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Eine raue und schroffe Sammlung von alten Klassikern, die Schwärme von Killer-Beats inspiriert haben. Mit einem Kopfnicken zu den Klängen der Shaolin haben die zwölf Kammern von Shanghai'd Soul sowohl lyrische Meister als auch Produktionsgenies beeinflusst, einige ihrer bedrohlichsten Hip-Hop-Songs zu komponieren. Roher Funk und smoother Soul, später gesampelt von J. Cole, The Game, Cappadonna, The Avalanches, Kanye West, Hudson Mohawke, Anderson.Paak, Loyle Corner, Meek Mill, T.I., Quavo, Danny Brown und 100 anderen.

This single comprises two stand out tracks from “Power-Fuerza” (1972), one of the best Latin funk albums ever recorded, with all the right ingredients to shake dance floors worldwide. Produced by boogaloo-don Bobby Marin, these tracks are a vibrant tapestry, weaving together the raw energy of the South Bronx streets and the soulful melodies born from the band's Puerto Rican heritage. The Bronx in the 1970s, marked by the presence of notorious gangs, presented a complex and challenging urban landscape reflected in abandoned buildings and neglected public spaces. The prevalence of street gangs, such as the Ghetto Brothers, contributed to an atmosphere of heightened tension and occasional violence. The Ghetto Brothers, originating from the Melendez family who moved from Puerto Rico to the South Bronx in the 1950s, faced challenges involving violence and crime. Despite this, Benjy Melendez, a key figure, directed the group towards community improvement. The Ghetto Brothers embraced music, crafting a potent, NYC-flavored musical fusion that caught the attention of record mogul Ismael Maisonave (Salsa Records). Their collaboration resulted in the recording of eight tracks in a single electrifying day at Manhattan's Fine Tone Studios, skillfully produced by Latin studio maestro Bobby Marin (Harvey Averne, La Lupe, Brooklyn Sounds…) This musical odyssey showcases the band's ability to seamlessly blend genres, creating a NYC-flavored stew that captivates listeners with its authenticity.

Ltd. Purple & Black Splatter Vinyl. It's been four years since Zach Saginaw, aka Shigeto, returned home to Michigan from a stint in Brooklyn, NY, and since then, the multi-faceted musician has become a part of the fabric of Detroit's music scene. While always having a personal approach to his projects, Saginaw's influences for his third album, The New Monday are more about the community of Detroit than anything else. Named after a weekly DJ event called Monday is the New Monday that Saginaw does at the unassuming Motor City Wine with a group of friends, The New Monday is the result of Saginaw diving into the city's deep record culture, where there legacy of artist's of the past help Saginaw embrace his own contributions. "It's focused on a couple things and they all kind of come together to represent dierent things," explains Saginaw. "My time back in Detroit, back living in Michigan and spending time with a lot of kind of original people who have always been here, learning from them, hearing stories from them, being influenced by them, and inspired by them." While, in the past, projects like Lineage or No Better Time Than Now were rooted in strong personal messages, family and relationships respectively, The New Monday represents a communal eort where solidarity is the key. Going for a simplified approach of just trying to make good tracks, The New Monday is diverse in its styles leaning more into a dance music direction - new ground for a Shigeto project. A new air of confidence in Saginaw has expanded his horizons since his return to Detroit, but traces of his past work will continue to be present. "I don't want people to think I'm leaving anything," says Saginaw. "I'm still me. It's a result of me being immersed in the culture, and inevitably making music that is influenced by that culture whether it be house, techno, jazz, rap. It doesn't matter. It's all coming from what I love about Michigan." While The New Monday still features the jazz textures long associated with Shigeto projects, the varied elements that make up the album cohesively come together to show the distinct inspiration that Saginaw has drew from since his return home to Detroit. Like on "Barry White", which features Detroit hip-hop artist ZelooperZ (a member of Danny Brown's Bruiser Brigade crew who Saginaw also has a side project with called ZGTO), Saginaw captures everything he's been doing all on one track. As much as it's hip-hop influenced, it's a mutant that encompasses elements of dance music, jazz, and ambient sounds. Throughout The New Monday, Saginaw poignantly references the musical influences that have either always been with him or newly discovered. It is Saginaw's interpretation of Detroit's rich culture of innovative artistry, but done so with respect for the history and to contribute, not disrupt. "I think over the past four years, I can confidently say that I found my place here," describes Saginaw. "I'm happy here and I feel that I have the respect from the people I need respect from, that I want respect from. It's all of the result of embracing it and embracing, not Detroit, but embracing community, embracing family,








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f A2D (FT. ZEELOOPERZ & SILAS GREEN) [AAPV]

First time out for this wildly raw dubplate, sister-recording to the Pablo master-rhythm, shot through with other-worldly, illusively allusive incantation.
Surely that's Family Man stalking a sunken cavern, and his bro battering all seven shades out of his drum-kit, like Meters on fire, and Chinna on guitar, glazed and violent. The mixing rears up right in your face.
Producer Gussie Clarke says Theophilus 'Easy Snappin' Beckford is playing piano, with the front removed so he can strum the strings (like he finally snapped) — but he credits the work overall to Augustus Pablo.
Transferred from acetate — fuss-pots don't grumble, just be humble — though the flip brings a clutch of criss, unmissable alternates, direct from Gussie's tape-room (where the files are entitled 'Classical Illusion / The Sun').
Heavy, heavy funk. Simplicity People dug in. Stunning.

Released in 1999 on Taylor Deupree’s 12k label, »optimal.lp« was the debut album by Dan Abrams under his Shuttle358 moniker. For its 25th anniversary, Keplar presents it on vinyl for the first time with three previously unreleased tracks—the digital version also includes a alternative version of »Tank«—as well as a new artwork recreated by Daniel Castrejón and a remaster by Andreas LUPO Lubich based on the original pre-masters that were been restored and cleaned up for the reissue project by Abrams. »optimal.lp« was inspired by the rich tradition of ambient music and the rhythmic complexity of 1990s electronica while also sharing many traits with the then-emerging clicks’n’cuts movement, making it a true sui generis piece of work—both informed by tradition and visionary, idiosyncratic and seminal for many artists after him.

Abrams developed an interest in ambient music when he was still a child, scouring through cassette tapes of environmental sounds, new age music, and world percussion. Discovering Brian Eno’s »Thursday Afternoon« as a young teenager marked a turning point for him. »It gave me the idea that ambient music could be an intentional creative act, that tone itself is a legitimate form of expression,« he says today. During the 1990s, he increasingly immersed himself in the electronica scene and the output of labels such as Instinct, where Deupree worked as an Art Director and released his first records as Human Mesh Dance. Abrams found a home on 12k after sending Deupree a demo tape that would later evolve into »optimal.lp,« released as the label’s fifth catalogue number.

Abrams was still in college when he started experimenting with a sound module, his laptop and a mixer as well as a MIDI card and a small controller. »Each note was composed in MIDI and played back when I was ready to record,« he explains his working process at the time. »The tracks could be replayed, but the sound interactions with glitches and noise would be a little different each time. I decided to base the concept of the album on these interactions.« Each piece started with a single sound or tone that, as Abrams puts it, already contained the entire composition: »I let these interactions guide me, and tried to complement them as I added sounds. It’s a conversation of sorts with the medium.«

While refining this technique that he would go on to use on every album until 2004’s »Chessa,« reissued by Keplar in 2021, he also used the first-ever Native Instrument product, the Generator soft synth, to write the record’s title track—possibly making it the first album on which it was being used. »optimal.lp« is marked by this curious interplay of cutting-edge technology, the limitations with which every college student with a small budget is faced, and boundless creativity. »I’ve talked with other artists about how we feel about our early work,« Abrams says today. »We all agreed that there were elements that remain a part of us in a timeless way, despite our techniques—or lack thereof—at the time. ›optimal.lp‹ has a lot of things that will always be with me, that are me. I think I left some clues in there for my future self.«

This sense of timelessness remains tangible after a quarter of a century after the album’s original CD release and is even being expanded upon by the vinyl reissue, which is complemented by three pieces that were made while Abrams was working on the album. The digital release even features an entirely new take on the original album’s final piece, »Tank.« While Abrams let one of the masters go through his customised reverb unit when preparing the reissue, he started recording the results of this accidental dialogue between past and present. It’s a fitting tribute to an album whose delicate circular rhythms, rich textures, and ethereal melodies are precisely so exhilarating because their interplay seems to suspend the passing of time altogether.

*REMASTERED ROUGH TRADE 4 TRACK E.P LIMITED TO JUST 500 COPIES*

Everything on “Up Home!” is bigger, richer; the guitars are huge, as though they’re being played through the clouds, massive gusts of blue-green noise that move across the stereo spectrum like weather systems. “Baby Milk Snatcher” is built around face-flattening dub bass, with glinting piano and shards of guitar ricocheting through the song. “W.O.G.S.” is delirious to the point of expiration; “One Way Mirror” is their attempt at weird, lopsided ‘anti-funk’, the song’s melody crushed by avalanches of six-string interference. And the closing “Up” is AR Kane’s masterpiece, a disembodied thud pulsing at its heart as a six-note guitar melody spirals ever onward, Ayuli’s voice lost in its own reverie, hymning escapism via references to Jamaican political activist Marcus Garvey’s ‘black star line’.
• Jon Dale, lead review in Uncut Magazine
who grew up together in Stratford, East London. From the off the pair were outsiders in the culturally mixed (cockney/Irish/West Indian/Asian) milieu of the East End, with Alex and Rudy’s folks first generation immigrants from Nigeria and Malawi, respectively. The two of them quickly developed and fostered an innate and near-telepathic mutual understanding forged in musical, literary and
artistic exploration. Like a lot of second-generation immigrants, they were ferocious autodidacts in all kinds of areas, especially around music and literature. Diving deep into the music of afro-futurist luminaries such as Sun Ra, Miles Davis, Lee Perry and Hendrix, as well as devouring the explorations of lysergic noise and feedback from contemporaries like Sonic Youth and Butthole Surfers, they also thoroughly immersed themselves in the alternate literary realities of sci-fi and ancient history (the fascination with the arcane that gave the band their name), all to feed their voracious cultural thirsts and intellectual curiosity.

It was seeing the Cocteau Twins performing on Channel 4 show the Tube that spurred A.R. Kane into being - “They had no drummer. They used tapes and technology and Liz Fraser looked completely otherworldly with those big eyes. And the noise coming out of Robin’s guitar! That was the ‘Fuck! We could do that!
The duo debuted with the astonishing ‘When You’re Sad’ single for One Little Indian in
1986. Immediately dubbed a ‘black Jesus & Mary Chain’ by a press unsure of WHERE to put a black band clearly immersed in feedback and noise, what was immediately apparent for listeners was just how much more was going on here – a tapping of dub’s stealth and guile, a resonant umbilicus back to fusion and jazz, the music less a conjuration of past highs than a re-summoning of lost spirits.

The run of singles and EPs that followed picked up increasingly rapt reviews in the press, but it was the ‘Up Home EP’ released in 1988 on their new home, Rough Trade that really suggested something immense was about to break. SimonReynolds noted the EP was: Their most concentrated slab of iridescent awesomeness and a true pinnacle of an era that abounded with astounding
landmarks of guitar-reinvention, A.R. Kane at their most elixir-like.

If anything, the remastered ‘Up Home’ is even more dazzling, even more startling than it was when it first emerged, and listening now you again wonder not just about how many bands christened ‘shoegaze’ tried to emulate it, but how all of them fell so far short of its lambent, pellucid wonder. This
remains intrinsically experimental music but with none of the frowning orthodoxy those words imply. A.R. Kane, thanks to that second generation auto-didacticism were always supremely aware about the interstices of music and magic, but at the same time gloriously free in the way they explored that connection within their own sound, fascinated always with the creation of ‘perfect mistakes’ and the possibilities inherent in informed play.

Compassion combines ethereal pop with ‘80s synth textures, and slacker-rock charm. It's got a bit of Matthew E. White, chilled out BC Camplight and Conor Oberst.

The inviting and perceptive songs on Rui Gabriel’s debut LP Compassion all tackle growing up. It’s about how the older you get, your priorities shift, friendships evolve, and responsibilities become inescapable. For Gabriel, the Indiana-based, Venezuela-born artist and co-founder of the acclaimed band Lawn, the changes in his own life inspired him to write a solo full-length that sounds like nothing the indie rock journeyman has done before. Across 10 vibrant tracks that combine ethereal pop with slacker-rock and piano-driven dance music, it’s a galvanizing showcase of personal growth and the grace you give yourself to push forward.

Work on Compassion started in 2018 when Gabriel was living in New Orleans. “I was living a pretty teenage life in many ways,” says Gabriel. “I worked at a pizza restaurant and would just go to shows or parties. I wasn’t doing anything other than music. I didn't have many responsibilities.” The songs he was working on at the time—tracks that didn’t fit Lawn but Gabriel still liked—initially went unfinished. But as Gabriel’s life changed, so did his songwriting and his desire to see his ideas through. “When I was writing lyrics, I was settling down with my partner and about to become a dad,” says Gabriel. “I was making choices about my life that contradicted the existence I had before. I had a different set of priorities.”

The songs on Compassion deal with youthful carelessness ("Dreamy Boys") and coming face-to-face with newfound responsibilities ("Change Your Mind"). It's consistently a biting, observant look at getting older thanks to Gabriel's unique perspective as a South American immigrant who's lived across the United States for the past 13 years. “When you are Hispanic, English isn't your first language, and you're in a music scene with a bunch of white people, you're going to stand out a little bit,” he says. On “Church of Nashville,” “Hey, Leonard Cohen is singing poems by the gentrified alley” he humorously aims at scene pretension and industry gatekeepers.

Compared to Gabriel’s work with Lawn, where he writes frenetic post-punk songs and yells, for Compassion he explores more straightforward pop sensibilities and showcases his singing voice. “I wanted to do a solo record to prove to myself that I could sing,” says Gabriel. Take the meditative, piano-based lead single “Target,” which is inspired by Dido and finds Gabriel gorgeously harmonizing with singer Kate Teague. He reaches similar infectiousness on the sunny rocker “Summertime Tiger,” which guests Stef Chura. Co-produced by Gabriel and Nicholas Corson (The Convenience, Video Age), Compassion is consistently warm, generous, colorful, and adventurous.

“Compassion is a record about change,” says Gabriel. “It's a coming-of-age record but for somebody who's coming of age into their thirties.”

Das zweite Album der Band aus Melbourne jetzt wieder erhältlich auf gelb-grünem Vinyl mit rotem Spritzer. Ursprünglich 2016 erschienen, folgt 'Young Blindness' auf The Murlocs' 2014er Debüt 'Loopholes', das auf einem soliden Fundament aus verzerrten Licks und melodischem Gespür aufbaute. Die eingängigen Kompositionen werden durch das markante Gesangsvibrato von Sänger Ambrose Kenny-Smith unterstrichen. In den Texten werden Themen wie jugendliche Paranoia und Selbstzweifel durch die Brille der Erfahrung betrachtet und die verschwommene Begegnung mit einem Hauch von bluesgetränktem Weltschmerz erforscht.

- Ltd. Col. LP: (gelb-grünes Vinyl mit rotem Spritzer)

House of Harm are proud to announce the forthcoming release of their new album Playground, out December 1st, 2023. The new record builds and expands upon the three-piece’s enthralling shadow-pop sound, a mix of midnight atmospherics, 90s era jangle pop, and contagious synth drenched hooks that further elevate the transcendent vocals of lead singer Michael Rocheford. Rounded out by Cooper Leardi (guitar / synths) and Tyler Kershaw (guitar / synth), House of Harm have amassed an impressive following as something of a best kept secret among their growing fanbase, leading to sold out shows on both coasts by the power of word of mouth alone. The band members have been drawn to music for as long as any of them can remember, and the drive to be around like-minded artists and make their own noise drew them all to Boston after high school. There they all quickly enmeshed themselves, playing in other bands before meeting each other. Ever since, House of Harm have been quietly making a name for themselves among music fans with darker pop persuasions via a steady stream of releases in single, ep and album form. That attention to detail and workmanlike approach at the expense of chasing instant gratification seems to be paying dividends after years of steady effort. The journey of their new album Playground saw House of Harm stay true to that ethos. The band painstakingly narrowed the record down to an efficient 10 tracks that they felt made the most sense, both standing on their own as well as fitting into an LP that built a cohesive world for the listener to get lost in. The album’s name also reflects the experimentation and happy accidents that came about during the writing and recording process. On “The Face of Grace” they set out to explore different dynamics by writing a song entirely without drums, but couldn't help themselves from putting emphasis on the song’s 6/8 waltz time signature. “Two Kinds” is another first for House Of Harm in that it’s predominantly driven by acoustic guitar. That aforementioned vulnerability shows up in other areas of the songwriting process as well with “Two Kinds”, one of their most revealing songs to date from a lyrical standpoint, written from a place of reflection and weakness and tackling feelings uneasy to be put on display for public consumption. Taken as a whole, the end result is an album representing a collection of the band’s most raw and expressive songs yet.

On The Healer, the new full length from the Northwest-based trio of guitarist and vocalist Aaron Turner (ISIS, Old Man Gloom) bassist Brian Cook (Russian Circles, Botch) and drummer Nick Yacyshyn (Baptists) the group deepens its multi-faceted exploration into the parallel experiences of creation and destruction. Over the course of 4 tracks in 76 minutes, SUMAC present a sequence of shifting movements which undergo a constant process of expansion, contraction, corruption and regrowth. This musical methodology reflects the thematic nature of the record - narratives of experiential wounding as gateways to empowerment and evolution, both individual and collective. The group"s interpolation of melody, drone, improvisation, and complex riffing becomes a transmogrifying act embodying the depth of human experience. In its highest aspiration it mirrors our ability to endure mortal and spiritual challenges, through which we may emerge with an increased capacity for understanding, empathy, love of self and others. Dismal though the subterranean pits of The Healer may at first appear, from them can be felt the unwavering determination to embrace life, acknowledge interdependence, and honor the gift of existence.

On The Healer, the new full length from the Northwest-based trio of guitarist and vocalist Aaron Turner (ISIS, Old Man Gloom) bassist Brian Cook (Russian Circles, Botch) and drummer Nick Yacyshyn (Baptists) the group deepens its multi-faceted exploration into the parallel experiences of creation and destruction. Over the course of 4 tracks in 76 minutes, SUMAC present a sequence of shifting movements which undergo a constant process of expansion, contraction, corruption and regrowth. This musical methodology reflects the thematic nature of the record - narratives of experiential wounding as gateways to empowerment and evolution, both individual and collective. The group"s interpolation of melody, drone, improvisation, and complex riffing becomes a transmogrifying act embodying the depth of human experience. In its highest aspiration it mirrors our ability to endure mortal and spiritual challenges, through which we may emerge with an increased capacity for understanding, empathy, love of self and others. Dismal though the subterranean pits of The Healer may at first appear, from them can be felt the unwavering determination to embrace life, acknowledge interdependence, and honor the gift of existence.

In a testament to Ireland’s vibrant musical history, Allchival presents an anthology celebrating the disco era’s hidden gems from Stuart Bingham's Sunshine. Culled from the annals of their studio recordings, this collection shines a light on the country’s lesser-known contributions to the global disco phenomenon.

Kicking off the compilation with Sunshine's electrifying "Boogie on Up," a testament to the band's prowess in embracing disco rhythms despite their pop cover origins. Produced by the acclaimed Paul Curtis, the track embodies the infectious spirit of disco, marking a pivotal moment for Irish disco hits. Accompanying it is "Don't Stop Me," radiating with Euro-disco vibes, further exemplifying Sunshine's versatility. Bingham recounts the bittersweet journey of "If This Is Free." Initially slated for success under Curtis's wing, the disco era's abrupt demise altered its trajectory, leading to an independent recording that retains a raw, garagey edge reminiscent of the era's ethos.

"Give It To Me" is another standout, blending Nile Rodgers-inspired arrangements with a Euro-disco flair. Stuart Bingham's production prowess and Rosey's captivating vocals converge to create an irresistible groove that transcends disco conventions.

Venturing into more experimental territory, "The Boogie Bug" showcases some Irish ingenuity in rap-infused grooves. Despite its ahead-of-its-time sound, the track faced resistance in a disco-weary landscape and rounding out the compilation is "Oh Gee, I Got U B.B.," a playful nod to dub-mix traditions.

This Sunshine anthology is a journey through Ireland's disco era, unearthing forgotten gems and shedding light on the country's rich musical tapestry. From Sunshine's infectious rhythms to Stuart Bingham's resilient spirit, each track encapsulates the era's vibrancy and innovation.

Returning to Ransom Note Records sub-label, Insult to Injury, Timothy Clerkin is back with incendiary new record, Fading EP. An overt, Acid-Techno analogue assault on the senses, all tracks were performed live in Clerkin's vintage synthesiser recording facility. Backed with a vinyl exclusive remix from the mighty Posthuman (not available digitally) and limited to a run of 100, hand stamped 12”s, you’ll need to be fleet of foot to get your hands on it!

Titular track, Fading, features the inimitable vocal talents of Brighton based Shoegazers HANYA’s front person Heather Sheret, whose heavenly articulation offsets the high voltage, rhythmic battering that opens the record. Booming 909’s propel us forward as we’re launched headlong into the rave maelstrom where squelchy bass lines and breakbeats grapple with trancelike strings for dominance.

Next out of the gate, Sigma hurls itself from the cocoon and slaps us around the face, hugging it tightly like an Acid-Techno Xenomorph. A face melting melange of retro sounds & futurism, it’s underpinned by the nihilistic vocal sample that belies Clerkin’s antiestablishment Punk musical past. Hold onto your hats and remember to BREATHE!

ITI Records are very excited to have head honcho of the I Love Acid parties, Balkan Vinyl and record producer extraordinaire, Posthuman on remix duties. Never one to disappoint, he ‘breaks’ Fading down into tiny pieces and rebuilds it in his own image. Taking inspiration from early Hardcore and Acid aesthetics, we’re treated to a proper dance floor workout of 808s, Rave Hoovers and breakbeats.

Rounding off, Collapsed Lung is a slightly more introspective affair. Jam packed with glitched drums and sequenced, mechanical tones, it builds towards an etherial climax. This slightly distant, intangible and dreamlike number glides out of view just as quickly arrived, leaving us feelin incongruously all warm and fuzzy, after the absolute clobbering that opened the record.

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.

In the history of Black American soul music many recording artists have been called “Legends” some deservedly and perhaps some not so deserving of this current over used accolade? I might be a tad biased here, perhaps? but in my book one James Howard McCelland a.k.a Jesse James has surely earned the right to be called a “Legend” this octogenarian performer has weathered many storms and shifts in musical trends and styles over the years but like the trouper that he is albeit in lower keys these days he still manages time and time again to come up with the goods! “Back On Top Again” is Jesse James latest production album, a project filled with recent and current recordings in a southern soul style that has likened in passing by several respected soul scribes to the Malaco Sound I’ll let the record buying public make their own minds up on that one, I’m sure veteran DJ Bob Jones won’t mind me using his quote below:

The album also features two of Jesse’s friend’s with Donnie McKisic providing the rapping and additional backing vocals on the upbeat “I Lost My Baby On Face Book” and Shirley Diamond who you may recall from Soul Junction’s recent 45 release “You Don’t Know Who You Sleeping With” (SJ1021) returning with another excellent Diamond & James duet “Another Love Lay Over” as a further foot note the featured song “I’d Be A Fool 2 Fool Around On You” is an excellent cover version of what was a previously unissued Harvey Scales song until Soul Junction released it as the flipside their thirteenth 45 single release way back in 2011.

Album Sleeve Notes:

At the dawn of the 1960’s a young aspiring soul singer from Richmond, California by the name of James H. McClelland was honing his performing skills in several local nightclubs. At one particular show the compere struggled to pronounce the young performer’s surname and to hide his embarrassment he hurriedly introduced him as ‘Jesse James’, which became Jesse’s Stage name to the present day.

Jesse’s big break came through his aunt who at that time just happened to be dating West Coast Blues and R&B Legend Jimmy McCracklin. The aunt suggested to McCracklin the he should take a listen to her talented nephew, suitably impressed McCracklin produced Jesse on a song he’d written “I Will Go” for the local Shirley label. The release is credited to Jesse James & The Royal Aces a bunch of local musicians that Jesse had grown up with which included Slyvester Stewart a.k.a Mr “Dance To The Music” himself Sly Stone” on guitar. “I Will Go” was quite a popular record locally and led to a further four Jesse James releases on Shirley culminating in Jesse’s most sought-after record the delightful “Are You Gonna Leave Me”in 1966. The following year Jesse recorded the minor hit “Believe In Me Baby” released by the local ‘Hit’ label before being picked up by 20th Century for national distribution. While signed to 20th Century Jesse recorded a self-titled album and three other 45 singles before leaving the label.

Following a solitary 45 release for the Uni Label in 1969 Jesse formed his own Production and Publishing company ‘South Richmond Music’ releasing 45’s on his own label logo’s Zea and Zay before returning to 20th Century for a second time during 1974, releasing two 45 singles of which the sublime “If You Want A Love Affair” reaching #92 in the Billboard R&B charts in 1975, a song that would later receive worldwide acclaimed and is now regarded as Jesse’s signature tune. Ron Carson had been the producer on the later 20th Century releases and it was he that placed one of Jesse’s songs “The Same Thing Happens” on the Happy Fox label’s blaxploitation album “Black Fist”.

Into the 1980’s Jesse leased some of his songs for release on the Atlanta Georgia, Midtown label, a solitary release on the Moonlite Hope Music label (a lead single for a proposed album that never materialised) followed before Jesse joined Max Kidd’s Washington based TTED label. The TTED imprint was to yield Jesse’s biggest hit record “I Can Do Bad By Myself” reaching #61 in the R&B Charts. Following TTED Jesse formed Gunsmoke records releasing “Love On The Side” in 1988, from there on Jesse has continued to regularly release numerous studio albums though the 90’s into the new millennium and on to the present day.

Now well into his seventh decade as a performer this most resilient and enduring performer, has never been one to let the grass grow under his feet. He still performs live shows and is actively writing, producing and recording fresh new material. Soul Junction have now gathered together some of Jesse’s most recent and new recordings to form this album project which is aptly titled “Back On Top Again” Ride on Jesse James!

Nova Vida is a unique producer's album project injecting new life into classic songs, colouring them with the broad palette that are DJ / Producer Chris Bangs’ influences from his lifetime in music. 10 classic songs have been given the distinctive Nova Vida treatment, Ritmo Da Vida features unknown vocalists and musicians Chris has discovered and incorporated into the project from around the globe. Drawing on Bangs' influences such as Sergio Mendes and the sounds of Brazil, Samba, Bossa etc thru Classic British Pop, 70’s West Coast and beyond Nova Vida fuses all of the above with ten truly classic songs taking them into new musical arenas they haven't previously graced.

The first single “My Only” ft Klei came out in July 2023 on limited vinyl, got lots of club plays , specialist radio support and spent a month on the Jazz FM A List. The album already has serious upfront tastemaker support many who are digging Empty Faces (Vera Cruz) , the sublime instrumental Affirmation and the sultry samba vocal version of Stormy. Our favourite in the BDQ office is Each and every one, its fabulous, the whole album is just perfect for summer 2024. We here at BDQ are privileged to release this album on the label, as usual vinyl will be super limited.

Yaya Beys neues Album ‘Ten Fold' knüpft an den kraftvollen Doppelschlag ihres 2022er-Albums, „Remember Your North Star“, und der Folge-EP, „Exodus The North Star“, aus dem Jahr 2023 an und ist ein frei gesprochenes und fließendes Selbstporträt, das von unmittelbaren Reflexionen über die Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft geprägt ist. „Ten Fold“ ist vollgepackt mit den Nuancen von Yaya Beys Identität und den verschiedenen Facetten ihrer kreativen Bemühungen. Es richtet den Fokus nach innen und meditiert über ihr inneres Wesen, während es gleichzeitig Raum für den Humor und den bissigen sozialen Kommentar schafft, der ein bestimmendes Merkmal ihrer Arbeit ist.
Die als Hadaiyah Bey geborene Yaya Bey begann bereits im Alter von neun Jahren mit dem Schreiben von Songs und trat mit ihrem 2020 erschienenen Album, „Madison Tapes“, als neue Stimme in der Avantgarde der R&B-Storyteller:innen in Erscheinung. Ihre 2022 erschienene LP, „Remember Your North Star“ und die darauf folgende EP, „Exodus The North Star“, wurden vom Spiegel, Stern, Zeit Online, Rolling Stone Deutschland, Jazzthetik, Missy Magazine, Plattentests u.v.m. und im Radio von u.a. Deutschlandfunk Kultur, BR 2, Cosmo, ByteFM, RBB Radioeins und FluxFM sehr positiv aufgenommen, sowie international u.a. von der New York Times, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, NPR, GQ, Crack Magazine, The Times, Clash ebenfalls hochgelobt.
Kürzlich spielte sie an der Seite von Immanuel Wilkins die Hauptrolle in einer Werbekampagne für die aktuelle Zusammenarbeit von Converse mit der New Yorker Marke AwakeNY. Bevor die in Brooklyn geborene Künstlerin offiziell das Jahr 2023 abschloss, spielte sie eine ausverkaufte Show im New Yorker SOBs für Spotify Stages und krönte damit eine Reihe von Live-Auftritten auf Festivalbühnen rund um den Globus in diesem Jahr, darunter Glastonbury, Pitchfork Festival in Chicago, Roskilde Festival in Dänemark und viele mehr.

Wormrot's 2011 follow-up to 'Abuse' is about as far from "the difficult second album" as you can get, presenting an even more refined, stream-lined and dynamic take on their ferocious grindcore sound. Whipping past in less than eighteen and a half minutes, there's not a second wasted here whatsoever, and the trio's musicianship has been honed to perfection. The blastbeats are even faster, the riffs even heavier and vocalist Arif deploys an even wider array of shrieks, grunts, growls and barks this time. Whilst the addition of new drummer Vijesh in 2015 would take the band to even greater heights, this is arguably the original lineup's defining statement.

Following on from our previous successful Little Feat releases: "Waiting For Columbus" Super Deluxe in 2022 and "Sailin' Shoes" + "Dixie Chicken" Deluxe Albums in 2023 This new offering from one of Rhino's Top 100 Off Roster artists includes the original studio album cut from the analog tapes for the double LP, and a remastered version plus a previously unreleased live show recording on the 3CD.

Both configurations include a rarities disk of previously unreleased studio outtakes that were once thought lost when the recording studio, located on a boat in Maryland, sank in the late '70s. While it's true that some of them sank, this is what remains of those sessions.

The previously unreleased live show on the CD is from the Warner Bros. Music Show tour of Europe in January/February 1975. This is the tour where Little Feat's star really rose in Europe and where LF routinely swept their tour mates off the stage - including the Doobie Brothers, Tower of Power and Montrose

Rising from the fiercely DIY Philadelphia underground, CARLY COSGROVE graft achingly vulnerable lyrics atop a bed of mathy rhythms, intricate guitar work and a penchant for indie-rock cool meets emo authenticity. Their debut album, 2022's See You In Chemistry, was the sound of figuring life out in real time, tracing personal growth through anxiety, depression, and self-actualization - heavy subjects for a band originally formed as a low-stress side-project stopgap in 2018.

The quest for the answers to life's big questions is once again front and center on the band's second album, THE CLEANEST OF HOUSES ARE EMPTY, as Naylor, bassist Helen Bars and drummer Tyler Kramer find themselves face to face with the chronic emotional struggles of life in the modern age.

From the stop-start polyrhythms of first single "You Old Dog" and garage-rock sheen of "Random Dancing" and "What Are You, A Cop," which sounds like Motion City Soundtrack filtering "Everlong" through their idiosyncratic rock tilt, The Cleanest Of Houses is the type of record Carly Cosgrove simply couldn't have made last time - not musically, and certainly not emotionally. They needed to live, through hard touring and harder life experiences.

IMOGEN presents WIGS002 - a four track EP celebrating the women of Wigs, featuring Grace Dahl, NVST, Rebecca Alle Paine and IMOGEN.

WIGS002 kicks off with heavy breaks and kick drums bringing a rough hardcore vibe to IMOGEN’s latest single ‘SHOUTOUT 2 LDN’, premiered by radio legend Mary Anne Hobbs on her Radio 6 show.

IMOGEN samples a vocal from her favourite 90s MC Alex Pearce, adopting the same “zero f***s attitude” of the early 2000s techno scene. She combines this with squelching reese basses and slick programmed breaks to bring the same energy of early warehouse parties to the dancefloors of today.

Next up, Grace Dahl departs from her usual rolling techno style with electro banger ‘I Like Em Sexy’. A fast-paced distorted vocal slides its way through the drums into an epic breakdown before an unexpected 4/4 drop. IMOGEN and Dahl’s musical chemistry shone in their B2B on the Wigs NTS show, making this the perfect A-side combo of the EP.

Upcoming Italian DJ and producer Rebecca Alle Paine keeps up the EP’s high energy with the perfect DJ tool of rolling 909 drums. Hardgroove is having its resurgence right now and Rebecca is a leading light in the genre currently flooding the scene. Wigs isn’t the only label to pick up on Rebecca’s driving style - she recently released an album on hardgroove legend Ben Sims’ label as well as featuring on Freddy K’s KEY. It is clear Rebecca is one to watch for 2024.

NVST closes off the EP in a mind bending Aphex Twin-style crescendo. ‘A Face Has No Voice’ is an eight minute long saga boasting her skill as a multiverse producer. It follows a journey through dub, breaks and IDM. WIGS002 showcases the true diversity of the next generation of musicians, and that one piece of music can traverse many genres.

Wigs kicked off as a project aimed to offer a new approach to party series and workshops with an emphasis on community, bringing like minded ravers together to build a platform for the next generation of artists and party goers. As well as a residency at Tresor Berlin, Wigs has hosted sold out parties across Europe bringing names such as Daria Kolosova, Dr Rubinstein Salome and more. After the success of WIGS001, Wigs is proving itself to be a staple sound in dance music right now.

After touring the globe showcasing their A/V moshpit-inducing live show, they are revealing their new musical creations to an unsuspecting public. Never Sleep are proud to present a landmark moment in the Japanese hardcore new rave scene. The blinding lights of DEATH RAVE point to an untraveled journey, a sci-fi fusion of black metal, gabber, cyberpunk, performance art and techno. It’s their first for the Berlin label (founded by Gabber Eleganza) following 2021’s EP Principle of Light Speed Variance. Full description VMO aka Violent Magic Orchestra break through the darkness and herald a spectacular mould-melting sound on their forthcoming album DEATH RAVE. After touring the globe showcasing their A/V moshpit-inducing live show, they are revealing their new musical creations to an unsuspecting public. Never Sleep are proud to present a landmark moment in the Japanese hardcore new rave scene. The blinding lights of DEATH RAVE point to an untraveled journey, a sci-fi fusion of black metal, gabber, cyberpunk, performance art and techno. It’s their first for the Berlin label (founded by Gabber Eleganza) following 2021’s EP Principle of Light Speed Variance. Ahead of the release VMO have brought their digital harcore to festivals around the globe, including Roadburn Festival, BANG FACE Weekender, Brutal Assault extreme music festival, Le Guess Who?, CTM Berlin and Dark Mofo. Their performance is the ultimate extreme visual music project in which techno, black metal, and industrial unite to create a ritual from the near future, 2099. All visual art and stage setting is provided by non-touring member, artist and programmer Kezzardrix (who has been visual director for millennium parade and BABYMETAL previously).The power consumption of a VMO show is equivalent to 56 guitar amplifiers, 5000W, a mind-expanding supreme noise and light experience. The band members all go by the names of classic black metal bands rendered in the Japanese katakana script; “ダークスローン”; “メイヘム”, and “エンペラー”. Their new LP is the first to feature lead vocalist ザスター. The record features guest vocals from extreme metal icon Attila Csihar, known for singing with Mayhem and Sunn O))). Other featured artists include Dylan Walker, singer of Full of Hell, punk-techno artist Infinity Division (aka Ash Luk), Icelandic darkwavers Kælan Mikla and Ican Harem of Gabber Modus Operandi. The result is a leap forward from their 2016 debut, where they have found a singularity where death metal meets Kraftwerk, or Rephlex goes black. Dressed in corpse paint and other hell-raising looks, onstage they are like “Shinigami (death gods) from the Death Note manga”. Singles Venom, Supergaze and Martello Mosh Pit featuring Gabber Eleganza have been released in the lead up to the record and have been shocking techno dance floors too with their hi-NRG-symphonic doom-gaze. They have shared their video for Planet Helvetech (here), created by Berlin-based Patrick Defasten. Helvetech combines the Norwegian word for hell (hevlete) with techno and is a reference to the infamous black metal shop founded by Mayhem’s Euronymous. It’s a song that imagines time travel from 2099 on the planet Helvetech (where VMO comes from) to 1990s Oslo. In 2023, they performed at the CTM festival in Berlin, as well as at Berghain, receiving rave reviews. At Sydney’s leading multi-sensory SOFT CENTER festival they drove the crowd into a frenzy on the 17 metre X 30 metre jumbo screen. They have also collaborated with artists, performing at the two day installation by the trailblazing Tianzhuo Chen - The Shepherd - at the Kyoto International Performing Arts Festival in 2021 here. At Sónar 2023, VMO provided the music for Taiwanese visual artist Yuen Hsieh’s work about virtual life after death DIGITAL AFTERLIFE AGENCY here. VMO will tour the world again for the new record, with appearances at ROSKILDE and media art and music fest Sónar 2024 announced so far and the DEATH RAVE experience getting bigger and bigger.

The first thing that strikes you is the rhythm. The Gossip have been making punks dance since they debuted 5 years ago, long before dance punk existed. Soulful and jagged, you can hear everything from Dischord to Motown in Brace's playing. Now, with the addition of new drummer Hannah Blilie (Shoplifting, ex-Chromatics) they have a new thundering beat for the kids to dance to on the corners and in the clubs. The next thing that smacks you is Beth's voice, all the guttural blues of the South is in that inimitable instrument. It resonates with the confidence that is in her lyrics asking people to hold on just a little bit longer, re-assuring the youth that there are others out there, and spitting in the face of all who say otherwise! "Standing in the Way of Control", their third album, was recorded by Guy Picciotto (Fugazi) at Seattle's Bear Creek. From heartbreakers like "Coal to Diamonds" to the anthemic title track, released as a single with a Le Tigre remix, the band is unafraid to put it all out there and take their audience to new places. This is the sound of a band destroying and surpassing all expectations placed on them.

Der Titel von PERCHTAs zweitem Album "D'Muata" heißt aus dem österreichischen Dialekt von Frontfrau Frau Percht ins Deutsche übertragen "Die Mutter". Der Name ist Programm, denn die Sängerin und ihre Band haben im Kontext ihres folkloristisch geprägten Black Metal ein feministisches Manifest geschaffen. Das Feminine in all seinen Facetten fristet in diesem Genre meist ein Nischendasein - und das, obwohl es ein untrennbarer Bestandteil sowohl des Menschen als auch der natürlichen Welt auf diesem Planeten ist. PERCHTA haben sich 2017 im Jahr ihrer Gründung in Tirol, Österreich nach einer von der älteren Forschung rekonstruierten heidnischen Göttin benannt. Von Anfang an beabsichtigte Frau Percht mit ihrer Musik regionale Traditionen zu bewahren und zu verjüngen. Drei Jahre später erschien das Debütalbum "Ufång" (2020), mit dem sich PERCHTA schnell einen Ruf als höchst individualistische und einzigartige Band erwarben. Dazu gehört, dass die Texte von "Ufång" in der Tiroler Mundart intoniert werden. Dies geschieht mit einem extremen, durch Mark und Bein gehenden Gesang, der in einen Sturm aus Gitarren-Tremolos und ritualistisch interpretierter Folklore eingebettet ist. Nach der globalen Zwangspause machten PERCHTA auch durch ihre faszinierenden Live-Auftritte auf sich aufmerksam. Durch die Konzerte trat der Charakter als Band stärker hervor. Jetzt kehren die schwarze Hexe der Tiroler Berge und ihre Gesellen mit einem magischen neuen Album zurück, das PERCHTA auch zurück auf die Bühne bringen wird!

"In the wake of SQUID PISSER’s “Vaporize A Neighbor” EP and Comic Book Set and “Vaporize A Tadpole” Collection comes “Dreams of Puke”, the band’s second full length album. Weighing in at a meaty 12 songs and cut at a lean 45 revolutions per minute, “Dreams of Puke” refuses to let up or let down - emitting climax after scintillating climax - a bounteous bouquet of dayglow viscera and tumor-filled sonic snot.

“Dreams of Puke” is the face ripping, dolphin-loving, anthropomorphized mountain of nuclear sludge intravenously injected with methamphetamines that listeners have been clamoring for. Tommy Meehan's use of effects pedals and sonic textures create a dense soundscape of intestinal debris, mortared with a grout of pus, goo, gummy candy and pure, unadulterated insanity. Meanwhile, Seth Carolina's all out, rage-fueled and categorically pummeling approach to slamming the beats down lays out a visceral scene of absolute intensity - a great white shark attack on The Mall of America.

Tommy explains “The writing sessions for this album resulted in about 100 songs... Demos, seedlings, and scraps were strewn about everywhere. Then Seth and I assembled them into a viable and tangible fruition. I tracked all of the guitars, bass, and vocals myself at Los Angeles’ Castle Barf Studios. The drums we did at Sea Horse Sound downtown”.

“Dreams Of Puke” is an aural DMT trip that will leave brains boggled. Its atonal anthems of slime are a kaleidoscope of brilliant, bespeckled rage that, in the end, will scalp the world & mutate the throne.

Glass Mastered Compact Disc includes Mystery Matrix Message and comes packaged in a Six Panel Tri-Fold Jacket with corresponding Fold-Over Lyric Insert. LP and CD formats each sport unique, subliminally different cover art by painter Gregory Jacobsen of the band Lovely Little Girls. Parental Advisory: Explicit content"

"2024 marks the 40th anniversary of Bruce Springsteen's 'Born In The U.S.A.' Although it would become his biggest selling album with seven top 10 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, Luther Dickinson of North Mississippi Allstars says ""any of those songs could be played with acoustic guitar alone and still be great."" Taking this idea as its premise, 'Dead Man's Town: A Tribute to Born in the U.S.A' strips the album's twelve indelible originals to the core, with contributions from Jason Isbell & Amanda Shires, Low, Nicole Atkins, Justin Townes Earle, Blitzen Trapper, Joe Pug, Trampled by Turtles, and more. Rolling Stone premiered Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires' Dave Cobb-produced cover of ""Born I n The U.S.A,"" saying these artists are ""reimagining 'Born in the U.S.A. with a reduced approach more influenced by that of the acoustic, ""Nebraska.""

Isbell says of his cover, """"Born In The U.S.A."" is one of my favorites because so many people have seemingly misunderstood the lyrical content and the song's overall tone. When you listen to the demo, the dark, minor key arrangement makes it clear that this is not strictly a song of celebration. We wanted to stay true to that version."" Amanda Shires adds, ""I love that the song paints a picture of struggle in the face of the American dream, and the irony in the chorus is delivered with such force that it nearly transcends irony altogether."""

The wait is over: With the 14th June release of One Hand Clapping, one of the most bootlegged live albums in musical history will finally receive a proper release. In August 1974, when Band on the Run was enjoying a seven-week consecutive #1 stint at the top of the UK album charts, Paul McCartney and Wings headed to Abbey Road Studios for the filming of a video documentary and possible live studio album – One Hand Clapping. Despite overwhelming demand for newly recorded material from the biggest band in the world at that time, One Hand Clapping was never officially released. 2LP- 50 years after their initial recording, the sessions for Wings One Hand Clapping will be released for the very first time. Discs 1 and 2 are newly mixed with 12 tracks that didn’t appear in the original film, including reworked extracts of Beatles classics. The package includes original artwork, plus a TV sales brochure created for the film.

The title "Duality" resonated with me deeply as it reflects the inner conflict I often experience. There are moments when I feel fearless and self-assured, contrasted sharply by times when self-doubt creeps in and I question my worth. Sometimes, I cling tightly to my actions, determined to shape my destiny, while at other times, I surrender to the flow of life. I think we all fight these internal battles of duality every day, trying to determine which side we want to nurture, which parts we want to let go of and forgive, and which pieces come from our soul and which pieces were imposed on us. In my pursuit to bring this concept to life, I curated two distinct styles of music for each side of the album. Through the music, I aimed to evoke a sense of magic, for I think that at the core of our internal conflicts lies the enchanting paradox of being humans with boundless potential living, in a mortal world constrained by constructs like money, laws, and societal hierarchies. Over the past few years, I've embarked on a journey of self-discovery, delving into the magical facets of myself—my intuition, my capacity to love—and it was during this exploration that I crafted this album.

We're old and familiar friends. These compositions represent the thing that happens when we get together. They aren't representative of one individual, one moment in time, or one chain of decisions. Some are ancient refrains, beginning life as habits and warm-ups, in-jokes; others are distilled jams; more still are refined from MIDI sketches and ideas whistled into voice notes. On whatever terms these elements become something we're happy to stand in front of you and play, to put on record, so be it.” So ANTA describe the process behind 2024's Organesson. Characteristic of the Bristolian Sci-Prog quartet, the record weaves together mesmerising, muscular riffs in insanely loud compositions that extend well into excess. Less typical is the polarisation at play, where granular polymeters will yield in an instant to passages of one or two-note simplicity. The record strides from one raging refrain to the next, lurching between devastation, joy, chaos, and stirring the themes accumulated along the way in exposition. “It comes down to those precious sweaty hours” the group suggest, “in which we get to vibrate these sounds into your face and chest, and you can dance and laugh with us. This is the stuff we remember and plan for, the moments we talk about the most when writing these songs.” ANTA's live shows, ceaseless onslaughts of deafening riffs, have been notable for maintaining the same intense energy among festival crowds or to three people in a basement. Walls of amps going full-pelt. Pounding, ornate drums and metals, wherein drummer James King is relentless in discovering strange and mighty rhythms. Full-drawbar organs, electric pianos, piercing synths from keys-man Alex Bertram-Powell. Joe Garcia's growling bass that strides rather than walks. Ben Harris' all-encompassing, dizzying guitars. Hypnotic, communal, compelling, indefinite energy. Organesson is the latest effort to put this feeling on record.

Die Loons aus Südkalifornien spielen seit mehr als 25 Jahren ihre ganz eigene Art von psychedelischem Garage- und Freakbeat. Mit ,Memories Have Faces" haben sie ihr bisher eindrucksvollstes Werk geschaffen, zusammen mit einer klasse Version von ,Cries from the Midnight Circus" von den Pretty Things. Gegründet in San Diego, haben The Loons fünf Alben und eine Reihe von Singles aufgenommen und veröffentlicht und sind in mehr Städten auf der ganzen Welt aufgetreten, als sie zählen können. Sie haben mit Ikonen der 60er Jahre wie Glenn Ross Campbell von The Misunderstood, Dick Taylor von The Pretty Things, Randy Holden von The Sons of Adam und Blue Cheer und Michael Stuart-Ware von Love zusammengearbeitet. Mike Stax, der auch die Zeitschrift Ugly Things herausgibt, ist der Leadsänger. Anja Stax spielt Bass und singt Backing Vocals. Marc Schroeder und Chris Marsteller spielen Gitarren, und Chris Cancelliere sitzt am Schlagzeug. Mike Stax war bereits ein Veteran in mehreren anderen Bands aus San Diego, darunter The Crawdaddys und The Tell-Tale Hearts, als er 1997 die Loons gründete. Ebbot Lundberg von The Soundtrack of Our Lives produzierte das Debütalbum der Gruppe, ,Love's Dead Leaves", das 1998 bei Get Hip Records erschien. "A perfect pairing of Love-influenced garage-psych and British underground in the mould of the Pretty Things played with preternatural style and ability." - Shindig Magazine "Fantastically talented - as a group and individually, they've worked so hard at their passion _ It has been one of the highlights of my life to have been involved with them." - Glenn Ross Campbell, the Misunderstood

Limitierte farbige Splatter Vinyl-LP! Die Loons aus Südkalifornien spielen seit mehr als 25 Jahren ihre ganz eigene Art von psychedelischem Garage- und Freakbeat. Mit ,Memories Have Faces" haben sie ihr bisher eindrucksvollstes Werk geschaffen, zusammen mit einer klasse Version von ,Cries from the Midnight Circus" von den Pretty Things. Gegründet in San Diego, haben The Loons fünf Alben und eine Reihe von Singles aufgenommen und veröffentlicht und sind in mehr Städten auf der ganzen Welt aufgetreten, als sie zählen können. Sie haben mit Ikonen der 60er Jahre wie Glenn Ross Campbell von The Misunderstood, Dick Taylor von The Pretty Things, Randy Holden von The Sons of Adam und Blue Cheer und Michael Stuart-Ware von Love zusammengearbeitet. Mike Stax, der auch die Zeitschrift Ugly Things herausgibt, ist der Leadsänger. Anja Stax spielt Bass und singt Backing Vocals. Marc Schroeder und Chris Marsteller spielen Gitarren, und Chris Cancelliere sitzt am Schlagzeug. Mike Stax war bereits ein Veteran in mehreren anderen Bands aus San Diego, darunter The Crawdaddys und The Tell-Tale Hearts, als er 1997 die Loons gründete. Ebbot Lundberg von The Soundtrack of Our Lives produzierte das Debütalbum der Gruppe, ,Love's Dead Leaves", das 1998 bei Get Hip Records erschien. "A perfect pairing of Love-influenced garage-psych and British underground in the mould of the Pretty Things played with preternatural style and ability." - Shindig Magazine "Fantastically talented - as a group and individually, they've worked so hard at their passion _ It has been one of the highlights of my life to have been involved with them." - Glenn Ross Campbell, the Misunderstood

Nachpressung/Neuauflage des ausverkauften SMILE-Debuts vom letzten Jahr! Neue Vinylfarbe ist Solid Yellow, als Extra oben drauf gibt es ein 20seitiges, von Sängerin Rubee Feagan gestlatetes SMILE-Zine! SMILE zeigen mit ihrem hervorragenden Debut PRICE OF PROGRESS leichtfüßig auf, dass Post Punk im Jahre 2023 noch immer erfrischend klingen kann. Sie nehmen ihre Referenzen nicht als Dogma, bleiben experimentell, eigensinnig. Erzählerisch, eingängig, rough und anschmiegsam verschmelzen dabei die feinsinnigen, poetischen Beobachtungen von Sängerin Rubee True Fegan (USA) mit dem versierten Sound einer Band, die von Produzent Olaf Opal genau dahin gebracht wurde, wo sie hingehört: an den Startblock innovativer, kluger und sinnlicher Gitarrenmusik. In PRICE OF PROGRESS manifestiert sich das Zusammenspiel aus musikalischem Sturm und Drang und der Reife einer reflektierten Erzählperspektive. Was hier entstanden ist, klingt nun, 2023, in seiner jugendlichen Frische durchaus nach einem Debut - gleichzeitig aber nach dem Werk einer erfahrenen, über lange Zeit gewachsenen Band. Nur deutsch klingt es nicht, was sicher im Wesen von Sängerin Rubees True Fegans Heimat Albuquerque (New Mexico) begründet liegt, gleichsam aber in der Vielseitigkeit, die sich SMILE erlauben - und ihrer einhergehenden Virtuosität an den Instrumenten. SMILE versuchen sich dabei - einem Post-Punk britischer Machart folgend - durchaus in homogener Geradlinigkeit (Herrengedeck), lassen Kühle zu (Machine Dreaming) und folgen einem düsteren Ernst (Säge). Diese Facetten aber vermengen sich mit einer heiteren Experimentierfreude (Stalemate, Produce, Hungry Ghosts), mit Humor (Doohickey), mit verträumter Beschwingtheit (Commuter) und Genresprengender Pop-Af finität (Protection). So zeigt sich dieses stilsichere Album in einer Vielseitigkeit, die heute selten zu finden ist - und klingt trotzdem wie aus einem Guss. Die aus der Hüfte geschüttelte Dramaturgie ist dabei Paradebeispiel für die Innovation einer der spannendsten neuen Gitarrenbands, die nun auf dem Indielabel Siluh (Wien) eine Heimat zwischen Köln, Bonn und Albuquerque gefunden hat. Wahnsinn! (Hendrik Otremba/Messer).

HOLY MOTHER präsentieren den Nachfolger von "Face This Burn" und ihr insgesamt siebtes Studioalbum: "Rise"!
In einer Karriere, die sich von den 1990er Jahren bis heute erstreckt, haben HOLY MOTHER einige der mitreißendsten Songs ihres Genres abgeliefert und ihr neues, bis dato härtestes und kraftvollstes Album bildet keine Ausnahme.
Hymnen wie "Rise", "Power", "Fire", "Rain", "Jeremiah" und "Hex" gehen ordentlich ins Ohr, und der Klassiker "Live To Die" vom hochgelobten "Toxic Rain" Album, wurde von HOLY MOTHER zu neuem Leben erweckt und lässt den Geist des verstorbenen HOLY MOTHER-Mitbegründers Randy Coven auferleben.
Mit Mike Tirellis an Ronnie James Dio erinnernde Vocals, den passionierten Shreds des Gitarristen Mickey Lyxx, den treibenden Drums von James Harris und Wayne Banks' flinken Fingern am Bass, werden HOLY MOTHER alle Hard Rock- und Metalfans begeistern!

Auf "There Is A Garden" von BEINGS heben die sich wandelnden Melodien die Stimmen der einzelnen Musiker hervor. In der einen Sekunde mag das Album hektisch klingen, voller schroffer, unberechenbarer Melodien, aber wenn das nächste Stück kommt, verwandelt es sich in eine psychedelische Träumerei oder in ein ausuferndes Drone. Für BEINGS, das in New York ansässige Supergroup-Quartett von Zoh Amba, Steve Gunn, Shahzad Ismaily und Jim White, ergibt sich die Musik von selbst: Sie ist ein sich ständig wandelnder Organismus, der auf der Offenheit und dem Willen des Quartetts beruht, gemeinsam im Sound zu forschen.

Black Truffle is pleased to announce Resonant Trees, the first vinyl release from French composer-performer Léo Dupleix. An active member of the international community of younger musicians working with just intonation, Dupleix has composed works for solo instrumentalists and ensembles in Europe and Japan, as well as performing extensively on harpsichord, piano and electronics. His music is distinguished by a formal clarity and elegance of surface, gently shaping pure intervals into delicate melodic patterns and shimmering harmonic planes.

Resonant Trees presents two side-long pieces for harpsichord and ensemble, both setting slowly repeating patterns played on harpsichord and guitar within an environment of sustained tones. Dupleix performs on a French double manual harpsichord (tuned to a just intonation scheme of his own devising) and Prophet synthesizer, joined by Juliette Adam (bass clarinet), Johanna Bartz (traverso flute), Cyprien Busolini (viola), Fredrik Rasten (6- and 12-string guitars), and Mara Winter (traverso flute). The harpsichord begins Resonant Tree I alone, slowly sounding out a series of arpeggiated chords that emphasise the unique (and for unaccustomed listeners, sometimes unsettling) harmonic and timbral qualities of justly tuned intervals. Long tones from synthesiser, bass clarinet, viola and Baroque traverso flutes slowly creep into the spaces between the arpeggiated chords, joined after several minutes by delicate patterns of harmonics played by Rasten on acoustic guitars.

On Resonant Tree II, a similar structure and ensemble (without the flutes) are used with quite different results. We again hear only the harpsichord at first, but this time playing a series of flowing melodic lines, each of which is repeated several times. Joined again by long tones from the ensemble, here the viola is particularly prominent and its interplay with the harpsichord creates fascinating acoustic effects. In both pieces, repetition gives the music a static, stable quality while, at the same time, the exact shape of the repeating patterns remains difficult to grasp. As Dupleix writes, these pieces dream of music as ‘space and a sound that one could grasp in one’s hand.’ As the near-static quality of the repetitions and long tones with little incident make these two stretches of musical time feel like spaces for the listener to inhabit, the small variations on a narrow range of related material act like a three-dimensional object whose each facet is examined in turn. At once austere and seductive, Resonant Trees takes its place beside the work of contemporaries like Catherine Lamb, while also calling up the languorous melodic world of Mamoru Fujieda, the dignified melancholy of Satoshi Ashikawa’s classic Still Way and the espaliered chamber atmospherics of the Obscure catalogue.

2024 Reissue

Limited Clear w/ Silver Splatter vinyl. 15 years after the band's debut album was release, Sargent House is set to do a special anniversary re-issue with updated artwork and limited-edition clear w/ silver splatter vinyl with Silver/Red foil jacket available. Upcoming tour dates include multiple festival appearances and a UK/EU headline tour in August. 12th Nottingham Rescue Rooms, 13th Manchester Gorilla, 14th London Underworld, 15th Bristol ArcTanGent. For Fans of Fu Manchu / Melvins. This the debut is being repressed. Red Fang is the formation of long time friends and collaborators Bryan Giles (Last of the Juanitas, Party Time), Aaron Beam (Dark Forces, Lachrymator), David Sullivan (Party Time, facedowninshit, Shiny Beast) and John Sherman (Party Time, Bad Wizard, Trumans Water, All Night). Unleashed on New Year's Eve of 2006 in Portland, Oregon, Red Fang stormed out of the gates, introducing a sweaty, seething basement to a new kind of unforgettable fist-pumping, beer-chugging rock music. Since that night, the band has continued with the same intensity, energy, and intimacy to quickly become a touring juggernaut, playing shows all over the US with bands like The Melvins, Big Business, and The Sword, to name just a few. Residing somewhere between Black Flag and Black Sabbath, Red Fang recall a time when rock was more urgent and horrifying. Synthesizing a variety of heavy music influences into their own distinct musical identity, the band easily shifts from barn-burning punk to mid-tempo, hyper-distorted bass destruction all while maintaining a cohesive sound. Red Fang create gigantic rock songs that are easy to listen to (not easy listening, mind you) and qualify the simultaneous usage of both the thinking and the banging head, which are usually mutually exclusive. Their instrumentation is fluid and effortless, and the vocals are delivered melodically and forcefully, with enough rasp and effect saturation to fit nicely within the music. Paired with elemental imagery, the lyrics are immense and satisfying without any pretense.

Indie Exclusive Limited Turquoise col vinyl, these were only available on the European tour, we have a final box of 50 which got held up in customs so offering now as an Indie exclusive. Northern California’s punk rock cult favourites, Tsunami Bomb, has risen from the grave and reformed with their third full-length release, The Spine That Binds, and with it they have proven that this chapter of Tsunami Bomb not only embraces their signature style of aggressive pop punk supplemented by a touch of darkness but have taken it even further. Honing their skills of melody while being more in-your-face and more aggressive than ever, they conjure a dark journey of discovery with each track. Originally formed in 1998, and disbanding after many member changes in 2005, Tsunami Bomb reformed at the end of 2015. This new release finds the quintet brought to life with the return of founders Dominic Davi (bass / backing vocals), Oobliette Sparks (keyboards / co-lead vocals), and Gabriel Lindeman (drums). Joined by Kate Jacobi (lead vocals) and Andrew Pohl (guitars/backing vocals), they combine their skills to create a sound that effortlessly mixes dark musings on the search to find one’s place in an increasingly uncaring world, into unforgettable anthems, calling on one to get up and sing-a -long. The Spine That Binds is not asking for your acceptance, it demands it. This album will scratch the itch of all the diehard fans looking for that familiar Tsunami Bomb sound, but also show a new, angrier and brutally honest side of the band. With the support of Jello Biafra’s legendary punk rock label, Alternative Tentacles Records, Tsunami Bomb has not only heard the call, they are ready for the newest chapter to unfold and they are taking everything with them

''More Than Ever'' is another impeccable pearl of Roberto Ferrante, considered one of the most extraordinary and evocative Italo-Disco productions, one of those songs that attracted millions of followers and made everyone fall in love with the genre. GLAM's original 1985 12inch is no ordinary record. This vinyl reissue from Planet Records Classics with stunning new mastering makes it even more special. The voice of GLAM is Clio, according to followers one of the favorite singers in the distorted and mirrored world of Italo-Disco; she always has full control of the voice, therefore a perfect interpretation, full of emotion. If you listened to ''Faces'', ''Feel the Fear'' or ''Eyes'' by Clio and liked them, I'm sure you'll love this epic piece too! Thanks again to Roberto Ferrante for this new powerful mastering of ''More Than Ever'' fresher overall, performed with much more vitality and energy.

2024 Repress

Straight in the wake of their eponymous debut LP released on the label back in 2016, Weval return to Kompakt this year with their sophomore album, 'The Weight', breaking their pop-mellow, nostalgia-friendly facet further out in the open as they arrive "at this place again were everything felt spontaneous, new and exciting, like we had in the beginning". Orbiting around that ever luminous yet wistful melodic halo that surrounds their music, this second full-length effort sweeps an extra-wide and languidly woven palette of emotions and moods, making for a uniquely ambitious and generously coloured mosaic of sound. If the recording sessions "often started grumpy and emotionless" by Harm and Merijn's own admission, the pair was "surprised by the joy it gave us, which can be compared to the emotions we felt back in the first days of making music together"; subsequently reconnecting with that fresh, naïve feeling of "absolute creative freedom" they were after. The album is also the fruit of a whole new working process for them - more playful and unpredictable - which saw them switch from "guitars lying around to piano, onto our own synths and the most cheap quirky toys synths you can imagine", and involved "recording all of our own samples, voice and almost every instrument out of the box - which for us was a totally new way of working". "We've always wanted a narrative for the album, and finding the right order perhaps took the most effort" they explain; "we felt anxious, felt insanely positive, felt heartbroken again, felt in love again, and there was death, and even suicide around us. It was quite chaotic. As a whole, 'The Weight' breathes with that transformative richness, free of limits and rules, except perhaps to "do quick and not think too much". Amidst this collection of songs and instrumentals that live by Weval's singularly positive take on music - one that can "lift you up, and make you feel hopeful without being necessarily straight out 'happy'" as they define it, the title-track and lead single stays true to the duo's dynamic approach, putting on a fine balance of floor and dream inducing adaptability that sound engineer David Wrench (Frank Ocean, The XX, FKA Twigs, Caribou… etc.) subtly made palpable. There's heavy showers of funk drops pouring from endless bars of thunderstorm clouds and laid-back riffs beating a restrained poolside-party kind of pulse, but also sensual vocals rising from beneath the sheets and rueful polaroid-filtered ambiences to soundtrack all possible moments in life - from the most euphoric to those when music seems the only viable healing potion. More on the post-KLF, BoC-inflected electronica side of things, 'Are You Even Real' takes its listener for a round-trip across the star-studded dome and beyond, before songs like 'Someday' and 'Same Little Thing' head back down to a state of pulsating, earthly organicity, tense and mercurial as get. An arpeggiated slice of piano-strewn kosmische, 'Heaven' is another invitation to an epic-scale odyssey from the inner-spheres into the distant fringes of the outer-world. Weightless and airy, yet texturally dense and widely magnetic overall, Weval second LP is a synthesis of the duo's multi-angle take on electronics: blissed-out, heartening and infinitely free.
Nur zweieinhalb Jahre nach der Veröffentlichung ihres selbstbetitelten Debutalbums finden sich WEVAL zurück "an jenem Ort, an dem sich alles spontan, neu und aufregend anfühlt - so wie als wir anfingen zusammen Musik zu schreiben". An diesem Ort entstand "The Weight", ihr zweiter Longplayer, auf dem Weval sich ganz den Pop-verliebten, Nostalgie-freundlichen Facetten ihres Sounds öffnen. Stetig um den sehnsuchtsvollen Strahlenkranz ihrer Melodien tanzend, legt diese Platte noch vielschichtigere, mit feinster Präzision gewobene Gefühlswelten frei.

Obwohl die Aufnahmesessions nach eigenem Bekunden oftmals "miesepetrig und emotionsarm" begannen, so war das Duo überrascht darüber, wie schnell sich bei der Arbeit jene Freude einstellte, die sie aus ihren künstlerischen Anfangstagen kannten, eine Woge des frischen, naiven Gefühls der "absoluten kreativen Freiheit". Dieses Album ist die Frucht eines verspielteren und unvorhersehbareren Arbeitsprozesses innerhalb der Band, in welchem alles zum Einsatz kam, was ihnen in die Finger kam - von der ollen Gitarre, die in der Studioecke stand, über ein Piano und den bandeigenen Sythesizern und den sonderbarsten Spielzeuginstrumenten, die man sich vorstellen kann. All dies sowie zahlreiche Vocalaufnahmen dienten als alleinige Samplequelle - "was für uns eine völlig neue Arbeitsweise war". "Es war uns wichtig für das Album den perfekten Erzählbogen zu spannen. Die richtige Reihenfolge zu finden war ein extrem aufwendiger Vorgang", erklären Harm und Merjin. "Uns war bange, wir fühlten uns total selbstsicher, uns zerbrach das Herz und wir verliebten uns erneut. Wir waren sogar von Tod und Selbstmord umgeben. Alles war Chaos. Insgesamt atmet "The Weight" die Reichhaltigkeit dieser sich ständig verändernden Gefühlslagen, frei von Einschränkungen und Regeln - außer vielleicht "mach es schnell und zerdenke die Dinge nicht." Inmitten dieser Ansammlung von Songs und Instrumentals, die aus Wevals einzigartiger, von Zuversicht geprägter Herangehensweise entstanden sind - "Musik, die dich hochzieht und Hoffnung spendet, ohne dich notwendigerweise happy zu machen. Der Titeltrack "The Weight" steht exemplarisch für Wevals ambivalenten Ansatz, die feine Balance zwischen Dancefloor und Traumzuständen, perfekt in Szene gesetzt von Soundengineer David Wrench (Frank Ocean, The XX, FKA Twigs, Caribou… etc.).

Der schwer aus gewaltigen Gewitterwolken tropfende Funk, die eine verhaltene Poolparty suggerierenden Riffs, die sinnlichen, geisterhaften Vocals und ein verwaschenes Ambiente, das wie ein Album alter Polaroidaufnahmen alle erdenklichen Momente des Lebens festhält - von den euphorischsten bis hin zu jenen, in denen Musik der einzige Trank ist, der Linderung verheißt. Das post-KLF und Boards of Canada evozierende "Are You Even Real" führt den Hörer auf einen imaginären Flug ins Sternenzelt, während organisch-klingende Songs wie "Someday" oder "Same Little Thing" wie Quecksilber am Boden haften. "Heaven" ist eines jener "kosmische" Stücke mit wilden Arpeggios und Pianosprengseln, die Weval in den vergangenen zwei Jahren zu einer Live-Sensation werden liessen. Wevals Musik ist schwerelos und luftig, aber gleichermassen von dichter Struktur und von einer magnetischen Anziehungskraft. Ihr zweites Album "The Weight" ist eine Synthese aus dem multi-perspektivischem, kaleidoskopischen Verständnis von elektronischer Musik: Herzerwärmend, alles umschmeichelnd und unendlich frei.

Castle Face present Dan Rincon’s (OSEES, Wild Thing, Apache, Personal and the Pizzas) premier solo release Spotlight City.

Artificial landscapes and melodies comprised of Moog Grandmother, Mellotron and a kinky Modular system span from beautiful and lilting to haunting and etherial. The album was a years long learning experience of getting all components and ingredients to link arms and blend comfortably. Wrangling was part of the process. Strings soaring and sines weaving. Sometimes in the atmosphere, sometimes in the Earth’s core, sometimes flanked by neon blur as it hums & weave patterns through a world imagined in vintage sci-fi pulp.

“I was listening to a lot of solo Roedelius and Conrad Schnitzler records while writing this record and I’d say that both have been hugely inspirational on what I want to do as a solo recording artist. The way both of those of those artist pushed the early, chaotic electronic music into something more melodic is really inspiring to me, it’s not that dissimilar than trying to get melodies out of a modular synthesizer.”

An absolute necessary slab for anyone a fan of CF, OSEES, Popol Vuh soundtracks , 8 bit video game accompaniment & 80s Tangerine Dream. Burn one and burn out.