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The Temple Pillars Disappear Into the Clouds is the title of the new record from Bloody Head. Recorded mostly live at Stuck on a Name Studios by St. Ian Boult. Both wilder and more restrained than previous efforts. Punk? Noise rock? Psych? Sludge? All/none of the above, but the keen eared seeker of the weird may detect snippets of Les Rallizes Denudes, Kilslug, Brainbombs, Rudimentary Peni, Mainliner, Hawkwind, Donovan amongst the sonic morass. Lyrically it deals with big concepts, tumbling down. Dualism? Taoism? A beautiful garden or a broken jaw? Human endeavours losing track of themselves and getting lost in the clouds of their own creation. Ascend to Nirvana or fall into the Abyss. As above, so below....

Hominid Sounds is thrilled to be release The Temple Pillars Disappear Into the Clouds by Nottingham's finest, Bloody Head. The record will be out in Vinyl LP and digital in May 2021.

About Bloody Head
Any interpretation of these two words, collectively, leads to a singular conclusion: Something has gone wrong. This is the essence of Bloody Head; the acceptance, reflection, celebration and battle against things (mind/body/spirit) going very wrong. It is the manifestation of things getting wonky and breaking, revelry in destruction and decay. Broken (brain/dick/mind) blues. Bleak party

bangers as a soundtrack to our collective slow motion apocalypse. What does the future hold for Bloody Head? Fuck knows! Everything. Nothing. More/less of the same, whatever that is....

“Vax!” – Reminiscent of all the slippery vinyl that glitched under so many sweaty wet fingers in a steamy basement before time – a picture that seems highly illegal in our current antiseptic climate of hopefully germ free adolescents. Vax-inate! Give them the needle! It’s time.

Deti Vechnosti – Pered Rassvetom opens the gates to plug into the socket of our collective deranged consciousness, generating frisky and flamboyant specks to brightening darkness that confines our lives. Offering glimpses of the great unknown we also carry within. The Track introduces Chikiss & Mustelide’s new group “Deti Vechnosti”.

Alexander Arpeggio & OhLandy’s “Der Anruf”, wich originally appeared as a French language version on a previous Sameheads / Diapason tape release tells those tales of hot and hotter heat. Karmic payback for the sweaty and long nights enveloped in the halo of resonating frequencies of silly and high-spirited mischief.

Rouge Mécanique – Down the Line – follows suite in the odyssey that is a demented night out, sitting in front of a club, realising that the leatherjacket you picked up a few streets ago from the ground doesn’t smell like adventure but like spew.

The B-Side opens with Automatenfall – a hardware electronic 3 piece, previously appearing live at Sameheads during a “My Friend calls it K-Jazz” event. A yearning that eventually gets us on a spiritual path and headed toward enlightenment through the meandering melange of chimes, that little sounds that usually overcome us in the weirdest of times.

Das Kinn – the new project from Toben Piel, who’s part of Frankfurt’s MMODEM family, and one half of Les Trucs evokes memories of better days, black leatherpants – think Falco meets DAF – Überpop for the Untergrund.

Stopping for a final coup d’œil is Alessandro Adriani’s – Preserved Data Space. A persuasive case of brutally but lovingly worked machines serenading sawtooth waves of an infinite Weiter, a dissolving timeframe – the longest after hour I’ve been to, it lasts more than a year now already and counting.

Written by Michael Aniser.

Known for the soulful jazz-grooves of their self-titled 2020 debut album, Matti Klein’s Soul Trio actually began as an idea rather than a group.
However, in early 2018 three master musicians met in Berlin’s Lovelite Studio with producer/engineer Jochen Str h (Tony Allen, Ebo Taylor, Pat Thomas, Jimi Tenor) and recorded a set of well-planned and even better executed live sessions, each finding their desired space live and direct, locking into the immediacy of the groove. ‘Soul Trio Live On Tape’ contains these very first sessions of the Matti Klein Soul Trio and comprises new arrangements of songs that had primarily been composed for Klein’s band Mo’ Blow; favourites already back then, timeless classics now thanks to these exciting ‘deep-fried contemporary soul jazz’ versions.
Their leader, known for his work as musical director for the Brazilian superstar Ed Motta as well as Mo ‘Blow, can be heard on Wurlitzer and Rhodes Bass; Lars Zander (The Ruffcats, El Cartel, Lucasonic, STEREOFYSH) not only proves he is the most soulful tenor saxophonist in Berlin, but also why he has earned kudos for a bass clarinet sound that is enhanced with analog tape delays, Wah-Wah and Harmonizer-sweetenings; and drummer Andr Seidel also shows his chops, incorporating elements of rock, hip-hop, odd meter fusion and the sound of New Orleans into his own unique groove jazz style.
As for the music, ‘Rocket Swing’ is a tenor sax feature in which a hip-hop vibe meets a jazzy fifth fall, while ‘Ray’ (dedicated to Mr. Charles) is a Meters-inspired shuffle in 7/8 time. ‘No Particular Way’ showcases the funky side of the band, with singer Pat Appleton in top form over a wonderfully creaky Rhodes bass. ‘Sunsqueezed’ is created in a wide compositional arc, evoking a ray of sunshine peeking through the clouds during a long and grey 10-month Berlin winter, giving hope for the next two months.
‘Eleven Feels Like Heaven’ is a joyful, uproarious gospel blues with a brilliant odd meter drum solo. ‘Grandpa’s Fairytale’ is a hitherto unreleased piece that is dedicated to the bandleader’s grandfather, a former school headmaster who loved to read him stories and is a Wurlitzer-warmth meets bass clarinet groove in an atypical dynamic arc. Summarising their efforts, Klein states somewhat cryptically that “the band rolls in a warm, soft couch whenever there is a risk of having to sit between the chairs.”
Initially available as a limited fan item only at live shows, this document is now being released officially with the addition of ‘Grandpa’s Fairytale’. It is a journey through time, absolutely contemporary and yet wonderfully back to the future.

When most musicians reach a career milestone they take it on tour. Texas, whose debut album turned 30 last year, had bigger ambitions. Rather than simply perform their old songs, the Scots set out to meet their old selves – the wide-eyed kids who made Southside, their two million-selling, Top 3 debut, and the band who bounced back eight years later with the six times platinum White On Blonde.
The vaults at Universal were raided for recording sessions for both albums, stored on tape and DAT and never digitised. Top of Texas’ list was their first, failed attempt at I Don’t Want A Lover, scuppered by Chic bassist Bernard Edwards.
“Just after we signed, we were in the studio with Bernard and Chic’s drummer Tony Thompson,” recalls guitarist Johnny McElhone. “Bernard got coked up and ended up running away to Mexico before Sharleen even started her vocals. But that’s a whole other story.”
Late in 2018, the aborted version was found, alongside several songs recorded during different sessions which didn’t make their debut. The biggest revelation, however, was a 15-strong batch of tracks from the White On Blonde sessions which both Johnny and Sharleen Spiteri had forgotten existed.
“When we made that album, no one in Britain gave a shit about Texas,” says Sharleen. “We were still doing really well in Europe, but here we couldn’t get arrested.
“No one at our label was asking to hear any music or pushing us, so we just kept writing and recording and trying out new stuff until we felt the record was ready. Hence we ended up with a lot more material than usual.”
So good were the songs that Texas initially planned to release them as a ‘lost’ album, possibly to be called Blonde On White. But working with their old recordings inspired them to start writing new songs.
“Tweaking the old stuff was so much fun,” says Sharleen. “It felt like us, now, collaborating with ourselves of 25 years ago. It was amazing to go back there – my voice was so young! – and to hear how much energy and passion we had. We were fighting for our careers at the time, trying to prove that Texas were still relevant.
“Our excitement at finding this treasure trove of songs collided with our excitement from back then and, unplanned, new songs started coming. You could say we were inspired by ourselves, if that didn’t make us sound insanely big-headed.”
Hi, Texas’ tenth album, is the result of that bonkers journey back but has its eyes firmly fixed on the future. The title track and sensational first single aptly fuses the two. A brand new collaboration with Wu Tang Clan, it finds a soulful Sharleen nestled next to boisterous raps from RZA and Ghostface Killah over a cinematic backdrop of lush beats and acoustic guitar.

Spindle Ensemble’s highly anticipated sophomore album is scheduled for a release on Thursday 27th May 2021 on vinyl, CD and digital download via Hidden Notes Records. The vinyl version will be accompanied by a special 12 page booklet which also includes liner notes written by celebrated DJ and Broadcaster Nick Luscombe (BBC3’s Late Junction/Musicity/Flomotion Radio).

In conjunction with the announcement a brand new single Caligo - with B side Menilmontant - was released via Bandcamp on Friday 5th February 2021 together with a unique music video that combines super 8 footage and scratched 16mm film visual artist Narna Hue (watch the video below).

A special socially distanced album launch concert is due to take place at St George’s Bristol on Thursday 27th May depending on COVID guidelines and restrictions at that time.

Since their formation in Bristol in 2016 contemporary chamber quartet Spindle Ensemble led by composer and pianist Daniel Inzani (Yola, Alabaster dePlume, Tezeta) which also features tuned percussionist Harriet Riley (Charles Hazelwood’s Paraorchestra, Bristol Symphony Orchestra), cellist Jo Silverston (Mesadorm) and violinist Caelia Lunniss (Edward Penfold) have garnered much praise for their innovative take on contemporary classical music, rooted in spontaneity and improvisation performed with deft musicianship and unique instrumental pairing all resulting in truly captivating sonic soundscapes.

Equally at home performing in concert halls such as the Union Chapel, Southbank Centre, Bristol Beacon, St George’s Bristol and festivals including Shambala and Hidden Notes to churches, art centres, record shops and independent venues across the UK they continue to bring their music to a diverse and ever growing audience.

Listeners may hear influences from composers such as Satie, Pärt, Ravel, Reich, Glass and Moondog in their music but might also find the soundtracks of Morricone and the minimalist aesthetics of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra nestled alongside the more experimental leanings of groups such as Rachel’s, Esmerine, Bell Orchestre and Amiina.

The quartet’s forthcoming album Inkling was recorded at various venues across Bristol, capturing their performances as unique 3D sound images enabling the listener to hear each instruments position mimicking the audible experience as a live audience member. Unlike their debut BEA, some of the compositions on Inkling also features a collection of guest musicians expanding their sound to an orchestral scale, featuring the addition of brass and percussion instruments.

In September 2019 the group released a double A-side single of Chase and Okemah Sundown from the album with accompanying videos by acclaimed Director/Cinematographer Fred Reed and stop-motion animator Marie Lechevallier.

Spindle Ensemble’s highly anticipated sophomore album is scheduled for a release on Thursday 27th May 2021 on vinyl, CD and digital download via Hidden Notes Records. The vinyl version will be accompanied by a special 12 page booklet which also includes liner notes written by celebrated DJ and Broadcaster Nick Luscombe (BBC3’s Late Junction/Musicity/Flomotion Radio).

In conjunction with the announcement a brand new single Caligo - with B side Menilmontant - was released via Bandcamp on Friday 5th February 2021 together with a unique music video that combines super 8 footage and scratched 16mm film visual artist Narna Hue (watch the video below).

A special socially distanced album launch concert is due to take place at St George’s Bristol on Thursday 27th May depending on COVID guidelines and restrictions at that time.

Since their formation in Bristol in 2016 contemporary chamber quartet Spindle Ensemble led by composer and pianist Daniel Inzani (Yola, Alabaster dePlume, Tezeta) which also features tuned percussionist Harriet Riley (Charles Hazelwood’s Paraorchestra, Bristol Symphony Orchestra), cellist Jo Silverston (Mesadorm) and violinist Caelia Lunniss (Edward Penfold) have garnered much praise for their innovative take on contemporary classical music, rooted in spontaneity and improvisation performed with deft musicianship and unique instrumental pairing all resulting in truly captivating sonic soundscapes.

Equally at home performing in concert halls such as the Union Chapel, Southbank Centre, Bristol Beacon, St George’s Bristol and festivals including Shambala and Hidden Notes to churches, art centres, record shops and independent venues across the UK they continue to bring their music to a diverse and ever growing audience.

Listeners may hear influences from composers such as Satie, Pärt, Ravel, Reich, Glass and Moondog in their music but might also find the soundtracks of Morricone and the minimalist aesthetics of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra nestled alongside the more experimental leanings of groups such as Rachel’s, Esmerine, Bell Orchestre and Amiina.

The quartet’s forthcoming album Inkling was recorded at various venues across Bristol, capturing their performances as unique 3D sound images enabling the listener to hear each instruments position mimicking the audible experience as a live audience member. Unlike their debut BEA, some of the compositions on Inkling also features a collection of guest musicians expanding their sound to an orchestral scale, featuring the addition of brass and percussion instruments.

In September 2019 the group released a double A-side single of Chase and Okemah Sundown from the album with accompanying videos by acclaimed Director/Cinematographer Fred Reed and stop-motion animator Marie Lechevallier.

Sub Rosa presents in their Early Electronic series, the final chapter of music by Beglian key composer of early electronic experiments, André Stordeur (1941-2020). Side A features a previously unreleased, stark and poignant composition from 1979; while the B side is vibrant and almost playful of pieces from the 2000s.

André Stordeur His musical career started in 1973 with a tape composition for the soundtrack to a film on Gordon Matta-Clark titled Office Baroque. Later in the 1970s, he participated to avantgarde music ensemble Studio voor Experimentele Muziek, founded in Antwerp, Flanders, by Joris De Laet. Since 1980, Stordeur composes exclusively on Serge synthesizer, either a Serge series 79 and a Serge prototype 1980, which was especially built for him by Serge Tcherepnin himself. In 1981, Stordeur composed the music of Belgian film director Christian Mesnil's documentary Du Zaïre au Congo. He studied at IRCAM in 1981 with David Wessel and then flew to the US to study with Morton Subotnick. Stordeur became an influential sound synthesis teacher and, in 1997, completed his Art of Analog Modular Synthesis by Voltage Control,4 a guide to everything modular.

Oberheim While 'Oberheim' is the centerpiece of this LP, we pressed for the first time on vinyl three pieces from the session André called 'Synthesis Studies,' previously featuring on Complete Analog and Digital Electronic Music, 1978-2000. 'I was helped in my studies by a must-have book: The Techniques of Electronic Music, by Thomas Wells and Eric Vogel (University Stores, 1974). That book aside, I learned synthesis on my own. After a trip to India in 1968, I discovered Indian music and took tabla and sitar classes in New Delhi; my teachers were students of Chatur Lal and Ravi Shankar. Later, in the 2000s, while living in the US, I tried to recreate through synthesis all the Indian musical instruments I loved so much.' 'Drone' is one of his most spectacular works.

Offering a multi-faceted LGBT+ experience, this stellar 1LP, pressed onto rose coloured vinyl, brings together old and new for the most fabulous musical accompaniment to your 2021 summer. £1 from each unit sold, will be donated to Stonewall in support of their work towards LGBT+ equality.

Side A, entitled ‘Queer Club Classics’, provides the perfect throwback snapshot of all your favourite queer tracks, including worldwide hits such as Cher’s “Believe” and Chaka Khan’s “I’m Every Woman”.

Whilst Side B, entitled ‘New Age Anthems’, is an assortment of the best music from more recent years. This collection combines tracks from LGBTQ+ artists such as the indie-legends Tegan and Sara, and pop pioneer L Devine, as well as popular songs within the LGBTQ+ community such as Lizzo’s charismatic feel-good bop, ‘Juice’.

After missing out on Pride celebrations in 2020 and with the summer of 2021 set to be the start of a long-awaited celebration of freedom, this vinyl release is a surefire way to keep up your spirits right the way through to summer 2022.

The band’s most experimental album, Anthem Of The Sun was an unprecedented mix of studio and live recordings stitched together to create a hybrid. More than fifty years later, it remains a pinnacle of psychedelic music. It also marked a departure for the band, as they began to channel their creativity into longer jams on songs like “Alligator” and “Caution (Do Not Stop On Tracks)” – two live staples of the Dead’s early days. During this period, the band included: Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart, and Bill Kreutzmann. The LP features a remastered version of the 1971 mix, mastered by Grammy®-winning engineer David Glasser from the original analog master tapes.

Alle Mann an Bord! Die weltbekannte Pirate Metal Drinking Crew ALESTORM nimmt euch auf ihrem
neuen Live-Album Live in Tilburg mit auf einen wilden, nassen Ritt durch die sieben Weltmeere! Mit
den ersten Sekunden des energiegeladenen ”Keelhauled” wird klar, dass ALESTORM eine der kreativsten
und einzigartigsten Live-Bands sind - und nach Tilburgs unglaublichem Live-Publikum von 3000 Leuten zu
urteilen, lässt die unvergleichliche Energie der Band niemanden stillstehen. Erfreut euch an ALESTORM‘s
Live-Show - mit jedermanns riesiger Lieblings-Gummiente und massenhaft Alkohol - ganz bequem von der
Couch aus! Hervorragend produziert und abgemischt vom renommierten Lasse Lammert, der bereits an
ALESTORMs Studioalben Curse Of The Crystal Coconut, No Grave But The Sea, und vielen anderen
beteiligt war, bietet Live in Tilburg eine packende Mischung aus ALESTORMs beliebtesten Hits wie ”Mexico”, ”Alestorm”, ”Hangover”, ”The Sunk’n Norwegian” und natürlich ”Fucked with an Anchor”. Das
Live-Album wird als splatterfarbene Doppel-LP mitSlipmat und Patch, sowie auf mintfarbenem und goldfarbenem Vinyl erhältlich sein. Die Special Edition von Live in Tilburg kommt in einer Holzbox, zusammen
mit einer CD+DVD, einem Mediabook und einer 7-inch Vinyl mit zwei brandneuen ALESTORM AkustikCoversongs! Live in Tilburg ist die Definition dessen, worum es bei ALESTORM geht - eine endlose
Quelle des stampfenden, riff-geladenen und piratenhaften Singalong-Spaßes. Ein Muss für alle lumpigen
Landratten!

The past year's lockdown has proved undeniably challenging to improvising musicians who typically thrive on face-to-face interaction. But bassist Mike Watt, drummer/percussionist Mike Pride, and guitarist/banjoist Brandon Seabrook have all built their careers on kicking down the barriers between genres, so why would they let a little pandemic-induced isolation and geographic distance stand in their way? Convening for the first time as Three-Layer Cake, these three dizzyingly inventive artists bake up a long-distance set of singular, boundary-defying collaborations on their combustible debut, Stove Top. Stove Top is uncategorizable in the best sense of the word, patching together elements of punk, free jazz, new music, no wave, doom metal, dub, avant-funk, and various subsectors of the experimental in such freewheeling and raucous fashion that the very idea of divvying them up into disparate inspirations seems laughable.

Born in San Francisco, Rickey Kelly moved to Los Angeles in 1982.

I first heard Rickey on the local Jazz station and that haunting sound on vibes was just too much to resist. He was working at Hughes Aircraft and didn't have time for gigging in the evening. He had to take care of his family which numbered about six children. I began booking his band soon after meeting him. An artist this blessed should not be working a day job I thought. Rickey soon quit his job at Hughes aircraft and began performing full time. Rickey stayed in his apartment for long periods of time just practising. He often mentioned to me that he needed to stay in isolation to keep his music pure. During Rickey's stay in L.A. he had worked with all the great jazz and R @ B bands. Musicians like altoist Bobby Watson, the legendary drummer Billy Higgins, The Jazz Crusaders, pianist Ahmad Jamal, and one of the most popular artists of his generation Marvin Gaye, often called on Rickey to perform with their bands. As great as these artists were, the addition of Rickey Kelly on vibes seemed to make their music better.Because of his isolation Rickey's music has developed a uniqueness and purity of sound that transcends styles. One reviewer described it as a "childlike quality, a profound innocence”. Relax and listen closely. This is music with a purpose

2008 saw fledgling filmmakers RKSS release a faux trailer for NINJA ELIMINATOR. It was a love letter to the kung fu flicks of Godfrey Ho they grew up watching, loaded with over-the-top acting, gory DIY effects & crazy vocal dubs. It was a massive hit with festival crowds. A then-unknown LE MATOS provided the score. Inspired by DAFT PUNK, ED BANGER & the whole French Techno scene, LE MATOS delivered a driving, pulsating & intense melodic score that helped solidify the blueprint for the singular sound they have today. This EP collects tracks from all three NINJA ELIMINATOR shorts and have been extensively reworked, remixed and remastered for this release. Includes download code and insert written by Aaron Veling.

‘Feels’ is Animal Collective’s sixth studio album,
originally released in 2008. The album features all
four band members - Avey Tare, Deakin, Geologist
and Panda Bear.
‘Sung Tongs’ is the band's fifth studio album.
Originally released in 2005, the album features
Avey Tare and Panda Bear.
Both albums available on 140g black double vinyl
in poly inner sleeves and gatefold jackets with
matte UV finish, plus digital download card.

For Jayda G, joy is a state of mind. Whether she transmits it through her upbeat productions or magnetic energy at the decks, the Canadian-born DJ and producer, real name Jayda Guy, is a beacon of empathy on the dancefloor. It's no surprise, then, that Jayda G's DJ-Kicks mix captures the buoyant spirit of the music that has influenced her most. "DJ-Kicks has been a personal goal of mine for a really long time. I've been a fan for decades now. I remember there was one mix by Chromeo and it had some French disco on it that always stood out in my mind," she remembers. Clocking in at just over an hour, Guy's mixtakes you on a journey that moves through loved classics and new bubblers. The mix contains Jayda's Brand new single "All I Need", the follow up to Grammy Nominated breakthrough single "Both Of Us", a slinky house tune co-produced with James Ford that fizzes with shimmering energy. A rallying cry for kinship and understanding, Guy's insouciant vocals insist "all I need is you to hear me", gliding across the perfectly swung house beat. "Because the mix was made during the pandemic, I thought, 'What music makes me happy?' I want people to feel like they know me. I wanted it to be approachable, still honouring the disco and soul music that I love. I hope that translates in some shape or form."

TRANSPARENT ORANGE VINYL

For Jayda G, joy is a state of mind. Whether she transmits it through her upbeat productions or magnetic energy at the decks, the Canadian-born DJ and producer, real name Jayda Guy, is a beacon of empathy on the dancefloor. It's no surprise, then, that Jayda G's DJ-Kicks mix captures the buoyant spirit of the music that has influenced her most. "DJ-Kicks has been a personal goal of mine for a really long time. I've been a fan for decades now. I remember there was one mix by Chromeo and it had some French disco on it that always stood out in my mind," she remembers. Clocking in at just over an hour, Guy's mixtakes you on a journey that moves through loved classics and new bubblers. The mix contains Jayda's Brand new single "All I Need", the follow up to Grammy Nominated breakthrough single "Both Of Us", a slinky house tune co-produced with James Ford that fizzes with shimmering energy. A rallying cry for kinship and understanding, Guy's insouciant vocals insist "all I need is you to hear me", gliding across the perfectly swung house beat. "Because the mix was made during the pandemic, I thought, 'What music makes me happy?' I want people to feel like they know me. I wanted it to be approachable, still honouring the disco and soul music that I love. I hope that translates in some shape or form."

While the powerhouses of the loose Native Tongue collective were undoubtedly De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest and the Jungle Brothers, the wider family threw up some intriguing groups and unforgettable records.

Black Sheep – the duo of Dres and Mr Lawnge – were a natural fit for the Native Tongue vibe, displaying the same kind of wit and humour as their counterparts, with an off-kilter approach that helped them stand out.

While they only released one truly amazing album – their debut ‘A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing’ was a standout in 1991, one of hip-hop’s best years for LP’s – it spawned five unique singles, with this the first one that really garnered any attention.

While it wasn’t a smash hit outside of hip-hop circles, it showcased their approach perfectly – sinuous rhymes, clever wordplay and a hint of flirtation. If the drums sound familiar, it’s because it’s the same Joe Farrell break – the intro to 1974’s ‘Upon This Rock’ – that Kanye West later used for ‘Gone’. Add in some horns from Herb Alpert and The Tijuana Brass and you’ve got a funky little earworm.

They return to the same Joe Farrell well for the flip, ‘Butt… In the Meantime’, because if the break isn’t broke, don’t fix it. Previously unavailable on 7”, this brace of 1991 sureshots is the perfect introduction to the idiosyncrasies of the Native Tongue era.

After severals EPs on labels such as Lumière Noir, Kill the DJs or Bahnsteig 23, here is the first album of french duo Il Est Vilaine, infused with a "Yellow Magic Orchestra-ish" touch, rooted in the french musical landscape.

A road trip in Brittany as a red thread, the two hooligans of Il Est Vilaine revisit Kawaii pop, crazy rock like DEVO and Detroit techno with a surprising coherence. An album long matured and awaited by the band's fans.

Il Est Vilaine aren’t Bretons, but they sure are tricksters. The Francophiles among you might have caught on to the corny pun in their name (beating a certain presidential candidate to the punch all while turning the name of the pastoral Ille-et-Vilaine region into, literally, “he’s a nasty woman,”) but the real takeaway is that these born-and-bred Parisians don’t take themselves too seriously – especially in an era in which there is much too much of that happening.
It was in 2014 (and on Dialect Recordings) that Florent and Simon tossed their debut 12” into the ring, the rightfully named Scandale – a tight little bombshell released that roused the electronic music scene out of its complacent little catnap.
So there we had it, two outcasts refusing to eat at the same table as the tech-house scene queens, serving up three whiplash-on-the-dancefloor cuts drenched in sweaty hedonistic disco and wrapped in a battered motorcycle jacket (with a gooey post-punk-pop core for good measure.) A clear mission statement right out of the gates, watermarked with mystical incantations and throbbing with rock ’n’ roll’s primitive drive. Everything and the kitchen sink, and a bag of chips – an invitation to just let lose that’s even better than the sum of its parts.

Soft-spoken with the look of a slightly disaffected 1950s matinee idol, Aaron Frazer possesses a unique voice that's both contemporary and timeless. On Introducing... -- his debut solo album produced by The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach, co-released on Easy Eye Sound and Dead Oceans -- Aaron melds mid-`60s soul with Auerbach's particular sensibilities (`Over You'), songs with a message in the key of Gil Scott-Heron (`Bad News'), and uplifting tales of love told through a blend of disco, gospel, and doo-wop (`Have Mercy'). The Brooklyn-based, Baltimore-raised songwriter first came into the international spotlight as multi-instrumentalist and colead singer of Durand Jones & The Indications, but he's more than a revivalist act. "I didn't want Introducing... to be an exact recreation of an era or a style," Frazer says. "I'm excited to keep breaking some of the expectations around what exactly I'm supposed to be artistically and musically, or what this scene as a whole can be." On Introducing..., Aaron expertly calibrates consciousness-raising and the desire to be enveloped by love. Where previous records were written in a partial state of turmoil, Aaron's debut LP shows maturation and range. Introducing... is both loving and gracious, critical without losing hope, and a showcase of a young artist on a seriously soulful ascent.

Five years after the release of ‘Pressure Loss’ the modern master of electronic minimalism Nicola Ratti returns to Where To Now? in collaboration with Japanese MC ‘MA’, for a suite of submerged, outsider Trip-Hop.

‘Shinkai’ meets at the crossroads of the gloomy sonic snapshot world of Tricky, the South London DIY avant pop bloom of Curl/Mica Levi, the outer fringes of Hip-Hop heralded by the Anticon crew, and the deep textured minimalism of Machinfabriek.

‘Shinkai’ heralds the first time Nicola Ratti has worked with a vocalist, and MA’s unique brand of ritualistic vocal methods and experimental approaches to intonation and inflexion only enhances Ratti’s otherworldly soundscapes. The depth of meaning behind MA’s lyrics further expands this sprawling sound world, revealing a twisted beauty, a deep insight into the melancholic world MA reflects upon within his abstract wordplay – on ‘Suiso’ MA laments above Ratti’s mourning electronics….

“A ship with the wind in the sails erased a path to the skies.

Gone forever,
In sandy finality,
A scene never to be repeated,
Never to be understood.

Never to hatch,
Dreams of never continuing beyond the crossroads
A painting dissipates as the allure runs dry
Without consulting the dusk, dawn never arrives.

Agonising over the silence brought on by a stumble,
Attacked from all angles until I find my ground once more.
What comes next does not matter - just as long as it comes.
A not-so-distant-future, born from certain uncertainty.

Let me face it with wavering reservations,
Bury me in it
My sins left unanswered
Cover the snow on which it falls.

An unthawing aquarium.
An unanswering aquarium.

Hiding, evolving, recollecting, transferring,
A precarious contradiction befalls.
Timeframes cut, edited and replaced with resentment
The ritual aesthetics of a secret ceremony.

The thoughts of once again,
Fills me with dread and rage.
Painted in blood.

Alas, it was fun...”

On the surface this is an unlikely (yet inspired) collaboration – MA has been a part of the Tokyo Hip-Hop underground for many years, over which time he has stylistically leapt into noisier, more experimental territories. We have Rabih Beaini to thank for shining a light on MA’s talents, with the 2019 LP ‘AMA’ being released on Morphine records, and Beaini opening new doors for experimentation and collaboration.

‘Shinkai’ was composed and recorded between January and April 2020. The pair had met a couple of times in Japan first and then in Europe, undertaking a live collaborative experiment combining sounds and words that had not been designed to be performed together, ‘Shinkai’ reflects the fluidity of this encounter and is in essence a consequence of it.

Ratti assigns the following poetic grounding to the intentions and thematic form of the album – “Shinkai means deep sea, a place most of us will never see except on the surface. The sea depths do not belong to us, they are not places for us, we do not know them and they disturb us, they are a material that we can look at without seeing. I have always thought that height, verticality in general, was not a familiar dimension except in relation to our physicality. The horizon reassures us, the depth disturbs us. The Italian language is written and read horizontally, from left to right, the Japanese language can be written vertically and read from right to left. Does the horizon still reassure us?”

After a long wait, and restructure of our releases due to The Pandemic, we decided that our next EP had to represent the times that we miss on the dancefloor as well as the glimmer of hope that dance music has given us through these surreal times.

Hardt Antoine steps up for his second independent Reculture release with two originals.

‘Tonight’ is an emotional downtempo track resonating feelings missed from a less bleak time. The track is carried through its 80s style bassline, emotive vocal cuts and cinematic feel. Evolving from a mellow and hypnotic aura and transformed by the tracks drums and percussive elements

‘Are You There’ brings together elements of acid, percussion and a rolling bassline that keeps your feet moving - an ode to the dancefloor. Are You There's liveliness creates an energetic atmosphere guided by melodic colours. The vocals within the track opens a dialogue between the music and the listener that creates a symbiotic relationship between DJ and those on the Dancefloor.

Every Dunbarrow album has a hauntingly classic sound of, in the band’s own
words, “an eerie rawness.” But their third album feels like you’ve discovered a
mysterious half-century old recording tucked away in a decrepit abandoned
mansion. Perhaps there’s a note attached, begging its courier to beware. Alas,
whoever possessed the tape apparently never survived. ...that is to say, it feels like there’s a solemn
story to this album, not just in the
lyrics, but in the sound itself. Much like
the eponymous debut of Black Sabbath,
the band uses subtle sound effects to
dramatically set the scene for its mostly
clean tones and masterful use of open
space for which the band has become
known. But unlike their first two albums,
this one does see the band branching
out just a bit into heavier, more distorted
guitars. The result is a much more
in-your-face sound, while retaining the
Haugesund, Norway quintet’s masterful
proto-metal sound.
The album opens with the sound of falling
rain as Lønning and Eirik Øvregård’s
guitars seep into the speakers like
funereal bells and haunted drones on
“Death That Never Dies.” Drummer Pål
Gunnar Dale slams down three snare
beats as bassist Sondre Berge Engedal
slinks in harmony over it all. Andersen’s
crisp vocals paint a bleak picture of
dark perdition until the band slips into
a swaggering piano-led coda reminiscent
of “Sabbra Cadabra.” The 7-minute
psychedelic folk masterpiece “Turn In
Your Grave” is the album centerpiece,
replete with mournfully shimmering
Mellotron and bleak folkloric lyrics. Its
hypnotically spinning guitar notes and
old European parlando-rubato singing
hearken to dark early Steeleye Span with
a sinister edge. “In My Heart” perfectly
showcases the band’s penchant for folk
based, yet head-banging riffs that break
with tradition that has stilted modern
heavy music.
“I think with this record, we have managed
to create our own unique sound
with its own Dunbarrow tag,” says the
band. With that sound comes the perfect
artwork: A cover illustration from the
early 1900’s by artist Harry Clarke from
his work for Edgar Allen Poe’s Tales of
Mystery and Imagination.

Mdous Musik hat ihre Wurzeln zwar in traditionellen Tuareg-Melodien, gibt aber auch immer wieder Einflüsse von u.a. Eddie Van Halen preis. Neben Mdou besteht die Band aus Bassist und Producer Mikey Coltun, Drummer Souleymane Ibrahim und Gitarrist Ahmoudou Madassane. Zusammen haben sie längst auf ausgiebigen Touren bewiesen, dass sie nicht nur heimische Hochzeitsfeiern rocken können, sondern ebenso Festivalbühnen auf der anderen Seite der Erdkugel. Dabei beherrschen sie sowohl den hypnotischen Boogie von Black Sabbath der Masters of Reality-Ära, als auch den erhabenen elektrisierenden Groove von Black Uhuru. Mdou Moctar lebt in Agadez im Niger, einer eher ländlichen Gegend, die wie eine kleine Oase mitten in der Sahara wirkt. Hier entsteht auch ein Großteil seiner Musik, die ihn in West-Afrika zu einer echten Berühmtheit hat werden lassen. Verbreitet haben sich seine Sounds dort nicht durch das Internet und Social Media, sondern über die Speicherkarten aus Mobiltelefonen, die wie Tapes weitergegeben und getauscht werden und wie analog-digitales Lauffeuer durch das Land gehen. Den internationalen Durchbruch schaffte Mdou Moctar 2019 mit dem Album "Ilana: The Creator". Mit seiner vierköpfigen Band reiste Moctar anschließend durch die Welt und wurde schnell zum inoffiziellen Botschafter seines Landes. Nun liegt der langerwartete Nachfolger vor.

Fiddlehead wasn’t supposed to make a second record. But, if we’re being totally honest, they weren’t supposed to make their first record either. Formed in what singer Pat Flynn describes as “a deeply, deeply, laughably depressing part of my life,” Fiddlehead was born with modest intentions. Flynn and his then-roommate, guitarist Alex Dow, decided to work on some songs, and with Basement having just broken up, guitarist Alex Henery entered the fold. Drummer Shawn Costa and bassist Adam Gonsalves—who has since been replaced by Casey Nealon—linked up with them and, all together, they wrote what would become the Out Of The Bloom EP. Those five songs established what Fiddlehead would be, a band that merged elements of post-hardcore, post-punk, and classic ‘80s emo into something that felt distinctly theirs.

Between The Richness effectively picks up where Springtime & Blind left off, as Flynn dives headfirst into that same subject. But astute listeners will notice a major difference this time: Flynn is singing about himself. “These massive things happened in my life between the first record and this record. It just so happened that I ended up getting married, I had a child, and it was around the 10-year anniversary of my father’s passing. So what if I want to write another record about how I feel about the loss of my father? Will people be like, ‘Pick another topic, dude.’ So, the opening track is called ‘Grief Motif’ because it’s the idea that this is an eternal struggle that will never go away. Take it or leave it, but it will be part of this dude as long as he’s got a pen in the hand.”

Between The Richness explodes with an energy that usurps that of Springtime & Blind. The guitar riffs of Dow and Henery are their most anthemic and combustive yet, making songs like “The Years,” “Get My Mind Right,” and “Down University” not just serve as the backbone for Flynn’s personal ruminations, but empathetic, emotional musical stabs that hit the listener just as hard. Meanwhile, Costa and Nealon give the songs a propulsive heft, allowing a track like “Million Times” to dart into unexpected territories without ever feeling alien

Fiddlehead wasn’t supposed to make a second record. But, if we’re being totally honest, they weren’t supposed to make their first record either. Formed in what singer Pat Flynn describes as “a deeply, deeply, laughably depressing part of my life,” Fiddlehead was born with modest intentions. Flynn and his then-roommate, guitarist Alex Dow, decided to work on some songs, and with Basement having just broken up, guitarist Alex Henery entered the fold. Drummer Shawn Costa and bassist Adam Gonsalves—who has since been replaced by Casey Nealon—linked up with them and, all together, they wrote what would become the Out Of The Bloom EP. Those five songs established what Fiddlehead would be, a band that merged elements of post-hardcore, post-punk, and classic ‘80s emo into something that felt distinctly theirs.

Between The Richness effectively picks up where Springtime & Blind left off, as Flynn dives headfirst into that same subject. But astute listeners will notice a major difference this time: Flynn is singing about himself. “These massive things happened in my life between the first record and this record. It just so happened that I ended up getting married, I had a child, and it was around the 10-year anniversary of my father’s passing. So what if I want to write another record about how I feel about the loss of my father? Will people be like, ‘Pick another topic, dude.’ So, the opening track is called ‘Grief Motif’ because it’s the idea that this is an eternal struggle that will never go away. Take it or leave it, but it will be part of this dude as long as he’s got a pen in the hand.”

Between The Richness explodes with an energy that usurps that of Springtime & Blind. The guitar riffs of Dow and Henery are their most anthemic and combustive yet, making songs like “The Years,” “Get My Mind Right,” and “Down University” not just serve as the backbone for Flynn’s personal ruminations, but empathetic, emotional musical stabs that hit the listener just as hard. Meanwhile, Costa and Nealon give the songs a propulsive heft, allowing a track like “Million Times” to dart into unexpected territories without ever feeling alien

It took German metalcore vets, CALIBAN recording a cover of Rammstein’s “Sonne” to realize that their native tongue was a seamless fit with their time tempered collision of punishing riffs and Andreas Dörner’s urgent vocals. With fans hungry for the Essen-borne quintet to record an album exclusively in German, the band simply said: “Why not?” and “Zeitgeister” was born. 11 genre-defining LPs deep into their career, the band’s vision for the album came naturally – a career retrospective and deep-dive into CALIBAN favorites that haven’t had a live airing in some time. “It wasn’t an easy decision, but once we allowed us to make them as different from the originals as we felt it was needed it came fairly naturally”, explains guitarist and main songwriter Marc Görtz. Of course, some updating was necessary when it came to translating the songs to German. “It turned out to be surprisingly tricky,” says Dörner. “While I feel more at home with my native German it made it a lot more complicated, as I had more options to phrase something.” Formed in 1997, CALIBAN’s legacy has been a tireless one, touring the globe and sharing stages with the likes of Slayer, Kreator, Killswitch Engage and many more, “Zeitgeister” was a welcome homecoming. With the help of long-running producer Benjamin Richter (Moonspell, Emil Bulls and more) CALIBAN hand-picked seven tracks to bring new life to: “Trauma“ (feat. Matthi from Nasty, “Arena Of Concealment”), “Herz” (“I Will Never Let You Down”), “Ausbruch nach Innen“ (“Tyranny Of Small Misery”), “Feuer, zieh mit mir“ (“Between The Worlds”), “Nichts ist für immer“ (“All I Gave”), “Intoleranz“ (“Intolerance”). “Mein Inferno” (“My Little Secret”). “Zeitgeister” also boasts a new track, “nICHts”. “It’s a song about feeling disoriented and hopeless, about depression and feeling powerless. Feelings that many of us can probably relate to during these days”, says Dörner.

Debut solo album by the Red River Dialect songwriter. Recorded at the Hotel2Tango, Montreal, by Howard Bilerman. Featuring Thor Harris (Swans, Thor & Friends, Shearwater) on drums and Thierry Amar (GYBE!, ASMZ) on bass, with guest appearances from Tom Relleen (RIP) (Tomaga, Melos Kalpa), Catrin Vincent (Another Sky) and Coral Rose (The Silver Field, Red River Dialect).
David has written five critically acclaimed collections of songs under the Red River Dialect name. The last two albums (released by Paradise of Bachelors) achieved a glowing Pitchfork review and a Folk Album of the Month award from the Guardian. Selected press below.
“Folk Album of the Month. Alert, anti-colonialist folk. Songwriter David Morris brings alternate seduction and disquiet on this worldly album steeped in the British landscape... a wide-eyed, curious creature, willingly alert to the world.” – 4/5 The Guardian
“Animated with a new intensity, the Cornwall band’s fifth album may be its most ingenious and immersive mix of folk and rock yet. It’s also Morris’ most compelling set of songs. He invests small sensations with outsize power, finding joy in sensory pleasures as well as in the mystical inquests that music allows. Even as the record is steeped in the long history of British folk music, that balance of the tactile and the spiritual anchors these songs in the present moment.” – Pitchfork
“The most underrated folk-rock band in Britain. The idea of them as a Cornish-born, Buddhist-inclined Waterboys is more potent than ever. Their fifth album of elementally-battered, rueful and rousing folk-rock ... is as stirringly anthemic as they've managed thus far.” – MOJO
“A beguilingly atmospheric record… imagine Steve Gunn transplanted to Kernow.” – Clash
“Gorgeous and moving, anchored by the heft of the physical but reaching for more. The epic spareness, the way it manages to be both still and an enveloping swirl, reminds me most of Talk Talk. There’s a prayerful intensity to the quiet bits, a listening, wondering awe, that makes the rock payoffs more powerful. The album works as a restless, searching, gorgeous whole. Morris and his band have never been better.” – Dusted
“It’s not often that a band comes along and over the course of nine songs both plays to the tradition and stands it on its ear. RRD has taken the challenge of playing with reckless abandon to heart, generating an album that stands on the shoulder of giants showing no fear.” Folk Radio

Monastic Love Songs continues the tradition that David has established over the course of five albums with Red River Dialect: using a song cycle to articulate a relationship with inner and outer landscapes, inspired by the Taoist approach of observing the movement of the heavens in order to understand the cosmos within, and vice versa. The joyful closing track Inner Smile was initially written as a poem of thanks to his Tai Chi teacher Hollis and takes its name from a Taoist practice.
The songs were written during the final weeks of a nine-month retreat at Gampo Abbey, a Buddhist monastery in Nova Scotia where David took ordination as Buddhist monk. The album title is sincere, with a little tongue-in-cheek. The songs mostly explore human relationships within the community, with outliers: Gone Beyond shimmers with cosmic devotion, in Rhododendron a reverie grows from the shadow of a flower. Steadfast concerns the love to be found beyond the urge to like and be liked, when you can’t avoid that difficult person. Leonard Cohen, on his six years living in a monastery:
“You know, there’s a Zen saying: ‘Like pebbles in a bag, the monks polish one another.’
David considers this album to be a follow up to 2015’s Tender Gold and Gentle Blue. The cover of that lp featured an image of him on top of Skellig Michael, in the years before the island was made famous as the home of the Jedi. He considers the visit to that abandoned Celtic monastic site to be one of the influences that stirred up his motivation. Skeleton Key speaks of what was given up to go, and what he was giving up to leave, referencing the Tibetan concept of the ‘bardo of becoming’.
The album came about through a series of fortunate encounters. David’s friend Tom Relleen visited him at the Abbey in May 2019, mentioning a postponed plan to visit the Hotel2Tango. A spark was sown: this studio had long figured in David’s imagination. Many of the releases on Constellation Records, which he had become a die-hard fan of in his teens, were recorded there. Tom contributed some Buchla synthesizer to the opener New Safe, which concerns healing in emptiness and light.
In May David was given permission by the senior monastics to acquire a guitar, which was swiftly baptised as “Malibu Barbie”. Having let the identity of being a songwriter loosen up, not playing an instrument in six months, he was unsure what would happen. In the single hour he was permitted to practice each day, songs began to cascade. The first, Purple Gold, concerns a reacquaintance with first love. David wrote to the Hotel2Tango asking if they had any days available in mid-July?
Engineer and studio co-owner Howard Bilerman replied that they did, and a date was set. Did Howard know any local drummers or bass players who might do a session? He did, too many to choose from, what kind of style? David decided to ask for his ideal: did Thierry from Godspeed ever do sessions? Howard sent him the demos. Thierry was up for it. On the day he went deep into the cover of traditional song Rosemary Lane, his double bass singing on this and on Circus Wagon.
David asked if there were any local drummers he would recommend? Thierry said “many, what style?” David tried his luck again, “two of my favourite drummers are Thor Harris and Jim White.” Thierry said let’s invite them. Thor, having met David a decade earlier, flew from Austin to Montreal for that July day in the studio. Nine months of watching thoughts come and go in meditation helped David recognise this as an opportunity to practice enjoying the day without expectations.
He is, however, grateful that this album came out the way it did, channelling some of what it was like to live those nine months in a monastery overlooking the Gulf of St Lawrence, frozen and flowing.

Mixed by Jimmy Robertson at SNAFU, London, mastered by DenisBlackham.

Domino are immensely proud to announce the signing of my bloody
valentine, with new physical editions of the band’s seminal catalogue
being made available. ‘Isn’t Anything’ and ‘loveless’ have been
mastered fully analogue for deluxe LPs and also mastered from new
hi-res uncompressed digital sources for standard LPs, with each
being made available widely for the first time ever. Fully analogue
cuts of ‘m b v’ will also be available on deluxe and standard LPs
globally for the first time.
my bloody valentine, the quartet of Bilinda Butcher, Kevin Shields,
Deb Googe and Colm Ó Cíosóig, are widely revered as one of the
most ground-breaking and influential groups of the past forty years.
During an era in which guitar bands denoted, at best, a retroclassicism, not only did my bloody valentine sound unlike any of their
contemporaries, the band achieved the rare feat of sounding like the
future.
With their debut album, ‘Isn’t Anything’ (originally released in 1988),
my bloody valentine revolutionised alternative music and heralded a
new approach to guitar music for generations to come. The album
birthed a sound which became a template for thousands of new
subgenres, heralding a new approach to guitar music and studio
production. Not only was it a new type of music, it paved the way for a
new type of journalism; inciting comparisons to elemental
phenomenon, tapping into how the music affected the psyche.
Shields and Butcher frequently sang in a similar vocal range that
allowed their voices to blend together. This had the effect of making
their gender indistinguishable, to the point where their voices could
be used as another melodic layer to complement the vertigo-inducing
sounds made by Shields’ guitars. It is a record characterised by the
ominous sense of space that inhabits many of its songs, which
veered between the harried and propulsive, to the subdued and eerie.

Toronto-based punk rockers Billy Talent released their fifth studio album Afraid of Heights in 2016. Preceded by the strong singles “Afraid of Heights”, “Louder than the DJ” and “Ghost Ship of Cannibal Rats”, the album became both a critical and a commercial success. It hit number 1 on the album charts in several countries including their native Canada. It is the first album with drummer Jordan Hastings (of Alexisonfire fame), after drummer Aaron Solowoniuk announced he would not be able to play drums for the foreseeable future due to a multiple sclerosis relapse. However, Solowoniuk very much remained part of the band and was involved in the recording of the album. It was a new chapter for Billy Talent, but the trusted high-energy punk rock that they are known for remains more than solid. Just listen to the thumping “The Crutch” or the introspective epic “Rabbit Down The Hole”.

The album is released as a limited edition of 3000 individually numbered copies on bloody mary (transparent red & solid white & black mixed) coloured vinyl. It is housed in a UV matte finished gatefold sleeve, which also contains a 4-page booklet and an exclusive art print by Igor Hofbauer.

Domino are immensely proud to announce the signing of my bloody
valentine, with new physical editions of the band’s seminal catalogue
being made available. ‘Isn’t Anything’ and ‘loveless’ have been
mastered fully analogue for deluxe LPs and also mastered from new
hi-res uncompressed digital sources for standard LPs, with each
being made available widely for the first time ever. Fully analogue
cuts of ‘m b v’ will also be available on deluxe and standard LPs
globally for the first time.
my bloody valentine, the quartet of Bilinda Butcher, Kevin Shields,
Deb Googe and Colm Ó Cíosóig, are widely revered as one of the
most ground-breaking and influential groups of the past forty years.
During an era in which guitar bands denoted, at best, a retroclassicism, not only did my bloody valentine sound unlike any of their
contemporaries, the band achieved the rare feat of sounding like the
future.
The second my bloody valentine album, ‘loveless’, was released in
1991. Musically, it took an unexpected leap forwards, standing ahead
of anything released at the time. Shields and the band moved further
towards a music of pure sensation, creating textures and tones that
could be felt as much as heard; with ‘loveless’ the band created an
album that overwhelmed the senses. ‘loveless’ is widely considered a
flawless whole and rightly regarded as a masterpiece; a 1990s
equivalent to ‘Pet Sounds’, ‘In A Silent Way’ or ‘Innervisions’, a record
constructed by exploring the edges of what a recording studio is
capable of. It is a record best experienced as a whole, in one sitting -
a listening experience like no other and unmatchable in its sonic
brevity.

Domino are immensely proud to announce the signing of my bloody
valentine, with new physical editions of the band’s seminal catalogue
being made available. ‘Isn’t Anything’ and ‘loveless’ have been
mastered fully analogue for deluxe LPs and also mastered from new
hi-res uncompressed digital sources for standard LPs, with each
being made available widely for the first time ever. Fully analogue
cuts of ‘m b v’ will also be available on deluxe and standard LPs
globally for the first time.
my bloody valentine, the quartet of Bilinda Butcher, Kevin Shields,
Deb Googe and Colm Ó Cíosóig, are widely revered as one of the
most ground-breaking and influential groups of the past forty years.
During an era in which guitar bands denoted, at best, a retroclassicism, not only did my bloody valentine sound unlike any of their
contemporaries, the band achieved the rare feat of sounding like the
future.
Re-emerging in 2013, after two full decades in relative hiding, my
bloody valentine’s third album, ‘m b v’, is by turns their most
experimental record but also their most melodic and immediate; proof
real of their unerring desire for re-invention. Continuing to push
boundaries of both music and genre, ‘m b v’ is an album of
astonishing music, some of which could lay claim to being of a type
never been made before. Otherworldly, intimate and a visceral listen,
‘m b v’ is a startling and beautiful metamorphosis of what was known
of the my bloody valentine sound, pushing the boundaries of genre
unlike any other band. The album’s closer, ‘wonder 2’, is an example
of this, seeing Shields meld hypnotic guitar with drum & bass to
astonishing result.

Hella Love, the Hardly Art debut from Marinero, is an album about closing a chapter. It’s Jess Sylvester’s grand farewell, and love letter to his hometown and the place he grew up, The San Francisco Bay Area, before relocating to Los Angeles after finishing his debut release. Using the moniker Marinero (which means “sailor” in Spanish), Jess Sylvester was drawn to this name as a means to honor his parent’s stories -- his father, a sailor, and mother, a Mexican-American who grew up in San Francisco. This record blends many worlds from beginning to end, and as you go deeper it hits harder. It’s his goodbye to The Bay. Pulling sonic influences from classic Latin American groups and international composers from the 60’s & 70’s: Los Terricolas, Ennio Morricone, Esquivel, Carole King and, Serge Gainsbourg Hella Love finds Sylvester fusing classical arrangements with a variety of different genres, evoking a sonic nostalgia blended with other contemporary artists like Chicano Batman, Connan Mockasin, and Chris Cohen. The album was written, played, and produced by Jess Sylvester with help from Bay Area engineer Jason Kick (Mild High Club’s Skiptracing) at Tunnel Vision and Santo Recording in Oakland, California. On the standout single “Nuestra Victoria,” Sylvester shares “It’s my way of talking about gentrification in SF, or specifically the Mission where my mom and family grew up. The song is about a bakery, or panaderia called La Victoria, and was a place where my mother and tias went growing up, a place I also went to that is no longer there.” It was one of the oldest Mexican-American businesses in SF and I wanted to honor it”. “Through the Fog” highlights Sylvester’s exploration of his influences from the Tropicalia movement, weaving bossa rhythms with lush percussion and orchestration. Using SF’s infamous fog as a metaphor for “tough times”, Sylvester expands that it is a dedication to his friends and family who have helped him get through substance abuse issues, heartbreak, and other painful experiences. “There are a few easter eggs in the lyrics for Bay Area folks or people who have followed my music in the past but it’s mostly about getting through something difficult with the love and support from the homies and fam.” The album’s title track, “Hella Love,” summarizes both of his parent’s stories of how they ended up in the bay. The first verse is about his father’s voyage out west as a sailor during the late ’60s while the second verse follows his mother’s experience moving to The Mission District when she was a young girl.


It’s difficult to classify or generalize about Marinero’s music or identity. To him, it’s important to let his music do the talking. “I’m Chicanx, a bay native, biracial, and I’ve luckily gotten to travel and spend time in Mexico and I feel like my personality and specific musical tastes come through on this album. More than these generalizations we often make, I’m just a human who can both fear and love, and I’m just hoping to connect with others to share optimism and experience joy and laughter, even if for a moment.” Lean your ear to the ground because Jess Sylvester has been many things and will continue to share his journey. It is clear this gifted creator has more to say.
-Luz Elena Mendoza

Australian artist Indigo Sparke has signed to Sacred Bones and announced a new release date for her debut album, echo, now due May 21st. To celebrate, she has shared a video for the album's latest single "Everything Everything."

Of the song, Sparke says "I wrote this song not long after coming back from a magical castle in Italy where a group of us had been making music and soaking in the golden honey days. I met a beautiful human Shahzad Ismaily who had discovered I also write poetry. One night around midnight he called across the castle and asked me to come over and speak some of my poetry over an instrumental track he had recorded. The only thing he asked me to do was to sing a line or so if I felt it. That song was dog bark echo. He invited me back to NYC and I was living in his empty spare room in Brooklyn briefly. I borrowed this little parlour guitar of his and completely fell in love. I just sat in that room for hours and days playing around and just laying next to the guitar looking at the ceiling thinking about life and death and the poetry of it all. How life and death will hold us up to light. How grief ripens inside us

all and we all decay and everything changes and flies away. I remember feeling this liberating sense of freedom and melancholic nostalgia. It was so hot and the wind almost blew through from a different dimension or plane. I guess the song came through from that place too. It just came out. I can almost still feel that time on my skin, or in my breath."

Indigo Sparke brings her deeply personal lived experiences to her music, highlighting the spaces between the polarity of softness and grit. Pulling from her experiences of addiction, of healing, of queerness, of heartbreak, of joy, of connection, of the softness and of the grit alchemizing it all into tenderness through her music, she conjures up a myriad of feelings that is undeniably potent.

echo was co-produced by Sparke, Big Thief's Adrianne Lenker and Andrew Sarlo.

Australian artist Indigo Sparke has signed to Sacred Bones and announced a new release date for her debut album, echo, now due May 21st. To celebrate, she has shared a video for the album's latest single "Everything Everything."

Of the song, Sparke says "I wrote this song not long after coming back from a magical castle in Italy where a group of us had been making music and soaking in the golden honey days. I met a beautiful human Shahzad Ismaily who had discovered I also write poetry. One night around midnight he called across the castle and asked me to come over and speak some of my poetry over an instrumental track he had recorded. The only thing he asked me to do was to sing a line or so if I felt it. That song was dog bark echo. He invited me back to NYC and I was living in his empty spare room in Brooklyn briefly. I borrowed this little parlour guitar of his and completely fell in love. I just sat in that room for hours and days playing around and just laying next to the guitar looking at the ceiling thinking about life and death and the poetry of it all. How life and death will hold us up to light. How grief ripens inside us

all and we all decay and everything changes and flies away. I remember feeling this liberating sense of freedom and melancholic nostalgia. It was so hot and the wind almost blew through from a different dimension or plane. I guess the song came through from that place too. It just came out. I can almost still feel that time on my skin, or in my breath."

Indigo Sparke brings her deeply personal lived experiences to her music, highlighting the spaces between the polarity of softness and grit. Pulling from her experiences of addiction, of healing, of queerness, of heartbreak, of joy, of connection, of the softness and of the grit alchemizing it all into tenderness through her music, she conjures up a myriad of feelings that is undeniably potent.

echo was co-produced by Sparke, Big Thief's Adrianne Lenker and Andrew Sarlo.

Stiletti Ana, part of the dreamy sunbathed electronic duo “Jesse” and top tier in Finnish music production is releasing a new solo album, “I’m an arpeggiator” on Höga Nord Rekords. This album carries similarities to Jesse in both production and sounds but hides more ancient wisdom. A refined sound but with more edges left sharp and more of a mysterious vibe.

As the sound professor he is, Stiletti Ana takes you in a tour of his vast collection of vintage synthesisers and in centre of attention sits the arpeggiator (hence the album title) which gives the sound much of its repetitive character. Recorded in the legendary Haista II-studio outside Helsinki, “I’m an arpeggiator” channels the energies from the waters and forest surrounding the studio, giving the music its’s escapistic and romantic character.

This record is a transcendental trip down the paths of Boards of Canada and Manuel Göttsching, dedicated to the ancient Babylonian fishing god, Dagan.

‘Sharecropper’s Son’ is a soulful masterpiece and career-defining album
from Robert Finley, “the greatest living soul singer”, written by Finley and
co-written and produced by Dan Auerbach.
With songwriting by Finley, Auerbach, Bobby Wood, and contributions from respected country songwriter Pat McLaughlin, ‘Sharecropper’s Son’ also features
an all-star band, who have worked with everyone from Elvis to Wilson Pickett,
including guitar expertise from Auerbach himself.
Recorded at Easy Eye Sound studio in Nashville, Finley’s formidable vocals and
lyrical stylings take centre stage, sharing personal stories inspired by his Louisiana country childhood during the Jim Crow era south. His tales of pain and joy
uplift as Finley reflects on his belief that you are never too young to dream and
never too old to live.
The fire behind the conflagrant performances on ‘Sharecropper’s Son’ is ignited by 67 year old Finley, who has cited a range of vocal influences, including
Al Green, Jimi Hendrix, Ray Charles, Elvis, James Brown and The Beatles, all
inspiring his genre diverse approach. Finley stated, “I want people to understand that I can’t be kept in a box. I like to do all kinds of music - everything that
means anything to me, from gospel to blues to soul to country to rock ‘n’ roll.”
“A blind carpenter and army vet is revealed, belatedly, to be a herculean soulman.” – UNCUT

Schlendergang und Sprint. Verweilen und Aufbruch. Melancholisch reminiszierend, aber den Blick stets vorwärtsgewandt - schon seit ihrer Gründung ziehen sich duale Gegensätze wie ein roter Faden durch das Schaffen der Hamburger Indie/Dreampop-Band Scotch & Water und genau in diesem Spannungsfeld schwingt auch ihr Debütalbum "Sirens". Das vierköpfige Ensemble spielt darauf gekonnt mit Schritttempo und Perspektiven seiner Hörer:innen und verspricht damit gleichermaßen Anklang bei Vinyl-Liebhabern erster Stunde, Zeugen des New-Wave- Revivals der frühen 2000er sowie Kindern des neuen Jahrtausends zu finden. Dabei verweben Scotch & Water zuversichtlich Einflüsse von Fleetwood Mac über Arcade Fire bis hin zu Bon Iver oder The War on Drugs zu facettenreichen und komplexen Klangwelten. Eine Zuversicht, die die vier selbstbewusst aus der Geschwindigkeit der Achtungserfolge ihres erst dreijährigen Bestehens schöpfen. Die vier funktionieren wunderbar in diesem Tempo, bremsen ihren Laufschritt dann aber doch zunächst, um auf diesen imposanten Start mit einem bestechenden Debütalbum zu antworten. Durchdacht, facettenreich und komplex präsentieren sich Scotch & Water auf "Sirens" denn nicht nur Albumtitel, sondern auch der Sound sind aufmerksamkeitserregend, lautstark.

1979 gelang mit der Single 'The Nips Are Getting Bigger' und dem Album ‚Get Wet' das erste Mal der Einstieg in die Top 20 der australischen Charts. Für die Single gab es nach Veröffentlichung in Großbritannien eine Platzierung in den Top 40 der Independent-Charts. Die Auskopplung 'Come Around' aus dem 1980er Album Espresso Bongo konnte sich ebenso in der australischen Hitparade platzieren wie '(Just Like) Romeo and Juliet', das jedoch auf keinem Album zu finden war. 1981 erschien das Platin-Album 'Cats and Dogs'. Die daraus ausgekoppelten Songs 'If You Leave Me', 'Can I Come Too?' und 'Too Many Times' waren die ersten Top-10-Hits der Band. 1982 ging Mental as Anything erstmals in den Vereinigten Staaten auf Tour. Dort entstand die Single 'I Didn't Mean to Be Mean', die von Elvis Costello produziert wurde. Mit dem Longplayer 'Creatures of Leisure' und weiteren Auskopplungen. 1985 erschien das Platin-Album 'Fundamental as Anything' mit den Singles 'You're so Strong' und natürlich 'Live It Up'. Für letztere Single gab es einen APRA Award in der Kategorie 'Most Performed Work' und einen 'Countdown Award' für die beste Single. Durch die Verwendung im Soundtrack zum Film 'Crocodile Dundee' wurde der Titel Ende 1986 auch in Europa populär und erreichte rund anderthalb Jahre nach seiner Veröffentlichung hohe Chartplatzierungen in Skandinavien, Deutschland, England, den Niederlanden, Spanien und Italien.
Die Doppel-LP enthält die größten Erfolge der Australier auf zwei farbigen LPs (Red & White Vinyl).

Blue Chemise documents the hermetic soundworld of Australia's Mark Gomes. 'Daughters of Time' follows 2017's brilliant full-length 'Influence on Dusk,' released in micro-edition on Gomes' own Greedy Ventilator imprint. It is an elegiac set of vignettes recorded straight to dictaphone with minimal post-production. These pieces function in a manner akin to Loren Connor's evocative 'airs,' conjuring poignant, intangible senses of longing and nostalgia then disappearing well before overstaying their welcome. Regarding their genesis, Gomes points to a quote from Australian artist Robert Hunter: "It's like I'm external to them. They develop their own assertion and character; their becoming finished is a thing they decide themselves. It's unexplainable."

Erstpressung auf "Red, White & Blue hi-melt on clear" Vinyl! Das japanische Quartett CHAI veröffentlicht mit "Wink" ihr drittes Album und ihr erstes für Sub Pop. Es enthält CHAIs sanfteste und minimalistischste Musik, aber auch ihr mit Abstand bewegendstes und aufregendstes Songwriting. "Wink" ist zudem ein extrem passender Titel: eine subtile, aber kühne Geste. Ein Zwinkern ist ein unbefangener Akt der Überzeugung. CHAI besteht aus den eineiigen Zwillingen Mana (Gesang und Keyboard) und Kana (Gitarre), Schlagzeugerin Yuna und Yuuki. Nach der Veröffentlichung von "Punk" im Jahr 2019 führten CHAIs Abenteuer sie rund um die Welt, sie spielten ihre hochenergetischen und beschwingten Shows auf Musikfestivals wie Primavera Sound und Pitchfork Music Festival und tourten mit Indie-Rock-Größen wie Whitney und Mac Demarco. Wie alle Musiker waren CHAI im Jahr 2020 gezwungen, die Struktur ihrer Arbeit und ihres Lebens zu überdenken. CHAI nahmen dies als Gelegenheit, ihren Arbeits-Prozess durchzuschütteln und ihre Musik an einen aufregend neuen Ort zu bringen. Hatten CHAI zuvor ihre maximalistischen Aufnahmen genutzt, um die Ausgelassenheit ihrer Liveshows einzufangen und die Reaktionen des Publikums im Auge zu behalten, konzentrierten sie sich nun darauf, die etwas subtileren und introspektiveren Arten von Songs zu entwickeln, die sie gerne zu Hause hören - wo sie zum ersten Mal die gesamte Musik aufgenommen haben. Inmitten des globalen Shutdowns arbeiteten CHAI quasi als Garage-Band und tauschten ihre Songideen - für die sie mehr Zeit als je zuvor hatten - über Zoom und Telefonanrufe aus, wobei sie ihre Einschränkungen in eine Stärke verwandelten. Während sich die Band an einen persönlicheren Sound anlehnte, ist "Wink" auch das erste CHAI-Album mit Beiträgen von externen Produzenten (Mndsgn, YMCK) sowie einem Feature des Chicagoer Rappers und Sängers Ric Wilson. CHAI ziehen R&B und HipHop in ihre Mischung aus Dance-Punk und Pop-Rock, während sie unbestreitbar CHAI bleiben. Ob in Bezug auf diesen neu entdeckten Sinn für Offenheit oder ihre Art, zu Hause zu komponieren, das Thema von "Wink" ist, sich selbst herauszufordern.