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180 GRAM AUDIOPHILE VINYL
- LIMITED EDITION OF 750 INDIVIDUALLY NUMBERED COPIES ON ORANGE COLOURED VINYL

Desmond Dekker recorded some of his best known songs together with his backing group the Aces (consisting of Wilson James and Easton Barrington Howard). Their debut album 007 (Shanty Town) includes their single of the same name, which made him Jamaican music's first outernational superstar, reaching the 14th place in the UK charts. You'll hear how the Ska music from the mid-60s is developing to the Rocksteady sound. This was 'Ska' or 'Blue Beat'—(or its new name for the slower tempo 'Rock Steady'), and the lyrics come from the Calypso-Mento method of telling about current events in music. So in a groovy way, Desmond, James and Barry (the Aces) have given a report of love, politics, nagging women, the celebration of the Fifth anniversary of Independence, and gang warfare. This is were it all started before Desmond became the international star.

Even before Bob Marley and Jimmy Cliff Jamaica already had their own international superstar, Desmond Dekker was his name. Famous because of his international hits, such as 'Israelites' (1968) and 'It Miek' (1969).

007 (Shanty Town) is available as a limited edition of 750 individually numbered copies on orange coloured vinyl.

The strongest Japanese covers of Grover Washington Jr. and Kool & the Gang's representative songs are now available on 7-inch vinyl for the first time!

Side A, "Ja Ashita Ni Sureba?" is a cover of Grover Washington Jr.'s famous soul/R&B song "Just the Two of Us," released in 1980. The song depicts the human weakness of putting off troublesome tasks, with lyrics that play on the ears, and an arrangement that retains the atmosphere of the original song while still being danceable, making it a superb track. Side B features a cover of the legendary funk band Kool & the Gang's 1981 hit "Get Down On It," titled "Netanone." This powerful double-sided single will have you intoxicated by the gap between the cool, danceable sound and the humorous lyrics!

Infinite Salutations is a game of two halves from Coflo and Emmaculate, where free wheeling jazzy expression meet club ready grooves. Salutations feat. QVLN is a guitar led winner with sweet vocal touches and layered percussion. Infinite is more of a dancefloor bumper with cool keys, bass delving and barbed synths. The Bay Area's Coflo is a mainstay on the label, having chalked up a range of hits from the deeper If It Goes to his magical cover of Love's Masquerade. Illinois' Emmaculate touches down on Cataleya for the first time, fresh from his release on G.A.M.M. with DJ Spen, production work for Ten City and remixes for the likes of Incognito. With Infinite Salutations, Coflo and Emmaculate provide a fantastic start to 2026 for Cataleya.

Since 2018, Less J’s been laying it down on local labels and pushing his own imprint, Law Heart Records. No shortcuts, no polish — just rough-cut soul and heavy samples, stacked brick by brick into a sound that hits as hard as the city he comes from.
Bricklayer by day, bedroom producer by night, Less J builds grooves the same way he builds walls — with patience, grit and a touch of soul.
Some call him Adrià, others Lessito — but around here he’s simply L'Hospitalet’s own Moodymann. A nickname not given lightly, earned release after release through effort and persistence.
Rather than a weight to carry, it’s fuel — a reason to push harder, sharpen the sound and prove it every time.
This EP oozes truth. Three solid cuts, slow-cooked and straight to the point, topped off with a Mistanomista remix for dessert. No garnish, no tricks — just real music, meant to be listened to properly.

2025 Repress

From the opening bars of this debut album you instantly just know it's going to deliver the tunes, and it doesn't let up until the last note. The Allergies' modus operandi is taking vintage sounds and reshaping them for modern dance floors, and they go about it with style.

Effortlessly fusing Funk, Soul, Disco, Hip-Hop and Breaks, DJ Moneyshot and Rackabeat provide the perfect brand of feel-good, energetic ear candy that will leave a smile on your face and give you happy feet. But that's not all..., they have teamed up with some top MC's in HypeMan Sage and BluRum13, as well Andy Cooper of Long Beach's world-renowned rap group, Ugly Duckling.

Another previously unreleased gem from Jah Life's mid 80s sessions at Channel 1 with the Gifted Roots Band, which we return to after a long while. Absolutely killer rhythm with brilliant added melodica, and youthman Patrick Cool at the mic. This rhythm is truly one of our favorite unreleased finds to date. The other cut with Nathan Skyers and this one by Patrick Cool are each backed with different dub mixes.

,Warmer Than Gold", das neue Album von Ben Cooks Projekt GUV, ist ein Dokument eines Lebens in der Musik, ein kritischer und feierlicher Reisebericht, ein Versuch, die homogenen und statusbesessenen Zustände der heutigen Welt durch den Einsatz von großen Beats, großen Refrains und Verzerrung zu überwinden. Es ist ein Album, das unterwegs entstanden ist und überall Sinn ergibt. Vor allem aber leitet es mit seiner erweiterten Klangpalette und der Betonung von Breakbeats eine neue Ära eines Künstlers ein, der nie aufgehört hat, sich weiterzuentwickeln. Cook, der zwischen Toronto und England aufgewachsen ist, verfügt über eine angloamerikanische Authentizität, die ihn von der wachsenden Schar von Hardcore-Kids mit Windjacken und Pilzköpfen unterscheidet. Zwei der ersten Konzerte, die er im Alter von 12 Jahren besuchte, waren Oasis und Neil Young. Nach dem Konzert, erinnert er sich, dachte er: ,Ja, ich werde für immer Musik machen." Kurz nachdem er Hardcore und Punk für sich entdeckt hatte, ging es los, zuerst mit seiner geliebten Hardcore-Band No Warning (mit der er bis heute spielt), dann als Mitglied der Punk-Experimentalisten Fucked Up, die er 2006 gründete. Er war ein Teil der Underground-Szene, die sich in den 90er Jahren in Kanada Kurz darauf entdeckte er Hardcore und Punk, und schon ging es los, zunächst mit seiner geliebten Hardcore-Band No Warning (mit der er bis heute spielt), dann als Mitglied der Punk-Experimentalisten Fucked Up von 2007 bis 2021 - und währenddessen baute er sich ein umfangreiches und beeindruckendes Repertoire an Soloarbeiten auf, zunächst als Young Governor, dann als Young Guv und jetzt einfach als GUV (,Ich bin nicht mehr so jung, Drei-Buchstaben-Bandnamen sind cool, und ich bin es leid, mit einem Rapper verwechselt zu werden", bemerkt Cook). Warmer Than Gold ist die großformatige Krönung all dieser Stränge. Die Musik des Albums behält den eingängigen Geist von Cooks früheren Alben bei, wie den gefeierten Doppelalben GUVI & II und GUV III & IV, fügt jedoch ein ausgeprägtes rhythmisches Element hinzu, das von klassischem Madchester und Britpop geprägt ist. Es verschmiert und schwebt, es fühlt sich an, als würde man um Mitternacht die Autobahn M1 entlangrasen, angetrieben von einer Dringlichkeit, die in Cooks anderen Werken nicht zu finden ist. Was jedoch von diesen früheren Power-Pop-Veröffentlichungen beibehalten wurde, ist das ausgeprägte Gespür des Künstlers für eingängige Melodien. In Kombination mit einer neuen Produktionssensibilität, die von den Beastie Boys über The Field Mice bis hin zu Primal Scream inspiriert ist, gelingt es Cook, die zentralen lyrischen Themen des Projekts musikalisch zu untermalen: die globale Verflachung der Kultur, das Vergehen der Zeit in der materiellen Welt und die Rolle des Künstlers in all dem.

,Warmer Than Gold", das neue Album von Ben Cooks Projekt GUV, ist ein Dokument eines Lebens in der Musik, ein kritischer und feierlicher Reisebericht, ein Versuch, die homogenen und statusbesessenen Zustände der heutigen Welt durch den Einsatz von großen Beats, großen Refrains und Verzerrung zu überwinden. Es ist ein Album, das unterwegs entstanden ist und überall Sinn ergibt. Vor allem aber leitet es mit seiner erweiterten Klangpalette und der Betonung von Breakbeats eine neue Ära eines Künstlers ein, der nie aufgehört hat, sich weiterzuentwickeln. Cook, der zwischen Toronto und England aufgewachsen ist, verfügt über eine angloamerikanische Authentizität, die ihn von der wachsenden Schar von Hardcore-Kids mit Windjacken und Pilzköpfen unterscheidet. Zwei der ersten Konzerte, die er im Alter von 12 Jahren besuchte, waren Oasis und Neil Young. Nach dem Konzert, erinnert er sich, dachte er: ,Ja, ich werde für immer Musik machen." Kurz nachdem er Hardcore und Punk für sich entdeckt hatte, ging es los, zuerst mit seiner geliebten Hardcore-Band No Warning (mit der er bis heute spielt), dann als Mitglied der Punk-Experimentalisten Fucked Up, die er 2006 gründete. Er war ein Teil der Underground-Szene, die sich in den 90er Jahren in Kanada Kurz darauf entdeckte er Hardcore und Punk, und schon ging es los, zunächst mit seiner geliebten Hardcore-Band No Warning (mit der er bis heute spielt), dann als Mitglied der Punk-Experimentalisten Fucked Up von 2007 bis 2021 - und währenddessen baute er sich ein umfangreiches und beeindruckendes Repertoire an Soloarbeiten auf, zunächst als Young Governor, dann als Young Guv und jetzt einfach als GUV (,Ich bin nicht mehr so jung, Drei-Buchstaben-Bandnamen sind cool, und ich bin es leid, mit einem Rapper verwechselt zu werden", bemerkt Cook). Warmer Than Gold ist die großformatige Krönung all dieser Stränge. Die Musik des Albums behält den eingängigen Geist von Cooks früheren Alben bei, wie den gefeierten Doppelalben GUVI & II und GUV III & IV, fügt jedoch ein ausgeprägtes rhythmisches Element hinzu, das von klassischem Madchester und Britpop geprägt ist. Es verschmiert und schwebt, es fühlt sich an, als würde man um Mitternacht die Autobahn M1 entlangrasen, angetrieben von einer Dringlichkeit, die in Cooks anderen Werken nicht zu finden ist. Was jedoch von diesen früheren Power-Pop-Veröffentlichungen beibehalten wurde, ist das ausgeprägte Gespür des Künstlers für eingängige Melodien. In Kombination mit einer neuen Produktionssensibilität, die von den Beastie Boys über The Field Mice bis hin zu Primal Scream inspiriert ist, gelingt es Cook, die zentralen lyrischen Themen des Projekts musikalisch zu untermalen: die globale Verflachung der Kultur, das Vergehen der Zeit in der materiellen Welt und die Rolle des Künstlers in all dem.

Audio taken from a live performance by Anar Band (Jorge Lima Barreto and Rui Reininho) with E.M. de Melo e Castro in November of 1978 at Cooperativa Árvore, Porto. The performance was filmed. A segment was included in »Obrigatório Não Ver«, a weekly programme presented by Ana Hatherly on Public Television’s Second Channel. It was not possible to determine the exact date of the event, and no documentation seems to be available in the relevant archives.

»Encontro que Tenho« and »Profissões«: these titles are specific to this release. Having failed to locate the respective poems after a thorough search in E.M. de Melo e Castro’s body of work, it was deduced both texts were created for the occasion.

Even without a full contextualisation, the sound transmits the spirit of cultural agitation proper to these sessions. When this show happened, Anar Band were Jorge Lima Barreto (ARP Odyssey synthesizer) and Rui Reininho (Ibanez double-neck guitar), with the addition of E.M. de Melo e Castro, whom we shall call a poet but whose creative intervention was far reaching. Besides poetry, also continued his efforts in linking up diverse artistic areas (painting, drawing, collage, performance, video) and his official training in textile engineering. He was one of the artists featured in Henri Chopin's »OU Revue« in 1966, establishing his natural connection to the European concrete/visual/sound-poetry avant-garde. Melo e Castro was also proficient in the agitation of minds and political awareness. A good example in »Profissões«, where initially separate professionals (an intellectual, a fisherman, a soldier, a factory worker) are gradually mixed in a show of interdependency. Symbolically, through his words one listens to a transformation of society, although the same conclusion arises twice: surplus always finds its way to the hands of the capitalists.

That was the state of affairs many were looking to change, an economic and social malaise that the 1974 Revolution in Portugal fully uncovered, when dissident voices could finally be heard in public. Each in his own way, all three participants in this recording were non-believers in the structure of society such as it was presented. Through his books and press writings, mainly concerned with Jazz, Jorge Lima Barreto pushed his way into Portuguese artistic and critical circles since the late 1960s. Consciously and unwittingly, he collected enemies and pointed them by name, people he labelled as reactionary, people who delayed progress, social and cultural mixes, the avant-garde; they even delayed the chaos from which new forms and attitudes arise.

Rui Reininho, a non-conformist by heart, experienced incomprehension from an early age. His anarchic ways, a tendency to baffle others, were revealed through the choice of clothes and accessories, public behaviour, and »real life« performances. Just as Lima Barreto, and even together with him, he enjoyed provoking the extremes: Maoists on one side, right-wing conservatives on the other. He translated leftist books and joined Anar Band precisely on the day a duck or swan or goose (one of them) was thrown on stage in Porto, 1976.

This record documents a concrete action, a snapshot of the agitation, something we have no problem calling punk activism, something which allowed two people with little to no musical training to play and record music. By then, Anar Band had managed to release their only LP in 1977. It’s this performance, however, that reveals the naked rawness of the music: improvisation, mutual listening, and choice of intervention between both musicians and Melo e Castro, clearly sensing when the synth has to change tone, the voice has to make pauses, the guitar punctuates both and finds the space to… scream. The sound was captured by the film crew, adding to the rawness: the instruments are palpable, the voice often too close to the mic. Everything was preserved. First time on disc.

Not of This Earth is the first studio album by guitarist Joe Satriani. Originally released in 1986, this all-instrumental album was making ripples in the guitar-playing community not long after it was issued. It’s easy to see why: superior compositions, a signature style, a unique tone, and playing that’s out of this world. The fiery sound of “Not of This Earth” and “Hordes of Locusts” is tempered by the cool, dark tone of “Driving at Night”. There isn’t a weak track on this disc, even though the world’s most commercially successful solo guitar performer was still maturing when he released it.

Available as a limited edition of 1500 numbered copies on transparent blue vinyl.

Grupo um celebrate 50 years with release of lost dictatorship-era album nineteen seventy seven!

First time release - vinyl comes with printed innersleeves

Brazilian avant-jazz vanguardists Grupo Um celebrate their 50th anniversary, sharing a second previously lost 1970s album from the vaults. Nineteen Seventy Seven (titled after the year it was recorded) is another rip-roaring instrumental fusion treasure from the band which spawned from within Hermeto Pascoal’s famed mid-1970s São Paulo collective.

Like their debut album Starting Point, Grupo Um’s Nineteen Seventy Seven was recorded when Brazil's military dictatorship was at its most repressive. “There were no open doors to those who dreamt to be protagonists in creative instrumental music”, remembers drummer Zé Eduardo Nazario, “even popular composers and singers had to submit their songs to censors and many records were banned and confiscated from the stores.”

Just like Hermeto Pascoal's Viajando Com O Som (1977) and Grupo Um's previous album Starting Point (1975), both of which remained unreleased until the 21st century, Zé Eduardo asserts that the 1977 album was flatly 'without any chance to be released at that time."

Recorded at Rogério Duprat’s Vice-Versa Studios in São Paulo, the group were under both time and space restraints, “we chose the small Studio B,” Lelo Nazario recalls, “which had a Tascam (TE AC) 12x8 console and a 4-channel AMPEX AG 440 machine. Therefore, we had to record without overdubs, everything straight to tape.”

Expanding from a trio to a quintet, original Grupo Um members Lelo Nazario (keys), Zé Eduardo Nazario (drums), and Zeca Assumpção (bass) were joined by saxophonist Roberto Sion and percussionist Carlinhos Gonçalves. Carlinhos, Zé and Zeca had already played together in the group Mandala, while brothers Lelo and Zé had just finished a stint backing Hermeto Pascoal during his years in São Paulo.

Lelo was deeply immersed in modular synthesizer experimentation during this period, working extensively with the ARP2600 and EMS Synthi AKS. These electroacoustic explorations formed the sonic foundation for "Mobile/Stabile," one of his first compositions to merge modular synthesis with Brazilian music, a fusion that would ripple throughout the Brazilian jazz scene. The piece premiered at the first São Paulo International Jazz Festival in 1978, performed by Grupo Um with guest trumpeter Márcio Montarroyos. In a shocking moment, festival organizers interrupted the show mid-performance, sparking fierce backlash from both audience members and journalists who denounced the incident as artistic censorship during Brazil's era of political and cultural repression. The version on Nineteen Seventy Seven is the first recording of the composition.

Nineteen Seventy Seven combines Afro-Brazilian rhythm, modular synthesis and a plethora of whistles, percussion and effects pedals. Album opener “Absurdo Mudo” - so titled for the absurd difficulty it poses to the musicians performing it - starts out in a cloud of mysterious dissonance, before the haze breaks for a glorious keyboard and saxophone interplay atop an uptempo samba groove. “Cortejo dos Reis Negros (Version 2)” (Procession of the Black Kings), based on the maracatu rhythm, inverts the traditional jazz song structure by beginning with improvisations, which are followed by the theme and a final coda. “The studio also had two Parasound electronic reverb units,” Lelo notes, “and the timbre is very audible on the soprano sax and percussion.”

Grupo Um’s daring music represents a manifesto of resistance during the dictatorship years, but it’s one which remains just as relevant today. As Lelo puts it: “For me, the aesthetic issue has always been about combining contemporary avant-garde languages with Brazilian music, independent of categories and commercial interests. The result of this fusion takes music to a new level.”

Recording credits (1977)
Recorded at Vice-Versa B Studio, São Paulo, November 9, 1977
Produced by Lelo Nazario and Zé Eduardo Nazario
Engineered by Ricardo “Franja” Carvalheira



Lelo Nazario – Wurlitzer electric piano, acoustic piano, signal generator, percussion

Zé Eduardo Nazario – drums, percussion

Zeca Assumpção – electric bass

Carlinhos Gonçalves – percussion

Roberto Sion – soprano sax, clarinet

Release credits (2025)
Produced by UTOPIA Studio, São Paulo
Project Coordination in Brazil by Irati Antonio (Utopia Studio)
Tape Restoration and Digital Mastering by Lelo Nazario at Utopia Studio, July 2025
Liner Notes by Lelo Nazario and Zé Eduardo Nazario
Photography by Jorge Las Heras, Lelo Nazario, and artists' personal archives
Photo Restoration by Lelo Nazario
Artwork and Design by Alessandro Renaldin

Dylan Atlantis' Insta bio read 'amateur artist' at the start of the year. Now she's on a billboard in Times Square. With vocals and lyrics that extend well beyond her young years, Dylan Atlantis is the definition of meteoric rise. Pitchfork describes her as "the silky R&B singer, sliding in with the laid-back cool." THE PHILIPPINES-BORN, WEST SYDNEY BASED MUSICIAN WAS RAISED on a musical diet of RnB and Hip-Hop by her Mum. Now a self-professed lover of all genres of music (even country), she's out here sharing her innermost thoughts and lyrical experiments with the world. "I kinda just treat music like a diary but also a science lab where I can experiment expressing myself in different ways until it's awesome enough that I feel compelled to share it." Impressed Recordings are proud to present Dylan Atlantis' release - It Starts Again, on limited edition vinyl.

Apt title for this previously unreleased diamond from Jah Life's mid 80s sessions at Channel 1 with the Gifted Roots Band, which we return to after a long while. Absolutely killer rhythm with brilliant added melodica, the late Nathan Skyers in top form, a really underrated singer. Truly one of our favorite unreleased finds to date. The Nathan Skyers and the next cut by Patrick Cool are each backed with different dub mixes.

2026 Restocked!

If you've been following the Payfone story over the last 13 years, you'll know that Phil Passera and Jimmy Day's long-running collaborative project has specialised in one-off musical morsels - sublime songs cooked up in cahoots with all manner of guest musicians and vocalists. Never ones to rest on their laurels, Day and Passera have now delivered a full six-track tasting menu in the shape of Lunch, their hotly anticipated debut album.

Recorded over an 18-month period at Passera's Barcelona studio and Day's studio in Brighton, Lunch is an unsurprisingly assured and musically detailed affair that's entirely made up of previously unheard songs. Unlike acid-flecked recent single 'Volt To Volt', which delivered a tweaked take on late 1980s house music, the album's six tracks showcase the trademark sound the duo has been developing since first joining forces 13 years ago.

Trawl back through Passera and Day's high-quality catalogue, which includes outings on Leng, Golf Channel Recordings and Defected as well as their own OTIS imprint, and that distinctive musical recipe becomes clear. Rooted in their love of classic drum machines and their trusty JUNO-60 synthesiser, the Payfone sound combines equal amounts of electronic and organic instrumentation, warm and inviting downtempo and mid-tempo grooves, and pertinent and thoughtful lyrics delivered with panache by an impressive roll call of guest vocalists.

Lunch, then, is a standalone sonic statement - an initially vinyl only album on their own OTIS imprint - that continues this impressive lineage. Like all Passera and Day's collaborative work, it is free of samples, with the pair preferring to create their own sounds from scratch. Opener 'Movin' On', featuring the honeyed vocals of former XL Recordings artist Willis Earl Beal AKA Nobody and slap-bass from Jo Gabriel Harris (who also features on three other songs across the album), is a deep and effortlessly evocative mid-tempo delight that perfectly sets the tone for what's to come.

Brooklyn-born April Pittman and Russian/Armenian vocalist Zara Kian lend their talents to woozy, sun-baked shuffler 'Paperman' before regular Payfone collaborator Ludmilla Rodriguez headlines 'Joan of Arc', a veritable Mediterranean breeze rich in tumbling analogue synth synths, elastic bass and tumbling guitar solos. Those yearning for a touch of lightly disco-flecked dancefloor heat will savour 'Spend The Night', where Los Angeles singer Collette Tibbetts AKA Carmella The Balls, accompanied by virtuoso keys courtesy of Parisian pianist Gabriel Cazes, rises above a sweet, melodious, dub disco-adjacent backing track. In contrast, 'Pamela' is low-slung and hypnotic, with 'Sofian' vocalist Barbara Alcindor ushering us through a deep, heady groove-scape.

Fittingly, Passera and Day round off Lunch via a vibrant and potent sweet treat, 'Pony Bar'. Headed up by the J.J Cale-esque lead vocals of man of mystery Leon Lace, the pedal steel-sporting song joins the dots between dusty Americana, kaleidoscopic Balearic beats and lilting, slow-motion disco. Like the rest of the album, you'll be thinking about it long after you've washed down the last few musical mouthfuls.

Playing with a Different Sex was the debut album by seminal post-punk band Au Pairs, released in 1981.

Described retrospectively by AllMusic as ‘one of the great post-punk records’, a review by Record Mirror on its release said the band’s ‘critique of all forms of possession and sexual stereotyping assumes a devastating power’. Themes include sexual politics and the torture of women imprisoned in Northern Ireland during The Troubles of the 1970s, as well as a stunning cover of David Bowie’s ‘Repetition’ about domestic violence. It peaked at No. 33 in the UK, and features the single ‘It's Obvious’, which reached No. 37 on the US Club Play Singles chart. Playing with a Different Sex is available as a numbered limited edition of 750 copies on turquoise coloured vinyl and contains an insert.

Whitelands' second album Sunlight Echoes builds on their elemental debut - that won them fans from Slowdive to David Jonsson - with a more expansive sound that takes them out of the shoegaze shadows to somewhere bigger, better and brighter. Produced by long-time collaborator Ian Flynn and mixed by double Grammy Award-winner Eduardo De La Paz (New Order, The Horrors, The Charlatans, The KVB, Drug Store Romeos), there are soaring string arrangements (by Iskra Strings) and Lush guest vocals from labelmate Emma Anderson. "We're coming back with a lot more maturity and realness," says singer and guitarist Etienne Quartey-Papafio of their step up. "It shows in how much more emotional our music has become." With maturity comes a newfound confidence, so not only are there stunning melodies everywhere, but Etienne's vocals are front and centre throughout. "It's been really cool to watch Etienne push through boundaries," adds bassist Vanessa Govinden. "I like the direction we've taken on this album. We're taking a risk. It's half and half." She's right - the first half of the album has an almost Britpop breeziness, that belies the serious subject matter that inspired the songs, while the second half gets heavier, in all senses, with added grit and gravitas."This album is one of enduring," says Etienne of the overarching theme. "We had family that were dying, I was broke, there was a shortage of my ADHD medication_ I was suffering, but not just me, everyone around me was too." "The last two years have been challenging," concludes Vanessa. "The universe really fucked with us. That's why there are themes of loss, disconnection, fragmentation and yearning, but on the other side there is also unity and hope." Sunlight Echoes is a poetic, melodic statement of intent from this formidable band. Whitelands have fought back and triumphed in the face of adversity.