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Joni Mitchell Gets Jazzy, Counterbalances Love and Trust with Freedom and Confusion on Court and Spark


Mobile Fidelity's UltraDisc One-Step 180g 45RPM 2LP
Plays with Definitive Detail and Clarity: Pressed on MoFi SuperVinyl Strictly Limited to 5,000 Numbered Copies
Box Set Features New Liner Notes
1/4" / 15 IPS / Dolby A analogue master to DSD 256 to analogue console to lathe


Court and Spark, the most commercially successful album of Joni Mitchell's trailblazing career, arrived after a year in which she took some time to breathe and kept a low profile. The pause led to more breakthroughs for the singer-songwriter. Marking Mitchell's increasing drift toward jazz (and affinity for Miles Davis and John Coltrane), Court and Spark garnered four Grammy nominations, earned the Best Album of the Year vote in the prestigious Pazz & Jop poll, and ranks #110 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Sourced from the original analog master tapes, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing on MoFi SuperVinyl, strictly limited to 5,000 numbered copies, and featuring new liner notes, Mobile Fidelity's UltraDisc One-Step 180g 45RPM 2LP box set presents the 1974 classic with definitive detail, tonality, and directness. Marking the first time the revered LP has received audiophile-quality treatment, it's one of six iconic 1970s Mitchell records Mobile Fidelity is reissuing on vinyl and SACD sets.

Benefitting from a virtually nonexistent noise floor, dead-quiet surfaces, and superior groove definition, this collectible edition reproduces without compromise the textures, details, and breathtaking craftsmanship that help make Court and Spark into what many fans believe is the Canadian native’s finest hour. Notes bloom and decay as they do amid an acoustic live environment. Soundstages extend far and deep, with black backgrounds and balanced tones adding to the uncanny realism.

The reference-grade presence and openness put in transparent view Mitchell’s incisive words and unique phrasing, as well as the contributions of her prized support musicians — including Tom Scott and the L.A. Express as well as guest turns by the likes of David Crosby, Graham Nash, Jose Feliciano, and Robbie Robertson. Mitchell, experimenting with the melodic parameters of guitar and piano, is rightly found at the center of it all. The jazz-rock rhythms of drummer John Guerin, slippery guitar lines of Larry Carlton, vibrant horns and reeds laid down by Scott — crucial to the songs’ shape-shifting arrangements — can now also be heard with fresh ears.

Visually and physically, the packaging of the Court and Spark UD1S set complements its distinguished status. Housed in a deluxe slipcase, both LPs come in foil-stamped jackets with faithful graphics that illuminate the splendor of the recording. This reissue is for listeners who desire to engage themselves in everything involved with the album, including Mitchell’s “The Mountain Loves the Sea” painting — a picture of waves embracing and receding away from a mountain, a metaphor for the record’s lyrical themes — on the cover art.

Pitching deceptively light compositions against underlying tensions, Court and Spark witnesses the singer-songwriter finding her footing with a group of top-shelf musicians who seemingly understand her visions as well as expanding her lyrical palette and venturing further into territory no artist had dared explore. Mitchell’s accessibly complex structures, beat-propelled rhythms, and spirited interplay with Scott & Co. both give the music a different identity than her prior efforts and point in the directions she soon headed.

Lyrically, Court and Spark matches the wit, integrity, originality, and intellect of anything in Mitchell’s oeuvre — no small feat. Offsetting positives with negatives, and considering circumstances from multiple angles, Mitchell explores issues connected to love and freedom, certainty and confusion, and trust and fear with unfettered boldness and introspective empathy. She teeters between surrender and retreat, and spends a majority of the record sussing out the complications and sacrifices involved with such actions.

Mitchell addresses the transactional nature of desire (the intimate title track, the upbeat “Raised on Robbery,” complete with rock ‘n’ roll pep from Robertson and zesty sax from Scott); anticipation and disappointment of romance (“Car on a Hill,” “”Down to You); fame and celebrity (“A Free Man in Paris,” “People’s Parties”); and sanity (the dark and stormy “Trouble Child,” a satirical cover of Annie Ross’ “Twisted”). Throughout, she sings with an emotionally penetrating beauty and devastating honesty that teaches about ourselves.

Or, as Mitchell relays on “People’s Parties”: “Laughing and crying/You know it’s the same release.”

Did you know there are horses on the cover of Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version? There are at least three in the right hand corner, gathered inexplicably near a white canvas tent, a human possibly perched among its folds. As widescreen and vast as the cover may seem, those little details-the horses, the possible human, the faint wisp of white clouds-give it depth and wonder, something to which the imagination can return. Did you know that the music on Earth 2-repressed now for its 30th anniversary, back in its original artwork, and accompanied by a riveting set of remixes that demonstrate the reach of what Dylan Carlson long ago called "ambient metal"-works much the same way? The surface is massive and obvious, the meatpaw riffs of Carlson and bassist Dave Harwell pounding and swiping and pawing at the speakers, a true bludgeon in three-dimensional sound. Listen, though, for the details in the corners, for the finesse beneath the force, and Earth 2 reveals new levels of depth and wonder. The widespread impact of Earth 2 suggests that others have indeed been leaning in, listening to these minutiae and making something new of them. A masterpiece without many genre precedents, Earth 2 surely helped send doom metal down its more modern drone, ambient, and avant-garde avenues. Those descendants are obvious. Perhaps more surprising and gratifying are the ways it has influenced electronic music, modern composition, and even hip-hop by realigning our senses of tempo, time, and texture. Earth 2 engendered a rearrangement of expectations, regardless of preferred form.

On his new album ‚forge’, ambient artist KMRU explores the blend of melody and noise, rhythm and drone. ‚forge’ marks the third release on Seil Records for the Nairobi born and Berlin based producer. Made up of 10 tracks, the album effortlessly wanders from intimate compositions over field recordings to deep and rich soundscapes.

The result feels like a living, breathing organism. Music you can immerse yourself in. Like few others, the 27 year old producer carved a niche of his own, capturing the essence of his raw live performances to form a highly unique listening experience that transcends what ambient music is known for.

‚forge‘ can both exist in the background as well as front and center. Filled with intricate details and vast sonic vistas, it invites the listeners to lose themselves in the music. It’s gentle, yet uncompromising; soft and warm, yet growly and dense.

Matter-of-factly, Lycox exclaims "Yaaahh" right at the beginning. That's an affirmation but in times of distress it can also mean resignation, something like "Yeah, whatever". Lycox says he was only freestyling though. Then the bassline appears. Elastic, expressive, full-bodied. And it's not even present the whole time. He was "trying to develop a new formula for the Kuduro beat."

Songs for the club? Most certainly. Different sensibilities, one same focused mind. Lycox evolves within tradition, he has mastered the groove, the ambience, the right tones. Simply called "Energia", the last track circles above wistfully, menacing but maybe just promising some sort of action. With a few drops one could almost switch over to a parallel universe of old school Trance, a reference that feels as alien here as maybe this track feels to someone for whom the standard Afro House sound represents modern African music.

These songs pile up in a threshold balanced between styles, sensations, maybe in the middle of life itself. Such a concentration of energy is bound to need release and that comes figuratively through details in the music reaching out to receptive ears. "To Bem Loko" explicitly tries to "literally drive everyone crazy on the dancefloor." Once again Lycox provides vocals, as in "Edson no Uige", about a friend who embarked on a trip to the Angolan province of Uige and came back speaking only the local dialect known as lingala. A nod to tradition, very emotional, without compromising complex arrangements. Consequently, we the listeners are kept believing there is still enough space for a bright future. To ears accustomed to Lycox productions the title "Contemporaneo" (opening of side B) reads like a redundancy, then.

Maybe this music can never be quite as massive as other Afro styles. Without sounding pretentious, it avoids simplistic patterns, it demands a bit more mental processing while it certainly aims to loosen the limbs. Universal in vocation, underground at the core, Lycox definitely calls it Batida but for some it is still Ghetto Music. Like DJ Veiga said when describing a previous release for Príncipe, Ghetto is home, though. Lycox adds it is a foundation of personality. "Few in our community will recognize your work when you come from the same environment, but once you establish your reputation outside of the neighbourhood and even outside of the country, people will look at you differently, as if you were a star."

Wer die turbulente Karriere von Blake Judd und seiner bahnbrechenden Band verfolgt hat, dürfte von harschem Gegenwind kaum überrascht sein. Davon unbeirrt legen NACHTMYSTIUM mit ihrem neunten Studioalbum "Blight Privilege" erneut ein Meisterwerk vor. "Blight Privilege" kann es sogar mit der großen Trilogie von Alben aufnehmen, die Kritiker und Anhänger der amerikanischen Black Metal (USBM) Vorreiter nach wie vor als den Höhepunkt der frühen Karriere betrachten: "Instinct: Decay" (2006), "Assassins: Black Meddle Pt. I" (2008), und "Addicts: Black Meddle Pt. II" (2010). Wie ein infernalischer Scharfschütze trifft jeder Song auf "Blight Privilege" voll ins Schwarze. Die ersehnten und unentbehrlichen finsteren Elemente sind vollzählig vorhanden: Kehlig-raue Gesänge, das aggressive Surren der Gitarren, die in einem eiskalten Feuer brennen, und jene Momente ebenso ekstatischer wie erhabener Schönheit in den ansonsten höllischen Klangwelten. Doch auch jene feinen, aber großartigen Details, die der musikalisch äußerst versierte Judd stets geschickt in seinen schwarzen Klanggewittern versteckt hat, wie etwa Elemente aus Post-Punk und Wave finden sich auf "Blight Privilege". Sogar eine Messerspitze Outlaw Country ist neu hinzugekommen. Auch wenn "Blight Privilege" an die glorreichen Zeiten von NACHTMYSTIUM anknüpft - ist es dennoch kein Schwelgen in Nostalgie, sondern eine zukunftsweisende Fortsetzung und die nächste musikalische Evolutionsstufe der Band. Dieses neunte Album des Amerikaners ist von einer Reife geprägt, die aus harten Erfahrungen und einem brutalen Lernprozess resultiert. Judds ebenso charakteristische wie diabolisch eingängige Melodien sind scharfkantiger als je zuvor und haben nichts von ihrem Biss verloren. Das mag auch damit zu tun haben, dass es das erste Album der USBM-Speerspitze ist, das von Judd in einem rauschfreien Zustand komponiert wurde. "Blight Privilege" ist eine Kampfansage, mit der NACHTMYSTIUM den USBM-Thron vehement einfordern. Dieses Album hat wieder die musikalische Kraft und lyrische Kühnheit, um diesem Anspruch gerecht zu werden. Liebt oder hasst das Album, aber NACHTMYSTIUM errichten mit "Blight Privilege" zweifellos einen massiven Meilenstein!

Wer die turbulente Karriere von Blake Judd und seiner bahnbrechenden Band verfolgt hat, dürfte von harschem Gegenwind kaum überrascht sein. Davon unbeirrt legen NACHTMYSTIUM mit ihrem neunten Studioalbum "Blight Privilege" erneut ein Meisterwerk vor. "Blight Privilege" kann es sogar mit der großen Trilogie von Alben aufnehmen, die Kritiker und Anhänger der amerikanischen Black Metal (USBM) Vorreiter nach wie vor als den Höhepunkt der frühen Karriere betrachten: "Instinct: Decay" (2006), "Assassins: Black Meddle Pt. I" (2008), und "Addicts: Black Meddle Pt. II" (2010). Wie ein infernalischer Scharfschütze trifft jeder Song auf "Blight Privilege" voll ins Schwarze. Die ersehnten und unentbehrlichen finsteren Elemente sind vollzählig vorhanden: Kehlig-raue Gesänge, das aggressive Surren der Gitarren, die in einem eiskalten Feuer brennen, und jene Momente ebenso ekstatischer wie erhabener Schönheit in den ansonsten höllischen Klangwelten. Doch auch jene feinen, aber großartigen Details, die der musikalisch äußerst versierte Judd stets geschickt in seinen schwarzen Klanggewittern versteckt hat, wie etwa Elemente aus Post-Punk und Wave finden sich auf "Blight Privilege". Sogar eine Messerspitze Outlaw Country ist neu hinzugekommen. Auch wenn "Blight Privilege" an die glorreichen Zeiten von NACHTMYSTIUM anknüpft - ist es dennoch kein Schwelgen in Nostalgie, sondern eine zukunftsweisende Fortsetzung und die nächste musikalische Evolutionsstufe der Band. Dieses neunte Album des Amerikaners ist von einer Reife geprägt, die aus harten Erfahrungen und einem brutalen Lernprozess resultiert. Judds ebenso charakteristische wie diabolisch eingängige Melodien sind scharfkantiger als je zuvor und haben nichts von ihrem Biss verloren. Das mag auch damit zu tun haben, dass es das erste Album der USBM-Speerspitze ist, das von Judd in einem rauschfreien Zustand komponiert wurde. "Blight Privilege" ist eine Kampfansage, mit der NACHTMYSTIUM den USBM-Thron vehement einfordern. Dieses Album hat wieder die musikalische Kraft und lyrische Kühnheit, um diesem Anspruch gerecht zu werden. Liebt oder hasst das Album, aber NACHTMYSTIUM errichten mit "Blight Privilege" zweifellos einen massiven Meilenstein!

Rund zwei Jahre nahm Brenk sich Zeit, an "Midnite Ride III" zu feilen und die richtigen Soundbilder für seine musikalische Vision zu finden. Dabei legte er viel Wert auf verspielte Details und einen zeitlosen Sound, der sowohl den Late Night Vibe der ersten beiden Vorgänger fortsetzt als auch Brenks aktuellen Mindset in puncto Soundästhetik widerspiegelt. Auf "Midnite Ride III" fusionieren analoge Synthesizer aus Brenks berüchtigter Vintage-Sammlung mit perfekt platzierten Voice-Samples, die zur Trademark des Midnite Ride Sounds gehören. Als einer der Urväter der Phonk-Bewegung reichert Brenk seine Beats auch diesmal mit der richtigen Dosis aus Phonk-Elementen an und kreiert aus alten und neuen musikalischen Einflüssen ein weiteres Mal einen moody Soundcocktail, der ab der ersten Sekunde in seinen Bann zieht.
Begleitend zum Album-Release wird eine Dokumentation erscheinen, die die Entstehung und die Hintergründe von Brenk Sinatras Midnite Ride Universums beleuchten wird.

''One Foot in the Rave'' is a vibrant collection that showcases Jonny's signature style--a blend of melodic, melancholic acid jams, bleepy funk, and warm analog electronics. Whether for the stereo or the sound system, the LP moves from the upfront bounce of ''The Apocalypse is Now'' and ''Raymond Tuesday's Big Day Out'' to the shimmering reverb of ''Starry Night'' and the birdsong-infused ''Ringfort.'' Listeners will find themselves in familiar Automatic Tasty terrain, rich with psychedelic exploration. According to Jonny, ''What to say about this record? I don't really know and it hardly matters. I wrote them on different bits of gear; ye olde faithful Roland SH101, my MC202 (pencil and paper de rigeur), a battered x0xb0x 1.0 (thx Daniel!), a beloved Yamaha Cs-5, a similarly beloved Roland SH5, a truly hammered Juno106, a Roland JX3P, a Nord something or other, an MPC2500, my TR606, and a Vermona DRM1 MKII being sequenced via a bedraggled TR626. Also Jay's TR808 is on there (thx Jay!) and a TR8 being squashed through a Mutronics Mutator (wheee Damo!) and a Zoom H4n recorder. I edited them on a dilapidated laptop, with no headphones or monitors, steering by the tiny speakers on the computer and playing them in my car, twiddling the mix as I went. But these are frivolous and unimportant details. All that matters is that these songs were made out of love. Cheerio, Jonny. P.S.: This record is dedicated to Jay 'Winthorpe' Kelly.'' ''One Foot in the Rave'' will be available on vinyl and digital platforms starting October 14th.

"Ultravisitor" ist seit seinem Release im März 2004 zum Fanliebling und einem der beliebtesten Platten in Squarepushers gesamter Diskographie avanciert. Mit seiner einzigartigen Mischung aus Studio- und Live-Aufnahmen ist es gleichzeitig ein hervorragendes Beispiel für die Vielfalt seiner Musik: vom frenetischen Titeltrack über den funky Jazz von "Iambic 9 Poetry" bis zur sonnendurchfluteten Glückseligkeit von "Tommib Help Buss" und darüber hinaus.

Zum 20. Jubiläum präsentiert Warp eine erweiterte Deluxe-Version in einmaliger, limitierter Auflage, die von Jason Mitchell (Loud Mastering) unter der Ägide von Tom Jenkinson sorgfältig von den Originalbändern remastert. Tom hat die Gelegenheit genossen, die Bänder noch einmal zu überarbeiten und den Stücken neue Dynamik und Details zu verleihen.

Das beigefügte Bonusalbum "Venus No.17 Maximised" besteht aus ultra-raren Tracks einer Ultravisitor-Promo-EP, der "Square Window" 3"-CD (die bei Vorbestellungen über WarpMart gratis mitgeliefert wurde) sowie der "Venus No.17" EP (alle aus 2004). Das beiliegende Booklet enthält seltene Fotos, Flyer und Aufnahmedokumenten, darunter einer Anleitung zu allen Geräten, die Squarepusher damals verwendete.

Icelandic indie-pop songwriter Kaktus Einarsson will release his second album ‘Lobster Coda’ via One Little Independent Records on October 25th. Amidst a collection of lush, electronic earworms, Kaktus has penned an honest account of his recovery from a sudden functional neurological disorder (FND) that required him to relearn how to use his motor functions, while also performing his duties as a new father.

‘Lobster Coda’ incorporates dreamy, glistening synth-pop and melancholic ambience, created through layers of atmospheric keys, percussion, and groove-laden funk bass. Kaktus details his journey following a stress-induced nonepileptic seizure that halted his brain’s ability to communicate with the rest of his body, resulting in losing control of his legs, arms and causing involuntary facial tics. Crucially, he spent months on a course of physical therapy while also trying to care for his children and his partner, that by his own admission he then needed to reconnect with. With an occasionally brutal candour, Kaktus’s new album is about taking the time to reflect and recognise changes that need to be made, to listen to your body, and to trust the process no matter how long it might take.

Icelandic indie-pop songwriter Kaktus Einarsson will release his second album ‘Lobster Coda’ via One Little Independent Records on October 25th. Amidst a collection of lush, electronic earworms, Kaktus has penned an honest account of his recovery from a sudden functional neurological disorder (FND) that required him to relearn how to use his motor functions, while also performing his duties as a new father.

‘Lobster Coda’ incorporates dreamy, glistening synth-pop and melancholic ambience, created through layers of atmospheric keys, percussion, and groove-laden funk bass. Kaktus details his journey following a stress-induced nonepileptic seizure that halted his brain’s ability to communicate with the rest of his body, resulting in losing control of his legs, arms and causing involuntary facial tics. Crucially, he spent months on a course of physical therapy while also trying to care for his children and his partner, that by his own admission he then needed to reconnect with. With an occasionally brutal candour, Kaktus’s new album is about taking the time to reflect and recognise changes that need to be made, to listen to your body, and to trust the process no matter how long it might take.

"Back in print, on purple nebula vinyl!

While the exuberance and joy of Stovall dealt with vocalist/guitarist Nathan Hardy’s wide-eyed wonder at a world previously obscured by a strict religious upbringing and his time as a Mormon missionary – songs of innocence, if you will – Much Love details the aftermath once that awestruck amazement has been dampened by the harsh realities of life.

These, then, are songs of experience, the sound of growing pains (with the emphasis very much on the pain), on the trials and tribulations that come after the euphoria of freedom. That’s not to say that the first album was devoid of drama, because it was full of it, but the ten tracks that make up Much Love certainly traverse darker, more unstable territory by confronting the very existence and notion of life as Hardy once knew it.

Recorded and produced, like Stovall, by Travis Hill, Much Love is a more abrasive, rawer set of songs than its predecessor, more The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me than Deja Entendu. Yes, Microwave are very much still recognizable as the same band, but at the same time these songs are a conscious evolution of their sound."

Das epische Power Metal-Highlight des Jahres 2010 in der längst überfälligen Vinyl-Neuauflage! Mit der Hymne "We Are Pirates" gelang der Band um Sänger Seeb Levermann seinerzeit der Durchbruch.
"Easton Hope" kommt nun erstmals als 2-Picture LP (limitiert auf 500 Einheiten), auf der alle Details des aufwendigen Andreas Marschall-Artworks perfekt darstellt sind; sowie als Clear White 2-Vinyl (limitiert auf 500 Einheiten).

Mit seiner nunmehr 10. Platte für Exile On Mainstream (die 'Suiciety' Single und das Trialogos-Album "Stroh zu Gold" einfach mal mitgezählt) braucht Conny wohl weder eine Einführung, noch eine oberflächliche Bejubelung. "Troubadour" würde das auch nicht gerecht, denn selten hat man den in Deutschland und Italien lebenden Künstler so reduziert, deep und nahbar erlebt. Die Platte ist eine Hinwendung zu seinen Wurzeln als Solokünstler, der mit spärlicher Instrumentierung und bedingungsloser Ehrlichkeit ganze Kathedralen mit Emotionen füllen kann. Nach eher experimentellen Ausflügen auf "Wahn und Sinn", seinem vielbeachteten deutschsprachigen Album aus 2023 und dem eher opulent instrumentierten "Doom Folk" von 2019 ist "Troubadour" nun wieder ein reines Singer/Songwriter-Album geworden. Eine Gitarre, eine Stimme - mehr braucht es nicht. Conny beschreibt es selbst wie folgt: "Meine Idee war, ein Album zu machen, das den minimalistischen Ansatz von Raw Love Songs und Black Happy aufgreift, aber zugleich das widerspiegelt, was ich heute erlebe. Konzerte sind für mich immer das Herz meiner Musik, deshalb wollte ich Stücke schreiben, die ich jederzeit und überall spielen kann - in Clubs, auf Festivals oder unterwegs, unter den geringsten Anforderungen. Ich hatte eine Platte im Kopf, die Raum zum Atmen und Zuhören bietet, damit man die Details der erzählten Bilder erkennen kann." Für Fans von Townes Van Zandt, Leonard Cohen, Elliott Smith

Onsloow burst onto the Norwegian indie scene in 2022 with their self-titled debut album. They quickly transitioned from obscurity to performing concerts nationwide, garnering rave reviews, playing at festivals, and receiving increasing radio play with each new single. As is the case for many passionate amateurs with families and day jobs, this couldn’t last indefinitely. Vocalist Johanne Rimul became busy with her master’s degree and growing family, Mathias Nylenna returned to his regular job at national radio, and drummer Morten Samdal and bassist Lasse Berg pursued their own musical projects. But Onsloow wasn’t finished. They soon returned to their practice space in Trondheim, working tirelessly on new songs for over two years. The result is their second album, aptly named Full Speed Anywhere Else.

With Rimul’s commitments making further band activity impossible, Onsloow had to search for someone who could continue the band's signature sound—distinctive, melodic vocals atop jangly pop guitars and driving drums. Fortunately, Helene Brunæs, frontwoman of the emo/pop-punk sensation Lille Venn, jumped on board without hesitation. Despite her busy schedule with regular releases, a US tour, and gigs alongside pop stars like Sigrid, she found time to join Onsloow's ambitious plans. Her warm, airy vocals perfectly match Onsloow's universe of catchy power pop, quirky indie rock, and energetic pop-punk. The new album even features hints of country and Americana. Over several sessions with producer Marius Ergo, the album took shape, with the band focusing more on details and arrangements than ever before. The goal was to elevate their music beyond their self-titled debut album.

Full Speed Anywhere Else’s ten meticulously crafted tracks form a cohesive unit, allowing the band to explore various directions, moods, and expressions without losing their essence: straightforward, catchy power pop that sticks, with plenty of nuances for those who appreciate the finer points.

Wyatt Flores, is an American country music singer-songwriter and musician. EMI are please to announced his debut album Welcome To The Plains will be released in UK on 18th October. Flores told fans that the record will be released on October 18th and was inspired by his native Oklahoma and ultimate search for happiness. From stories about his life, family and many places he’s been, it is highly-anticipated by fans and was produced by Beau Bedford (Orville Peck, Shane Smith & The Saints). They recorded the songs between Los Angeles and Asheville, North Carolina (a pretty stark contrast), and the songs feature writers like Old Crow Medicine Show’s Ketch Secor and Aaron Raitiere, as Wyatt details the struggle of leaving his hometown of Stillwater and dealing with the highs and lows of life on the road as an up-and-coming musician.

Die erste umfassende Compilation ihrer Art, "Even the Forest Hums: Ukrainian Sonic Archives 1971-1996" erforscht die blühende ukrainische Musikszene des späten 20. Jahrhunderts. Von subtil vom politischen Kurs abweichenden Singles aus der Sowjet-Ära bis hin zu DIY-Aufnahmen aus der pulsierenden Kiewer Underground-Szene zeichnet die Zusammenstellung die Entwicklung der reichen ukrainischen Musiklandschaft anhand seltener Folk-, Rock-, Jazz- und Elektronikaufnahmen nach. Sorgfältig kuratiert in Zusammenarbeit mit dem ukrainischen Label Shukai Records und mit voller Unterstützung der einzelnen Künstler. Vitalii "Bard" Bardetskyi, ein in Kiew lebender Filmemacher, DJ und Autor, führt die Hörer durch die physischen Ausgaben des Albums mit aufschlussreichen Linernotes und Track-by-Track-Details. Die 2xLP ist in einer wunderschönen Klappverpackung untergebracht, die die geliebten und ikonischen Folk-Gemälde der ukrainischen Künstlerin Maria Prymachenko präsentiert. Die Vinylausgabe enthält ein 20-seitiges Booklet mit Künstlerfotos und Linernotes in Englisch und Ukrainisch, gepresst auf Clear Blue Sky & Sunflower Yellow Wachs; die CD-Ausgabe enthält Bonusmaterial in einem 64-seitigen, gebundenen Deluxe-Buch. Ein Teil des Erlöses wird an Livyj Bereh gespendet, eine in Kiew ansässige Freiwilligengruppe, die sich für den Wiederaufbau in den vom anhaltenden Krieg in der Ukraine betroffenen Regionen einsetzt.

“Worldwide Heavy Industries Vol.1: A Bold New Vinyl Release fromFlux Musical Art and Brutal Forms Flux Musical Art and Brutal Forms have teamed up to release Worldwide Heavy Industries Vol.1, a groundbreaking vinyl that promises to push the boundaries of industrial and rhythmic music. This limited edition release, available in just 300 copies, offers an immersive exploration of mechanized soundscapes and futuristic themes. An Industrial Sonic Journey The album presents a compelling journey through industrial rhythms and dystopian landscapes, with each track showcasing a unique interpretation of the genre. On side A, Dominik Müller opens with “Too Many Posers,” delivering an intricate and immersive soundscape characterized by his signature depth and complexity. Following this, Ryuji Takeuchi’s “In Your Mind” introduces innovative rhythmic structures, adding a fresh and dynamic dimension to the release. The B-side features a powerful collaboration: 6SISS and Hypnoskull’s “Losss” combines intense rhythms with a raw, industrial edge, creating a track that is both abrasive and compelling. Low Order’s “Taste My Venom” delves into the darker and more experimental aspects of industrial music, bringing a raw, experimental touch. Closing the release is Skumring’s “CorpseRidden,” which blends precise rhythms with expansive sound design, offering a rich atmospheric quality that reflects his role as co-founder of Brutal Forms. With only 300 copies available, this limited edition vinyl is a coveted collector’s item. Each record features bespoke artwork that complements the album’s industrial theme. *Worldwide Heavy Industries Vol.1* is set to reach a global audience of dedicated collectors and fans. This release is more than just a vinyl; it’s a journey into a futuristic world through the lens of industrial music. For further details on track listings and purchasing options, visit Flux Webzine or the official websites of Flux Musical Art and Brutal Forms. Dive into this cutting-edge release and experience the forefront of industrial music with Worldwide Heavy Industries Vol.1.”
Hardware Emotions

Wie war das noch gleich? Die dritte Scheibe einer Band ist das ,Make-It or Break-It"-Album? Kontrolle aus Solingen und Düsseldorf könnte das nicht egaler sein. Ihr kalter, 80er- beeinflusster Wave-/Post-Punk-Sound wurde schon beim 2017er-Debüt ,Egal" begeistert aufgenommen und mit ,Zwei" (2021) verfeinert. Und so gab es für das Trio nie einen Anlass für eine grundlegende Sound-Änderung, eine Umstellung der Herangehensweise oder ein Schielen auf Trends. Das genau beweist ,Grau", Kontrolle-Album #3. Denn wenn das dritte Album von KONTROLLE etwas unterstreicht, dann, dass die Band noch kompromissloser zu Werke geht. Ihre Hardcore- und Punkwurzeln sind hier deutlicher denn je zu erkennen. Die breite Soundwand, die das Trio um Gitarrist und Sample-Meister Carsten Wagner, Sänger und Bassist Daniel Brangs und Drummer Andrew Collar kreiert und erneut in der Tonmeisterei bei Role Wiegner in Oldenburg auf Band gebannt hat, bestätigt diese Vermutung. Aber da sind ja auch noch die prägenden, markanten dunklen Elemente, die als Gegenpol eine sphärische Dynamik schaffen, die zwischen hypnotisch und eruptiv pendelt. Und das funktioniert nicht nur vor der Bühne, sondern auch auf der Tanzfläche. Die deutschen Texte von Sänger Daniel behandeln aktuelle Themen und Sorgen in gewohnt KONTROLLE-typischen Passagen, die oft mit einem Augenzwinkern auch politisch Stellung beziehen. Bisweilen spielen sogar Alltags- und Haushaltsgegenstände nicht zu unterschätzende Rollen in der ,kontrollierten" Beschreibung der deutschen Realität. Die Covergestaltung lag erneut in der Hand von Schlagzeuger Andrew, der diesmal neue Wege beschritt: Hunderte selbst geschossene Fotos bildeten den Grundstock für eine Collage von original ca. 1,5 m x 2 m. Alle Bilder wurden in mühevoller Kleinarbeit ausgeschnitten und zusammengestellt. Das Gatefoldcover ist somit ein Kunstwerk für sich und eröffnet mit jedem Blick neue Details. Erscheinen wird die LP am 27.09.2024, wieder auf dem für handgemachte Releases geschätzten Kölner Label Holy Goat Records. Zwei digitale Single-Releases und eine limitierte 7"- Auskopplung kommen im Vorfeld. Und natürlich sind KONTROLLE dann auch wieder live im Einsatz.

Wie war das noch gleich? Die dritte Scheibe einer Band ist das ,Make-It or Break-It"-Album? Kontrolle aus Solingen und Düsseldorf könnte das nicht egaler sein. Ihr kalter, 80er- beeinflusster Wave-/Post-Punk-Sound wurde schon beim 2017er-Debüt ,Egal" begeistert aufgenommen und mit ,Zwei" (2021) verfeinert. Und so gab es für das Trio nie einen Anlass für eine grundlegende Sound-Änderung, eine Umstellung der Herangehensweise oder ein Schielen auf Trends. Das genau beweist ,Grau", Kontrolle-Album #3. Denn wenn das dritte Album von KONTROLLE etwas unterstreicht, dann, dass die Band noch kompromissloser zu Werke geht. Ihre Hardcore- und Punkwurzeln sind hier deutlicher denn je zu erkennen. Die breite Soundwand, die das Trio um Gitarrist und Sample-Meister Carsten Wagner, Sänger und Bassist Daniel Brangs und Drummer Andrew Collar kreiert und erneut in der Tonmeisterei bei Role Wiegner in Oldenburg auf Band gebannt hat, bestätigt diese Vermutung. Aber da sind ja auch noch die prägenden, markanten dunklen Elemente, die als Gegenpol eine sphärische Dynamik schaffen, die zwischen hypnotisch und eruptiv pendelt. Und das funktioniert nicht nur vor der Bühne, sondern auch auf der Tanzfläche. Die deutschen Texte von Sänger Daniel behandeln aktuelle Themen und Sorgen in gewohnt KONTROLLE-typischen Passagen, die oft mit einem Augenzwinkern auch politisch Stellung beziehen. Bisweilen spielen sogar Alltags- und Haushaltsgegenstände nicht zu unterschätzende Rollen in der ,kontrollierten" Beschreibung der deutschen Realität. Die Covergestaltung lag erneut in der Hand von Schlagzeuger Andrew, der diesmal neue Wege beschritt: Hunderte selbst geschossene Fotos bildeten den Grundstock für eine Collage von original ca. 1,5 m x 2 m. Alle Bilder wurden in mühevoller Kleinarbeit ausgeschnitten und zusammengestellt. Das Gatefoldcover ist somit ein Kunstwerk für sich und eröffnet mit jedem Blick neue Details. Erscheinen wird die LP am 27.09.2024, wieder auf dem für handgemachte Releases geschätzten Kölner Label Holy Goat Records. Zwei digitale Single-Releases und eine limitierte 7"- Auskopplung kommen im Vorfeld. Und natürlich sind KONTROLLE dann auch wieder live im Einsatz.

A new piece by minimalist / experimental composer PHILL NIBLOCK (1933 - 2024), co-composed and performed by ANNA CLEMENTI & THOMAS STERN. Intense, menacing layers of thick drones and alien sounds.

In summer 2022, within just a few weeks and by pure coincidence, 2 proposals regarding PHILL NIBLOCK albums arrived: one suggesting an overdue vinyl reissue of a CD release (more on that when the time has come for it), the other email was from ANNA CLEMENTI saying she and THOMAS STERN were working on new pieces that PHILL NIBLOCK has written for her … when "Zound Delta 2" was complete, PHILL sent photographs for the two artworks, we met twice to discuss details, but unfortunately he died unexpectedly early january this year so the album now is, sad as it is, a posthumous release … an intense goodbye from one of 20thcentury most iconic composers.

Phill Niblock

Phill Niblock (1933-2024, USA) was an artist whose fifty-year career spans minimalist and experimental music, film and photography. Since 1985, he has served as director of Experimental Intermedia, a foundation for avant-garde music based in New York with a branch in Ghent, and curator of the foundation's record label XI. Known for his thick, loud drones of music, Niblock's signature sound is filled with microtones of instrumental timbres that generate many other tones in the performance space. In 2013, his diverse artistic career was the subject of a retrospective realised in partnership between Circuit (Contemporary Art Centre Lausanne) and Musée de l'Elysée. The following year Niblock was honoured with the prestigious Foundation for Contemporary Arts John Cage Award.

Anna Clementi

Italian-Swedish singer Anna Clementi grew up in Rome, where she first studied the flute and completed acting training before moving to Berlin and studying experimental vocal music and experimental music theater with the composer Dieter Schnebel at Hochschule der Künste (now UdK Berlin). Anna Clementi sees herself as an "actress of the voice" rather than exclusively as a singer. In this way she also articulates the diversity of her artistic expression, with which she is always searching for new connections between voice, gesture, language, dance and theater.

During her decades spanning career, Anna Clementi has performed at the most important festivals, has premiered numerous works, many of which have been composed especially for her, and worked with Fast Forward, Michael Hirsch, Rupert Huber, Christian Kesten, Alexander Kolkowski, Olga Neuwirth, Josef Anton Riedl, Iris ter Schiphorst, Dieter Schnebel, Laurie Schwartz, Elliott Sharp, and many others.

A special focus of hers is the work of John Cage, whose pieces she has performed worldwide.

Thomas Stern

Born in Bremen, Thomas Stern moved to Berlin in 1984 where he joined Mona Mur with Alex Hacke and F. M. Einheit (both from Einstürzende Neubauten, with which Stern also worked as live sound engineer for many years). Around 1987 he co-founded the Berlin set up of Crime And The City Solution (Mick Harvey, Alex Hacke a.o.). Over the years, he has has collaborated with artists like Ulrike Haage, Phew, Nick Cave, Ton Steine Scherben, Meret Becker, Nina Hagen, Jaki Liebezeit, Ben Becker, N.U. Unruh, Gry, Iris ter Schiphorst, Automat, Swans, Hans Joacxhim Irmler and many more, on the road or in his own Sternstaubstudio.
credits:

Anna Clementi: voice

Thomas Stern: slide guitar, bass and soundprocessing

Composition by Phill Niblock, Anna Clementi and Thomas Stern

Recorded and mixed by Thomas Stern at Sternstaubstudio, Berlin

Mastering and lacquer cut: Kassian Troyer at D&M, Berlin

Cover photography by Phill Niblock

Layout and design by kaidoh

"Dunya", der Titel von Mustafas meisterhaft ausgearbeitetem und atemberaubend zärtlichem Album, bedeutet aus dem Arabischen übersetzt so viel wie "die Welt mit all ihren Fehlern". Ein hochtrabendes Thema für einen jungen Songwriter, aber wie bei jedem Thema, das im Mittelpunkt der Arbeit des sudanesisch-kanadischen Künstlers steht - von religiöser Hingabe bis zu Kindheitstraumata, von Bandengewalt bis zu romantischer Intimität - nähert er sich durch eine persönliche Sichtweise. Er mischt Genres und Stimmungen, verwebt romanhafte Details in einprägsame Folksongs und hat ein Album geschaffen, das sich wie eine Reihe persönlicher Durchbrüche anfühlt, die einer nach dem anderen eintreffen. Was zuerst an Mustafas Musik auffällt, ist seine Art zu schreiben: ein einfacher, durchdringender Ton, der jede Geschichte so roh und ernsthaft wirken lässt wie die Worte eines Liebesliedes. Mit seinem leisen Vortrag, der seine Umgebung zum Schweigen bringen kann, entwickelte sich Mustafa schnell vom Wunderkind, das in seiner Heimatstadt Toronto Gedichte rezitierte, zu einer Kraft, die hinter den Liedern steht und Popsongs schreibt. Auf "Dunya" ist er zu einem eigenständigen Autoren gereift. "Ich versuche, das gewöhnliche Leben im Ghetto zu bewahren und zu feiern", beschreibt Mustafa seine lyrische Inspiration. Die Songs, in denen er sein Aufwachsen und seinen weiteren Lebensweg beschreibt, sind gleichermaßen entwaffnend in ihrer Einfachheit und vielschichtig in ihrer emotionalen Bandbreite. Durch die Zusammenarbeit mit Aaron Dessner, Rosalía, Clairo, Nicolas Jaar und anderen sowie Mustafas langjährigem kreativen Partner Simon Hessmann offenbart die Musik eine selbstbewusste, unverwechselbare Stimme, die noch nie so massenkompatibel geklungen hat.

One of the great enigmatic figures of jazz, Sun Ra's persona as philosopher, showman and space enthusiast often overshadowed his purely musical accomplishments as one of the most prolific and creative composers and big band leaders in the business. The current release contains one of Sun Ra's most exceptional and highly regarded albums of the 1950s: Jazz in Silhouette. Although the exact recording dates are unknown (no details were given on the original LP back cover, which included no liner notes at all) it was recorded in Chicago in late 1958. The Penguin Guide to Jazz would give Jazz in Silhouette the prestigious four stars accompanied by a crown, which is its highest rating.

Ever-evolving the mythologies and magic of Dialect's sonic sphere, Andrew PM Hunt returns with Atlas of Green, elegantly molding unexacting details of memory and mistranslation into the framework of the British musician and composer's creative pursuit. The album imagines a young musician named Green working in a future dawning era where lost signals and enduring impulses are unearthed from the sediments of technology and time. Across twelve compositions, Green becomes the compass in an epoch of transition; one shaded with pastoral patinas and studded with the fragments of allegorical ruin. As tattered as it is tender, Atlas of Green is a patchwork of scavenged relics and bygone hues, cast through the iridescent shimmers of a mid-future in flux. Growing up on the Wirral Peninsula in North West England, Hunt was surrounded by stone age landmarks and rock carvings that infused the landscape with legend. It was beside those carvings on a residency at Bidston Artistic Research Center where he began the journey of Atlas of Green, experimenting with tape loops and exploring the center's library of sci-fi. Here Hunt also encountered the work of Italian philosopher Federico Campagna, a writer who believes we're at the end of our current world. This encouraged Hunt's exploration of how the fabric and fantasies of our current era might endure into the future of Green, as they try to make sense of the riddles of the past, utilizing broken electronics and simple acoustic instruments to create new mythic forms. This question of endurance led Hunt to inscribe Atlas of Green with its own lucid markings - sometimes almost anthemic adornments - which unfurl through the album's melancholic air as possible new metaphors for how the human spirit might persist through dark days and regain lost wisdom. As Hunt reflects, "We're not just on an endless procession through constantly better worlds. Our lack of action (on climate and inequality) feels hopeless at times. I find some comfort in the idea that maybe the world needs a new song in order to tell a new story about itself". The image of Green as a journeying adolescent in-between eras developed out of a burgeoning interest in the fantasy writing of Ursula K. Le Guin and Gene Wolfe and occurred at a point in Hunt's life where the question of starting a family was looming. Green became a device for thinking about the future, or futures, putting someone in another world and granting access to a slightly longer timeframe than one's own life. What would this person, in this as-yet-unsung world do with something as powerful as music? As Hunt notes, "I imagined them doing what we've always done with music - using it to build a map of feeling, providing boundaries and tracing the edges of our emotions, defining a space of possibility and giving voice to our intuition. This is an alternative future to the one of endless growth but one which still holds space for hopes and dreams." Mapping new folds in the passage of time, Atlas of Green is traced with an aura of sonic urgency which arises through its process-led construction. Following a series of live shows in early 2023, the record was created with an assemblage of analogue electronics and acoustic instruments, including scratched records and a broken four track, collaging studio work with recorded live recordings featuring work in progress. Where the indeterminate energies of Under~Between (2021) appeared through digital processing, Atlas of Green embraces chance encounters within the malfunctions of physical media and glitching gear. Within these interwoven clusters of organic and blemished sound, Dialect reclaims the joyfulness of the inner amateur and creates a soft landing for new seeds of magical possibility - rooted in the bounds and abundance of realism. "As a planet of people we have to deal one way or another with our finite existence. We have to deal with that loss with hope still in our hearts - our capacity to love cannot be contingent on things lasting forever, and so this image of Green is not a vision of dystopia, nor utopia but an expression of trust and an acceptance of limits."

DEFTR (pron - ‘Defuture’): The Revolutionary Collaboration Redefining Ambient and Techno Music

DEFTR, the newly formed alias of Answer Code Request and Jan Wagner, presents their debut album “Run Away” on npm, introducing a captivating fusion of ambient and techno. This collaborative project marks a departure from Answer Code Request's renowned 4/4 techno framework, venturing into expansive auditory realms enriched by Jan Wagner's classical expertise.

Spanning eight meticulously crafted tracks, DEFTR's debut album explores a spectrum of blissful and resonant soundscapes. The compositions unfold with a delicate balance of ambient textures and rhythmic innovation, punctuated by evocative vocal samples that enhance the album's atmospheric depth.

Having previously released three EPs that hinted at this innovative direction, DEFTR solidifies their unique sonic identity with this full-
length release. The interplay between Answer Code Request's intricate rhythms and Wagner's ambient sensibilities creates a dynamic tension, resulting in a listening experience that is both immersive and transformative.

DEFTR's vision extends beyond the studio, aiming to bring their sound to life on stage with a focus on live performance elements, including drum machines and synths. While details of the debut album release show are forthcoming, Berlin is anticipated to host this significant event.

With their debut album, DEFTR not only establishes a new creative path for Answer Code Request and Jan Wagner but also sets a high standard for npm's inaugural release, promising an engaging and profound auditory journey.

"They are the Finnish / Dutch / British troupe NIGHTWISH – one of the most fascinating rock bands of the last decades, whose enigmatic paths have proceeded from acoustic passages to symphonic heavy metal and from catchy folk to progressive majesty. If there is one trait the band has year after year, it might be this: expect something familiar but also expect the unexpected. NIGHTWISH has indeed broken all kinds of boundaries – never deliberately, but perfectly naturally.
Now guess what? NIGHTWISH's new studio album ""Yesterwynde"" – the band's tenth overall – is no exception to the rule. But it is more...

“""Yesterwynde"" took more time to make than any previous NIGHTWISH album”, nods keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen, who once again envisioned most of the material. ""The new album was intensively worked on for 3,5 years. My ambition and piety really skyrocketed, and I just couldn't let go of the creative process – and didn't want to. Along the way, ""Yesterwynde"" became both an exhilarating obsession and a comforting haven for me. All aspects of the making – compositions, lyrics, arrangements, cover art, videos, mixing and so on – were given more attention than ever before.""
The result? There's a fascinating, but inexplicable feeling that NIGHTWISH has once again been able to find unprecedented nuances, spices and perspectives in their new works – exactly: after a career of nine classic albums. """"Yesterwynde"" is an experience that takes time to digest. The gravid ingredients of the songs are easily recognizable, but beneath the surface lies a large number of intriguing details and features"", Holopainen describes.

""It's interesting – but not surprising – that ""Yesterwynde"" has attracted quite a variety of opinions. Some have stated that it is the most 'band' record to date. For some it appears to be the heaviest and most ominous NIGHTWISH release. It has also been called our most progressive album. And the list goes on.""
And what does Tuomas think of it himself?
""To me, ""Yesterwynde"" sounds, tastes and feels strongly like the true essence of NIGHTWISH – enriched with new moods and flavors.""

The lyrics of ""Yesterwynde"" deal with large-sized universal themes: memories, mortality, humanism, time and much more. ""The new album is the conclusion of the trilogy – textually it follows in the footsteps of its predecessors ""Endless Forms Most Beautiful"" and ""Human. :II: Nature."""", Holopainen says. ""At the same time, ""Yesterwynde"" is the band's most lyrically driven album: our music has never been so 'married' to the lyrics. So here's a tip: if something in the composition puzzles you, the words might clear it up.""
""For me, one of the key lines is 'we are because of a million loves' – taken from the song ""Perfume of the Timeless"". Each of us is part of an unbroken chain that stretches back billions of years. If even one of your ancestors had died too young – mauled by a cave bear, for example – during this incredibly long period of time, you would never have been born. In other words: our existence is such an unfathomable privilege!”

What does the term 'yesterwynde' mean?
""It describes a feeling that cannot be found in any human language. That's why we had to invent a whole new word. The album is supposed to open that feeling to the listener.""
Without taking anything away from the solid delivery of guitarist Emppu Vuorinen, drummer Kai Hahto, bassist Jukka Koskinen and multi-instrumentalist/singer Troy Donockley, it might be worth highlighting one fact: the performance of the eloquent storyteller Floor Jansen is once again unparalleled. It is simply breathtaking how the singer is able to make songs fly with her performance. ""Floor's second child was born just over a month ago, and we hadn't rehearsed together at all... So it was a little nerve-wracking to go to Floor's home studio for vocal recordings. Well, what happened? We had booked twelve working days and after six days everything was completed in style. Floor's preparedness for the sessions was something extreme!""

After the recordings and mixing process, there was one more working phase. Mastering. Could you possibly guess that no shortcuts were taken at this point either?
""The album was mastered seven times until we reached the finish line – one hundred percent satisfied!"", states Tuomas. ""When the record was eventually finished, a three-year, extremely inspiring adventure had come to an end. I felt very, very happy.""
NIGHTWISH's next steps are clear. And they are not the most common ones.
""NIGHTWISH will not go on a world tour this time. This was a decision made for personal reasons. But don't worry... Our contract with Nuclear Blast Records includes several albums, and there's plenty of motivation to create new music!""
May the dream continue...
"

"They are the Finnish / Dutch / British troupe NIGHTWISH – one of the most fascinating rock bands of the last decades, whose enigmatic paths have proceeded from acoustic passages to symphonic heavy metal and from catchy folk to progressive majesty. If there is one trait the band has year after year, it might be this: expect something familiar but also expect the unexpected. NIGHTWISH has indeed broken all kinds of boundaries – never deliberately, but perfectly naturally.
Now guess what? NIGHTWISH's new studio album ""Yesterwynde"" – the band's tenth overall – is no exception to the rule. But it is more...

“""Yesterwynde"" took more time to make than any previous NIGHTWISH album”, nods keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen, who once again envisioned most of the material. ""The new album was intensively worked on for 3,5 years. My ambition and piety really skyrocketed, and I just couldn't let go of the creative process – and didn't want to. Along the way, ""Yesterwynde"" became both an exhilarating obsession and a comforting haven for me. All aspects of the making – compositions, lyrics, arrangements, cover art, videos, mixing and so on – were given more attention than ever before.""
The result? There's a fascinating, but inexplicable feeling that NIGHTWISH has once again been able to find unprecedented nuances, spices and perspectives in their new works – exactly: after a career of nine classic albums. """"Yesterwynde"" is an experience that takes time to digest. The gravid ingredients of the songs are easily recognizable, but beneath the surface lies a large number of intriguing details and features"", Holopainen describes.

""It's interesting – but not surprising – that ""Yesterwynde"" has attracted quite a variety of opinions. Some have stated that it is the most 'band' record to date. For some it appears to be the heaviest and most ominous NIGHTWISH release. It has also been called our most progressive album. And the list goes on.""
And what does Tuomas think of it himself?
""To me, ""Yesterwynde"" sounds, tastes and feels strongly like the true essence of NIGHTWISH – enriched with new moods and flavors.""

The lyrics of ""Yesterwynde"" deal with large-sized universal themes: memories, mortality, humanism, time and much more. ""The new album is the conclusion of the trilogy – textually it follows in the footsteps of its predecessors ""Endless Forms Most Beautiful"" and ""Human. :II: Nature."""", Holopainen says. ""At the same time, ""Yesterwynde"" is the band's most lyrically driven album: our music has never been so 'married' to the lyrics. So here's a tip: if something in the composition puzzles you, the words might clear it up.""
""For me, one of the key lines is 'we are because of a million loves' – taken from the song ""Perfume of the Timeless"". Each of us is part of an unbroken chain that stretches back billions of years. If even one of your ancestors had died too young – mauled by a cave bear, for example – during this incredibly long period of time, you would never have been born. In other words: our existence is such an unfathomable privilege!”

What does the term 'yesterwynde' mean?
""It describes a feeling that cannot be found in any human language. That's why we had to invent a whole new word. The album is supposed to open that feeling to the listener.""
Without taking anything away from the solid delivery of guitarist Emppu Vuorinen, drummer Kai Hahto, bassist Jukka Koskinen and multi-instrumentalist/singer Troy Donockley, it might be worth highlighting one fact: the performance of the eloquent storyteller Floor Jansen is once again unparalleled. It is simply breathtaking how the singer is able to make songs fly with her performance. ""Floor's second child was born just over a month ago, and we hadn't rehearsed together at all... So it was a little nerve-wracking to go to Floor's home studio for vocal recordings. Well, what happened? We had booked twelve working days and after six days everything was completed in style. Floor's preparedness for the sessions was something extreme!""

After the recordings and mixing process, there was one more working phase. Mastering. Could you possibly guess that no shortcuts were taken at this point either?
""The album was mastered seven times until we reached the finish line – one hundred percent satisfied!"", states Tuomas. ""When the record was eventually finished, a three-year, extremely inspiring adventure had come to an end. I felt very, very happy.""
NIGHTWISH's next steps are clear. And they are not the most common ones.
""NIGHTWISH will not go on a world tour this time. This was a decision made for personal reasons. But don't worry... Our contract with Nuclear Blast Records includes several albums, and there's plenty of motivation to create new music!""
May the dream continue...
"

Hassan Abou Alam is next to step up to the unconventional Nerve Collect label with six tracks of futuristic club-ready chaos. The finely crafted EP arrives in August and comes on 12" vinyl and via all digital platforms.

Hassan Abou Alam has established himself as one of Egypt's most innovative underground musicians over the last 10+ years. His music is a meeting of disparate worlds - organic and synthetic designs, digital and analogue tools, the traditional and the futuristic, and it has come on the likes of YUKU, Rhythm Section, Banoffee Pies and Casa Voyager. His versatile sound pulls apart existing genres and reconstructs them as something entirely new.

Opener '3asabi' is a stylish sonic assault with thumping rhythms and trippy oscillations that will get any dance floor bouncing. It's fun yet functional, serious yet seductive and 'Basha' Ft. ZIAD ZAZA, Ismail Nosrat & Aly B is another kinetic fusion of hand claps and complex drum funk, Egyptian vocal gymnastics and punchy bass. 'Ghalat' has lurching drums and plunging bass driving on beneath mangled synths, odd vocalisations and percussive splatters drawn from a unique sound palette. The drilling low ends of 'Khalsana' Ft ZIAD ZAZA are offset by fluttering percussive details up top while spare but booming kicks shake every bone in your body and the bassline devastates.

There is no let up on 'Mesh Mafhoom' which is a ritualistic workout with moments of melancholic synth soul shining through the jumble of tin-pot percussion and crashing hits. Closer 'Zein' is more body-popping brilliance that channels ancient spirits into warped synths and rhythms so complex they melt the mind.
Hassan Abou Alam's blurring of the lines between the real and the imagined is second to none on this EP. It's a sub-heavy mix of the human voice, machine-made sounds and inventive rhythms that make for something new, weird and wonderful.

After the highly anticipated debut album “Sugar Honey Iced Tea!,” the dynamic NYC duo strikes once more with a double pack of alternate versions and remixes. Craig Handfield and Brandon Weems, better known as musclecars, have unveiled a dance music masterpiece, now graced by the touch of house music legends Louie Vega and Maurice Fulton.

This double pack showcases multiple versions of “Tonight,” remixed by dance music maestro Louie Vega, who momentarily stepped away from his Masters At Work ventures to infuse this project with his magic. The main remix unfolds like an epic journey adorned with orchestral elegance, while the dub versions range from festival anthems (NV South Jersey Mix) to tracks that echo the early Masters At Work essence (Louie Vega’s Bronx Dub).

Additionally, we are gifted a new version of “Hello?” reimagined by Maurice Fulton. In this version, Maurice’s signature live bass lines intertwine with exuberant, hard-hitting percussion, casting a whimsical light on the deep, introspective original.

Complementing the remixes from musclecars’ esteemed inspirations, we encounter two new versions of “Ha Ya! (Eternal Life)” and “Water,” both stripped of percussion to reveal the stunning arrangements, textures, and harmonies. These renditions are accompanied by a full side of musclecars’ dance odyssey “I Don’t Remember The Last Time I Saw Stars.”

The Double Honey Pack is a tour de force. It’s a rarity to witness two legends unite to elevate an already stellar project, yet Vega and Fulton achieve just that. Meanwhile, Weems and Handfield meticulously peel back the layers, allowing the intricate details to shine. This promises to be the release of the summer!

WE ARE WINTER'S BLUE AND RADIANT CHILDREN (WAWBARC) is the new quartet of Mat Ball (BIG|BRAVE), Efrim Manuel Menuck (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Thee Silver Mt. Zion), and Jonathan Downs and Patch (both Ada). On "NO MORE APOCALYPSE FATHER" they present six modal lullabies drenched in seared distortion, slathered across striding electronic pulses. Ball and Menuck began creating music in and for the bleakest moments of Montréal winters: "We're honoring that idea of winter, when you come inside and your house is warm, a place that only exists because of how cold it is outside," says Menuck. They later recruited Downs and Patch to flesh out their initial ideas. Menuck met them in 2015 when recording Ada's final album at Montréal's Hotel2Tango _ where they reconvened to make this record. "NO MORE APOCALYPSE FATHER" is an album about witnessing bleakness from a place of safety. Carrying newfound descriptive depth, thanks to the quartet's open-ended songs freeing him from writing in meter, Menuck likens his lyrics to photorealism. On opener `Rats and Roses' he sings of an unnamed city struck by an unknown cataclysm, but the details are local: specifically, his neighbors inadvertently poisoning birds when tackling a rat infestation. It's backed by blown out synths and guitars reaching a soaring crescendo. "Seeing things from a distance and not being able to intervene happens a lot on the record," Menuck explains. "If you're a feeling and thinking person, that's just part of the human condition. We watch horror unfolding from afar, unable to do anything concrete to change it." A powerless witness, able to describe but not intervene. `Dangling Blanket From A Balcony (White Phosphorous)' references Michael Jackson holding his child over a hotel balcony in 2002_the bizarre media spectacle still lodged in Menuck's psyche. This and the album's closing track also elegize white phosphorous, a technology of war designed to light up battlefields but capable of inflicting horrific burns on those it touches. Illumination and horror in one, here underpinning scenes picturesque and terrifying. "The last song `(Goodnight) White Phosphorous' is deliberately like a lullaby," says Menuck. "Written from the viewpoint of watching white phosphorous falling outside your window." Scorched and tarnished and laden with harrowing imagery, "NO MORE APOCALYPSE FATHER" is also a record bathed in light: the bewilderment of hopeful spirits witnessing despair, watching a blizzard of distress unfold outside from a place of relative shelter and comfort. You could call that emotional ambivalence, maybe numbness. But those words are too passive for the weight of conflicted feeling resonating through the album. "I never know how I feel on an overcast day when the sun is still bright despite the grayness and the light is very flat. The colours become more saturated, and you see a single flower, say a morning glory, whose colour is so vibrant beneath the gray, I don't know if that's a lovely sensation or a terrible sensation. It's both," says Menuck.

With a world in ruins, there comes a new sun. This is the evolution which "TAL" is all about. Intense and relentless, "TAL" is an immersive experience through sonic landscapes and contrasting atmospheres. On its third full length, GLARE OF THE SUN combine orchestral layers with heavy guitars and vocals, creating an emotional listening experience with lots of dynamics and details to discover. Guest vocals are provided by J.J. (Harakiri For The Sky, Karg) and Maffi (Collapse7, ex-Pungent Stench).

Hittin your decks in 4 weeks time on a Cannonball Records' 7"/45rpm, “U need me” by the LA Propinquity surfaces as part of a body of productions initially meant to be put out all together on an album. As often seen, for many reasons this didn’t happen and we are offered the privilege to release it on our flagship label first time ever. A modern soul dancerof the highest order out of a couple of premium recording studios in Los Angeles (included Hit City West with award winning engineer Avi Kipperat the controls) by the hands of Maestro Sanifu Hall and his Aljoni Music Co. featuring what could easily be defined the L.A. Dream Team of musicians, to include the infectious groove of drummer supreme James Gadson (previously featured also on our long sold outs with Mike James Kirkland) and many other stellar players from the area. I know I’m a weirdo so, to my taste, the most remarkable stuff sits on the flipside. Sanifu’s slick instrumental arrangement enriched by the flute of Todd Del Giudice, seamlessly in and out from the verses, makes it a sublime slice of original Soul Jazz from the late 70’s. Actually we really struggled to put this version on the back up side of this release as, with that hint of west coast fusion, it’d be worth a main side on its own. Just listen to both versions, judge by your excellent selves and make your move accordingly. Full links and presale details on our website for your consideration. ***The full cover above is an artwork done exclusively for digital & social media promotion.

Mit dem neuen Album The Crux präsentieren sich KILLED BY 9V BATTERIES facettenreich wie nie zuvor. Sie überraschen mit einer Vielzahl an Ideen und bewahren sich trotzdem ihre Bissigkeit; breitangelegte Klangwände erheben sich und umgarnen die feinsinnigen Melodien, Krach und Pop reichen einander die Hand. Das Sound-Universum ihres bisherigen Oeuvres war geprägt von unorthodoxen Klängen aus dem Verzerrer, von harschen Noise-Skizzen und wütenden Ausbrüchen. Auf The Crux findet sich all das in ausgereifter Form wieder. Killed By 9V Batteries haben lange getüftelt, bis alle Details zu einer wahren Gitarrensinfonie verwoben waren. Mit dem Produzenten Patrick Pulsinger und dem Aufnahmeleiter Oliver Ollmann Brunbauer standen dabei zwei der renommiertesten Studiofüchse Wiens Pate. Das mit ihrer Hilfe entstandene Album präsentiert die Lockerheit und Verschrobenheit einer Band, deren Eigenständigkeit unbestritten bleibt: Killed By 9V Batteries demonstrieren mit The Crux ihr Gespür für raffinierte Gitarrenmusik, die aus dem Bauch, aus dem Herzen kommt.

We present UT006, a compilation featuring six dynamic tracks, each with its own unique flavor. This
collection showcases the diverse sounds found within the electro universe.

Dark Vektor and The Bandit, united by the bass, unleash a high-energy blast brimming with
intricate sound details, power, vocoders, and versatility—all in one.

Cyberdom offers a captivating track with arpeggiated bass lines and a nostalgic 2000s vibe. His
signature style and well-crafted arrangements create a journey through sweet and subtle darkness.

Amor 307 joins the lineup with an aggressive track featuring thick, looped sounds and strident acid
elements, revealing his techno influences.

Spectrums Data Forces delivers a high-end track that defies conventional electro norms. If not for
its broken rhythm, it could be described as a storm of quality techno with intense melodies.

The Belgian Dark Prophet contributes a 4x4 hit designed to ignite any dance floor, blending a
touch of classic electro that resonates with our audience.

Promising/Youngster has once again proven his mastery. This track exudes pure quality,
demonstrating that simplicity can be the ultimate form of beauty, and a sample can evoke powerful
memorie

UNSURPASSED SPACIOUSNESS, IMAGING, AND TRANSPARENCY: MASTERED FROM THE ORIGINAL TAPES, MUSIC EMERGES WITH NEW DETAILS AND TONES
1/2" / 30 IPS analogue master - Plangent Processed - to DXD to analogue console to lathe

Love Over Gold is all about contrast, tension, and crafty composition. Dire Straits' fourth album finds the band continuing to evolve by welcoming increasingly bold arrangements and exploring moody variations. Parts edgy and sharp, and part seductive and relaxed, the five lengthy songs on Love Over Gold sprawl out like a long, winding road cutting through a pastoral landscape. The addition of a new rhythm guitarist, Hal Lindes, encourages deeper atmospheric interplay while the presence of engineer Neil Dorfsman – his first appearance in what would be a long string of collaborations with Mark Knopfler – ensures stunning sonic properties that now come to life like never before.

Mastered from the original master tapes and pressed at RTI, Mobile Fidelity's 180g 45RPM 2LP version of Love Over Gold teems with superb balances, front-to-back soundstages, and crystalline purity. The dead-quiet surfaces and extra-wide grooves bring forward previously obscured details, extra information, and mastering-studio-quality transients. The distinctive textures of a host of instruments – marimbas, acoustic and electric guitars, vibes, synthesizers – further enhance the ambitiousness of the 1982 album.

On this audiophile pressing, everything Knopfler does seemingly turn to gold. Gearheads will hear the unique characteristics afforded by his use of a Mesa Boogie Mark II guitar amplifier (soon again employed on Brothers in Arms) and carefully chosen selection of Schecter Stratocasters, 1937 National steel guitar, and Ovation six- and twelve-string models. Reference-level separation and lifelike imaging place Knopfler and company in your room, while tube-like warmth, spaciousness, and airiness causes the music to breathe anew. This LP will be in your rotation for months.

It doesn't take long to realize Love Over Gold is like no other Dire Straits album – and a staunch proclamation of independence from a band that continued to take longer creative strides with each successive project. Fearlessly extending over metaphoric hills, valleys, and plains for nearly 14-and-a-half minutes, the opening "Telegraph Road" is a guitar hero's dream and exhilarating showcase for Lindes' give-and-take capabilities. In tandem with keyboardist Alan Clark, Lindes provides the ideal foil for not only Knopfler but the long-time rhythm section of bassist John Illsley and drummer Pick Withers.

Taking its time to arrive at destinations, the quintet paints evocative musical and lyrical portraits steeped in patience, drama, and, often times, sadness. Desolate emotions colour the sweeping "Telegraph Road" and barren "Private Investigations," which finds Knopfler in the role of a tired private eye contemplating the emptiness and scars of his profession. Vocally, the Dire Straits leader remains in top form throughout, his whiskey-coated rasp conveying romantic ache, ongoing frustration, and what Rolling Stone beautifully deemed "wracking schizophrenia between the heart and the heartless, the loving and the pain."

Called Dire Straits' prog-rock statement, Love Over Gold is a classic that defies labelling and avoids ageing.

Black Bile compiles some of Umberto"s most resplendent, sanguine music to date The solo work of LA composer Matt Hill draws heavily from the world of cinema, spinning immersive narratives and rich atmospheres using sound alone. Hill, an active composer for film and television, recently scored the 2022 Jerry Pyle film Loveseat (soundtrack was released in 2023). Other recent scores include the 2020 thriller Archenemy, from the producers of cult classic Mandy. Inspired by the ancient Greek theory of the "four humors," an early medical theory linking the inner workings of the human body to the elements. "Black bile" specifically links the feelings of melancholy with autumn. Hill"s celestial compositions are an autumnal soundtrack conveying beauty, yearning, reflection and comfort. Many of the album"s phrases are constructed from just two notes or sounds, arranged by Hill into complex patterns that undulate with an organic pulse. The spare melodic structure holds a myriad of small and beautiful details. The songs began with Hill improvising on the piano, to find the notes and patterns that created the musical and emotional structure from which he could expand with textural detail. Hill then would often remove the initial structure leaving a sparer and more skeletal one which he could again expand upon to create a full piece. The careful attention to each detail gives his minimal compositions emotional heft. The album masterfully stakes Umberto"s claim among other avant-ambient boundary pushers such as Lawrence English or Laurel Halo.

Am 30. August 2024 veröffentlicht der aus Kaiserslautern stammende DJ und Produzent Zedd sein neues
Album „Telos“, welches seine erste Albumveröffentlichung seit 9 Jahren ist. Nach dem großen Erfolg seines
letzten Albums „True Colors“ aus 2015, das mit Dance-Hymnen wie „Beautiful Now“ und „I Want You
to Know“ mit Selena Gomez glänzte, bietet auch „Telos“ wieder spannende Feature, u.a. auch die Single
„Out Of Time“ mit Bea Miller.
Zedd beschreibt „Telos“ als sein bisher ehrlichstes und persönlichstes Album, weiter sagt er: “With Telos, I
wanted to create a profound album listening experience that takes you on a journey beyond just the songs.
I wanted everyone to be able to feel a deeper emotional connection, like how I felt listening to my favorite
albums when I was growing up. It was the details, transitions and cohesiveness that made me want to
create a truly meaningful body of work.”
In seiner Karriere arbeitet der jetzt in Los Angeles beheimatete Zedd mit einer beachtlichen Reihe von
Künstlern zusammen und remixte Songs von u.a. Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Black Eyed Peas und Skrillex.
Neben fünf Nominierungen und einem GRAMMY Award (2019) für die beste Pop Duo/Group Performance seiner Single „The Middle“ feat. Grey und Maren Morris, räumte er auch noch zahlreiche weitere
Auszeichnungen ab. Das Album wird auf Vinyl am 30.08. erscheinen

Zero One Zero is a no nonsense American Hard Rock Band. There comes a time when enough is enough and you want to take your music back! Rock music has turned into a bland cookie cutter version of its former self. Zero One Zero is going against the norm and providing a valuable service. Delivering a kick ass, grade A, American made product! No phony over produced, auto tuned garbage. This is Retro-Aggressive Hard Rock for the people! The Band is Rob ‘Boots‘ Zawisza – Vocals, James Ferrentino – Guitars, Mark Ahles – Drums, Marc Russell – Bass. The band’s latest release Traces Of Yesterday was produced by Grammy Award winner Paul Nelson (Johnny Winter). As the band explains, “We were approached by Paul in December of 2020 as he wanted to produce a record with us. After hearing our second studio album Full On. We were honoured to have a Grammy Award-winning Producer and talented musician find interest in us. We all met at his studio, The Music Room in February of 2021 and worked out the details of what would become our third studio album, Traces Of Yesterday.” Unfortunately, Paul passed away suddenly in March of 2024 but not without leaving his mark on Traces Of Yesterday. With standout tracks like the first single “You Knock Me Out” and follow up “I Am Calling”. Zero One Zero is now about to take their spot in Hard Rock as a force to be reckoned with.

Following a string of releases on a who’s who of top labels such as Planet Euphorique, Salt Mines, Haws and Craigie Knowes, prog-trance pioneer Lisene drops a full-length LP on his On Rotation imprint. With 8 hyper-detailed tracks ranging from club-focused techno, progressive and electro to slo-mo downtempo, Lisene brings his A-game to an album sure to cement his place as one of the most exciting producers and DJs in the UK’s underground music scene.

Created over several years with a perfectionist’s attention to detail, “Science Friction” flits between moods and sonic environments with ease while retaining the cohesion of Lisene’s inimitable production style. Despite being an album, this is still very much a record for the DJs, featuring heads-down club tracks and bass-heavy electro crafted with precision and a cinematic sense of scale. For the home listeners, expansive slo-mo soundscapes and cerebral synth odysseys float high above the clouds, with widescreen details revealing themselves ever further with each re-play.

“This album has been 15 years in the making and represents a culmination of everything I’ve worked towards in defining my own sound and style without letting myself be pigeonholed. I’m immensely proud of each track - it really reflects where I was at musically while making this, while giving a glimpse into my future sound. This is a record that deserves to be played on the finest sound systems and hi-fis, and I couldn’t be more happy with how it’s turned out. Dive in and enjoy!”

Combining influences from across the spectrum of dance music with a cinematic sense of psychedelia and his own inimitable production skills, “Science Friction” is sure to see a lot of airtime across the festivals, after-parties and living rooms of the world this summer and beyond.

On Rotation is a Leeds based label, event & mix series run by Chris I’Anson, Lisene & Adam Pits. Artwork illustrated and designed by Patch D Keyes.

Morgan Wade was feeling the urge to simplify after a period of relentless touring and intense media scrutiny during the last couple of years. Every time she sat down with her guitar, new songs just started pouring out. 'They were just coming to me left and right', Wade says. The Virginia-born singer-songwriter made a choice to return to the basics for her new album 'Obsessed', a solo-written, stripped-down 14-track collection produced by her touring guitarist Clint Wells that showcases Wade at her rawest and most vulnerable. 'I really wanted to get back to doing what I used to do', she says. 'Just make this whatever I wanted it to be'. Wade's third album and follow-up to 2023's 'Psychopath', 'Obsessed' puts the focus on Wade's storytelling abilities and singular voice. She writes with incredible force about the ache for home and the emotion of being reunited with loved ones, of feeling dangerously preoccupied with someone, and of being in situations that society might consider outside the norm. On 'Obsessed', Wade also does a thorough examination and inventory of her journey as a person, not sparing any ugly details when she's been the one at fault. It's a fearless look into the life of one of country music's most exciting talents, arriving right as she's hitting her stride. This is a x14 trk double black LP Vinyl & standard CD. Marketing activity across all media outlets.

Midwestless is the fifth and newest album from St. Louis, Missouri rock failures The Conformists. Once again recorded with Steve Albini at the majestic Electrical Audio, this album marks their first recorded output as a trio. Formed in November of 1996 deep within a basement bedroom somewhere between the corn fields and strip malls of Southern Illinois, The Conformists began as four teenagers with a desire to create Ugly Rock Music. Eventually, they grew up and now dabble in moments which could even be described as quite beautiful and melodic. Elsewhere, elements of insistent repetition with an initial appearance of stasis reveal — with multiple listens — intricate details under the surface.

The magic and majesty of Holger Czukay’s late career works for Claremont 56 is being celebrated on a new compilation. The former Can bassist – a musical maverick renowned for his freewheeling approach to composition, recording and promotion – released a string of inspired tracks on Paul Murphy’s label between 2009 and 2012, typically delivering hard-to-pigeonhole workouts, bona-fide epics and radical reinventions of some of his most beloved tracks.

The collection has been a labour of love – fitting given the sonic details and inventive musicality that marked out the late artist’s solo career – for Claremont 56 founder Paul Murphy AKA Mudd, who first reached out to Czukay after witnessing his now legendary live performance at the Roundhouse in 2009. As Murphy details in his introductory liner notes, it led to a productive working relationship between the pair that included collaborative recording sessions with Ben Smith in Czukay’s legendary Innerspace Studio – a former cinema in Cologne in which much of Can’s music was recorded.The impact of that Roundhouse gig on Murphy is reflected in the fact that two of the tracks on the collection are based on that celebrated performance. There’s ‘Ode To Perfume’, a languid and solo-laden version of one of Czukay’s most celebrated solo records that ratchets up the original’s inherent dreaminess, and a jaunty take on quirky kraut-pop number ‘Photosong’ featuring a spoken introduction recorded at the concert in question.

Murphy’s ability to coax Czukay into delving into his archives is evident across the compilation. Opener ‘A Perfect World (Remix)’ is an eccentric, ever-building masterpiece originally recorded in 1984 – but later re-imagined for Claremont 56 – featuring vocalist Sheldon Ancel and former Can band-mates Jaki Leibezeit and Michael Karoli, while ‘Fragrance’ is a subtly re-wired slab of picturesque Balearic kraut-dub which was initially recorded as a coda for ‘Ode To Perfume’ but lay unreleased for decades.

Then there’s ‘Let’s Get Cool’, a bright and breezy, French horn-sporting 2009 take on 1979 avant-disco classic ‘Cool In The Pool’; ‘My Persian Love (Remix)’, a 2010 re-take of one of his earliest solos recordings; and the near 18-minute brilliance of ‘Music Is A Miracle’. Originally recorded for his fans in the 1980s – but only released three decades later – this widescreen epic not only features drums by Jaki Leibezeit and a fine spoken word vocal by Czukay, but also numerous nods to some of his most revered tracks.

It's fitting, too, that two of the most potent cuts feature Czukay’s much-missed wife and musical muse Ursa Major: the dense, trippy and fittingly out-there ambient soundscape ‘In Space’, and the mesmerising ‘Music To be Murdered By’. Partially inspired by hearing painfully out of tune violin practice through his studio windows, the track was originally recorded for an unreleased album but finally found a home on Claremont 56’s 10th anniversary box set ion 2017. A genuinely spaced-out and mind-mangling slab of organic dub in Czukay’s distinctive style, it delivers a fine curtain call to the iconic artist’s endlessly inventive career.

LOS ANGELES—To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the celebrated Talking Heads and Jonathan Demme’s concert film Stop Making Sense, the set will be re-released as a 2LP and 2CD/Blu-ray set this summer.

Released last year, the sold-out Deluxe Edition of the soundtrack will return as a 2-LP black vinyl on Rhino and 2-LP crystal clear vinyl at retail. Both variants feature a 12-page booklet with liner notes from all four band members –Tina Weymouth, David Byrne, Chris Frantz, and Jerry Harrison—and band photos. The 2CD/Blu-ray version includes the entire 28-page booklet from last year’s Deluxe Edition and a Dolby Atmos mix of the complete concert, mixed by Jerry Harrison and E.T. Thorngren, who also mixed the original release. Both will be available on July 26. Pre-order now.

The band appeared together for a sold-out screening and Q&A last night at the Pantages Theater, the same theater at which Stop Making Sense was recorded. They were joined by Blondshell, who performed “Thank You For Sending Me an Angel.” Another special screening with the band will occur in Brooklyn at the King’s Theater on June 13, with the Q&A hosted by Questlove and The Linda Linda’s performing “Found a Job.” The two events cap off a banner year of celebrations for what many consider to be the best concert film of all time.

The inspiration for Stop Making Sense came when director Jonathan Demme saw Talking Heads perform during the band’s 1983 tour for Speaking in Tongues. Afterward, he approached them with the idea of making the show into a concert film. They agreed and worked together over the next few months to finalize the details. Ultimately, Demme filmed three shows at Hollywood’s Pantages Theater in December 1983 to create Stop Making Sense.

The concert film presents a retrospective of the band up to that point, with a performance that weaves together songs from all six of its studio albums. The show progresses methodically, opening with Byrne onstage performing “Psycho Killer” alone with a drum machine. After each song, he’s joined by a new band member until Weymouth, Frantz, and Harrison are all on stage with him. The group continues to grow throughout the concert as members of the stellar touring band are added: keyboardist Bernie Worrell, percussionist Steve Scales, guitarist Alex Weir, and backup singers Lynn Mabry and Ednah Holt.

The band performs 18 songs in Stop Making Sense, including its recent single at the time, “Burning Down The House.” That summer, the song was in heavy rotation on radio and MTV, helping the song become the band’s first top 10 hit in America. It was, however, a different song from Speaking in Tongues that was destined to deliver one of the film’s signature moments. Talking Heads would perform “Girlfriend Is Better” wearing the now iconic, oversized suit inspired by costumes worn in traditional Japanese theater. For good measure, a picture of David Byrne in the suit also graces the album cover.

Stop Making Sense focuses mainly on music by Talking Heads but does include a few songs recorded outside the band: “Genius Of Love” by Tom Tom Club, “What A Day That Was” and “Big Business” from Byrne’s 1981 album, The Catherine Wheel. Limited edition vinyl versions of both of these albums, along with Harrison’s The Red And The Black, were released for this year’s Record Store Day.

When it arrived in September 1984, Stop Making Sense was an artistic and commercial triumph. The film had people dancing in theatre aisles, and the soundtrack sold over two million copies. Just last year, the Library of Congress added Stop Making Sense to the National Film Registry in recognition of its cultural, historical, and aesthetic significance.

Weymouth praises Demme as a collaborator: “…Jonathan was a very enthusiastic, highly adaptive, and imaginative guy who was just as good a listener as he was a talker and collaborator. From the get-go you just got the impression he was as flexible as he was disciplined. Being team players, that boded well for a great relationship and a great film!”

Harrison says the film still holds up today: “To me, Stop Making Sense has remained relevant because the staging and lighting techniques could have been created in a much earlier time period. For example, Vari-Lights, lights with motors to re-aim them, had just come into vogue. Had we used them, there would have been a timestamp on the film, and it eventually would have felt dated...The absence of interviews, combined with the elegant and timeless lighting, created a film that can be watched over and over.”

Byrne says it’s interesting that this album was – for many people – an introduction to Talking Heads. “We had done a live album before this, but coupled with the film, and with the improved mixes and sound quality, this record reached a whole new audience. As often happens, the songs got an added energy when we performed them live and were inspired by having an audience. In many ways, these versions are more exciting than the studio recordings, so maybe that’s why a lot of folks discovered us via this record.”

Frantz recalls the sheer joy surrounding the entire Stop Making Sense experience. “I’m talking about real, conscious, transcendent joy… I’m talking about what the Southern gospel people call ‘getting happy,’ which means ‘to be filled with the Spirit.’ That is what happened to us onstage every night, and from my seat behind the drums, I recognized that this was happening to the audience too. Joy was visible in front of me and all around me every night.”

"Are Possible" is a spark-throwing, undulating fusion of styles played (mainly) on banjo, upright bass and drums, made possible by the individual perspectives of Nathan, double-bassist Casey Toll (Jake Xerxes Fussell, Mt. Moriah) and drummer Rex McMurray (CAVE) work together in an easy-rolling manner, but one that contains an expansive, ass-shaking confabulation of ideas. Music is time in redux: Are Possible"s many moments in time carry details from all over the place. Rex brought a rhythm to the table after drumming on buckets at work, Casey provided a bassline that redirected a previous jam, Nathan brought in a song he"d been fucking with forever and they figured it out together. Their diversity of sources moves easily within the arrangements, rendering a far-ranging set of feels, from transcendental to new country funk to good ol" jazz and the folk-rock, even - all of it drawn out exquisitely when they mixed at Electrical Audio in Chicago with the delicate hands of Cooper Crain upon the faders. The Nathan Bowles Trio have done their due diligence, passing their music through time and space on their way to now.

Producers (previously known as the Trevor Horn Band), were formed in 2006, they include record producers Trevor Horn (bass and vocals), Steve Lipson (guitar), and musicians Lol Creme (guitar and vocals) and Ash Soan (drums).

Producer Chris Braide (keyboards and vocals) was originally a member but left in 2009 due to work commitments, though still contributed to the band's début album ‘Made in Basing Street’ (released under the name Producers), released on 25 June 2012. The extensive booklet features a new interview with the band by Record Collector’s Daryl Easlea who details the process of the making of this classic record

LOS ANGELES—To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the celebrated Talking Heads and Jonathan Demme’s concert film Stop Making Sense, the set will be re-released as a 2LP and 2CD/Blu-ray set this summer.

Released last year, the sold-out Deluxe Edition of the soundtrack will return as a 2-LP black vinyl on Rhino and 2-LP crystal clear vinyl at retail. Both variants feature a 12-page booklet with liner notes from all four band members –Tina Weymouth, David Byrne, Chris Frantz, and Jerry Harrison—and band photos. The 2CD/Blu-ray version includes the entire 28-page booklet from last year’s Deluxe Edition and a Dolby Atmos mix of the complete concert, mixed by Jerry Harrison and E.T. Thorngren, who also mixed the original release. Both will be available on July 26. Pre-order now.

The band appeared together for a sold-out screening and Q&A last night at the Pantages Theater, the same theater at which Stop Making Sense was recorded. They were joined by Blondshell, who performed “Thank You For Sending Me an Angel.” Another special screening with the band will occur in Brooklyn at the King’s Theater on June 13, with the Q&A hosted by Questlove and The Linda Linda’s performing “Found a Job.” The two events cap off a banner year of celebrations for what many consider to be the best concert film of all time.

The inspiration for Stop Making Sense came when director Jonathan Demme saw Talking Heads perform during the band’s 1983 tour for Speaking in Tongues. Afterward, he approached them with the idea of making the show into a concert film. They agreed and worked together over the next few months to finalize the details. Ultimately, Demme filmed three shows at Hollywood’s Pantages Theater in December 1983 to create Stop Making Sense.

The concert film presents a retrospective of the band up to that point, with a performance that weaves together songs from all six of its studio albums. The show progresses methodically, opening with Byrne onstage performing “Psycho Killer” alone with a drum machine. After each song, he’s joined by a new band member until Weymouth, Frantz, and Harrison are all on stage with him. The group continues to grow throughout the concert as members of the stellar touring band are added: keyboardist Bernie Worrell, percussionist Steve Scales, guitarist Alex Weir, and backup singers Lynn Mabry and Ednah Holt.

The band performs 18 songs in Stop Making Sense, including its recent single at the time, “Burning Down The House.” That summer, the song was in heavy rotation on radio and MTV, helping the song become the band’s first top 10 hit in America. It was, however, a different song from Speaking in Tongues that was destined to deliver one of the film’s signature moments. Talking Heads would perform “Girlfriend Is Better” wearing the now iconic, oversized suit inspired by costumes worn in traditional Japanese theater. For good measure, a picture of David Byrne in the suit also graces the album cover.

Stop Making Sense focuses mainly on music by Talking Heads but does include a few songs recorded outside the band: “Genius Of Love” by Tom Tom Club, “What A Day That Was” and “Big Business” from Byrne’s 1981 album, The Catherine Wheel. Limited edition vinyl versions of both of these albums, along with Harrison’s The Red And The Black, were released for this year’s Record Store Day.

When it arrived in September 1984, Stop Making Sense was an artistic and commercial triumph. The film had people dancing in theatre aisles, and the soundtrack sold over two million copies. Just last year, the Library of Congress added Stop Making Sense to the National Film Registry in recognition of its cultural, historical, and aesthetic significance.

Weymouth praises Demme as a collaborator: “…Jonathan was a very enthusiastic, highly adaptive, and imaginative guy who was just as good a listener as he was a talker and collaborator. From the get-go you just got the impression he was as flexible as he was disciplined. Being team players, that boded well for a great relationship and a great film!”

Harrison says the film still holds up today: “To me, Stop Making Sense has remained relevant because the staging and lighting techniques could have been created in a much earlier time period. For example, Vari-Lights, lights with motors to re-aim them, had just come into vogue. Had we used them, there would have been a timestamp on the film, and it eventually would have felt dated...The absence of interviews, combined with the elegant and timeless lighting, created a film that can be watched over and over.”

Byrne says it’s interesting that this album was – for many people – an introduction to Talking Heads. “We had done a live album before this, but coupled with the film, and with the improved mixes and sound quality, this record reached a whole new audience. As often happens, the songs got an added energy when we performed them live and were inspired by having an audience. In many ways, these versions are more exciting than the studio recordings, so maybe that’s why a lot of folks discovered us via this record.”

Frantz recalls the sheer joy surrounding the entire Stop Making Sense experience. “I’m talking about real, conscious, transcendent joy… I’m talking about what the Southern gospel people call ‘getting happy,’ which means ‘to be filled with the Spirit.’ That is what happened to us onstage every night, and from my seat behind the drums, I recognized that this was happening to the audience too. Joy was visible in front of me and all around me every night.”

Sun Reflector is the debut LP collaboration by Heffernan (Ivan The tolerable, All Structures Align, King Champion Sounds, University Challenged) and Pärk (Black Tempel Pyramid, Teeth Of Glass, Kosmonaut). Sun Reflector is steeped in a haze of primitive drum machines, fanned phase and sustained scuzz-rippled guitar chimes, an ambient electronic creation with emphasis on repetitive trance-inducing rhythmic pulsations of electronic sound and subtle counterpoints that slowly unfold as the rhythmic drive marches forth utilizing the Motorik 4/4 beat with the lysergic kosmische sonic textures of Cluster. With Heffernan (bass, guitars and drones) based in the Northeast of England and Pärk (synths, drones and loops) based in Colorado USA on the border with New Mexico - the portal they opened up between these environments creates a travelogue that unites physical and inner space, a series of trance induced states rendered in vivid colour, a delirious portal into the ether. ‘Harmonic Coast’ opens and is a heady downtempo affair, an earthly vibration that slips effortlessly between peyote peaking trekking trips & Balearic sunset vibes. The somnambulistic drift of 'The Sun' sets the stage with a series of shimmering, circular synth pulses where hidden details slowly emerge over multiple listens. Album closer ‘Fever Mirage’ creates a clear-eyed appreciation of the pastoral beauty that surrounds us, it’s a journey that summons up an occult-like dream of glacial arpeggios and whispering synths that pull your attention in to this hypnotizing listening experience. Sun Reflector is a collective sound in which a lot is allowed, and a lot is done. That combined with the compositional ingenuity where the heterogeneous timbres create a time travelled cosmic mysticism that summons up the spirits and visions of Harmonia, Cluster, Eno and Phillip Glass. Shimmering and transcendent we present to you for your listening experience ‘Sun Reflector’

2024 Repress

'The Magical World of The Strands' is one of the most accomplished albums of British songwriting of all time. Why every household doesn't have a copy, I don't know. Seriously, I think it's a masterpiece' - Richard Hawley

'Mick Head is a genius' - Noel Gallagher

Michael Head has announced details of the release of his first album of new material in over 11 years.

Recorded under the name of Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band, 'Adiós Señor Pussycat' is released on Violette Records on Friday 20th October 2017.

Beautiful and evocative and recorded in his home-town of Liverpool between March 2016 and June 2017, the album is the culmination of four years of hard work. Equal to his finest moments, Adiós Señor Pussycat will undoubtedly only further cement his reputation as one of this generations greatest songwriters.

„Drifts and Surfaces“ ist ein dreiteiliges Set, wobei jedes Werk aus Auftragsarbeiten hervorgeht und durch gemeinsame Themen vereint wird: der Fluss zwischen ephemerer Bewegung und alltäglichem Stillstand, das Paradoxon von außergewöhnlicher und alltäglicher Schönheit und der Ehrgeiz und Müßiggang, der das Leben im 21. Jahrhundert ausmacht Saxl nutzt weiterhin kammermusikalische Ensembles neben analogen Synthesizern und digitalen Experimenten und vertieft sich dabei in strukturelle Emotionen und die lebendigen Details kleiner Handlungen. Während ihre bahnbrechende LP „The Blue of Distance“ (2021) Feld-Aufnahmen aus den Adirondacks und dem Lake Superior verarbeitete, stammt Saxls Quellenmaterial hier vor allem aus Live-Percussion und anderen Instrumenten. Das Projekt begann 2018 im Brooklyner Stadtteil Red Hook in dem Proberaum, den sich Saxls Band mit dem Percussion-Trio Tigue teilt. Später im selben Jahr spielten sie gemeinsam eine Residency und nahmen das Stück auf. 2021 begann sie ein neues Auftragswerk mit Third Coast Percussion aus Chicago. Der Titel „Drifts“ bezieht sich auf den Roman von Kate Zambreno aus dem Jahr 2020, in dem die Protagonistin von der Arbeit von Chantal Ackerman fasziniert ist, die die typisch weiblichen, unsichtbaren Formen der häuslichen Arbeit als ebenso wertvoll darstellt wie Tätigkeiten, die gemeinhin als produktiv angesehen werden. Saxl stellt „Drifts“ im Geiste dieser feministischen These auf: „Es fühlt sich an, als gäbe es hier eine kleine Reihe von Frauen, die diese Idee erforschen und kleine Aktionen feiern, von denen ich hoffe, dass ich deren Arbeit fortsetze.“ Das letzte Stück, „Surfaces“, wurde vom Guggenheim Museum in Verbindung mit der Alex Katz-Retrospektive im Jahr 2022 in Auftrag gegeben. Die Gruppe - bestehend aus Henry Solomon am Baritonsaxophon, Robby Bowen am Glasmarimbaphon und Saxl - lehnt sich an leichte, nachdenkliche Töne an, die von der Gegenwartsbezogenheit des bahnbrechenden Malers inspiriert sind. Katz' Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der optischen Wahrnehmung von „schnell vergehenden Dingen“, wie der Liminalität der Dämmerung, wenn die Umrisse eines Objekts beginnen, undeutlich zu werden. „Die Art und Weise, in der sich unsere Wahrnehmung der Dinge verändert, nicht weil sie sich verändern, sondern weil wir uns verändern“, erklärt Saxl. „Ich wollte, dass sich diese wirklich kleinen Veränderungen dramatisch anfühlen, um die imaginäre Bewegung in seinen Gemälden widerzuspiegeln.“ Tritt man zurück, um „Surfaces“ innerhalb des Sets zu betrachten, findet Saxl den Strom, der sich durch die gesamte Arbeit zieht, das Konzept des Selbst als Teil von etwas Größerem. „Katz‘ Darstellung mehrerer Generationen von New Yorker Künstlern hat mich dazu inspiriert, darüber nachzudenken, dass es kein individuelles ‘Ich' als Künstler gibt, ohne die Künstler, die vor mir kamen, und die Gemeinschaft der Künstler, mit denen ich zusammengewachsen bin. Die Grenzen zwischen uns verschwimmen, und ich habe das Gefühl, dass ich auf einer verwobenen Oberfläche getragen werde, die von der Gemeinschaft um mich herum gebildet wird. Gleichzeitig weiß ich aber auch, dass ich mich irgendwann nach innen wenden und allein hinausschwimmen muss.“

2024 Repress

Mutual Rytm is back with more searing techno, this time in the form of a welcome return to wax from venerated Aussie mainstay Shane Yates, aka Alpharisc.

Melbourne's Alpharisc has been making music since 1993, initially with humble tools like the Commodore 64 and Amiga 500, before putting together and building a growing collection of hardware. He has always maintained a somewhat reclusive character since breaking through with the city's renowned Wetmusik party and label collective following the release of his first EP in 1999 and has always kept a nostalgic touch in his music alongside his signature Alpharisc sound. Following a string of digital EPs on the likes of Future Retro Music, this is his first vinyl 12" in two decades as he returns to Mutual Rytm following his appearance on the Federation Of Rytm II compilation, serving up his bustling 'Ram Face' EP.

The powerful 'Formation Filter' opens up with a powerful techno groove built from rock-solid kicks and rumbling bass that will rattle walls. Snares and synth rolls peel off the drums as they race onwards and grow ever wilder and more intense for maximum destruction. 'Circus Fear' is another stylish linear workout with lithe synth details and loopy drums peppered with coarse claps and hits to up the ante, while 'Hot Morning' brings even more fire with its big, churning percussive clatter and supersized hi-hats racing along over more bulky beats.

Things get more unhinged with the hard-edged 'Ram Face', which has pummelling drums and scraping hits forming a barrage of industrialised sound; a lead from a SID chip will bring a smile to those who are familiar with its sound playing a hypnotic lead over the top. The final track on wax, 'The Old One', builds up cosmic tension, haunting synth lines and howling solar winds into another peak time techno weapon. As always with the label, a digital bonus cut 'Hairyman' provides a special treat and delivers another frosty techno roller with pent-up energy and compelling drum programming.

INSIDE is the third album (and second in a row on Brixton Records) by the respected ten-piece group from Barcelona that fuses Jamaican music and jazz. DROP COLLECTIVE bravely faces the so-called third album syndrome and makes a sincere declaration of principles, a public manifestation of their musical identity. The two sides of the album are clearly identified. Side A is Inside-Out, displaying five own-penned compositions, including three songs sung in Catalan and two in English, in which DROP COLLECTIVE make it clear what they like to do and what they are capable of offering. The album opens with "Com Estimo Jo" (The Way I Love), a reggae ballad composed by Andreu Domènech (baritone sax) that is dedicated to the growth and learning we do when we love. It is followed by "Let Us Dance", a fluid ska with Latin airs and an invitation to dance, which recaptures the sound of some of the most celebrated passages from their previous album. "Estel" (Star) is a melancholic reggae song, sung in Catalan, in homage to someone who is no longer here - "now you are the star that watches over us from up there, bright, bright". Prior to the release of this LP, four advance tracks have been published on digital platforms, but "Life's Too Short" is, perhaps, the album's single. This resounding reggae with a powerful brass section could have easily taken more elaborate instrumental and studio developments, however, the band has preferred to produce a compact track brimming with strength and lasting less than three minutes. “Ombra" (Shade) closes this side of the album with solemn roots sonorities. The B-side is Outside-In, four reinterpretations of jazz classics that DROP COLLECTIVE internalize, make their own and, therefore, also form part of their identity. The choice of pieces is hair-raising, because of the risks they take. "Yearnin'" is a cover of the song originally included in one of the most epic albums in the history of jazz, "The Blues and the Abstract Truth", by saxophonist Oliver Nelson. DROP COLLECTIVE take the song to their own territory with the skill and freshness of expert ska-jazzers and with the special collaboration of trumpeter Joan Mar Sauqué, they make one of the most famous riffs in jazz sound unashamedly contemporary and... Caribbean. "Day by Day" is an adaptation of the standard from the late forties of the last century that was part of the regular repertoire of, among others, Frank Sinatra. The result is a swinging ska love themed, sugary and romantic, with an exquisite interpretation. And to close the album, two extraordinary trials by fire for Maria del Rio, the band's vocalist, which she solves with total ease and mastery of the situation. "What a Little Moonlight Can Do", a composition by Harry Woods that the legendary Billie Holiday recorded in 1935 and which, after 90 years, still sounds fresh in up tempo ska mode, and "Sinnerman", a traditional spiritual from the early 20th century made popular worldwide by Nina Simone, becomes a lively ska-jazz with soulful touches and an infectious organ solo by Daniel Ferruz. INSIDE is an album with a compact, solid, and synchronous sound, but full of details, which gives a total sense of permanence and singularity to their skareggae- jazz mastery, in which many universes fit.

SYLVAN Konzerte waren und sind stets etwas Besonderes. Auf unzähligen Festivals und Konzerten weltweit präsentierte die Hamburger "New Artrock"-Band schon seit dem Jahr 2000 ihre atemberaubende Musik. Wie bei vielen Künstlern waren aufgrund der Corona-Pandemie ihre Konzerte zuletzt etwas rar, doch sie ließen sich davon nicht verunsichern und setzten mit ihrem erfolgreichen Studio-Album "One To Zero" ein deutliches Ausrufe- und Lebenszeichen. Auf ihrer Tour im Jahr 2024 zeigten SYLVAN nun, warum ihre Fans sie so lieben: eine perfekte Show mit einer spielfreudigen, eingespielten Band, eine perfekte Show mit bis ins Details abgestimmten Lichteffekten und Visuals und eine Setlist, die nun wirklich aber auch gar keine Wünsche übrig ließ. Die fünf Hamburger verstehen es dabei wie kaum eine andere Band, ihr Publikum auf eine emotionale Reise mitzunehmen. Eine Reise voller Extreme: mal laut, mal leise - mal zerbrechlich, mal vor Energie strotzend - mal scheinbar einfach, mal komplex. Aber immer melodiös und fokussiert auf den momentanen Hauptdarsteller: sei es Ausnahmesänger Marco Glühmann, Tasten-Zauberer Volker Söhl oder Gitarren-Virtuose Johnny Beck, welcher seinem grandiosen und unverwechselbaren Gitarrenspiel das Publikum bezaubert und eine wahre Bereicherung für SYLVAN auf der Bühne ist. Das Fundament bildet die äußerst solide und eingespielte Rhythmus-Sektion mit Bassist Sebastian Harnack und Drummer Matthias Harder. Die Song-Auswahl ist eine Mischung aus dem Besten der langjährigen Band-Historie, garniert mit Songs des letzten Albums, welches sie ja vorher aus genannten Gründen noch nicht auf einer Tour präsentieren konnten - diese Mixtur entfaltet einen wahrhaftigen Live-Spirit und bringt nochmal einen ganz besonderen Touch und Power in die Musik.
Sylvan treten hier den unwiderlegbaren Beweis an, dass sie nun mit voller Kraft zurück auf der Bühne sind.

Wortgewandt wie ein junger Debattierclubchampion verfasst der Sohn eines kanadischen Vaters und einer deutschen Mutter intelligente deutschsprachige Raptexte, denen es weder an sprachlicher Raffinesse noch an technischen Details mangelt und knackt damit im Vorbeigehen Verkaufsrekorde. Dabei beherrscht Kollegah seine mitunter augenzwinkernde Inszenierung wie kein Zweiter und bedient sich dabei einer Selbstironie, die dem deutschen Rap lange abging und konträr zum stumpfen, lange vorherrschenden Gangstergetue steht. Anlässlich des 10. Geburtstags erscheint die limitierte Anniversary Edition von "KING" auf goldenem Doppel-Vinyl; nur solange der Vorrat reicht!

Celebrated Zambian guitarist and bandleader Paul Ngozi’s concept album about the stuggles of those living in Africa’s 1970s townships Includes Oversized 8 Page Booklet That Details Paul Ngozi and The Ngozi Family’s Arc, Including Rare Photographs, Discography And Annotation. The third entry in an era-defining reissue series on Now-Again centered around this Zamrock legend and his band - previous entries include Day Of Judgement and 45,000 Volts

"Zambia’s Zamrock movement that exploded in the 1970s...provided young musicians access to European and American music, and created a unique sound. At its root, Zamrock melded fuzz-toned psychedelia, chugging garage rock and roiling funk with a broad mix of African cadences and beats...enlivening a scene that included bands like Musi-O-Tunya, Amanaz and the Ngozi Family” (New York Times)

Zamrock was a bona-fide rock scene: on the African continent, only Nigeria can claim one so comprehensive, and Nigeria’s was largely catalyzed and funded by subsidiaries of the European major labels. Zamrock was as independent as the newly-named country, formerly known as Northern Rhodesia. Zamrock is starting in its completeness, especially for a scene that emerged, unfurled and disappeared so quickly. From Musi-O-Tunyaís fusion of Fela’s Afro-beat, Hendrix’s rock, South African jazz and traditional Zambian melodies and rhythms to Salty Dog’s acid folk/rock, Zambia’s rock scene contained all of rock’s subgenres. Zamrock was much more than an imitation of American and European rock music: it quickly became a uniquely Zambian movement, befitting of its name. WITCH, Paul Ngozi and Amanaz sound nothing like other rock music from the African continent - or elsewhere.

Past collaborators of Decosimo include indie/folk artists Jake Xerxes Fussell, Wye Oak, and Hiss Golden Messenger. Past collaborators of Schrey include experimental/sound artists Alvin Lucier, Gordon Mumma and Yasunao Tone. In April 2021, Joseph Decosimo, Luke Richardson, and Cleek Schrey three of the most compelling interpreters in the American traditional music scene gathered at a cabin in Tennessee to explore their collective repertoire of Old-time fiddle and banjo tunes, gleaned from visits with older players, field recordings, and vintage 78s. Working with fiddle, hardanger d’amore (a fiddle with sympathetic strings), banjos, and a 19th-century pump organ, the trio captured both the sonic details of their instruments and a generous musical interplay rooted in a dozen years of collaboration. Their debut album, Beehive Cathedral, presents resonant, thoughtful, and expansive explorations of Appalachian and American music. The results showcase deep Details study and enveloping, exhilarating performances. A rich vein of stories and relationships to people and places underpin Beehive Cathedral. Much of the album draws on Decosimo’s experiences learning the music of Tennessee’s Cumberland Plateau, where he grew up and worked as a folklorist. A key source of inspiration was fiddler Clyde Davenport (1921-2020), “Clyde was a social and musical trickster who knew hundreds of old tunes and had an uncanny ability to recall each piece in exquisite detail,” says Decosimo. “During my visits, he’d play breathtaking local pieces from his father Will, who was born in 1868. His father had learned some of them from a neighbor who was born in 1829.” "This record expresses some of what we hear in Southern traditional music: the ring of the strings, the buzz of the tunings, the hum of the organ,” explains Schrey. Spending time listening to old recordings and imagining how those sounds were made has made the trio keenly interested in the relationship between physical motion and sound in their source material. The result is a dense layering of sounds and interaction. Of this sonic interplay, Irish fiddle luminary Martin Hayes observes, “The sound of a beehive conveys the idea of a unified harmonious soundscape which is how this recording sounds. Beehive Cathedral is a sonic delight, a beautiful blend of Old-time soundscapes and more. This is a hypnotic recording that is grounded, subtle and refined

Ursprünglich im September 2000 auf Science/Virgin veröffentlicht, festigte Solaris Rupert Parkes' Rolle als unverwechselbare Kraft im Bereich des Underground-Dance und führte einige seiner Zuhörer in die Irre, indem es sich vom mathematischen Drum and Bass seines Debüts Modus Operandi entfernte. Diese Wiederveröffentlichung wird hier mit akribischer Aufmerksamkeit für die Details der ursprünglichen britischen Erstpressung präsentiert und ist auf zwei 140g-LPs erhältlich. Modus Operandi wurde 1997 veröffentlicht und war sowohl ein Kritiker-Liebling als auch ein kommerzieller Erfolg, der Photek als eine Art schattenhafte Leitfigur in der Welt des Drum and Bass etablierte, nachdem er in den Jahren zuvor bei Metalheadz gelernt hatte. Solaris, das drei Jahre später erschien, wurde mit Spannung erwartet; hier spielte Photek mit Form und Genre. Glamorama mit seiner stark verhallten Bearbeitung der Stimme der Künstlerin Marie-Jos Jongerius klingt nicht unähnlich zu David Byrnes und Brian Enos klassischen Cut-ups von My Life In The Bush of Ghosts. Wo Solaris von seinem Vorgänger abweicht, ist der wunderschöne Deep-House-Sound von Mine To Give und Can't Come Down, die beide von der Chicagoer Legende Robert Owens gesungen werden und Photeks Techno-Seele mehr Herz verleihen. Wie um seine Kritiker zum Schweigen zu bringen, zeigten die unerbittlichen achteinhalb Minuten von Infinity, dass nur wenige die Grenzen von Drum and Bass so weit hinausschieben können wie Photek. Photek ist heute ein etablierter Film- und Fernsehkomponist in Hollywood. Dennoch wird seine Arbeit liebevoll in Erinnerung behalten und sehr respektiert.

Canada's famously vibrant funk scene has given rise to many gems over the years and now one of them is getting a reissue on P-Vine complete with an obi-strip. The Sidewinders' much-coveted album, Flatfoot Hustlin' is a real gem that emanates the spirit of deep-rooted funk. Famously it was recorded in the same studio as Professor Lett and Study's Love Serenade which further details about it have long been unknown and mysterious. That has only added to its allure and appeal amongst the rare groove community but of course, the music itself is the real draw. Featured tracks like 'I Like To Dance' and 'Flat Foot Hustli'' cannot fail to ignite dancefloors, while 'Time For Loving' is a more smooth groove and 'Gift to the Sun' gets nice and heavy making this an essential cop for funk aficionados.

"I wish I could turn or turn back" "Sometimes it’s hard to resist the feeling that there was a crucial turn in life out of which everything else flowed. Maybe in our more reasonable frames of mind we can dismiss that thought and take our plans and intentions very seriously. But, there’s often a lurking conviction that, like the oak from the acorn or the movie from its opening scene, it is already all there. In the first moment of Relics of Our Life, anything could happen, anything could come next. But as the suspense is broken with the first notes, the world of the record springs up as both an internal experience and a landscape of which we will learn something, but definitely not everything. The songs induce a swimming sense of cycling repetition and variation where shifting details tilt the ground under us. The round and round doesn’t make us dizzy; like breathing the right way, it makes us both heavier and higher. "Pawliczek’s songs can be located in the company of the greats of Flying Nun Records – maybe the delicacy of The Great Unwashed with the heavy heart of The Verlaines and smartness of The Chills. But, ultimately, his interests are elsewhere – a heart-break song over an earthly lover feels like only the tipping point for longing and devotion that outstrips the personal. In this sense, Popul Vuh for their hymnal geometry and switched-on Palestrina, and Terry Riley for cosmic elation come to mind. The songs have sweeping and cinematic proportions and depths of field constrained by a pop economy love of leanness. "But who’s supplicating whom here? The songs’ devotional quality is not upward to the sacred or even outward to the profane. It’s more like a magnetism between its elements – sounds, voices and rhythms. The track No Talk intones “why don’t you talk to me?” over a driving guitar and one feels visited by some kind of archaic god on whom the tables have been turned, finding himself jealous of our thousand little thoughts. The record finishes with his distorted lilting dance, trying to seduce us with some red red wine that is no one’s blood, but everyone’s favorite drug." -- Karina Gill (Cindy, Flowertown) 2024

Repressed mint coloured vinyl for the 10th anniversary of the first Flenser pressing! Double Vinyl-LP including digital download code & comes with a 75-page zine. Layout by Niels Geybels (Agalloch, Planning for Burial), note new price on the mint edition. Long requested CD version back in print, note new price. For fans of Enemies List Home Recordings, Giles Corey, Black Wing, Planning For Burial. In 2008, Have A Nice Life released their now cult classic Deathconsciousness album to a whimper and critical non-interest. Six years after its release the band followed up with 2014's stunner The Unnatural World, and by then Deathconsciousness had become a force of influence and fanatic obsession. Seamlessly blending shoegaze, post punk, new wave, industrial and noise with unparalleled depth and weight, the album was originally released by Enemies List Home Recordings founded by HANL members Dan Barrett and Tim Macuga. The 75-page booklet accompanying the deluxe format of Deathconsciousness details the dark and forgotten history of the Antiochean cult. Blurring the lines between novella, liner notes, and academic text, the zine itself presents an engrossing narrative. The corresponding album is rhythmic, primal and expansive, and is a gloomy-post-punk masterpiece a mediation on death, loss and existence. It feels more fresh and engaging with every listen and has held up as a remarkable piece of art. Fans of Have A Nice Life exhibit both cultic thought and action for good reason it is perhaps a fanbase as dark and mysterious as the Antiochean's, which the album itself revolves around. Quotes : "Deathconsciousness is probably a perfect record" - Last Train To Cool // "A masterpiece of depression" - The Quietus // "85-minute powerhouse of a double-album" - The Needle Drop // "Have a Nice Life's Deathconsciousness could quite possibly move the Earth" - Sputnik Music (5/5 rating)".

What might appear to be the most unlikely collaboration of 2024 proves also to be one of the most invigorating listens of the year! Shackleton & Six Organs of Admittance are in full aural/metaphysical alignment in their mutual effort to become Jinxed By Being. On first listen, it becomes immediately clear that this fusion of Shackleton"s bass heavy cosmic dread and Six Organs" ritual folksong makes total sense. Longtime listeners know that both Shackleton and Six Organs of Admittance have been unafraid to pursue their muse into any and all encroaching depth of darkness or outer boundary of potential dissonance - in fact, that has always been their default mode, finding more of resonance way out there in the process. They also share that ol" maverick psychedelic ritual transcendental music vibe, don"t they? And a fascination with repetition and cycles. And a mutual inspiration drawn from alternative tunings and literature...all this considered, it"s been basically inevitable that Ben Chasny and Sam Shackleton would work together. It took a while for them to find each other-and once they did, it was almost eerie, how preordained it felt. When the music started coming, though-that"s when it got really eerie. The mood rises from the music like smoke, a sure signal of total integration. Jinxed by Being finds Shackleton & Six Organs of Admittance delighting in their synthesis. Reveling in the unique sonic textures found in the collage, they launch small details that unfold into a massive space and often multiply into lines of dimensional space, crossing the stereo spectrum with enervating motility. Here lies all the proof you need against the danger of categorizing by perceived genre rather than intention-encounters like Shackleton & Six Organs of Admittance might never have found the linear space in which they sit next to each other, beyond alphabets and other institutional organizing principles. Rearrange your libraries-or you might miss getting Jinxed By Being.

Actress' zehntes Studioalbum, das himmlische und meditative „Statik“, wird am 07.06.24 von Smalltown Supersound veröffentlicht. Die Zusammenarbeit zwischen Darren Cunningham und dem geschätzten Osloer Label entwickelte sich organisch nach dem Actress Remix für eine 12“-Auskopplung eines Carmen Villain-Songs aus ihrem Album „Only Love From Now“. In diesem Sinne war das gesamte "Statik"-Projekt, von der Konzeption über die Entstehung bis zur Veröffentlichung, mit einer fast unnatürlichen Leichtigkeit gesegnet. Für Actress, der den Großteil seines subtil majestätischen neuen Albums in einem ausgedehnten Deep-Flow-Zustand schrieb, dient das Projekt als zusammenhängendes Zeugnis künstlerischer Befreiung. Das Ergebnis ist ein kontemplatives Album, das von einem Gefühl der Freiheit durchdrungen ist, während es gleichzeitig die Expertise seines Schöpfers durch forensische Aufmerksamkeit für texturale Details und die für Actress typischen Resonanzen unterstreicht. Bei genauem Hinhören können sich einflussreiche Visionen von Wasserwelten, wie dem mythischen Atlantis, und Beschwörungen von fliegenden Vögeln (und vielleicht auch Menschen) offenbaren. Egal, ob Statik dazu inspiriert, über oder unter dem Horizont zu schweben, Actress und Smalltown Supersound versprechen eine sichere und transzendente Reise.

• Transparent red LP with HQ download limited to 250 units worldwide.
• Previous collaborations with Pete Namlook for the FAX label and Alio Die for Projekt .
• Soundtrack work featured in trailers for The Hunger Games 1 & 2 and Blade Runner 2049.
Vion is the 29th full-length album to bear the name of Italian soundtrack composer, engineer, and producer Lorenzo Montanà. It is his first solo effort for Oakland-based emotive electronics outpost n5MD.
Vion began as a means for Montanà to experiment with jazz brush drum patterns. The album slowly took shape, and further experimentation gave way to stylistic shifts that, in turn, broadened the album's palette to include ought-era experimental electronica motifs and percolating ambiance. Motion is a constant with nearly all of Montanà's output; details are ever-evolving, rarely static. The brushed drums and leftfield production comple- ment each other and give Vion a sense of lightness juxtaposed with its somewhat melancholic tonality.
With Vion, Montanà has stretched beyond his recent more ambient offerings to include a cross-section of his electronic music output thus far.

Panoram makes soundtracks for daydreams gone sideways. Picture the scene: an afternoon nap with the television on, quietly, in the corner; snatches of conversation drift in through the open window. Wandering, half-formed thoughts take unexpected detours; before you know it, there’s a movie playing out against closed lids, the colors bright, the characters unfamiliar. Accidental rhythms, incidental melodies, imitations of life, messages in code.

Across 17 fragmentary, sketch-like tracks, Panoram carves a labyrinthine path in which nothing is what it seems: a fantasy world of breathy vox pads, faux guitar, detuned synths, bursts of flute and orchestral percussion, and even the occasional cheeky cartoon sample. It’s chillout music with a chilly edge, ambient with a darkly ironic undertone. (The briefest glance at your news outlet of choice should be enough to confirm that the title—Great Times—ought to be taken with a healthy dose of skepticism.)

Panoram has been making music under his principal alias for more than a decade now, releasing albums on labels like Firecracker, Running Back, and his own Wandering Eye. (He has also performed and recorded with Amen Dunes, and has co-production credits on Amen Dunes’ forthcoming Sub Pop album Death Jokes.) Panoram’s output has ranged widely, taking in abstract pop, classical composition, twisted takes on library music, and cyborg funk. One record of “bio-acoustic transmissions” came with a cannabis leaf pressed in clear wax; his 2021 album Pianosequenza Vol. 1 gathers his experiments on the Yamaha Disklavier. But Great Times offers the truest picture yet of a project that has never been easy to pin down.

Loath to overshare details about his personal life, Panoram instead lets the music do the talking, using his cryptic tracks to express the slipperiest sorts of ideas—the thoughts that take root where anxiety, distraction, and the most fleeting traces of grace commingle. Panoram’s approach flies in the face of contemporary ambient orthodoxy, with its emphasis on immersion and uplift. Great Times expresses something thornier, more difficult to translate, yet also more tantalizing to contend with. Its 17 tracks offer a chance to get lost—and an invitation to remain in the maze as long as you like.

Tomorrowland Music kündigt ’TOMORROWLAND 2024 - LIFE - OFFICIAL COMPILATION’ an. Erlebe die Euphorie des diesjährigen Tomorrowland-Mottos „LIFE“ bequem von zu Hause aus, mit exklusiven Tracks und erweiterten Versionen, die für DJs und Musikliebhaber gleichermaßen geeignet sind. Mit einer handverlesenen Auswahl aktueller Singles von einigen der größten Namen der elektronischen Musik, darunter Lost Frequencies, David Guetta, Alok, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Martin Garrix, Alesso und einige der größten Club-Hits des Augenblicks, wie Zerb (Mwaki), Alex Wann (Milkshake 20). Von erhebenden Melodien bis hin zu herzzerreißenden Beats ist jeder Track ein Zeugnis für die Einheit, Freude und Vielfalt, die auf dem Tomorrowland gefeiert wird. Jedes Vinyl ist ein Sammlerstück, reich an ästhetischen Details und angereichert mit luxuriösen Verpackungselementen, die durch ein atemberaubendes Artwork aufgewertet werden.

As the winds of music blow, a wise heart navigates the spiral, finding wisdom in each of its twists and turns.

As the releases of DUBBLACK’s catalogue pile up, the novelty and exploration for new music keeps on thriving.


A brand-new record is approaching, as always available both on a 12” vinyl – limited to 300 copies – and in digital format, featuring the presence of two Masters from the Electronic Music scene: A2 Abd El Monim and Tocchitek.


The two-track EP baptised “Dark Side” includes the gems “Euriale” and “Steno”; two expansive compositions that, also due to their length, masterly observe the task of narrating two complementary stories, each with its distinct moments, yet marked by a strong rhythmic temper. Both tracks are planned to share similar sonic elements: a pulsating 160 bpm kick drum, ghostly pads serving as an inevitable backdrop, and indispensable rhythmic details enriching the whole structure and arrangement.


A2 Abd El Monim, born Alan Abd El Monim, is an Italian-Egyptian artist/composer. He expresses himself through the creation of music ranging from electronic to purely instrumental, and through the interaction between the arts. His poetics opens in a “dark” dimension that considers and interprets the facts through the notion of shadows and darkness but also through penombre. His “dark” vision stands as a filter through which he reads the world and its interactions, therefore using also the notion of light. His music has been performed in Festivals including Musica d’arte (Riccione – Italy), Luci d’Artista (Salerno – Italy), GAMO (Firenze – Italy), Spazio Musica (Cagliari – Italy), On Air – On site (Den Haag -Netherlands), Sound Spaces (Malmö – Sweden), etc.


He composed songs for the solo exhibition “La pelle degli oggetti” and for works Lui&Lei by the artist Giovanni Oberti. In 2020 he undertook a collaboration with the poet Milo De Angelis , putting to music the lyric “A volte , sull’orlo della notte, si rimane sospesi”. He wrote music for several theatre performances by director Emily Tartamelli and has written music for several directors films including Reto Gelshorn, Enea Francia, Paola Piscitelli and Fabio Corbellini. He collaborated with the London based fashion brand B DODI and was invited as an artist to participate in the collective exhibition “Instructions to Light-Keepers” (Milano – Italy). In March 2023, “Periodo Nero”, its interactive and generative installation music and video, was selected for the tribute to Picasso in the city of Florence, will be presented at the Certosa of Florence in September of the same year. In 2017 he won the International Competition of Composizione Silenzio Musica, in 2020 the diploma from President and Artistic Director of Winterreise International Composition Competition Moscow, in 2021 the Call For Scores banned by the Cultural Association Esecutori di Metallo su Carta. A2 Abd El Monim is signed to international label F.M.T Records and Dubblack Records, with which he regularly publishes his electronic music.


Tocchitek is an underground Tekno producer and performer born in Milan, Italy. He started playing live in 2007 as part of the “Approdo Caronte” sound system based in Milan. His first significant appearance as a live performer was at a “Mayday Parade” in 2008 in Milan. In 2009, he joined the “R909 Records” chapters crew based in Milan, bringing his live set to many local club dance floors. Meanwhile, he collaborated and played with many crews around Europe, spreading his music in the free Underground Tekno movement. In 2021, in Milan, he launched “F.M.T Records”.


Simplicity is often the hardest thing to achieve when producing this type of music, primarily designed for uncompromising dance-floors, but the duo successfully channels their message with purity and truthfulness.


The visual aspects of layout and design are once again entrusted to Vittorio Valigi, who puts a greyscale spiral at the center of the cover. A spiral within which one an eye can be glimpsed – the eye of the musical soul of DUBBLACK harmoniously fused with that of A2 Abd El Monim and Tocchitek, who become worthy ambassadors of the Dubblack’s sonic mission.

U.S. Cinematic outfit Whatitdo Archive Group returns to explore the worlds of Mid-Century Exotica and Library Music with "Palace Of A Thousand Sounds," out on May 5th.

From the instrumental cinematic-soul outfit behind 2021's critically acclaimed The Black Stone Affair comes Whatitdo Archive Group's most recent foray into the realms of the esoteric and arcane, and their most adventurous album to date: Palace Of A Thousand Sounds, available May 5th, 2023 on Record Kicks on limited edition LP, CD and digital platforms.

After The Black Stone Affair enthralled record collectors by traversing the cinematic landscape of an imagined 1970s Spaghetti Western, Palace Of A Thousand Sounds finds Whatitdo Archive Group entrenched deeper in the worlds of mid-century exotica and library music—from the Tropicalia-steeped Amazon to the minor key tonalities of the far-out Near East.

When the dust finally settled from their debut album, composer and tireless sound scientist Alexander Korostinsky set out to discover the band's new direction, with the ultimate goal to breathe new life into the mid-century era sound with the compass of modernity as his guide.

From its conception in 2021, Palace has sought to carry on a legacy set in motion by the likes of Martin Denny, Les Baxter and Juan García Esquivel. Korostinsky, guitarist Mark Sexton, and drummer Aaron Chiazza recorded the album in marathon sessions from Korostinsky's Studio "A," in Reno, Nevada—a mysterious sonic laboratory where the year 1970 has yet to happen, and vintage analog equipment interfaces with modern musical perspectives and experimental recording techniques to produce era-defining sounds.

Not content to appeal to the sensibilities of armchair anthropologists, Palace Of A Thousand Sounds finds the band interrogating the genre itself while making studious tributes to the real places and times it draws from. It's in this tension between here and there, fantasy and reality, that Whatitdo Archive Group find their groove.

Drawing from a century of pop and folk sounds from around the world the way only 21st-century crate-diggers can, Palace is rooted in an undercurrent of heavy funk that is decidedly here and now. Whatitdo Archive Group showcase the breadth of their influences with disarming confidence, equally at home behind sweeping harp, loungey vibraphone or Turkish bağlama saz. A lush seventeen-piece orchestra commanded by award-winning composer Louis King (Janelle Monáe, Monophonics) completes the instrumental mélange, enticing listeners to imagine a borderless planet unified by melody and rhythm.

The album is unafraid to explore the strange and uncomfortable in pursuit of an authentic musical identity, subverting expectations in pursuit of forwarding the genre while paying homage to its past. Fans will appreciate the architectural complexity of the record accessible only through multiple listens—each visit to the palace yielding new details to marvel at, curiosities to ponder, grand mysteries to explore.

Once the needle drops, W.A.G carefully guides you from room to room, sound to sound within the walls of the album's sonic palace. Listening becomes an aural journey providing glimpses into different worlds both real and imagined; you are everywhere and nowhere all at once—a guest in the grand halls and hanging gardens of time and sound.

Steeped in obscurity, a cult following of crate-diggers and musical oddity collectors has been brewing over the mysterious releases of the Whatitdo Archive Group. Surfacing in 2009 from the high deserts of Reno, NV USA, this three-piece recording collective(Alexander Korostinsky, Mark Sexton and Aaron Chiazza) focuses solely on curating, performing and preserving esoteric soundtrack, library and deep-groove collections. As an onlooker, it's hard to tell whether the music they are procuring is actually archival, music of their own creation, or both. Their debut LP The Black Stone Affair, the formerly lost soundtrack music of a once-shelved Italian cinematic masterpiece, was released in 2021 and received praise from the likes of Wall Street Journal, Mojo Magazine, Uncut, Shindig, Blues & Soul Magazine, BBC 6, FIP Radio (FR), KCRW (US), JazzFM (UK) and more. Two years later, the Whatitdo Archive Group is back. Get ready for an exotic adventure with their sophomore full-length effort: Palace of a Thousand Sounds.

"The debut longplayer from Washington, DC-based Ekko Astral is a complex mesh of bubblegum noise punk and no-wave art rock that holds an elastic space for the knotty, tangled horrors of living in the imperial core. Their songs thrash with intense, necessary defiance against codified gender-based violence, their distortion and sibilance a direct response to the dangers outside our front doors.

pink balloons opener “head empty blues” specifically bites back against the terrors of the normative male gaze that dominates so much of American culture. Over a post-punk passage that plays call and response with a wall of harsh noise, frontwoman Jael Holzman belts playfully morbid details of the head-exploding anxieties that haunt her daily: “is it bon eye-ver or bon iver? / i don’t care / i’ve got stalkers outside / not going out tonight / gonna sit and take pics / in my underwear.”

Holzman formed the band in 2021 with best friend Liam Hughes (guitar), and eventually rounded out the band’s lineup with Miri Tyler (drums), Guinevere Tully (bass), and Sam Elmore (guitar). Ekko Astral’s local scene quickly welcomed the band for their wildly fierce live presence, emboldened by the community-building message behind the band’s mascara mosh pit brand.

Ultimately, Ekko Astral are here to uplift, a mission exemplified by the frenetic and bewitching pre-release singles “baethoven” and “devorah,” cornerstones of pink balloons in both style and theme. The former serves as a reminder to keep your larger than life personality in a world that wants to downsize you, where the latter proclaims urgent solidarity with missing and murdered people. Such crucial messages of upliftment are the foundation of pink balloons, and, by extension Ekko Astral, whose thrashing debut leaves no stone of solidarity unturned."

Today, artist, producer, DJ and cultural trailblazer Peggy Gou announces details of her long-awaited debut album One of the most hotly-anticipated debut records in recent years, I Hear You will be released on 7th June 2024 via XL Recordings. The ten track album is the culmination of years of work for the Korean-born artist, who’s uniquely revered as both an underground icon and global sensation, sticking by her own unwavering vision to become one of the most in-demand electronic music artists and DJs in the world. Featuring previous singles, the 2023 chart-topping global hit “(It Goes Like) Nanana” and her Lenny Kravitz collaboration “I Believe in Love Again”, the LP sees Gou stepping into the next level of her artistry and boldly claiming her voice through the kaleidoscopic lens of ‘90s house music

Today, artist, producer, DJ and cultural trailblazer Peggy Gou announces details of her long-awaited debut album One of the most hotly-anticipated debut records in recent years, I Hear You will be released on 7th June 2024 via XL Recordings. The ten track album is the culmination of years of work for the Korean-born artist, who’s uniquely revered as both an underground icon and global sensation, sticking by her own unwavering vision to become one of the most in-demand electronic music artists and DJs in the world. Featuring previous singles, the 2023 chart-topping global hit “(It Goes Like) Nanana” and her Lenny Kravitz collaboration “I Believe in Love Again”, the LP sees Gou stepping into the next level of her artistry and boldly claiming her voice through the kaleidoscopic lens of ‘90s house music

Favorite Recordings proudly presents this new official single reissue of “Feel So Good Inside”, by Lamar Thomas. A killer deep-disco and very rare collectable single, fully coordinated for reissue by French respected DJ and Tropical rare-groove specialist, Waxist Selecta.

Lamar Thomas is an American singer, composer and producer who made a short solo career in the 70s, and then formed the duo Thomas & Taylor. He has also penned few songs for Johnny Bristol, Garland Green, Nancy Wilson, Maynard Ferguson, or Johnnie Taylor among others.

In 1980, he recorded this 2 tracks single for MCA Records, who released it on a 7inch left almost unnoticed at that time. 30 years later, this brilliant disco production has become a classic rare-groove title for a few DJs and diggers, with among them, French collector and DJ, Waxist Selecta (aKa Julien Minarro).

Schooled about this rarity by DJ Klas (aKa Josh Goldman), he then made it a real favorite in his various DJ sets. Curious to learn more about this forgotten piece, he also liaised with Lamar through the web, and discovered that all the masters had burned in a California fire at Universal.

As Julien already worked on an upcoming reissue project with Pascal Rioux and Favorite Recordings (more details in 2015), he offered him and Lamar to arrange a proper official reissue and produce a new master from his own vinyl copy. Coming out in a 12inch version built for dancefloors, the package also includes a great extended mix by Waxist.

"It seemed that if I didn’t somehow repeat the process of greatness, and do so immediately, multiple times away to satisfy playlist and binge watch culture, then I “wasn’t shit”. After a while I was like “nah this doesn’t feel good,… I don’t know if I am finding joy in this”. I would record songs and not release them, obsess over sessions recorded in my home with 30 takes of vocals and wake up only to delete them. When it began to feel right I found solace in an epiphany that I was not obligated to operate at any other wavelength. I am moving on a different type of time, and that doesn’t expire." -Cavalier

For heads of a certain time period of NYC hip-hop, Brooklyn born, New Orleans-based rapper and songwriter, Cavalier was the one that got away. The outrageously talented artist whose name and reputation preceded him everywhere you went in the scene. The rapper who everyone knew was so dope that he had to blow, but who never seemed concerned with any of that. The pretty boy draped in Polo who stole every live show with a feather in his hair and a mouth full of gold fronts. The cat so dedicated to his own independence that even indie labels stopped trying to sign him and projects came when they came, but when they came they were undeniable.


Cavalier was THAT guy for a lot of us; a silver-tongued philosopher with an eye for the poignant details of black life and a delivery as effortless as a young Ken Griffey’s swing. All that said, it never really felt like Cav had that moment in the spotlight that we always assumed was coming. After chiseling away through headier cult corners of the NYC hip-hop scene Cavalier was recognized for his memorable co-pilot to Quelle Chris’ 2013 Mello Music debut, Niggas Is Men. The critically acclaimed LP helped propel Quelle Chris into the forefront of indie hip-hop (and also happened to be the first production credits for Messiah Muzik). Cav followed up with his first full length, Chief, which sports a notable Raekwon feature but also early work from producers like Ohbliv and Tall Black Guy. A relocation to New Orleans and partnership with producer/vocalist Iman Omari yielded two more projects: 2015’s Lemonade EP and Private Stock in 2018. Great records all; eagerly sought by collectors and signal boosted by influential media like OkayPlayer, Solange’s Saint Heron, and Pitchfork. Cavalier’s bonafides have never been in question, but his new album Different Type Time feels like a revelation—a sonic suspension bridge between his rich history and the artform’s future.

Different Type Time doesn’t sound like the future though, its vibrations are somewhere all their own. It sounds like jazz, like a conversation overheard in roti shop, or a pool hall, or the foyer of your old building on a fall day, front door propped open with a brick. The blues is in there too, and the south—the American South, and theGlobal South, and South Brooklyn. It’s not that it sounds like the past, but you can hear everything that came before in the thick of the basslines and the yearning of the keys. Different Type Time also doesn’t sound like now, it sounds like RIGHT NOW; the bounce of the lyrics like the staccato of basketball in the park, carried on a spring breeze.

Although he doesn’t rap on DTT, Quelle Chris plays a pivotal role; producing eight songs and serving as associate producer/consigliere to Cav throughout the creative process. “There is no time wasted in explaining things when I collaborate with Quelle. He understands the universe I am in and the realities I want to create. He’s in them. And I don’t think I can envision one without him,” Cavalier explains. Messiah Muzik, Wino Willy, Ohbliv, Ahwlee, Child Actor, Fushou and several other producers round out the credits, all lending their talents to the album’s spaciously soulful sound. At the center of all these alchemies is Cavalier, nimbly dancing in and out of pockets like a sidewalk game of jumprope. Different Type Time is a masterclass in this thing we call hip-hop; daring and original, yet always standing deeply rooted in the culture.

SIMON AND GARFUNKEL’S SWAN SONG: BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER FEATURES METICULOUS PRODUCTION, GORGEOUS SONGWRITING, AND HEALING SPIRIT
Sourced from the Original Master Tapes and Limited to 4,000 Numbered Copies: Mobile Fidelity’s 180s SuperVinyl 33RPM LP Plays with Staggering Detail, Clarity, and Definition
1/4" / 15 IPS analogue master to DSD 256 to analogue console to lathe



Unifying, soothing, comforting: Simon and Garfunkel's Bridge over Troubled Water quickly became the album of an era upon release in 1970, the benchmark set serving as a beacon of hope and hymn of reassurance during a time marked by polarizing changes, social unrest, uncertain politics, and the dawn of a new era. These uplifting reasons — to say nothing about the gorgeous songwriting, meticulous production, and watershed performances — attest to why it is more relevant than ever in our current climate. Music, Bridge over Troubled Water simultaneously suggests and proves, heals all wounds and lifts all boats.

The seminal effort Rolling Stone named the 51st Greatest Album of All Time reaches illustrious sonic and emotional heights on Mobile Fidelity’s 180g SuperVinyl 33RPM LP. Pressed on MoFi SuperVinyl and strictly limited to 4,000 numbered copies, this ultra-hi-fi collector's edition brings you closer to music that picks up where the duo's Bookends leaves off. You'll enjoy deep-black backgrounds and pointillist details. Seemingly every note, breath, and movement is reproduced with exquisite accuracy, clarity, and balance. Each rotation benefits from SuperVinyl’s ultra-low noise floor and superb groove definition.

The best-selling record in the U.S. for several years running and winner of six Grammy Awards — including nods for Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Engineered Recording — Bridge over Troubled Water endures as a staple of accessible sophistication, angelic elegance, effortless singing, unhinged ambition, and therapeutic spirit. While it would turn out to be the final studio set for a duo surrounded by creative and personal disagreement, Simon and Garfunkel's collaborative ethos and soaring harmonies — combined with reflective narratives centred on the American experience, friendship, romance, and farewells — combine to turn the 11-track work into a paean to resolution, reconciliation, calm, and balance.

Home to the legendary title track graced by Garfunkel's pacifying solo lead vocals as well as the equally famous folk ballad "The Boxer," Peruvian-based "El Condor Pasa," upbeat "Cecilia," and rock ’n’ rolling "Baby Driver,” Bridge over Troubled Water remains as renowned for its musical diversity as its lyrical poignancy. Moving beyond the templates they'd perfected on four prior albums, Simon and Garfunkel embrace a then-unimaginable swath of styles. Rock, pop, gospel, country, R&B, South American, and jazz strains course throughout the songs, each sparked with bold experiments yet grounded in a well-orchestrated melange of melody, rhythm, and classicism that makes everything personal, familiar, and warm.

Not for nothing is Bridge over Troubled Water one of the finest-sounding albums ever made. Featuring instrumentation helmed by members of Los Angeles' fabled Wrecking Crew as well as multiple choral and string sections, songs took hundreds of hours to complete and involved pioneering recording techniques. Evoking both Phil Spector's live"Wall of Sound" approach as well as inventive effects, Bridge over Troubled Water is a triumph of texture, atmosphere, and architecture. Our audiophile edition brings the record's unique traits to the fore.

Whether the reverberation generated by Garfunkel's cassette recorder on "Cecilia," echoing drums captured in a corridor heard throughout "The Boxer," automobile noises peppering "Baby Driver," layer upon layer of voices dotting "The Only Boy Living in New York," or echo-chamber percussion on the title track, details comes through with stunning accuracy, clarity, and dimensionality. In every regard, Bridge over Troubled Water exudes genius.

witching seaside ambience for a sound shaped by inner-city living, Atelier’s second full-length studio album, Lights Towards The Exit, channels the mood of a sleepless cityscape.
Lights Towards The Exit is Atelier’s second full-length studio album. After the release of Varsam Court at the end of 2019 on Lossless, run by mentors and friends Mathias Schober and Thomas Herb, the duo experimented with different ideas in the studio, and at the start of 2020 a common thread began to appear between a few of the tracks which laid the foundation for the sound of their second album.
Both Alexander and Jas moved to Berlin in the period before the release of Varsam Court from their hometown of Cape Town, South Africa, where their first album was written and recorded. Moving provided some challenges, particularly with what was the most essential equipment to bring from their previous studio set-up, but those limitations proved to be useful in incorporating new instruments and techniques to the recording process.
Lights Towards The Exit was written and recorded in different spaces in Berlin – from bedrooms in apartment blocks to three different studios across the city. The different locations all had a specific ambience – such as 4th- and 5th-floor bedrooms with busy street views; a studio with no windows in a typical old Berlin backyard complex forever under threat of being sold and gentrified; and a bigger studio with windows on the opposite side of the corridor overlooking the backyard of a mechanic workshop. The final details and edits were completed in Atelier’s current studio, in a contrasting area surrounded by office blocks, plazas, 9-5ers and, most importantly, their friends and colleagues.
Swapping the mountains, sea and seclusion for tall buildings, backyards and a new community, Lights Towards The Exit channels the sensation of being surrounded by people, but still feeling like you're on your own. The album was written through three years of cold winters, sweaty summers and a period where the world stood still during the pandemic. Frustrated with the cease of momentum, but still optimistic, Atelier disappeared from public view, abandoning social media to focus on recording, songwriting and experimentation.
It was a difficult time: the duo longed to perform and continue producing music, and the imposed limitations sometimes felt like an impossible obstacle. Ultimately, though, this would provide inexpected inspiration and influence the sound and direction of the new album.
The sound of Lights Towards The Exit is not a departure from their first album, but a progression: influenced by the new surroundings in the duo’s adoptive city, Atelier’s second album is an ode to first-time experiences, new languages, challenges, club culture and the shift from youth to maturity, as well as a balm to those stuck somewhere in between.
The overall sound is a lift not in tempo, but in energy, matching the openness needed to make a new start in a new place.

An’archives presents the latest album by Japanese free saxophonist and vocalist Harutaka Mochizuki, Doppelgänger ga boku wo. Since the early 2000s, Harutaka has quietly, yet steadily, released a string of solo and collaborative releases that have allowed multiple perspectives on one of the most singular voices in modern music. In collaboration, he seems to prefer the duo format, and digging through his discography, you’ll find releases where he pairs with Tomoyuki Aoki (of Up-Tight), Michel Henritzi, and Hideaki Kondo. But Harutaka’s solo performances, with their lyricism and physicality, are where the magic truly happens.

If earlier albums, like Solo Document 2004 (Bishop, 2005) and Pas (no label, 2014), were raw documentations of solo alto saxophone performances, in recent years, Harutaka’s solo albums have become more complex, more mystifying. Most significantly, they’ve become more personal; there are few musicians extant whose albums feel quite so much like diaristic interventions, and Harutaka’s music now is deeply moving in its intimacy. Developing that thread of revelation, Doppelgänger ga boku wo offers a still richer exploration of many facets of Harutaka’s artistry.

The two double-tracked alto saxophone performances here feel consummate, with Harutaka shadowing himself, exploring the possibilities of the multiple self: Doppelgänger is me, indeed. The playing here is rich with affect, but still exploratory, voiced with rigour and intent. Two short pieces for keyboard and voice (about Giacometti and Genêt, respectively) are fragile miniatures, with clusters of chords, and passing phrases, wrapping around Harutaka’s untutored but lovely singing.

The ‘karaoke’ performance that closes the album, of “Woman ‘W no higeki’ yori”, speaks to the iterative aspects of Harutaka’s music. A cover of the Hiroki Yakushimaru song, the theme to Shinichirō Sawai’s 1984 film W’s Tragedy, he’s returned to this song several times, and here, his delivery perfectly captures the spirit of what Michel Henritzi, in his typically beautiful liner notes, evocatively details as “one of those sad love songs that accompany lonely sake drinkers in smoky night bars, sharing their spleen.”

Gorgeous, human, heartrending - Doppelgänger ga boku wo is Harutaka Mochizuki in element and in spirit.

DJ Support: Gilles Peterson, Sean Johnston, Jaye Ward, Max Essa and Francois K

Limited to 300 copies

Having been long-time admirers of one another from afar, Hell Yeah and Michele Mininni finally come together for Pop Archetypes. It is a multifaceted debut album that collides broken beats, worldly rhythms, jazz, eastern melodies, live drums and much more into one thrilling 15-track opus that arrives on May 31st.

Italian artist Mininni has always had a leftfield take on electronic music and imbued it with rhythms, melodies and instruments from around the globe. He has released it on cult labels like R&S, Optimo Trax, Internasjonal and Curle Recordings but has saved his magnificent debut album for Hell Yeah. It is much more than a collection of sounds he has already explored and instead finds him heading off into all new territory without losing his signature sense of inventive and beguiling rhythm and melody. It is a multicultural journey that takes in heterogeneous styles and diverse influences but distills them all into one cohesive album with its own unique storyline.

Says Mininni of the record, 'I wanted each track to be like pieces of a unique, multifaceted picture, like walking through train cars or progressing through the levels of a video game, all filtered through my own vision and concentrated into 36 minutes. I wanted a pop album rooted in the extraordinary richness of popular music and projected into the future, a continuum where pieces communicate with each other and are received by the ears in symbiotic balance.'

Despite that concept, the album is a spontaneous listen full of surprises, left turns and original ideas that all hold together in thrilling fashion. It kicks off with the tumbling jazz drums and swirling synths of 'Spinning Around Cotton Candy', takes in mellifluous melodic layers and broken beats on 'Golden Room' and 'Slipped Air' casts you adrift amongst gorgeous piano keys and refracted vocals on the suspensory 'Vertigo'. There are jungle interludes with Eastern string melodies like 'Bangkok Tempo', lavish fusions of organic and synthetic sounds on 'Kundalini' and more charming Far Eastern rhythms on 'Muting Cat'. 'Congoflash' brings electrifying cosmic rays to busy hand drum patterns, 'The Magic Of Synesthesia' combines dark amen breaks and bright and uplifting flutes while 'Carousel Of Tears' douses you in watery melodies and celestial pads that awaken the soul.

Pop Archetypes is an adventurous work packed with meticulous and infinite details but all with an overarching narrative that makes it far more than the sum of its parts.

Barro Music Label reaches its tenth reference with a tremendous EP in which the protagonist (even of the cover) is Nöle, the label's boss. In Electro Bloody Music, the popular DJ and producer from Pamplona delivers four original tracks accompanied by a fantastic remix by Delectro. The renowned Colombian producer, active since 2006, has released on some of the best international labels and with his 80s EBM, electro and techno influences, he is the ideal person to accompany the label boss on such an important release. As for Nöle, after the success of Mendekua, his previous work released in 2022, he does what he is the best at: dark and frenetic techno with EBM flavor, like the one he played during his long residency at Stardust and does now at Lasociación.

On the A-side of Electro Blood Music we find three originals, the first two could be included in the category of Techno Body Music while the third is more purely techno. The EP starts with BuruHilketa, a dark track with a certain experimental atmosphere endowed with an incisive synth line and disturbing vocal samples that accompany us during most of the composition. Shaktale, shares some of the atmosphere of the first track, as it also includes vocal samples and a eerie synthesizer melody quite catchy. It has quite a complex rhythm and an extremely careful production that we recommend listening with headphones to appreciate in detail. Cementerio caliente is powerufl techno track, with hypnotic synths and an acid touch and tremendously forceful. With this kick drum, you could definitely demolish a house!

On the B-side we find another original track titled Noisebuilder and the remix by Delectro. Noisebuilder, with its fat and aquatic basses starts off more techno but, little by little, it also includes EBM details. The track lives up to its name and the noise builds, little by little, layer by layer while the intensity keeps growing. With a hard-hitting beat, spiced in the background by synthesizers that help to create an atmosphere, it is one of the clearest bangers of the EP. Delectro delivers a remix a little more forceful and darker, a bombshell of pure Techno Body Music that closes this magnificent EP.

Release note: El Garaje de Frank

»Fluvius« is a conceptual album about water and its importance, in the form of rivers, in the birth and development of great civilizations throughout history. Civilizations that have worshiped water as a source of life to respect, care for, venerate, and fear. A work that probably surpasses everything that these two usual suspects of the label have previously produced - Hari Sima released »Fluido Tiempo« on Abstrakce and Mínim is a member of Mecánica Clásica.

Contemporary ambient, full of hypnotic sequences and organic developments, with meticulous and evocative arrangements. A myriad of textures and elegant details improve the album with each new listen. Eight exotic tracks sail through eight rivers which are crucial for the birth and development of great peoples and cultures around the globe. An excellent work that will hook fans of Bitchin Bajas, Fitoussi, Cortini, or the most ambient Dozzy...

Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri. Special limited edition of 250 copies, with die-cut kraft cardboard cover printed in white, and printed inner sleeve.

Die Londoner Band Home Counties veröffentlicht nach ersten EPs ihr Debütalbum 'Exactly As It Seems', produziert von Bandgitarrist Conor Kearney und gemischt von Andy Savors (Black Country New Road, Rina Sawayama, Sorry). Home Counties haben sich als eine der wichtigsten neuen Alternative-Bands Großbritanniens etabliert, die mit Shame, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, FEET, Courting und bdrmm auftraten und von BBC Radio-DJs sowie Elton John (Apple 1) unterstützt werden. Der Band gelingt es, lyrische Offenheit über die besch******* Details des modernen Lebens und musikalischen Schwung mit Begeisterung in Einklang zu bringen. Nach dem treffenden Motto: 'Mein Leben ist ruiniert, weil ich mir die Miete nicht leisten kann, aber ich werde darüber tanzen.'

Armageddon Patronage verkörpert den immensen Antrieb einer Band, die auf Hochtouren läuft und ihre ganz eigene Mischung aus extremem Metal verfeinert. Nach einer Reihe von intensiven Festivalauftritten ist der Name Strychnos nun in aller Munde. Angetrieben von diesem enormen Schwung hat die Band unermüdlich gearbeitet, um Armageddon Patronage weniger als zwei Jahre nach ihrem Debüt aufzunehmen und zu veröffentlichen.
"Diese Veröffentlichung stellt eine natürliche Fortsetzung dessen dar, was A Mother's Curse begonnen haben", meint Bassist/Sänger Martin Leth Andersen. "Die Band versucht, die Schlüsselelemente des Debüts zu verfeinern und weiter voranzutreiben - sowohl in Bezug auf die Aggressivität als auch auf die atmosphärischeren Teile. Dieser Nachfolger zeigt auch eine Reihe neuer Details wie alternative Instrumentierung, Gesangsvariationen, Intros, Outros und ein paar bemerkenswerte Gastauftritte."
Es ist selten, dass sich eine Band mit jeder neuen Veröffentlichung so exponentiell verbessert. Verpasse Strychnos nicht... denn man weiß nie, wie lange der Untergrund sie noch halten kann!
Armageddon Patronage wurde von Lasse Ballade in den Kopenhagener Ballade Studios aufgenommen und gemischt und von keinem Geringeren als Necromorbus' berüchtigtem Tore Stjerna gemastert.