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In the cinema, the composer must go to meet the filmmakers, enter their world, but without giving up his own. This is the difficulty or the paradox of music for the image. By collaborating with directors from a wide variety of backgrounds, I think I have indirectly discovered a lot about myself. It helped me to progress, to explore territories that were not naturally mine. Cinema is a laboratory where I have sought to construct original orchestral formulas combining Corsican polyphonies, musicians from jazz, variety, classical, or even rappers. Like the world today, a fragmented world where all cultures mingle. So said Bruno Coulais, one of the most innovative composers of contemporary cinema, during the tribute paid to him in 2011 at the Cinémathèque de Paris

In 1978, Bruno Coulais, a young composer of concert works, discovered in film music a new means of expression, a way of bringing the demands of his writing to the masses. François Reichenbach, then Josée Dayan, Jacques Davila, Souleymane Cissé or Laurent Heynemann, first on television and then in the cinema, lead him of his own accord in the discovery of this new world.

In 1995, he composed the music for Microcosmos. This centimeter-scale initiatory journey offers him the opportunity to reveal the full dimension of his writing. He injects into his score a strange lyricism, between wonder and fantasy, confirming the lesson learned from François Reichenbach: "to any documentary image, music brings a part of fiction".

The success of Microcosmos established the musician and made him the indispensable composer of other natural tales, notably alongside Jacques Perrin (Le Peuple migrateur, Oceans, Les Saisons, etc.). Other long-term relationships will be forged, in particular with Benoît Jacquot, with whom he has worked for more than a decade, not to mention Frédéric Schoendoerffer, James Huth or Jean-Paul Salomé.

In addition to great popular successes such as Les Choristes, Brice de Nice or Sur La Piste Du Marsipulami, it is hardly surprising that this insatiable curiosity has found in the animated cinema the most inspiring playgrounds, in particular through his collaboration with two exceptional designers, Henry Selick and Tomm Moore.

The first, American director of The Nightmare Before Christmas produced by Tim Burton, invites Bruno Coulais to sign in 2009 the magnificent score of Coraline (film nominated for the Oscars). 10 years later, he is about to find him for a new and beautiful Wendell & Wild adventure. For Irishman Tomm Moore, Bruno Coulais has already composed the music for two Oscar-nominated films, The Secret of Kells (2009) and Song Of the Sea (2014), and in 2020 he will sign the score for Wolfwalkers.

Whether it is about author's films or more mainstream films, Bruno Coulais maintains the same standards, always considering his art as a window open to the world. Much less wise than it seems, he reveals in it a gift of a modern alchemist and a very personal way of mixing the most diverse cultures in universal harmony at work.

500 only LP. One of the first full-length recordings of Hauka ritual music. Praise songs and sacred incantations to the spirits to inhabit the body. Call and response chants, the pluck of a monochord lute and relentless pounding percussion combine in a dizzying nonstop session. The Hauka movement started nearly a century ago and has persisted on the fringes of Nigerien society. Documented in the 1955 Jean Rouch film Les maitres fous, the Hauka are a pantheon on spirits mirrored on colonial and military figures. Central to the religion is the "Holley Hori" possession ceremony, a ritual driven by militaristic percussive music, wherein spirits come into the body in powerful and violent manifestations. Lingo Seini has played ritual music for almost 60 years, learning from his father. He is joined by his son Youssouf on the calabass and Issaka Moulla, playing his homemade kuntigi. The group regularly accompanies Hauka priests in ceremonies. Recorded with a single microphone in the outskirts of Niamey.

The saga of composer Tim Story's 1982 debut is a case study in the shifting sands of the early progressive music industry. Recorded on a Tascam 4-track reel-to-reel in his basement bedroom in Whitehouse, Ohio using a ragtag array of equipment – salvaged vibraphone, pawn shop Les Paul, his mother's spinet piano, a PAiA synth kit assembled by his girlfriend's father, and a Yamaha CS-30 – Story optimistically dubbed six cassettes and sent them around the world. Following a polite rejection from Klaus Schulze, the French avant-garde label Atem (This Heat, Univers Zero, Art Zoyd) reached out with an offer to release Threads via their new instrumental electronic subdivision, Labyrinthes. After several letters confirming terms of the arrangement as well as multiple rounds of test pressings, correspondence suddenly ceased. Some months later the label folded, never having begun. Synchronistically, however, Schulze's copy ended up in the glovebox of an engineer associate, who happened to play it for a couple visiting journalists with contacts at a newish Norwegian imprint, Uniton Records (Popul Vuh, Harold Budd).

Impressed, they connected Story to the label head, but by then he'd already recorded a follow-up, the more neoclassical-leaning In Another Country, which became his inaugural release. Finally, 40 years later, Dais Records is rectifying history's error by properly issuing Threads on vinyl for the first time. It's a beautiful, beguiling work, exploratory but emotive, documenting, as Story puts it, “the path not taken... like the first chapter of a book that was set aside to begin another.” Despite only being in his early twenties at the time of its creation, Threads feels finessed and considered, weaving through a diverse spectrum of moods and minimalist melodies. From sunburst synthesizer devotionals (“Tethered By A Thread”) to shadowy cosmic drift (“Without Waves,” “Iso”) to fragile piano vignettes (“Burst,” “Scene And Artifact”), Story's compositional instincts skew subtle and sophisticated, carving gemstones of fluctuating radiance. He cites his discovery of tape loops as a central tool in the process, allowing him to generate recurring patterns of echoes and texture, decaying in volume and fidelity as desired: “A whole new and inspiring world opened up.” As both time capsule and discographical fountainhead, Threads vividly captures the threshold sensation of early 1980's electronic music: post-kosmische, prenew age, before ambient became codified, just as synthesizers began slipstreaming into the underground. It's an album of beginnings and forking paths, inner space voyaging towards limitless horizons, born of “youthful dedication to something one loves, in a world that feels uncertain.”

· First ever vinyl edition, originally set to be released in 1982 but due to original label's untimely demise, it was never issued until now.

· Collaborative releases with Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dwight Ashley, with releases on notable labels Uniton, Windham Hill, and Hearts of Space.

· For fans of Harold Budd, Brian Eno, Roedelius, Nils Frahm, Klaus Schulze, Popol Vuh, Vangelis, Jean-Michel Jarre · The song "A Thousand Whispers" has been in regular rotation at Sirius XM.

· Tim Story is a Grammy nominated artist in 1988 for his "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" recording with Glenn Close.

“Our first ever show in the UK was the opening slot at Brixton Academy so this is just totally emblematic of the support that has grown overseas we are ever grateful for. It’s still the greatest show we have ever played and we will never forget that night. See you all soon! Stay safe.” DMA’S
On March 6th, 2020 a sold-out audience filled the O2 Academy Brixton’s cavernous space from wall-to-wall. The band played the biggest headline show of their career to date half a planet away from home, yet the show conjured the atmosphere of an intimate homecoming celebration.
The O2 Academy Brixton show was immediately hailed as one of the highlights of the band’s career so far, and it has taken on whole new significance given the events that have followed. For many fans it was their final show before live music events were halted.
From early favourites ‘In The Air’ and ‘Lay Down’ to new material such as ‘Silver’ and ‘Life Is A Game Of Changing’ from ‘THE GLOW’ The show is documented in the ‘Live at Brixton’ album, which will be released almost a year to the day later on March 5th. ‘Live at Brixton’ will be released on a striking smoke-effect pink/orange limited edition double vinyl. Its design was inspired by a flare that was set off during the show. The album offers a chance to reminiscence on the life-affirming power of live shows, and also an inspiring reminder of what we’re all looking forward to returning to.

‘Island’, the latest album from Oscar-nominated composer and
songwriter Owen Pallett, released on Domino / Secret City
Records (Canada).
Almost entirely acoustic, ‘Island’ begins with 13 darkened
chords and was recorded live at Abbey Road Studios with the
London Contemporary Orchestra. The introduction is the sound
of waking up alone and on the shore of a strange land. What
follows is a shimmering and luscious orchestral album that
draws across the full breadth of Pallett’s discography, from
‘Heartland’’s Technicolor to the glittering, fingerpicked guitar
that marked Pallett’s first records with their trio, Les Mouches.
In addition to Pallett’s Grammy Award-winning work with
Arcade Fire, Pallett’s commissions have included string, brass
and orchestral work for Last Shadow Puppets, The National,
The Mountain Goats, Christine and arrangements for Frank
Ocean, Caribou, R.E.M., Linkin Park, Sigur Rós, Taylor Swift and
the Pet Shop Boys.
Since the release of ‘In Conflict’ (2014), Pallett has earned an
Oscar nomination for their film scoring work on Spike Jonze’s
‘Her’ and an Emmy for Sølve Sundsbø’s ‘Fourteen Actors Acting’.
Their score for Matt Wolf’s ‘Spaceship Earth’, a documentary
about a crew who spent two years quarantined inside a replica
of Earth’s ecosystem called BIOSPHERE 2, is out now.

From Nanakuli comes a simple yet stunning ode to the islands with “Hawaii Is Beautiful”, composed and performed by Mike Kahikina. Previously unreleased, “Hawaii Is Beautiful” has been restored and remastered from original master tapes.

Kahikina played an active role in Hawaii’s music scene in the 1970s and 80s, writing and performing protest songs in support of sovereignty for the Kingdom of Hawaii and land rights for Kanaka Maoli, or native Hawaiians. Featured in the 1988 music documentary Hawaiian Rainbow is Kahikina’s song “Who Came First” which provides a clear, poignant message: “Who came first to Hawai‘i? All of us kanaka’s. And how come us kanaka’s, we no own the aina?” Kahikina later served as state representative on the Hawaiian Homes Commission from 2011-2019, championing Native Hawaiian’s rights to homestead lands and pressuring the state government to provide better access to and higher quality of housing for kanaka.

Despite the frustration and fiery feelings he expressed in his protest songs (check out his song “I Am A Native” with Nelson Waialae, written in protest of kanaka who were evicted from Waimea Valley), Kahikina still had plenty of room for songs of love and aloha for his home, including a rare 45 devoted to the art of surfing (“Ocean Rider”, recorded under the name Ka’ala). “Hawaii Is Beautiful” is a shimmering statement of Kahikina’s aloha for his home; a palm-trees-are-swaying tribute to the natural beauty of the Hawaiian Islands.

From Nanakuli comes a simple yet stunning ode to the islands with “Hawaii Is Beautiful”, composed and performed by Mike Kahikina. Previously unreleased, “Hawaii Is Beautiful” has been restored and remastered from original master tapes.

Kahikina played an active role in Hawaii’s music scene in the 1970s and 80s, writing and performing protest songs in support of sovereignty for the Kingdom of Hawaii and land rights for Kanaka Maoli, or native Hawaiians. Featured in the 1988 music documentary Hawaiian Rainbow is Kahikina’s song “Who Came First” which provides a clear, poignant message: “Who came first to Hawai‘i? All of us kanaka’s. And how come us kanaka’s, we no own the aina?” Kahikina later served as state representative on the Hawaiian Homes Commission from 2011-2019, championing Native Hawaiian’s rights to homestead lands and pressuring the state government to provide better access to and higher quality of housing for kanaka.

Despite the frustration and fiery feelings he expressed in his protest songs (check out his song “I Am A Native” with Nelson Waialae, written in protest of kanaka who were evicted from Waimea Valley), Kahikina still had plenty of room for songs of love and aloha for his home, including a rare 45 devoted to the art of surfing (“Ocean Rider”, recorded under the name Ka’ala). “Hawaii Is Beautiful” is a shimmering statement of Kahikina’s aloha for his home; a palm-trees-are-swaying tribute to the natural beauty of the Hawaiian Islands.

Clarinetist, composer, singer & spiritual jazz soothsayer Angel Bat Dawid presents this powerful live document alongside her band, Tha Brothahood. LIVE was mostly recorded on November 1st, 2019, at Haus der Berliner Festspiele in Berlin, Germany, during the 2019 edition of JazzFest Berlin. For Angel and Tha Brothahood - which includes Deacon Otis Cooke (vocals, synth), Viktor Le Givens (vocals, auxiliary instruments), Xristian Espinoza (tenor sax, percussion), Norman W. Long (electronics, synths), Dr. Adam Zanolini (double bass, bass guitar, soprano sax, flute, percussion), Isaiah Collier (drums), and Asher Gamedze (drums) - it was the first stop of their first European tour. Angel and her band experienced a number of difficult, racially charged interactions during their two days in Berlin. But despite, or perhaps in light of the difficulties they faced, they performed a set at Berliner Festspiele that Angel considers to be one of their best ever. "The show was very deep, and really helped me to process all the rage, and uncomfortable things I was feeling... It made me think of all the artists of the past who endured way more than I ever will with this music industry. It was a very freeing and beautiful show... we played our ass off!!"

Clive Phillips, Dominic Goodman, Peter Blundell are Mosquitoes, a somewhat inscrutable London-based outfit in operation for something close to seven years now, and have released music across a host of celebrated and broad-minded underground labels. Give or take the occasional interview in the less-straight parts of the music press, this is as much formal biography as their music has thus far allowed, for there's something essentially unknowable at the centre of what makes Mosquitoes what they are. So murky is their early history in fact, the first two self-released Mosquitoes records seemed to disappear from sight before really becoming visible. As more records have emerged, those first communications accumulate new meanings, acting as vital documents in tracking the evolution of a band who stand at the vanguard of contemporary British music.

The second of these records, recorded to tape in summer 2016 and first released as a single-sided 12" under the name MOS-002, is arguably the first true iteration of Mosquitoes. Now fittingly renamed Mosquitoes for its reissue as a dubplate-style 10" on World of Echo on 5th March, these five cryptically titled, shape-shifting tracks, see the trio embrace a near-genre-less fluidity, and in doing so express a unique combination of both freedom and intent. By design or instinct, Mosquitoes stand at their own inverted rock nexus, presenting a music that's turned inside out, and in doing so, music that twists the listener the same way.

In that sense, Mosquitoes plug into a long lineage of DIY savant iconoclasts, those outliers who would deny orthodoxy in order to excavate new languages and ideas - The Dead C, This Heat, the anti-formalism of No Wave, David Toop's General Strike. As such, Mosquitoes rely on a musical pluralism in order to take it apart - you must know how something is made before you reassemble it anew. Labelling this an EP may possibly underplay the breadth and ambition of what's on show. Later records would arguably be more cohesive, but what stands as particularly startling with this early work is their fearless and all-encompassing dive into the avant garde. Consider the anti-rockism of the scorched earth 90s re-imagined through a distinctly avant filter of free jazz and dub aesthetics. And it's the latter which perhaps shapes Mosquitoes most, dub the perfect vehicle for the articulation of such wilful anti-formalism. Make no mistake, this is music that's unafraid to be tough, to demand something of the listener and to not ask permission. And to bear witness to a rejection of formalism so aggressively pursued is to be reconciled.

• When David Bowie and Iggy Pop relocated from LA to continental Europe, taking trains to Berlin, Paris and Warsaw, they would have come across new music that was very different to the burgeoning disco scene they left behind. “Cafe Exil” – named after one of Bowie’s favourite Berlin haunts – imagines the soundtrack that would have informed “Low”, “Heroes” and “Lodger”. It’s an awesome mix of electronica, Krautrock and experimental treats.

• There are key tracks from members of Can and Tangerine Dream, fascinating obscurities by German act Streetmark and Italian library maestro Piero Umiliani, the Herzog-soundtracking Popul Vuh, and highly collectible avant-strangeness by Annette Peacock. Czech-born Jan Hammer’s beautiful, light, atmospheric groove is among myriad surprises.

• “Cafe Exil” has been put together by Saint Etienne’s Bob Stanley and Jason Wood, author of multiple books on cinema and programmer at Home in Manchester. It fits in with other recent Ace compilations such as “English Weather” and “76 In The Shade” – it creates a mood, a time and a place. You’re right there, sat next to Bowie, drinking his Pernod and black, in a darkly lit Berlin bar.

• This 2LP set features a bonus track from Edgar Froese.

With his new album, Year Of The Living Dead, Vienna-born and LA-based producer John Tejada finds a blissful extended moment of balance between the new and the familiar. Anyone who’s followed his career to date, which has included four previous albums for Kompakt, outings for storied labels like Plug Research, Playhouse and Cocoon, and numerous remixes and collaborations – most recently, his Wajatta duo with actor and musician Reggie Watts – will immediately sense the warmth and eloquence that Tejada brings to his gilded, pliant techno and electro hybrids. But there’s more here, too; an explorer’s glimmer in the producer’s eye, as he gets to grips with new ways of working and being, while offering a reflective opening for the listener, something echoed in artwork by graphic designer and ‘contemplative artist’ David Grey.

“The album was started using tools I was unfamiliar with, which became an interesting exploratory process,” Tejada says. “Staying away from the obvious and having to re-learn simple things was a fun challenge.” You can hear these new creative pulsions pushing the eight tracks on Year Of The Living Dead ever-forward; the album has an unique cast, and though there are trace elements of the genres Tejada has indulged previously, he’s never quite put them together this way before. There’s the dubwise glitter sprinkled across the moody opener “The Haunting Of Earth”, the kind caresses found amongst the deftly woven textures of “Sheltered”, and the churchy melancholy, all hymnal and golden, of “Echoes Of Life”.

Year Of The Living Dead also speaks obliquely to its moment, though Tejada works this implicitly, allowing the strange circumstances of 2020 to cast their inevitable shadow without being obvious or didactic. “The production process began right before lockdown and continued through what felt like a very serious time for all of us,” he recalls. “Not being able to see or touch our loved ones made me feel we are all like ghosts. We can observe from a distance but cannot really be there. We are isolated and alone.” And yet, Year Of The Living Dead’s tenderness offers an out for that anxiety and loneliness, its intimate immensities gifting the album a redemptive and compassionate core. Compact and glistening, Year Of The Living Dead sculpts unassuming beauty.

Mit seinem neuen Album “Year Of The Living Dead“ findet der in Wien geborene und in Los Angeles lebende Produzent John Tejada die richtige Balance zwischen Neuem und Vertrautem. Wer seine bisherige Karriere verfolgt hat, seine vier Alben für Kompakt, Beiträge für Labels wie Plug Research, Playhouse und Cocoon, zahlreiche Remixe und Kollaborationen wie zuletzt das Projekt Wajatta zusammen mit dem Schauspieler und Musiker Reggie Watts, spürt sofort wieder die Wärme und Eloquenz, die Tejada in seine geschmeidigen Techno-Elektro-Hybride einbringt. Doch es geht auch noch einen Schritt weiter. Da ist dieses Aufblitzen des Entdeckers im Auge eines Produzenten, der sich mit neuen Arbeits- und Seinsweisen auseinandersetzt und dem Zuhörer gleichzeitig etwas sehr Offenes und Nachdenkliches anbietet, etwas, das im Artwork des Grafikdesigners und "kontemplativen Künstlers" David Grey nachklingt.

"Ich hatte angefangen, das Album mit mir noch unbekannten Tools zu produzieren, was sich zu einem interessanten Forschungsprozess für mich entwickelte", sagt Tejada. "Sich vom allzu Offensichtlichen zu trennen und einfache mal Dinge neu lernen zu müssen, war eine recht spaßige Herausforderung.“ Man kann diese neuen kreativen Impulse hören, die “Year Of The Living Dead“ auf einer Länge von 8 Tracks nach vorne treiben; das Album hat einen einzigartigen Ansatz, denn obwohl es Elemente der Genres gibt, denen Tejada zuvor gefrönt hat, hatte er sie doch noch nie zuvor so zusammengefügt wie hier. Da ist dieses dubbige Glitzern im atmosphärischen Opener "The Haunting Of Earth", die freundlichen Zärtlichkeiten, die man in den Texturen von "Sheltered" findet, und schließlich die heilige Melancholie im hymnischen "Echoes Of Life".

Auch “Year Of The Living Dead“ enthält Andeutungen auf die momentane Situation und erlaubt es, den seltsamen Umständen des Jahres 2020, ihren unvermeidlichen Schatten zu werfen, ohne dabei zu offensichtlich oder gar belehrend zu sein. "Der Produktionsprozess begann kurz vor dem (ersten) Lockdown und setzte sich in einer Zeit fort, die sich für uns alle als eine sehr ernste Zeit anfühlte", erinnert er sich. "Da wir nicht in der Lage waren, unsere Lieben zu sehen oder zu berühren, hatte ich das Gefühl, dass wir alle wie Geister sind. Wir können nur distanzierte Beobachter sein, aber wir können nicht wirklich anwesend sein. Wir sind isoliert und allein." Und doch scheint die Zärtlichkeit von "Year Of The Living Dead" einen Ausweg aus dieser Angst und Einsamkeit anzubieten, die grenzenlose Intimität des Albums enthält einen erlösenden und mitfühlenden Kern. Derart konsistent und schillernd formt "Year Of The Living Dead" eine unprätentiöse Schönheit.

If conceivable, imagine a collaboration between Brian Eno and Aphex Twin, both in their ambient periods, recording stock music for an Italian Library music label. If so, then behold Psycorama!, a collection of experimental music used to soundtrack a series of films and documentaries produced by the Italian filmmaker Roberto Rossellini. Composed by Mario Nascimbene, a name synonymous with the golden age of Italian film music, a composer whose grandiose scores of the 1950s and 60s defined the very essence of Cinecitta. While the widespread influence of these soundtracks is undeniable, it is beyond the commercial domain of the major studios where this compendium takes focus, revealing a deeper, darker and more complex composer. Forged on the 'Mixerama', a unique homemade sampling instrument, Nascimbene employed visionary techniques to deconstruct and render sound, sculpting pre-existing recordings into intense and evocative other-worldly soundscapes (most notably used for the 1971 existential TV drama Socrates and the 1969 Egyptian modernist film Al-Mummia (The Night Of Counting The Years). Previously unpublished except for a lone and mysterious Library music LP, the soundtrack cues are collected here for their first commercial release. Psycorama is a fascinating document of electro-acoustic music comparable to the beautifully dark music of fellow colleague Egisto Macchi. Including liner notes and rare photos.

Reissue of a rare Italian experimental Library LP.
Music used to soundtrack Roberto Rossellini films.
Pioneering sampling techniques and tape manipulation.
Brian Eno's Music For Airports meets Aphex Twin's Ambient Works II!

For a band that resists repeating itself, picking up lessons from a decade prior is the strange route Cloud Nothings took to create their most fully-realized album. Their new record, The Shadow I Remember, marks eleven years of touring, a return to early songwriting practices, and revisiting the studio where they first recorded together.

In a way not previously captured, this album expertly combines the group’s pummeling, aggressive approach with singer-songwriter Dylan Baldi’s extraordinary talent for perfect pop. To document this newly realized maturity, the group returned to producer Steve Albini and his Electrical Audio studios in Chicago, where the band famously destroyed its initial reputation as a bedroom solo project with the release of 2012 album Attack on Memory.

Another throwback was Baldi’s return to constant songwriting à la the early solo days, which led to the nearly 30 demos that became the 11 songs on The Shadow I Remember. Instead of sticking to a tried-but-true formula, his songwriting stretched out while digging deeper into his melodic talents. “I felt like I was locked in a character,” Baldi says of becoming a reliable supplier of heavy, hook-filled rock songs. “I felt like I was playing a role and not myself. I really didn’t like that role.” More frequent writing led to the freedom in form heard on The Shadow I Remember. What he can’t do alone is get loud and play noisily, which is exactly what happened when the entire band— bassist TJ Duke, guitarist Chris Brown, and drummer Jayson Gerycz—convened.

The band had more fun in the studio than they’ve had in years, playing in their signature, pulverizing way, while also trying new things. The absurdly catchy “Nothing Without You” includes a first for the band: Macie Stewart of Ohmme contributes guest vocals. Elsewhere, celebrated electronic composer Brett Naucke adds subtle synthesizer parts.

The songs are kept trim, mostly around the three-minute mark, while being gleefully overstuffed. Almost every musical part turns into at least two parts, with guitar and drums opening up and the bass switching gears. “That’s the goal—I want the three-minute song to be an epic,” Baldi says. “That’s the short version of the long-ass jam.”

Lyrically, Baldi delivers an aching exploration of tortured existence, punishing self-doubt, and the familiar pangs of oppressive mystery. “Am I something?” Baldi screams on the song of the same name. “Does anybody living out there really need me?” It’s a heartbreaking admission of existential confusion, delivered hoarsely, with an instantly relatable melody.

“Is this the end/ of the life I've known?” he asks on lead single and album opener “Oslo.” “Am I older now/ or am I just another age?” Despite the questioning lyrics, the band plays with more assurance and joy than ever before. The Shadow I Remember announces Cloud Nothings’ second decade and it sounds like a new beginning.

For a band that resists repeating itself, picking up lessons from a decade prior is the strange route Cloud Nothings took to create their most fully-realized album. Their new record, The Shadow I Remember, marks eleven years of touring, a return to early songwriting practices, and revisiting the studio where they first recorded together.

In a way not previously captured, this album expertly combines the group’s pummeling, aggressive approach with singer-songwriter Dylan Baldi’s extraordinary talent for perfect pop. To document this newly realized maturity, the group returned to producer Steve Albini and his Electrical Audio studios in Chicago, where the band famously destroyed its initial reputation as a bedroom solo project with the release of 2012 album Attack on Memory.

Another throwback was Baldi’s return to constant songwriting à la the early solo days, which led to the nearly 30 demos that became the 11 songs on The Shadow I Remember. Instead of sticking to a tried-but-true formula, his songwriting stretched out while digging deeper into his melodic talents. “I felt like I was locked in a character,” Baldi says of becoming a reliable supplier of heavy, hook-filled rock songs. “I felt like I was playing a role and not myself. I really didn’t like that role.” More frequent writing led to the freedom in form heard on The Shadow I Remember. What he can’t do alone is get loud and play noisily, which is exactly what happened when the entire band— bassist TJ Duke, guitarist Chris Brown, and drummer Jayson Gerycz—convened.

The band had more fun in the studio than they’ve had in years, playing in their signature, pulverizing way, while also trying new things. The absurdly catchy “Nothing Without You” includes a first for the band: Macie Stewart of Ohmme contributes guest vocals. Elsewhere, celebrated electronic composer Brett Naucke adds subtle synthesizer parts.

The songs are kept trim, mostly around the three-minute mark, while being gleefully overstuffed. Almost every musical part turns into at least two parts, with guitar and drums opening up and the bass switching gears. “That’s the goal—I want the three-minute song to be an epic,” Baldi says. “That’s the short version of the long-ass jam.”

Lyrically, Baldi delivers an aching exploration of tortured existence, punishing self-doubt, and the familiar pangs of oppressive mystery. “Am I something?” Baldi screams on the song of the same name. “Does anybody living out there really need me?” It’s a heartbreaking admission of existential confusion, delivered hoarsely, with an instantly relatable melody.

“Is this the end/ of the life I've known?” he asks on lead single and album opener “Oslo.” “Am I older now/ or am I just another age?” Despite the questioning lyrics, the band plays with more assurance and joy than ever before. The Shadow I Remember announces Cloud Nothings’ second decade and it sounds like a new beginning.

Lancaster had initially cut his musical teeth with the avant-garde on New York’s Lower East Side in the 1960s (famously on sessions with pianist Dave Burrell and drummer Sunny Murray) and in Paris during the ‘70s after an appearance at the Actuel festival but, throughout his career, his path was built around community engagement, positivity and “the Philly jazz sound, Germantown style.” He became an ambassador for the music of the City Of Brotherly Love, starting his own Dogtown label, helping launch the Philly Jazz imprint and campaigning tirelessly to improve the circumstances of the city’s street musicians. Lancaster’s sessions for Black Fire were planned following a gig at Caverns Jazz Club in Washington DC. “Jimmy Gray of Black Fire and I originally met during the ‘riotous blisters’ of the late Sixties there,” explained Lancaster. “We became the best of friends.” Backed by a band of Philly musicians including percussionist Keno Speller and Baba Robert Crowder (drummer for Olatunji and Art Blakey), the album also featured the Drummers From Ibadan led by Tunde Kuboye, another influential figure dedicated to community jazz with whom Lancaster had bonded while teaching in Lagos. The result was a free-flowing set of spirituality and positivity, built around full band groove workouts, solo pieces and heavy African roots. “We had big fun documenting this music,” remembered Lancaster. The message of the album remains as relevant today as ever, “I dedicate this album to all African Americans in the USA. To the youth, I ask ‘What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?’”

DRP (Dom & Roland Productions) was started in 2006 for Dom to collaborate with like-minded artists. Now 15 years in with an enviable roster from “Noisia” to “Amon Tobin” it is now the main home of Dom’s work.

Mando is one of Doms closest friends. He has been writing music for over 25 years. A gardener by day, he shuns the limelight and has always maintained writing music is his secret hobby! He had a studio in the room next to No-U-Turn in the 90s which was eventually taken over by Optical and Edrush.
Until fairly recently he never released anything! He has an amazing ability to create sick grooves, his style is raw and refreshing and not over produced like a lot of modern music. If i had to pigeonhole his style I would say 90s neurofunk.

Both these tracks play to his strengths. This is his first release on vinyl, so will become collectable!

DJ PLAY: What? In their bedrooms? These people regularly play DRP tracks… Rene Lavice, Laurent Garnier, Giles Peterson, Jerome Hill, Digital, DJ Bailey, DJ Lee, Bryan G, Fabio, Grooverider, Loxi, Andy C, Break, Kasra, Doc Scott, Dbridge, Goldie, Ant TC1, Gridlok, Ulterior Motive, Noisia + More.

‘Galdre Visions’ is Leaving Records supergroup Galdre Visions’s debut release. Inspired by Celtic mysticism, outer space and New Age both classical and modern, ‘Galdre Visions’ is a document of the exploratory, healing power of music.
Galdre Visions are comprised of Olive Ardizoni (Green-House), South Asian-American sitarist Ami Dang, Diva Dompé of Yialmelic Frequencies and harpist Nailah Hunter. These four artists were drawn together during the pandemic to remotely create collaborative music reflecting global uncertainty.
‘Galdre Visions’ is a reflective, ambient journey with airy vocal harmonies and layers of field recordings, harps and slow-burning ambient chords.
The record is housed in a tip-on jacket with microtene inner sleeves and played at 45 RPM.
For fans of Laraaji, Mort Garson, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Huerco S., Emily A. Sprague, Ana Roxanne, Christina Vantzou.

On his first full length effort, singer / songwriter Mav Karlo, otherwise known as Menno Versteeg, offers up a much more elaborately realized, yet no less intensely intimate body of work. With its gracefully sparse arrangements, the album centres on Versteeg’s lyrical storytelling, revealing a narrative voice deeply attuned to the beauty in the ordinary and routinely overlooked. Strangers Like Us closely documents an especially tough period in Versteeg’s life but the album ultimately showcases an undeniable courage in its commitment to truth-telling and unsparing self- examination. He is supported by spirited guest performances from Katy Goodman of Vivian Girls (on vocals), Charlie Spencer of Dizzy (keys, drums) and Versteeg’s Hollerado bandmate Nixon Boyd (guitar, bass). Album produced by Chris Coady (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Amen Dunes, Beach House) and recorded at Sunset Sound and Sonic Ranch. Menno Versteeg is the owner of Royal Mountain Records and a former member of both Hollerado and Anyway Gang.

"On March 2, 1991 Serge Gainsbourg bowed out and left France orphaned by one of the most important singer-songwriters of French song. Thirty years later, his songs are still with us, proof of their quality. Indeed, beyond the many successes that have marked a career spanning more than thirty years, Gainsbourg's repertoire is abundantly rich. Always at the forefront of innovation, he has been able to adapt his delicate and classical writing with the most modern musical styles: jazz, reggae, funk ... without ever losing his eloquence or his soul. This 2LP Set sends us back and shows how Serge Gainsbourg was an emblematic and major figure.Reviews L’Echo, London Macadam,
ADS - L’Echo, London Macadam"

Back by popular demand, Memorials of Distinction is rereleasing Porridge Radio's shed-recorded debut album on a limited pressing of 1000 clear vinyl and CD. This comes after a year in which Porridge Radio's Every Bad, their first on Secretly Canadian, led to top reviews in Pitchfork, The Guardian, NME, The Times, The Quietus, Clash, Uncut, Q, The Independent, LOBF, DIY, Stereogum, Paste, Vice, amongst others, and then being shortlisted as one of the Hyundai Mercury Prize's 12 Albums of 2020. Porridge Radio started as Dana Margolin’s bedroom project, but grew to a Brighton-based band who, on this debut, inelegantly knotted together tender melodic pop songs with vicious and furious emotional outpour. After a series of home-recorded solo demos and the growing legend of their live shows on the UK DIY scene, they originally released this lofi debut full band LP in 2016. The album documents struggles with life, love and boredom - spelt out with sticky fingers by five idiot savants. RP&OF's lyrics, title and artwork, as well as the group's name, brings to mind a certain scrapbook absurdism at the core of Porridge Radio's earlier work. Faced with the dark abyss of existence, Margolin and co. scrape together some value from the nonsensical and the pointless, and then cling to it, giggling, for dear life.

Driving anywhere in Texas can cost you half a day, easy. For example, it’ll take you over four hours just to get from R&B singer Leon Bridges’ hometown of Fort Worth down to Houston, where the psychedelic wanderers in Khruangbin hail from. The state is vast, crisscrossed with rugged expanses of road flanked by limestone cliffs and granite mountains, forests of pine and mesquite, miles of desert or acres of sprawling grassland, all depending on what part you’re in. And it’s all baking under the Texas Sun that lends its name to Bridges and Khruangbin’s new collaborative release. “Big sky country, that’s what they call Texas,” Khruangbin bassist Laura Lee says. “The horizon line goes all the way from one side to another without interruption. There’s something really comforting about that.” On ‘Texas Sun’, these two members of the state’s musical vanguard meet up somewhere in the middle of that scene, in the mythical nexus of Texas’ past, present, and future - a dreamy badlands where genres blur as seamlessly as the terrain. It calls equally to the cowboys bootscooting at Billy Bob’s in Fort Worth, the chopped-andscrewed hip hop fans rattling slabs on the southside of Houston, the art-school kids dropping acid in Austin, the cross-cultural progeny who grew up on listening to both mariachi and post-hardcore out on the Mexican borders of El Paso. All of these things, overlapping in a multi-coloured melange, purple hues as vivid and unpredictable as one of the state’s rightfully celebrated sunsets. A journey through homesick reminiscences, backseat romances and late night contemplations, the kind of record made for listening with the windows down and the road humming softly beneath you. Like the highways that inspired it, ‘Texas Sun’ is guaranteed to get you where you’re going - especially if you’re in no particular hurry to get there. Khruangbin and Leon Bridges are critically acclaimed artists with extensive coverage in print and online, including the New York Times, NPR, FADER, four Grammy nominations (Leon Bridges), The New Yorker, Washington Post and Pitchfork, among many others.

Daumenbruch kurz vor dem 30. Geburtstag? Für Nils Frahm kein Hindernis, doch noch rechtzeitig neun intime Klavieraufnahmen einzuspielen und sie seinen Fans anlässlich seines Jubeltags online zur Verfügung zu stellen. Dabei gibt es für einen Pianisten wahrlich kaum eine schlechtere Nachricht als ein Daumenbruch. Frahm, der international längst ein Star der modernen Klassik ist und mit Zeitgenossen wie Olafur Arnalds, Peter Broderick und Efterklang kooperiert, ließ sich von dem Missgeschick (Sturz vom Hochbett) nicht beirren. Entgegen des Rats seines Arztes trainierte er die restlichen neun Finger und nahm peu á peu die vorliegenden neun kleinen Lieder auf. Als der Gips ab war, war das Album fertig. Die Musik ist mal wieder "ein Balsam" (BBC Music). Die LP erscheint inklusive eines Album-Download-Codes.

Montreal-based producer & DJ Slick Shoota brings us Function, his debut LP and first solo release on the Teklife imprint. A native of Norway known for his renowned Oslo club night Ball Em Up, he's been a member of the elite crew since 2015, contributing tracks to the label's compilations such as On Life Vol. 2 and VIP Trax. Using a unique palate that combines both traditional footwork drums and eclectic otherworld sonics, this album expands on the signature sound he's been brewing during the course of his career, celebrating his longtime love of the Chicago soundscape, with a healthy helping of UK rave, jungle, and vibes from other fast paced club realms. Slick starts the record off with Hovercraft, a big burly mutant rap beat riding a glowing titanic wave of jungle subbass, with vicious hi-hats stabbing through the mix. Desire Path follows with hysterical horns cruising along a stampede of erratic Chicago percussion. A glitchy, malfunctioning computer meets drumline stomps on See Me Flex, resulting in a psychotic, yet psychedelic sci-fi soundscape. Ultra-distorted hardcore kicks open up Jellyneck, dropping straight into a dungeon of ghostly vocals and headlong toms. Warehouse 2K opens up the B-side with R&B chops and lasers floating on a charming cloud of pulsating pads. Mad doppler sirens loop around your head on Delahaze, as distant clangs and crashes fight an impatient, throbbing bassline. Classic rave atmospheres are met with Slick's elegant sound design on MTL Hardcore, his ode to his adoptive city. The album closes off with Special Tek, channeling the signature quirky drum sounds of the late DJ Rashad over a pounding, fast paced house beat, a wonderful nod to the Windy City and its influential sonic culture. Carving out his own sound from the legacies of Chicago, the UK, and other underground club hotspots, Slick Shoota has found his own recognizable voice within these realms of dance music, and this LP serves as documentation of that solidified voice. Years of studying the masters and immersing himself with their work has clearly paid off, and he's respectfully taking these sounds he loves in exciting new directions. Bridging gaps both historical and geographical, Function marks a pivotal point in his career, and is clear evidence that Slick Shoota is vital member of the legendary Teklife family.

People On Sunday is an original soundtrack to the 1930 silent film variously known as Menschen am Sonntag, Les Hommes le Dimanche and People On Sunday. The film is a key work of interwar German cinema, based on a screenplay by Billy Wilder.

Like Domenique Dumont’s earlier albums, Comme Ça and Miniatures De Auto Rhythm, People On Sunday evokes a more innocent, carefree time conjured by wistful electronics full of warmth and melody. Touching on the hazy exotica that made those two records so alluring, here Dumont draws on his love of classical music, library music and early electronic experimentation to create a timeless, optimistic sound. If his past productions possessed a certain Mediterranean quality, across these 13 new pieces Dumont’s shimmering synth-pop has an enchanting simplicity.

Part documentary, part fiction, the film People On Sunday follows a group of characters going about their business in Weimar-era Berlin over one weekend and shows normal life in Germany before dictatorship.

“The film shows people and their surroundings shortly before all of it was destroyed,” says Dumont. “Ironically, watching this movie with the eyes of today, it looks more surreal than documentary. And I can’t help but think and reflect about the times we are living in now. We might have similar desires people had a hundred years ago, but we now have a completely different approach to life.”

*People On Sunday is the third album by Domenique Dumont.
*Freshly signed to The Leaf Label, having previously released two albums on Parisian electronic/dance label Antinote.
*It follows on from the cult success of synth-pop exotica albums Comme Ça (2015) and Miniatures de Auto Rhythm (2018)The album was originally conceived as a soundtrack to the classic 1930 German silent film known variously as Menschen am Sonntag, Les Hommes le Dimanche and People on Sunday.
*It was originally performed at Les Arcs Film Festival, with plans for further film festival concerts when regulations allow.
*Watch the video for first single ‘People On Sunday’ featuring excerpts from the film.
*Artwork and design by artist Edward Carvalho-Monaghan.
*Support from Pitchfork, Resident Advisor, FACT Magazine, Gorilla vs Bear, KEXP, BBC 6 Music’s Tom Ravenscroft, Mary Anne Hobbs and NTS Radio’s Charlie Bones, among others.
*Dumont recently remixed Domino’s Jaakko Eino Kalevi, and has also reworked tracks by Cola Boyy and Mark Barrott.
*Festival appearances include Mutek Montreal, Dekmantel, Nuits Sonores, Milhões de Festa and the Venice Biennale.

‘Dekalb Works’ is the collaborative project of Austin Peru (Vision Fortune) & Daniel Creahan (Sweat Equity / Alien D). Born out of a shared deep sociological interest of dialects and cultural frameworks, and the effects these have on meaning within modes of speech, the pair here delve into the dialects of their own beginnings, mining US/British regional accents and weaving these situational scenes through a textured, intentionally disjointed, hand made soundscape of bass tension and fleeting, glistening melody – adding additional layers of emotion and meaning to everyday observations of language.

‘Duologue’ intends to blur the lines between perceived and constructed reality, occupying a gauzy, dreamlike space shared by the likes of Hype Williams & James Ferraro, where foggy sonars & deep subs provide the backbone to both eccentric and mundane ephemeral flutters of dialect.

‘Duologue’ revels in its variance of linguistic stylings – from the deep US south religious lament of ‘of a’ hovering above an ambience of Zither & Bells, to the doom laden sax skronk and vocal stutter of ‘with’, to the creeping stripped micro dub of ‘only’ which allows the familiar hue of the British news reader and typical West Midlands dialectical moments to clash – aptly documenting of an impending collision.

This is certainly one for heads into all things slow & spacious - for sure there’s a lot to digest and get lost in here across the records quite intentionally intoxicating ark, where touch points and historical nods range from Laraaji’s signature ambience to Ernest Hood’s visionary ‘Neighbourhoods’, filtered through modern outer sound explorers such as John T. Gast, Mark Lecky, and the bass minimalism of SND.

“This lighthouse is under attack, and by morning we might all be dead!”
Demon Records presents the thrilling narrated TV soundtrack of this vintage four-part adventure at sea, starring Tom Baker as the Doctor.
A remote lighthouse in the early 1900s is the scene of this suspenseful adventure for the Doctor and Leela, when a light in the sky and a sudden dense fog are the preludes to a night of terror.
With a lighthouse keeper dead, Old Reuben fears the legendary Beast of Fang Rock has returned.
A shipwreck brings others in search of shelter, but nobody’s safety can be guaranteed. The Doctor must use all his ingenuity if he and Leela are to survive…
Presented across 2 x 140g vinyl discs in Rutan Blob green, this 1977 TV soundtrack is narrated by Louise Jameson, who plays Leela in the story. The supporting cast includes Colin Douglas, John Abbott, Alan Rowe, Sean Caffrey and Annette Woollett. Incidental music is composed by Dudley Simpson, and the familiar strains of the Doctor Who theme are courtesy of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
The coloured vinyl LPs are presented in a fully illustrated gatefold sleeve showing cast and credits, and inner bags featuring complete episode billings.
Dummedy-dum, Dummedy-dum, Dummedy-dum, Dum-dum…

The debut album from Kiri Ra! is an intuitive journey through landscapes of spectral otherness with colors of post classical minimalism, ambient folk and spiritual jazz. Starting as cross Baltic improvisation group in 2014, Kiri Ra! found form in the winter of 2016 when Finnish experimental artist Lau Nau, Finnish jazz saxophonist Linda Fredriksson, and Swedish pianist Matti Bye were commissioned by The Swedish Film Institute to create music for experimental amateur documentary films from its archive. Their debut album is made up entirely of improvised live studio recordings that stemmed from this film-scoring effort. With meticulous attention to detail and a sense of wonder, the players are collective witnesses to what can unfold between three musicians in a room. As illustrated on the tracks "Happlo'os" and "))Glänta//", softly played piano ostinatos, field recordings and bowed percussion set a visceral foundation for the saxophone to carve melodic tones of tingling melancholia. This warmth and sense of intimacy prevails throughout the album, as illustrated on the serene track "Linnesöndagen Gynnas Icke", whilst "Kites Över Gärdet" is an almost supernatural unfolding of timelessness.

More than 40 years after its original release, this limited and numbered facsimile edition of Keith Jarrett’s legendary 10-LP box set “Sun Bear
Concerts” is recreated from original analog sources.
Sun Bear Concerts - documenting five complete solo performances by Keith Jarrett in Japan - counts as a milestone achievement in the history of jazz recording. As Down Beat wrote, on the occasion of the original release, Jarrett’s improvisations are “the inventions of a giant, overpoweringly intimate in the way they can draw a listener in and hold him captive. Jarrett has once more stepped into the cave of his creative consciousness and brought to light music of startling power, majesty and warmth.”
Rich in incident and detail, the music in this beautifully produced, illustrated and presented ten-LP set, first issued in 1978 revealed Jarrett as a player of limitless creativity, unique in his ability to find new forms in the moment, night after night. “These marathons showed Jarrett to be one of the greatest improvisers in jazz,” Ian Carr wrote in his biography of the pianist, “with an apparently inexhaustible flow of rhythmic and melodic ideas, one of the most brilliant pianistic techniques of all, and the ability to project complex and profound feeling.” The present edition is a facsimile of the original LP set, described by the late Haus der Kunst curator Okwui Enwezor as “part of ECM’s declaration of independence from standard packaging of jazz records. Setting itself apart in this way, ECM treated its recordings as works of art by musicians of the highest artistic and conceptual order.”
A work of art by any standards, Sun Bear Concerts brings together solo concerts in November 1976 in Kyoto, Osaka, Nagoya, Tokyo and Sapporo, in recordings made by Japanese engineer Okihiro Sugano and producer Manfred Eicher, who travelled through Japan with Keith Jarrett. The set’s book-form packaging, with design by Barbara Wojirsch, includes photographs by Klaus Knaup, Tadayuki Naitoh and Akira Aimi.

Running Circle presents China-born DJ and producer Guohan, with his debut LP Lost Sound Book.
The 16 track publication charters an otherworldly inward journey, with influences ranging from ancestral rock carvings to bustling city streets, mythical tales to sunrise and sunset. Guohan draws from many places and cultures, hiphop and jazz, traditional music and everyday life, documenting the moods and colours left out from today’s society.
The fractured rhythms and harmonies on Lost Sound Book feel like a reconstruction of memories and missing links.

Culminating at 430m of altitude, mount Aïdour has been looking over the city of Oran for centuries. Legendary tales and myths are born in this place that have been inspiring writers through generations. It is there that the seeds and the roots of this record were planted, inspiring me to tell a story as well. 4 tracks about 4 destinations through a country of splendor. From North to South, East to West, from one century to another.Based on local field recordings associated with modern machines, this is the continuation of the legends started generations ago.

Bab is a member of French collectives 404 and Pardonnez Nous. He's currently making a documentary about Algerian Raï music which led him to visit the country multiple times recently and inspired him to do this dark and haunted EP, reminiscing of Muslimgauze.

The label’s first release seeks to offer an initiatory experience to Forbidden Teaching’s mission, namely to express the inexpressible.

The A side of the record is body oriented and is introduced with NN’s “The Blood Of A White Monark”, a track characterised by its forceful rhythm, cinematic breakdown and strong synths. Mind I Matter dives deeper in the EBM spectrum with “Thelema”, a track featuring a bassline that goes straight to the body and supported by an expertly crafted atmosphere, reminiscent of the notorious esoteric doctrine.

The B side of the record is soul oriented and begins with Antechamber’s “The Ephemeral Hallucinations”, an atmospheric track that elevates the listener to a place where earthly senses become blurry. Nigh/T\mare concludes the compilation with his track “Unconscious Traction”. It features a robust and hypnotic rhythm coupled with an intense atmosphere that leads the listener to a state where deeply buried emotions and desires could resurface.

Freestyle Records are proud to present the first ever reissue of this rare Black Ark-era Lee "Scratch" Perry production on LP & CD w/ bonus tracks. Both formats feature liner notes from author of the acclaimed People Funny Boy: The Genius of Lee 'Scratch' Perry and Solid Foundation: An Oral History of Reggae, David Katz.

The late Bunny Rugs was best known as the frontman for legendary reggae band Third World, but prior to that he completed an apprenticeship at Lee Perry's Black Ark resulting in this solo LP, originally released in 1975 and credited to Bunny Scott.

The album captures the laid-back sessions of the early Black Ark, with a few surprising innovations lurking amongst the soul covers and love ballads. Highlights include the sought after Blaxploitation-influenced funk track 'Kinky Fly' featuring members of The Chi-Lites' backing band, passing through Perry's infamous studio whilst in Jamaica for a series of shows - their horn section and Chinna Smith's wah-wah guitar give the track its outstanding difference as synth overdubs add to the moody feeling, underpinned by the ghostly click tracks of the Conn Rhythm Unit (constituting one of Perry's earliest experiments with drum machines).

Breakup track 'Second Avenue' shows how suited Rugs' powerful, deep tenor was suited to a soul framework, the Chi-Lites' horns again making a striking difference. The Bee Gees' evergreen 'To Love Somebody' takes James Carr's soulful rendition as its reference and 'Big May' re-works the 'Return Of Django'/'Sick And Tired' rhythm, with a new drum part. while the broken-hearted 'What's The Use' was cut at the request of Sonia Pottinger, who ultimately failed to release it.

Somehow the sublime rendition of William DeVaughans' 'Be Thankful', recorded during the same session, was left off the LP - but appears here as a bonus track on the CD along with I Never Had It So Good & Hip Harry + it's version track.

Looking back on the sessions documented on this LP, Rugs said that Perry's creativity taught him that music could be limitless. As he explained, 'It was so simple that it became complex. The approach he has to music and to recording, I think the music nowadays lack that kind of intuition. He's somebody that would use pliers and a screwdriver to create percussion; he wouldn't hesitate to experiment. He was a little...not crazy, but somebody with that kind of thinking must be somewhere else, in another zone sometimes.'

*Repress*

Ruffhouse dropped their debut on Ingredients in October with 'The Foot / Bypass' to much acclaim. Already touted as a force to watch, their follow up is as good if not better!
'Demand' really shows their ability to make progressive, forward thinking music and it's the unpredictability of 'Demand' that makes it a stand out track. 'Division III' is equally as impressive, room shattering drums & almighty stabs. Pressed onto 300 limited edition white vinyl.
* DJ support comes from Break, dBridge, Loxy, Skeptical, Dub Phizix, Fracture, Doc Scott TRACKLIST: A: Demand || B: Division III.

There is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it anecdote tucked into one of
the many fine documentaries about seminal 20th Century artist
Jean-Michel Basquiat regarding the habits of his studio practice.
As we watch inspiring footage of Basquiat darting from one
piece to the next with rapid-fire brush strokes, a friend or
gallerist in a voice over says that it was not unusual for
Basquiat to be working on several paintings in the same
moment as several radio stations and televisions played in the
background. Not much more time is spent on the anecdote but
it feels like a skeleton key into Basquiat’s endlessly alluring,
neoexpressionist work.
And while Bryan Devendorf’s solo curio ‘Royal Green’ doesn’t
possess the only-in-New York vibe of Basquiat’s work, there is
something shared in its many-channels-open style of creation.
Satellite signals, strange voices from lost television
documentaries and radio operas are all woven into its fabric -
like it’s using these endless tides of media and information to
unlock the subconscious. Even its covers - Bob Dylan,
Fleetwood Mac, The National (with a nice big wink), The
Beatles - are like stunning, albeit satanic takes on hymns, or
like American standards almost dragged into the underworld.
Like the best of Spacemen 3, Sparklehorse or massively
underrated San Fran band Skygreen Leopards - the music
makes you queasy in one movement and lulls you into
blissmode in the next. It’s the very edge of outsider pop
songwriting.
For all the amphitheaters and festival fields Devendorf has
played to over his career, ‘Royal Green’ almost feels like an unlearning and a newfound love of homemade/found/fractured
sounds - and how, if collaged just so, detritus can become
stunningly gorgeous and surreal. And not without hooks. Look
no further than ‘Frosty’, which could be Little Billy Corgan’s
decayed demo tape from just before the Smashing Pumpkins
appeared on the scene. And the unspooling, slightly unglued
dream-pop of ‘Breaking the River’ is as rapturous as it is
sinister. And that’s probably where Devendorf wants it.

Just when you thought every loner folk genius had been outed/discovered, hyped, and pontificated about, a new/old challenger lurks in the murky depths of time...and Maine. Sure, you have your Skip Spences, Dave Bixbys, Stone Harbours, and Perry Leopolds already, but have you heard the lonesome sound of Bill Stone? Well, don't feel bad or "unkool", hardly anyone has--unless you lived in rural Maine in the early 70s and grabbed his barely-ever seen LP in the day. Titled simply Stone, Bill's mysterious album was pressed in the micro-est of quantities, covering wistful, airy psychedelia on par with the UK's Mark Fry's classic Dreaming of Alice, while still evoking the earthy, evening-hour melancholy of Leonard Cohen or Tom Rapp. Stone was also especially influenced by one Donny P. Leitch, one Robby Zimmerman, and much trad folk, while growing up in his hometown of Old Town, Maine. Stone started out playing in a few small folk ensembles while also moonlighting with occasional solo gigs, finally recording this lone platter in 1969 in a pottery studio (!?) on a 2-track Panasonic tape recorder in Boothbay, Maine (where he says, they competed with a cat in heat). The LP features Tom Blackwell/Bill Stone-guitars, Arthur Webster-bass, Bob Blackwell/Skip Smith-drums, Bill/Beth Waterhouse on vocals. It also seems cover artist Doug Bane went on to become an acclaimed cosmic painter--committing loads of animals, psychedelic scenes, and Native American portraits to canvas, who knew? But we digress--anyhow, seems Stone's solo career slowed down after marriage hit, and he transitioned to playing covers in bars for cash, but after acquiring a masters and doctorate in education, he moved into the teaching walk of life. Bill published books and articles on subjects as diverse as school counseling and chaos theory--but now retired, he's returned to music, even recording a new album of originals and traditional numbers, based on his experiences as a cab driver (another wrinkle in the Stone Saga we must hear more of someday - but for now check out). So with Bill back in action and the world slowly crawling out of a disillusioning haze, now seems like the perfect time for a first-time-ever reissue of this incredibly rare, happy-sad, gently delicate, Stone(d) classic of a downer song-cycle.

Dehumanization is the only full length album from the band Crucifix. Recorded in 1983, it is considered a classic American hardcore album and a landmark of anarcho-punk.Dehumanization delivers a raging critique of war, violence, displacement, and the decimation of human rights and human dignity—themes at once global in scope and also completely endemic to Reagan-era America. The intensity of this message is matched only by the intensity of the sound: a heavy minimalist construction built on brutal guitar riffs, low-end distortion, hardcore fury and teenage speed. It is an album of pure raw power, a hot blast of personal and political outrage and musical adrenaline.Fusing California hardcore with metal and second wave British anarcho-punk, Crucifix carved out their own highly distinctive wall of sound on this release. Ignoring the rules of punk purism in favor of a well produced huge guitar sound, the album preceded much of the hardcore metal crossover of the mid-80s and played an influential but often unacknowledged role in the punk and metal subgenres that followed. “Annihilation,” the album’s opening track, has become iconic . Quoted often, it’s been sampled by Orbital and covered by A Perfect Circle and Sepultura. The original vinyl version of Dehumanization was released on the Crass Records offshoot label Corpus Christi in the UK, and has been out of print since the 1980s. This new Kustomized rerelease has been carefully remastered from an original vinyl source and adheres closely to the audio quality of the original. In addition, the six-panel foldout poster sleeve has been reproduced in its entirety. Taken together, the words, music and graphics of Dehumanization form a complete work and a resonant and enduring document of the period

One of the most striking documents of Italy’s Minimalist movement, Giusto Pio’s "Motore Immobile" is a work with few equivalents. Produced by Franco Battiato in 1979, at the outset of a long and fruitful period of collaboration between the two composers, and issued by the legendary Cramps Records, its triumphs were met by silence, before falling from view.

"Motore Immobile" now sits within a reappraisal of a large neglected body of efforts made by the Italian avant-garde during the second half of the 1970’s and early 80’s. It is singular, but not alone. It resonates within a collective world of shimmering sound, one familiar to fans of Battiato, Lino Capra Vaccina, Luciano Cilio, Roberto Cacciapaglia, Francesco Messina and Raul Lovisoni.

An exercise in elegant restraint - note and resonance held to the most implicit need. Where everything between root and embellishment has been stripped away. A sublime organ drone, against interventions of deceptively simple structural complexity - executed by Piano, Violin, and Voice. A sonic sculpture reaching heights which few have touched. A thing of beauty and an album as perfect as they come.

There is a blink-and-you'll-miss-it anecdote tucked into one of the many fine documentaries about seminal 20th Century artist Jean-Michel Basquiat regarding the habits of his studio practice. As we watch inspiring footage of Basquiat darting from one piece to the next with rapid-fire brush strokes, a friend or gallerist in a voice over says that it was not unusual for Basquiat to be working on several paintings in the same moment as several radio stations and televisions played in the background. Not much more time is spent on the anecdote, but it feels like a skeleton key into Basquiat's endlessly alluring, neoexpressionist work. And while Bryan Devendorf's solo curio `Royal Green' doesn't possess the only-in-New York vibe of Basquiat's work, there is something shared in its many-channels-open style of creation. Satellite signals, strange voices from lost television documentaries and radio operas are all woven into its fabric _ like it's using these endless tides of media and information to unlock the subconscious. Even its covers _ Bob Dylan, Fleetwood Mac, The National (with a nice big wink), The Beatles _ are like stunning, albeit satanic takes on hymns, or like American standards almost dragged into the underworld. Like the best of Spacemen 3, Sparklehorse or massively underrated San Fran band Skygreen Leopards _ the music makes you queasy in one movement and lulls you into blissmode in the next. It's the very edge of outsider pop songwriting. For all the amphitheaters and festival fields Devendorf has played to over his career, `Royal Green' almost feels like an un-learning and a newfound love of homemade/found/fractured sounds _ and how, if collaged just so, detritus can become stunningly gorgeous and surreal. And not without hooks. Look no further than "Frosty" which could be Little Billy Corgan's decayed demo tape from just before the Smashing Pumpkins appeared on the scene. And the unspooling, slightly unglued dream-pop of "Breaking the River" is as rapturous as it is sinister. And that's probably where Devendorf wants it.