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The Holiday Album That Turned Mariah Carey into the Queen of Christmas: Featuring the Standard “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” the Singer’s Blockbuster Merry Christmas Exudes Joy, Spirituality, and Conviction
Sourced from the Original Master Tapes, Presented in Audiophile Sound for the First Time, and Strictly Limited to 3,000 Numbered Copies:

Mobile Fidelity’s UltraDisc One-Step 180g 33RPM LP Set Plays with Superb Detail, Openness, and Definition
1/2" / 30 IPS / Dolby SR analogue master to DSD 256 to analogue console to lathe

Mariah Carey didn’t become the Queen of Christmas just because of her fervent love of the holiday. Or as the result of a brilliant marketing plan. The iconic singer earned her title by way of her blockbuster Merry Christmas, a 1994 album that quickly joined the likes of Bing Crosby’s White Christmas, A Jolly Christmas from Frank Sinatra, and Nat King Cole’s The Christmas Song as an all-time holiday vocal classic. Featuring a balanced mix of inspired originals and well-chosen covers, Carey’s fourth studio record has only grown in stature as new generations discover its magic. Mobile Fidelity’s 30th anniversary edition reissue of Merry Christmas makes her spellbinding performances and upper-tier register come alive like never before.

Sourced from the original master tapes, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing, and strictly limited to 3,000 numbered copies, the pioneering label’s UltraDisc One-Step 180g 33RPM LP set of Merry Christmas plays with superb detail, depth, and dimensionality. Available in audiophile quality for the first time since its original release three decades ago, and featuring the bonus track “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen,” the nine-times-platinum set breathes with a newfound openness and transparency that enhance the spirituality, passion, and festive tenor of Carey’s singing.

Benefitting from superb groove definition, a nearly inaudible noise floor, and dead-quiet vinyl surfaces, the music takes on a heightened energy and anticipatory emotion synonymous with the holiday season. Carey’s signature vocals explode with liveliness and dynamics, the full scope of her acrobatic range presented in clear, transparent sound that practically places her on a small stage in your listening room. This collectible version also breathes with the kind of warmth, intimacy, and coziness you want from a landmark vocal album.

Recorded when Carey helped put “diva” back into everyone’s vocabulary, Merry Christmas gave the New York native another smash right out of the box. What nobody knew at the time was the degree of the album’s staying power — and how, many years removed from its initial promotion cycle, its legend would still grow and even spark a 2010 sequel. Having re-entered the Top 200 charts every year since 2019, Merry Christmas ranks as one of the three most commercially successful holiday LPs ever made and, in due time, will likely earn the top distinction in that class. A global blockbuster, it seamlessly ties together Christian, gospel, and secular threads and speaks to a boundless audience, independent of denomination.

Most obviously, the record remains inescapably connected to “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” an uptempo anthem that towers as a holiday standard and one of the biggest-selling singles in history. Punctuated with celesta chimes, sleigh bells, springy keyboards, and joyous beats, the song echoes the simple albeit engaging melodies and doo-wop style of beloved holiday classics of yore — and blends such elements with contagious dance-pop rhythms to create an atmosphere rich in joy, wonder, and excitement. Radiant with golden soulfulness and sincere conviction, Carey’s exuberant singing and on-point phrasing put it all over the top. And how.

The song stands as the only effort in Billboard history to top the Hot 100 chart during at least three separate runs. Carey’s blockbuster has already hit No. 1 during five runs, spanning every year between 2019 and 2024. That’s just one of the many records the singer holds — and only one of the multiple highlights from Merry Christmas, which includes two other Carey-penned originals, “Miss You Most (At Christmas Time)” and “Jesus Born on This Day.”

Though slightly lesser known, Carey’s remarkable rendition of Darlene Love’s “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” further links her album with the big, lush, Wall of Sound heritage that helped inspire its production. Carey’s heartfelt take and transformation of the traditional “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” into an animated tune that even adults can believe, as well as her clairon reading of “Joy to the World” — cleverly augmented with bits of Three Dog Night’s 1971 hit of the same name — further reinforce her status as Queen of Christmas.

At the peak of her powers, Carey finds equivalent success when tapping more spiritual veins. Witness the reverence she brings to the timeless carol “Silent Night,” the piousness she invests in “Jesus Oh What a Wonderful Child,” and the sacred feeling she conveys throughout “O Holy Night.” You’ll also never think of “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” and “Gloria (In Excelsis Deo)” the same way again after hearing Mimi pour her heart and soul into them, and pair the songs together.

Indeed, it’s Carey’s pliable voice, melismatic technique, and five-octave range — on display here in definitive fashion — coupled with her undeniable love for Christmas and understanding of the religious significance of the season that make Merry Christmas a must-have holiday staple. And on Mobile Fidelity’s LP, something you better add to your wish list.

The Invisible Road: Original Recordings, 1985–1990 compiles an unheard, previously unreleased body of recordings by Sussan Deyhim and Richard Horowitz, dissidents from diametric backgrounds who met during the heady days of Downtown New York in the 1980s. This collection reveals the creative and life partners’ radical shared vision of avant-garde pop in all of its boundary pushing freedom, combining Deyhim’s singular approach to vocalization, Horowitz’s invention of new musical languages, and touchstones of traditional music from around the world, creating a new music that ultimately retains a voice entirely its own. Despite their difference in backgrounds and respective journeys, at the time of their meeting in the early 1980s in New York City, Sussan Deyhim and Richard Horowitz were both products of the search for freedom and understanding (and resultant awakenings) that swept the globe and helped culturally define the late 1960s and 70s. Deyhim, born and raised in Tehran, spent her teens dancing with Iran’s Pars National Ballet company, performing weekly on Iranian national television, and travelling her home country studying with master folk musicians and dancers, before relocating to Belgium and joining Maurice Béjart’s prestigious Béjart Ballet of the 20th Century. Horowitz, born and raised in Buffalo, New York, had spent much of the decade before abroad, first departing for Paris under the shadows of the Vietnam War, where he studied piano, Eastern philosophy, and became entrenched the city’s free jazz scene, playing with the likes of Steve Lacy, Anthony Braxton, and Alan Silva, before embarking south to Morocco where his friendship with Paul Bowles helped cultivate a deep passion for the country’s musical traditions and a shift in his musical practice.



The pair met by chance sometime in 1981 at Noise New York, a small studio on West 34th Street founded by the musician and recording engineer, Frank Eaton, as a utopian creative laboratory that beckoned artists and bands like Arthur Russell, Christian Marclay, Liquid Liquid and Butthole Surfers into its orbit. Both artists had recently relocated to the city, Horowitz having recently released his debut album, Oblique Sequences (Solo Nai Improvisations), on the legendary Paris based imprint Shandar, and fallen in with members of New York avant-garde like La Monte Young, Jon Hassell, David Byrne, and Brian Eno, and Deyhim having begun to more actively incorporate singing into her practice, notably recording a vocal score for choreography she was doing at La MaMa Experimental Theatre.



Initially bonding over a cassette tape of field recordings made by Paul Bowles that had been given to mutual friend and writer Brian Cullman (seeking answers for Ornette Coleman’s question “what is the sound of sound”), their earliest collaboration was documented on Horowitz’s 1981 album, Eros In Arabia, with Deyhim contributing vocals to the track “Queen Of Saba.” Over the coming years, their deep connection would routinely gravitate them into the studio, culminating in the body of recordings that would appear on their 1986 album for Crammed Discs, Desert Equations: Azax Attra. Unknown to nearly all but the artists, laying in wait over the decades on numerous multi-track and stereo reels, DAT tapes, and reference cassettes, were a vast array of recordings made by Deyhim and Horowitz bookending Desert Equations. The 13 pieces represented on The Invisible Road: Original Recordings, 1985–1990 were recorded largely between Noise New York and Daylight Studio in Brussels, during a period that Deyhim describes the partnership between herself and Horowitz’s as seeking a music “free of any specific cultural reference, with a personal musical signature,” blossoming into a body of sonority that embraced the energy of contemporary boundary pushing pop and the avant garde, filtered through their mutual love and study of various musical traditions from across the globe and deep engagement with the ideas and tactics of experimental music.



Undeniably rooted in Horowitz’s study of the North Africa ney and the music of the Berber and Gnawa cultures during his time in Morocco, Deyhim’s deep engagement with the folk traditions of Iran, and the couple’s immersion in the interconnected Downtown underground music scenes, each piece on The Invisible Road offers its own vision creative and cultural hybridity. Deyhim sings in both English and Farsi, as well as a composite tongue that she developed by drawing upon numerous indigenous vocal techniques from around the world, intuitively responding to Horowitz’s simultaneous sound syntax forming and combining a wide range synthetic and acoustic instrumentation, and experimental tape techniques, within a visionary series of free-standing expressions.

As a young conservatory student back in 2016, Danish trumpeter Anders Malta was invited to participate in a reunion concert with the legendary Ernie Wilkins Almost Big Band. He was so taken with the band and the music, that on the spot he decided that he wanted to form his own. In 2020, Anders Malta Almost Big Band played its first concert, going on to play a monthly residency at Christiania Jazz Club in Copenhagen for the past two years. Their debut album Introducing is set to release on August 23rd on April Records. Since the early days of jazz, the broad sound pallet and dynamic range of the big band has proven irresistible to composers and arrangers. However, the traditional big band, with its 16 16-19 individual moving parts, can also at times, and for different reasons, be an unwieldy machine to maneuver. Malta s 13 13-piece made up of Denmark s finest young soloists is agile like a small group, retaining the powerful force of the larger orchestra. Belonging to a new generation of musicians with a deep love and knowledge of the jazz tradition, Introducing " sees the band pay tribute to the timeless Hardbop sound of the 50" s and 60" s through the three movement suite Hardbop Conversations "", whilst offering a contemporary European perspective on the classic large ensemble format through Ouverture, Interludium and Epilog ". Intricate arrangements, rich harmony, soaring trumpet & flugelhorn improvisations and a diverse array of feel and grooves showcase the impressive stylistic and artistic breadth Malta has to offer as a bandleader, arranger, composer and instrumentalist. From the high high-energy swing and powerful tutti chords one craves from a Big Band to the more intimate textures of solo instrumental passages, the ensemble s sophisticated, complex, and joyous debut proves once again that Denmark s jazz scene is among the world s most prolific and exciting.

Teho Teardo & Blixa Bargeld are back with their third album, nearly eight years after "Nerissimo", but time collapses and expands like an accordion. Especially those two stolen years that have disappeared from our accounts without a trace during the pandemic. The new album is titled "Christian & Mauro" and their real names on the header hint to a more personal landscape who allows them to go through elements of the past like "Bisogna Morire", an incredible passacaglia, a dance of death from 1600 that"s been reinvented from a contemporary perspective. Since their musical roots belongs also to the future, another consideration comes after a book by astrophysicist Carlo Rovelli, it opens up for a different look at the universe. It"s not always possible to discover new territories without consenting to lose sight of the shore for quite a good amount of time, so across these new ten songs Teho and Blixa allow themselves various detours playing a large array of instruments, using a mythological keyboard who can play with ciphers, letters, characters, sounds and noises. Using sounds transversely provides the cue to new possibilities to move forward in music. The album has been produced by Teho Teardo, Blixa Bargeld and Boris Wilsdorf both in Roma at Basement Recordings and at andereBaustelle in Berlin. This music joins again the sky between Roma and Berlin and the tour that will follow its release will take place from November 19th right in Roma and will take them all over Europe. Teho and Blixa will tour with Laura Bisceglia on cello and Gabriele Coen on bass clarinet, there will be on stage also a string quartet on each show.

Die Musikzeitschriften "Audio" und "Stereo Play" betitelten Lenny Mac Dowell als "Rockflötist Nummer eins in Deutschland".
Lenny Mac Dowell hatte unzählige Tourneen mit Musikern wie Manni von Bohr, Horst Stachelhaus (Birth Control), Peter Oehler, Mike Herting, Bodo Schopf (Michael Schenker Group) oder Zeus B. Held (Guru Guru), Clemens Winterhalter, Alex Grünwald und immer wieder Großproduktionen mit Musikern wie Pete York (Spencer Davis Group) und Wolfgang Schmid (Passport).
Eine Ära des musikalischen Experimentierens setzte sich unter eigener Produktion fort. Nach "Flying Torso" folgt "Balance Of Power", das mehr in die esoterischen Gefilde geht - feinste Meditationsmusik mit Ambient-Elementen. Auch das Album "The Farthest Shore" spiegelt die meditativen und esoterischen Klänge wider. 1987 veröffentlichte Lenny Mac Dowell in einem Gemeinschaftsprojekt mit Christoph Spendel "Autumn Breath" oder "Landscapes" (2015) und in den 90er Jahren bis heute "The Lost Paradise", "Echnatons Return", "Launch Control", "Get Ready", "Retrospective", "Lenny Goes India", "Look Of Love" und "Raja Yoga" Produktionen unter eigener Flagge.
"Vinyl Experience" eignet sich auch hervorragend als Referenz oder zum Testen Ihres Soundsystems, von der Plattenspieleranlage bis zu den Lautsprechern.

1974 erscheint Georg Danzers Konzeptalbum "Der Tätowierer und die Mondprinzessin", begleitet von einem Buch mit Texten und Illustrationen von Georg Danzer. Die zehn darauf enthaltenen tiefsinnigen Lieder, die unter anderem unter der Mitwirkung von Willi Resetarits und seinen "Schmetterlingen" sowie Robert Ponger, Christian Kolonovits und "Supermax" Kurt Hauenstein entstanden, haben bis heute Relevanz. Georg Danzers Manager und guter Freund, Franz Christian "Blacky" Schwarz, initiierte und leitete die Wiederveröffentlichung dieses künstlerischen Schatzes.Für die Neuauflage wurden die Original-Mischbänder aus dem Jahr 1974 verwendet und von Othmar Eichinger von TON Eichinger, Wien aufwändig restauriert, digitalisiert und gemastert. Die Reihenfolge der Lieder stimmt nicht mit der Original-LP überein, sondern wurde dem Ablauf der Geschichte angepasst. Die Liedtexte wurden auf die tatsächlich gesungenen Versionen umgeschrieben. Die Geschichte selbst ist die Originalversion. Franz Christian Schwarz über die Entstehung des Albums:Es war 1974, es war Februar und es war kalt. In Peter Müllers Tonstudio herrschte reger Betrieb. Georg Danzer saß auf einem Sessel und klimperte auf der Gitarre und sang leise den Text dazu. Vor sich auf einem schon in die Jahre gekommen Tisch lagen einige mit Maschine beschriebene Blätter. Ab und zu hielt er beim Spielen inne und korrigierte den zur Melodie passenden Text. Zwischendurch machte er auch kleine Zeichnungen mit Wachskreide, die das gleichnamige Buch illustrieren sollten. Nach und nach waren die Musiker wie vereinbart mit ihren Instrumenten gekommen. Es herrschte eine fast familiäre Stimmung. Es wurde Kaffee getrunken, geplaudert, gescherzt und gelacht. Peter mahnte zu Disziplin und wies den Herren - denn die Schmetterlinge, der Chor mit Dame, waren erst für den nächsten Tag eingeplant - ihre Plätze zu. Das Klavier hatte seinen fixen Platz und rundherum wurde nun postiert. Peter hatte einen genauen Plan, wer wo stehen sollte und aus tontechnischen Gründen auch musste. Das Schlagzeug kam in ein abgeschirmtes Kammerl mit einem Glasfenster, der Bass mit Verstärker kam nach links hinten, gegenüber wurde das Gitarren-Set ebenfalls mit Verstärker aufgebaut. Die Orgel musste auch noch Platz finden und die Percussion wurde hinter einem halbhohen Paravent platziert, damit der Musiker Sichtkontakt mit den Kollegen und dem Tontechniker halten konnte. Jetzt noch Mikrofone aufstellen, verkabeln, justieren und dann Tonproben. Nun war alles bereit. So in etwa hat Georg gerne vom ersten Studiotag zu den Aufnahmen für die nun in einer Spezialversion zum 50 Jahre-Jubiläum vorliegenden Vinyl-Schallplatte erzählt. Und er war sehr stolz auf sein erstes Konzeptalbum.Georg Danzer - "Der Tätowierer und die Mondprinzessin"Ab 18.10. als LP im Gatefold mit 12seitigem Booklet

Saint of the Pit, Diamanda Galás" fifth studio album and the second in her trilogy, The Masque of the Red Death, is an urgent record. Its theme is essentially passion, in the sense of suffering, although here, and unlike the passion of Christianity, there is little to offer solace. Re-released on Galás" own Intravenal Sound Operations (ISO) after its initial release on Mute in November 1986, Saint of the Pit is a masterpiece of witness - ing, forged from grief and fury during the HIV-AIDS epidemic. While its precursor, The Divine Punishment (originally via Mute, now ISO), released only five months before in June 1986, invoked Old Testament laws around the clean and the unclean, as a way of raging against the inhumanity of systemic neglect of people with HIV-AIDS, this album is focussed on a more interior response.

"Immense Intense Suspense" war und ist immer noch ein Meilenstein des Death Metal, heute noch genauso relevant wie 1994!Was erhält man, wenn
man Demilich, das erste Album/EP von At The Gates und Nocturnus in einen Mixer gibt, um sie in ein gewaltiges, abscheuliches Monster zu
verwandeln, das die Majorsciences zum Weinen bringt und sie sich fragen lässt, warum man etwas erschaffen hat, das sie so herausfordert? Nun...
dies. In der Tat scheint dies das Einzige zu sein, was einer auditiven Form von Cthulhu nahe kommt... Das Full-Length-Debüt dieser
Doom/Avantgarde-Metal-Band bietet sowohl Originalität als auch Integrität und wird als klassisches Album angesehen.Phlebotomized begannen als
Grindcore-ähnliche DeathMetal-Band und veröffentlichten ihre frühen Demos, die so klangen. Irgendwann beschloss die Band, ihren Stil zu ändern,
denn "Immense, Intense, Suspense" legt Wert auf Melodien und symphonische Passagen. Das tat der bösen, bedrückenden Stimmung, die sich durch
die Musik zieht, keinen Abbruch. Das Album nimmt auf, was Demilich auf "Nespithe" geschrieben hat und baut darauf auf.

THE OMEGA SWARM, eine atmosphärische Death-Metal-Band aus Deutschland, begann im Jahr 2022, sehr bescheiden, sehr zurückgezogen. T., der bereits vier großartige Alben mit Sulphur Aeon veröffentlicht hat, hatte keinen vollwertigen Live-Act im Sinn, als er frühe Demos komponierte und das Skelett seiner - damals noch namenlosen - neuen Kreatur formte. Im Herzen ein wahrer Schöpfer, umarmt T. die akribische Arbeit an Riffs, Tönen, Klängen, den abenteuerlichen Geist des Aufbaus und der Verwirklichung von Ideen, das Experimentieren mit seinen geliebten Gitarren und Synthesizern, um erstaunliche Vibes und Songs zu produzieren, die bedeutungsvoll und doch extrem, melodisch und doch hart sind und sich in THE OMEGA SWARMs Debütalbum vereinen, einer Platte, einem Zeugnis, das der Essenz der Kunst selbst gewidmet ist.

So bodenständig T. auch ist, er ist nicht der Typ Mensch, der sich an eine Klangformel hält, er sucht nach "etwas mehr", "etwas anderem". Nachdem Sulphur Aeon mit dem monumentalen "Seven Crowns and Seven Seals" von 2023 vorerst abgeschlossen haben, was sie ausdrücken wollten, sind THE OMEGA SWARM jetzt sein Hauptaugenmerk, und das Line-up der Band, das von Sänger Christian Schettler (bekannt durch seine Arbeit bei den Labelkollegen Wound) und Schlagzeuger Max Scheefeldt (ex Misanthrope Monarch) komplettiert wird, passt perfekt zusammen. Musikalisch entstanden THE OMEGA SWARM aus T.s Experimenten mit rhythmischen Mustern, übereinanderliegenden Synthesizern, ausgefeilten Leads und etwas technischeren Riffingstrukturen.

Die wohl einzigen offensichtlichen Parallelen zu Sulphur Aeon sind die Betonung einer dichten, fesselnden Atmosphäre, epische Elemente und eine übergreifende Dunkelheit sowie die Erkenntnis nach der Fertigstellung der ersten Aufnahmen, dass auch THE OMEGA SWARM die Qualität besitzen, mehr als nur ein 'Schlafzimmerprojekt' zu sein.
Aufgenommen in den Studios von Feire Records und s/w records, gemischt und produziert von Langzeitpartner Simon Werner, wurde V. Santura (Triptykon, Dark Fortress) für das Mastering angeheuert und sorgte für den letzten Schliff von "Crimson Demise", einem Album, das stolz und mühelos zwischen Death und Black Metal changiert und von einer herausragenden Gesangsleistung abgerundet wird, bei der Chris eine ähnliche Bandbreite an Growls, Screams und cleanen Parts erreicht wie Peter Tägtgren in seinen besten Zeiten.

Vom Konzept her verzichtet die Gruppe auf uralte Lovecraft'sche Schrecken und wendet sich stattdessen geradlinigen apokalyptischen Themen zu. Ob Viren, bösartige Bakterien, verrückte Diktatoren, Klimawandel, religiöse und politische Ideologien, korrupte Technologie, Terrorismus oder Krieg, die Menschheit hat sich selbst für den Untergang gezeichnet - in leuchtenden Neonfarben, damit selbst eine außerirdische Spezies, die Galaxien entfernt ist, erkennen kann, was für Narren wir wirklich sind. "Die Menschheit kann sich nicht auf eine gemeinsame Wahrheit einigen, geschweige denn auf eine Strategie zur Lösung ihrer mannigfaltigen Probleme", erklärt Chris, "und bildet somit überhaupt keine Einheit. Der einzige gemeinsame Nenner, der uns alle eint, ist unsere Zerstörungswut, die irgendwann die gesamte Existenz der Menschheit gefährden könnte. Die Utopie wurde durch dystopische Szenarien ersetzt. Welche Formen des negativen menschlichen Verhaltens uns und die Gesellschaft derzeit beeinflussen und letztlich in eine zukünftige Endzeit führen, ist Teil des lyrischen Konzepts von THE OMEGA SWARM."
Aber keine Angst, bevor die Weltuntergangsuhr zum letzten Mal schlägt, soll euch das Vergnügen vergönnt sein, ein abwechslungsreiches, intensives und fesselndes Stück Metal zu erleben, das das neu formierte Trio aus dem Schlafzimmer auf die Bühne bringen will!

" The myths of our Western tradition have often captivated me, whether they be Greek, Roman, or Judeo-Christian. Myths are a transcendent collective narrative; a buried memory, not intellectual but spiritual, alive to all the senses of another world. These stories often describe forbidding passages guarded by terrifying monster-like creatures, which, if conquered, give access to other planes. 'Door 1 - Door 2' are two of these planes, opening to prophecy and kingship." (Christopher Chaplin)

Following the release of his powerful and dark album trilogy "Je suis le Ténébreux", "Paradise Lost" and "M", British avant-garde composer Christopher James Chaplin has unveiled his latest project in 2021: "Patriarchs", released to critical acclaim. This project is a musical exploration of the Antediluvian patriarchs, from Adam to Noah, and is another captivating and daring work of art that straddles experimental electronic music and the avant-garde. Chaplin has also been wowing audiences with his live performances, releasing the concert album "Patriarchs Live" to shorten the wait for his new studio album "Door 1 Door 2", which will be released on September 20, 2024.

It is another powerful work of art, located between electronic music and avant-garde. Once again, Christopher Chaplin breaks genre boundaries and manages to condense experimental and colorful electronics in chamber music in a unique way, transporting the listener into mental and spatiotemporal intermediate states. A completely unique musical microcosm that can also be experienced in his impressive solo live performances.

Due to popular demand "Live In London," the highly anticipated release from legendary British Reggae group Aswad is now in physical form! This album marks a new era for the band, their first feature release in over a decade, making it a poignant moment in their storied career. With the passing of the late great Angus "Drummie Zeb" Gaye, this album stands as a powerful tribute to his memory, indomitable spirit and will for the work to continue. Passionately produced by principal members Tony Gad and Soloman, recorded in the heart of London at the iconic Jazz Cafe, this electrifying album captures the essence of the British-born reggae movement at its finest. Mixed by Christian Cowlin of The Wailers and mastered by Mark Gittins at Sensound Studios, each track from "Babylon" to "Just A Little Herb" shines a beacon on the band's unparalleled musicianship and electrifying stage presence. Don't miss your chance to be part of reggae history and experience the power of Aswad like never before! Exclusively from SMC Records, a division of The Spaine Music Company.

The 6th Full Length studio album from South African Death Metal Bulldozers VULVODYNIA is upon us! As the first album featuring Lwandile Prusent on vocals (previously on guitar), 'ENTABENI' harks back to the band's earlier brutal roots, with lyrical concepts themed on African folklore, with a huge production from Christian Donaldson (Cryptopsy, Ingested, Despised Icon) and artwork by Shindy Reehal (Viscera, The Zenith Passage, Bound in Fear).

THE OMEGA SWARM, eine atmosphärische Death-Metal-Band aus Deutschland, begann im Jahr 2022, sehr bescheiden, sehr zurückgezogen. T., der bereits vier großartige Alben mit Sulphur Aeon veröffentlicht hat, hatte keinen vollwertigen Live-Act im Sinn, als er frühe Demos komponierte und das Skelett seiner - damals noch namenlosen - neuen Kreatur formte. Im Herzen ein wahrer Schöpfer, umarmt T. die akribische Arbeit an Riffs, Tönen, Klängen, den abenteuerlichen Geist des Aufbaus und der Verwirklichung von Ideen, das Experimentieren mit seinen geliebten Gitarren und Synthesizern, um erstaunliche Vibes und Songs zu produzieren, die bedeutungsvoll und doch extrem, melodisch und doch hart sind und sich in THE OMEGA SWARMs Debütalbum vereinen, einer Platte, einem Zeugnis, das der Essenz der Kunst selbst gewidmet ist.

So bodenständig T. auch ist, er ist nicht der Typ Mensch, der sich an eine Klangformel hält, er sucht nach "etwas mehr", "etwas anderem". Nachdem Sulphur Aeon mit dem monumentalen "Seven Crowns and Seven Seals" von 2023 vorerst abgeschlossen haben, was sie ausdrücken wollten, sind THE OMEGA SWARM jetzt sein Hauptaugenmerk, und das Line-up der Band, das von Sänger Christian Schettler (bekannt durch seine Arbeit bei den Labelkollegen Wound) und Schlagzeuger Max Scheefeldt (ex Misanthrope Monarch) komplettiert wird, passt perfekt zusammen. Musikalisch entstanden THE OMEGA SWARM aus T.s Experimenten mit rhythmischen Mustern, übereinanderliegenden Synthesizern, ausgefeilten Leads und etwas technischeren Riffingstrukturen.

Die wohl einzigen offensichtlichen Parallelen zu Sulphur Aeon sind die Betonung einer dichten, fesselnden Atmosphäre, epische Elemente und eine übergreifende Dunkelheit sowie die Erkenntnis nach der Fertigstellung der ersten Aufnahmen, dass auch THE OMEGA SWARM die Qualität besitzen, mehr als nur ein 'Schlafzimmerprojekt' zu sein.
Aufgenommen in den Studios von Feire Records und s/w records, gemischt und produziert von Langzeitpartner Simon Werner, wurde V. Santura (Triptykon, Dark Fortress) für das Mastering angeheuert und sorgte für den letzten Schliff von "Crimson Demise", einem Album, das stolz und mühelos zwischen Death und Black Metal changiert und von einer herausragenden Gesangsleistung abgerundet wird, bei der Chris eine ähnliche Bandbreite an Growls, Screams und cleanen Parts erreicht wie Peter Tägtgren in seinen besten Zeiten.

Vom Konzept her verzichtet die Gruppe auf uralte Lovecraft'sche Schrecken und wendet sich stattdessen geradlinigen apokalyptischen Themen zu. Ob Viren, bösartige Bakterien, verrückte Diktatoren, Klimawandel, religiöse und politische Ideologien, korrupte Technologie, Terrorismus oder Krieg, die Menschheit hat sich selbst für den Untergang gezeichnet - in leuchtenden Neonfarben, damit selbst eine außerirdische Spezies, die Galaxien entfernt ist, erkennen kann, was für Narren wir wirklich sind. "Die Menschheit kann sich nicht auf eine gemeinsame Wahrheit einigen, geschweige denn auf eine Strategie zur Lösung ihrer mannigfaltigen Probleme", erklärt Chris, "und bildet somit überhaupt keine Einheit. Der einzige gemeinsame Nenner, der uns alle eint, ist unsere Zerstörungswut, die irgendwann die gesamte Existenz der Menschheit gefährden könnte. Die Utopie wurde durch dystopische Szenarien ersetzt. Welche Formen des negativen menschlichen Verhaltens uns und die Gesellschaft derzeit beeinflussen und letztlich in eine zukünftige Endzeit führen, ist Teil des lyrischen Konzepts von THE OMEGA SWARM."
Aber keine Angst, bevor die Weltuntergangsuhr zum letzten Mal schlägt, soll euch das Vergnügen vergönnt sein, ein abwechslungsreiches, intensives und fesselndes Stück Metal zu erleben, das das neu formierte Trio aus dem Schlafzimmer auf die Bühne bringen will!

Through the folded sky to America

Ten albums in three years. That's still the cosmic mission of the Berlin post-kraut trio YELKA with Daniel Meteo, Christian Obermaier, and the namesake Yelka Wehmeier.

With the album "For," there was a Label change. After releasing three albums in 2023 with Maurice Summen, head of Fun In The Church they passed the label responsibilities to Karaoke Kalk. Karaoke Kalk is a friendly label founded in Cologne known for establishing the Berlin post-wende scene (fall of the wall scene).

The trio's fourth album was also created with Arne Berger at Popschutz Studio, and the team is definitely well-rehearsed. Instead of recording the planned tracks, the band decided to improvise the session, and all tracks, except for the krauty Doors cover "The Crystal Ship," were created in 5 days in the studio, mostly on the first or second take, but with significantly more overdubs - keyboards, backing vocals, second and third guitars, percussion, and piano. The sound of "For" has become warmer, and the album begins with a kind of 60s-Kinks feeling. Overall, the current record has become much more exuberant - like Alice in Wonderland, YELKA seem to want to restore innocence to things in the opener "Smile (Into Skies)," resulting in an uplifting hiking song for experimental outdoor bohemians.

The follow-up piece "The Boar" speaks to everyone from the north, south, west, and east and here YELKA encounter a horde of wild boars on their travels, before the vocals become hardly understandable and ghostly spooled in reverse, suddenly sounding like Damo Suzuki from CAN at the height of Tago-Mago times.

Finally, YELKA‘s "Crystal Ship," simply sails away with the wild boars into remote 4D worlds between the Cocteau Twins and X-Mal Deutschland.

In the first instrumental of the album "Is this enough?", the band reverse tracks like Jimi Hendrix in his Electric Ladyland, and we dive deeper and deeper into the endless sky until YELKA finally arrive on newly trodden sound paths with "MM" to their beginnings on their debut album "Nowhere Jive." At the popular intersection of post-rock and jazz, where guest singer Bela Hagel also likes to linger for a moment: "Sie wissen" (They know), he knows that too! Surely Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser would have had a lot of fun with his shamanistic singing on his "Kosmische Kuriere" label. The guitars sound like a desert, and the reverb reminds us of the expansive space in the opening track "Skies."

Finally, we land in Amerika, or rather, YELKA ponder the melancholic question of whether anyone still wants to travel to America with them, to the land of unlimited possibilities, the haven for artist souls all over the world. "Do you wanna dance?" Yelka Wehmeier finally asks, while a chorus in the best Sun Ra manner mantra-like repeats "Cold dogs, cool cats." The whole band sings. Everything sounds good.

Third studio album by the Munich-based band Dune Pilot. Fuzzy stoner/desert rock at its finest! Founding members Andris Friedrich on vocals and Christian Schmidt on guitar are focusing again on earthy stoner roots rock with a ‘fat fuzz’. Munich scene veterans Veit Schlembach on drums (ex-Password Monkey) and Konst Fischer on bass (ex-Smoke The Sky) brought freshness into the team, enriching the sound and songwriting of the band in a multi-layered and positive way. The gods of desert rock - read Kyuss - are duly honoured here. The new album "Magnetic" has been completely recorded live in the studio by the well-rehearsed musicians. The four-piece ensemble has already done many live-shows, mainly in Germany, and has shared stages with scene greats such as Karma To Burn, Orange Goblin, Greenleaf, Colour Haze and Rotor.

Originally released on tape by SicSic in 2014, Aprilnacht commemorates a decade of music from Brannten Schnüre and marked the spring in a tetralogy of albums about the four seasons when it came out. Back then the Würzburg-based project consisted solely of Christian Schoppik, who later welcomed Katie Rich to take over the vocals. He used to perform as Agnes Beil, but dropped the name when, while making this album realized his music was becoming "much gentler and more fragile". Aprilnacht already captured the particular musical ideas that Schoppik would thoroughly keep exploring, delving deeper and deeper into the use and manipulation of samplers from sources so diverging as to wander between the five continents to post-war German family television and cult cinema. Heir of the ritualistic intensity of Coil, of the intricate sampler assemblies of Ghédalia Tazartès', and of the dusty, dismal old ballads from around the world, Brannten Schnüre manages to make these paths cross in a territory that is as inherent as it is uncanny; sieged by the past and intimate as a hearth. An organic approach to folk, ambient, and sound collage, where ethereal yet thoroughly textured pieces coalesce in enthralling, delicate, and innermost musical rituals.

The album cover paintings reveal the temper: dreary old towns where shadows come to dim the slow passage of crepuscular colors, a soft area of reanimation where wind and light come close and foresee the night of spring. Aprilnacht was inspired by the stories of German philosopher and writer Friedrich Alfred Schmid Noerr, whose work exhaustively examines the conflict between paganism and Christianity, safeguarding myth in a way that Schoppik describes as boldly modern, humorous and unpredictable in its variations of the Germanic folklore motifs. "I wanted to do the same with the music," he states, and the music here could as well be suitable for a night when household deities welcome wandering will-o'-the-wisps, water nymphs, and gyrovagues to discuss Perchta's leadership of The Wild Hunt, but this album is not a folk tale, it's not an elegy to worlds already gone, hidden in years; it's an intersection of routes that open mysteriously before our ears like a congregation of vapors. Aprilnacht is a gathering of voices; "There are too many children, and none of them keeps quiet," reads the last verse of «Requiem für eine Ringelnatter.»

Sensuality drips over the music to celebrate both the voluptuousness and tragic quality of nature; "It's raining on me, urine from your flowers," Schoppik sings in «Urin deiner Blüten» and later on, faced with a snake's erotic features, as if he wanted to be embraced by it: "Your quick, sharp tongue and your warm venom; that's what the pond is missing." Orality is where this profusion of contents thrives. When the voices get closer and condense, the words reveal the saliva employed to pronounce them; we feel the mouth and the tongue, but when breath envelops them in sorrow and softens their edges, they sound distant, diffused in the atmosphere, letting go of the body that held them. These two vocal facets oscillate permanently and interact naturally with the fertile assembly of samplers and instruments that develop throughout the album, which condense and disperse impersonating each other, interweaving to search for a specific syntax. Tangled whisperings of enigmatic phrases, timid voices that stick out to check the scene but hide away quickly, shivering trance chants and monastic ambiances, distant screams and clamors in between chaos and warfare swirl until bursting into subtle songs where even Mother Mary comes forth softly. Soothed by foggy atmospheres and crackling punctuations, these voices shape a vulnerable crowd, an occasion of fragility. Along this swarm of songs thrown into thin air, accordions sound like heavy-breathing lungs; clarinets sigh like curtains shaking; violin solos wander around like bees; Gjallarhorns cries distend like fleeing cattle; glockenspiels evoke remote music boxes and inherited toys; backward emanations emerge like slender waves retreating. On the banks of stretching loops and ember textures is where the songs slowly nest, collecting the words to find their tone.

A poem by Jorge Teillier says, "To talk with the dead you have to choose words that they recognize as easily as their hands recognized the fur of their dogs in the dark. To talk with the dead you have to know how to wait: they are fearful like the first steps of a child. But if we are patient one day they will answer us with a flame that suddenly revives in the fireplace." This may be Brannten Schnüre's main purpose: To find the voice to speak to those of whom we were a vision. Not in mourning, but acknowledging the obscure and volatile nature of spring's regenerative force, searching for the treasure of balance, as evidenced in the lyrics of «Requiem für ein Schwalbennest,» "Its nest was destroyed so many times before it was finished, and despite that, the shallow builds as if it is infatuated." The same idea is here in the words of Schmid Noerr, who made poetry an act of resistance to the horror of Nazism; "Since having seen the ability of a brilliant spirit to die, with a calm mouth that everyone saw, health is true again and we affirm it, even if rivers of blood flow." And as we call for the dusk's kindness, waiting to return home and eat with our kin by the stove, our ears become used to the games of the night. We feel like we're rowing on wetlands, while the "moon musick" keeps us vigilant against the slightest movement of water or sweet moan because eeriness here is imperative for survival. Do not succumb to the insipid howl of death, for nothing may last but mutability. You see, the rock has moved a little during the night; the rest is just wind fleeing from the void.

After releasing "The Return of The Rocking Dead" during the pandemic, Romano Nervoso, the godfather of Spaghetti-Rock, is back with a 5th album called "From Villarosa To Rotherham". This new opus is divided into two parts ... first Villarosa (the hometown of his sicilian origins) with 8 tracks sung in italian and then Rotherham (the english hometown of his wife's origins) with 6 tracks in english. Different from the previous record, Romano Nervoso decided to return to the origin of punk and what he loves most : short, direct, spontaneous and agressive songs. The latter was written and recorded in less than 4 weeks The official release of "From Villarosa To Rotherham" is scheduled for March 8 via the belgian label Mottowsoundz.

"From Villarosa to Rotherham" by Romano Nervoso includes the following tracks: "Non Ti Scordare Del Passato", "Invisibile/Invicibile", "Per Scaramanzia", "It's Halloween" and more.

Transparent Yellow w/ Black Splatter Vinyl. Since founding Swedish synthpop duo KITE in 2008, singer Nicklas Stenemo and keyboardist Christian Hutchinson Berg's brooding fusion of cinematic electronics and anthemic pop has steadily elevated into a spectacle of passion, atmosphere, and communion. Their debut double-A vinyl single for Dais Records, Don't take the light away / Remember me captures KITE at their most urgent, thrilling and apocalyptic."Don't take the light away" is a song about "the war between energies," with singer Stenemo's wounded croon leading a rising tide of stabbing strings, pulsing percussion, and looming bass orchestrated by keyboardist Hutchinson Berg, surging to a mass-chanted chorus both desperate and triumphant ("dance, let them dance into me / people versus people can't see / hands should be holding hands"). "Remember me" was written following the band's 2017 US tour, capturing the intense feelings of burnout and exhaustion. "Remember me, Won't you remember me, Promise you'll remember me."Words only tell half of the story; smoke spills across the stage, and the melodies become a battle cry. Our worst fears eventually boil over, turning into hope and resilience. Like the best of KITE's music, "Don't take the light away" and "Remember me" fuse theater and catharsis into anthems of universal yearning, born of "the struggle to keep a flickering candle lit in a very dark space."

- The Black Angels' classic sophomore album - Special color edition pressed on Metallic Silver Wax. - Triple LP housed in a Stoughton tri-fold gatefold jacket // "The Black Angels bring the aura of mid-1966 the drilling guitars of early Velvet Underground shows, the raga inflections of late-show Fillmore jams, the acid-prayer stomp of Austin avatars the 13th Floor Elevators everywhere they go, including the levitations on their second album, Directions to See a Ghost. Mid-Eighties echoes of Spacemen 3 and the Jesus and Mary Chain also roll through the scoured-guitar sustain and Alex Maas' rocker-monk incantations. But he knows what time it is. 'You say the Beatles stopped the war," Maas sings in `Never/Ever.' `They might've helped to find a cure/But it's still not over.' Even so, this medicine works wonders." - David Fricke, Rolling Stone Last time we met The Black Angels, they were staring into the desert sun somewhere outside of Austin, Texas. Two years later, night has fallen and the spirits have come out. It's time for The Black Angels to provide Directions On How To See A Ghost. If you're familiar with Passover, the band's 2006 debut, you'll know that The Black Angels's music alone is enough to invoke spirits. There's a name for the band's sound; they call it `hypno-drone 'n roll'. It's the sound of long nights on peyote, of dreams of a new world order, and of half-invented memories of the seamy side of '60s psychedelia. While the Iraq war is still a major influence on the band's lyrics, there are new forces at work here, including Eugene Zamyatin's dystopian novel We and in Christian Bland's words "psychic information from the past and future." See, The Black Angels really are in contact with ghosts. "Civil War battlefields are prime spots for seeing ghosts," says Bland. "One time at Kennesaw mountain in Georgia, I was climbing the mountain in the middle of June and it must have been close to 100 degrees, but in this one particular spot it was very cold. The hairs on my neck stood up and I knew something strange was happening. Then the wind whispered something like `retreat,' and I did. I later learned that the spot where I was on the battlefield was known as `the dead angle', the place where the fiercest fighting took place. The confederates ended up retreating from the mountain towards Peachtree Creek." The Black Angels formed in Austin, Texas, in 2004, comprising from six people (now five) from very different backgrounds. Singer/vocalist Christian Bland is the son of a Presbyterian Pastor and was raised in a devoutly religious household. Bassist / guitarist Nate Ryan was born on a cult compound and drummer Stephanie Bailey claims she's a descendent of Davy Crocket. She and Alex Maas (vocals/guitar) believe a little girl in a red linen dress haunts the group's home. The band released Passover in 2006 to critical acclaim for both the album and the song "The First Vietnamese War". Most of all, Passover established The Black Angels as a band with brains, balls and a strong message. And this time around, the message is there to read in a 16-page booklet that comes with the album. "Our central theme is that people need to open up their minds and let everything come through, and to learn from past mistakes," says Christian. "Only then will we understand the reality of this world and progress beyond where we are now as humans. We've built upon that theme with Directions to See a Ghost. We want people to study the booklet we are providing with the album in hopes that they will be able to relate each song to something in their life." _"War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength. Keep Music Evil."_

"Klez.e sind zurück! Im Jahr 2016 überraschten sie mit "Desintegration". Das war eine Überdosis The Cure, die ganz toll war. Nun sind sie mit ihrem neuen Album ,Erregung' wieder bei sich selbst angekommen. Der autobiographische Titeltrack ist ein bewegendes Zeugnis davon, wie Außenseitertum Menschen wie uns in die Liebe zur Musik treibt. In "Tortur" singt Tobias Siebert: ,Wir sind wie die Welt nicht mehr zu retten / Meine Lippen auf Deinen'. Der Blick von Klez.e auf die Welt ist romantisch, tieftraurig und politisch. In der Musik liegt Schmerz, aber auch Wut auf die Umstände, in denen wir gefangen sind. Ich empfehle euch, tief in ihren Songs zu versinken!" - Jan Müller (Tocotronic) "Anders gesagt, in stürmischen Zeiten braucht man manchmal irgendwen oder irgendwas zum Anlehnen. Zum Beispiel einen Sound, der einem vertraut ist. Aus der Kindheit oder Jugend. Der aber so zeitgemäß ist, dass nichts Verstaubtes an ihm haftet. In stürmischen Zeiten braucht man manchmal was zum Nachdenken, das über die Frage hinausgeht, wo man den nächsten Kaffee trinken, das nächste Konzert erleben oder den anstehenden Urlaub verbringen möchte. Für die, die gut zuhören können, auch Songtexte. Und die dürfen gerne das aktuelle Geschehen aufgreifen. Aber sie müssen einem nicht zwingend mit belehrendem Zeigefinger kommen, für den sich irgendwer eventuell nicht mal vom eigenen Schreibtisch oder Sofa wegbewegt hat, um der Welt da draußen zu erklären, was zu tun ist und was zu lassen, sobald irgendetwas passiert. Und es passiert ja immer irgendetwas, und deswegen kommt das neue Album der Band Klez.e genau richtig. Während viele andere Bands, die aktuell New Wave oder Post Punk spielen, gut aber bemüht klingen, wirkt die Musik bei Klez.e leichtfüßig gespielt und dennoch mit enormer Dringlichkeit aufgeladen. Sie klingt mächtig und selbstbewusst, dabei wärmend und umarmend - und sie erscheint nun auf einem neuen Album, das den ambivalenten Titel "Erregung" trägt." - Christiane Falk (RBB Radio Eins)