Cerca:category 7

SABÏRE has now returned in 2024 with a 15 track epic, self-styled "half-concept" album, "Jätt", 5 years in the making. SABÏRE began at the tail end of 2010 as an idea to have a band that played simply what came naturally on guitar to Scarlett Monastyrski with no set genre or category. Simply the natural music. Shortly thereafter, the concept grew to accompany that sound with a big show and distinctive stylisation. The biting and sharp sound production, along with their personal lyrics, birthed for them a label for their music: ACID METAL. Not to be confused with the mind altering substance, Acid Metal took its name from the concentrated corrosive fluid not unlike the blood of the Xenomorph in the Alien films. The instruments are awash with acidic modulation, "like a drop of acid in the dark." The lyrics all hold a tinge of biting realism that once realised by the listener, stings them like a droplet of acid resting upon their skin. To take their metaphor further, their distinctive production style let's stand apart from the rest of the "modern" sound that degrades the potentcy of many new bands. They call it "brick culture," because it all sounds the same. Concentrated acid burns all the way through anything solid leaving a hot trail behind it, like the band continues to do so with garnering the attention of the world of heavy music. Band leader Scarlett Monastyrski comments : " 'Jätt' is meant to be THE sound of SABÏRE. A monolith to what we stand for artistically. We wanted this album to be its own art piece rather than simply a collection of arbitrary songs, a really 'blue' coloured sound. The physical copies hold beautifully styled texts detailing the concept for those chosen songs, as well as small epistles to accompany each track," says . “ 'Jätt' is a “blue” sounding album; the colour. You may understand that more when listening to the album yourself. The cover of 'Jätt', “Dante and Virgil in the Ninth Circle of Hell” - Gustav Doré, 1861, could be seen through a symbolic lense in which the listener is symbolised as Dante, the artist as Virgil, and the bodies locked within the ice of frozen lake as the music surrounding them; we as the artist are shepherding the listener through the mire. This could be perceived like this, or you may just see it as an attractive album cover. “ "We put our heart and soul into this one and can't wait to give our Wild Ones and Acid Fiends what they've been so patiently waiting for

FLUKTEN is a Norwegian jazz quartet, with members from Hanna Paulsberg Concept, Atomic, Moskus, GURLS, Wako, Espen Berg Trio, Hullyboo, Skadedyr and Trondheim Jazz Orchestra. Their debut album Velkommen håp from 2021, was well received and earned them a Norwegian Grammy in the category of jazz. When Flukten was going to record a follow-up to "Velkommen håp", they again wanted to record in the same studio and collaborate with technician Mike Hartung. The new album shows how thw quartet has evolved, and the album was recorded by musicians with surplus energy to follow up the first album. Concerts are scheduled throughout Norweay, as well as Oslo Jazz Festival.

Barro Music Label reaches its tenth reference with a tremendous EP in which the protagonist (even of the cover) is Nöle, the label's boss. In Electro Bloody Music, the popular DJ and producer from Pamplona delivers four original tracks accompanied by a fantastic remix by Delectro. The renowned Colombian producer, active since 2006, has released on some of the best international labels and with his 80s EBM, electro and techno influences, he is the ideal person to accompany the label boss on such an important release. As for Nöle, after the success of Mendekua, his previous work released in 2022, he does what he is the best at: dark and frenetic techno with EBM flavor, like the one he played during his long residency at Stardust and does now at Lasociación.

On the A-side of Electro Blood Music we find three originals, the first two could be included in the category of Techno Body Music while the third is more purely techno. The EP starts with BuruHilketa, a dark track with a certain experimental atmosphere endowed with an incisive synth line and disturbing vocal samples that accompany us during most of the composition. Shaktale, shares some of the atmosphere of the first track, as it also includes vocal samples and a eerie synthesizer melody quite catchy. It has quite a complex rhythm and an extremely careful production that we recommend listening with headphones to appreciate in detail. Cementerio caliente is powerufl techno track, with hypnotic synths and an acid touch and tremendously forceful. With this kick drum, you could definitely demolish a house!

On the B-side we find another original track titled Noisebuilder and the remix by Delectro. Noisebuilder, with its fat and aquatic basses starts off more techno but, little by little, it also includes EBM details. The track lives up to its name and the noise builds, little by little, layer by layer while the intensity keeps growing. With a hard-hitting beat, spiced in the background by synthesizers that help to create an atmosphere, it is one of the clearest bangers of the EP. Delectro delivers a remix a little more forceful and darker, a bombshell of pure Techno Body Music that closes this magnificent EP.

Release note: El Garaje de Frank

Brazilian singer and composer Arthur Melo turns to the ‘70s & ‘80s, to the musical greats like Caetano Veloso and Milton Nascimento, channelling his love of director Brian de Palma and old detective films, and positioning himself amongst a new generation of contemporary musicians

Arthur Melo, a young Brazilian composer, guitarist and singer returns to releasing music, with his second single after a 3 year break, with a new album Mirantes Emocionais, set for release on British label Wonderfulsound. Backed by his band O Ministério da Consciência it’s a work that pays homage to Arthur’s heroes of Brazilian music from the ‘70s and ‘80s yet goes much beyond throwback. Like his previous post-tropicalia, psychedelic and percussive material, it honours Brazil’s divergent musical history but always looking forward, treading new paths and placing Arthur in a venerable category of explorative, young Brazilian artists alongside the likes of Sessa & Ana Frango Elétrico.

Nia Archives is the star at the forefront of the latest era of jungle. Since her emergence in 2020, her collagist soundscapes have helped bring the sound to a new generation of clubgoers (though fair warning: don’t call her a “revivalist” – she’s the first to point out that the scene never went away). So when it comes to talk of the 24-year-old producer, DJ, singer and songwriter’s much-anticipated debut album, the odds are you’re thinking of a full-length record of weightless jungle tracks with basslines so intense they’ll leave your ears ringing.

But the reality of the Bradford-born, Leeds-raised artist’s first ever album – while very much replete with that exquisite jungle sound she does so well – is also doing something a little different. On the thrilling and freeing Silence Is Loud, Nia Archives is looking to make music for beyond the rave. As she explains: “I think music can be experienced in different ways, and there’s different kinds of music for different scenarios. Say you’re at a festival listening to music with thousands of other people, that can feel really uniting. But then you might listen to an album on your own in the bus, or in a taxi; and this project is definitely more a record to sit and listen to than a collection of club tracks.” Nia is intent that Silence Is Loud is taken in as a full body of work of something “more song-focussed, putting interesting sounds on jungle.” It means that this is a record which finds gloomy Britpop, warm Motown, soaring indie, a love for Kings of Leon’s Aha Shake Heartbreak, skittering IDM, Madchester, classic rock, old skool hardcore and more, woven and fused into her ragga and junglist tapestry, all layered with feeling, imbued with her songwriterly lyricism about loneliness, relationships, family, navigating her 20s, and the intense potential power of silence.

The vast sonic palette on Silence Is Loud comes down to Nia’s broad array of influences through her life. With her Jamaican heritage, Nia remembers hearing jungle as a child via her nana, as well as at Bradford Carnival, where she was drawn to the soundsystem culture, dancing carefree on the floats in the parade. The first album she ever bought was Rihanna’s debut, Music of the Sun, and she also went to Pentecostal church back then, and was obsessed with gospel. Aged 16, she moved to Manchester, where she didn’t really know anybody: and so, her solution to meeting people was going out. “Partying was a huge part of my life,” she says, “They used to do little freestyle cyphers at the house parties and I would join in – that’s kind of how I got into singing.” She had found music boring at school, but in meeting all these new people she became interested in making her own music as a hobby. “I was making boom-bap kind of stuff which I didn’t really like in the end,” she laughs, “My lyrics are quite deep, so on a hip-hop beat it all sounds really depressing. I wanted people to dance to my music.” And so she began experimenting with faster tempos alongside that melancholy songwriting, teaching herself how to make beats on Logic: “It’s all been a lot of trial and error, really.”

Nia went to study music in London, and was also interested in visual art, making collages and VHS: “Before the music, I was trying to make a visual archive of my life and the people around me,” she explains, “And then my music was like my diary, and a sonic archive, as well.” Hence, she paired the word “archives” with her middle name, Nia. To this day, in her spare time she’s working on pulling together a documentary on the global nature of the jungle scene.

Back on those first two EPs, Headz Gone West (2021) and Forbidden Feelingz (2022), she honed that junglist sound, painting it with new flecks of colour and vibrance. It was only after she started releasing work that she realised pursuing music could be a viable life path for her. The decision has been paying off ever since. Nia Archives placed third in the prestigious BBC Sound Poll for 2023, alongside garnering a nomination for the Brit Awards’ Rising Star prize, plus wins at the DJ Mag, NME, the MOBOs and Artist and Manager Awards. She has also toured the world – be it North America, Europe or Asia – and even opened a show in London as part of a little something called Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour. She’s renowned as a party-starter in her own right, too, with takeovers at Glastonbury, Warehouse Project and her own Bad Gyalz day event. She’s done official remixes for the likes of Jorja Smith, had a huge summer hit with her Yeah Yeah Yeahs rework ‘Off Wiv Ya Headz’, and worked with brands like Corteiz, Nike, Flannels, Burberry, FIFA and Apple. In just three years, it’s fair to say that Nia Archives has become a need-to-know name in dance music.

But Nia is not interested in being one fixed thing. Building on the terrain from her third EP, Sunrise Bang Ur Head Against Tha Wall, the universe of Silence Is Loud is not totally unfamiliar territory; but it’s still emblematic of a bolder scope than we’ve heard from the artist before. Working with Ethan P. Flynn (the songwriter and producer known for his work with FKA twigs and David Byrne), the resulting record is an impressive feat of deftly-sculpted textures; sometimes big and euphoric, like the wobbly, lusty bass of ‘Forbidden Feelingz’, or elsewhere notably gentle and quiet – see: the gorgeous, surprisingly drumless ‘Silence Is Loud (Reprise)’, a heartfelt number that sits somewhere in the school of Adele. “I really sharpened my songwriting skill on this project,” Nia says, “I was really intentional about what I was writing about, and I really loved co-producing with Ethan. His process is so different to anyone I’ve worked with before, and he’s got a kind of DIY set-up like me.” Flynn’s flat overlooks the Barbican, adding that unquantifiable futurist urban quality that the area holds to the music. The pair enjoyed the collaborative process so much that the album was done within three and a half months.

Perhaps this is why Silence Is Loud maintains an exuberant immediacy while still being sleek and spacious, interspersed with flourishes of metallic beats, lush melody and topped with her sugary but powerful vocal, floating over it all. There is an intimacy to the record, perhaps in part due to Nia writing most of her lyrics while sitting in bed in her flat in Bow (once a bedroom producer, always a bedroom producer). You can hear it on the refrain for lead single ‘Crowded Roomz’, which finds rippling guitar lines cutting taut through the beats as Nia refrains: “I feel so lonely crowded rooms.” The song is an examination of life on tour, constantly surrounded by people, but not necessarily those she can be herself around; more than that, the track is exemplary in the category of sad bangers.

Silence Is Loud often finds itself in that push and pull between melancholy and euphoria. There’s a celebration of her unconditional love for her younger brother (the title track), a rumination of an evening with an Irish boy she met by Temple Bar (‘Cards On The Table), or a letter to herself on the light and airy ‘Unfinished Business’, even coming to terms with a lover having a past they haven’t quite processed yet (“nobody comes with a clean slate”). The latter was recorded the week after a music festival, and accordingly captures Nia’s vocal in its not quite healed, husky state.

Nia’s work is always a snapshot of where she’s at when she’s making it. This might not be the debut album you were expecting, but that’s what makes Silence Is Loud so special. Nia Archives has learned the rules of her sound, and is unafraid to break them, pushing jungle and herself into new, unchartered territories that, in turn, go some way to map the history of the greats of British dance music. More than that, it plants her firmly in that lineage.

Marshall Titus is an award winning actor and performer who began his career in High School singing in local bands and vocal groups before gaining national attention by becoming a finalist in the male vocalist category on the hit T.V. show Star Search. Prior to his fame coming up in Chicago, Titus worked with Jun Mhoon, a session drummer for Brunswick records and later VP of A&M Records, to produce and promote "Take A Chance On A Feeling". The track won the 1984 Budweiser Tournament of Jams (Chicago) and was released as a radio promotional 7inch single through Starstream.

Back on vinyl for a limited time, Original version (with extended intro) A Side , and a synth-centric PPU mix B Side.

7A Records is proud to present Davy Jones "The Bell Records Story". A lavish reissue of Davy Jones' self-titled album remastered with 6 bonus tracks. The CD version comes with a big 36 page colour booklet, extensive liner notes from Monkees historian Mark Kleiner and rare and previously unseen pictures. This reissue gives fans the opportunity to reassess an album that was unfairly neglected by record buyers at the time of its initial release in the fall of 1971.

Prior to entering the studio with producer Jackie Mills, Jones had recorded a batch of more somber and adult contemporary-sounding demos than the eventual Bell recordings of big band sunshine pop. While the latter played quite squarely into Jones’ established image; the former suggested another path that may (or may not) have launched Jones into a more fecund musical and commercial direction. Who can say? At the end of the day, we have these recordings and their manifold (and for too long overlooked) pleasures to enjoy, a worthy entry in the broad category of early seventies sunshine pop and in the specific canon of Davy Jones and Monkees-related recordings. Here is primetime Davy Jones, singing like an angel, and pointing to a love that leads to joy for all mankind. This release comes with a Booklet & Liner Notes & Photos

Re-issue as double vinyl in slip sleeve! Frank Bornemann has transformed the story of the French national heroine Jeanne d’Arc to an impressive musical journey into the 15th century. Next to spoken word passages the music primarily captivates with its atmospheric
arrangements that open up a new chapter in the Eloy cosmos. The press puts the work under the same category as Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” and the Who’s “Tommy”, confirming the powerful intensity of the songs and praising the audiophile quality.

repressed !

Birthed at the turn of the ‘80s, synth and wave music has remained a constant force over the last four decades, with a recent spike in interest in the sound offering further proof of its’ timeless, out-of-this-world quality. It’s against this backdrop that Dutch DJ Interstellar Funk presents his celebration of the style, “Artificial Dancers – Waves of Synth”.

A bumper compilation bristling with obscure and hard-to-find gems, the set sees the Artificial Dance label founder joining the dots between synthesizer and drum machine-driven tracks in a variety of subtly different styles. It’s the result of hundreds of hours spent digging through dusty old records, tapes, and the Bandcamp accounts of DIY musicians who have been active since the sound’s first boom in the early 1980s.

The 11-track set draws on tracks made and released at different times over the last 40 years, with the earliest cut committed to tape in 1978 and the most recent in 2018. While the tracks date from the ‘80s, ‘90s, noughties and 2010s, the showcased cuts are united by a primitive but futuristic quality that makes dating them difficult. In many cases, it’s hard to tell which tracks were made in the early 1980s and which were conjured up in 21st century studios.

As you’d expect, highlights are plentiful with a number of the most unknown or sought-after cuts appearing on vinyl for the first time. In this category you’ll find the Human League’s odd but inspired early number “4JG”, a near mythical 1982 live version of Liasons Dangereuses’ “Dias Cortas” (previously only available on a VHS video) and Chris and Cosey’s “Hybrid C”, a brilliant mid-’90s cut plucked from their CD-only album “Skimble Skamble”. You’ll also find a rare demo version of Clan of Xymox’s Dutch darkwave classic “Stranger”, which became a club smash across Europe in 1983.

Interstellar Funk has also chosen to showcase tracks by a range of DIY producers and lesser-known artists. These include Californian band Batang Frisco, who self-released a sole private press album in 1986 (their contribution, “Sewing Machine”, is dedicated to founder member Bill DiMichele, who passed away this year), Matthias Schuster’s Im Namen Des Volkes project – which contributes the previously unreleased 2014 track “Alles Ist Gewinn” – and Zahgurim, a short-lived early ‘80s act who reunited in 2018 to record their first new material since 1983.

If that wasn’t enough to set pulses racing, the compilation also showcases a solo track by sadly departed Psyche member Stephen Huss. Nobody is quite sure when Huss recorded “Infinity Sign”, but we can confirm this is the first time that one of his solo productions has ever appeared on vinyl.

Waxwork Records in collaboration with Walt Disney Records announce the pre-order for the highly anticipated Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Original Video Game Soundtrack vinyl album. Composed by Stephen Barton and Gordy Haab, this 2xLP vinyl edition is set for release on February 2, 2024, offering fans an immersive musical experience from the acclaimed video game.

The soundtrack, comprised of 27 tracks, is pressed on 150-gram colored vinyl and presented in heavyweight gatefold jackets with a matte satin coating. To enhance the collector's experience, the vinyl will be accompanied by an 11” x 11” four-page booklet, providing a glimpse into the creative process behind the mesmerizing score.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor received a GRAMMY® nomination in the Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media category. This marks the first GRAMMY® nomination for composers Stephen Barton and Gordy Haab. The album is produced by Nick Laviers, Stephen Barton, Gordy Haab, Alan Meyerson, and Steve Schnur.

About Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor continues the story of Cal Kestis. This narratively driven, single player title picks up five years after the events of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and follows Cal’s increasingly desperate fight as the galaxy descends further into darkness.

Analogue Productions (Atlantic 75 Series)
Celebrating the 75th Anniversary of Atlantic Records!
Hello, I Must Be Going! — Phil Collins' second solo studio album
Featuring "You Can't Hurry Love" and "I Cannot Believe It's True"
180-gram 45 RPM double LP release
Mastered by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering and cut to lacquer from a 1/4" EQ'd Dolby tape copy of the original master tape
Pressed at Quality Record Pressings and RTI
Tip-on old style gatefold double pocket jackets with film lamination by Stoughton Printing



On his first solo album, 1981's Face Value, Genesis drummer-singer Phil Collins showed that he wasn't about to be left behind in the mire of classical-rock sludge. That LP boasted shorter songs and demonstrated that Collins had a true pop sensibility. Hello, I Must Be Going! continues that trend, with some familiar patterns emerging, wrote Rolling Stone's John Milward.

"First, there are the dramatic rock dirges that use drums as a lead instrument; 'I Don't Care Anymore,' with Collins' one-man band playing alongside Daryl Stuermer's atmospheric guitars, wins in this category. Then there are the buttery ballads, of which "Don't Let Him Steal Your Heart Away" is the best by virtue of a Beatles-like melody that buoys Collins' anonymously sweet voice. Both of these styles were already Genesis staples; it was Collins' uptempo soul tunes on Face Value and Genesis' Abacab that surprised old fans and found new ones. 'I Cannot Believe It's True,' with Earth, Wind and Fire's Phoenix Horns casting out clean lines, clobbers the other soul contenders on Hello, I Must Be Going!, especially his remake of the Supremes' 'You Can't Hurry Love.' Collins took the golden-oldie route on that song and the result isn't soulful, it's superfluous. Despite its trend-bucking boast of an 8-track recording, the album's rich luster is of the old classical-rock school. In fact, the LP sounds like stripped-down Genesis, ornamental but not too ostentatious. — John Milward, Rolling Stone (3 Stars)."

This Analogue Productions (Atlantic Series) reissue of Hello, I Must Be Going! has the essential elements that make it a standout for your collection. First, we turned to Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering to cut lacquers from a 1/4" EQ'd Dolby tape copy of the original master. Pressing on 180-gram vinyl is by Quality Record Pressings and RTI, and the album is housed in tip-on old style gatefold double pocket jackets with film lamination by Stoughton Printing.

Hello, I Must Be Going! was a triple-platinum-selling hit in the U.S. for Collins in the 1980s and it stayed on the U.K. album charts for more than a year, peaking at No. 2. For the fans it is a drummer's album, a record that expresses rage and desperation as well as loneliness and longing. Not an album for every day, but one that really speaks to you when you need it, wrote Martin Klinkhardt, in a review for genesis

A real soul gem from 1970 on the James Brown affiliated Deluxe label, the first and only album by this mysterious singer: Marie Queenie Lyons.
It is perhaps apropos that Queenie Marie Lyons’s best known song is titled ‘See And Don’t See.’ For all the acclaim that song has accrued, and all the times it has been compiled, reissued and, yes, bootlegged — for all the times it has been seen — Queenie herself has somehow remained unseen. How did a singer from Ashtabula, Ohio record one of the great female-led soul albums and then simply fall off the map, never to record or perform again? Queenie was a natural performer and a gifted singer. At the age of fifteen, she was doing three shows a week at a local venue. In early 1962, Queenie moved to Queens and was soon playing gigs across the city — an early engagement was with Gene Krupa at the famous Metropole Café in Times Square — as well as touring with established acts like Fats Domino and Ray Charles. The following year, Queenie made her debut recording, for a subsidiary of RCA called Groove, credited to an entirely fictitious “Shelley Shoop and the Shakers.” It remained Queenie’s only presence on wax until early 1968, when a Nashville-based label called Sims gave her her first accurately attributed single, “A Minute Of His Goodtime / Good Soul Lovin’.” Although the 45 is now a highly collectible part of the Northern Soul and Lowrider Oldies pantheons, it made no impact at the time, as Sims was focused on more typical Nashville sounds. A few months later Queenie was back in New York City, performing R&B and pop covers with her band when a man passed her his business card at a performance. The card read James Brown Enterprises. James Brown “was my idol,” she says, and someone whose business acumen and stage presence she strove to emulate. Although Queenie ended up on tour with James Brown for only a month or so, when the group reached Cincinnati in mid-’68 she entered the King Records studio there to record what would become the
album you hold in your hands. The songs were a combination of covers, some of which she’d been doing in her live shows, like ‘Fever’ and ‘Try Me,’ and originals written by producer Henry Glover and pianist Don Pullen, who was the bandleader on the session. The album opener, ‘See And Don’t See,’ was also recorded by the veteran R&B singer Maxine Brown, but Queenie’s version blows hers away. “Soul Fever” is a supremely funky and soulful affair, with Queenie’s powerful and captivating voice magnetically attractive, with an urgency that is impossible to ignore. ‘Your Thing Ain’t No Good Without My Thing,’ ‘Your Key Don’t Fit It Anymore,’ and ‘I Don’t Want Nobody To Have It But You’ are as funky and soulful as the best of Tina Turner and Aretha — a statement not to be made lightly!
The album was critically acclaimed — the October 10, 1970, issue of Billboard listed it as their sole “four star” pick in the Soul category — but perhaps due to the tumult at Starday-King, whose stewardship had turned over several times in only a few years, it never seemed to be able to break through to a larger audience.

"Stephen Marley is one of the most respected artists in reggae and pop, with eight GRAMMY® Awards from his career as a solo artist, as a producer and as a member of his family band, Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers.

His brand-new album, Old Soul, is his fifth, and is releasing on UMe in partnership with the Marley Family, Tuff Gong and Ghetto Youth International. It’s Stephen stretching himself as a singer and songwriter, bringing along some special guests in a wide range of material beyond the reggae category."

The album was initially released by GoodVibe Records on June 19, 2001, with rights to the album eventually being acquired by Dreamworks Records. The label intended to re-release the album with five new songs, but Interscope Records consumed the label and all plans of re-releasing the album were shelved. On August 2, 2011, the album was re-released by Universal Music Group, to celebrate the album's tenth anniversary.

The album’s lead single "The Life" spent three months on the Bubbling Under Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart, where it reached number 9. It also peaked at number three on CMJ New Music Report's Hip-Hop airplay chart, and topped Billboard's Pacific Heatseekers chart.

Eventually, the album earned Mystic several accolades and award nominations. In 2001, Kludge magazine ranked it at number seven on their list of best albums of the year. In 2002, the album earned Mystic a nomination for Best Female Hip-Hop Artist at the BET Awards, where she lost to Missy Elliott. That same year, the album cut "W" was nominated for "Best Rap/Sung Collaboration," a new category, at the Grammy Awards; the song lost to Eve's "Let Me Blow Ya Mind," a collaboration with Gwen Stefani.

Australian indie alternative stalwarts Boy & Bear hit their stride on the sophomore epic, Harlequin
Dream. Upon release, it clinched #1 on the Australian Album Sales Chart and notably received a
nomination in the category of “Australian Album of the Year” at the 2013 J Awards. Staples such as
the title track “Harlequin Dream” and “A Moment’s Grace” have cemented the record’s legacy among
fans, while “Southern Sun” stands out as the band’s most streamed song to date. The Guardian rated
it “4-out-of-five stars” and assured, “They’ve nailed the tequila-sunrise mellowness, which acts as a
gateway to an albumful of emollient soft rock.” Harlequin Dream crystallized the group’s emotional,
ethereal, and enthralling style in its eleven tracks, and it continues to entrance.
Following their debut award-winning album Moonfire, Boy & Bear will release Harlequin Dream, their
bold and brave new album recorded in their hometown of Sydney at legendary Alberts Studio and
mixed by Phil Ek (Band of Horses, Fleet Foxes, Modest Mouse). The lead single, “Southern Sun,” has
a powerful urgency not unlike the best of Bruce Springsteen or Fleetwood Mac, while a sprinkling of
strings and brass brings life and color to such standouts as “Back down the Black,” “Old Town Blues”
and “Stranger.” Boy & Bear’s debut record Moonfire won five ARIA awards, including Album of the
Year

Swiss vocal acrobat Andreas Schaerer and Finnish
guitarist Kalle Kalima have some things in common. As
artists, each is essentially in a category completely of his
own. Both are musicians who can always conjure
something special from their chosen instruments. Both are
known on the international jazz scene for the completely
distinctive and original ways their music constantly crosses
genres.
 Both have played together for several years in the quartet,
A Novel Of Anomaly. And now they have recorded a first
album together in which the focus is on the two of them.
However, for this ‘evolution’ (as the album title has it), they
have also involved - and drawn inspiration from - a
musician whom they both admire, Tim Lefebvre. The
American bassist has worked with many pop and jazz
stars, notably Sting, Elvis Costello, David Bowie, Mark
Guiliana, Wayne Krantz... Lefebvre’s involvement in the
Michael Wollny Trio’s breakthrough was, incidentally,
anything but tangential. In other words, his playing is at
home in practically every context.
 Listeners familiar with Schaerer’s and Kalima’s previous
work may find ‘Evolution’ somewhat surprising. “An album
is such a different platform from playing live on stage,”
explains Schaerer. “Over the course of our many
recordings, we have become increasingly aware quite how
differently one has to play.” That awareness has also
resulted in a particularly careful focus on the postproduction phase of ‘Evolution’.
 With ‘Evolution’, Schaerer, Kalima and Lefebvre have redrawn the roadmap for the production of a jazz album.
New avenues are constantly opening up in these complex
but also catchy songs which are just made for repeated
listening... and, of course, listening to the album is also a
reminder that it will all sound completely different again
when heard live.

Sublime ethereal minimalism from Hiroyuki Onogawa on this retrospective compilation album for
Mana, the first dedicated release and remaster of his soundtrack compositions.

The album August in the Water: Music for Film 1995-2005 plots a decade of Onogawa’s compositions for films by the renowned filmmaker Gakuryū Ishii (formally known as Sogo Ishii). Ishii’s leftfield and trailblazing cinema has proven highly influential - Crazy Thunder Road (1980) is frequently cited as the starting pistol for the Japanese cyberpunk genre - and unfathomably difficult to source outside of Japan. This, coupled with the mysterious and artistic nature of the films, has seen him build a cult-like following. Most of his oeuvre remains undistributed outside Japan, though Third Window Films has recently taken great strides toward making some titles available internationally.

This retrospective publication, sequenced into an album by Onogawa himself, spans a fertile period of collaboration with Ishii, through soundtracks for three remarkable films: August in the Water (1995), Labyrinth of Dreams (1997), and Mirrored Mind (2005). Each feels texturally and sensually linked with the spiritual, ambient, dreamlike quality that lingers in Onogawa’s music.

The sound Onogawa conjures for these films is elegant and patient, often minimal or essential in form, but saturated in a poetic emotion and atmosphere that feels strange and otherworldly, touched by the metaphysical in subtle ways. Boundaries are crossed between New Age and science fiction, locating a blissfulness, melancholy and paranoia within the same spectrum, and moving toward an enchanting sense of mood and colour.

It’s notable that the compositions on this album straddle the millennium, and the mix of divine and uncertain themes in the music carry that currency. New listeners might hear links to Mark Snow’s compositional work for the X-Files and Millennium, or other celebrated future-facing and future-fearing Japanese anime or cyberpunk.

Onogawa’s music adds great depth and tenor to the sensory experience of the films themselves, but it stands just as strongly as a listening experience on its own terms, a virtuosic example of ambient that changes in hue when turned in the light. Remarkably, and in similar circumstances to Ishii, Onogawa’s work has never been widely available outside of (always highly enthusiastic) underground fan posts, usually sourced from extremely limited and private CDs limited to Japan. This retrospective seeks to remedy that, and hopes to achieve recognition for Onogawa as one of the great composers of the last three decades.

Onogawa continues to work in film, both in the creation of soundtracks, and now as a producer and director. He composed the music for Koji Fukada’s Harmonium (2016), which won the Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival, as well as for Fukada’s A Girl Missing (2019). As a director, he received the Grand Prize for Best Short Film in the Noves Visions category at the Sitges Festival in 2022 for Flashback Before Death (Guu), co-directed with Rii Ishihara.'

Chet Baker stands alone among modern Jazzmen in having achieved major success both as a player and as a singer. On three numbers featured here; Do It The Hard Way, Dancing On The Ceiling and It Could Happen To You, Chet introduces his own version of Scat-singing following in the tradition of Louis Armstrong. The numbers selected for this LP are standards of the sort that lend themselves particularly well to what might as well be called the "swinging romantic" approach. Most of them manage to fall into that rare and attractive category of songs that everybody knows and loves but have not, as yet, been done to death by over-frequent performance.

As Duke Ellington would have said, Dinah Washington was “beyond category”. Subtle and inventive enough to hold an honored place in the jazz pantheon yet tough and forceful enough to command the attention of blues, R&B and rock & roll audiences. Equally at ease performing Broadway songs, pop tunes or jazz material, Washington combined urbane finesse with down-home grit to make music that reflected her strong-willed, larger-than-life personality.

The story of the invention of the term, 'deepfunk' is probably only known among fans and practitioners of this niche-genre. In short, it all started in the 1990s when DJs like Keb Darge, Mark 'Snowboy' Cotgrove and others began spinning obscure and feral Funk 45 RPM singles from local American bands, ostensibly generating another sub-category branch off of the mighty Northern Soul tree. The dance-club phenomenon inevitably spilled over to contemporary groups on the funk scene which immediately tried to record their music the way their idols did. The 'rare groove' and 'acid jazz' movements had run their course and there was a concerted effort to reinstate primitive idiomatic styles and techniques into the music, most notably by 90s funk collective The Poets of Rhythm. As more years passed by the number of bands steadily increased (although in tiny numbers, compared to the mainstream market). Almost every country had a representative with the majority of them coming from the United Kingdom. The deepfunk sound was still a niche, however a very few bands made it onto the mainstream charts, most notably Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings.

At the height of the retro-soul movement a questionable development took place. As more bands arrived on the scene, the production became more and more polished and pop-ish. Some of that squeaky-clean tidiness began to creep into the recordings, encouraged in part by the signature sounds of the digital recording technology available at that time. Some bands even tried to jump onto the possibility of promoting their music as 'deepfunk' although they were actually playing slick, funky pop music. This way some people who thought they were listening to raw, energetic funk actually felt quite ambushed when hit with real deepfunk. In fact, a certain percentage of funk music produced within the past 20 years does not deserve to be described as 'deepfunk' at all. Fortunately there were (and are) some pleasant exceptions which did not just imitate but actually rendered amazing funk music just like some of the finest funk combos of the 1960s and 70s.

One of those creative minds is without a doubt Joel Ricci aka Lucky Brown. Originally from Seattle, Washington, USA, he has enriched the deepfunk community since the mid-2000s with his stellar abilities. He is not only an amazing musician playing multiple instruments, but also a brilliant composer, arranger, and producer too. But for us here at Tramp he is much more, a close friend and remarkable human being. Whenever we were struggling, whether with the label or in private life, Joel and his musical work helped us to overcome everything and to keep going our path.

So here we are in 2023. The songs you are listening to right now are the complete Space Dream collection, split into two parts, representing the two living-room recording sessions from which his 2011 Tramp Records debut was compiled. Each fully remastered album contains unreleased material and comes with brand new, beautifully reimagined artwork by Ricci himself, housed in an authentic 1960s tip-on cover. A first class product from a first class musician for the discerning funk enthusiast.

The story of the invention of the term, 'deepfunk' is probably only known among fans and practitioners of this niche-genre. In short, it all started in the 1990s when DJs like Keb Darge, Mark 'Snowboy' Cotgrove and others began spinning obscure and feral Funk 45 RPM singles from local American bands, ostensibly generating another sub-category branch off of the mighty Northern Soul tree. The dance-club phenomenon inevitably spilled over to contemporary groups on the funk scene which immediately tried to record their music the way their idols did. The 'rare groove' and 'acid jazz' movements had run their course and there was a concerted effort to reinstate primitive idiomatic styles and techniques into the music, most notably by 90s funk collective The Poets of Rhythm. As more years passed by the number of bands steadily increased (although in tiny numbers, compared to the mainstream market). Almost every country had a representative with the majority of them coming from the United Kingdom. The deepfunk sound was still a niche, however a very few bands made it onto the mainstream charts, most notably Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings.

At the height of the retro-soul movement a questionable development took place. As more bands arrived on the scene, the production became more and more polished and pop-ish. Some of that squeaky-clean tidiness began to creep into the recordings, encouraged in part by the signature sounds of the digital recording technology available at that time. Some bands even tried to jump onto the possibility of promoting their music as 'deepfunk' although they were actually playing slick, funky pop music. This way some people who thought they were listening to raw, energetic funk actually felt quite ambushed when hit with real deepfunk. In fact, a certain percentage of funk music produced within the past 20 years does not deserve to be described as 'deepfunk' at all. Fortunately there were (and are) some pleasant exceptions which did not just imitate but actually rendered amazing funk music just like some of the finest funk combos of the 1960s and 70s.

One of those creative minds is without a doubt Joel Ricci aka Lucky Brown. Originally from Seattle, Washington, USA, he has enriched the deepfunk community since the mid-2000s with his stellar abilities. He is not only an amazing musician playing multiple instruments, but also a brilliant composer, arranger, and producer too. But for us here at Tramp he is much more, a close friend and remarkable human being. Whenever we were struggling, whether with the label or in private life, Joel and his musical work helped us to overcome everything and to keep going our path.

So here we are in 2023. The songs you are listening to right now are the complete Space Dream collection, split into two parts, representing the two living-room recording sessions from which his 2011 Tramp Records debut was compiled. Each fully remastered album contains unreleased material and comes with brand new, beautifully reimagined artwork by Ricci himself, housed in an authentic 1960s tip-on cover. A first class product from a first class musician for the discerning funk enthusiast.

A long-in-the-works project of ours, here comes A Tribe Called Kotori's first foray into full-length territories, as the immensely talented Rampue takes us on a melancholy-riddled ride across his phantasmatic mindscapes. A true sound explorer, deftly steering his ship down the junction of electronica, abstract and balearic-infused prog house, the Berlin-based vibist has us transfixed and elevated throughout the twelve cuts that form the backbone to this lushly textured promenade in sound - at times understatedly euphoric, at others rivetingly exotic.

Of the creative process that lead to 'Bubblebath Trance', Rampue explains "It all started and ended in the same moment: my cherished feline companion, my laptop awash with an unintended bath, and alas, a dearth of backups. The resultant calamity, an echo of chaotic tranquility." Under the generous layer of irony lies some unaltered truth about Rampue's debut long-player for A Tribe Called Kotori: this sense of serenity that goes with stepping into this warm and bubbling primitive chaos of sorts infuses the listening experience far and wide. Distantly emulating the "euphonious strains" of iconic PS1 video games soundtracks from his youth days, the album has us surfing a constant paradox of emotions, wistful but not abandoning itself to sorrow, dynamic yet suspended in some sort of mind-expanding stasis. As if you were looking at the world beneath you in exploded view, conscious of all thing, slowly moving up the many layers of our atmosphere towards uncharted skies.

A paragon of Rampue's most poignant take on classic electronica tropes, 'Harmonie' blazes with a poetic fire that engulfs about everything in its wake. Just figure yourself riding a chocobo across the sand-covered expanse of North Corel (toasting to the FFVII nerds here) as this blasts out in the distance. From this trancey bubblebath emerge lots of musical shades and nuances, from the nicely dubbed-out, brass-heavy coastal jazz of 'Schattenschranz' to the choppy, trip-hop-adjacent future electronics of 'Inside', via the exuberantly joyous mess of faux-organic number 'Tripomatic' and cinematic charisma of 'Ich hasse Sonne' high-flying orchestrations.

Connecting the dots between that trance-indebted ebullience and further downtempo-friendly attraction, 'Verfahren' perhaps encompasses best what 'Bubblebath Trance' is about: gracefully walking the tightrope in-limbo nostalgia-soaked inner movements and a powerful outward thrust, burning to let the feelings ooze out from the shell that holds them.Clad in purely 90s-compatible breaksy motion, 'Salz' is another attempt to reconcile emotional and physical dissonance, like kneading all states - solid, liquid and vaporous - into an impossible mega-vibe of its own; malleable, strong and enveloping in equal measure. Borrowing from two-step and UK garage, 'Take Away' is a definite high in Rampue's master unfolding of musical twists and turns, summoning a Boarder Community-esque atmosphere and clashing it alongside floor-ready footwork motifs to fascinating effect.

An ode to his studio companion, 'Buchla Trip' finds Rampue's exploring his machinic friend's quirky yet soulful array of electronic potentialities - making it sound like a conversation you'd have with R2-D2 in the heart of a Sandcrawler, whereas 'Kajal' beams us up to a fragmented headspace, halfway altered PC-Pop and arps-loaded electronica on amphetamines. Effusive and transporting, the title-track 'Bubblebath Trance' could well figure as the album's no.1 medley in essence: a bountiful lucid dream of dancing forms, colours and sentiments to wrap your head around, confidently drifting from a liminal state of consciousness down the rapids of one's troubled inner workings.

Rounding off the package, the languid ambient finale of 'Die Leiden des hungrigen Fruehstuecks' rubber-stamps the feeling that 'Bubblebath Trance' belongs to that rare category of albums. The ones that mint their own alphabet aside from typical norms and expectations, teaching you the ropes of their new language as it unreels between your ears - real and unreal, elusive to any other meaning than the one your guts and brains will be inclined to give it to, in real time. A crystal-pure object if you will, that shall not reveal its secrets, even after a thousand listens and just as many wowing moments.

Minor Science—aka UK-born, Berlin-based musician Angus Finlayson—makes his Balmat debut with Absent Friends Vol. III, the third installment in a shape-shifting series across a variety of formats and platforms. And with it, he pushes forward his vision of ambient music as neither static vista or merely mood-setting atmosphere, but rather a dynamic matrix of textures, sensations, and even rhythms.

The first two Absent Friends—a 2014 set for Blowing Up the Workshop, and a 2017 cassette and web player for Whities (now AD93)—were hybrid affairs, part DJ mix and part collage, mostly featuring music made by other people. Then, in 2020-21, Finlayson developed the project into a live show of his own material. Armed with hundreds of bespoke stems created in his studio—idiosyncratic FX chains, feedback loops through cheap rack gear, heavily post-processed field recordings, found voices, etc.—he would improvise on four CDJs, mixer, FX, and live synths, extending techniques he learned as a club DJ into a live context, accompanied by visuals by Stockholm-based artist Paul Witherden.

Absent Friends Vol. III is an album of studio versions of the music developed for the live show. But in Minor Science’s world, even a category as simple as “studio versions” is slightly opaque. “Most of these tracks weren’t ‘composed’ in the studio,” Finlayson explains: “The sounds started out as stems and source material for the live show, and might not have been intended to go together—but then through performance, they settled into shapes that worked. I then recreated those performances in the studio.” That organic process of ideation and realization might help explain the unusual coherence of the album, in which sounds and textures flow seamlessly from one to the next, sometimes seeming to stand still, and sometimes looping back. There are virtually no melodies, few recognizable motifs or riffs, yet the eight-track album nevertheless moves with a distinctive logic and a determined sense of purpose, from the frozen-in-time shimmer of the opening “Introduction” through the early cuts’ studies of space and light; from the seemingly autobiographical “Summer Diary” through the rushing trance (yes, trance) arpeggios of “Contingency” and on to the dulcet denouement of the closing “Gather Your Party (Dispersed Mix).”

i am fortunate to play with amazing musicians - always have had my ear to the 6 winds to assess players and their strengths and the music we would make...
electric or acoustic, 2 or 5 people, country, folk, blues, string players, grass,
rocking, quiet or loud - WHATEVER the category does not matter (as it is just a category) - there has always been a group of great musicians near to help me get there - and yes, i am lucky

on this recording MATT FLINNER (mando and banjo), SHAD COBB (fiddle)
and BRYN DAVIES (double bass) & ALL folks on vocals and me on dobro/piano/banjo and guitar -mostly ben bullington's 1933 D18- we had been playing anytime a festival wanted a fiddle/banjo/mando/double bass/acoustic guitar instrumentation sound from me- in one way, it can easily be called "bluegrass" -( not a big stretch )- i kinda think "string band " is as good or a better name (certainly less used)... so enter this DARRELL SCOTT STRING BAND
(a rose by any other name)

HERE'S HOW THIS RECORD CAME ABOUT- we had 2 consecutive weekend gigs (arkansas and colorado) and rather than sending us... more

GRAMMY NOMINATED AFRO-FUSION SINGER, SONGWRITER, AND PERFORMING ARTISTE The Nigerian singer-songwriter, Burna Boy, was born Damini Ogulu on the 2nd of July, 1991 in Port Harcourt city, Nigeria to Bosede and Samuel Ogulu and he is the only son and eldest of three children.

He started producing music when he was ten years old. After graduating from college, Burna relocated to London to attend university. After two years, he dropped out and moved back to Nigeria to pursue his passion. Coming from a family where music was loved but where a greater premium was placed on education, he spent most of his summer holidays in the UK and in language immersion summer camps in France, Togo and Cote d'Ivoire, before finally moving to the UK where he picked up the Brixton Patois accents which have become a signature in his music.

Young Damini attended Montessori International primary school in Port Harcourt (1993-2002) and Corona Secondary School, Lagos (2002-2008). It has always been music for Burna Boy as observed by his mum when he was still a teenager. She recounts that he was always hanging around his Grandfather, listening to classical music; little wonder his role model later became the man his grandfather managed, Fela Anikulapo Kuti.

His quest for knowledge took him outside the shores of Nigeria to the United Kingdom to study Media Technology at the University of Sussex (2008–2009) and Oxford Brookes University (2009–2010) to study Media Communications and Culture.

Thereafter, he did a one-year internship with Rhythm 93.7 FM Port Harcourt before officially launching his professional music career when he was signed on to Aristocrat records - prompting a permanent relocation to Lagos.

Burna Boy has released a series of EPs, singles, mixtapes, and albums including 2018’s extraordinary “Outside”. The award-winning collection led to Burna’s U.S breakthrough, debuting at #3 on Billboard’s “Reggae Albums” chart, which was partly fueled by the blockbuster single/video, “Ye”. His most recent album, “African Giant”, released in July 2019 has garnered praise from both Nigerian and international media.

Furthermore, the “African Giant” album got nominated for the 62nd Annual Grammy Award in the Best World Album category. Burna is among the contemporary African music’s brightest stars and also the pioneer of an enigmatic genre he simply dubs “Afro-fusion”. The gifted singer-songwriter got featured on American songstress Beyonce's curated Lion King soundtrack, “The Gift”. He also recently took home the 2019 BET Best International Act Award and 2019 MTV Europe Music Award for “Best African Act”.

The story of Lucia Rango, an Apulian singer who was active for a short period during the Sixties, rightfully belongs to that category and meets all requirements for becoming a legend. In 1967, when she was almost unknown, she recorded Lucia Rango Show, an entire album made of songs taken from the repertoire of her friend Piero Ciampi, who worked closely with her on their selection and arrangements. Being one of the most maudit and personal authors of national songwriting, Ciampi had always been a perfect outsider: blunt, shy, extremely talented, and unable to adapt to the rules of the music business. But above all, the Leghorn-born singer was a superb songwriter. The match between his songs and Rango's classical voice and ethereal beauty looked like a very promising one, but never brought any success.
Arranged and orchestrated by Maestro Elvio Monti, and embellished by the participation of Alessandro Alessandroni's I Cantori Moderni, the record is a perfect child of the Sixties, featuring beat tunes and “yè-yès”, Italian canzone, intense ballads, Brigitte Fontaine-like atmospheres and a rediscovered duet of Lucia with her friend Piero, Non chiedermi più, whose recording was known among insiders at the time but sadly appeared to be lost forever. Ciampi's voice lives again in a song that has remained unreleased for more than 50 years within this new expanded version of Lucia Rango Show, thanks to the long research of journalist Lucilla Chiodi (Musica Jazz). Needless to say, the album is an enormously valuable historical document for all fans of Ciampi's output and Italian music in general: along with classics such as Fino all'ultimo minuto, Quando il giorno tornerà and Hai lasciato a casa il tuo sorriso – all originally included in Ciampi's first LP released under the alias Piero Litaliano in 1963 – Lucia Rango's voice consigns to history as many as six songs conceived and written specifically for her recording debut by Ciampi along with Elvio Monti. To date, Rango's invaluable interpretations are the only versions ever recorded of Samba per un amore, Il tuo volto, Stasera resta qui, Primavera a Roma, Ti ho sognato and Sono stanca.

GALLUS bottle that sense of anticipation, the idea that anything could
happen. Throwing back to the days when responsibilities were few, anticipation was high, and opportunity was around every corner. The band combine the energetic bounce of Sports Team with the tongue in cheek running commentary of life in 2022 of Yard Act and the introspection of contemporaries Fontaines D.C.

The band's reputation for electric, and at times chaotic, live shows grew quickly, and they soon took to filling rooms up and down the UK, Europe and beyond. Having supported the likes of Biffy Clyro and played to thousands at festivals and
showcases, including SXSW, The Great Escape and ESNS, in the last 12 months,
Gallus' reputation on the international stage is starting to grow in notoriety. This
was reflected in the band being crowned Best Rock/Alternative Category at the
Scottish Alternative Music Awards in 2022.

Mambo Diablo is a 1986 Grammy winner in the Tropical Latin album category. It remains as one of the most distinct Latin albums to bridge the gap between Jazz and Latin music ever.

Tito was a multi-Grammy winner, and this album features his all-star band of Bobby Rodriguez, Sonny Bravo, Jimmy Frisaura, John “Dandy” Rodriguez and even includes Jazz legend George Shearing.

The album is reissued for the first time in decades in honor of Tito’s centennial.

Correcciones Calypso returns from a generous hiatus with the fourth edition of its acclaimed edit series, replete with four re-edits that veer from the subtle to the downright brazen. Thomass Jackson and INigo Vontier invite the French duo Youkounkoun to open proceedings with an insane early 80s edit full of big drums and exotic touches that's been blowing dancefloors all around the world for the past years - and definitely resides in the brazen category, despite a lot of work having gone into it. Olta Karawame make their debut on the series with a powerful, compact edit full of ballsy keyboard riffing and a military-sized kick drum that is guaranteed to have heads banging . To complete the release label bosses Thomass and INigo deliver edits of their own with their characteristic sound, giving this EP maximum a value for money factor and entertainment from start to finish.

With Cruisin', their second album for Telephone Explosion, Toronto's Bernice distils their playful sense of composition resulting in the most affecting collection of their young career. Across fifteen tracks, a special kind of contemporary, jazz-inflected pop unfolds, miraculous for being both fun and musically adventurous, all in the name of emotional resonance. Each groove in the bassbin is matched by a little scratch at the listener's heartstrings. The album was recorded at home with Phil Melanson (Sam Gendel, Andy Shauf) and Thom Gill (Beverly Glenn-Copeland, Joseph Shabason), led by songwriter and vocalist Robin Dann (Martha Wainwright) and producer Matthew Pencer, with additional contributions from longtime members Dan Fortin and Felicity Williams (Bahamas) being captured remotely.

Throughout their eleven years as a group, working at the intersections of several scenes and spotlights (many of which begin and end at Toronto's beloved Tranzac Club), Bernice have developed an idiosyncratic musical language that feels immediately inviting and wonderfully refreshing. The group's two previous releases, Eau De Bonjourno (2021) and Puff: In The Air Without A Shape (2018) received generous nods from both Stereogum and Pitchfork, who described the music as "unusually mesmerizing". With the songcraft a little more crystalline and the vulnerability notched up, Cruisin' feels like the right record to open Bernice up to a much wider audience.

Development of the album began in Spring, 2021 during a writing retreat at the family farm in Bond Head, Ontario. Members of the band luxuriated in slow time, tinkering with lyrics and melodies, sharing meals, knitting. From this communal gathering, the concept of 'dedication' emerged as a guiding theme. Specifically, developing songs in an almost epistolary form; as love letters or check-ins for friends, community members, pets and other more elusive acquaintances (a longtime working title for the project was 'Songs For People').

Lead single 'Underneath My Toe', one of the first pieces developed under this theme, finds the group at their most graceful and direct. Beginning with songwriter/vocalist Robin Dann singing simply 'Hi / I miss you all the time', the composition proceeds to shift subtly between soft jazz balladry and low-bit funk, revelling in the intimate beauty of a long-time-no-see letter to a dear old friend.

Though being a band that so deeply values the art of fartin' around, Bernice couldn't settle on such a straightforward approach. During the creative process, a clarifying question arose: 'Can you cruise to it?'. This somewhat ambiguous aesthetic criteria became a guiding light for the album. 'Sure, it's a beautiful song about building trust with a new nonagenarian friend... but can you cruise to it?'.

Case in point, both follow up singles, 'No Effort To Exist' and 'Second Judy', fall into a more nebulous, bewildering category of song. Undoubtedly affecting, emotionally charged, existentially searching, yet also undeniably juicy. Drum patterns skitter into place while synth tones shift on a dime to meet thematic twists. There's errant whistling and curious overdubs. Then in come elegant backing vocals, elevating the narrative while an unlikely, left-field groove is established. Miraculously, the listener is not just moved, but Cruisin'.

Therein lies the marvel of Bernice: they remind us that the rec room funk of Mario Kart 64 need not exist in mutual exclusivity to a rich tapestry of human emotions. Even as we live through this most cursed timeline, we can look into the heart of things, dwell on the challenges we're called to witness, and find a little levity to carry us through; grab a lil' mushroom and cruise the existential soup.

blue marbled vinyl

Tim Reaper ​returns to ​Lobster Theremin​ with a weighty masterclass of all things old school jungle, rave and D&B. 2020 has been a massive year for the rising London-based DJ/producer Tim Reaper, with an impressive output of twelves on labels such as 7th Storey Projects, Repertoire, Beyond Electronix & his own imprint Future Retro. On top of this, Reaper was also nominated in the ‘Best Producer’ category at this years DJ Mag awards, as well as the ‘Best Remix/Edit’ category. 2020 has paved the way for what is set to be a massive future from the versatile producer, his infectious brand of high energy jungle & D&B is making him the producer on everyones lips. His latest outing ‘Teletext’ EP for London based record label ​Lobster Theremin ​explores deep all things bass driven, head high rave breaks sit on top of euphoric vocals and synth patterns, creating a feel good masterpiece. Tim joins forces with long time friend & collaborator ​Devnull​ on two tracks, blending both of the producers individual sounds into a hybrid mash up, which works oh so good.

Darling West decamped for a tiny island on Norway’s west coast to begin writing what was to become Cosmos, their fifth studio album. For the first time, the band’s core – married couple Mari and Tor Egil Kreken – have included band members Thomas Gallatin and Christer Slaaen in the songwriting and production process. As a larger united, Darling West has really evolved. Cosmos is indeed the sound of expansion. West coast, cosmic folk, americana… Call it what you will – there are even hints of afro blues on here – but where the band once fit firmly in the folk/americana category, you might as well just call it pop these days. Cosmos was recorded and produced in its entirety by Darling West. Vocal guests on the album include Matthew Logan Vasquez (Delta Spirit) and Jarle Bernhoft, while David Wallumrød, Lars Horntveth and Torjus Vierli all excel on keys. Finally, the one and only Rob Moose (Paul Simon, Bon Iver, Sufjan Stevens, Phoebe Bridgers) provides strings on “Till Night Turns to Day” and “Old Man”. The listener is also awarded plenty of what we’ve come to love from Darling West: Mari Kreken’s gorgeous voice and Tor Egil Kreken’s incredibly versatile playing (guitar, bass, banjo, etc.) playing. The sum of these parts makes up a magical record, with songs and melodies that will stay on your mind for the unforeseeable future. While many struggled to keep their heads up during the pandemic, the band did their best to contribute positively, and came out on the other side with a growing, dedicated fanbase, due to their incredibly popular “Family Sessions” on Youtube. A recurring concept where they featured a host of friends and other artists, thus creating a community – or family – which is still going strong. The music on Cosmos searches outward, while the lyrics look inward. The resulting record includes elements of pop, while it pushes the envelope for what Norwegian americana can sound like. Cosmos is also about loving yourself, and there are of course a handful of love songs about shaky relationships – as we’ve come to expect from Darling West. The band continues to develop their unique musicianship and Cosmos is indeed another masterstroke from the band.

Dismantling the acoustic to feed the electronic, Editions Mego presents Telepath, the new album by Material Object. Born out of a single improvised recording session with a lone Violinist, Telepath is a startling album of future electronic music, resulting in an LP of unique and timeless tracks that reimagine a classic sound for an endless future.

Boldly departing from his previous canon of largely 'ambient' work, Material Object's Telepath renders itself out as something much stranger, something more spacious, more subtle and gradual. Moments of bouncing minimalism meet moirés of delayed pure tones phasing in and out of resolution, giving way to a series of strobing foreground gestures arranged and offset in disorienting landscapes which scatter themselves asymmetrically amongst crystal pools of reverb.

Revelling in the creative dismemberment of the original source material, Material Object slowly and patiently induces the violin to undergo every category of torsion, pressure and rupture. Its vivid acoustic qualities pass over and across the event horizon of the digital domain. Shattering then crystallising into points and coordinates, intersections, disjunctions, planes and reverberant figures. An uncanny geometry perceived only between the ears, at once dissolving and reconstructing itself.

Not to be missed here is the essential, but bonus only, add-on (available with all Bandcamp purchases) "Auxiliary Apparition", a hallucinatory expanse that traverses the same liminal geography as the LP proper but as some refracted, ghostly counterpoint. More nocturnal, overpowering phantasms looming out of a droning noise floor before fading away. A hypnotic and time-dilated recapitulation of what's gone before as if looking back from beyond a mirror. When it finally resolves in the closing moments and returns you home, you realise you haven't really moved at all.

Equally abstract, haunting and daring, Material Object’s Telepath is a singular work that abandons all notions of genre. Erupting with a tension of opposites that unfolds as a truly unique story, told in four dimensions and draped in deafening colour.

Recorded at the height of the global pandemic, and at a time when remote communication was becoming increasingly prevalent, "Choreological Exchanges" is part of Hastings Of Malawi's continuing investigations into the medium of communication itself. Prior to telephony becoming digital, all phone calls were routed through mechanical telephone exchanges, and the majority of the sounds on side one are the sounds of these exchanges and some of the voices of the engineers who worked with them.

Hastings Of Malawi make strange records and this one is no exception although it has a more linear narrative structure in opposition to what critics have described as their Dadaist approach. Their records certainly resist genre classification and do not really fall into the category of music. Hastings Of Malawi have themselves described previous records as films without light, radio plays and as poems. This one is a dance - a dance that takes place within the chain, or pipe, that is brain - mouth - telephone - telephone exchange - telephone - ear - brain.

"It is a dance record but not in the way that these are usually understood. An invitation to dance appears twelve minutes in on the first side. It is a dance within the wires, movement around noise used as a sculptural material rather than unwanted signals and a joyful exploration of sonic materiality. The second side begins with the voice of a telephone engineer, who states that in the top floor switch room of the exchange is the only vestige of human control. Is this top floor switch room the human brain? The sounds on this side, float between the mechanical telephone exchange and the body where the messages are created and interpreted - it is an exploration of the relationship between thought and the material devices in which telephone sound is propagated and transformed. Side two ends with a long list of randomly generated words created by digital voice synthesis." - HOM

The Earth is burning, covering all environments in ashes. Smoke comes to us from computers-from social networks accelerating the spread of burnt affects, damaging our ability to feel and respond to what the planet strives to express. We need to cool down. Thomas Köner's music can help change the pace of our perceptions: 1) In DAIKAN (2002) - a Japanese term meaning "the coldest" or "the coldest part of the year"-the ear stretches until touching the depth of time that persists in the ice; a sonic drama offers the slowness thanks to which the skin of perceptions can reconstitute themselves; icequakes awaken listeners to the frozen life without scaring them. 2) Banlieue du Vide, considered by many to be Thomas Köner's most iconic audiovisual work and best kept secret, has not been released previously. It is in the collection of a couple of art museums, e.g. the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and has been awarded the Golden Nica at Prix Ars Electronica in 2004, in the category Digital Musics. Banlieue du Vide is the result of months of time-lapse observations of empty streets in the Finnish Arctic Circle, shown in glacially slow slow-motion. Phase cancellation, on which all noise cancelling technology is based, here affects the perception of time, the sense of the flow of time extinguishing itself. At this stage the void is not yet empty, traces of past noise fill the listeners mind with their haunting presence. A remastered stereo version of the soundtrack is released as a special premiere as Bonus Track of the DAIKAN album. Listening to this album, an excess of heat turns into an empowering coldness-like the transient feeling of our terrestrial embodiment in the midst of entropy.

Chocolat is the 2000 British-American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Lasse Hallström (The Cider House Rules) starring Juliette Binoche, Judi Dench and Johnny Depp. The movie was adapted from the novel written by Joan Harris and is about a woman and her daughter opening a chocolate shop - with Sunday hours - across the street from the local church in a small French village.

The music is composed by Rachel Portman and the soundtrack also includes “Minor Swing” from Django Reinhardt/Stéphane Grappelli and the 1936 jazz standard “Caravan” from Duke Ellington and Juan Tizol.

Rachel Portman has written over 100 music scores for film, television, and theatre. She was also the first female composer to win an Academy Award in the category of Best Musical or Comedy Score for Emma in 1996 and in 2015 she received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for the HBO TV series Bessie.

Chocolat is available as a limited edition of 500 individually numbered copies on white coloured vinyl and includes an insert.

FAFO RECORDS Welcomes Camilo Gil from Chile and ONE+1 from Spain to the artists' family.

We are very happy to present you the Privilege Ep ..... in loving memory of Octavio Gil, a fanatic music lover, and father of Camilo Gil.

The EP is already a superlative category as it contains two original tracks plus Dubbie House like PRIVILEGE, and a powerful remix, from the golden child of Frankfurt as the great Sascha Dive is in the legend category, with his groove and deep house.

And the other side, we have already immersed ourselves in the house of law, with Venganza Poetica that makes you dance at any time of the day in its original mix, and needless to say that the remix, by a creator of Detroit's first generation of techno, the same as Juan Atkins - Derrick May - Kevin Saunderson - Shake Shakir - Blake Baxter, and we have in the FAFO family the legend in life like Santonio Echols, from the motor city.

A very creative ep that delivers, dance and culture at the same time.

FAFO Records All rights reserved.

A first time, limited edition pressing of the critically acclaimed 2014
album from the North Mississippi Allstars frontman
Luther Dickinson entered a new phase of his storied musical career with his first
proper studio album of all original songs. As a member of the North Mississippi
Allstars, South Memphis String Band and the Word, Luther has made himself
widely known as both a talented musician and as a producer with four Grammy
nominations to prove it- three in the contemporary blues category and one in
traditional Folk. Pressed on Limited Edition Translucent Green color vinyl.

There is an endless abundance of variations that the clarinet can use in changing the colour of a single note. As a privileged listener - and - experiencer, Ben Bertrand through his favourite instrument shared the musical blueprints with me, which resulted in this album. His music has become a vivid part of my almost daily thoughts - allowing what I hear to clash and sing with the patterns and rhythms already established in my mind. A voluntary trip, an absorbing experience in our Brussels vibrant cultural life. With his instrument and countless machines, Ben creates a web of sounds that are hard to pin down but easy to absorb as a whole. Ben Bertrand happened to me. His music, full of beauty, is good to listen to and pleasant to follow. A sense and perception of continued growth too illuminated and overwhelming to resist. While I sense when a new composition is coming, Ben was able in our daily conversations, to progressively untangle a musical mystery and layout the puzzle of a new creation. Listening to his music is like sitting at the sea, watching a slow motion of our crazy life sailing by. You, as a listener, with this record stepped in an early stage of his career, with hardly any involvement of other people, composition wise. Besides composing alone, there have been countless hours when Ben Bertrand worked and interacted with Christophe Albertijn for the recordings. There is also the essence of our regular exchanges and the visions we knit. These are in my opinion just the starting points of plural interactions and musical endeavours to be. It is a matter of his artistic trust and let go, while Ben creates his own language, package and macrocosm. The excellence of Ben Bertrand's music lays in its involving and easily accessible nature, regardless of your personal or musical past experience. Ben Bertrand is all before you for you to dig, and nobody is asking you to file him away under any category. - Tommy Denys

clear vinyl repress

Next guest on the Ownlife platform is a well known name, in between deejays, selectors and electronic music passionates. Reeko has been a totem in the techno scene, shaping the sound of the genre during the past two decades and releasing some of the most consistent records in this category.

The prolific Spanish artist shows this time, a breathtaking palette of sounds, taking his own direction once more. Melting his signature sound with an experimental approach, putting together powerful basslines with extremely sharpened tones. "Crystal clear" is a piece made to enjoy the abstract side of Reeko's expertly produced compositions with the ethereal taste of the intelligent dance music, ambient deepness and stepping low frequencies.