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"UNITED", Tristesse Contemporaine’s new album is like a space shuttle, full of metropolitan and eccentric music makers.

Inside the shuttle: Narumi, Leo & Mike, respectively from Japan, Sweden and Jamaican-British. All "united" behind the unique Tristesse Contemporaine flag and led since the start by French label Record Makers (Kavinsky, Sebastien Tellier, Cola Boyy…).

After three rock & post-punk infused albums: "Tristesse Contemporaine" (2012), "Stay Golden" (2013) and "Stop and Start" (2017), they’re off to a new start and open a new cycle with their new opus "UNITED".

Who other than young prodigy Lewis OfMan, the one-man band behind hits like "Attitude" and renowned collaborations including Rejjie Snow or Carly Rae Jepsen, to join the joyous ride?

After hearing "Sly Fox"'s first demo in 2019, they convinced him to produce a whole album for them and became the fourth member of sorts, adding his pop sensibility, mixing genres and emotions with funky basslines, strong hooks, and digital arrangements.

A free-spirited album filled with irresistible beat-driven tunes thanks to Mike's thunderous voice, Narumi's sparkling synths and Leo's gleaming guitar, conquering new territories from reggae to 90’s breakbeat or New-York disco. A unique and united style glued together by a rare ability to switch moods and dynamics in a gleam of light, like a skilled DJ would.

'Swooping, sub-heavy sci-fi from Riz Maslen. Leda Maar is a new moniker for the established artist who’s released a crop of downtempo and electronic music as Neotropic and Small Fish With Spine, as well as collaborated with the likes of Future Sound of London, filmmaker Andrew Kötting, and featured in PSP-era Grand Theft Auto soundtracks.

Mana’s long lasting love of Riz’s 1996 Laundrophonic EP, released under her Neotropic name, spurred this new release. That 12” was a deep and dark web of rhythm and ghostly urban found sound that one Discogs reviewer aptly named “coin-slot Dubstep”. With elements mostly sourced from tape recordings made in and of her local laundromat, it still stands out as a remarkably contemporary feeling work; more like a post-Fisher, post-hauntology observation of urban life from the last decade, taking the ambient temperature and undercurrent pressures of the 90s. Asking if she had anything in continuity with this slice of her discography, and describing our interest in her take on “space and bass”, Maslen returned to us with Stairway 13.

Heavy-lidded and ethereal in long form, the album’s balance of bass weight, mechanical metre, and darkly tinted new age feels like a cinematic re-approach to some of the textures, moods, and themes of Laundrophonic. Originally designed for an installation, Stairway 13 folds in her decades’ experience in sound design and theatre, along with shards and elements abstracted from her more recent folk-like music, zoning into a deep, retreated, altogether dreamlike and expansive atmosphere. The scale and soundscape is reminiscent of Geinoh Yamashirogumi and their Ecophony album series, resonating to similar frequencies and exploring themes of chaos and re-birth in feature-length form.

Stairway 13’s four parts spread and swoop as single extended sides across this double LP. Carried by waves of sub bass and heavenly chorus, and later punctuated with autonomic clicks of machinery, whirrs, and pulses - sometimes reminiscent of FSOL’s weirder and more clipped staccato sampling in sections of their cyberpunk ISDN - the work forms a gothic, otherworldly ambience. A subtle space opera.'

Written and recorded in the midst of a dizzying stretch in which nearly everything about the way the band lived and worked was turned on its head, Motel Radio's "The Garden" is indeed a work of relentless hope. The songs are profoundly vulnerable here, and the performances are warm and breezy, calling to mind everything from Andy Shauf and Cass McCombs to Beck and Tame Impala with an easygoing demeanor that belies the deep emotional work underpinning them. Motel Radio generated early buzz in their adopted hometown of New Orleans on the strength of their 2015 debut EP, Days & Nights, which helped land them dates with the likes of Kurt Vile and Drive-By Truckers in addition to festival slots at Firefly, Jazz Fest, and more. The band followed it up with the similarly well-received Desert Surf Films in 2016 and their first full-length, Siesta Del Sol, in 2019, touring the country on a seemingly endless loop as they built up their devoted following one night at a time. Since then, the band had set a goal of becoming more self-sufficient and learning to record on their own, and when it came time to cut The Garden, they dove in headfirst, cutting half the collection in an old fishing camp south of New Orleans with the help of engineer Ross Farbe (Video Age, Esther Rose) and the other half fully remotely while engineering themselves. "There was this real creative freedom that came with working remotely and learning how to run the sessions on our own," explains co-lead singer Ian Wellman. "Synths, samples, beats, plug-ins; suddenly these whole new worlds of sound were at our fingertips and the possibilities were limitless." That creative liberation is easy to hear on The Garden, which opens with the mesmerizing "Wise." Like much of the album, it's a gentle meditation on finding joy and fulfillment, on spreading love and positivity. "I've gotta open my eyes," co-lead singer Winston Triolo sings over dreamy guitars and a hypnotic digital drum loop. "I only get one life, well now how can I live it wise?" The airy "Outta Sight" celebrates the simple pleasures of letting go and being present, while the washed-out "Sweet Daze" revels in the warmth of human connection, and propulsive "Happiness Pie" looks for ways to share the comfort and contentment that comes with self-acceptance. On The Garden, they've realized there's no sweeter garden than the one you grow yourself.

It’s taken a long time for me to feel good about myself,” says Andreya Triana of the journey to her third album. “As a musician, as a woman, it’s difficult getting to that space. It’s really wonderful where you reach that time of having more good days than bad.” That sense of celebration is what drives ‘Life In Colour’, Andreya’s most confident, instinctive and heartfelt work to date; a record that celebrates love, freedom, independence and womanhood. “‘Life In Colour’ is about stepping into my womanhood and being like ‘OK, I know this space. Let me try some s**t. I know it’s going to be hard but I know it’s going to be OK’. I just wanted to put some good energy out there.” The first taster of that sweet release was teased with lead single ‘Woman’ - a soulful pop anthem of self-love, tracking Andreya’s life from awkward teen to mighty queen, from memories of heartache and trauma to triumph. “You know when you’re feeling so uncomfortable in yourself and you just want to be swallowed up into a hole in the ground?,” Andreya recalls of her youth. “This is about moving on from being a victim to a place of strength, to feeling like a superhero. “Anyone who has gone through difficult times like I have, should know that it’s absolutely possible to get to a good place. It doesn’t define who you are or your future. You have to fight like hell every day to move forward but anything is possible. We’re all full of so much goodness. Don’t lose sight of that.” The lyric video is a tribute to Andreya’s mother, grandmother, the strong females of her life and the many sacrifices that women make day-to-day, generation after generation.

The third album 'Life In Colour' by the MOBO nominated British soul/jazz singer Andreya Triana who's collaborated with Bonobo, Flying Lotus been endorsed by the likes of Gilles Peterson & Jamie Cullum.

Back from a hot summer we are presenting you this great new release by Steve Mill who truly captures the sun and warmth in these new jams for us. The Greek born artist who lives between Berlin and Thessaloniki just released his “The Mistake EP” on Tensnake’s own True Romance label where we could already hear his soulful and groovey disco infused sound.

The opener “Love Attack” is a real “good times” tune with catchy vocal snips and a bad ass funky arpeggio bass line topped with spaced out strings and pads, this one reminds us a lot of Krystal Klear material and our own Lorenz Rhode. Saying that, we of course could not think of anyone better than him to take on this tune and drawing the inspiration to create his own super funked up version! As always all parts are played and recorded live in his Cologne studio with the same hot summer vibes on this one as well! You can find the vox version on vinyl and an instrumental as bonus digital track to get your party really started. On repeat!

“Make Me Feel” featuring the Berlin based vocalist Tee Amara has disco flavors all over it and is just an irresistible house tune, majestic and soulful. Followed by the slow and developing “Next to You” that’s steadily building towards a crescendo “heaven” gem, much in the tradition of disco edits from back in the 80’s. It reminded us a lot of our old Ben La Desh records we put out some good 10 years ago. Maybe this one is our personal fave, for sure a tune you could drop on any floor: disco, electro or house.

Get in the groove with Steve and Lorenz and let us surprise you with a truly funky, groovey and above all positive vibes only release to reminiscent the summer time. Enjoy!


All tracks have been mastered by Salz Mastering in Cologne. Photography & Art by Break 3000.

We are excited to reissue Kuedo's classic 2011 album 'Severant' on double vinyl for the first time, and with a bonus track 'Work, Live & Sleep In Collapsing Space'. The cover artwork has been redesigned by Raf Rennie (Who also designed Kuedo's recent album on Brainfeeder, Infinite Window). In terms of feeling, ‘Severant’ explores the space between the detached world of the imagination and the real-time world; that feeling of coming out of a daydream, on the edge of the drift from the day-to-day grind. Jamie says of this moment ”As reality shapes imagination and escapism affects your choices in the real world, there is a strange relational loop between the two and the space in between the two. There’s a bitter sweetness in that gap, it has a certain emotive quality, kind of in between being and non-being”. Again, musically ‘Severant’ is inspired by related themes. It sounds as if it’s in a sweet spot between the emotive, innately futurist synth soundtracks of Tangerine Dream and Vangelis, borne from a time when the very idea of futurism was more prevalent, in combination with musical ideas and inspiration from the emotionally ambivalent, materialist fantasies of ‘coke rap‘ such as The Clipse. Rhythmically the record is influenced by what Jamie calls ”the two ultra modernmusics of modern times”, footwork from Chicago, which Planet Mu has explored in depth on its recent releases, and again the drum machine grids of coke rap. Jamie says ”I wanted to capture a really futurist sentiment, kind of melancholy and grand luminescent, so I used the instrument that most evokes that for me - that sweeping Vangelis brass sound.” And on coke rap he talks about the emotional ‘half being’ of the music, the energetically charged, detached ambivalence of the MCs, and the admission that the MCs could be ”fantasising without admitting to doing so.”

Pure Wicked Tune is a mixtape-style collection of extracts & cut-ups, taken from DIY cassette recordings featuring rare groove and "soul blues" soundsystems playing at early morning house parties and blues dances - mostly in South & East London - between the mid 1980s & early 90s.

Sounds like Funkadelic, Touch of Class, Latest Edition, JB Crew, Manhattan, 5th Avenue (and the many more featured on this tape) originally began to form in the mid-1980s. With lovers rock dwindling, and the reggae scene becoming dominated by harder digital-style dancehall, these sounds provided a tight but loyal crowd with a potent alternative - playing a mixture of killer rare soul, funk and boogie records in an inimitably reggae soundsystem style, complete with toasting, sirens and effects aplenty.

They were most well-known for playing at house parties and blues dances, typically in small flats or warehouses, with timing of such events generally running from the early morning hours until late the next afternoon. Though the popularity of the sounds faded following the dance music explosion of the early 1990s, there has been continued demand for revival sessions ever since. Whilst the influence of key British reggae & dancehall soundsystems on subsequent UK sounds like hardcore & jungle is relatively well documented, a similar line can just as easily be drawn from these sounds and the aforementioned styles' tendency toward sampling popular rare groove cuts, particularly well evidenced in the work of Tom & Jerry, 4hero, Reinforced & LTJ Bukem among others.

This represents the first outing in a series of collections exploring the sounds of UK soundsystem culture, via extracts from archival DIY cassette recordings of blues parties, dances & clashes made between the late 70s and early 90s. Often duplicated and shared widely, these ruff and ready "sound tapes" provided keen ears with music that wasn't otherwise readily available on the airwaves or in the record shops, and would go on to leave a deeply-rooted but too often overlooked influence on the UK's musical landscape.

The Southern state’s musical giants have always had their own distinct recipe for
American roots: spiced with jazz, steeped in swamp-blues and cooked up a little
differently by every artist who performs it. As a second- generation child of the
Bayou State, Kenny Neal has taken his own inimitable guitar, gale-force harp and
roadworn voice all over the globe. But in 2022, the Grammy- nominated blues
master’s latest album, Straight From The Heart, finds him drawn by the siren call
of his hometown and musical ground zero, Baton Rouge.“This is the first album
I’ve ever recorded on my own turf, and it truly came straight from the heart,” says
Neal, who both led and produced a crack team of local musicians at his own
Brookstown Recording Studios. “All the tributaries of the blues converge here,
flowing into one rich tradition.”You’ll hear all of Neal’s travels in Straight From The
Heart, but this latest album brings it all back home in every sense. Lining up in the
studio alongside his Baton Rouge compadrés, the respect that Neal commands
on the scene also drew some special guests, including hot- tip blues sensation
Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram (who co-writes and plays stinger guitar on Mount Up
On The Wings Of The King), pop royalty Tito Jackson (on Two Timing) and two
songs with Rockin’ Dopsie Junior & The Zydeco Twisters. You’ll even hear Neal’s
supremely talented daughter Syreeta drive the vocal outro of Two Timing.“It was
like a family reunion,” says Neal of the good-natured sessions. “It was excellent
because I had all the musicians that grew up under me here in Baton Rouge. And
just being in my own studio, not worrying about the clock.”Straight From The
Heart is a fitting title for a record that salutes the many loves of Neal’s life.
There’s the brass-driven opener Blues Keep Chasing Me, which tips a hat to his
recently departed friend, Lucky Peterson. There’s the touching piano-led Someone
Somewhere, which salutes his beloved father, harp master Raful Neal, who put
him on this path. Elsewhere, Neal’s deep love for every side of his home state is
underlined by the zydeco chop of Bon Temps Rouler and New Orleans, whose
lyrics reference everything from “sippin’ on Hurricane” to “sittin’ on the Bayou
catching catfish”. Faced with such an open-hearted record, it’s impossible not to
reciprocate. And as the world opens up and Kenny Neal embraces his natural
habitat of the road, this Louisiana icon will bring a little bit of that Baton Rouge
spirit onto every stage he treads. “It don't cost nothing to share a little love and a
little respect,” he says. “And we can all rise above…”

Over the course of his six-decade-long career, Dr. John embodied a near-mythic multitude of musical identities: global ambassador of New Orleans funk and jazz and R&B, visionary bluesman, rock and roll innovator, one-time top 10 hitmaker, self-anointed and massively revered high priest of psychedelic voodoo. On Things Happen That Way, the six-time Grammy-winning Rock & Roll Hall of Famer otherwise known as Malcolm John “Mac” Rebennack Jr. reveals yet another dimension of his cosmically vast musicality: a lifelong affinity for classic country & western, whose songs he first encountered via the 78 rpm records frequently spun at his father’s electronics shop. Things Happen That Way arrives as the latest and final studio album from an artist who remained wholly unpredictable, alchemizing the charmed simplicity of traditional country into a wildly enchanting body of work.



Things Happen That Way marks the fulfillment of a longtime goal of the legendary singer/songwriter/pianist, who first began plotting a country inspired album decades ago. In bringing his album’s songs to life, Dr. John drew on a lineup of musicians befitting of a universally beloved luminary who worked with the likes of Van Morrison, the Rolling Stones, B.B. King, Etta James, and artists as diverse as Aretha Franklin, Ringo Starr, and Eric Clapton. Along with an elite cadre of New Orleans session players, the album’s personnel include icons Willie Nelson and Aaron Neville, as well as label mate singer/songwriter Katie Pruitt and country-rock powerhouse Lukas Nelson & Promise Of The Real. True to an artist whose music “transcended race and cultural divides”—as Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach proclaimed in presenting Dr. John his lifetime achievement award at the Americana Music Association Honors and Awards in 2013—Things Happen That Way reflects both a rich sense of history and a boundless passion for defying expectation.

Tommy McLain, one of the founding fathers of the swamp pop genre,
returns with his first new album in over 40 years: I Ran Down Every Dream
Produced by fellow Lil' Band O' Gold member CC Adcock, the album features
contributions from legendary artists who cite Tommy as a major influence,
including Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, Van Dyke Parks and Augie Meyers. At 82
years young, Tommy has finally released the album of his career. Ranging from
the Americana roots sound of "Somebody" and "Livin' on the Losin' End" to
stripped- back, introspective renditions of early Tommy hits like "No Tomorrows
Now" and "Before I Grow Too Old," Tommy McLain cements himself as one of the
few living legends from the 1960s who is still putting out new music and touring
around the world. A beautiful look at a songwriter who (a half- century later) is
finally receiving his due.

Italian duo Agents Of Time have been incredibly busy over the past few years, from releasing a string of classic singles – including their recent single for Afterlife, “The Mirage”, which earned more than five million views on Instagram – to remixing The Weeknd’s “Take My Breath”, which appeared on his recent Dawn FM (Alternative World). But the biggest news is here now – their second album, Universo, is ready. Elevating their trademark melodic techno with an exquisite pop-ness, Universo has found its ideal home with Kompakt, following their Music Made Paradise 2020 debut EP for the label. It’s a meeting of minds that makes perfect sense.

Andrea Di Ceglie and Luigi Tutolo, the two members of Agents Of Time, used their time during the pandemic to work on Universo, an album loosely conceptualised around their ‘personal universo’, a manifestation of the world Di Ceglie and Tutolo built both within and around their studio. This accounts for the sparkle and brightness of Universo – it’s full of personality, vim and vigour, the duo experimenting with their music, exploring its furthest corners. If you come to Universo expecting just another album of melodic techno, get ready to be pleasantly surprised – there’s a whole lot more going on here, and it’s all equally compelling.

After a typically poetic opening gesture – the swirling, synaesthetic, self-titled intro track – expectations are immediately blindsided with the two-step pop of “Fallin’”, sung with gentle clarity by guest Audrey Janssens, a dream of a song that harks back to the glory days of early ‘00s UK garage. “Interstellar Cowboy” is a confident, lithe, disco-fied strut; the gentle minor-key piano of “Liquid Fantasy” spirals into a gorgeously melancholy techno-pop epic, Vicky Who?’s voice rich with yearning. Janssens also reappears on the electro-swirl of “Poison”; “Dream Vision” revisits their single “The Mirage”, soft with sweeping strings, loaded with drama; “Part Of Life” sashays into view with a schaffel-stomp.

This rich variety throws the more dancefloor-focused tracks, like “Ciao”, into even starker relief – they’re more decisive, streamlined, yet rich with detail, chugging, Moroder-esque bass meeting strobe-lit synths that fire melodies out into the firmament. Universo feels texturally dense, but it still breathes, its sounds so tactile you want to reach out and grab them, its tunes so seductive you can’t get them out of your head. Universo is a fiercely beautiful album, brave in its spirit, a perfectly poised meeting-point of pop melody and stylish, lush techno: Agents Of Time in excelsis.

Das italienische Duo Agents Of Time war in den letzten Jahren unglaublich fleißig, von der Veröffentlichung einer Reihe klassischer Singles - darunter ihre jüngster Beitrag für Afterlife, "The Mirage", der mehr als fünf Millionen Aufrufe auf Instagram erhielt - bis hin zum Remix von The Weeknds "Take My Breath", der auf dessen aktuellen Album “Dawn FM (Alternative World)” erschien. Aber die bahnbrechendeste Neuigkeit ist erst jetzt endlich da - ihr zweites Album "Universo" ist fertig! “Universo" verbindet ihr Markenzeichen, melodischen Techno, mit einer besonderen Pop-Haltung und findet nach der EP "Music Made Paradise 2020" sein ideales Zuhause bei Kompakt. Eine Seelenverwandtschaft, die absolut Sinn macht.

Andrea Di Ceglie und Luigi Tutolo, die beiden Mitglieder von Agents Of Time, nutzten die Zeit während der Pandemie, um an "Universo" zu arbeiten, einem Album, das lose um ihr "persönliches Universum" herum konzipiert ist, eine Manifestation der Welt, die Di Ceglie und Tutolo in und um ihr Studio herum aufgebaut haben. Das macht den besonderen Glanz und die strahlende Helligkeit von "Universo" aus - es strotzt nur so von Persönlichkeit, Elan und Kraft, das Duo experimentiert mit Musik und erkundet auch noch deren entfernteste Ecken. Wer bei "Universo" nur ein weiteres Album mit melodischem Techno erwartet, wird angenehm überrascht sein - hier ist viel mehr los, und alles ist gleichermaßen spannend.

Nach einer poetischen Eröffnungsgeste - dem wirbelnden, synästhetischen, selbstbetitelten Intro-Track - werden mit dem 2-Step-Pop von “Fallin” alle Erwartungen sofort über den Haufen geworfen. Mit sanfter Klarheit von Gastsängerin Audrey Janssens gesungen, ist “Fallin” ein Traum von einem Song, der an die großen Zeiten von UK-Garage in den frühen 00er Jahre erinnert. "Interstellar Cowboy" ist ein selbstbewusstes, geschmeidig über den Laufsteg stolzierender Disco-Track; das sanfte Moll-Klavier von "Liquid Fantasy" entwickelt sich zu einem wunderbar melancholischen Techno-Pop-Epos, mit Vicky Who?’s Stimme voller Sehnsucht . Danach taucht auch Janssens Gesang auf dem Elektro-Wirbel von "Poison" wieder auf; "Dream Vision" greift die Single "The Mirage" auf, sanft und mit schwungvollen Streichern, voller Dramatik; "Part Of Life" dagegen ist ein echter Schaffel-Stomp.

All der Abwechslungsreichtum lässt eher tanzflächenorientierte Tracks wie "Ciao" noch deutlicher hervortreten - sie wirken noch entschlossener, stromlinienförmiger und dennoch reich an Details, pluckernde, Moroder-eske Bässe treffen auf stroboskopisch blitzende Synths, von denen aus die Melodien ins Firmament schießen. “Universo” fühlt sich textlich dicht an, aber es atmet trotzdem, seine Klänge sind so greifbar, dass man sie anfassen möchte, seine Melodien so verführerisch, dass man sie nicht mehr aus dem Kopf bekommt. “Universo” ist ein wunderschönes, mutiges Album, ein perfekter Treffpunkt von Pop-Melodien und stilvollem Techno: Agents Of Time in excelsis.

Before 2020, Ocean Alley could have broken. The six-piece had spent two years touring relentlessly off-the-back of their breakthrough record Chiaroscuro, spending months on the road and away from their loved ones, on the brink of burnout. Then the world shut down. And although there was a universal experience of suffering and isolation during ex-tensive lockdowns, Ocean Alley found themselves gifted with a forced break - where time slowed down and they could be with their loved ones, while also finding space to recon-nect with themselves. This luxury of time allowed experimentation in new ways for the band, who since inception had always felt their way through the music with communal jam sessions. It was uncharted territory for the group who for the first time operated as a bedroom band - particularly frontman Baden Donegal who revealed that a number of tracks on their upcoming fourth album Low Altitude Living started as “shitty GarageBand demos” he recorded solo at the beginning of lockdown. When comparing the creative process of their three previous full-lengths - the ARIA-nominated Lonely Diamond (2020), their Gold-certified breakthrough Chiaroscuro (2018) and self-assured debut Lost Tropics (2016) - this in itself was the big-gest difference.y

Freedy Johnston is one of those rare singer-songwriters who counts
critics among his biggest fans — and whose heroes consider him a peer.
Not bad for a self-proclaimed "geek in glasses who never left his room."
Johnston's 9th album, 'Back on the Road to You' is a record steeped in
wit, humor, pathos, love, and friendship drenched with memorable,
infectious melodies
Johnston recorded the album in Los Angeles with producer Eric Corne after
setting up house in nearby Joshua Tree. The new surroundings seem to have
imbued the album's mood and instrumentation with echoes of The Byrds,
Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell, and Neil Young. Joining Johnston in the studio
were Aimee Mann, Susanna Hoffs of The Bangles, and longtime collaborator,
Susan Cowsill, along with an all-star roots music band, including Doug Pettibone
(Lucinda Williams), Dusty Wakeman (Jim Lauderdale), Dave Raven (Shelby Lynn)
and Sasha Smith (Priscilla Ahn).In 1994 Rolling Stone named Johnston the
'Songwriter of the Year', describing him as "A master storyteller, (who) sketches
out full- blown tragedies in a few taut poetic lines." Adding, "He joins that elite
cadre of songwriters—Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Elvis Costello—whose brilliant pop
compositions turn magical with the addition of a defiantly idiosyncratic singing
voice."
'Back on the Road to You' is a return to grace for this gifted songwriter. It
embodies the sound of an American original reminding us that he is still
considered one of the best songwriters of his generation.

Freedy Johnston is one of those rare singer-songwriters who counts
critics among his biggest fans — and whose heroes consider him a peer.
Not bad for a self-proclaimed "geek in glasses who never left his room."
Johnston's 9th album, 'Back on the Road to You' is a record steeped in
wit, humor, pathos, love, and friendship drenched with memorable,
infectious melodies
Johnston recorded the album in Los Angeles with producer Eric Corne after
setting up house in nearby Joshua Tree. The new surroundings seem to have
imbued the album's mood and instrumentation with echoes of The Byrds,
Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell, and Neil Young. Joining Johnston in the studio
were Aimee Mann, Susanna Hoffs of The Bangles, and longtime collaborator,
Susan Cowsill, along with an all-star roots music band, including Doug Pettibone
(Lucinda Williams), Dusty Wakeman (Jim Lauderdale), Dave Raven (Shelby Lynn)
and Sasha Smith (Priscilla Ahn).In 1994 Rolling Stone named Johnston the
'Songwriter of the Year', describing him as "A master storyteller, (who) sketches
out full- blown tragedies in a few taut poetic lines." Adding, "He joins that elite
cadre of songwriters—Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Elvis Costello—whose brilliant pop
compositions turn magical with the addition of a defiantly idiosyncratic singing
voice."
'Back on the Road to You' is a return to grace for this gifted songwriter. It
embodies the sound of an American original reminding us that he is still
considered one of the best songwriters of his generation.

Over the past two decades, Dez Mona never ceased to surprise audiences. Less than a year after “Lucy”, a 'worldly oratorio' in collaboration with the Antwerp Baroque Orchestration X, singer Gregory Frateur and his companions now knock on the door with the cosmopolitan “Loose Ends”.

On the group's ninth studio album, rugged funk often alternates with bouncing disco pop. 'After the dark ballads from our previous projects, we consciously chose to make a cheerful, straightforward record', says Frateur. 'This time I didn't want to exhaust myself too much in metaphors: the lyrics had to be simple and 'in your face'.

On a compositional level, Gregory Frateur gave the steering wheel this time to guitarist Sjoerd Bruil and accordionist Roel Van Camp. This contributed to Dez Mona stepping out of their comfort zone on Loose Ends and experimenting with a new sound. On the new album, for example, Van Camp plays the piano more often than the accordion. Leaning towards a more electronic sound, some songs gravitate and take you on a fantastical, abstract journey. ’Indeed, sometimes Sjoerd adds strange angles in his compositions', the singer concludes. 'During performances, they force me to put myself aside as a singer and get completely absorbed in the instrumental trip'.

The emphasis is more than ever on the rhythm and groove. Drummer Karel De Backer, the newcomer in the band, gives the music extra punch, while the absence of a bassist is ingeniously compensated by Bruil and Van Camp. 'On Loose Ends we go 'back to basics', admits Gregory Frateur. “But without losing our recognisability.”

Multi-instrumentalist Tijs Delbeke, who was part of Dez Mona for many years, but has moved to Balthazar, was responsible for the production. Frateur prefers to surround himself with people with whom he feels at ease and who carry the DNA of Dez Mona.

We are proud to present "I'm Always Right" by Imagination, an unreleased jazz rock LP from 1977. Comprised of five tracks with a playtime of roughly 30 minutes, you will hear one of the finest German late-70s rock-tinged electric jazz albums of the era. The recording is a delightful stand-out with unique compositions, aspiring solo work, and a soulful spirit throughout. Additionally, the album veritably glows with exceptional sound quality, as it has been remastered from original tapes that were cut more than four decades ago at the WDR Funkhaus, Cologne.

Here is the story of how label founder John Raincoatman became aware of these lost tapes:
"I first got in touch with members of Imagination from Düsseldorf (not to be confused with the UK disco band under the same name) in 2017 for licensing the track "Strawberry Wine" from their collectible "Shake It" album from 1980. A couple of months later, when I was speaking with Willi Hövelmann, the guitarist for Imagination, he told me about some recordings the band had made a couple of years before, when they had been invited to to the studio of the WDR, a major German broadcaster. A couple of weeks later, when Hövelmann finally sent me the files that he had requested from the WDR, I could not believe what I heard - not only that the songs were totally different from what I expected, but that they were also very very good! The music wasn't comparable to any other kind of fusion release that I knew of. These five songs were straight forward, tight and soulful electric jazz rock, a combination rarely heard from Germany from that time period."

How come Imagination - at that time a young newcomer band consisting of musicians between 19 and 22 years of age - was able to record at the well-equipped Funkhaus studio of German radio and television? Hövelmann explains: "The WDR got to know us from a newcomer band competition called "Pop am Rhein" (Pop at the Rhine) which was set up to support local bands and was promoted by several bigger newspapers. Imagination was one of the 5 contestants which were picked from 59 bands by a jury of music journalists and our band was invited to play a concert at the Philipshalle in front of about 3500 guests. Although a band called "Accept" won the contest (yes, the heavy metal band that gained international success in the following years!) and Imagination only made 3rd place, we were invited by music host and journalist Wolfgang Neumann to record in a professional studio."

Neumann's broadcasting show at the WDR was called "Rock Studio", and one of his special goals was to help push newcomer bands by giving them airplay. As a side note, Neumann actually compiled a series of three LPs on the Harvest label from 1979-1982, each of them featuring four bands. However, the earlier recordings of Imagination had only been used for broadcasting reasons, they were aired a couple of times but never made it to a vinyl or CD release.
So, on October 10th, 1977, it was time for the band to show up and prove themselves in the studio. The tracks were all recorded in one afternoon, mainly as one takes. In some cases flute, saxophone were overdubbed, as well as the vocals on "Love is Genesis", as Hövelmann remembers.

The first song, "Jazzgang" can probably be seen as Imagination's most characteristic composition out of their early period: heavy bass, saxophone leads and speedy solos by the band members. A genuine, rough, yet funky uptempo jazz rock tune. But it's "I'm Always Right", the second track on the album, that raises the bar as the key track of the release with its 10-minute length. The song starts with a great piano solo by Mario F. Demonte. In fact, "Demonte" was a pseudonym of Ratko Delorko, a classically trained piano virtuoso who is still active today as conductor, composer and performer. At that time, it was simply impossible for him to officially be part in a band like Imagination and hence the alias was invented. Anyway, the speedy intro leads to a very soulful mid-tempo jazz funk groove that offers space and time for the band members to perform a solo. First off is Uwe Ziss with sax and flute combined. The second solo belongs to Willi "Sultan" Hövelmann on electric guitar. For the furious ending the pace is set back to high speed. Delorko serves us with one of the most brilliant uptempo piano solos you may have heard in a while on a jazz record.

The next song stylistically stands out from the rest. "Biting My Time" incorporates a rhythm and blues feel with a 60s soul jazz attitude. The track was composed by Uwe Ziss who leads through the track with aspiring flute solos which feel like an easy summer breeze after the first two rock tinged tunes.

"Himalaya" sees Imagination move away from jazz quite a bit, rather approaching the psychedelic rock genre with a vibe reminiscent of the sound of the early 70s. Again starting with a piano solo by Ratko Delorko the pace is quickly at 150 bpm with the full band laying down an energetic jazz rock sound. Just after a little over one-and-a-half minutes there is a breakdown to a slower tempo with overdubbed mysterious vocals and psyche-y screams which may remind more of the legendary krautrock band Can than what is typically known as "jazz". The mood continues with tense saxophone and guitar solos, just to speed up again towards the end with furious drumming by Andreas Oelschläger.

"Love Is Genesis" concludes the release. It was composed and sung by former bassist Robert Schlickmann. Though most of the band members didn't really like the song at that time it still is a one-of-a-kind soft rock pop ballad which partly reminds of some of the vocal song tracks later to be found on the "Shake It" LP from 1980. The track manifested that Imagination were never really supposed to be solely an instrumental band.

We are now happy to have cleared the exclusive rights for this recording from the WDR and are proud to re-present this amazing collection of songs. It should appeal to fusion, jazz rock and jazz funk aficionados but also to late krautrock collectors. We are also certain that it will also please fans of the "Shake It" album, simply in terms of being such a bright and soulful debut with great music overall.

THE NEW STUDIO ALBUM FROM THE JAPANESE LEGENDS - AN OPUS
OF DARK & ECLECTIC BLACKENED HEAVY METAL, SHROUDED IN
TRADITIONAL EASTERN INFLUENCES..
Cult Japanese black metal legends Sigh formed in 1989/90, featuring
mainman Mirai Kawashima, Satoshi Fujinami & Kazuki Ozeki
Following initial demos, Shinichi Ishikawa was brought in & Sigh set about
recording the masterpiece debut 'Scorn Defeat' for Euronymous' Deathlike Silence
Productions, going on to become one of the country's greatest & most revered
metal exports. With a journey through the strange & the psychedelic,
incorporating a whole eclectic mix of genre styles & experimentation throughout
their career, Sigh has remained a vital creative force in the avantgarde field whilst
maintaining their old school roots.
'Shiki' marks the latest chapter in the Sigh legacy & includes some of the band's
heaviest & darkest material for some years; a fine hybrid of at times primitive
black metal akin to early influences such as Celtic Frost amid more epic melodic
heavy metal riffing & solos. The album also utilises a whole host of instruments
to give further texture & dynamics to the compositions & eerie atmosphere,
incorporating traditional oriental instruments such as the Shakuhachi & Sinobue
flutes.
The word "Shiki" itself has various meanings in Japanese such as four seasons,
time to die, conducting an orchestra, ceremony, motivation, colour. The two
primary themes for the album are "four seasons" & "time to die".
The concept & artwork is based around a traditional Japanese poem & on 'Shiki'
Mirai explores how at this stage of life he himself is going through Autumn, with
Winter coming soon & so empathises with the contrasting sentimental feelings
from watching cherry blossoms (a symbol of spring) in full bloom.
Joining Mirai & Dr Mikannibal for this release are Frédéric Leclercq of Kreator,
plus US drummer extraordinaire, Mike Heller of Fear Factory, along with an
appearance by long-time member Satoshi Fujinami on bass. 'Shiki' was recorded
across multiple studios & mixed & mastered by Lasse Lammert at LSD studios in
Germany.

Three cassettes from The Koreatown Oddity: two maxisingles (‘Aggro Crag’ and ‘MISOPHONIA LOVE’) and a
custom edition of Ktown’s latest album, ‘ISTHISFORREAL?’.
Cassettes designed by Ktown and his close circle -
collaborators Mark Bijasa and Skyler Dufelmeier.
All three cassettes are exclusive to the UK. Aggro Crag sold
out within a day when it first dropped in the US.
Dominique Purdy, aka The Koreatown Oddity, is a Los
Angeles MC / producer who is also a rapper, producer,
filmmaker, writer and humourist.
‘Aggro Crag’ contains three oddball singles which were
inspired by making art on a shoestring. Transparent green
cassette.
‘ISTHISFORREAL?’ is a sketch show / mockumentary
concept album about realising that the things you thought
were real are actually different. Clear cassette.
‘MISOPHONIA LOVE’ contains a remix of the title track
which is a tongue-in-cheek love song about him and his girl
who has misophonia. The tracks on this cassette are all
exclusive to tape. Transparent pink cassette.
For fans of Danny Brown, Quelle Chris, Knxwledge, Reggie
Watts.
Ktown has collaborated with artists such as Benny Sings,
Ras G, Quakers, J Rocc and many more.
Press - Reviews & features in The Line of Best Fit, Loud & Quiet, Clash,
Earmilk, The Needle Drop.
Radio - 6 Music (Album Of The Week), 2SER, RTR.

Fly Anakin's debut studio album 'Frank' draws influence from the classic
R&B and Soul his dad played him as a child, showcasing a gift for
songwriting alongside the breathless raps he's become known for
Recorded at the same time as 'FlySiifu's', it features Pink Siifu on the DJ Harrison
produced 'Black Be The Source', as well as link ups with another Richmond hero
and Anakin mentor Nickelus F, and fellow Mutant Academy members Big Kahuna
OG and Henny L.O..
Beats by Madlib, Evidence, Jay Versace, DJ Harrison, Ohbliv, Foisey, Graymatter
and Like of Pac Div.
"A perfect display of Anakin's captivating lyricism and delivery... flexes the New
York-tinged ruggedness in his breakneck raps as he reflects on his past, present
and future." Paste.
Fly Anakin is a rapper from Richmond, Virginia, who was described by Madlib as
"one of the illest MCs", and has previously collaborated with Freddie Gibbs. He's
co-founder of the Richmond rap collective Mutant Academy.
"Anakin's detail isn't a skill that could just be picked up from studying the legends
of the genre, it's a gift." Pitchfork
Singles have received press suport so far from Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, FADER,
Hypebeast, Stereogum, Vibe and Okayplayer.Fly Anakin recently performed on
Benji B's BBC Radio 1 show, and guested on Mary Anne Hobbs' BBC 6Music show
and Ebro's Apple Music 1 show. US radio support on the singles from Peter
Rosenberg on Hot97, Sirius XM and NPR. Singles have been featured in playlists
by Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Dummy, Crack, Ryan Schreiber Pitchfork, Brooklyn
Vegan, Vinyl Me Please, Red Bull, Warp Records and Fool's Gold Records.
Fly Anakin will tour the UK and US this Spring in support of album release. In
November 2021 he performed a European tour alongside Pink Siifu, with dates
across the UK, France & the Netherlands, including Le Guess Who? Festival,
Utrecht.

Fly Anakin's debut studio album 'Frank' draws influence from the classic
R&B and Soul his dad played him as a child, showcasing a gift for
songwriting alongside the breathless raps he's become known for
Recorded at the same time as 'FlySiifu's', it features Pink Siifu on the DJ Harrison
produced 'Black Be The Source', as well as link ups with another Richmond hero
and Anakin mentor Nickelus F, and fellow Mutant Academy members Big Kahuna
OG and Henny L.O..
Beats by Madlib, Evidence, Jay Versace, DJ Harrison, Ohbliv, Foisey, Graymatter
and Like of Pac Div.
"A perfect display of Anakin's captivating lyricism and delivery... flexes the New
York-tinged ruggedness in his breakneck raps as he reflects on his past, present
and future." Paste.
Fly Anakin is a rapper from Richmond, Virginia, who was described by Madlib as
"one of the illest MCs", and has previously collaborated with Freddie Gibbs. He's
co-founder of the Richmond rap collective Mutant Academy.
"Anakin's detail isn't a skill that could just be picked up from studying the legends
of the genre, it's a gift." Pitchfork
Singles have received press suport so far from Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, FADER,
Hypebeast, Stereogum, Vibe and Okayplayer.Fly Anakin recently performed on
Benji B's BBC Radio 1 show, and guested on Mary Anne Hobbs' BBC 6Music show
and Ebro's Apple Music 1 show. US radio support on the singles from Peter
Rosenberg on Hot97, Sirius XM and NPR. Singles have been featured in playlists
by Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Dummy, Crack, Ryan Schreiber Pitchfork, Brooklyn
Vegan, Vinyl Me Please, Red Bull, Warp Records and Fool's Gold Records.
Fly Anakin will tour the UK and US this Spring in support of album release. In
November 2021 he performed a European tour alongside Pink Siifu, with dates
across the UK, France & the Netherlands, including Le Guess Who? Festival,
Utrecht.

Within the panorama and filmic landscapes that open up from the music, stories and fragments of stories are told, about people, the spaces they occupy, their closeness and the distance that lies between them. Written and recorded over 3 years in London, Switzerland and in an ancient barn not far from their Midland’s roots, founding members Simon and Justin Jones who form the core of ‘And Also ­The Trees’ with maverick drummer Paul Hill are joined for the first time by Grant Gordon on bass guitar and Colin Ozanne on clarinet. ­Their inclusion brings a twist to this band’s subtle yet intriguing evolution. ‘And Also ­The Trees’ have been performing live and creatively developing since they formed in rural Worcestershire at the beginning of the post punk era in 1980. Other than a period in their early years when they attracted attention from John Peel, the British music press and Th­e Cure with whom they worked and supported on tours, they have operated mainly under the radar of the media and music industry as a whole, drawing inspiration from the dark underbelly of the British countryside and touring each of their 14 albums across Europe and as far afield as the USA and Japan. It follows their 2016 release ‘Born Into ­The Waves’ an album that many considered to be their most accomplished. A rare accolade for a band of such longevity. AATT will be playing shows Summer and Autumn 2022 with a tour in Spring 2023. Tracklisting: 1. In A Bed In Yugoslavia 2. Beyond Action And Reaction 3. The Seven Skies 4. Th­e Girl Who Walks The City 5. Th­e Book Burners 6. Across The Divide 7. Another Town Another Face 8. Last Of The Larkspurs 9. The Bone Carver 10. Sun Of Kashiva

Third Eye Blind is celebrating 25 years since the release of their debut album on April 8, 1997. The record is their highest selling and features several singles including “Semi-Charmed Life,” “Jumper,” “How’s It Gonna Be,” “Graduate” and “Losing A Whole Year.” “How’s It Gonna Be,” “Semi-Charmed Life,” and “Jumper” all reached the top 5 on the Billboard Hot 100. “Semi-Charmed Life” also reached the top 40 in the UK. The album has sold 4.8 million copies in the US and has generated 1.4 billion streams worldwide.

In the kitchen of the Byron Bay home of Winston McCall stands a
refrigerator, adorned on one side by a quote from Tom Waits: "I want
beautiful melodies telling me terrible things."This, the PARKWAY DRIVE
vocalist says, is a pretty good summation of himself
It holds true, too, as one of the guiding principles behind Darker Still, the seventh
full- length album to be born of this picturesque and serene corner of northeastern NSW, Australia, and the defining musical statement to date from one of
modern metal's most revered bands.Darker Still, McCall says, is the vision he and
his bandmates – guitarists Jeff Ling and Luke Kilpatrick, bassist Jia O'Connor
and drummer Ben Gordon – have held in their mind's eye since a misfit group of
friends first convened in their parents' basements and backyards in 2003. The
journey to reach this moment has seen Parkway evolve from metal underdogs to
festival- headlining behemoth, off the back of close to 20 gruelling years, six
critically and commercially acclaimed studio albums (all of which achieving Gold
status in their home nation), three documentaries, one live album, and many,
many thousands of shows.
While Darker Still remains irrefutably PARKWAY DRIVE, it finds the band sonically
standing shoulder to shoulder with rock and metal's greats – Metallica, Pantera,
Machine Head, Guns N' Roses – as much as it does their metalcore
contemporaries. "I wanted a classic guitar tone for this record," explains Ling, who
credits much of his inspiration to the connection his riffs have with a crowd in a
live setting.
Emerging from the darkness of the past few years, this is the true face of
PARKWAY DRIVE: redefined and resolute, focused in mind and defiant in spirit.

Surprise Chef’s music is based on evoking mood; their vivid arrangements utilize time and space to build soundscapes that invite the listener into their world. The quintet’s distinct sound pulls from 70s film scores, the funkier side of jazz, and the samples that form the foundation of hip hop. They push the boundaries of instrumental soul and funk with their own approach honed by countless hours in the studio, studying the masters, and perhaps most importantly, the “tyranny of distance” that dictates a unique perspective to their music. Hailing from just outside of Melbourne, Australia their first two albums, All News Is Good News and Daylight Savings amassed a die-hard fanbase and brought their sound from their home studio to every corner of the globe. The band is now signed to Big Crown Records, joining a lineage of contemporary and classic sounds that have influenced Surprise Chef’s music since their formation in 2017. Surprise Chef is Lachlan Stuckey on guitar, Jethro Curtin on keys, Carl Lindeberg on bass, Andrew Congues on drums, and Hudson Whitlock—the latest member who does it all from percussion to composing to producing. Their self proclaimed "moody shades of instrumental jazz-funk" have a bit of everything: punchy drums, infectious keys, rhythm guitar you might hear on a Studio One record, and flute lines that could be from a Blue Note session. But when you step back and take in the entirety of their sound and approach, you'll hear and see a group greater than the sum of its parts. In many ways Surprise Chef embodies the idiom "the benefits of limits." They were limited in that there weren't many people making or talking about instrumental jazz/soul/funk in Southeast Australia, let alone putting out records. This left them to develop their sound and approach in a kind of creative isolation where a small circle of friends and like-minded musicians fed off each other. "Being in Australia, being so far away, we only get glimpses and glances of this music’s origins," Stuckey says. "But hearing a label like Big Crown was one of the first times we realized you could make fresh, new soul music that wasn't super retro or just nostalgic." This approach is on full display throughout their new album Education & Recreation. Tracks like “Velodrome” pair chunky drums with an earworm synth line that has all the making of something you would find on an Ultimate Breaks & Beats compilation while numbers like “Iconoclasts” show their knack for tasteful use of space. From the crushing intro of “Suburban Breeze” to the floaty mellow bop of “Spring’s Theme” Surprise Chef has weaved together an album that takes you through peaks and valleys of emotion and provides a vivid soundtrack that will pull you deeper into your imagination. There is a beauty in the vast space for interpretation of instrumental music and they are adding a modern classic to the canon with this new album. Turn on the record and enjoy the ride, wherever it may take you.

Drift, their fifth studio album sees PIANOS BECOME THE TEETH taking
another sonic step forward to craft a musical statement that truly
transcends genres
For the recording of Drift, the band took it back to basics, starting at a familyowned cabin in the woods of Virginia, that they transformed into an analog
recording studio. The band lived together, recorded together and ate dinners
together where they would listen to the day's recordings, talk about them and pull
them apart and reworking them, creating what may be their finest album to date.
Per front man Kyle Durfey, "Something that we really took away from this
experience was just the connection we had together. We produced the record
ourselves with our longtime friend/ collaborator/ engineer Kevin Bernsten who
recorded our first two records." The recordings that the band created using
innovative recording techniques, recording 100% analog are sonically transportive
and certain to mystify and inspire generations of recording artists. All the echoes
were made with old echoplexes and tape delay, which made for a really organic
record. With Bersten's help the band was able to take some of the weirder and
more ambitious ideas they had and turned them into reality making this a
fantastic album for immersive headphone listening.

SAISEI founder Junki Inoue continues his vital archival work uncovering the riches of Japan’s distinctive electronic music scene and bringing them to new audiences around the world. The Sounds Of Transonic compiles six tracks recorded in Tokyo between 1991 and 1995 and released by the pioneering Transonic label, founded in 1994 by Kazunao Nagata and active until 2004.

Transonic’s catalogue is a glittering roll call of the scene’s major players, whose inventive and genre-blending work established forward-thinking house and techno in Japan in a way that would shape the country’s electronic sound for years to come. Transonic was instrumental in giving exposure to the work of these artists with its emblematic series of CD compilations, released over a short couple of years in the mid 90s. Beginning with 970-1450km/h, Feedback and Range, the series also included The Roots Of Transonic, featuring music from parent label Trigger. Alongside these compilations came much sought-after solo albums each packaged with striking cover art that makes the discs a visual treat for collectors to this day.

The Sounds Of Transonic brings together six tracks from the catalogue into one breath-taking package. The influence of hi-tech jazz and machine funk from Detroit is undeniable in ‘Dream Trance’ (Mind Design) and ‘Blasting Soul’ (Interferon), while ‘Under The Ground’ (Palomatic) and ‘Chelsea’ (Suzukiski) are permeated by the artificial intelligence and trip hop emanating from the UK at the time. The compilation is bookended by two tracks by Nagata himself (as Organization): ‘Space Ball’, a Model 500-worthy chase through the cosmos, and ‘Call’, an eerie echo of Kraftwerk’s telephone, transmitting expectantly out into the void and, finally, receiving its celestial answer.

With The Sounds Of Transonic these formative pieces of music will now be available internationally and, for the first time, on vinyl.

SAISEI is a Japanese word which translates to ‘reproduction’ and ‘to play’ (as in playing records). Japanese culture is widely known for its traditional nature just as much as it is for being forward into the future and this label’s concept does justice to exactly that. Having started digging for records as early as 16 years old, Inoue delved into productions from 1990s Japan to uncover these native gems. SAISEI’s core concept is to recapture and reintroduce unique pieces of Japanese electronic music onto vinyl, to an audience it never reached before as most of this music was only released in Japan.

It has been twenty years since the first Back To Mine release but still the series is going strong. These personal after-hours soundtracks have never sounded more relevant than now, and next up is GRAMMYr Award-nominated, San Francisco-based artist Tycho. It finds him going deeper than one of his famous Burning Man sets as he heads into otherworldly, cinematic headphone territory with tunes from Lancaster, Little Dragon, Octo Octa, Ulrich Schnauss and many more across four fantastic sides of vinyl.

Holy Now is one of the finest indie bands to have emerged from Sweden
in recent years
Perfect yet deliberately off, dreamy indie pop with Julia Olanders voice at the
center. On August 26th, they'll release their new album via Lazy Octopus Records
(AOP, Therese Lithner, MANKIND etc.)
2018 debut album "I Think I Need The Light" and follow-up EP "It Will All End In
Tears" were acclaimed both internationally by prominent media, such as Gold
Flake Paint, Gorilla Vs Bear and Line of Best Fit.
On the band's second studio album "Dream of Me", out this fall via Lazy Octopus,
the building blocks remain: crisp reverb-drenched guitars, dreamy choruses and a
very analog feel. It also showcases a new side of the band that is more
withdrawn, dressed in sparse soundscapes, with a lot of focus on lyrics, a song
for anyone who wears their heart on the outside.

Marked by resilience, maturity, and the optimistic joy of a creative resurgence, Pat Green’s Miles and Miles of You is the work of an icon reclaiming ground only he himself could have ceded. Ten fresh tracks feel like the spiritual exhale of a celebrated troubadour, taking fans on a journey to the other side of turmoil… and to a place where the old ways feel new again.

Credited as one of Texas country’s modern-era founding fathers, Green has traveled many roads in the 25 years since his debut album, Dancehall Dreamer. A Grammy nominated singer-songwriter with a restless creative spirit, his career has gone beyond the bounds of a “country star” to include the work of a painter, sculptor, philanthropist, family man and more. But one constant has remained – his vision.

Green’s 14th album overall, Miles and Miles of You is also his first in nearly seven years – since his inspiration-first writing style means he won’t force a song into existence. But that philosophy also makes it possible for a whole album to arrive in a dam-burst of expression, and Green now calls Miles and Miles of You an “effortless” project.

“It was just so smooth and natural,” he says. “I write the song when it comes, and it was like ‘Man, we’re on a roll.’”

Recorded outside Austin with producer Dwight Baker (Bob Schneider, Josh Abbott Band), more of that story is revealed with each track, as Green and his band mirrored the loose vibe of the songwriting with country balladry, dancehall energy, soul-baring reflection and at times, a swampy blues strut. “The older you get, you just have more to think about,” he says. “So that’s
what this record is – a guy with more to think about, coming through a hard time and into something as fun and beautiful as creation. I’m just gonna take the ball and run with it.”

4-time GRAMMY-winning producer Larry Klein, who produced Herbie Hancock’s GRAMMY Album of the Year winning release River: The Joni Letters, has assembled another extraordinary star-studded project with Here It Is: A Tribute to Leonard Cohen. This heartfelt tribute to Klein’s dear friend, the legendary singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, presents stunning renditions of his profound songs by an impressive and eclectic line-up of guest vocalists including James Taylor, Iggy Pop, Mavis Staples, Norah Jones, Gregory Porter, Peter Gabriel, Nathaniel Rateliff, David Gray, Sarah McLachlan, and Luciana Souza. The backing band is no less impressive featuring a remarkable quintet of modern jazz talent including guitarist Bill Frisell, saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, pianist Kevin Hays, bassist Scott Colley, and drummer Nate Smith.

To confuse parts for the whole is inevitable with Palm. Drummer Hugo Stanley, bassist Gerasimos Livitsanos and guitarists/vocalists/high school sweethearts Eve Alpert and Kasra Kurt started making music together as teenagers, and spent much of their twenties in the kind of proximity unusual for adults, outside of touring bands and the International Space Station. For a number of years the band consumed the lives of its members to a point of exhaustion: “To be honest I think we got a little burnt out. There were times where it wasn’t clear if we’d make another record,” says Alpert. It was only after multiple freak injuries followed by a pandemic, forced a pause - from touring but also from writing, rehearsing, even seeing each other- that the four were able to regroup and see a way forward again.



On their latest effort, Nicks and Grazes, Palm embrace discordance to dazzling effect. “We wanted to reconcile two potentially opposing aesthetics,” Kurt says. “To capture the spontaneous, free energy of our live shows while integrating elements from the traditionally gridded palette of electronic music.” In order to avoid what Kurt refers to as “Palm goes electro,” the musicians spent years educating themselves on the ins and outs of production by learning Ableton while also experimenting with “the percussive, textural, and gestural potential” of their instruments. To this end, the band continued the age-old tradition of instrument-preparation, augmenting guitars with drumsticks, metal rods and, at the suggestion of Charles Bullen (This Heat, Lifetones), coiling rubber-coated gardening wire around the strings. The unruliness of the prepared guitar on songs like “Mirror Mirror” and “Eager Copy” contrasts with the steadfast reproducibility of the album’s electronic elements.



While Palm cite Japanese pop music, dub, and footwork as influences on this album’s sonic palette, they found themselves returning time and again to the artists who inspired them to start the group over a decade ago. “When we were first starting out as a band, we bonded over an appreciation of heavy, aggressive, noisy music,” Alpert reflects. “We wrote parts that were just straight-up metal.” Kurt adds, “I found myself rediscovering and re–falling in love with the visceral, jagged quality of guitars in the music of Glenn Branca, The Fall, Beefheart, and Sonic Youth, all important early Palm influences.” Returning to the fundamentals gave Palm a strong foundation upon which they could experiment freely, resulting in their most ambitious and revelatory album to date.

First album from Cologne based Jazz / Hip-Hop band for Melting Pot
Music home to artists such as FloFilz, Twit One, Summers Sons,
Pachakuti & young.vishnu, etc.

Bokoya is a four-piece jazz/hip-hop band from Cologne who plays
improvised beat music. Like a four-headed human drum machine, Bokoya improvise, shape, and develop beats in the electric field of repetition and variation. It's impossible to put a tag on Bokoya's music.

BADBADNOTGOOD, Dilla, Krautrock, Ambient and dub might work as
rough reference points for the music but don't do it justice. After a sling of releases on Wadada Records, Bokoya are now signed to Melting Pot Music where they will release their forthcoming projects.

Beautifully drunken it hums, the piano in “PianoPiano”, the last tune of “How to Spread Lies”, the first EP by Roman Flügel for the Hamburg based label Dial in the year 2010. Or take “Strich”, a peculiar electrical slow-motion grinder, out on his “Mutter” EP for Klang Electronic in 2006. Since long, the renowned Berlin based DJ and producer is investigating in spheres beyond the dance, the groove, the ecstasy. Zones, where the molecules harmonize, senses relieve, and the soul quietens. All his last albums, “All The Right Noises” (Dial), “Themes I-XIII” (ESP Institue), “Eating Darkness” (Running Back) have moments of tension and relaxation in a deep harmonious connection.

Now “Balmy Evening”, a sundown record for sunup’s. Eleven notions in adventurous journey music, embracing the freedom of structure, blurring the musical pulse into harmonic meditation and mysteriously grooving zones, leaving all unnecessary accessories behind. A quality, that many of his collaborative and solo productions from past 30 years comprise. Still, most of them squint on the dance floor, where jack is king. Not so “Balmy Evening”, where real party bangers are absent. There are moving tunes like the slow Kraftwerk-melody-leaning funkateer “Duftschulter”, or the artificially jacking “Greenhouse”, where nervous Synth patterns ball along soft breaks and decreet kicks. Also, “Super Sonne”, an odd, seemingly improvised synth conversation might ask some souls out for a dance.

But all others, like “Atmosphere”, “Frei”, Dolphins, “Goth”, or “Ambienteuse”, rather seek for the tranquil in each one’s spirit. Listeners need be ready for surprises. Ready for impulsive ideas, linked to a harmonious flow, always ready to grow. An album full of silence, utterly loud, beautifully diverse humming, displaying a playful, exploratory side of a celebrated club music producer, to whom atoms dance in manifold ways.

Following on from last year’s acclaimed Sylva Sylvarum, the epic double LP from Ora Clementi (her collaborative project with James Rushford), crys cole returns to Black Truffle with Other Meetings. Originally commissioned and released on cassette by Boomkat Editions in 2021, Other Meetings is a major addition to the body of carefully hewn solo work cole has released over the last decade, offering up two side-long suites of her radically intimate approach to sound. After many years dominated by touring and travel, cole found herself in lockdown in her Berlin apartment, working in a limited space with minimal equipment. Digging through archives of recordings taken overseas and exploring the sonic potential hidden in the objects surrounding her (including a coffee pot and a vase of dying flowers), she crafted what in her liner notes she calls ‘an internal dérive, a journey that drifted through many places without a defining compass’. Totalling over 50 minutes, the two pieces unfold at an unhurried pace, each containing four individually titled subsections. Beginning with a sequence of the highly amplified small sounds characteristic of much of cole’s work, the opening moments of ‘The time between two durations of sleep’ are underpinned by a gentle rocking motion, weaving together contact mic crunch, metallic resonance, glimpses of bird song, and isolated drum machine hits, the sonic space expanding and contracting as focus moves between elements. Briefly side-lined by a tactile but unplaceable sizzling, this complex weave of voices then returns in a kind of dubbed-out ‘version’, the percussive accents echoing around the stereo space. In one of the record’s most beautiful and unexpected moments, these sounds are joined by a sparse melodic line performed on a broken 1980s digital synth, the vaguely New Age timbres being taken on a long, tonally ambiguous wander. Cole’s immersion in memories of travel comes to the fore in the final section of the first side, titled ‘Wat Paknam’ after a royal temple in Bangkok, where snatches of voices, ringing bells and distant waves of chanting blur together with synth tones into an increasingly abstracted wave of sound. The second side, ‘Slices of cake’, opens in a similarly hallucinatory outdoor space of echoing bird song and liquified traffic before abruptly zooming in on a microscopic world of subtly processed and highly amplified objects, explored with a starkness and quiet insistence that calls to mind the fringe not-quite-concrète of outsiders like Paul A.R. Timmermans or Knud Viktor, whose obsessive interrogation of dripping water might also serve as a point of reference for the following sub-section, the aptly titled ‘magischer Abfluss’ (magic drain).

While Other Meetings develops many aspects of cole’s previous work – the hyper-magnification of small gestures, the unsettling edits and fades partly inspired by hypnagogic states, the location recordings smeared into oneiric haze – it is almost as if these pieces are somehow songs, the remnants of an evaporated music of which nothing remains except isolated hits from a synthetic drum, a handful of notes, or simply a duration of emptied atmosphere. Radically reductive yet deeply musical, Other Meetings is a major work from an artist driven by an uncompromising and idiosyncratic vision.

Presented with an inner sleeve with photos and liner notes from the composer and remastered audio.

"Good music never dies!" - This was Diane Ellis' mantra when she set out to produce this, her first record, in 1979. She recalls hearing the Rose Royce classic Love Don't Live Here Anymore on the radio and instantly thinking it would make for a great reggae cover, immediately envisioning the sound she was looking for. Drafting in the legendary Boris Gardiner and vocalist Sharon Forrester they created this timeless version of a perennial classic - now available here in it's full extended discomix glory for the first time on 12" since it's original outing, and backed with hornsman cut placing Dean Fraser's sax front row center.

The record was made when Ellis was studio manager for the world-famous Tuff Gong studios, but wanted her outing as a record producer to be a totally independent venture - gaining the great Bob Marley & the TG team's blessings in the process. And so Aquarius Studio in Half Way Tree was where it was all laid-down. Diane credits the Legendary owner and pioneering producer, Herman Chin Loy, as also being of great help on the record, providing a guiding ear throughout the process.

Despite this the evident strength of this first production, Ellis would follow up with only one other production, Junior Tucker's cover of "One of the Poorest People" (this time one recorded at Tuff Gong studios, and releasing the 56 Hope Road subsidiery). While both records performed well on local radio and charts, Diane exited the music industry shortly after. Now 43 years later, Diane is overjoyed her production is having a comeback, saying that "the support and love felt during the project can never be replicated, and I give thanks to all who supported then and now".

South-east Turkey born DJ, sound artist and producer Banu uses music as a political tool. For her, the strong message carried through sound is a vehicle to express emotions as well as a means of fighting against oppression. Using participation, social design, ecology, feminist and queer theory to create multimedia installations with sound as a main element, Banu‘s practice is closer to contemporary art and activist spaces than the club realm.

Banu‘s debut album TransSoundScapes is an exercise in female solidarity between her as a migrant woman and her sisters from the trans community, where an artist from one marginalised group is showing support towards her trans sisters, using her platform to help them amplify their voices and building a bridge towards a mutual understanding of femininity.

Conceptually, TransSoundScapes comes in continuation of Banu‘s previous research-based work, using music as a positive tool for change while working with various marginalised communities. The album originated from the very real experience of being confronted with verbal harassment in Berlin on a daily basis, particularly aimed at her transfeminine friends and companions. As a queer woman of Turkish and Kurdish origin, Banu did not only observe the verbal aggression directed at her friends, but also understood most of the insults shouted in languages such as Arabic. Seeing how she got signifi cantly more verbal violence directed at them when in company of trans people made a lasting impression on her, so she wanted to try and use her relative privilege to amplify transfeminine voices through her music.

Coming from a very conservative family, making music has been her lifelong dream. It was the moment she had the opportunity to work with the iconic Arp 2600 synthesiser (a younger sibling to Eliane Radigue‘s infamous 2500 machine) that all her disparate interests came into place to create an empowering soundscape with the aid of analogue drum machines. TransSoundScapes has a very full, porous sound, where every element that comes into play sounds soft yet clear. Across the 7 tracks, Banu conjures pounding subterraneous bassy techno („Surgery“), slithering tentacular EBM („First Time“) and pulsating cavernous soundscapes („Harem“), where oversized dancefl oor elements are woven with poetic spoken word passages, resulting in sensusous yet political anthems. Banu artfully merges loosely related genres such as techno, electro, dub and sound poems into a sound that is at once deeply personal and extremely compelling.

All of the tracks are collaborative efforts, Banu seeing the process as an exchange of care and shared experiences, while integrating research into her writing process. The lyrics in „Transition (part 1+2)‘‘ are an adaptation of Sara Ahmed’s “Living a Feminist Life”, while „Surgery“ was born out of series of interviews with trans people, channeling the metallic sounds of a surgery room to refer to society‘s perception of transness as a medical condition. Tracks like „First Time feat. Patricia“, „Harem feat. Prince Emrah“ or „We feat. Aérea Negrot“ document her encounters with various trans women, centering their life experiences while also developing a deep dialogue through the process of making music together.

The darkest and perhaps the most emblematic track is ‚‘Bianka (In Memory Of)‘‘, dedicated to the late Bianka Shigurova, a 22-year old Georgian actress found dead in her apartment. It was her Tbilisi photographer friend George Nebriedze who told her Bianka‘s tragic story, whose death is suspected to be an assasination due to transphobia. Banu chose one of Nebriedze‘s analogue photos of Bianka as the album‘s cover art.

Coming off the back of covers on CRACK and PERFECT Magazine cktrl announces his highly anticipated new EP Zero. The producer and multi-instrumentalist shares his latest blend of contemporary-classical and electronic R&B that features a collaboration with GRAMMY Award-nominated singer, songwriter 'Mereba' with artwork captured by multi-award winning Campbell Addy. The follow-up to last year’s critically acclaimed EP ‘robyn’ which charted a journey from heartbreak to optimism, ‘zero’ is a tender exploration into love. As a genre-spanning artist whose music waives between R&B, jazz and neo-classical, cktrl’s latest record builds on his emotive sound whilst leaning towards a more electronic-tinged style of production with stunning featured vocals. On the project, cktrl says: "ZERO allowed me to explore my journeys in knowing love. And as a result I now know that I need to allow myself to let my relationships be what they're meant (to manifest organically) free of expectations and without dreams of an idea of someone. Past hurt definitely informed my decisions but it was so crucial for me to grieve those feelings from ROBYN and learn how to be gentle with myself. Just to be able to feel something new, loving again is always different and exciting, once you can open up. ZERO is that journey of ending up back where you started but different, loved and willing to give." The EP opens with the touching ‘mazes’ - initially released back in May via a beautifully crafted video courtesy of Yasser Abubeker. On this cut cktrl’s skills as a saxophonist immediately shine through as he portrays the complexities of loving someone through all its twists and turns. On title track ‘zero’ cktrl links with Ethiopian-American musician Mereba for a forward-thinking yet delicate collaboration that effortlessly meanders between cktrl’s various musical influences, before ‘felt’ provides a luscious display of soulful soundscapes. Accompanied by the angelic vocals from rising artists Anaiis, Annahstasia & Anajah, it’s a blissful celebration of love. The project closes out with ‘safe’, a contemporary R&B banger backed by a bass-driven beat and rich vocals, framing ‘zero’ as a stimulating collection of tracks that expand cktrl’s impressive repertoire of talent.

We are proud to present the official 40-year anniversary issue of Imagination's debut album Shake It. Remastered from original tapes, this deluxe edition is a double vinyl LP with gatefold sleeve, featuring a newly available lyric insert.

Shake It covers a diverse spectrum of styles and sounds, all combining to a unique soulful amalgam that ranges from sunshine AOR funk ("Mornin' Lights") and leftfield disco ("Strawberry Wine") to psychy, epic, downtempo, vocoder grooves ("Can't Stand Without You") and more. Originally released in 1980, it fast became one of Germany's most collectible privately-pressed LPs.

Shake It was the creation of young thoroughbreds working hard on becoming professional musicians, trying to take their next big step in the music business. Starting out as a pure jazz-rock combo in the mid '70s (as we hear on the recently released lost studio tapes, I'm Always Right (The WDR Tapes 1977)) Imagination left behind their instrumental roots, incorporating new musical trends and styles.

Uwe Ziss, their saxophonist and flutist, became one of two lead singers in Imagination. He would be joined by the younger Roger Mork, a student of original guitarist Willi Hövelmann, around 1979. Roger's voice would best be heard on the aforementioned "Mornin' Lights", one of the various standout tracks on Shake It. However, there is much more that this album offers.

There are brilliant soulful soft rock ballads like "Clouds Flee Before The Wind" and "Waitin for your Call" or the catchy "California" song that switches from a dreamy Westcoast sound (as the title implies) to danceable rhythm & blues with equal ease. Last but not least, we have unearthed three unissued bonus cuts. On one, the demo take of "Clouds Flee Before The Wind", we hear, for the first time ever, the original refrain of this song, which, for some strange reason, was taken out from the final mix on Shake It.

When all eight original songs were recorded and mastered in June, at the well-equipped West Aix-La-Chapelle studio, the stage was set for Imagination's long-desired career push. They'd initially press about 2500 copies of Shake It selling it mainly, locally, directly to their hometown fanbase in Düsseldorf. Meanwhile, their manager would attempt to arrange a record deal with a music label. Unfortunately, this became more difficult than expected. Negotiations with a smaller publishing company were made by Imagination, and Shake It was repressed on Nash Records in 1981 without their consent, under the false promises of a nationwide promotional tour which would never come to fruition. At the same time, the group would face a UK band under the same name achieving mainstream success, making it difficult (not to say entirely impossible) to perform as "Imagination". Though the band would remain active after Shake It, they'd split shortly after Nash's duplicitous reissue hit store shelves.

Luckily, through time, Shake It itself has remained worthwhile, creatively, for those who stumbled upon it and financially, too, becoming quite the sought after gem in record collecting circles. This deluxe anniversary double vinyl issue makes the LP available once again at a far more reasonable price, featuring the original, illustrious, eye-catching, Roy Lichtenstein-influenced banana art, as well as previously unavailable press pictures and more.

Greg Puciato, the enigmatic singer known for his diverse list of projects, from the incendiary The Dillinger Escape Plan to the brutalist electro-pop outfit The Black Queen and the unabashedly thrashy Killer Be Killed, releases his debut solo album, Child Soldier: Creator of God this Autumn via Federal Prisoner. The Los Angeles-based singer premiered the single “Fire For Water” on BBC Radio 1’s Rock Show with Daniel P. Carter and followed with the debut of a video for the three-minute track via Revolver. The video was edited and directed by Puciato and fine artist Jesse Draxler, Puciato’s Federal Prisoner co-founder. Puciato played all of the instruments on the song with the exception of drums, which were done by Chris Pennie (the last original material the pair worked on together was The Dillinger Escape Plan’s 2004 Miss Machine), who also contributed additional programming. “I started writing in May or so of 2019, for what I thought would be the next Black Queen album, except that’s not at all what came out. So, just like with everything else that’s been born from necessity, it felt like the right time to create a home for anything that I do that didn’t fit neatly under any other existing roof. The misfits needed a place to go,” explains Puciato about releasing his first solo album.

"Since 2004, ALTER BRIDGE has been one of the most consistent bands to successfully represent the rock and metal communities with their driving melodies, blazing guitar riffs and topical lyrics that resonate with fans around the globe. Their seventh album, Pawns & Kings, continues that trend with 10 unforgettable new additions to their catalog. Coming off the launch of what was shaping up to be one of the band’s pinnacle moments with Walk The Sky (#1 US Billboard Top Albums, #1 US Current Rock and Hard Music, #4 UK Official Charts, #1 UK Independent and Rock/Metal, #5 Official German Album Charts), everything came to a halt as the world would forever be changed due to the events of a global pandemic. The time the members of ALTER BRIDGE spent apart sparked a new fire and heaviness when the quartet comprised of Myles Kennedy on vocals/guitars, Mark Tremonti on guitars/vocals, Brian Marshall on bass and Scott Phillips on drums would reconvene for what would eventually become Pawns & Kings. Teaming with longtime producer and collaborator Michael “Elvis” Baskette, the album shines with massive, menacing arena-ready production while emerging as another sonic testament to the seasoned Kennedy/Tremonti songwriting dream-team. The band deliver three epic anthems, including two that clock in at over six minutes – the reflective and absolutely epic title track “Pawns & Kings”, grim-riffed, progressive influenced “Sin After Sin”, and the emotive eight-and-a-half minute journey “Fable Of The Silent Son.” “Silver Tongue” is backed by a punishing intro riff that gives way to one of the band’s most infectious choruses as Myles Kennedy sings, “Truth of a crime. You can’t outrun. Under the spell of my silver tongue,” while tracks like “Holiday” and “Season Of Promise” ebb and flow within the trademark multi-faceted metallic rock attack that has enchanted ALTER BRIDGE fans for a generation. Songs like “This Is War,” “Dead Among The Living” and “Last Man Standing” showcase the heavier side of a band firing on all cylinders, with soaring leads, hair-raising vocals and introspective lyricism abound. Mark Tremonti helms lead vocal duties on the uplifting track “Stay” – an interchanging of skills that first debuted on the band’s fourth album, Fortress, and continues to this day. Nearly 20 years into their celebrated career, one thing is for sure – Pawns & Kings offers a musical snapshot of a band that shows no signs of slowing down and continues to push itself creatively for the whole world to see. before peaking with a frenetic, metallic bridge-breakdown and piercing solo worthy of rock legend.