Walls & Birds‘ debut on the Berlin label Beatbude! Recorded with the aid of “The Whitest Boy Alive” keyboarder Daniel Nentwig at the local Butterama Recording Center, the vinyl is accompanied by a fold-out poster and a digital bonus track.
Much like their previous releases, “Less than a kilometer away” is Walls & Birds’ new take on popular music today. The first song “Wearing a Dress” touches on the theme of modern clothing habits, while questioning relationship patterns still widespread in popular music lyrics. The surprising element of new found love is also one of the themes of the B-side “Heads & Tales”, telling the story of a late night after work taxi ride with the chorus contemplating about the eternal either or question, plainly answered with: love. The cheerful upbeat digital bonus track “Summer 2002” is as meaningless as most nice pop songs these days.
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The latest mash up from Amerigo Gazaway is a scorcher! You loved 'Fela Soul' and 'Bizarre Tribe', now 'Yasiin Gaye': 13 tracks that perfectly blend Mos Def and Marvin Gaye. feat. Teddy Pendergrass, Talib Kweli, Kanye West, Tami Tarrell and Black Astronauts. Full picture sleeve, double vinyl. Coming next week!
All the gems of Electronic Music in a 5 LP boxset with : Fakear - Kölsch - Fritz Kalkbrenner - Laurent Garnier - Bicep - Kerri Chandler Thylacine - Bob Sinclar - Mr. Oizo - The Prodigy - Alex Gopher - Purple Disco Machine...
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Airto Moreira and Flora Purim, the legendary King and Queen of Brazilian Jazz, have captivated audiences for over six decades with their vibrant albums and exhilarating live performances. With a dedicated global fan base including the UK's jazz funk and jazz dance scene to Japan's concert halls, the power couple continues to make waves in the industry – Flora's 'If You Will' (2022) album was even nominated for a Grammy! The duo met and came together musically in Sambalanço and the Sambrasa Trio. The mixture of Airto's rural Brazilian background and percussion talents and Flora's classical training and involvement in the underground Bossa Nova movement, created a unique blend of sounds that resonates across generations. They have not only collaborated with music legends like Miles Davis and Chick Corea but have also produced ground-breaking music alongside the likes of Hermeto Pascoal. Despite facing numerous challenges, including Flora's arrest and incarceration in 1974, the duo's close connection with friends-musicians like Thelonius Monk and Cannonball Adderley, their persistence and absolute passion for music have propelled them to the pinnacle of success. They worked with renowned musicians like Wayne Shorter, Jaco Pastorius, Herbie Hancock, Joe Henderson, McCoy Tyner, George Duke and producers such as Orin Keepnews and Creed Taylor. Having been a part of numerous prestigious ensembles, including Dizzy Gillespie's United Nations ensemble, Airto and Flora's journey is a testament to their innovation and devotion to their craft. This collection offers a glimpse of that incredible journey, showcasing their extraordinary talent and unique sound and it’s also the first comp scanning their 60 year careers Compiled by Straight No Chaser editor/publisher Paul Bradshaw & Totally Wired Radio presenter Roberta Cutolo. Àṣẹ.
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The A side of this 45, a brand new track from Aaron Frazer, is about how pressure makes diamonds. The last couple years have been really challenging, especially for those navigating relationships amidst the chaos. This song celebrates the connections of love that are strong enough to weather any storm, and the certainty that comes from making it through together. The B side features a track from Aaron's first solo LP, Introducing. Lyrically, Frazer sounds lovesick; the imagery he paints of demons "so close behind" and the repetition of these lyrics emphasize his longing. The song starts with piercing guitar, dark bass, and chime piano and Frazer himself drums throughout the song. The orchestration is swell while the strings and voices blend well with the transcendent feel of the music.
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On 22nd October, the Nottingham-raised and highly-praised musician/DJ/producer Matt Cutler, AKA Lone, presents his 8th album – and first in 5 years – ‘Always Inside Your Head’. It marks two major changes, with both a new label and new approach – featuring vocalists for the first time.
This deeply textural and ethereal artwork is situated high above the clouds, amidst the heavens, occupying a stratospheric state where swathes of synthesized vapour and azure rays sound like a literal breath of fresh air.
A varied selection of music influenced the record, but two main influences were Cocteau Twins and My Bloody Valentine. “I wanted to approach a range of different styles, but attack them from their angle in a way, so for example on 'Inlove2' I tried to imagine what a Balearic / acid house tune might sound like if it were produced by Kevin Shields”, comments Lone.
Another key example of Cutler’s strange but successful combination of elements is the halcyon bliss of ‘Echo Paths’, where his trademark fat drums and love for hip hop meet double-time pan pipes, dub effects and dream pop, mixed into a wonderfully lysergic concoction.
This rarefied auditory stratus was previously evident in tracks like ‘Alpha Wheel 4 (Ambient Mix)’ from ‘DJ Kicks’, ‘Under Cherry Blossoms (Minds Eye Reprise)’ from ‘Ambivert Tools, Vol. 2’, ‘Pulsar’ (from ‘Ambivert 4’), and ‘How Can You Tell’ (from ‘Abraxas’), but is now more fully-fledged, broader in scope and even more celestial.
In addition to the above, the LP exists somewhere between trip hop on Mo' Wax, 90s Warp, intelligent drum & bass and ambient house. There are heavier forays too, like ‘Mouth Of God’, where darker clouds emerge, but are pierced like acid lightning with fierce, tearing tech-step bass.
Although still firmly rooted in club culture – here Lone shows a definite leaning towards a song-based sound, with several tracks edging towards the same crossover space as the nineties hits which also inspired him – particularly William Orbit’s production on Madonna's 'Frozen', and Olive's 'You're Not Alone'. This is especially evident on the bright, spacious brilliance of 'Hidden By Horizons', where vocals and synths swirl around one another, with crisp breakbeats and reggae rolls pushing purposefully through the ether.
Despite initially seeming almost entirely sunny of disposition, upon deeper immersion there’s lot more beneath the album’s surface, both in its deep pools of immiscible layered elements, and also thematically. When recording Cutler kept in mind a loose narrative based on birth, death, and our existence in-between.
He then extended this idea to reach what may happen after death, which is reflected in the sequencing: By penultimate track ‘Undaunted’ the life reflected in this longplayer has come to an end, which is then followed by 'Coming In To Being And Passing Away' – an afterlife epilogue, which evokes a transition from this world to the next.
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Pressed on LP again for the first time in years. Aldous Harding's songs are not for the faint of heart. Disarming in their desolate imagery and vulnerable instrumentation, they deal with the raw materials of life: birth, death, love and grief. Sometimes reminiscent of 60s-era folk singers Vashti Bunyan and Linda Perhacs, Harding's work lies in more harsh terrain than her forebears - piercing the long history of the genre with a grit and sincerity rarely encountered. Based in New Zealand's Southern port town of Lyttelton, Auckland-born Harding began playing to the public in small-town venues and busking on the streets. It wasn't long before her name became synonymous with both the vivid devastation of her wordplay and the stark intensity of her performance; a unique blend of fragility and sinewy, world-won strength that belies her youth. Influential BB6 DJs Marc Riley and Mary Anne Hobbs picked up on tracks and a rigorous festival circuit followed in 2015. The Line Of Best Fit lauded her Great Escape performance: “Aldous Harding mixes traditional folk songs with dirge-y notes and ends her incredible performance with an A cappella cover of Edith Piaf she was told she was too young to be singing. It was spellbinding.” Of her debut record, The 405 said, “the voice is from another time and the imagery is dramatic, the themes are universal....
Re-release Soul entwickelte sich gegen Ende der 1950er Jahre aus Rhythm"n"Blues, Gospel, Blues und Jazz. Im folgenden Jahrzehnt war Soul ein Synonym für schwarze Popmusik. Kennzeichnend dafür waren vor allem die Produktionen von Motown Records, zum Beispiel Diana Ross & The Supremes oder Sam Cooke. Seither sind herzergreifender Gesang und groovige Vibes die größten Stilmerkmale des Soul. Zu den weiteren Ikonen des Soul gehören Curtis Mayfield, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Barry White, Sam Cooke, Al Green und viele mehr. Deren Erfolg ist eng mit dem Kampf der US-amerikanischen Bürgerrechtsbewegung gegen Rassentrennung und für Gleichberechtigung verbunden. 1969 benannte man die Rhythm"n"Blues- in Soul-Charts um. Der Soul-Orkan, der während der Sechziger in den Charts tobte, ebbte jedoch wieder ab, kam aber runderneuert in den 70ern als Phillysound wieder zu erneuten Hitparadenehren. 1982 änderte man die Chart-Bezeichnung von Soul in Black Music. Die vorliegende Kompilation vereint die legendären Stimmen des Soul mit ihren unvergesslichen Hits.
Eclectic graffiti artist, DJ and producer Dj Marrrtin unveils his new album opus "Cyclothymix".
Following the success of his album "La Pie Bavarde", a duet with Tino, mc from Dayton, U.S.A., Marrrtin delivers a moody, intense, indeed psycho-musicographic psychomusicographic. He promises us a finely mixed set, at the heart of his inspirations: Hip Hop, Funk, Sound Illustration, Jazz...
Opening with "Awakening", straight out of a Dilla beat tape, followed by the Brazilian with the very Brazilian "Estrellas", an up-tempo theme sublimated by the gentle voice of Carla Vallet, who also infuses her suave voice on the track "Darjeeling", a bewitching call to let go. In his global wanderings, he takes us to New York with the track "L.O.V.E."an ode to love, featuring the Temple's guardian, A.G. of the mythical collective DITC and his protégée Hii Siddity, from the duo The Girll Codee. "Taraxacum" plunges us into a languorous atmosphere, sublimated by sublimated by the flute of Antoine Laloux from The Selenites Band. Then comes "Ben", a boom bap - melancholy jazz production, where the grain of vinyl mingles with the roughness of the Akai S950 sampler. Marrrtin's musical drifting and whirling is a tribute to breakdance culture to breakdance and hiphop culture with "Inspiration Medley", a nod to anthems such as SWAT, backed by the keyboards of his Funky Bijou teammate, Deheb. A duo whose famous classics are played for the biggest world Breakdance Battles. Sample culture, drum breaks, Abstract Hip Hop, for the tracks "True" and "Time for Love", in which a guru preaches pan-love in the time of the Apocalypse. "Indian Groove", an Indian echo of Marrrtin's many travels, which leaves us and saturates us with dopamine. "Cosmic Consciousness Without Transition", in the spirit of a mood-changing we plunge into the strange, scandalized prescription, guardian of the garden of love.
To close this essential album, "Headhunter", a dark Jazz Funk track with dusty soundtrack tinges, brings us to a close.
of dusty seventies soundtrack, with saturated clavinet responding to obsessive
melodies of Medline's flute.
Ultimately, "Cyclothymix" is conceived by Marrrtin as a mirror to our changing moodsand seasons.
Auf seinem neuen Album BEFORE AND AFTER hat Young eine vielseitige Sammlung meist obskurer Songs wie ein Maler mit einer neuen Palette neu aufgegriffen. Für das Album hat Young als Reise in seine Musikgeschichte aus einer großen Anzahl seiner Originale und Favoriten aus seinem Katalog ausgewählt und führt sie hier auf dem Album auf, meist alleine, auf einer akustischen Soloreise an einen neuen Ort . Jeder der Songs fließt ineinander und erzeugt einen kontinuierlichen Fluss, der zu einem 48-minütigen reinen und intimen Hörerlebnis führt. Ein Album wie nichts anderes, was er bisher veröffentlicht hat. Das Album wurde von Lou Adler und Neil Young produziert und von Young und Niko Bolas, auch bekannt als The Volume Dealers, gemischt.
Neue Versionen der Songs selbst bewegen sich nahtlos und verwandeln sich mit faszinierender Klarheit in neue Dimensionen, angefangen bei seinem frühesten Auftritt in Buffalo Springfield, Burned, bis hin zum neuesten Don't Forget Love (aus BARN aus dem Jahr 2021) und einschließlich des bisher unveröffentlichten - veröffentlichten Song If You Got Love.
Berlin based HipHop producer S. Fidelity presents his sophomore and full packaged concept album “Fidelity Radio Club” via Jakarta Records.
Four years after his Jakarta Records debut “A Safe Place to Be Naked” S. Fidelity has matured as a producer and as an artist: working and recording in London, Los Angeles, Paris and Johannesburg while building up his Manolo Purple Studios in Berlin with longtime collaborator, labelmate and soul brother Bluestaeb.
In 2021 S. Fidelity finally returns to the main program with his brand new solo album “Fidelity Radio Club” shaped in form of a genre crossing radio show exploring HipHop, R&B, Jazz, House and Funk in all their depths, creating the multi-layered album he always dreamt to do as he orchestrates a stoking line-up of equally talented friends and fellows like Bluestaeb, Melodiesinfonie, Suff Daddy, K, Le Maestro, Àbáse and many more while still delivering that very personal note every classic producer album needs and comes with. Or as the artist himself would put it: “17 different artists, producers and instrumentalists from all over the world helped me to bring this vision to life.”
According to that the albums 1st single features Singer NDO from Florida, giving life to the hard hitting R&B gem “Mixed Signals” where warm neo soul harmonies meet with classic R&B vibes of early 2000. The song made it to Spotify’s Butter Playlist right away and was picked for Deezer’s “Date Night” Playlist and Apple Music’s New Music Daily as well and received shout outs and further Playlist-placements by music blogs like Stereofox or MOW Mag.
The 2nd single comes as a double single featuring pianist, producer and main protagonist of Berlin’s prog-jazz scene Àbáse on “Me At The Zoo” (reminding its listeners of London’s new wave of jazz around Kamaal Williams or Yussef Dayes) on one side and the energetic, funk influenced disco tune “Something Good” on the other side.
The 3rd and final single “Love International Inc.” then comes with a bumpy up tempo drum beat, which develops into an energetic and jazzy lo-fi house/deep house loop, featuring none other than Zürich’s finest Melodiesinfonie as well as Paris-based Bluestaeb, marking this supergroup’s 2nd appearance and giving a glimpse of what’s yet to come.
Each of the album’s single cuts comes with a visual treatment by HipHop’s favorite photographer Robert Winter and his team (The Ottos), matching sound and artwork accordingly while the record’s amazing and unique artwork comes from the Swiss based creative studio HOMI. The record itself contains a sticker sheet with customized S. Fidelity and “Fidelity Radio Club” stickers as well.
The whole album campaign is further accompanied by the Fidelity Radio Show hosted by S. Fidelity himself, sitting down with his featured guests talking about the music they love and they draw inspiration from – broadcasted via S. Fidelity’s own youtube channel releasing its episodes in between the album’s single drops.
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Legendary US garage band best known for their evergreen classics ‘Pushin’ Too Hard’ and ‘Can’t Seem To Make You Mine’ that detonated in the US charts in late 1966 and early 1967. Whilst ‘Pushin’ Too Hard’ was their only top 40 hit, this song has been discovered by every new generation that hear it from punk rockers of the 70s to those who are glued to their mobile phones today.
Their debut LP “The Seeds” released in 1966 contains both these tracks and is rightly feted as a garage classic. It is an essential album. As our very own Alec Palao stated, “Like the first Ramones long-player, it is one of rock’s great debuts; an album where, in spite of some obvious influences, a signature sign was sharply defined.”
Ace are delighted to serve up the deluxe edition of “The Seeds” that was lovingly curated by Palao and released by GNP Crescendo some years back. Not only do you get “The Seeds” with 12 pulsating tracks but also a bonus LP of alternate versions and a couple of unheard tracks like ‘The Other Place’ and ‘Out Of The Question’. The extended version of ‘Evil Hoodoo’ is a stone cold treat.
Both albums are housed in a gatefold sleeve with an 8-page full colour booklet with Palao’s brilliant liner notes and sensational photos and memorabilia.
There is no ‘Excuse Excuse’ not to pick up or stock this one.
Seven Steps to Heaven arrived at a crucial junction in Miles Davis' career. Recorded at two separate locations in spring 1963, it served as Davis' first release in more than a year – a layoff that was then unprecedented for the jazz visionary who had issued at least one LP a year since debuting in the early '50s. Equally notable, Seven Steps to Heaven marks the point at which the core of Davis' Second Great Quintet started to assemble. The twice Grammy-nominated effort is also Davis' final studio record to blend standards with originals. And it happens to be one of the expressive, well-played albums in the jazz canon.
Sourced from the original master tapes, pressed at RTI, and housed in a Stoughton gatefold jacket, Mobile Fidelity's 180g SuperVinyl LP of Seven Steps to Heaven adds yet another step (or more) towards the bliss suggested by the album title. Playing with standout clarity, detail, tone, and balance, this audiophile reissue pulls back the curtain on the instrumentalists. Afforded the tremendous advantages of SuperVinyl – including a nearly inaudible noise floor, dead-quiet surfaces, and superb groove definition – this numbered-edition version presents Davis and Co. amid a wide, deep soundstage whose dimensions and solidity help bring the record's historical importance and musical merit into focus. Warm, organic, and present, the SuperVinyl LP of Seven Steps to Heaven is what great-sounding hi-fi is all about.
And there's nary a passage on this 1963 landmark that isn't great. That Davis manages to make it feel so cohesive and seamless is a testament to the inspired performances and engaging compositions. Davis didn't draw it up the way it unfolded. No matter. He held trump cards that stayed up his sleeve for the next three decades: A drive to be nothing less than superb, a refusal to settle for mediocrity, and standards to which nearly no other composer or player could match. "The toughest critic I got, and the only one I worry about, is myself," Davis wrote in the liner notes. "The music has to get past me."
Davis' demanding approach partly explains why he switched up his band between the first and second sessions – and underscores how fast his mind was racing with new ideas. Seven Steps to Heaven acts as the stable bridge between the transitional period that followed the dissolution of his First Great Quintet and formation of the Second; without it, Davis perhaps doesn't invite then-23-year-old Herbie Hancock and a still-teenage Tony Williams into the fold. The trumpeter not only got his men – he preserved in amber for the only time (well, magnetic tape anyway) the chemistry and vibe he achieved with pianist Victor Feldman, drummer Frank Butler, tenor saxophonist George Coleman, and bassist Ron Carter.
That line-up gels for half of the six songs on Seven Steps to Heaven. Captured in Los Angeles April '63, the quintet stretches out on a luxurious reading of the late '20s New Orleans staple "Basin Street Blues"; lays on the romance for a candlelit stroll through the '40s standard "I Fall in Love Too Easily"; and explores the rounded contours and melodic crevices of the early blues "Baby Won't You Please Come Home." The performances are refined, elegant, emotional; the band lets the feelings linger and gives the listener time to absorb the colours and textures.
A month later, Davis returned to New York City with Coleman and Carter, and partnered them with Hancock and Williams. Tellingly, the quintet tried its collective hand at the title track and "Joshua" – Feldman-penned songs already recorded in Los Angeles – as well as the yearning "So Near, So Far." Those are the tunes that comprise the other piece of Seven Steps to Heaven, with the revised quintet's liquid pulse, articulate dynamics, and timing shifts a harbinger of things to come.
It's also worth mentioning that the interpretations of the bounding "Seven Steps to Heaven" – a showcase for Davis' trumpet – and interlocking "Joshua" netted considerable radio airplay and attracted the attention of other contemporaries who covered the songs. Keeping Carter and Williams as the rhythmic engine, and Hancock as the anchor between solo flights and structural motifs, Davis would soon soon welcome Wayne Shorter into the family and transform jazz. Again. The aptly – and, in hindsight, perhaps prophetically titled Seven Steps to Heaven – is how he got there.
Tired Girls is the third full-length studio album by Bay Area singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Anna Hillburg. Co-produced and recorded with Jason Quever of the Papercuts, the pair created an album for lovers of finely crafted and supremely catchy chamber pop. As always, Hillburg’s voice takes center stage, but for Tired Girls she made a conscious choice to dig deeper into her trumpet skills and make more elaborate horn arrangements than her previous records. Lyrically, Hillburg dives into what it is to be a contemporary woman, and how one perseveres, finds inspiration, creates, loves, and lives. Recorded throughout 2022 at Quever’s studio, the two built dreamy soundscapes with long-time collaborators Logan Kroeber on drums (The Dodos), Josh Miller on bass (Chime School, Extra Classic), and Yea Ming Chen on keys. The entire record has a real “Ladies, trust your gut” feeling, unsurprisingly, as Hillburg says she tends to write songs about “the reality of womanhood and feminism but ya know, why not make that a little ‘dancey’?” As a collection, Tired Girls marks her arrival as an artist who has hit their stride. Each track shows her talent and progression as a songwriter and performer. As a multi-instrumentalist and classically trained trumpet player, Hillburg is a sought-after session and live musician in the vibrant Bay Area music scene, performing regularly with Shannon And The Clams, The Dodos, The Moore Brothers, The Once And Future Band, Will Sprott, Dream Date, Greg Ashley, Shannon Shaw and her All-Star Buddy Band, and more. After writing and recording with her first band, SF power-pop darlings Dream Date, Hillburg set off on her own to record and release her first album, the self-titled 2013 release, Anna Hillburg. Described as “a romantic mix of lounge-inspired rock and avant-folk melodies,” here were the foundations of Hillburg’s signature songwriting style, with elements of baroque pop, catchy hooks, trumpet lines, and whimsical humor that garnered the attention of critics and fans alike. Her second studio album, Really Real, came out in 2018, recorded with Greg Ashley (Gris Gris) and Alicia Vanden Heuvel (The Aislers Set), this pop gem gained even more praise, with writers saying “Hillburg’s writing brings heartfelt lyrics to elegant pop.”
Top-Kollektion mit den besten Scores aus der Terminator-Filmreihe zwischen 1984-2019. Unter dem Namen London Music Works spielen die besten Filmmusiker Londons Themen aus Terminator (1984), Terminator 2: Tag der Abrechnung (1991), Terminator 3: Rebellion der Maschinen (2003), Terminator: Die Erlösung (2009), Terminator: Genisys (2015) und Terminator: Dark Fate (2019). Transparent-rotes Doppelvinyl.
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Sourced from the Original Master Tapes and Presented in Audiophile Sound for the First Time: Mobile Fidelity’s Numbered-Edition 180g SuperVinyl LP Plays with Riveting Detail
Three decades before he released The Philosophy of Modern Song — an insightful book devoted to 66 tunes that both impacted his career and the music world at large — Bob Dylan issued Good As I Been to You. The under-heralded 1992 album, Dylan’s first solo acoustic album in nearly 30 years and first all-covers effort in nearly 20 years, can be seen as a prophetic prelude to what has become the Nobel Laureate’s celebrated late-career arc. It’s also an absorbing continuation of the custom Dylan has embraced since he first picked up a guitar.
Sourced from the original master tapes, pressed at RTI, and housed in a Stoughton jacket, Mobile Fidelity's numbered-edition 180g SuperVinyl LP of Good As I Been to You reveals the immediacy, detail, and stripped-down nature of recording sessions that took place in Dylan’s garage studio in California. Simple, raw, and unplugged, the record presents Dylan in peak form — and showcases a diversity of vocal phrasing, soulful chording, harmonica accents, and close-up ambience that on this reissue emerge like never before. As the first-ever audiophile edition of this almost-lost classic, this LP also benefits from SuperVinyl’s extraordinary properties: a nearly inaudible noise floor, superb groove definition, and dead-quiet surfaces among them.
Recorded and mixed by Micajah Ryan, and supervised by Debbie Gold, Good As I Been to You took shape at Dylan’s home shortly after the singer-songwriter completed sessions in Chicago with a full band. Unaccompanied, he again gravitated to existing works — in this case, traditional folk music — and, with Gold serving as a trusted advisor, performed the songs in multiple keys and tempos until he arrived at what he desired. That careful, determined albeit loose, organic approach emanates from this reissue, on which each note, movement, and space come across more directly, fully, and immediately than on the original formats. It helps draw a through-line to Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964) as well as the similarly themed follow-up, World Gone Wrong (1993) and immersive old-world storytelling of Tempest (2012) and Rough and Rowdy Ways (2020).
Well before Dylan made those renowned 21st century LPs, however, he needed to find a way out of a funk that — save for his 1989 collaboration with Daniel Lanois, Oh Mercy — followed him for years. As author Clinton Heylin reported Dylan admitting in 1997: “My influences have not changed — and any time they have done, the music goes off to a wrong place. That’s why I recorded two LPs of old songs, so I could personally get back to the music that’s true for me.”
Truth: Few, if any, concepts better encapsulate Good As I Been to You. It resonates with the same originality, honesty, resolve, and age- and time-defying relevance as the seminal Anthology of American Folk Music that fired Dylan’s imagination as a kid in small-town Minnesota and, later, per Greil Marcus’ That Old Weird America book, informed Dylan and the Band’s Basement Tapes sessions. This record also contains the type of music Dylan was playing during his acoustic sets at his period Never Ending Tour shows; within a year of the record’s release, Dylan would play half the album’s songs live.
As for those songs: Rife with strange mystery, common circumstance, and epic adventure, the stories appeal to our base instincts. Their themes — jealousy, temptation, sacrifice, love, revenge, identity, opportunity — operate on a fundamentally human level immune to trends, generations, or eras. They’re ancient and modern, serious and comical, open and disguised, simple and multi-layered. They talk of vengeance and justice (“Frankie & Albert”; “Jim Jones”), romance and tenderness (“Tomorrow Night,” “Froggie Went a Courtin’”), the troubled and trouble-free (“Hard Times,” “Sittin’ on Top of the World”). They lend voice to lovers scorned and freed (“Blackjack Davey”), the used and users (“Diamond Joe”), the powerful and powerless (“Arthur McBride,” “Canadee-I-O”), the followed and followers (“Little Maggie”). And akin to much of Dylan’s finest output, things are not always what they appear to be.
Spanning country, folk, sea shanty, bluegrass, and blues motifs, Good As I Been to You re-confirms Dylan’s position as an elite interpreter and sculptor — not of just structure but emotion. Dylan delivers the tunes as if he’s known them forever. He plays with a subtle sense of mischievousness and retains a largely upbeat demeanour; his eyes seemingly twinkle as he sings and picks. His guitar serves as the guidepost for shuffles, boogies, ballads, and mess-arounds while his innate feel for each specific arrangement and melody helps inform pacing, tone, attack.
Like a great author, he understands the importance of adhering to concision, luring an audience, holding their attention, and maximizing the impact of details, actions, and unexpected turns. Though already coarse and ragged, his voice feels ideal for the subject matter and his phrasing — from the clever ways he stretches syllables to underline meanings on the surprise twists of “Canadee-I-O” to the sheer delight he gets from singing “rowdy-dow-dow” on the protest song “Arthur McBride” — outstanding.
La Califfa" (1970) is a rare example, probably very rare, in which the director and author of the book on which the film is inspired coincide, we're talking about Antonio Bevilacqua, who won the Nastro D'Argento prize as Best New Director with this film.
The film deals with the issue of the class struggle, and in particular the love-hate relationship between a businessman (Ugo Tognazzi) and a female worker (Romy Schneider, almost too sensual here) who lost her fiancé at the working place. A romantic and dramatic work, as the music written and orchestrated by Ennio Morricone, here often surrounded by an impressive aura of sacredness. This LP also features, as guests on voices and choirs, Edda Dell'Orso and I Cantori Moderni di Alessandro Alessandroni. Surprisingly, despite the success of the film and its soundtrack received at the time, "La Califfa" has never been reissued on LP since the early '70s.
This new edition on Vinyl Magic record label eventually fills this gap and, except for the front cover image, the artwork has been completely renewed: the inner sleeve contains in fact many reproductions of posters and lobby cards of the film. Various tracks, never released on LP until today, have also been added to the final tracklist.
FIVE CLASSIC ARETHA ALBUMS PRESENTING AN EARLY-’70S PORTRAIT OF THE QUEEN!
Also Includes A SIXTH BONUS LP of Session Alternates, Outtakes & Demos!
Original Albums Remastered From the Analog Master Tapes by Grammy® Award-Winning Engineer, Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering Produced by Grammy® Award-Winner Cheryl Pawelski with Liner Notes from Billboard’s Gail Mitchell & British Ambassador of Soul, David Nathan Includes the hit Young, Gifted, & Black, released in 1972, which hit #2 on Billboard’s R&B albums survey and #11 on the Billboard Top 200 as well as being certified GOLD.
Aretha won the 1972 Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance the album ranked at number 388 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
Also includes This Girl’s In Love With You which features the first commercial release of “Let It Be,” and came out 2 months ahead of The Beatles. Both this album and Spirit In The Dark feature the Muscle Shoals Rhythm section and an appearance by Duane Allman. Along with production on both from Jerry Wexler, Tom Dowd & Arif Mardin.
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Japanese Jazz legend Tsuyoshi Yamamoto's new album, A Shade Of
Blue, undoubtedly reflects his love of the piano trio, a group configuration that in jazz history began in the 1940s with Nat King Cole and then was developed in the 50s by innovators like Oscar Peterson, Ahmad Jamal, and Bill Evans Yamamoto's highly experienced trio - which has a combined age of 215 years -
features bassist Hiroshi Kagawa and drummer Toshio Osumi.
A Shade Of Blue reveals the three musicians' incredible musical chemistry; listening to the ten tracks they've recorded together, it's as if they breathe, think, and feel as one person; such is the musical empathy between them.
A Shade Of Blue will be released by evosound on MQA-CD, SACD- Hybrid MultiChannel, 180g Double Vinyl LP (audiophile pressing), available on the 27th October 2023.
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Freestyle Records releast eine dringend benötigte und vollständig lizenzierte 12"-Reproversion von 'Front Line s/w Saving All My Love' von Midnight Energy, die 1984 ursprünglich auf Wal-Brooks Records erschien. Zwei Knallerseiten mit teurem Electro-Boogiefunk aus New Jersey, geschrieben und produziert von Tony McLachlan von der Fresh Band (bekannt durch 'Come Back Lover').
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Leo Zero finally gets some of his much sort after edits onto the black wax, with some classic cut-ups that have all been road tested for max dance-floor detonation.
On this first EP a set of classic soul / disco groovers that have been meticulously remastered and extended for the modern floor.
One for the dancers and romancers, ‘Love Affair’ hits you square in the heart - a big spin at the Faith parties. Next up, a classic mid-tempo Soul weekender cut gets a nice chunky re-version.
The flip kicks off with some new live drums and chunkiness added to a huge underground gem, then we head off into more bulletproof dance-floor disco territory with a souped up version that’s been given maximum wallop to compete with house cuts when played out.
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Brothers Hom Yu and Jiun Chi returned to Taipei in 2017 after finishing their studies. Since then they began to explore their mutual obsession for Taiwanese occult-inspired art and vintage superstitious imagery, channelling it through music. Mong Tong means many things in Chinese, but the translation they choose to fit their music is “the east-side of dreams”.
Growing up in Taiwan in the 90’s, the brothers listen to 電子琴音樂 which they describe as “relaxing Chinese synth pop” along with video game soundtracks, psychedelic music, doom metal and sound collage/library music. On “Mystery秘神” these inspirations combine with the dark humour of Taiwanese folklore and a love of conspiracy theories to form what they describe as “a psychedelic journey to the east.”
Album Description
Recorded in their home studio in Taipei, “Mystery 秘神” is a psychedelic journey into Taiwanese folklore combined with the 80’s media obsession with the supernatural. It’s a record that manages to combine nostalgia and tradition with humour and an underlying intrinsic earthiness to create something unlike anything else out there.
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Three songs taken from Chip Wickham's spiritual jazz album Blue to Red get reshaped by Photay, Medlar, and Chip Wickham himself. The result is a lush ep, every bit as good as the combination of a wonderful original track and an uber-talented remixer could be.
Photay has deconstructed the peaceful Blue to Red to turn it into a bomb—a storming dance track that keeps the spiritual vibe intact. The extra beatless version soothes your ear while creating a certain sense of anticipation.
The original version of Interstellar blends fusion jazz with the sound of West London's seminal broken beat scene. Medlar has plucked the track apart, then rebuilt it by adding some extra perc and synth sounds to the bass-driven beats. The result is some deep and heavy and funky business.
And finally, Chip recovered a take of wonderful astral slow jam The Cosmos that didn't make it onto the album, one with no drums, and cooked up a roomy cosmic dub, full-on Space Echo.
It will be out in a limited transparent vinyl 12"
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The birth point of ecstasy in British music is usually credited to acid house and the second summer of love: a cemented vision of kids sweating and vibrating in clubs, fields and warehouses in 1988, united by universal empathy and mind-popping sounds. However, in 1981, a couple of young men from Leeds went to New York, discovered the drug in its infancy, fused its’ gritty synth pop to acid house’s squelchy 303 groove and recorded an album: Soft Cell’s Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret. The rest, as they say, is history.
Shortly before that Soft Cell’s debut single Memorabilia was born. Originally recorded a decade before the explosion of acid house and rooted in predominantly black NYC, Chicago and Detroit gay clubs, Memorabilia is a seminal early prelude to rave culture. Merging a
strutting disco bass line with a futuristic proto acid-techno beat, Marc Almond has past described Memorabilia as “the first acid house techno record ever”.
Dave Ball remembers: “Memorabilia got to about number 99 in the charts, but the clubs picked up on it. In NME or Sounds they had a chart for the Danceteria in New York, and we were in it. Our label Phonogram saw this and thought: ‘why is this weird little duo from Leeds that no one’s heard of suddenly getting played in one of the hippest clubs in New York?’ So I think they thought: ‘we’ll give them another chance’.”
Berlin’s very own upcomers Wally Funk round off the remix package, upping the original tempo slightly, while combining elements the of original production with the later Non-Stop Ecstatic Dancing version to create a new hybrid, best played extremely loud!
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Orphax & PONI (person of no importance) is a collaboration between the two Dutch brothers, Sietse (Orphax) and Tjeerd (PONI) van Erve. Since their early years they share a broad interest in music, fed mostly from their fathers’ record collection, ranging from early blues to Pink Floyd or Beethoven. But also listening to Belgian radio channel Studio Brussels (which during the late 80s and early 90s was a common listening close to the borders between The Netherlands and Belgium), and the late night Dutch radio inspired them in exploring the rough edges of underground music.
An exploration that gave them a common interest in indie and noise rock, but soon enough both followed their own path in music. Tjeerd moving more into underground guitar music, whilst Sietse developed a wider interest in (experimental) electronic and contemporary music. Both as listeners, but also exploring their own interests as musicians.
Now many years later these musical paths cross again in this album Inheritance (with a slight imagination, a translation of their last name van Erve). An album where Tjeerd brings in his dark and noisy lo-fi guitar songs and Sietse brings in his drones and electro-acoustic composition styles.
The album opens with its longest track, “As Received”. This combination results in a slow developing drone, with the intensity and tension of a well build-up post-rock track, that slowly unfolds Tjeerd his guitar layers and vocals. The title of the song refers to one of the PONI projects, where Tjeerd would send rough recordings to befriended musicians who than would rework those recordings without any restrictions which then would be released side by side with the original rough recordings. A project which actually sparked the idea of this collaboration (and that can still be listened to on PONI’s bandcamp-page).
On the flip side of the record, three shorter works give more room for regular song structures. In “Sunburns” this results in slowcore with subdued vocals, melancholic guitars and nasty synth and organ drones. When Tjeerd wrote the basis for the song, he actually had been listening to a lot of Codeine and Bedhead. One does not need much fantasy to recognize the influences of these bands.
“The Tears Are Necessary” is build up around various broken up piano tracks accompanied by moody drones to develop a fragile song.
The album closes with “Lockdown”, opening with silence as a moment of contemplation after the previous work but then quickly develops in a playful song where improvised play on piano, guitar and modular synthesizer create a lo-fi gem that clearly shows that both brothers still haven’t lost their love for Sentridoh or Guided By Voices.
All together resulting in an album that is an ode to the love of music, experiment, and creativity and a celebration of brotherhood.
Limited Edition Vinyl Reissue mit 8-seitigem Songbook mit Texten und Akkorden, den 68-seitigen Locas In Love Winter Chronicles / Tour-Diary + Foto-Druck.
Ende 2008 veröffentliche die Kölner Band Locas In Love ihr drittes Album „Winter“ als Follow-Up zum Überraschungserfolg "Saurus" (2007). Geschrieben und aufgenommen wurde es innerhalb von zwei Monaten im Sommer 2008, es sollte unkompliziert, schnell und unmittelbar passieren und konsequenterweise wurde "Winter" als erstes komplett selbstproduziertes Album der Band in Wohnzimmern zwischen dem Kölner Gereons-Viertel und Brooklyn, NY produziert. Durch das titelgebende Thema ist es nach wie vor das geschlossenste ihrer Alben, und es ist das Dokument einer Freundschaft.
Anlass für das Vinyl-Reissue ist nur in zweiter Linie das 15jährige Release-Jubiläum oder die Tatsache, dass das Album lange vergriffen war, sondern vorrangig der unerwartete Tod von LD Beghtol im Jahre 2020. Den New Yorker Ausnahmekünstler lernten Locas In Love als Fan seiner Musik (u.a. als Mitwirkender und Sänger der Magnetic Fields auf "69 Love Songs") kennen. Auf „Winter“ trat er als Quasi-Mitglied und Co-Producer in Erscheinung und kann so auch zukünftig von neuen Musikfans u.a. mit seiner meisterhaften Song-Miniatur "Packice" entdeckt werden, dieser herzzerreißenden Mischung aus Winter-Blues und Kryogenik-Science-Fiction.
Und so erscheint nun beim Berliner Label Staatsakt (das soeben sein eigenes 20jähriges Bestehen ausgiebig feierte) das luxuriös ausgestattete Reissue. Die handnummerierte Limited Edition samt neuem Artwork von Stefanie Schrank enthält das von LD Beghtol gestaltete Scrapbook, das auch der Erstpressung beilag, ein 8-seitiges Songbook mit Texten und Akkorden, sowie die 68-seitigen Locas In Love Winter Chronicles, in denen Tour-Tagebücher und andere Texte aus der Zeit mit einem aktuellen Selbstinterview der Band zusammengefasst sind. Im umfangreichen Bonusmaterial geht es weniger um Mythen oder kleinteilige Schreib- und Aufnahmeprozesse, sondern darum, was es heißt eine Band zu sein, mit einander und der eigenen Musik zu leben – und zu altern.
"Richard Edwards is in the pocket. He’s been there for several albums now: 2017’s Lemon Cotton Candy Sunset, 2020’s The Soft Ache & the Moon, and 2022’s Ghost Electricity/Vampire Draw. Just as the Margot records defined his twenties, this “Beach Bum” era, as he calls it, may well define his thirties. That era is expanded in Two Sad Little Islands Drift Together, Two Lonely Little Monkeys Find A Tree: Rare and Unreleased 2015-2023.
Beginning with Lemon Cotton Candy Sunset, Richard has been steering his ongoing body of work toward capturing a feeling of being at sea. Life can find us at sea in any number of ways–in a marriage or partnership, or in longing for one; in parenting, and its ceaseless wonders and worries; in bodies and minds that confound understanding (whether just our own, or also that of professionals); in our rotting world, which we’ve fucked up beyond all repair.
“What does that sound like, though?” you may ask. Like Mike Bloom’s cascading fingerpicking in “Lil Dead Eye-d (b.),” or the tranquilizing combination of Dave Palmer’s piano and Perla Batalla’s multi-tracked vocals on “Love (b.)” Like the L.A. based Section Quartet on “True Love Waits,” or the triumphantly stoned Velvet Ocean jam-session that is “Jane Greer With A Gun.” Like Richard’s use of melody and imagery on “Pink Lightning (b.)” and lead single “Benzedrine,” where he is masterfully accompanied by Erin Rae (on the former) and Maria Taylor (on the latter).
Unlike Richard’s past archival releases which have often featured home demo recordings, everything on Two Sad Little Islands has been produced in-studio. With this 3-LP vinyl set, Richard presents just over two hours of material that once again makes his case as one of the “most underrated songwriters of our time” (LA Review of Books)."
Ltd. Gold LP. In den Annalen der Rockmusik gibt es nur wenige Sänger, die eine so ausdrucksstarke Stimme haben wie Dan McCafferty. Als charismatischer Frontmann der schottischen Band Nazareth war McCafferty an mehr als 25 Alben beteiligt, veröffentlichte Hits wie 'Love Hurts', 'Dream On', 'This Flight Tonight' und 'Morning Dew' und tourte auf der ganzen Welt. Nach einer einzigartigen Karriere von 50 Jahren ist Dan McCafferty am 8. November 2022 im Alter von 76 Jahren gestorben. Sein Name wird in Erinnerung bleiben, seine großartigen Songs werden weiterhin auf unzähligen Rock-Radiosendern auf der ganzen Welt gespielt. Unentdeckte musikalische Schätze wurden in McCaffertys Privathaus Archiv aufbewahrt. Einige davon sind nun auf der posthumen Hommage zu finden: 'No Turning Back - In Memory of Dan McCafferty'. Die bisher unveröffentlichten Songs "Occident" und "No Turning Back" sind Originalaufnahmen aus den späten 1990er Jahren, die McCafferty mit dem deutsche Regisseur, Komponist und Musikproduzent Christoph Busse aufnahm. Der bisher unveröffentlichte Track 'Children's Eyes' stammt aus einer Kooperation mit dem Komponist und Produzent Detlef Wiedeke. Alle drei Titel zeigen die stilistisch enorme Bandbreite seiner rauen Rockstimme. Mit 'Into the Ring", "Starry Eyes" und "Sunny Island" folgen drei Stücke aus einer besonders ereignisreichen Karrierephase des schottischen Musikers. Die Songs wurden 1987 auf seinem inzwischen längst vergriffenen Soloalbum "Into the Ring" veröffentlicht. Das Album entstand zwischen den beiden Nazareth Klassiker "Cinema" (1986) und "Snakes'n'Ladders" (1989. Abgerundet wird "In Memory of Dan McCafferty" mit "Going Home" aus dem Jahr 1993 und aus dem gleichnamigen Album des kurzlebigen Projekts Seasons, mit original schottischem Dudelsack, Fiddles, Flöten und Schlaginstrumenten. Das Lied basiert auf dem Stück "Largo" aus der 9. Sinfonie "Aus der Neuen Welt" von Antonín Dvo?ák. Außerdem gibt es zwei aktuelle Coverversionen der Nazareth-Evergreens 'Love Hurts' und 'Dream On' als Bonustracks, gesungen von dem griechischen Sänger Panos Kalifis, dessen Stimmfarbe der von McCafferty verblüffend ähnlich ist. Last but not least: Auf dem Albumcover prangt ein Foto des jungen Dan McCafferty, während das Booklet zwölf Bleistift- und Kohleillustrationen enthält. "No Turning Back - In Memory of Dan McCafferty" ist ein musikalisches Must Have für jeden McCafferty/Nazareth und Hard Rock Fan.
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One of the very first compositions by Bruno Sanchioni (Age of Love, BBE), released in 88 just at the beginning of the New Beat phenomenon that marked the history of Belgian music.
Along with Confetti's and Amnesia, it was one of the most popular tracks of its time and marked the start of a long and promising career for Bruno Sanchioni. Just 2 years later, he composed the original bassline for the legendary track "Age of Love", which, thanks to Jam & Spoon's remix, was to stamp the electronic music scene for several generations. Based on video clash created by the visionary Lil'Louis, the original slow tempo was enhanced by the highly recognisable vocal "The Story" and a simple but highly effective melody. It was already remixed 10 years later by Viper, with a rhythmic pattern once again inspired by the Chicago pioneers.
25 years on, this track still evokes emotion and still inspires a good number of artists to want to touch it up, and for the track's 35th anniversary it seemed appropriate to pay it a vibrant tribute by offering several remixes split into two different vinyl projects. In a faster, more acid-influenced style, the first project features a remix by DJHS, Manu Kenton and Furax, emblematic artists from the north of France, and is completed by Viper's excellent 98 remix for those who haven't heard it yet. DJHS is behind the legendary acid track 'Spokesman', Manu Kenton is one of the flagship artists of the 'Ghoststyle' label and Furax is behind 'Big Orgus'.
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Love, Drugs & Misery ist das lang erwartete Album von Eva Under Fire. Das Album hat eine Botschaft der Inklusivität und Selbstliebe mit Songs wie "Coming for Blood" mit Mat von From Ashes To New. Es enthält auch den Radiohit "Blow" mit Spencer Charnas von Ice Nine Kills.
Big Thief's music, rooted in the songs of Adrianne Lenker, paints in vivid tones "the process of harnessing pain, loss, and love, while simultaneously letting go, looking into your own eyes through someone else's, and being okay with the inevitability of death," says Adrianne.
Masterpiece, Big Thief's debut album, is -lled with characters and visceral narratives, songs that pivot in the space of a few words. Adrianne's voice and guitar playing speak of rich emotional territory with grace and insight. In her words, the record tracks "the masterpiece of existence, which is always folding into itself, people attempting to connect, to both shake themselves awake and to shake o the numbness of certain points in their life. The interpretations might be impressionistic or surrealistic, but they're grounded in simple things.'
Adrianne met her longtime musical partner, guitarist and singer, Buck Meek, in Brooklyn a few years ago, and they quickly formed a creative bond tempered by the experience of traveling and performing for months on end in old dive bars, yards, barns, and basements together. They recorded a pair of duo albums (A-Sides and B-Sides), and Adrianne showcased her songs on a solo album, Hours Were The Birds.
Now, as a full rock and roll band, with Buck on guitar, Max Oleartchik on bass, and James Krivchenia on drums, they bring a steady wildness, giving the songs an even deeper layer of nostalgia. "These guys feel like a pack of wolves at my back," says Adrianne, "they make the songs howl and bark with a fierce tenderness that gives me courage."
After spending last July in an old house that they turned into a studio on Lake Champlain with producer Andrew Sarlo, the resulting collection soars on what Big Thief fan Sharon Van Etten calls "...a real journey, with intelligent stories and twist-and-turn melodies.
Following up his anthemic late-summer burner, Hope, Credit 00 returns to Pinkman to deliver the album Midnightlife Crisis. Hopping between genres whilst remaining resolutely coherent, the twelve-track double LP is a showcase of the Rat Life boss' many influences. From the driving, mesmeric techno of Music Is A Spiritual Thing to the sci-fi electro on Bouncing Bell and Love Warrior's downtempo, half-time shuffle, the collection of tracks is broad and varied yet simultaneously unified by belonging to the club. Whether it's warm-up material, peaktime rollers or afterhours sludge for tired legs and scrambled heads, there's something for every scenario on Midnightlife Crisis. And with recurring themes of melancholy and anxiety throughout, the album perhaps reflects that all too familiar period for every club enthusiast when the years are ticking by and the lights are coming on. "I just hope there's hope", sings the voice on the album's lead single, before reminding us that the dancefloor's sweet release is often the best remedy to these negative thoughts - "I see you shaking on the floor, that gives me hope, gives me hope."
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City Talk is the new self produced album from Zac Farro’s Halfnoise. City Talk arrives via Farro's Nashville artist collective Congrats Records and follows 2019’s critically acclaimed Motif LP.
Farro, perhaps best known as the drummer of Paramore, has been honing his skills outside of his main gig for years now. He’s released a steady flow of Halfnoise music, he’s produced and played with Becca Mancari and Elke, he's directed videos for Paramore, Hayley Williams, Elke and Halfnoise and he’s a consummate photographer – releasing a photo book in 2020 In Transit and shooting his bands and others, including Local Natives who are currently using Farro’s images as their promo shots.
The LP features a gatefold jacket and exclusive neon green LP.
Those familiar with the sound and style of the DIY scene in Chicago's Logan Square may be surprised to find out that it was the birthplace of psych pop quintet Lucille Furs. They are a little surprised themselves.
At the time it wasn't exactly the place to hear harmonies and harpsichords so much as songs about sniffing glue. This isn't to say they didn't like the raucous power of Magik Milk, on the contrary. But, as the people who would come to make up the band began to talk, it became clear that they wanted to make something different entirely. They wanted to make something with the heartbeat of sweaty city basement shows but with the unrestrained imagination of places and times where they had never been.
Bassist Patrick Tsotsos will tell you about the music of post-war Greece where his grandparents grew up. Guitarist Nick Dehmlow will tell you about the garage bands of LA. Drummer Brendan Peleo-Lazar can fill you in on a late 60s London studio session as though he was running the tape machine. Mellotron/organ player Constantine Hastalis can show you a record by some long-forgotten folk singer who writes so earnestly you won't forgive the world for forgetting it. Singer Trevor Newton Pritchett is unapologetic about what they borrow. "You might hear the Zombies for their kind of haunting and contemplative quality, the Kinks kind-of casual criticism, the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band for their distant romantic quality, Temples, Love, Diane Coffee, Charles Bradley or our Chicago people Post Animal, Jude Shuma and Whitney." Now that half of the band is located in Los Angeles you'll be likely to hear those influences, too.
And that's what becomes crystal clear when listening to the upcoming album Another Land. It's an immersive listen, the kind of record you can get lost in on a cross-country drive from the midwest to the west coast. A record with warm blood running through its veins. Music where thought can be abandoned.
The whole record is dressed up in surreal and esoteric terms, in exchange for being topical. Think Dylan lyrics from the late 60s. "Paint Euphrosyne Blue" is kind of a meta-level example of that. The song is a reference to the goddess of mirth, about the human need to adapt to the point of becoming unoriginal. It's about chasing Van Gogh's depression because it makes you feel like a better painter.
The album was written through September 2017 and was recorded following the release of the self-titled Lucille Furs album later that year. It was recorded direct to tape before being completed at Treehouse Records in Chicago.
For fans of: The Kinks, The Zombies, Love, West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, The Byrds, The Beatles, Foxygen, Triptides, Temples, Mystic Braves, Levitation Room
Those familiar with the sound and style of the DIY scene in Chicago's Logan Square may be surprised to find out that it was the birthplace of psych pop quintet Lucille Furs. They are a little surprised themselves.
At the time it wasn't exactly the place to hear harmonies and harpsichords so much as songs about sniffing glue. This isn't to say they didn't like the raucous power of Magik Milk, on the contrary. But, as the people who would come to make up the band began to talk, it became clear that they wanted to make something different entirely. They wanted to make something with the heartbeat of sweaty city basement shows but with the unrestrained imagination of places and times where they had never been.
Bassist Patrick Tsotsos will tell you about the music of post-war Greece where his grandparents grew up. Guitarist Nick Dehmlow will tell you about the garage bands of LA. Drummer Brendan Peleo-Lazar can fill you in on a late 60s London studio session as though he was running the tape machine. Mellotron/organ player Constantine Hastalis can show you a record by some long-forgotten folk singer who writes so earnestly you won't forgive the world for forgetting it. Singer Trevor Newton Pritchett is unapologetic about what they borrow. "You might hear the Zombies for their kind of haunting and contemplative quality, the Kinks kind-of casual criticism, the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band for their distant romantic quality, Temples, Love, Diane Coffee, Charles Bradley or our Chicago people Post Animal, Jude Shuma and Whitney." Now that half of the band is located in Los Angeles you'll be likely to hear those influences, too.
And that's what becomes crystal clear when listening to the upcoming album Another Land. It's an immersive listen, the kind of record you can get lost in on a cross-country drive from the midwest to the west coast. A record with warm blood running through its veins. Music where thought can be abandoned.
The whole record is dressed up in surreal and esoteric terms, in exchange for being topical. Think Dylan lyrics from the late 60s. "Paint Euphrosyne Blue" is kind of a meta-level example of that. The song is a reference to the goddess of mirth, about the human need to adapt to the point of becoming unoriginal. It's about chasing Van Gogh's depression because it makes you feel like a better painter.
The album was written through September 2017 and was recorded following the release of the self-titled Lucille Furs album later that year. It was recorded direct to tape before being completed at Treehouse Records in Chicago.
For fans of: The Kinks, The Zombies, Love, West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, The Byrds, The Beatles, Foxygen, Triptides, Temples, Mystic Braves, Levitation Room
The Royal hangmen are exited to announce the release of our third full-lenght album "Paranoid Nightmares" on Foggy Notion Records. Swiss garage heroes The Royal Hangmen are back with their third album. Imagine fuzz-driven guitars, a grinding Vox organ, a stompin' backbeat and some high energy screaming vocals, mix that with some real dedicated sixties attitude and you dig what the The Royal Hangmen were all about. These swiss wildmen play vintage instruments with a sound reminiscent of The Sonics, 13th Floor Elevators and Small Faces but with a style and energy all of their own."Paranoid Nightmares" is an adventurous and eclectic trip through the glorious sixties. 12 tracks that lead you fromfuzz-driven Beat to Surf, from Folk-Jangle to R'n'B and Soul. Always authentic and raw, the band's sound is a lovely combination of shredding vocals, nasty guitars and organ sounds with strong melodies and hooks on top. For fans of The Sonics, The Pretty Things, The Fuzztones, The Chesterfield Kings. The very limited coloured vinyl comes as violet/black marbled LP (DLC included)!
The Royal hangmen are exited to announce the release of our third full-lenght album "Paranoid Nightmares" on Foggy Notion Records. Swiss garage heroes The Royal Hangmen are back with their third album. Imagine fuzz-driven guitars, a grinding Vox organ, a stompin' backbeat and some high energy screaming vocals, mix that with some real dedicated sixties attitude and you dig what the The Royal Hangmen were all about. These swiss wildmen play vintage instruments with a sound reminiscent of The Sonics, 13th Floor Elevators and Small Faces but with a style and energy all of their own."Paranoid Nightmares" is an adventurous and eclectic trip through the glorious sixties. 12 tracks that lead you fromfuzz-driven Beat to Surf, from Folk-Jangle to R'n'B and Soul. Always authentic and raw, the band's sound is a lovely combination of shredding vocals, nasty guitars and organ sounds with strong melodies and hooks on top. For fans of The Sonics, The Pretty Things, The Fuzztones, The Chesterfield Kings. The very limited coloured vinyl comes as violet/black marbled LP (DLC included)!
Toots Hibbert, Henry “Raleigh” Gordon and Nathaniel “Jerry” Mathias founded The Maytals in 1962. The Jamaican musicians became one of the best known ska and rocksteady vocal groups and helped popularizing reggae music during the Sixties. Their 1968 single “Do The Reggay” was the first song to use the word “Reggae”, resulting in the Oxford English Dictionary crediting Toots and The Maytals in the etymology of the word “Reggae”.
Following their signing to Island Records in 1973 they recorded and released their fourth album From the Roots. The album was recorded with Leslie Kong and features some of The Maytals’ most explosive tunes, while their predilection for gospel is still audible.
Temple, Bassey, MacLaine and now, Hurt; in a world of Shirleys, the name Sophia Ruby Katz has chosen for her music is perhaps prophetic as it captures her stunningly emotive vocal approach. And whilst Shirley Hurt might be the perfect nom de plume for the creative Toronto-based artist, it’s her self-titled debut album which positions her as protagonist of her own universe.
Traversing sonic landscapes, Shirley Hurt’s vocals ebb and flow like lyrical Ley lines tracking the contours of her own well-travelled map. By the age of 18, Hurt had travelled extensively, having lived in upwards of 20 different apartments and houses, as a result never really feeling “at home” anywhere. At this age was when Hurt found herself in New York, dipping her toes into various scenes and musical realms. The first and only place she ever felt at home, and a partial home-base for her, she travelled between Toronto and New York until the age of 26.When the project she was working on in New York reached a dead-end she returned West, moving in with musicians Harrison Forman (Hieronymus Harry, Zones) and Patrick Lefler (Roy, Possum). Being surrounded by their improvising at all hours, a new approach emerged. “Harrison is a virtuosic guitar player, and I hadn't picked up a guitar in any serious way since I was 16,” she says, “by osmosis I started playing again for fun.” Without agenda, the process grew organically from there.
Hurt and Forman decided to travel across the US and Canada in a trailer for half a year, with the entire album written in the final months of their trip. Hurt had been writing loose ideas here and there but felt blocked creatively. When the pair reached Berkley, they wound up house-sitting for a tuned-in friend who recommended she pray, in a very direct way, to remove the block. “I took her advice and to my surprise it worked. The album was conceptualized and finished within a couple of months.” Shapeshifting in tone and phrasing, Hurt’s music alchemizes the furthest corners of experimental indie folk, pop, and country into a singular sound with elegant unpredictability.
Whilst Shirley Hurt’s lyrical and structural ideas may have emerged on the road, the album was self-produced and recorded at Joseph Shabason (The War on Drugs)’s Aytche studio in Toronto’s West End. It was engineered by Nathan Vanderwielen and Chris Shannon (Bart), and Hurt enlisted collaborators Jason Bhattacharya, Nick Dourado, Patrick Lefler, and Harrison Forman to hone her vision. “I wasn’t sure what was going to happen with the songs until we returned to Toronto,” she recalls. “Joseph and I had been talking about working together after sending across some demos and Jason happened to recommend his studio at the exact same time, so everything came together naturally at that point.”
Whilst her most recent adventures may have seen Shirley Hurt bound for Texas as an official SXSW artist (hand-picked by Gorilla Vs Bear to perform at their own showcase), she currently resides in her native Canada, more specifically rural Ontario, close to friends and family, and is already working on her second album. The ties to lineage are interwoven in the fabric of the music. Hurt’s mother, artist Leala Hewak, instilled a lust for life and innate value of creativity in her from a young age as she explored the role of gallery owner, vintage jewellery show host, mid-century modern furniture expert, real estate agent, painter. Hurt’s father, a civil litigation lawyer and new-wave obsessed music lover with an extensive vinyl collection, introduced Hurt to a wide-range of artists at a young age such as Nina Hagen, Laurie Anderson, Tom Tom Club, and endless others.
In her video for ‘Problem Child’ Hurt’s grandmother walks her through a generationally revered pie-making process. One would be tempted to hear this, and other songs, as autobiographical. Yet, Hurt’s lyrics are rarely pulled from her relationships or personal history––at least not consciously. Rather, they arise from somewhere less tangible or defined. “Lyrics tend to come to me when I am doing non-musical things - washing dishes, brushing my dogs, walking to the grocery store. I have a lot of voice memos on my phone and half-filled notebooks and when I hear something, I have to stop what I'm doing to get the idea down. Usually it’s bits and pieces. It's rare a full song comes to me in one go, but it's great when they do, and those are often my favourites.”
Carving out a space of her own in an all-encompassing universe, Shirley Hurt is the introduction to a long artistic story, and if the journey so far is anything to go by, it will be stippled with evermore unpredictable chapters.
