Unearthed in a storage facility in Jersey City, NJ these lost Joe Claussell instrumental takes of the Blaze produced classic Black Rascals ’So In Love’ are finally available. Produced during Claussell's formative years at Dancetracks, a time when he was always creating original jams under the ‘Instant House’ moniker, they still sound as fresh as they did in the early nineties. This is an EXTREMELY LIMITED pressing 7” on red vinyl. Comes in stamped white 7” cardboard sleeve.
Coloured[28,53 €]
This year marks the 30th anniversary of Take That’s iconic third studio album, Nobody Else. Originally released in 1995, the album featured hit singles like ‘Sure’, ’Back for Good’ and ‘Never Forget.’ To celebrate this milestone, Nobody Else is being released on vinyl for the first time ever! Available in several formats, this special release includes a Deluxe Edition of the album on double Marbled Orange vinyl and CD, as well as the original album on Translucent Pink (exclusive to the Take That online store) and Black vinyl. The 2LP Deluxe and 2CD formats feature exclusive bonus content, including the rare Japanese edition bonus track ‘All That Matters to Me’, live recordings from the 1995 Nobody Else Tour, and a brand-new remix of ‘Hanging Onto Your Love’ by Howard Donald. Marketing.
Give Me Your Love' by Sylvia Striplin is an iconic album of the early 80s and was first released on Uno Melodic Records, a label belonging to jazz and soul legend Roy Ayers. Sylvia previously sang with Aquarian Dream as lead on 'You're A Star' before joining Roy as a member of the group Eighties Ladies. 'Give Me Your Love' is soul, disco, boogie and 'rare groove' all in one. This is an album of timeless gems which on both LP and CD has exchanged hands for hundreds of UK Pounds in both original and reissue formats. These are signature tracks from a golden era of music.
Madlib Invazion reissues Madlib’s collaboration with legendary Brazilian drummer Ivan “Mamao” Conti, propellant for lauded jazz fusion archetypes Azymuth. 5000 pressed for worldwide. Debuts on Black Friday. First released in 2008 on CD by the US based Mochilla imprint with vinyl being issued only in Europe on the Kindered Sprits label. Both formats are out of print with vinyl unavailble since its initial run. Alternate cover artwork, photography by B+. When Madlib went to Brazil in 2002 with Mochilla to participate in the production of Brasilintime his one mission was to meet Ivan “Mamao” Conti the drummer of the legendary trio Azymuth. Madlib had made an Azymuth tribute record he wanted to play for him. On a rainy night in Rio Mamao and Madlib went in the studio. Several hours later the rhythm tracks that make up Sujinho were laid and the process began. Featuring the music of Madlib, Mamao, Edu Lobo, Chico Buarque de Hollanda, Luiz Eca, Baden Powell, Vinicius De Moraes, Marcos Valle, Joao Donato, Dom Um Romao, Airto Moreira and even George Duke… and with guest vocals by Thalma De Freitas — Jackson Conti is a unique and classic record. Filled with the angularity and edge of a Madlib production and underwritten by the polyrhythmics of Mamao — Sujinho takes Brazilian music into places it has never been, bringing oft forgotten classics like Upa Neguinho to 21st century ears.
LIMITED VINYL COMES IN CARDBOARD SLEEVE WITH BOOKLET!
OSTRANENIE is a collection of digitally manipulated, impressionistic piano miniatures — each named after blockbuster films and TV series. Improvised late at night as a reaction against passive media consumption, these pieces function as both homage and critique, navigating the space between classical impressionism and contemporary digital manipulation. They don’t just deconstruct traditional piano expression; they interrogate the emotional stakes of sound in an era where immersion culture flattens meaning and algorithmic logic erodes agency.
The album’s title references the Russian formalist Viktor Shklovsky’s concept of “ostranenie” (ɐstrɐˈnjenjɪj, estrangement/defamiliarization), a term he introduced in the early 1920s to describe art’s role in resisting the indifference of habitual perception.
“And so, held accountable for nothing, life fades into nothingness. Automation eats away at things, at clothes, at furniture, at our wives, and at our fear of war.”
—Viktor Shklovsky, Theory of Prose (1925)
Shklovsky saw art as a way to break through the anesthetizing effects of routine, stripping away the layers of habit that dull our senses. By making the familiar strange, art reclaims perception from the mechanical and the automatic. His argument wasn’t just a theoretical exercise — it was a response to a world rapidly consumed by industrialization, war machines, and the alienation of a technologically dominated modern life. In this context, he positioned artistic technique as something autonomous, distinct from mere social criticism or psychological reflection. Art seeks to remove “...the crust that the world of things deposits on our senses, with routine’s unending murder of the real.” Ben Ehrenreich on Serena Vitale’s Making Strange (The Nation, 2013)
This tension—between revolutionary/artistic and industrial technologies—defined the 20th century, and it continues to resonate today. The mechanization and automation that fueled the First World War’s devastation, alongside the social and economic turbulence of the 1920s, became central to the era’s self-conception. But just as technology was a source of alienation, it was also positioned as an agent of radical change. As the shock of modernity disrupted the human condition, it also became the driving force behind an ideological utopia — one that ultimately deformed into political totalitarianism — a paradox that remains unresolved.
OSTRANENIE plays within this contradiction. The music shifts seamlessly between an uncanny black MIDI dismantling of traditional piano virtuosity and moments of raw, fragile intimacy. The result is a work that resists automatic anonymity while questioning what it means to create in an era where the technological mediation of sound — and experience itself — is unavoidable: Art in the age of its technological constructedness.
I must admit to being a sucker for two-guitar bands. Ok, Hendrix pulled off a trio. But I don’t care what anybody says: The Yardbirds were a better band than anything that came out of them (Ok, maybe not Zep. But Cream?).
Maybe the reason I go back so far in my references is that, within the two-guitar band format, original new roles are difficult and rare. There’s the classic (socially problematic and often boring) “rhythm/lead” solution. There’s the JB’s or Nile Rodgers’ chicken pickin’ vs comping solution (which avoids chordal clashes by relegating one of the guitars to the role of single-note percussion instrument). There’s Ornette’s Prime Time division between Bern Nix’s rolled-off “jazz” tone and Charles Ellerbee’s trebly wah. Almost everything else is a variation on one of these.
In Ches Smith’s record Clone Row, each piece is built around a different concept for guitar interaction. The delightful and gifted weirdness of Mary Halvorson’s playing is counterpointed, contrasted, unisoned with, played off, juxtaposed (that is to say, enters every relationship possible) with Liberty Ellman’s equally amazing sound palette, chops, and imagination. This definitely ain’t your father’s guitar band.
The overall vibe of the record—despite Halvorson’s occasional noise outbursts or Ellman’s distorted guitar lines (see Mixed Fridge) is neither punk/funk, nor Zorn-ish metal—and certainly not the looser parameters of Ornette’s improvised harmolodics. Smith’s vibraphone playing, Halvorson’s guitar tone (whammy pedal squiggles aside), the brilliant electronics, and (most of all) the compositions themselves are somehow strangely West Coast cool. It’s as if I’m hearing a Jim Hall concert in which one of us did a lot of mushrooms, or (dare I write this?) some post-punk post-Dave Brubeck post-trip-hop experiment with classical form.
This recording is, most of all, about Ches as composer. He’s picked up a lot on his long, strange trip of the last few decades. The Haitian funkiness of his work with We All Break is audible—but deeply buried, encoded in the polyrhythms (check out Heart Breakthrough). His long-running side musician collaborations with John Zorn and Tim Berne are also evident but sublimated here into something new.
Not that improvising is absent. Check out the compelling collective statements in Sustained Nightmare and Ready Beat. Check out the brilliant interplay and bass soloing on Abrade With Me (a Weather Report for the age of extreme weather?) Nick Dunston is my favorite bassist of the new generation, and he plays brilliantly throughout. And Ches’ drumming here has all the groove, energy, and incredible range that have kept him in demand from Saturday night Vodou services to jazz and new music recording sessions (…the thinking man’s rock barbarian?).
The sus chords in Abrade With Me do build, for a moment, towards a fusion type of climax...but just at the moment I was gritting my teeth in anticipated defense against some horrible synth solo, the drums drop out, and we’re transported to the ambient lounge at the rave, and we suddenly understand we’re in the hands of a composer with the power to transport us just about anywhere.
So, this is a composer’s record most of all; a composer’s record performed by musicians who happen to be great improvisers. Ches Smith builds here on his reputation as a gifted new voice with an important vision, while showcasing some of the most creative musicians of our time.
The Ottawa composer/performer and head of Black Bough Records plays every instrument on his CST debut: an accessibly avant-garde work of dark/ambient modern chamber music. Mark Molnar has been a linchpin of the Ottawa experimental music scene for over two decades, spanning contemporary classical, electroacoustic, industrial/noise, and improv. As a string player in a wide range of projects, an organizer and curator of innumerable shows, and via his own avantgarde label Black Bough Records, Molnar's unflagging contributions to independent music culture in Canada's capital city have been significant. EXO is his Constellation debut: a remarkable and bracing suite of post-classical composition on which Molnar plays every instrument. Meticulously self-recorded, primarily with strings, harp, and piano, EXO balances thematic melodicism, polytonality, and dissonance across three elegiac pieces of exquisitely expressive dynamism. This is exacting modern chamber music that blends formal and harmonic complexity with a solemn emotive sensibility accessible to a broad audience. Listeners that yearn for some edge and disquietude in a landscape of often all-too-approachable post-classical music should find EXO eminently worth their time and attention. While Molnar is a highly trained string player, and studied music under Aubrey Wolfe, microtonality with James Tenney, and composition with R. Murray Schafer, his trajectory has been entirely and intentionally outside the academy, signalling a socio-artistic commitment to DIY culture, forged from an early passion for the sonic worlds of post-hardcore, post-punk, no-wave, free improv, power electronics, and other independent/underground musics. His classically-informed works have been described as "tense currents of musical modernism invigorated with punk's raw vitality." EXO carries an undercurrent influenced by dark industrial and ambient metal in particular, with microphones purposely placed to pick up the low-end frequencies of the piano body, and of a bass drum positioned as a resonant skin in the acoustic space; an electroacoustic strategy organically meshed to the crisply defined and pristinely recorded pointillisms and polychords of strings, harp, and piano, which feed into this noisefloor of crepuscular sub-bass disquietude and decay. It's a production aesthetic that lends EXO a distinct undertow of tension and feeling, a sort of roiling maximalism where the chamber instrumentation traces arcs and waves of form and flow as if drawn from a dark, impervious ocean below. It also reinforces the profound hermeticism of Molnar's process, as a forbiddingly solitary creative act of immersion and navigation. The album artwork, featuring semiabstract stills of the sea by British photographer Ed Allen, further reifies this metaphor. The album's opening piece 'Sub Luna' (and its shortest at 8 minutes) showcases Molnar's adeptness at naturalistic and flowing complexity: tight cascades of climbing and descending chordal clusters hold their polytonal densities for various durations, yielding to more clarified harmonic suspensions and motifs, as melodic themes led primarily by violins in the higher registers provide a fractured lyricism. Molnar says: "the opening and closing figures of this piece act as opposing shorelines; the shorelines provide a reliable expression of range and key signature, and the tides come in and swallow them up, the motion of a body that addresses the relationship between states of lucidity and melodic figures." On 'Terre Sacer' everything happens in soupier waters, as a slow and doleful theme, anchored by grinding bass notes, circles in a gyre of dark resonances, until glistening strings gradually ascend to enrobe a plaintive and gently harrowing single-voiced ostinato over the composition's final third. Molnar's drone, ambient, minimalist, and goth-industrial influences are on display here. Side Two of EXO features the 18-minute multi-movement 'pallida Mors' (pale death): a waterfall of heterophony introduces dense chordal movements where strings are recorded and mixed to evoke pipe organ, in the album's most overtly dissonant and (anti)liturgical sequence. This gives way to ever more open and fragile spaces, before a resurgence of dark clusters and noise treatments introduces a final repeating piano coda, shrouded in devastated bass resonance, settling into what Molnar calls "a meditative hollow." Constellation is honoured to release this work by Mark Molnar, a longtime fellow-traveler whose selfless and boundlessly generous activities as an independent arts enabler sometimes obscure his own accomplished and uncompromising artistry. We trust EXO can help shed some much deserved light on this fine composer. Thanks for listening.
The stunning debut album by Peki Momés is back in store after selling out the first edition in a few weeks! This 2nd pressing has a different label design. Featuring twelve outstanding original tunes. Turkish psychedelic, global disco and outernational!
Peki Momés is a Turkish artist living in Germany - who only started to record music by accident in 2024. Blessed with style and intuition rather than formal education, her fresh and uncompromisingly authentic approach to music took hearts and ears by storm.
Ever since her debut 45 on Mocambo Records, Peki Momés has become a little sensation in and outside the organic groove scene: turntablist DJ Koco played doubles of "Göc Mevsimi" in his set, Iggy Pop announced "Rüya" on his "Iggy Confidential" show on BBC and the second vinyl single surprised everyone with a mesmerizing cover of Marco Valle's much loved "Estrelar" in the turkish language. Both records sold out quickly and are in the bags of tastemakers like Coco Maria.
Peki Momés' music is an eclectic mix of sounds from the global underground, tastefully crafted by producer Dustin Braun and a troupe of ridiculously talented jazz musicians. Dirty disco, fuzzy funk, anatolian rare grooves, experimental synth, library music and japanese city pop all blend naturally with her distinct vocals to create a unique ethereal outernational sound that is all her own.
Once dubbed as 'turkish discodelic', Peki's songs have a dreamlike, enchanted and psychedelic quality and instantly take the listener on a journey. In a poetic way, she approaches topics like "dreams and a naive fear of losing or not fulfilling them" or expresses "worries about our weary world and call for solidarity from all" - always with an outlook of hope. You do not have to speak turkish to understand - the message is transported by a universal language.
With her debut album, Peki Momés is now telling her full story. Displaying a young Peki on the cover, the artwork hints at the freshness and enthusiasm of the project. We should consider ourselves lucky that Peki chose to disrespect rules in favor of self-empowerment and made this wonderful longplayer that you never knew you needed.
A classy new Format release! 30 years after the previous one! Three genre defying club grooves continuing where #3 left of. It opens with ''The Session Continues'', a track that captures the playful spirit of the '91 Solid Session. Followed by the off kilter 'Tjirp' with a hook that will be with you for a while... closing out the EP with the introverted Detroit style deepness of 'Safe Haven'. Format doesn't disappoint!
The Understated Debut That Launched a Peerless Career: Bob Dylan Is the Clearest Connection to the Singer-Songwriter's Folk Roots
Pressed on MoFi SuperVinyl for Reference Playback: Mobile Fidelity 33RPM SuperVinyl Mono LP Features the Direct Sound Dylan Intended
1/4" / 15 IPS analogue mono master to DSD 256 to analogue console to lathe
Bob Dylan's self-titled 1962 debut is as understated of an entrance as any significant musician as ever made. Well-versed in American roots music, Dylan simultaneously pays homage to tradition and extends it by putting his own stamp on classic material that metaphorically functions as the soil of contemporary songs and styles. Free of ego, and performed with masterful conviction, Bob Dylan ranks with the initial efforts of giants like Elvis Presley and the Rolling Stones.
Nodding to Woody Guthrie and re-imagining Blind Lemon Jefferson's "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean," Dylan straddles the past and future. He authoritatively displays the ability to handle weighty topics such as death, sorrow, and lamentation with the vaudeville flair, bluesy mannerisms, and poignant command of an artist three times his then-20-year-old age.
Sourced from the original master tapes, housed in a Stoughton jacket, and pressed on MoFi SuperVinyl at Fidelity Record Pressing, Mobile Fidelity's numbered-edition 180g 33RPM mono SuperVinyl LP brings the contents of this seminal release as close as they've ever come to live-in-the-studio quality. Transparent to the source, Dylan's voice, acoustic guitar, and harmonica come across with exceptional realism — the "husk and bark" to which Robert Shelton referred in his legendary New York Times review of a Dylan appearance at Gerde's Folk City — courtesy of the format’s nearly non-existent noise floor, groove definition, and quiet surfaces.
Heard in the original mono configuration, Dylan’s vocals are in the heart of the musical action and as one with the accompaniment. This reissue paints an incredibly accurate portrait of the concrete mass of sound that features no artificial panning and offers a straight-ahead immersion into the music producer John Hammond recorded in just two days in November 1961.
Though much has been made of the commercial indifference that greeted the album upon its low-key release, focusing on sales figures and the reaction of a public not yet hip to Dylan's name miss the forest for the trees. Distinguished from the era's other folk efforts by way of the singer-songwriter’s determination, brazenness, and lived-through-this worldliness, Bob Dylan lays the groundwork for the path he'd soon trailblaze and everyone else would follow.
As Dylan scholar and pop-culture critic Greil Marcus observed in 2010: "Everybody knew Joan Baez and the Kingston Trio; if you knew Bob Dylan, you knew something other people didn't, something that soon enough everybody had to know. Within a year, an album could put an adjective in front of the singer's name as if it were already common coin."
Mono is how almost everyone first heard Dylan’s opening salvo. A career like none other starts here.
MoFi SuperVinyl:
Developed by NEOTECH and RTI, MoFi SuperVinyl is the most exacting-to-specification vinyl compound ever devised. Analog lovers have never seen (or heard) anything like it. Extraordinarily expensive and extremely painstaking to produce, the special proprietary compound addresses two specific areas of improvement: noise floor reduction and enhanced groove definition. The vinyl composition features a new carbonless dye (hold the disc up to the light and see) and produces the world's quietest surfaces. This high-definition formula also allows for the creation of cleaner grooves that are virtually indistinguishable from the original lacquer. MoFi SuperVinyl provides the closest approximation of what the label's engineers hear in the mastering lab.
On his second EP for Altered Circuits, "Signal Drift", Jacopo Latini further distills his sound. Taking a more minimalist approach, he unreservedly treats the groove as the focal point. Still relying on his staple talent for weaving melodies and hooks, he delivers four trippy club tracks that show more can be done with less. Opener "Sharp" delivers immediate proof. After starting with a sequence of eerie sci-fi atmospherics and recondite vocoded vocals, the adding and subtracting happens so ingeniously, the track switches to club velocity 303 squelches and enhanced drum programming seamlessly. Similar techniques in building and layering are deployed on "Impulse", but this time, the shifts seem a tad more dramatic. The track revolves around an FM bass melody that's equally effective as it is simple, and its return to this stripped theme, surrounded by characteristic jittery hats, squashed claps, and a little more frills, keeps the listener on his toes. A bass patch, its sustain knob turned wide open, somewhat buried in the mix, drives "Bright Sound" together with a heavily modulated formant mid lead. Deadpan vocals add icing, and slightly euphoric, phased chords bring in a touch of subtle contrast. Closer "Rave Harvey" is a rare diversion as it starts in medias res with chords that reconfigure nineties trance and a distinct bassline immediately going for the limelight. It also shows Latini switching up his palette, trading restraint for vigor, with a slab of direct, unfiltered hi-energy as a result.
With over 2 decades of formal exploration and exhilarating abstraction Get On is, somewhat surprisingly, only the fourth solo Pita full length. Peter Rehberg has always been vouched for pushing the very limits of the technology du jour, be it software or in recent years a complex modular set. Rehberg’s motives are one of unbridled exploration often resulting in extreme and exhilarating audio works.
Having spearheaded the contemporary electronic sound with his uncompromising explorations of noise, rhythm and extreme computer music, he has also worked with numerous experimental musicians in collaboration. Rehberg stands in the wake of a sonic revolution, once fringe, which transformed over time into the sound of a generation of experimental geeks and club freaks worldwide.
Get On follows on from the 2016 release Get In. As with other titles in his ‘Get’ series we have an unwieldy blend of noise, abstraction, gnarled rhythm and blurred melody. Both analogue and digital tools are deployed as a means of expressing something outside of everyday electronics. ‘AMFM’ launches proceedings with some delightfully disorientating ricocheting electronics setting off a subversive sonic spectrum. ‘Frozen Jumper’ presents some ugly skittering electronics which rotate into exquisitely mangled forms before launching into an unsettling euphoria. The last piece ‘Motivation’ is a towering sensitive work, simultaneously haunted and emotionally moving. Get On marks another monumental work in the ongoing evolution from one of the ground zero pioneers of contemporary radical electronic music. As uncompromising as ever this is Pita in his prime. Emotion rung from the most twisted of frames.
Natural Vinyl[25,00 €]
Deathchain’s early albums reissued on vinyl for the first time in May via Svart Records Finnish death-thrashing maniacs Deathchain’s debut and sophomore albums will be available on vinyl for the first time ever on May 30th, 2025 via Svart Records. Deathchain, hailing from the city of Kuopio, was formed in 2001 from the remains of Winterwolf when the band’s guitarist Corpse moved from the countryside to the city to kick things off, and they continue their illustrious and wild axe wielding path to this day. DEADMEAT DISCIPLES (2003) and DEATHRASH ASSAULT (2005) were originally released by Dynamic Arts Records only on CD. The debut gained a lot of great reviews in Europe, paving the way for the band’s substantial touring around Central Europe, Netherlands, and Belgium. The sophomore album DEATHRASH ASSAULT, which ended in the 18th place on the Official Finnish Album Chart, unleashed Deathchain on the Hellhoundz of Doom and Thrash -tour with Candlemass and Destruction, playing live shows in thirteen countries across Europe. The Japanese version of the album was later released on CD in 2006, featuring a bonus cover track of Slayer’s Black Magic. Corpse comments the reissues: ”It's been over two decades since we recorded our first two albums, and finally they will be unleashed to haunt in the format that is closest to our hearts. Both of these albums were recorded in Kuopio at Studio Perkele, which was the beating heart of the underground back then. We were young and handsome alcohol fueled bastards aiming to make music that is fast, furious, and riff driven. The legendary Valhalla metal bar scene was our home and starting point, and surely you can hear the echoes of North Sawonian madness within these albums. Those times were full of insanely good times, and we did our best to catch the spirit of the old school within our music. Finally with the help of Svart Records we are proud to present you these buried gems of death thrashing metal.” DEATHRASH ASSAULT is available on Svart exclusive black & white marble vinyl, limited natural vinyl, and classic black vinyl. Includes Slayer's Black Magic cover as a bonus track.
Black Vinyl[24,16 €]
Deathchain’s early albums reissued on vinyl for the first time in May via Svart Records Finnish death-thrashing maniacs Deathchain’s debut and sophomore albums will be available on vinyl for the first time ever on May 30th, 2025 via Svart Records. Deathchain, hailing from the city of Kuopio, was formed in 2001 from the remains of Winterwolf when the band’s guitarist Corpse moved from the countryside to the city to kick things off, and they continue their illustrious and wild axe wielding path to this day. DEADMEAT DISCIPLES (2003) and DEATHRASH ASSAULT (2005) were originally released by Dynamic Arts Records only on CD. The debut gained a lot of great reviews in Europe, paving the way for the band’s substantial touring around Central Europe, Netherlands, and Belgium. The sophomore album DEATHRASH ASSAULT, which ended in the 18th place on the Official Finnish Album Chart, unleashed Deathchain on the Hellhoundz of Doom and Thrash -tour with Candlemass and Destruction, playing live shows in thirteen countries across Europe. The Japanese version of the album was later released on CD in 2006, featuring a bonus cover track of Slayer’s Black Magic. Corpse comments the reissues: ”It's been over two decades since we recorded our first two albums, and finally they will be unleashed to haunt in the format that is closest to our hearts. Both of these albums were recorded in Kuopio at Studio Perkele, which was the beating heart of the underground back then. We were young and handsome alcohol fueled bastards aiming to make music that is fast, furious, and riff driven. The legendary Valhalla metal bar scene was our home and starting point, and surely you can hear the echoes of North Sawonian madness within these albums. Those times were full of insanely good times, and we did our best to catch the spirit of the old school within our music. Finally with the help of Svart Records we are proud to present you these buried gems of death thrashing metal.” DEATHRASH ASSAULT is available on Svart exclusive black & white marble vinyl, limited natural vinyl, and classic black vinyl. Includes Slayer's Black Magic cover as a bonus track.
The cassette format SPCS1680 features "With Trampled by Turtles" on the A Side and last years 'White Roses, My God' SP1655 on the B Side! No one can help you build something beautiful quite like those who know you best. Alan Sparhawk knows this well. In his years in Low, he built decades of stirring music with his wife and lifelong creative partner Mimi Parker. In recent years, he has performed around Minnesota with his son Cyrus in DERECHO Rhythm Section, a funk band that also frequently features his daughter Hollis on vocals. There's an irreplaceable naturalism that comes with this kind of dynamic. Those who know you understand you. They love you. They want to help you bring your greatest passions to fruition. So it made sense that Sparhawk would turn to fellow Duluth musicians Trampled by Turtles to realize his latest record. As friends and mentees of Low's, taken under Sparhawk and Parker's wing from their earliest days as a bar band, Trampled by Turtles have performed with Sparhawk countless times over the years. The Duluth ties run deep: "There's a certain vibe that has to do with underdog syndrome, coming from a small town," Sparhawk muses. "Some of it is the weird grind and slackness that being at the mercy of Mother Nature puts in you. It humbles you." The two artists hold the kind of ironclad bond. Following Parker's passing in 2022, Trampled by Turtles invited Sparhawk to join them on tour to give him a space to be surrounded by friends. Occasionally, he would join them onstage. The outpouring of love was palpable every time they played together, a surge of warmth. When playing together is that powerful, why stop there? In winter, 2024, Sparhawk and Trampled by Turtles created With Trampled by Turtles, a record exactly as its name implies: Collective. Communal. Fraternal. Empathetic. A vessel for comfort, a reminder of the harmony that can exist when surrounded by those closest to you. Where White Roses, My God, Sparhawk's last album, plunged headfirst into electronica and radical vocal modulation, With Trampled by Turtles leans into the folk and bluegrass stylings of its backing band, Sparhawk's voice now completely unvarnished. With Trampled by Turtles is far more than just Alan Sparhawk and Trampled by Turtles. It's an affirmation of all the people who have been vital in Sparhawk's life and music, and an opportunity to hold each of their gifts into the light. It's producer Nat Harvie, who has been collaborating and performing with him for years. It's Sparhawk's daughter Hollis, who duets with her father on "Not Broken." And it's Mimi Parker, too: "Too High," "Princess Road Surgery," and "Not Broken" were all tracks she and Sparhawk had been working on in the last few years. These songs finally found a setting that stirringly commemorates them, bolstered by a full ensemble to make every note sing. Their presence is a kind of eternal connection to Parker, a way her musical grace will keep flourishing.
Das vierte Album von Ellen Arkbro, "Nightclouds", versammelt fünf Improvisationen für Orgel solo, die 2023-24 in Mitteleuropa aufgenommen wurden. "Nightclouds" ist unverhohlener romantisch und introspektiver als ihre früheren Werke, obwohl es fest in der Strenge und Präzision verwurzelt, die Arkbro's Konzept ausmachen. Es ist die Erweiterung ihrer Erkundungen von räumlicher Harmonie, Taktilität und Textur, Arkbro schöpft gleichermaßen aus sakraler Musik, Jazz im ECM-Stil und Minimalismus und beschwört eine kühle Intimität und einen kühlen Ton herauf. Ihre entschleunigten Akkordimprovisationen hüllen den Zuhörer in düsteres verwaschen, während ihre Mikrofonierung die raue haptische Maserung des Rohrblatts offenbart und den Zuhörer sowohl innerhalb als auch außerhalb des Klangs bringt. Sie evoziert Duette von Kjell Johnsen und Jan Garbarek oder La Monte Young und Tony Conrads Bearbeitung von Euringers und Harmer's Cowboy-Song ,Oh Bury Me Not". "Nightclouds" kanalisiert spirituelles Pathos durch eine rigoros zurückhaltende Architektur. Anknüpfend an das letztjährige Album "Sounds While Waiting" (W.25TH, 2024), einer Auswahl von Stereomischungen, die Arkbro's räumliche Orgelinstallationen dokumentieren, ändert Nightclouds die Richtung und konzentriert sich auf unmittelbare Komposition und Improvisation. Elegante, einfache akkordische Gerüste unterstützen reiche, sich ständig verändernde Texturen; genaues Hinhören erfordert die Hingabe an anhaltende Unentschlossenheit. Den Abschluss einer Sammlung von kurzen Stücken bilden zwei Variationen über die titelgebende Komposition ,Nightclouds", eine eine schelmische Anspielung auf den britischen Jazz-Gitarristen Allan Holdsworth: Die erste Aufnahme verlangsamt und dehnt eine kontinuierlich modulierte harmonische Progression, während die kurze Schlussversion einfach drei Akkorde schleift. Zwischen diesen Stücken liegen ,Still Life" und ,Chordalities", zwei kurze Werke, die im Temple de La-Tour-de-Peilz in Vevey, Schweiz, aufgenommen wurden. Die zweite Hälfte des Albums ist folgenden Stücken gewidmet ,Morningclouds", ein weitläufiges Werk, das in der rekonstruierten Gedächtniskirche (Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche) in Berlin aufgenommen wurde. Arkbro's prägnantes musikalisches Vokabular und formale Architektur evozieren ein Gefühl der emotionalen Ambivalenz, gleichzeitig erhebend und schwermütig und führt den Hörer mit kühler und distanzierter Schönheit. "Nightclouds", das als tiefgründiges Statement in Arkbros sich entwickelndem Werk steht, das zugleich introspektiv und expansiv ist, bestätigt ihre einzigartige Fähigkeit, harmonische Einfachheit in tief berührende Klanglandschaften zu verwandeln, die den Hörer in einen Raum der Kontemplation und emotionalen Tiefe führen.
"How do I know if my cat likes me?" ist die erste Zusammenarbeit der Organisten Ellen Arkbro und Hampus Lindwall mit der bildenden Künstlerin Hanne Lippard, eine existenzielle Meditation über die leeren Weiten unseres automatisierten Alltags. Das Stück entstand während Arkbro und Lippards Residenz 2023 im La Becque in La Tour-de-Peilz, Schweiz, Das Album persifliert die lähmende Ästhetik des Geschäftslebens, von der Warteschleifenmusik bis zum Onlinebanking. "How do I know if my cat likes me?" führt die Linie von Roberts Ashley von Roberts Ashley und Barry fort und hämmert auf die Klänge der Sprache ein, bis sie alle Bedeutungen durch angenehm betäubende Wiederholungen verdrängen. Die Platte zu hören ist, als würde man ein Captcha wieder und wieder lösen bis alle Zeichen zu Hieroglyphen verschwimmen, oder man findet sich in einem tautologischen Kundendienst-Argument verstrickt, nur dass man, nachdem man in der Sackgasse des Unsinns gelandet ist, eine unerwartete transzendente Schönheit findet, in der die Sprache von der reinen Funktion zur reinen Ästhetik umschlägt und vor Möglichkeiten schimmert. Selbst subtile Brüche in lyrischen oder musikalischen Mustern können eine grundlegende Veränderung in der Welt des Songs auslösen. Auf der gesamten Platte begründen strenger Formalismus und Minimalismus eine Erzählung. ,The Long Goodbye" stellt sich einen quälenden Dialog zwischen Bekannten vor, die sich nicht höflich voneinander lösen können: ,It's my pleasure!", stöhnt Lippard, die sich selbst antwortet: "Pleasure is all mine! / See you soon! / See you next time! / See you then!". Obwohl die Zeilen immer wieder dieselben wenigen Abschiedsworte wiederholen, akkumuliert sich eine geheimnisvolle Kausalität in den winzigen Variationen, die einen erzählerischen Bogen kreieren, weniger für die Figuren des Liedes, sondern für den Zuhörer, der sich mit Verzweiflung, nihilistischem Humor oder tiefer Dankbarkeit über die Fähigkeit der Kunst konfrontiert sieht. An anderer Stelle, als ,Modern Spanking" sich frei assoziierend von der Phrase "Online-Banking" in Richtung "breathing down your neck banking" und ,sexy but bankrupt banking" wandelt, wird eine ganze Welt oberflächlicher Vergnügungen ins Blickfeld gerückt. Während minimalistische Bewegungen in der Musik und der bildenden Kunst eine gewisse Situiertheit des Blicks fördern, erinnert ,Modern Spanking" an den glatten, reibungslosen Minimalismus eines gehobenen Einkaufszentrums: eine Menge wahlloser Passanten, die sich zwischen Sex und Geld, Fantasie und Realität, zerstreuter Aufmerksamkeit und intensiver Ablenkung befinden. In einer Welt wie dieser ist der Unterschied zwischen Bankgeschäften und Prügelstrafe zu vernachlässigen.
"In a world where it is easier than ever to say something, it is actually the hardest time to be heard.
We are constantly bombarded by so much information and/or distractions that people can hardly be blamed for not tuning in.
The box has been constructed to be safe, so why step outside it?
The vibe shift is undeniable but everyone is free to choose which frequency to tap into.
Music can be nourishment for the soul if you have the right ingredients. Even then you need the right chefs to cook it properly to be served.
Meftah and Ideeyah have taken their time to create something that feels complete.
Something intentional. Meditative.
Another piece in the great chain of the African Diaspora.
Where else but Detroit could something like this come from?
A complete concept that is unabashedly of the present but still honors the past. This is Soul music. Crafted with love for community, for heritage, for fulfillment.
There was a method to the madness, a reason for the gradual formation of artistic merit that is presented to you now.
This music contains a universal message if you can open your eyes and mind to it.
Less talking, more doing.
Go out there and be somebody again.
Reclaim your light under the sun.
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.
For Funk is it’s own reward,
if you want it to be.
- Turtle Bugg"
EARTHGANG are a unique rap duo that have been making an impact on the Hip-Hop soundscape since their formation in 2008. Comprised of members Olu and WowGr8, the pair met as freshmen at Mays High School in Southwest Atlanta and were deeply influenced by their surroundings. Their music as EARTHGANG is a fusion of various genres, including R&B, Jazz, Gospel, and Funk, which they use to create innovative albums, experimental EPs, and masterful mixtapes. With a name rooted in the idea of bringing people together, EARTHGANG have gained a massive following, with more than 3 Million monthly listeners on Spotify and over 155 Million views on YouTube. After signing with J. Cole's Dreamville Records in 2017, EARTHGANG's popularity grew even further, with their 2019 album Mirrorland debuting at #40 on the US Billboard 200 Chart and #22 on the US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Chart. EARTHGANG's commitment to community activism, supporting emerging artists, and dedication to pushing boundaries in their music have earned them critical acclaim and a devoted fanbase. Their sound continues to evolve, with each project showcasing their eclectic rhythm that cannot be placed in a box or attached to any one genre. With the latest examples of this being their new EP ROBOPHOBIA, as well as their recent Snakehips collab project SNAKEGANG, EARTHGANG are continuing to push the sonic boundaries of Hip-Hop while simultaneously delivering outside-of-the-box concepts infused with an experimental sound.
"James Moody gained early fame as a member of Dizzy Gillespie’s big band, with his legendary improvised solo on “I’m In The Mood For Love” which became the foundation for the classic vocalese hit “Moody’s Mood For Love.” A pivotal figure in the bebop era, Moody’s six-decade career showcased his mastery on jazz flute, alto and tenor saxophones, composer and arranger credits, and collaborations with icons such Quincy Jones, John Coltrane and Herbie Hancock. “Running The Gamut” was originally released in 1965, featuring Moody in quintet format alongside Thad Jones (tr.), Patti Bown (p), Reggie Workman (b) and Albert Heath (d). This first ever reissue comes pressed on heavyweight Color Vinyl, just in time for the record's 60th anniversary."
