quête:come

Fans of American metal act Iced Earth have long hoped for a new sign of life from their icons. On 28 April 2023, the wait will be over at last: Guitarist and founder member Jon Schaffer has announced the release of two new EPs on ROAR! Rock Of Angels Records. Entitled 'Hellrider' and 'I Walk Among You', these releases will include rare recordings from the transition phase between singer Tim 'Ripper' Owens' and predecessor/successor Matt Barlow in 2007 and 2008, a particularly exciting and eventful period in Iced Earth's band history. The 'Hellrider' EP consists of the songs 'Prophecy', 'Birth Of The Wicked' and 'The Coming Curse', originally from the album 'Something Wicked This Way Comes' (1998), voted one of the best power metal records of all time by Metal Hammer. In late summer 2007, all three tracks were re-recorded, featuring Tim 'Ripper' Owens. Schaffer: "Before now, these releases hadn't been issued on anything other than CD. Now they've been remastered, with new artwork, new mastering, new formats on vinyl, picture disc, and they'll be available for digital download for the first time."

The illustrious, London-based duo Kit Sebastian, aka Kit Martin and Merve Erdem, return with a limited edition 7” single. It features ’L’addio’, a breakbeat driven, sultry ballad, and ‘Hayat’, a hazy, psychedelic scorcher that delves into the band’s Turkish and Azerbaijan influences.

‘L’addio’ saw the band perfecting their production and orchestration, with strings, horns and double bass, and an Italian synth found in a French dump. The music was greatly influenced by Italian soundtracks and Italian female singers, such as Mina or Rita Pavone. The track announces itself with a break that is guaranteed to get samplers twitching. The tone of the melody and lyrics is heartfelt and aching. It has a beautiful, intimate sadness like the closing scenes to a love affair, and it exquisitely rides over the slow, psych-funk-dramatic backing track. The lyrics are inspired by a flat opposite Merve's window that's occupied by drug addicts, with many guests coming in and out every night. Merve elaborated “Being both neighbours and strangers, and with the boredom of a post-tour everyday domestic life and a pinch of urban voyeurism, it was hard not to wonder what was happening in that flat. The words imagine an addict before her/his golden shot as if it's a love relationship between them that comes to an end.”

Having spent much of 2022 touring and writing, ‘Hayat’ was the first original composition the band recorded since their October 2021 album, ‘Melodi’. Here we see them weaving a psychedelic tapestry of Mugham melodies, organ-driven grooves, and jazz-pop harmonies in classic Kit Sebastian fashion. Recorded to Fostex 1/4” tape, the essence of the production is perfectly balanced between being brand new and retro, which is a feat very hard to pull off.

‘Hayat’ is sung in Turkish and the title translates as ‘Life’ in English. The song examines our desire to find one's place in the world and the provisionality of existence. Merve's searching lyrics ask “Where are you? Where is the universe?”. Her vocal delivery perfectly reflects the lyrical focus, its texture is probing and ethereal, almost as if sung from looking above us.

To need, to be needed, in four corners. Sleep and privacy, gases come and gases go, and now you are the only one in the room you sit in, you are one with the room you sit in, as if there are no negatives and no positives--did you know that you are an extension of your apartment? Did you know that you are in a codependent relationship with your apartment? Did you know that your apartment knows and appreciates all of your secrets?--I feel safe, which is not a new need for human beings, but a very ancient one, almost the first one. It is enacted by the possibility of sound, humming or strumming something mostly. But the quiet apartment makes its own sounds: a single longing note of birdsong told to the beat of restful breathing, the angelic insistence of tinnitus, the neighbours. Sometimes I wonder if silence means nobody's home. How still I sit. Sometimes I return to silence and feel hugged by the cool lightness of its touch, like sleeping with just a sheet in summertime. Like turning the key. Like a visit from the cat next door. Like a somnambulant ray reaching across the room, asking if you'd like to step outside. Reste Envie is a desirous message to oneself, made from a place of lived solitude: the parameters of home. Roger 3000 is a painter and a musician from Brussels, Belgium. Rest En Vie follows his 2020 release on his own imprint Tundra Records, Fiftine. His first solo EP, UFO Love Letters, was released by JJ Funhouse in 2014, followed by a contribution to Ekster's 2017 compilation album EXO3. Roger 3000 frequently collaborates with other musicians and artists, most recently with Lawrence le Doux (with whom he released the EP Chou Chou on Lexi Disques in 2021); with Carole Louis as Ondine & Turbotin for the EP Club Solitude, as well as with Bitsy Knox, with whom he released the LP OM COLD BLOOD in 2018 on Tanuki Records. Text by Bitsy Knox

Since Interstellar Space, John Coltrane's posthumously released duo album with Rashied Ali, the combination of sax and drums has received an aura of sublime spiritual ambition. It is where tireless truth seekers come together to aim for something transcendental. Something too big for words. Of course, a lot has happened in the meantime.

The available options - philosophically, stylistically, temperamentally - are endless. Musicians are aware of those historical turning points, yet they also try to add their own twists and interpretations. Some of them succeed. One of reed player Mattias De Craene's many projects - MDC III - is a project involving drums and saxophone. A striking difference: De Craene invited two drummers (Simon Segers, Lennert Jacobs), that have been active in the worlds of jazz, pop, free improvisation and experimental music. They are the ideal foil for De Craene's vision, which seems to exclude no opposites. While the use of a recorder, electronics and percussion steers the music beyond the classic acoustic limitations, the result becomes strikingly rich with contrasts. What is abstract and introspective the first moment can switch - gradually or abruptly - to moments of fierce ecstasy the next.

The music feels free (free from limitations, free to choose its own logic), but also invites. Shifting moods and textures are combined with intricate rhythmical patterns, as the drummers lock together in dense, complex and/or ritualistic grooves. A minimal pulse, accompanied by murmuring hisses of brushes and a serenading sax is contrasted with moments of exuberance. The result is many things at once, but despite these wildly varying colors, sounds, textures, rhythms and moods, they are all linked, part of a generous, iridescent whole.

The trance-inducing trio MDCIII is back. And that equals yet another delicious load of modular drums, wildly processed saxophone sounds, improvisation & pulsating grooves.

After their first EP, MDCIII ft. Sylvie Kreusch, and their subsequent first (internationally) acclaimed album 'Dreamhatcher', the 'double drums' saxophone trio with Mattias De Craene, Simon Segers & Lennert Jacobs is all set to show what angle rock 'n roll can really come from. On their new album 'Drawn In Dusk' (release: end of September via W.E.R.F records) the trio delivers a whole new palette of sounds that are just as mystical, energetic and wild as 'Dreamhatcher'.

On May 12th 2023, Helsinki-based duo Ya Tosiba will release their second album, ASAP Inşallah. The album will be led by two singles, ‘Mənəm’ and ‘Pul’, due for release on March 2nd and April 13th respectively.

A collaboration between Finnish electro producer Tatu Metsätähti (also known as Mesak and Mr Velcro Fastener, and of the Scandinavian skweee scene) and Azerbaijani musician and vocalist Zuzu Zakaria, Ya Tosiba absorbs electronics, live instrumentation and folkloric poetry of Caucasus into a spirited, groovy sound.

The follow up to their 2017 debut album Love Party, Ya Tosiba’s ASAP Inşallah plays with tension of living in a world of contradictions.

Across the 10 tracks musical and lyrical collaboration takes the listener on a global trek. Sonically, features come from Norway’s Center of the Universe, France’s Poborsk, Ukraine’s Zavoloka, Sweden’s Pavan and Daniel Savio, Azerbaijan’s Rahman Memmedli, plus Patric Catani and Debmaster from Berlin. As Zuzu sings in Azerbaijani, the storytelling of ASAP Inşallah comes alive. All of the album’s lyrics are taken directly from poetry and texts: with tales of romance and war, sex and gender, nature and machine, politics and society. Though the stories are varied, and some are historical, they all tap into that tension; it’s the weight of history versus the promise of tomorrow. After collecting myriad stories during her field studies, some of which are over 100 years old, Zuzu was stunned by their contemporary relevance.

When Ya Tosiba wrote ASAP Inşallah, it started with these texts-as-lyrics; melodies and music were built out from their internal rhythms and vocalpossibilities. With a range of electronic hardware and software, Zuzu and Tatu went back-and-forth, creating taut loops and clips out of Zuzu’s vocals, drums and keyboards, with samples of their collaborators instruments and Tatu’s productions.

In chopping up recordings of the live players into their electronic beats, Ya Tosiba creates an effect of tradition and modernity “being samples from the same record, taking it apart and looping it to sound like one machine.” The patchwork nature of their process, alongside the ambitious and danceable sonics, invites the listener into Ya Tosiba’s unique perspective.

Brandee Younger will release her second album on Impulse! Records, ‘Brand New Life’. Younger is quite often noted for standing on the shoulders of the very women who ushered in the harp as a clear and distinct voice in jazz: Dorothy Ashby. This record is an amalgamation of original pieces from Brandee and select reinterpretations of Ashby’s work. Brandee Younger represents a generation of contemporary improvisational musicians who came of age in an era when hip hop commanded a strong presence in American popular culture and emerged as leaders of a new school. In ‘Brand New Life’, she brings progressive explorations of harmony, rhythm, and melody infused with styles from hip hop, rock and pop music.

Electroacoustic duo JESSE and their extended collective is making a comeback of some sorts. Having been integral part of Finnish electronic music community for 15 years now, they are releasing a new album called Descend. Produced by the band together with Berliner DJ Sotofett, the record is a voyage to the depths of microcosmos of our minds. Warm and fuzzy grooves bending into a mindmelting buzz of swampy ambient. JESSE has always been a group that is musically on a constant search and mutation, Descend is a record that once more defines their edge and can be seen as a follow up to their 2017 record Twotinos (released on Keys Of Life).

Loved by parents and children for its heartfelt and funny portrayal of young family life and celebration of play, the season follows Bluey, a six-year-old Blue Heeler dog, who loves to play and turns everyday family life into extraordinary adventures that unfold in unpredictable and hilarious ways, bringing her family, friends and community into her world of fun.

Bluey ‘The Album’ was released in January 2021 in Australia and the US and was a phenomenal success reaching #1 in the Australian ARIA charts and #1 in the US Billboard Kids Album Charts.

The initial pressing of the vinyl exclusive to Australia Record Store Day 2021 sold out.

Now the chart topping album is available on vinyl globally for the first time. Pressed on 140g blue coloured vinyl, the album features 17 songs, all original compositions from Season 1. Housed in the original album artwork this release includes an A3 colour poster of the
family neighbourhood.

Highlights include music from fan favourite episodes such as ‘Keepy Uppy’, ‘Here Come The Grannies!’, ‘Pool’ and ‘The Creek’. Two versions of the catchy theme tune are included – as an
extended version and ‘Instrument Parade’.

Side A features upbeat songs to get the whole family dancing like ‘The Claw’ and ‘Taxi’. Side B takes a tranquil tone with highlights ‘I Know A Place (The Creek Song)’, vocals by Helena Czajka & Jazz D'Arcy, and ‘Camping’. This is the perfect album for Bluey fans of any age.

Heres some new Detroit Hip Hop on FXHE approved by Omar S!

Sonny Dulphi & Pat2Dope is the Hi Tech to Hip Hop. They have the same energy as Milf Melly and King Milo from Hi Tech, in fact Milf Melly and Sonnydulphi are Cussins.

This Double 7" comes in a Dope ASS Dual 7" Booklet in plastic jacket.

Nachdem er in den späten Sechzigern als Frontmann des beliebten jamaikanischen Gesangstrios The Paragons eine Reihe von erfolgreichen Rocksteady-Singles aufgenommen hatte, wurde John Holt zu einem der beliebtesten jamaikanischen Solokünstler, der eine Reihe von Reggae-Hits für viele der führenden Plattenproduzenten der Insel produzierte.

Der internationale Durchbruch gelang ihm 1974 mit dem äußerst populären Album "1000 Volts of Holt", das raue Reggae-Rhythmen mit raffinierten Orchesterarrangements verband.

Der Höhepunkt des Albums war die Bearbeitung von Kris Kristofferssons Country-Hit "Help Me Make It Through The Night", der im darauf folgenden Jahr zu einem weltweiten Hit wurde und als Single Platz 6 der britischen Charts erreichte.
In den folgenden Jahren blieb Holt ein Gigant der Reggae-Szene mit weiteren Bestsellern und zahlreichen ausverkauften Shows auf der ganzen Welt.

Das Beste aus seinem Solowerk wurde auf dieser "Essential Artist"-Compilation zusammengestellt, der neuesten Veröffentlichung in der neu eingeführten Reihe von Trojan Records, die die Arbeit von Jamaikas beliebtesten Foundation-Künstlern vorstellt. Erhältlich als
28-Track-Doppel-Vinyl-LP und als umfassende 2CD-Compilation, veranschaulicht die Sammlung auf hervorragende Weise das Talent, das John Holt zu einem der beliebtesten und beständigsten Sänger der Reggae-Musik gemacht hat.