quête:cd eleven

Kumachan Seal: solo project of Japanese vocalist / songwriter / producer Sairi Ojima, who has been playing in numerous indie bands, including Neco Nemuru, since her teens. She began her solo career in 2013, and released her first cassette in 2017. This EM Records release is her first CD/LP album, with all compositions by Ojima, who co-produced the album. Each of the eleven songs reveals beguiling layers of detailed and surprising sounds, with Ojima's DIY sonic core embroidered by vibrant and colorful beats and guitar from EM artist Le Makeup and the quintessential ambient-pop synths and keyboards of fellow EM-er Takao. Le Makeup mixed ten of the eleven songs, with Takao mixing "China Sandwich". The heart of Ojima's musical identity is her clear, aque- ous voice; apart from one instrumental, all the tracks here feature that mellifluous voice, but in an interesting twist, only half the songs have lyrics, with the remainder employing her wordless voice as melodic and textural elements. Although Kumachan Seal can be heard as a sort of bedroom pop filtered through ambient music and the new-age revival, listeners will note that the final two songs, "Atsumono" and "Tiny Cell", are respectively a slightly skewed four-on-the-floor track and a lightly skanking Doo-wop- flavored confection, slightly reminiscent of the UK's Brenda Ray. This album, full of Ojima's calm and cool observation of the world, is available on CD, LP and DL, and includes an English lyric sheet.

This is the story of how a tiny label from New Jersey changed the course of music history not once but twice.

Cheri Records was established in 1974 in New Jersey and run by one Boo Frazier. Cheri's output was limited, producing a catalogue of just eleven releases between the years 1974 and 1982. On the face of it, this appears to be insubstantial output. However, if you dig a little deeper, the quality released on Cheri Records reveals an exceptional legacy of groundbreaking music.

A dark horse in the world of record labels, a true unsung legend that would go on to alter the course of musical history and intersect with a remarkable array of talented artists, bands and DJs. From Rare Pleasure; Sandy Barber; Julius Brockington; Boo Frazier; Patrick Adams; Tom Moulton; Larry Levan and MF Doom: Cheri Records has directly impacted their artistry in significant ways. Cheri's influence even extends into the present, with DJ icons like David Morales, Dave Lee, Danny Krivit, and Colin Curtis continuing to champion its contributions.

This compilation brings together the most compelling tracks from the Cheri Records catalogue, shedding light on the label's extraordinary story and underscoring the idea that music, no matter how unassuming its origins, can transcend boundaries and reshape, influence and inform music to come for future generations.

This collection also represents the start of a new series here on Miles Away, a series that will delve into the labels and studios that were responsible for leaving a lasting imprint on the musical world. We've named this seriesEchoes From,and this compilation will be the first of many.

The vinyl package comes in a gatefold sleeve with in-depth liner notes and features interviews with Colin Curtis and David Morales. Also available on CD and digitally.

From an artist in their seventies, you probably wouldn’t expect to hear an album like this. But Brazilian drumming legend Ivan ‘Mamão’ Conti has been experimenting and innovating for the last half a century. As one third of cult Rio jazz-funk trio Azymuth, Mamão was at the root of the group’s ‘samba doido’ (crazy samba) philosophy, which warped the traditional samba compass with jazz influences and space age electronics. Even with his lesser known jovem guardua group The Youngsters, Mamão was experimenting with tapes and delays to create unique, ahead-of-its-time sounds, way back in the sixties. More recently Mamão recorded an album with hip-hop royalty Madlib under the shared moniker ‘Jackson Conti’.

With his first album in over twenty years, and the first to be released on vinyl since his 1984 classic The Human Factor, Mamão shares his zany carioca character across eleven tracks of rootsy electronic samba and tripped out jazz, beats and dance music. Featuring Alex Malheiros and Kiko Continentino on a number of tracks, the Azymuth lifeblood runs deep, but venturing into the modern discotheque (as Mamão would call it), Poison Fruit also experiments with sounds more commonly associated with house and techno, with the help of London based producer Daniel Maunick (aka Dokta Venom).

Take a bite of Mamão’s psychoactive Papaya and join the maestro on a weird and wonderful stroll through the Brazilian jungle.

United by a love for the music of Mamão and Azymuth, the CD and digital edition also feature the previously released remixes and dubs from some of today’s most forward-thinking producers with a penchant for percussion, including IG Culture, the 22a crew, Max Graef and Glenn Astro.

For their eleventh release, Cedesciu Wax features three tracks from Germany's Eame as the Based on Earth EP. Featuring mpeg's remix on the title track.

Early support by Sepp, Gescu, Truly Madly, Lumieux, Nu Zau, Cosmjn, Miroloja, Sublee, Per Hammar, Mihai Pol, Gene On Earth, Alex Font, Iuly B, Direkt.

Mastering by: Marco Pellegrino

Art by: Camila Carini

Sleep Now Forever is the second and final album released by Sorrow, the post-Strawberry Switchblade group fronted by singer Rose McDowall. Originally released in 1999 and long since deleted it is a cornucopia of pastoral, elegiac folk music, swirling atmospherics, hymnal compositions and above it all the alternating towering and fragile vocal performances of McDowall. Recorded in the late 90s with fellow band member and co-songwriter Robert Lee, Sleep Now Forever is the definitive statement by the now defunct group and Rose McDowall’s most complete long-form work to date.
Released through the group’s own Piski Disk Records, Sleep Now Forever was distributed by World Serpent which struggled through the early 2000s with financial woes, eventually folding due to bankruptcy in 2004. Due to the company’s troubles, Sleep Now Forever was never distributed widely and was a victim of the company’s failure. Released on CD only, original copies are now rare and only traded on second hand channels. Remastered by Mikey Young for a limited vinyl release, Sleep Now Forever will be released on April 20th on double vinyl format, with one side an exclusive etching by Glasgow artist Holly Allan.
Despite its rarity, Sleep Now Forever enjoys a firm cult following. The album’s textures are expansive, lush, deliciously detailed and celestial. Recorded in home study Velvet Hole by Rose McDowall and then-husband Robert Lee, the album enlists an array of players from the underground Neo-folk / industrial scene: Nigel McKernaghan (Uilleann pipes, Whistles), Susan Franknel (Bassoon), John Contreras (Cello) and Lawrence Frankel (Oboe, Cor Anglais). The eleven songs here revolve around McDowall’s instantly recognisable voice. Brought up singing in the Catholic Church, McDowall’s vocals are impeccable and angelic, particularly on tracks like Turn Off The Light where her experiences with religion are canted over soaring oboe and guitar backing. By far the most evolved and realised version of Sorrow’s vision, it feels somewhat criminal that music this beautiful could be lost to time until now.
McDowall’s lyrics throughout Sleep Now Forever deal frankly with mental health, depression, altered states, death and redemption. Wave upon wave of harmony drench each song, McDowal’s vocal multi-tracked and imperious. Opener Soldier benefits from Robert Lee’s use of the studio as instrument, summoning forth a lilting group performance of sparkling guitar and percussion that recalls the Velvet Underground. Mikey Love’s master treats the compositions to brand new frequency dynamics and space. Harmonium and string drones form the counter to McDowall’s vocal on Love Dies, a slow, lurching lament that feels transcendent. On Haunting, the arrangement is orchestral and aching, bleeding into Fear Becomes You, with chord and harmony structure that recalls the baroque sixties pop of West Coast Pop Experimental Art Band or the 60s psychedelic folk movement. A towering, beautiful statement, this elegy for times lost and moonlit-illumination is finally resurfacing from the darkness.

Downtempo techno stars The Connection Machine return with stunning re-release, featuring unreleased tracks and Legowelt remix of classic Echoes From Tau Ceti.

Four years after the re-release of their debut The Dream Tec Album on U-TRAX, the Dutch downtempo techno duo The Connection Machine returns with a second highly anticipated re-release. BlackHole+ contains remastered versions of most of the tracks on their original The Black Hole EP, released on U-TRAX in 1995, plus five tracks from their highly sought-after EPs on Tabernacle Records: Lost Connection and Lost Machine (with electro outfit Lost Trax on the flipside).

The original Black Hole EP had black labels and all details of the release were added as a computer-spoken track on the b-side. For this re-release, this track was removed and a Legowelt remix was added of the still immensely popular track Echoes From Tau Ceti.

The CD, cassette and digital versions will bring even more goodness in the form of two brand new tracks (Theorems, Theorems and Together), bringing the total number of tracks to eleven. As usual with U-TRAX releases, the cassette version boast yet another previously unreleased bonus track, Thinking Machine 23, plus the original 13 minute version of 8 Minutes.

The tapes for “Ronnie McNeir Makes A Move” were found in Mickey Stevenson’s extensive master tape collection. A full new LP of classic McNeir is an absolute treat for his many soul fans; particularly in Europe where he is so admired.
Ronnie recorded over twenty tracks with Mickey Stevenson’s production company in 1971. Eleven of these were featured on his RCA LP “Ronnie McNeir”, but another ten were left in the vaults.

The title track, ‘Let’s Make A Move’ is an urgent, exciting funk sound, composed with Ronnie’s frequent writing partner, Andre Moore. ‘I’m Sorry’ is an earlier version of ‘Gone Away’ which featured on the 1972 RCA “Ronnie McNeir” LP, without the female singer’s vocal response track.
‘Say You’ is the Motown song first recorded by the Monitors in 1965. It has a more laid-back treatment here, giving it a whole new dimension. We issued the single version on a Kent Select 45 in 2022; both versions are featured on the CD. Another re-envisaged Motown number is ‘The Girl’s Alright With Me’ which features Hodges, James, Smith & Crawford’s backing vocals − as do other tracks on this album. Surprisingly, Bob Dylan’s ‘Blowing In The Wind’ is also covered; in a pleasing, jaunty treatment.

‘My Day Will Come’ is a slow-burning number Ronnie co-wrote with his wife Mona. It is one he is particularly proud of and has been picked up by modern soul DJs as a potential crossover hit. ‘Tell Your Mama’ is a sensuous, Marvin Gaye-influenced groove, while ‘East Side, West Side’ is more streetwise, dealing with the social problems that face many young people.

As a multi-instrumentalist, heavily influenced by jazz, it comes as no surprise that Ronnie would record two jazz / soul instrumental jams which he simply named ‘Ronnie’s Bag #1’ and ‘Ronnie’s Bag #2’. The tracks are keyboard-lead, piano and possibly organ – or more likely one of the early synthesisers that Ronnie pioneered. ‘Ronnie’s Bag #1’ is more jazz-oriented, while ‘Ronnie’s Bag #2’ goes funky.

Limited to 500 copies Side A/B is solid red vinyl and side C/D is solid green vinyl. Track listing is different to the CD and digital. ‘Harmonics of the Night’ is the third in what he conceived of as a trilogy of recordings from guitarist Andy Summers. Following on from ‘Metal Dog’ and ‘Triboluminescence’, ‘Harmonics of the Night’ began its life as a guitar improvisation for a museum installation of Andy’s own photos. He did not like the music they had chosen in the gallery so sat down and recorded some guitar improvisations. Summers says that he built this set out from there. These songs and the photos that inspired them have become a staple of his solo guitar shows. Stand out tracks: ‘A Certain Strangeness’, ’Harmonics of the Night’ and ‘City of Crocodiles’. The music for Harmonics of the Night came from a real-life situation, which was the occasion of a retrospective exhibition of my photography at the Pavillon Populaire in Montpellier. I was able to visit the museum in advance of the opening and decided this time (instead of the usual unsuitable music being played by the whatever gallery!) that I must make a music installation to accompany the photography on the wall, a piece that could be looped and thus provide a continual musical counterpoint to the visual. I made a twenty-minute single guitar improvisation, A Certain Strangeness - This piece put a certain approach in my in my head and pointed me in the direction of eleven more tracks. These pieces which vary from minimalist approaches to African influenced dance pieces and are what I consider the sonic parallels to the photography.

The long-rumored, sweat-soaked live album from the night Bill Davis (Dash Rip Rock) and Fred Le Blanc (Cowboy Mouth) dared Jello Biafra to join them during Jazzfest and sing all classic New Orleans soul, rhythm and blues, and (at Jello's request) garage songs! Joining in were piano Wildman Pete Wet Dawg' Gordon (Mojo Nixon), Pepper Keenan (Down, Corrosion of Conformity) and a wacky horn section from Egg Yolk Jubilee and Morning 40 Federation that even includes a sousaphone! You want loose We got loose! You want crazy That's here, too. Walk on Jindal's Splinters is one of the all-time great you are there' high-energy live albums—audience participation galore, plenty of trademark Jello banter, and full-on soul / trash / frat / garage gumbo from eleven of New Orleans' finest, just playing their asses off and having a good time doing it. The album also showcases a whole 'nother side of Jello Biafra: his deep, pre-punk roots known only to a handful of vinyl junkies and anyone lucky enough to catch his DJ gigs. For all those whose interest in Jello goes beyond the punk persona to Jello Biafra, the singer, this is for you. Maximum trash appeal! Southern roadhouse debauchery at its finest! Calls to mind those sing-along, clap-along frat-rock platters from The Premiers to The Kingsman to Geno Washington's Hipsters, Flipsters... series, Swingin' Medallions, or even Slade Alive! You can almost feel the grease and voodoo dripping from the walls!" Showcases a rarely seen side of Jello—his pre-punk roots. Personnel includes members of Dash Rip Rock, Cowboy Mouth, Mojo Nixon, Corrosion of Conformity, etc. Vinyl includes digital download card

The long-rumored, sweat-soaked live album from the night Bill Davis (Dash Rip Rock) and Fred Le Blanc (Cowboy Mouth) dared Jello Biafra to join them during Jazzfest and sing all classic New Orleans soul, rhythm and blues, and (at Jello's request) garage songs! Joining in were piano Wildman Pete Wet Dawg' Gordon (Mojo Nixon), Pepper Keenan (Down, Corrosion of Conformity) and a wacky horn section from Egg Yolk Jubilee and Morning 40 Federation that even includes a sousaphone! You want loose We got loose! You want crazy That's here, too. Walk on Jindal's Splinters is one of the all-time great you are there' high-energy live albums—audience participation galore, plenty of trademark Jello banter, and full-on soul / trash / frat / garage gumbo from eleven of New Orleans' finest, just playing their asses off and having a good time doing it. The album also showcases a whole 'nother side of Jello Biafra: his deep, pre-punk roots known only to a handful of vinyl junkies and anyone lucky enough to catch his DJ gigs. For all those whose interest in Jello goes beyond the punk persona to Jello Biafra, the singer, this is for you. Maximum trash appeal! Southern roadhouse debauchery at its finest! Calls to mind those sing-along, clap-along frat-rock platters from The Premiers to The Kingsman to Geno Washington's Hipsters, Flipsters... series, Swingin' Medallions, or even Slade Alive! You can almost feel the grease and voodoo dripping from the walls!" Showcases a rarely seen side of Jello—his pre-punk roots. Personnel includes members of Dash Rip Rock, Cowboy Mouth, Mojo Nixon, Corrosion of Conformity, etc. Vinyl includes digital download card

Compiled by Bob Stanley to document the acid folk scene, “Gather In The Mushrooms” was first issued in 2004 on Sanctuary as a CD-only release; it proved popular enough for a sequel entitled “Early Morning Hush” two years later.

This new edition of “Gather In The Mushrooms” contains the cream of both long-deleted compilations with a few additions – COB, Roy Harper, Fotheringay – that weren’t available to Sanctuary at the time. Though they aren’t traditional, these songs have an authenticity of their own, an autumnal atmosphere and a naivety which proved influential in the 00s neo-folk boom (Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom, Alasdair Roberts, Tuung et al) but impossible to replicate. For many of these acts at the end of the 60s, folk music and the hippy world that surrounded them was a way of life, a way of opting out from the Vietnam war, Angry Brigade and three-day-week early 70s. Anne Briggs lived in a caravan in Suffolk, Shelagh McDonald lived in a tent, Vashti Bunyan eschewed electricity; they weren’t part-timers. Listening to “Gather In The Mushrooms”, we are transported to a time when no one used the term post-modernist.

It may not have resonated with dyed-in-the wool political folkies, but over five decades later this music sounds very evocative of an England of yore – not necessarily one of poachers and pedlars, but one of long-haired youths in tie-dye T-shirts, bikers and hippies, acoustic guitars played in white stone cottages. Groups such as Stone Angel, Midwinter and Oberon made primitive, privately recorded folk albums; today they sound as distant and mystical as the field recordings of Alan Lomax. The sincerity and folk knowledge of a group like Forest becomes irrelevant once you hear something as eerie and evocative as ‘Graveyard’. Home-made, homely, warm as soup or chilling as a hoar frost, this is music of innocence and rare beauty.

“My introduction to “noise” came from a record shop in Lake Worth, Florida ran by a musician named Kenny 5. Kenny had left Detroit sometime in the mid nineties and had begun selling used records and CD’s from the downtown strip of this tiny southern Florida city in a humble shop sandwiched between a deli and a dog grooming business. Kenny previously was on labels like Amphetamine Reptile and timeSTEREO, and the records and videotapes that would be on repeat at his shop were a vast sonic expanse that spoke to the eclecticism of his experience as a touring musician participating and adjacent to American noise culture through the early to late 90’s. In 1998, I was eleven years old and I would order a pizza with him and watch VHS tapes of Japanese noise and deathmatch bootlegs, as well as any other sonic and subcultural rarities that far outstripped my age to comprehend (notably the RRR “Journey Into Pain” compilation and various Vanilla Tapes videos). This widecast net of information formed an introduction to a reality that did not fall deaf on me, but it took many years later for me to reorient the specific freedoms of what this dense and cathartic sound culture had imparted on my life and would continue onward to.

What does this have to do with this selection of choice recordings from the Secret Boyfriend catalog for the enmossed label? For the uninitiated, Secret Boyfriend is the long running moniker of Ryan Martin, North Carolina musician and label proprietor of the Hot Releases imprint. For over a decade from this writing I have watched Secret Boyfriend, and Hot Releases by extension as a curatorial and archival effort, embodying the multiplanal capacity that noise loosely functions from as an umbrella ideology and formalist avenue for sound creation. For anecdotal purposes, from (before) 2006 until roughly 2023 the East Coast of the United States showcased a vibrant network of eclectic regional festivals that saw wide swaths of artists addressing and negotiating the notion of what qualified “noise” from a conceptual and ideological perspective. Some festivals honed in on particularities in aesthetics and tropes, and others had a kind of “catch-all” implementation that allowed for a salvation of the sort of alienated and singular artistry that was amassing throughout these territories. While clear guidelines had been set from regional predecessors as to how noise with a capital “N” should maneuver, Secret Boyfriend is emblematic in the spirit of fluidity that was either implicitly coupled to the notion of the genre, or grew to evolve towards or devolve from.

Within Secret Boyfriend performances, I have seen and admired a mirroring from a ravenous appreciator of this culture at large back towards itself. Typical of a Secret Boyfriend set is an interchangeable narrative arc wherein blistering feedback laden scrap metal improvisations are forayed into naive ambient or “pop” songs, or skipping CDs, or mixer feedback play, or delayed Roland 707 drum workouts all at once and in a unique hegemony. Secret Boyfriend's stylistic mastery of each endeavor is at once an homage to a history of loving listening and enacting, while a brave step into the realm of actualizing the unique fluidity of his own practice. In performance and the action of network engagement, Secret Boyfriend operates a survey of that which he sought to hear and that which he cultivates around his work. His operations are mirrors, and the project (alongside his other peers) is a reflection on the ethos of his time.

Conversely his recording practice narrows in on these moments and allows for a different kind of intimacy or alienation for the non live listener. This record of selected “pop songs” (let's call them that) is particularly poignant at a time when the culture Martin mirrors is at a strange crossroads with itself. The aforementioned festival networks necessarily change and shift. The onlookers become the artists, the artists find new horizons, and the spaces for these cycles fade into locales of a distant memory. It seems, from my perspective, that audiences currently yearn for a more bottlenecked experience, searching for some ontologically vetted manifestation of an idea, of a sound and less for an experience that functions in opposition to our collective banalities. This makes sense in the face of general global catastrophism that plagues us. We need certainty of what something is somewhere, don’t we? Noise as an idea has expanded and contracted to so many iterations of itself it is hard to tell what it even is, and it is particularly difficult to identify in the absence of solid network activations a moment to reflect on its own complexities and nuances. In the face of so much change, I argue that the language of noise culture at large has on one hand become increasingly didactic and predictable, and laughably inclusive and non linear on the other. Probably has always been this way, but now we are in the midst of a moment of extreme access and indexicality, which somehow cauterizes expansion and naivety and chance.

This record highlights the Secret Boyfriend that obscures didacticism by highlighting output that opens up for more challenging catharsis and emotive signal processing. It provides an entry to the materialism of a cultural field full of ecstatic complexity and beautiful inconsistency. In these muted moments Secret Boyfriend has given us over his career we have an argument for evolving languages that further challenge our notions of what is supposed to happen and how it is supposed to be presented. In his more song oriented expansiveness, we can punctuate the ability to think in new modalities. Listening to these recordings reminds me of the polarity of sitting in the record store as a kid and understanding that His Name Is Alive is on 4AD and (gasp!) timeSTEREO. This trite early impression that nothing is really as different as our imaginations might want them to be, and that we can do whatever we want mostly within the creative realms we work through is an important filter to look through Secret Boyfriend as a project and a vessel. If we can achieve abandon and vulnerability through our artistic endeavors, then we have a sound model for, maybe, new potentialities. If that’s too much projection, or just complete liberal bullshit, I am fine with that. Secret Boyfriend's oeuvre at best offers us moments of reprieve to ponder these complexities, or at least a moment to zone out on a drive through North Carolina Highway 54.

You have one pocket of life that you must do whatever you want to inside of. Secret Boyfriend does it affectionately, in a variety of forms, and always with deep sentimentality. These recordings are a wonderful set of songs to begin further investigation from. Thank you Ryan for allowing as many avenues as possible to continue a broad cultural exchange and conversation that intersect and refract while being the kind of artist that is brave enough to not phone in the effort.”

- Nick Klein , May 2024

Soul4Real returns to the south with a selection of eleven songs from Malaco, Muscle Shoals Sound Studios and Alarm Records.
There is no doubt that in the 1970s and 1980s, Malaco in Mississippi and Muscle Shoals Sound in Alabama were both highly significant in defining the southern soul sound. Malaco’s Studio had opened in 1967, while Muscle Shoals Sound Studio opened its doors for business in 1969, when four musicians left nearby Fame Studios to go it alone. Alarm Records, meanwhile, based in Shreveport, Louisiana, provides us with four of the tracks on this album.
Independent producers and major record companies sent their artists south to record, taking advantage of both Malaco and Muscle Shoals Sound’s talented array of musicians, writers and producers. Muscle Shoals Sound, in particular, started to receive artists from Atlantic Records from the get-go; R.B. Greaves, Baby Washington, Sam & Dave and Solomon Burke led the way, along with Scotland’s Lulu. The first relesase on their own record label was the timeless “It Hurts So Good” by Katie Love. Meanwhile, Stax (amongst others) sent some of their artists to record at both studios, and Malaco would also lease some of its own productions out to Atlantic. Alarm Records was a smaller set-up which also produced some wonderful records.
This album opens with the only female singer featured – Dorothy Moore. Her exquisite “Girl Overboard” has been justifiably popular on the soul scene for decades. The other ten tracks showcase an array of fine male singers, most of whom (Bobby Bland and King Floyd aside), sadly and perhaps unjustly, never really made the big time. It is the first showing on vinyl for three of the tracks here (previously having only been issued on CD), and Jimmy Jules’ reading of “Having A Little Talk With Love” has never appeared anywhere before. As always, sit back and savour the music!

'Mei Semones' sweetly evocative blend of jazz, bossa nova and math-y indie rock is not only a way for her to find solace in her favorite genres, but is an intuitive means of catharsis. "Blending everything that I like together and trying to make something new - that's what feels most natural to me," says the 23-year-old Brooklyn-based singersongwriter and guitarist. "It's what feels most true to who I am as an artist." `Tsukino', Mei's debut, self-released EP, is being released physically for the first time ever on Bayonet Records! The EP will be released by itself on CD & Tape formats, and will be included in a vinyl pressing on the B-side of Semones' landmark EP, `Kebutomushi'! Plinking guitar tones and asymmetrical time signatures exemplify Semones' forays into angular indie rock more now than ever before. Originally from Ann Arbor, Michigan, Semones began playing music at a young age, starting out on piano at age four before moving to electric guitar at age eleven. After playing jazz guitar in high school, she went on to study guitar performance with a jazz focus at Berklee College of Music. College is where she met her current bandmates, including string players Noah Leong and Claudius Agrippa, whose respective viola and violin add softness and multidimensionality to Mei's intricate guitar work. After releasing a slew of singles and an EP in 2022, coinciding with her move to New York City, Mei and her band have since gone on to collaborate with post-bossa balladeer John Roseboro and embark on their first-ever tour with the melodic rock outfit Raavi. Semones chronicles infatuation, devotion, and vulnerability in her songs, complete with sweeping strings, virtuosic guitar-playing and heartfelt lyrics sung in both English and Japanese, that have all become part of her sonic trademark: ornately catchy, genrefusing compositions serving as the backdrop to tender lyrics touching on the universalities of human emotion.

Fire-splattered vinyl is opaque red vinyl with yellow & orange starburst. As C418, composer and producer Daniel Rosenfeld designs sounds to resonate in both physical and pixelated realms. Best known for his original soundtracks to Minecraft, the single best-selling video game of all time, he's developed a discography of instrumental music over the last decade that traverses electronic pop patterns, neo-classical dreamscapes, and sparse ambient motifs. The latter element has broken from the "8-bit" pigeonholing of game music and earned him accolades that reference artists like Erik Satie (The Guardian) and Brian Eno (VICE). In 2015, after quietly self-releasing Minecraft Volume Alpha and Minecraft Volume Beta, Rosenfeld partnered with Ghostly International to reissue Minecraft Volume Alpha on vinyl and CD. The release garnered attention from proper music critics and the gaming community alike, becoming one of the most sought after records in the Ghostly catalog. Now, following several restocks of Alpha to fervent fan response, it is time for the soundtrack's second installment to shine. For the legion of listeners and players to, at long last, have Minecraft Volume Beta in tangible formats. Originally self-released in 2013, Minecraft Volume Beta was C418's longest batch of music to date at nearly 140 minutes. The collection features tracks that were "silently" added to Minecraft during its music updates and a few that never officially entered the game. The run time is now adapted to fit the double LP format, while digital downloads include the full set Rosenfeld's unmistakable abilities are on display; he creates a sweeping variety of musical ideas that mirror the limitless universe of Minecraft. Ghostly International is thrilled to give this unique collaboration its due treatment and hopes to see the creative inspiration which drives Minecraft and Rosenfeld continue to disperse by virtue of this unexpectedly universal music.

Mr. Joe Jackson Presents: MAX CHAMPION in ‘WHAT A RACKET’! The genre started in the pubs and streets of London in the mid-19th century and grew into the first form of mass entertainment to be created by the working classes. By 1900 it regularly drew huge audiencesfrom acrossthe whole spectrum ofsociety, from prostitutes to princes, allsinging along with superstar performers in gorgeoustheatres (some of which still survive). Like its American cousin Vaudeville, Music Hall featured magicians, acrobats, and ventriloquists – elements that we still see today in musical theater and cabaret shows. One of the most fascinating of the Music Hall performers was Max Champion. We know little about him, except that he was born in London in 1882. Champion was almost completely forgotten until the sheet music of his songs was found in Valletta, Malta, in 2014. How it got there is a complete mystery. “What A Racket!” presents eleven of Max Champion’ssongsforthe first time in more than a century. According to producer Joe Jackson, ‘These were wonderful songs in their time, but they’re surprisingly modern, too. Sometimes it’s almost as if Max is speaking, from his London of the early 20th century, directly to us in the early 21st’. What may sound different to the Joe Jackson you know at first listen, in fact corresponds to his consistent artistic development. This record is 100% Joe Jackson. And perhaps you already guessed it: Joe Jackson and Max Champion have more in common than it appears at first glance. Formats; CD, LP.

Guitar Legend! Songwriting Legend! Producer Legend! Blues Brother & Stax Legend!

Like the first words of a book, the opening notes of an album can make you lean in. Sometimes it’s like meeting a stranger who later becomes a lifelong friend, or on rare occasions, a spouse. Please drop your stylus on this record and say hello to your new best friend. Hear the confidence, hear the tone, feel the vibe.
—Robert Gordon (from his liner notes)

As a founding member of Stax house band Booker T. & The M.G.’s, Steve Cropper was involved in some of the most important music of the 1960s as a player, songwriter, and producer. The following decade introduced him to a new group of fans as guitarist for The Blues Brothers, appearing on both their records and film. A two-time Grammy® winner and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Cropper has been an integral thread in the cloth of American music, writing, playing and producing into the 21st century to this very day.

In 1969, Cropper released his first solo album, producing and arranging its eleven tracks himself. His backing band? While there is no actual record of who played on the album itself, Grammy® winner Robert Gordon’s liner notes point to his fellow M.G.’s, Buddy Miles, Jim Keltner, the Bar-Kay’s James Alexander, and more as candidates. From original tracks to its well-known covers (including The Beatles classic the release shares its name with), it is a tour de force of pure Memphis rock and soul.

The core eleven tracks now appear again on an all-analog cut, new pressing of the LP as With A Little Help From My Friends returns for a new generation to experience. The CD version contains a whopping eight bonus tracks, including four tracks not included on the original release and alternate versions of four that do. Add in Robert Gordon’s notes and this release is as much a history lesson as it is a timepiece of pure musical magic.

“La Settima Donna” (1978), also known as “The Last House On The Beach”, is a disturbing thriller directed by Franco Prosperi and set in a secluded cottage overlooking the Tyrrhenian sea, starring Florinda Bolkan, in the role of Sister Cristina, governess of five female students on a short vacation, rehearsing their Shakesperean end-of-year play. The unfortunate inhabitants of the house became soon hostages of three vicious criminals looking for a hiding place after a bank robbery, but the psychological and sexual violence ends when the nun abandons her vows. And the victims decide to get justice. Roberto Pregadio's brilliant music is not surprisingly, functional and almost disconnected from the bloody images: there is no overwhelming sense of disturbance for the listener.

The soundtrack of “La Settima Donna” was published only once, in cd format, attached to the rare dvd of the film, gaining new life on vinyl thanks to Musica Per Immagini. Some of the eleven tracks of the score are characterised by an easy listening mood and united by a psychedelic feel, in harmony with the progressive atmospheres found in albums such as “A Saucerful Of Secrets” (1968) and “Meddle” (1971) by Pink Floyd. However, the English band is not the only reference for the jazz pianist, who quotes a piece by Bryan Ferry, entrusting it to the voice of Ray Lovelock, one of the three kidnappers. After that, the Sicilian composer remodels an international hit by Donna Summer, background of the sequence in which the nun is forced to strip naked in front of her tormentors.

The Waterboys’ eighth studio album is made available on vinyl for the first time, in ‘Seville’ orange. Originally released in 2003, ‘Universal Hall’ was recorded in the basement studio of the titular hall, a theatre and concert venue in Findhorn, Scotland. It is the most nakedly spiritual of the band's records, all the more so for having been mostly written and entirely made in the spiritual community at Findhorn. At the time of release, band leader Mike Scott described ‘Universal Hall’ as "a record containing eleven spiritual songs that articulate - to the best of my ability - the vision that drives, challenges, sustains and transforms me.” This vision is explored in now-classic Waterboys numbers such as Peace Of Iona, The Christ In You and Universal Hall itself, One track, the celtic-flavoured I've Lived Here Before, was written with Liam O'Maonlai of Hothouse Flowers. The album also saw the return of the band's fiddler Steve Wickham, his first appearance on a Waterboys’ record since ‘Room To Roam’ in 1990. The vinyl format is 180g Orange vinyl. The CD format is packaged in a jewelcase with 16 page booklet.