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Sechs Jahre nach Ihrem Debüt und direkt nach ihrer Tournee als Special Guest für Depeche Mode erscheint mit „Navel" das langerwartete zweite HOPE Album auf Haldern Pop Recordings.

NAVEL, das zweite Album der Berliner Band Hope ist eine Übung in Verletzlichkeit. Die vier Musiker*innen wagen sich hinter den Soundwänden hervor, die sie in der Vergangenheit um sich herum errichtet hatten, und zeigen, wie sie hinter den Barrikaden sind: sanft, nah- und fehlbar.
Das hat zum einen mit einer inneren Entwicklung der Sängerin Christine Börsch-Supan zu tun und mit der sich daraus ergebenden neuen musikalischen Richtung der Band. Wo früher Wut und Wucht war, ist heute so etwas wie Ruhe. An die Stelle von Monumentalität ist Meditation getreten. Erzählte das 2017 erschienene HOPE in seinem vollkommen eigenständigen dunklen, dystopischen Noise-Sound von Zwängen, unterdrückten Gefühlen und Gewalt, stellt sich auf NAVEL nun Heilung ein. „Solace“ singt Christine Börsch-Supan mit ihrer genauso klaren wie warmen Stimme im gleichnamigen Song immer wieder: Trost, Trost, Trost.Die Sängerin, auf deren eigener Gefühlswelt die Texte der Band basieren – und damit auch ihr emotionaler Klangraum –, hat sich in den vergangenen Jahren von einer Essstörung befreit und damit von der großen Wut, der anklagenden Haltung und dem Aufbegehren, die die Musik von Hope lange bestimmten. Mit NAVEL hat die Band nun eine Art Zen-Garten errichtet. Einen offenen, auf das Maximale reduzierten, luftigen Raum, der dazu einlädt, ihn zu durchschreiten, der sich aber nicht aufdrängt – und der niemandem eine Deutung aufzwingt. Die Moog-Sounds, die zarten Gitarrenakkorde, das Schlagzeug, oft nur so auf den Fellen der Trommel gespielt, dass ein Sound entsteht, der wirkt wie elektronisch erzeugt – alles auf NAVEL ist durch die Weite bestimmt, die sich zwischen den Elementen auftut. Für NAVEL hat sich die Band von der Idee von Perfektion und Kontrolle verabschiedet und damit – schönstes Paradox – ein nahezu perfektes Stück Musik geschaffen.

Zum 10. Todestag von Lou Reed veröffentlichen DIE BUBEN IM PELZ ihr neues Album "Verwandler" (Konkord) auf welchem sie sich den Songs von Lou Reed widmen und diese in den Wiener Dialekt übersetzen. Als 2015 das selbstbetitelte Debütalbum (Konkord) von DIE BUBEN IM PELZ erschien, wirbelten sie damit viel Staub auf. Denn die beiden Gründungsmitglieder David Pfister und Christian Fuchs (beide vom Radiosender FM4) wagten etwas Riskantes. Die Buben übersetzten das ikonische Debütalbum von Velvet Underground komplett ins Wienerische. Wechselten die legendäre Andy Warhol-Banane auf dem Cover mit einer Wurst aus - und übertrugen die Atmosphäre des New York von 1967 in das Wien von 2015. Düstere Parallelen wurden ausgelotet. Flirrende Gitarren zum Klingen gebracht. Spirituelle Verwandtschaften mit Lou Reed, John Cale und Nico zelebriert. Die Platte wurde inzwischen zu einem viel beachteten Klassiker der deutschsprachigen, alternativen Popmusik. Für die deutsche Tageszeitung ,Die Zeit" beispielsweise ein Album des Jahres 2015. Ebenso erfuhr das Artwork der LP von Dieter Oitzinger große Aufmerksamkeit. Die Erstauflage auf Vinyl mit einer abziehbaren Wurst statt einer Banane ist inzwischen ein begehrtes Sammlerobjekt. 2017 und 2019 erschienen zwei weitere Platten auf dem Wiener Label Noise Appeal, zuletzt ,Geisterbahn" produziert von Alexander Hacke von den Einstürzenden Neubauten und Alexander Lausch. Neben Pfister und Fuchs bestehen DIE BUBEN IM PELZ auch noch aus dem Bassisten Christof Baumgartner (Black Palms Orchestra), Bernd Supper (Scarabeus Dream), Markus Reiter (Destroyed But Not Defeated) und Gernot Scheithauer (Liger). Brutalität und Zärtlichkeit Zum 10. Todestag von Lou Reed am 27. Oktober veröffentlichen Die Buben Im Pelz ihr neues Album ,Verwandler" (Konkord), auf dem sie sich erneut ausschließlich den Songs von Lou Reed und Velvet Underground widmen. Auch wenn Titel und Artwork auf den Klassiker ,Transformer" von Lou Reed anspielen, übersetzten die Buben dieses Mal kein komplettes Album, sondern eine Auswahl von Reed-Songs mit Blick auf sein gesamtes Schaffen. Und auch dieses Mal zeigt sich: Die Klassiker von Lou Reed, zwischen textlicher Brutalität und Zärtlichkeit, funktionieren auch in unserer seltsamen Zeit perfekt als tröstende Ventile. Egal ob in persönlichster Identitätssuche oder beim großen Blick auf die Welt. Black Vinyl!

Zum 10. Todestag von Lou Reed veröffentlichen DIE BUBEN IM PELZ ihr neues Album "Verwandler" (Konkord) auf welchem sie sich den Songs von Lou Reed widmen und diese in den Wiener Dialekt übersetzen. Als 2015 das selbstbetitelte Debütalbum (Konkord) von DIE BUBEN IM PELZ erschien, wirbelten sie damit viel Staub auf. Denn die beiden Gründungsmitglieder David Pfister und Christian Fuchs (beide vom Radiosender FM4) wagten etwas Riskantes. Die Buben übersetzten das ikonische Debütalbum von Velvet Underground komplett ins Wienerische. Wechselten die legendäre Andy Warhol-Banane auf dem Cover mit einer Wurst aus - und übertrugen die Atmosphäre des New York von 1967 in das Wien von 2015. Düstere Parallelen wurden ausgelotet. Flirrende Gitarren zum Klingen gebracht. Spirituelle Verwandtschaften mit Lou Reed, John Cale und Nico zelebriert. Die Platte wurde inzwischen zu einem viel beachteten Klassiker der deutschsprachigen, alternativen Popmusik. Für die deutsche Tageszeitung ,Die Zeit" beispielsweise ein Album des Jahres 2015. Ebenso erfuhr das Artwork der LP von Dieter Oitzinger große Aufmerksamkeit. Die Erstauflage auf Vinyl mit einer abziehbaren Wurst statt einer Banane ist inzwischen ein begehrtes Sammlerobjekt. 2017 und 2019 erschienen zwei weitere Platten auf dem Wiener Label Noise Appeal, zuletzt ,Geisterbahn" produziert von Alexander Hacke von den Einstürzenden Neubauten und Alexander Lausch. Neben Pfister und Fuchs bestehen DIE BUBEN IM PELZ auch noch aus dem Bassisten Christof Baumgartner (Black Palms Orchestra), Bernd Supper (Scarabeus Dream), Markus Reiter (Destroyed But Not Defeated) und Gernot Scheithauer (Liger). Brutalität und Zärtlichkeit Zum 10. Todestag von Lou Reed am 27. Oktober veröffentlichen Die Buben Im Pelz ihr neues Album ,Verwandler" (Konkord), auf dem sie sich erneut ausschließlich den Songs von Lou Reed und Velvet Underground widmen. Auch wenn Titel und Artwork auf den Klassiker ,Transformer" von Lou Reed anspielen, übersetzten die Buben dieses Mal kein komplettes Album, sondern eine Auswahl von Reed-Songs mit Blick auf sein gesamtes Schaffen. Und auch dieses Mal zeigt sich: Die Klassiker von Lou Reed, zwischen textlicher Brutalität und Zärtlichkeit, funktionieren auch in unserer seltsamen Zeit perfekt als tröstende Ventile. Egal ob in persönlichster Identitätssuche oder beim großen Blick auf die Welt. Black Vinyl!

Cala Tarida Musica is thrilled to present this summer anthem collaboration by some esteemed Balearic residents. 'Residentes Balearicos' team up with legendary Ibizan DJ Alfredo and include new unreleased vinyl exclusive remixes from Chris Coco and SIRS. 'Sundown' features an infectious vocal that seamlessly fuses dub influences with a nostalgic old-school house groove. This EP is guaranteed to get your dance floor moving.

DJ support: DJ Nova / RodonFM Greece, Luca Averna / Pikes Ibiza, Leo Mas, Chris Coco, SIRS, Adam Warped / STRANGE DAYS radio show, Andy Wilson, Ibiza Sonica, Nancy Noise, Problematic Disko, Tomi Chair.

Freestyle Records proudly present a reissue of Gloria Weems' ace 1983 long-player "Lovelight" - previously only available on a rare South African pressing, and featuring the single "Wanna Dance With You" (licensed for a 12" on storied NYC label Prelude in the same year).

The record was written and produced by Jim Duncombe and Chris Palmer - owner of London's legendary Groove Records and also the man behind UK funk/disco label Groove Production (Surface Noise, Linda Taylor, Caché etc). Chris & Jim had met earlier in the year at the Midem music conference in Cannes, and started writing together shortly after. The initial recording sessions were completed at Duncombe's Powerplay Recording Studios in Switzerland, with American vocalist Gloria Weems (then on a club tour of Switzerland) brought in on vocal duties.

Palmer then added additional recordings and mixed the record down at Groove Production's London base. Criminally it was only ever picked up for release in super limited numbers through the South African label CCP Records - though Chris, through an ongoing licensing relationship via his Groove Production label, managed to license "Wanna Dance With You" and it's dubbed-out b-side "Wanna Version" to the legendary NYC label Prelude. Nevertheless the Lovelight LP represents a lost classic and a rare example of a transatlantic disco-boogie project in the era's golden period, in it's linking up of UK, European and American elements.

Boundless was recorded at Silver Bullet Studios in Burlington, CT, which is run by longtime friend of the band Greg Thomas (Misery Signals, Shai Hulud, The Risk Taken) and Chris Teti from The World Is A Beautiful Place And I Am No Longer Afraid To Die, and while With Honor managed to bottle all that energy they’d re-found playing live again, it’s interesting to note that the band took their time doing so. It might sound like one frenzied burst of energy, but the writing process was more considered—With Honor wanted it to sound organic and natural—in other words, true to who both who they are and who they were—rather than forced and contrived. “We named the record after it was all done,” Mackey says. “The whole idea that there’s no limit just resonates all the way through this record. There’s a lot of observing nature healing itself and then believing in that for yourself—and as a result you’re kind of unlimited in that way. And so having the title Boundless just felt the way we wanted it to feel, which, in so many ways, is what this record is all about.”

A.R. Kive collates the three most astonishing works from that most miraculous of duos - A.R. Kane - comprising the ‘Up Home’ EP from 1988 that signified the band’s dawning realisation of their own powers and possibilities, their legendary debut LP ‘sixty nine’ (1988) and its kaleidoscopic, prophetic double-LP follow up ‘i’ (1989).

In founder-member Rudy Tambala’s new remastering, the music on these pivotal transmissions from the birth of dream pop, have been reinvigorated and re-infused with a new power, a new depth and intimacy, a new height and immensity. Vivid, timeless and yet always timely whenever they’re recalled, these records still force any listener to realise that despite the habits of retrospective myth-making and the
safe neutering effects of ‘genre’, thirty years have in no way dimmed how resistant and dissident to critical habits of categorisation A.R. Kane always were. Never quite ‘avant-pop’ or ‘shoegaze’ or ‘post-rock’ or any of those sobriquets designed to file and categorise, A.R. Kive is a reminder that those genres had to be coined, had to be invented precisely to contain the astonishing sound of A.R. Kane, because
previous formulations couldn’t come close to their sui generis sound and suggestiveness. This is music that pointed towards futures which a whole generation of artists and sonic explorers would map out. Now beautifully repackaged, remastered and fleshed out with extensive sleeve notes and accompanying materials, ‘A.R. Kive’ reveals that 35 years on it’s still a struggle to defuse the revolutionary and inspirational possibility of A.R. Kane’s music.

A.R. Kane were formed in 1986 by Rudy Tambala and Alex Ayuli, two second-generation immigrants who grew up together in Stratford, East London. From the off the pair were outsiders in the culturally mixed (cockney/Irish/West Indian/Asian) milieu of the East End, with Alex and Rudy’s folks first generation immigrants from Nigeria and Malawi, respectively. The two of them quickly developed and fostered an innate and near-telepathic mutual understanding forged in musical, literary and artistic exploration. Like a lot of second-generation immigrants, they were ferocious autodidacts in all kinds of areas, especially around music and literature. Diving deep into the music of afro-futurist luminaries such as Sun Ra, Miles Davis, Lee Perry and
Hendrix, as well as devouring the explorations of lysergic noise and feedback from contemporaries like Sonic Youth and Butthole Surfers, they also thoroughly immersed themselves in the alternate literary realities of sci-fi and ancient history (the fascination with the arcane that gave the band their name), all to feed their voracious cultural thirsts and intellectual curiosity.

It was seeing the Cocteau Twins performing on Channel 4 show the Tube that spurred A.R. Kane into being - “They had no drummer. They used tapes and technology and Liz Fraser looked completely otherworldly with those big eyes. And the noise coming out of Robin’s guitar! That was the ‘Fuck! We could do that! We could express ourselves like that!’ moment”, recalls Tambala - and through a mix of
confidence, chutzpah, ad hoc almost-mythical live shows and sheer innocent will the duo debuted with the astonishing ‘When You’re Sad’ single for One Little Indian in 1986. Immediately dubbed a ‘black Jesus & Mary Chain’ by a press unsure of WHERE to put a black band clearly immersed in feedback and noise, what was immediately apparent for listeners was just how much more was going on here - a
tapping of dub’s stealth and guile, a resonant umbilicus back to fusion and jazz, the music less a conjuration of past highs than a re-summoning of lost spirits.
The run of singles and EPs that followed picked up increasingly rapt reviews in the press, but it was the ‘Up Home EP’ released in 1988 on their new home, Rough Trade that really suggested something immense was about to break. Simon Reynolds noted the EP was: Their most concentrated slab of iridescent awesomeness and a true pinnacle of an era that abounded with astounding landmarks of guitar-reinvention, A.R. Kane at their most elixir-like.

If anything, the remastered ‘Up Home’ that forms the first part of ‘A.R. Kive’ is even more dazzling, even more startling than it was when it first emerged, and listening now you again wonder not just about how many bands christened ‘shoegaze’ tried to emulate it, but how all of them fell so far short of its lambent, pellucid wonder. This remains intrinsically experimental music but with none of the frowning orthodoxy those words imply. A.R. Kane, thanks to that second generation auto-didacticism were always supremely aware about the interstices of music and magic, but at the same time gloriously free in the way they explored that connection within their own sound, fascinated always with the creation of ‘perfect mistakes’ and the possibilities inherent in informed play.

‘sixty nine’ the group’s debut LP that emerged in 1988 had
critics and listeners struggling to fit language around A.R. Kane’s sound. As a title it was telling - the year of ‘Bitches Brew’, the year of ‘In A Silent Way’, the erotic möbius between two lovers - and as originally coined by the band themselves, ‘dream pop’ (before it became a free-floating signifier of vague import) was entirely apposite for the music A.R. Kane were making. Crafted in a dark small basement studio in which Tambala recalls the duo had “complete freedom - We wanted to go as far out as we could, and in doing so we discovered the point where it stops being music”. There was an irresistibly dreamy, somnambulant, sensual and almost surreal flow to ‘sixty nine’s sound, but also real darkness/dankness, the ruptures of the primordial and the reverberations of the subconscious, within the grooves of remarkable songs like ‘Dizzy’ and ‘Crazy Blue’. Alex’s plangent vocals floated and surged amidst exquisite peals of refracted feedback but crucially there was BASS here, lugubrious and funky and full of dread, sonic pleasure and sonic disturbance crushed together to make music with a center so deep it felt subcutaneous, music constructed from both the accidental and the deliberate, generous enough to dance with both serendipity and chaos. ‘sixty nine’ remains - especially in this remastered iteration - ravishing, revolutionary.

The final part of this ‘A.R. Kive’ contains 1989’s astonishing double-LP ‘i’ which followed up on ‘sixty nine’s promise and saw the duo fully unleash their experimental pop sensibilities over 26 tracks, plunging the A.R. Kane sound into a dazzlingly kaleidoscopic vision of pop experiment and play. Suffused with new digital technologies and combining searingly sweet and danceable pop with perhaps the duo’s strangest and boundary-pushing compositions, the album did exactly what a great double-set should do - indulge the artists sprawling pursuit of their own imaginations but always with a concision and an ear for those moments where pop both transcends and toys with the listeners expectations. Jason Ankeny has noted that “In retrospect, ‘i’ now seems like a crystal ball prophesying virtually every major musical development of the 1990s; from the shimmering techno of ‘A Love from Outer Space’ to the liquid dub of ‘What’s All This Then?’, from the alien drone-pop of ‘Conundrum’ to the sinister shoegazer miasma of ‘Supervixens’ — it’s all here, an underground road map for countless bands to follow.” Perhaps the most overwhelmingly all-encompassing transmission from A.R. Kane, ‘i’ bookended a three year period in which the duo had made some of the most prophetic and revelatory music of the entire decade.

After ‘i’ the duo’s output became more sporadic with Tambala and Ayuli moving in different directions both geographically and musically, with only 1994’s ‘New Clear Child’ a crystalline re-fraction of future and past echoes of jazz, folk and soul, before the duo went their separate ways. Since then, A.R. Kane’s music has endured, not thanks to the usual sepia’d false memories that seem to maintain interest in so much of the musical past, but because those who hear A.R. Kane music and are changed irrevocably, have to share that universe which A.R. Kane opened up, with anyone else who will listen. Far more than other lauded documents of the late 80s it still sounds astonishingly fresh, astonishingly livid and vivid and necessary and NOW.

In the late 2000s a sprawling catalog of what is now genre-defining music was emanating from an unlikely place. Cleveland, Ohio has a broad reputation for many things, but in the aughts, psyche-expanding Kosmische wasn’t necessarily Cleveland’s calling card… until Emeralds. The trio of John Elliott, Steve Hauschildt, and Mark McGuire had released a profusion of limited-run cassettes, CD-Rs, and vinyl titles that had been passed around basement shows and then migrated to niche music communities online, creating a unique kind of murmur, even in the height of the DIY blog era. Three kids from the rust belt were crafting a distinctive and truly far-out strain of music on their own terms in the Midwest. They were flipping lids in wood-paneled basements and circulating around the underground with soaring sounds stylistically indebted to deep German electronic music pioneers and released with the ethos and twisted fervor of renegade Midwestern noise freaks. After several releases garnered a die-hard fandom in niche circles of internet/music culture, and then catching the attention of the late Peter Rehberg, the renowned artist and curator of the Editions Mego label, an expectation was set that the next Emeralds record was going to be a big one. And in 2010, Does it Look Like I’m Here? was it.

mp3s of this album; they can finally get a fresh copy on vinyl. Does It Look Like I’m Here? became a hallmark that would carve a path for an entire scene. Ghostly International is thrilled to reissue the album, remastered by Heba Kadry, including 7 bonus tracks exclusive to the digital album and CD. The limited edition 2xLP includes extensive liner notes by Chris Madak (Bee Mask).

In the late 2000s a sprawling catalog of what is now genre-defining music was emanating from an unlikely place. Cleveland, Ohio has a broad reputation for many things, but in the aughts, psyche-expanding Kosmische wasn’t necessarily Cleveland’s calling card… until Emeralds. The trio of John Elliott, Steve Hauschildt, and Mark McGuire had released a profusion of limited-run cassettes, CD-Rs, and vinyl titles that had been passed around basement shows and then migrated to niche music communities online, creating a unique kind of murmur, even in the height of the DIY blog era. Three kids from the rust belt were crafting a distinctive and truly far-out strain of music on their own terms in the Midwest. They were flipping lids in wood-paneled basements and circulating around the underground with soaring sounds stylistically indebted to deep German electronic music pioneers and released with the ethos and twisted fervor of renegade Midwestern noise freaks. After several releases garnered a die-hard fandom in niche circles of internet/music culture, and then catching the attention of the late Peter Rehberg, the renowned artist and curator of the Editions Mego label, an expectation was set that the next Emeralds record was going to be a big one. And in 2010, Does it Look Like I’m Here? was it.

mp3s of this album; they can finally get a fresh copy on vinyl. Does It Look Like I’m Here? became a hallmark that would carve a path for an entire scene. Ghostly International is thrilled to reissue the album, remastered by Heba Kadry, including 7 bonus tracks exclusive to the digital album and CD. The limited edition 2xLP includes extensive liner notes by Chris Madak (Bee Mask).

Clear Vinyl. They say there's always something special about the first time and this record is that first time for the Folk Implosion. The band left the acoustic guitars and fragmentary sketch modus operandi of their earlier cassette behind to focus on an eccentric version of home studio craft, held together by a few cheap microphones (including a Radio Shack PZM) and a Tascam cassette 4-track recorder sequestered under the eaves of a 3rd floor, Cambridge Massachusetts double-decker house apartment. Wood floors and Christmas lights were as much a part of the vibe as an Ampeg VT 40 guitar amp and a small chord organ. The duo would wait until the downstairs neighbor went to work in the morning and then would play until the tunes snapped like a high-pitched snare drum. The setup would close down just before the neighbor came home from work, keeping the peace long enough to see the project through to completion.Once tracked, the band snuck into Fort Apache studios with Tim O'Heir (producer of Sebadoh's `Bakesale' LP) early one morning, freeloading off the Sebadoh sessions that were set to get going that afternoon. Tim mixed the songs through a very hi-fi Neve board in a matter of hours with the Tascam sitting right on the giant board like a tugboat keeping time with an oil tanker. The duo hoped that the spirits of ancestors like The Troggs, Devo, Al Green, and The Bee Gees would be pleased with the scent of tribute that arose from the ashes of the pyre. Today, they are pleased to see the Slaps and the Sputniks on view again nearly 30 years later.

In 2018, New York based composer and improviser Lucie Vítková made recordings in caves in the Czech Republic and an abandoned Gothic church in Slovakia. Their album Cave Acoustics combines a beguiling exploration of the physicality and acoustics of these unique locations with profoundly personal themes of family legacy and roots.

Lucie performed with their sisters in Výpustek Cave – an underground system of tunnels and former Soviet-era bunker. The choreography-based piece creates crescendos of metallic noise as the trio moves around the spaces. It begins with echoing clanks of tins and coins and accelerates towards a rattling cacophony with distant singing floating up from deep in the shadows. Bearing in mind the siblings had never performed together before, their frenzied kinetic outpourings seem even more special, a wordless cohesion forming between them. Lucie clearly doesn’t shy away from a physically full on experience; they embarked on a Fitzcarraldo-style journey to carry heavy props up a steep hill and across a river to reach the less accessible Jáchymyka Cave.

‘Hair Score’ is an attempt to process the death of the siblings’ mother through a serene then slightly unsettling swaying ritual, with rising and falling waves of wailing and emergency siren sounds growing in intensity as they emerge from their mourning mouths.

After the cavernous acoustics, ‘Stones’ by American experimental classical composer Christian Wolff feels more immediate with its textural sounds and fast, insistent rhythms, as we hear different sized stones knocked together rapidly, following the composer’s instructions not to break anything.

‘Inside the Ritual’ was a “transformative” experience for Lucie, where they felt their body merge with the forest and hills in Slovakia. The 23-minute long track is hypnotic, listening to cowbells and chirping insects at the end of a hot summer’s evening. Things get stranger as metallic clatter is punctuated with Lucie’s voice and reedy tones from their Japanese hichiriki flute.

The album is a calm, contemplative but also energetic and moving reflection of these rare and unheard environments and Lucie’s reunion with the people and places that have shaped them.

‘Mellifluous’... is a word you won’t hear much when conversation turns to early Pooh Sticks records. But ‘noise pollution’, sure: that comes up. I’ve even used it myself. So look away now if you must: ‘Straight Up: Noise Pollution C88-90’ is a selection of some of the most loved/despised/ignored tracks released by The Pooh Sticks on however many records it was before it all went wilfully ‘American’ sometime around dotted-lining for BMG mega-corp in 1991.
The record has highlights and lowlights. You and me, we’d probably agree on most of them. We chose a reasonable cross-section, I think (although there could’ve been more tambourine), including:
- “On Tape” - zeitgeist-nailin’ strum and strangle.
- “I Know Someone Who Knows Someone Who Knows Alan McGee Quite Well” - long title
- “Teenage High” - breathy sweetness sneaked onto the depraved Sympathy For The Record Industry label.
- “Dying For It” - the Vaselines cover which beat Nirvana by a full two years (though theirs sold better).
... and more! It’s like Christmas (no, blocking up the chimney won’t help: we’ve cut spare keys). And all of this in a nice gatefold sleeve, and on Steve McQueen’s- eyes blue vinyl. And there’s even a repro poster for the March ’89 Pastels/Pooh Sticks/Vaselines gig up London way (“I swear I was there”, people say).
On behalf of the group, I hope you enjoy it. No, really. It was all a long time ago but I remember we had fun. Maybe you were even there having fun with us.

Marc Richter aka Black To Comm released his debut record 20 years ago. In 2023 he is still busy releasing music under various disguises and is currently signed to the Thrill Jockey label. To celebrate this anniversary his own Cellule 75 label is re-releasing some classic out-of-print vinyl albums that originally came out on the defunct Type and De Stijl labels. The LP will feature a full-colour lyric sheet / poster exclusive to this edition.

After releasing the critically acclaimed Alphabet 1968 on the seminal Type label (Grouper, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Yellow Swans), Richter chose De Stijl for this 2012 album, an American label that had just put out future classics by the likes of Circuit Des Yeux, Hype Williams and Wolf Eyes.

EARTH is a 2009 silent film by Ho Tzu Nyen, one of Singapore's foremost visual artists. After hearing Black To Comm's Alphabet 1968 Ho Tzu Nyen invited Richter to accompany the film at Berlin's Asian Film Festival, Unsound in Krakow and several other art biennals and music festivals around the world.

In his own words: "Most of the music was composed under the influence of heavy pain killers while recovering from a broken leg (the recordings literally took place in bed). The music (like the film) is about slowness and decay, states of unconsciousness, sleeping and waking up, dying and being reborn. The film is a post-apocalyptic collage based on paintings by classical European painters (Caravaggio, Delacroix, Rembrandt, Gericault) -- the music translates this concept employing corresponding collage-based sampling techniques using loops made from vintage vinyl and shellac records combined with acoustic and electronic instrumentation and voice."

From the original De Stijl one-sheet:
"Richter’s already formidable expressive power stretches over all of EARTH. Reflecting the countless cyclical forces that make up, oh, more or less everything we know and are, the music on EARTH is bracing, lovely, bustling and still, and at times bittersweet, a commingling of sensations and emotions that can’t be neatly separated from one another. (EARTH is complex, as you know.) Guests on EARTH include David Aird, a.k.a Vindicatrix (on the Mordant Music label), contributing startling vocal work; Renate Nikolaus on an array of instruments and noise devices; Rutger Zuydervelt (singing bowls); and Christopher Kline (singing saw). EARTH is Black to Comm’s seventh album and his debut for De Stijl, following the acclaimed Alphabet 1968 (on Type) and last year’s vinyl-only collaboration with Mike Kelley of Destroy All Monsters (on the En/Of label)."

Alex Neilson in The Wire:
"The most marked aspect of Earth is the voice of David Aird, aka Vindicatrix. Imperious and dolorous, he has the gravity of post-Climate Of Hunter Scott Walker, David Sylvain or Klaus Nomi stripped of the pathetic ritz. This is something that's easy to do badly, but Aird pulls it off with aplomb. On "The Children" he breaks into a morose yodel, rolling the words around his palate and colouring each syllable black before gifting them to the air. The meaning isn't understood verbally as much as viscerally. Beneath Aird's ululations, Richter casts handfuls of angelic debris from keyboards and digital devices, generating a celestial electronic tapestry reminiscent of Japanese musician Nobukazu Takemura. Sounds vie and twist at frequencies you can't so much hear as feel in the bridge of your nose, and the variety and full-bloodedness of the accompaniment is what prevents Aird's vocal from occassionally lapsing into shtick."

Post-rock band Ativin (Secretly Canadian, Polyvinyl) returns from a 19-year hiatus with Austere, the group’s most expansive and cinematic work to date and first album for Fonoradar (EU)/Joyful Noise Recordings (US). Eschewing the explosive and aggressive playing that characterizes their earlier work, Austere finds the guitar duo of Daniel Burton (Early Day Miners) and Chris Carothers (Hunting People, Grizzly Daughter) enlisting Chris Brokaw (Codeine, Come) on drums for a more stripped down and skeletal sound. The result is a work of beauty that will undoubtedly evoke a wide range of emotions in those who hear it. Recommend If You Like: Slint, Tortoise, Low, Codeine, Early Day Miners, Pedro The Lion * First Ativin record in 19 years * Recorded by Steve Albini * Secretly Canadian and Polyvinyl alumni

Erstauflage auf farbigem "Red & Blue" Vinyl. Jubiläums-Edition zum 30. Jahrestag des Debütalbums von Six Finger Satellite, The Pigeon Is the Most Popular Bird, mit einer brandneuen, vollständig remasterten CD und einer Doppel-LP-Neuauflage. Die 1990 in Providence, Rhode Island, von J. Ryan (Sänger/Keyboard), John MacLean (Gitarre), Peter Phillips (Gitarre), Chris Dixon (Bass) und Rick Pelletier (Schlagzeug) gebildeten Six Finger Satellite wurden für die Weapon EP schnell von Sub Pop unter Vertrag genommen. Nach Weapon machte sich die Band daran, ihr Debütalbum mit Bob Weston (von Shellac, die später eine Single The Bird Is the Most Popular Finger zu Ehren von Six Finger Satellite benannten) zu produzieren. Das 1993 veröffentlichte The Pigeon Is the Most Popular Bird war die erste Veröffentlichung, die den abenteuerlichen, bissigen Geist und Sound von Six Finger Satellite wirklich einfing. Das Album ist ein Meilenstein des lauten, beunruhigenden Post-Punk, mit Einflüssen von Gang of Four, The Birthday Party und Wire, aber auch mit einer gesunden Dosis der eigenen, einzigartigen Klangfeindlichkeit der Band. Zwischen den spröden Rocktracks finden sich auf The Pigeon Is the Most Popular Bird einige Keyboard- und Studioexperimente, die auf den späteren Alben der Band stärker hervortraten und LCD Soundsystem, DFA Records und einen Großteil des Post-Punk-Revivals der frühen 2000er Jahre vorwegnahmen. Pitchfork bezeichnete The Pigeon Is the Most Popular Bird zu Recht als "eine der besten Noise-Rock-Platten der 90er Jahre" und schrieb, dass "die Übergänge von albern zu bissig den unvorhersehbaren und ätzenden Ansatz von Six Finger Satellite hervorheben - dies war das erste von mehreren Beispielen dafür, wie sie Underground-Trends verschmähten, und ihre aufregendste bittere Pille, die es zu schlucken galt".

A sonic love letter to Italy’s 2023 Capital of Culture, Brescia-Bergamo. Harnessing a creativity and energy without genre, boundaries or filters, Rebirth blends together independent musical paths, which were valid but otherwise fragmented, into a collective and identity project called 'Brixia Sonora' - a tribute to the Brescian music scene in its many facets and declinations.

An image of a city and its atmosphere. A photograph that may be imperfect, potentially blurry, yet alive and authentic. Pulsating. Incorporating multiple inspirations and influences: noise, minimalism, breaking the mold; weaves and beats, polyrhythm and polymetry, glitch music and organic music; and yet electronic fractals, jazz effusions, house beats, Balearic sunsets, post-metropolitan downtempo, other forms of rock. A cocktail of hybridizations that, under the direction of Rebirth, finds a balance on the edge of the unexpected, despite its diversity, infinite facets, and multiple identities.

Exploring the musical landscapes of the protagonists: Giovanni Battagliola, Paolo Cattaneo, Chris Benoit, Eke, Luca Formentini, Kick, Alessandro Pedretti, Corrado Saija e Giorgio Presti, Maniscalco, Materie, Matteo Gamba, Mattia Fontana. Solo projects, bands, collectives, DJs, and producers - a crossroads of generations and multitudes within which everyone has carved out their own space. 'Brixia Sonora' symbolizes a period of dialogue and exchange - from exchanging ideas to sharing passions, syncopated beats and new impulses, leading to the evolution of what is yet to come.

Deerhoof's fan-favorite breakthrough album, Apple O', gets a 20th-anniversary edition after years of being out of print in the physical realm. They say the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge was actually a pomegranate. But Pomegranate O' did not sound as catchy. Of course, knowledge of what, exactly? Could be the serene and orderly discipline of music, it could be the ability to instantaneously destroy the entire species in an apocalyptic fireball. This album is a love story. It is about Satomi's mom being a Japanese girl when Truman got that ecstatic glint in his eye and blew up chunks of her country in a mushroom cloud, and next thing you know Satomi has moved to San Francisco and taken over an American noise-rock band. It is also about a different US president with an ecstatic glint in his eye, selling a criminal invasion with lies about weapons of mass destruction. This edition of Apple O' is on vinyl the color of cotton candy accompanied by a bonus 7" of previously unreleased live recordings.

Originally released in 1996, Come's third album 'Near Life Experience' was the sound of a band heading into new territory, refining their dense mix of hypnotic noise-rock, blues and rock'n'roll song-writing. Lovingly remastered, this new version features three incredible bonus tracks 'Prize', 'Strike', 'Hurricane II' stemming from the same era, additional liner notes and photographs. After Come's seminal 1994 release 'Don't Ask Don't Tell', bassist Sean O'Brien and drummer Arthur Johnson left the band to pursue other careers. Remaining members Chris Brokaw and Thalia Zedek recorded Near Life Experience with two different rhythm sections: one half of the album was recorded with drummer Mac McNeilly of the Jesus Lizard and Bundy K. Brown of Tortoise and Gastr Del Sol, the other half recorded with Kevin Coultas and Tara Jane O'Neil of Rodan and The Sonora Pine. Other contributors to the album included Edward Yazijian from Kustomized and Jeff Goddard from Karate, both rock bands hailing from Boston, MA. The title of the album resulted from "a slip of the tongue, as Zedek states, she "was telling someone she had had a 'near life experience,' but meant to say near death experience. Chris [Brokaw] was cracking up at the imagery of that. Thus, the phrase was chosen as the album's title. "Near-Life Experience is heavier, and at the same time prettier, than Come has ever sounded." CMJ New Music Monthly. "Come is a re-energized, even more powerful band than they used to be, and Near Life Experience is their most concise and affecting release yet." All Music. Zedek and Brokaw might have compensated the loss of band members by recruiting new blood but the reward was huge, 'Near Life Experience' is Come's most cinematic, diverse and accessible album.

DEAD SEA APES are back with a passion to deliver their most essential and cohesive album to date. Formed in 2009, DEAD SEA APES have become a fixture of the psych scene, sharing stages with the likes of Part Chimp, The Heads, Acid Mother Temple and Mugstar while producing a distinctive body of work, ranging from psychedelic punk to experimental dub, from freeform jams to constructions of loops and drones. Following a slew of collaborations and split releases, REWILDING sees them return to a power trio of Brett Savage (guitar), Jack Toker (bass) and Chris Hardman (drums). From the chaotic blast of opener ‘Denialist’, beaming out like a maniacal emergency broadcast, through to the monolithic pounding of the title track, REWILDING is unrelenting, taking in blown-out guitar wails and jet black psych noise while the irrepressible rhythm section moves from claustrophobic motorik beats to a thunderous rolling juggernaut. These blackened pearls have been recast and refined over the course of the past three years, strung out deeper than the night and now embodying our present uncanny, disorienting times, as we emerge into an altered world to find Mother Nature reasserting herself while the human madness intensifies, locally and globally. Savage and uncompromising, this is DEAD SEA APES at their most direct and visceral. REWILDING is released by Cardinal Fuzz (UK/Europe) and Feeding Tube Records (USA) as an edition of 750 on black vinyl.