City of Mirrors is a bold new collection of music from Chicago-based alt-Latinx band Dos Santos, which is comprised of bandleader/singer/lyricist/guitarist/keyboardist Alex Chavez, drummer Daniel Villarreal, percussionist Peter "Maestro" Vale, bassist Jaime Garza, and guitarist/multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Nathan Karagianis.
From the first show the Grateful Dead played in St. Louis in 1968 – when “St. Stephen” made its debut – local fans knew the Gateway City’s rich musical heritage had a unique way of coaxing the best out of the band. One of the shortest-lived iterations of the Grateful Dead was the band that existed December 1971 through March 1972. Jerry, Bob, Phil, Bill, Pigpen, and Keith formed a formidable version of the Dead that only played a few shows together before Donna Jean joined as vocalist, and before Pigpen would depart the stage for good in June 1972. What this sextet lacked in quantity of shows it made up for with creativeness, power, and inspiration.
When Pigpen re-joined the Dead on December 1, 1971, after a few months off during which Keith had joined as piano player, the band was now an unstoppably powerful live juggernaut it hadn't been since the height of the Primal Dead era in late 1968-1969. Widely considered one of the best shows from the Pigpen-Keith era of the Grateful Dead, December 10, 1971 in St. Louis has it all: Pigpen singing lead on four songs including an 18 minute version of Good Lovin' and a very rare performance of Run Rudolph Run; a deep dive into the Dead's psychedelic recent past with a monster version of The Other One; plus plenty of the new material from earlier in 1971 like Bertha, Loser, Sugaree, and Playing In The Band. They also hit upon much of the music that would appear the following year on Europe '72, such as Jack Straw, Tennessee Jed, Mr. Charlie, and One More Saturday Night. And no Dead show of this vintage would be complete without the "hits": Truckin', Sugar Magnolia, and Casey Jones all make appearances. This is truly one of the deepest, most dynamic, exciting, and accessible live shows in the entire Grateful Dead canon.
Trompe Le Monde bookended a golden run of landmark records - a mini-album followed by four albums, released in quick succession - that cemented Pixies as one of the best for a generation. Translated from French to mean "fool the world", Trompe Le Monde showed the band still restless to push their sound forward. Recorded between Burbank, Paris and London, with producer Gil Norton again at the controls, their fourth album is arguably their most playful with Black Francis's lyrics on UFOs and conspiracy theories keeping things weird while power pop creeps in to amplify the space rock established on predecessor Bossanova. Featuring singles 'Planet of Sound', 'Alec Eiff el', 'Letter to Memphis' and a fl awless cover of The Jesus and Mary Chain's 'Head On', Trompe Le Monde goes full throttle with 15 tracks coming in a quickfi re 40-minute salvo. Receiving critical praise at the time and being supported by a huge tour that included playing stadiums with U2, it also proved to be the end of act one for the band with them taking over a decade before returning to stage together. A brilliant record, Trompe Le Monde sounds just as fresh 30 years on with outlets such as Pitchfork concurring, retrospectively scoring it 9.3, they called it "more aggressive than anything in their catalog but also more confi dent. They can handle this now, and they do."
For its 30th Anniversary, Pixies’ 1991 album ‘Trompe
Le Monde’ is reissued on marbled green vinyl.
‘Trompe Le Monde’ bookended a golden run of
landmark records - a mini-album followed by four
albums, released in quick succession - that cemented
Pixies as one of the best for a generation.
Translated from French to mean ‘fool the world’,
‘Trompe Le Monde’ showed the band still restless to
push their sound forward. Recorded between Burbank,
Paris and London, with producer Gil Norton again at
the controls, their fourth album is arguably their most
playful, with Black Francis’s lyrics on UFOs and
conspiracy theories keeping things weird while power
pop creeps in to amplify the space rock established on
predecessor ‘Bossanova’.
Featuring singles ‘Planet of Sound’, ‘Alec Eiffel’, ‘Letter
to Memphis’ and a flawless cover of The Jesus and
Mary Chain’s ‘Head On’, ‘Trompe Le Monde’ goes full
throttle with 15 tracks coming in a quickfire 40-minute
salvo. Receiving critical praise at the time and being
supported by a huge tour that included playing
stadiums with U2, it also proved to be the end of Act
One for the band, with them taking over a decade
before returning to the stage together.
Having taken a break from music for a few years, South London’s ME REX began life in 2018 in the home of songwriter Myles McCabe experimenting with shouty, electronic bedroom pop. Armed with a slew of “surging gargantuan hooks” and themes of friendship, forgiveness, joy and dinosaurs, McCabe was quickly joined by longtime friends Kathryn Woods (guitar/vocals), Phoebe Cross (drums/vocals) and Rich Mandell (bass/keys/vocals). Now, graduated from producing songs at home to recording at Resident Studios in North London with Mandell behind the mixing desk: ME REX spent the latter half of 2020 bashing down the doors to the indie world with double EP ‘Triceratops/Stegosuarus’. Finding their penchant for constructing delicate threads of vocal layering to convey feelings of calm while building on luscious swathes of reverberated guitar and keys on single ‘Rites’, the band are not afraid to explore different musical concepts: shaping material that strays from traditional album and single structures that results in a sound that could easily find a home on the big screen as they do behind closed doors. Described as “making for both a potent and cathartic listen all round” by DIY magazine — as well as seeing praise from Stereogum, BBC 6Music, Radio X, Amazing Radio, For The Rabbits and Circuit Sweet — ME REX are back with a new and ambitious project ‘Megabear’, an album made up of 52 tracks that has no beginning or end but exists as a cyclical body of work.
Concentric Records presents Radiant, the third compilation of its introductory release trilogy. Featuring music by ASWA, HOLOVR, Max Loderbauer, Petre Inspirescu, Supply, The Waves, William Selman, the album evokes luminous, iridescent and ethereal sonic spaces - a journey that overcomes struggles, spinning upward towards the light.
The album opens with calm, bright and assertive tonalities, evoking mental spaces prone to exploration and wondering. Molecular textures and real-world sounds bring us closer to an intimate and physical sphere, a voice. Ultimately everything dissolves into a synthetic domain of acid-like washes, in a cinematic sense of departure.
MAX LODERBAUER has been an active engineer, producer, and musician across four decades. He first came to notice in the late ‘80s as a member of Fischerman’s Friend. Known then as Daimler Max, Loderbauer’s associates included Stephan Fischer and Tom Thiel, as well as producer Thomas Fehlmann. Once the group went dormant, Loderbauer and Thiel established Sun Electric; one of the leading sources of entrancing downtempo and ambient techno through the ‘90s. During the 2000s and 2010s, Loderbauer collaborated in numerous settings, including NSI with Tobias Freund, Chica & the Folder with Paula Schopf, and Moritz von Oswald Trio with Vladislav Delay and Moritz von Oswald. Loderbauer was partly responsible for some of the most progressive and experimental electronic music released during these years. In 2011, he and contemporary Ricardo Villalobos assembled Re: ECM, a project that involved radical transformations of ECM label recordings by the likes of Bennie Maupin, Christian Wallumrød, John Abercrombie, and Arvo Pärt. More recently he consolidated the collaboration with Ricardo Villalobos via the Vilod project, and with Samuel Rohrer and Claudio Puntin as Ambiq - both described as ‘a fertile patch of inspiration, shaking up the principles of minimal techno with the loose, expressive qualities of jazz’. The album opening track - ‘Harmonic’ - feels like a glowing dream. Composed of stunning electronics in a polychromatic, blinding and shimmering light; harmonious interwoven melodies calmly wind down invoking a serene mental state and grounding peace.
WILLIAM SELMAN was the very first artist ever approached by Concentric Records prior to the label’s birth, back in 2018, following his defining release ‘Musica Enterrada’. A musician and multimedia artist currently based in Portland, Oregon, his work employs analogue and digital synthesis techniques, live percussion and instrumentation, and his own rich field recordings to create compositions and sound art focused on the ideas of place and environment. Selman's recent works have been released on Mysteries of the Deep and Hausu Mountain.
PETRE INSPIRESCU is an extremely versatile composer. As co-founder of the legendary RPR Soundsystem together with Rhadoo and Raresh, he mostly produced club-ready, heavily textured takes on tech-house and minimal techno. In 2015 he released his first album on Mule Musiq, considered a significant departure from his previous work, scoring piano, strings and woodwind instruments for the first time, resulting in a set that sat somewhere between ambient and neo-classical. Since then, he continued to explore further sonic territories, adding in vintage synthesizers and occasional nods to dub techno, resulting in melodious sequences of musical movements that relate to the work of classical composers, American minimalists and ambient legends. ‘The Garden’ is a dreamy, intimate and nature inspired composition, recorded in his home studio in Ibiza sometime in the Summer.
DJ and producer SUPPLY (youngest so far on the label) was born and raised in Gießen, within sight of the skyscrapers of Frankfurt am Main, and has been living in Berlin since 2017. Musically socialised through hip hop, he found his connection to electronic music produced in Chicago and Detroit in the 90s by moving to FFM in 2013. For almost 6 years he has hosted his own events in his hometown. His productions connect the dots between hip hop, retro futuristic movie soundtracks and techno, he recently released on YAY Recordings. ‘Inhale / Exhale’ was created during a time of stress and mental tension, partly self-inflicted, partly result of my surroundings, as it turned out in retrospect. The track tries to capture a moment of taking a deep breath by releasing that tension for a moment. I came up with the first sketch one night around 4am, the final arrangement found its way onto a C60 Chromoxid Cassette - inhale - exhale.’ - Supply
THE WAVES is a post-punk and synthwave-inspired project led by Maayan Nidam, that places her vocals at its front and centre. As a musician obsessed with sound and the technology behind its creation, her workflow places a strong focus on the studio environment. Triggering chain reactions between guitar pedals, drum machines, modular synths and acoustic instruments, generating sounds in unpredictable ways. Drum machines keep a steady groove as to give support to an array of guitars and synthesisers, all topped with The Waves own, mostly unmasked, lyrics and voice. ‘Hold On’ was written by Maayan during the 2020 pandemic as she dived deeply in studio work in Berlin. Her lyrics are featured as part of the art print insert, and have became a central statement to the LP and its narrative - the power to hold on and break through.
Jimmy Billingham's HOLOVR project has racked up various releases on some of the most forward-thinking electronic music labels over the past few years, including Firecracker Recordings, Likemind, Further Records, Opal Tapes and his own Indole Records. Though best known for melodic, drifting acid techno and electronica, he's equally at home crafting textured ambient soundscapes. HOLOVR's deeply emotional synth passages and pads will take you on a journey into the outer. 'Melancholy of Time came out of a period exploring ways of producing and recording outside of the grid-based structures that I was previously working with. I wanted to strip it back to what I often find to be the emotional core of a piece of electronic music - ebbing and flowing synth pads - but to push and pull it a bit to create a slight disjointedness, unpredictability and shop-worn texture, as if it's coming apart and fraying, yet retaining a sonic clarity. I recorded it live using looped and layered synth phrases, underpinned by a layer of hiss and pin-prick textures. I find reflections on time and its passing to be a recurrent feature of my work, both in a more straightforward way of harking back to music of a certain period or pieces of equipment but also in a more abstract sense of creating a feeling where time doesn't matter - a deep feeling of now; that escape that you find in music and other ecstatic experiences. Though of course we’re always in - and running out of - time, and hence the melancholy.’ - Jimmy Billingham
Hailing from the German underground scene, ASWA aka Attila Fidan has an intricate, hypnotic style of electro, techno and ambient. Coming from visual arts and not primarily a trained musician, Attila produces under various and multiple monikers: ‘I never really start out knowing which moniker the track will be made under’. Since 2017 he runs a boutique Berlin label named ‘Tape Archive’. ‘Dust Palace’ is a synthetic piece that resonates with a cinematic vastness, closing the LP in an uplifting tone that evokes new departures and new beginnings.
Das britische Produzentenduo Jungle meldet sich zurück.
Das kommende Album von Jungle - ihr drittes - „Loving In Stereo" wird wahrscheinlich der Soundtrack zu einem Sommer werden, der anders ist als alle anderen. Das Duo hat das vergangene Jahr im Studio verbracht und ist mit einer unbändigen Dancefloor-Platte für die post „social distancing" Zeit herausgekommen: „With this record we’ve learned to trust our instincts and go with our gut,” sagt T. „We want it to be more raw, open, fun, enjoyable and entertaining, because that’s what music is,” fügt J. hinzu.
J und T sind das pulsierende Herz von Jungle, wo Musik, Ästhetik und Choreografie als eine unverwechselbare künstlerische Vision nebeneinander bestehen. Mit dem gleichen Ethos wie z.B. Gorillaz oder The Avalanches sind die beiden die Produzenten, Songwriter und Musiker, aber sie sind auch die Regisseure, Content-Schöpfer und Kuratoren. Sie stehen an der Spitze einer größeren Gemeinschaft von Kreativen. Sie sind Weltenbauer.
Mit dem neuen Album wird dies auf eine neue Ebene gehoben, wobei das größere Jungle-Kollektiv von Tänzern ein integraler Aspekt ist, wie die Musik visuell erlebt wird. Mit jedem Video, bei dem Josh Lloyd Watson und sein langjähriger Mitarbeiter Charlie Di Placido Regie geführt haben, schaffen sie es die Fans zu begeistern. Das Video zu „Keep Moving" ist in einem Take gedreht - teils Birdman, teils West Side Story und zeigt zwei Gangs von Tänzer*innen. Es beginnt mit dem Tänzer Che Jones (der im Video zu „Smile" vom letzten Jungle-Album mitspielte) in seinem Schlafzimmer und führt zu einer Szene im Freien, in der wir Mette Linturi (die im Video zu „Casio" vom letzten Album mitspielte) finden. Der Rest ist eine wunderschöne Entfesselung, die so atemraubend zu beobachten ist, dass sie den Zuschauer mit einem Gefühl der Ehrfurcht zurücklässt.
In ihrer bisherigen Karriere haben Jungle bereits auf mehreren Kontinenten gespielt und eine stetig wachsende internationale Fangemeinde gewonnen: Headline Shows von Sydney bis Moskau, vom ausverkauften Londoner Alexandra Palace mit 10.000 Plätzen bis zum 9.000 Kilometer von ihrem zu Hause entfernten ausverkauften Hollywood Palladium und Festivals wie Coachella, Bonnaroo und Lollapalooza. Ihr für den Mercury Prize nominiertes und mit Gold ausgezeichnetes Debütalbum und der Nachfolger "For Ever" von 2018 erreichten beide die UK Top 10. Diese beiden Alben haben seitdem 750.000 Verkäufe und fast eine Milliarde Streams erreicht.
MAT is proud to announce the forthcoming release of ‘The Side I Never See’, by Hugh Small & Brian Allen Simon. Hugh forms half of Scottish post-punk duo Vazz, whose work was the subject of a recent retrospective by Belgian label Stroom. Brian is known best for his solo project Anenon, under which name he has released four full length albums and multiple remixes for artists including Ryuichi Sakamoto.
An improvised recording of Brian playing over the Vazz piece ‘Kazimierz’ catalysed this long-distance collaboration; 2000 feet up a mountain in Andalucia, Hugh heard the recording on a broadcast of Brian’s dublab LA radio show. Immediately taken in by Brian’s playing, the pair soon established contact and began discussing the possibility of working to create something new together.
The rest, as they say, is history: the results are fully realised in ‘The Side I Never See’, a shimmering suite of ten compositions for piano, soprano saxophone, synthesizer and guitar. In Hughs words… ‘so, what is it? It’s Ambient-Punk, Abstract-Jazz, Disaffected-Classical, it’s whatever the fuck you want it to be!’ :-)
‘The Side I Never See’ will be released on Melody As Truth in early August 2021, as always on vinyl and digital. Mastered by Stephan Mathieu, Artwork by Michael Willis.
Das Schaffen von Kasper Bjørke hat sich im Laufe seiner Karriere ständig weiterentwickelt. Nach dem Debüt Album In Gumbo (2007) veröffentlichte er regelmäßig weitere Alben und EPs, beeinflusst von Post-Punk, Krautrock, Italo-Disco, Techno, House und Elektro sowie neuerdings auch Neoklassik und Ambient. Kasper hat mehr als 50 Künstler geremixt - als DJ ist er ausgiebig getourt und trat in einigen der legendärsten Clubs und Festivals auf. Nach The Fifty Eleven Project auf Kompakt (2018) und Nothing Gold Can Stay (2019) ist
das neue Album Sprinkles das achte Studioalbum von Kasper Bjørke.
Sprinkles klingt wie eine utopische Postkarte - abgeschickt in der Vergangenheit und mit Hoffnungen für die Zukunft. Verwurzelt in einem farbenfrohen Sound - gefüllt mit Licht und Wärme - verschmelzen die balearischen Vibes und Dream-House-Grooves mit Synth-Chören Gitarren, Fretless- und Acid-Basslinien und verflechten sich spielerisch zu einem klanglichen Bewusstseinsstrom; eine Fata Morgana der Vergangenheit und dessen, was sein wird. Die hypnotisierende Arbeit "Sprinkles" des bildenden Künstlers Luca Bjørnsten zeigt einen leeren, üppigen und bunten Garten mit einem großen, romantischen Springbrunnen und verkörpert perfekt das surreale Szenario, mit dem wir alle viel zu vertraut geworden sind. Das 13-Track-Instrumentalalbum folgt auf eine Reihe von Singles in diesem Frühjahr und Sommer und ist wie ein Hauch frischer Luft und ein dringend benötigter, warmer Sonnenstrahl.
Dissolution Sessions' is the first release by art punk rockers The Imbeciles since their well received eponymously named debut album earlier this year. The six-track EP
features a new band line up - and a different sound. 'We've slimmed down from a meandering, vegan, six member prog rock combo, to a tight-knit, guitar-led, steakeating 4-piece,' says lead Imbecile, Butch Dante. 'The guitar sound is fuzzy punk beast-master AF, and we like it.'
The band had originally gone into the studio earlier this year to record a radio session for 6Music. That ended up being cancelled because of the pandemic crisis. 'We
were there anyway so we started riffing on some new songs and everything came together real fast,' continues Butch. The result is three new songs and three new
versions of tracks that first appeared on the album. 'The music is still weird; but everything just gets to the point faster,' he adds. "You can hear that energy in 'Yes I
Am'; it's the sound of a band having fun being creative again after a difficult year.'
That particular new track is a Foo fighters/STP/Stooges-style banger, but played on Imbeciles terms - one note leads and guitar scrapes, with off beat stabs and a pop
punk drum track that pulls the whole together. And the overall vibe of the EP is a NSFW hybrid of 1979 London punk (Skids and Ruts), with second guitar stolen from
eighties Echo and Bunnymen and a leavening of Bauhaus art rock.
'Sunday Leaguer' was inspired by Butch's love of English football. The song is both a banging punk celebration of the beautiful game, and a lament to the gaping hole left
in peoples' lives when Coronavirus forced the cancellation of all football in March. As well as the Premier League, MotD and other football staples, the song also
celebrates the unsung legends of amateur Sunday League football. Dante, a Crystal Palace fan, enlists Palace's Holmesdale Fanatics on the track, who are heard chanting
'Eagles', while the video for the song pays tribute to the club's mascot, Keya, who sadly passed away this summer.
Charlie Conkers makes his debut on the EP as the band's drummer. 'He's young, good looking, and talented. It's quite annoying, actually,' Butch says. New lead guitarist
Stan Moseley makes a sideways move into the band from his previous role as The Imbecile's chief engineer and co-producer - the producer role now being occupied by
music legend, Youth, with whom the band has just started working on a new album, to be released in 2021.
'Having Youth involved as producer and co-writer is the most dope thing that has ever happened to the band,' says lead singer and bass player Kip Larson. 'Everyone is in
a super positive, hyper creative place right now and we can't wait to see what we come up with.'
So what about the name, Dissolution Sessions? Was it a nod to the pandemic, or a reference to the band breaking up and reforming again with its new members?
Neither, according to Butch. 'Kip was super hung over at the session. too many Dos Equis, yo. Hence: Dissolution Sessions.'
TROJAN JAMAICA / BMG is proud to announce the release of U-ROY’s final full-length, SOLID GOLD U-ROY. The album was originally set to come out in 2020 with plans for a worldwide tour in support, but unfortunately, the pandemic delayed the release. Now, with the heartbreaking loss of U-ROY on February 17, the album has become a celebration of one of the most profoundly influential reggae stars of his generation. An originator of the chatty rhythmic vocal style known as toasting — a key foundational element in the development of rap in its nascent stages in the 1970s — U-ROY left behind an unmatched legacy which is clearly on display on SOLID GOLD U-ROY, with its guest appearances including ZIGGY MARLEY, SHAGGY, MICK JONES of THE CLASH, SANTIGOLD, SLY & ROBBIE, DAVID HINDS of STEEL PULSE, and more. The album arrives on
July 16, 2021.
SOLID GOLD U-ROY is being heralded today by the release of “MAN NEXT DOOR” (Feat. SANTIGOLD). One of the great reggae songs of all time, the track features an indelible guest appearance by the incomparable Santigold. “Man Next Door” is a beloved reggae standard written by John Holt and released in 1968 by his group The Paragons. U-ROY sampled the song in 1982 for “Peace and Love in the Ghetto” on his Original DJ album. Pre-orders of SOLID GOLD U-ROY will come with an instant grat download of “MAN NEXT DOOR”
This is a pure labour of love, not only is Daniel Vangarde a musical legend, he created, produced and wrote, (together with his musical partner Jean Kluger) acts like Gibson Brothers, Ottawan and La Compagnie Creole, he’s also the father of Thomas “Daft Punk” Bangalter, one of Mighty Mouse’s musical heroes.
Mighty Mouse reveals: I loved the original, and wanted to keep the energy of it in my remix. I kept a lot of the music parts and added a few synth elements and re did the drums to support what was already there. It was much fun, and a little nerve racking. When I got the stems it was like a history lesson and I could hear where Daft Punk must have got some of their influence from, just listen to those vocoders!
I got the seal of approval from Daniel too, as he said…“It did put a great smile on my face too! congratulations, the remix is really good.
The remixer understood the spirit and energy of the music, this is rare.” Now, talking about a compliment!
Mighty Mouse’s mind was blown at this point, so we are excited to bring you this masterpiece in 12” format!
Joey Negro! Michael Gray! Moplen! Massivedrum! David Penn! Mighty Mouse! Ben Liebrand! They are all there!
Thirty-Five years after the release of Volume 4, High Fashion Music are back with the aptly named – Vol 5! And Ben Liebrand returns once again to flawlessly mix these remixed pieces together in one continues mix.
“High Fashion Dance Music” mix-albums were incredibly popular in the during the ’80s, showcasing essential cuts from legendary dance artists from the time.
Volume 5 is back pumping and loaded with the recent remixed and timeless cuts from Blueboy (David Penn remix), T-Connection (Moplen remix), Karen Young (Joey Negro remix), Disco Dandies, Ashford & Simpson (Joey Negro remixes) and Johnny Guitar Watson (Ben Liebrand remix) are joined on the Dancefloor by hot new versions of classics like Bucketheads’ “The Bomb” and is the at the same time presenting the new and upcoming singles from contemporary artists including S.O.S Band (remixed by Ben Liebrand), Bucketheads (Remixed by Massivedrum) HP Vince, and Who’s Who (remixed by Mighty Mouse).
Volume 5 also has the eye-catching retro styling with detail from OG’s in the scene. Curated by experts, Volume 5 will also be available on various music formats, each having it’s unique playing-time, including Vinyl LP, Compact Disc, the good old MusiCassette and even on DCC! (Such in close cooperation with the DCC Museum in Los Angeles)
Mix Tracklist:
A-1 The S.O.S. Band – Just Get Ready (Remix – Ben Liebrand) 4:29
A-2 Delia Renee – You're Gonna Want Me Back (Remix – Joey Negro) 5 :49
A-3 Disco Dandies – Inside Your Love 1:36
A-4 Johnny Guitar Watson – Real Mother For 'Ya (Go To A Disco) (Remix – Ben Liebrand) 3:30
A-5 Advance – Take Me To The Top (Remix – Michael Gray) 3:28
A-6 T-Connection – Do What You Wanna Do (Remix – Moplen) 5:16
A-7 Ashford & Simpson – Over & Over (Remix – Joey Negro) 3:34
A-8 Roog – If Everything Went My Way (Remix – Earth N Days) 2:52
A-9 Blue Boy – Remember Me (Remix – David Penn) 3:49
A-10 Ashford & Simpson – Found A Cure (Remix – Joey Negro) 4:29
B-1 Brooklyn Express – Sixty-Nine (Remix – H.P. Vince) 3:17
B-2 Viola Wills – If You Could Read My Mind (Remix – Massivedrum) 5:43
B-3 Karen Young – Hot Shot (Remix – Joey Negro) 4:10
B-4 Michael Gray – The Weekend (Remix – Michael Gray) 5:28
B-5 Ashford & Simpson – Love Will Make It Right (Remix – Joey Negro) 4:25
B-6 Johnny Hammond – Los Conquistadores Chocolates (Remix – Moplen) 4:02
B-7 The Bucketheads – The Bomb (Remix – Massivedrum) 3:19
B-8 Who's Who – Palace Palace (Remix – Mighty Mouse) 3:25
B-9 H.P. Vince – We Came Here To Party 2:47
B-10 Delia Renee– You're Gonna Want Me Back (Reprise) (Remix – Ben Liebrand) 1:40
Greetings to the new generation of ‘Hip-Hop’ and ‘Shake Your Butt’ music. The man behind ‘Timeless Funk’ ain’t exactly no ‘Spring Funky Chicken’, yet he is still the ‘Funkiest Soul’ to rock this here nation.
Rufus Thomas is the Soul King and Grand Daddy of Funk; as his generation knew him then, as we know him today.
In the beginning, the ‘Power of the Most High’ said: ‘Let it be funky’. Then there was Rufus.
Rufus Thomas was born in 1917 in a small town outside of Memphis, Tennessee. At the age of ten he became a tap dancer. In the 1930s, Rufus worked professionally at the infamous Palace Theatre, Memphis, TN, as M.C., performing comedy and dance routines.
During the early 1940s, Rufus began his singing career. He also continued his M.C. acts at various notable nightclubs and theatres, for amateur nights. He was then considered to be a triple threat: dancer, comedian and singer! The notables he crossed hands with in those days were B.B. King, Bobby Bland and Johnny Ace. In the 1950s Rufus became one of the ‘Hip-pest’ DJs in Memphis TN W.I.D.A. radio station and is affiliated with the company to this day. He was quoted as saying ‘I’m young and loose and full of juice’. At those times he recorded ‘Bear-Cat’ for Sun Records, their first R&B hit for the label.
All-right ‘Kiddies,’ now I take you into the light of Rufus in the 1960s. When most of us were on our way to our happy existence, Rufus was already 30 years in the entertainment circuit. He was affiliated with STAX Records. With daughter Carla Thomas, he gave STAX their first hit, the duet, ‘Cause I Love You.’ Rufus’ world famous hits continued under this label, pouring songs out such as ‘Memphis Train,’ ‘Can Your Monkey Do The Dog,’…
The foregoing is merely a scratch on the surface of a remarkable man, who has dedicated most of his life to the entertainment business. It’s kept short and sweet so you know what you are dealing with.
Rufus was quoted as saying, ‘I ain’t a star, I don’t want to be a star. Stars have a habit of falling. I’m like the moon. Clouds may come and cover it occasionally, but it’s always there, and always shining. It’s just sometimes you don’t see it for a while but it’ll be back.’
If it wasn’t for Rufus, Soul Music would be missing one of its loudest sons. If he didn’t exist, somebody
Continued over…
would have to get up and invent him. And Funk? The man practically invented the stuff with James Brown.
Now at the age of 75 ‘The Oldest Teenager Alive’ check him out on this recording of ‘Timeless Funk’. We’ll agree and leave you with this note: Rufus is the ‘Moon’ that brought us what was ‘Funky’ then to what is ‘Funky’ now. So let us get ‘Buck Wild’ on the Funky side of things
Scissor Tail presents the first vinyl issue of Marc Barreca’s
1986 album The Sleeper Wakes, originally only released on
cassette by the Seattle electronic ambient label Intrepid.
Marc Barreca has been creating and performing electronic
music since the mid-1970s. His 1980 album, Twilight,
reissued on vinyl in 2016, was one of the earliest releases
on Palace Of Lights. Recent releases include Shadow
Aesthetics (2018) and three collaborations with K. Leimer.
Previous reissues include work on the acclaimed VOD box
set American Cassette Culture, the Cherry Red compilation
of seminal U.S. electronic music and the 1983 cassette
Music Works For Industry. His work is also included in the
collection of The British Library.”
The Sleeper Wakes has been out of print for many years
and Scissor Tail is very happy to remaster and reissue this
great work that was ahead of it’s time, employing analog
treatments of sampled sounds arranged in a very interesting
and intuitive way.
The latest RJD2 release "The Fun Ones" was set up to place RJD2 in the studio by himself to explore all different styles and sounds. The song selection for an album really dictates the story that gets told. What is most different about this album is that he disregarded any concern for showing versatility; The songs were chosen strictly by which were the funnest to listen to, hence the title The Fun Ones. By and large, it is a funk record. Once the songs were completed and ordered, the idea was to sequence the album like a mixtape or treat the raw songs as selections in a mixtape. The concept of the album became the stories of purpose that everyone told. Because of this, the digital version of the album plays like a mixtape of sorts, while the vinyl version plays as the raw audio tracks. So a listener could choose which way they prefer to hear the songs themselves.
The track is already on the ‘Filoxiny’ album so Skinshape extended the mix and backed it with a dub version for the flip. Skinshape is the project of British musician William Dorey. The sound has roots in many genres but in particular 1960s Funk, Soul, Reggae, Psychedelic Rock, Afrobeat and Folk. Aside from the Skinshape project Dorey was bassist for the band Palace from 2014-2017 and also runs a reggae label called Horus Records based in North London. About I Didn’t Know from Dorey himself: “This is the most 'pop' song I've possibly ever made, and possibly the most 'modern' sounding. It is about being in a difficult relationship and not knowing how to deal with it and making mistakes as a result. I wrote and recorded most of the song around the drum pattern, and created some (terrible sounding) digital orchestral parts temporarily whilst I created the body of the song. I recorded the strings and horns in the last part of the recording process before doing the final mixes. The horns were recorded separately with the help of my long-time friend (since school) and master arranger Jon Moody (of the group Franc Moody).”
Everything has its right moment in space and time. And Rhode & Brown’s debut album “Everything in Motion” is no exception to this rule.
But first things first:
Hailing from Munich, Germany, Friedrich Trede and Stephan Braun are the DJ and producer duo Rhode & Brown. Growing up in two neighbouring villages near Munich both of them had been music enthusiasts since their early childhood. Friedrich played drums in punk bands at school and recorded rap songs in his bedroom, while Stephan, as childhood friend of Harold Faltermeyer's son, had the chance to experiment in the impressive studio of the legendary Donna Summer producer in his early teens.
By the late 2000s older friends started supplying them with DJ mixtapes and helped them sneak into clubs they weren’t allowed to visit, yet – cultivating their love for electronic music and club culture. And, of course, the Internet was their go-to source for finding the latest blog house tunes back then, too.
It wasn’t until October 2009 that their paths would cross for the very first (but almost last) time when introduced by a mutual friend: Back then Stephan was selling his old CDJ-player and Friedrich, who wanted to hone his DJ skills, ended up buying it: „When I got home and unpacked the player I realized that it was the wrong model. I thought Stephan was trying to rip me off - so I called him in a rage and demanded my money back.“ Friedrich laughs. To cut a long story short, the two met again the same evening, money and CD-players were exchanged, but luckily so was their passion for house and disco music. It was at that very moment that Rhode & Brown was born.
A lot has happened since the two played their first gigs together and made baby steps in music production. In the past 10 years they established themselves as one of the most reliable house producers around with rock solid releases on Toy Tonics, Shall Not Fade, Public Possession or their own Slam City Jams imprint. As well as becoming a household name in the DJ world, sharing the booth with the likes of Palms Trax, Dam Swindle, Jamie Tiller or Octo Octa - spreading their infectious "Dancing Deejays" vibes around the globe.
Following the great reception of last years „Aku Aku“ EP, June 2021 will see the release of Rhode & Brown’s debut album on Permanent Vacation. A record that showcases their open minded approach to making music and a passion for the nuances between genres - „We found inspiration for this album in all corners of our record collection. That means we are as much influenced by disco or 80s synth-pop as by house and techno of the last decades or the latest viral trap hit on Spotify“, the guys say.
On "Everything In Motion" you'll hear piano house / Italo disco hybrids alongside dreamy Balearic soundscapes and '90s-infused acid breakbeats flawlessly accompanying '80s synth pop anthems. Always infused with that signature Rhode & Brown magic. The album also finds them collaborating with some of the finest vocalists of the moment: Peaking Lights' own Indra Dunis is lending her voice to the title track for this special laid back California vibe, while Berlin's hottest export DJ City evokes a neon light romance affair on "Memory Palace", with a longing poem that makes you wander the rainy streets at night with your walkman on.
At a time when suddenly everything seems to be standing still, Rhode & Brown undeterred moving forward... true to their LP’s title.
Marc Barreca's 1986 album "The Sleeper Wakes". Originally released on cassette by the Seattle electronic ambient label, Intrepid.
Marc Barreca has been creating and performing electronic music since the mid-1970s. His 1980 album, Twilight, reissued on vinyl in 2016, was one of the earliest releases on Palace Of Lights. Recent releases include Shadow Aesthetics (2018) and three collaborations with K. Leimer. Previous reissues include work on the acclaimed VOD box set American Cassette Culture, the Cherry Red compilation of seminal U.S. electronic music and the 1983 cassette, Music Works For Industry. His work is also included in the collection of The British Library."
The Sleeper Wakes has been out of print for many years and we are very happy to remaster and reissue this great work that was ahead of it's time, employing analog treatments of sampled sounds arranged in a very interesting and intuitive way.
Recorded live on 9th November 2018 (their only UK show of 2018), ‘education entertainment recreation’ is a brand new live album from London’s Alexandra Palace.
Sonically spectacular, spanning 2 hours 20 minutes, the show joyously mixed New Order classics, their latest acclaimed album ‘Music Complete’ and Joy Division’s finest.
Opening with ‘Singularity’ from ‘Music Complete’, they eased back in time to 1993’s ‘Regret’, to ‘Love Vigilantes’ from 1985’s ‘Low-Life’ to ‘Ultraviolence from 1983 debut ‘Power, Corruption and Lies’.
Later, their power over the dance floor was proven by sublime performances in the manner of the celebrated extended 12 inch remixes they are synonymous with - on ‘True Faith’, ‘Blue Monday’ and ‘Temptation’ before a four song Joy Division mini set to end
Live at Alexandra Palace, London, England, October 5th 2019
Recorded by our sound crew:
Sam Joseph, Stacey Wilson, Gaspard De Meulemeester
Drums: Michael Cavanagh
Guitar / Keys: Cook Craig
Harmonica / Vocals / Keys / Percussion: Ambrose Kenny-Smith
Vocals / Guitar / Keys: Stu Mackenzie
Drums: Eric Moore
Bass: Lucas Harwood
Guitar / Vocals: Joey Walker
Mixed by Stu Mackenzie
Cover design by Jason Galea
Sub Pop release ‘Indian Yard’, the debut record
from Sitka, Alaska project Ya Tseen.
Band founder, Nicholas Galanin is one of the most
vital voices in contemporary art. His work spans
sculpture, video, installation, photography,
jewellery and music; advocating for Indigenous
sovereignty, racial, social and environmental
justice, for present and future generations.
‘Indian Yard’ is a compelling document of humanity
centred in an Indigenous perspective. Created by
one of the world’s foremost Indigenous artists, the
irrepressible album is an intense illumination of
feeling and interconnectedness.
On the track ‘Close the Distance’ Galanin reflects
on the universal need for connection and the
expression of desire across distances. The official
video, directed by Stephan Gray (Shabazz
Palaces ‘Dawn In Luxor’, ‘Deesse Du Sang’),
extends beyond human experience to consider
physical expressions of desire in biological,
mechanical, and celestial forms.
500 copies on MAGENTA NEON VINYL
Live at Alexandra Palace, London, England, October 5th 2019
Recorded by our sound crew:
Sam Joseph, Stacey Wilson, Gaspard De Meulemeester
Drums: Michael Cavanagh
Guitar / Keys: Cook Craig
Harmonica / Vocals / Keys / Percussion: Ambrose Kenny-Smith
Vocals / Guitar / Keys: Stu Mackenzie
Drums: Eric Moore
Bass: Lucas Harwood
Guitar / Vocals: Joey Walker
Mixed by Stu Mackenzie
Cover design by Jason Galea
Following the hard-hitting return single ‘Anxious’ and a slew of mysterious ‘West Gazette’ posters appearing around the UK hinting at the announcement (including Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Bristol and London), West London’s AJ Tracey assumes the character of a rising young basketball player appearing in a livestreamed press conference to reveal his next move: a lucrative deal with major
franchise Revenge Athletic ahead of a crucial playoff game. The broadcast ends with the true reveal: AJ’s highly anticipated sophomore album ‘FLU GAME’ will finally arrive.
Always pushing boundaries with his creative output, AJ’s campaign draws influence from the story of Michael Jordan and his Chicago Bulls team in the late 90s, with ‘FLU GAME’ referencing one of MJ’s most memorable championship games where he overcame a nasty bout of food poisoning (brought on by a dodgy takeaway pizza) and took the Bulls to the championship. Revenge Athletic are a franchise on the brink of a massive championship win and AJ is their new star. All we know for now is that AJ is about to take us into this new world, as he dons the number 10 jersey and states he’s “ready to get going and do what I’ve always done.”
‘FLU GAME’ sees AJ showcasing twelve brand new tracks, with tantalising features including Kehlani, T-Pain, SahBabii, NAV and Millie Go Lightly. On the production
front, AJ calls on regular collaborators Nyge, The Elements, Kazza, AoD and Remedee.
The project also features the UK Top Five singles ‘Bringing It Back’ with Digga D, ‘West Ten’' with Mabel and the Platinum smash ‘Dinner Guest’ featuring MoStack. AJ Tracey is a man on an unstoppable, independently built trajectory. 2020 was his
biggest year to date, with (certified Gold) single ‘West Ten’ alongside Mabel landing in the wake of chart-scaling ‘Dinner Guest’ featuring MoStack (Platinum), Number 1 charity single ‘Times Like These’ (alongside Dua Lipa, Rag & Bone Man and The Foo Fighters) and the Platinum-certified TikTok sensation ‘Rain’ with Aitch, which went on
to become the most watched UK YouTube video of 2020. AJ finished the year with a stand-out feature on Headie One’s enormous anthem ‘Ain’t It Different’ alongside Stormzy, a Platinum certified track that peaked at Number 2 in the UK Singles Chart.
In 2019, AJ released his debut self-titled album which, after landing at Number 3 in the UK Official Charts, has gone on to clock over 350 million streams globally and is certified Gold. His Conducta-produced breakout hit ‘Ladbroke Grove’ was officially the
top selling independent single of 2019, spending an astounding 14 weeks in the UK Top 10, and is now certified Double Platinum (over 1.2 million sales). It was nominated for a BRIT, was named Best British Song at the NME Awards and is now the biggest-selling UK Garage record of all time - an incredible feat. AJ rounded off a
huge 2019 with two sold-out headline shows at London’s 10,000 capacity Alexandra Palace.
A music and cultural icon, and boasting over 1 billion global streams independently, AJ’s formidable talent and unmatched creative vision is set to see him scale even higher heights in the coming months.
a Anxious [prod Remedee]
[b] Kukoč (ft. NAV) [prod Pxcoyo + Yung Swisher]
[c] Bringing It Back (with Digga D) [prod. The Elements + AoD)
[d] Cheerleaders [prod Kazza & Swidom]
[e] Draft Pick [prod 5ive Beatz] Eurostep [prod AJ Tracey]
[f] Cherry Blossom [prod Nyge & AoD]
[g] Glockie [prod The Elements & AoD]
[h] Little More Love [prod YOZ BEATZ, RyFy & Mark Raggio]
[i] Top Dog [prod Nyge & AoD]
[j] Summertime Shootout (ft. T-Pain) [prod Nyge & AoD]
[k] Perfect Storm [prod YOZ BEATZ & JBJ]
[l] Coupé (ft. Kehlani) [prod The Elements]
[m] Numba 9 (ft. SahBabii & Millie Go Lightly) [prod The Elements]
[n] Dinner Guest (ft. MoStack) [prod The Elements & AJ Tracey]
[o] West Ten (with Mabel) [prod FRED & Take a Daytrip]
[a] Anxious [prod Remedee]
[b] Kukoč (ft. NAV) [prod Pxcoyo + Yung Swisher]
[c] Bringing It Back (with Digga D) [prod. The Elements + AoD)
[d] Cheerleaders [prod Kazza & Swidom]
[e] Draft Pick [prod 5ive Beatz] Eurostep [prod AJ Tracey]
[f] Cherry Blossom [prod Nyge & AoD]
[g] Glockie [prod The Elements & AoD]
[h] Little More Love [prod YOZ BEATZ, RyFy & Mark Raggio]
[i] Top Dog [prod Nyge & AoD]
[j] Summertime Shootout (ft. T-Pain) [prod Nyge & AoD]
[k] Perfect Storm [prod YOZ BEATZ & JBJ]
[l] Coupé (ft. Kehlani) [prod The Elements]
[m] Numba 9 (ft. SahBabii & Millie Go Lightly) [prod The Elements]
[n] Dinner Guest (ft. MoStack) [prod The Elements & AJ Tracey]
[o] West Ten (with Mabel) [prod FRED & Take a Daytrip]
Superb unreleased soundtrack from British 1972 sex comedy starring Gabrielle Drake (Nick Drake’s sister) and Rchard O’Sullivan (Gilbert O’Sullivan’s brother!). Brilliant music on many levels, 17 sexy tracks of swinging jet-set jazz, groovy scatty vocals, hell it must be good because it’s on Trunk Records.
Take yourself back to the fleapit cinemas of the early 1970s. My home town of Aldershot had two - the ABC/123 (with three screens) and The Palace (just one screen, and anything but palatial). Au Pair Girls, released in 1972, was exactly the kind of soft porn “comedy” flick with a vague plot that would, without doubt, have been playing as part of a double bill to the regular “dirty mac brigade”. Such films and such establishments guaranteed the small crowd regular titillating wide screen visions of nude women in preposterous situations and fulfilling preposterous fantasies.
The title of Au Pair Girls suggests it all of course; yes, four young women fly into London from Europe and Asia, are sent to their new employers and find themselves in unexpected and unusual situations pretty fast. There is of course full nudity, crudity and a large slab of cheese on the menu.There is also no real comedy, a sprinkling of infamous character actors (Richard O’Sullivan, John Le Mesurier), and “UFO” actress Gabrielle Drake (sister of Nick Drake) wearing nothing at all. If anything, the film has maintained a vague middle aged male following because of Gabrielle.
But there’s little to save this film from contemporary criticism - its outdated view of life, rights, sex and taste sit uncomfortably today. But the jet set soundtrack by Roger Webb was worth saving.
By 1972 Roger Webb’s career in film and TV music was taking off. He was an established songwriter and live pianist with a jazz trio. He’d already penned a few British scores and was just starting on a formidable future with library companies including Chappell, de Wolfe and Capitol. His route to Au Pair Girls was accidentally through Norman Newell, one of the giants of the post war music industry.Actress and performer Dee / Deanne Shenderry had asked Newell to recommend an artist to arrange her up and coming album. New;ee recommended Roger Webb.The two worked together and some music was produced, but to my knowledge only got to acetate stage (possibly for Apple Records). Dee husband was Kenneth Shipman, a co-owner ofTwickenham film studios.And so when Kenneth Shipman started pre
production of Au Pair Girls, Roger Webb was an easy go-to for film music composition.
Many years ago there was an original reel / master for Au Pair Girls. It was transferred to CD, DAT and cassette circa 1990 and the rapidly degrading tape was subsequently misplaced, lost or just binned. So all we had to work with was a rather shaky transfer from nearly 30 years ago, one which included numerous wobbles as well as speeding up and slowing down moments.The job of rescuing all this was left to Jon Brooks, my hero for all such musical problems. The end result is what you hear on this album. It is by no means sonically perfect but it is all we will ever have.
It’s certainly not Roger Webb’s best ever score (I have more of his ace work coming) but it has a certain charm and relentlessness.The lyrics were written by Norman Newell, and I can imagine the pair having a huge amount of fun putting the score together and recording it, with - as you’d expect - a pretty tight band and lively vocal group.The main theme does, as one reviewer state, “go on a bit”, but there’s enough musically here for me to get excited about and really want to “stick it out”. So I have.
The mighty Channel One Studios,Kingston, Jamaica, has its place set in Reggae's Musical History.Its distinctive sound the studio created on opening its doors in 1972 to its closure in the early 1980's made it the Producers, Singers and Musicians studio of choice during this furtive period. Achieving that vibe and clarity, separated it from the other Kingston establishments.
Run by the Hookim Family's four sons, Jo Jo the eldest followed by Paulie, Ernest and Kenneth. Their father originally came from China and married a Chinese Jamaican lady and settled in the St Andrews district before moving to Kingston Town itself. The family business was built on jukeboxes and one armed bandit machines in and around Kingston. A lucrative venture until the gaming laws changed in 1970, outlawing the gaming machines. So the music side of the business would have to be expanded. So it was decided to open a studio to make the music to supply their already established Jukebox enterprise. The four brothers opened Channel One Recording Studios in 1972 at 29 Maxfield Avenue, Kingston 13. Initially as we stated the purpose of the studio was for the brothers use only, but this would soon change when the various Producers all looking for that Channel One sound came asking for studio time.
The brothers had used the services of Bill Garnet a renowned and well respected technical engineer on setting up the studio. They spent a lot of time laying out the space to get the right acoustics and picking the right quipment. They went with a four track API desk and the best quality microphones such as Neuman, Sony and AKG, vital in obtaining the quality sound and track separation that would prove so worthwhile after the music was recorded to give the best flexibility on the final mix downs. Jo Jo would take over the production duties after the initial hiring of Syd Bucknor a producer who had worked closely with Coxonne Dodds Studio 1 stable. The first release on the Channel One label would be 'Don't Give Up The Fight' by Stranger Cole and Gladstone 'Gladdy' Anderson.The initial two thousand run being swallowed up by their Jukebox interests and so the steady flow of hits would run up to the brake through hit of 1975 'Right Time' by the Mighty Diamonds.
1977 saw Jo Jo extending his stays in New York to a semipermanent status, returning mainly to oversee recording sessions and then taking the results back to America for worldwide distribution. His brother Paulies senseless killing in that year also added to Jo Jo's decision to spend more time with his Hit Bound Manufacturing set up in New York. The Channel One studio would be upgraded in 1979 to sixteen tracks and although Jo Jo and Ernest still covered the mixing and engineering duties Kenneth would now supervise sessions. An often untold part of Channel Ones history is the involvement of Producer Niney The Observer. The mid to late 1970's were heavy times both musically and politically and Maxfield Avenue was in the heart of this crossfire. Some artists and musicians were weary of using the establishment especially when sessions ended late at night and exiting the studio at these times could be somewhat dangerous. But Niney’s fearlessness seen him over running and in many cases running the all night sessions with his trusted set of musicians loosely called The Soul Syndicate. Having the run of the mighty Channel One studio's allowed Niney to build up and work on a stockpile of rhythms that he still has yet to unleash on the world. We have been lucky to select a bunch of material from Niney's vaults for this release. Some great unreleased rhythms and some different cuts to some tracks you might already know. Niney's work with Dennis Brown and his own distinctive heavy roots style productions have been documented and indeed his work on Channel Ones Yellowman releases stand tall also. We hope this fine set of Niney Productions set inside the hollowed walls of Channel One will sit beside them as they so richly deserve.
The Last Emperor is a lavish historical epic directed by the great Italian filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci and starring John Lone, Joan Chen, and Peter O’Toole. The film tells the life story of Pu Yi, the last monarch of the Chinese Qing dynasty prior to the republican revolution in 1911. The score for The Last Emperor was created by an unlikely trio: Ryuichi Sakamoto, David Byrne, and Cong Su. The soundtrack is a theme-filled exploration of the sounds and musical traditions of Imperial China, filtered through some very contemporary sensibilities. Sakamoto’s contribution comprises nine cues and is focused around his main theme: a beautiful, lyrical melody for the full orchestra. It’s soft, wistful, and introspective, but becomes increasingly dramatic. Byrne contributes five cues, and the first one is the most recognisable, as it’s the main title theme playing over the film’s stylish opening credits sequence. It emerges from a set of evocative Chinese percussion items, with the melody being carried by a gorgeous, lilting erhu. It’s traditional and wholly steeped in Chinese classical music, but it has a real emotional weight that will connect with westerners. Cong Su’s contribution to the soundtrack album comprises just one cue – “Lunch” – but there is much more of his music in the film; Su was basically responsible for writing all the period-specific Chinese source music one hears in and around the imperial palace during Pu Yi’s childhood. All in all, Sakamoto, Byrne and Cong Su deliver an excellent score.
James Johnston (Gallon Drunk / Nick Cave / PJ Harvey) and Steve Gullick (renowned music photographer) are pleased to announce their new album out on the 26th Feb 2021. It's a dark but beautiful trip. After working together on an art show in late 2019, the idea of making music again immediately resurfaced. Without any firm strategy, Johnston and Gullick began recording, unprompted, drawing upon a shared love of noise, folk, and classical. After the first tracks began to evolve, however, they knew they’d unearthed something compelling and fresh, not to mention unexpectedly mysterious. This became WE TRAVEL TIME.The result is a deceptively crafted album that slowly reveals – and, more importantly, embraces – beauty in its cracks. Piano, voice, violin and guitar create a drifting haze, with the focus on these acoustic elements forging an imagined soundtrack which offers echoes of Big Star, Nico, Lee Hazlewood and Palace Brothers, as well as the gentle, haunting influence of contemporary minimal classical. Ambient sounds – birds, rain, cars, clocks, distant voices – also drift in and out, melting into the music’s fabric via windows left open during the early 2020 heatwave. WE TRAVEL TIME, nonetheless, resists definition, remaining enigmatically timeless.
In 2007 bassist Anneleen Boehme was one of the founders of LABtrio, which is considered as one of the most acclaimed Belgian jazz bands of the past decade. Just like her companions Lander Gyselinck and Bram De Looze, she quickly asserted herself in the most diverse contexts. Now Boehme is launching her "dream project": Grand Picture Palace. A jazz quintet and a string quartet that blend different worlds together. Boehme leads and plays bass and has been writing eight compositions that break through genre walls, music both powerful and elegant, showing how jazz and classical music can balance each other without cliches.
All recordings were made in the early summer of 2020 in the studio of mentor and fellow musician Nicolas Rombouts. The self-titled album 'Grand Picture Palace' will be released on February 19th 2021.
An exploratory record that dances across time and genre, guided by fidgety miniatures and jazz inflected collage. Throughout, the band pool together their instrumental chops, moving from fluid and serpentine R&B to meditative, minimalistic piano, evoking a contrast of virtuosity and self-surrender.
While constructed from the inspiration of soul, funk and film music, BÉE mediate those influences having first digested them through the productions of Madlib & the RZA.
A sticker on the sleeve tells us Self Help “combines jazz-funk and mysticism,” a signpost to where its musical and spiritual concerns align. The jazz-funk component translates to arresting hooks in sideways song forms: echoes of Gainsbourg spooled through Azymuth-style Brazilian jazz and punctuated by the whip and snap of Steely Dan. “The Sound Where My Head Was,” the instrumental centrepiece, exemplifies present-wave jazz but also ancient sounds, giving off the mothballed air of a Hiroshi Yoshimura record in a library-music archive.
Self Help’s mysticism emerges in broad and specific ways, denoting not only a search beyond cliché and intellect but also an inquiry into the beat, the spirit, the one will. This isn’t new territory for them: Turnbull—the artist formerly known as Slim Twig, who writes and performs with U.S. Girls and various other Toronto concerns—named the group’s Nature, Man & Woman EP after the Alan Watts book. Building these songs from his drafts over three weekends at Toronto’s Palace Sound studio, the ensemble was free to tap out of the city and into some other place, taking up residence in a collective mind maze. The album produces, in equal measure, familiar surprises and the surprisingly familiar. Intoxicated jazz riffs swerve left at phantom intersections. Rhythms cut loose and tie you in knots. But wired in to each song is a sense of gentle accumulation, making every featherlight flourish weigh a ton. U.S. Girls’ Meg Remy brings serenity to “Sing a Silent Gospel,” and wears its antic melodies lightly. The soul shimmer of “Unity (It’s Up to You)” lets the players pool their R&B chops into something fluid and serpentine while, on guest vocals, the musical performance artist James Baley issues urgent declaratives: “Water must pool, as a rule, before tasted/Or else the water is wasted.” The words throughout the record complement the ensemble music while riffing on the precarious nature of unity itself. Then, closer “Extinct Commune” finds Turnbull deserted at the piano, playing phrases of meditative minimalism taking after the composer Joanna Brouk.
For all the record’s reach, it is these contrasting quiet moments that bring Self Help’s communal spirit into focus. A note on personnel: Badge Époque Ensemble now has a seventh member in Karen Ng, the saxophonist and sometime collaborator of Do Make Say Think, Feist, and others. In BÉE, Ng joins Chris Bezant and Giosuè Rosati, her bandmates in the Andy Shauf live band, as well as U.S. Girls co-conspirators Turnbull and Ed Squires, and other Torontonian cross-pollinators listed below. Guest vocalists across Self Help include Meg Remy, who sings with Dorothea Paas on the opener, James Baley, and Toronto singer-songwriter Jennifer Castle on the remarkable “Just Space for Light.” Words by: Jazz Monroe
Flute, congas, bass, drums, guitar and clavinet; this unconventional arrangement of instruments intertwine to form the debut album by Badge Époque Ensemble - a group of creative improvisers assembled to perform new, largely instrumental compositions by Maximilian ‘Twig’ Turnbull(formerly Slim Twig - DFA Records).
Badge employs an eclectic cast of characters from the Toronto underground music scene, whose combined experience would take pages to spell out. It includes stints accompanying songwriters Andy Shauf and Marker Starling, outfitting heavies Blood Ceremony and Biblical, and respective careers spent gigging Django-jazz and the classical cannon.
Badge’s distinctive sound arises from the diversity of these musical exploits, creating a palpable chemistry well captured on the live-tracked songs that form the group’s self-titled debut. Part of this crucial chemistry can be attributed to the fact that four of the six players in the Ensemble have been at the core of the live, U.S. Girls band, a group that has scorched stages internationally over the past year and was hailed by Paste magazine as the best live band of 2018. While it may call to mind an improbable collision between psych-era Stevie Wonder and the whimsically dark, Fantastic Planet score, it is clear we are operating in a post Wu-Tang paradigm. If a crate of library, tropicalia, prog and electric jazz records were flattened into a single 12” and then fed into a sampler, we might approximate the process.
Following the extraordinary response to the online streaming event in July, audiences will have another chance to experience Idiot Prayer: Nick Cave Alone at Alexandra Palace as it screens in cinemas globally via Trafalgar Releasing from 5 November. The cinematic release of this remarkable and compelling film will be followed by an album on 20 November, available on vinyl, CD and streaming services worldwide.
Idiot Prayer: Nick Cave Alone at Alexandra Palace was recorded in June 2020 as the UK slowly emerged from lockdown, and was conceived as a reaction to the confinement and isolation of the preceding months. Initially imagined as an online only event, fans will now be able to see the film in cinemas as an extended cut featuring four unseen performances.
Two weeks later on 20 November, the music will be released as a double album of the same name featuring all 22 songs from the original film on vinyl, CD and streaming.
In Idiot Prayer, Cave plays his songs alone at the piano in a rarely seen stripped back form, from early Bad Seeds and Grinderman, right through to the most recent Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds album, Ghosteen.
The performance was filmed by award winning Cinematographer Robbie Ryan (The Favourite, Marriage Story, American Honey) in Alexandra Palace’s stunning West Hall. It was edited by Nick Emerson (Lady Macbeth, Emma, Greta). The music was recorded by Dom Monks.
Idiot Prayer is the fourth film that Nick Cave has released in collaboration with Trafalgar Releasing, following 2018's Distant Sky - Live in Copenhagen directed by David Barnard, 2016's One More Time With Feeling directed by Andrew Dominik and 2014's award winning 20,000 Days on Earth directed by Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard.
Live at Alexandra Palace, 2020
In August 2016 Ultramarine created a photo film featuring photographs from Ian Cooper's Survey East website which focuses on a particular stretch of the Blackwater Estuary in Essex.
The film (and accompanying soundtrack) was screened on rotation at the Caught By The River Thames festival at Fulham Palace in London.
For this original Blackwaterside audio/print project, Ultramarine created two new pieces of music inspired by their time working close to the estuary. Glasgow based printmaker/sculptor Bronwen Sleigh visited this remote corner of Essex to sketch and draw, using these visual references to create a lithograph, printed in three colours, which features on the cover of the book accompanying the 7" single.
The book features a series of Ian Cooper's original photographs, alongside poetry by the writer Philip Terry, inspired by the Essex coast, taken from his book Quennets.
- Originally released by publishing imprint Random Spectacular
- Re-released by Blackford Hill with obi strip
- 7" vinyl single
- 28-page booklet of photographs and poetry
- Wraparound cover by printmaker Bronwen Sleigh
- Digital download card (including an extra 16 minutes of bonus audio)
- Limited edition of 350 copies
- Played by Nick Luscombe on BBC Radio 3 'Late Junction'
- Played by Gideon Coe on BBC Radio 6
Between Roads Vol.1 and Roads Vol.2, Thylacine composed the singles "Versailles" (256,000 views on Youtube) at the Palace of Versailles and "Anatolia" (387,000 views on Youtube) in Turkey which are grouped here with remixes by Jaffna and Sezer Uysal on the B side.
We also find on this EP the powerful and hypnotic track "War Dance" (438,000 views on Youtube).
Vinyl includes mp3 coupon. Shabazz Palaces' Black Up, the group's Sub Pop debut, was recently hailed as one of the best albums of the decade by outlets like Pitchfork, Gorilla Vs Bear, and Variety. Pitchfork summed it up thusly: "Black Up is drowned in murky instrumentals and bombastic, introspective rhymes. The sounds flirt with jazz but also root themselves in a firm understanding of silence, or the sparse magic of simplicity. The songs teem with unexpected climaxes...From great mystery exploded an album of impossible vision." That "impossible vision" has continued to confound and engage Shabazz Palaces fans over the course of four acclaimed albums and two EPs. Each release feels like an evolution, letting the music speak for itself, while slowly revealing more about its creator. With The Don of Diamond Dreams, the group's fifth album, that spirit remains, this time embracing modernism in hip-hop and rap. Featuring 10 tracks in 43 minutes, the album features the highlights "Fast Learner (ft. Purple Tape Nate)," "Chocolate Souffle," "Bad Bitch Walking (ft. Stas THEE Boss), and "Thanking The Girls." It also features contributions from singer/keyboardist Darrius Willrich, Seattle's OCnotes (who collaborated with Shabazz leader Ishmael Butler on the Knife Knights project), Los Angeles musician Carlos Overall, and bassist Evan Flory-Barnes. The Don of Diamond Dreams was recorded throughout 2019 and produced by Shabazz Palaces at Protect and Exalt: A Black Space in Seattle, mixed and engineered by Erik Blood at Studio 4 Labs in Venice, California, and mastered by Scott Sedillo at Bernie Grundman Mastering in Los Angeles.
LP SKY BLUE VINYL/LOSER-EDITION
Vinyl includes mp3 coupon. Shabazz Palaces' Black Up, the group's Sub Pop debut, was recently hailed as one of the best albums of the decade by outlets like Pitchfork, Gorilla Vs Bear, and Variety. Pitchfork summed it up thusly: "Black Up is drowned in murky instrumentals and bombastic, introspective rhymes. The sounds flirt with jazz but also root themselves in a firm understanding of silence, or the sparse magic of simplicity. The songs teem with unexpected climaxes...From great mystery exploded an album of impossible vision." That "impossible vision" has continued to confound and engage Shabazz Palaces fans over the course of four acclaimed albums and two EPs. Each release feels like an evolution, letting the music speak for itself, while slowly revealing more about its creator. With The Don of Diamond Dreams, the group's fifth album, that spirit remains, this time embracing modernism in hip-hop and rap. Featuring 10 tracks in 43 minutes, the album features the highlights "Fast Learner (ft. Purple Tape Nate)," "Chocolate Souffle," "Bad Bitch Walking (ft. Stas THEE Boss), and "Thanking The Girls." It also features contributions from singer/keyboardist Darrius Willrich, Seattle's OCnotes (who collaborated with Shabazz leader Ishmael Butler on the Knife Knights project), Los Angeles musician Carlos Overall, and bassist Evan Flory-Barnes. The Don of Diamond Dreams was recorded throughout 2019 and produced by Shabazz Palaces at Protect and Exalt: A Black Space in Seattle, mixed and engineered by Erik Blood at Studio 4 Labs in Venice, California, and mastered by Scott Sedillo at Bernie Grundman Mastering in Los Angeles.
Rocksteady Disco's newest recruit is Eddie Logix. He's been at the heart of the Detroit underground for over 15 years, most recently with his Technically Yeah live hardware nights, a grip of ambient and hip-hop releases, engineering for Assemble Sound. He’s one half of left-field funk-hop duo Mega Powers with Pig Pen, and of 'BLKSHRK' alongside Blair French, who first appeared on Rocksteady Disco
back in 2016 on; For Todd.
Placebo Palace is Eddie's first solo dance EP, combining all of this experience into a diverse offering for discerning dance floors.
The EP leads with “Que Locos”, a tropical house banger driven by brass and Latin-Jazz piano. “Baby Girl” rounds out the A side, with a dusty R & B vocal sample coupled with a massive and unexpected bassline. The B side is darker and deeper, starting with the frantic Afro-Jazz-Deep House “Sunday Palaver”. Closing the EP is “Bottle Rocket”, a psychedelic surf rock-tinged disco-not-disco chugger, with live guitar by Daniel Monk and electric bass by stphn-b. More forward thinking music from Detroit via Rocksteady Disco!
Soul Jazz Records new release takes us on a serious road trip into the North-West region of the USA, 1986-97, to explore the amazing lost and forgotten sounds of the Grunge era.
This Deluxe massive 28-track Double CD with 44-page outsize booklet features extensive text, band features and interviews, exclusive photos. Also Worldwide digital release + Ltd.Edition Two seperate double-vinyl albums with full notes and free download code.
The underground music scene of the North-west of America arose from the early 1980's, strung out in isolated towns across the vast state of Washington. In its early days bands who showed an allegiance to their roots of punk. Yet, by 1991,Nirvana, the biggest band in the world, had been born from this community of outsiders.
This compilation features some of the many divergent bands who emerged out of the North-west during this era. Intensely researched and documented this album features many bands who have now disappeared from history after releasing maybe just a couple of singles, or an album, or even never making it onto vinyl – alongside some bands that continue to this day.
Perhaps most fascinating is the wide-ranging styles that these grunge bands incorporated - from punk to metal, experimental and more.
All Roads lead to Nirvana: 17 of the bands featured here played alongside Nirvana in the period 1987 to 93. All 23 bands featured feature members who shared a stage with Nirvana. Jack Endino (The Ones) produced 37 Nirvana songs. Dave Foster (Helltrout) was Nirvana's 3rd drummer. Bundle of Hiss became TAD who played more gigs with Nirvana than any other band.
With fantastically in-depth sleevenotes, interviews with most of the bands, exclusive photography and all sonically remastered tracks this is a comprehensive double CD (and 2 volumes of 2x12" vinyl releases) bringing together the hidden, lost and forgotten sounds of the North-west grunge era.
Reviews & Articles: Seattle Times feature here. Irish Times here. Read article by compiler Nick Soulsby in Nirvana Legacy here Read second article by the compiler here. Read article about the artwork here.
New Zealand juggernaut Fat Freddy’s Drop return with a new studio album, ‘Special Edition Part 1’, due for digital release on 15th November, with 2LP Vinyl and CD following up on 10th January. The 45rpm vinyl edition is produced with
a different track order across four sides and promises to deliver super fat loud audio.
Part 1 of a double album, ‘Special Edition Part 1’, comprises of six tracks of which ‘Raleigh Twenty’, ‘Trickle Down’ and
‘Six-Eight Instrumental’ were written and recorded undercover at the band’s Wellington studio, BAYS, while the other
tracks; ‘Special Edition, ‘Kamo Kamo’, and ‘OneFourteen’, have all been developed and evolved from the band’s celebrated live jam sessions, whilst on the road in front of audiences worldwide.
Supremely crafted at Freddy’s own BAYS studio in hometown Wellington, the deep musical and rich vocal layers reflect
Freddy’s inspiration from the black music lexicon and is a response to the crowd energy at their world dominating live
shows.
‘Special Edition Part 1’ is the first release of a long envisaged double album project with separate chapters. The next
journey, Part 2 will be released in 2020 after stringent road-testing with audiences over 35 shows across New Zealand, UK and Europe celebrating the release of the Part 1. These upcoming live performances will allow the band to fully explore new song-writing technology and give rise to a slamming Part 2. The new album follows on from 2015’s ‘BAYS’ LP, which saw support from Financial Times, Resident Advisor, Dummy, the DJ Mag and Clash-acclaimed ‘Blackbird,’ second album ‘Dr Boondigga and the Big BW’ - which gained rave reviews by The Guardian and BBC Music - and the band’s record breaking debut album ‘Based on a True Story’, which went nine times platinum and remained in New Zealand’s top 40 charts for over two years after its release in
2005.
The album cover artwork is by Wellington artist Otis Chamberlain, a continuing evolution from his creation for the its first single ‘Trickle Down’, a work that's morphed from digital cover art to the band’s massive summer tour backdrop and the recently released late-night buttery steppers ‘Kamo Kamo’. Fat Freddy’s Drop have been performing and recording together for more than 15 years, establishing themselves as one of New Zealand's most internationally successful acts. Considered one of the best live experiences in the world, they will embark on their biggest European and UK tour since they sold out a double hitter at London’s 02 Academy Brixton in 2018. Including an already sold out show in Dublin, the band will headline Cardiff’s Motorpoint Arena on 29th April 2020, Liverpool’s Invisible Wind Factory on 30th April, returning back to London’s Alexandra Palace on 1st May – the palace was the scene of two triumphant sold out headline concerts in 2014 and 2017 - before heading north to Glasgow’s Barrowland on 3rd May.
Made up of Dave Harrington (Darkside/Dave Harrington Group) and Benjamin Jay (NDF/Benoit & Sergio), Lights Fluorescent is, as the two describe it, an ‘experiment in the spaces between song and texture, idea and reference, past and present.’ On their debut album, The Oldest Sons Of The Oldest Sons, the duo develops an atmospheric, slant-pop sensibility that lists toward the experimental tendencies of improvisational and ambient music.
The result is a set of songs meant to be lived with. Entirely percussion-less, recordings drift on a tenderness of guitar, revenant feedback and vocals of autumnal intimation. Space Metal and July 9th process layers of bespoke noise and washed out chords to tarry with integral depth, light, and shadow, while Hotels distills country-western longing into its nth dimensional essence always unrequited.
From within these sonic panoramas, vocals emerge more as watercolor traces than coarse etchings. They aim to capture evocative, lyrical intensities, eschewing the solace of the literal. As such, the album favors 'the gestural, the implicit, and the miniature over the more adolescent urges of grand narratives and epic.’ These preferences map onto the album in all of its moves. J Girls reveals a hint of story buried, like its context, deep in whorls of feedback. Fleeting images of monuments, cathedrals, or epitaphs on tracks like Palace Walls or Small Sacrifices speak to a sense of memory and community paradoxically ungrounded by the material instantiations meant to keep things in place.
