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Legendary Brazilian group Orquestra Afro-Brasileira are reborn for first new album in over fifty years, produced by Beastie Boys collaborator Mario Caldato Jr.

Led by maverick composer Abigail Moura, Orquestra Afro-Brasileira were one of the most influential yet overlooked groups in Brazilian music history. Operating for almost thirty years until 1970, they released just two albums - the first of which, Obaluayê, has recently been reissued by Day Dreamer Records - and left behind a legacy of Afro-Brazilian consciousness that continues to resonate today.

Combining Yoruba spirituality, folk tales, Candomblé chants and West African percussion with the instrumentation of the big band jazz tradition in the United States, the Orquestra placed Afro-Brazilian heritage in a new and vital context. Weaving emancipatory narratives into complex poly-rhythms and powerful, syncopated horn lines, the group educated and enlightened all those who saw them perform.

For Abigail’s protégé and percussionist on the group’s 1968 album Carlos Negreiros, the message of the group’s music had a profound impact: “I became aware of what it is to be black,” he says, “discovering the extraordinary potential of the Afro-Brazilian culture in the making of the national ethos.” Now the last remaining member of the original Orquestra, Carlos was tracked down by producer Mario Caldato Jr. - whose credits include Beastie Boys, Marcelo D2 and Seu Jorge among others - to oversee the first new album of Orquestra Afro-Brasileira material since 1968.

“I was overwhelmed with the percussive rhythms, beautiful deep vocals and combined energy,” Caldato Jr. explains. “It felt like the most authentic Brazilian roots music I had ever heard. It was raw and dynamic, a pure organic sound and energy. It was a spiritual experience.”

Alongside arranger Caio Cezar, Carlos assembled his Orquestra to record five tracks at Berna Ceppas’ Estudio Maravilha 8 studio in Rio De Janeiro. With percussion, horns and vocals cut in single takes over three days, the session captured the intuitive, pure and natural spirit of the group in full flow.

Following the success of the initial session, five additional tracks were recorded at the iconic Estudio CIA dos Tecnicos in Copacabana to complete the album. Mixed by Caldato Jr., 80 Anos is a contemporary incarnation of Abigail Moura’s vision, bristling with the flair of the original recordings.

Mind Control is the amalgamation of Samo DJ and Morgan Wright. That formed while on tour together in Ausralia during 2018. After spending a day at Healesville WildLife Sanctuary.Samo and Morgan were inspired by the playful movements of kangaroos, wombats and foxes and decided to interpret these together in a hot studio on a 39 degree day in coburg. The results of which were two functional dance floor tracks combining the signature rhythms of Samo DJ and the delicate melodies Morgan is known for.

Sharing his InBach album with the world in 2020 set events into motion that ultimately led to Arandel making second edition in the critically acclaimed, borderless project that unites rare instruments, musical reimanigation.

Arandel unites once again behind the musical phrases of the Leipzig composer specialists of ancient and modern instruments (Thomas Bloch), modern synthesizers and moogs, strings experts (Gaspar Claus), and the poetic spoken word of Myra Davies and Bridget St.John.

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"There is a Bach for everyone" Arandel says, "and that discovery is what led me here, to InBach". Beneath the intricate history, the godlike adoration placed upon Bach, he was a playful musician, an eclectic one even. And so, a full year after the release of the first InBach record on InFiné, there is enough material to make a second one. "There is so much about Bach I didn't even know when making the first one - but after the release, people kept coming to me, telling me about certain pieces I should listen to or rework; songs that I had never even heard of."

The second InBach grew like a garden from the seeds of the first one - an eclectic journey through melodic fantasies, intricate sound design and a certain Pop silver lining. Some tracks were born out of Arandel's band performing on stage, experimenting with the songs live and composing them anew, like "Nos Contours", a new, French-lyrics version of Bodyline with Ornette, Arandel's stage partner.

InBach vol. 2 is a logical consequence then, of someone diving into a pool of music and history so large that it is being chronicled to this day. A substantial part of the instruments used on the lofty, eclectic album were recorded at the Musée de la Musique Paris: rare instruments like the *Erard square piano, ondioline, Zach's cello, Stroh violins*. They help shape the unique sound of Arandel's InBach project: sometimes _eerily familiar, always otherworldly and elusive.

In the vein of rare instruments, the first guest musician Arandel approached for InBach was Thomas Bloch, who lends his gift to four tracks over the two albums, playing the ondes Martenot, one of the first electronic musical instruments ever invented. Thomas has worked with many major artists in his career of ike of Radiohead, Gorillaz, Marianne Faithful, Tom Waits, Daft Punk.

The record travels *between styles, ideas and moods elegantly - it is a distinctly fun and personal album. Freeing himself from the weighty shackles of expectation surrounding the classical maestro, Arandel goes for the core of every Bach piece he tackles, making them his own. on "Octobre", based on Air On G-String, from Orchestral Suite No. 3 D-dur, BWV 1068, his nephew tells a dreamlike story of an ominous gang of children, literally blossoming in the mud. "Fabula" - featuring the French singer Scalde - based on the melancholic, Christian lament Meine Seele wartet auf den Herrn, becomes a grandiose, auto-tuned pop ballad on InBach vol. 2, featuring the virtuoso cello of fellow InFiné associate *Gaspar Claus*.

The use of spoken word is another new layer to InBach, and acts a lyrical thread carrying the listener through InBach vol.2: the closing track features Bridget St.John, John Peel-associated folk legend from the UK to offer to collaborate on a poem for this second volume, she replied to him with a line from André Gide : "You can't discover new land if you aren't willing to lose sight of every shore". A lovely way to sum up the InBach experience for both artist and listener.

On Top Records is extremely proud to welcome back Smasher with his sophomore album, ‘Vibes In Motion’. due for release the 16/07/2021

Following the release of his debut album ‘Locked In Locked On' in 2020 which featured in numerous 'Album of the Year' lists Smasher has spent the past year offering a high level of consistency among a time which has been very difficult for creatives.

With live shows stopping to a halt Smasher has taken this opportunity with both hands building a home studio to sustain creativity a very important factor for an individual who has a burning passion to create music, he has used the time productively “Vibes In Motion” is 51 minutes of future classic British UKG encompassing Hip Hop, Grime, RnB, 2 step Garage all blended together seamlessly to bring a fresh approach to a genre he has gone extremely hard for. As with previous material, the album is produced by Smasher himself collaborating with long time friend Aaron Greenwood bringing his soulful smoothed-out keys and backing vocals the pair have a great working relationship which spans over a decade which can be heard through out the record.

Smashers journey began with a love for late 90’s UK Garage collecting vinyls from record shops and dj’ing on pirate radio, which lead him to Hip Hop, RnB, Reggae, Soul and many different uk underground music styles, followed by decades of producing records for some pinnacle uk artists most recent production credit for “Ghetts” on the critically acclaimed ‘Conflict Of Interest’ album charting at number 2 in the uk albums chart, Giggs - Landlord album, Klashnekoff - Iona to name a few, Smasher is a producer who can deliver a very high level of production no matter the genre. Over the past 2 years Smasher has gained props far and wide: from Todd Edwards to DJ EZ releasing a record under his Nuvolve imprint, to guest mix for MBE clothes designer Wale Adeyemi, comedy UKG faves Kurupt fm posting his “lockdown freestyle challenge” Numerous guest shows & live streams for Rinse fm, Kiss fm, Phaze Transition & Mind Charity, limited vinyl run presses to collaborating with Capo Lee & Ayo beats for film soundtrack “Against All Odds”

Since releasing “Locked In Locked On” the feedback for the project was so greatly received i knew how i wanted to approach this next album and with plenty of time on my hands to experiment i wanted to include more collaboration, a lot of the link ups came together organically.

I feel you get a nice balance of some new school artists like Local, Solo Jane & Hotch mixed with some UKG generals like MC Neat, Mighty Moe, Preshus, Creed & Troublesome and original “Knightz of the round table” member Luckie Luciano, i always feel a duty to pay homage but i also want to evolve the sound and take it to the next level.

Since march 2020 its been a tuff time for people i feel like there are some hidden messages in the album it leans towards the underdogs of this world and at times i feel like that but there is always this burning desire inside me to want to do better hopefully that comes across for the listener.

Already with a dedicated fan base and support from tastemaking DJs such as DJ EZ, Conducta (Kiwi Records), Toddla T (Radio 1), Heartless Crew (1xtra), Majestic (Kiss), Scott Garcia (kiss), Smokey Bubblin B (Rinse fm), DJ Redhot (Rinse fm), Dj Cartier, DJ Spoony, Artful Dodger, MattJam Lamont (Rinse fm) Shosh (Kiss Fm) Rudekid (Kiss fm) Ricky Chalrie & Melvin (BBC Radio 1) amongst others from the burgeoning UK Garage scene,

The Smasher sound especially in UKG has brought a well needed fresh flava to a genre which has had very few full album offerings, with that said its time to share “Vibes In Motion” with the universe, This will solidify Smasher as an artist in every sense of the word and undoubtedly concrete him as one of the UK’s finest talents.

The Music collection pay tribute to the icons of modern music in a gatefold album including a french and an English biography written by Lionel Eskenasi. For this new release, Lionel explored the extraordinary life of the best crooner, Frank Sinatra.

Swedish group Roxette celebrates the 30th Anniversary of their third album “Joyride”, following the band’s spectacular global breakthrough with “Look Sharp!” in 1989. The 30th Anniversary of ”Joyride” will be celebrated with the release of a 4-album vinyl and a 3-CD box, containing the original release as well as previously unreleased or hard-to-get material, that paints a fuller picture of a unique time in pop history. A richly illustrated 32 page booklet tells the story.

Joyride” was the album that was supposed to cement Roxette’s new-found status as a global hit-makers. Which indeed it did. On May 1, the title track zoomed all the way up to #1 position on the Billboard Hot 100 chart – setting a record no Scandinavian group or artist has yet been able to break, helping to make “Joyride” a 11+ million seller.

Twelve of the songs are previously unreleased, among them the first recording of ”Hotblooded”, which originally was meant to be the album’s opening track until ”Joyride” knocked it down a notch, giving the album and the upcoming “Join the Joyride” World Tour its name. The “Joyride” box set also offers a chance to hear two previously unreleased demos of songs originally released by Per’s former group Gyllene Tider, who in 1984 tried to break the international market with the album “Heartland Café”.

he 20th milestone release in the Generation Series lineup, this 5-LP abridged set features 82 tracks that play in the first half of Shenmue III, which takes place in Bailu Village. Comes in a top lid box (similar to recent Generation Series releases from Brave Wave) with liner notes, archival artwork and a digital download code for all 196 tracks.

From its founding in the late 14th century, the kingdom of Buganda has been celebrated through sound and nurtured a rich musical tradition in its royal court. Coming from across the kingdom, musicians would take turns in the palace to sound drums, xylophones, flutes, lyres, and more to praise and honour the existence of the kingship. In recent years however, the tradition has been more difficult to maintain, especially since 1966 where there was a violent attack on the palace that abruptly abolished the kingdom and during which royal musicians fled or were killed. And while the kingdom was re-established in 1993 as a cultural institution, many of the remaining musicians had since chosen to sideline their skills to deal with the issues of their day to day lives, the practice of the royal tradition waning in popularity, especially with younger listeners and players. But all is not lost. Scattered across the kingdom, a motivated team of older veterans and attentive young players are still keeping the tradition alive. Offering a transversal glimpse into the past and the present, "Buganda Royal Music Revival" collects recordings made in between the late 1940s and 1966 illustrating the older generation's skills, and presents them alongside recent recordings featuring old and young musicians who still carry on this musical tradition, some even performing for the current king, Muwenda Mutebi II. The later were made during the shooting of the 2019 documentary "Buganda Royal Music Revival" that presents through a film what this album conveys through sounds: a packed dive into a century-old tradition. The music displayed here is diverse and vibrant, presenting a variety of styles and highlighting instruments that illustrate the depth and sophistication that stemmed from the royal court experience of Buganda. As a starter, the album opens with 'Mujaguzo'. Often translated as 'The Drums of the Kingship', the mujaguzo is a crucial ensemble for the cultural tradition, made from drums collected by the kingdom throughout its long history and numbering around 100 drums (historical records suggest there were at some point over 300). They are the vitality of the kingship packaged into sound. From here, we're introduced deeper to an array of instruments and textures, like the buzzing Bugandan lyre (endongo) by contemporary royal player Albert Bisaso Ssempeke, the resonant akadinda xylophone with its 21 large wooden keys, Temutewo Mukasa's restless praise sung with his harp (ennanga), the hand-made gourd trumpet (amakondere), the entenga "drum-chime" and its core set of 12 drums tuned like the amadinda xylophone, or the tightly intertwined melodies of the flutes ensemble (abalere). With the music, the hissing and swishing sounds of old tapes reminds at times the listener of the long process, from the original recording to its archival digitization, that allows the talent of past musicians to still vibrate nowadays. This rousing selection of music and moods is a unique and all too rare exploration of sounds that celebrates the common history of generations of musicians, and the question remains open as to how this rich cultural tradition will shape and be shaped by the upcoming Bugandan future, and what engagement it will trigger among audiences within, but also beyond, the kingdom of Buganda.

Color Vinyl

'This is the story of a man, marked by an image from his
childhood.' Thus begins, with deceptive simplicity, Chris
Marker's La Jetée (1962). The film, by far Marker's bestknown
work, synthesizes many of the elusive filmmaker's
central preoccupations - time and memory, power and resistance,
the ephemerality and resilience of love - yet it also
undermines the very idea of film. Composed almost entirely
of still photographs, La Jetée quite literally pieces together
the tale of an unnamed, forsaken protagonist, drafted into a
series of time travel experiments in post-apocalyptic Paris.
While Marker creates some of the most hauntingly beautiful
imagery in cinema, what animates La Jetée's frozen
pictures is its sparse and unsettling soundscape. Whispers,
breaths and heartbeats offer an unnerving reminder of
bodily rhythms that, inside the film and out, will inevitably
cease. Fragments of symphonic music at once capture a
love affair and underscore the tragedy awaiting it. The poetic
momentum of the narrator's voice, our only guide: 'On
the tenth day, images begin to ooze, like confessions.'
Superior Viaduct is honored to present the first-time release
of the soundtrack from La Jetée. This vinyl album
features both French and English voiceover narrations,
along with organic textures and Trevor Duncan's impressionistic
score. More than half a century has passed since
La Jetée's theatrical release - now is the time to travel back
to the 'sudden roar' of this masterpiece in a completely
different light.

Haiku Salut, the acclaimed electronica trio from the Derbyshire Dales release their fifth album, ‘The Hill, The Light, The Ghost’ on Secret Name records on August 27th. Note the LP follows in November.

A beautiful study of ghosts and memory, the gestation of the record began when Haiku Salut’s Sophie Barkerwood was given a Tascam field recorder. “I carried it around with me in case anything interesting happened. I guess I wanted to capture little pieces of the world in the same way we all take photographs,” explains Sophie. “It wasn’t immediately apparent that we would begin to use these sounds as the architecture for an album but as our writing process evolved the textures of these memories became a bank of inspiration.”

“We then began actively searching for ghosts in the world and framing the songs around their qualities,” Sophie continues. “Gathering recordings, removing them from their context and building worlds around them. Capturing and preserving personal experiences, and evoking vivid spaces. You could say the record is a miniature exploration of sound in relation to memory. Each piece is intimately connected to a place in time.”

Musically, the album marries the expansive vision of their third album, ‘There Is No Elsewhere’, which celebrated identity and community, with the darker, more contemplative feel of their fourth album, the trio’s original soundtrack for Buster Keaton’s ‘The General’. Building on the lessons learned working on ‘The General’, ‘The Hill, The Light, The Ghost’ is a cohesive suite, nine songs that combine to tell a larger story – that of experience and memory, of precious moments and echoes of past lives.

By now you’re probably familiar with our wildly popular Brown Acid series of rare, lost and unreleased proto-metal and stoner rock singles from the 60s-70s. In the endless pursuit of those glorious gems, we often uncover equally brilliant rarities from the late-70s to late-80s Golden Age of Heavy Metal that also just must be heard, but they don’t fit the series’ aesthetic. Scrap Metal, Volume 1 collects some of the greatest unknown and lost Heavy Metal tracks, long buried beneath the avalanche of the era’s classic output.
We all know the old adage that history is told by the winners. But sometimes the losers tell the best stories. And while none of these bands found fame and fortune, this artifact and the volumes to come are testament to the enduring power of heavy music. You can hear the blood, sweat and beers that went into each of these singles. The recordings may be low budget, but the inspiration and talent is immutable. Not only are the amps turned up to 11, the boyish sexual innuendo is cranked to 69. You can hear the convergence of influences — NWOBHM, thrash, glam metal, doom, etc — colliding at once as the era birthed a wellspring of subgenres.
Many of these singles are self-released and were thus limited to a small run of copies. Those that remain are hoarded by collectors and sold for exorbitant amounts. We’ve collected the best of the best for you here. As with Brown Acid, all of these tracks are licensed legitimately and the artists all get paid. Because it’s the right thing to do.
LINER NOTES:
Rapid Tears launch this series with the perfect christening. The Toronto, ON quintet’s 1981 single “Headbang” is such the pinnacle of heavy metal madness that it almost sounds like a spoof. There’s also enough of the rapid-fire sputum that inspired Metallica to bang the head that doesn’t, as such, engage in said practice, to be found on the band’s sole full length Honestly. But “Headbang” is a straightforward glammy anthem for the ages.
Air Raid’s “69 In A 55” may be lyrically so sophomoric that it’s actually pretty clever, but this 1983 Bay Area power metal single is loaded with sleek Judas Priest riffs and interwoven melodies that are downright sublime. The band’s sole release, the 2-song Rock Force 7” features a curious band photo in which 3 band members — dolled up in Crüe makeup and leather — are sexually menacing the lead singer/guitarist tied to a bed. Another low budget highlight is when singer/guitarist Tommy “Thrasher” Merry imitates a delay effect on his vocals as he sings, “tonight!...tonight...night.”
Hades’ “Girls Will Be Girls” has a real demo cassette feel to its vastly uneven mix, but the energy to the performance makes this an undeniable keeper. The long running Paramus, NJ quintet’s 1982 2- song debut 7” titled Deliver Us From Evil features this blistering thrasher dominated by shimmering leads and confident vocals that show why the band went on to near-fame on Metal Blade Records.
Resless don’t need no T to prove that they’ve got “The Power” with this 1984 driving mid-tempo rocker in the vein of Mötley Crüe and Ratt. The River Vale, NJ quartet’s tight crunch wails all over Bon Jovi posers but it’s the band’s unique and subtle deployment of background vocals that gives this rager its staying power.
Pittsburgh, the Steel City, is home to Don Cappa, a band that pays tribute to the burgh, the metal, and the awesomeness of both with “Steel City Metal.” Their lone single, issued in 1987 with only 300 copies released, sounds like the work of some serious steel driving men, with a drummer who might’ve forgotten to wear a hard hat one too many times on the construction site.
The Beast has more of a punk feel to their aggressive “Enemy Ace” track from the 4-song Power Metal EP from 1983 — something like Dr. Know meets D.O.A. But their look, artwork and lyrics all prove that Heavy Metal is where their hearts lie. And this hook filled monster delivers repeated lines like, “I command them all in my lofty realm,” with commendable conviction.
Dead Silence from Denver, Colorado, debuting in 1984 is not to be confused with Dead Silence from Denver, Colorado, who also debuted in 1984. The former a workman’s hard rock bar band, the latter a political peace punk band and neither knowing of the other’s existence throughout their tenure. The pre-internet days were a marvel, indeed.This Dead Silence spits out a slick, Nugent tinged rocker called “Can’t Stop” about life on the road.
The Danger Zone is, by all accounts, not the place to be. And, Hazardous Waste of Boston, MA saw fit to add their two cents on the matter with this 1986 single that combines Van Halen’s flashy musicianship with NWOBHM aggression that sounds so awesome it teeters on itself entering the “Danger Zone.”
Czar’s heavy, doomy “Iron Curtain” single from 1982 hearkens to the sleazy sounds of Saint Vitus and Pentagram with its cranked up DOD Distortion pedal in a Peavey combo amp guitar tone and meaty, barking vocals. The upstate NY quintet only issued this 2-song single, but its driving rhythm, nosedive whammy-bar guitar solos and comparatively mature Cold War subject matter show they had real potential.
Not much is known about Real Steel’s majestic “Viking Queen” from 1987, other than it rocks hard and the 7” 45 sells for upwards of a grand on the collectors market. The Flint, Michigan band recorded at the home studio of local radio personality Bill Lamb, who primarily released Christian Gospel recordings. So, perhaps the band was struck down by a bolt of lightning shortly after this rare single’s release. Whatever the case may be, it’s a must have for fans of classic metal mayhem.

Composer, electronic music innovator, and Pere Ubu's original synthesist Allen Ravenstine returns to Waveshaper Media with the diptych LP (comprised of 1 EP per side) Nautilus / Rue De Poisson Noir, the final two parts in Raventine’s Tyranny of Fiction series. Waveshaper Media first came into contact with Ravenstine when we interviewed him in 2012 for our modular synthesizer documentary I Dream Of Wires.

Nautilus / Rue De Poisson Noir brings together 21 of the prodigious composer’s recent lyrical and abstract compositions collectively comprised of the sounds of analogue and digital synthesizers, alongside traditional acoustic instruments. The first 10 recordings, subtitled Nautilus, are found on Side A of this LP while the second 11, Rue Du Poisson Noir, comprise Side B.

Using a singular blend of acoustic and electronic instrumentation, each track on Nautilus, weaves its own wayward travelogue amidst stray bits of audio verité and wafting musical fragrances—by turns tropical and foreboding. Rue De Poisson Noir takes cues from its fragmentary companion both in palette and approach, slithering between cinematic intrigue, off-brand jazz, avant-garde mischief, and fried electro without ever batting an eye. Together they form a beguiling collection of hyperrealist miniatures that remains strange, restless, inquisitive and — most of all — evocative throughout.

For those in the know, Allen Ravenstine has been one of the most creative synthesizer players of the past forty-plus years. Ravenstine started out in the mid-1970s experimenting in his Cleveland apartment with an analogue EML 200 synthesizer, eventually creating a piece in 1975 that became known as Terminal Drive. While he had no intention of releasing his compositions, word got out about the kind of sounds he was experimenting with, which led to an invitation to join pioneering “avant garage” group Pere Ubu for the recording of the group’s first 45, “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo.” He soon joined Pere Ubu full-time, bringing to the band’s sound unpredictable textures, effects, bleeps, squalls, pulsating washes of sound—whatever he felt could enhance the soundscape of the band’s performances and recordings.

By the early 1990s, Ravenstine had grown sick of the road, band infighting and the music industry in general. Deciding a change was needed, he opted to forego music altogether, making his living as an airplane pilot. His music career remained in limbo until 2012, when an interview for the I Dream Of Wires documentary, alongside Robert Wheeler who had succeeded him as Pere Ubu’s synthesist, turned into a recording session for the duo, leading to a series of collaborative releases. As well as having his 1975 Terminal Drive recordings released to great acclaim in 2017, Ravenstine has been prolific in recent years, with Nautilus / Rue De Poisson Noir now marking his 4th solo full-length.

In 2014 The Soul Santas’ first, and only, gig at a
Christmas School Fair was a roaring success, after
which they decided it couldn’t be bettered so didn’t
try. Until, that is, some rehearsal recordings were
found on a phone. These recordings inspired
‘Christmas Crackers, Volume 1’, recorded over two
days in October 2020 at Invada Studios.
 The album was released last winter digitally and is
now available on vinyl for the first time.
 Pressed on green or red vinyl. The colour isn’t
marked on the packaging so the colour received
will be a lucky dip.

The long awaited follow up to Osaka's Hibushibire 'Freak Out Orgasm!' debut album from 2017 is almost upon us ...
 
Who are Hibushibire ?
 
821 (Hani) on bass
Ryu Matsumoto on drums
Changchang on guitar and vocals
 
It would be fair to say Hibushibire’s 2017 debut album ‘Freak Out Orgasm!’ went down well with fans of psych-rock (call it what you will). So far it’s had three vinyl pressings, two cassette pressings and a CD run back in Japan. It garnered quite a few influential underground (if not mainstream) reviews and seemed to sell through on word of mouth alone - which in these times seems to be the way things are going: thriving social media groups sharing their love of recent purchases and fellow vinyl lovers going out and scooping them up without the need to buy a magazine or read an online review to make their mind up. My favourite review of ‘Freak Out Orgasm!’ came from UK based music blog Dayz Of Purple And Orange as I think he nailed it perfectly...
 
“Fuck me! I think I've died and gone to psychedelic heaven! If anyone had asked me what I would really want from a freak out, heavy-as-fuck psych band I would have to say I would want the sheer guitar pyrotechnics of Acid Mothers Temple, the hard-as-nails scuzziness of The Heads, the lead heaviness of a fucked-up Blue Cheer and the instrumental dexterity of Hendrix on speed. Guess what, that band exists and they are called HIBUSHIBIRE!"
 
That, to me, said it all. Nail hit hard.
 
But let's get onto 'Turn On, Tune In, Freak Out!'
 
Once again the album is produced by Makoto Kawabata (Acid Mothers Temple, Mainliner) and for me it's the next logical step in the bands sonic development. As with its predecessor, side one consists of three tracks, "Ecstasy Highwaystar / Blow! Blow! Blow! / Overdose, Pussycat! More! More!", (they do like an exclamation mark). Some of these titles will be familiar if you've followed the band's live shows in recent times, and it's pretty much a guitar to the front, full gonzo-style hard-rocking psychedelic freak out from the first blast of Changchang's guitar panning from left to right before the main riff kicks it all off.
 
Again, as with their debut, side two comprises of just one epic length track. 'Rollercoaster Of The Universe' clocks in at seventeen minutes and is, in my humble opinion, the sound of the band moving onto the next level during its journey. It's a shudderingly beautiful piece, with many hypnotic twists and turns. I can't wait to hear how they play this live.
 
The band did initially attempt to produce this album by themselves, but got 'brain fever' in the studio and called their old friend Makoto to come down and help them finish it off. As he had no preparation in advance, he knew nothing about how the recording was going in the studio, and moreover there was little time left for adjustments to be made. But his technique of mixing was, as always, both mighty and almost destructive.

On January 27th, 1990, Helmet entered the stage of New York’s equally famous and infamous CBGB’s. What followed was an explosive live show, set during the earliest days of the band’s career. Getting ready to release their debut album “Strap It On” in March that year, Helmet propelled themselves through a staccato-heavy set of tracks that would soon earn them worldwide acclaim in the Punk scene. The first side of this brand-new live album features the CBGB’s set for the first time ever on vinyl and CD, while the second half contains an equally energetic performance, recorded in 1993 at the Big Day Out Festival in Melbourne, Australia. With tracks such as ‘Ironhead’, ‘Better’ and ‘In the Meantime’, the setlist strikes a perfect balance between the band’s hits and hidden gems from their early years. “Live and Rare” is available on 1LP 180g Vinyl as well as a CD Digipak Edition for the first time ever via earMUSIC, to be released worldwide on November 26th, 2021.

Spoken word recordings from Gregory Corso, Tina May Hall, Sam Lipsyte, Christine Schutt, Gary Lutz, Allen Ginsberg, Dawn Raffel, Jason Schwartz, Kathryn Scanlan, Scott McClanahan, & Terry Southern. About 40 years ago, in a record shop on Long Island during a weekend visit there to see my parents, i found a double-LP that looked like something i should definitely buy. It was called "BIG EGO", by the The DIAL-a-POEM POETS. On the cover was a picture of John Giorno (a great poet Ed Sanders had turned me on to) on a NYC rooftop with Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, and two kids. It cost $2. I bought it and rushed back to my parents house, where i still had my old turntable in the basement, not far from my Jimi Hendrix and Zappa Crappa posters, and my framed portrait of John Cage. My copy of Eno's "Discreet Music" was still on the turntable, having been left there years before, when i'd fled Long Island for good. I lifted it from the platter, gently slid it back into its sleeve, like a priceless religious artifact, and put Side A of the Dial-a-Poem LP on. I almost lost my mind while listening to it. The next day i went back to the same record shop looking for more DIAL-A-POEM LP's. i found two. One had a long list of names on the back, some famous, and some i'd never heard of before. I bought both LP's, and an hour later, for the first time in my life, i was exposed to the art of Laurie Anderson, whom i'd never heard of before. This was 1978. Her contribution was a piece called "Time To Go". It changed my life. Or at least, that’s how I remember it. I was just a kid, so there were a lot of moments like that, around then. Nowadays, these moments can be had in seconds, with a click of the cursor. That evening, as i sat alone by my imaginary campfire (ie; that record player in my parents basement), i promised myself that someday, somehow, i would embark upon a WORDS & MUSIC project that might move people the same way i was moved when i first heard Laurie, and Robert Wilson & Christopher Knowles, and Burroughs, and Ginsberg, and Corso, and Anne Waldman, and John Ashbery, and the great Charles Olson, and so many others. Words, for the very first time, had wielded the same power as music. And it was visceral. Just like music. It ran deep. It was a FEELING. John Giorno died in 2019, but he kept poetry alive like nobody's business. I was lucky enough to have spent some time with him in the early 1980's, when i was briefly a member of The Fugs, and often found myself surrounded by those Ginsberg called, "...the greatest minds of my generation". Ed Sanders (who'd ushered me into that scene) once told me that when he came to NYC, it was easy to go to a cafe, or to St Marks Church, and hear Burroughs, Corso, Ginsberg, and all the greats, reading their poetry. He said that even if you were just a bum on the street, you could just walk right up to them, and start a conversation. They were totally accessible, if they were in the right mood at that particular moment. So i was shocked when Sanders told me he didn't approach any of them, not even once, til he'd been going to their readings for nearly ten years. "For almost a decade, I went to every reading, every lecture, every panel discussion. But I never went near them. Never approached them. Not even once", Sanders told me. "For ten years, all I did, was listen." It took me four decades, but ... better late than never. I finally made WORDS & MUSIC, Book One.

Trio of Nils Økland, Sigbjørn Apeland and Øyvind Skarbø - apart from the unusual instrumentation of violin or Hardanger fiddle, harmonium and drums, is the empathy displayed by the group as a whole; the hyper-sensitivity with which each individual member appears to respond to the contributions of the others in the pursuit of a collective goal, however obscure or unknowable that goal might be. Such extreme alertness to subtle changes of mood and nuance, and to the evolving sound-world of each, totally improvised, performance is rare in music of any type. 1982 have made it their signature. And because 1982 have so singularly created their own identity and sound, they can do anything they like. Normal conventions of style and genre, format and duration cease to matter: it is all 1982 music, anchored in the strong personalities of the three players and their respect for the primacy of the group as an entity in itself. Thus they can record as a trio - as on the group’s first two albums, ‘1982’ (from 2009) and ‘Pintura’ (their Hubro debut, from 2011) - or with guests, as in the acclaimed '1982 + BJ Cole' (from 2012), and the collaboration with composer Stian Omenås and a quintet of wind players for ‘1982: A/B’ (from 2014). There was also the unique ‘message in a bottle’ intervention of ‘The Bottlemail Project’, begun in 2011, whereby 15 copies of a new recording were ‘distributed’ via USB sticks enclosed in bottles and released into the open sea from Bergen and various worldwide locations. The new album, ‘1982: Chromola’, as well as marking the group's tenth anniversary, represents a return to the essential identity of the trio playing alone, without guests. Recorded at Sandviken church in Bergen on the day following an evening concert, the album uses material from both occasions, engineered once again by Davide Bertolini, who worked on the band’s four previous recordings. As an album it is remarkable for many things, but perhaps most notably for the role of Sigbjorn Apeland, who plays pipe organ on all but one of the seven tracks rather than harmonium, which features only in the closing, seventh, piece.

52 Beats is project initially started on Bandcamp with Snips uploading 1 beat per week over the course of a year with an accompanying behind the scenes video. This is the final release of the entire project as a limited run cassette. Musically Snips stays true to his Hip Hop roots chopping samples and keeping the sound rooted in traditonal Boom Bap which birthed his style

Red Vinyl

nown for her delicate compositions, soaked in dream-like surrealism, Icelandic musician Sóley has attracted a huge following since launching her solo career back in 2010. Her 2012 single ‘Pretty Face’ went on to generate an enormous amount of buzz, and quickly became a viral sensation. Now, with three solo LPs under her belt, Sóley is preparing to debut a completely new sound via the release of her new concept album, Mother Melancholia, on October 22nd.

Described by the artist as "Nosferatu meets Thelma and Louise in a vampire church under the watchful eye of David Lynch", Mother Melancholia is the soundtrack to the end of the world as we know it. As a self-confessed news addict, Sóley became obsessed with the idea that the world is ending. Having surrounded herself with real-life stories of global warming and patriarchal politics she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was going to die. This feeling was so all encompassing that it sparked the idea for a new project. Could there be a soundtrack for the last days of humans on earth? How would that sound?

“I read books about possible dystopian worlds and started writing poems about irrational and in love characters who live in gray and cold imaginary loneliness. In each other’s burning arms. Walking in circles with no way out” she explains. “After all, the album reflects our life here and now. Our life and reality is a kind of dystopian world.”

Whilst writing the album, which serves as a tongue-in-cheek eulogy to our planet, Sóley began reading about ecofeminism, a branch of feminism which uses the concept of gender to analyse the relationship between humans and the natural world. Ecofeminism emphasizes that both women and nature must be respected but also separated. Since the beginning of time, the natural world has been synonymous with female identity, phrases like Mother Nature are commonplace. “The patriarchy views women as volatile and hysterical. Earth and women are either our saviours or our destroyers,” explains Sóley. “It’s so easy to abuse the earth, like the patriarchy has abused women since the dawn of time, then ask for forgiveness afterwards and promise they´ll never do it again”.

The new album sees Sóley move away from the indie-pop of her previous releases. She began by experimenting with writing songs on the accordion, allowing her a new sense of freedom in her writing. The process allowed her to broaden her horizons even further and experiment with a whole range of new and exciting sounds. “I bought myself a theremin as I was really excited about the unpitched sound and there is no perfect pitch during the end of days,” she laughs. “I also bought a mellotron, my first moog and a cello and taught myself how to play each of them. All of these new instruments are particularly suitable for the kinds of aesthetic inconveniences which I have learned to embrace.”

Album opener ‘Sunrise Skulls’, one of the most cinematic moments on the album, was inspired by the Me Too and SlutWalk movements and tells the story of a group of women who rise up and fight the patriarchy. ‘Blows Up’, a track that would be at home on any horror soundtrack, is a sarcastic love letter from the Earth to humans. Standout track ‘Desert’ is an incredibly moving song dedicated to the next generation. “It’s about the guilt you feel, as a mother, for having children and leaving them on the frontline. My daughter, for example, will take over this inevitable war” explains Sóley.

In true soundtrack style, the album flows through the end of the world in chronological order, closing with the Earth’s final moments. ‘Sundown’ is a dark piano ballad detailing human kind’s final day on Earth. “And everyday, I dig my own grave, and as I dive in you´ll hold my hand” she sings, over twinkling piano and swirling synths. We then hear the world end on ‘XXX’, a dark and swirling soundscape that swells before fading to silence. On ‘Elegía’ the silence then turns to the sound of the ocean, as we hear the Earth, like a woman finally free from a violent relationship, healing on her own.

Mother Melancholia is the mark of an artist confidently striding into more experimental territory. With a lengthy and successful career behind her, Sóley felt compelled to try something new and express the real her. The music might be shrouded in darkness but it’s a move that fills her with joy and freedom. “I hope that people not only enjoy the new sound, but also that Mother Melancholia might raise some questions in people, particularly women,” she says. “I’m under no illusions that this album will change the world but I hope that people can connect with the idea”.

Since her debut onto the techno scene with the 2018 release of her EP 'Post-Traumatic Rave Syndrome' on Paula Temple's "Noise Manifesto" and a string of international festival and club appearances, Femanyst has gained a reputation for militant individuality. Akua Grant sets herself apart from the crowd with her aggressive & unrelenting industrial techno sets tinged with elements of Hardcore and Gabber. She has become known for her rebellious and innovative style in her adopted home of Berlin. Her self-assured approach to gripping and brawling techno tension sees her perform a fast paced and fervent flow on the dance floor. Femanyst continues to bring her unapologetically bold signature sound with her own techno imprint "Dark Carousel" as an extension to her much revered DJ sets of twisted and aggressive, high octane electronic music.


A2 Fluid - Post Industrial Transformation
Fluid is a queer DJ and producer based in Berlin. Supporting FLINTA* DJs, producers and party events are one of his priorities. His first release begun in January 2021 and he is still modelling his sound. His interest in electronic music goes from industrial techno to ebm to trance to hypnotic techno.

Post Industrial Transformation is a track which combines aggressive sounds and a lot of industrial elements. The transformation refers to Fluid's evolving own path. This evolution is similar to the tension that builds up all through the track. This track evokes change, modification, passage from one form to another.


B1 Hybral - Unheard Voices
Hybral is a Berlin-based non-binary DJ and producer drawn to eerie energetic industrial techno. They mix and produce haunting techno, EBM, and noisy-driven experimental sounds. Hybral's productions are made of dark atmospheric patterns linked with pushing percussions and basslines as well as heavily distorted kicks and harsh industrial noises. Mixing DJ sets the track selection is ranging from contemplative ambient to stern and fast techno - connecting vast influences from Hybral's personal experiences of spending days and nights on Berlin's dancefloors. They are founder of the queer label, podcast, and event series 'Subverted' which focuses on a distinct program aiming to lead dance music back to its roots of resistance and diversity.


B2 Marsch - Mrs. Jones
Marsch is a Berlin-based dj and producer from France, who initially began 8 years ago as a music curator and selector. She started to produce when she moved to Berlin, and has mostly been focusing on this for the past few years. She would define her music as a balance between melody, energy and texture, with a blend of minimalistic elements, rhythmic and percussions, and voices and futuristic synths.


DURCH BLN/TLV is a queer collective with a clear vision of solidarity and community building. DURCH operates in Tel Aviv and Berlin trying to bring queer people together, building a culture of inclusion, diversity and tolerance. In the tradition of original raves DURCH organizes solidarity events ranging from parties, to art and community events, with the strong belief that raves are a much needed place for people to come together, celebrate their diversity and learn to respect each other. Musically DURCH is eclectic inspired by hardcore, straight forward techno, ghetto and scouse house and 90s acid.

We proudly announce the release of our first vinyl record "dogged boldness". This is a long held dream by the entire crew. With Femanyst, Hybral, Marsch and Fluid we are happy to showcase four artists that are close and dear to DURCH BLN/TLV. The record is a compilation of four hard-hitting, inciting techno tracks. Rough, bold and aggravating, just the way we like it. We are proud that we are able to continuously work with queer artists and to be a platform to further queer artists visibility.


Disclaimer: The world needs more queer artist, more queer music, more queer techno, more queer perspectives, more queer love and more queer intimacy.
No place for any racist, sexist, trans- or homophobic shit.

Artwork by Rory Midhani
Mastering by Chlar

Third Man Records is proud to announce the 20th anniversary expanded edition of Kelley Stoltz’s defining album Antique Glow, due November 19, 2021. The announcement is heralded by the release of bonus track "Too Beck". Limited-edition "rainy nights" UK exclusive vinyl will be available on release day.

Originally self-released in minuscule vinyl-only quantities in 2001, Antique Glow has served not only as a template for the length of Kelley Stoltz’s twenty-plus year career, but has also served as a compass for other Anglophile, TASCAM 388 home recording acolytes. Original copies featured Stoltz’s clever, wry and fanciful hand-painted adornments overtop reclaimed thrift store LP jackets, Third Man’s release here utilizes some of those original unused images for a die-cut sleeve that ultimately gives the listener six different possible album covers.

The songs are by-and-large masterpieces of bedroom pop magic. From the whispering “Here Comes the Sun”-adjacent acoustic underpinnings of album opener “Perpetual Night” through the fuzz-threaded leads of “Are You Electric?” Stoltz’s inspirations are impeccable and clear. Sixties Davies British Invasion through 80’s British Bunnymen post-punk, with appropriate off-shoots into West Coast American pop-psych, Velvets-indebted hooliganism and Drake/CSNY acoustic attenuations, the end result is pure joy.

On the expanded version, standout tracks previously relegated to an Australian tour-only CD (like the breathlessly cinematic “Old Pictures”) see their first-ever vinyl and digital release while there’s an additional 10 songs from the Antique Glow-era seeing their first ever release in any format. The cutting room floor quality here is second-to-none, Stoltz clearly gifted with the curse of writing too many indelible songs, so the newly released “Too Beck” (originally cast off by Kelley because he thought “it sounded too much like Beck”) and “Umbrella” stand firm as some of the best, most timeless music Stoltz has ever released... a full two decades after he recorded them!

Electronic musician Xopher Davidson will release ‘Lux Perpetua’ this year via Daydream Library Series. A noted protége of Maryanne Amacher, Xopher recorded these two tracks in 2020 utilizing vintage synths within the beloved music studios of Mills College in Oakland, California. Xopher builds his experiments in electronic sound from a basis in painting, photography, and film, and through an interest in electronic circuits going back to building radios and homemade circuits as a kid. He has built and explored the sound world of a homebrew modular synthesizer comprised of surplus laboratory equipment: various oscillators, pulse generators, filters and an 'analog computer. He has released 4 albums as ANTIMATTER : ‘Transfixion’, ‘Antimatter Vs. Antimatter’, ‘Our Lady of the Skies’, and ‘Reset’. As an audio engineer, Davidson has worked on projects composed / performed by: the League of Automatic Composers, John Cage, Marcel Duchamp, Subtropic, Diamanda Galas, Kid 606, DJ Rupture, Darwin's Bitch, Once 11, Mix MasterMike, Hans Grusel, Phoenecia, Jonah Sharp, We, Zbigniew Karkowski, and Iannis Xenakis

Born in 1999, Charlie Hickey grew up in South Pasadena,
just minutes from Downtown Los Angeles. Raised by two
singer-songwriter parents, Charlie’s second language was
music since day one. As early as grade school, he was
making sense of the world through songwriting, and by
middle school he was writing, recording and performing
songs that attracted a community of collaborators and could
silence a room.
 A turning point for Charlie came at around the age of
thirteen, when he covered a song by then up-and-coming
artist Phoebe Bridgers, who was still in high school herself.
The two quickly became friends and collaborators, setting
Charlie on an exciting new musical path. Years later,
Bridgers introduced Charlie to songwriter, drummer, producer
and her bandmate Marshall Vore, who noticed something
special about Charlie. The two began writing and recording
songs together, and soon Charlie dropped out of school to
work on his music full-time.
 Charlie Hickey’s first proper single was ‘No Good at Lying’
and it’s the first track on ‘Count The Stairs’. The Marshall
Vore-produced track introduces us to Charlie’s evocative
storytelling and features Phoebe Bridgers on backing vocals.
“I’m no good at lying / on my back or through my teeth / but
I’m good at dreaming / I can do it in my sleep,” he sings over
hushed guitars and a whimsical banjo, searching for truth as
his unconscious mind runs wild and bleeds into reality. It’s a
slow, quiet, and understated peek to the world of Charlie
Hickey, who is barely of legal drinking age, but taps into such
universal themes that showcase a wisdom beyond his years
and exudes promise for what’s to come.

Born in 1999, Charlie Hickey grew up in South Pasadena,
just minutes from Downtown Los Angeles. Raised by two
singer-songwriter parents, Charlie’s second language was
music since day one. As early as grade school, he was
making sense of the world through songwriting, and by
middle school he was writing, recording and performing
songs that attracted a community of collaborators and could
silence a room.
 A turning point for Charlie came at around the age of
thirteen, when he covered a song by then up-and-coming
artist Phoebe Bridgers, who was still in high school herself.
The two quickly became friends and collaborators, setting
Charlie on an exciting new musical path. Years later,
Bridgers introduced Charlie to songwriter, drummer, producer
and her bandmate Marshall Vore, who noticed something
special about Charlie. The two began writing and recording
songs together, and soon Charlie dropped out of school to
work on his music full-time.
 Charlie Hickey’s first proper single was ‘No Good at Lying’
and it’s the first track on ‘Count The Stairs’. The Marshall
Vore-produced track introduces us to Charlie’s evocative
storytelling and features Phoebe Bridgers on backing vocals.
“I’m no good at lying / on my back or through my teeth / but
I’m good at dreaming / I can do it in my sleep,” he sings over
hushed guitars and a whimsical banjo, searching for truth as
his unconscious mind runs wild and bleeds into reality. It’s a
slow, quiet, and understated peek to the world of Charlie
Hickey, who is barely of legal drinking age, but taps into such
universal themes that showcase a wisdom beyond his years
and exudes promise for what’s to come.

Have we ever needed great storytellers so badly? Voices to snap us out of our collective grey funk, to pull us out of our narrow, hemmed-in worlds and to lighten our days and enlighten us with their perspectives, Immersing us in their worldview and history. People who can make us laugh, cry, gasp or nod sagely, to see our world anew and not feel so alone. We need stories, vignettes, new windows to look out of, and narrators to help those new visions make sense.

In short, we need Scott Lavene. Born and raised in Essex, but a man of the world who has wandered far and wide, Lavene’s a storyteller who can capture all the madness, joy and frustration of life while singing about worms writhing in the ground. Lavene’s been in bands since his teens, but only really located the voice that makes his new album Milk City Sweethearts so remarkable – that combination of wry observation, humble wisdom, unguarded vulnerability and unpredictable humour – in a music workshop for alcoholics and addicts, long after he’d bid farewell to childhood dreams of pop stardom, and the ghosts and demons that accompany those dreams.

He released an album as Big Top Heartbreak, 2016’s Deadbeat Ballads, and followed it with his first album under his own name, 2019’s droll and marvellous Broke. “I was signed to a little label in Bristol, but then they went skint,” he remembers. This time, however, the disappointment didn’t shake his confidence or his resolve. “I started writing prose, like ‘flash fiction’, and I’ve begun a novel,” he says. “And I’ve started some creative writing workshops for people who’ve come out of my situation.”

Amid all this activity, the songs that became Milk City Sweethearts began to take shape. Lavene noticed the border between his prose and his songwriting beginning to become porous, and the album feels like a clutch of excellent short stories set to music. Without a label, he recorded the album at home, and assembled it in a week in his mum’s garage during lockdown’s heavy manners. It’s a warm, witty, charismatic record with a dark heart at the centre, Lavene sounding dislocated and therefore able to write his everyday stories with a left-handed brilliance and blunt honesty that keeps them so fresh, like classic Kinks, or David Bowie if he’d never had to go to space to feel otherworldly. His songs are talking blues, set to loose and minimal and excellent art-rock with a pop sensibility, the honk of Roxy sax and the guttural weird-funk of Ian Dury’s Blockheads haunting their grooves.

Have we ever needed great storytellers so badly? Voices to snap us out of our collective grey funk, to pull us out of our narrow, hemmed-in worlds and to lighten our days and enlighten us with their perspectives, Immersing us in their worldview and history. People who can make us laugh, cry, gasp or nod sagely, to see our world anew and not feel so alone. We need stories, vignettes, new windows to look out of, and narrators to help those new visions make sense.

In short, we need Scott Lavene. Born and raised in Essex, but a man of the world who has wandered far and wide, Lavene’s a storyteller who can capture all the madness, joy and frustration of life while singing about worms writhing in the ground. Lavene’s been in bands since his teens, but only really located the voice that makes his new album Milk City Sweethearts so remarkable – that combination of wry observation, humble wisdom, unguarded vulnerability and unpredictable humour – in a music workshop for alcoholics and addicts, long after he’d bid farewell to childhood dreams of pop stardom, and the ghosts and demons that accompany those dreams.

He released an album as Big Top Heartbreak, 2016’s Deadbeat Ballads, and followed it with his first album under his own name, 2019’s droll and marvellous Broke. “I was signed to a little label in Bristol, but then they went skint,” he remembers. This time, however, the disappointment didn’t shake his confidence or his resolve. “I started writing prose, like ‘flash fiction’, and I’ve begun a novel,” he says. “And I’ve started some creative writing workshops for people who’ve come out of my situation.”

Amid all this activity, the songs that became Milk City Sweethearts began to take shape. Lavene noticed the border between his prose and his songwriting beginning to become porous, and the album feels like a clutch of excellent short stories set to music. Without a label, he recorded the album at home, and assembled it in a week in his mum’s garage during lockdown’s heavy manners. It’s a warm, witty, charismatic record with a dark heart at the centre, Lavene sounding dislocated and therefore able to write his everyday stories with a left-handed brilliance and blunt honesty that keeps them so fresh, like classic Kinks, or David Bowie if he’d never had to go to space to feel otherworldly. His songs are talking blues, set to loose and minimal and excellent art-rock with a pop sensibility, the honk of Roxy sax and the guttural weird-funk of Ian Dury’s Blockheads haunting their grooves.

Operating on a plane between avant-garde indie, bubbling electronica and cosmic psychedelia, London group Voka Gentle have an addictive, amorphous sound. A three limbed beast made up of twins Ellie and Imogen Mason, and William J. Stokes, each is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer with an imperious understanding of three dimensional sound.

The newest single ‘Necrofauna / The Garden of Eden’ - features Wayne Coyne from The Flaming Lips.
The hallucinatory mix of squelching synth bass and rhythmic samples, three-tiered harmonies playing off against William’s sprechgesang, and a cutting, full-bodied drum beat is reflected in the oneiric themes.

“This song is a dream sequence about the narrator entering the Garden of Eden, the emblem of an idealised pastoral relationship with the natural world, and realising they can’t stand it and want t o consume and bring destruction to it (I see a deer pass me by and I break its neck / Rip off its hind leg and take a bite through fur, sinew and bone).”

‘Necrofauna / The Garden of Eden’ - recorded with neo - metal battalion Pigsx7 guitarist and producer Sam Grant - is the first release in earnest since 2019’s acclaimed debut album ‘Start Clanging Cymbals’, released via Nude Records. Having come through the dues - paying gestation period that leads up to a debut record, there’s a sense of liberation around this new phase for Voka Gentle - a subtle confidence in their craft. It’s well earned too - with high praise from the likes of UNCUT, MOJO and The Line of Best Fit at press. Support comes too from BBC 6 Music - including presenting an edition of Stuart Maconie’s Freak Zone - and Radio 1. Tracks from that album also featured on FIFA 19 and The Sims 2020, aiding in recognition.

A live set at the prestigious Pitchfork Avant Garde festival, as well as a clutch of tastemaker festivals in the UK (Dot to Dot , Live At Leeds, The Great Escape, Kendall Calling, Bluedot, Neighbourhood), alongside the serendipit ous shows with The Flaming Lips and













[l] d2 [When We Go, We’re Taking You All With Us!]

Marco Gomes is coming with a much personal and intimate album named ” week “, as much as a real research on sounds and textures. It’s a day to day travel in which each element of the week, each day, with its particular soundscape, is part of an ensemble that expresses the complexity of emotions and the difficulties to catch the real life in its crudeness. This album is kind of melancholic, it’s hard to deny it, but it’s not expressed in a naive or depressed language. Some dark sounds, industrial, are always balanced with melodic or harmonic elements. Rhythms change along the pieces, the idea remains, in this kind of sharp and sweet poetry, in a kind of spiritual romanticism. This quest of sound of structures is an existential investigation on the modern life through the prism of ruled time oppression versus sublimation of the machines.

You have to know how to move away from the rich, strong and noisy streets, if you want to discover another Havana. A Havana far from the tourist circuits and preconceived images. A Havana where one discovers bucolic, but hard and stripped too after slow journeys in the crowded buses, a Havana with which Al Quetz maintains a passionate history since more than fourteen years.
Installed in one of those neighborhoods that can only be reached by going deeper into the alleys, from the open window of the studio comes the sound of banging drums and thumping bass. The sound reaches the streets on which the day rises.
The place wakes up in a growing tumult, with some rare engines coughing, conversations under the windows, songs of the street vendors , an urban ballet sets up as the sun darts its rays.
Far from the musical clichés with percussions and horns, Cuba is an island bombarded with influences that one discovers.
An island which vibrated for the jazz, the soul, the psychedelic rock , from the waves coming from the Caribbean to those of the bulky neighboring ogre.
A musical flowering as varied as abundant that the glorious post-revolutionary label Areito has on thousands of recordings,
and that Al Quetz has designated as the sole source of his samples to compose Habanologia.
From the ambiences that punctuate the local daily life caught by his samplers, he let the melancholy infiltrate his hip hop beats, the nostalgia melting in the depths of his grooves. Nostalgia in the Cuban air, even during moments of intense laughter, which never totally disappears.
Habanologia restores these moments when the song of the birds has extinguished those of the cars. Where, sitting on a doorstep, we comment on the life of the neighborhood, we watch the women's swaying at eye level. The whole day if necessary, the coffee at one peso, after a certain hour, which leaves its place to the Planchao rum. Wandering through its streets where a chance encounter can itself bring others and lead to the essence of the habanera life. From Regla, after a short trip on the bus-boat that crosses the bay, savor the end of the day, observe the capital from afar, let the nocturnal insects ensure some arrangements and drift towards mysterious horizons, bringing to the contemplation of the place and the moment.
A flute, a keyboard, percussions or a voice. Al Quetz also invited his friends from the island or elsewhere to decorate his productions with their live touch. To share with him this Havana for which he covered his tracks, mixed times and distorted space-time to make it timeless.
To write with Habanalogia, a declaration of love to the Cuban capital, to make Havana, His Havana.

The album is his first for Oakland-based emotive experimental label n5MD, and it finds Ohadi taking inspiration from Adam Curtis' Oh Dearism shorts reflecting on the globes' modern-day state of turmoil.
As of late, n5MD has focused more on harboring artists with a more visceral take on ambient, eschewing background music or music for concentration or respite for ambient that requires deep listening.
COLDSTREAM is another such fibrous collection. Ohadi utilizes dark ambient, drone, glitch, and even industrial motifs to aid Idlefon's grainy ideology. COLDSTREAM is boundless, with moments of tension that swirl in and out of view, making it a perfectly ascending aural view of our ever declining society.

The infinitive is the basic dictionary form of a verb when used
non-finitely. It is also the form chosen by Danieli and Purl
for the tracks of WHS 03: return to the basics, simplicity, pure nature distilled into music.
Pulsate starts with an ethereal soundscape, created to then open to a deeper underwater exploration. There´s a universe down there and the listener will be guided to appreciate its beauty: lanternfish giving the tempo of this journey, marine life to marvel at. We take a step back to observe and fill our eyes and ears. We come back to the surface, finding peace and calm.
Opening in a slow, thoughtful and majestic way, Compensate is a
hymn to balance. Since the very beginning, the listener will notice a contrast between gloomy atmospheres and lighter sounds, resulting in a chasing sensation that´s uncomfortable, yet fascinating. Desire to explore, together with acceptance, surrender to the things we simply can´t understand as humans.
The listener is then invited to explore darker, faster, more pounding atmospheres. Intimidate anticipate it all in its title : sounds, tempos, images, they all chase each other to create an atmosphere that's daunting and fascinating at the same time.
A track to accompany one's journey, be it real or spiritual, a trip where we let things happen as they come, accepting the flow of life.
Resonate closes the B side drawing with sounds the depth of our
natural state. Close your eyes and transport yourself in lost woods, alone in a tent at sunset, when the day is almost over and ready to make room for the night. The wood is speaking, the animals are awake, it's frightening but incredibly beautiful.
Crickets are singing their songs, frogs are bouncing from one pond to another, water connects with air, resonate with earth and with the smallnes of man in the face of nature.

Singer/songwriter and guitarist Jayan Bertrand, bassist Josh Ewers, electronic drummer Josue Vargas and guitarist Dion Kerr have coined new genre “Caribbean Jazzgaze” to describe their wholly unique combination of jazz, shoegaze, rock, hip-hop, and Afro-Caribbean rhythms that is Seafoam Walls.Seafoam Walls caught the attention of cultish music and art communities around South Florida with a soundtrack befitting of their dark tropical paradise, and have remained a Miami secret since 2016. Bandleader Jayan began his journey as a musician listening to metal and classic rock. His first formal lessons after a year of self-taught practice came from a family friend and talented jazz guitarist, Bemol Telfort. Although jazz wasn’t his first love but opened his heart to explorations of free improvisation which led to an introduction to Dion, Josh, and Josue — all active members on South Florida’s jazz scene. Seafoam Walls released their first EP, titled R-E-F-L-E-C-T in 2018 and ROOT in 2019 via Bandcamp. The band recently attracted international rock n roll consciousness following a secret all-ages matinee in the gardens of North Miami’s Centre for Subtropical Affairs with DC hardcore photographer Susie J (Teen Idles, Minor Threat, et al.) and Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore front row centre. The Miami indie band completed the eight-track album entitled XVI earlier this year. Norwegian sound artist Lasse Marhaug mastered the work, and the band will stream three singles through the summer and autumn months before releasing the complete album at the end of 2021 on seafoam-green coloured vinyl via Daydream Library Series.

Originally released in 1971. "What's Going On is not only Marvin Gaye's masterpiece, it's the most important and passionate record to come out of soul music, delivered by one of its finest voices, a man finally free to speak his mind and so move from R&B sex symbol to true recording artist. With What's Going On, Gaye meditated on what had happened to the American dream of the past -- as it related to urban decay, environmental woes, military turbulence, police brutality, unemployment, and poverty. These feelings had been bubbling up between 1967 and 1970, during which he felt increasingly caged by Motown's behind-the-times hit machine and restrained from expressing himself seriously through his music. Finally, late in 1970, Gaye decided to record a song that the Four Tops' Obie Benson had brought him, 'What's Going On.' When Berry Gordy decided not to issue the single, deeming it uncommercial, Gaye refused to record any more material until he relented. Confirmed by its tremendous commercial success in January 1971, he recorded the rest of the album over ten days in March, and Motown released it in late May. Besides cementing Marvin Gaye as one of the most important artists in pop music, What's Going On was far and away the best full-length to issue from the singles-dominated Motown factory, and arguably the best soul album of all time." John Bush, AllMusic

LTD. COLORED VINYL

Somewhere Between: Mutant Pop, Electronic Minimalism & Shadow Sounds of Japan 1980–1988 hovers vibe–wise between two distinct poles within Light In The Attic’s acclaimed Japan Archival Series—Kankyō Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980–1990 and Pacific Breeze: Japanese City Pop, AOR & Boogie 1976–1986. All three albums showcase recordings produced during Japan’s soaring bubble economy of the 1980s, an era in which aesthetic visions and consumerism merged. Music echoed the nation’s prosperity and with financial abundance came the luxury to dream.

Sonically, Somewhere Between mines the midpoint between Kankyō Ongaku’s sparkling atmospherics and Pacific Breeze’s metropolitan boogie. The compilation encompasses ambient pop, underground electronics, liminal minimalism and shadow sounds—all descriptors emphasizing the hazy nature of the nebula. Out–of–focus rhythms wear ethereal accoutrements, ballads are shrouded in static, and angular drums snake skyward on transcendent tones. From the Avant–minimalism of Mkwaju Ensemble and Yoshio Ojima, to the leftfield techno-pop of Mishio Ogawa and Noriko Miyamoto (featuring members of YMO), and highlights from the groundbreaking Osaka underground label Vanity Records, these are blurry constellations defying collective categorization.

These tracks also exist in a space of transition when the major label grip on the Japanese recording market began to give way to the escalation of independents. Thanks to the idyllic economic climate and innovations in domestically–manufactured music gear, creators on the edges were empowered to focus on satisfying their artistic visions in the open headspace of home studios. While labels like Warner Music and Nippon Columbia explored new sounds through traditional channels, it was possible for Vanity, Balcony and other indie labels, not to mention self–released artists like Ojima and Naoki Asai, to publish their work via affordable media such as cassettes, 7" vinyl, and flexi–discs.

Expertly curated by Yosuke Kitazawa and Mark “Frosty” McNeill (dublab), Somewhere Between is a collection of music, much of it released for the first time outside Japan, that is bound more by energetic vibration than shared history, genre or scene. They are the sounds of transition and searching—a celebration of the freedom found in floating.

Note: The track “Days Man” by Yoshio Ojima is only available on the LP and Cassette versions.

Expertly utilised in hit series 'Breaking Bad' to soundtrack Walt and Jesse's meth manufacturing, The Peddlers 'On A Clear Day You Can See Forever' is a sumptuous smooth soul journey - full of exquisite organ solos and deep vocal tones.

2019 marks 50 years since it's release and with original copies pushing £40 it's a chance to bag this iconic record at a fraction of the price.

Remastered and reissued on 7 inch with large / dinked centre hole in Epic generic paper sleeve.

Slowdive’s 5 EP was released in 1993 and contains 4 songs, 3 of which are instrumental. Neil Halstead had a blast experimenting with electronic beats. The instrumental tracks on this EP are all accompanied by a solid beat.

Slowdive once again succeed beautifully in producing tones that leave you numb as to how you should feel. There is an unmistakably euphoric edge to it, something heavenly, something convincing, something that takes you to places where everything is more beautiful, more colorful.

5 EP captures a brief moment of Slowdive’s journey - not quite like anything they did before it and not quite like anything after it, though it does have elements of both Souvlaki and Pygmalion in there.

“In Mind”, “Good Day Sunshine”, “Missing You” & “Country Rain” are trippy, dreamy, spaced, melancholic and cinematic... Overall an essential part of the history of one of the most influential acts of the late 20th century.

This rare and sought-after EP is now finally available as a limited edition of 4000 individually numbered copies on pink & purple marbled vinyl. The jacket has a special deluxe “alubrush” finish. The package includes an insert with the Slowdive catalogue.

Built around the successes of his soundtracks and songs for the movies of Christophe Honoré, Alex Beaupain’s profile in the ‘chanson française’ landscape is quite unique. Beaupain alternates between soundtracks, songs he writes for others (mainly great French actresses) and his own solo albums.
In march 2021, Beaupain paid tribute to the late Serge Gainsbourg for the 30th anniversary of his passing during a special live on air event where he covered in full, with the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra, Gainsbourg’s penultimate shocking album from 1984 : Love On The Beat.
This experience led him directly in the studio with Saint DX as producer, the French American duet Faux Real singing backing vocals and a full string section to re-record this cult album with a 2021 twist. He had also dreamed of covering that particular album that had so much impact on him, musically and lyrically, when he first discovered it. The 80s funky sound of the record, produced by Billy Rush, was a new start for Gainsbourg and at the time, the lyrics schocked everyone but achieved to avoid any censorship.
“I was 10 when Love On The Beat was released in 1984. Covering the full album was an idea I always kept somewhere in my mind as I was fully aware of the long lasting impact this particular record had on all the teenagers at the time. This collection of songs is far from being the most covered or talked about works form Gainsbourg, but I’ve always had the feeling they were ‘mine’. That everything started there for me and that, one day or the other, I would have to come back to it.” (Alex Beaupain)

Rising UK pop-rock/alternative five-piece Tigress return with their debut
album Pura Vida, following a series of EP releases with UK tastemaker UK
rock label Lab Records.
Bringing to mind the punky, scuzzy, low-frequency rock n roll of Royal Blood
and Slaves, singer Katy Jackson is the UK’s next superstar alt-rock frontwoman
in waiting, following in the footsteps of both YONAKA and VUKOVI.
Tigress’ primary coloured aesthetic and uniquely British sounding rock continues to set the band apart from their contemporaries, and a relentless work
ethic has seen the band set the UK and European touring scene alight, with
plans to perform at SXSW in 2022.
Tigress have already had press and radio coverage from the likes of Kerrang!,
Rock Sound, Alternative Press, Upset Magazine, Total Guitar, The Metro, BBC
Radio 1, BBC Radio 2, BBC Introducing, Radio X, Kerrang! FM, RTE 2XM, Triple
J and Planet Rock.
KEY MARKETING POINTS:
Late Summer/Autumn UK festivals + UK/EU headline tour in October 2021
Previous single ‘Paranoid’ used in marketing promo by Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame
Previous support slots include Green Day @ British Summer Time, Bring Me
The Horizon in mainland EU, and Billy Talent
Other festivals: Download, The Great Escape, Vans Warped Tour UK

Nair Mirabrat is a Uruguayan ensemble led by the composer Martín Ibarra. The candomberos of Montevideo are dressed in the infinite colors of the world and they immerse themselves in the world of song and dance, building bridges between the inside and the outside. "Juntos ahora" is built based on the myth of the hero and his journey through the symbolic labyrinth. Death, time and place are the themes where the lyrics wander. DESCRIPTION Martín Ibarra and his Nair Mirabrat ensemble bring a garden variety of electrifying rhythms with "Juntos ahora", fusing together elements of candombe fusion, jazz, and pop. Deep in the Montevideo music scene, Nair Mirabrat effortlessly transcends genres and local tradition bringing forth a new era of influence as they revel in the bliss of Ibarra's soaring vocals over tropical rhythms. Ibarra and crew are a modern-day mixture of Jaime Roos, OPA, Hugo Fattoruso and Eduardo Mateo with their explorative, forward-thinking passion of keeping it 100% Uruguay. Chris J. Morris

Limitierte farbige LP! "Public Storage" baut auf dem Sound von Vus früheren Veröffentlichungen auf und unterstreicht ihre Stärken als Songwriterin mit einem tieferen Sinn für Glanz, Raffinesse und Dringlichkeit. Sie nennt es eine "sehr invasive und intensiv klingende Musik", die erfrischend unkonventionell zu den zeitgenössischen Trends ist; dies ist Musik, auf die man sich einlässt, anstatt sich zurückzulehnen. Co-Produzent Jackson Phillips (Day Wave) half Vu dabei, eine riesige, körnige, facettenreiche Welt zu erschaffen, in die sie sich stimmlich hineinbegeben kann, wobei ihre ausgeprägte Altstimme frei zwischen beschwörenden, tiefgründigen Betrachtungen und gefühlvollen, himmelwärts strebenden Ausbrüchen hin- und herpendelt. Die ersten Klänge, die wir hören, sind bezaubernd: Vereinzelte Klaviertasten gehen in "April Fool" in warme Schläge und Selbstharmonien über, während Vus Protagonistin ihre Umgebung und ihre Fähigkeit zu kommunizieren verleugnet. Das sanfte bernsteinfarbene Glühen geht über in den Titeltrack des Albums, einen dunkleren, düsteren, lauteren Ort. Vu rennt durch "Public Storage" mit einer Reihe von trotzigen Zurückweisungen (Versagen, Familie, Magie) und kathartischen Forderungen. Es ist eine seltene und kraftvolle Zurschaustellung von Verletzlichkeit von einem Texter, der das Abstrakte dem Autobiographischen vorzieht. Aubade", das auf einem Disco-Synthie-Muster und groovenden Bass-Stabs aufbaut, hat den hellen Schwung seines morgendlichen Namensvetters, der geschickt im Widerspruch zu seinem niederschmetternden Thema steht. Der Kontrast setzt sich in "Keeper" fort, einem pulsierenden New-Wave-Song mit träumerischen Synthesizern und einem coolen, knurrenden Erzähler, der diese Kraft erneut herausfordert. "Gutter" kehrt zum grungigen Lowlight zurück, mit muskulösen Gitarrenriffs, die sich über einem Bett aus Rückkopplungen abzeichnen und zusammen mit orchestralen Streichern zu einem brüllenden Finale anschwellen. Die hintere Hälfte von Public Storage bietet einige der markantesten Momente: Das rhythmische, hooklastige "Everybody's Birthday" spricht von der bösen Absurdität der Gegenwart, dem Ende der Zeiten. Die Nacht ist rot, die Stimmung ist blau, und die Scham ihrer Figur ist goldfarben. Vu hebt sich "Maker" für den Schluss auf, einen letzten Versuch im Existenziellen.