Cerca:d ham

Black White Marbled Vinyl
Beyond The Black können auf eine imposante Erfolgsgeschichte zurückblicken: Schon mit ihrem Debüt im Jahr 2015 schlug die Band um Sängerin Jennifer Haben ein wie eine Bombe. „Songs Of Love And Death“ hielt sich wochenlang in den Top 15 der Charts und brachte den renommierten „Metal Hammer“-Award in der Kategorie „Bestes Debüt“ ein. Auch der Nachfolger „Lost In Forever“ konnte 2016 direkt daran anknüpfen, ging auf Chart-Platz 4 und führte Beyond The Black auf eine Mammut-Tour durch Deutschland, Groß-britannien über Russland bis nach Japan. Seit 2014 begeisterte die Band ihre Fans bei immer größer werdenden Auftritten auf dem Wacken Open Air und war gefeierter Support-Act für Bands wie Aerosmith, Korn, Scorpions, Saxon und Within Temptation.
Im Herbst 2019 folgte die erste eigene Europatour als Headliner–zum Großteil ausverkauft. Ihre musikalische Klasse über Genregrenzen hinweg hat Sängerin und Frontfrau Jennifer Haben zudem in Deutschlands erfolgreichstem Musikformat „Sing meinen Song“ bewiesen. Eine Erfolgsgeschichte, die mit Chart-Platz #3fürdas vierte Studioalbum „Horizons“ gekrönt wurde. Heute, zwei Jahre später, sind Beyond the Black zurück mit einem Knall und starten ein neues Kapitel. Nach den gefeierten Singles „Reincarnation“ und „Is There Anybody Out There“ kündigt die Band ihr neues, fünftes Studioalbum an, das selbstbetitelt „Beyond the Black“ heißen und am 13. Januar 2023erscheinen wird! DiePre-Order beginnt ab sofort und wird von der neuen, düster-kraftvollen Single „Winter Is Coming“ eingeläutet, die den richtigen Ton für die bis dato größte Headline-Europatournee der Band setzt.

Since 2013 Jail Job Eve has become an indispensable part of the German
rockstages - Whether festival stage, live club or rustic rockmusic venue -
for more than eight years now the five musicians from Osnabrueck,
Germany, have been playing their way across the country
After their first release "Bird of Passage" in 2015, the band signed a contract with
MiG - music in 2018, the label that, among other things, distributes the legendary
"Rockpalast" recordings of the German TV- and radio-station WDR and with bands
such as Siena Root, Br selmaschine and Wucan, the label has signed in the field
of retro rock under contract.Jail Job Eve's album "The Misson" received
recommended reviews in the music press throughout Europe, and the band thus
earned the reputation: "the hope of the national blues rock scene" (eclipsed
Magazine, Germany).With their upcoming release "Wildfire", Jail Job Eve is once
again setting new standards. The album, recorded entirely live, confirms the band
as a finely balanced rock machinery. The music is much harder, more
experimental and coarser, while the lyrics deal offensively and aggressively with
the most important ideological issues of our time, such as climate change,
sexism, LGBTQ + rights or the responsibility of art and culture as a mirror of
society and an instrument of peaceful protest. For example, the first single "Lost"
is a song about female empowerment and therefore an energetic, feminist
statement to sing along to.The band's audible role models include Rival Sons,
Blues Pills, Greta Van Fleet, but also the classic rockers of Deep Purple or the
omnipresent ubiquitous instance Led Zeppelin. The clearest fist in the face of the
listeners still is Victoria Semel, who virtuously puts her heart and soul into her
singing. Benedikt Schlereth, who plays his way through the album with his
distinctive guitar sound coined by the grand repertoire of rock history, Jens
Niemann, who lets his Hammond wobble sonorously and suffer shriekingly, as
well as Tim Beckers on bass and Josef R hner on drums, who create fulminant,
cast-iron floors under their bandmates

Magnus Carlson of Weeping Willows fame is back with the new EP The
Way Of The Crowd
For this release, Magnus went for the trio format together with the formidable
Ljunggren brothers of Trummor & Orgel on Ludwig drums and Hammond
respectively. The result is an immaculate and soulful delivery which captures the
intimacy of a small, but very tight musical outfit working together in perfect
harmony.

Finally available on vinyl for the first time, with extra tracks - Limited edition numbered red vinyl. 500 copies worldwide A supergroup with twenty lead singers from twenty different bands, featuring members of: Killing Joke, Carcass, Funeral For a Friend, Therapy, Hundred Reasons, Napalm Death, Sikth, Pitchshifter, Fightstar, Earthtone 9, Amen, New Model Army, Send More Paramedics, Hiding Place, Romeo Must Die, Murder One, Hondo Maclean. Architect and founding This is Menace member MD Clayden (Pitchshifter) has curated ‘Ism’ adding previously unreleased material. Reviews: “A living, breathing, subversive collective.” Kerrang Magazine / “Furious. Like a juggernaut. F*ck yeah!” Metal Hammer Magazine / “Brash...and brilliant to break stuff to.” NME

500 on clear vinyl - Pitch Shifter ‘The 1990 Demo’ - Agent provocateurs who prophetically foreshadowed the Brexit debacle with their 1999 release ‘Un-United Kingdom”. Spanning a career of over 30 years, the band released ten albums, toured 30 countries, were featured on the covers of Kerrang! and Metal Hammer magazines, recorded Peel Sessions, won Kerrang! awards, had their music featured on video games, on tv shows and in Hollywood films, played main stages at Reading, Ozzfest, Vans Warped Tour and the Big Day out Festivals, were featured in 2000AD Magazine with Judge Dredd and fucked a lot of shit up along the way! Here for the first time, the band release their original demo, previously unreleased and unavailable to the general public. The original audio has been enhanced and the vinyl includes a revisited track, that did not feature on the original release ‘Behemoth’, with vocals recorded by M D Clayden. The demo landed the band their first record deal in 1990 with Peaceville Records, where the band then forged these tracks into their critically acclaimed debut ‘Industrial’.

Glasgow's First Lady of Jazz Carol Kidd, whose string of successful Linn recordings in the 1980's have made her a staple of international audiophile artists, returns with an all-new collection of delectable jazz and pop standards delivered in her inimitably smooth and heartfelt style.

Kidd has always been an artist celebrated for her cool, controlled phrasing and easy-going balladry, and her lovely new recording, BOTH SIDES NOW, is replete with her trademark inflection and warmth spread over classic songs by everyone from Rodgers & Hammerstein, Billy Joel, Joni Mitchell, and Richard Thompson. A songwriter of note, Kidd herself contributes two new tracks co-authored with Chris Anthony.

Impex's exclusive 180-gram 33 rpm LP, mastered by the superlative Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio, features brilliantly detailed mid-tones, effortlessly stable bottom end, and crisp overtones. RTI's peerless pressing brings it all together for your listening pleasure.

Carol Kidd is an international award winning singer. She has been named 'Best Vocalist' at the British Jazz Awards on four occasions and was appointed MBE for Services to Jazz. In 2006, Carol was a winner of the prestigious Nordoff-Robbins Tartan Clef Music Award and in 2017 she received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Scottish Jazz Awards. Renowned for her impeccable phrasing and delivery along with an unforgettable ability to breathe fresh life into any jazz standard, Carol has cut a distinctive path through the Great American Songbook throughout her career with orchestral and trio backing, as well as performing as a unique and intimate duo with guitarist Nigel Clark.

A long line of admirers has included Tony Bennett, Vic Damone and Frank Sinatra, who invited her to open for him at a stadium concert where he remarked that, "Carol Kidd is the best kept secret of British jazz." After a sensational performance at the Tribute to Johnny Mercer show at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow, Sir Michael Parkinson observed from the stage that "If there is a better jazz singer out there I have yet to hear them!" Luminaries who have performed alongside Carol as her guests include George Shearing, Georgie Fame, Annie Ross, Benny Carter, Joe Temperley, Bobby Watson and Martin Taylor.

Following a battle with cancer, Carol returned to the stage triumphant in the summer of 2013 to give a powerful, emotional performance at the Glasgow Jazz Festival. In the wake of this homecoming, it is impossible to deny that Kidd is one of the most remarkable artists and performers of our time.

"Für "Earth Rocker", den Nachfolger des 2009er Werks "Strange Cousins From The West", mussten knapp vier Jahre ins Land ziehen. Ob sich die Wartezeit gelohnt hat? Wer CLUTCH kennt, der weiß: Ja! Das neue Album strotzt nur so vor Energie, beinhaltet aber auch die klassischen ruhigeren Songs, bei denen Sänger Neil Fallon natürlich mit seinen interessanten und gut durchdachten Texten voller Poesie überzeugen kann.

Doch bevor es an ruhigere Nummern geht, die auf dem Album in der Minderheit sind, geht es mit dem Titeltrack "Earth Rocker" erst mal gnadenlos rockig ab. Die schnelle Nummer ist schon mal ein guter Einstand, und Neil's "Muhahahas" in dem Song lassen einem ein breites Grinsen ins Gesicht treiben. Ein weiteres Highlight und garantierte Live-Granate ist den Mannen mit "Crucial Velocity" gelungen. Wer schon "Mob Goes Wild" oder "Electric Worry" mochte, wird diesen Song vergöttern. Tim Sult lässt seine Klampfe gnadenlos im Stoner-Dickicht die Rock-Welt regieren. Hammer!

"Mr. Freedom" groovt ganz gewaltig, Obacht: auch hier unbedingt auf die Textpassagen achten. Bei "D.C. Sound Attack" wird die bewährte Mundharmonika aus der Tasche gezogen und im Sinne von ZZ TOP abgerockt. Weiter über "Unto The Breach", "The Face" (MOTORJESUS lassen grüßen), "Cyborg Bette" oder "Book, Saddle & Go", CLUTCH zeigen sich abgezockt und saucool, wie eh und je. Warum cool? Weil diese Band einfach das macht, was ihnen gefällt, sei es Mucke, Attitüde oder Acting. Wer es mal bluesig mag, dem ist "Gone Cold" ans Herz zu legen. Relaxte Nummer, genau richtig zum chillen mit nem Glas Whisky.

Veredelt wurde "Earth Rocker" durch die Hand von Machine, der schon auf "Blast Tyrant" oder "Pure Rock Fury" für CLUTCH tätig war. Der räudige Sound, wie man ihn von der Gruppe gewohnt ist, wurde beibehalten und noch einmal auf eine höhere Stufe gewuchtet. Da bleiben keine Wünsche offen.

"Earth Rocker" reiht sich nahtlos in die Gassenhauer-Alben der Band hinein. "Blast Tyrant" oder "From Beale Street To Oblivion" gehören zwar noch immer zu den absoluten Highlights, "Earth Rocker" übernimmt ab jetzt jedoch den Vorsitz." (9von10/metal.de)

Prolific Japanese producer T5UMUT5UMU has built up a reputation in the last few years for his ability not just to recreate club styles but to flip them into almost unrecognizable dancefloor hybrids. "Asyl" follows a blistering run of Bandcamp releases where T5UMUT5UMU has melted together gqom and techno, deconstructed grime and welded dubstep to traditional music from Japan and India. Here, he's operating completely off the grid, pulling raw materials from across the globe and hammering them into confounding shapes and patterns. On its surface, 'Fireball' sounds like a liquid metal approximation of South African gqom, but move in closer and you can make out dubstep bass squelches, trap hats, and industrial techno jet propulsion filling in the gaps with rubberized mortar. 'Desert' is the EP's most lightheaded cut, a psychedelic percussive spiral that curves micro-tuned mbira clangs around bee sting bass, aerated noise blasts and sub-aqueous kicks. It's a hard track to place, but fits in somewhere between Donato Dozzy, Menzi and 33EMYBW, all shifting rhythms and precision-edited sound design. 'Sea of Trees' retains this momentum, pushing the tempo and interspersing woodblock vibrations with syncopated bass drums and goosebump-inducing synths, while closer 'Bottomless Valley' shifts back into a gqom framework, shuffling the expected pulse with a powerful dembow swing, half step subs and Indian-inspired rattles. "Asyl" is a varied but shockingly coherent statement from an enigmatic producer who refuses to confine himself to a single path, and at a time when "cross-genre" is the norm rather than the exception, it's refreshing to witness a producer who's unafraid to truly make stylistic left-turns, rather than simply mash together top-level aesthetics.

Landmarks and milestones are always memorable, but the 50th EP release on FUSE feels that little bit more special as head honcho Enzo Siragusa steps up to the mark and returns for the second time this year. Having launched the label in 2011 with his now iconic ‘The Sagamore’ EP, the renowned selector and producer has grown and shaped the FUSE from a Sunday after-hours to one of the most notable names within house and techno worldwide - anchoring the label at the heart of its identity and bringing its trademark sound to an international audience. Following material from original residents Rich NxT, Rossko, Seb Zito and Archie Hamilton through to regular guests and close friends such as Guti, East End Dubs, Michael James and Fabe, October sees Siragusa showcase both his and FUSE’s evolution over the past decade as he uncovers two bustling productions across his ‘Dreamscape’ EP.

A production oozing with his signature sound, yet introducing fresh subtleties in amongst the track’s snaking groove and hypnotic melodies, ‘Dreamscape’ welcomes a title cut full of energy as the FUSE boss picks up right where he left off to provide yet more heavily requested material on home turf. On the flip, ‘Bean That Talks’ sees Siragusa get playful while maintaining the vigour of his bustling live sets, combining chunky low-ends with skippy percussion and rich pads to showcase precisely why he and FUSE continue to flourish as leaders of a sound that they can truly call their own.

Many music fans will remember Jimmy Salcedo due to his wonderful work as arranger and producer with the duo Elia and Elizabeth in the early 70s. Their delicate songwriting acquired, after his treatment, a special Tropical aroma that even included the funk influences received by Salcedo at that time. He released with his band, La Onda Tres, a few LPs and singles that had a limited distribution, mainly in Colombia only. This anthology comprises a selection of songs that celebrate Salcedo's sound signature: a base of coastal funk with vocals and melodic bubblegum-bomb arrangements and hints of light psychedelia. Many of the compiled songs became popular radio hits in Colombia that Jimmy Salcedo and La Onda Tres recorded and arranged at the Zeida studios in Medellín. These recordings include Latin-jazz tracks ('Mira') with stunning percussion solos, songs recorded under a heavy Caribbean-soul influence ('­Qué linda es Colombia!' and 'Lo mismo de siempre') 'Maranguango', an irresistible mix of Afrolatin percussion and catchy Tropical harmonies spiced up with moog keyboard sounds, fuzz and wah wah guitars and even touches of hammond, in a psychedelic funk style, an exhilarating moog driven instrumental with a heavy Afro-funk rhythm ('Moogambo') and revisited Latin classics ('Moliendo Café').

Less than a hundred miles inland from the capital city of Lima lies the great Peruvian jungle, an untamed land of impenetrable forests and endless winding rivers. In its isolated cities, cut off from the fashions of the capital, a unique style of music began to develop, inspired equally by the sounds of the surrounding forests, the roll of the mighty Amazon and Ucayali Rivers, and the rhythms of cumbia picked up from distant stations on transistor radios. With the arrival of electricity, a new generation of young musicians started plugging in their guitars and trading in their accordions for synthesizers: Amazonian cumbia was born.

Powered by fast-paced timbale rhythms, driven by spidery, treble-damaged guitar lines, and drenched in bright splashes of organ, Amazonian cumbia was like a hyperactive distant cousin of surf music crossed with an all-night dance party in the heart of the forest. While many of the genre’s greatest tracks were instrumental, and others were simple celebrations of life in the jungle, the goal of every song was to keep the party going.

Radio stations in Lima remained unaware of the new electric sounds emanating from the jungle, but a handful of pioneering
record producers ventured over the mountain passes to the cities of Tarapoto, Moyobamba, Pucallpa – even Iquitos, a city
reachable only by boat or plane – and lured dozens of bands to the recording studios of the capital to lay down their best
tracks. Although many became local hits, few were ever heard outside the Amazonian region … until now.
With eighteen tracks from some of the greatest names in Amazonian cumbia, Perú Selvatico is both the improbable soundtrack
to a beach party on a banks of the Amazon and a psychedelic safari into the sylvan mysteries of the Peruvian jungle.

Fleeting Symphony is the extraordinary concert dedicated to the Final Fantasy X music, composed by Nobuo Uematsu, Masashi Hamauzu and Junya Nakano, performed by the prestigious WDR orchestra of Cologne in 2016, now in vinyl edition!

Discover the extraordinary Fleeting Symphony, concert dedicated to the Final Fantasy X music, performed by one of the most prestigious symphony orchestras in the world, the magnificent WDR Funkhausorchester from Cologne in Germany.

red/clear splatter vinyl

Shake Chain will also be performing at Marina Abramovic’s private view at Modern Art Oxford on September 23rd.

Shake Chain have been busy demolishing audiences and expectations for the best part of three years. Vocalist Kate Mahony sets that standard by starting each live performance by crawling from the back of the room through a disbelieving crowd’s legs in a shiny yellow raincoat. The resulting questions that frantically arise of ‘what’s going on?’, ‘am I hallucinating?’ and ‘is this part of the show?’ are hallmarks of how Shake Chain approach making their unruly, lyric-bespattered rock music.

The four-piece from London are completed by Robert Syres (guitar, synth), Chris Hopkins (bass, synth) and Joe Fergey (drums), all artists hailing from Goldsmiths College, Nottingham Trent and Wimbledon, University of the Arts. A mutual love of thought-provoking performance art and a yearning for disruption have helped Shake Chain lock into their wayward sound. Twitchy guitar lines jolt and jerk, synths burble noisily and tack-sharp drums pin things down for Kate’s reeling vocal to vault and slur. Kate’s singing has drawn comparisons with Yoko Ono, Su Tissue and even a seance with it’s unique embrace of flights of atonal fancy, head-first repetition and ecstatic frenzy. Opinion-dividing arguably, but singular in making Shake Chain dauntingly brilliant.

Shake Chain’s debut album ‘Snake Chain’ was recorded in the New Forest’s Chuckalumba Studios early in 2022. The tranquil setting only slightly skewed by the intense extratropical cyclone occuring outside. When asked to sum up the album the group collectively settled on it sounding like “crying in a Catholic sex dungeon with Eastenders on”, perhaps only half tongue in cheek given the soapy dramatics of opening track ‘Stace’. ‘RU’ is a stompy triumph of ad lib monotony, heavy and wonky, its vocal slowly unwinding into residual sense. Shake Chain’s songs are populated with cowboys, cherry-pickers, content-addicts, private investments, a careless driver called Mike, architects and by much lamentation at the state of our confusing existencies. This last point underlined in luminous marker pen with slow-building vortex ‘Highly Conpeptual’ and whispered closer ‘Duck’.

‘Copy Me’ races along with radiant headbangs of dynamic abandon, one part tumble, two parts pummel, “hold your breath til something changes” commands Kate whilst everything of course is in hammering flux. ‘Second Home’ is similarly coruscating yet bouyant, whilst ‘Arthur’ feels like it could tear inside in two amid sobbing wails and the twining of its disparate parts. Throughout all the unhinged freakouts, found sounds and blasting rhythms though is Kate’s questioning, resilient presence, anchoring everything. On bruising creeper ‘Birthday’ she asks most tellingly “Do we speak language or does language speak us? Is there a mouth in the middle of the desert? Do you ask how cups are designed? Would you say yes when you really mean I don’t know”? Shake Chain are cathartic and absurd, humorous and deadly serious yet always inspired. Its this tightrope walk which makes their album such a thrilling, vital listen.

"I was 27 when this album came out, LA was a whole different animal. I was going back and forth from NY to LA, touring a lot and trying to make progress for me and my close friends and family.

Oct 1 2002 seems like it was yesterday... The day we released the album, I got a call from Nas, completely caught me off guard. He complemented me on the writing of “Release Date” the first track on the album. Those are some of the moments I think of when I reminisce about dropping this project. It was such a turning point in my life, I was coming off of a huge push with “Restless” and the follow up had to be a smash, at the same time I was still finding my standing as a man, a young father, and an artist. It was always my dream to work with the people I’ve now been able to work with and I can listen to this album and remember exactly where I was and who I was with, it’s like time travel.

Fast forward 20 years later and I am thrilled to be able to share this body of work with you and more generations to come.

Thank you for rockin' with me for all this time.
Enjoy the 20th Anniversary Edition of MAN VS MACHINE,

From its dramatic intro, "Release Date," to the thundering West Coast march "Enemies," Xzibit's fourth and mythical album, Man vs. Machine produced by no less than Dr Dre, spent a total of 19 weeks on the "Billboard" 200 chart and was certified gold only a month after its release with over 500,000 copies sold.

The legendary album that features a heavyweight cast of featurings with the likes of Snoop Dogg, Eminem, M.O.P, Nate Dogg, DJ Premier and Dr Dre himself is now available for the first time since its original release, to celebrate its 20th anniversary!

















[q] D3. My Life, My World [Bonus Track]
[r] D4. What a Mess [Bonus Track]
[s] D5. (Hit U) Where It Hurts [Bonus Track]

Der Münchner Noise-Künstler und Videoartist Anton Kaun aka Rumpeln veröffentlicht dieser Tage ein besonderes Album: "Noise Means Noise" wurde mit der Hamburger Produzentenlegende Tobias Levin aufgenommen und vereint den Klang seiner angriffslustigen Performances mit der Verstiegenheit eines Mikrofonprofessors, der selbst der Innenwelt eines Teppichs noch interessante Klänge abzuringen weiß. Wenn Rumpeln auftritt, dann hinterlässt dies oft Spuren am eigenen Körper. Er begreift Geräuschmusik als körperliche Erfahrung - und setzt auf die Interoperabilität von elektronischen Geräuschen, Körper und Videos, die alle der gleichen exzessiven Strategie ausgesetzt sind. Heraus kommt ein Balanceakt zwischen Brutalität und Unbeholfenheit: Immer hartnäckig, unversöhnlich, tobend, aggressiv, aber mit kathartischem Ausgang.

For its second release, Elmir once again puts 1980s pop-raï in the spotlight with the identical reissue of Cheb Kader's masterpiece: El Awama. Originally self-produced on cassette in 1986, this album was then released on vinyl by Michel Lévy, who was then Cheb Mami's manager and producer. Back then, the album was not the hit it was expected to be, because a little too avant-garde for the time. But more than 35 years later, fans and collectors consider the few remaining copies as priceless. The raï of Cheb Kader is a subtle compromise between the melodies of Oranese suburbs, the electricity of Casablancan guitars and the roaring layers of reggae. The listener can only be fascinated by this Awama (witch) who burns in his heart and to whom he declares his love; they can only be carried away by his hypnotic Reggae-Raï. This record is a rejuvenating find that makes you fall in love with the raï of the beginnings all over again. This new edition was remastered by Josh Stevenson in Canada and enriched with notes in French and English by the specialist Rabah Mezouane.

As the first item in its catalog and on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of the release of the album Hagda by Raïna Raï, the legendary band from Sidi Bel Abbès (Algeria), Elmir Records is happy to present the vinyl reissue of this multi-faceted pop-raï masterpiece. This mythical album recorded and self-produced in 1982, which cover of Ya Zina became an international hit, still sounds very modern thanks to the avant-garde guitar of Lotfi Attar. These eight electrified and electrifying raï tracks are ready to be (re)discovered! This new edition was remastered by Josh Stevenson in Canada and enriched with notes in French and English by the specialist Rabah Mezouane.

Pianist, drummer, composer and producer Hamish Balfour presents jazz funk, soul and electronic music, bridging the gap from classic Blue Note to Warp via Sonar Kollektiv on Running Colours, his electrifying debut album for London's Shapes of Rhythm Records.

Praised by Jazzwise for hissolo flourishes and sidestepping harmonies, Hamish Balfour should be a recognisable face to jazz addicts. The go-to keys player has performed and recorded alongside American jazz drumming legend Harvey Mason, Tenderlonious, The Temptations, Odyssey, Faze Action, Yolanda Charles' Project PH, Bassically, Nim Quartet and Yam Who. Popping up not only in the credits of many sought-after albums, but also Channel 4, ITV and BBCprogrammes for his compositions on various shows.

Over the course of eleven tracks, Balfour folds in and explores his influences, with a wide yet highly cohesive and strong palette of sounds, whilst interacting with high caliber guest vocalists such as spoken word artist and broken beat icon, Lyric L(Seiji,Nathan Haines), London Elektricity and Hospital Records' star vocalist Elsa Esmeralda, award-winning and chart-storming singer-songwriter Belle Humble (Freestylers, Paloma Faith) and soul and house mainstay Andre Espeut (Afriquoi,Simbad,Faze Action).

Responsible for all piano, synths, percussion and production on the album, Balfour's musicality shines through, a reminder of how overdue this debut album as leader is. However, in addition to the incredible vocalists, he's joined by some of the UK's finest jazz musicians: James Copus (trumpet), Pete Matin (bass), Laurie Lowe and Saleem Raman (drums) and Rob Updegraff (guitar).

Elsa Esmeralda implores us 'not to be afraid' on lead single and title track Running Colours. A perfect invitation to get stuck into this many layered album. Balfour compliments Esmeralda's soothing vocals with delicate piano intro before Lowe's bruk-easque drums and lead an irresistible groove bedded in warm synths and guitar licks.

Yes or No showcases Loose Lips legend Lyric L contemplating the uncertainty of love over a swinging mid-tempo jazz funk boogie groove propelled by tight drums and Hammond chords, closing with a flying trumpet solo from Copus, weaving around Balfour's nimble keys.

Wealth, featuring singer/songwriter Belle Humble, displays incredible depth and restraint. Humble delivers the enticing vocal with ease, as it slides over the intricate webs of jazz fusion and electronics.

Mogul is arguably Running Colours' curveball. An eastern-inspired whirlwind of all manner of synths and twisting drums which constantly morph throughout. Guitars and trumpets take turns to solo on a track that feels like a series of questions that we never quite get answers to.

Balfour's ability to merge free wheeling jazz and fusion with timeless electronic production and soulful compositions is also apparent on instrumental pieces such as Reflector 28. Here, we find the musicians upbeat, uplifting, progressive and playful, showcasing the keys whilst the bass underpins the groove.

South Of The Sun is Running Colours' laid-back moment with Roy Ayers-type vibrations as bass and drums sit in the pocket (at least to begin with), whilst a Rhodes weaves its magic. Like many of the album's tracks we take a few twists and turns before returning to our main feel-good motif.

Hamish's long awaited debut is sure to exceed the expectations of those who know him already, whilst introducing a whole new audience to his wealth of talent and originality.

Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres' neues Album Play Echoes ist
eine Zusammenarbeit mit Her Ensemble, dem ersten
britischen Frauen- und non-binary Orchester. Play Echoes
ist eine zutiefst meditative, betörende Musiksammlung,
die klassische Instrumentierung mit elektronischen und
elektro-mechanischen Elementen kombiniert.
Das aus zwölf Liedern bestehende Album hat seinen
Ursprung in einer intimen Aufnahme eines Gesprächs
zwischen der dreijährigen Hamilton-Ayres und ihrer
Mutter, von der Teile im unschuldig optimistischen Opener
Olympia zu hören sind. Von der vibrierenden, vom
Klavier geführten Kammermusik von London '92 über das
extravagant-romantische Stone Stairs bis hin zu den
plätschernden Synthesizern von Grenadine und Unbound
versprüht die Platte einen Hauch von Nostalgie, der
sowohl bitter-süß als auch eindringlich ist. Play Echoes ist
ein höchst persönliches Album - und bestätigt
Hamilton-Ayres als eine der aufstrebenden und emotional
fesselndsten Komponistinnen ihrer Generation.
Das Album wurde hauptsächlich im LEITER Studio im
Berliner Funkhaus aufgenommen und ist auf CD & LP
erhältlich.