrumentation, but it was only when a friend sent a demo to PRAH that he was able to fund its full recording. Guitars, vocals, piano and French Horn (the latter recorded by Lauren Reeve-Rawlings) were put down at Green Door Studios in Glasgow. Microphones were placed around the room and the sound of the musicians stepping on creaky floorboards and opening creaky doors were left audible to further the record’s live feel. The harpsichord heard on “The Serpent”, meanwhile, came from University of Glasgow lecturer David McGuinness. Strings were then recorded at PRAH Studios by Francesca Ter-Berg and Raven Bush, the Social Singing Choir adding their choral vocals to “Temple II”.
The result is an album that feels both luscious and yet intimately raw; as grand as Richard Dawson at his most panoramic but containing the rough edges and skeletal looseness of a Calvin Johnson work. At times Robinson lyrically moves towards the surreal, but ultimately this is a record grounded in reality; a true showcase of Robinson’s skill as a lyricist and songwriter.
Mute celebrates the 25th Anniversary Edition of Looper’s debut 1999 album, Up A Tree, featuring never-before-released songs.
LOOPER Stuart and Karn David, originally recorded for the Sub Pop label in 1999, this anniversary edition include remixes, reworks, new sleeve notes and alternative artwork, and is out on transparent green vinyl (accompanied by a Flexi Disc), double CD, and digitally
Up A Tree was completed while Stuart was still working with Belle & Sebastian (the band he co-founded in 1995) and brought Looper instant acclaim (including an 8.1 review in Pitchfork, who credited the album with originating a new genre they dubbed Folk-Hop). It reached #21 on the UK Independent Album chart, and #79 on the Scottish Albums Chart, and brought in fans such as Ben Folds who recently called Up A Tree “… a gift of a record”.
The anniversary edition also features alternative artwork designed by Karn and includes new sleeve notes by Sub Pop’s Jenny Hayo, who recounts working with Looper on their first records and first US tour, alongside words from Stuart’s sister Karla Black, who takes us back to Glasgow School of Art in 1998, reminiscing about the first Looper show.
The vinyl edition of Up A Tree comes with a Flexi Disc of ‘Brilliant Paper’, an unreleased track by Looper and Sue Tompkins (Life Without Buildings) and the double CD includes a remix by Pulp (credited as The Chocolate layers).
Acclaimed Christian Raphael Prize winner’s debut for Topic Records, produced by Eliza Carthy. The Sorrow Songs: Folk Songs of Black British Experience is the upcoming record by Cornwall-based folk singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Angeline Morrison, her debut for on the historic Topic Records label. Produced by Eliza Carthy and featuring some of her beautiful, soaring string arrangements, The Sorrow Songs was recorded in Cornwall at Cube Studios and is a work of what Angeline calls ‘re-storying.’
The stellar line-up of musicians on this album includes Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne (anglo concertina, melodeon, vocals), Clarke Camilleri (guitar, banjo, vocals), Hamilton Gross (violin, vocals), Rosie Crow (piano, vocals), Alex Neilson (drums, vocals), Eliza Carthy (violin, fiddlesticks, vocals), Angeline Morrison (vocals, autoharp, double bass) and features Martin Carthy on the album’s closing track.
Sorrow Songs by Angeline Morrison, released 8 March 2024, includes the following tracks: "Black John", "The Beautiful Spotted Black Boy", "Interlude - Nobody Round Here Likes It", "Cinnamon Water" and more.
This version of Sorrow Songs comes as a 1xLP.
The vinyl is pressed as a opaque, green disc.
Donovan’s Original
A Gift From a Flower to a Garden made for a few firsts: the first double LP of Donovan’s
career, one of the first box sets in pop and, most importantly for Donovan himself; the first
pop album for the children of tomorrow.
He resolved to make A Gift From a Flower to a Garden an album of two halves. The first,
Wear Your Love Like Heaven, was intended for his own generation as they started to think
about the kind of world they wanted to leave behind. The second, For Little Ones, was for
the children they had or would have in the years to come. The result was a kaleidoscopic
folk-jazz suite on the power of love, imbued with all the romance and mystery of an Arthur
Rackham illustration for an ancient English fairy tale. The songs, remarkably adventurous
given Donovan was a globally famous singer at his commercial height, combined the
influences he had amassed so far.
There is something about A Gift From a Flower to a Garden that could never be repeated,
though. It is such an innocent evocation of the childlike imagination, so redolent of its time,
yet set apart from it too. All these years later, the peaceful qualities of this pioneering,
enchanting, deeply unusual album feel more valuable than ever.
The state51 Box Set
With authenticity core to the project, The state51 Conspiracy engaged one of the UK’s
leading experts in box set design, Daniel Mason at Something Else, to painstakingly recreate
the box, records and accompanying ephemera. The first challenge was to find the deep blue
leatherette paper the original box set was covered in; a problem since it was no longer in
production. “I knew people who had stacks of it, gathering dust on top shelves, so I bought it
up wherever I could find it,” says Mason. Then came the reproduction of 12 loose leaf lyric
sheets on fine art watercolour paper, each of them featuring a watermark and a fairytale-like
illustration by Donovan’s artist friends Sheena McCall and Mick Taylor. Where, though, to
find the same paper stock? “I found out that it was made at a paper mill in North Wales
called Abbey Mills. Unfortunately the mill dissolved in the early 70s and very little of the
paper remained. However enough paper remained to allow us to produce the numbered
certificate also signed by Donovan that sits within the box.”
Then to the iconic cover image. Donovan and Jimi Hendrix’s personal photographer Karl
Ferris, used infra-red film to achieve the psychedelic effect on the cover, but the original
negatives couldn’t be found. Mason then used digital technology to ramp up the colour levels
on a reproduction from an original copy of the album while allowing it to remain a little bit
faded, as it would be after half a century. The same labour of love and care has gone into
producing all elements of the box; from the rebuilding of the famous front cover font to the
hand-numbered and signed certificate; letterpress printed on the original paper stock of the
1968 UK release lyric sheets.
To cap it all off the original mono master tapes were waiting safely in the EMI Donovan
Archive and transferred from tape to digital by Abbey Road Studios where new lacquers
were cut, ensuring Donovan's favoured mono version of the album would be presented both
physically (and digitally for the very first time) in striking audiophile quality. The final touch to
■ "A Ghost Story" ist ein übernatürliches Drama aus dem Jahr 2017, verfasst und inszeniert von David Lowery, mit Casey Affleck und Rooney Mara in den Hauptrollen. Der Film erzählt die Geschichte eines Mannes, der nach seinem Tod zu einem Geist wird und im Haus verweilt, das er einst mit seiner Frau geteilt hat. Der Film erhielt lobende Kritiken und wurde mit mehreren Auszeichnungen geehrt, darunter von der Boston Society of Film Critics, dem Deauville Film Festival, den Houston Film Critics und dem Sitges Film Festival. Die Musik für "A Ghost Story" wurde von Daniel Hart (bekannt für "The Green Knight" und "Pete's Dragon") komponiert, wie bereits bei allen
vorherigen Filmen von Lowery.
Eine Limited Edition von 500 Exemplaren des Soundtracks ist auf Smoke Coloured Vinyl erhältlich und wird mit einem Druckbeileger geliefert.
NOW is proud to present the very best of Country music with NOW That’s What I Call Country. 4 CD’s jam-packed full of the biggest Country hits of all time! With 86 tracks and its mix of classic and modern hits, this collection is essential for any Country music and Pop fan! So, grab yours today, and get ready to enjoy the very best of Country also available on a Coloured Triple LP set with 50 tracks and its mix of classic and modern hits, this collection is essential for any vinyl collection! So, grab yours today, and get ready to enjoy the very best of Country across 3-LPs!
Minas 'Num Dia Azul' is a sublime slice of private press bossa nova meets jazzy MPB perfection. Warm and bubbling with youthful spirit, the music is simultaneously loose in swagger, yet slick and tight. The album was originally released in 1983 and reflects the great music coming out of Rio at the time, yet 'Num Dia Azul' wasn't recorded in Rio, but actually in the USA.
Recorded in North Carolina just after Patricia and Orlando Haddad had graduated from the North Carolina School of the Arts, the record was only released for the Brazilian market on their own Blueazul Records imprint. As with most private press labels, they could only afford to have it pressed in small quantities. To add to its later obscurity, hundreds of copies were also destroyed in a house fire. They say cream always rises to the top, and fast forward to the 2010s, the word amongst collectors and DJs was spreading about this mythical under-the-radar recording. People from across the globe were contacting Patricia and Orlando for more information, hoping to secure themselves a copy. Luckily the original tapes had remained with the artists and were in great condition, so in 2016 the pair ran a successful Kickstarter campaign to have it remastered and repressed.
For this Mr Bongo 2023 re-issue, we have tried to keep it as close to the original 1983 version as possible, both in the packaging and audio presentation. The CD version comes with bonus tracks. We are super proud to keep Patricia and Orlando's serene recordings in the circulation that they deserve to be. One for fans of Brazilian artists such as Burnier & Cartier, Edu Lobo and Joyce. We are sure those fans will lose themselves in the alluring textures of 'Num Dia Azul'
Days of the New (the Green album) is the second self-titled studio album from Days of the New, originally released in 1999 and written, performed and produced by Travis Meeks. After the first album, the band broke-up and with only Matt Taul on board from the past, lead bandmember Travis Meeks surrounded himself with a sea of musicians, including a young pre-Pussycat Dolls Nicole Scherzinger for background vocals and even drew in an orchestra. Influential Rolling Stone's review called the album "a progress report from an artist in the midst of a head-spinning transition". The first single "Enemy" charted #10 in the US Alternative Airplay chart, #10 in the Mainstream Rock Tracks and the second single "Weapon & The Wound charted #10 in the Mainstream Rock Tracks. Days of the New (the Green album) celebrates its 25th anniversary and is available on vinyl for the first time. This 2LP includes an insert.
Days of the New (II) by Days Of The New, released 16 February 2024, includes the following tracks: "Enemy", "Skeleton Key", "Bring Yourself" and more.
This version of Days of the New (II) comes as a 2xLP. This release comes with (a) Insert(s).
Danielle Boutet’s P »Pièces« is a mysterious artifact of Quebecois marginalia, self-released in 1985. Moving from languid ennui to high drama, »Pièces« is a dreamy gestalt, an album that borders Chanson, spoken-word, jazz noir, and minimalism, conjured from the chasm between acoustic and electronic realms. »Pièces« allows us a window into the highly intimate songcraft and compositional skill of an artist who longed to linger not in the public eye, but in relation with others and the world around her.
Born in Quebec City, Boutet studied music at the University of Montreal, where she focused on composition and percussion, before becoming involved in Montreal’s feminist and lesbian art scene. Primarily written, performed, and recorded by Boutet, with voice, guitar work, and technical assistance by Sylvie Gagnon, Pièces was created during a paradigm shift in home recording. Originally composed for the piano, Boutet and Gagnon utilized a consumer-friendly Tascam 4-track Portastudio and versatile Yamaha DX-7, alongside guitar, bass, marimba, and the human voice, to expand and contemporize the original composition’s scope.
Inspired by prog rock and British poet and musician Anne Clark, »Pièces« translates Boutet’s influence by moving between sunny, wistful fairytale and dark, wintry dirge. Filled with longing marimba, vertiginous, startling synth pads, and folk guitar, each track on Pièces offers a wholly unique proposition. Some are modal and rife with the ethereal psychological tension of a sci-fi soundtrack, while others are more like entering a smoke-laced lounge, the entertainer embodying seduction.
With the sprechgesang of artists like Serge Gainsbourg, there is an intense intimacy to Boutet’s delivery, sometimes as if she is performing for an audience of one. As one lyric goes, translated to English from French: “Like holograms/ Images from a world/ That inhales souls/ And exudes drama.” Another song contains an excerpt from The Tao of Physics: “The eastern sages specify clearly that they do not identify an ordinary void, but rather, a void having an infinite creative potential.”
To English-language audiences, the album’s title, »Pièces«, might seem to simply refer to the eleven different pieces. The title can also, of course, refer to parts of a larger whole, but Boutet is keen to point out that there is also another meaning: In French, a pièce is a room. On the cover of the original cassette, Boutet is seen sitting on a chair, alone in an empty apartment, a cable snaking at her feet. Listening to »Pièces« is like entering eleven different rooms: whether a study encased in shadow, a greenhouse left to wither in an eternal frost, or a divine nave.
Boutet sold a few dozen copies around Montreal, a scene mostly occupied by the new wave explosion de rigueur, but the inclusion of Pièces in the 1987 issue of Ladyslipper—the North Carolina-based mail order catalog that championed women musicians of all calibers and careers—led to more exposure throughout North America. “In the catalog,” Boutet says, “they included it in the New Age section, but I was, and still am, aware that this album is relatively unclassifiable.”
Boutet would release one more album, titled Musiques Urbaines, before getting pulled in the direction of interdisciplinary art and theory. “Although I never stopped making music, I lost all interest in public diffusion or performance,” Boutet says. Despite her departure from performance and publicly releasing music, she left behind a strange and enthralling document of Montreal’s 1980s feminist fringe, an aural document of the historic moment when self-recorded music and its practical potential became a prismatic reality.
Danielle Boutet’s Pièces arrives February 16, 2024 as part of uncommon¢ (“uncommon sense”), an open-ended, serialized endeavor from Freedom to Spend that provides new meaning for rarefied recordings from music’s outermost fringe.
With his seemingly endless capacity for creating compositions which have an alluring quality, and which are often wrapped in a mesmerising arrangement that pays homage to those towering sound constructions made by Phil Spector, Shadow Morton, Brian Wilson and the likes, veteran New York polymath Marc Jonson is also deserving of household name status. Involved in making records since the mid-sixties, Jonson's latest long-play collection is a particularly special glimpse into a secret stash of recordings made between 1979 and 2012 in his tiny flat on Cornelia St., New York's Greenwich Village, during the years we spend living (and surviving) there. These tracks are only now seeing the light of day, with many featuring Jonson at his melodic, awe-inspiring best; soul-baring, honest and vulnerable. Spanning these grooves are such delightfully told stories as 'The Man Who Walks On Air', 'November Paint Brush', the atypical jazz stylings of the instrumental title cut, plus the revealing light that is 'The Moon' and the magical, wide eyed beauty as conjured by 'Ages Of Wonder'. These tracks are only now seeing the light of day, with many featuring Jonson at his melodic, awe-inspiring best; soul-baring, honest and vulnerable. "Those who have taken the leap into Jonson's hitherto unknown musical world will be able to tell you that this is not only an experience which is immensely rewarding, but it's also one which needs to be heard to be believed. The captivating layers and mesmerising quality heard throughout lies in the way Jonson's startling array of songs seem to breathe in and exhale from many different, often eclectic elements." Lenny Helsing (Shindig!, Ugly Things Magazine).
The long lost 1968 debut album by singer-songwriter, Scott Fagan, once tipped to be bigger than Elvis, is set for release on 9th February 2024 via Earth Recordings. 'South Atlantic Blues' will be reissued for the first time in its original artwork, with an iconic portrait of Fagan by famed rock photographer, Joel Brodsky, following a widely celebrated 2015 release. Revisiting his mystical, mythical, and deeply soulful masterpiece, this psych-folk gem doffs a Tropicalia hat direct from downtown New York. "His songs embrace a broad sonic fantasia, swirling in '60s New York R&B and '40s jazz, as well as the Caribbean rhythms of calypso, meringue and Pachanga." New York Times Scott Fagan's story is worthy of a movie in itself. A swinging hipster who landed in 60s Greenwich folk scene, escaping the abject poverty of his U.S. Virgin Islands upbringing, Fagan found himself mentored by the Brill Building's Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, and feted as the next big thing. "Forget Rodriguez, forget Searching for Sugar Man," says Sharyn Felder, daughter of the late Doc Pomus, the legendary songwriter who signed Fagan to management in 1964. "Scott was so much more. He was cut from a different cloth." 'South Atlantic Blues' is the perfect soundtrack to this tale, an epic song cycle wrapped around an impassioned love story, driven by Fagan's dense, allusive lyrics, and production by Elmer Jared Gordon (Pearls Before Swine) and rich arrangements by Horace Ott (Nina Simone, Sam Cooke, The Shirelles). The Earth Recordings reissue coincides with a resurgence in activity for Fagan, with a new album in the works - the never-recorded soundtrack to 'Soon', the 1971 Broadway rock musical he co-wrote and starred in - and a documentary 'Soon: the Story of Scott Fagan' currently filming through Scissor Kick Films, from director Marah Strauch, writer Chris Campion (who rediscovered the singer-songwriter in 2015), and producer Eric Bruggeman. Classic Black Vinyl + DLC
What happens when a four-headed human drum computer meets a classical trained vilonist turned beatmaker to spend time in the studio? A beautiful lily blossoms. At least this was the case when Bokoya and FloFilz entered Atelier 21 in Aachen (a Produzentengalerie für globale Kunst) for a musical encounter with no goals set. The music that was born out of these sessions is simply amazing and we are more than happy to release them as an album under the name “Yurika” - which is a Japanese name that means “beautiful lily”.
The artwork was created by Jens Roth & Jeremias Diekmann who are responsible for almost all Bokoya artworks yet. The 19-track strong instrumental album includes one vocal track featuring Japanese singer Kan Sano.
FloFilz is one of Europe's most acclaimed Jazzbeat-producers with four albums on MPM under his belt. His last album “Close Distance” came out in 2022 an featured artists Alfa Mist, Blue Lab Beats, Jerome Thomas and Summers Sons. FloFilz is a classical trained musician who not only plays the TR 404 but also violin.
Bokoya describe themselves as a four-headed human drum machine that play improvised beat music. You can call it jazz if you like (all four members are graduated jazz musicians ) but be ready to stumble over some Dilla, Kraut Rock, Ambient or Dub in the mix. In 2022 Bokoya released their second album Hausensession on MPM , followed by a collabo album with Cologne-based producer Ginanni Brezzo (Jakarta Records) called „Minari“.
Pink & Green Pinwheel Vinyl. Celebrate the 10 Year Anniversary of Pity Sex' breakthrough debut full-length record Feast of Love with this commemorative anniversary edition LP. This reissue features the album in full along with three bonus tracks: 'Euclid,' 'Acid Reflux' and a cover of Pixies' classic 'Gigantic.' The anniversary edition also features a gatefold jacket previously unavailable in the United States and an updated lyric sheet.Walking the razor's edge between overdriven navel gazing bliss and perfect pop sensibility, Ann Arbor's Pity Sex have crafted a breathtaking debut LP in 'Feast of Love' that's both awesomely beautiful and deftly evocative. Massive, harmonically distorted guitars and airy dual male/female vocals are hallmarks of Feast of Love, all drenched in warm, dreamy reverb. Most impressive however, is how the band utilizes pop conventions - both vocal and instrumental melody, and a strong and pounding rhythm section - while delving deep into the ethereal power of textured soundscapes. Guitars fuzz and flange, weaving between distinct, identifiable parts and simple brushes of colored noise. The voices similarly drift between carrying delicate melodies and delivering evocative feeling. Calling on the infectious, hooky inclinations of the Pixies, dreary melodies of the Breeders and sonic mass of My Bloody Valentine, Pity Sex's Feast of Love twists and churns with these beautiful yet fleeting vignettes captured in sound.
Two sublime unreleased scores from Basil Kirchin. Need we say more.
So here we are. The next Trunk / Kirchin assignment. Basically some more unreleased music from the unpredictable and slightly chaotic Kirchin Tape Archive.
Very Limited Black Vinyl.
These tapes were labelled up as follows:
Assignment K (with lots of pencil scribbles everywhere). The Strange Affair (with lots of pen scribbles everywhere).
As usual with Basil tapes / things there is little else to go on, no tracklist, no list of musicians, no singer names, no dates or anything. I have actually tried to establish the name of the singer on the song from Side One (we have called it “Love Is To Walk Away “ as it is unnamed) but having played it to a handful of knowledgeable collectors and enthusiasts who I would count as experts in this field, no one has a clue who it might be. If you think you know please get in touch. We know who it isn’t.
We can tell you that Assignment K dates from 1968, was a film about a toy maker who has a double life as an international spy. It was directed by Val Guest, who’d just finished trying to rescue the cinematic hotchpotch that was Casino Royale - he had been brought in by the Bond producers after Peter Sellers had walked off the movie. We imagine Assignment K may have been a slightly less stressful few months of shooting. As for the Kirchin score that we have here, we can tell you very little indeed, apart from the fact that the bass player was Ron Prentice (an ex blacksmith turned musician and craftsman) who worked on several Bond scores, but we know little else. And we only know this because it says so in the academic tome “Jazz On The Screen” by David Meeker.
The Strange Affair is also from 1968, and was not only controversial but also a reasonably unsuccessful movie. Directed by David Greene who also directed, amongst other films, I Start Counting and the quite brilliant Sebastian. In this rather grubby flick a policeman called Peter Strange (played by Michael York) falls for an underage girl (played by Susan George), finds himself compromised by a pair of pornographers and gets lured into an errand for a smack gang. We can tell you little else because I have no more information about it all.
But we do know that this music has all the classic Kirchin mid-period sonic hallmarks that have always set him apart.
