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Welcome to Masters Series - for people who understand that some things just can't be tamed. (Read: these are scratchy, poppy, and rough recordings from busted acetates. Click the listen tab to preview quality. These are cleaned up as best we can get them - if that's not going to work for you, don't order!)

For the third installment of our Master Series we present This Is Me by Mark Bluford. A heavy slice of early 70s Psychedelic Deep Funk from the Bay Area. Hard to miss the massive wah-wah guitar leads, but the arrangement is pretty complex with piano, bass, and strings backing the earnest vocals.

There are breaks on both sides, parts one and two. The first break is a string break, very unique to a Funk record. But, somehow this fits for a Bay Area Funk record. The break in part two is one of the heaviest drum breaks no one has heard in 50 years.

A very limited special upgrade option for this release: choose to get MS-003 in a one of a kind, hand-painted sleeve by the legendary McBoing Boing. Only 12 completely unique sleeves were hand painted by the man himself, and one of those 12 is staying right here in our HQ. So there are now only 11 out there! (Yes, the vinyl comes with the sleeve.)

Big thanks to Dr. Scott Bulleit for digging this acetate out of a flea market and contributing it to the Preservation Project! This is a sure shot, don't miss out on this limited run!

The story behind The Masters Series

In our hunt for unreleased soul, we occasionally find some incredible gems that are just a bit too beaten to restore to the ears of the general public. Rather than return them to the moldy basements from whence they came, we press them in small batches to share with those who love to share.

Did you know that Judy Freeman and Blackrock cut more songs than the 4 that were put out in 1971? We know of at least one.

"I Know Where You're Coming From" is a 70s funky Northern Soul masterpiece. We've rescued a lost, never heard before, track by the group for the A-Side here. Fans of their music will immediately connect with this blistering anthemic Northern Soul monster. Go ahead and grab the talcum powder, and prepare to dance up a storm to this one.

We've selected the completely unrelated, previously unreleased Marshall Hooks "She Is All I Need" for the B-Side on this one. A relatively straight ahead Otis Redding-styled Soul original that thumps and a nice compliment to the A-Side. If you aren't familiar, Marshall released one LP on Blue Horizon and a monster R&B 7" in 1965 on the Muriel label.

A vivid portrayal of Zaltsman’s direction, My Luv delivers 4 hard hitting club tracks, with rhythmic percussion and heavy basslines throughout. ‘The hook’ remaining a staple of this release, the tracks are all equally useful in peak time club scenarios as they are for after-hours listening.

The stripped back, bouncy ‘Moving’ features the vocals of London based poet and musician, James Massiah. An eerie synth runs throughout, complimentary to the vocals and choppy drums. The lead track, 'My Luv', is an out and out club-weapon. Chopped up vocals and a deep dark sub bass. This has seen a Summer of being deployed by some of the best DJs in the scene, taking advantage of its ‘obnoxiously long’ breakdown, before descending into chaos.

Complimenting these two tracks, 'Page 365' is a more sensitive body of music, engaging listeners with a strong bassline hook, before progressing into a more heavy hitting club track, with a large focus on groove, taking influence from the UK Funky scene. Finally, the most club-driven track from the record. 'Flatspot' is dominated by its forceful bassline and rolling percussion. This is out and out designed for peak-hour fun.


Early DJ Support:
Moxie, Saoirse, Louise Chen, Leon Vynehall, Ben UFO, Parris, Moopie, D.Tiffany, re:ni, Amaliah, Stenny

Eight years following their debut LP “Charnel Passages” (one of the most anticipated death metal debuts of current death metal cannon), US-via-UK abyssic death metal contingent CRUCIAMENTUM have finally emerged with their sophomore masterwork “Obsidian Refractions” set for release on Nov 24.

Now more commanding than ever with a formidable new lineup, “Obsidian Refractions” sees CRUCIAMENTUM deliver their most advanced and overpowering work yet. Taking everything in the band’s death metal paradigm to the next sonic measure beyond anything they have previously released, “Obsidian Refractions” combines the very essence and aesthetic of ancient cult death metal while encapsulating the dynamic, complex, next-level affectations relevant in today’s death metal landscape. The result being “Obsidian Refractions” as a towering death metal monument unparalleled.

Several Years Ago, the Disco Records Dj Crew Members Got Their Hands on a Couple of Original 70s Obscurities, While These Standout Records Shone Brightly in Their Own Right, the Team Finally Decided to Put Them Out as Those Obscure Old Records Fetch Eye-Wateringly High Prices on the Second-Hand Market. Due to Popular Request & Lovingly Mastered to the Highest Possible Standards, They Are Now Available to Play and Share in Very Special Moments at Parties Around the World. This Will Surely Be One of the Most Keenly Anticipated Disco Release of the Year. for Our First Release, We Are Extremely Proud to Bring You at Last, Three Very Hard to Find Disco Anthems on Sides a & B in Their Glorious Full Extended Versions...

Much has been written about Young Marble Giants' small, perfect catalogue, which contained roughly two-dozen songs, nearly each one a perfect gem. Less is known about his long wilderness years after the break-up of his first professional band. His next project, The Gist, chopped YMG's minimalism into a new sound. This Is Love, Public Girls and Fool For A Valentine showed his songs to be razor-sharp, but the album's fragmented pieces were a step too far for some, though even the strangest, Carnival Headache, when cast in sunlight by Alison Statton's combo Weekend, was as fine a song as any he'd written - and Love At First Sight became a million-seller when covered by Etienne Daho. Then Stuart disappeared. A rmid-90s resurgence led to fine albums done on low budgets, before more silence followed. The Gist's 2018's release Holding Pattern - unexpected and then quickly followed by YMG singer Alison Statton's first new album with her accompanist Spike in two decades, adding fuel to public interest. The Devil Laughs, recorded a few years back, is a compelling addition to the canon of the 21st century songwriting. Stuart's generally unadorned musical presentation does not hinder his appreciation for the skills of Louis Philippe, whose iconic arrangements across an array of Él label albums inspire the fierce devotion of aficionados around the world. Nor does the unvarnished solidity of Stuart's arrangements deter Louis from hearing possibilities for their presentation in styles which take inspiration from the perfection of 1960's studio technology that led to the rise of Brian Wilson, Burt Bacharach, along with less-recognised names such as Bones Howe and Roy Halee. Tidy Away is Young Marble Giants redux, though the backing vocals hint at maturity which band didn't live to see. Fighting To Lose, written with producer Ken Brake, would pass as a worthy b-side to Bridge Over Troubled Water, and although the songs are otherwise Stuart's, Louis fans will delight at several, like Love Hangover and Sky Over Water, which display his style and production genius as succinctly as anything on his own albums. The Devil Laughs is as out of its time as Colossal Youth was - its subtle but immediate beauty, devoid of "rock", is a recording best understood in the light of those obscure groundbreakers who inspired it - the faux barbershop vocals of Smile-era Beach Boys, the studio lustre of Tom Wilson's work with Simon & Garfunkel, a dash of The Swingle Sisters and French chanson - along with enough hints of Young Marble Giant's modernist folk abstraction to satisfy longtime fans. The Devil Laughs is a small masterpiece of pure expression.

Limited edition 30th anniversary splatter vinyl edition. Dinosaur Jr’s most successful and critically acclaimed album. A Classic from grunge icon J Mascis. Formed in 1984, Dinosaur Jr carved a singular path through the latter half of the 1980s and early 1990s, issuing a number of highly influential albums in the process before finding a home with Sire Records.

‘Where You Been’, their fifth record, emerged in 1993, at the height of enthusiasm for grunge and the alternative American rock scene the band had long been part of. Produced by a new line-up of the group (longtime drummer Murph and new bassist Mike Johnson completing the three-piece), the album became the band’s most successful up to that point, reaching #50 in the US (where it sold over a quarter of a million copies) and #10 in the UK album charts, and spawning the hit single ‘Start Choppin’. Released to unanimously positive reviews, and containing many tracks that would become staples and fan favourites.

While this may be the first release on Sheffield's Central Processing Unit from Global Goon, the one known to friends and family as Johnny Hawk brings a whole heap of experience to the Nanoclusters mini-LP.

Hawk started dropping Global Goon records on the legendary Rephlex Records back in the 1990s. The project's subsequent releases have taken in imprints as esteemed as WéMè and Balkan. Factor in a whole host of other aliases which have delivered missives via the likes of Planet Mu, and you know even before you press play on this witty, wily record that you're dealing with a master at work here.

The confidence with which Global Goon approaches Nanoclusters shines through in Hawk taking much of the mini-album at midtempo. Cuts like 'Khroxic Mould', 'Metallik' and 'Syntheseers' sound like Bochum Welt heading down a dark alleyway. The former in particular is a seasick lope, the tuned synths lurching around like sailors on deck in a storm as bass ebbs and flows underneath the mix.

The influence of Kraftwerk comes through prominently at times here, particularly in the way 'Calcula' and 'Digit Six' play pensive, slightly sombre synth chords off some simple but effective forward motion in the drum programming. That is not to say that Nanoclusters is not full of invention, though. None of the productions are overly flash, but this approach allows the little details to shine through more clearly, from cleverly panned hi-hats to hissing synth counter-melodies which flit in and out of the mix. Enthralling and packed full of ear candy, they're further evidence that Nanoclusters is the work of an expert craftsman.

While the pulse of Nanoclusters remains relatively steady throughout, it's still a rather lively record. Plenty of these tracks will get the dancefloor moving if deployed correctly - though whether they're heard at home or in the dance, it's the attention to detail which makes them stand out.

'Snapterisk' is as perfect an example of machine-funk as you're likely to find - the drum programming is razor-sharp but rubbery with bongos, the bass a lithe burble, and those wobbly stabs of keys that put a bit of wiggle in the beat? Delightful stuff. Elsewhere the ever-looping arpeggio of 'Metro Esc' has hints of Frankie Knuckles' house classic 'Your Love', though an array of interesting sonic nuggets - snippets of vocal, radar-like bloops, a gently insistent low-end pulse - soften the track's clubbier elements with a pillowy sheen. And Hawk throws us a curveball right at the end of Nanoclusters, tapping back into that old Rephlex sound for the fizzy, braindancing 'Metal Glass'.

Global Goon doesn't need to show off on Nanoclusters - from brilliantly slick machine-funk to Kraftwerkian reveries, the CPU debutant lets the music do the talking here. It makes for a confident and vivacious mini-LP, one which wears its expertise lightly.

RIYL: Cardopusher, Bochum Welt, Cygnus, D'Arcangelo

The Cornish improv noise / post-rock / shoegaze band’s cult classic debut, remastered and re-edited by Slowdive’s Simon Scott and available on vinyl for the first time since its release back in 2017, with original copies (released via The Weird Beard) now changing hands for triple figures. The three tracks that make up the album were recorded live, in one take. They are presented as captured snippets of the one song the band used to play, the continually existing and evolving ‘CPA’ (Cosmic Pink Alignment). It formed the blueprint for their unique mix of Sonic Youth squall and Slowdive-style beauty, which was later heard on 2021’s acclaimed debut for Sonic Cathedral, Sleepover. “People have told us they aren’t able to get a copy of the album, so a reissue was a good opportunity for us to re-look at it having learnt a bit more about the mastering process when we did Sleepover,” says guitarist Matt Ashdown. “Simon also mastered that, so we really trusted him and didn’t give him a brief – he knows we like to squeeze out as much low end as possible, which is why there is also a new cut; more low end means less space on the vinyl.” Simon’s magic touch has really elevated this stunning record, making it sound bigger, bolder and better than ever

Very limited vinyl pressing of the second edition, 500 copies, full colour single outer sleeve, newly designed full colour printed lyric inner sleeve. Transparent red vinyl with white splatter effect. Download included. CD in a 4-panel digipack with a 12-page lyric booklet. When the self-titled debut album from female Ukrainian punk trio Death Pill, came out on the 24th of February (a year to the day that Putin invaded Ukraine) the reaction was unanimous. ‘Death Pill have made one of the best crossover albums of the modern era’ - Metal Hammer // 'Death Pill are intensely furious. There is nothing on the Ukrainian trio's debut that isn't seething with anger or delivered with boiling vitriol.’ – Kerrang // 'A tirade of metalcore, thrash and hardcore, it’s a face-toasting listen’ - The Guardian // ‘This eponymous album is a real masterstroke and a sign not only that DEATH PILL are here to stay but that they are going to take a few scalps with them’ - Distorted Sound // Those lucky enough to witness Death Pill live on their recent Euro tour, would have also clocked something a bit special. Mariana Navrotska, vocals/guitar, Anastasiia Khomenko, drums and Natalya Syeryakova, bass are without doubt a ‘force majeure’. Thunderous thrash infused hardcore coupled with fantastic musicianship and attitude in spades. A truly thrilling live embodiment of their self-titled debut. So, with the vinyl and cd sold out, a repress of said debut was warranted. But this is not just a repress. This is that cracking debut … with a difference. The band explain …. “In the original first pressing of the Death Pill album, there were 2 Russian-language lyrics songs, which the band recorded before the full-scale invasion of Russia into the territory of Ukraine, and the band didn't have the opportunity to change these lyrics before the release of the album in 2023. From February 2022, the band performs its program only in English: - "We deleted from the story those lines that were written in Russian, and we no longer want to have them in our work. We wanted to change this even before the first release, but it was impossible due to a huge number of factors. During the Euro/UK tour in 2023, the girls had the opportunity to re-record the vocals for these 2 tracks in English. That is why in the second press of the first album we automatically have the release of two tracks.” So, not a repress, but a 2nd edition, with all the fire and vitriol still intact, now the official version of the album from this point on

4LP is four black vinyl discs in two gatefold jackets + two 18 x 24 folded posters in a side-load slipcase + a printed insert for full album download. This is strictly for Indies only. 2CD is two discs in a six panel wallet + a 28 page booklet + printed insert. Misfits & Mistakes: Singles, B-sides & Strays 2007–2023 is Superchunk’s fourth singles compilation, a massive, 4-LP (or 2-CD) collection covering their triumphant return from hiatus. The amount of ground covered within its gorgeous packaging is staggering: 50 songs, 16 of which are on physical media for the first time, sourced from out-of-print releases, digital singles, compilations, and more, a vital piece of the Superchunk canon. Featuring extensive liner notes by Mac McCaughan (with additional notes from Laura Ballance), Misfits & Mistakes tells the story of each release, from why they chose to cover songs by The Misfits, The Cure, Destiny’s Child, and Bananarama, to working with collaborators like Katie Crutchfield (Waxahatchee), Jane Wiedlin (The Go-Go’s), Eleanor Friedberger, Damian Abraham (Fucked Up), Norman Blake and Raymond McGinley (Teenage Fanclub), and more! Mac writes: Who knew it would take a cartoon hamburger to kick off a new period of activity for Superchunk? When we recorded “Misfits and Mistakes” for the Aqua Teen Hunger Force soundtrack at Overdub Lane in Durham, we also recorded the first version of “Learned to Surf” which gave us an on-ramp for making new music after 8 years of playing sporadic gigs. It also reminded us what we liked about playing Superchunk songs, whether they’re our own or written by our musical heroes. This collection covers a lot of ground, from heavy touring years to a pandemic where we made singles and an album at home. One difference between this comp and our first three is that this time span completely falls in the digital age; the distance from a final mix to everyone hearing it is shorter than ever. I’ve always liked artists that were prolific—throwing out singles in between albums when you least expect it. A surprise release from your favorite band is one of the few things that can still bring a little excitement to what can seem like an endless deluge of “content” (puke). Hopefully the wild swings between lo & hi fi and originals and covers on this comp still allow for some coherence and, more
importantly, convey what’s FUN about this punk rock thing.

Recommend If You Like: Allen Ginsberg, Hal Willner, Bill Frisell, Marc Ribot, Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, The Beat Poets, Lenny Bruce, Jazz. Allen Ginsberg, the voice of a generation, fierce, gentle, profound and profane, paired with music created especially for his work, by some of the guiding lights of Jazz in the modern era - Mark Bingham, Bill Frisell, Arto Lindsay, Marc Ribot, and others. All masterfully coordinated and produced by the mad scientist of collaborations, Hal Willner. First released in 1989, this time capsule surges forth into the now with 8 additional tracks never included on the original release. These are timeless works, a garden of eden on vinyl to wander through repeatedly, guided by the founding father of Beat Poetry. Graced by an irresistible coda co-written with Shimmy-Disc founder Kramer, his lyrical mantra of "Don't Grow Old

Following on from recent works for 12k, The Trilogy Tapes, and Important, Far More Decentralized is a new collection of subtle, enchanting pieces from Tokyo-based sound and visual artist Akhira Sano. Working with electronic, instrumental, and concrete sounds, he crafts immersive assemblages of long overlapping tones and blurred resonance, cut through with textural crunch and hiss. The resonant bell-like tones of opener ‘Kouai’ invite the listener in, calling up the warm sound palette of ambient classics like Hiroshi Yoshimura’s Music for Nine Postcards, but leaving any sense of compositional anchor behind for a free-floating harmonic drift. Woven through this seductive tonal cloud is a wavering stream of white noise and tactile pops, its textural grit threatening to derail the calmly reflective pool of pitched sounds, but never quite doing so. Each of these seven pieces occupies a similarly ruminative harmonic space while possessing its own identity. On ‘Neow’, lush tonal swells form around fragmented samples, touching on the techniques of early 2000s glitch artists like Ekkehard Ehlers. ‘Orbv’ is particularly subtle in its combination of rippling back-masked tonal wash, almost subliminal suggestions of field recordings, and distant traces of raw electronic interference, as if a Toshimaru Nakamura recording is playing through an open window across the road. ‘Margin’ weaves together a skein of wistful slow-motion melodies while untraceable, resonant clinks and ambiguous static washes rise gradually to the surface. In comparison to his recent Phase Contrast for Recollection on 12k, recognisable instrumental sounds are a rarity here, yet a hand-played feeling is present throughout. On ‘Teens’, filtered electric guitar tones reminiscent of the melancholic miniatures of Andrew Chalk float over aqueous burbles, bringing the album to a magisterial close. In the crowded field of contemporary electronic music tending toward ambience, Sano is a distinctive voice. Like his elegant abstract paintings, here seemingly static surfaces of unhurried calm reveal rich interior worlds of subtle activity and gentle chaos. Where much contemporary ambient music aims for an almost stifling cleanliness of tone, Sano breathes life into Far More Decentralized through the acceptance of imperfection, accident, and rough edges. As the artist himself says, ‘In a world where everything can be made perfectly, I think it’s a beautiful and primal act to touch the fragile and imperfect’

Marjaa: The Battle of the Hotels” is a concept album born of the idea of merging singer & songwriter Mayssa Jallad’s two vocations: music and urban research/architectural history. Written in collaboration with producer Fadi Tabbal, the music builds upon Tabbal’s spatial approach to sound and Jallad’s research on Beirut’s Hotel District. The album is a reference to Jallad’s Historic Preservation master's thesis, in which she detailed the history of the “Battle of the Hotels”, a 5-months battle that took place in Beirut at the beginning of the Lebanese Civil War, from October 22nd, 1975 to March 29th, 1976. Jallad saw architecture as a main protagonist of the battle, as she discovered it was the first high rise urban battle in the world. The close of the battle resulted in the 15-year Green Line, an urban rift which split Beirut into “East and West”, restricting movement and communication and creating a violent divide that still resonates today. The album comprises two parts. Part A: Dahaliz, is a stroll in the city, where Jallad tries (and fails) to follow an old map. Musician Youmna Saba is a companion in this journey of remembering the once winding corridors (“Dahaliz”) of the city, destroyed by new developments since the 1960s. Empty skyscrapers propel her onto a past filled with the violence of snipers, and a present filled with the glamorous injustice of empty luxury real estate endorsed by powerful warlords-turned-politicians. In Part B: Maaraka, Jallad inhabits the building of the Battle of the Hotels, as its events unfold. She calls the fighting militias the Blues and Reds, respectively the Lebanese Front (Christian Nationalists) and the Lebanese National Movement (Pro-Palestinian leftists), leveling the playing field, and drawing a map of the battle through songwriting. Sary Moussa produces the conclusion of the battle in “Holiday Inn (March 21 to 29)”, which ends with the ultimate severance of the city of Beirut. The music caters to post-war youth who have never been taught this difficult history. Once we consider the “Battle of the Hotels” as our common heritage, it provides an opportunity to teach the value of civil peace. It is also a call to protest for the renewal, rather than the recycling of the political class that has once destroyed the country and holds us, to this day, hostage of its violence. Limited edition of 300 copies. 140gsm vinyl pressed at Microforum (Canada).

Die-cut sleeve. In the fall of 2013 Bry Webb was putting the finishing touches on his second album Free Will. Released on May 20th 2014, Bry, with his newly assembled band The Providers, spent the following few years traversing North America playing clubs, festivals and storied stages such as Toronto’s Massey Hall. Nothing new for an artist who had spent the aughts in a constant state of motion with Constantines, a band who on average had performed one of every three nights on a stage somewhere in the world. In fact, running in parallel to Bry’s solo touring schedule was a reunion with his former Constantines’ bandmates to once again present their incendiary live show and celebrate the 11th anniversary reissue of the band’s Shine A Light. It is what happened as the decade wound down that seemed out of character for an artist who had spent close to 20 years immersed in the studio and on the stage: the music stopped altogether. Bry explains his feelings at that time, “I lost the musical plot about 5 years ago and stopped playing music entirely, sold instruments and recording equipment, and committed myself to the idea that I was absolutely done”. Webb dedicated himself to his ongoing work in community radio, months turned to years and musical life seemed to be all but gone from view. Now in an unexpected turnaround 10 years on from the recording of his last studio album, there is not only a return to the stage for Bry but also a new record. Primarily composed in a season of upheaval, Run With Me contains some of Bry’s rawest sentiments. Fresh and painfully present there is an immediacy one can hear as emotional walls collapse in real time. Bry explains the context of the album’s creation: “In early 2023 my personal life exploded. In the process of dealing with that, I started writing music again and started recording at home. Advised that I needed to figure out how to ask for, and accept, help from other people, I sent early recordings of songs to friends from twenty-five years of music making - many folks I hadn’t connected with in years - and asked if they’d contribute anything to the songs. People came through in ways that overwhelmed me to the point that I cried when I wrote out the list of players for the liner notes. I felt incredibly cared for. From Andy Magoffin, who recorded the first Constantines album in 1999, to members of the Cons, to my nieces Addy and Ella playing drums, and a doppler recording of my daughter’s heartbeat, the record is a document of my creative life, and the people who made it possible to make music again.” If the cover of Run With Me looks familiar, it is with full intent. The album’s technicolor marbling and die cut text serve to signal the inclusion of the album in a trilogy started with Bry’s first record Provider. Just as that album starts with the track Asa, this new one introduces itself with the instrumental Webb. The trilogy is now completed with his daughter's first, middle and last names represented as the first tracks on each of the three albums. While the LP’s package signals its place in the collection, and tracks such as Older Than The Dirt and What I Do revisit their predecessor’s familiar sonic starkness, Run With Me is the outlier of the trio. A number of new tracks forego the quietude of Provider and Free Will, clearly recalling the rallying rhythms of Constantines’ anthems. Thunder Bay (instrumental backing courtesy of The Harbourcoats circa 2009), with its insistent kick drum and wall of electrics, support one of Webb’s most indelible melodies, and the not so subtly psychedelic Modern Mind reveal an expansion of Webb’s palette. Perhaps the furthest afield is the contextual centerpiece of the album, Goodbye, where we not only hear a joyful voice that lay dormant for years, but hear it reclaim its power. Backed by Constantines’ Will Kidman, Doug MacGregor and Dallas Wehrle, Bry belts out “I’m through with all the rage, now watch the light pour out of me.” As with all of Bry’s work, Run With Me’s lyrics take their time to settle in. Songs of self-examination, reconfigured love ballads, and songs for those who work to help others. Songs of singing abound. It’s there in Older Than The Dirt’s second verse: "Logic to the last intention, logic in the way we kept holding on forever, singing as the floor- was swept”, ten thousand birds sing a warning song in Thunder Bay and again in Goodbye’s telling of a cathartic return to one’s true self with its celebration of those “Who sing - sing all joy - all joy of language, in a single word”. Joining Bry in singing Run With Me’s songs of “death, transition and hope,” are kindred spirits Jennifer Castle, Julie Doiron, Daniel Romano and Steph Yates. All of these singers elevate the album’s healing sentiments and help express the album’s central plea; a prayer of sorts wrapped in the traditional Scottish Gaelic melody of She Is Here’s second verse: “Let the sun rise in the morning and any witness bring. Let all the blooming cosmos teach us to sing”.

The Land of the Snow is a project and a state of mind of Joel Gilardini (baritone guitars, electronics, and drums programming), backed up on drums by Jacopo Pierazzuoli (Obake, Morkobot, and Deneb) TLOTS is devoted to massive, metal-oriented soundscapes: a constantly evolving sludgy mix of doom and post metal (often seasoned with noise and dub elements), which often takes its inspiration from alpine landscapes and Tibetan traditions The new album "As Within, So Without" (2023, Subsound Records) is about what's inside us, how we interact with the outside, and vice versa. Everything we do and experience through our thoughts, our skin, and our actions, constantly infuence our inner selves and our surroundings. It's a constant exchange and confrontation that drives our lives and pushes us to widen our horizons with each step we take. "As Within, So Without" was conceived together with Jacopo Pierazzuoli (drums), Eraldo Bernocchi (mix and additional guitars), and Petulia Mattioli (artwork). Joel is an experimental guitarist and sound designer, based in Zurich (Switzerland). Beside TLOTS, he is also known for his ambient- drone works (released on labels like ZeroK, Unexplained Sounds Group and Endtitles) and is a member of the noise-industrial combos Mulo Muto (with Attila Folklor, CH) and Psychic Drones (with Kazuyuki Kishino, JP)

The Land of the Snow is a project and a state of mind of Joel Gilardini (baritone guitars, electronics, and drums programming), backed up on drums by Jacopo Pierazzuoli (Obake, Morkobot, and Deneb) TLOTS is devoted to massive, metal-oriented soundscapes: a constantly evolving sludgy mix of doom and post metal (often seasoned with noise and dub elements), which often takes its inspiration from alpine landscapes and Tibetan traditions The new album "As Within, So Without" (2023, Subsound Records) is about what's inside us, how we interact with the outside, and vice versa. Everything we do and experience through our thoughts, our skin, and our actions, constantly infuence our inner selves and our surroundings. It's a constant exchange and confrontation that drives our lives and pushes us to widen our horizons with each step we take. "As Within, So Without" was conceived together with Jacopo Pierazzuoli (drums), Eraldo Bernocchi (mix and additional guitars), and Petulia Mattioli (artwork). Joel is an experimental guitarist and sound designer, based in Zurich (Switzerland). Beside TLOTS, he is also known for his ambient- drone works (released on labels like ZeroK, Unexplained Sounds Group and Endtitles) and is a member of the noise-industrial combos Mulo Muto (with Attila Folklor, CH) and Psychic Drones (with Kazuyuki Kishino, JP)

The garage punkrock lieutenants of Sweden are back with a bang!
Formed in 1999, this high energy garage punk outfit is known for their
intense live shows, which have taken them all over Europe and even USA -
Now they're back with their sixth album, 12 brand new tracks, 100% made
for volume levels cranked to the max
It's hard hitting, raw, trashy, primitive yet with a twist of finesse that makes you
wanna hear it over and over again. This album is sure to keep your feet moving
and bring garage rock to the masses. For fans of garage rock of yesterday and
today, Buzzcocks, The Hives, The Nomads,The Marked Men, The Kidnappers, The
Devil Dogs

The garage punkrock lieutenants of Sweden are back with a bang!
Formed in 1999, this high energy garage punk outfit is known for their
intense live shows, which have taken them all over Europe and even USA -
Now they're back with their sixth album, 12 brand new tracks, 100% made
for volume levels cranked to the max
It's hard hitting, raw, trashy, primitive yet with a twist of finesse that makes you
wanna hear it over and over again. This album is sure to keep your feet moving
and bring garage rock to the masses. For fans of garage rock of yesterday and
today, Buzzcocks, The Hives, The Nomads,The Marked Men, The Kidnappers, The
Devil Dogs

"Incident at Cima" is the debut album from SCENIC, the group formed by SAVAGE REPUBLIC and IPR founder Bruce Licher Conceived of as an allinstrumental soundtrack for the East Mojave Desert, Licher is joined by former SHIVA BURLESQUE bassist James Brenner and drummer Brock Wirtz, with guest musicians Jeffrey Clark (SHIVA BURLESQUE vocalist), Robert Loveless (former SAVAGE REPUBLIC and 17 PYGMIES member), Chris Manecke (from the ABECEDARIANS) and John Ganem Together, they have created an aural masterpiece which has received serious critical acclaim. David Fricke in ROLLING STONE magazine writes that SCENIC's music "suggests Ennio Morricone dune- surfing in Death Valley." SCENIC's music is like nothing else on the landscape, and while there is definitely a relation to some of the sounds explored by SAVAGE REPUBLIC during their eight- year existence, SCENIC have created a mature and focused album which is a great leap forward. "Incident at Cima" is an evocative aural journey, a quite listenable and incredibly honest piece of music, and as such it has the potential to be appreciated by a wide range of listeners. Four of the songs from "Incident At Cima" were used to great effect in Stuart Swezey's feature documentary film "Desolation Center," including the track "Carrying On To Cadiz" which underscores the opening title sequence of the film. This expanded release comes with a bonus CD featuring 11 previously unreleased early demo recordings by Scenic and band leader Bruce Licher. Packaging for this expanded release of "Incident at Cima" features letterpress printed packaging created at Independent Project Press, a newly- designed oversized CD pocket folder with 24-page booklet for the CD edition, featuring a series of photographs Licher has taken in the East Mojave which relate to the various pieces of music on the album, creating a complete audio/ visual experience.

The Kotiomkin band was born from a great passion for 60s-70s-80s Italian genre cinema, a series of movies characterized by aesthetically innovative approach, in complete opposition to the mainstream and to more or less politicized intellectual cinema of the time The duo are devoted to the creation of instrumental soundtracks for non-existent movies, with invented plots featured in the liner notes, having as a reference the classic soundtracks of the time but revisiting them with the violence of the most modern stoner, pushing the boundaries of doom. It is the rediscovery of a never really finished cinematic world that is also celebrated in terms of its extraordinary soundtracks by musicians such as the masters Ennio Morricone, Nico Fidenco, Fabio Frizzi, Franco Micalizzi, Berto Pisano, Lallo Gori, up to bands such as Goblin, Osanna, Libra, Marc 4 and many others. Kotiomkin not only look at horror movies but also at those more niche genres, ranging from erotic, to "giallo", to "poliziottesco" and more extreme subgenres such as cannibal movies, "mondo" movies or sexploitation, all with a violence of sounds unknown to Italian B-movies.

The Kotiomkin band was born from a great passion for 60s-70s-80s Italian genre cinema, a series of movies characterized by aesthetically innovative approach, in complete opposition to the mainstream and to more or less politicized intellectual cinema of the time The duo are devoted to the creation of instrumental soundtracks for non-existent movies, with invented plots featured in the liner notes, having as a reference the classic soundtracks of the time but revisiting them with the violence of the most modern stoner, pushing the boundaries of doom. It is the rediscovery of a never really finished cinematic world that is also celebrated in terms of its extraordinary soundtracks by musicians such as the masters Ennio Morricone, Nico Fidenco, Fabio Frizzi, Franco Micalizzi, Berto Pisano, Lallo Gori, up to bands such as Goblin, Osanna, Libra, Marc 4 and many others. Kotiomkin not only look at horror movies but also at those more niche genres, ranging from erotic, to "giallo", to "poliziottesco" and more extreme subgenres such as cannibal movies, "mondo" movies or sexploitation, all with a violence of sounds unknown to Italian B-movies.

"Following the superb initial two volumes, Emerald City Nights: Live at the Penthouse Vol.3, captures spectacular 1966-68 performances by the master pianist’s trio at the Penthouse in Seattle. Also available as a 2-CD set and download.
Package includes reflections by Ahmad Jamal himself, interviews with fellow pianists Les McCann, Emmet Cohen, Monty Alexander, and Joe Alterman, and essays by producer Zev Feldman and journalist Eugene Holley, Jr., among others. The extensive booklet features rare photos by Don Bronstein, Chuck Stewart, and more.
Producer and music sleuth Zev Feldman’s label, Jazz Detective, a division of the newly created Deep Digs Music Group, releases the third and final volume of the Ahmad Jamal sets: Emerald City Nights: Live at the Penthouse (1966-68), featuring previously unreleased performances by master pianist Ahmad Jamal.
The 2-LP set will be issued on 180-gram vinyl transferred from the original tapes and mastered by the legendary Bernie Grundman. The music will also be available as a 2-CD set and download. The package has been produced by Feldman and supervised by Ahmad Jamal himself shortly before his passing away in April of 2023."

You've always been able to hear the West Coast in Monocoastal, but it's particularly present when you shut your eyes after 12 months of lockdown stopping you from visiting the region. Less active L.A., and more observing in Oregon, Fischer's career didn't end with this in 2011 and the multi-disciplinary artist has produced great things since, but the album is certainly one of turning points in terms of reputation and note.

The idea of slowly watching time unfold in un-rushed places is also highly appropriate. Among the washes of tape and the waves of refrain that make up this beautiful, meditative outing, you'll hear takes and half-harmonies from found instruments including a piano and xylophone. Overall, it feels like a place removed from linearity. A liminal masterpiece, if you are that way inclined.

Das zweite Soloalbum von 1987 erwies sich als ihr internationaler Durchbruch: Die Single 'Heaven Is A Place On Earth' erreichte weltweit Platz 1. Es folgten 'Circle In The Sand', 'I Get Weak' und 'World Without You', allesamt britische Top-40-Hits. Das Album wurde in den USA und Australien mit Platin und in Großbritannien mit dreifachem Platin ausgezeichnet, was einem Umsatz von fast einer Million Exemplaren entspricht. Diese Neuauflage wurde von Cicely Balston bei AIR Mastering von den Original-Stereobändern mit präzisem Half-Speed-Mastering geschnitten. Beim Half-Speed-Mastering handelt es sich um eine Vinyl-Schnitttechnik, die die Groove-Genauigkeit und die Transiente-Informationen verbessert und ein detailliertes Stereobild mit einem natürlichen Hochfrequenzgang erzeugt. LP gepresst auf 180Gr. Vinyl inkl. Obi-Strip und wattierter Innenhülle. Dazu mit allen Lyrics und Credits auf der 4-seitigen Beilage.

Repress!

'You got the stuff' is not 'Lovely day' - that much is true. This one's a wigged out, extended, trip into deep space from 1978 that is truly baffling.
Of course, it features Bill singing for the first half of the track but then all of a sudden we're launched into a cosmic wormhole as everything just falls back and the track is stripped of any earthly qualities. People find themselves asking 'this...... this is Bill Withers' as lazer guided synths and rock solid drums pull us into the sonic vortex. Truly amazing. Obviously a nugget like this has not gone unnoticed and has been edited and chopped and sampled deftly by the more sarcastic, left-field oriented crate diggers out there but it has never been reissued legitimately - Until now!

A hugely sought after and collectible gem right here, backed with the wistful slow jam 'Look To Each Other For Love' as per the original 1978 Columbia promo 12" version. This left-field, cosmic classic has been legally reissued by Above Board distribution in conjunction with the legal rights holders - Sony Music Entertainment. This high quality repress features original Columbia pink label Disco 12" artwork and has been remastered from Sony's original sources by Optimum Mastering, Bristol UK.

In the late 1960s, vibraphonist Roy Ayers was among the top young talents in jazz, thriving during a remarkable era for the genre. While Ayers would later become a jazz-funk pioneer and delve heavily into R&B fusions, his third album Stoned Soul Picnic is a masterful showcase of soul-jazz grooves. Produced by Herbie Mann, Stoned Soul Picnic features a memorable Laura Nyro-penned title track, along with an exceptional lineup of musicians, including Gary Bartz, Hubert Laws, Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock, and Grady Tate. Originally released in 1968.

Featuring exclusive performances by Donnie Emerson and Noah Jupe, score selections by Leopold Ross, plus vintage classics from Donnie & Joe Emerson -Includes the original version of the cult-classic hit, "Baby" -LP release housed in a gatefold jacket -Mastered by John Baldwin at Infrasonic Sound -Directed by Bill Pohlad, Dreamin' Wild, stars Casey Affleck, Zooey Deschanel, Beau Bridges, Noah Jupe, Walton Goggins, and Chris Messina // Acclaimed label Light in the Attic proudly partners with River Road, Zurich Avenue, and Roadside Attractions to release Dreamin' Wild Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. The film follows the real-life story of brothers Donnie & Joe Emerson, whose teenage dreams of rock stardom suddenly came true 30 years later. The soundtrack blends vintage recordings by Donnie & Joe (including the cult favorite "Baby") with exclusive new performances by Donnie Emerson, Nancy Sophia Emerson, and actor Noah Jupe, plus original score selections by composer Leopold Ross (Black Mirror, A Million Little Pieces). Jupe, who portrays a young Donnie Emerson, re-recorded several of the duo's classic songs for the film, including their debut single, "Thoughts in My Mind." The wistful ballad, which was written and recorded while the brothers were still in high school, was originally released in 1977 on their own Enterprise & Co. label. The soundtrack also includes "When A Dream Is Beautiful," a new song by husband-and-wife duo Donnie Emerson and Nancy Sophia Emerson, and recorded in Nashville by the film's music producer and multi-GRAMMYr winner Dave Cobb. Also available are Donnie & Joe's 1979 album, Dreamin' Wild, as well as the acclaimed 2014 collection Still Dreamin' Wild: The Lost Recordings 1979-81, which culls highlights from the brothers' prolific collection of songs. Additionally, fans can find exclusive Donnie & Joe merch at DonnieAndJoe . Adapted from a profile by journalist Steven Kurutz and written, directed, and produced by Oscarr and Emmyr-nominee Bill Pohlad (whose extensive credits include Brokeback Mountain, 12 Years a Slave, and the Brian Wilson biopic Love & Mercy), Dreamin' Wild stars Academy Awardr winner Casey Affleck, Emmyr-nominee Zooey Deschanel, Emmyr-nominee Walton Goggins, Chris Messina, Noah Jupe, Jack Dylan Grazer, plus Emmyr and Grammy Awardr-winner Beau Bridges. A true story of love and redemption, Dreamin' Wild centers around Donnie Emerson (Affleck/Jupe), a middle-aged singer-songwriter who learns that a record label is interested in reissuing the album that he and his brother recorded as teens in rural Washington State. Suddenly, the Emerson brothers find themselves thrust into the spotlight, as their 30-year-old album is hailed as a lost masterpiece. While the album's rediscovery brings hopes of second chances, it also unearths long-buried emotions as Donnie, his wife Nancy (Deschanel), brother Joe (Goggins/Grazer), and father Don Sr. (Bridges) come to terms with the past and their newly found fame. Named for the brothers' 1979 debut album, Dreamin' Wild is a River Road - Innisfree Production, produced by Academy Awardr-winner Jim Burke, Academyr and Emmyr-nominee Pohlad, Kim Roth, Viviana Vezzani, and Karl Spoerri. Casey Affleck served as executive producer, alongside Emmyr-nominee Christa Workman, Dan Clifton, Steven Snyder, and Tobias Gutzwiller. More about Donnie & Joe Emerson: Brothers Donnie and Joe Emerson grew up on a 1600-acre farm in Fruitland, WA with dreams of musical stardom. Far removed from the punk and disco scenes of the late '70s, the boys' inspiration primarily came from a tractor radio, which they listened to for hours on end while working the fields. In between farm duties and high school, the brothers spent their remaining time on music, with Donnie serving as the primary songwriter, vocalist, guitarist, and keyboardist, and Joe holding down the beat on drums. Donnie & Joe's parents encouraged their sons' talents - so much so that they leveraged the family farm in order to build a state-of-the-art recording studio, where the brothers self-produced their debut album, Dreamin' Wild. Released in 1979 on their own Enterprise & Co. label, the album offered a lo-fi blend of FM rock, pop, soul, and funk - evoking such contemporaries as Marvin Gaye, Hall & Oates, and the Brothers Johnson in songs like "Good Time," "Dream Full of Dreams," and "Baby." Despite the Emersons' passions, however, Dreamin' Wild wasn't the bestseller that they envisioned. In fact, it tanked, nearly bankrupting the family in the process. Donnie and Joe's dreams did actually come true though. It just took three decades and a heavy dose of kismet. Around 2008, record collector, actor, and Out of the Bubbling Desk blogger Jack Fleischer discovered a copy of the LP at a Spokane antique shop. Initially intrigued by the jacket image (which features the boys in flashy, Elvis-style jumpsuits), Fleischer was blown away by what he heard. Before long, word began to spread about the Emerson brothers, while their soulful ballad "Baby" became a viral hit, eliciting multiple cover versions (most popularly by Ariel Pink & Dâm-Funk). Since its digital release, the track has been streamed over 30 million times on Spotify. In 2012, Light in the Attic brought Dreamin' Wild to the masses, giving the Emerson brothers a second chance at stardom and an outpouring of long-overdue accolades, including features in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and The Guardian, a shout-out from Jimmy Fallon, and praise from the likes of Pitchfork, which called the 1979 album "A godlike symphony to teen-hood." The Emersons' inspiring story caught the ears of writer, director, and producer Bill Pohlad, who recently told PEOPLE, "Being able to go deep to explore this amazing family was the real reason that I was drawn to this material. Dreamin' Wild ultimately became a story about family, faith and forgiveness for me."

• Following on from the highly successful first two editions
of Dance Masters featuring the classics mixes from
maestros Shep Pettibone and Arthur Baker the spotlight
turns to another remix legend, John Luongo.
• Boston born, John is one of the truly legendary DJ's and
remixers of the Disco era. John got his break at Epic by
overdubbing percussion from salt shakers and spoons
onto a promo and then passing them back the tape. This
resulted in him being flown to New York, and put in a
studio (of his choice) to mix and produce Melba Moore`s
“You Stepped Into My Life”. From this point everything he
touched was a hit. He went onto remix Disco classics by
Jackie Moore – “This Time Baby”, Dan Hartman “Vertigo
/ Relight My Fire” and Patti Labelle “Music Is My Way Of
Life”.

• John, however was not afraid of remixing artists that
didn’t fit into the disco genre and this attitude is borne out
by the tracklisting of this compilation on which Gladys
Knight and The Pips rub shoulders with ZZ Top and Billy
Idol, and Baltimora appears alongside Bill Nelson and ILevel.
• “…if you played this whole thing, just put it on and
didn’t tell anyone it was me, they’d say ‘boy, what a great
group of songs this is!’” - John Luongo
• The collection is housed in a beautiful lift-off-lid box, with
a 16 page booklet featuring foreword by Arthur Baker, an
in-depth essay written by Alexis Petridis (Rock and Pop
reviewer for The Guardian) and complete with rare photos
from John’s personal collection plus a limited signed insert.

• All tracks remastered by Nick Robbins at Sound
Mastering.
• A 43-track 4CD edition is also available, along with a 2LP
vinyl edition featuring 16 highlights.

Es ist das erste Album nach mehr als 5 Jahren, in denen so viel in der Welt passiert ist, dass BURDEN OF GRIEF sich gezwungen sahen, textlich und musikalisch darauf einzugehen.

"Destination Dystopia" ist das bisher stärkste und abwechslungsreichste Album von BURDEN OF GRIEF und enthält 10 Riffmonster, die vor Energie, großartigen Melodien und purer Härte nur so strotzen!
In erster Linie bekommt ihr massig Thrash und Melodic Death auf die Ohren, aber ihr werdet auch eine Fülle von Elementen finden, die weit über das hinausgehen, was diese musikalischen Schubladen zu bieten haben.
Freut euch auch auf Killer-Grooves, klassische Twin-Gitarren-Soli und die Rückkehr der Hammond-Orgel.

Seit über dreieinhalb Jahrzehnten hat ihre unterm Strich verrückte Methode des Thrash einige der charakteristischsten Momente in der Welt des Metal hervorgebracht. Jetzt, in der zweiten Hälfte ihrer Karriere, zeigt sich die ganze Erfahrung mit SCORCHED, da es irgendwie reifer, raffinierter klingt und mit Andeutungen von mehr als nur Thrash Metal verschönert wird. „Es ist keine Aggression um der Aggression willen“, erklärt Sänger Bobby „Blitz“ Ellsworth, „es gibt viele verschiedene Elemente auf der Platte. Für mich ist es mehr Heavy Metal und weniger eine reine Thrash-Platte. Da ist verdammt viel Melodie drauf.“

OVERKILL erweitern ihren Aktionsradius, aber lasst euch nicht täuschen, die Band wird die dreckigen, massiven Gossen-Thrasher bleiben, die wir alle kennen und lieben. "Wir sind, was wir sind, und wir wissen, was wir sind, schon seit einer verdammt langen Zeit. An diesem Punkt unserer Karriere in der Lage zu sein, identifizierbar zu bleiben und trotzdem etwas zu machen, das anders ist, ist verdammt aufregend für die Band", schließt Blitz.

Vocal Shades And Tones is a miraculous leftfield library classic from the genius mind of celebrated UK composer/singer/vocal arranger Barbara Moore. It's a heavenly groove-based blend of jazz, Latin, soft-psych, folk-funk and gospel soul. Recorded for the legendary Music De Wolfe in 1972, it's an audacious start-to-finish listen, as dizzying as it is dazzling. It's a perfect snapshot of a musical era, supported by Moore's glorious vocal arrangements. Widely regarded among collectors, DJs, and lounge/easy-listening acolytes as an absolute essential it is viewed as the holy grail by many production music heads, rarely appearing for sale and disappearing in a flash when it does. Indeed, originals now go for over £300 and it's easy to see why. Just one of the reasons why this fresh Be With reissue, part of a wider De Wolfe reissue campaign, is so utterly crucial.

Racing out the gate, the driving "Hot Heels" is a bright, sophisticated scat groove which sounds Brazilian, richly produced as if coming by the hand of Arthur Verocai. Yes, *that* good. It's followed by "It's Gospel" which is, er, a wonderfully slow and deeply soulful gospel treasure. The appropriately monikered "Steam Heat" is a darker, breathy gem, one for salacious crates and one of the record's most infamous tracks. "Fly Away" is pastoral West Coast soft rock, very much in conversation with John Cameron and Keith Mansfield's epochal KPM recording, Voices In Harmony. "His Name Was" is a stop-you-dead-in-your-tracks Beach Boys accapella church-organ stunner, whilst "Swing Over" is another carefree, richly produced sun-dappled smasher. The gentle Bossa and sunshine soul of the aptly-titled "Touch Of Warmth" closes out a virtually perfect A-Side.

The B-Side opens with the easy grace and dramatic build of "Voice Force Nine". The jaunty "Very Fine Fellow" may be the only track to slightly grate so we advise heading to the slower, moody "Shades-Tones", eminently more compelling with sparkling, hypnotic piano throughout, underpinning the gorgeous wordless vocals. Just beautiful. It was sampled by Redman for his Method Man-featuring "Do What Ya Feel" on the great Muddy Waters. We're back in Brazilian territory with the cool, uptempo "I'm Feather" before swooning to the warm, relaxed "Drifting", another total highlight which was famously sampled by Koushik on his legendary remix of Madvillain's "America's Most Blunted (Doom's Verse)". The penultimate track, "Take Off" is a bright, organ lounge groove before this remarkable set is rounded out by the beaty "Fly Paradise". It's so so good, it sounds like Rotary Connection fronted by The Mamas & the Papas. As noted in a recent Guardian article on Moore's life, "there is a plushness and electricity in the tight vocal harmonies that spring out, sung with the precision of cathedral choristers decades before Auto-Tune." Amen.

In the 1960s, Barbara Moore was a member of Top of the Pops’ resident vocal-harmony group, The Ladybirds and sang backing vocals for Dusty Springfield’s TV show. Her own outfit, the Barbara Moore Singers, were regulars on TOTP, singing with Jimi Hendrix when he performed "Hey Joe" live in Lime Grove Studios. An important detail for Moore was the shepherd’s pie she bought Hendrix when she found him alone, looking emaciated, near the BBC canteen. By 1970, she was working as a session singer for De Wolfe and, by 1972, was composing her own tracks for De Wolfe and working within their tight creative strictures. Each short track had to evoke an obvious mood and theme, with no significant key or tempo changes. Her response, this very album, managed to stay between the lines while cohering as an overarching artistic masterpiece.

The audio for Vocal Shades And Tones has been carefully remastered by Be With regular Simon Francis, ensuring this release sounds better than ever. Cicely Balston's expert skills have made sure nothing is lost in the cut whilst the records have been pressed to the highest possible standard at Record Industry in Holland. The original, iconic sleeve has been restored here at Be With HQ as the finishing touch to this long overdue re-issue.

Diese beiden Songs strotzen nur so vor Energie, Rhythmus und der Atmosphäre, für die die Skandinavier so bekannt sind!
Die Texte sind eine Kombination aus Realität und Science Fiction.
Freut euch auf klassischen Heavy Metal mit einem modernen Sound!

Diese beiden Songs strotzen nur so vor Energie, Rhythmus und der Atmosphäre, für die die Skandinavier so bekannt sind!
Die Texte sind eine Kombination aus Realität und Science Fiction.
Freut euch auf klassischen Heavy Metal mit einem modernen Sound!

On his album NEGRO DELUXE Siifu trades in soulful rap for punk, fueled by the Black experience in America followed by spiritual jazz and poetry. A beautiful chaotic collage of sounds that reflect the black man’s thoughts on the day-to-day. It doesn’t take long to reach the heart of NEGRO, Pink Siifu’s new album. It’s an aggressive collection of hardcore punk and free jazz, with bold lyrics that encourage shooting back at trigger-happy law enforcement. This album profoundly communicated the anger of an African-American community beset by police violence a month before the murder of George Floyd lit the streets on fire. In April 2021, he revisited the project with NEGRO DELUXE, which doubled the length of the original.

Pink Siifu tells Bomb Magazine “after we were done mastering and mixing, Zeroh was like, “Yo, NEGRO is like fire, and NEGRO DELUXE is like smoke….So I would characterize NEGRO DELUXE as, like, after you’re angry, after you’ve punched a wall, after you beat somebody up, whatever, how do I channel that into something else? How do I just let it go? I feel like NEGRO DELUXE is that, for real, in a nutshell. It’s like the chaos calmed down after all the fire’s gone and the smoke is in the air.”

It isn’t anything like ensley, Siifu’s breakthrough 2018 LP. Where that record used mid-tempo soul and hip-hop to score his upbringing, NEGRO is a riotous mix calling for Black revolution. It’s also the most fearless project in his growing discography. NEGRO harkens back to 1992, to Ice-T’s thrash metal band Body Count, song “Cop Killer”.

This album is meant to remind us of Rodney King, Racist Cops, The Black Panther Party, and Christopher Dorner, the ex-L.A. police officer who, in 2013, went on a violent shooting spree against his former colleagues and their family members due to seeing his own policeman violate the people there supposed to be protecting. “It’s about America, It’s about the trauma that comes from the flag. It’s about understanding that it’s okay to be angry.”

In the album, originally titled ‘To Be Angry’, Siifu started crafting NEGRO after listening to old Afrocentric jazz and watching clips of novelist and poet Amiri Baraka and civil rights activist Stokely Carmichael, reading Sun Ra’s sci-fi poetry book, The Planet Is Doomed, and started studying Bad Brains, June Tyson, Death, Ras G, and many others.

Debut album of heavy Colombian salsa by the obscure and short-lived El Clan Antillano. Founded in 1975 by singer Jacky Carazo and radio personality / composer Mike Char and backed by a studio orchestra comprised mostly of Fruko Y Sus Tesos band members. The record has been remastered from the original tapes, with an additional three bonus cuts taken from two rare 45 singles, including the sought after track ‘Alma’. First time reissue. 180g Vinyl.

El Clan Antillano was an obscure, short-lived salsa group started in 1975 by singer Jacky “El Caballo” Carazo, originally from Cartagena, and radio host / song composer Mike Char, from Barranquilla. The band was active only until 1977, with a mere two albums to its name. Carazo and Char, “los amigos costeños” (friends from the Caribbean coastal area) created El Clan Antillano as a fresh start after the previous group Carazo had been the lead singer for, El
Afrocombo, had become inactive.

Char primary passion was music, especially songwriting. One of his skills in this area was adapting foreign songs, often in a different language, rhythm, arrangement or genre, and refashioning the tune in an uptempo Caribbean dance mode as a salsa or cumbia. This formula, as well as his own original compositions, soon brought him success not only with costeño friends like Carazo and Vicentini, but also with Medellín’s Fruko, allowing him to make a name for himself with record labels in that city. It was at this juncture, in 1975, that El Clan Antillano was born. This is their first album and was recorded with local studio musicians. It’s been said that most on the first album were from Fruko Y Sus Tesos (the voice of Joe Arroyo can be heard on coro) as well as others involved with various groups like La Protesta (de Colombia) and Juan Piña’s La Revelación.

The album kicks off with ‘Donde ‘sta? Donde ‘sta?’, a medley of costeño lyrical phrases quoting various popular porros. Gradually changing the vibe, this is followed by Enrique Aguilar’s ‘El baile del
ratón’, a humorous cumbia that changes into a salsa halfway through. As if El Clan Antillano were not entirely confident about featuring purely salsa from the start, the same cumbia/salsa hybrid formula is used in the third piece, a faithfully rendered version of Eddie Palmieri’s ‘Mi cumbia’.

‘Estás equivocada’ rocks hard like the best Venezuelan salsa of the time. ‘Esta mañana’ is a cover version of an obscure bolero from Curaçao’s Erwin Castaneer with Super Combo Castaneer. ‘En la oscuridad’ is an interesting mashup of Puerto Rican bomba and New York style pachanga. ‘El despertar’ is a sunny sounding pop song reinvented as a Nelson y sus Estrellas style salsa/cumbia hybrid with a fantastic ‘montuno’ section.

Up next is a hard salsa jam in the ‘pregón’ (street vendor’s cry) genre, written by Fruko Y Sus Tesos percussionist Álvaro Velásquez (composer of ‘El preso’). The original album track list closes out with a fantastic rendition of Puerto Rican singer/composer Bobby Capó’s classic ‘El negro bembón’ that the world first leaned to love through Cortijo y Su Combo. Three bonus tracks have been added to the album as it was originally very short. Interestingly, there were four songs from two 45 singles cut by the band that were never included on either long play. While the ephemeral El Clan Antillano may not be as well known as the groups it’s related to, namely El Afrocombo and Fruko Y Sus Tesos, it certainly deserves credit as a worthy participant in the historical evolution of salsa colombiana.

Following on from the psychoacoustic concrète of Outside Ludlow / Desert Disco LP (BT075), Sam Dunscombe returns to Black Truffle with Two Forests / Oceanic. Dunscombe has been active in recent years on multiple fronts, including as a key member of the Berlin community of Just Intonation researchers and practitioners; working with composers like Taku Sugimoto, Mary Jane Leach, and Anthony Pateras; and the release of Horatiu Radulescu - Plasmatic Music vol. 1 (the result of many years performance research into the thought and music of this seminal Romanian spectralist). In parallel with these activities, Dunscombe has been deeply involved in research on the role of music in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, prompting these two side long pieces, composed using field recordings and digital synthesis. As Dunscombe explains in the accompanying liner notes, music plays a key role in psychedelic-assisted therapy, yet it is often restricted to stock forms of New Age, ambient and electronica. Taking seriously the potential for spatio-environmental sonic experiences to add to the therapeutic process, these two pieces are intended to suggest how ‘a music-as-environment approach may help to add options to the therapist’s toolbox’. ‘Two Forests’ begins in a central Californian sequoia grove. Bird songs and buzzing insect life are treated with a variety of time-based processing methods (slicing and recombination, primitive granular synthesis, delay, and so on), which strip the field recordings of their linear, documentary character, reframing them in an enchanted web of traces and echoes. Analysing the pitches found in the original recordings, Dunscombe used them to generate a large Just Intonation pitch set. These tones are woven slowly into the field recordings, gradually building in density and complexity until the forest has been transformed into an unreal space of infinite proportions. Emerging from this cosmic expanse in the final minutes of the piece, we find ourselves in the Amazon rainforest outside Manaus, Brazil. As Dunscombe writes, the piece creates ‘a sense of place-gone-strange, of space and time simultaneously expanding and contracting across octaves, miles, and minutes’. On ‘Oceanic’, several recordings of different beaches fade in and out to create a texture both homogenous and constantly shifting in both the rhythm of the waves and each recording's sense of depth and distance. Tones relating in simple ratios to the average rhythm of each beach float over each other, colouring the white noise texture of the field recordings with shifting hues. In both pieces, Dunscombe forgoes the easy consonance that bogs down much contemporary ambient music for a richer harmonic array informed by extended tuning practices and spectralism. The end results suggest a hitherto undreamt-of meeting of Radulescu’s undulating sonic masses and the discreetly processed location recordings of Irv Teibel’s ‘psychologically ultimate’ Environments. Looking beyond the insularity that can afflict experimental music culture, Dunscombe’s work is a moving argument for the healing power of expanded approaches to sound and music. Even outside of a psychedelics-assisted therapy, frequent immersion in Two Forests / Oceanic is almost guaranteed to produce beneficial psychological results.

Almighty duo Hyperculte strikes back with a tremendous third album, La Pangée. More than a band, Hyperculte is a superband (!) reuniting two figures of the Geneva subculture scene: Vincent Bertholet (Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp) and Simone Aubert (Tout Bleu, Massicot). If you"re not familiar with the band expect some angry krautrock, high-energy post-punk and etheric voices.

For fans of Mt. Eerie and Wolves In The Throne Room. Experimental, highly idiosyncratic take on black metal from Oakland California / Olympia Washington two piece. Recorded, mixed and mastered by Nicholas Wilbur (The Microphones, Have A Nice Life, Planning For Burial). Previous releases with on cult DIY label An Out Recordings. 2018 split release with Thou. Ragana is a duo whose members alternate duties on drums, guitar, and vocals to produce some of the most unique and affecting dark music in metal today. The two-piece came together in 2011 in the DIY punk scene of Olympia, WA and are now based in Olympia and Oakland, CA. In their time together so far, Ragana have self-released five albums and teamed up with genre-favourite Thou for a split release in 2018. The following year, Ragana released their heralded We Know That The Heavens Are Empty EP and have quietly been working on new music ever since. The band signed with The Flenser in late 2022 and now present their forthcoming debut album for the label, Desolation's Flower. On Desolation's Flower, Ragana draws upon a number of influences from the flora and fauna of their Pacific Northwest origins to the darkly nostalgic folk of Mt. Eerie and, yes, their Olympian forebears Wolves In The Throne Room, synthesising them into an experimental, highly idiosyncratic take on black metal. Held together by an intense focus on raw emotion and haunting atmospherics, Ragana shifts seamlessly from tender, mesmerising vocal harmonies to piercing, heart-ripping screams and back again, yielding music that is heavy, beautiful and punishing all at once. Written over the past few tumultuous years, Desolation's Flower is the band's most devastating effort to date, containing seven incantations of loss, rage, pain and hope. Expertly engineered by the masterful Nicholas Wilbur at the Unknown Studio in Anacortes, Washington (Planning For Burial, drowse, Divide and Dissolve, Have a Nice Life), the album serves as the culmination of the past decade plus of the band's ethos and execution.

For fans of Mt. Eerie and Wolves In The Throne Room. Experimental, highly idiosyncratic take on black metal from Oakland California / Olympia Washington two piece. Recorded, mixed and mastered by Nicholas Wilbur (The Microphones, Have A Nice Life, Planning For Burial). Previous releases with on cult DIY label An Out Recordings. 2018 split release with Thou. Ragana is a duo whose members alternate duties on drums, guitar, and vocals to produce some of the most unique and affecting dark music in metal today. The two-piece came together in 2011 in the DIY punk scene of Olympia, WA and are now based in Olympia and Oakland, CA. In their time together so far, Ragana have self-released five albums and teamed up with genre-favourite Thou for a split release in 2018. The following year, Ragana released their heralded We Know That The Heavens Are Empty EP and have quietly been working on new music ever since. The band signed with The Flenser in late 2022 and now present their forthcoming debut album for the label, Desolation's Flower. On Desolation's Flower, Ragana draws upon a number of influences from the flora and fauna of their Pacific Northwest origins to the darkly nostalgic folk of Mt. Eerie and, yes, their Olympian forebears Wolves In The Throne Room, synthesising them into an experimental, highly idiosyncratic take on black metal. Held together by an intense focus on raw emotion and haunting atmospherics, Ragana shifts seamlessly from tender, mesmerising vocal harmonies to piercing, heart-ripping screams and back again, yielding music that is heavy, beautiful and punishing all at once. Written over the past few tumultuous years, Desolation's Flower is the band's most devastating effort to date, containing seven incantations of loss, rage, pain and hope. Expertly engineered by the masterful Nicholas Wilbur at the Unknown Studio in Anacortes, Washington (Planning For Burial, drowse, Divide and Dissolve, Have a Nice Life), the album serves as the culmination of the past decade plus of the band's ethos and execution.