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Purple Vinyl

House music, nightlife entertainment and DJ/Producer virtuoso Louie Vega has proven over and over again that he's a master chemist in the studio. His latest release is an uptempo and speaker-knocking remix of Funkadelic's 'Ain't That Funkin' Kind of Hard on You' (produced by George Clinton and & G Koop) from the album 'First Ya Gotta Shake the Gate'.
The original version is nothing short of a classic, but it's as if the song had never been invited to a Louie Vega post-midnight global extravaganza. Was the song not aware that spellbound dancing and high BPMs were the standard for House Music Normally, such a blaring disregard for nightlife decorum would relegate a song to the pits of sonic hell, but we're talking about George Clinton here!The original opens up with a G-funk groove that screams Westside and lowriders. The listener is then blessed with Clinton as he adds his sage, soulful and pimpadelic vocals, complemented by Funkadelic singers asking him about the pains of the funk. The semblance of a beat that could drive the dancefloor into the morning hours is there, but in no way has it blossomed into its full glory. Enter Louie Vega.
His remix immediately greets listeners with a decadent spread of instrumentation and chutzpah. The original song's DNA populates the first thirty seconds of the remix but then an explosion takes place and the song assumes a new identity. The transcendent experience is akin to taking the elevator to a rooftop party and once the doors open- boom! The remix begs you to dance, the G-funk groove is now in your face instead of being laidback and percussion takes a front seat to take you away. The song is alive, there's no other way to describe it.
Be sure to buy your vinyl at an outlet near you! the Louie Vega remix of Funkadelic's 'Ain't That Funkin' Kind of Hard on You' on Vega Records!

dreamcastmoe is the recording project of singer, songwriter, producer, and DJ Davon Bryant, a lifelong resident of Washington, DC. His music moves freely between moods and modes, hypnotic, romantic, traversing electronic, R&B, funk, soul, and hip-hop... Resident Advisor dubs it "soulful, cross-genre dance music." This ability to adapt and finesse, to twist in different directions while staying true and coherent in vision, can be traced to his home city and its complex cultural history. "Most Black kids in DC don't ever get to this point," he says. "This is what I am making this music for, in the DC tradition of soul and empathy and love that is rooted in this city. My music is for real people dealing with shit every day." A versatile, modern artist and collaborator, dreamcastmoe has thrived in the underground since his first uploads to Soundcloud and Bandcamp in 2017 and subsequent releases with labels like People's Potential Unlimited, Trading Places, and In Real Life Music. Bryant's laid-back personality, emotional honesty, and infectious energy shine through his work and how he talks about it, as Crack Magazine notes in their 2021 Rising feature: "a steady combination of confidence, creativity, and calmness." He grew up playing drums in church; he's worked dead-end jobs, had ups and downs, even sold off all his gear one time, but never stopped reinvesting in himself. He is quick to praise his co-producers, rattle off influences _ the visual feel of NBA 2K, the comedic timing of Bernie Mac, the savvy legacy of Duke Ellington, for starters _ and credit resourceful DC breakouts like Ankhlejohn that showed him the roadmap. His voice, a steady instrument, seemingly connects it all, capable of slow falsetto flow, swaggering talk-rap, and outright croon. His storytelling style is choppy yet fluid, like a mixtape, which is how Bryant sees Sound Is Like Water, his debut on Ghostly's International's freeform label, Spectral Sound. The two-part project culminates as a full-length LP release in November 2022. The first side, released as Part I, opens on the blurred beats of "El Dorado," which dreamcastmoe dedicates to his journey. It's a head-nodder, an off-kilter earworm co-produced by Max D (Future Times, RVNG Intl, etc.), with Bryant harmonizing hooks with synth jabs and a pitched-down presence. "Complicated" is the slow jam, delivered smoothly from a Saturday night crossroads. dreamcastmoe is contemplative and committed... gliding and locking ad-libs into skittering rhythms courtesy of co-producer Zackary Dawson _ but also willing to let something go, "acknowledging that everything in life IS NOT easy." "RU Ready" takes off from the jump as a tribute, challenge, and promise to his partner and his city ("The times you sat with me when I needed you the most / Told me the things that I needed to see / Young black man, really trying to be what I can be / And I'm really from DC). In its potent two-plus minutes, the sonics (co-produced by ZDBT) press the message, all cymbal crashes, breakbeats, and serrated synth lines. "Cloudy Weather, Wear Boots" is a blitzing dance-punk track made in collaboration with Jordan GCZ on Bryant's first trip to Amsterdam. The album's flipside opens on "Much More," the first of two synth-and-beat ballads co-produced by ZDBT. Later on "Long Songz," he claims, "I'm not writing love songs no more," prioritizing the vibe with "all my day ones." He calls it "a cry for more normal moments. Everything doesn't have to be a fantasy love story, more time spent getting to the money, growing, and making a way." He saves two of his most propulsive cuts for the finale, co-produced by Sami, co-founder of DC dance label 1432 R. As their titles suggest, "Take A Moment" and "Make Ya Mind" operate as anthems for movement, with Bryant free-flowing commands above wildly-styled percussion. Per Bryant, the latter is both "wake & bake jam" and a "dance floor bomb." His parting line: "Action / You got to show me action / Reaction." The world of dreamcastmoe straddles virtual reality and the realness of DC, images both imagined and lived-in. Bryant has a knack for unexpected melodies but what makes his music so exciting is his capacity to defy the expectations of genre and image. A fluid ingenuity and vulnerability bottled by Sound Is Like Water, and this is just the beginning.

Out of the murky, mystic world of Komodo Kolektif slides the Gamma Knife.

In the corner of a dank, dark mind, a nebulous notion condenses and solidifies, featureless and blind...and from that Komodo Klay a new kreature is hacked, molded and (mal)formed.

“The foundations of some of these pieces were laid almost a decade ago, others more recently. All of them came into being as sketches intended as Komodo Kolektif tracks to develop but for various reasons this didn't happen. The Seven Heavenly Elements was first presented to the group in 2019 but partly through personal differences in musical taste as well as COVID throwing a spanner in the works it was put aside and never worked on collectively. The two Disciple of the Drum 'dubs' are essentially rhythm tracks using the rhythm and percussion of Disciple Of The Drone, also from 2019, stripping away the drone, the gamelan melody and finally, even the bass line, which was initially intended to be the fundamental driving force of at least one of these dubs. In the end neither of these two tracks became anything like the idea that I had in mind, but that's how creativity works sometimes. The vocal parts in Cantation Dub were added most recently, just a few months ago. Fire Dub is just an exercise in me trying to rein in some insane delays and barely managing. The Ghost of Water is an anomaly because many of the fundamental parts are taken from the same jam session recorded in 2015 that led to Djakarta 3001 from the first EP. If you listen closely you'll hear Graeme Miller on guitar (back when guitar was still featured in our weekly jam sessions). I discovered this unedited hour-long jam session on an older hard drive in late 2023 and decided to fashion something from it until what became Ghost of Water materialised: the heavily delayed saron instruments, the jaw harp, the percussion and so on. What makes the track an anomaly is that it is in some ways both the oldest and newest piece of the five. The Seventh Element takes one of the seven elements of The Seven Heavenly Elements (in this case the Mopho synth tuned to the Indonesian pelog scale and ran through the Boss DE-200's depth modulator) to which I then added some gong parts and field recordings from Bali.

Once complete, I realised with an album's worth of material sitting there which was more “Komodo Kolektif” than anything I would normally produce solo, there came the problem of trying to work out what to do with this distinctly Komodo-esque, non-Komodo material. I came up with the idea of releasing it under the name Komodo Kuts...but a part of me felt I'd be cashing in on the Komodo name so ditched that part entirely...but the kuts remained, which seemed appropriate when used alongside my Gamma Knife moniker (which has a long story of its own...in a nutshell I had a benign brain tumour which only 1 in 10,000 people get and which is most frequently removed with a gamma knife (radiation). In medical parlance the device used in this treatment is often shortened to GK machine. I had been using the DJ name GK Machine, which came from my signature GK Mackinnon, since 1994, in other words long before this diagnosis. In the end I had brain surgery in Spain without use of gamma radiation...but the synchronicity of the name connection fascinated me nevertheless. Sometimes the world works in mysterious ways).

Lastly, now that I've sent these tracks out into the world, I feel somewhat liberated and can move on from this fairly niche and specific sound. The gamelan instruments have been returned to Gamelan Naga Mas, from who we'd borrowed them, and the masks hung up. This does not mean that Graeme Miller and I won't work together again in future...I'm sure we will...it just means we won't be tied to working within the constraints of gamelan, synths, percussion and dub that we became known for. So stay tuned...surely something lurks around the corner” GKM, November 2024

"Because it's the passion for music that drives the person behind the decks, a dj's debut is bound to exude authenticity. It's often themselves they're recounting in music, posing on the slip mats their DNA and what makes them who they are.

When you're just starting out, you're faced with a multitude of routes to take and styles to play. When you know just how devastating it can be to step out of line and empty the dance floor even faster than it filled up, it often takes a lot of audacity to break the unity of a funk evening with a punk track.

Over time, to evolve is to find oneself facing only two roads.

On the first one, to satisfy the greatest number of people and not lose the credit for his fees, the dj adapts to the trend. Whether he likes what he's playing or not, the road has become a freeway and, indeed, a very comfortable one. The audience already knows everything there is to hear and doesn't come to hear anything else. Thirty seconds, or even a minute of each track, is more than enough. Everything has to flow quickly. Everything is marked out and secured. Those who respect the regulations will (normally) make the journey without accident. Several times a week, several times a month, several times a year. Curiosity disappears altogether.

And then there's the other road. Where nothing is expected nor sometimes even ever heard. The road of an unquenchable passion for diggin' and the desire to always know more and more. A passion billed at the price of hours of research-finding spent in the discomfort and possible disappointment of never coming across anything exciting, as well as nights exploring platforms and multiplying clicks resulting in a good old headache. Until that moment of grace happens when, after thousands of fruitless shakes, the nugget stands alone in the sieve, without the slightest doubt as to its quality.

Coming from places never mentioned for their music, sometimes classics of their genre, they are also rarities miraculously saved from total disappearance, as much as current marvels, but threatened to never leave the immensity of the web. Even if the possibility of a text with substance is never excluded, they can tell long stories or be destined solely to make you dance till you're dehydrated. Scintillating with spirituality, some can also vaporize energy and replace it with a pure emotion capable of touching hearts in the bareness of simple percussions.

This road is marked by sincerity, singularity and surprises, but always in a communion between the dj and the audience, who embark on it together, with mutual confidence in the promise of hours of sharing and discovering. "

To launch Mr Bongo’s new Cuban Classic Series, we are thrilled to present this sought-after, psychedelic-funk masterpiece. A fusion of traditional Latin and Afro-Cuban rhythms meets disco, jazz, and funk, with hints of 70s soundtrack productions, this much-loved cult album featuring nine predominantly instrumental tracks is a real treasure that deserves a much wider appreciation. One look at the trippy artwork and you know it is going to be special.

Originally released in 1977 on Areito Records, a sub-label of the state-owned label Egrem, it has become one of the rarest (even in Cuba) and most in-demand albums to come from the label. It is the sole album from Grupo Los Yoyi and was composed, orchestrated, and produced by the mysterious, Jorge Soler Leó.

After Castro ring-fenced Cuba with an embargo on, among other things, Western music, the ‘Yoyi’ album had a sound more left of centre than what was normally allowed to be recorded there at the time. It subtly and covertly flirts with disco, jazz-funk, and electronic sounds coming from the US and Europe. It is probably best known for the space funk, bubbly club cut 'Paco La Calle’. A track that was edited in 2008 by the fantastic DJ / producer, Nick the Record, and one that is guaranteed to set a discerning dancefloor alight. However, ‘Yoyi’ is far from a one-track album. Other highlights include, 'Banana’, with its call and response trombone and horn section, squelchy keys, pulsating breaks and percussion, and a loose, floating vocal arrangement. 'Tu No Me Puedes Conquistar' is a beautiful, bouncing plodder with a variety of instruments interchanging as the track progresses. 'Ruta 30' takes things in a straighter Latin direction, which we are accustomed to from Cuba at that time, yet it is still full of personality, treats and vigour. Take our word for it, this album is strong throughout.

This is one of our favourites and most beloved albums to come out of Cuba and is the perfect flagship for our Cuban Classics Series. Look out for plenty more to come real soon.

Klex blobbing his first solo EP on Strictly Strictly, pushing forward with his virtually self-titled "Klextasy EP". Entangling techy trance strikers with dreamily warm temperament, Klex offers three strikingly quirky productions on side A, blending surprisingly seamlessly from bouncy to anthemic passages. Accompanied by a strong team of remixers, with Viikatory, Lakehead, and DJ Normal 4 pressing a psy-techy stamp on side B. Digital Bonus: Two extra Remixes from Urte and once again Normal 4. A release like a steamy open-air summer night by the lake.

2024 Repress

After 7 years and countless requests, Sneaker Social Club finally deliver a repress of Dream Cycle - Part One.

After a chance meeting at Gottwood in 2016 a bond was established between Dream Cycle (Robin Clarke) and label owner Jamie Russell over a shared love of 2 Bad Mice and Moving Shadow. It wasn't long before Clarke began channeling elements of that influence to produce his Dream Cycle Part.1 EP. Unfolding over 4 steppy tracks and an ambient closer, Clarke melds sharp snares, summery motifs, dense atmospheres and thick subs whilst keeping things suffused with a distinctly UK quality that marries his work perfectly with the Sneaker catalogue.

DJ Support: Ryan Elliott, DJ Die, The Blessed Madonna, Octo Octa, Bwana, Altered Natives, Noodles (Groove Chronicles), Liem (Lehult), Deejay Astral, LA4A, 2 Bad Mice, Fred P, Matt Karmil, Flori, Marco Zenker, J.Rocc (lol at comment!), Ajukaja, Gnork, William Djoko, Till Von Sein, Fold, ASOK, Gene Farris, DJ bwin, Seven Davis Jr, TRP, DJ Octopus, DJ Normal 4, Gerd, Dean Man s Chest, Poté, Doc Scott, Violet, James Welsh (Kamera), Konx-om-Pax, Etch, Raresh, Hrdvsion, Michael Serafini (Gramaphone), Frazer Ray, DJ Guy, Mak & Pasteman, Shenoda, Urulu, Mark Archer & James Zabiela, Zinc, Lehult, Jackie House, Mosca, Noodles (Groove Chronicles) & DJ Die.

First reissue since its original release in 2014. Features by Sean Price, Guilty Simpson, Blu with production from DJ Premier, Illmind, Black Milk, Oh No & more.

The collaboration album from Brooklyn MCs Skyzoo and Torae is available once again after its original debut in 2014.

For years, fans of both Skyzoo and Torae asked the two to collaborate on a full-length LP, following the multiple singles they released together over the years. Classics such as the DJ Premier-produced "Get It Done" and "Click," and the !llmind-produced "Barrel Brothers" off Skyzoo's 2010 "Live from the Tape Deck" have been highly anticipated by their followers since 2006. The idea behind "Barrel Brothers" is what the people have asked for and come to know: the two wordsmiths for pure lyricism.

Skyzoo, known for his picturesque storytelling and jazz/orchestral background, and Torae, known for his gritty Coney Island depictions of life with a vintage yet modern lyrical approach, have briefly put their normal fortes to the side and crafted this album with one game plan in mind: lyrical exercise over hard New York City soundscapes. The current resurgence of NYC hip hop is the perfect grounds for two of its premier flag holders to continue doing what they never stopped doing in the first place: representing the city.

Two versions available - limited hand numbered (100 copies) of red vinyl and normal black vinyl version.

"Balance", the artist's third album, is a return to the roots, i.e. towards club sounds - on the album you can hear several amazing guests - Dominik Płonek, YANA, Dizkret, Runforrest, Einar Indra from Iceland and DJ Eprom. A unique mix of artpop with sophisticated electronics, which Envee brought together with its amazing mixing and mastering. For dessert, Barrakuz, which took the title "Balance" from Wojtek Koziar's photo to a new dimension with its collage. Everything is perfect on this album.

The Late Night Tales compilation is a bit of a ‘stealth’ project for me personally. I’m very proud of it, but at the time, I probably didn’t appreciate it as much as I do now because there was so much going on. You do these things in-between touring and you don’t really have time to reflect on them because you’re immediately onto the next thing. It’s nice to know that it’s getting re-released. George Evelyn - Nightmares on Wax May 2024 This ain't no normal nightmare, kid. This is Nightmares On Wax, aka DJ EASE, aka George Evelyn. Born under a bad sign, with lino in hand, Mr. Evelyn went forth into the world and breakdanced (brokedance?). It's what you did in the 80s when you were young, loved hip hop and couldn't rap for toffee. When house arrived they turned their clever hands to it. Bleeps and beats is what it was. That's what everyone said. But there was always a bit more than a bunch of bleeps to what Nightmares On Wax did. The north never really took the name very seriously (Sweet Exorcist even named their album Clonk as a pisstake). Then George flipped the script and went and did Smokers Delight, the beats not so much seminal as semolina: gloopy and slow and sweet and lovely. And now we have this: a 2024 reissue of his seminal Late Night Tales compilation. Tom Scott's 'Sneakin' In The Back' — one of the most sampled beats in hip hop — makes an appearance in its full glory, while Quincy Jones, the inspiration for NOW's 'Nights Interlude', backs up the classics with ‘Listen (What It Is)’. Evelyn's hip hop sensibility is to the fore throughout and nowhere is this more evident than on ‘Intergalactic Throwdown' by former Freestylers' DJ, Mad Doctor X. And can we forget the sublime version of the Classic IV's 'Spooky' by darling Dusty? No, we can't. Finally — oh, finally! — there is the now-traditional cover version, with George serving up a soupy version of 'Brothers On The Slide' that gives a nod of respect to the original British funk soul brothers, Cymande. This ain't no nightmare at all: it's Nightmares On Wax.

Caution Alert ! The Brilliant Italian producer made in peruggia Simoncino is back on Skylax records again with a remix featuring the great Larry Heard aka Mr Fingers. You already know his ability to create sounds that are deeply imbued with the Chicago sound, you sometimes might think you 're hearing some lost gems from the great Armando. In short, no need to add more, this item is essential for any normally constitued dj. Pure Gold.

Foundation music are proud to present our second project with the formidable talent that is Crooked Man aka Parrot, known to his mother as Richard Barratt.

The DJ turned producer from Sheffield, founder and resident at the seminal Jive Turkey night, member of Warp’s Sweet Exorcist, musical partner with the late great Richard H Kirk (Cabaret Voltaire), producer to such maverick talents as Roisin Murphy and Add N to X, longtime Jarvis Cocker collaborator and remixer to a myriad of artists over several decades.

More recently, Parrot's project with internationally renowned Jazz singer Lady Blackbird, Athletes Of God, released two singles on Foundation Music ‘Don’t Want To Be Normal’ and the clubland hit ‘Fontella’ that were both playlisted by 6Music.

Lady Blackbird now flies the nest, with the divine Earth Angel swooping into her place. A seminal, reclusive, heavenly voiced singer, also from Yorkshire and with deep roots in the soul and dub scenes… And no, it's not Lisa Stansfield!

A project that has its roots way back in the Sheffield’s Blues parties and Jive Turkey itself. The club being a home to all forms of exciting new Black music, from ’85 through to the early days of the UK’s dance explosion. It sees Parrot take all that he has achieved, written and learnt over the years at the cutting edge of electronic, dance-inflected, production and DJing returning to those heady days of down tempo, body moving, speaker shaking music that would move the British underground soul/funk scene in the mid to late 80’s.

Call it 'street soul', '80’s soul', 'electro soul'… Earth Angel is all of those things but it is also very firmly rooted in the NOW! Not some retro pastiche, it incorporates so much more. With elements of techno, bleep, dub and any other studio trickery that Parrot cares to employ in order to suck you into Earth Angels’ druggy, hypnotic, sexy, “Mogadon Soul”. A four songed, eight tracked vinyl EP, featuring some classic songwriting from the glory days of soul and Crooked Man’s bass heavy electronic rhythms.

Welcome to the heavenly world of Earth Angel, the journey starts here.


DJ Support:

Luke Una, Ross Allen, Sean Johnson (ALFOS) & Kebal.

Berlin-based artist Werner Soyeaux under his stage name Black Davil is a core part of the Berlin collective Ick Mach Welle. Schnall Schnall is his debut solo artist EP on Killekill, with own productions accompanied by collaborations with Bettina and DJ Normal 4, alongside remixes by Rhyw and Gesloten Cirkel.

The EP opens with the dark intro Alptraum, which Gesloten Cirkel transforms into an ill-tempered acid-electro monster. The title track Schnall Schnall provides a stark contrast to these, with bright overtones existing alongside deeply rooted sonic bedrock.

Rhyw adds a level of abstraction and futurism with his remix of this track, whilst retaining the dub-influenced vibe of the original.

Following on from this Geldschere is collaboration with Dusseldorf artist DJ Normal 4, with Black Davil contributing his own lyrics and voice, to create a track that could be fittingly described as "Acid Punk Rock"!

The final track on the release is a cheeky ode to the Ick Mach Welle family. Here the Davil's passion for Hardtekk, Gabber and similar rough styles of music become clear.

Repress coming!

High Focus Records is proud to present 'Put That Soul On Me' a brand new 3 track offering from arguably one of the best voices to emerge from these shores in recent years : Rag N Bone Man.
Since having been introduced to the world via High Focus Records in early 2013, Rag N Bone Man's career has flourished in an incredible way and it has become a widely known fact that, as cliche as it may sound, he is the next big thing. From gathering attention from the likes of tastemakers Zane Lowe, Rob Da Bank, Mistajam & getting daytime radio play on BBC Radio 1 among others to working with Hip Hop legend DJ Premier and touring all over the country with chart toppers Bastille, it is a proven fact that Rag N Bone Man's voice has the power to touch the hearts of millions no matter what genre of music you are into. With such a universally recognised talent, its going to be hard for nay sayers to deny the infectious flute grooves of 'Put That Soul On Me' or the slow pounding bass of 'Across The Sky'.
Dirty Dike, normally known for his outlandish lyrics and larger than life provocative character takes the back seat on this release, allowing his signature crunchy production to do the talking. Dirty Dike's instrumentals provide the perfect back drop for the smooth rumblings of Rag N Bone Man, the pair complement each other perfectly as the beat and the voice are just as heavy as one another, both putting on a fantastic display of skill and raw talent which has been synonymous with all High Focus Releases.
The title track, 'Put That Soul On Me' is a catchy celebration song, a festive underground tune praising 'that neat sweet soul' whilst denigrating those 'wack ass drums and played out synths' over swirling flutes. Following the festivities we have 'Across The Sky', a bass heavy downtempo number which explores the side effects of different drugs, upon which our protagonist asks for a helping hand before the heart wrenching saxophone kicks in. High Focus Records fans will be pleased to see that the infamous Rag N Bone Man 'exclusive Bars' from the HFTV channel is finally seeing an official release. 'My Business', which set the internet on fire upon its release on the channel, getting retweeted by the likes of super producers DJ Premier and 9th Wonder, is the third track on this project and features a guest verse from Contact Play legend Ronnie Bosh. With these three unmissable tracks on one piece of wax, The 'Put That Soul On Me' 12'' is going to be the soundtrack to your summer.

Mark Hawkins readies ‘Venn Diagram’ album for Aus Music this May.
Mark Hawkins’ early releases on labels such as Djax Up Beats and Ugly Funk lit flares in the world of
underground techno, with a sense of humour and tougher-than-thou sonic palette enforced via his jacking live
sets. Across the following decades, Mark has delivered razor sharp cuts that encompass pretty much
anything that has an electronic heart - leaving his own unique trail for others to follow via his work for labels
as diverse as Dixon Avenue Basement Jams, Sonic Mind, Mistress Recordings, Houndstooth and Aus.

With his latest album, it feels like Mark has pushed ahead with a change of direction he started with 2021’s
‘The New Normal’. ‘Venn Diagram’ carries on this journey into uncharted lands; molten, distorted drum
assaults weave around glistening melodies, kitchen sink soul glides below fractured sound pools. Opener
‘Verblex Oscillos’ immediately demands your attention grabbing, with a so-happy-it’s-sad melody spiralling
around a cascade of tough-as-fuck dance floor destroying beats, along with ‘Isolated’s urgent combination of
strings, acid and chicago-tough electro beats.

Other cuts on the album share a similar approach, ‘Maladayfun Friction’s restless energy derives from a fusion
of skittering drums and deranged synths and ‘Still Have Time’s dreamy super saw pads and plaintive vocal
espouse a kind of wasted elegance, roaming the city nightlife in a Gucci dress and Doc Martin boots.
‘Nlasckhdsjk’ and ‘Frederikalstublieft’ propel forward with such a sleek and effervescent aesthetic, recalling
fast drives along picturesque European highways or heady take-offs to unknown urban territories. The
aesthetic becomes more elegant on the album’s centrepoint tracks ‘Rebula Conundrum’ and ‘Nlasckhdsjk’,
where optimistic bleeps, bass and 707 drums underpin jazzy chords and soaring leads.

Other tracks show the arc of Mark’s direction of travel, with soulful vocals that share a well of deep-rooted
optimism that was so evident on his breakthrough 2016 Social Housing album. ‘L.O.V.E.’ breaks into
post-Sophie territory with a catchy modulated vocal joyfully two-stepping across to the nightclub bar and
‘How Do I Know’ providing a heart rending torch song for 6am kicking-out-time refugees to help them find
their way back home.

Pink Vinyl
Canadian producer Dylan Khotin-Foote has kept his Khotin alias going for the better part of a decade; the impressionistic electronic project shifts with the movements in his life. Sometimes it leads, like when the club-friendly grooves of 2014's Hello World immersed him in the heart of Vancouver's underground dance scene, and sometimes it follows, like 2018's Beautiful You, a downtempo salve for DJ fatigue His melodic sensibility and playful ear for atmosphere remain the rippling core of the project's fingerprint; whether beat-driven or ambient, a foggy smear or a dusted and pristine print, a Khotin track has a distinct and instantly recognizable swirl. During and after the 2020 release of Finds You Well, his second LP on Ghostly International, Khotin-Foote settled back into a slower vibe in his hometown of Ed- monton. Even before the pandemic, his pivots to softer production, and away from DJing, left him with fewer opportunities in Vancouver and club bookings overall, and as a self-identifying introvert, he was fine with that. But the change of pace did open space for Khotin-Foote to grapple with concepts of adulthood and career. At his lowest, he almost walked off this musical path altogether; instead, he doubled down on the craft _ the tone, pacing, and dynamism of new material _ arriving at a definitive full-length. With Release Spirit, Khotin releases himself from the pressure of expectation, fusing and refining everything we know about his music. The warmth and familiarity of Khotin's dreamy, dulcet style meet new ideas and frameworks, a natural progression, a modest revelation; Khotin confirms it is okay to move slowly and he's never sounded better doing it. The album title borrows from the "release spirit" mechanic in the video game World of Warcraft. When players die, they are prompted to release their spirit and return as ghosts to find their corpses and come back to life. Khotin sees it as a worthy metaphor for the impending change his return home presented and the resulting process of purging artistic expectations to find his creative self again. On this go- around, he is freer, more playful, and more intentional within his palette of warped synth, breakbeats, and piano sounds _ including the classic Casio SK-1 presets he's used since the start _ mingling with wistful samples, field recordings, and other abstract snippets. For the first time, he enlisted Nik Kozub to do the mix and assist with sequencing. Khotin-Foote has long worked with the Edmonton-based musician and engineer in the mastering phase, as well as their days co-running the label Normals Welcome, and this time was able to involve his ears earlier given their newfound proximity. "I think it's my best sounding record to date." We begin on "HV Road" or Happy Valley Road, where Khotin-Foote spent time during a family vacation in British Columbia's Okanagan Lake. His plans to record crickets at night are quickly foiled by his younger siblings; the cute exchange orients the listener to a core memory of sorts, setting the tone of universally understood warmth and wonder that has defined some of Khotin's most transportive tracks. Hazy percussion takes hold, and we are swept further into the wisp of "Lovely," a grooving, melodic standout built on the interplay between the beat and human voice-like hums. Khotin knows this zone well; equally suited for a reverie or a club warm-up. The bubbling atmosphere and absurdity of "3 pz" offer a cosmic/comic interlude and also speak to reflections on his family's move to Canada two generations ago, and the audio tutorials they used to learn English. "I can only imagine my grandpar- ents repeating some of the bizarre phrases." "Fountain, Growth" finds Khotin in collaboration with Montreal's Tess Roby (Dawn to Dawn) for the project's first-ever vocal track. Roby's soft cadence echoes atop spiraling air pockets of rhythmic production, lending a breezy, almost shoegaze pop feel. Throughout the single and the album, wind gusts between the compositional layers, akin to the roaming spirits of its namesake, curving around the birdsong of "Life Mask" and seamlessly reaching "Unlimited <3." The latter bumps in slow motion; disembodied whirrs from his Casio collide with 808 drums and sub-bass for a vibe that teeters on trap and instrumental hip-hop. Release Spirit rests in a dream sequence. Oscillating synth lines dance around the heartbeat of "Techno Creep," a hyperactive REM state before the digitized ambient sprawl of "My Same Size." In the final pass, Khotin imagines transcontinental travel from the glow of his screen. He recorded "Sound Gathering Trip" to soundtrack a genre of YouTube videos he's taken to that follows train routes through Europe and Japan. The scene is serene and moving; piano keys warble as static-filled sound design shimmers off the rails, from cityscapes to the countryside, an introspective ride through a world beyond his bedroom. It doubles as an apt parting image for Khotin's project as a whole: dreaming big but happiest when riffing on the details, shaping environments from the inside out. Over the last decade, he has stretched from his core in Edmonton, leaving a trace in Vancouver and beyond; but when all signs point home, he loops back to see it all from a different vantage, revitalized, refined, and free.

Canadian producer Dylan Khotin-Foote has kept his Khotin alias going for the better part of a decade; the impressionistic electronic project shifts with the movements in his life. Sometimes it leads, like when the club-friendly grooves of 2014's Hello World immersed him in the heart of Vancouver's underground dance scene, and sometimes it follows, like 2018's Beautiful You, a downtempo salve for DJ fatigue. His melodic sensibility and playful ear for atmosphere remain the rippling core of the project's fingerprint; whether beat-driven or ambient, a foggy smear or a dusted and pristine print, a Khotin track has a distinct and instantly recognizable swirl. During and after the 2020 release of Finds You Well, his second LP on Ghostly International, Khotin-Foote settled back into a slower vibe in his hometown of Ed- monton. Even before the pandemic, his pivots to softer production, and away from DJing, left him with fewer opportunities in Vancouver and club bookings overall, and as a self-identifying introvert, he was fine with that. But the change of pace did open space for Khotin-Foote to grapple with concepts of adulthood and career. At his lowest, he almost walked off this musical path altogether; instead, he doubled down on the craft _ the tone, pacing, and dynamism of new material _ arriving at a definitive full-length. With Release Spirit, Khotin releases himself from the pressure of expectation, fusing and refining everything we know about his music. The warmth and familiarity of Khotin's dreamy, dulcet style meet new ideas and frameworks, a natural progression, a modest revelation; Khotin confirms it is okay to move slowly and he's never sounded better doing it. The album title borrows from the "release spirit" mechanic in the video game World of Warcraft. When players die, they are prompted to release their spirit and return as ghosts to find their corpses and come back to life. Khotin sees it as a worthy metaphor for the impending change his return home presented and the resulting process of purging artistic expectations to find his creative self again. On this go- around, he is freer, more playful, and more intentional within his palette of warped synth, breakbeats, and piano sounds _ including the classic Casio SK-1 presets he's used since the start _ mingling with wistful samples, field recordings, and other abstract snippets. For the first time, he enlisted Nik Kozub to do the mix and assist with sequencing. Khotin-Foote has long worked with the Edmonton-based musician and engineer in the mastering phase, as well as their days co-running the label Normals Welcome, and this time was able to involve his ears earlier given their newfound proximity. "I think it's my best sounding record to date." We begin on "HV Road" or Happy Valley Road, where Khotin-Foote spent time during a family vacation in British Columbia's Okanagan Lake. His plans to record crickets at night are quickly foiled by his younger siblings; the cute exchange orients the listener to a core memory of sorts, setting the tone of universally understood warmth and wonder that has defined some of Khotin's most transportive tracks. Hazy percussion takes hold, and we are swept further into the wisp of "Lovely," a grooving, melodic standout built on the interplay between the beat and human voice-like hums. Khotin knows this zone well; equally suited for a reverie or a club warm-up. The bubbling atmosphere and absurdity of "3 pz" offer a cosmic/comic interlude and also speak to reflections on his family's move to Canada two generations ago, and the audio tutorials they used to learn English. "I can only imagine my grandpar- ents repeating some of the bizarre phrases." "Fountain, Growth" finds Khotin in collaboration with Montreal's Tess Roby (Dawn to Dawn) for the project's first-ever vocal track. Roby's soft cadence echoes atop spiraling air pockets of rhythmic production, lending a breezy, almost shoegaze pop feel. Throughout the single and the album, wind gusts between the compositional layers, akin to the roaming spirits of its namesake, curving around the birdsong of "Life Mask" and seamlessly reaching "Unlimited <3." The latter bumps in slow motion; disembodied whirrs from his Casio collide with 808 drums and sub-bass for a vibe that teeters on trap and instrumental hip-hop. Release Spirit rests in a dream sequence. Oscillating synth lines dance around the heartbeat of "Techno Creep," a hyperactive REM state before the digitized ambient sprawl of "My Same Size." In the final pass, Khotin imagines transcontinental travel from the glow of his screen. He recorded "Sound Gathering Trip" to soundtrack a genre of YouTube videos he's taken to that follows train routes through Europe and Japan. The scene is serene and moving; piano keys warble as static-filled sound design shimmers off the rails, from cityscapes to the countryside, an introspective ride through a world beyond his bedroom. It doubles as an apt parting image for Khotin's project as a whole: dreaming big but happiest when riffing on the details, shaping environments from the inside out. Over the last decade, he has stretched from his core in Edmonton, leaving a trace in Vancouver and beyond; but when all signs point home, he loops back to see it all from a different vantage, revitalized, refined, and free.

Following up last year's orchestral album opus “Overtones For The Omniverse", Mocky has been releasing a number of upbeat and uplifting instrumental tracks and now collects them as "Goosebumps Per Minute, Volume 1" on classic vinyl and digital. Putting his vocals and songwriting to the side for this project, Mocky employs harps, horns, and 70’s analogue synths to provide a funky soundtrack that spreads a little of that California sunshine in the listeners direction. Built around Mocky's signature basslines and ensemble vocal arrangements that include his son Telly and his daughter Lulu, all recorded to his vintage ampex tape machine, Mocky did away with the normal metronomic BPM calculations in modern production and instead measured his music in "GPM" (the tempo at which music transmits Goosebumps) - and on top of a multitude of summery bass, drums & strings perfection, Vicky Farewell drops a blistering Rhodes solo on "Flutter" and Carlos Niño lends a percussive hand on the sublime "Iridescence”. Todd M. Simon handles the horn duties, and Liza Wallace infuses the dance tracks with live harp which recalls the floating approach of Alice Coltrane. Titles like "Refractions", "Wavelengths" or "Conduction" are hinting at a scientific approach to creating the conditions for "Goosebumps Per Minute" - his own calculus for the timing of how and when to hit and strum the things in his studio to make it raw & funky.

The songs were also inspired by his time hanging out at the Goldline bar in LA’s Highland Park. “Throughout the pandemic it was the one place I could go and sit outside and hear incredible music as I listened to my friend DJ Phonecalls playing from the Goldline's vinyl collection. He would be dropping these uplifting funk and disco cuts - and at the end of the night I would go home to my studio and make a track and upload it to my Bandcamp and the streaming services immediately … It reminded me of my time in Tokyo's vinyl bars so "Goosebumps Per Minute" owes a lot to that inspiring culture as well“.

About Mocky:
Performer, producer, songwriter, composer and multi-instrumentalist, Dominic "Mocky" Salole came to prominence in the Berlin electronic scene of the mid 2000s, releasing three acclaimed solo albums and co-writing and producing classics like Jamie Lidell's "Multiply" and Feist's "The Reminder". In 2009, his music took a jazz-inflected turn to the acoustic with the release of "Saskamodie" and in 2011 Mocky relocated to Los Angeles, where he quickly established himself as a co-writer with uncommon credentials collaborating with L.A.’s brightest breakthrough artists like Kelela, Joey Dosik, Vulfpeck or Moses Sumney. Mocky channeled those new creative energies into his fifth full length album "Key Change" and four digital mixtapes/EPs "The Moxtapes" Vol. IIV. After co-producing and co-writing Feist's "Pleasure" and Kelela's "Take Me Apart", in 2018 Mocky released two albums: "Music Save Me (One More Time)" and "A Day At United", an instrumental jazz album, recorded in a single day. In 2019 Mocky delved into soundtrack work by collaborating with legendary Anime director Shinichiro Watanabe on the first two seasons of the breakthrough show “Carole and Tuesday” (Netflix) for which he won Best Score at the Anime Awards. In 2020 he started a new Single series with 2 releases featuring the portugese singer Liliana Andrade and in 2021 he released his orchestral album "Overtones For The Omniverse" and started a series of funky instrumentals under "Goosebumps Per Minute".