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Peggy Gou’s Gudu Records steps into 2022 with Brain De Palma’s second EP for the label, Purple Brain.

Although this is only his second release under the Brain De Palma name, Alexei Versino has been honing his sound for the best part of a decade, both solo (as Panama Keys) and as one half of the duo Stump Valley, previously releasing on labels like Dekmantel, Soul Clap and Off Minor. Born in Ukraine but settling as a child in Turin, he’s currently based in Berlin and makes up a key part of the Gudu stable.

Coming straight out the gate with an instantly impactful bassline, opening track ‘IQarus’ sets the tone for the rest of Purple Brain: bold melodies and basslines shot in high-definition, full of detail and idiosyncrasies. As with his last EP for Gudu, cinema is a key reference for Brain de Palma: ‘IQarus’ is a reference to his directorial namesake’s first film, while later in the EP, ‘(O.W.D.) Once Were Dancers’ nods to the 1994 drama Once Were Warriors, “dedicated to all the ravers, DJs, aficionados who had to go through the lockdowns … a shout out to people who keep on fighting for the underground culture!”

Elsewhere on the EP, ‘Purple Brain’ pairs an unforgettable arpeggio with stargazing stabs and a marching cowbell beat, while the Netherlands’ Deniro takes ‘IQarus’ into the depths of the night with a cosmic remix that grabs hold of a groove and refuses to let go.

HET’s man in charge, Hagen Richter, is taking care of the labels’ new release, Cat #: HET008. Upcoming 721 Lee EP is a 12” two track release, each side giving space to just one track running on 45rpm. The original mix of 721 Lee is aiming at dancers’ emotions, building up slowly and in the end leading to a classic, uplifting arpeggio pattern. On the B-Side Dystopian’s core artist Alex.Do interpretates 721 Lee. His “Nautilus Version” uses a catchy melodic hookline and backs it up with quotations of trance and goa elements. This fast pace remix is full of energy and yet transports the original’s emotions in his unique Alex.Do-style! ☺

Ever since Tsuyoshi Hamada, better known as Dayzero dropped his now-sold-out first ZamZam “Orbit Dub” b/w “Theory Dub” in 2020 we’ve been eager to bless listeners and dancers with a next chapter of his unmistakable, menacing 140 dubs, and that Part 2 is finally here. In the two years since his first Zam he’s worked with Sentry, Vomitspit, Endz, and most recently branched out with an EP of leftfield styles & textures for Bristol’s legendary Livity Sound. Now he's back on 7" vinyl with a pair of stompers just the way we like them.

“Word sounds and power gonna mash them down” couldn’t be a more choice sample to lace “Pages” with, a skanking behemoth of 140 energy powered by swaggering kick & sub, reverb soaked snare, driving shaker, scratchy guitar licks, and mad delays twisting out at bewitching angles.

“Sen” counts off through a dodgy radio frequency, flying low and dropping into a ruff attack of dirty drums & bass, shifting, off-beat mid-range melodics, sleigh bell and percussion cutting through the hazy sonic miasma threatening to envelop the tune. At once eyes-down and hands-in-the-air, Dayzero strikes again with a guaranteed high score in the dance.

Strictly limited to 700 copies for the world. No digital, no repress. Art, design & two-color screen print by Polygon Press. Mastered at Precise, Pressed at Third Man.

Born October 1966. Break Dancer in 1984, under the moniker Mad Max, started a crew named the Back Street Warriors, Busking all over the UK at places such as Covent Garden/Leicester Square Performing on stage & in clubs. They once jammed with the Rock Steady Crew in Camden Palace in front of an audience.

Then in 1987 he became a DJ, playing all genres of music, he first played on
RJR Radio, playing Electro, Hip Hop, Soul, R&B & Reggae. Moving forward he started playing Acid House & Four to the Floor Music styles, by the early 90s he played on Weekend Rush and then went onto Defection, Touchdown, Don & Passion FM, playing Acid & Hardcore Jungle.

In the early days MixMaster Max was one of the Innovators of Jungle music by mixing Hardcore, Reggae & Hip Hop together, helping others to produce, fuse & gain ideas in the music industry. He was by Far the most Original, Innovative, DJ anybody had ever heard.

In 1991 he played alongside John Saunderson at the Camden Palace on a Friday night, he also played at the famous Hacienda club in Manchester.
He was the First DJ to create the Topsy Turvey, which is one turntable on top of the other, he came runner up in the DMC world championships in the early 90s.

He played at some of the Biggest Raves back in the day, Pirate club 93, Fantazia 92, Dungeons 91/92, Turnmills 92, to mention a few. He also played on Avenues FM & People's Choice, which were legal Radio Stations, not forgetting Kool fm & Centreforce.

He performed on stage with the We Papa Girl Rappers in 1990 at the Notting Hill Carnival. This Legendary Cult figure is a Master of the Nunchuckers & TurnTables!
His innovative Mixes were ‘legendary’ he was a pioneer precursor to the Art form known as Jungle Music, not to mention his Scratching abilities, which was ‘extraordinary’!

For those that listened to pirate radio back in the day, he was the legendary cult
figure that inspired us all, giving us the freshest musical styles that had never been heard before!

Black Truffle is thrilled to announce Drumming Up Trouble, the first release of previously unissued music by Alvin Curran on the label. Collecting works recorded between 2018-2021 and a side-long epic dating back to the early 80s, as the title suggests, Drumming Up Trouble focuses on a hitherto almost unknown aspect of Curran’s encyclopaedic and omnivorous musical world: his experiments with sampled and synthesised percussion. As Curran’s wonderful, wildly sweeping liner notes make clear, his fascination with drumming belongs to the radical investigation of music’s fundamental elements that has marked his output since the beginnings of MEV, who aimed (as he says in a recent interview) to return ‘in some collective way to a non-existent start time in the history of human music’. Whatever kind of music our proto-human ancestors played, he writes, ‘drums were front and centre in the mix. Drums rule!’

In a paradox typical of Curran’s approach, Drumming Up Trouble interrogates this most ancient dimension of music with contemporary technology. On the first side, we hear recent pieces performed using the sampling software and full-size MIDI keyboard setup Curran has refined since the 1980s. Two of them are wild real-time improvisations, primarily utilising an enormous bank of hip-hop samples. Building from polyrhythmic layers of drum machine fragments to wild cacophonies of clashing vocal samples, scratching, and frantic pitch shifting, these energetic and at times hilarious pieces occupy a space somewhere between John Oswald’s Plunderphonics, Pat Thomas and Matt Wand in the Tony Oxley Quartet, and the propulsive Kudoro/Grime fusion of Lisbon’s Príncipe label. They are improvisations are accompanied by two austere, minimal compositions realised in collaboration with Angelo Maria Fallo: ‘End Zone’ for orchestral bass drum and high oscillator, and ‘Rollings’, where a snare roll is gradually stretched and filtered by digital means into ‘floating electronic gossamer’.

The incredible breadth of Curran’s output makes it pretty unlikely that a listener familiar with his work would be surprised to find it branching out in a new direction. But no degree of familiarity with his work can really prepare for side B’s epic and bizarre ‘Field it More’. It’s perhaps best to let the maestro describe this unhinged and infectious offering in his own words: ‘It features an 8 bar funky minimal riff à la James Brown, played on synth and an-out-of-tune piano, synced to a pre-paid patch on the Roland drum machine. Over this is laid a heavily processed track of the voices of dancer Yoshiko Chuma and movie-maker Jacob Burckhardt discussing an upcoming performance of theirs at the Venice film festival, capped by a track of my playing an increasingly out of control blues over the top of all of the above’. Only Pekka Airaksinen’s Buddhas of the Golden Light comes to mind as a reference point that might even vaguely compare to this wild home-brew of drum-machine funk, mad improvisation and squelching electronics, which eventually dissolved into a massive, layered cluster. Ancient and modern, synthetic and human, hysterical and rigorous, Drumming up Trouble is 100% Curran.

When Rey Sapienz was eight years old, the Democratic Republic of Congo was plunged into the Second Congo War. The conflict last five years and was the bloodiest since World War II, leaving an indelible mark on East Africa and creating mass displacement and loss of life. But Sapienz endured, cutting his teeth as a young rapper at twelve, first performing to celebrate Congo's independence day. When he finished school, he headed to nearby Kampala to hone his craft and collaborate with local producers. But civil war broke out back home and he was forced to extend his stay in Uganda. Since then, Sapienz has established himself as a force to be reckoned with, co-founding the Hakuna Kulala label, teaching his Ableton Live skills to Kampala's young producers and releasing two acclaimed EPs. For his debut album, Sapienz embarks on an ambitious project that travels beyond the avant beatscapes of his early material. Alongside traditional percussionist, vocalist and dancer Papalas Palata and rapper Fresh Doggis, he has formed The Congo Techno Ensemble, utilizing their skills and experience to offer a statement that speaks to the past, present and future of the DRC. On "Eza Makambo", the trio channel rich musical traditions and historic tension, evolving electronic and traditional forms into boundless sci-fi mutations. The track breaks open the stories all three artists accumulated in the DRC, augmenting radioactive techno-dancehall beats with radical, open-hearted words and rhymes. "Eza Makambo" is a heady cocktail of stylistic futurism and harsh reality that could be compared with Zizou Bikaye's seminal "Noir et Blanc or Danis Mpunga & Paul K.'s genre-breaking electronic experiments. But marked by the DRC's recent scars, it's a critical work that stands painfully alone.

Limited edition 300 copies. Sababa 5’s debut single features the talented Japanese singer and belly dancer Yurika. The two songs - Crossroad of Love (Ai no Kousaten) and Blue Universe (Aoi Sekai) – blend Yurika's dreamy vocals and texts with the band's 70's sensibility and Israeli soul music. As the band plays a mediterranean groove of both Israeli and Arabic origins, Yurika's Japanese lyrics float effortlessly on top. Sababa 5 and Yurika met in the summer of 2017, when Yurika was in Israel for an internship at the Orly Portal Dance Company. Yurika, performing at the time as a belly dancer with Boom Pam and Ouzo Bazooka, wrote lyrics in Japanese for two melodies composed by Sababa 5 guitarist Ilan Smilan. Both songs on the single are love songs, love that is both personal and universal. The combination of lyrics in Japanese, Yurika's gossamer vocals influenced by the Kayokyoku style and the Israeli sound of Sababa 5 creates a unique and interesting sound. Yurika (vocals), Ilan Smilan (guitar), Amir Sadot (bass) In the recording Lior Romano (keyboards) and Assan (drums).

ABOUT SABABA 5 Sababa 5 was formed in 2016 by Amir Sadot and Ilan Smilan, both members of TIGRIS band and the Hoodna Orchestra. The four members of Sababa 5 are already well known for their work with some of Tel Aviv's top artists/vocalists such as Gili Yalo, Liraz Cherchi, Sari and Reno, Ester Rada and Kutiman - to name but a few. With influences that range from Wrecking Crew and The Funk Brothers recordings from the 60's, to analog Middle Eastern music from the 70's, the sound of the band constantly evolves around different genres and rhythms. Yet, in its core, Sababa 5 remains very much a groove-centric band. The main source of inspiration for the band are "lehakot ketzev" (beat groups) from Israel that played innovative combinations of psychedelic rock mixed with Mediterranean Arab music during the 60’s and 70's. The fusion of East and West, along with the new spirit brought by the band members, creates a unique mix of styles that comes together into a new and original work. The band is currently working on a new instrumental album alongside the production of new songs for local singers. ABOUT YURIKA Born in the Chiba district on the eastern outskirts of Tokyo, Yurika began her journey towards belly dancing at the tender age of five, taking up lessons in jazz dance. After high-school, she applied for belly dancing lessons almost by chance - yet as she quickly fell in love with the music and the nature of the movements, Yurika knew this is what she was meant to do. Before long, Yurika began traveling around the Middle East, learning belly dancing in different cities and countries like Egypt, Morocco and Turkey. Whilst in Turkey, she met the famous Istanbul-New York based female darbuka player Raquy Danziger - who later invited her to perform in Israel. Once in Israel, Yurika began studying with Orly Portal, a master of contemporary folklore dance. After finishing her studies with Orly, Yurika remained in Tel Aviv and joined bands like Boom Pam and Ouzo Bazooka as a dancer. In her work with Sababa 5, Yurika is featured as a vocalist for the first time.

Mice Parade returns from a decade of silence to release lapapọ, an album that spans the many styles of their storied career,and features guest singer appearances by Angel Deradoorian (Dirty Projectors) and Arone Dyer (Buke & Gase). The rock is louder; the West-African-inspired highlife breaks are chubbier; the dueling drumkits are more complex, the instrumental passages more serene. What started as a home recording project in the late 90s soon morphed into a formidable and completely unique live band of incredible musicians from around the globe, all live-mixed and effected by legendary UK engineer Brandon Knights (aka Dub Warrior), the longtime sound engineer for Lee Scratch Perry, Soul II Soul, Gladiators and others. After 9 albums and nearly 15 years years of worldwide touring, including festivals across the UK, Iceland, mainland Europe, Turkey and Japan, and supporting Stereolab across the US, Mice Parade fans can finally hear some new music, and the live band hopes to safely reunite later this year. Throughout it all, Adam has mostly recorded with same ethos: allowing only one take for each track, forcing him to either leave in mistakes or address them with mutes or distractions, and embracing the Bob Ross concept of 'happy accidents.' This was a strict rule for the first several albums, and while he eventually became less strict about it, it's still a goal that is achieved more often than not. Perfection is not the goal - indeed, there should be no such thing in music. Most songs are not even written before pressing the record button, but instead are built piece by piece in improvised fashion. lapapọ is a Yoruba word meaning something akin to "totally" or "altogether."

180 GRAM AUDIOPHILE VINYL
• GATEFOLD SLEEVE
• INCLUDING INSERT WITH LINER NOTES
• HIGH RESOLUTION AUDIO MASTER, CUT ON 45 RPM
• GRAMMY AWARD NOMINEE, THREE-TIME ECHO AWARD
NOMINEE, THEODORE PRESSER AWARD RECIPIENT JAZZ MUSICIAN THEO CROKER
• FEATURING ARI LENNOX, GARY BARTZ, CHARLOTTE
DOS SANTOS, MALAYA, IMAN OMARI, KASSA OVERALL &
WYCLEF JEAN
• LIMITED EDITION OF 750 INDIVIDUALLY NUMBERED
COPIES ON TURQUOISE COLOURED VINYL

Every trip needs a guide. Through the trumpet, the Grammy Award-nominated artist, producer, composer, tought leader, influencer and tastemaker Theo Croker narrates a human story rooted in intimate experience, yet cognizant of cosmic consciousness. This journey unfolds in technicolor on his sixth full-length offering, BLK2LIFE || A FUTURE PAST.

“BLK2LIFE || A FUTURE PAST is meant to be a deeply impactful, personal experience for the listener. One that you can also dance to - it is Black music after all,” Croker says.

BLK2LIFE || A FUTURE PAST consists of 13 tracks and is inspired by the forgotten hero’s journey towards self-actualization within the universal origins of blackness. It’s a sonic celebration of Afro-origin, and ultimately a reclamation of the culture, for the culture. Joining Croker on the album are Ari Lennox, Charlotte Dos Santos, Gary Bartz, Iman Omari, Kassa Overall, Malaya, and Wyclef Jean.

BLK2LIFE || A FUTURE PAST is cut on 45 RPM with a high resolution audio master. The album is available as a limited edition of 750 individually numbered copies on turquoise coloured vinyl, housed in a gatefold sleeve.

Up next on A Tribe Called Kotori, please welcome Berlin's very own Madmotormiquel - all set and ready to storm the house after several transmissions on an array of quality outlets, including our good friends at Katermukke. His maiden incursion on the label, "Bombo", will not only be released in digital shape as per usual for the rest of our catalogue, but also in 12" vinyl format - with the special and endearingly peculiar trait that each cover is hand-designed by Chrisse Kunst and Madmotormiquel himself, making these collectible one-off pieces of art to adorn your shelves with.

Opening cut and lead-single "Bombo" sets the wheels in motion at a slow and steady rate, progressively fleshing out its initially stripped-back funkiness with a polychromatic webwork of tribal rhythms, spectral synth murk and frizzling machine talk. The quirky "Kohiko" serves up a mischievous buffet of further syncopated moves and chirpy chimes pouring in cascades as a sturdy bass unfalteringly dictates the momentum.

Shifting the scope to no-nonsense floor-busting objectives in its first stages, "Timezone Chaser" slowly evolves from sheer DJ functionality to jazzed-up abstraction through perfectly inlaid superimpositions of processed clarinets, dubbed-out drums and an overall hazy sound design to satisfyingly lose yourself in. EP closer "Rodrigues" opts for a more jagged approach, as it fuses skittish snares and hats at the fore with deep and vaporous pad tapestries in the background, resulting in the kind of heavily FX-layered, acid-leaning sleepwalker that'll keep the dancers' legs in motion even though their eyes seem shuttered.

Das Album The Silver Lining von Soul Asylum aus dem Jahr 2006 wird zum ersten Mal auf Vinyl wieder veröffentlicht! Es war das letzte Album mit dem Bassisten Karl Mueller, der tragischerweise vor der Fertigstellung des Albums an Krebs verstarb. Es ist auch das erste, auf dem Michael Bland am Schlagzeug zu hören ist. Die Doppel-LP wurde von John Fields produziert und von Justin Perkins bei Mystery Room Mastering für Vinyl gemastert. Sie enthält bedruckte Hüllen und eine Klappverpackung sowie den Hidden Track "Fearless Leader". Das Album wurde weithin als eine Rückkehr zur Topform für die langjährige Rockband aus Minneapolis angesehen, die in den 90er Jahren mit Grave Dancer's Union und Let Your Dim Light Shine kommerziellen Erfolg hatte, nachdem sie in den 80er Jahren im Untergrund Anerkennung gefunden hatte.

Format: Ltd. Schwarzes Vinyl 140 Gr. 2LP mit bedruckter Hülle in Gatefold-Verpackung.

Circles ist LÉONs drittes Studioalbum nach Apart (2020) und erscheint jetzt endlich auch als Vinyl-Version. Von PopMatters wurde es als "deutlich persönlicher als ihr bisheriges Werk" beschrieben, während American Songwriter die Platte als "fruchtbaren Schritt vorwärts in
ihrer Beziehung zu den Fans, selbst aus den entferntesten Ecken der Welt" bezeichnete.

Die von der Kritik gefeierte schwedische Künstlerin, die 2019 ihr selbstbetiteltes Debütalbum veröffentlicht, hat sich seit der Veröffentlichung ihrer Debütsingle im Jahr 2015 eine treue Fangemeinde erarbeitet. Mit jeder Veröffentlichung stellt LÉON ihr Talent für gefühlvolle, zarte und unvergessliche Popsongs unter Beweis. Neben ihrem Debüt im Spätfernsehen in der Late Late Show mit James Corden hat sie weltweit ausverkaufte Headline-Shows und Auftritte auf US-Festivals wie Coachella, Bonnaroo und Lollapalooza bestritten.

Please welcome Barış Karademir, Istanbul's edit master, DJ, and musician with Insanlar on Live At Robert Johnson!

If you're a person that likes to get up late, Barış's first track »Noon« is the one for you. It sort of sets the mood for the whole EP with a groove that is deep and hypnotic and above all psychedelic. There's tremolo en masse plus these in and out fading voices that suck you into Mr. K's world - all kept together by this steady forward marching Barış beat. Pleasure, joy, and happiness - all in on groove - and not only effective at noon.

»La Dame Noir«'s most prominent feature is a mean bass line - plus more of those otherworldly sounds that Barış manages to pull out of his magician's hat while creating a superb shuffling riddim for all you dancers to shuffle along to, throwing in that oh so subtle triangle now and then.

With the last track »Valhalla«, Barış enters the mythological place of Asgard, where Valhalla, Odin's hall of the slain can be found in his Glaðsheimr castle. That kinda sounds a bit archaic and dark but don't be afraid: where there is shadow there is also light - light which can be heard in the first opening lines, lines that do sound a bit like played by our favorite shoegazer band "My Bloody Valentine". To get to Valhalla, Barış accelerates the tempo by a couple of beats, yet throws in all trademark ingredients to cook up a tune for peak time dancing in Valhalla … erm … I mean in the club.

So yes, please let us invite you to Barış K's wonderful world of sound - you won't regret it.

Joining the dots between Brazilian musical culture and the sonic melting pot that is New York City, Saidera are a trio on the rise. They’ve already released a pair of critically acclaimed, carnival-ready singles on Brooklyn’s Let’s Play House label and are now ready to make their debut on Leng Records.

The band’s roots can be traced back to a trip that Lemonade band member Alex Pasternak made to Brazil in 2014. While DJing at a house party in the bohemian Rio de Janeiro neighbourhood of Sta Teresa, Pasternak was left gobsmacked when a mysterious local singer/sambista Vadinho Freire, grabbed the mic and started freestyling lyrics and melodies over his set. Realising their instinctive musical connection, Pasternak and Freire decided to work together on some music, with New Yorker Le Chev joining them to complete the Saidera trio.

Now based in Rio and California, the group’s sun-soaked sound – which they describe as “samba disco-Afro melody” – is a cross-cultural stew in which infectious Brazilian percussion, colourful synth sounds, glistening guitars and celebratory vocals combine to create magical, life-affirming musical moments.

‘Luzes Da Cidade’, their first outing on Leng, encapsulates all that’s good about the Saidera sound and the trio’s approach to music. The song is about identity and connection and in its original form is languid, loved-up and joyous, with acoustic and electric guitars, Portuguese vocals and Korey Riker’s gently breezy flute solos rising above a squelchy synth bassline and energetic, sweat-soaked samba drums.

The song’s main mix comes accompanied by a wonderful instrumental pass featuring more extensive solos by Riker, and Saidera’s own remix of ‘Luzes Da Cidade’ – an extra-percussive, breakbeat-tinged fusion of hazy deep house, energetic samba and sunset-ready synth-disco that will delight DJs and dancers alike.

To round off the EP, Saidera has delivered a brand new “Uprockin Dub” of debut single ‘Deixa Tudo Fluir’, this time with female vocals from Irina Bertolucci taking the lead. Brilliantly kaleidoscopic sonically, with dub delay-laden vocals, guitars and flutes, it’s a superb, life-affirming Balearic reggae interpretation of a now familiar favourite. If you’re not singing along with the chorus after your first listen, we’d be very surprised.

Soopasoul is an enigmatic producer, whose purist approach to jazz, funk and soul music has resonated with DJs, break-dancers, music connoisseurs, critics and casual listeners alike. Since furthering his legacy by creating a hugely successful edits series, Soopasoul returns to one of the biggest cuts from his now legendary Jalapeno debut album Twin Stix - Brand Nu. The 142 mixes are the first versions of this now classic cut that were recorded and have a raw funk grit that became a little more polished for the album release version. Available in full vocal and instrumental versions, these alternative mixes showcase all the reasons why Soopasoul is a mainstay of funk & soul charts worldwide.

Incl. Schacke Remix

Having been extensively road-tested this past year by DJs including Daniel Avery, HAAi and Gerd Janson, Highdive arrives with tangible anticipation. The work of less-than-shadowy figures Gramrcy and John Loveless, the pair have passed lockdown and beyond remixing artists such as WH Lung, Discovery Zone and Ghost Culture. Debuting their first original material, closely following Gramrcy’s recent appearance on Loveless’s own Hot Concept imprint, Highdive is a long-anticipated explosion of energy.

Built around a sonic-boom breakdown, glossy rave chords and pounding post-punk drums, Highdive feels immediately at home on Phantasy. Having worked closely alongside founder Erol Alkan in recent years to shape the imprint's diverse output, Loveless' collaboration with the Peach Discs founder nods to the electro landscape of the label's earliest days. Having never left dance floors since, Gramrcy & John Loveless take a golden opportunity to plunge dancers into the sublime and the ridiculous.

While a stripped-down ‘Beats Mix’ sees the pair adopt a less-maximal approach, leave it to Schacke to stretch Highdive into hardcore rave heaven. The already-influential Copenhagen artist underscores his refreshing funk in the ‘fast-techno’ scene through which he has risen, turning the screws and upping the tempo with intense but elastic results.

We can't think of many other performers like the singer/songwriter/dancer/actress Asha Puthli who have excelled in such a broad range of genres. From 60s psych, Classical Indian music, Free Jazz, Pop, Soul, Disco, to Rock, the list goes on. A 'best-of' or an 'essential collection' is always going to be a subjective thing, but for what is unbelievably the first official compilation covering the full breadth of Asha's illustrious career, we aimed to provide a snapshot into her ever-evolving musical journey and a tribute to the vast richness of her catalogue.

Some singers want to be famous, others are pop star icons, and some are artists; Asha is the latter. Asha is a true force of nature, regardless of the genre she explores, she fully commits, moves on, and reinvents herself, always progressing. Looking back on Asha's career, it is evident what a trail-blazer she was, opening doors for her contemporaries and those who came later to step through. Whether it was conscious or not, you can recognise Asha’s influence in aspects of Kate Bush's ethereal image and performance, in Donna Summer’s high-smooth vocal sound and disco stylings, and in the gumption and power of Grace Jones.

Kick-starting the compilation is ‘Pain’, the Indian psychedelic garage rock sounds of The Savages featuring Asha. We have to admit, we had to strongarm Asha into letting us include this track at first; also due to its rare nature (and lack of any master tapes) the recording we present here is raw and low-fi. However, we felt its inclusion was important to fully represent the journey of Asha's career, the same consideration was also applied to two of the Asha & The Surfers’ songs that we have included in this collection.

Asha saw a link between jazz and classical Indian music "the improvisation, the minor chords, the free form, the liberalness of the art" we showcase her love of jazz here with seminal works with the legendary Ornette Coleman, taken from the revered 'Science Fiction’ album. Asha's 'CBS years' are represented here, how could we not include 'Space Talk' on this collection, and how these years progressed into her amazing disco offerings such as 'I'm Gonna Dance' & 'Music Machine'. The bizarre 'We're Gonna Bury The Rock With The Roll Tonight' from 1980 has also won us over. A pseudo-50s throw-back song that sounds not un-similar to the post-modern, leftfield, pop of an MIA production to come years later. Rounding off the compilation we have Asha's interpretation of a Michael Jackson classic that sat lost on a cassette-only released in India.

Repress incoming...

Far Out Recordings proudly presents Milton Nascimento's Maria Maria. Recorded in 1974 and unreleased until almost thirty years later, the album was written as the soundtrack to a ballet which dealt with the legacy of slavery in Brazil. Raw, atmospheric and emotionally charged, Maria Maria reveals one of Brazil's greatest ever songwriters at his creative peak. Featuring an all-star cast of fellow Brazilian legends including Nana Vasconcelos, Joao Donato, Paulinho Jobim, and members of Som Imaginario, Maria Maria holds what Milton considers to be the definitive versions of some of his classic songs, including 'Os Escravos De Jó' and 'Maria Maria'.

Originally released in 2003 as a double CD package, with Milton Nascimento's 1984 follow up ballet soundtrack Ultimo Trem, Maria Maria will be available on vinyl for the very first time from December 2019, with Ultimo Trem set for vinyl release early 2020.

Milton Nascimento possesses one of the most immediately recognizable voices in Brazilian music: high and sweet and as breathtakingly sublime as that of any soul singer. It was this voice that the legendary Brazilian singer Elis Regina fell in love with back in 1964, having heard Milton perform his song 'Canção do Sal (Sultry Song)' at a private party in Sao Paulo. Ellis went on to record the song in 1967 -giving Milton his first hit in Brazil and beginning a career that has spanned over 50 years.

Born in Rio on the 26th October 1942, Milton moved with his adoptive parents at the age of 18 months to Tres Pontas, a rural town in the state of Minas Gerais, 500 miles north of Rio. He began his musical career as a young teenager, singing in a crooner style he learnt from listening to Brazilian singers and US groups such as The Platters on the radio. Hungry for more opportunities to perform, Milton moved to Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais, at the age of twenty. By the beginning of the 60s Milton had made a name for himself both as an accomplished singer and guitarist.

Milton became part of a local network of musicians, film makers, dancers, theatre directors and writers that included the journalist and song writer Fernando Brant as well as lyricist Marcio Borges and his younger brother Lo Borges. Together these four wrote and produced what would become Milton's milestone album, 'Clube da Esquina (Club on the Corner)'. The originality of 'Club da Esquina' shaped the local scene, and it reflects the essence of 'the Nascimento Sound'. Milton's religious upbringing as an Afro-Brazilian Catholic saw him exposed to church choral music from an early age. His love of this genre of music is apparent in both his celestial falsetto and vocal choral arrangements. This collection also displays his early fascination with evocative, non-verbal, scat-style singing, spare, harmonic guitar work and local folk music, jazz and rock.

In 1976, Milton and Fernando Brant teamed up with a new contemporary dance company called Grupo Corpo, whose Argentinian choreographer Oscar Araiz, would become a collaborator with the two musicians. Together, they conceived a show based on the composite life story of the daughter of a black slave called Maria. Nascimento wrote music to Brant's lyrics and "Maria Maria" was premiered in the main theatre of the Belo Horizonte Palacio das Artes that year. "Fernando wrote the lyrics for the ballet, but there were originally no lyrics for the theme song, "Maria Maria'". Milton and Fernando worked on the lyrics together, basing them on folk stories about black women of the countryside. Adds Milton "These memories are mostly things that we witnessed – Fernando and I – rather than what we experienced ourselves.

Milton's music is impressionistic, emotional and romantic. Relying on songs without lyrics as well as evocative vocalizing and choruses, Milton experimented heavily with Afro-Brazilian percussion and taped jungle sounds. His composing method for these recordings was highly unconventional: "I wrote the music for 'Maria Maria' in a tiny Rio apartment with friends and their kids running around and having fun! I love to be in noisy places, surrounded by people", he says.
The music on 'Maria Maria' was performed by an impressive group of young musicians who are today household names in Brazilian music, including Naná Vasconcelos (percussion and effects), Toninho Horta (guitars) and Paulo Moura (sax). Several vocalist including Naná Caymmi, Fafá de Belém, Beto Guedes, and Milton himself, had hits in years to come with reworkings of these songs.

Milton says his compositions follow his visions "like a movie", and he believes that reflects his long love affair with cinema. "I only began composing because of enjoying the movies so much," he says. "I wrote my first song "Peace for the Coming Love" after seeing 'Jules et Jim' (the cult 60s French film directed by François Truffaut), with my friend Marcio Borges. We went early in the morning and watched it four or five times in a row, then went to Márcio's home and wrote the song."

The songs also include solo spoken passages set to music, clearly influenced by this style of French art cinema. On the title track, Maria's story is narrated and translated to music through the use of African Percussion, drums and metal signifying the field slave tools of the day. 'Trabalhos (Works)' runs to work rhythms and whipcracks: no words, just pain. 'Lília' documents the beating of the slave woman. After 'A Chamada (The call)' and the triumphant 'Era Rei e Sou Escravo (I was a king now I am a slave' things begin to turn and Milton employs tropical jungle cries to symbolize freedom. 'Santos Catholicos x Candomble (Catholic Saints vs Candomble)' represents the battle between African and European religions through the music of both sides. Milton's heavenly falsetto pours into 'Francisco' and 'Pai Grande (Great Father)' and the outstanding 'Eu Sou Uma Preta Velha Aqui Sentada no Sol (I'm an old black lady, sitting under the sun)' conjures images of an old woman sitting deep in the forest, her memories painted in drums, piano and voices.