Buscar:cap

NuNorthern Soul may be Ibiza-based, but the label’s connections with Nottingham run deep. Over the years, Phil Cooper’s imprint has offered up countless releases and remixes from some of the East Midlands’ city’s most Balearic-minded residents, including Crazy P’s Jim Baron, Is It Balearic? chiefs Coyote and, most recently, Constellations Workshop associates Brown Fang.

You can also add to that list Torn Sail, a collaboration between Brown Fang members Jon Thompson and Henry Scott, and another Notts-based NuNorthern Soul contributor, Huw Costin. The trio’s mesmerising ‘Disconnected’ recently featured on the label’s deluxe 10th anniversary vinyl box set and now they return with a single credited to both Brown Fang and Torn Sail – the first such occurrence of that happening.

Those who heard Brown Fang’s brilliant mini-album, Sherwood Pines, will immediately feel at home. Both ‘Exit’ and ‘Endless’, the two tracks showcased on this fine single release, feature the same gorgeous, slowly shifting fusion of sun-kissed electric guitar textures, ambient atmospherics and immersive, sunset-friendly sound design.

First up is ‘Exit’, an undulating, slow burning delight where rising and falling electronic melodies and yearning, gently jazzy electric guitar motifs rise above a sparse, shuffling, subtly Latin-tinged drum machine rhythm and warming bass. Endearing, enveloping and endlessly attractive, the track seemingly blossoms in slow motion throughout its’ three-and-a-half-minute duration, with additional musical elements presenting themselves as it progresses. Even by the trio’s high standards, it’s a magical composition.

On ‘Endless’, the long-time collaborators explore their love of mind-soothing ambient soundscapes. Doffing a cap to the 1970s new age ambience of Steve Hillage – whose distinctively languid, stretched out, effects-laden electric guitar solos were undoubtedly an inspiration –Thompson, Scott and Costin deliver a becalmed and brilliant dream-scape full of hazy aural textures, drifting chords and gentle, eyes-closed vocalisations. It feels like a loved-up, smile-inducing evocation of the most visually stunning dawn you’ve ever ushered in after a night dancing under the stars.

Stacked Maxi EP of heavily dubbed house from part-time rockstar and full-time posterchild of Detroit's next generation. 2Lanes turns in an impressive set for Cape St. Francis' second release.

Limited to 300 copies

"Mind Print" features Jonah Baseball on Guitar
"TX Pluck" features Jonah Baseball on Bass Guitar and Synth Keys
"Everlast" features Natty G on Vocals

Mixed by Salar Ansari
Mastered by Rude66
Artwork by Zeevaarder

Antipodean Anomalies 2 is Left Ear Records' most ambitious project to date, a compilation that took over 4 years to license and includes 17 artists across a double LP. AA2 picks up where the first iteration left off, with co-compilers Chris Bonato and& Bridget Small continuing to dig through the music of the geographically isolating and maverick landscapes of Australia and& New Zealand.

As with the first iteration, Left Ear continues its to excavation ofe the music from these vast micro-scenes that evolved out of a number of small community-focused domains, creating their own unique reinterpretation of musical influences from near and far, spanning the years 1980 – 1992.

The compilation scopes an overlooked epoch from Adelaide, presenting acts such as the DNA Lounge, TCH & Will Kuiper. A close-knit community of like-minded mates that made distinctive electronic music together throughout the 80’s, all of which remained unreleased until now. Holbrook Buchanan capture the ambiance of Perth’s heat prodded afternoon’s perfectly with their track Hunger, a breezy 9-minute minimal-jazz jam that includes kalimba, water samples & conga. Furthermore, artists like David Watson & Colin Offord use samplers and handmade instruments to offer a more abrasive and experimental aesthetic.

To round out the compilation, artists such as Jane Stevenson, discovered a 7” at an op-shop and found the needle stuck on the word, ‘Aloha’. Using tape loops, she chose to highlight imperfections rather than hide them and in unison managed to cross boundaries of time; the 60s (album voice) and the 80s (my voice), of location; Hawaii and Australia, and of language; “Aloha and Hi”. This ethos echoes the compilation's vision, to champion artists that implement impromptu creativity, and who have a desire to create regardless of their surroundings and resources. AA2 signs off with the Back to Back Zithers, drawing inspiration from the haiku poems of Basho. To illustrate this, Kari set a Kacapi improvisation to the backdrop of the cicada chorus of summertime in outer Melbourne.

Some 30 years after first putting on a slab of vinyl in front of an audience Belgian DJ mainstay Red D presents his debut album called ‘Fantasize Then Realize’ under his Red Basics guise. An experienced and versatile DJ if ever there is one, it was logical that his album takes in a wealth of influences from around the house and techno block and features some of his best musical friends and inspirations. From his ‘go to’ singer Lady Linn, to his musical friend and partner in FCL San Soda via Belgian stronghold Lefto, to his Detroit buddy Reggie Dokes: these are the people Red D has been working with and learning from for years on end.

The music ranges from the dreamy beatless title track to the sleazy spoken word ‘Just Like Hercules’ up to the Larry Heard-inspired deepness ‘Compelled’ and including the melancholy of ‘The Larkin’.

Locked down during the first months of the Covid 19 madness Red D had no more ‘I’m too busy to get into the studio’ excuses and all the inspiration gathered during the countless hours of DJ’ing and listening to records in the last 30 years simply poured out. Making track after track was daily (and nightly) business and after a while the idea of a full album simply came naturally. The next lockdowns were spent fine-tuning the tracks, coming up with lyrics and finalizing the tracklist.

The result is ‘Fantasize Then Realize’, Red D’s debut album and a testament to his sound and attitude.



DJ FEEDBACK:

Mousse T:”22 Shoulders, hell yeah!”
Laurent Garnier: “Thanks a lot for these tracks. There’s some lovelyyyyyyy deeeeeepness in there. Love it.”
Levon Vincent: “I gave the LP a listen, nice one! I thought ‘Devious Monday’ was captivating and I liked the work with Classy Lassy as well. Congrats!”
Ka§par:"When a guys knows what he's doing, it sounds like it's real. Great tracks, loving it more and more the further we go."
Roberto Rodriguez: "Classy album! Red D quality!"
Nacho Marco: "Loving it, hard to pick a favorite. Thanks!!"
Kong: "Big up Bart, well done. Belgium = house = Red D!!"
Melon: "House music represent! Love it, feel it & gonna drop it. Great stuff :)"
Simon Caldwell: "Some really special house music on this album. Many thanks!!"
OOFT!: "Yes! This sounds amazing! Authentic underground house music just the way I like it :)"
Massimiliano Pagliara: "Nice tunes!"
Tomaz: "We all knew Bart knows where it's at but this is ridiculously good. Hard to pick a fave. The collabs are great, so are the ‘solo’ tracks. I picked the single with Lien as fave because that'll hopefully draw the deserved attention to the rest of the album. Top marks !"
Juliano: "Congrats for your album Bart ! love the deepness of the tracks and the authenticity you brought. Thank you"
Harri: "Liking these a lot, will play and support."
Alex Barck: "That's a great piece of work"
Quintessentials: "All around fantastic album! Congrats!"
Lauer: "Respect, amigo!"
Darko Esser: "Beautiful album, congrats mate great work!"

Agar Agar is a french electropop band signed on Cracki Records.
On 2016, their released their first EP "Cardan" including instant classics like "Prettiest Virgin" and "I'm That Guy".

Cardan EP navigates between synth-pop and new wave, led by the bewitching voice of Clara Cappagli and the 90's rave synthesizers of Armand Bultheel.

The duo HER ABSCENCE FILL THE WORLD is the new sensation in Berlinese synthwave scene. Their genre classical song structures with a modern twist capture and transport immediately to the likes of successful past releases of Oráculo Records like Boy Harsher, Ultra Sunn, Synths Versus Me or NNHMN. Their debut EP include four songs already relased by Detriti Records in cassette tape format and two new songs previously unreleased plus one remix by techno master KOR. Comes presented in a one-off truly limited edition of 300 copies lacquered pressed on 180gr. high quality solid black vinyl. All tracks have been specially remastered for long cut vinyl by Daniel Hallhuber at Young and Cold Studios.

(Oraculo Records - OR109)

Repressed!

For the past two years, Nils Frahm has been building a brand new studio in Berlin to make his 7th studio album titled All Melody, which will be released on January 26th, 2018 via Erased Tapes, before Nils embarks on his first world tour since 2015.Since the day Nils first encountered the impressive studio of a family friend, he had envisioned to create one of his own at such a large scale.

Fast forward to the present day and Nils is now the proud host of Saal 3, part of the historical 1950's East German Funkhaus building beside the River Spree. It is here where he has spent most of his time deconstructing and reconstructing the entire space from the cabling and electricity to the woodwork, before moving on to the finer elements, building a pipe organ and creating a mixing desk all from scratch with the help of his friends.

This is somewhere music can be nurtured and not neglected, and where he can somewhat fulfil his pursuit of presenting music to the world as close to his imagination as possible.His previous albums have often been accompanied with a story, such as Felt (2011) where he placed felt upon the hammers of the piano out of courtesy to his neighbours when recording late at night in his old bedroom studio, and the following album Screws (2012) when injuring his thumb forced him to play with only nine fingers.

His new album is born out of the freedom that his new environment provided, allowing Nils to explore without any restrictions and to keep it All about the Melody.Despite being confined within the majestic four walls of the Funkhaus, buried deep in its reverb chambers, or in an old dry well in Mallorca, All Melody is, in fact, proof that music is limitless, timeless, and reflects that of Nils' own capabilities. From a boy's dream to resetting the parameters of music itself.

Local Talk are proud to present a live recording with Soulphiction & Netzer from 2018, recorded live just a month before the official release of 'Bizzness' the first of several releases Soulphiction and Local Talk released together.

Bizzness is by many considered a classic and had all the trade marks of a Soulphiction tune with its dusty soul and funk-infused house ingredients.
This live version really shows the vision and forward thinking of Michel Baumann using his Soulphiction moniker.

Also included on this release is a - as far as we know it - unreleased track called Dileila Emergency Dub.
A track built around a heady deep house theme that captures the sweaty, back-in-the-day feel we all love to hear in a track.

________________________________________
All tracks by Michel Baumann
Performed Live with 'Netzer' on 12.5.2018 at Jazzclub BIX / Stuttgart

Netzer are:
Oli Rubow - Drums & Live drum FX
Markus Bodenseh - Bass
Markus Birkle - Guitar

Emotionally, crafted by Brainislave Zivkovic and Andre Tschaskowski in 1986 for Coloursound, is arguably the most beautiful library album ever produced. A start-to-finish masterpiece of powerfully melodic music for reflection and introspection. It is, indeed, deeply emotional.

Branislave Zivkovic handles the majority of Side A. Opener "Morning Light" evokes exactly that feeling, with a gorgeous and plaintive acoustic guitar solo combining with alto flute to stunning effect. Its immediate counterpoint, "Sundown", in no less arresting but brings with it an after-dark drama of almost Lynchian proportions, again drawing upon guitar and flute but with a slightly more melancholic, even sinister edge, also calling to mind Ry Cooder's score for Paris, Texas. It truly captivates when the strings arrive. Remarkable.

The reflective cello solo with swelling strings at the heart of "Pastoral Walk 1" ensure this track is aptly titled, with parts 2 and 3 adding more agitation - via keys and percussive elements - to great effect. "In The Garden 1" presents an elegiac cello solo whilst its second part elevates the romance. The four-part "Soft Thoughts" suite invites further introspection via reflective alto flute and guitar. Fans of The Durutti Column will need to seek this.

Andre Tschaskowski enters proceedings with three tracks at the end of the Side A. All of them aces in the pack. "Grief", whilst sorrowful, uplifts in its second half through beautiful keys. Equally hopeful are the two-part "Personal Mood" sketches, both dreamy exercises in optimistic ambience.

Tschaskowski controls the entirety of Side B. "Woodland Mood", with its pastoral flute and cor anglais and "Reminiscence", with its classical, emotional strings, both beguile. The piano and strings-heavy "Sentimental View" suite is one of the most beautiful, atmospheric things you will ever hear, particularly its second part. "Moonset 1" with it's wonderful Joe Pass-esque guitar is tense yet easy, the beauty elevated further with the introduction of strings and horns. The more restrained "Moonset 2" is pared back to its divine, sweeping essence and should surely have been sampled by now. To close out an album of almost impossible refinement, the brief 2-part "Emotional Tension" salvo brings both increased stress before resolving itself and the LP with a piano motif and atmosphere of serenity. Blessed relief.

As David Hollander, in Unusual Sounds: The Hidden History of Library Music, states, Coloursound was "founded in 1979 by composer, music lawyer, and vibraphonist Gunter Greffenius. A Munich-based library with a reputation for releasing innovative and ambitious music, it catered largely to the market for experimental sounds, its first release was 1980’s Biomechanoid, an abstract synthesizer excursion by Joel Vandroogenbroeck, of the pioneering kosmische band Brainticket. The record — complete with imposing, anonymous title and unearthly H.R. Giger cover art — set the tone for the label’s progressive leanings. The label’s catalogue stands as a tribute to the unfettered creative license that libraries were able to provide to forward-thinking musicians who, frustrated by the whims and constraints of the commercial scene, found complete freedom in the world of production music."

As with all our library music re-issues, the audio for Emotionally comes from the original analogue tapes and has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis. Richard Robinson has brought the original Coloursound sleeve back to life in all its metallic silver glory.

The Spanish artist based in Berlin SlugoS makes his debut with his album "Heretical Subversion" on Sacred Court, the label of the masked artist SNTS. Broken rhythms, aggressive percussion and intense atmospheres describe this full length album.

Welcome to another fine episode of SIRS aka »Sounds in real Stereo«! After last years' arrival on LARJ with his »Arrived EP«, Berlin based versatile DJ & producer Daniel Klein is back with »Travel To HDF.Y3D« - an utopian (or more likely dystopian) ode to space travel:

The last few remaining humans are traveling with 140bpm to the most distant galaxy in the universe on a mission to seek out a new space for mankind to live after many years of exploiting good old Mother Earth. What sounds like a horror scenario if you start thinking about it, SIRS manages to wrap up in quite a positive musical message. Thus »Travel To HDF.Y3D« becomes that hopeful uplifting slightly dreamy tune we all need these days - not unlike Christian Bruhn's theme of a certain Captain called Future back in 1980 …

It's also nice to have two more versions of such a strong tune at hand: The first one is a true first one for »Cocktail D'Amore« DJ BUDINO as she comes up with her first remix and production work ever. Budino's approach is a slightly darker, maybe indeed more dystopian one. The synthesizer bass lines dominate her remix and by getting rid of the original's playful melody she creates a very special melancholic feel.

Leipzig based PANTHERA KRAUSE's take isn't quite that different from Budino's as he too focuses on the darker vibes of this journey in space. It's his added extra dose of punch that surely will keep dancers on the floor for sure.

The former »Space Ibiza« resident SIRS now takes over the controls again with »Summer Desire« which too is destined to rule dancefloors not only in Ibiza but all over the world with its lovely airy vibe.

»Travel To HDF.Y3D« returns for one last time in form of the spoken word prolog - a nice extra tool to play with.

Anna B Savage has always asked questions in her music, but on new album in|FLUX answers are no longer her quest. Vulnerability and curiosity have consistently been operative words to describe her work and on her second album she ruminates on the complexities and variables of humanity, the pain or pleasure of love, loss and earthly connection, capturing it all in devasta- ting, elating and powerful ways. The key difference between this and previous releases: she’s not anxious about what’s on the other side. She’s come to appreciate staying afloat - basking even - in the open ended, uncertainty of the grey area.

Anna B Savage‘s new album features the singles „The Ghost“ & in|FLUX“ and will be released on 17th February on City Slang.

160-gram heavyweight Vinyl LP with gatefold jacket displaying the painting series that inspired the music, and the story of Newtok. Newtok is a remote Alaska Native village situated on the Ningliq River, near the west coast of Alaska. Although a very remote and quiet place, Newtok has come face-to-face with climate change. Due to a combination of thawing permafrost, low levels of sea ice, and strong storms, the coastal land of Newtok is eroding dramatically. In 2016, Chicago visual artist Jennifer Cronin embarked on a trip to Newtok to document this changing environment. Upon returning, she spent the next several years developing a series of paintings and screen prints titled Seen and Unseen that captured this eroding landscape. In 2019, Cronin and musical Artist Patrick Mitchell (a/k/a Dusty Patches) began discussing the project after Cronin asked him to perform at the Gallery opening for the series. As a result, Mitchell created this album, Newtok - inspired by Cronin's Seen and Unseen series and the story of Newtok, Alaska. Mitchell is a multi-instrumentalist songwriter and producer from Chicago who has led numerous past projects in the Chicago DIY community including De Triomphe, New Color, and Whiskey Wise. He dove headfirst into synths in 2017 and adopted the electronic alias Dusty Patches. Dusty Patches released his debut project Filthy Four Track Machine: Volumes I & II (2018, Sooper Records), largely made with the Teenage Engineering Pocket Operators and OP-1. In 2020, he released Nocturnal Emissions from the Dablatory, his first project fully realized with modular synthesis. In approaching Newtok, Mitchell composed all of the constituent musical elements of the work and then recorded and live mixed the album during a single live performance on modular synthesizer. The album draws heavily on sprawling ambient synths, electric and acoustic post-punk guitar motifs, cryptic vocal sampling, vintage drum machines, and modular patches that often sound like birds or the sea. The subject matter of the album, the complexity of its arrangement, and its execution as a single live recorded performance makes Newtok a unique musical experience. About Newtok, Mitchell says: This record was an exploration of themes. When faced with the immense canvases Jen Cronin produced upon her return from the village of Newtok, one can't help but feel awe. With the sheer size of the works towering above you, you are compelled. There is overwhelming beauty, desolation, a sense of urgency, and a sense that it is, in fact, far too late. These visual themes, and the emotions they evoke, were connected to the sounds and compositions of this record. There is a coldness to the digital soundscape, but organic sounds of nature and humans tether and steer the album through a journey of musical storytelling. Newtok is a journey of musical storytelling about the tragedy of the Anthropocene in the age of climate change. FOR FANS OF: Mother Earth's Plantasia, Black Moth Super Rainbow, Boards of Canada, Bibio

During this period Hassell was inspired by the increasingly innovative production techniques being used in hip-hop, in particular the hyper-collaged sampledelic barrage of the Bomb Squad’s work with Public Enemy, hearing it as a kind of extension of the tape splicing that Teo Macero brought to his work with Miles Davis.

He began to incorporate more of this aesthetic into his own music, playing over loops of his own performances and riffing on angular juxtapositions of noise, rhythm and melody.

The resulting sonic stew is a kind of futuristic sci-fi funk with an appropriately melted production aesthetic - instruments and samples jumping to the forefront then disappearing in the manner of the best dub records.

‘The Living City’ captures the Jon Hassell Group in September 1989, performing as part of an audio-visual installation inside the World Financial Center Winter Garden in New York City, with Brian Eno mixing the band live.

On February 17th 2023 Svart Records will bring out the highly-anticipated vinyl version of Unfyros' acclaimed debut album “Alpha Hunt”. The album delivers a unique mixture of old-school, mid-tempo black and heavy metal with a strong emphasis on dark, hypnotic and menacing atmospheres through captivating, eerie melodies and haunting passages. If genres or other classification is necessary be it “Black Heavy Metal”. The songs are culminating on mind altering dissonant guitar riffs, minimal yet heavy bass lines and powerful, bestial drumming. These all have been tied together by subtle synth tapestries and raspy vocals flowing out like an obscure black swarm of ghost daggers. Listen how the luminous darkness is calling and devouring One and All.

Death fucking Metal from Peru! A nuclear detonation of shredding and unbridled aggression! Spectral Souls was born in the beginning of 2019 in Lima, Peru, and from the beginning the idea was to work within the Old School Death Metal genre, going back and being inspired by the late 80’s and early 90’s bands and classic albums. During 2019 the band continued with the composition process and did it the first concert in mid 2019. At the beginning of 2020 and during the pandemic, the recording process of the first album “Towards Extinction” began at the Giovani Lama Studios. Because of the pandemic situation with government lockdowns and other obstacles, the recording took longer than expected, but luckily, after almost a year and a half of hard work, it was completed. The album contains 11 songs, in which different aspects within the old school Death Metal sound are explored, thus giving a sensation of interesting dynamics. The theme of the album is inspired by the humanity’s capacity for self-destruction, exploring the misery of man and his great enemies, such as religion, politics and social networks. When Hammerheart Records heard “Towards Extinction” they could not resist offering Spectral Souls a worldwide deal. “Towards Extinction” simply is a killer Death Metal album that brings to mind “Leprosy”, “From Beyond” and “Consuming Impulse”.

Das Kollaboalbum „Only Built for Infinity Links‘‘ der zwei Rap-Ikonen Takeoff & Quavo erscheint auf Vinyl!
Das Album ist die erste Kollaboration der beiden Rapper auf Albumlänge nach ihrem „Migos‘‘-Bruch und erreichte Platz 7 der US-Charts.

Wie auch bei ihren bisherigen Projekten arbeiteten die Künstler mit namenhaften Produzenten wie Buddha Bless, Murda Beatz, Zaytoven, DJ Durel oder Mustard zusammen.

Der Name „Only Built for Infinity“ soll die Unzertrennlichkeit zwischen Quavo und seinem Neffen Takeoff verdeutlichen.
Soundtechnisch machen die beiden Artists da weiter wo sie vor dem Migos-Bruch aufgehört haben: Auf gewohnt mitreißenden 808s rappen die beiden geschmeidig und flow-wechselnd in Harmonie, wie sie es
schon ihre halbe Karriere lang machen.

Leider ist das Projekt die letzte Kollaboration zwischen den beiden Erfolgsrappern gewesen, da Takeoff im November auf tragische Weise nach einer Auseinandersetzung verstarb.

Fans dürfen sich freuen: Das Erfolgsalbum wird als 2LP erhältlich sein und 18 Songs enthalten

Ground-breaking girl group the Marvelettes were the first successful female group and the first hitmaking act for Motown after the Miracles. Gladys Horton formed the quartet in the Gee Club of Inkster High School with Katherine Anderson, Georgeanna Tillman, Wyanetta Cowart (known as Juanita) and Georgeanna Dobbins, who dropped out prior to the Motown deal, replacement Wanda Young sharing lead duties with Horton. Debut single ‘Please Mr. Postman’ is the immortal classic that spawned the debut album of the same name, part-shaped by Smokey Robinson and Marvin Gaye, a must-have capturing their budding glory.

In 2018, the legendary Steve Miller Band’s Complete Albums Volume 1 (1968-1976) debuted as an unprecedented and acclaimed 9LP vinyl box set and individual 180-gram black vinyl LPs. Today, Steve Miller and Capitol/UMC are incredibly excited to announce plans for the May 24 global release of the collection’s second volume, presenting nine more Steve Miller Band studio albums in a new 180-gram vinyl box set called Complete Albums Volume 2 (1977-2011). Spanning the band’s multi-platinum 10th studio album, 1977’s Book of Dreams, through 2011’s Let Your Hair Down, the albums have all been remastered and are available now for preorder. Each album is also available for preorder as individual 180-gram black LPs to be released on the same date.

Sony Music Masterworks announces the vinyl format release of 'Sable (Original Video Game Soundtrack)', featuring instrumental and vocal music written by Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner for the globally acclaimed open world video game. The critically celebrated soundtrack is now being released as a stunning double coloured vinyl (purple/pink). This wasn’t Zauner’s only video game contribution of 2021: for the trailer to the new Sims 4 expansion pack 'Cottage Living', the singer/musician/director/bestselling author recorded a new version of her song 'Be Sweet' in Simlish, the fictional language featured in the Sims games. Drawing from her years of songwriting experience, Sable finds Zauner making new explorations into ambient and experimental music, the resulting soundtrack as breathtaking and otherworldly as the game itself. Sable had been hotly anticipated after being teased at E3 2018. The game is a unique and unforgettable journey accompanying guide Sable through her Gliding; a rite of passage that will take her across vast deserts and mesmerizing landscapes, capped by the remains of spaceships and ancient wonders. Of the soundtrack, Zauner says, “It was important to me that each biome in this world felt unique. I used woodwinds and vocal layering to make monumental ruins feel ancient and unknown, industrial samples and soft synths to make atomic ships feel cold and metallic, classical guitar and bright piano to make encampments feel cozy and familiar. I wanted the main themes to recall iconic works of Joe Hisaishi and Alan Menken, to fill the listener with the childlike wonder of someone on the precipice of a grand discovery."

The debut studio album of American hip hop group Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, originally released in October 1982 on Sugar Hill Records and featuring arguably the most influential hip-hop single of all time in “The Message”, together with “Scorpio” - one of the greatest electro recordings ever produced.

A gritty, plain-spoken and vividly cinematic portrait of black street life in New York circa ‘82 and a fascinating time capsule of rap's early attempts with the album format - this album earned respect on its own terms.

Out of print for many years, we are very pleased to make this iconic and revered hip-hop album available again for fans old and new to enjoy.

Part 2 of the Settle Down debut on E-Beamz with 2 tracks connecting the dots beween the eras of UK club music history.

The clattering drums & undulating bassline of 'Sniper' give way to warping mentasms that evoke memories of some of the earliest strains of dance music from acid house to jungle tekno and hardcore.

'No Shoes on The Carpet' speeds things up and doffs it's cap to the ragga jungle of the mid 90's as well as the first strain of what would become drum & bass with the deep, diving bassline recalling classics from the Philly Blunt & V Recs back catalogues.

This is no holds barred dancefloor weaponry of the highest calibre.

Raised in Queens, New York, rapper, actor, and media personality Noreaga (N.O.R.E) has spent the better part of the last 3 decades topping charts, pushing buttons and capturing the world's attention. While he may be known these days as the host of one of the most popular podcasts in the world, "Drink Champs, " it was his earlier work as an unapologetic, energetic MC that helped to catapult the multi-talented artist into the spotlight. First making waves with his work as one half of duo Capone-N-Noreaga alongside fellow Queens rapper Capone, N.O.R.E.'s career has been unrelenting since first hitting the charts in 1997. Shortly after the release of their massively successful debut album, "The War Report", Capone landed himself back in prison and N.O.R.E. moved ahead as a solo act, finding further success with his first, self-titled album, "N.O.R.E.". Released in 1998, the album catapulted up the charts, peaking at #3 on the Billboard 200 and went on to be certified platinum by the Riaa. With features from fellow NYC MC's Nas, Kool G Rap, Big Pun and Busta Rhymes and featuring production from then-up-and-coming producers, The Neptunes and Swizz Beatz, "N.O.R.E.", was praised by critics for it's modern, futuristic sound and helped to further cement N.O.R.E.'s spot as one of the most successful and memorable artists in Hip Hop. Thanks to the massive success of singles like, "Superthug", "N.O.R.E.", and legendary posse cut, "Banned from T.V.", N.O.R.E.'s debut album has continued to find success around the world and is without a doubt an undisputed classic amongst Hip Hop heads. As part of their 40th Anniversary celebration, Tommy Boy will be reissuing this game-changing album in limited, colored vinyl which is sure to be a must have for records collectors far and wide.

Originally released in May 2006 through the German label Karaoke Kalk, »Osaka Bridge« was an album that captured the joyful amateurism of Tori Kudo's free-spirited Japanese collective Maher Shalal Hash Baz and Bill Wells’ rich, wistful and easy sense of melody. Approaching brass band and jazz music with a knack for making playing imperfectly feel perfectly right, »Osaka Bridge« became nothing short of groundbreaking when it was released to critical acclaim, becoming an instant classic among musicians and fans alike. Coinciding with the release of the second LP of Wells’ on-going collaboration with Danielle Price on tuba, »The Sensory Illusions«, Karaoke Kalk makes this highly sought-after record available again on vinyl for the first time in 16 years.

The pairing of the prolific Scottish pianist and composer and the fluctuating collective active since the mid-1980s was an easy, natural one—a union particularly apt and complementary. But this is not to say that the 15 recordings which made up »Osaka Bridge« were in any way seamless. The horns played by these self-taught musicians strain and struggle with Wells’ luscious arrangements; each note is given all the stiff emphasis that you’d expect of a high school brass band at its first rehearsal. Songs fall in and out of rhythm, and a track like »Poxy« misses its intended swing feel by a country mile. Of course, this is all part of the magic. Maher Shalal Hash Baz take Wells’ melodies and strip them back to their emotional core, disallowing all artifice and revealing a stark, serene beauty.

Particularly affecting are »On The Beach Boys Bus«—described by colleague Jens Lekman as the »the most beautiful melody I’ve ever heard«—and »Time Takes Me So Back«, the two tracks sung by Kudo’s wife Reiko. Inspiration for both pieces came to Wells in dreams. The former was sung by a group of tanned Californians on the way to a Beach Boys convention, the latter by his grandmother shortly before she passed away. Reiko’s voice gives each song a haunting fragility that enhances their phantasmagoric character. »Cowtail Calypso«, on the other hand, was born when Wells asked Tori Kudo to sing Roger Miller’s »King Of The Road« over a syncopated, propulsive melody. Kudo’s ambiguous response (»maybe,« which according to Wells usually translated to »forget it«) resulted in a brief, idiosyncratic track that nevertheless exceeded all of Wells’ expectations.

Of the instrumental tracks, »Liquorice Tics« stands out for its rolling rhythms and circular melody, while »Family Sighs« creates a brooding atmosphere which perfectly encapsulates the conflicting feelings many people have for their immediate family. For the most part, the instrumentals are concise—a melody stated once and then dispensed with—but their brevity only heightens the impact. Even (or especially) 16 years later, »Osaka Bridge« continues to be an almost accidentally timeless document that captured fleeting moments and personal revelations at their most spontaneous and unaffected. As someone put it so aptly in a Discogs comment a few years back, »this is the album which is able to make aliens understand what humankind is about.« You better turn up the volume so that everyone can hear it everywhere.

repressed !

Firmly entrenched in techno's haziest alcoves, every new record from Denise Rabe is as punishingly hypnotic an experience as it aims to penetrate the deepest laid of your cerebral zones. Having plied her trade on Arts' sub-division Arts Collective before moving on to establish her own dedicated label, Rabe, in 2017, the Berlin-based DJ and producer steps up with her much anticipated debut platter for Stroboscopic Artefacts, as she takes the helm for the fifth sortie of the Totem series. True to her love for all things droney and psychoactive, this time Rabe has us descending into rugged, hostile sonic terrains with just a headlamp and the thick mantle of darkness for closest companions. Ahead’s a demented safari across nightmare-prone visions and thunderstruck vistas.

Hosing off the loud, churning 909 kicks and passive-aggressive machine talk straightaway, 'Manifesto' sets the tone for the warehouse-sized hammering to come. Evil-minded swashes of hyper-delayed percs and criss-crossing chimes lash out in successive waves, further subjugating the dancers as bars fly by. A more spacious and atmospheric number, B-side opener 'Clouds' heads for quieter high-altitude spheres as the dubbed-out drums beat an off-kilter, leftfield friendly pulse and ominous synth stabs and pads envelop the listener in entrancing textural folds and interplays. Back to floor-ready dynamics, the adrenaline booster 'Don't Leave' caps it off on a truly mind-bending tip. Primed for unrelenting peak time action with its angry buzzard-like drones, pacey 4/4 swing and refined palette of eerie circuit noises and click-y minimalism, this one's a high-impact steamroller, sure to get maximum response when things start getting muscular.

Infinite Machine is proving again it's a label that refuses to sonically sit still. Having released everything from code-based compositions to bass-heavy techno in 2022, the imprint is readying the release of the black metal-tinged Ehkta by BOLT RUIN later this month. A musician whose work has been described as 'apocalyptic' more than once, on this new mini-album, the Belgian producer blends field recordings, twisted samples and rave signifiers with an eerie tonality born out of his nocturnal production sessions and time spent absorbing the silence of his studio garden.

Bridging the gap from his previous record to this one, 'Sktone' is a cinematic opener that unfolds like a bad dream in slow motion. Warped samples of Bulgarian choirs glide over synths wired in closed-circuit loops which feed back on themselves, degrading for infinity. Texture and space is added via field recordings of waves crashing over the ruins of Brighton West Pier. This track exemplifies the unexpected influence BOLT RUIN took from the wildlife he witnessed in the garden of his urban studio when working on Ehkta. Adapting to the material at their disposal, weasels and blackbirds create nests from organic waste and human trash - an astute metaphor for the Belgian producer's compositional approach.

Next up, BOLT RUIN drives up the tempo with the rave-ready 'Nehng', where a frenzy of trance arpeggios and frantic drum programming builds and intensifies over its 5-minute duration. Inspired by Yves Klein's 'Leap Into a Void', 'Nehng' definitely evokes that bodily rush of freefalling into the unknown. 'Nehng''s driving rhythm is switched out for the brooding 'Tzarhk' - an ode to the soundtracks of B-movies composed on a vintage Roland SH-2 (a prominent character of the Stranger Things soundtrack). BOLT RUIN runs thick, syrupy synth slabs and punishing drum patterns through a rain-soaked limiter the producer found lying on the street by chance.

Another master-class in self-destructive arrangements comes in the form of 'Rfohmdrá' as delicate pianos and synth tones atrophy through daisy chained pedals which erode the signal. Valgeir Sigurðsson's mastering skills shines through here, taking BOLT RUIN's sci-fi-meets-metal sonics and amping them up to a scale on par with the Björk or Ben Frost records he's previously worked on.

Conceived of as the mirror reflection of the LP's opener, 'Maevr' pushes the approach of 'Sktone' to an even more nightmarish extreme. Embracing chance, the clattering layers of beats are sampled of a knocked mic on a window as BOLT RUIN attempted to capture a recording of rain from his studio. A happy and very effective accident for the foreboding mood of the track!

BOLT RUIN rounds off Ehkta with 'Ekztamnh'; an ode to that specific sensation of entering through a corridor to a rave and hearing the rumble of a soundsystem from afar. Snarling melodies are run through a reverse granular delay effect which fragments the signal, reverses it and plays them back in irregular order; much like the shattered memories of a late night in a warehouse.

A musical magpie who finds inspiration in the most unlikely of sources, Ehkta is a restless exploration of salvage-punk aesthetics where doom-laden black metal melodies, amen breaks and an experimental approach to sound design sit in an irregular and uneven musical apocalypse. For fans of Blanck Mass or Caterina Barbieri - this is a must-listen material from a fresh producer establishing himself with a singular musical voice.

2023 Repress On Vertigo Days, the first album in seven years for The Notwist, one of Germany’s most iconic independent groups are alive to the possibilities of the moment. Their music has long been open-minded and exploratory, but from its engrossing structure, through its combination of melancholy pop, clangorous electronics, hypnotic Krautrock and driftwork ballads, to its international musical guests, Vertigo Days is both a new step for The Notwist, and a reminder of just how singular they’ve always been. Most importantly, the core trio of Markus and Micha Acher and Cico Beck are reaching out: as Markus reflects, “we wanted to question the concept of a band by adding other voices and ideas, other languages, and also question or blur the idea of national identity.”

It’s been seven years since The Notwist’s last album, Close To The Glass, and in that time the various members of the group have been busy with side projects (Spirit Fest, Hochzeitskapelle, Alien Ensemble, Joasihno), guest appearances, a record label (Alien Transistor), movie scoring, helping organise the Minna Miteru compilation of Japanese indie pop & running a festival (Alien Disko). Those divergent paths feed back into Vertigo Days in surprising ways, from its structure, built from group improvisations, with songs flowing and melting into one another in a collective haze, to its spirit, which feels refreshed and alive. There’s something cinematic about Vertigo Days too, reflective of the group’s time working on soundtracks, and reflected in the rich, moody photographic artwork by Lieko Shiga that adorns the cover.

The first sign of this newfound openness was the album’s lead single, “Ship”, where the group were joined by Saya of Japanese pop duo Tenniscoats, her disarmingly hymnal voice sighing over a propulsive, Krautrocking beat. Elsewhere, American multi-instrumentalist Ben LaMar Gay sings on “Oh Sweet Fire”, also contributing “a love lyric for these times, imagining two lovers in an uprising hand in hand.” American jazz clarinettist and composer Angel Bat Dawid adds clarinet to the spaced-out dream-pop of “Into The Ice Age”, while Argentinian electronica songwriter Juana Molina gifts some gorgeous singing and electronics to “Al Sur”. Saya also reappears as a member of Japanese brass band Zayaendo, who guest on the album. Throughout, The Notwist also capture the openness of their live performances, too, where they mix and link their songs in unexpected ways.

Indeed, what’s most impressive about Vertigo Days is the way it sits together as one long, flowing suite, the album conceptualised as a whole entity – it’s perfect for the long-distance, dedicated listening experience. This is also captured by the album’s lyrics, which Markus states, “feel more like one long poem.” The dimensions of that poem are multi-faceted, something intensified by the geopolitical weirdness of its times: “As the situation changed so dramatically, while we were working on the record, the theme of ‘the impossible can happen anytime,’ more about personal relationships in the beginning, became a global and political story.” But it also works at a level of poetic abstraction, such that each song gestures in multiple directions – the deeply private pans out to the global. The one certainty is that there is no certainty. “It’s maybe mostly about learning and how you never arrive anywhere,” Markus concurs. To sit within uncertainty is brave, but it’s also where we feel most alive, and Vertigo Days is an album that is brimming with life, with enthusiasm and love for music and for community, all wide-eyed and dreaming.

The definitive collection of Laraaji's earliest works, Segue To Infinity compiles his 1978 debut Celestial Vibration and six additional side-long studio sessions from previously unknown acetates from the same period. A lengthy essay by Living Colour's Vernon Reid chronicles the origins of Edward "Flash" Gordon, illustrated with dozens of previously unpublished photographs that capture this beautiful and elusive young artist. Full of discovery and wonderment, Segue To Infinity is a miraculous chronicle of new age's most fabled artist.

LTD. GALAXY VINYL

The definitive collection of Laraaji's earliest works, Segue To Infinity compiles his 1978 debut Celestial Vibration and six additional side-long studio sessions from previously unknown acetates from the same period. A lengthy essay by Living Colour's Vernon Reid chronicles the origins of Edward "Flash" Gordon, illustrated with dozens of previously unpublished photographs that capture this beautiful and elusive young artist. Full of discovery and wonderment, Segue To Infinity is a miraculous chronicle of new age's most fabled artist.

Cosmic Simmering is a very personal new album of unreleased material from Chris Gray on saft. The 13 track album has been composed of previously lost archives, restored DAT tapes and old CDs and it plots the musical evolution of one of house mysic's most underrated artists.

Work on this album started in March 2020 when Chris started digging around in his archives. Some of what he found was sketched in the late 80s, while other tracks were written a few months after Chris moved to Chicago and was living in his uncle's south side attic in early 1993. There are also some cuts from 1995 onwards which have been salvaged from deteriorating DAT tapes after a friend of CHris fixed his player. There is also a selection of early 2000s deep4life material taken from 20-year-old backups on cheap CDs, all brought back to life for this record.

Cosmic Simmering is a beautifully widescreen album that works equally on mind, body and spirit.

2023 Repress on Yellow Vinyl

On Vertigo Days, the first album in seven years for The Notwist, one of Germany’s most iconic independent groups are alive to the possibilities of the moment. Their music has long been open-minded and exploratory, but from its engrossing structure, through its combination of melancholy pop, clangorous electronics, hypnotic Krautrock and driftwork ballads, to its international musical guests, Vertigo Days is both a new step for The Notwist, and a reminder of just how singular they’ve always been. Most importantly, the core trio of Markus and Micha Acher and Cico Beck are reaching out: as Markus reflects, “we wanted to question the concept of a band by adding other voices and ideas, other languages, and also question or blur the idea of national identity.”

It’s been seven years since The Notwist’s last album, Close To The Glass, and in that time the various members of the group have been busy with side projects (Spirit Fest, Hochzeitskapelle, Alien Ensemble, Joasihno), guest appearances, a record label (Alien Transistor), movie scoring, helping organise the Minna Miteru compilation of Japanese indie pop & running a festival (Alien Disko). Those divergent paths feed back into Vertigo Days in surprising ways, from its structure, built from group improvisations, with songs flowing and melting into one another in a collective haze, to its spirit, which feels refreshed and alive. There’s something cinematic about Vertigo Days too, reflective of the group’s time working on soundtracks, and reflected in the rich, moody photographic artwork by Lieko Shiga that adorns the cover.

The first sign of this newfound openness was the album’s lead single, “Ship”, where the group were joined by Saya of Japanese pop duo Tenniscoats, her disarmingly hymnal voice sighing over a propulsive, Krautrocking beat. Elsewhere, American multi-instrumentalist Ben LaMar Gay sings on “Oh Sweet Fire”, also contributing “a love lyric for these times, imagining two lovers in an uprising hand in hand.” American jazz clarinettist and composer Angel Bat Dawid adds clarinet to the spaced-out dream-pop of “Into The Ice Age”, while Argentinian electronica songwriter Juana Molina gifts some gorgeous singing and electronics to “Al Sur”. Saya also reappears as a member of Japanese brass band Zayaendo, who guest on the album. Throughout, The Notwist also capture the openness of their live performances, too, where they mix and link their songs in unexpected ways.

Indeed, what’s most impressive about Vertigo Days is the way it sits together as one long, flowing suite, the album conceptualised as a whole entity – it’s perfect for the long-distance, dedicated listening experience. This is also captured by the album’s lyrics, which Markus states, “feel more like one long poem.” The dimensions of that poem are multi-faceted, something intensified by the geopolitical weirdness of its times: “As the situation changed so dramatically, while we were working on the record, the theme of ‘the impossible can happen anytime,’ more about personal relationships in the beginning, became a global and political story.” But it also works at a level of poetic abstraction, such that each song gestures in multiple directions – the deeply private pans out to the global. The one certainty is that there is no certainty. “It’s maybe mostly about learning and how you never arrive anywhere,” Markus concurs. To sit within uncertainty is brave, but it’s also where we feel most alive, and Vertigo Days is an album that is brimming with life, with enthusiasm and love for music and for community, all wide-eyed and dreaming.

For the first time in a white vinyl version + two posters (A2 format with photos, drawings and texts), here is the adaptation of the famous V.I.S.A. tape released in 1983 "Meilleurs extraits des deux concerts à Paris" (Best extracts from two concerts in Paris) which offers a cold and brutal dive into Bérurier Noir's first stage performances.

The title of this album refers to the self-managed factory on rue de Pali-Kao, in the 20th arrondissement, where Bérurier Noir played their first concert. It's easy to imagine the omnipresent smoke that slightly obscures the view, the heady smell of warm beers and the repetitive sound of capsules falling to the ground, the floor trembling under the incessant hammering of rangers, docs and creepers from the audience... This famous raïa, destructive and colourful, which encouraged the duo to continue their adventures whereas François and Loran had simply planned to bury the band after the concert!

There are two versions - 180g black vinyl and color vinyl version - limited to 100 copies and each vinyl has a different color. All versions has booklet inside with the special artwork dedicated to each track from teh album.

Things don't always go your way, especially when your plans involve space travel. In the case of Captain Harrison Focus's expedition, it started innocently, but no one was prepared for an emergency landing on the mysterious planet Carmin. Only then did the real fight for survival begin. This record tells the story of a dangerous expedition into space that began on February 6, 2023.

Twoosty Mayonez consists of Bartosz Wolert (drums) and Dominik Kaniewski (bass guitar and synthesizers). "Carmin" is their debut album, which is released primarily on vinyl by U Know Me Records.

Coming February 10: the most live-sounding Yo La Tengo album in years, This Stupid World. Times have changed for Yo La Tengo as much as they have for everyone else. In the past, the band has often worked with outside producers and mixers. In their latest effort, the first full-length in five years, This Stupid World was created all by themselves. And their time-tested judgment is both sturdy enough to keep things to the band’s high standards, and nimble enough to make things new. At the base of nearly every track is the trio playing all at once, giving everything a right-now feel. There’s an immediacy to the music, as if the distance between the first pass and the final product has become more direct. Available on standard black vinyl.

Idlewild South is the second studio album by American southern rock band the Allman Brothers Band. Produced by Tom Dowd, the album was released on September 23, 1970 in the United States by Atco Records and Capricorn Records. Following the release of their 1969 debut, the Allman Brothers Band toured the United States extensively to promote the album, which had little commercial success. Their performances, however, did create positive word of mouth exposure that extended to more famous musicians, such as Eric Clapton, who invited group leader Duane Allman to contribute to his 1970 album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs.

Priscilla Renea Hamilton , known professionally as Muni Long (pronounced "money long"), is an American singer and songwriter. Under her birth name, her solo debut studio album, Jukebox, was released through Capitol Records in 2009. She then spent the following decade co-writing songs for other recording artists, including the singles "California King Bed" by Rihanna, "Worth It" by Fifth Harmony, "Love So Soft" by Kelly Clarkson, "Imagine" by Ariana Grande, and the global chart-topper "Timber" by Pitbull featuring Kesha. She has received four Grammy Award nominations throughout her career, including for Best New Artist, Best R&B Song ("Hrs & Hrs"), and Best R&B Performance ("Hrs & Hrs"). She also received a nomination for Album of the Year through her work on Back of My Mind (2021) by H.E.R. . Public Displays of Affection is a soundtrack of intimacy that seemed to offer an answer: You let love lead. "I am a lover," Muni Long explains. "I prefer to be kind. I believe in fairytales. The reason Public Displays of Affection worked is because love was absent in R&B." For that breakthrough project, Muni wanted to mimic the ebbs and flows of a relationship, dipping and diving between moods and sounds - which is real, because love can be tumultuous, too.

Pauline Marx, formerly of the fantastic duo La Fureur de Vouivre, seems like a being from another time and place; namely, an escaped marauder lurking in the forests of a Bruegel painting and integrating the surreal flora and fauna of a Boschian creation into the scenery and lore of deep Brittany. Her invented mythology is loaded with murky rituals and contorted mantras, backed by the surprising sounds and textures of terrains so earthly and so unreal.

The Devil at the Crossroads

Where do you think you come from? Where do you think you're going? Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch’entrate: you, with the noodle to the four winds, who pass the threshold of this disc, you better leave all hope there, and glide in the poisonous footstep of the devil your guide.

Where do you think you come from? The mountain is no longer just the mountain; after your passage, it will no longer even be a mountain. Like the whole landscape, it will have been eaten, sauced by invisible leeches. Your nostalgia for the ground and your thirst to find the source will have only discovered a forest of vain words and foul water. Where do you think you're going? At the crossroads, the world is consumed in the previous future. Only the devil will know how to make you overcome the disgust of traditions, and only the love for the devil will give you enough vim to reach your goal: a village, perhaps, but which belongs to no one, a haven to your excessiveness .

The dark tradition to which this game of ternary trampling belongs, like the rhythm of a heart in tune with the inverted world, has no country and no assigned time. Rather a topology of Eve awakened after a thousand-year sleep, an idiosyncratic and possessed reading of our common humus, made up of stories composted in the limbo of the past, of songs captured in extremis vitae and rebus in the privatized antechambers of death.

What does she tell us about? Of our automobile and in love roamings, of the porosity of the membranes that separate beings and things, of the constant inversion of signs. The seventeen stages of this short journey, where intertwine the throbbing of objects, blown horns and rubbed horsehair, form the map of a country never to be found, ours, where only the voice of an old child and the disgusting devil's poisonous charm can guide us.