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A1 - Tried So Hard
Intensely atmospheric from the outset, Tried So Hard sees ASC explore a more minimal approach to breakbeats with sparse drums and kicks tentatively held at arm's length by imposing hi hats. Dripping with depth and a dense layer of synthwork enveloping the landscape, this unique track develops continually with a suite of interlocking effects while the vocal yearns "I've tried so hard" - both haunting and thought provoking.

A2 - Parallel Seas
Cheery synths and lively bongos introduce us to Parallel Seas, which quickly becomes a glorious, powerful amen workout providing that perfect blend of atmospheric bliss alongside crunchy, analogue amens programmed with ASC's exquisite attention to detail - crashing triumphantly to an upbeat rhythm, littered with rousing vocal hits, elegant synthwork and nods to yesteryear galore.

AA1 - Alacrity
An energetic, surging breakbeat powers Alacrity as ASC utilises breaks reminiscent of classic driving atmospheric tracks of the past from scene legends including Intense and Artemis. Uniquely constructed with a pulsating, fluid energy, the break pattern utilises relentless kicks, cymbals and a wonderful long snare primed to move the dancefloor as synths wash and a lush vocal whooshes along in ecstasy.

AA2 - Glimmer Of Hope
Jumping straight in with a DJ-friendly beat intro, ASC selects a crisp, definitive selection of old school cuts for Glimmer of Hope, chopped and served with a barrage of sci-fi effects, micro melodies, a bellowing, rumbling bassline and a serene intensity driven by dreamy pads resulting in a perfect patchwork of elements, offering endless layers of detail for your ears to pick through with each listen.

Words by Chris Hayes (Spatial / Red Mist)

Pelican has always been a band that's not just from Chicago, but distinctly of Chicago. Formed in 2000 by guitarists Trevor Shelley de Brauw and Laurent Schroeder-Lebec alongside brothers Bryan and Larry Herweg on bass and drums respectively, Pelican's foundation was built upon the rule-free, genre-agnostic scene synonymous with the Fireside Bowl. "The `90s in Chicago was a free-for-all. Everyone was just coming from a place of pure creativity," says Shelley de Brauw. With Schroeder-Lebec returning to the band following Dallas Thomas' departure in 2022, this reunified version of Pelican allowed the band to tap back into the spirit of their formative era and build something distinctly new with Flickering Resonance. While longtime Pelican fans will recognize the album as an update to the band's ethos_one that's been constantly evolving since their very first EP_their new partnership with Run For Cover Records emphasizes something that's always been implicit to the Pelican formula. These songs take as much inspiration from titanic `90s post-hardcore, space-rock, and emo as they do traditional metal, showing that though Godflesh and Goatsnake records occupied the shelves of Pelican's songwriters, so too did Quicksand, Christie Front Drive, and Hum. "A lot of people didn't hear it at first," says Schroeder-Lebec. "I was like, well, I guess the metal world is where we fit. But now, we're more willing to acknowledge all the suits we're wearing."On Flickering Resonance, Pelican doesn't attempt to reinvent itself as much as emphasize the elements that were so often overlooked. Though Pelican's thick sonic backbone remains intact, the songs on Flickering Resonance show a more humanistic side of the band. Tracks like "Evergreen" and "Indelible" tease Pelican's doom-metal roots, but these songs feel equally, ebullient and truthful, playing like Texas Is The Reason songs transmuted into a post-rock landscape. Recorded with longtime musical compatriot Sanford Parker, who recorded their first EP, Pelican begins this new chapter of their career with an album that's neither full reinvention nor back-to-roots revivalism. After so much time apart, and with so much life having been lived between the original Pelican lineup's last recording sessions together, the band approached it with renewed vigor and a more communal spirit."There was more room for openness and critique with the understanding that we're all trying to craft the best song possible and that every suggestion is valid until it's proven invalid," says Shelley de Brauw. That process allowed everyone to embrace the material with a shared vision. "We didn't move forward unless we all wanted to move forward, and that felt like real community building," says Schroeder-Lebec of this unified approach. "I went from seeing it as my art and my craft to our craft that we were shaping together."In doing so, Pelican allowed themselves to look at their music less as a means of hard-earned catharsis and more as an appreciation for the glimmers of joy that occur even in the bleakest landscapes. Songs like "Cascading Crescent" and "Indelible" don't languish in what's been lost, these tracks see the band embracing what remains in their hands instead of lamenting what's slipped through their fingers. It's a concept that's mirrored in the artwork of Christian Degn that graces the cover of Flickering Resonance. It's a piece built off the concept of flame meditation, and how the smallest flames can often bring about the biggest transformations. A song like "Flickering Stillness" exemplifies this feeling through its sonic expanse, putting the band's sonic density and hyper-focused clarity on display, but with an emphasis on the profound human connections that have kept Pelican going all these years. "When Laurent left and we were able to carry it through, there became a real sense of gratitude for the fact we still have this artistic outlet and a community of people who want to be a part of it" That feeling of deep, grounded appreciation isn't just one that's within the band members, it's expressed in every track on Flickering Resonance. Because at the very core of Pelican, are four individuals who have grown both separately and together, and always will.Like a distant light faintly glowing in the darkest night, Flickering Resonance is a reminder of all that has passed us by, but also all that is still to come.

Thanks to acclaimed live shows and radio appearances in both Norway and Germany, Heigh Chief has been steadily winning over a growing fan base with their high energy performances of songs from their first two albums. One Night Live solidifies their reputation as a formidable live band with incredible chops and songwriting skills. Their talent has earned them notable achievements, including winning the Notodden Blues Cup in 2013 and placing second in the Norwegian finals of the "Battle of the Bands." These successes helped them secure spots at the International Blues Challenge (IBC) in Memphis for two consecutive years, 2015 and 2016. The four-piece band brings serious talent to the stage - featuring none other than Norway"s top Hammond organ virtuoso, Lars Christian Narum. One Night Live is the band"s first live recording, and it doesn"t disappoint. Recorded in Norderstedt, Germany while the band was on tour in 2019, it"s an impressive testament to the band"s talents.

Composed, performed and produced by Cosey Fanni Tutti, the 9-track album moves between propulsive beat constructions and expansive electronic explorations, continuing themes from 2019’s acclaimed album TUTTI. It is a personal reflection; a sonic realisation of her life, drawing on her powerful inner resolve and expressing it through music. The album finds Cosey making sense of some very tough years, dealing with personal bereavements alongside swingeing world events that have impacted us all. Centring on her own strength and self will, the album’s two distinct sides – one rhythmic, one more meditative – are connected by an overwhelmingly positive mood.

She explains, “My overtone chanting on the track ‘Stound’ was part of that, tapping into the inner self, to the core of your being, emotionally, physically, allowing the sounds to permeate and soothe as well as create a sense of power, resistance and resilience to what we face.” Even in the more melancholic moments, there’s a lightness that she explains is an “acknowledgement that it’s alright to be sad, that’s part of life, but there is so much joy too in our memories of people we lose and in the moments we share with each other. Joy is our resistance.”

There are also threads from her most recent projects running through 2t2. Her latest book RE-SISTERS and the score she wrote for Caroline Catz’s film Delia Derbyshire: The Myths and Legendary Tapes are acknowledged, most directly on ‘Threnody’ which is dedicated to Delia Derbyshire and Andy Christian, an artist friend of Delia’s. He sent Cosey an abstract drawing of the same name, created one night from an improvised evening where he drew while Derbyshire intoned and sang softly as she looked at the drawings, as if reading a score expressing how they made her feel. Cosey’s process and the different strands that make up her work form a totality of vision.

She goes on to say, “Once you get creating and listening, weaving, collaging sound it’s a wonderfully fulfilling feeling that takes you both out of yourself at the same time as essentially deep within.” The artwork reflects this idea that the album is a “sound cameo”, reflecting the light within the music, and the buzz of life that exists within all of Cosey’s work. Musician, artist and author Cosey Fanni Tutti has continually challenged boundaries and conventions through her work. As a founding member of the hugely influential avant-garde band Throbbing Gristle, one half of electronic pioneers Chris and Cosey, and as an artist channelling her experience in pornographic modelling and striptease, her work on the margins has reshaped the mainstream. Her first solo album, Time To Tell (1983) was followed by 2019’s Tutti and 2022’s Delia Derbyshire: The Myths and the Legendary Tapes. Her debut book, the Penderyn Music Book Prize shortlisted Art Sex Music, was published in 2017, followed by RE-SISTERS in 2022 (both Faber), which will soon get a Spanish edition.

Repress!

In the mid-1970s, a force of nature swept across the continental United States, cutting across all strata of race and class, rooting in our minds, our homes, our culture. It wasn’t The Exorcist, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, or even bell-bottoms, but instead a book called The Secret Life of Plants. The work of occultist/former OSS agent Peter Tompkins and former CIA agent/dowsing enthusiast Christopher Bird, the books shot up the bestseller charts and spread like kudzu across the landscape, becoming a phenomenon. Seemingly overnight, the indoor plant business was in full bloom and photosynthetic eukaryotes of every genus were hanging off walls, lording over bookshelves, and basking on sunny window ledges. The science behind Secret Life was specious: plants can hear our prayers, they’re lie detectors, they’re telepathic, able to predict natural disasters and receive signals from distant galaxies. But that didn’t stop millions from buying and nurturing their new plants.



Perhaps the craziest claim of the book was that plants also dug music. And whether you purchased a snake plant, asparagus fern, peace lily, or what have you from Mother Earth on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles (or bought a Simmons mattress from Sears), you also took home Plantasia, an album recorded especially for them. Subtitled “warm earth music for plants…and the people that love them,” it was full of bucolic, charming, stoner-friendly, decidedly unscientific tunes enacted on the new-fangled device called the Moog. Plants date back from the dawn of time, but apparently they loved the Moog, never mind that the synthesizer had been on the market for just a few years. Most of all, the plants loved the ditties made by composer Mort Garson.



Few characters in early electronic music can be both fearless pioneers and cheesy trend-chasers, but Garson embraced both extremes, and has been unheralded as a result. When one writer rhetorically asked: “How was Garson’s music so ubiquitous while the man remained so under the radar?” the answer was simple. Well before Brian Eno did it, Garson was making discreet music, both the man and his music as inconspicuous as a Chlorophytumcomosum. Julliard-educated and active as a session player in the post-war era, Garson wrote lounge hits, scored plush arrangements for Doris Day, and garlanded weeping countrypolitan strings around Glen Campbell’s “By the Time I Get to Phoenix.” He could render the Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel alike into easy listening and also dreamed up his own ditties. “An idear” as Garson himself would drawl it out. “I live with it, I walk it, I sing it.”



But as his daughter Day Darmet recalls: “When my dad found the synthesizer, he realized he didn’t want to do pop music anymore.” Garson encountered Robert Moog and his new device at the Audio Engineering Society’s West Coast convention in 1967 and immediately began tinkering with the device. With the Moog, those idears could be transformed. “He constantly had a song he was humming,” Darmet says. “At the table he was constantly tapping.” Which is to say that Mort pulled his melodies out of thin air, just like any household plant would.



The Plantae kingdom grew to its height by 1976, from DC Comics’ mossy superhero Swamp Thing to Stevie Wonder’s own herbal meditation, Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants. Nefarious manifestations of human-plant interaction also abounded, be it the grotesque pods in Invasion of the Body Snatchers or the pothead paranoia of the US Government spraying Mexican marijuana fields with the herbicide paraquat (which led to the rise in homegrown pot by the 1980s). And then there’s the warm, leafy embrace of Plantasia itself.



“My mom had a lot of plants,” Darmet says. “She didn’t believe in organized religion, she believed the earth was the best thing in the whole world. Whatever created us was incredible.” And she also knew when her husband had a good song, shouting from another room when she heard him humming a good idear. Novel as it might seem, Plantasia is simply full of good tunes.



Garson may have given the album away to new plant and bed owners, but a decade later a new generation could hear his music in another surreptitious way. Millions of kids bought The Legend of Zelda for their Nintendo Entertainment System back in 1986 and one distinct 8-bit tune bears more than a passing resemblance to album highlight “Concerto for Philodendron and Pothos.” Garson was never properly credited for it, but he nevertheless subliminally slipped into a new generations’ head, helping kids and plants alike grow.



Hearing Plantasia in the 21st century, it seems less an ode to our photosynthesizing friends by Garson and more an homage to his wife, the one with the green thumb that made everything flower around him. “My dad would be totally pleased to know that people are really interested in this music that had no popularity at the time,” Darmet says of Plantasia’snew renaissance. “He would be fascinated by the fact that people are finally understanding and appreciating this part of his musical career that he got no admiration for back then.” Garson seems to be everywhere again, even if he’s not really noticed, just like a houseplant.

Strike Up The Band is Little Feat's triumph return to rock n roll with plenty of swampy southern soul with Bill Payne (keys/vocals0, Scott Sharrard (guitar/vocals), Tony Leone (drums/vocals), Fred Tackett (guitar), Kenny Gradney (bass), and Sam Clayton (percussion/vocals). It's their first album of new material in over 13 years with songs written by Payne and Tacket as well as Feat's newest members Sharrrard and Leone. The album was produced by the multi Grammy Award winner, Vance Powell (Phish, Chris Stapleton, Jack White) and Bill Payne. The song "Bluegrass Pines" features speacial guest Molly Tuttle and Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams, and was written by Payne and the Grateful Dead lyricst Robert Hunter, and the title track features Larkin Poe on guest vocals.

The Spanish Queen (of the Piano)

She had small, square hands. She was 1.52 m tall. As a child, she banged her head on the floor to be allowed to play the piano. She was Catalan. She was a pianist—one of the greatest. Her mission? To spread the Spanish repertoire. Her name was Alicia de Larrocha.

When she passed away in 2009 at age 89, Nelson Freire wrote, "I truly loved her; she was a modest woman, and her playing shone like the sun." Acclaimed worldwide, she stood alongside Victoria de Los Angeles as one of Spain’s finest artists.

Larrocha’s journey began at three, seated at a piano. At four, she studied under Frank Marshall, a student of Granados. By six, she was performing publicly; by eleven, she played Mozart’s Coronation Concerto with Madrid’s Symphony Orchestra, astonishing audiences. Despite her small hands, she developed an airy, precise touch, even daring to record Rachmaninov’s Third Concerto. But beyond technical mastery, her playing held a profound sense of life and imagination.

Though trained in Bach, Mozart, and Chopin, Larrocha fought to bring Spanish composers to global audiences. Albéniz and Granados owe much of their fame to her. Her international breakthrough came in the 1950s when an American impresario heard her Spanish recordings and invited her to the U.S., where she triumphed.

Her performances honored Spain’s musical heritage. From Soler’s sonatas to Granados' Goyescas, she infused each note with nuance. She brought Goya’s paintings to life in El Pelele and mastered the dark contrasts of Surinach’s Canción y Danza. Albéniz’s Iberia demanded both power and delicacy—qualities she commanded effortlessly.

Her final tribute was to her friend Francis Poulenc, performing his Toccata—a soaring farewell.

As one admirer put it in 1982, "She walked toward a piano too big for her, sat, placed her hands on the keys… and became the queen."

Alicia De Larrocha, Piano

The Isle Of Lewis is the largest such of the Outer Hebrides archipelago, and a place where myth and folklore are abundant, The Callanish Stones, a cruciform circle reckoned by tradition to be the forms of petrified giants who would not convert to Christianity, once prompted notable chronicler of the ancient Julian Cope to pronounce himself “Lashed by wind and rain but surrounded by vibe”.

This was where Holy Scum decided to take a pilgrimage for the recording of their second album proper for Rocket Recordings, All We Have Is Never. Frustrated by the physical and logistical challenges keeping the band members from collaborating, they decided the best way forward was at the residential Black Bay Studios on Great Bernera, a two hour plus ferry ride from anywhere. “The isolation of Black Bay was our salvation, a much-needed cleanse after a year of relentless misfortune” reckons the band’s Peter Taylor. Taylor describes the Holy Scum approach jokingly as ‘No riffs’ yet this belies an ability to carve abstraction and minimalism into monolithic and ominous shapes. Whilst the band are as handy as ever with excoriating and ear-splitting experimentation - as on the feverish guitar scree that underpins the taut‘Thieves’ - they also excel in a grittily vital charge as analogous to the ballsy kinetics of Fugazi and The Ex (the primal ‘I Am The Land’) as the overcast catharsis of Killing Joke and Voivod (the infectious ‘Witches’). “The title is a nod to the fact that everything ends - good, bad, ugly, beautiful “ reflects vocalist Mike Mare (Dälek) of their most focused work to date. “That is not a bad thing - it is a rebirth every time. We can spend a lifetime 24/7 together having shared experiences but living separate realities”. “I don’t think it is nihilistic,” he adds. “The despair turns into hope for sure”.

WRWTFWW Records is very happy to release Swiss cult band Grauzone’s recording of their April 12th 1980 live show at Gaskessel in their hometown of Bern. The 9-track album, documenting the very beginnings of the group, is available as a limited edition white vinyl LP in heavy 350gsm sleeve with special artwork by band member Stephan Eicher.

Experience the early Grauzone days, live from Bern, Switzerland, with a concert recorded at legendary local venue Gaskessel, with Martin Eicher on guitar and vocals, Christian G.T. Trüssel on bass, Marco Repetto on drums, Stephan Eicher on synth, and Claudine Chirac on saxophone. The performance is a true time capsule of the early 80s underground, showcasing the punk side of Grauzone with renditions of songs that were never officially released, as well as future fan-favorite “Moskau”. A piece of Swiss music history, This limited release is a must have for all Grauzone fans and DIY archivists.

About Grauzone:

The pioneering band from Bern (Switzerland) had a short-lived but highly-regarded career which birthed a cult discography that still fascinates and resonates today. Consisting of core members Martin Eicher, Stephan Eicher, and Marco Repetto, and on-and-off participants Christian GT Trüssel, Claudine Chirac, and Ingrid Berney, the elusive group broke new grounds in the early 80s, experimenting with punk and industrial music, early techno sounds, minimalism, new wave, pop, and various electronics. With an innovative and polished approach to design, visuals, performance, and all around style and philosophy on top of their superb music, the constantly transforming unit developed a whole experience - the Grauzone experience: wild and unpredictable, yet sophisticated and cohesive, or as Swiss music historian Lurker Grand would call it, "an Art band with a Punk attitude".

Completely rejecting the music industry rules and refusing to play the game of promotion, touring, release schedules, and TV appearances even though they had a multi-platinum international hit with the song "Eisbär", the band quickly disintegrated in full convention-defying glory, leaving behind an inspiring music legacy for the world to discover and discover again, one generation after the other.

Stephan Eicher went on to be, arguably, the most successful Swiss musician ever, with an international career extending from pop chanson to experimental escapades and collaborations with Moondog, artists Sophie Calle and Sylvie Fleury, and author Martin Suter among many other luminaries. Marco Repetto flourished as a techno and ambient producer, releasing multiple projects including releases on Aphex Twin’s Rephlex label.

Jedes Album von BC Camplight hat eine Hintergrundgeschichte, die genauso fesselnd ist wie seine Musik. A Sober Conversation ist da nicht anders, denn der virtuose Songwriter und Pianist Brian Christinzio dokumentiert die letzten zwei Jahre seines Lebens, in denen er sich endlich einem schockierenden Kindheitstrauma stellt, während er sich der Nüchternheit verschreibt, um sein mutigstes und aufschlussreichstes Album zu schaffen. Es handelt sich um ein fesselndes, manchmal eindringliches Quasi-Konzeptalbum, das von schonungsloser tragikomischer Läuterung und erhabener, komplexer Melodik geprägt ist und lyrische Drehbücher mit schillernden Arrangements verbindet. Es ist BC Camplight auf dem Höhepunkt seiner bemerkenswerten Fähigkeiten.

A Sober Conversation folgt auf Christinzios Album aus dem Jahr 2023, das von der Kritik gefeierte The Last Rotation Of Earth (sein erstes Top-40-Album), ein Album, das sich um die quälende Trennung von seiner langjährigen Beziehung dreht. Es erhielt die enthusiastischsten Kritiken seiner Karriere – „Ein Meisterwerk“ (Sunday Times), „Meisterhaft“ (Uncut), „Eine außergewöhnliche Platte“ (MOJO) – und seine bisher größten Headline-Shows im Londoner Shepherd’s Bush Empire und in der Manchester Albert Hall. Doch selbst die zunehmende Anerkennung für das beachtliche Talent des Mannes kann die lange Geschichte seiner Depressionen nicht ausgleichen, und Christinzio gibt zu, dass es ein harter Kampf war, diesen Punkt in seinem Leben zu erreichen.

With solid training as a classical musician, Sophie Agnel took a close interest in modern jazz before committing in the early 90s to the shifting, deliciously uncertain ground of free improvisation, thanks to her fascination for the powers of expression displayed by a few great keyboard-heretics such as Keith Tippett, Fred Van Hove or Christine Wodrascka. She began reworking the prepared piano techniques imagined by John Cage and transformed her instrument into a sort of extended piano.

Coming from a Punk music background Joke Lanz started in the mid 80s to play Experimental- and Noise music. Best known for his internationally acclaimed project Sudden Infant, Lanz is presenting his work since 30 years all over the world. Born in Switzerland and currently operating out of Berlin, he is one of the most prolific and profound artists working in the border zones where performance and body art meet Improvisation and Noise.

Agnel and Lanz have performed stunning live shows as a duo, now their debut album is coming out on Klanggalerie. Turntables and piano, a unique combination that is a lot of fun!

New Traditions is a collection of pipe music, electronic music, mouth music and folk music from five emerging and prominent Scottish artists.

It started in Sutherland with a recording of The Waters of Kylesku. “Do you learn any Gaelic at the school?” asks Hamish Henderson of Christine Stewart. “No,” she answers. “That’s a shame,” he responds, “Isn’t it?” she says. Then she sings. Her voice is of the peat itself, grown from the earth as the language was. It soars raptor-like above drenched ground and scoured pink rock.

Next, to Nancy Dorian, a linguistic missionary of sorts, who came from America to watch a language die. She charted the decline of Gaelic in a cluster of Sutherland villages from 1963 to 2020 when the terminal native speaker passed. Gaelic has origins in nature, with each letter of the alphabet named after a tree. It seems significant that the land of the north is now all-but devoid of forest.

Enter Alan Lomax, who travelled the world documenting indigenous music. Material from his archives feature on (fucking) Moby’s platinum selling Play. Despite the record’s worldwide commercial success we know very little of the music he essentially exploited.

Then musician Martyn Bennett, who built tracks around Lomax recordings of Scots and Gaelic voices, and did so with love that shared his blood with the cancer that killed him. His records both popularised and preserved obscure indigenous Scottish music.

This collection of tunes has similar intent: to consolidate ephemeral words in physical grooves - real as the rigs that still scar the earth - but also a desire to interpret. These versions have the greatest reverence for the originals at heart, but like the architecture of a great gallery, serve to protect and elevate.

Atlantic Records is thrilled to announce F1 The Album - the supercharged companion album to Apple Original Films and Warner Bros. Pictures’ high-octane, action-packed film F1, starring Brad Pitt. From the label that brought you the award-winning, blockbuster soundtracks Barbie The Album, Twisters: The Album, The Greatest Showman, Suicide Squad and more, F1 The Album is driven by brand new tracks from an exhilirating lineup of superstar artists.

"Chasing the funky symphonies that filled my head and my dreams..."

December 25th, 2023 - an Instagram post. Stimulator Jones shared half a dozen FIRE tracks from his beat tape archive. We were immediately drawn to the rough hewn boom bap.

"I'd release that", Rob commented.

Hours of material was shared and the result is this: Cool Green Trees (1999-2005). A collection of beats and loops Stimulator Jones created between the ages of 14-20 at home in his basement, bedroom and computer room in Roanoke, Virginia.

You will not believe the profound soulful genius contained within these naive schoolboy melodies.

December 25th, 1998 - 25 years ago to the day and his much-coveted Yamaha SU10 sampler was finally bestowed upon young Stimmy AKA Sam Lunsford: "I immediately hooked up a CD Walkman to the input jack and looped the beginning two bars of Grover Washington Jr.'s "Mercy Mercy Me". I don't know what exactly was so thrilling about hearing two measures of music repeating over and over but it was so infectious and hypnotizing and enthralling to me. I'll never forget that ecstatic rush of making my first loop - an uncontrollable, gleeful smile plastered all over my face." When you hear the pocket breakbeat symphonies featured here on Cool Green Trees, you'll feel the same sense of frisson.

In the wake of his Stones Throw breakthrough - Exotic Worlds & Master Treasures - Stimulator Jones was pegged by many as a 90s throwback artist. However, he literally IS a 90s artist. He's been recording music most of his life and he's now 40. He created the bulk of Cool Green Trees as a teenager. Everything before 2004 was recorded when Sam was still in school. He was in 8th grade when he made the 1999 tracks - he didn't even have his learner's permit. This album is a snapshot of a young man in a simpler time. Things were still mysterious back then and he was flying blind, relying on his ears and having to figure things out for himself: "I had no road map for becoming a beatmaker. I have been collecting music since I was a kid, I am a lifelong digger and seeker of cool and interesting sounds. I was there in the golden age of Hip Hop, and while I may have been a suburban white kid in Roanoke, Virginia, I was tuned in and I bought so many classic albums when they came out. I was attracted to Hip Hop because of the musical and poetic quality. I was hypnotized by the rhythms, partially because I was a drummer. I didn't brag about collecting my breakbeat records or making beats - it was something I did in isolation. It wasn't something I generally wanted to bring attention to and it didn't really score me any cool points. I certainly wasn't flexing on social media about it."

Hell, he can do that now!

Opener "Pharoah Jones" was inspired by Yesterday's New Quintet and Madlib's ability to capture that classic 70s sound whilst playing all the instruments. Sam created this one stoned afternoon by laying down a 2 bar loop and a shaker loop on his Yamaha SU700 sampler. He hung a microphone from the ceiling and played his Yamaha Stage Custom drum kit over the top before adding ender Rhodes and playing his dad's Selmer tenor sax through an Electro Harmonix Memory Man echo pedal. Yes! Up next, "Ghost Gospel" utilises a dope loop from a gospel record and adds some soul-funk drums overtop, whilst working that filter knob. Says Sam: "The loop reminded me of something Ghostface would rap over. The sample was in 3/4 waltz time but I flipped it for a 4/4 groove, a technique I picked up from RZA. "Ill Feeling" uses sped-up pieces from a dusty old funk record and putting them over a classic NOLA drum loop; gain chopping up a slow, bluesy 3/4 time signature and bending it to a 4/4 groove. Classy shit. "Capital Punishment" features drums tapped in live, inspired by MF Doom's Special Herbs series. "Do Not Adjust" consists loops found on a compilation of 70s French music at Happy's Flea Market, a classic Roanoke digging spot.

The sublime, evocative title track, "Cool Green Trees" was created when Sam was still living at home. He dumped samples off his SU10 into the family desktop and arranged them in a demo version of Pro Tools: "This track was sort of my ode to the DJ Shadow style of sample based production. Super spacey, slow, and moody. The heavily filtered drums were inspired by Alec Empire's 'Low on Ice' album. I later added some scratches and sounds from a Spider Man storybook record." "Chill Scratch" snags the final bit of a bossanova record and pairs it with a drum loop before adding experimental scratching run through an Electro Harmonix Memory Man echo pedal. "Poisonous Fumes" was made using a sampler, mixer and a turntable; a kind of mixtape beat collage with added scratches and sounds from various records. Using dialogue from superhero records was a nod to Madlib. "Welcome Aboard The Starship" is dark, downtempo trip-hop with a spooky bent. Sam paired a slow, hard drum loop with a guitar sample grabbed off a psychedelic rock record. To finish, he added various backwards sounds and weird atmospheric effects and a little scratching. Swoon.

Side B opens with "Keep On Runnin", made on a borrowed Roland SP202 sampler. Having always loved the sound of the Lo-Fi filter on those machines, reminiscent of the Emu SP1200, Sam always imagined Del or another of the Hieroglyphics crew rapping over this beat. You can certainly hear why. "Sounds Impossible" sees Sam experimenting with layering multiple kick samples at different volumes to create patterns similar to those heard by Showbiz and Lord Finesse during their God-level 1995 period. "Painted Faces" was made by chopping up a REDACTED record which he had gotten from Happy's Flea Market and paired it with a REDACTED drum loop. By the time Sam recorded "The Knew Style", he had acquired a shitty old 1960s portable turntable off eBay. It didn't function properly when he bought it but his brother opened it up, cleaned it out and got it working: "I remember he told me that there was a bunch of sand inside of it when he opened it up, as if its previous owner had taken it to the beach. I would take that turntable on my Happy's Flea Market digs so I could preview records...that's how I found this loop."

"Chicken Wing Blues Sauce" loops up a classic blues joint and pairs it with some REDACTED drums. A bit of filtering and arranging et voilà! "Kool Breeze", from 1999, is one of Sam's oldest surviving beats, as is "Sexx Bullets". The Roots sampled the same record, leaving Sam frustrated yet vindicated. "Soul Child" was an early SU10 creation, looping a dusty old Soul Children 45 and pairing it with 70s rock drum loops to great effect. "Take Off Runnin" was another loop found digging with a portable turntable. Paired with some boom bap drums it makes for a hypnotic head-nod groove. "Centurian" was intended to be a little beat interlude a la Pete Rock. The sample is from a sun-dappled soft-psych record and it's paired with a Robin Trower drum loop that just happens to fit perfectly. Sometimes you slap things together kind of haphazardly and magic happens. "Bozack" was the first beat Sam made using Pro Tools, his first foray into using chopped sounds instead of loops, an exciting new world. "Church" is beat interlude using a Phil Upchurch loop with the "Long Red" drums - a favourite break of Dilla et al. Sam was really on a tear in late 2004, probably because he was unemployed and phoneless and able to just make beats all day. He made "Splash One" on a borrowed Yamaha SU700 and again was experimenting with tapping the drums in live with his fingers, instead of using a loop or sequenced pattern. Channeling 9th Wonder, Sam used a water splash sound effect from a Batman record as a percussive element, hence the title (also a 13th Floor Elevators reference). The main loop is a backwards portion of one of his favourite Roy Ayers songs.

"Hank" is another fun little beat interlude thing, created on a borrowed Roland SP202 sampler with the fantastic Lo-Fi effect that resembled the Emu SP1200 at a fraction of the price. "73 goatee", from 99, is another of his oldest surviving beats, created in his bedroom with his Yamaha SU10 and his brother's Vestax MR-300 4-track recorder: "This one will always feel special. I can remember having a feeling all the way back then on the night that I created it that this was a solid beat with a catchy loop. There was something in the Fender Rhodes melody that resonated with me emotionally, and I had never heard a producer sample that portion before. I felt like I had found my own unique sound, my own unique loop. It came from an Ahmad Jamal '73. I actually even recorded myself rapping and scratching over this beat way back then, I still have that version in all its imperfect sloppy glory."

Sam explains just how much these tracks mean to him: "They all have immense historical and sentimental value and I'm proud of them. These beats come from an innocent, simple time when I was just figuring out how to craft these sounds. They're something very personal to me. They are the initial part of a journey that I really was taking *alone*. There was no YouTube. I couldn't Google shit. I didn't even know any other beatmakers, producers or DJs in my town that could teach me anything. It was always just me, alone, in a room with some equipment - chasing the funky symphonies that filled my head and my dreams. What I was doing wasn't cool. Most of my peers thought I was a weirdo and couldn't care less. Creating these sounds was an anti-social endeavour. In a sense, I felt like it was me against the world, and all I had to instruct and assist me were the recordings produced by my heroes - RZA, DJ Premier, Erick Sermon, Beatminerz, Showbiz, Diamond D, Beatnuts, Prince Paul, The Bomb Squad, Pete Rock, Q-Tip, E-Swift, Mista Lawnge, DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist, Peanut Butter Wolf, El-P and so many more...I dedicate this collection to them, and to my older brother Joe who has always been a musical and technical guiding light for me.

This was a time before every kid was a self-described producer and beatmaker, before everyone had a DAW, before Kanye and "chipmunk soul", before Red Bull beat battles, before there was any social media beyond chat rooms and AOL Instant Messenger, before Soundcloud, before SP-404 mania, before lo-fi beats to study to, before Splice, before targeted ads for MIDI chord packs, etc. In 99 when I told people that I had a sampler and made beats I was mostly met with bewildered confusion and indifference. Kids and adults alike would wonder why I got this weird machine for Christmas instead of something worthwhile like a Playstation or a mountain bike or even a guitar for that matter because at least that could be used to make "real music". Back then, sampling was still not widely respected as an art form - it was seen as lazy, talentless and unoriginal at best and outright criminal theft at worst. I had gotten respect for playing drums and guitar and things of that nature but this was a step in the wrong direction in the eyes of many."

The cover photo is a picture of Sam standing on his back porch in the latter part of 1998, just before he got his first sampler. He was 13 years old, in 8th grade. His dad took the picture with his 35mm film camera: "I actually wanted to be pointing my dad's .22 pistol at the camera lens but he wouldn't let me. He gave me an old walking cane to use instead. The Tommy Hilfiger puffer jacket came from the lost and found at William Fleming High School where my mom worked as a secretary. I was thrilled when she brought it home because we never spent money on expensive name brand clothing like that - we were for the most part strictly a sale rack, bargain bin, thrift store, yard sale, flea market kind of family when it came to clothes. My watch is some cheap off-brand fake gold department store watch." Mastering for this vinyl edition was overseen by Be With regular Simon Francis and it was cut by the esteemed Cicely Balston at Abbey Road Studios to be pressed in the Netherlands by Record Industry.

Atlantic Records is thrilled to announce F1 The Album - the supercharged companion album to Apple Original Films and Warner Bros. Pictures’ high-octane, action-packed film F1, starring Brad Pitt. From the label that brought you the award-winning, blockbuster soundtracks Barbie The Album, Twisters: The Album, The Greatest Showman, Suicide Squad and more, F1 The Album is driven by brand new tracks from an exhilirating lineup of superstar artists.

"Happy Girl" aus dem Jahr ȒȚȗȖ ist eines der frühesten Alben im MPS Katalog und ein echtes Sammlerɏinnenstückɍ Es zeigt eindrucksvollɎ warum Nathan Davis zu den großen Jazzmusikern seiner Zeit zählt – auch wenn er nie breite Anerkennung fandɎ da er sich auf seine Lehrtätigkeit an der University of Pittsburgh konzentrierteɎ wo er ein bedeutendes Jazzstudienprogramm gründeteɍ Während seiner Zeit in Europa in Villingen aufgenommenɎ wird Davis von einer TopɞBesetɞ zung begleitetɏ Woody Shaw (Trompete)Ɏ Larry Young (Klavier)Ɏ Jimmy Woode (Bass) und Billy Brooks (Schlagzeug)ɍ Davis glänzt an Tenorɞ und Sopransaxophon sowie Flöteɍ Zu hören sind fünf DavisɞKomposiɞ tionenɎ Shaws "Theme From Zoltan" und ein Standard – bei den ersten beiden Stücken spielt Shaw nicht mitɍ Remastert vom Grammyɞnominiertem Toningenieur Christoph StickelɎ erscheint das Album nun uɍaɍ in hochwertigem AAAɞMPSɞVinyl – eine intensive Klangreise durch Davis’ vielseitiges Spielɍ

Ein Mensch verbringt den ganzen Tag damit, eine Maschine zu bauen, nur damit sie ihn die ganze Nacht hindurch quält. Als ob das nicht schon verdreht genug wäre, gefällt es ihnen auch noch. Es gefällt ihnen sogar so gut, dass sie am Morgen verjüngt aufwachen und eifrig an der Maschine feilen, bis sie in ihrem Kopf perfekt läuft.
Dies ist die nächtliche Vision, die Cryptopsy zu ihrem neunten Album Nightmare inspiriert hat. "Hüte dich vor dem Scheinwerferlicht", warnt Sänger Matt McGachy, bevor "Dead Eyes Replete" mit einem schmerzerfüllten Breakdown vor deinen Augen aufblitzt. An Insatiable Violence spiegelt unsere toxische Beziehung zu den sozialen Medien wider, aber obwohl es unheimlich vorausschauend ist, ist das Album von den vielen Mutationen beeinflusst, die die Hall of Fame-Diskografie der Band geprägt haben. Inspiriert von einem Mukbang, der furchtbar schief gegangen ist, ist der gefräßige Opener "The Nimis Adoration" ein Sammelsurium an Blasts, Christian Donaldsons Fishhook-Riffs und einer kräftigen Portion Groove, der die Boxen zum Beben bringt.

Cryptopsy wissen, dass nicht jede brutale Technical-Death-Metal-Band lange genug durchhält, um nach 30 Jahren einen kanadischen Grammy zu gewinnen. Das Cover von "An Insatiable Violence" wurde von dem verstorbenen, großartigen Martin Lacroix gestaltet, der mit unheiligem Vergnügen über die frischen, fetthaltigen Tiefen von McGachys falschem Akkordschrei grölen würde. Ein anderer ehemaliger Sänger kehrt auf "Embrace the Nihility" zurück, um alle flüsternden Zweifel an seiner Vormachtstellung zu zerstören. Doch obwohl Cryptopsy bereits auf ihrem zweiten Studiowerk die Krone der abscheulichsten Death-Metal-Band für sich beansprucht haben, gehen sie immer noch an die Grenzen des Extremen.

Die Leadsingle des Albums rumpelt und knirscht zu Olivier Pinards schaurigen Bassschlägen - und doch erhebt "Until There's Nothing Left" im Kern den Anspruch, Cryptopsys größter Ohrwurm zu sein. Selbst Flo Mounier - der buchstäblich das Buch des extremen Metal-Drummings geschrieben hat - hat neue Techniken verfeinert, um die Blasphemie von An Insatiable Violence frisch zu halten. Zum Abschluss kommt "Malicious Needs" im Schneckentempo daher, bevor es wie eine Fledermaus in eine schwarze Rauchwolke aufsteigt.

Verbeugt euch vor der neuen Abscheulichkeit der Könige des extremen Metal.

FFO: Suffocation, Dying Fetus, Nile

'This exclusive re-issue of “Brighter Side of Blue” is limited to only 300 copies on baby blue heavyweight vinyl, with an individually-numbered obi strip, and bespoke essay from Amy Campbell.

This was one of our albums of 2023 (Double J agreed, too making #16 in their Album Of The Year Countdown). Released in mid-January, it soundtracked our late Australian summer. It’s not a record that’s easily pigeon-holed. Is it alt-country, with a nod to Gillian Welch? Is it classic rock, mined from a similar vein that Chrissie Hynde has drawn from? Is it indie-folk, a lighter, brighter Jen Choler? You tell us.

‘Brighter Side of Blue’ was recorded in Bellambi in the Illawara throughout 2022. Featuring Cecil Coleman from Body Type on drums, and Russell Fitzgibbon (who also released Skeleten’s ‘Under Utopia’) on bass and co-production, it’s a beautiful shiny record that glistens like the sea in that part of Australia, a place where the waves meet ancient escarpment.

Green vinyl, limited to 500 copies. Helheim, one of the founding pioneers of the Norwegian viking metal genre, are ready to release their 12th studio album "HrabnaR / Ad vesa". On this record, Helheim has made a split album with themselves. For the first time, the main songwriters V'gandr and H'grimnir have divided the album in two, where they solely take care of the vocals on the part they represent musically. This has resulted in two very different expressions - not uncommon for this band, but never as clearly as here. The first half, "Hrabnar", contains four stand-alone songs written by H'grimnir. The second part, "Ad vesa", is about the four components in Norse mythology that we know collectively as the human soul. In pre-Christian Norway, the concept of the soul was not a singular, unified entity, but a composite of many elements, of which the four key components were Fylgja, Hamr, Hugr, and Hamingja. Founded in 1992, Helheim are known and renowned all over the world for their authenticity and integrity when it comes to portraying their Norse heritage. Constantly growing and evolving, and staying clear of musical trends and fads, they've carved their own way for more than 30 years. This split album is no exception. Recorded in Duper and Solslottet Studio in 2024/2025, the album was engineered, produced, mixed and mastered by Iver Sandoy.

Der Savatage- und Trans-Siberian Orchestra-Gitarrist präsentiert eine sehr persönliche Auswahl von 21 Tracks aus seiner erfolgreichen Solo-Karriere, die sich neben seiner Rolle in den erwähnten Bands mittlerweile über zwei Jahrzehnte erstreckt. Die Zusammenstellung enthält Songs aus seinen früheren Soloalben, sowie seltene und unveröffentlichte Tracks, die Chris für zu wichtig hält, um sie seinen Fans vorzuenthalten.

The recipient of the 2023 American Piano Awards and Steinway Artist, pianist/composer Isaiah J. Thompson has become the first call for the greats such as John Pizzarelli, Steve Turre, Wynton Marsalis, Christian McBride and more! For his Mack Avenue debut, The Book of Isaiah: Modern Jazz Ministry, Thompson enlists legendary pianist Cyrus Chestnut to produce his 8-song autobiographical musical statement exploring faith, musicianship, race and humanity.

“I did this piano/Rhodes recording, played live, without overdubs. I believe your approach to sound could match very well these tracks….” That’s how Giovanni Di Domenico’s collaboration with Rutger Zuydervelt started, though the first seeds were planted when the duo did a short live improv together in 2019, and Giovanni joining Hydra Ensemble on stage in 2022.

Painting a Picture / Picture a painting is -as the title suggest- an album of two long-form pieces, swapping the working method for each - one takes Giovanni’s recordings and has Rutger processing and adding to it, while the other one started with Rutger creating its foundation (with manipulated sounds of the first piece), and Giovanni building upon it. This resulted in two meandering tracks that are clearly linked, like two sides of the same coin. The cover, a painting of an empty canvas, is made by Christiaan Kuitwaard. A beautiful and ultimately fitting visual addition to this mysterious release.

Rock’n’roll revivalists Split Dogs are not here to make 15 second viral videos, they’re not here to sell you a lifestyle, they’re here to destroy. Born from the frustration of seeing music become commodified and soulless, vocalist Harry Atkins and guitarist Mil Martinez had the idea to form a band as far back as 2015, with the name ‘Split Dogs’ pulled from the classic zombie film ‘Return of the Living Dead’.
In South London, a young Martinez would hear Status Quo, Bachman Turner Overdrive and Dire Straits on the car radio while his father drove him to school. At home he would invade his older brothers’ record collection which leaned towards the harder sounds of punk and heavy metal. Meanwhile in the Black Country, Harry’s mother instilled a love of Northern Soul, Slade and rock’n’roll, with stories of nights out at Club Lafayette and family singalongs at home. According to Martinez, “Our sound is a culmination of all those early influences and, to be honest, it really shows.”
It wasn’t until 2022 that Split Dogs officially arrived on the scene with bass player Suez Boyle joining the band in 2023. Already a prominent figure in the queer punk scene, Suez played the first ever Rebellion Festival at the tender age of 16 with her band The Walking Abortions. Up until that point, drummer Chris Hugall, an old friend of Martinez and former member of ska punks Mouthwash (signed to Rancid’s label Hellcat back in the day), was only on hand to help design artwork. It wasn’t until 2024 Hugall joined the band full time, cementing the current line-up.
The raucous live shows and infectious lyrics saw the four-piece make a name for themselves among the punks of Bristol, a scene that has always welcomed LGBTQ+ and marginalised people. As word spread, so did the gigging, and soon enough Split Dogs were playing to sold out rooms in mainland Europe, eventually grabbing the attention of UK label Venn Records (Gallows, Bob Vylan, High Vis). ‘Here to Destroy’ was recorded over three days at Middle Farm Studios by producer Peter Miles. All tracks were laid straight to a 16 track reel-to-reel tape machine, no autotune, no effects pedals, no computers. To add to the music’s authenticity, the album was recorded live, with Harry singing along in a vocal booth. No cutting and pasting, just nailing takes. According to Martinez, “It was a blast! We fully immersed ourselves, sleeping in a small apartment below the studio, cooking meals and listening to Pete’s extensive record collection”. While the final result is a step away from Split Dogs early punk sound, the attitude is still there in droves. “We wanted the album to have a raw bones feel,” Martinez tells us, “real 1970s rock’n’roll!”. Harry channels the spirit of Motörhead’s Lemmy Kilmister as they tear through hook after hook, singing about the Northern Soul clubs their mother once frequented (‘Lafayette’), the Orwellian nightmare we’re heading for (“Stay Tuned”) and a touching homage to British working class culture (“And What?”). As the album title makes clear, Split Dogs are here to destroy, but they’re also here to rebuild and remind us of music’s essence. “We’re not beholden to the digital age, we don’t want to get famous on social media, we just want to show the world that rock’n’roll is alive and well”.

Shell Company & Older Brother tap into the Mancunian continuum to deliver heavy sounds for heavy times on 'Shards', their debut release on Numbers.

Born from voice notes sent between Manchester, London and Lisbon, the release took shape remotely before being recorded inside Manchester’s The White Hotel, then refined in the sonic labs of Numbers and La Chunky in Glasgow.

Set across one night, 'Shards' is the fragments of the never ending process of breakdown and placing pieces back together. Along four tracks, the voices of Shell Company (Rosabella Allen) and Older Brother begin far apart, then argue, reflect and collide, trying to find the ground they stand on, with the music laid by brothers Rob and Chris Banks. The two voices work both together and against each other, rendering images that could only exist in limbo: running taps, cans on the floor, and crumbling walls.

Shell Company & Older Brother say of the release —

“Shards is a scream that sings softly. A record that shifts between confusion and sense, hopelessness and hope. Despite moments of intense and perfect connection, the shards rarely fit. Shards is a record not about giving up, but giving in. A recording of the victory that comes from surrendering to float, all because 'it will all make sense one day'. Shards is about love that begins and ends with broken pieces."

Green Sonic Opaque w/ White Ink Cassette & Red Opaque w/ White Ink Cassette. Minecraft is a dreamscape, a limitless world where anything is possible. Minecraft is a tool, a means of bringing the imagination to life. Minecraft is a community, a platform on which inventive minds of all ages can share their creations and ideas. Minecraft, of course, is also a game, the most popular and best-selling video game of all time. Created in 2009 by Swedish programmer Markus "Notch" Persson, this cultural phenomenon speaks volumes of our current zeitgeist's love for virtual spaces, but its unprecedented success couldn't be pinned on one factor alone. Countless layers of thoughtful artistry flow through Minecraft's singular experience, not the least of which is its transportive soundtrack by C418, the project of German composer and musician Daniel Rosenfeld. Minecraft Volume Alpha, the first installment of a two-part OST, helped breathe life into the game's voxel-based universe. Upon release, fans and critics were universally enamored with C418's beatless, nuanced electronic pieces. Popular gaming site Kotaku named it among The Best Game Music of 2011, calling the music "remarkably soothing." The Guardian compared Rosenfeld's delicate piano and sparse ambient motifs to legendary artists Erik Satie and Brian Eno. Polygon distilled Volume Alpha to its essence: "It's not bound by the retro aesthetic of Minecraft's graphics. It transcends them. The album is an attempt to uplift the combined game/music experience into the sublime."

McKinley Dixon’s Durchbruch begann in 2021 mit dem vielgeliebten "For My Mama and Anyone Who Look Like Her" und setzte sich 2023 mit "Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!“ fort, beides instrumentenreiche Glanzleistungen im Geschichten erzählen, die sich mit dem Trauma und der Trauer über den Verlust eines jungen Freundes befassen.

Das neue nicht weniger bedeutungsvolle Album "Magic, Alive!“ setzt in vielerlei Hinsicht die Arbeit seiner Vorgänger fort: Es ist die Geschichte von drei Kindern, die ihren besten Freund verlieren sowie eine umfassende Betrachtung dessen, was Magie im Leben ausmacht. Kann Magie der Glaube an etwas sein, das wir nicht sehen können, genauso wie das Vertrauen in Wunder, Zaubersprüche und Portale für etwas, das jenseits unserer eigenen Erfahrung liegt? "Magic, Alive!" wurde ins Leben gerufen, als Dixon eine unerwartete E-Mail vom englischen Produzenten Sam Yamaha erhielt. Dixons frühe Beats hatten Yamahas eigene Arbeit inspiriert. Es dauerte nicht lange, und Dixon traf sich mit ihm in London und wühlte sich durch sein Archiv, um eine Fülle von Beats zu finden, die mit seinem eigenen Ansatz und dem aufkeimenden Konzept für "Magic, Alive!" übereinstimmten. Im Juli 2024 kehrte Dixon in seine Heimatstadt Richmond im US-Bundesstaat Virginia zurück und brachte eine Reihe von Sounds von Sam Yamaha und Koff mit, mit dem er bereits zusammengearbeitet hatte. Zusammen mit einer Reihe von Gästen und Freund*innen, von der Sängerin Anjimile und dem einfallsreichen Alabama-Emcee Pink Siifu bis hin zu Posaunist Reggie Pace und Harfenist Eli Owens, hat Dixon diese Beats weit aufgespalten und mit Hooks, Bläsersätzen und Gastauftritten versehen. Außerdem hat er mehrere Songs aneinandergereiht, so dass sich "Magic, Alive!" wie ein Traum bewegt oder zumindest wie eine alternative Realität, in der neue Regeln herrschen.

One of the most politically charged terms of the 20th century, the Iron Curtain was a metaphor for political and cultural division. In a post-war telegram Winston Churchill referred to the fault line that ran through Europe between East and West as "an Iron Curtain is drawn down upon their front. We do not know what is going on behind".



In this two-part album, as far as jazz is concerned, we will showcase, describe and celebrate exactly what was 'going on behind'. We see that music is the power supreme, with the ability to transcend all barriers, be they physical, political or metaphorical.



Our liner notes illustrate the complex and contradictory history of Soviet jazz, and the tracks we've chosen cover the key period of the early 1960s to the 1980s. It was during these dark years of the Cold War that the Soviet Union and its satellite states produced a number of outstanding artists playing in a variety of styles. The impact of modernism, from hard bop and Latin to modal and cool jazz, had found its way through cracks in the curtain. The deeply-felt ancestral strains of traditional European folk music were combined with the exciting new and progressive sounds of the West, and a radical, intoxicating brew was created that no amount of guns, tanks or polonium tea could overcome.



We chronicle the triumph of jazz at a time of extreme geopolitical conflict. What went on behind the Iron Curtain in these countries was once mysterious and unknown to the West, but the perseverance of their artists provided sound and light amid the secretive, dark days of the communist-capitalist standoff. There was no end of life-affirming spiritual jazz behind the Iron Curtain.



"Whether it's by improvisation in the African-American jazz tradition, or by a village kobza player standing on top of a damn hill - he feels connected to the stars."

Der von John Williams komponierte Original Motion Picture Soundtrack zu Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen gab den Ton für die gesamte Reihe an, wobei das „Hedwig's Theme“ zur charakteristischen Musik der Filmreihe wurde. Die Mischung aus Magie, Wunder und Spannung prägte die musikalische Landschaft aller acht Filme. Der Erfolg des für einen Oscar und einen Grammy nominierten Soundtracks ebnete den Weg für eine durchgängige musikalische Identität der Serie, deren Themen in allen Filmen wieder auftauchen.

Ting was released in 1992. The band decided to record the songs with mainly piano and percussion accompaniment. Hofstede put his guitar aside, Stips did not touch his extensive library of sounds and samples and Kloet did not played the drum-set, but played orchestral percussion instruments. Guest musicians were invited for most songs (mainly bass and cello) and on some songs 'Klangsteine' (musical stones), works of art by the Swiss sculptor Arthur Schneiter, were used. These stones could be played with mallets, which explains the title of the album. They could also be rubbed by hand to create a buzzing sound. On the album the entire band plays the stones, together with Schneiter and friend Swiss percussionist Fritz Hauser. The music is often quiet and melancholic, but also contains some strong pop songs, including the cheerful "Soap Bubble Box", the lyrics of which were inspired by the artist Joseph Cornell and the Nits classic "Cars And Cars". The lyrics are often introverted and/or abstract, even poetic and much less immediately understandable than on previous albums. Ting is available as a limited edition of 500 copies on silver coloured vinyl and includes an insert with additional pictures provided by the band.

Winner of Channel 4’s ‘The Piano’, Brad Kella
releases his debut album, ‘Phoebe’s Melody’.
Since winning the show, Brad has recorded with
world renowned string arranger Rosie Danvers in
RAK Studio, sold out The Liverpool Philharmonic,
played The Royal Albert Hall and sold out two
nights at The Southbank Centre’s Purcell Rooms.
Brad has also worked alongside John Lewis for
last year’s Christmas campaign, as well as
Liverpool Football Club and EA sports, as he was
nominated as a super fan and ingrained into the
‘FC25’ game.
Brad is also going on a 36-date tour supporting
Gary Barlow across the UK and Ireland.

No trend to be followed, no invention to be intended, it is the reduced gorgeousness that let's us float on Asper Clouds. This is still valid in 2025, timeless grooves that still move your heart and soul and warm the dancefloor.
Smallville is turning 20 Years, so we are starting a little musical celebration with a special re-release of this ultimate beauty, that stood the test of time - a milestone LP for Smallville by Christopher Rau.
Comes with Full Cover Artwork by Stefan Marx

Havukruunu is the spirit of freedom, harbinger of oblivion, and it tells you: FLY, YOU FOOLS! Svart Records is set to release the band’s fourth album TAVASTLAND in February 2025 After three albums, the pieces of the puzzle fit, and Havukruunu, the favorite band of the sensitive and sorrowful returns with a vengeance to blur the line between the real and unreal. The sorrowful guitars of Stefa and Bootleg-Henkka draw threatening dark shadows on the wall, Kostajainen's drumming bombardement pulses like embers of a dying fire in the hearth. All the while, Humö's bass guitar is clanking and wailing like the icy wind rattling windows and banging walls, as Stefa roars and channels messages from the netherworld or preaches wisdom of ancient days, backed by a choir. Lords of Hell smile approving as the flames of hatred and cunning of their beloved sons drowns a dying old world, and heart of the earth trembles the birth of new and weird. Havukruunu is the spirit of freedom, harbinger of oblivion, and it tells you: FLY, YOU FOOLS! Havukruunu’s upcoming album TAVASTLAND tells the story of a small, strange people. ”-TAVASTLAND tells how in 1237 the Tavastians rose in a rebellion against the church of Christ and drove the popes naked into the frost to die. TAVASTLAND reveals our fathers’ centuries old sins and lies of consolation. TAVASTLAND speaks of him, who has become a prisoner of his home, alienated from the land of the forest and is now afraid of the dark with all lights on, surrounded by his smart devices. TAVASTLAND tells about the freedom we lost. TAVASTLAND haunts its listener to the grave, and I will personally open that grave one bleak night, and steal the fading light of your sempiternal soul.”, says Stefa. TAVASTLAND is available on Svart exclusive ice & blood vinyl edition, limited to 666 copies. Also available on limited amber & black smoke vinyl, classic black vinyl, CD, cassette tape, and digital platforms. All vinyl editions of the first pressing include a booklet and poster. New Havukruunu T-shirt also up for pre-order now at Svart’s webstore. Release date February 28th, 2025.

SAISEI founder Junki Inoue continues his vital archival work uncovering the riches of Japan’s distinctive electronic music scene and bringing them to new audiences around the world.

HERO U.D.A. aka Hiroyoshi Udaka is not someone you can easily google, but he’s sure lived a life worth retelling. His story starts back in the late 80s when, inspired by the acid house emanating from the UK — during what was fondly christened the Second Summer of Love — he picked up DJing and made the move from Japan to London. Throughout the 90s he DJed at underground techno institutions like London’s The End, CLUB UK and Silver Fish, as well as at the infamous Tribal Gathering raves, periodically returning to Japan to support techno greats like Colin Dale, Mad Mike, Suburban Knight and D. Wynn on tour.

The tracks on this EP, previously unreleased except for one, were all recorded after Udaka moved back from London to Tokyo, between 2002 and 2005. Yet they sound strikingly modern, drawing on a rich range of sounds that have come back round again two decades later: broken beat, acid jazz, dub and breaks. Deceptively simple grooves are given depth by layers of textures and micro samples, for example the surface noise on ‘On The Way’ that glues together an otherwise sparse skeleton of dubby pads and body popping drums. ‘Mature Missile’, ‘So Good’ and ‘Night Driver’ employ raw broken beat templates with acid accents, whimsical melodies and vocal interjections for a playful mood. ‘Sin City’ takes a darker turn, off-key piano hits and plunging bass adding to the wonkiness. The EP closes with a wiggly vignette, ‘222AM’, reminiscent of early 00s contemporaries like Mouse On Mars. Now these hidden treasures from Udaka’s archive gain a new life on SAISEI.

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SAISEI is a Japanese word which translates to ‘reproduction’ and ‘to play’ (as in playing records). Japanese culture is widely known for its traditional nature just as much as it is for being forward into the future and this label’s concept does justice to exactly that. Having started digging for records as early as 16 years old, Junki Inoue delved into productions from 1990s Japan to uncover these native gems. SAISEI’s core concept is to recapture and reintroduce unique pieces of Japanese electronic music onto vinyl, to an audience it never reached before as most of this music was only released in Japan.


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Originally released in 1996 on Quarterstick Records, Music for Egon Schiele is the soundtrack to a piece of dance and theater that was debuted by the Itinerant Theater Guild, May 18, 1995, in Chicago. Based on the life of the romantic and controversial Viennese painter, Egon Schiele was written and directed by Stephan Mazurek, who headed the group of performing artists. Rachel Grimes composed this music and performed it with two string musicians during the run of the performance. The Rachel's began recording in April of 1991 in Baltimore, MD, under the direction of Christian Frederickson and Jason Noble (Rodan, Shipping News). Subsequently, they met and became close friends with Rachel Grimes. In September of 1994 after a few more city moves, band break-ups, and general melancholy they decided to become a full time band and complete their first record for Quarterstick Records, Handwriting. Music for Egon Schiele is their second LP and contains a more stripped down and immediate musical focus. These songs are not sparse, they're beautiful. They build, they crash, and they make you wish you knew more about life and they mysteries its holds.

Havukruunu is the spirit of freedom, harbinger of oblivion, and it tells you: FLY, YOU FOOLS! Svart Records is set to release the band’s fourth album TAVASTLAND in February 2025 After three albums, the pieces of the puzzle fit, and Havukruunu, the favorite band of the sensitive and sorrowful returns with a vengeance to blur the line between the real and unreal. The sorrowful guitars of Stefa and Bootleg-Henkka draw threatening dark shadows on the wall, Kostajainen's drumming bombardement pulses like embers of a dying fire in the hearth. All the while, Humö's bass guitar is clanking and wailing like the icy wind rattling windows and banging walls, as Stefa roars and channels messages from the netherworld or preaches wisdom of ancient days, backed by a choir. Lords of Hell smile approving as the flames of hatred and cunning of their beloved sons drowns a dying old world, and heart of the earth trembles the birth of new and weird. Havukruunu is the spirit of freedom, harbinger of oblivion, and it tells you: FLY, YOU FOOLS! Havukruunu’s upcoming album TAVASTLAND tells the story of a small, strange people. ”-TAVASTLAND tells how in 1237 the Tavastians rose in a rebellion against the church of Christ and drove the popes naked into the frost to die. TAVASTLAND reveals our fathers’ centuries old sins and lies of consolation. TAVASTLAND speaks of him, who has become a prisoner of his home, alienated from the land of the forest and is now afraid of the dark with all lights on, surrounded by his smart devices. TAVASTLAND tells about the freedom we lost. TAVASTLAND haunts its listener to the grave, and I will personally open that grave one bleak night, and steal the fading light of your sempiternal soul.”, says Stefa. TAVASTLAND is available on Svart exclusive ice & blood vinyl edition, limited to 666 copies. Also available on limited amber & black smoke vinyl, classic black vinyl, CD, cassette tape, and digital platforms. All vinyl editions of the first pressing include a booklet and poster. New Havukruunu T-shirt also up for pre-order now at Svart’s webstore. Release date February 28th, 2025.

Don’t call it a sequel, it isn’t a Part Deux, ‘Pop Psychédélque: Les Extras’ is simply another slice of fine French Psychedelic Pop from Two-Piers, the label that brought you the groundbreaking compilation ‘Pop Psychédélique’ in 2021. L’es Extras’ is the perfect partner for the original and brings you a whole new bunch of quite simply brilliant pieces of French Pop and Psychedelic flavours from the 1960’s right up into the 2000s.

Pressed on Limited Edition Coloured vinyl for Record Store Day 2025 this is an essential purchase for anyone with a love of French Psychedelic Pop, or anyone who just loves great music for that matter.

‘Pop Psychédélique: Les Extras’ features some of the finest French pop divas of the 1960’s & 1970’s such as Jacqueline Taieb, Brigitte Bardot, Christe Laume, Brigitte Fontaine, alongside artists like Marie Laforêt’s wonderful take on the Rolling Stones ‘Paint it Black’, and the brilliant ‘Les Cactus’ by Jacques Dutronc. Fast forward to the 2010’s and we have tracks from the French Psych scene and lush curiousities from Brigitte, Étienne Daho, The Limiñanas and Ricky Hollywood added into the mix. This Record Store Day Vinyl release includes hard to find tracks on vinyl for the first time.

French Pychedelic Pop, a scene so joyous you can’t help but fall in love…. Les Extras anyone?

This landmark recording by the Norwegian jazz vocalist Karin Krog was recorded in 1974 when the American pianist Steve Kuhn was living in Scandinavia. Krog moves far beyond the standard jazz of her roots, into territory that's spacey, cosmic, and filled with the best influences bubbling underground in the Euro scene of the 1970s.