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Over the past 20 years, The New Pornographers have proven themselves one of the most excellent bands in indie rock. The group’s ninth album and first for Merge establishes them alongside modern luminaries like Yo La Tengo and Superchunk when it comes to their ability to evolve while still retaining what made them so special in the first place. A dazzling and intriguing collection of songs, Continue as a Guest finds bandleader A.C. Newman and his compatriots Neko Case, Kathryn Calder, John Collins, Todd Fancey, and Joe Seiders exploring fresh territory and shattering the barriers of their collective comfort zone. Newman began work on Continue as a Guest after the band had finished touring behind 2019’s In the Morse Code of Brake Lights. Themes of isolation and collapse bleed into this album, as Newman tackles the ambivalence of day-to-day life during the COVID-19 pandemic. But Newman says that Continue as a Guest’s title track also addresses the concerns that come with being in a band for so long. “The idea of continuing as a guest felt apropos to the times,” he explains. “Feeling out of place in culture, in society, being in a band that has been around for so long—not feeling like a part of any zeitgeist, but happy to be separate and living your simple life, your long fade-out.

Living in a secluded place in an isolated time, it felt like a positive form of acceptance: find your own little nowhere, find some space to fall apart, continue as a guest.” Newman discovered new vocal approaches within his own talent. There are new and rich tones to Newman’s voice throughout Continue as a Guest, from his dusky lower register over “Angelcover” to his slippery slide over the glimmering synths of “Firework in the Falling Snow,” to bold tones he embraces on the soaring “Bottle Episodes.”

Another sonic change comes courtesy of saxophonist Zach Djanikian, whose tenor and bass luxuriate all over Continue as a Guest’s alluring chassis, especially on the menacing build of “Pontius Pilate’s Home Movies.” Along with Newman’s usual collaborators, several songwriters contribute. The bursting opener and first single “Really Really Light” is a co-write with Dan Bejar (Destroyer, the New Pornographers). Then there’s “Firework in the Falling Snow,” a collaboration with Sadie Dupuis of Speedy Ortiz and Sad13. “I was feeling like I wanted some help, so I sent it to Sadie and she sent me back this complete song that had these great lyrics,” Newman says. “She included the line ‘A firework in the falling snow,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s great.’ Sometimes you need that one thing to center the song, and even though I only used a few lines of hers in the end, I couldn’t have finished it without her.”

Even as Newman embraces a collaborative spirit more than ever, Continue as a Guest is a testament to his ability to discover new artistic sides of himself. “I started out as a songwriter more than as a singer, but at some point, you have to sing your own songs,” he says with a chuckle. “For a long time, I felt like the idea of changing a song because I couldn’t hit a note wasn’t okay—I could just get someone else to sing it. But I’m learning now that my songs can actually be a lot more malleable than I thought.” And it’s in that spirit that Continue as a Guest sounds like a thrilling path forward for The New Pornographers, with songs that generate a contagious feeling of excitement for the future as well.

A beautiful combination of piano, strings, electronics and Ondes Martenot" Hannah Peel, BBC Radio3 "Fusing modern classical and ambient electronic, Missing Island is the highlight of the year in its class. Never predictable, never mundane - a special album."
Louder than War "What is the Missing Island? Snowdrops dances around the title, touching on multiple themes: the elements, the unconscious, the search for meaning and revelation. In the end, the missing island is open to interpretation: the piece that could complete us, if only we could find it." A Closer Listen. France chamber collective Snowdrops return to Injazero Records for their third album Missing Island, a musical fresco in seven pieces, a naturalist painting that exists between contemporary classical, post-folk and electro-acoustic music. Missing Island is the sequel to the highly acclaimed Volutes (2020), and again sees multi-instrumentalists Christine Ott and Mathieu Gabry joined by violist Anne-Irène Kempf on most tracks. This new chapter in the natural history of Snowdrops is lent an earthier texture by the hand-pumped organ, performed by Christine Ott.

LORI finds Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam drawing from the songbook of noted singer-songwriter and multiple Grammy winner Lori McKenna. Recorded at the famed Sam Phillips Studios (Memphis, TN) with producer Matt Ross-Spang, Beam takes on four of his favorite McKenna tracks with help from Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart, known collectively for their work in the indie-art-pop band Finom (formerly known as Ohmme.) Beam came to McKenna’s music a few years ago on the suggestion of a friend. As the lock down dragged on, Beam found himself, like so many, turning to music for comfort. McKenna’s catalog of work was never far from reach. Taken by her heart-on-your-sleeve confessional style storytelling, Beam admits it’s a trait that draws him to McKenna and something not often found in his own songwriting. As a well-known interpreter of other artists’ songs, when the time came for him to shake off the pandemic cobwebs and record, McKenna’s songs were as fresh and familiar to Beam as his own. Traveling to Memphis in March of 2021, Beam invited Cunningham and Stewart to join him in the studio. During the three days of recording, Ross-Spang was a logical choice to take the helm as he had handled Iron & Wine’s 2019 collaboration with Calexico, the twice Grammy nominated Years to Burn, and had also worked on two of McKenna’s own records. Having enjoyed successful solo careers outside of Finom, Cunningham and Stewart bring their own touches to LORI and helped Beam find even further depths to McKenna’s songwriting. Together the trio sonically re-interpreted her plaintive odes into a tapestry of sounds effortlessly blending their signature singing styles and breathing fresh life into the lyrics

An incredible heart 'n' soul story continues this spring with the release of Reel People's first original album in over a decade, Love2.

Produced by core collective Oli Lazarus, Mike Patto and Toni Economides, and with a fresh vocal line-up including Raheem DeVaughn, Muhsinah, Chantae Cann,

Michael Champion, Paula, Jill Rock Jones, Eric Roberson and Arrested Development's Speech, this super- fine, 10- track opus marks a further powerfulevolution of the Reel People sound.

Weaving contemporary R&B sensibilities into the collective's classic grooved-out flow, Love2 embraces the out- and- out euphoria of love but offers an entirely unique voice.
Love2 is a monumental addition to the Reel People canon, following acclaimed album releases Second Guess, Seven Ways To Wonder and Retroflection. New

songs and sounds, but the same soulful passion and craftsmanship. New friends and flourishes but the same mission to move hearts, minds and dancefloors.

First original Reel People album since 2008 !

Featuring a plethora of US Vocal talents including Raheem DeVaughn, Eric Roberson, Speech from Arrested Development, Chantae Cann, Michael Champion, Paula, Muhsinah & Jill Rock Jones

“Elemental 7 has cast a looming shadow of influence over almost all electronic music since it was made” - Boomkat. Chris & Cosey’s Elemental 7 – available here for the first time in 40 years - is the soundtrack to the film of the same name (on Cabaret Voltaire’s Doublevision video imprint) that saw the duo working once more with John Lacey – Lacey had previously worked with Cosey in COUM Transmissions and introduced Chris Carter to the collective. The album’s highlight and one of their best loved songs, ‘Dancing Ghosts’, sounds as fresh and relevant today as it must have on its original release.

Artwork insert, in PVC outer sleeve.

Awanto3 (also known for his work with Aardvarck and Kid Sublime on Rednose Distrikt) returns to Rush Hour with "Party" Volume 1. Moody and rolling MPC work outs with live accompaniment from a solid cast (Jos De Haas (New Cool Collective) on percussion and Stefan Schmid (Zuco 103) on keys). Broken Beat heads look out .... this really smacks. TIP!

Backstory: Party was born in a small village located in Wallonia during a period of house-sitting for a family on holiday. Initially my mother was asked to take care of the chickens, goat, dog and donkey but eventually I decided to take care of them to relieve my mother. This week turned out to be a small nightmare, because I think the house was being possessed by a spirit that I had to deal with night and day. The vibe of the house was so grimy, due to the fact that there were calendars with all kinds of weapons and dark oak furniture, interspersed with a huge flatscreen and blinds at the ready to be rolled out when the sun started to go down (by request of the paranoid owner). This setting affected my sketches; a dark side that was looking for contra light weight. After I took care of the animals, I had an energy to escape to my MPC to make the basis for a possible new album. When I got back in Amsterdam, I started to work out some of the sketches I’ve made in the ghost house together with Stefan and Jos in Studio K at Sloterdijk.

Existing somewhere between the post-psychedelic period of Soft Machine and the electric funk of Herbie Hancock's Headhunters, Black And White, the 1976 album from Norway's Vanessa is without question a formidable beast of a jazz-rock record. A potent brew of sonic experimentation and pulsating off-kilter groove. Taking their name from the genus of Nymphalidae butterfly, Vanessa was founded in 1971 by saxophonist Svend Undseth and pianist Frode Holm, the founder of the Oslo record store turned imprint, Compendium Records. Unsurprisingly analogous to the music championed across the Compendium catalogue Black And White is clearly influenced by the UK Canterbury scene, highlighted by Compendium's focus on the recordings of Soft Machine alumni Hugh Hopper and Elton Dean. Vanessa's spirit also lies synonymous with the collective pedigree on the label's roster including British progressive jazz stalwart Keith Tippett and Mirage (a UK group consisting of ex-members of Centipede and The Mike Westbrook Orchestra), together with the avant-rock collective Henry Cow and the experimental synthesiser-jazz of US ex-pat Joe Gallivan (together with Charles Austin).

Often dubbed the 'Compendium house band' owing to Holm's association with the label, the Vanessa sound is inherently familiar yet undeniably original. Each of the album's four long compositions are a meld of complex angular jazz laced with swirling electronic textures - furious rhythms that surge in intoxicating intensity before easing into fluid passages of soulful post-bop. The dichotomy of these styles plants the group firmly into radical new jazz territory alongside their Canterbury contemporaries. Despite their brief existence, the band, alongside the label left an indelible mark on Norwegian jazz-rock and the headier side of European progressive music at large.

Reissue of 1976 Norwegian Jazz-Rock album.
Post-psychedelic period Soft Machine meets the electric funk of Herbie Hancock's Headhunters
Transferred and restored from the original master tape.

Pig&Dan and Gregor Tresher come together for a powerful 10-track album ‘Soulcatcher’, now released on vinyl after a successful digital release in 2021.

‘Soulcatcher’ marks only the seventh album release on Truesoul in the label’s 19-year history, the little brother imprint to Drumcode helmed by Adam Beyer. It’s a space for boundary-less experimentation, where the finest in house and techno explore the groovier and more melodic side of their musical personas.

Pig&Dan are techno treasures, with one of the deepest discographies in the genre. They remain one of the most reliable contributors to Beyer’s labels over recent years, with ‘Soulcatcher’ marking their third release on Truesoul alone in 2021. Gregor Tresher has soundtracked the development of the European techno sound over a 25 years period, gifting the scene tried and true genre favourites such as ‘Goliath’ and ‘A Thousand Nights’.

As a collective they are master hands in the studio and ‘Soulcatcher’ encapsulates their crisp yet stirring sound palette. The album spans bright airy house, progressive and melodic techno textures, and cuts from the darker end of their sonic spectrum. It’s hints at the freedom that awaits us and better days ahead.

It"s 2023, and even the turn of century seems a long time ago now - but oddly, Purling Hiss"s guitar-band ethos feels ever more timeless. The Hiss aren"t just a simple part of the tradition going back 50-odd years Their DNA, pulsing in waves of punk and classic radio rock, grunge and slacker, is ineffably, re-singably music - but their signature crushed guitar harmonics, fused with deep soulfulness, meld into something that cuts us with fresh heartbreak, an eternal recurrence that seems to be happening right now today, as it pours off the turntable and runs down the street. Drag On Girard, the first Purling Hiss album in six years, cruises through these states of mind and places in time. As before, but with new twists, Mike Polizze and his gang let loose with the chaos and noise implied by their name, applying high-end splatter and slow-rolling low end to eight vehicles, running the gamut from gleaming pop gems to head-cleaning epic jams before they"re done. One of the unique qualities of Drag On Girard is a specific lead-rhythm arrangement of the guitars, emitting the expected formidable roar while setting a certain type of rhythmic strut for the band. The two guitars style also trips power-pop impulses in the tunes, with sung-along harmony vocals that evoke classic collective magic and burnish the tunes one by one. Once this vibe"s established, side two turns around and stretches out with the molten flow of Purling Hiss at their very most epic; couched within loose improvisatory structures, the title track and "Shining Gilded Boulevard" play further with the yin/yang of nostalgia and truth as they trade places looking meditatively back to them old days and all their harshness and beauty.

A Late Lunch’ is the soundtrack to Akiko Iimura’s eponymous movie realized in 1978. It is based on acoustic instruments and field recordings, brilliantly reconfigured and mixed by Bekaert to create a surreal, immersive soundscape. The technique used includes superposition and speed change of recordings, radical sound effects and juxtapositions of sounds. The players were prominent musicians of the 1970’s, including Maggi Payne, George Lewis, David Rosenboom and Blue Gene Tyranny.

‘A Summer Day at Stony Point’ was composed in 1969, with participation of David Behrman, Shigeko Kubota and Charlotte Warren. The piece was commissioned by English composer Hugh Davies who presented it at the Harrogate festival the same year. Stony Point is a small village in New York State where John Cage co-owned a small pseudo-commune art resort where like-minded artists gathered. ‘A Summer Day at Stony Point’ is nothing more than a page of a journal, a fragment of a notebook that utilizes a series of sound sources recorded at Stony Point on one beautiful day in the summer of 1968. Other electronic sound sources were recorded at the Brandeis University where Alvin Lucier was professor. The final realization of the piece was done at Henri Pousseur’s APELAC Studio in Brussels, 1969.

The soundtrack for Akiko Iimura’s ‘Mon Petit Album’ was composed on the basis of a simple description of the technique of the film and its time span. It includes David Behrman on alto, from an outdoor recording at Stony Point, plus excerpts from a Transition concert in London, the band Bekaert formed in 1971 with Michel Herr, Takehisa Kosugi and Ryo Koike, both members of the Taj Mahal Travelers. The atmosphere is quiet and pastoral throughout with a very dreamlike flavour.

Jacques Bekaert (1940-2020) was a man of many gifts: author, journalist, composer, photographer, visual artist, wine connoisseur, radio talk show host, diplomat and expert in Southeast Asian affairs. His whole life Bekaert has been actively involved in music but not much of his work got recorded or published. In the early 60’s Bekaert studied with Pousseur and through his frequent visits to the US he became friends with artists like John Cage, David Tudor, Charlotte Moorman and most of all David Behrman with whom he had a close friendship ever since. Bekaert helped organize the first European tour of The Sonic Arts Union (David Behrman, Robert Ashley, Gordon Mumma, Alvin Lucier) and in the early 70’s he formed the group Transition (with Belgian jazz pianist Michel Herr, Takehisa Kosugi and Ryo Koike, both members of the Taj Mahal Travelers). His meeting with Japanese experimental film-maker Akiko Iimura resulted in two film soundtracks featured on this one of a kind discreet avant garde album.

When asked in a 1979 interview about his double life as a musician and a journalist, Bekaert replied, “I suppose they’re both unsafe, unstable, questioning jobs—composing and reporting. Journalism takes me to places, shows me the world as it is. My music is my wish for the kind of world I’d want to live in. The little peaceful state I dream for everyone, where you can be yourself, and happy, and as collective as possible without giving up total privacy.”

Originally released in 1981 on the Belgian Igloo label this reissue comes with the same sleeve as originally designed by Alain Géronnez.

Inspired by three movies of avantgarde cinematographer Maya Deren (At Land, Ritual in Transfigured Time and A study in Choreography for Camera), Francesca Bono (vocalist, performer, founder of Ofeliadorme and member of the Donnacirco collective) and Vittoria Burattini (percussionist, multi-faceted drummer and member of influential Italian avant-rock band Massimo Volume) created a dense hypnotic transfixing collection of songs based upon the sole use of the Juno 60 synthesizer and the organic linear pulsating sound of a drum kit.

These apparent limitations set the scene for an incredibly rich and rewarding voyage that immediately establishes a strong identity that oscillates between circular dream soundscapes and psychedelic rhythmic architectures. Bono / Burattini excels in threading magical images where objects transform without warning (Your House Is A Ghost) and collapse into kosmische grooves (La Trama Del Desiderio) or when humming electronics mold into temporal dimensions (Sogno Nel Vigneto). Burattini’s astonishing use of the drum kit and her mallet driven timbre produce space and tension (Dinner Illusion) perfectly complementing Bono’s synthesized realm made of nuance and reflection (Dancing Demons). One of the album’s key elements is the sparse use of Bono’s singing, an intricate mix of measured phrasing, breathing, spiral structures and extrasensorial-like choirs that seem to reference the rich Italian tradition of cosmic jazz, library music and the unmatched work of the RAI engineers in the 70s working with Gruppo Di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, Morricone, Daniela Casa. The driving Can-like pulse of Le Ossa shows force and flow while Stella’s haunting piano recreates a futuristic horror-movie OST.

Suono In Un Tempo Trasfigurato is beautifully recorded and mixed by Italian composer Stefano Pilia, a perfect match for Bono / Burattini’s sonic explorations and for a record that intersects experimental wave, alien grooves, contemporary electronics and futuristic sci-fi. Their blend of analog electronics and organic pulses place them in a time out of joint where dancing remains the one constant ritual.

Raising the bar yet again, Night Owls' first single of 2023 lays yet another set of classic soul songs on you, flipped into the band's signature style. On Side A we find The Flamingo's beloved Doo-Wop/soul hit from 1959, "I Only Have Eyes For You," re-imagined to wind your waistline with Night Owls' longtime friend and collaborator - the one-and-only Chris Dowd from Los Angeles' legendary Fishbone on vocals. Known for tunes like "Pouring Rain" and "Everyday Sunshine" Dowd brings his signature soul drenched delivery with a hint of rude boy grit to match the rhythmic and tonal stylings of the group. Wanting to take things to the next level, producer Dan Ubick called in veteran underground Jamaican legend Tippa Lee (Stones Throw, Dub Club, Jammy's, Greensleeves, etc.) to sprinkle his magic rasta dust on top and deejay/toast on the track and the results are burning hot.

But wait, that's not all!! On Side B we find the beloved beat diggers classic "Live And Let Live," originally performed by Jimmy Jones in 1970 on Deke Records out of Chicago. For the Fender Rhodes-driven reggaefied version here, Night Owls roped in another longtime friend - Los Angeles kingpin and mover ’n' shaker, "Music Man" Miles Tackett to add his soulful vocals to the track and it's as buttery as cornbread from Cracker Barrel! Tackett is the mastermind behind globe-trotting funk/soul collective Breakestra (of which Night Owl Dan Ubick was a member) and legendary weekly L.A. dance parties like Funky Sole, Root Down and The Breaks. This side also includes Destani Wolf, who many will remember was featured on Night Owls’ version of “Let’s Stay Together”, providing the beautiful ‘verbed out backing vocals.

Following the release of their 2021's critically acclaimed album The Black Stone Affair, instrumental cinematic-soul outfit Whatitdo Archive Group unleashes two startling new singles: "Forbidden Cove" and "The Cashmere Chamber", out on limited edition 7'' on March 24th via Record Kicks. The 45 is limited to 500 copies worldwide and it is just an appetizer of the upcoming new album Palace Of A Thousand Sounds, scheduled for release on May 5th, 2023. Whatitdo Archive Group previous 45s went sold out in weeks and are currently very in-demand from collectors and djs.

On side A, we find the first single "Forbidden Cove". We are immediately greeted with top-notch production that feels like we stumbled upon yet another lost rarity, but this time from the heyday of American "exotica" music from the mid-century movement of the early '60s (think Martin Denny and Les Baxter). The twist here is that the underlying tone is dark, heavy and cinematic. WAG flexes their compositional chops and maturity with clever arrangements, a tight rhythm section and dreamy vibraphone that lead us to dense Arthur Verocai-esque orchestral arrangements and hypnotizing eastern flavors.

From the first notes of the Javanese metallophone, Whatitdo Archive Group welcomes you into "The Cashmere Chamber", on side B of the 7''. Less a room and more an auditory experience, "Chamber" skillfully guides you deeper into its world complete with menacing drums and bass, sinister vibraphone melodies and a haunting choir. But this driving force of the rhythm section isn't enough for WAG; we see the song quickly blossom into an adrenaline pumping guitar feature layered expertly with a Turkish baglama saz and percussion. This track is a sample-worthy heater for any DJ.

The new album Palace Of A Thousand Sounds will be available May 5th, 2023 on limited edition LP, CD and digital platforms. Palace Of A Thousand Sounds finds Whatitdo Archive Group entrenched deeper in the worlds of mid-century exotica and library music—from the Tropicalia-steeped Amazon to the minor key tonalities of the far-out Near East.

Steeped in obscurity, a cult following of crate-diggers and musical oddity collectors has been brewing over the mysterious releases of the Whatitdo Archive Group. Surfacing in 2009 from the high deserts of Reno, NV USA, this three-piece recording collective (Alexander Korostinsky, Mark Sexton and Aaron Chiazza) focuses solely on curating, performing and preserving esoteric soundtrack, library and deep-groove collections. As an onlooker, it's hard to tell whether the music they are procuring is actually archival, music of their own creation, or both. Their debut LP The Black Stone Affair, the formerly lost soundtrack music of a once-shelved Italian cinematic masterpiece, was released in 2021 and received praise from the likes of Wall Street Journal, Mojo Magazine, Uncut, Shindig and Blues & Soul Magazine, BBC 6 (UK), FIP (FR), KCRW (US), JazzFM (UK) and more. Two years later, the Whatitdo Archive Group is back. Get ready for an exotic adventure with their sophomore full-length effort: Palace of a Thousand Sounds.

CVC (oder Church Village Collective in vollem Wortlaut) stammt aus einem verschlafenen Dorf 10 Meilen nördlich von Cardiff, das auf einem Hügel in den walisischen Tälern liegt. CVC besteht aus Sänger Francesco Orsi, Bassist Ben Thorne, Schlagzeuger Tom Fry, Keyboarder Daniel `Nanial' Jones und den singenden Gitarristen David Bassey und Elliott Bradfield. Es ist erwähnenswert, dass die beiden Letztgenannten, obwohl sie sich nie begegnet sind, mit der walisischen Ikone Dame Shirley Bassey und James Dean Bradfield (Manic Street Preachers) verwandt sind. Vielleicht liegt es an den Genen, wenn Bassey sagt: "I don't think I'd be able to not do this, I don't actively choose to, I'm just drawn to it". Ihre üppigen dreistimmigen Harmonien spiegeln die Musik wider, mit der sie aufgewachsen sind - die Bausteine des zeitgenössischen Pop: die Beatles, Neil Young und die Beach Boys - reiche, melodische und unverfälschte Musik, die in der Rockgeschichte verwurzelt ist. Get Real, das 11-Track-Debütalbum von CVC, bringt einen Hauch von Laurel Canyon in die Täler. In vier sonnenverwöhnten Wochen (als die Zeit abgelaufen war, mischte Ross Orton (Arctic Monkeys) das fertige Produkt) haben sie es in Bradfields Wohnzimmer aufgenommen!

Yellow Vinyl
CVC (oder Church Village Collective in vollem Wortlaut) stammt aus einem verschlafenen Dorf 10 Meilen nördlich von Cardiff, das auf einem Hügel in den walisischen Tälern liegt. CVC besteht aus Sänger Francesco Orsi, Bassist Ben Thorne, Schlagzeuger Tom Fry, Keyboarder Daniel `Nanial' Jones und den singenden Gitarristen David Bassey und Elliott Bradfield. Es ist erwähnenswert, dass die beiden Letztgenannten, obwohl sie sich nie begegnet sind, mit der walisischen Ikone Dame Shirley Bassey und James Dean Bradfield (Manic Street Preachers) verwandt sind. Vielleicht liegt es an den Genen, wenn Bassey sagt: "I don't think I'd be able to not do this, I don't actively choose to, I'm just drawn to it". Ihre üppigen dreistimmigen Harmonien spiegeln die Musik wider, mit der sie aufgewachsen sind - die Bausteine des zeitgenössischen Pop: die Beatles, Neil Young und die Beach Boys - reiche, melodische und unverfälschte Musik, die in der Rockgeschichte verwurzelt ist. Get Real, das 11-Track-Debütalbum von CVC, bringt einen Hauch von Laurel Canyon in die Täler. In vier sonnenverwöhnten Wochen (als die Zeit abgelaufen war, mischte Ross Orton (Arctic Monkeys) das fertige Produkt) haben sie es in Bradfields Wohnzimmer aufgenommen!

CVC (or Church Village Collective in full) hail from a sleepy village 10 miles north of Cardiff, nestling atop a hill in the Welsh valleys.

 CVC is comprised of singer Francesco Orsi, bassist Ben Thorne, drummer Tom Fry, keyboardist Daniel ‘Naniel’ Jones and singing guitarists David Bassey and Elliott Bradfield. (It’s worth noting that the latter two, despite never having met them, are related to Welsh royalty Dame Shirley Bassey and Manic Street Preachers’ James Dean Bradfield.)

 Maybe owing to genetics, Bassey states “I don’t think I’d be able to not do this, I don’t actively choose to, I’m just drawn to it.”

 Their lush three-part harmonies echo the music they grew up on - contemporary pop’s building blocks: the Beatles, Neil Young and the Beach Boys - rich, melodic and pristine music that’s steeped in rock’s history.

 ‘Get Real’, CVC’s 11-track debut album, brings a touch of Laurel Canyon to the valleys. Made over four sun-baked weeks (once their time was up, Ross Orton Arctic Monkeys mixed the finished product), they kept it local by recording it in Bradfields’ living room.

Creating an introverted version of restrained electronic music Berlin-based artist Constantijn Lange releases his second album 'Liquide' on Heimlich Musik. The album is based on sketches created in isolation during the second pandemic year. The compositions are characterized by self-reflection and an attempt to translate the abstract experience of listening to oneself into a concrete form. The sound of personal isolation, the necessary withdrawal from the world and the restriction of all social contacts is, therefore, less club oriented and focused on functionality than an expressive concept of ideas, rather oriented on Trip Hop, Breakbeat, Ambient and Jazz. The collective rediscovery of shared experience results in arrangements of melancholic but optimistic melodies recorded with vintage synthesizers, supported by complex drum patterns and diverse percussions that create a signature sound as a new liquid amalgam.


Constantijn Lange is an electronic music composer originally from Ostfriesland now based in Berlin. Besides several releases on Laut & Luise since the early days, his productions appear on labels like Get Physical, Traum Schallplatten, Sinnbus, Platon Records, Egoplanet
and many more.
His passion for thick layered synth melodies, jazzy and kraut – like vibes, atmosphere recordings, deep basslines and selfmade percussion designs give his music a recognizable vibe which can be heard on nearly every production he was involved in so far. He spends a lot of time in his studio in Berlin, working on new music, remixing other artists and also engineering for other sound projects in the art scene. On top of that, he performs as a liveact in clubs and on festivals all over the planet where his music can be described as very emotional and personal. Repeatedly this amazed people in countries like Germany, Russia, Poland, Switzerland, South Africa, Austria, Belgium, Mexico and
many more.
Constantijn’s ambition as an artist is to constantly evolve his productions and create music
which carries emotions and energies into the clubs, to festivals and living rooms alike.

The roots of JuJu started in San Francisco after Plunky had met his musical mentor, Zulu musician Ndikho Xaba, helping to form his band Ndikho and The Natives. Three members of The Natives (Plunky, bassist Ken Shabala and vibes / flute player Lon Moshe) then joined Marvin X’s theatrical production The Resurrection Of The Dead, joining local musicians Al-Hammel Rasul (keyboards), Babatunde Lea (percussion) and Jalango Ngoma (timbales).

When the production ended, the six musicians formed Juju. “We had high-energy rehearsals that lasted for hours and, as a band, we became powerful and began gigging around the Bay Area,” remembers Plunky. Although orientated towards Black Nationalism, the

band fed off the Bay Area’s culturally diverse communities as Plunky shaped an inclusive worldview based on collective political, social and artistic activities. During this time, the Soledad Brothers case and Angela Davis were prominent and the band supported Professor Davis and the cause. Juju’s music matched the fire of their activism. “As a band, we blew, pounded and stroked our instruments like there was no tomorrow, like our life’s work was wrapped up in each session. We approached our performances like religious rites and the music mesmerised, informed and awakened people.” The band’s first album, a Message from Mozambique, was intentionally political. While the anti-war movement focused on Vietnam, Juju looked towards wars being waged in South Africa, Angola and Mozambique over issues of white supremacy and control of natural resources. A second album, ‘Chapter Two: Nia’ would follow before the birth of Oneness Of Juju during the mid-‘70s. This definitive reissue is fully remastered by The Carvery from the original tapes and features original artwork and a new interview with Juju bandleader James “Plunky” Branch.

Ground Groove, the third full-length release from the LA-based, Iranian-American producer and DJ, Maral, begins with an invocation: the sprawling, achingly heavy Feedback Jam opens the floodgates of history. Conventional (linear) spacetime collapses, crushed beneath the track’s lumbering 4/4 heartbeat and successive waves of distortion. As each wave recedes, samples trickle forward in the mix — seeking, perhaps, to fill the void. Voices and instruments rise and fall in uncanny reverse. Overlapping, implied melodies flicker into focus, then flit away. Feedback Jam is at once an initiation ritual, and a thesis statement for the record that follows.

Drawing upon a vast personal archive of Iranian folk, classical, and pop recordings (some sourced from mixtapes made by her parents in the eighties/nineties), Maral presents, on Ground Groove, a further refinement of the signature “folk club” sound she developed as a live DJ— a sound she would later codify on Mahur Club (2019) and Push (2020). By collecting, dissecting, and re/presenting sonic fragments from Iran, Maral practices a kind of dance-floor ethnomusicology. The subject of her inquiry: Iranian


culture and contexts, throughout history and in the present. But, crucially, this inquiry is instantiated within and throughout the body of the listener, whether this listener is dancing in the club, or riding the train, nodding along with headphones on.

Maral speaks of being in collaboration with her samples, treating each as a distinct bandmate, often consulting with an artist’s catalog (or even a single recording) as one would a trusted creative partner. In so-doing, Maral claims to seek to transcend the self. In this regard, her output neatly triangulates contemporary dance and heavy music with much of the traditional religious music that she samples. Broadly speaking, each of these idioms addresses a desire —shared by audience and performer alike—to transcend the self through volume, repetition, and movement.

Having, in her youth, studied the Setar under Nader Majd (the founder of Virginia’s Center for Persian Classical Music), Maral cycled through various genres (ex: punk, emo, dub) in her adolescence and early twenties, all the while expanding her knowledge of, and appreciation for, Iran’s diverse musical traditions during regular summer trips to Tehran. In college, Maral taught herself to make beats with a ripped copy of Ableton (which remains her DAW of choice), eventually transitioning to playing and hosting various club nights. Forever abiding by an autodidactic, DIY impulse to create art and foster community, Maral relocated to Los Angeles in 2013, where she quickly immersed herself in the city’s numerous overlapping music scenes.

Collaboration (beyond sampling) has proven an important component of her process, with notable spoken word contributions from the likes of Lee Scratch Perry and Penny Rimbaud, as well as a 2021 Panda Bear collab track (On Your Way), which the Animal Collective founder co-produced. Maral is equally attentive to the visual components of her records (album art, music videos, etc.), drawing upon the work of peers and friends for inspiration.

Indeed, the genesis of Ground Groove can be traced back to an audio-visual collaboration between Maral and the artist Brenna Murphy, originally commissioned for the 2021 Rewire Festival — a project that would eventually serve as the album’s foundation. Tracks eight through eleven on Ground Groove comprise Maral’s half of this installation, with tracks one through seven composed afterwards, inspired by the fruits of Maral and Murphy’s collaboration. Murphy’s visuals will be released alongside Ground Groove as a visual accompaniment. Additionally, Murphy designed the album’s art, directed the video for the lead single (the aforementioned Feedback Jam), and is featured on track six, Shy Night.

Composed largely on Ableton, Ground Groove features more frequent and more prominent live recordings from Maral (guitar, bass, and vocals) than either Push or Mahar Club. The cult favorite Roland MC-909 groovebox rears its head on Mari’s Groove. Mixed by Trayer Tryon (Hundred Waters) and mastered by Daddy Kev, the attention to sonic quality on Ground Groove constitutes another significant step in Maral’s development as a studio artist.

Ground Groove’s eleven tracks are “grooves” in the obvious sense, in that they are each driven by a persistent, propulsive rhythm, but the album’s title may just as well suggest the glacial passage of time—the scope of human history, in which individual voices, like streams, carve paths (impossibly) through earth and stone, winding their way to the vast sea of the present.

Strawberries ripen in the spring. Or so they used to, in a more reliable world, one that seems to be rapidly receding in our collective rearview mirror. Presently, “spring” is a troubled concept — fraught with anxiety. Our seasons, if they are seasons at all, are paradoxical. Crops fail, or they ripen prematurely, all at once, and into a burst of rot. Impossibly, somehow, the supermarket shelves stay stocked (mostly, for now at least), and there are buckets of strawberries on every corner. But, of course, their nature is suspect. And they don’t taste like they used to. Or maybe that’s just ruinous nostalgia. But somewhere along the way we certainly lost something. Everybody knows.

Strawberry Season (Leaving Records, November 9 2022) responds tenderly to this sorry state of affairs, not with false comfort — nor escapism. Rather, the album conveys, often wordlessly, that there remains an abundance of sweetness amidst our increasing unease. While much of twentieth century American popular and folk music may have dwelt on the beauty and plenitude of the prairie, More Eaze applies a similar Romantic focus to the small bursts of fecundity that now hide in plain sight. Blending found sound, generative music, a knack for elegant, classically-informed melodic arrangement, and a sort of Liz-Fraser-by-way-of-hyperpop approach to vocals, Strawberry Season offers unique solace — providing an occasion for the kind of deep listening that our overstimulated and undernourished spirits require if there is to be any hope at all (and of course there must be hope).

More Eaze (serving as composer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and sound artist) guides us incrementally to this locus of attentiveness. Strawberry Season begins with the softly sweeping gentle pets. Early intimations of Velvet Underground give way, indeed, to a string arrangement that John Cale might have saved for Paris 1919. The second track, Suped, features a kaleidoscopic swirl of grocery checkout scanners that eventually coalesce and release with the subtle strumming of a harp. On known, in the midst of a nearly elegiac outflow of feeling, a shower starts to run. Someone steps inside, pulling the curtain back, sending the plastic rings clattering. Moments later, the unmistakable sound of the showerer blowing their nose — an inclusion that is at once light-hearted and jarringly, movingly intimate.

Strawberry Season’s second to last song, low resolution at santikos, serves as a sustained meditation on all that has come before it. Building slowly throughout its nine minutes, teetering, at times, on the edge of danceability, it dissipates suddenly, and Strawberry Season concludes with the rustling of clothes, snippets of distant conversation, creaking floorboards, an exhale and a sniff. There is a feeling of having arrived, of temporary reprieve in the face of uncertainty. A hint of a season yet to come, or one that is perhaps only now accessible in dreams.