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SHY, LOW are true masters of the exquisite craft of stark contrasts and broad dynamics, from delicate crescendos to the grandiose power of the riff_ a craft that lies at the heart of every outstanding instrumental rock record. The Richmond, Virginia based four-piece has made an absolutely incredible and epic album brimming with creativity, groove, heaviness and truly outstanding songwriting- a record that is intricate and mature, yet gloriously anthemic at the same time. The fantastic cinematic and (surprisingly, so) entirely self-produced first music video for the track ,Helioentropy", premiered at Roadburn Redux this year, was only a tastemaker for the 5th studio album and Pelagic debut, Snake Behind The Sun. Recorded, mixed and produced at Vudu Studios in Long Island, NY by Mike Watts (The Dillinger Escape Plan, GlassJaw, Hopesfall, Tides of Man), the album pulls from elements from previous eras of the band, but also pushes into new territory. The result is a slicker, more modern, layered and 3-dimensional sound. The album title is a metaphor for the notion that darkness and negativity can remain hidden even among seemingly positive forces and positive beings in one's life. As a matter of fact, the snake crawled out from behind the sun, while the band was in the studio recording the album: ,By week 3, there were talks of NY state locking down due to the rapid rise in Covid cases; with one day left before the lock down was alleged to go into effect, it became a mad dash to finish tracking the record so we could book it home to Richmond, Virginia", says bass player Drew Storcks. Though entirely instrumental, reducing the band's contemporary sound to the term ,post-rock" wouldn't do this record justice: there is much more to it than lengthy dramatic build-ups and bittersweet melodies played by delay-drenched guitars. Snake Behind the Sun is an astounding and immensely diverse record that will appeal to fans sitting on all ends of the broad spectrum of modern heavy rock music. Limited 2LP red single colour edition! FOR FANS OF PG.LOST, THIS WILL DESTROY YOU, CASPIAN, AND SO I WATCH YOU FROM AFAR, RUSSIAN CIRCLES, THRICE

Subaerialis the latest and most sophisticated transmission from the long musical partnership of cellistLucy Railtonand keyboardistKit Downes, a collaborative history that stretches back thirteen years. From the beginning, the pair bridged musical worlds, with the former emerging from classical and contemporary music and the latter steeped in jazz tradition. This phenomenal new album captures the musicians erasing lines between approaches and traditions. While improvisation has always been a part of their alliance,Subaerialmarks thefirst time that the duo have used recorded improvisations as the core material for a release. The cello and organ, beautifully recorded byAlex Bonneyat Skáholt Cathedral, blend in richly striated harmonies, with phrases and cadences that stretch back centuries while sounding unerringly contemporary.

The pairfirst crossed paths whilst studying in London and spent the following decade collaborating in various groups whilst cutting their own distinct paths. By the time they rendezvoused in Iceland in the fall of 2017 to createSubaerial,Railton had moved to Berlin, where her embrace of electronics was leading her in new directions, exploring microtonality, psychoacoustics, and synthesis, an evolution captured on shape-shifting albums released by experimental imprints likeEditions Mego, PAN,andTakuroku. Her debut solo albumParadise 94released onModern Lovefeatures Downes on organ. Around the same time, Downes had been signed toECMand was directing much of his focus on the organ—his original instrument—on the two recordings he's made for the hallowed imprint, including the 2019 albumDreamlife of Debris, which features the cellist.

EXPANSION introduce a brand new series of 10” CLASSICS back to back with the
coolest CONTEMPORARY takes of the same track. First off is the 70s masterpiece by
the MIZELL BROTHERS, as originally recorded by the master of the Hammond organ,
JOHNNY HAMMOND in 1975 on FANTASY REORDS – a jazz funk, timeless ‘rare
groove’ previously only a single as a 7” edit but glorified here in it’s full 6 minutes. The
new version is by QUASIMODE, the hippest new jazz quartet from Japan, signed to
BLUE NOTE RECORDS. They have taken the jazz world by storm and have recorded a
version of “Los Conquistadores Chocolates” worthy of comparison to the original and
on vinyl here for the first time.

Distant Populations, just the fourth full-length album of Quicksand’s career,
comes as a comparatively swift follow-up to Interiors--which itself came a
full 22 years after its predecessor, 1995’s Manic Compression.
Critically lauded and deemed very much worth the wait, Interiors succeeded
in reestablishing the band as the powerful and contemporary entity they had
always been.
Distant Populations has a punchier, more up-tempo sound than its predecessor; its 11 songs are concise, carved sonic jewels boasting not a single wasted
note; and its raw power, its gripping lyricism, leaps out from the very first listening. It is a striking step up for the band.
The songwriting itself had been no minor process: Following the release of
Interiors, the band successfully toured around the world and in the process
fully re-established their chemistry together. Looking forward to making the
next album, the three of them frontman/ guitarist Walter Schreifels, bassist Sergio Vega, and drummer Alan Cage had methodically recorded various
soundchecks, improvisations, and show rehearsals, and compiled the results.
“Eventually, when it came time to make a record,” Schreifels says, “we would
just edit down to the ones that were most exciting to us all, and then refocus
on them and see if we could recapture the magic from it.”
There may be a final irony in the title of Distant Populations. Practically speaking, that’s precisely whom Quicksand recorded it for: Listeners very far away.
Not a single one of these songs has ever been played live onstage. The band has
dates on hold for the fall, notes Schreifels, and fingers are crossed Quicksand
will be out there performing very soon. They will likely be the most memorable
shows of the band’s career

John Prine’s Grammy Award-winning album, Fair & Square, is available on vinyl for the first time in over sixteen years. There are three special double LPs: standard black, opaque green and a limited amount of “Irish Edition”—green and orange vinyl with a matte jacket featuring embossed lettering.
Originally released in 2005, Fair & Square won Best Contemporary Folk Album at the 48th Grammy Awards and achieved the fastest rise to number one in the history of Americana radio. The record marked Prine’s first album in nine years, following 1995’s Lost Dogs and Mixed Blessings. Rolling Stone declared Fair & Square “an excellent set of songs full of rootsy warmth and unpretentious wit,” while The Washington Post praised its relatability: “this low-key masterpiece arrives not just as a reminder of Prine’s cleverness and mischievous wit but also as a confirmation of his deeply human values. These are values rooted in the enduring mystery and majesty of everyday, ordinary lives.”
Prine is a four-time Grammy winner and Lifetime Achievement Award honoree, a seven-time Americana Music Award-winner, a PEN New England Lyrics Award recipient and member of both the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Since his debut in 1971, Prine released over 18 albums and has had his songs recorded by Johnny Cash, Carly Simon, Bette Midler, Bonnie Raitt, Norah Jones, George Strait, Miranda Lambert, Zac Brown Band and many others, while drawing effusive praise from Bob Dylan, Kris Kristofferson, Bonnie Raitt, Roger Waters, Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen and more.

MILKY CLEAR VINYL.

''The lightness of the C86 Sarah Records guitars come with the significant counterweight of more ominous Factory Records basslines.The lyrics and vocals are stark, sandpapery and sardonic, akin to Jonathan Richman, Kiwi Jr and, Bodega.'' Ducks Ltd. - EP Review - God Is In The TV
Toronto’s Ducks Ltd. (formerly Ducks Unlimited), the bright jangle-pop duo of Tom McGreevy (lead vocal, guitar, bass, keyboards) and Evan Lewis (guitar, bass, drum programming), accomplish the impossible. The pair craft songs that play to very specific inspirations without drowning underneath them—immediately evidenced on their critically acclaimed EP, Get Bleak, and sharpened on Modern Fiction, their debut LP. “The Servants, The Clean, The Chills, The Bats, Television Personalities, Felt,” Evan rattles off. “Look Blue Go Purple is one I reference a lot with our production.” Echoes of ‘80s indiepop abound, but they never overwhelm. This is not a nostalgic record, after all, nor is it a derivative one. Instead, across 10 cheery-sounding songs, Ducks Ltd. explore contemporary society in decline, examining large scale human disaster through personal turmoil (hence the title, taken from a university course called Gnosticism and Nihilism in Modern Fiction, influenced by Graham Greene novels. Bookish indie fans, look no further.)

Writing the album was intimate. Tom drafted the nucleus of a song on an unplugged electric guitar and brought it over to Evan’s apartment, where the pair sat in his bedroom, placing percussive beats from a drum machine under nascent melodies, passing a bass back and forth, adding organs and bridges where necessary. “It’s computer music trying extremely hard not to sound like computer music,” Tom jokes. Fearful that limited and expensive studio time would kneecap the project creatively, eroding their charming naivete, the pair re-recorded the album in a storage space owned by Evan’s boss. Ornamentation through collaboration followed: there’s Aaron Goldstein on Pedal Steel in the Go-Betweens’ “Cattle and Cane”-channeling interlude “Patience Wearing Thin,” Eliza Niemi on cello (“18 Cigarettes,” a song loosely inspired by a 1997 Oasis performance of “Don’t Go Away”), and backing harmonies from Carpark labelmates The Beths (on an ode to friendship at a distance, “How Lonely Are You?,” “Always There,” and on the sped-up Syd Barrett stylings of “Under The Rolling Moon.”) While in his native Australia due to covid-19, Evan worked closely with producer James Cecil (The Goon Sax, Architecture in Helsinki) on Modern Fiction’s finishing touches—at one point, in the mountains of the Macedon Ranges in Victoria, recorded a string quartet (featured on “Fit to Burst,” “Always There,” “Sullen Leering Hope,” “Twere Ever Thus,” “Grand Final Day.”)

It’s danceable, depressive fun, with some relief: in “Always There” and “Sullen Leering Hope,” Modern Fiction’s faithful heart. “There’s a tendency in my writing, because of my world view, to be very bleak.” Tom explains. “A quality I don’t always see in myself and really appreciate in others is the courage to go on.” And yet, the record manages resiliency—enough for pop fans to fall in love with.

MILKY CLEAR VINYL.

''The lightness of the C86 Sarah Records guitars come with the significant counterweight of more ominous Factory Records basslines.The lyrics and vocals are stark, sandpapery and sardonic, akin to Jonathan Richman, Kiwi Jr and, Bodega.'' Ducks Ltd. - EP Review - God Is In The TV
Toronto’s Ducks Ltd. (formerly Ducks Unlimited), the bright jangle-pop duo of Tom McGreevy (lead vocal, guitar, bass, keyboards) and Evan Lewis (guitar, bass, drum programming), accomplish the impossible. The pair craft songs that play to very specific inspirations without drowning underneath them—immediately evidenced on their critically acclaimed EP, Get Bleak, and sharpened on Modern Fiction, their debut LP. “The Servants, The Clean, The Chills, The Bats, Television Personalities, Felt,” Evan rattles off. “Look Blue Go Purple is one I reference a lot with our production.” Echoes of ‘80s indiepop abound, but they never overwhelm. This is not a nostalgic record, after all, nor is it a derivative one. Instead, across 10 cheery-sounding songs, Ducks Ltd. explore contemporary society in decline, examining large scale human disaster through personal turmoil (hence the title, taken from a university course called Gnosticism and Nihilism in Modern Fiction, influenced by Graham Greene novels. Bookish indie fans, look no further.)

Writing the album was intimate. Tom drafted the nucleus of a song on an unplugged electric guitar and brought it over to Evan’s apartment, where the pair sat in his bedroom, placing percussive beats from a drum machine under nascent melodies, passing a bass back and forth, adding organs and bridges where necessary. “It’s computer music trying extremely hard not to sound like computer music,” Tom jokes. Fearful that limited and expensive studio time would kneecap the project creatively, eroding their charming naivete, the pair re-recorded the album in a storage space owned by Evan’s boss. Ornamentation through collaboration followed: there’s Aaron Goldstein on Pedal Steel in the Go-Betweens’ “Cattle and Cane”-channeling interlude “Patience Wearing Thin,” Eliza Niemi on cello (“18 Cigarettes,” a song loosely inspired by a 1997 Oasis performance of “Don’t Go Away”), and backing harmonies from Carpark labelmates The Beths (on an ode to friendship at a distance, “How Lonely Are You?,” “Always There,” and on the sped-up Syd Barrett stylings of “Under The Rolling Moon.”) While in his native Australia due to covid-19, Evan worked closely with producer James Cecil (The Goon Sax, Architecture in Helsinki) on Modern Fiction’s finishing touches—at one point, in the mountains of the Macedon Ranges in Victoria, recorded a string quartet (featured on “Fit to Burst,” “Always There,” “Sullen Leering Hope,” “Twere Ever Thus,” “Grand Final Day.”)

It’s danceable, depressive fun, with some relief: in “Always There” and “Sullen Leering Hope,” Modern Fiction’s faithful heart. “There’s a tendency in my writing, because of my world view, to be very bleak.” Tom explains. “A quality I don’t always see in myself and really appreciate in others is the courage to go on.” And yet, the record manages resiliency—enough for pop fans to fall in love with.

AMSIA is one of those hidden representatives of Basque experimental music that happened and disintegrated long ago.

Called "The other musics" or "Risky music" it originated two decades ago in the slaughterhouse of the Basque town of Azkoitia (Gipuzkoa).
This native music scene was an attempt to summarise the evolution of contemporary pop/experimental/ contemporary music, rather than an attempt to generate something new.

Its character is solitary and its nature is electronic; the result is a sound collage of MIDI orchestrations combined with synthesized sounds, vinyls and sampler libraries.

The sound of it is chaotic, unpredictable and strangely beautiful.

Full LP of new, original holiday music featuring members of Durand Jones & The Indications and The Dap-Kings. "A Joyful Sound" is a future soul classic with all the elements of a classic R&B record, but simply with a joyful holiday lean. With an all-star supporting cast of who's who from the contemporary soul scene this record is truly a family affair with Kelly at the wheel. Featuring members of Durand Jones & The Indications, The Dap-Kings, Ghost Funk Orchestra, Monophonics, Thee Sinseers, Orgone, Ikebe Shakedown, Jason Joshua & The Beholders, The True Loves, Neal Francis, Jungle Fire, Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio, Ben Pirani, The Jive Turkeys, The Ironsides, The Harlem Gospel Travelers, Rudy De Anda, Alanna Royale, and more! Inspired by records like Atlantic's "Soul Christmas", Phil Spector's "A Christmas Gift For You" and Rotary Connection's "Peace" this album will be a record that will appeal not only to lovers of holiday music, but lovers of SOUL music in general! This is Kelly Finnigan's third full-album production in just under two years, including his debut LP "The Tales People Tell" and Monophonics' most recent effort "It's Only Us". He is rapidly establishing himself as a key producer, songwriter, and performer in the current soul scene.

Contemporary and historical Porest recordings channelled from behind the somnambulistic event horizon. The now sound... The bleak oblique. The minimal and the maximal. Filmic chamber drones, meditative radio massage and forged spiritual violence bury pop ephemera into the swirling murk of de facto instrumental nihilism and orchestral context-free drama.
Side A: A harmful journey into sickness and despair. You get sick and die.
Side B: You are healed. You stand erect and live forever.
Layered field and radio recordings back electro-acoustic experiments via electric saz, strings, balypso, reeds & synths. Big drones, small ensembles and mood-anthems recorded by Porest and friends between 1995 and 2020 in West Oakland, Germany, Sumatra, Syria, Hanoi and London.

Georgian DJ and producer Vulkanski returns to BITE with his first full length album Skeptical Answers. Serving as a longtime resident at Tbilisi club KHIDI, he’s also known as one of the key figures pioneering the local electronic music scene. Achi Tabukashvili stands for rich, vibrant techno and grinding, metallic soundscapes that are elegantly arranged through his high fidelity productions and singular dj sets. Vulkanski’s Skeptical Answers traverses over 10 tracks the infinite ranges between tectonic club techno, to UK-inspired IDM and broken beat, while reaching to contemporary weightless and electro territories. Producer Tabukashvili describes and questions a period of a deeper esoteric search through the labyrinth of contemporary viewpoints on instrumental sonics and its unexpected answers. In addition, Vulkanksi is known as one half of duo Greenbeam & Leon who began DJing and performing throughout Georgia in 2002. They notably appeared on Boiler Room in response to the police raids at Bassiani and Cafe Gallery 5 years ago. With Vulkanski’s debut BITE EP Science Gardens in 2018, he illustrated his detailed vision of his own dense soundscape productions culminating in a memorable Berghain debut for label cofounder Phase Fatale’s Ostgut Ton album release party in 2020. Now, Skeptical Answers examines a wider spectrum of sonic possibilities, aimed towards the most daring of dancefloors existing between the liminal bounds of club music and its deconstructions. A dissection of his focused elements in heavy electronics. ALSO INCLUDES DOWNLOAD CODE….

White Marbled Vinyl

Georgian DJ and producer Vulkanski returns to BITE with his first full length album Skeptical Answers. Serving as a longtime resident at Tbilisi club KHIDI, he’s also known as one of the key figures pioneering the local electronic music scene. Achi Tabukashvili stands for rich, vibrant techno and grinding, metallic soundscapes that are elegantly arranged through his high fidelity productions and singular dj sets. Vulkanski’s Skeptical Answers traverses over 10 tracks the infinite ranges between tectonic club techno, to UK-inspired IDM and broken beat, while reaching to contemporary weightless and electro territories. Producer Tabukashvili describes and questions a period of a deeper esoteric search through the labyrinth of contemporary viewpoints on instrumental sonics and its unexpected answers. In addition, Vulkanksi is known as one half of duo Greenbeam & Leon who began DJing and performing throughout Georgia in 2002. They notably appeared on Boiler Room in response to the police raids at Bassiani and Cafe Gallery 5 years ago. With Vulkanski’s debut BITE EP Science Gardens in 2018, he illustrated his detailed vision of his own dense soundscape productions culminating in a memorable Berghain debut for label cofounder Phase Fatale’s Ostgut Ton album release party in 2020. Now, Skeptical Answers examines a wider spectrum of sonic possibilities, aimed towards the most daring of dancefloors existing between the liminal bounds of club music and its deconstructions. A dissection of his focused elements in heavy electronics. ALSO INCLUDES DOWNLOAD CODE….

A Wide ranging, eclectic and progressive musical outlook has always been the Lack of Afro approach. His latest material follows suit as he harnesses disparate musical styles ranging from funk, soul and hip-hop to create a contemporary yet vintage musical escapade of superb songs.


On his 4th studio album for Freestyle Records, the influences, sounds and musical textures are more eclectic than ever. Below, Adam talks us through some of the his favourite moments on 'Music For Adverts'.


First out of the box is the steaming funk killer Freedom: This time around I knew I didn't want an intro or a skit to start the album - I needed a strong, heavy opener - I had the melody for the chorus floating around in my head. It was then just a case of working with Jack Tyson - Charles on the rest of it and getting the vibe that the song required.


Long time Lack Of Afro collaborator Herbal T features on Brown Sugar: I had an idea of doing a disco track with an emcee on it, which you don't really hear often. This is actually the first time I've sung on a Lack of Afro track, adding my backing vocal warblings on the choruses! Special shout to George Cooper for the howlin' Hammond solo at the end too.


Of the gritty instrumental No Guts, No Glory Adam explains: I wanted to include 3 instrumentals as I always have a soft spot for them & it's what people know me for. The 'choir' was recorded by layering up my own voice in different octaves, nothing is auto-tuned, its all real. The studio allows me to do stuff like that but I could never sing live - I'll leave that to the proper vocalists.


'Proper vocalist' Jack Tyson - Charles again features on The Gypsy, which as Adam explains uses the classic song format to great effect: One of my favourite LOA tunes to date, Its in keeping with the album mission statement of wanting to write 'proper songs' instead of just grooves.

Forming off the back of contemporary jazz outfit Zeitgeist, Voronoi take the power and rhythmic complexity of heavier prog-metal and fuse it with the sophistication of classical music and jazz. A passion for science fiction thematically drives the band’s heaving and

chopping style, whereas artists such as Autechre, Car Bomb, Tigran Hamasyan and J.S. Bach help shape the rigid, experimental structure of The Last Three Seconds.

“Compositionally and stylistically we have moved into much heavier territory than our contemporary jazz foundations,” says Keyboardist Aleks Podraza. “It really shows. If you were to put this record against the first tunes we played together as Zeitgeist, it would be like introducing a much capable Thelonious Monk to a less hectic Dillinger Escape Plan.” 

As the first single off The Last Three Seconds, Gamma Signals serves as a toe in the water for the depth of things to come. The full-bodied riffwork captures the stop-start format of prog-metal heavyweights without being explicitly metal. Yet beyond this, glitchy, experimental electronics cut through the composition like a knife. The final product is something that captures the magic of the cosmos – a place where worlds orbit worlds, genres orbit genres. Each element remains different and unique, but still intrinsically tied to the other.

“Gamma Signals is about pulsars and how when Jocelyn Bell-Burnell first discovered them, the media thought they were aliens trying to contact us,” says Podraza. “Broadly, this song is about my love for and fascination with cosmology as a whole. That's a theme that runs through the veins of most of the album.” 

Those following Vorono’s career will need little convincing on the quality of The Last Three Seconds. Collectively, band members have performed and recorded with groups like The Cinematic Orchestra, KOYO, NJYO, Jenova Collective, The Often Herd, Mik Artistik’s Ego Trip, Wandering Monster and more. This in turn has garnered sizable attention at festivals such as Leeds and Reading Festival, Download Festival, Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club - not to mention Voronoi’s thrashing set at 2019’s ArcTanGent.

The cool and collected chaos of The Last Three Seconds serves as a snapshot of this live energy, as passion and fury hum at the end of every complex composition. From start to finish, the record is nothing less than executed perfectly, undoubtedly appealing to even the most seasoned of prog-lovers

John Dikeman – saxophone
Jaimie Branch – trumpet
Luke Stewart – bass
Aleksandar Škorić – drums


A powerful collision of musical personalities - American saxophonist (and Dutch resident) John Dikeman invited avantgarde trumpeter Jaimie Branch, bassist Luke Stewart (Irreversible Entanglements) and drummer Aleksandar Škorić to form a new band project! This quartet presents its own definition of contemporary improvised jazz -with no distinct leader and with tight and supportive interplay, they demonstrate the independent musical voice of each own. Album cover by Jaimie Branch.

Global reggae stars SOJA are back with their first album in 4 years.
‘Beauty In The Silence’ features special guests Rebelution, UB40, Dirty
Heads, Slightly Stoopid, Collie Buddz and more.  SOJA deliberately took their time in creating ‘Beauty In The Silence’ as
they explored new sonic terrain, recording in such iconic spots as
Miami’s Circle House Studios and Dave Matthews Band’s Haunted
Hollow, and teaming up with producers like Niko Marzouca (Bob Marley,
Pharrell, Rick Ross, A$AP Rocky), Mariano Aponte and Johnny Cosmic.
The band eventually phased into working remotely as stay-at-home
orders set in across the country and, in that process, lead guitarist
Trevor Young (formerly SOJA’s guitar tech) took on a much greater role
in the band’s creative direction, co-producing alongside Hemphill and
carefully shaping the album’s hypnotic sound.  For more than two decades, SOJA have elated audiences across the
globe with their fresh yet timeless take on roots reggae, a sound born
from their shared passion for making music that transports and inspires.
The band was originally formed by a group of friends while still in middle
school and they have since built a massive, dedicated global fanbase. In
the years following, SOJA have headlined shows in over 30 countries
around the world, received multiple GRAMMY nominations and
generated 7 million social media fans and more than 1 billion streams;
attracting an international fanbase along the way, with caravans of
diehards following them from city to city.  “Charismatic bandleader Jacob Hemphill writes SOJA’s lyrics as an
attempt to find a path to unity in the world.” - NPR
 “SOJA has cultivated a dedicated global fanbase with their socially
conscious lyrics, catchy sound and a ceaseless touring schedule.” - MTV
 “Contemporary reggae with a forthright social conscience.” - Billboard
 “Over the course of their near-20-year career, SOJA has amassed a
loyal following for their social justice-minded brand of roots reggae.” - USA Today

Lava Love is the new album by Zoe’s Shanghai. Led by singer Zoé Renié Harris, the band has
made a splash into the crowded neo-soul scene with their debut EP A Mirage (Meant To Last
Forever) released in 2019 - a deeply evocative sound and Zoe’s extraordinary voice gained them
immediately the spotlight as ones to watch (“a worthy torchbearer for heady and hearty soul music”-
Earmilk).
Following a successful string of EPs and singles, the Barcelona & Paris-based four-piece band is
now ready to share with the world their first full-length album.
Lava Love was recorded in an old stable in the French region of Auvergne - known for its mountain
ranges and dormant volcanoes, this region could not have been a more apt setting.
Lava and love portray in fact a dynamic flow of memory and meaning pouring out of Zoe’s
Shanghai’s heart. In and out of the metaphor, Lava and love can be powerful, frightening, beautiful,
dangerous and at the same time are essential elements that create fertile change and growth.
Through the 11 songs, the band evoke memories and pose questions - inner dialogues, life stories,
encounters and relationships – the album depicts a kaleidoscope of moods and feelings, prompting
the listener to open to the conversation: while each song presents a microcosm on its own, the album
manifests itself in the shared musical experience - immersive music to listen to and enjoy with your
loved ones.
Produced with Oli Barton-Wood (Nubiyan Twist, Joe Armon-Jones, Nilufer Yanya), the sound of
Lava Love brings together hypnotic melodies, groovy rhythms and thoughtful lyrics - fusing the
essence of multiple music styles and forging Zoe’s Shanghai unique contemporary soul.
The album follows the critically acclaimed EP ‘A Mirage’, which garnered the support of Gilles
Peterson & Huey Morgan (BBC 6 Music), Jamz Supernova (BBC Radio 1Xtra), Worldwide FM and
Earmilk to name a few.

SEX was composed during the formation of Imhof’s art show of the same name, previously exhibited at Tate Modern, London, The Art Institute of Chicago and forthcoming at Castello di Rivoli, Italy, this September. Imhof, Douglas and Bultheel, reworked the songs from how they appeared in the exhibition ‘SEX’. The result is a compelling record that acts as an imaginative accompaniment to the ‘SEX’ performances, as well as standing alone as a progressive collection of contemporary compositions.

SEX references punk, industrial and grunge, and boldly juxtaposes these forms with music of the classical and baroque period. The album combines classical formals and orchestration with vocals that are rooted in subcultural traditions, thus beautifully overdrawing and overwriting these forms with the composer’s own. Harpsichord and oboe are combined with distorted electric guitar, or exuberant string ensembles with heavy industrial drums.

The amalgamation of genres contained in the album was also integral to the choreography of SEX, where walzes and tangos were contrasted with stage diving, slam dancing and moshpits. What resulted was a surreal ballroom, loaded with desire and aggression. In the same vein, the record fearlessly shapeshifts, blends genres and styles evoking an impressive array of moods. Oscillating between fragility and flamboyance, Imhof and Douglas’ versatile voices reinvent themselves from one song to the next, while singing songs of love and hate.

The last song on Sex is ended by a quote of the band LOW, `All you Pretty People, you`re all gonna die`. This ambiguous moment, a prophecy sung in Douglas’ vibrating baritone voice, rattles the listener despite the mundane truth of the statement. This complexity is reflected in the album itself, allowing for an unusual multiplicity of emotions and interpretations with impressive depth and dynamism.

The album is mixed & engineered by Ville Haimala and mastered by Rashad Becker, featuring design by ZAK Group and photography by Nadine Fraczcowski. All tracks by Anne Imhof, Eliza Douglas & Billy Bultheel, track 6* by Eliza Douglas & Ville Haimala.

After Dinner from Japan, embraced new wave, traditional Japanese music, free contemporary and avant-garde rock. Founded under hand of delicious female vocalist, musician and composer Haco in 1981, broaching a very interesting collective cohesion; their background, though however various, brought them together during times of recording and live performance.

1982-85 includes all their first production; the complete 1st album “Glass Tube", 2 tracks from the 1st 7” single and a bonus track track from a 1985’s compilation on Celluloid.

“A founding member of the legendary band After Dinner, Haco is one of the most versatile vocalists in the Japanese indies scene.” (John Zorn)

"Haco is capable of gallons of tenderness and melancholy." (Kurt Gottschalk)

Bristol experimental jazz collective Ishmael Ensemble reveal their expansive new album Visions of Light. The follow-up to their critically acclaimed 2019 debut A State of Flow, praised by the likes of The Guardian, Mojo, The Wire and tastemakers across BBC 6Music, this sophomore record sees the group reimagine what an ‘ensemble’ can do; expanding into a shifting collective, where human relationships between artists underpin far-ranging, stunningly ambitious and emotionally heavyweight compositions.

Helmed by producer and saxophonist Pete Cunningham, Ishmael Ensemble’s richly inventive 2019 debut A State Of Flow marked them out as an explosive new force in UK jazz, imbuing lush cinematic compositions with left-field dub and electronic sensibilities

redolent of Bristol’s vital musical landscape. NamedThe Guardian’s ‘Contemporary Album Of The Month’ and Mojo’s ‘Jazz Album of The Month’, it saw the group perform Maida Valesessions for both Gilles Peterson and Tom Ravenscroft, as well as feature on compilations for Brownswood Recordings and Soul Jazz Records. Cunningham’s rise as an in-demand producer led to remixes for the likes of techno royalty Carl Craig,as well as legendary jazz label Blue Note Records alongside a plethora of the UK’s finest musical talent on Blue Note Re:Imagined.

Ishmael Ensemble has since become a platform for Cunningham to subvert the conventional notions of producer/artist relationships, unsettling genre tags, and transcending the familiar landscape of UK jazz itself. Across the album’s 10 tracks, Cunningham practices a holistic approach with a long list of collaborators. Together, they explore vast new sonic terrain with an honesty, intimacy and emotional heft impossible for a conventional band.

Visions Of Light tells the story of Ishmael Ensemble’s development across its two sides. The first draws from the energy Cunningham and his bandmates discovered whilst extensively touring A State Of Flow.

Limited edition vinyl set featuring eight live installations from the ISM Hexadome, recorded in binaural sound at MASS MoCA (Museum of Contemporary Art, Massachusetts) in December 2019. Listening to the recordings on headphones recreates the detailed sense of spatialisation and movement of the ISM Hexadome's immersive 52-channel sound system that these works were exclusively composed for. The album also includes artwork prints of 10 still images excerpted from the installations created by visual artists in collaboration with the sound artist. The prints by Holly Herndon & Mathew Dryhurst and Tarik Barri are bonus visual material, as it was not possible to use the tracks for the record.

Spectra! represents a lone, anomaly release by illusive producer and recording artist J. Walker of Perth, Western Australia. Recorded and produced in 2016, Spectra! comprises a collection of 12 instrumental works composed in response to an imagined brief investigating the refined shades and pigments of colour.
Whilst stylistically somewhat comparable to library music recordings from Europe released throughout the 1980’s, Walker’s compositions never step too closely toward facsimile. Instead, they maintain a unique sense of identity, one closer akin to a born-too-late contemporary interpretation of the sentimentality and lost moods that allowed library music it’s point of difference and charm in the first place. Unlike many modern artists who flirt with the past, Walker isn’t concerned with carbon copying the sound palate and tape hiss of yesterday. In these works, antecedent emotional and harmonic bodies are given new life and form by means of modern studio hardware, musical equipment and compositional techniques. Recommended for fans of the Coloursound Library and Joël Vaandroogenbroeck.

Moments, Guy Mantzur's brand new label returns with its second release, presenting over fifteen minutes of revolutionary material by Tamir Regev. The two parts of this conceptually coherent release create an exciting and exceptional soundscape. Tamir uses his high-tech studio skills to form an elegant contemporary production with a fluid arrangement. However, this brilliant, forward-thinking artist doesn't just focus on the latest tricks in the book. His tonal elements address the thousand-year-old traditions of the Middle-Eastern culture. The music that tastefully connects the past and present. Nevertheless, Tamir's artistic expression isn't just an impractical experiment but powerful dancefloor tools. It's an electronic dance sound that can turn any party into a spectacle.

The principles of the inclusive band "21 downbeat": Intoxication and ecstasy, or thump and confetti! Beyond the usual boundaries and ideas, the band members create their very own sound from their own texts and poems by contemporary authors. Perhaps the musicians can be called Satyroi, cheerful demons in the wake of Dionysus, who is difficult to tame and for whom our current limits and ideas do not play a role. At appearances at Mensch Meier, the canteen at Berghain and at the Fusion Festival, the band has already put on spectacular stage shows that caused euphoria right down to the last row.

The now appearing debut ep "Shower" contains 4 pieces. Energetic percussion meets a rough synthesizer sound, the vocals are mostly polyphonic, clear and straightforward. All lyrics of the EP are based on poems by the award-winning author Yoko Tawada.

Revered Danish producer and live performer KÖLSCH follows his 2013 hit album "1977" (KOMPAKT 276 CD 107) with the new full-length "1983", again chaining up heroic techno tracks for a grandiose sonic journey to the vibrant heart of today's dance floor. PRIORITY RELEASE

Coupling contemporary production pizzaz with nostalgia-tinged soundscapes and sweeping melodies, this opus acts as both a skilfully composed portfolio of personal memories and a sublime collection of crowd-charming cuts - a modern classic in the making, coming from a master of his craft.

1983 features collaborations with Gregor Schwellenbach, Waa Industry and WhoMadeWho's Tomas Høffding.

Hot on the heels of SPEICHER 84 (KOMPAKT EXTRA 84), featuring club crackers DERDIEDAS and TWO BIRDS, the latest full-length offering from KÖLSCH is very much a travel album: "When I was a kid in 1983, we used to drive through Europe every summer on the way to the south of France", he explains. "A lot of my early music memories stem from these long travels, as we would listen to all my father's favorite records on the cassette deck. After getting a walkman, I would make up my own soundtrack for travelling, with early electro and hip hop creeping into my life. My father of course did not like it, and it never grace the official cassette deck of the car, obviously"

These trips became a primary source of inspiration to a hungry young mind forced to sit on the backseat of a car for several days: "they were also journeys through the seasons. In Denmark, it would be spring time, so I could nearly see us driving through spring into the summer. The scenery would change, and so would the mood in the car." Informed by the symbolic quality of these slightly gauzy childhood memories, KÖLSCH's unique melange of emotional and functional elements works exceptionally well for the full-length format - a seamless transition of musing introspection and explosve expression, where catharsis never seems far away in dance-ready techno vignettes like MOONFACE, UNTERWEGS or PACER.

From beatless opener and title track 1983 to the filigreed piano banger DIE ANDEREN or the bleep-infused synth-fest E45, each cut operates as its own little time capsule, storing bits and pieces of recollection and then magically transforming them into epic, beat-driven soundscapes. Confronted with other producers' input (and other memories), these traits find themselves extended in the most interesting ways - TALBOT, THE ROAD and CASSIOPEIA (also featured on KOMPAKT EXTRA 79) make excellent use of GREGOR SCHWELLENBACH's emotive orchestral flourishes, while BLOODLINE's lyrics come to life thanks to the distinct timbre of TOMAS HØFFDING of WHOMADEWHO fame. A new powerful take on an earlier collaboration, PAPAGENO 30 YEARS LATER not only rejoins WAA INDUSTRY on vocal duty, but also ends the album on a wonderfully elegiac, yet hopeful note - basically turning water into wine, as we've come to expect from KÖLSCH.

With COVID restrictions now easing, and fresh off the back of their ongoing in-lockdown Quarantine Series, as well as EP + album releases from Calder Valley upstarts The Lounge Society and cult singer-songwriter Stephen Fretwell respectively – the studio is now re-open and Speedy are back to doing what they do best: releasing one-off 7”/digital singles.

The latest band to be welcomed into label boss Dan Carey’s Streatham HQ is the 5-piece London based alt-pop band moa moa comprised of James Ratcliffe (guitars, keys, vox), Connor James (keys, guitar), Sophie Parkes (sax, vocals), Dan Byrne (bass) and Matt Taylor (drums).

Having sent the label a collection of demos during lockdown – of mainly finished songs – the one which caught Carey’s ear was actually a 20-second snippet of just an idea really – which the band had included in what they had sent over. ‘I know it sounds mad’ says the producer – ‘but I just knew there was something in it.’ Meaning in true Speedy style the band and producer alongside engineer Alexis Smith had to build the song around the single motif from scratch on the day – having previously never met before, in what turned out to be a mammoth 13-hour recording session.

‘It was scary and exciting in equal measures going into it’ says the band, ‘but Dan and Lex create such a safe, encouraging creative space, and from that, we somehow came out with a moa track we're all happy with.’

The resulting track ‘Coltan Candy’ is 4 + minutes of hook-laden sunshine alt-pop that layers and builds, perfectly reinforcing the band’s manifesto of marrying ‘unconventional songwriting with pop-leaning sensibilities’, channelling (amongst others) Unknown Moral Orchestra, XTC and MGMT with contemporary R & B influences into something seamless and new. And it’s catchy as hell.

‘Lyrically, the tune is darker and more direct than our other stuff’ says James (Ratcliffe), ‘even if it’s offset by everything else going on in the music. The main hook of the song is the lyric "Coltan Candy" which refers to a mineral that has been mined unethically for decades in Africa for the production of electronic circuits in the West. I’m making some pretty OTT comments about corruption, technology, and the failures of institutions in the West, but also asking some questions about our own involvement and inability to do anything about it.’
Regardless of the seriousness of the content the band just feel relieved to have finished the track. ‘Even up to the night before the session we had 20 seconds of music that we were jamming into what sounded like an awful country track…so, it’s fair to say that the whole process really helped us to focus and make decisions!’
Coltan Candy. The sweet sound of the summer.

'The Works and Days: The Black Sections' is a sound collage album that emerged out of the production material of the film, The Works and Days (of Tayoko Shiojiri in the Shiotani Basin). The film — winner of the Encounters Golden Bear for Best Film at the 2020 Berlinale — is the second feature of C.W. Winter & Anders Edström. It is an eight-hour fiction shot for a total of twenty-seven weeks, over a period of fourteen months, in a village population forty-seven in the mountains of Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. It is a geographic description of the work and non-work of a farmer. A portrait, over five seasons, of a family, of a terrain, of a sound space, and of a duration. The film was named one of the Ten Best Films of the Year by critics at: Artforum, Cargo, Cinema Scope, Desistfilm, Filo, La Internacional Cinéfila, Mubi, Nobody, Senses of Cinema, and Sight & Sound.

The film is accompanied by this LP, TheWorks and Days: The Black Sections, by C.W. Winter, and the photo book, Shiotani, by Anders Edström. The album features musical excerpts from Tim Berne & Bill Frisell, Tony Conrad, Graham Lambkin, Mary Jane Leach, Alvin Lucier, Phill Niblock, Folke Rabe, Éliane Radigue, and Akio Suzuki. Producing, editing, and recordings by C.W. Winter. Mastered by Stephan Mathieu.

Winter & Edström’s first feature, The Anchorage, won a Golden Leopard at Locarno Film Festival and won the Douglas E. Edwards Independent/Experimental Film/Video Award from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. It was named one of the Ten Best Films of the Year by critics at Cinema Scope, Film Comment, Senses of Cinema, Variety, and Indie Wire and was named Best First Film of the Year by The New York Times. Their first film, a documentary short called One Plus One 2 was made in collaboration with the late British guitarist, Derek Bailey. Their film/video work has shown at such venues as the Institute of Contemporary Art (Boston), Centre national de la photographie (Paris), Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Fotomuseum Winterthur, NRW-Forum (Düsseldorf), the Harvard Film Archive, Anthology Film Archives, the Wexner Center for the Arts (Columbus), Centre de cultura contemporània de Barcelona, the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, and the National Museum of Modern Art (Kyoto).

C.W. Winter was born in California. In 2020, he completed his DPhil in Art Practice & Theory at The Ruskin School of Art at the University of Oxford. He received his MFA from California Institute of the Arts where he studied closely under Thom Andersen, James Benning, and Allan Sekula. His writing has appeared in Cinema Scope, Moving Image Source, Purple, and Too Much. He lives in the United Kingdom where he is currently a Visiting Professor at the Royal College of Art and a Lecturer at the University of Oxford.

Side A excerpts:
“Thursday, May 5, 1977 & Friday, May 6, 1977: Part 4” Performed by Tony Conrad. Used by arrangement with The Tony Conrad Estate
“Sethwork” Performed by Phill Niblock. Used by arrangement with Phill Niblock
“What?? (Second Version)” Performed by Folke Rabe. Used by arrangement with the Folke Rabe Estate
“Pipe Dreams” Performed by Mary Jane Leach. Used by arrangement with Mary Jane Leach
“What?? (Second Version)” Performed by Folke Rabe. Used by arrangement with the Folke Rabe Estate
“2011” Performed by Tim Berne & Bill Frisell. Written by Tim Berne. Published by Party Time Music BMI. Recording courtesy of Minor Music Records/Screwgun Records

Side B excerpts:
“Ceremoniolose” Recorded by Graham Lambkin. Used by arrangement with Graham Lambkin
“Kugiuchi” Performed by Akio Suzuki. Recorded live for TheWorks and Days Used by arrangement with Akio Suzuki
“Music on a Long Thin Wire (Side A)” Performed by Alvin Lucier. Used by arrangement with Alvin Lucier
“A Third Trombone” Performed by Phill Niblock. Used by arrangement with Phill Niblock
“Triptych: Part 1” Performed by Éliane Radigue. Used by arrangement with Éliane Radigue

Following on from the acclaimed Tiger Balm / Amazonia Dreaming / Immersion LP (BT028), Black Truffle is thrilled to present two major new instrumental works from legendary sound artist and experimental composer Annea Lockwood. Demonstrating the ever evolving and radically open nature of Lockwood’s practice, these two recent works were developed in close collaboration with their performers. ‘Becoming Air’ (2018), developed with and performed by trumpeter Nate Wooley, uses extended technique and electronics to interfere with Wooley’s virtuosic control over his instrument, pushing him into areas of fluctuating pitch and timbral instability. Motivated by a desire for ‘the letting go of sound to be itself’, ‘Becoming Air’ unfolds as a series of texturally distinct moments separated by pauses, each fixing on a particular approach to the instrument (long tones, upper-register whistles, breathy wooshes) and maintaining it in an essentially static fashion, focussing our attention on subtle changes and variations. Dipping into near-inaudibility in the fragile high tones of its opening section, the piece dramatically increases in volume and intensity in its final third, climaxing with a passage of roaring distortion, where the interaction between feedback and trumpet pitches calls up the shuddering interference effects of Robert Ashley’s Wolfman.

‘Into the Vanishing Point’ (2019) is a collaborative work developed with New York piano and percussion quartet Yarn/Wire, who have performed work by major contemporary composers such as Olivia Block, Catherine Lamb and Klaus Lang. Carrying on the ecological and environmental concerns of some of Lockwood’s previous works, ‘Into the Vanishing Point’ was inspired by a devastating news article on the global collapse of insect populations. Discovering that the four members of Yarn/Wire had also read this text, Lockwood mapped out a loose structure for the piece that would allow the composer and four performers to explore their ‘feelings about what is happening ecologically’. Working with a huge variety of instruments, objects and techniques of sound production, the resulting work is an alluringly lush, organically unfolding tissue of unorthodox textures and haunting tones. Though not intended to sonically represent ecological issues in any direct way, its unique sound world of rubbed piano strings, gently handled objects and chiming pitches often calls up natural images: of insects and frogs, wind rushing through trees, a bird’s wings in flight. Presented in a stunning gatefold cover with liner notes by Lockwood, Wooley and Yarn/Wire, Becoming Air/Into the Vanishing Point is a testament to the generosity and experimentation that continue to characterise the work of this extraordinary artist, active for over fifty years.

Could the missing link between Eric Dolphy and Albert Ayler be the Michel Portal of 1970? After having worked alongside François Tusques defending a free jazz “made in France”, we find him here, heading up an international quintet of which each member is on fire: John Surman, Barre Phillips, Stu Martin and Jean-Pierre Drouet. The quintet had full leeway to break out the free-form in long ambient tracks to compose this Alors!!! which leaves listeners with just one word to say: More!

Do we still need to present Michel Portal?... Clarinetist destined for the classical and contemporary world after his passage in the Paris Conservatory, he decided to try his hand at jazz, with an incendiary flamboyance! After his first experience with André Hodeir and Pierre Michelot, he would break all the codes with François Tusques (Free Jazz, in 1965) before starting the emblematic Michel Portal Unit. It is the Portal of those years that Alors!!! offers us the chance to listen to again.

“There are periods of insolence”, the musician declared and the year 1970 was one all on its own. Heading up an impetuous international troupe, a quintet consisting of John Surman (saxophones, bass clarinet), Barre Phillips (double-bass), Stu Martin (drums) and Jean-Pierre Drouet (percussion), Portal moves from alto sax to clarinet in the compositions shared with his partners.

From the off, the group sparks an explosion with the sound of “OO Bam Ba Deep” battered by the horns and percussion. Next up is the fabulous free jazz of “Yes, Oh Yes, You Wonderous Sun Kissed Maiden!” and the fantastic disjointed march of “Ça Boom?” which shakes up the musicians every which way. The quintet imagined that listeners would need to catch their breath, and thoughtfully added: “Billie the Kid” and “Undercurrent”, marvelous moments of ambient mystery.

Audacious from beginning to end, including the sleeve – the bird-man and his quintet brain designed by Avoine, –, the album is a fabulous object, to which the label Futura gave wings at the time. And as it is being reissued today there is just one word to use: the French translation of the title, So!!!

‘K Bay’, out on Domino Recordings, is the first new solo
material from Matthew E. White in six years.
Matthew E. White describes the album as a “love affair
with music.” It’s a record thrillingly engaged with an
eclectic range of contemporary and 20th Century popular
music. The daring production mines and foregrounds longsimmering but previously veiled influences from the realms
of hip-hop, electronic pop and dancehall but all filtered
through White’s self-described outsider perspective.
‘K Bay’ is an homage to Kensington Bay, his home studio
where he records his personal projects and is his
sanctuary of creativity (White’s second studio,
Spacebomb, is where he works on collaborative projects
and has recorded and produced records by Foxygen,
Natalie Prass and Flo Morrissey).
More than love, romance, or self-reliance, this is the
animating ideal of ‘K Bay’ - that we can forever strive for
something better, no matter how flawed or blessed we
have already been. A decade ago, Matthew E. White made
a classic beauty no one expected; on ‘K Bay’, he has
made a masterpiece by harnessing what he’s learned from
that community and life itself in entirely unexpected,
electrifying, and reaffirming ways.

It was once said that listening to ‘Antiphonals’ was, “like listening to a
progressive rock album except it’s just the keyboard parts.” As the
second full-length LP on Late Music, Davachi offers here a slow and
sedate solo affair composed with the various horns and woodwinds of
the mellotron alongside organs, pianos, harpsichord and more quiet
delights.
CD in 4 panel gatefold lancing pack.
LP in standard 3mm spine printed sleeve, poly-lined inner bag and
digital download card.
As a composer and performer of both acoustic and electronic music,
Sarah Davachi’s work is concerned with the close intricacies of
intimate aural space, utilizing extended durations and simple
harmonic structures that emphasize subtle variations in texture,
overtone complexity, psychoacoustic phenomena and temperament
and intonation.
Similarly informed by minimalist tenets of the 1960s and 1970s,
baroque leanings toward slow-moving chordal suspensions and
experimental production practices of the recording studio
environment, in her sound is manifest an experience that lessens
apprehension of consonance and dissonance in likeness of the
familiar and the distant.
Davachi has toured extensively across the globe and has shared the
stage and collaborated with artists such as Grouper, William Basinski,
Ariel Kalma, the Bozzini Quartet, the London Contemporary
Orchestra, Oren Ambarchi, Donald Buchla, Suzanne Ciani, the BBC
Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Jessica Moss, Áine O'Dwyer,
Alessandro Cortini, James McVinnie, Ian William Craig, Kara-lis
Coverdale, Aaron Dilloway, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, Ellen Arkbro,
Loren Connors and filmmaker Paul Clipson.
Between 2007 and 2017, Davachi had the unique opportunity to work
for the National Music Centre in Canada as an interpreter and content
developer of their collection of acoustic and electronic keyboard
instruments. In 2020, she established her own label, Late Music.

Licensed in 1975 by Gemelli, Rendez Vous is possibly a holy grail in Nicolai’s long-running career as a composer. The orchestra director and musical editor is been active for at least 30 years and his majestic opus an overwhelming data for any avantgarde freak or moviegoer obsessed. While studying piano and composition at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome, he befriended Ennio Morricone and formed a long working relationship, with Nicolai eventually conducting for and co-scoring films with Morricone. Nicolai also scored a number of giallo exploitation films and wrote many scores for director Jesús Franco. His work was featured in the Quentin Tarantino films Kill Bill: Volume 2 and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Tension! Pretty much what this whole record is all about. An imaginary soundtrack that turned out to be an in-demand obscure library, Rendez Vous shows up the many skills of the composer and his alumni. Possibly Morricone is playing muted trumpet in several episodes – Diffidenza and Subdolamente – absorbing thrilling experiences similar to the Maestro soundtracks for Dario Argento early movies (not a case that Nicolai was the conductor for several adventures in movie sound theatre such as ‘L’Uccello Dalle Piume Di Cristallo’, ‘ Il Gatto A Nove Code’ or ‘4 Mosche Di Velluto Grigio’).

Rendez Vous is now to be ranked among the most adventurous Nicolai soundtracks, a unique combination of classic contemporary arrangements and superb jazz noir sketches

Blue Vinyl with Bonus 7”
Charlotte Cornfield’s “The Shape of Your Name” was the inaugural release
from Next Door Records, originally launched in April 2019.
Next Door Records is proud to present a deluxe reissue of this monumental
album in time for the second anniversary of its release. The deluxe reissue
consists of the original LP, now pressed on Atlantic Blue vinyl, with bonus twotrack 7” In My Corner b/w Upstate.
From the original release sheet: ‘You free yourself when you take away the
script,’ says Toronto songwriter Charlotte Cornfield. ‘That’s where this record
came from, dismantling patterns and embracing the process.’
The album has a more honed studio sound than her scrappier 2016 release Future Snowbird, and for good reason: it was recorded in 5 different sessions over
the course of 3 years. The songs are her strongest and most striking to date -
contemplative and contemporary, funny and heart-wrenching - and they’ve got
that stuck-in-your-head-for-days quality that Charlotte is known for.
‘My initial intention wasn’t to make a record at all,’ Cornfield muses. ‘The
whole thing kind of happened by accident. I went to The Banff Centre to do
a residency and came out with these recordings that I knew I wanted to use
for something but wasn’t sure what.’ She brought the unfinished songs to her
former roommate Nigel Ward in Montreal.
‘He fell into the producer role seamlessly,’ says Cornfield. ‘We took it slow and
just tried things for a while until the vision settled in. There was no rush. It was
freeing, and it gave the songs a lot of breathing room to develop.’”

MIEKO SHIMIZU is a London based Japanese singer, songwriter, composer
and producer. She first erupted onto the scene as Apache 61, fusing layers
of cross-woven breaks and battling shards of sub-bass within stateless
melodies drawn from the fringes of the avant-garde.
Mieko has produced scores for contemporary dance company Phoenix Dance
Theatre as well as the Ballet ‘The Red Balloon’ at the Royal Opera House’s
Linbury Theatre. She was made an ‘Emerging Artist in Residence’ at London’s
Southbank Centre where she collaborated with the London Philharmonic Orchestra on her own compositions.
ROAD OF SHELLS was originally released back in 1990 and now being released
for the very first time on vinyl. Recored at Wold Studios in London, the record
features an array of talented musicians from Claude Deppa on trumpet and
guitar from Dominique Brethes. ‘Blue Dancer’ and ‘In The Garden’ features
Mieko’s brother Yasuaki Shimizu on saxophone.
20 years on from Road Of Shells original release date the record has now has
be released for the very first time on Vinyl in Japan and available in the UK
and worldwide.
Mieko has worked with David Cunningham from The Flying Lizards, Robert
Lippok of To Rococo Rot and re-mixed the likes of Coldcut. Haruomi Hosono
of the cult electro-pop act ‘Yellow Magic Orchestra’, signed Mieko to his label
‘Daisy World’.
Mieko has performed at Sonar, alongside Kraftwerk and supported Massive
Attack at their Melt Down Festival.

Following the critically acclaimed Vinyan cassette, Kāthā is Siamese Twins’ second curated pan-Asian compilation selected to form a continuous and coherent whole, whose strong transcendental ambience comes tinged with Eastern psychedelia. Kāthā is the Khmer and Thai name used for chanted sacred mantras and magical incantations that offer protection, charm, or certain influence in life. Its origins stem from "Gāthā", a Sanskrit term referring to any poetic metre commonly used in legends - verses recited (usually mentally) in rhythm with the breath as part of mindfulness practice or meditation. A hypnotic sound bath in which tribally-rooted ambient morphs into one entity. Drones, live instruments and esoteric textures are transformed into a contemporary Kāthā interpretation.

Avant-garde cosmic sounds from Senegal, Wau Wau Collectif's "Yaral Sa Doom" is a groundbreaking album spanning borders and musical scenes. Inspired from West African tradition, Sufi praise songs, spiritual jazz, and dub rhythms, the effect is a genre defying entry in outernational sound. Hypnotic percussion loops across sweeping pads, call and response chants echoes layer over electronic beats, and children's voices sing out to recordings of crashing waves. In 2018, Swedish music archeologist and leftfield musician Karl Jonas Winqvist traveled to Toubab Dialaw, Senegal, a small fishing village turned hub of Senegal's bohemian art scene. Over the next weeks, local musicians, percussionists, poets, and beat makers came together, sketching out ideas and recording free improvisation. Winqvist returned to Sweden, trading recordings back and forth over WhatsApp with Senegal based collaborator and studio engineer Arouna Kane. "Yaral Sa Doom" is a Wolof phrase that means "educate the young." Central to the album is this theme of education, with songs that directly address social issues facing contemporary Senegal, education, and immigration. "Today you must educate children with an instrument and art, when you teach them an instrument you teach them to use their spirit," says Djiby Ly. With over 20 contributing performers from Senegal and Sweden, Wau Wau Collectif's debut is layered and complex, yet maintains a central vision. "It's like diving into the sea," explains Kane. "There are all different species of fish swimming around, but together they make the ocean." Nonetheless, it's also a geographic anomaly, made possible only by exchange of the internet age. An exceptional recording on its own, "Yaral Sa Doom" is a visionary entry in the future of transglobal collaboration

The latest release in the series exploring the musical worlds of Gerry Anderson is the most extensive yet. Space: 1999 ran for two series from 1976 to 1977 and depicted the occupants of Moonbase Alpha and their struggle for survival when, after the explosion of a nuclear waste dump, the Moon is hurtled into space.
The series was the most expensive produced for British television at that time and the most musically diverse of all the shows made by Anderson for ITC. Gerry Anderson’s long-time musical partner in all the previous adventures was Barry Gray and Space: 1999 Series 1 proved to be the last of their collaborations. For Series 2, composer Derek Wadsworth took over the reins to provide a more contemporary sound.
The Year 2 album contains Wadsworth’s score, specially selected cues to provide a driving and exciting narrative to convey the new adventures. Record Collector perfectly describes it as “classic 1976 period stuff: fast, furious and occasionally over the top in a dramatic way; nicely atmospheric for Sci-Fi and a touch funky every now and again.”
Derek Wadsworth enjoyed a long and successful career as a composer, trombonist and session musician. For over half-a-century he played, arranged, and conducted for some of the biggest names in music including Dusty Springfield, George Harrison, Judy Garland, Dionne Warwick and many more.

Motoko & Myers is the collaborative project of Bay Area-based duo Wonja Fairbrother and Daniel Letson. “Colocate” follows their 2018 debut release on the Open Hands Real Flames imprint, further developing their distinctive style which combines melodic, pop song structures with live improvisation and odd or no-meter approaches to rhythm and timing. It is a collection of bright, addictive listening, full of tracks that manage to feel at once hooky and aleatory, naive and rigorously arranged.

Recorded and assembled sporadically over a period of several years, the album’s idiosyncratic palette was achieved through much technical and methodological eccentricity: “4-handed” collaborative keyboard playing; 12-bit sampling and archaic presets; field recordings of cicadas in Louisville, Kentucky and church bells in Freiburg im Breisgau. The album’s nine tracks exude a homespun quality that is rare to find in contemporary electronic music – hazy, warm, and disarmingly organic.

Robert Jon & The Wreck are back and ready to tear up the UK and Europe
all over again with their new record, Shine A Light On Me Brother.
The impressive new album, written and recorded during the COVID pandemic,
and self-produced by Robert Jon & The Wreck, is set to release 3 September,
2021. Robert Jon & The Wreck is comprised of Robert Jon Burrison (lead vocals
and guitar), Andrew Espantman (drums and background vocals), Steve Maggiora (keyboards and background vocals), Henry James (lead guitar and background vocals), and Warren Murrel(bass and background vocals). They will take
the new album on tour in September/October 2021 AND February/April/May/
June/July 2022.
Robert Jon & The Wreck has been writing songs and releasing albums since the
band’s conception in 2011. During this time, this quintet of follicular proficient
gentlemen has been busy fine-tuning their sound playing to packed houses
across Europe and the United States.
The band has been received with accolades and raving reviews for years now,
from nominations of “Best Rock” and “Best Blues” and winning the title of
“Best Live Band” at the Orange County Music Awards in 2013, to numerous top
10 chart placement on Southern Rock Brazil’s Top 20 Albums to being praised
as “Classic and fresh at the same time” by Rock The Best Music, “Raising the
bar for the Southern genre” by Blues Rock Review, and “keeping the history
of classic 60’s and 70’s rock alive for newer generations” by Blues legend Joe
Bonamassa.
“A classy re-bore of well-trodden southern rock tropes by an Orange County
quintet with impeccably realised contemporary commerciality. Born of Allmans
and Skynyrd, but box fresh for 2000.” - Classic Rock Magazine
“Full of Eagles like guitar riffs and on infectious groove.” - Blues in Britain

The core tenets of Morgan Wright's music have long tested club music's context; the rituals and customs that define it, and how each of those genres change once removed from their traditional settings.
It's a space Morgan Wright feels at home in; one where he's constantly asking questions of the structure club music resides within, and what it means to create a new space for familiar sounds. And over the course of his debut album, Class Tourist, Morgan has found new ways to elevate those same questions - whether by way of intention, or a pandemic-induced coping mechanism.
In Class Tourist, Morgan again borrows from familiar strains of the subgenres which have come to form his musical identity. This time, he fuses sounds of post-punk, IDM and breakbeat, hopeful they converge to form a bastardised rendition of the latter, with "Australiana" at its core.
It's a sound that was made possible by a change to his songwriting approach, after pivoting from a loop-based production style - one which he has applied to a slew of other projects, for the better part of five years - to one which lends itself to a more standardised, contemporary format.

Moving through the record, Morgan toys with musical tropes of contrast with a calculated refinement unheard throughout his previous work. The coalescence of melodic optimism and bleak, mournful soundscapes feature on Class Tourist again, as you would expect. But this time, contemporary structure - with the exception of a few songs - along with the features of label-mate, Purient, and frequent collaborator, ENDL355, breathe new life, and even a new genre, into Morgan's work.