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Five groups, one mythical studio - documenting the emergence of a generation!

The initial postulate was simple: five groups, one emblematic studio and 24 hours for each to imagine and record two unreleased tracks with one objective - the will to document a French jazz scene in the midst of renewal.

In these last few years, several innovative currents have shaken up the world of jazz and attracted new fans. They have bubbled up from Los Angeles, impregnated with hip-hop culture (Kamasi Washington, Terrace Martin, Thundercat), or from London, tinged with African rhythms (Nubya Garcia, Kokoroko, Ezra Collective). Meanwhile, in France, a new scene is emerging, carrying with it more of a dancefloor-oriented sound influenced by electronic music - an obvious kinship with the French Touch explosion of the late 90s.

Historically, every movement has been assimilated to a certain neighbourhood, to specific clubs where late at night, young guns stayed up to imagine the jazz of tomorrow - the Cotton Club for the jazz of the 20s, Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem for Be-Bop, the Black Hawk in San Francisco for West Coast jazz, Birdland in New York for Hard-Bop or a lot more recently, the Total Refreshment Centre which has been the playing field for the new London scene.

In Paris too, this new sound is associated with actual venues, places which have allowed these groups to form, create a repertoire and forge an aesthetic - Le Baiser Salé for Monsieur Mâlâ, La Gare/Le Gore for Photon, La Pêche in Montreuil for Ishkero, La Petite Halle for Underground Canopy and also le Duc des Lombards and le 38 Riv’ for Alex Monfort; it’s in a live context that this music will always continue to evolve.

Keeping this “live” spirit, with all its spontaneity, was actually the guiding line for the elaboration of this Studio Pigalle compilation. Each take was recorded in the most organic way possible, bringing all the musicians together in the same room to limit post-production alterations before the final cut was assembled, in just one day, by studio in-house sound engineer, Felix Rémy.

A feeling of urgency permeates a record guided by an artistic production taking care to crystalise the essence of this artistically free-range generation whose childhoods were rocked just as much by Bill Evans and Roy Hargrove as by J Dilla and Jeff Mills. One of the two tracks recorded is geared towards the dancefloor, and the other, more cosmic/ambient gives freer rein to individual interpretation.

There were therefore many possible ways of interpreting these guidelines for the five formations which number among the most distinctive on the current French musical landscape, and the occasion, for some, to rummage through their archives! With Transe (Mbappé) and Da Verdere (Vella), Monsieur

Mâlâ present us with two unreleased tracks issued from the very first rehearsals of the quintet reworked especially for this compilation. “Seen the aesthetic range of this group, it all worked out very naturally in the studio”, recounts keyboardist Nicholas Vella “Recording like they did in the sixties with all the channels live and working with small imperfections was a very interesting task, even when it came to the mix, we had to make do with the takes we had... “

“Our group is very recent, and with this session, in just two tracks, we had the opportunity to present the entirety of our musical universe,” says Photons pianist Gauthier Toux. “All too often, we assimilate this fusion between jazz and dance music to computers and post-production modifications. For “Dessine”, we kept the first take, and we must have recorded just three or four for the other track with more of a techno bent. In one day, we understood that we could play our entire repertoire live, from A to Z”.

“When the Komos label offered me this project, it immediately spoke to me”, remembers Alex Monfort “Straight away, I thought of “Since I Met You”, a track with a nine/four time signature which really is reminiscent of a new- soul groove, but with this extra cosmic vibe! I wrote the words to the chorus and Nina Tonji placed her voice on the track, adding her own verses. For “Tonight”, the up-tempo track, I wanted to head off in more of a hybrid direction inspired by Kaytranada or the Black Radio series by Robert Glasper. A cross-over between jazz and hip-hop which really does represent my world, and I also tried to place vocals centre stage (Emcee Agora)”.

“We truly resonated with the way Antoine Rajon imagined this compilation and the recording session”, confide Warren Dongué and Jérémy Tallon from Underground Canopy. “When arriving in this studio we felt as if we had gone backtothe70s! Inkeepingwiththespiritofthisera,heknewhowtoletus keep our spontaneity, without recording in too many takes, and that’s how we like to work”.

“We managed to adhere to the themes of the compilation without changing our instrumentation, we wanted to remain faithful to the sound of Ishkero on these new compositions and take them somewhere else” – says drummer TaoEhrlich -“Withoutaddinganyelectronics.Thesessionwassupervisedin a truly subtle and benevolent manner. From a human perspective, it was also a wonderful experience”.

Whether turned towards hip-hop, ethnic or electronic music, the artists featured on this Studio Pigalle compilation represent the eclecticism of a new generation in the process of writing the first chapters of its history. Open to experimentation, these artists continue to hold high an immutable love for improvisation and creation in the moment... another definition of the word Jazz!

IG Culture returns for a second album as Likwid Continual Space Motion in 2024. This upfront album sampler contains a taster of what's coming up on the forthcoming 3LP release. Released on Amsterdam's Super-Sonic Jazz.

When Kronos plays a piece, they become fellow composers, true collaborators. Without them, we wouldn’t have the kind of string quartet playing that we find around us today. There are two kinds of string quartet playing: the ‘Before Kronos’ and the ‘After Kronos’.” – Philip Glass

‘Kronos Quartet has broken the boundaries of what string quartets can do.’ – New York Times

Nonesuch releases Kronos Quartet’s acclaimed album Kronos Quartet Performs Philip Glass on vinyl for the first time to coincide with Kronos Quartet: Five Decades, a year-long celebration marking the quartet’s 50th anniversary. Originally released in 1995, the album features David Harrington (violin), John Sherba, (violin), Hank Dutt (viola) and Joan Jeanrenaud (cello) performing Quartet No. 2 (Company) (1983), No. 3 (Mishima) (1985), No. 4 (Buczak) (1990), and No. 5 (1991), the first piece Glass wrote especially for Kronos. Recorded at Skywalker Sound in California, the album was produced by Judith Sherman, Kurt Munkacsi and Philip Glass. The cover art features Francesco Clemente’s painting The Four Corners (1985). At the time of the album’s release, the New York Times said, ‘It contains some of Glass's best music since Koyaanisqatsi. His ear for sumptuous string sonorities is undeniable,’ while the Washington Post called it ‘An ideal combination of composer and performers.’ It was a top 10 hit on Billboard’s Top Classical Albums, and spent 12 weeks on Billboard’s Classical chart.



In his original liner note, critic Mark Swed wrote, ‘Glass’ string quartets may contain his most intimate music. They are works through which a very public composer, perhaps the most important opera reformer of our age and a longstanding collaborator in large-scale music theater, holds up a mirror to himself and his way of composing. “In an odd way,” Glass explains, “string quartets have always functioned like that for composers. I don’t really know why, but it’s almost impossible to get away from it. It’s the way composers of the past have thought and that’s no less true for me. It’s almost as if we say we’re going to write a string quartet, we take a deep breath, and we wade in to try to write the most serious, significant piece that we can.” Glass says that as he sat down to write String Quartet No. 5, he had discovered that perhaps not taking a serious tone might be the most serious way to deal with it. “I was thinking that I had really gone beyond the need to write a serious string quartet and that I could write a quartet that is about musicality, which in a certain way is the most serious subject.”’



Glass’ first numbered quartet was written in 1966; however, he did not return to the string quartet medium until 1983, when he provided incidental music for a dramatization of Samuel Beckett’s prose poem, Company. During those 17 years, Glass had formed an ensemble and developed his style in a series of increasingly elaborate pieces for it. String Quartet No. 3 is also adapted to dramatic music, this time from his score to the 1985 Paul Schrader film, Mishima. It was with the music of Mishima that Kronos became associated with Glass, recording the string quartet sections of the soundtrack and subsequently working extensively with the composer on all five of his numbered quartets. Kronos also gave the first concert performances of Company and Mishima. String Quartet No. 4 was composed in remembrance of the artist Brian Buczak, who died of AIDS in 1988.



As Kronos’ anniversary season continues with further concerts around the world, Nonesuch will reissue Black Angels on vinyl on February 16. First released in 1990, the award-winning album includes George Crumb’s title piece, which inspired David Harrington to found the quartet. Called ‘an unusually elevated and searing Vietnam War protest’ by the New York Times, it sets a dark, powerful tone for this collection, which addresses the political/physical/spiritual consequences of war. Also featured are works by Charles Ives, István Márta, Thomas Tallis, and Dmitri Shostakovich. ‘Stylishly packaged, intelligently programmed, superbly recorded and brilliantly performed,’ proclaimed Gramophone. ‘In short, very much the sort of disc we’ve come to expect from the talented and imaginative Kronos Quartet.’ The Evening Standard included it among its ‘100 Definitive Classical Albums of the 20th Century’.



Born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1937, Philip Glass is a graduate of the University of Chicago and the Juilliard School. By 1974, he had created a large collection of music for The Philip Glass Ensemble. The period culminated in the landmark opera, Einstein on the Beach. Since Einstein, Glass’s repertoire has grown to include music for opera, dance, theatre, orchestra, and film. His scores have received Academy Award nominations (including Kundun and The Hours, as well as Notes on a Scandal) and a Golden Globe (The Truman Show). Recent works include his memoir, Words Without Music, his first Piano Sonata, opera Circus Days and Nights, and Symphony No. 14. Glass received the Praemium Imperiale in 2012, the US National Medal of the Arts from President Barack Obama in 2016, and 41st Kennedy Center Honors in 2018.



Nonesuch’s relationship with Glass began in 1985, with the release of the score for Paul Schrader’s Mishima featuring Kronos Quartet. Over the years other Glass works on Nonesuch have included Einstein on the Beach (1993), Kronos Quartet Performs Philip Glass (1995), Music in Twelve Parts (1996), Glass Box (2008), as well as the soundtracks for Powaqqatsi (1988), Kundun (1997), Koyaanisqatsi (1998), and The Hours (2002), amongst others.



For 50 years, San Francisco’s Kronos Quartet – David Harrington (violin), John Sherba (violin), Hank Dutt (viola), and Paul Wiancko (cello) – has challenged and reimagined what a string quartet can be. Founded at a time when the form was largely centred on long-established, Western European traditions, Kronos has been at the forefront of revolutionizing the string quartet into a living art form that responds to the people and issues of our time. In the process, Kronos has become one of the most celebrated and influential groups of our era, performing thousands of concerts worldwide, releasing more than 70 recordings of extraordinary breadth and creativity, and collaborating with many of the world’s most accomplished composers and performers. Through its nonprofit organization, Kronos Performing Arts Association, Kronos has commissioned more than 1,000 works and arrangements for string quartet – including the Kronos Fifty for the Future library of free, educational repertoire. Kronos has received more than 40 awards, including three Grammy Awards and the Polar Music, Avery Fisher, and Edison Klassiek Oeuvre Prizes.



Kronos is prolific and wide-ranging on recordings. The ensemble’s expansive discography on Nonesuch includes three Grammy-winning albums: Terry Riley’s Sun Rings (2019), Landfall with Laurie Anderson (2018), and Alban Berg’s Lyric Suite featuring soprano Dawn Upshaw (2003); the 40th-anniversary boxed set Kronos Explorer Series; Nuevo (2002), a Grammy- and Latin Grammy–nominated celebration of Mexican culture; Pieces of Africa (1992), a showcase of African-born composers that simultaneously topped Billboard’s Classical and World Music charts; and Folk Songs (2017), Nonesuch’s 50th album with Kronos, which featured Sam Amidon, Olivia Chaney, Rhiannon Giddens, and Natalie Merchant singing traditional folk songs.

A decade after his groundbreaking debut ‘Classical Curves,’ British producer Jack Latham, aka Jam City, continues to redefine genres with his effervescent new album “Jam City Presents EFM,” delivering an immaculate fusion of rattling garage, glitzy disco, thumping house, and euphoric hooks across the album’s 10 tracks with features by Empress Of (Wild n Sweet), Clara La San (“Touch Me”), Wet (“LLTB”), Show Me The Body’s Julian Cashwan Pratt (“Redd St. Turbulence”), and more.

A tech company's "senior spirit guide" finally comes to the defense of the "financially unsuccessful" Vincent van Gogh; wonders of the natural world are reimagined as "muster points for brainstorming innovators"; the "artificial char lines" on fast-food burgers are cited as if signs of the apocalypse. For the better part of three decades, Aesop Rock has used the syntax of the moment to pinpoint the fault lines in that moment's supposedly solid foundation. With his tenth album, Integrated Tech Solutions, Aes wields insidious corporatespeak as a tool to pry that parasitic worldview away from the parts of life that truly matter. A concept album about an organization offering "lifestyle- and industry-specific applications designed to curate a desired multi-experience," Integrated Tech Solutions picks apart the charlatan language that hears app inventors put themselves on continuums starting with cavemen and continuing through da Vinci. On "Mindful Solutionism," the wheel evolves seamlessly into modern agriculture - and then into atomic bombs, Agent Orange, cigarettes, and surveillance cameras. In a rare moment of transparency, the engineers Aes give voice to sum up this spiral in just a few words: "We cannot be trusted with the stuff that we come up with." Appropriately, the album sounds like the past and future at once. Largely self-produced, Integrated Tech Solutions catches Aes at his leanest and most innovative, leveraging "SolutionismÖs careening bounce against the wistful "By the River" or the slow creep of "Salt and Pepper Squid." The effect is a record that sounds itself like an organism growing, mutating, hurtling toward profitability - and then destruction. As fans have come to expect, Aes is cuttingly funny and slyly profound at once, whether recounting a childhood restaurant run-in with Mr. T ("100 Feet Tall") or quipping, on "Pigeonometry," that "white dove is a pigeon - you motherfuckers is bigots." At the same time, Integrated Tech Solutions is working on another parallel project: tracing the sprawl of modernity and cutting directly to its core. "I've been doing laps of the lost worlds," he raps on "All City Nerve Map," sounding at once wearied and reinvigorated. "I can draw a map to the raw nerve."

What are the differences and similarities between human and artificial sound, between oscillations generated by vocal cords and synthesizer voices, voltage amplified by speakers? On Silencio, his latest album for Tresor Records, Moritz von Oswald works with a 16-voice choir to explore this concept.
Drawing from the ensemble works of long-standing inspirations Edgard Varèse, György Ligeti and Iannis Xenakis, von Oswald and Vocalconsort Berlin delve into the space between sounds, creating a deeply textured collection that shifts between light & ethereal and
dark & dissonant.
As masterfully demonstrated in the early work of von Oswald and Mark Ernestus’ influential Basic Channel project, repetition and reduction are key elements here, much in the tradition of techno and minimalism. The vast dynamism of the human voice adds to the
profound weight of electronics while offering up a rhythmic source and sonic noise palette unexplored in von Oswald’s repertoire. In Silencio, von Oswald dredges a dank murk, pulling clouds over a distant pulse. It hangs, ready to take on new forms.
The compositions were written in von Oswald’s Berlin studio on classic synthesizers, such as the EMS VCS3 & AKS, Prophet V, Oberheim 4-Voice and the Moog Model 15. These abstract recordings were transcribed to sheet music for choir by Berlin-based Finnish composer and pianist, Jarkko Riihimäki and performed by Vocalconsort Berlin in Ölberg church in the city’s Kreuzberg district, only few metres down the road from where Dubplates & Mastering and Hard Wax opened their doors for music enthusiasts for many years so long. The recordings of the choral versions were then incorporated into the synthesized parts of the album and brought into anew electronic context; in Silencio, the focus is not on using one means to imitate the other, but to sonically discuss the tensions and harmonies between the two worlds and create a dialogue between them.
The relationship between von Oswald and Tresor Records goes back thirty years, all the way to Blake Baxter’s Dream Sequence in 1991 - which von Oswald engineered alongside Thomas Fehlmann. The collaboration with Fehlmann lived on, seeing the duo team up as 3MB with Eddie Fowlkes or Juan Atkins. More recently, the Detroit-Berlin connection continued as Juan Atkins & Moritz von Oswald present Borderland.
For von Oswald, Tresor Records and also the participating guest musicians of the choir, this release brings together audiences from other musical areas, cross-pollinating; Silencio is an album that stands for itself beyond the musical genre boundaries.

Black Truffle is thrilled to present a previously unheard performance by rudra veena master Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar, recorded in the North Indian city of Vrindavan at the Druhpad Samaroh festival in 1982. Z.M. Dagar was a nineteenth-generation descendant of the Dagar family of musicians, famed for their profoundly meditative approach to the tradition of Hindustani court music. Perhaps the most revered members of the family were the brothers Mohinuddin and Aminuddin Dagar, who played a key role in reawakening interest in dhrupad in the mid-20th century. The great exponents of the tradition from whom Z.M. Dagar descended were all singers, and dhrupad is essentially vocal music. However, as Z.M. Dagar explained, the veena family of instruments plays an important role in the education and practice of dhrupad singers, especially as an aid to mastering the fine microtonal nuances of pitch essential to the genre. Introduced as a child by his father to the rudra veena, a large and low-pitched veena amplified by two enormous gourds, Z.M. Dagar became the first modern dhrupad musician to perform with it as an instrumental soloist, giving his first recital at the age of 16. Devoted to the instrument throughout his life, he made innovations to its design and materials, as well as introducing novel techniques (such as playing without the use of the traditional wire plectrum, resulting in the remarkable warmth of his tone). In the great Dagar family tradition, his approach to the various ragas that make up the dhrupad repertoire was stately, slow, and considered, with a great emphasis on the alap, the heavily improvised exposition section. True to form, in this recording of Dagar performing the night raga Yaman Kalyan, the alap section stretches out to more than forty minutes of slow-motion bliss, a frozen tanpura drone hovering above Dagar’s gracefully bent notes and elegantly twisting phrases. In the alap’s first half, Dagar’s figures are so intently focused on the lower reaches of the rudra veena’s range that they register more as shudders and moans than melodic patterns. As the performance continues, he slowly climbs in pitch, though continuing with the same intent focus on the articulation of single notes and subtle microtonal variations. This leads to the jod section of the performance, which, though still accompanied only by the tanpura, gradually takes on a more rhythmic character. Developing almost imperceptibly over the course of nearly thirty minutes, the jod moves from the stillness of the opening alap to a rapid pulse that announces the closing section of the piece, where Dagar is joined by Shrikant Mishra on the pakhawaj (a double headed hand drum). Where many performers use the final section of the raga as an exercise in unrestrained virtuosity, Dagar and Mishra subtly weave a web of finely shifting accents and hypnotic melodic variations, bringing the recording to a fitting conclusion while remaining within the meditative space occupied by the performance as a whole. Adorned with beautiful archival photographs of Dagar taken by Swedish percussion legend Bengt Berger and accompanied by detailed notes from Bradford Bailey, Vrindavan 1982 is a stunning document of music unmatched in its patient focus and mysterious emotional depth. .

A viral phenomenon reissued. After 23 million YouTube views, multitudes of tattoos, dozens of cover versions, eight sold-out 7" pressings, comes this NINTH vinyl version.àSpread by word of mouth, click of mouse and without radio play.àThe entrancing romantic love song (murder ballad?) with guest vocalist Sparky Phillips of Demented Are Go counterpointing HME's Emanuela Hutter, hits the sweet spot for obsessive lovers“

The Hillbilly Moon Explosion continue with their gigging schedule across Europe this fall and plan a new album next year.àThe band - two Englishmen, a Frenchman and a Swiss/Italian chanteuse - reside in Switzerland and are one of the classiest exponents of rockabilly alive today, subtly mixing in swing, ska, country, Europop and more without compromising their roots.àTheir widely-sourced rock"n"roll is exciting and enduring; this song is a proven earworm and a worldwide infatuation

Prequel zum John Wick Film Franchise - mit Tracks von: Santana, Heart, James Brown, Tommy James & The Shondells, Booker T. & the M.G.'s, Ace Frehley, Hot Butter und anderen

- Ltd. LP: (Einzel-LP auf schwarzem Vinyl, mit farbigem Einleger)

Fresh off a tour with The Armed, and on the heels of countless releases and collaborations, Patrick
Shiroishi’s music is as vital and stirring as ever on I Was Too Young To Hear Silence. Where his
breakout release, 2021’s Hidemi, used choruses of saxophones and vocals to memorialize his
grandfather, I Was Too Young To Hear Silence expands the scope of his remembrance. Shiroishi’s
chosen instruments are alto saxophone, glockenspiel, and a cavernous parking garage through which
the former’s melodies reverberate. It’s an apt setting for Shiroishi’s continuing confrontation of the
legacy of Japanese concentration camps.

A tech company's "senior spirit guide" finally comes to the defense of the "financially unsuccessful" Vincent van Gogh; wonders of the natural world are reimagined as "muster points for brainstorming innovators"; the "artificial char lines" on fast-food burgers are cited as if signs of the apocalypse. For the better part of three decades, Aesop Rock has used the syntax of the moment to pinpoint the fault lines in that moment's supposedly solid foundation. With his tenth album, Integrated Tech Solutions, Aes wields insidious corporatespeak as a tool to pry that parasitic worldview away from the parts of life that truly matter.



A concept album about an organization offering "lifestyle- and industry-specific applications designed to curate a desired multi-experience," Integrated Tech Solutions picks apart the charlatan language that hears app inventors put themselves on continuums starting with cavemen and continuing through da Vinci. On "Mindful Solutionism," the wheel evolves seamlessly into modern agriculture—and then into atomic bombs, Agent Orange, cigarettes, and surveillance cameras. In a rare moment of transparency, the engineers Aes give voice to sum up this spiral in just a few words: "We cannot be trusted with the stuff that we come up with."



Appropriately, the album sounds like the past and future at once. Largely self-produced, Integrated Tech Solutions catches Aes at his leanest and most innovative, leveraging "Solutionism"'s careening bounce against the wistful "By the River" or the slow creep of "Salt and Pepper Squid." The effect is a record that sounds itself like an organism growing, mutating, hurtling toward profitability-and then destruction. As fans have come to expect, Aes is cuttingly funny and slyly profound at once, whether recounting a childhood restaurant run-in with Mr. T ("100 Feet Tall") or quipping, on "Pigeonome- try," that "white dove is a pigeon-you motherfuckers is bigots." At the same time, Integrated Tech Solutions is working on another parallel project: tracing the sprawl of modernity and cutting directly to its core. "I've been doing laps of the lost worlds," he raps on "All City Nerve Map," sounding at once wearied and reinvigorated. "I can draw a map to the raw nerve."






[f] Kyanite Toothpick [feat. Hanni El Khatib]




[k] Bermuda [feat. Lealani Teano]


[n] Forward Compatibility Engine [feat. Rob Sonic]



[r] Black Snow [feat. Nikki Jean]

In his “Pulse Music” compositions of the mid-1970s, composer John McGuire forged a unique interpretation of European serialism. A student of Karlheinz Stockhausen, Krzysztof Penderecki and Gottfried Michael Koenig, McGuire moved to Cologne, Germany in 1970, where he become associated with the world-leading Studio for Electronic Music at Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) in Cologne. Like Stockhausen, McGuire found his musical imagination both constrained and inspired by the technology that was available to him.

A conversation with sculptor Hans Karl Burgeff led McGuire to think beyond the horizon and into limitless space. For “Vanishing Points” (1985–1988), McGuire used an entirely digital set-up for the first time: a digital sequencer, eight Yamaha DX-7 synthesizers and a Studer 24-track digital tape recorder. The piece was conceived as a “sequel” to the Pulse Music series, but also a step forward from it. Whereas the Pulse Music pieces had employed steady streams of pulses, with Vanishing Points McGuire employed pulse layers that accelerate or decelerate against one another, vastly increasing the resulting rhythmic complexity.

McGuire's exploration of music technology continued in “A Cappella” (1990–1997), written for his wife, the soprano Beth Griffith, known for her recording of Morton Feldman’s “Three Voices” made in 1983. Using samples, he created a four-voice choir of voice samples and arranged them into interacting parts. The composition faced challenges due to the organic nature of the human voice compared to the precision of synthesized sounds. This process involved extensive editing and a negotiation between the "material" and the "original conception". This sort of negotiation applies as much to the composition of a single piece as it does to the work of two decades.

Berlin-based Swedish bassist and producer Petter Eldh returns with a new Koma Saxo album Post Koma, out on We Jazz Records, 10 November. The title Post Koma aptly describes the vibe of this one: The Koma Saxo sound continues its evolution, morphing into a holistic vision of jazz now and soon, where live instrumentation and repurposed sampling lose their boundaries.

Over the course of its three iterations (self-titled debut in 2019, LIVE in 2020, Koma West in 2022) Koma Saxo has sounded at times "liquid" and postproduced, at times raw and direct, at times acoustic and at other times oddly electronic (even while still being made with acoustic instruments). Post Koma is a culmination of this sonic study by Eldh, resulting in a music vision that never second-guesses throwing tasty hooks and everlasting melodies out the window after a mere bite of them. But fear not: there are even more new ideas just around the corner.

Eldh's compositions and ideas merge together in a way that just flows. There are quality musicians in the mix, including Koma Saxo live band members Sofia Jernberg, Jonas Kullhammar, Otis Sandsjö, Mikko Innanen, Maciej Obara and Christian Lillinger, but that's like saying that a cake includes flour and sugar. This music is not about playing, it's essentially about how the music is and how it takes its shape, so you quickly lose track of who did what, and that's all in the benefit of encountering this music as an entity that is constantly challenging itself while moving forward. The musicians are valued contributors, and an integral part of what's here, but this is far from traditional jazz playing where a band sits in a room playing takes after takes of compositions on sheet.

That being said, this is jazz to the fullest. That is, music that understands its past but always moves forward, and is never afraid of taking risks. Petter Eldh uses jazz as a starting point, not the end goal. This gives his music edge and mobility beyond what can be contained on one album. In a way, an album, then, becomes a snapshot of a creative process in constant flux and evolution.

Opening track "Koma" is literally drum & bass. It only consists of those two elements, yet what comes out of it is an open invite, a way of clearing your palette. It would be useless to describe individual tracks beyond that, but there's a strong sense of deliverance to the set. It feels like an ending, and also like a new beginning.

Berlin-based Swedish bassist and producer Petter Eldh returns with a new Koma Saxo album Post Koma, out on We Jazz Records, 10 November. The title Post Koma aptly describes the vibe of this one: The Koma Saxo sound continues its evolution, morphing into a holistic vision of jazz now and soon, where live instrumentation and repurposed sampling lose their boundaries.

Over the course of its three iterations (self-titled debut in 2019, LIVE in 2020, Koma West in 2022) Koma Saxo has sounded at times "liquid" and postproduced, at times raw and direct, at times acoustic and at other times oddly electronic (even while still being made with acoustic instruments). Post Koma is a culmination of this sonic study by Eldh, resulting in a music vision that never second-guesses throwing tasty hooks and everlasting melodies out the window after a mere bite of them. But fear not: there are even more new ideas just around the corner.

Eldh's compositions and ideas merge together in a way that just flows. There are quality musicians in the mix, including Koma Saxo live band members Sofia Jernberg, Jonas Kullhammar, Otis Sandsjö, Mikko Innanen, Maciej Obara and Christian Lillinger, but that's like saying that a cake includes flour and sugar. This music is not about playing, it's essentially about how the music is and how it takes its shape, so you quickly lose track of who did what, and that's all in the benefit of encountering this music as an entity that is constantly challenging itself while moving forward. The musicians are valued contributors, and an integral part of what's here, but this is far from traditional jazz playing where a band sits in a room playing takes after takes of compositions on sheet.

That being said, this is jazz to the fullest. That is, music that understands its past but always moves forward, and is never afraid of taking risks. Petter Eldh uses jazz as a starting point, not the end goal. This gives his music edge and mobility beyond what can be contained on one album. In a way, an album, then, becomes a snapshot of a creative process in constant flux and evolution.

Opening track "Koma" is literally drum & bass. It only consists of those two elements, yet what comes out of it is an open invite, a way of clearing your palette. It would be useless to describe individual tracks beyond that, but there's a strong sense of deliverance to the set. It feels like an ending, and also like a new beginning.

Beloved Polish downtempo / nu jazz masters Skalpel present an exquisite collection of the older Skalpel’s classics and some exclusive material performed live by a masterful 17-piece Big Band. Skalpel’s “Big Band Live” brings mellow, smoky vibes, hypnotic grooves and vibrant, occasionally blissful mood. Polish jazz at its best!

Skalpel is a nu-jazz classic. On their debut and sophomore albums “Skalpel” and “Konfusion” (Ninja Tune) they were able to resurrect the dusty spirit of the 60s & 70s jazz and reimagine it for the 21st century audiophiles. They created emotionally charged music, sophisticated in its structure. After ten years Skalpel returned in 2014 with “Transit” an album that segued from sample-based music into compositions created on virtual instruments. Their critically acclaimed 2020 album “Highlight” together with the follow-up: „Escape Remixes EP” (which included a remix by rising modern classical star Hania Rani and globally respected house duo Catz‘ N Dogz ) had almost 6 million streams on Spotify alone. Their last studio album „Origins” was an inspiring contemporary vision adapting various currents of electronica and dance music of the millennium era. The latest release earned them a „Polish Grammy” - Fryderyk Award.

The journey continues as Marcin Cichy and Igor Pudło present Skalpel Big Band. Patryk Pilasiewicz, composer and musician from Poznań, who is the originator of the idea, dissected and revised Skalpel’s music for a seventeen-person Big Band. The idea was to weave new, acoustic interpretation of Skalpel’s compositions with their original electronic sound.

Repress! With all due respect to New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Miami, the epicenter of the rap universe in 2016 just may be Chicago. With young stars ranging from Chief Keef to Chance The Rapper to Lil Bibby to Vic Mensa, the Windy City continues to push the boundaries of hip-hop music and culture.

The latest artist to emerge from this hotbed of talent is Mick Jenkins, a gifted lyricist who has built a strong buzz online with a series of acclaimed mixtapes. Now, one of those collections will be available in physical format for the first time ever, with a limited-edition vinyl pressing of “The Waters” set to hit stores soon. Originally released online in late 2014, “The Water

Buckle up and fasten the spaceship seatbelts! The Third Room, the multidisciplinary techno project from the industrial heart of Germany, is about to fire another satellite in the orbit. A stunning various artists series between fierce meteors, bright suns, dark moons and shining comets will continue to define the Essen-based collective's sound vision which is as diverse and timeless as space itself. Convince yourselves of a well-considered, galactical curation that contains quality tracks from talents, locals and longstays.

On the first of four releases, established producers named Beste Hira, Stranger, Alarico and OFF/GRID put out a stunning yet humble peak-time record. Four laser-beaming tunes speak for themselves and mark the beginning of the next chapter in the T3R adventure.

Don't miss to ascend to higher spheres - secure your copy and pre-order one of the limited records now!

©️ 2023 The Third Room
Mastering by Ahmet Sisman (The Third Room Studios)
Artwork by Daniel Bornmann & Elisa Jauch (Duat Agency)

This is the fifth of Nat’s “one-semble” recordings where he plays all the instruments himself.
This album celebrates our collective ancestors, in particular the ones who carried the Music
in their bones and blood and spread it around the Earth, from the earliest times until now.
Music crosses continents and cultures and time itself, and when it speaks of the truth it
transcends musical genealogy, and continues a timeline from the earliest sources up to the
present day. The music in the album is inspired by many things but particularly the master
musicians - John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, Cedric Brooks and Count Ossie.

The tracks on this album may arouse a number of emotions; they were not sung purely for the pleasure of making music, but to convey, with drama and joy, that life is stronger than ever and continues with a live Spirit... Recorded in New York after 9/11 in front of a small audience, Espíritu Vivo marries Susana Baca"s wonderful vocals and Peruvian backing band with the downtown sounds of John Medeski and guitarist Marc Ribot-for a recording that transcends time and place, with Baca giving every iota of herself to the music. This is the 20th anniversary edition, on vinyl for the very first time.

25th anniversary of this criminally under-appreciated compilation of Brazilian pop music (New! More! Better!), so we're putting it on vinyl for the first time.

It's been 10 years since we at Luaka Bop released our first compilation of Brazilian music. Beleza Tropical. It sold extremely well, 350,000 and still going strong, but alot has happened since then. This collection reflects the impact and energy of a new generation who rather than seeking to overturn or discredit the work of ist predecessors, wants to build on it, add to it, and continue absorbing greater and more contemporary influences.

Cylene II is the new materialization of the collaboration between François J. Bonnet & Stephen O"Malley, initiated in 2018 and continued without interruption since then, taking form in a myriad of contexts ranging from common practice to recording sessions, concerts and tours. Cylene II bears witness to these different contexts, offering a multifaceted sound signature developed on different occasions (artist residencies in La Becque, Switzerland and Modena, Italy, live performance excerpts, a studio session at INA-GRM Studios in Paris). The epic opening track "Four Rays (Anti Divide)" welcomes, for the first time, other musicians - in this case a wind quintet - expanding the duo"s sonic palette without betraying the fundamental component of their music, namely the driving of sonic energy. Elsewhere, Bonnet and O"Malley propel the energy between themselves, extending the singular climate that has characterized their musical development over the past five years. Among their minimal presentation of tones and resonances, as glacial harmonic intersections slowly elevate with massive physicality to an orchestral degree, new refinements become evident: the music"s relationship to silence, and a brightening of the fine metallic edge glowing at its core. For the listener, Cylene II is a sound that reaches from the deep and scales up to the far firmament in its careful motion, drawing emotions viscerally from the chest, giving rise to the suggestibility of the soul. A séance of sorts for all who witness it, whether playing or listening.

This Is The Kit is the project of Kate Stables, born in England and based in Paris. They first gained notice due to heavy radio play on BBC 6 - and have twice had LPs named to 6 Music’s Album Of The Year lists. Later they gained more notice as a hand-picked opening act for The National, Iron & Wine, Jose Gonzalez, Sharon Van Etten and Alexi Murdoch - musicians who share a similar independent streak and warm-hearted approach to creating modern yet timeless music. In North America, they are regulars on US Triple A radio stations like KEXP, indie folk festival line-ups, and tastemaking platforms such as NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert.  In the years since ‘Wriggle Out the Restless’ was released in 2010, This Is The Kit have continued to gain momentum. Their 2015 follow-up album, ‘Bashed Out’, was made with The National’s Aaron Dessner (producer for Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Mumford & Sons). Stables then sang on The National’s 2019 album/film ‘I Am Easy To Find’ and became a touring member on subsequent live dates. Finally, in 2020, ‘Bashed Out’’s title track became a streaming hit after an impactful needle drop in a key episode of Netflix’s ‘Sex Education’ series.  Currently signed to the iconic Rough Trade label, they’ve found success on both sides of the Atlantic. New album ‘Careful Of Your Keepers’ was released in June 2023 and is being supported by tours in the UK, Europe and North America.  For fans of Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Beth Orton, Sharon van Etten, Bon Iver, Father John Misty, Joni Mitchell, Sam Amidon, Anais Mitchell.  This is the first time ‘Wriggle Out the Restless’ has been widely available on vinyl. Released here on Clear Orange coloured vinyl.  The band have huge international ‘tastemaker’ visibility thanks to glowing coverage by Uncut, The Guardian, Q Magazine and the BBC

Oslo-based sludge-metal power trio SAVER are back with a vengeance. The band's new album `From Ember And Rust' channels the bare-knuckle ferocity of their 2019 full-length debut, `They Came With Sunlight', alongside a formidable command of dynamic, texture and sonic space that belies the relative youth of the project. Having erupted into the Norwegian metal scene without warning, SAVER is the result of heavy veterans Ole Ulvik Rokseth, Markus Stole and Ole Christian Helstad combining their years of experience into one three-headed beast, hellbent on pushing the boundaries of what the band is collectively capable of. Restless by nature, SAVER are constantly refining and reinventing their sound. The band's debut record was followed by two wildly creative collaborations which saw the trio marry their signature ferocity with some unlikely creative bedfellows in order to test new depths. `Emerald', 2021's full-length release, paired SAVER's calculated minimalism with the frenetic, percussive energy of Belgian post-metal collective Psychonaut whilst last year's `Split EP' saw SAVER and Norwegian folk singer/songwriter Frodekal reinterpret a song from each other's back catalogue with hauntingly spectacular results. With this revelatory experience still ringing in their ears, `From Ember And Rust' bears all of SAVER's heavy hallmarks alongside a newfound sense of dynamic anticipation and organic progression, which ties the seven tracks together as a significant body of work in the band's ascendant trajectory. As well as sharing their years of experience making the heaviest music they can, SAVER also share a passion for the unmistakable soundscapes of classic science-fiction. Already a key component of SAVER's distinctive sound; Rokseth's otherworldly, cinematic synth work is given centre stage on `From Ember And Rust' as the band boldly embark on a new journey together. As their first non-collaborative release in four years, `From Ember And Rust' could be interpreted as the band returning to the safety of their roots. However, SAVER are more determined than ever to keep pushing their sound into uncharted territory as the world they find themselves in continues to turn.

Oslo-based sludge-metal power trio SAVER are back with a vengeance. The band's new album `From Ember And Rust' channels the bare-knuckle ferocity of their 2019 full-length debut, `They Came With Sunlight', alongside a formidable command of dynamic, texture and sonic space that belies the relative youth of the project. Having erupted into the Norwegian metal scene without warning, SAVER is the result of heavy veterans Ole Ulvik Rokseth, Markus Stole and Ole Christian Helstad combining their years of experience into one three-headed beast, hellbent on pushing the boundaries of what the band is collectively capable of. Restless by nature, SAVER are constantly refining and reinventing their sound. The band's debut record was followed by two wildly creative collaborations which saw the trio marry their signature ferocity with some unlikely creative bedfellows in order to test new depths. `Emerald', 2021's full-length release, paired SAVER's calculated minimalism with the frenetic, percussive energy of Belgian post-metal collective Psychonaut whilst last year's `Split EP' saw SAVER and Norwegian folk singer/songwriter Frodekal reinterpret a song from each other's back catalogue with hauntingly spectacular results. With this revelatory experience still ringing in their ears, `From Ember And Rust' bears all of SAVER's heavy hallmarks alongside a newfound sense of dynamic anticipation and organic progression, which ties the seven tracks together as a significant body of work in the band's ascendant trajectory. As well as sharing their years of experience making the heaviest music they can, SAVER also share a passion for the unmistakable soundscapes of classic science-fiction. Already a key component of SAVER's distinctive sound; Rokseth's otherworldly, cinematic synth work is given centre stage on `From Ember And Rust' as the band boldly embark on a new journey together. As their first non-collaborative release in four years, `From Ember And Rust' could be interpreted as the band returning to the safety of their roots. However, SAVER are more determined than ever to keep pushing their sound into uncharted territory as the world they find themselves in continues to turn.

Svart Records are proud to present the vinyl debut of the album '8 Convulsions' (1994) by Crisis (NYC, USA) "I am really glad that Svart are re-releasing 8 Convulsions, so more people can rediscover this wonderful and intriguing heavy music." Michel 'Away' Langevin, Voivod Remastered and repackaged with the vinyl format in mind, the package comes with a large booklet full of lyrics and exclusive photos. This is the first time an album from the NYC cult band's oeuvre is pressed on vinyl. There will also be a CD edition of the remaster. Hailing from the mean streets of NYC in the year 1993, Crisis was a band that defied classification from the very start. During a time when heavy music was dominated by a mostly male presence, founders Afzaal Deen and original drummer Fred Waring envisioned a female-fronted band to run against the grain and destroy expectations. Seeking out a singer with a singular sound and presence, and found their match in groundbreaking vocalist and avant-visual artist Karyn Crisis. Soon after, a newspaper ad for a bass player was answered by Gia Chuan Wang and the original unit was formed. During their first rehearsal, Karyn became so enmeshed and driven by the music that she inadvertently destroyed a microphone stand and threw herself to the floor in an outpouring of unmitigated expression. This was barely a hint at the intensity she would soon bring to the stage and studio. Karyn’s guttural growls and angelic melodic notes meshed perfectly with the mixture of grinding guitar, pounding rhythm and deep bass tones. The underground music scene would now begin to experience the dynamic intensity of this burgeoning powerhouse band in full force. Crisis signed to Too Damn Hype records and released their debut album '8 Convulsions', now being reissued to mark its 30th anniversary. In a time where inclusivity is more crucial than ever, Crisis remains a band as diverse and distinct as the city from which they originally hailed. “The United Nations of Rock” as they’ve been called, continue to break boundaries and crush antiquated archetypes with their unprecedented sound and vision. "One of the most captivating bands I’ve ever experienced in New York City in the early 90s. They had a very unique sound where you couldn’t categorize them though they had elements of metal, punk with a very dark experimental approach, which gave them their unique sound. Just raw and relentless energy." Roy Mayorga, Ministry/Soulfly/Nausea etc 8 Convulsions is available on Svart exclusive blue/red marble vinyl, limited transparent yellow vinyl, classic black vinyl, and CD. Release date October 20th.

Svart Records are proud to present the vinyl debut of the album '8 Convulsions' (1994) by Crisis (NYC, USA) "I am really glad that Svart are re-releasing 8 Convulsions, so more people can rediscover this wonderful and intriguing heavy music." Michel 'Away' Langevin, Voivod Remastered and repackaged with the vinyl format in mind, the package comes with a large booklet full of lyrics and exclusive photos. This is the first time an album from the NYC cult band's oeuvre is pressed on vinyl. There will also be a CD edition of the remaster. Hailing from the mean streets of NYC in the year 1993, Crisis was a band that defied classification from the very start. During a time when heavy music was dominated by a mostly male presence, founders Afzaal Deen and original drummer Fred Waring envisioned a female-fronted band to run against the grain and destroy expectations. Seeking out a singer with a singular sound and presence, and found their match in groundbreaking vocalist and avant-visual artist Karyn Crisis. Soon after, a newspaper ad for a bass player was answered by Gia Chuan Wang and the original unit was formed. During their first rehearsal, Karyn became so enmeshed and driven by the music that she inadvertently destroyed a microphone stand and threw herself to the floor in an outpouring of unmitigated expression. This was barely a hint at the intensity she would soon bring to the stage and studio. Karyn’s guttural growls and angelic melodic notes meshed perfectly with the mixture of grinding guitar, pounding rhythm and deep bass tones. The underground music scene would now begin to experience the dynamic intensity of this burgeoning powerhouse band in full force. Crisis signed to Too Damn Hype records and released their debut album '8 Convulsions', now being reissued to mark its 30th anniversary. In a time where inclusivity is more crucial than ever, Crisis remains a band as diverse and distinct as the city from which they originally hailed. “The United Nations of Rock” as they’ve been called, continue to break boundaries and crush antiquated archetypes with their unprecedented sound and vision. "One of the most captivating bands I’ve ever experienced in New York City in the early 90s. They had a very unique sound where you couldn’t categorize them though they had elements of metal, punk with a very dark experimental approach, which gave them their unique sound. Just raw and relentless energy." Roy Mayorga, Ministry/Soulfly/Nausea etc 8 Convulsions is available on Svart exclusive blue/red marble vinyl, limited transparent yellow vinyl, classic black vinyl, and CD. Release date October 20th.

Jamie Lenman made his name as the singer, guitarist and songwriter in alt rock outfit Reuben, who toured and released relentlessly during the 2000s as part of the so-called “British post-hardcore renaissance” along with bands like Hundred Reasons, Biffy Clyro and Frank Turner’s Million Dead.
After the band’s dissolution in 2008, Lenman took a long break from music only to return in 2013 with the colossal double album ‘Muscle Memory’, combining elements of jazz, folk and thrash. Over the next ten years he continued to tour with various backing bands and released a string of records via indie label Big Scary Monsters, including the acclaimed ‘Devolver’ in 2017 and career highlight ‘The Atheist’ in 2022.
He continues to balance his musical efforts with his work as a journalist and illustrator for publications such as The Guardian, Rocksound and Doctor Who Magazine. He lives in Surrey, UK.

Lady Wray released her Piece Of Me album. A deeply personal record that takes on the good and the bad in life from deception and abuse to the joys of motherhood and long awaited professional triumph. The accolades the album has received since its release speak volumes. From performing on The Stephen Colbert Show to selling out multiple US tours to cleaning up in the best of 2022 lists to crushing an NPR Tiny Desk on the 1 year anniversary of the album, Piece Of Me continues to prove itself a timeless classic. In March of 2023, Lady Wray had Ghostface Killah join her on the "Piece Of Me" remix and had Pete Rock lend his legendary remixing skills to "Joy & Pain". Now it's a Big Crown family affair as Les Imprimés lends his production prowess to a remix for "Come On In" and Surprise Chef take the warm weather anthem "Under The Sun" and give it their unorthodox Jazz / Funk treatment. Both of these remixes put brand new energy on the originals that will hold us over while Lady Wray is finishing her new album with El Michels Affair.

Flora Yin Wong’s ravishing interiority finds lucid expression on an absorbing second album for Modern Love, manifesting her instrumental storytelling in a syncretic bind of supernatural themes with hyperrealist, concrète sound design.

Through ten parts, Flora crystallises the ennui that followed an uncanny, disorienting trip to East and Southeast Asia. “On an unexpected stopover in Hong Kong after five years away, my friends took me to a Bazi reader one night - something I was curious about, but much of a ritual for them - ” Flora recalls. “My father told me that when I was born, he had obtained an auspicious reading that since stayed like a guiding talisman with me. It was almost past midnight but people were still lined up, rather shaken and visibly upset, to see the old man. He had kind eyes and asked me why I was there and I said I was at a crossroads. He asked me my time and date of birth, and told me to pick one of his four little white canary birds as a vessel for divination.”

This was the final stretch of an ultimately aimless few months across the continent, including a 20 year overdue return with her father to his adoptive family in his hometown Kuala Lumpur - for many reasons, ended up as a strange and uncanny trip. She spent solitude in a haunted house during the quiet snowfall of Kyoto, where she might have offended some spirit... and nights in mountain temples with South Korean monks, and an equally strange feeling return to the Island of the Gods.

“It culminated in what felt like a final disillusionment with Asia - sudden deaths and a breakdown in beliefs - somewhere I never really have or will be able to connect with. The process of the reading summoned a final blow to my gut - an overwhelming sense of rootlessness, and understanding that all there is is emptiness and entropy. No birth-divined protection, just a measurement of the night sky based off nothing and everything.”

Heavy with a sense of nightmarish dissociation and grief, Flora read about Giuseppe Tartini’s ‘Violin Sonata in G Minor’, aka the Devil’s Trill Sonata, a notoriously tricky c.18th composition which attempted to transcribe music heard in a dream, which the composer felt he could never fully bring into reality. It’s this soporific motif that binds and underpins ’Cold Reading’, finding Flora chasing the dragon of fleeting fantasy through passages of etched melancholy, pinched with hypnagogic jerks that linger in the memory.

From her use of the ‘Devil’s Trill’ Sonata in ‘All My Dreams are Nightmares’ through evocations of subtropical humidity in the Bryn Jones-esque, resonant hand-played percussion of ‘Konna’ and ‘Banjar’, to a breathtaking dreampop denouement ‘Nectar Dripping’ and the Enya-like lush of ‘Beautiful Crisis’, Flora blooms her ideas with an openended ambiguity so often missing from so called Ambient music, ushering the listener into a soundworld that disturbs and displaces, just as much as it calms.

Chicago artist Justin Kay was hugely prolific in his day and world under several different nom de plume. Now some of his best work is being revisited for a series of posthumous releases. He traversed several different sound worlds with equal aplomb from bright pop to sludge metal via IDM. Under his Cosmic AC alias he manages to mix up equal parts ambient bliss with breakbeat action, raw techno and emotive house. The standouts of this Continuations album come thick and fast from the high speed jungle breaks of 'Blue Whirl' to the jazzy downtempo delights of 'Hedge Clipper' and plenty in between. See also the majestic pop serenity of closer 'WTWIRDYMTBOWSA.'

A defining album of the 90s, Last Splash by The Breeders turns 30 this year. To celebrate, the band have returned to the original tapes to give it its first-ever remaster, and by doing so have also unearthed two lost tracks that will delight fans. Recorded by the "classic" Breeders line-up of Kim Deal, Kelley Deal, Josephine Wiggs and Jim Macpherson and featuring singles "Cannonball" and "Divine Hammer", Last Splash was "an alt-rock classic" (Pitchfork"s Top 100 Records of 1990s) on release; a fast seller too, quickly attaining Platinum status in the US. Despite having had the boxset treatment on its 20th birthday, the album was still left to be remastered so 10 years on, the original y" tapes were taken out of the archives and have been lovingly worked on by Kim Deal, Benjamin Mumphrey and Miles Showell (Abbey Road). Never sounding so good, the album for its 30th anniversary, it"s getting the ultimate vinyl pressing. Entitled Last Splash (the 30th Anniversary Original Analog Edition), this new version has been cut at half speed at Abbey Road by Miles Showell, now spanning two LPs and running at 45rpm. A Japanese cd edition will also be available. This edition contains an exclusive, one-sided etched 12" which features two previously unreleased tracks - "Go Man Go" and "Divine Mascis" ("Go Man Go" is a track that Kim co-wrote with Black Francis while "Divine Mascis" is a different version of "Divine Hammer" with Dinosaur Jr."s J Mascis on lead vocals). Both tracks originate from the original sessions and were left forgotten until the sessions were exhumed to create this new master. The attention to detail continues to the album"s art, which equally celebrates Vaughan Oliver"s iconic sleeve. With Vaughan sadly no longer with us, his long-time design partner Chris Bigg has gloriously reimagined the album"s sleeve for this new version.

The legacy of the Japanese-US label Dailysession continues with this stunning EP produced by Chachi Romero feat. Kathleen Bryant. The classic black wax is embellished by the correct and skilful hand of Pablo Cruz and the label owner Toshi aka Dj Monchan.

Assegai is an instrumental rock outfit consisting of saxophone, bass, guitar, and drums. Each member of the group brings a variety of musical influences to the eclectic entanglement that is Assegai’s distinct sound. No matter where you place yourself musically you will always find something to grab your attention in their odd type of instrumental rock. The album Water Worlds and Dry Spells is the product of a mutual pile of ideas; written sketches, memorized conversations, and cell phone recordings which were all collected in a joint cloud folder, and eventually laid the foundation of the compositions. Continuing from their 2020 album Kraal and their 2022 album 53, this release is a further development of the unity that the band have found themselves in, where jazz phrases fuse with krautrock repetition, traditional folk themes, and polyrhythmic structures. The compositions on Water Worlds and Dry Spells showcase the intensity that the band has cultivated during the last couple of years of live performances. On Water World and Dry Spells Assegai acts as the perfect live band for a future abandoned water world

blue repress !

It's been nearly 15 years since this originally hit the shelves, which literally took the immersive atmospheric sound of Echospace and brought it right to the floor. With cv313's "Sailingstars" the spirit continues as they go on to preach the gospel of deep with a rippling exercise in space and bass.

A sort of slow motion movement in tone and 38 hz sub frequency which nearly verges on the disturbing, a sonic threshold quite hard to achieve in a vinyl cut. The power of repetition and subtle atmosphere are clearly demonstrated here by bringing the listener to an almost hypnotic state within its melodic spatial grooves.

The B side offers two immense reductions, equally effective providing a low end throb, analog spirit and organic textures captured in zero gravity, it's like truly sailing among the stars. Lovingly remastered and mixed down from the original analog 1/4" reel to reel tape, strictly limited to 300 copies for the world.

Drivetrain
Music Got Me - The quintessential blend of retro sophistication with ultramodern late night chic. A rolling bass transports a melodious string accompaniment through an arresting vocal hook.
Afterhours Mix - Following the same path with a slightly different spin, incorporating an electronic touch on the retro syncopation.

Melodymann
Keep It Movin - Intelligently enriched with uplifting vocal drops complementing spicy horn fills, funk bass and electrifying beat oscillation.
Up & Down - Maintaining the energy but substituting the horn fills with jazzy keyboard riffs while the vocal slices continue to drop over bouncing subfrequencies.

Repress!

Debut single by 'TURBO Q 3000', a project by Turbo Sonidero (Grupo Jejeje / Kumbia Net) & Principe Q (Kumbia All Stars / Royal Highness)

Turbo Sonidero is a music producer and record collector from San Jose, CA who blends Cumbia Sonidera (sound system) with Rap. He is a co-founder of Grupo Jejeje and also the-founder of Kumbia Net/Kumbia Obscura, a collective that promotes new and up-and-coming cumbia producers from Mexico and beyond. Turbo Sonidero is a pioneer who continues to lead the reemergence of cumbia globally. He has been featured in Vogue MX, The New Yorker, Fader, Vice MX, Afropop Worldwide, KQED, and XLR8R, among others.

Music producer/DJ Svani Quintanilla (aka Principe Q) is noted as the creator of "Screwmbia", pioneered by his duo Royal Highness (with DJ King Louie). "Screwmbia" is his modern take on cumbia, blending trap drums with slowed down cumbia rhythms. Bringing cumbia in to the modern times is an homage to his aunt, Selena Quintanilla-Perez, who also did so in the 80's and 90's. He is the oldest son of Kumbia All Star founder A.B. Quintanilla III and has recently joined the band as a percussionist.

Limited to 500 7" copies
Exclusive artwork by Jaime Ruelas

Salar Ansari returns to Moozikeh Analog Room for his second delivery on the label. "Feelings from the Future" explores the connection between the present and the future and the continuation and evolution of the present moment.

Prisoners Of Love And Hate' is an offering to community, to desires that imprison and liberate, to people in all their divinity and ugliness. Apostille - aka Night School Records’ captain Michael Kasparis - presents is third album with a bang, a bursting ball of NRG, empathy and bristling living.
Like its predecessor 'Choose Life', 'Prisoners…' was recorded at Full Ashram Celestial Garden in Glasgow with Lewis Cook (Free Love) through 2022. A nine song treatise on pop music, trauma, ecstasy and the mundanities between the extremes, Kasparis takes on classic 80s synth pop, 90s house music, 00s trance, wistful balladry, 70s power pop. The thread that runs through the album is a boundless energy, an openness to the moment, to living
the pains and joys equally, open armed.

This is a place of no judgement, of possibility, challenge and comfort. The nine songs on 'Prisoners…' can be read as separate ruminations on the feelings and desires that imprison our experience. Through it all the narrator struggles against them, transported and fooled by love and longing, peering through the bars of anguish, flailing in a cell of emotions. 'Saturday Night, Still Breathing' breaks the album open with an invigorating scream and pounds into the night with a nod to Whigfield, Kasparis’ punk roots and house music. Over a thumping 909 kick and bassline, Kasparis pens a love letter to being with people, the collective energy of hearts in a room, thrumming together, making it through together. Written as private ritual magic, manifesting community during a time of isolation, it’s as if the party is the most important thing in the world. 'Rely On Me' imagines 80s Mute synth pop, Erasure fronted by Bruce Springsteen, romance doomed and forever perfect in the mind. 'Spit Pit' completes the opening triptych of fast paced rollercoasters, an ode to childhood forged out of change and discomfort told with a bold, epic production by Lewis Cook, AFX breakbeats, 160BPM kicks and a commanding vocal performance.

On 'People Make This City', Kasparis eases off the gas, lets the mist blowing in from the Clyde River blow over his version of Glasgow. A wistful ballad about small town gossip and coming through anger to leaving it all behind, it provides some shadow to the bright light of the vibrancy of the album. 'Natural Angel' owes much to 70s and 80s power pop, guitar melodrama, Thin Lizzy and Rick Springfield through the prism of co-dependence in relationships. It’s a theme that’s picked up in slow burner 'Nothing But Perfect', a hazy synth soul-inflected song about building your own mythology, constructing a dream to hide in, to hold on to. The most surprising track of the album, 'Summer of ’03' re-imagines the trance music of early noughties Europe into a lament for an eternal summer or as a fan once put it, “Meat Loaf with a donk on it.” A recognition that all ecstasy has tragedy laced within it, it’s a theme that is sewn throughout the LP and continued on the final song 'Feel Good (You Can Make Me)'. Referencing Shalamar’s 1982 mega hit by way of N-Trance’s piano riffs, the epic closer is riddled with heartbreak, vulnerability and power. It’s a testament to the new confidence in Kasparis’s songwriting, sure, but also to the enduring power of people to come together in mutual dependence and love. If ecstasy is always laced with tragedy, then 'Prisoners of Love and Hate' can always reach out between the bars to meet in the middle, the eternal now.

The second of four vinyl release from DJ 3000’s “Mezë’ album continues to shine with ‘Pitë EP’. ’Pite’ as close to classic House as DJ 3000 gets, a testament to his versatility on this new release. 'Red & Black' is a heartfelt homage to Franki Juncaj's Albanian heritage, evident not only in its title, which echoes the national colors, but also in the seamless integration of traditional Balkan instruments. 'Ishalla' hints at the influence and inspiration drawn from Middle Eastern and Balkan musical traditions. Bringing this EP to a poignant close is 'Dua' a title derived from Albanian, signifying "I want," adding a meaningful linguistic layer to this captivating musical journey.

The evolution of Swampmeat Family Band continues apace. When the Birmingham outfit released
their incendiary third album, Muck, three years ago, it marked the culmination of the kind of vision that
frontman Dan Finnemore had always had for them; having returned from the U.S. after a spell as a key
member of Philadelphia rockers Low Cut Connie, he was burning with ideas and inspiration,
channeling a renewed creative energy into a new-look version of the garage band he’d formed, as
simply Swampmeat, with drummer T-Bird Jones in 2006. Muck certainly felt like a family affair, one
that saw the group expand to a five-piece and broaden their musical palette, boldening their bolshier
side with brass, lending their forays into country some authenticity with the addition of pedal steel and,
by welcoming vocalist Joni Coyne into the fold, providing Finnemore with a new foil. The new
accoutrements came together to form the basis of Swampmeat 2.0, a slicker, sharper band anchored
by Finnemore’s handsome arrangements and melodic sensibilities. Polish Your Old Halo continues
Finnemore’s hot vein of songwriting form with Muck and capitalises upon that album’s creative
momentum, without being afraid to try new things and remove old ones; the brass and strings that
made it on to Muck have been left to one side, propelling Finnemore’s writing to the fore. The
freewheeling blues rock that came to define their last album is still alive and well. But there’s also
progression, something particularly evident in the album’s bookends; ‘Do It All’ brings the curtain up
with juddering, synth-led punk energy, while closer ‘Plant Your Feet Correctly’ is a swooning acoustic
cut, initially envisioned as having a string section but now presented in vulnerable, bare-bones fashion.

Reissued for the first time on vinyl, an amazing showcase of roots & reggae lovers, originally released on Trojan in 1977. Although his place as a reggae pioneer cannot be questioned, Owen Gray has felt for many years that he never got his due from Jamaica, his homeland. On August 6 2023, the government finally recognized his contribution awarding him with the honour of Order Of Distinction, Jamaica’s sixth-highest honour. Gray, now 87, is ecstatic about what he considers an overdue and deserved reward. In the rocksteady era, he recorded for producer Sir Clancy Collins AKA sir collins. His popularity continued throughout the 1960s, working with producers such as Clement Dodd, Prince Buster, Sydney Crooks, Arthur "Duke" Reid, Leslie Kong, and Clancy Eccles, including work as a duo with Millie Small, with songs ranging from ska to ballads. He continued to record regularly, having a big hit in 1968 with "Cupid". His 1970 track "Apollo 12" found favour with the early skinheads, and in 1972 he returned to Island Records, recording reggae versions of The Rolling Stones' "Tumblin' Dice" and John Lennon's "Jealous Guy", although they met with little success. During this period, he regularly had releases on Pama and Pioneer Internacional label, Camel Records, and one single on Hot Lead Records. He had greater success in Jamaica, however, with "Hail the Man", a tribute to Emperor Haile Selassie, which was popular with the increasing Rastafari following.

Released in 1976, Eternity was Alice Coltrane's first album for Warner Bros. after eight wondrous records on Impulse! Combining the drones and textures of India, the gospel and R&B of her Detroit youth and the dissonance of modern classical composition, Coltrane's music in the '70s would become increasingly difficult to categorize.

Having moved a few years earlier to California (where she founded the Vedantic Center, an Ashram for spiritual studies), Coltrane stretches out on Eternity – incorporating various musical styles, including a stirring adaptation of Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring – and the results are dazzling, both in sonic scope and emotional range

Opener "Spiritual Eternal" sways between Alice's exploratory organ and the dramatic swell of lush strings. A meditative solo piece for harp, "Wisdom Eye," precedes the rollicking rhythms of "Los Caballos," which showcases some of her finest soloing.

"Om Supreme" is the album's first track to be built around bhajans (Hindu devotional songs). Featuring graceful keyboards backed by an angelic choir, this piece hints at the ecstatic devotional music that she would later make with members of her Ashram.

While Coltrane would delve deeper into her spiritual journeys and continue to expand her musical interests on subsequent LPs, Eternity remains a vivid and compelling display of her unique vision, myriad talents and passions.

GREEN AND WHITE MARBLE VINYL.

The Beths occupy a warm, energetic sonic space between joyful hooks, sun-soaked harmonies, and acerbic lyrics. Their debut album Future Me Hates Me, forthcoming on Carpark Records, delivers an astonishment of roadtrip-ready pleasures, each song hitting your ears with an exhilarating endorphin rush like the first time you heard Slanted and Enchanted or 'Cannonball.'

Front and center on these ten infectious tracks is lead singer and primary songwriter Elizabeth Stokes. Stokes has previously worked in other genres within Auckland's rich and varied music scene, recently playing in a folk outfit, but it was in exploring the angst-ridden sounds of her youth that she found her place. 'Fronting this kind of band was a new experience for me,' says Stokes. 'I never thought I had the right voice for it.'

From the irresistible title track to future singles 'Happy Unhappy' and 'You Wouldn't Like Me,' Stokes commands a vocal range that spans from the brash confidence of Joan Jett to the disarming vulnerability of Jenny Lewis. Further honeying Future Me Hates Me's dark lyrics that explore complex topics like being newly alone and the self-defeating anticipation of impending regret, ecstatic vocal harmonies bubble up like in the greatest pop and R+B of the '60s, while inverting the trope of the 'sad dude singer accompanied by a homogenous girl-sound.'

All four members of The Beths studied jazz at university, resulting in a toolkit of deft instrumental chops and tricked-out arrangements that operate on a level rarely found in guitar-pop. Beths guitarist and studio guru Jonathan Pearce (whose other acts as producer include recent Captured Tracks signing Wax Chattels) brings it all home with an approach that's equal parts seasoned perfectionist and D.I.Y.

'There's a lot of sad sincerity in the lyrics,' she continues, 'that relies on the music having a light heart and sense of humor to keep it from being too earnest.' Channeling their stew of personal-canon heroes while drawing inspiration from contemporaries like Alvvays and Courtney Barnett, The Beths serve up deeply emotional lyrics packaged within heavenly sounds that delight in probing the limits of the pop form. 'That's another New Zealand thing,' Stokes concludes with a laugh. 'We're putting our hearts on our sleeves—and then apologizing for it.'

Dreyblatt"s minimalist conception - a rhythmic drone played on a double-bass strung with piano wire, playing in concert with other stringed instruments performing in 20 unequal microtones per octave and changing key but keeping the same fundamental pitch - dates back to the 1970s, while he studied under La Monte Young and Pauline Oliveros. Resolve acts in intermittent dialogue with the first Orchestra of Excited Strings release, 1982"s Nodal Excitation.

Since then, Dreyblatt has formed new orchestras across various countries and decades, with each phase of his music requiring several overlapping periods of gestation and arrangement.

The current Orchestra is formed by Konrad Sprenger, Joachim Schütz and Oren Ambarchi. On Resolve, each of the members" playing brings new angles to the compositions. Konrad Sprenger"s involves solenoids, sine waves and a computer-controlled multi-channel electric guitar (as well as a relentless style behind the drum kit and oversight of the album production), while Joachim Schütz"s individual conception of electronics and electric guitar and Oren Ambarchi"s undeniable innovations with signal path work together with Dreyblatt"s bass (still strung with piano wire) as magnetic component parts of Resolve.

These contributions lead to Resolve"s dialogue with the early Orchestra of Excited Strings canon - for instance, the track previewed here, "Flight Path" takes off at a pace not often found in the minimalist genre - a rolling lope! Yet the sense of play is palpable: the ensemble scale their microtonal keys with punkish brio, a stance sharing much with the original Orchestra"s downtown pulse, even as as the new Orchestra burn their own path through Dreyblatt"s music.

Approaching his 70th birthday, with over 40 years of work as a solo artist, collaborator, composer, educator and bandleader, Arnold Dreyblatt views Resolve as an important expression within the long story of The Orchestra of Excited Strings. The album title"s tendency to mean different things is an indicator of the dynamic qualities of his music in all its different phases - an evolution that continues to produce new dimensions in acoustic sound with every new release.

The quartet's creative sense of musical interplay is again to the forefront of this newest album, recorded in Oslo in the summer of 2022, which may be their strongest statement to date. Obara's new music optimally highlights his intuitive musical relationship with Dominik Wania, while Ole Morten Vagan and Gard Nilssen continually transcend rhythm section roles to interact persuasively with the saxophonist and the pianist.

It's been a little over ten years since Hailu Mergia reemerged on the international music scene. Following the first in a series of his classic recordings reissued in collaboration with Awesome Tapes From Africa, Mergia assembled a band and began performing live again after many years driving a cab in Washington, DC. His first show back appeared on the front page of the New York Times along with a stellar review and he took off from there performing his flavor of Ethiopian jazz all over the world in the years since, including Radio City Music Hall and Montreal Jazz Festival. Finally, we have a recorded document of the keyboard player's powerful DC-based trio _ which practices each weekend in his basement _ featuring Kenneth Joseph on drums and Alemseged Kebede on bass. Beautifully captured at one of their fiery live shows at the venerable Brooklyn non-profit cultural center Pioneer Works on July 1, 2016, the concert was recorded by PW staff and mixed by Ted Young with mastering by ATFA's expert audio extraction collaborator Jessica Thompson. The performance clarifies what many people across the globe already know: in his fifth decade of music-making Hailu Mergia continues to push the boundaries of his remarkable abilities. Mergia and his veteran band energetically and playfully unpeel layer after layer of harmonic and rhythmic interest out of a spectrum of Ethiopian repertoire. Modern jazz demands constant reinvention and improvisation, night after night creating new works out of known modes and classic standards. This band is unstoppable when it comes to turning age-old melodies (like "Tizita" or "Anchihoye Lene") upside down and inside out until they emerge as molten new works, often spontaneously. Mergia's original compositions (like "Yegle Nesh") shine brighter than ever here as well. Moving from keyboard to organ to accordion to melodica, he deftly switches instruments _ often during the same song. Mergia at 77 years old seems to be working harder than musicians half his age. "Pioneer Works Swing (Live)" brings into focus the kind of onstage group improvisation and deadly solo passages that reach for places Mergia and the band have never gone, on festival and club stages across four continents. Now that Mergia has released two new recordings along with four classic reissues, he is eager to let everyone hear what he's been doing on the road since he re-took the global stage for his victory laps. So much more than an old act from yesteryear, Mergia balances his legendary Ethiopian recordings with good old fashioned sweat-soaked live concert triumphs such as the one we have here.

It's been a little over ten years since Hailu Mergia reemerged on the international music scene. Following the first in a series of his classic recordings reissued in collaboration with Awesome Tapes From Africa, Mergia assembled a band and began performing live again after many years driving a cab in Washington, DC. His first show back appeared on the front page of the New York Times along with a stellar review and he took off from there performing his flavor of Ethiopian jazz all over the world in the years since, including Radio City Music Hall and Montreal Jazz Festival. Finally, we have a recorded document of the keyboard player's powerful DC-based trio _ which practices each weekend in his basement _ featuring Kenneth Joseph on drums and Alemseged Kebede on bass. Beautifully captured at one of their fiery live shows at the venerable Brooklyn non-profit cultural center Pioneer Works on July 1, 2016, the concert was recorded by PW staff and mixed by Ted Young with mastering by ATFA's expert audio extraction collaborator Jessica Thompson. The performance clarifies what many people across the globe already know: in his fifth decade of music-making Hailu Mergia continues to push the boundaries of his remarkable abilities. Mergia and his veteran band energetically and playfully unpeel layer after layer of harmonic and rhythmic interest out of a spectrum of Ethiopian repertoire. Modern jazz demands constant reinvention and improvisation, night after night creating new works out of known modes and classic standards. This band is unstoppable when it comes to turning age-old melodies (like "Tizita" or "Anchihoye Lene") upside down and inside out until they emerge as molten new works, often spontaneously. Mergia's original compositions (like "Yegle Nesh") shine brighter than ever here as well. Moving from keyboard to organ to accordion to melodica, he deftly switches instruments _ often during the same song. Mergia at 77 years old seems to be working harder than musicians half his age. "Pioneer Works Swing (Live)" brings into focus the kind of onstage group improvisation and deadly solo passages that reach for places Mergia and the band have never gone, on festival and club stages across four continents. Now that Mergia has released two new recordings along with four classic reissues, he is eager to let everyone hear what he's been doing on the road since he re-took the global stage for his victory laps. So much more than an old act from yesteryear, Mergia balances his legendary Ethiopian recordings with good old fashioned sweat-soaked live concert triumphs such as the one we have here.

New York-based label Kindergarten Records is thrilled to unveil Ayesha’s debut album, ‘Rhythm is Memory’ – 10 boundary-pushing tracks, a shape-shifting percussive journey with electric moments.
While intended for maximum dancefloor impact, Ayesha’s first LP is also conceptually thought-provoking and playful, exploring how bodies store and channel creative knowledge.

A self-taught producer, Ayesha relies on her instincts to make music: sensing what her body wants to feel and hear. To her, essential to building a groove is channeling what is already inside us –
memories – whether they are based on lived experience or coded in the body: culturally, ancestrally, or intergenerationally. The result is this Indian-American producer’s distinct rhythmic voice, with its
many configurations boldly expressed across her debut album.

Kindergarten first released Ayesha’s material in 2020 with her ‘Natural Phenomena’ EP, a four-track journey which she described as “an undulating love letter to nature and the dancefloor, a space
where her biophilia collides with her yearning for the dancefloor.” Subsequently, she continued to build upon her luminous, scintillating sound with a contribution to ‘Fluo II’ titled “Aspara Dub”, followed
by “Varanasi” and “Downpour” on ‘Ether’, a split release with Sha Ru in 2021. With each release, Ayesha's sound evolved, adding shades, layers, and perpetual rhythmic nuance to a mind palace of
dancefloor possibilities.

That is why her and Kindergarten are a perfect match -- driven by their mutual fascination with exploratory sonics and a shared commitment to the community that inspires them. Kindergarten
Records has shaped itself into a trailblazing label, uniting a diverse and innovative collective of local and international producers, while embodying a strong familial atmosphere.This debut LP represents
a significant step-up for both the artist and the imprint, as they strive harmoniously towards a shared goal: delivering a sonic experience full of colorful, otherworldly bass-fueled expansion.

‘Rhythm is Memory’ captures Ayesha’s signature love for driving techno and organic percussion, while at moments veering into newer electro territory while keeping it psychedelic, spacious, dubby, and
always playful. This feels intuitively right for a producer at a crossroads in her career. All tracks intricately weave together pulsing drum grooves, slinky synths, nuanced melodies, and delightfully
unexpected twists. No single genre can do justice to describing this project as Ayesha delicately nods to many, reveling in the spaces between.

Undoubtedly, across A and B sides, 'Rhythm is Memory' imparts the joy of sonic experimentation to listeners and dancers. Ayesha invites us into her creative process and its steady evolution – rooted in
many days and nights of exploration, reflection, and repetition. "The ritual practice of cultivating and tending a garden is what comes to mind if I were to visualize this record. Beautiful things can emerge
from care and consistent attention," says Ayesha. While she refers to her specific experience making 'Rhythm is Memory,' this powerful album culminates a decade of working in nightlife for Ayesha – a
project slated to leave an indelible mark on the underground. To mark this impressive milestone in their catalog, Kindergarten Records is proud to return to pressing vinyl after a hiatus since 2020,
recognizing the significance of putting out a physical release to behold such a moment in both the label's and the artist's trajectory.

In this accompanying remix set, "Earth 2.23: Special Lower Frequency Mix", the Bug has taken a bit of "Seven Angels" and laced it with feedback and big bass, allowing grime luminary Flowdan to climb atop it with his dark, staccato visions. Responsible for many transformational records himself, Justin K. Broadrick of Jesu and Godflesh crawls inside "Teeth" to lash at it with punishing drum machines and sordid layers of new distortion, building it into some brokedown palace of industrial mayhem. Loop's Robert Hampson makes good on the premise of ambient metal with his 30-minute hypnotic beauty, while longtime Earth cohort and longtime Built to Spill multi-instrumentalist Brett Netson seems to float the sound through a benighted graveyard on his clever "Teeth" revamp. These are not obvious directions for Earth's impact. Again, Earth 2 was never an obvious record. 30 years on, have we yet to grasp the enormity of Earth 2, an album that has continued its slow cycle of influence, uninterrupted? Probably not. Hell, most of us don't even know there are horses on the cover. VERY limited indies only LOSER copies pressed on lovely CURACAO BLUE vinyl!

”Last Days On Earth” is the third studio album by Swedish Rock band Svartanatt. Recorded in Svenska Grammofonstudion, "Last Days On Earth" offers 11 new cuts of hard hitting retro rock. While continuing building on Svartanatt’s solid foundation of ’60s and ’70s influenced rock, the album showcases even more varied and captivating soundscapes than before, where melodic organ and guitar arrangements interplay with a tight, rock solid rhythm section, all topped with songwriter Jani’s unique, expressive vocals. For fans of Deep Purple, Horisont, Thin Lizzy, Saxon, Hawkwind, Rival Sons, Märvel, Lynyrd Skynyrd, 60/70's rock.

”Last Days On Earth” is the third studio album by Swedish Rock band Svartanatt. Recorded in Svenska Grammofonstudion, "Last Days On Earth" offers 11 new cuts of hard hitting retro rock. While continuing building on Svartanatt’s solid foundation of ’60s and ’70s influenced rock, the album showcases even more varied and captivating soundscapes than before, where melodic organ and guitar arrangements interplay with a tight, rock solid rhythm section, all topped with songwriter Jani’s unique, expressive vocals. For fans of Deep Purple, Horisont, Thin Lizzy, Saxon, Hawkwind, Rival Sons, Märvel, Lynyrd Skynyrd, 60/70's rock.

Home Cookin' is a continuation of saxophonist Cory Weeds' 1st little big band record. Featuring a line
up of all-star Vancouver players captured by award winning engineer Sheldon Zaharko at Vancouver's
Warehouse Studios Weeds plays the arrangements of Bill Coon and Jill Townsend magnificently.
Highlights include Weeds beautiful ballad Blossoms In May and Weeds' fathers burner Corner Kisses.

Thank You, I’m Sorry is the solo project of frontper- son Colleen Dow turned full band. Now joined by guitarist Abe Anderson, drummer Sage Livergood, and bassist Bethany Schreiner, the band crafts in- credibly relatable confessionals that everyone can connect with- struggles with love, working a job you hate, or just finding a place in the world. Songs that get to the heart of a young creative’s struggle in a destructive world.

On the third LP from Thank You, I’m Sorry, the band has found themselves continuing to write relatable songs penned by guitarist/vocalist Coleen Dow as they wield the pen like a soundtrack to your 20s. Each release has seen the band write tighter and more polished anthems that are sure to relate to people at an age where they need it the most. Don’t be surprised if this band ends up on The OC revival if and when that takes place.

The cosmic force that is Brighton"s Wax Machine return with The Sky Unfurls; The Dance Goes On, a new album of lush, ambient and psych-toned folk that expands and unfurls across 9 blissed out tracks, with Brazilian-born, Italian/English-raised Lau Ro continuing their personal journey with psychedelics and recently found obsession with water that has been heightened by a long overdue trip to Brazil.

Cold War Kids have announced their 10th studio album, Cold War Kids, that will arrive on November 3 via AWAL. The band’s singer and songwriter Nathan Willett describes: " This is our self titled record . Everybody gets one . This felt like the right time because the sound of this record is the sound that makes Cold War kids unlike any other . I’m so proud of these songs. They took a long time to come together . The longing and struggle and joy I wanted to express are personal to me and i am so excited to share it with our fans who have come with us on the journey.”
The epic tale of Cold War Kids has long been informed by deeply personal songcraft, enthusiastic experimentation, and an avowed commitment towards forward motion. The band continues their ascent, becoming one of the biggest rock bands of their generation amassing more than half a billion streams, consistently churning out alternative radio hits, selling out tours and headlining festivals worldwide.
Over the course of nine studio albums and numerous EPs, Cold War Kids have become a major part of the modern musical landscape, with “First,” their Platinum-scanned 2015 single, named as the Most Played track at Alternative radio outlets nationwide over the last decade. As well as 600+ million career streams, 2.2 million singles sold, and over 600,000 albums sold. The band’s current lineup – Nathan Willett (vocals, piano, guitar), Matt Maust (bass guitar), David Quon (guitar, backing vocals), Matthew Schwartz (keyboards, backing vocals, guitar, percussion), and Joe Plummer (drums, percussion) – coalesced in 2016 and have since maintained a dynamic presence in both the studio and on stages around the world.

"You, Me, & The Violence" explodes out of the gates with "Pilori", a statement of personal independence among society's faults and fractures. Birds In Row continue down this road, expressing disdain in songs like "Cages", "Guillotine", and "Walter Freeman". All of them musically harboring a tangle of emotional vocals and rabid distortion. Just when it feels like the album is almost too overpowering, Birds In Row unfurl a moment of clarity in "Last Last Chance", a haunting guitar and vocal break. The control of their dynamics is masterful work. "You, Me, & The Violence" and "Grey Hair" are near perfect examples of this, shifting between searing and serene in tone. And if you weren't in awe of Birds In Row in the first eleven songs, the twelve minute closer "Lovers Have Their Say" will leave you floored.

"You, Me, & The Violence" explodes out of the gates with "Pilori", a statement of personal independence among society's faults and fractures. Birds In Row continue down this road, expressing disdain in songs like "Cages", "Guillotine", and "Walter Freeman". All of them musically harboring a tangle of emotional vocals and rabid distortion. Just when it feels like the album is almost too overpowering, Birds In Row unfurl a moment of clarity in "Last Last Chance", a haunting guitar and vocal break. The control of their dynamics is masterful work. "You, Me, & The Violence" and "Grey Hair" are near perfect examples of this, shifting between searing and serene in tone. And if you weren't in awe of Birds In Row in the first eleven songs, the twelve minute closer "Lovers Have Their Say" will leave you floored.

Off World presents the final album in its trilogy of surreal and spacious leftfield electronics. "A stellar project headed by Sandro Perri, one of the most singular producers in contemporary music" (Boomkat), this third volume is another distinctive collection of tracks constructed from semi-improvised ensemble recordings made over the past decade with a varied cast of coconspirators. Drew Brown, Matthew Cooper, Susumu Mukai and Andrew Zukerman join Perri again on a variety of synths and machines, along with violinist Jesse Zubot (Tanya Tagaq, Fond Of Tigers). Perri also continues to add organ and piano to the mix, while Volume 3 notably features first-time Off World contributors Nicole Rampersaud on trumpet and Martin Arnold on guitar, both mainstays of Toronto's vibrant improv and out-music scenes. The Quietus calls Off World "genuinely explorative_the musical equivalent of a Dali-esque landscape" which through all sorts of genre-defying twists and turns, at times evokes "offkilter, late Miles Davis ambience". Off World 3 doubles down on that jazz-adjacent trope in certain respects, while holding fast to Pitchfork's dictum that Perri "cultivates his own genreless brand of futurism." Marked by longer tracks than previous collections, three of the album's five songs clock in around the 10-minute mark, where overtly improvised instrumental playing wends its way across alternately bubbling and woozy electronic beds. "Impulse Controller" is a languidly skewed rhumba where ambling melodic undercurrents and dubby electronic pointillism provide a dulcet promenade for Rampersaud's Miles-esque trumpet excursions. "Ludic Loop" see-saws along in a slow synthy two-step, punctuated by Perri's restrained piano chords and Arnold's fried electric guitar. "Empasse" is perhaps most reminiscent of earlier Off World collections, though again slowed and stretched, with oozing synth bass ostinatos counterposed by ambient layers of viola and violin filigree from Zubot. These three centerpiece longform tracks each highlight one of the album's instrumental improvisers, and taken together, make for the most scintillating sedate and ruminant album in the trilogy. Off World 3 sounds as sui generis as ever, but in wrapping up the series, Perri sprinkles the project's emblematic alien surrealism with decidedly anthropic elements and temporalities. This final volume in the trilogy could also be seen as a re-statement of Perri's politico-aesthetic mission, as aptly celebrated by Pitchfork and its glowing 8.0+ reviews of Perri's 2018/2019 solo albums In Another Life and Soft Landing (released between Off World 2 and the present volume): a uniquely purposeful, subtly detailed cannon of songs "busy, vibrant, and bursting with life, but that aren't ever in a rush to get anywhere."

On new EP twotwentytwo, indie riser THALA continues to embrace vulnerability, summoning long-buried emotions to colour her ardent love for lyricism amid psych-tinged `90s indie soundscapes. Filled with potent songwriting and coming-of-age anthems straight from the heart, these everyday love stories surrender to life's insecurities. Evoking the soundscapes of Slowdive and Deerhunter, whilst recalling the widescreen pop of boygenius and Snail Mail. Recorded in London and Berlin earlier this year, twotwentytwo follows the release of `In Theory Depression', THALA's first EP on Fire Records. Spanning six tracks, it builds on its predecessor's fearless lyricism, excavating deep-set feelings of loss, pain, desire and conflict against luminous production and addictive melodies. Following rammed appearances at SXSW and The Great Escape, and having picked up the attention BBC Radio 1's Jack Saunders, THALA shows no signs of slowing down_ Blissful guitars and evocative crescendos permeate THALA's unique vision of dreampop, reveling in soaring choruses and intimate storylines. On its surface, twotwentytwo boasts a kind of glorious emotive draw - you'd be forgiven for mistaking any one of these tracks as a backdrop to any teen-angst drama. However, while THALA wants her songs to feel nostalgic, it's the complexity of her songwriting that sees her modern compositions really resonate and she is keen to stress her lyrics can be interpreted in numerous ways. And therein lies the heart of this release - a cathartic, wildly empowering, self-explorative from a future indie heartbreaker at her gutsy best. Ltd Clear Vinyl, A5 insert, dlc

All vinyl comes w/ printed inner sleeve + download card. Genre: Metal. Limited edition Transparent vinyl available exclusively to indie stores. Legendary Tacoma, Washington mathcore/hardcore/metal band Botch’s final EP An Anthology of Dead Ends was originally recorded in 2002, serving as a swan song sending off one of heavy music’s most inventive groups.

Now, the band’s final EP is set to be re-issued on Sargent House over 20 years after its original release. Their monstrous concoction of metal, noise, indie rock guitar trickery, and depth is on full display.

This is a last will and testament to the group's drive and intent, cementing their legacy as one of the untouchable greats, already having influenced many a group. Bassist Brian Cook, guitarist David Knudson, drummer Tim Latona, and vocalist Dave Verellen formed Botch in 1993, eventually becoming one of the most significant bands of their time.

Their final show was June 15, 2002, the same day as the original release of An Anthology of Dead Ends. The members would go on to play in These Arms Are Snakes, Minus the Bear, and Russian Circles, among others, with acclaim for the band coming mostly post-breakup.

Over 20 years since they played their final show, Botch are reuniting for select dates across the US throughout the end of 2023. Botch continue their first live performances in over 20 years throughout the end of 2023.

All vinyl comes w/ printed inner sleeve + download card. Genre: Metal. Limited edition Transparent vinyl available exclusively to indie stores. Legendary Tacoma, Washington mathcore/hardcore/metal band Botch’s final EP An Anthology of Dead Ends was originally recorded in 2002, serving as a swan song sending off one of heavy music’s most inventive groups.

Now, the band’s final EP is set to be re-issued on Sargent House over 20 years after its original release. Their monstrous concoction of metal, noise, indie rock guitar trickery, and depth is on full display.

This is a last will and testament to the group's drive and intent, cementing their legacy as one of the untouchable greats, already having influenced many a group. Bassist Brian Cook, guitarist David Knudson, drummer Tim Latona, and vocalist Dave Verellen formed Botch in 1993, eventually becoming one of the most significant bands of their time.

Their final show was June 15, 2002, the same day as the original release of An Anthology of Dead Ends. The members would go on to play in These Arms Are Snakes, Minus the Bear, and Russian Circles, among others, with acclaim for the band coming mostly post-breakup.

Over 20 years since they played their final show, Botch are reuniting for select dates across the US throughout the end of 2023. Botch continue their first live performances in over 20 years throughout the end of 2023.

It’s been a little over ten years since Hailu Mergia re- emerged on the international music scene. Following the first in a series of his classic recordings reissued in collaboration with Awesome Tapes From Africa, Mergia assembled a band and began performing live again after many years driving a cab in Washington, DC. His first show back appeared on the front page of the

New York Times along with a stellar review and he took off from there performing his flavor of Ethiopian jazz all over the world in the years since, including Radio City Music Hall and Montreal Jazz Festival.

Finally, we have a recorded document of the keyboard player’s powerful DC-based trio—which practices each weekend in his basement—featuring Kenneth Joseph on drums and Alemseged Kebede on bass. Beautifully captured at one of their fiery live shows at the venerable Brooklyn non-profit cultural center Pioneer Works on July 1, 2016, the concert was recorded by PW staff and mixed by Ted Young with mastering by ATFA’s expert audio extraction collaborator Jessica Thompson. The performance clarifies what many people across the globe already know: in his fifth decade of music-making Hailu Mergia continues to push the boundaries of his remarkable abilities.

Mergia and his veteran band energetically and playfully unpeel layer after layer of harmonic and rhythmic interest out of a spectrum of Ethiopian repertoire. Modern jazz demands constant reinvention and improvisation, night after night creating new works out of known modes and classic standards. This band is unstoppable when it comes to turning age-old melodies (like “Tizita” or “Anchihoye Lene”) upside down and inside out until they emerge as molten new works, often spontaneously. Mergia’s original compositions (like “Yegle Nesh”) shine brighter than ever here as well. Moving from keyboard to organ to accordion to melodica, he deftly switches instruments—often during the same song. Mergia at 77 years old seems to be working harder than musicians half his age.

Pioneer Works Swing (Live) brings into focus the kind of onstage group improvisation and deadly solo passages that reach for places Mergia and the band have never gone, on festival and club stages across four continents.

Now that Mergia has released two new recordings along with four classic reissues, he is eager to let everyone hear what he’s been doing on the road since he re-took the global stage for his victory laps. So much more than an old act from yesteryear, Mergia balances his legendary Ethiopian recordings with good old fashioned sweat-soaked live concert triumphs such as the one we have here.

Structured Records presents the continuation of their previous work, signed by The Wire Alliance, untitled "Mathspace."

The new EP consists of 4 solid and impactful Techno remixes, where the diversity within each track defines this 12-inch as the perfect tool to set the dancefloor on fire.

Silez, Swarm Intelligence, Rommek, and Irrational Language dive into a whirlwind of drones, aggressive rhythmic patterns, exquisite basslines, and other sonic elements that creatively and deeply dissect the original songs.

A compilation that at times sounds reminiscent of early 2000s Birmingham, while at other times injects a sound closer to IDM, all without straying from its own essence: precise Techno execution, without frills or pretensions but with a lot of personality and a clear direction—to provide timeless material for the most demanding DJs.

Structured Records' new release is here to stay in your record collections. And we're not just saying it, just hit play. We love what we do. Enjoy it.

The iconic electronic music masterpiece, "The House Of House" by Cherrymoon Trax, is set to make an electrifying return to the scene. Originally introduced in 1994, this timeless classic, helmed by the talented trio Axel Stephenson, Yves Deruyter, and Franky Kloeck, has been revitalized in a new remastered wax format. The eagerly awaited release is a special double 12", featuring mixes that have never graced vinyl before, alongside the cherished original and other mixes that have left an indelible mark over the years. As an added treat, collectors will find the inclusion of the original tracks "Let There Be House" and "Conflictation." Presented in a captivating 2 color vinyl format (black & white) that harmonizes seamlessly with the sleeve, this reissue is undoubtedly a must-have for electronic music aficionados and vinyl collectors alike. Brace yourselves for the resurgence of a true masterpiece that continues to shape the landscape of electronic music. It’s also the introduction to a new upcoming single with the return of Axel Stephenson.

Well, we're two full months into 2017 and the world continues to burn like an avalanche of flaming biohazard material sliding down a mountain of used needles into a canyon full of rat feces. But hey, it's not all bad: Portugal. The Man has a new album coming out called Woodstock.


PTM's last album came out over three years ago—a long gap for a band who've dropped roughly an album a year since 2006. And in true, prolific band fashion, they've spent almost every minute since 2013 working on an album called Gloomin + Doomin. They created a shit-ton of individual songs, but as a whole, none of them hung together in a way that felt right. Then John Gourley, PTM's lead singer, made a trip home to Wasilla, Alaska, (Home of Portugal. The Man's biggest fan, Sarah Palin) and two things happened that completely changed the album's trajectory.

First, John got some parental tough love from his old man, who called John on the proverbial carpet or dogsled or whatever you put people on when you want to yell at them in Alaska. What's taking so long to finish the album' John's dad said. Isn't that what bands do Write songs and then put them out' Like fathers and unlicensed therapists tend to do, John's dad cut him deep. The whole thing started John thinking about why the band seemed to be stuck on a musical elliptical machine from hell and, more importantly, about how to get off of it.

Second, fate stuck its wiener in John's ear again when he found his dad's ticket stub from the original 1969 Woodstock music festival. It seems like a small thing, but talking to his dad about Woodstock '69 knocked something loose in John's head. He realized that, in the same tradition of bands from that era, Portugal. The Man needed to speak out about the world crumbling around them. With these two ideas converging, the band made a seemingly bat-shit-crazy decision: they took all of the work they had done for the three years prior and they threw it out.

It wasn't easy and there was the constant threat that the band's record label might have them killed, but the totally insane decision paid off. With new, full-on, musical boners, the band went back to the studio—working with John Hill (In The Mountain In The Cloud), Danger Mouse (Evil Friends), Mike D (Everything Cool), and longtime collaborator Casey Bates (The one consistent producer since the first record). In this new-found creative territory, the album that became Woodstock rolled out naturally from there.

Remember that mountain of burning needles we were talking about Good. Because Woodstock is an album (Including the new single Feel It Still') that—with optimism and heart—points at the giant pile and says, Hey, this pile is fucked up!' And if you think that pile is fucked up too, you owe it to yourself—hell, to all of us—to get out there and do something about it.

Synthesizer king J.B. Banfi, a.k.a. Giuseppe 'Baffo' Banfi, hit the record market with the great italian prog rock outfit Biglietto per l'Inferno who released a legendary LP in 1974 on Trident and have been reivindicated in several occasions since with the release of lost recordings from the era as well as unearthing an unreleased 1974 live album. The band existed between 1972 and 1975, and had both Pilly Cossa on Hammond doing the virtuoso work and Baffo's keyboard explorations adding sound texture and atmosphere. Their second LP was recorded and mixes were to be produced by Klaus Schulze, but it remained unissued due to the Trident label flop. The band split shortly after this, but Baffo continued his experiments with electronic keyboards.

In 1978 Baffo released his first solo LP 'Galaxy My Dear', credited to J.B.Banfi and echoing huge influences from his friend and master Klaus Schulze, who would also produce his two next releases. A total DIY domestic home recording, with all the limitations implied but also with all its warmness within, 'Galaxy My Dear' is entirely played by Banfi and shows an accurate taste in his use of the synths, plus of course a strong kraut / cosmiche appeal that links the album's sound to that of the early Tangerine Dream or Ash Ra Tempel, but also brings a hint of Jean-Michel Jarre or even a certain reminiscence of the early electronic experiments by Franco Battiato and is a good contender to be filed along other Wah Wah reissues like those of Roberto Cacciapaglia or Franco Leprino.

Comes in original artwork with notes written by Baffo Banfi himself in a limited edition of 500 copies only.

Repress!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Face Four is the comeback of Two Phase U in a full EP format, continuing the Face saga started in 2019.

This time the 4 track collection is a trip through different styles and moods, with music ranging from gentle, warm-uppers to main hour bangers. Dark dystopian statements alongside hopeful harmonies and invigorating vocal samples.

Full of golden-era stylistic sound references and the characteristic dynamic grooves of Two Phase U's rythmical approach.

Cititrax present two new releases by Cosmetics, a Vancouver-based synth wave duo formed by Nic Emm and Aja Emma in 2008. Cosmetics reappeared in 2022 after having been relatively quiet since its very memorable releases on Captured Tracks in 2010. In 2023, the band returns with a phenomenal full-length LP entitled ‘Baby’ and a 7” single entitled Pillow Talk / Tell Me (Alternate Versions). Their music is sultry, minimalist, and atmospheric, backed by lush analog synths and sparse drum machines. Aja’s seductive vocals cut through the perfectly crafted dark synthpop forming a filmlike narrative that draws us in. The ‘Baby’ LP will have you listening on repeat and the single featuring alternate versions of two songs from the album will bring you from your bedroom listening to the dance floor. Cosmetics continue the lineage of Minimal Wave into the present day.

The Pillow Talk / Tell Me 7” is pressed on black vinyl and presented in a 6-panel fold-over sleeve.

Sounds While Waiting documents the latest organ works by composer and musician Ellen Arkbro – following her phenomenal debut, 2017's For Organ And Brass, and the more recent CHORDS. Recorded at a centuries-old church in Unnaryd, Sweden in June 2020, these pieces reveal the enchanting qualities of sustained harmonic sound, how patterns of listening dissolve and emerge as textured space. On opening track "Changes," long radiant tones ebb and flow like divine breaths, while "Leaving Dreaming" builds with dynamic tension to unlock a subtle, otherworldly ambience.

As the composer states in the sleeve notes, "These recordings are traces of something I have come to love to do in large resonant spaces, which is to set up sustained chords on multiple organs and then move slowly through the sound. The instruments are usually far apart, which makes for the emergence of large fields of continuous change, spaces of harmonicity that can be passed through layer by layer and which contain within them points of both clarity and overwhelming complexity. The organ pipes are tuned and retuned, though sometimes I leave them just as they are. What I'm searching for is the moment when a particular kind of sounding texturality is revealed – it is rough, focused and yet strangely transparent."

Arkbro composes for acoustic instruments, for synthetic sound and for combinations of both, including music for orchestra and smaller chamber ensembles and large scale installation works. She currently performs in Catherine Christer Hennix's Kamigaku ensemble, and she previously studied with La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela. Recommended for fans of Sarah Davachi, Eliane Radigue and Charlemagne Palestine.

Featuring two tracks that come from Durand Jones & The Indications third LP, this 45 is a honeyed slice of retro-soul with pop leanings as the band continues to mine the 60's and 70's for inspiration. Front to back, this 45 keeps a healthy balance between inventing new sounds and sticking to the band's strengths. The A side "Ride or Die" casts the spotlight squarely on drummer Aaron Frazer, who also happens to have one of Earth's silkiest falsettos while Jones' vocals lead the way through the sultry "More Than Ever".

Second release of Berlin-based Shiver records.

DJ Seen takes you through a field of mesmerizing frequencies. The record's A-Side opens up for the waves of relaxation & dream. The title track Hypnotique lushes you into a continuous state of trance-induced easiness emphasised by a plain repeating chant.

Adam Collins’ remix takes you into a bubbling dreamworld underlined by a soft acid bed and a heavy deep neverending blanket of warmth.

The B-Side performs a natural switch, activating the brainwaves & inducing a woke state while trying to understand the sudden synth-explosions hailing through the tribalistic grooves of Bandicoot.

The trip ends with a burst of Insight at 6 am. A hymn to the frequencies of dance before it all settles down again.

Maria Callas is credited with changing the history of opera. Known as La Divina, she continues to fascinate as a supreme artist, but also as a woman and an icon of style. Her interpretations were as compelling for their dramatic truth as for their musical integrity. Her voice, with its extraordinary range, was as distinctive as her infallible sense for a phrase. A magnetic presence, she brought operatic heroines to vivid life, magically shaping and colouring her tone, and making insightful use of the text of the libretto.

Waajeed’s 2022 long player, Memoirs of Hi-Tech Jazz, was an aural love letter to his hometown of Detroit; an amalgam of the city’s history, coalescing the personal, political and, of course, musical past.

From the Motown soul assembly line to J Dilla’s musically dense Hip-Hop to The Stooges’ proto-Punk to the birth of Techno, the music of the Motor City has spread across the globe inspiring countless artists who in turn went on to create their own forms and genres.

Emulating this movement and transmutation, the Memoirs of Hi-Tech Jazz Remixes 12” sees artists from three continents repurpose elements from across the LP, transforming them into productions stamped with their own trademark styles whilst retaining the spirit of each original:

the UK’s Mark Broom loops sections of Right Now while speeding up the BPM for a classic UK-style techno remix; Ghana-born Yazzus takes on The Ballad of Robert O’Bryant adding a surprising number of twists and turns for a five-and-a-half-minute piece; Australians Jensen Interceptor and Assembler Code close the 12” out with their take on the album’s title and opening track neatly closing the loop, bringing us full circle to the start of the LP.

The release of Memoirs...remixes add another facet to the immensely heartfelt tribute to Detroit from one of its most talented citizens and a true milestone in the Tresor catalogue.

Folk duo lilo's ascent continues with second EP, I Don’t Like My Chances On The Outside. Having met at school aged 11, Christie Gardner and Helen Dixon’s friendship runs over a decade deep. Starting out with homespun recordings and YouTube covers, by the time they moved to London in their late-teens, they had an unshakeable creative bond that forms an incredible bedrock for them to flourish from. Their exceptional debut EP Sleep Country (Practise Music) came out in late-2021. Taking cues from alt-folk and classic country, it showed a maturity and dexterity that belied their years. As Loud & Quiet said of the band in a recent interview, "what sets them apart from their contemporaries is a real understanding of Americana-influenced folk’s lineage as a genre. Think Emmylou Harris’ soul bearing and the pitchperfect vocal glide of Karen Carpenter." New EP, I Don’t Like My Chances On The Outside, is a truly brilliant follow-up that underscores that we're no longing talking about promise with this duo. Working with producer friend Joseph Futák, they're now firmly in their stride, deftly counterbalancing delicate moments and harmony-led pop highs across a full-bodied band sound. Their lyrics speak for their generation too, encapsulating the panic, anxiety and love of twenty-somethings at a time of great uncertainty; from single 'Settled' where the financial realities of needing to move back in with your parents to the sheer relief of ending a relationship on 'I Don't Love You Anymore' and 'Just A Thought's failing attempts to pull a friend away from a bad person ("It's your hill to die on," they warn), nothing is off the plate.

Multi-instrumentalist Oscar Browne's roots lie in the foundational intricacy of golden-age songwriting A founding member of the London based folk- collective Broadside Hacks (amongst other banded- ventures), Oscar Browne's debut solo endeavour 'Never Quite Right' was released in 2022 to critical acclaim; an established inauguration which saw him eventually signing to So Young Records in the spring of 2023. Following a six-month spree in which Browne found himself tirelessly writing in order to process the changes taking place around him, the five songs which would eventually go on to form his debut EP 'If Only', are a deep- dive into the heart and soul of an artist who masterfully captures all the joys and heartaches of life in your early-twenties. Recorded over one week at Bristol's The Playpen, home to producer Ali Chant (Aldous Harding, Katy J Pearson), 'If Only' was all-in-all, a long time coming. Selfaccustomed to doubling things up and hiding imperfections, it was through the art of collaboration, and Ali's teachings in the power of emotional transparency that the pairing of Browne and Chant really shined. "Ali was a massive part in keeping the recordings minimal" notes Browne "he kept the rawness". Oscar Browne's creative- capability is a limitless array of captivating delights. These aren't simply re-interpretations of eras gone by. Browne channels as much Ben Howard or Kurt Vile as he does Nick Drake and John Martyn. Rather, it's through his ear for musical- lucidity, highlighted throughout the course of these selected songs, that enables Browne to transport his love of traditional folk and folklore, into a uniquely contemporary realm. His fearlessness in baring- all to those who'll listen creates an artistic magnitude will only keep growing with fine prowess, as Browne continues to cut his teeth as a beguiling 'one to watch'

An archival release of this head-scratching 2010 recording made by
members of the freshly disintegrated Stars Like Fleas (called "NY's most
sublime and continuously undiscovered band" by PAPER Magazine): an
amalgam of private press new age, electro-acoustic improvisation, gothadjacent 80s DIY cassette culture, Italian prog rock, and community
choirs
From 2009-2011, Family Dynamics said what they had to say and then vanished,
their members separately going on to celebrated musical careers of their own.
The project emerged from the still smoldering ashes of volatile art- music
collective Stars Like Fleas, one of the earliest and most polarizing bands to define
the early aughts North Brooklyn music scene that produced Grizzly Bear, Dirty
Projectors, Animal Collective, TV On The Radio, Liars and others who went on to
enjoy broader appeal and success. Family Dynamics performed for barely two
years before unceremoniously vanishing, without any widely available record or
document. Whatever's Clever is thrilled to (re)issue this buried treasure, selfrecorded in a cabin in Woodstock, NY, at their creative peak, and never before
issued in physical format

This third release from Rubi Records sees Ashley Tindall—aka Skeptical—stepping out of his usual drum and bass territory and slowing things down with three seriously deep dub-infused bass tracks in the 140-150bpm realm. While not the first time Skeptical has dipped his toes in such waters, these are easily among the finest, most musically mature examples to date. For those drum & bass fans out there unsure about Skeptical branching out into other genres, this EP shows that an open mind and listening without prejudice will reward your ears.

First up is the utterly dub-soaked 75/150bpm track 'Tell Me'. This solid stoner groove takes clear elements of Skeptical's more dub-orientated D&B and adds mesmeric pads and soulful vocal hooks, making it one of the deepest head-nodders in his overall catalogue. This is more a refined track for the 'listener' than for the dance floor, and while you can still easily throw some shapes to it, it's great to just immerse yourself in as a purely audio experience.

Next is the 140bpm 'Tapestry', which is somewhat the darker twin of 'Tell Me'. Again, we have a slow dub-infused head-nodder, but this time more menacing in tone thanks to the finely-judged use of some moody sound modules that Skeptical has tweaked and twisted in his inimitable fashion. This one's the audio equivalent of a restless mind in the depth of night.

The final offering is another 140bpm track – the unsettling beast 'Atomic v1'. It begins with a slow-burn build up of an off-kilter metronomic beat, subtly growling bass and haunting strings. This, in turn, gives way to a distorted rendering of Oppenheimer's famous use of 'Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds' from the Bhagavad Gita, before becoming a sinister slow-motion dubstep rumbler. With its dragging beat and the purposefully off-point main sonic hook running over the top, this is a disorientating and unsettling weapon for the discerning DJ.

This EP continues the fresh direction of Rubi Records, showcasing exceptional, forward-thinking music without borders.

Support: Ben UFO, Joy Orbison, Gilles Pererson, dBridge, Break, DLR, Doc Scott, Mefjus, Kasra, Kings of the Rollers, Alix Perez, Jubei, Dub Phizix, Flight, Tasha, Loxy, Randall, Lens.

Radio Support: BBC Radio 6 Music, Rinse FM, Kool FM

Common Courtesy is the fifth album from A Day to Remember and is reissued on both CD and double LP vinyl for the first time since 2016. The newly packaged vinyl includes updated cover art and pressed on lemon and clear color in color vinyl with die-cut album packaging. Since its initial release in 2013 Common Courtesy has gone on to amass over 500k in total consumption and includes some of the bands biggest hits including "Right Back At it Again" and "Sometimes You"re the Hammer, Sometimes You"re the Nail". Over the course of the past several years, each of A Day To Remember"s releases have hit No. 1 on Billboard"s Rock, Indie and/or Alternative Charts, they"ve sold more than a million units, racked up over 400 million Spotify streams and 500 million YouTube views, garnered two gold-selling albums and singles (and one silver album in the UK) and sold out entire continental tours, amassing a global fanbase whose members number in the millions.

From Northern Ireland and the South of England hail Jetplane Landing - which, for the last two decades has been variously composed of: Jamie Burchell (Bass/Vocals), Raife Burchell (Drums), Andrew Ferris (Vocals/Guitars), Cahir O’Doherty (Guitars/Vocals) and Craig McKean (Drums). Big Scary Monsters are releasing their debut album Zero For Conduct on vinyl this January as well as putting their entire back catalogue back on streaming services. Their debut album ‘Zero For Conduct’, was recorded on an 8-track tape machine in Jamie's parents' garage in Bognor Regis and mixed during engineer Sean Doherty’s downtime in a London studio owned by a diamond mining company. Hailed a 'masterpiece’ (5Ks - Kerrang!) upon its release in 2001 - it contains fan favourites ‘This Is Not Revolution Rock’ and ‘Summer Ends’ and perfectly encapsulates the vitality of the 00's post-hardcore DIY scene that inspired its creation. Deriving their name from the moment a blissed-out Burchell/Ferris witnessed At The Drive-In perform ‘One Armed Scissor’ on their debut British TV performance - “Fuck me Ferris, they sound like a jet plane landing!” - ZFC channels that riotous energy across its heart-felt eleven cuts. Delicate acoustic confessionals sit alongside full-throated math-rock experimentation; this is an album as varied as it is ambitious. Jamie: “We initially set out to track the record during a two-week period Andrew had off from work. At the end of those two weeks, we didn’t even have all the drums recorded let alone the overdubs. So the idea emerged that Ferris and I would drive down every weekend from London to my parents’ house and we would make the album that way. Cut to… one year later…” Andrew: “When I listen back now, I can physically feel the conversations we had on those long drives, all those micro-decisions - getting the songs to be… right. It was a long process, but truthfully I’d have been happy to let it go longer. Jamie gave me so much confidence and pushed me to places I didn’t know I had or even needed to be. It was a really special time.”. Jamie continues, “There was this weird fusion between us musically which seemed to just work.” Fans of Elliot Smith, Nick Drake, J Mascis, and Stephen Malkmus will feel right at home with this lovingly crafted set. Spoiler alert: heavier sounds and bigger rooms were to come for Jetplane but on Zero For Conduct their musical universe feels at once expansive and deeply personal.

Living on such a chaotic planet, tossing and turning is inevitable. It’s hard to sleep in the midst of uncertainty. That’s why Sundressed was born. Lead vocalist and songwriter Trevor Hedges began his project in 2012, with the initial purpose of maintaining his sobriety. Now, 10 years later, Hedges has refocused the project’s mission, writing songs that tackle mental health issues for others to take solace in. His confessional lyrics and punk-infused melodies inspire hope in listeners to continue moving forward, determined to make a positive impact, one lyric at a time.

"These sides from 1970s band Smith & Gordera are prototypical for the ""Sounds Like Santana"" genre coined at the Friends of Sound record store in Austin, TX years ago. Heavy Latin Rock fusion on these tracks with just a pinch of Jazz thrown in for good measure.

""Evil Deeds"" starts right into it the moment the needle hits the groove on your turntable - heavy organ, percussion, shakers, and guitar all greet your ears. Moving into the track you get the typical shredding guitar solo, organ solo, and a sax solo, for good measure.

""Time and Space"" starts with a nod to the classic Dave Brubeck ""Take Five"" and continues on an adventure into a more psychedelic groove and more of a Rock vibe. Time changes and tempo shifts and big solos round out the side."

"These sides from 1970s band Smith & Gordera are prototypical for the ""Sounds Like Santana"" genre coined at the Friends of Sound record store in Austin, TX years ago. Heavy Latin Rock fusion on these tracks with just a pinch of Jazz thrown in for good measure.

""Evil Deeds"" starts right into it the moment the needle hits the groove on your turntable - heavy organ, percussion, shakers, and guitar all greet your ears. Moving into the track you get the typical shredding guitar solo, organ solo, and a sax solo, for good measure.

""Time and Space"" starts with a nod to the classic Dave Brubeck ""Take Five"" and continues on an adventure into a more psychedelic groove and more of a Rock vibe. Time changes and tempo shifts and big solos round out the side."

Orange vinyl, 100 only

Cardiff-based, DIY-folk-pop collective, Quiet Marauder, are set to release their 5th album at the end of October 2023. This follows on from their madcap 111-song debut album, MEN (2013), as well as the more recent Tiny Men Parts (2020) and The Gift (2021), and continues their long-established relationship both with their label, Bubblewrap Collective, and Canadian collaborators, The Burning Hell.
Recorded in a Snowbird Studios pop-up in Lourinha, Portugal, Introducing Malcolm Del Monte continues the band’s fascination with high concepts and musical, album-length storytelling. At its core, it is an album about self-identity, isolation, and our innate fluctuations as human beings. Set during the pandemic, the album's a very loosely autobiographical (read: almost entirely false) account of band leader Simon M. Read's day-to-day life during Covid lockdowns with partner, Kadesha Drija, and imaginary friend, Malcolm Del Monte.
Choosing to largely avoid the topic of the pandemic altogether, Introducing Malcolm Del Monte instead charts the highs and lows of these living arrangements. These range from outrageous daytime drinking (high) to disagreements on the nature of perversion (low), with the first half of the album covering Malcolm’s emergence and ultimate expulsion from the house. With his absence being sorely felt, the second half sheds light on the alternative voices looking to fill that Malcolm-shaped space: a murderous green giant; a despondent Milk Tray Man; and a broken-necked, hypersexual Jet from Gladiators.
As with their previous story-based albums, the foreground narratives act to enable background allusions to other core concerns: the power of nostalgia; advertising and cultural consumption; well-being and isolation; balancing acts of the self. Ultimately, the album’s message is of striking a balance between self-questioning and improvement, and most of all, not being too hard on yourself when things don’t feel quite right.
Sonically and seamlessly ranging from alt-folk to industrial synth to melodic indie-pop, Introducing Malcolm Del Monte covers a lot of ground. Injected with the musicality of Quiet Marauder themselves, as well as Canadian kindred spirits, The Burning Hell, instrumentation includes flute, piano, chunky bass, acoustic and electric guitar, programmed beats, synthscapes, bamboo clarinet, bongos, and a heap load of vocals. Indeed, alongside the main lead voices of Simon M. Read, Kadesha Drija and Malcolm Del Monte (Rowan Liggett) there are guest performances from My Name Is Ian and The Burning Hell’s Mathias Kom.
The album will be preceded by lead single and video Momma Mia! I Made You Some Sangria! on 22nd September,

Zum 40. Jubiläum des ersten Teils des stylischen Actionspiel-Klassikers DEVIL MAY CRY erscheint der Killer-Soundtrack des Capcom Sound Teams - bekannt für seine Musik zur Resident Evil-Serie - spezielle für 180g Vinyl gemastert. Der OST ist eine genreübergreifende Meisterklasse, die von Rock über Techno zu Ambient und weiteren Paletten wechselt. Erhältlich als 2LP-Format mit 34 Tracks auf transparent-rotem und ockerfarbenem Doppelvinyl, sowie als luxuriöses 4LP-Boxset mit den kompletten 73 Tracks auf schwarzem 4fach-Vinyl.

Composer, singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Laufey continues her story by writing
and recording Bewitched, her second album. Inspired by jazz greats and classical masters
while possessing a point of view that could only be conveyed by a 21st-century
twentysomething, Bewitched represents an expansion of Laufey’s sonic palette. Tracks like
the breezy bossa nova cut “From The Start” and the smoldering string-assisted ballad
“Promise” have classic songcraft and intricate arrangements that make them feel instantly
timeless, while Laufey’s conversational lyrics give her music a relatability to the next
generation of jazz, pop, and classical aficionados.