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Repress!

Two of dance music's most recognisable names come together once more as Nic Fanciulli returns on the mighty Rekids.

Fanciulli has long been one of the leading lights in the house world. His Saved Records label is one of the go-to outlets for forward-thinking grooves thanks to his own music and his on-point A&R of many other talents. Over the years, his releases have explored every facet of house and tech, while the man himself has played every major club and festival in the world. This is Fanciulli's third outing on Rekids after 12"s in 2019 and 2020, and it might be his best yet.

The stylish and seductive sounds of 'On My Mind' open up with loopy and catchy vocals, disco-tinged house beats and plenty of feel-good energy. The funky basslines and innovative samples make this a fun, full flavour and heart-warming groove that is sure to get crowds locked in and hands in the air. The brilliant 'U Gotta' is another track steeped in classic references but with a modern twist. It builds in careful layers that tease and please with sustained strings and low, grinding bass offset by the diva vocals and atmospheric crowd noise. When it drops, it is the sort of tune to bring real rapture to the party.

"This concluding release contains a selection of the many artists that took part on our label -- from the first demo until the last drop of ink printed. 11 years, 11 tracks. Thank you all for tagging along. xoxo "

IVANHOE melden sich mit ihrem neuen Album "Healed By The Sun" und einigen neuen Bandmitgliedern zurück.
Der Songwriting-Prozess erwies sich als eine Reise zurück zu den Wurzeln der Band, wobei alle früheren IVANHOE-Alben wieder aufgegriffen wurden, mit tatkräftiger Unterstützung durch die neuen Bandmitglieder Chris (Gitarren) und Mathias (Schlagzeug).
Laut IVANHOE sind die Songs auf dem neuen Album eingängiger und zugänglicher und die Kompositionen anspruchsvoller.
Die Texte sind geprägt von kritischen Beobachtungen der Gesellschaft, darunter Themen wie COVID, Verantwortung für das eigene Handeln, Drogenmissbrauch oder der Stand der Kirchenskandale. Einige der Texte reflektieren auch tiefe persönliche Erfahrungen und Traumata.

Melbourne pop eccentric Gregor releases his fourth album Satanic Lullabies, his deepest and darkest record yet. In the years since his first album, 2016's Thoughts & Faults, Gregor's music has got progressively odder, more challenging and more rewarding. The spacious, acerbic pop of Silver Drop (2018), featuring touching single A Song About Holding Hands, was followed by the lovesick Destiny (2020), which put Gregor's inquisitive pop through a warped filter. Now Satanic Lullabies has polar extremes of wide-eyed innocence and deep despair. There are moments of great musical beauty that segue into harsh, bleak soundscapes. "I'm seeking to draw attention to the similarities between heaven and hell," says Gregor, "and to comfort anyone who recognises these." Satanic Lullabies is a modern epic, a bedroom odyssey, like if pre-MAGA Kanye made a Disney soundtrack. Gregor's live show ranges from solo mode up to a ten piece band, and he has played festivals such as Golden Plains, Dark Mofo, Inner Varnika, Boogie and The Others Way (NZ). He was nominated for Best Album and Best Solo Artist in the 2019 Music Victoria Awards, and Best Pop Act in 2021.

Lloyd Banks is gearing up for the release of The Course Of The Inevitable, his first studio album in over a decade. Having previously set the stage with a few cinematic teaser trailers and the album cover, Banks has now come forward to confirm the official release date for the upcoming project, as well as the tracklist and guest appearances to be expected.

For the most part, Banks will be flying solo on COTI, with only five of the eighteen tracks including featured artists. On that front, we're looking at appearances from Roc Marci, Benny The Butcher, Styles P, Sy Ari Da Kid, and Vado. Other than that, however, the stage is largely set for the Punchline King, who will likely have much to say on his fourth studio album.

Every moment of Skudd offers a place to explore. For his second release on Omen Wapta, Delft-based sound artist, Floid, fuses soundscapes and rhythms in seven tracks that swap peaks and troughs for narrative arcs. Cinematic, immersive, dense and danceable, the new EP, delivers sonic pieces that hypnotically swell and engage brain and body dance. Drop into a snake pit with cavernous moments and unexpected ornaments that rattle and slice. Affected pan flutes, meshed with shamanic vocals and organic percussion conjure a nocturnal fever dream in the jungle. Tempo tricks make high bpms feel stretched. With Skudd, the only thing guiding you through the soundscapes is a certain groove in the constant kicks, rhythms and basslines. Everywhere else it takes your mind is up to you.

Red Rot ist die Extrem-Metal-Band von Luciano Lorusso George und Davide Tiso, ehemals Ephel Duath, und ihr Folgealbum "Borders of Mania" ist ein
unerbittliches Werk von technischer Schönheit und knüppelnder Anmut. Red Rot ist eine physische Band, die einen direkt in den Bauch trifft, sobald
man auf Play drückt. Als Luciano und Davide beschlossen, die Band zu gründen, hatten sie diesen großen, rauen Sound im Kopf: Die Essenz von Red
Rot war schon lebendig, bevor die Songs geschrieben waren. Dröhnende Gitarren, die den Zuhörer wie ein Sack Ziegelsteine attackieren, natürlich
klingende Extrem-Metal-Schlagzeuger, ein schwerer, runder Bass, der Gitarren und Schlagzeug miteinander verbindet, und eine Stimme, die wie eine
verrückte Predigt wirkt, die in deinem Kopf in einer Schleife läuft. Red Rot hat auch einen gebrochenen, maskulinen Sinn für Untergang. Es ist die Art
von Dunkelheit, die greifbar und direkt in deinem Gesicht ist. Die fünfzehn Songs auf "Borders of Mania" sind musikalisch intensiv, roh und
leidenschaftlich, aber mit einer facettenreichen Eleganz, die Red Rot für Fans von radikaler und harter Musik quer durch das Spektrum interessant
macht.

Our 20th celebration year continues with a very special comeback! It’s exactly ten years now since the last Ben La Desh release on our label, his sublime “Stellar Talk EP” hit big waves and together with the “Midnight Rendez-Vous EP” from 2012 he cemented himself in the lo-fi deep space house scene as an artist to look out for, no one produced deep house like he did back then. After a longer break from releasing music he is back and we think stronger as ever, with analogue gear and well curated sampling and live field recording we present you his “Fine Rise EP”.

The opener “Heel Goed” is an amazing track with that distinctive 909 beat and DX bass driven “La Desh” flavour and a truly wonderful vocal sample from a 90s TV commercial, hilariously funny and brilliant at the same time! We can’t wait to see the faces of people, especially on the Dutch dancefloors, when they try to figure out and discover what the ladies are talking about! Second A side track is the super funky “Lift Adrift” that flanges itself to outer space, etherical with chopped break beats and various percussive and rhythmic Pearl Syncussion layers running through effect pedals, Lift Adrift!

On the other side we start out with the deep title track “Fine Rise”. Here Ben treats us again to his trademark spaced out effects driven sound and on top a killer bass line and synth lead melody, reminiscent of the golden age of (good) trance music. Followed by the break beat gem that is “Asanti”, cautiously cut up breaks and layered machine drums with bubbly Syncussion sounds, rain drops falling down on different surfaces recorded in a garden in the French Drôme and processed African Kalimba. Did we already say Etherical? It is!
Closing out this great new record is the ambient piece “Expanding Signal”, an analogue tune that consists of field recordings and deep dubby chords, a building Juno pulse, swooshes and again a profound DX bassline, think of “Sun Electric” or “The Orb”.

Enjoy this one and play it loud on the dance floors or silently in your bedroom, it works everywhere as far as we are concerned!

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

Hailing from Copenhagen, Denmark, The Sonic Dawn is one of Europe's most prominent current acid rock bands. Formed in 2013 by childhood friends Emil Bureau, Jonas Waaben, and Niels 'Bird' Fuglede, the trio has delivered four albums, celebrated for their dynamic fusion of genres from sitar pop to heavy psych. Their highly anticipated fifth LP is slated for release this spring via Heavy Psych Sounds. The debut album, Perception (2015), marked their international breakthrough with Berlin-based Nasoni Records. The sophomore release, Into the Long Night (2017), launched on Heavy Psych Sounds, accompanied by an extensive European album tour-some 60 shows, including two weeks with Brant Bjork (US)-solidifying their presence. The subsequent album, Eclipse (2019), earned acclaim as "easily one of the best psychedelic pop albums of the decade," and once again the group hit the road hard, playing in 11 different countries. In 2020, The Sonic Dawn unveiled Enter the Mirage, recognized as "a modern psych classic" by Shindig Magazine. While the planned album tour was cut short, it was possible to play on WDR's legendary TV show Rockpalast, which has featured David Bowie, the Grateful Dead, and many more through the years. Now, their highly anticipated fifth album, Phantom (2024), is set for a worldwide release on May 10th, 2024. Formally welcoming long-time collaborator Erik 'Errka' Petersson as a new studio band member on organ/keys, The Sonic Dawn continues its sonic journey. Culminating from four years of creating music, the album showcases a raw and heavy musical style blended with the melodic psychedelia for which the band is renowned.

Hailing from Copenhagen, Denmark, The Sonic Dawn is one of Europe's most prominent current acid rock bands. Formed in 2013 by childhood friends Emil Bureau, Jonas Waaben, and Niels 'Bird' Fuglede, the trio has delivered four albums, celebrated for their dynamic fusion of genres from sitar pop to heavy psych. Their highly anticipated fifth LP is slated for release this spring via Heavy Psych Sounds. The debut album, Perception (2015), marked their international breakthrough with Berlin-based Nasoni Records. The sophomore release, Into the Long Night (2017), launched on Heavy Psych Sounds, accompanied by an extensive European album tour-some 60 shows, including two weeks with Brant Bjork (US)-solidifying their presence. The subsequent album, Eclipse (2019), earned acclaim as "easily one of the best psychedelic pop albums of the decade," and once again the group hit the road hard, playing in 11 different countries. In 2020, The Sonic Dawn unveiled Enter the Mirage, recognized as "a modern psych classic" by Shindig Magazine. While the planned album tour was cut short, it was possible to play on WDR's legendary TV show Rockpalast, which has featured David Bowie, the Grateful Dead, and many more through the years. Now, their highly anticipated fifth album, Phantom (2024), is set for a worldwide release on May 10th, 2024. Formally welcoming long-time collaborator Erik 'Errka' Petersson as a new studio band member on organ/keys, The Sonic Dawn continues its sonic journey. Culminating from four years of creating music, the album showcases a raw and heavy musical style blended with the melodic psychedelia for which the band is renowned.

Manzo's new drop is a volume packed with four shamelessly pleasurable edits, a ray of sun shining brightly over the green pastures ready to bring summer vibes to every farm and ranch! Ici C'est Toujours Les Vacances opens with a wheel of french- roquefort-house that is all smiles and grooves.

Then, Belgian Mambo slows down the beat, swaying into a mystic acid trip. We shake horns and cowbells like there's no tomorrow on the alluring beat of Sea Urchin before the final epic ride of Ferramenta nº20, an interstellar tractor that shoots you straight into a disco-infused outer space.

Combining elements of post-rock, trip-hop, and industrial music, HAAL have quickly become cult favourites in the UK live scene. Their psychotropic blend of samples, DIY pedals, and monolithic instrumentation, has seen the band play and tour alongside the likes of Kyoto Kyoto, WEB, Deliluh, Treeboy & Arc, Katy J Pearson, and Gurriers, as well as appearing at festivals such as ArcTanGent, Dot To Dot and more. Coming off the heels of their recent singles “Janus” and “Judy” (and subsequent remixes by Water From My Eyes and Crimewave), the new EP “Back To Shilmarine” arrives as a blistering snapshot of the band’s protean dynamism.

The band celebrate their late-90s / early-00s influences in a caustic yet melodic blend of tracks that nod as much to the output of labels such as Dischord, Touch & Go, and Nothing Records, as they do their contemporaries in the UK scene such as SCALER, Famous, deathcrash, and LICE. The EP sees them bring all these touchstones together to create a unique and uninhibited maelstrom of sound that spans everything from intricate math-inflected guitar lines and pensive vocals to propulsive drumming, totemic riffing, and warped synths.

Arguably some of HAAL’s heaviest material to date, “Platform 1, 18:19” offers the first look into this new material melding motorik rhythms and hypnotic riffs with sudden explosions of noise and power. However, as ever with HAAL, there is more than meets the eye – the track also features samples completely abstracted from their sources, for instance, the drone that begins the song is taken from a video of frontman Alfie Hay and his friends beating Bop It.

Elsewhere on the EP, the lyrics explore themes of cosmic existentialism, absurdism, meaning, transhumanism, inner reflection, science, history, and general philosophy. “All the lyrics are musings or verses that I wrote at very different times in my life” says Hay. “I then had to fit them around the music, despite being written at wildly different periods.” The record was once again recorded with long-time collaborator Alfie Tyson Brown (Katy J Pearson, LICE, Lazarus Kane) at The Louisiana in Bristol. The band have a tight knit collaborative circle around them, this is particularly notable around the band’s imagery

"Post-Apocalypto' finds Tenacious D thrust into a world of complete and utter destruction following the drop of an atomic bomb. Surviving the attack in classic cinematic fashion (a good old imperishable 1950s refrigerator), the duo quickly learns that new forms of evil have spawned from the blast. One thing becomes apparent for humanity to prevail, Tenacious D must save the world". Standard Black LP vinyl re-issue catalogue campaign. Spring UK tour dates. Promo & marketing activity around the catalogue & live dates.

Repress! PRESSED ON BLUE & WHITE SWIRL VINYL! Housed In A High Gloss Jacket With Each LP Tucked Into A Printed Inner Sleeve

Nasir "Nas" Jones' 2001 record Stillmatic was considered a major comeback for the 90s rap icon. It signalled a return to the gritty, urban chaos of his acclaimed debut album, after releasing record after record of gradually more mainstream material, and Nas' return to prominence in the highest echelons of hip-hop. In spite of this newfound critical clout, Stillmatic's release did nothing to squash his then ongoing feud with fellow New Yorker Jay-Z, who had gone so far as to challenge Nas to a pay-per-view rap battle. A challenge Nas rejected, stating "If Jay-Z wants to battle, he should drop his album the same day I do and let the people decide." Nas fans never would get the no-holds barred lyrical battle with Jay-Z many had speculated. What they got instead was one of Nas' most personal and introspective releases to date in 2002. Not long after Stillmatic's release, Nas spent much of his time away from the limelight to tend to his ill mother, who would pass on from breast cancer in 2002. His experiences with his mother's mortality as well as the fallout of his feud with Jay-Z, who continued to produce diss tracks as Nas tended to his mother, would inspire much of the lyrical material on his next record. God's Son was released in December of 2002, and like Stillmatic before it, was subject to major critical acclaim. On God's Son, Nas effectively took the battle-hardened demeanor he had cultivated and tore it down across 14 tracks that were emotionally insular, though still dusted in urban grit, and still finding time to shoot back at Jay-Z's potshots on tracks like "Last Real Nigga Alive" and "Mastermind." Assisting Nas was a slew of top-tier producers like The Alchemist, Eminem, Ron Browz, and Salaam Remi, over samples of James Brown, the Incredible Bongo Band, Fela Kuti, and Beethoven, and guest vocals from Alicia Keys, Kelis, Claudette Ortiz of City High, and even a posthumous 2Pac.

Originally released on tape by SicSic in 2014, Aprilnacht commemorates a decade of music from Brannten Schnüre and marked the spring in a tetralogy of albums about the four seasons when it came out. Back then the Würzburg-based project consisted solely of Christian Schoppik, who later welcomed Katie Rich to take over the vocals. He used to perform as Agnes Beil, but dropped the name when, while making this album realized his music was becoming "much gentler and more fragile". Aprilnacht already captured the particular musical ideas that Schoppik would thoroughly keep exploring, delving deeper and deeper into the use and manipulation of samplers from sources so diverging as to wander between the five continents to post-war German family television and cult cinema. Heir of the ritualistic intensity of Coil, of the intricate sampler assemblies of Ghédalia Tazartès', and of the dusty, dismal old ballads from around the world, Brannten Schnüre manages to make these paths cross in a territory that is as inherent as it is uncanny; sieged by the past and intimate as a hearth. An organic approach to folk, ambient, and sound collage, where ethereal yet thoroughly textured pieces coalesce in enthralling, delicate, and innermost musical rituals.

The album cover paintings reveal the temper: dreary old towns where shadows come to dim the slow passage of crepuscular colors, a soft area of reanimation where wind and light come close and foresee the night of spring. Aprilnacht was inspired by the stories of German philosopher and writer Friedrich Alfred Schmid Noerr, whose work exhaustively examines the conflict between paganism and Christianity, safeguarding myth in a way that Schoppik describes as boldly modern, humorous and unpredictable in its variations of the Germanic folklore motifs. "I wanted to do the same with the music," he states, and the music here could as well be suitable for a night when household deities welcome wandering will-o'-the-wisps, water nymphs, and gyrovagues to discuss Perchta's leadership of The Wild Hunt, but this album is not a folk tale, it's not an elegy to worlds already gone, hidden in years; it's an intersection of routes that open mysteriously before our ears like a congregation of vapors. Aprilnacht is a gathering of voices; "There are too many children, and none of them keeps quiet," reads the last verse of «Requiem für eine Ringelnatter.»

Sensuality drips over the music to celebrate both the voluptuousness and tragic quality of nature; "It's raining on me, urine from your flowers," Schoppik sings in «Urin deiner Blüten» and later on, faced with a snake's erotic features, as if he wanted to be embraced by it: "Your quick, sharp tongue and your warm venom; that's what the pond is missing." Orality is where this profusion of contents thrives. When the voices get closer and condense, the words reveal the saliva employed to pronounce them; we feel the mouth and the tongue, but when breath envelops them in sorrow and softens their edges, they sound distant, diffused in the atmosphere, letting go of the body that held them. These two vocal facets oscillate permanently and interact naturally with the fertile assembly of samplers and instruments that develop throughout the album, which condense and disperse impersonating each other, interweaving to search for a specific syntax. Tangled whisperings of enigmatic phrases, timid voices that stick out to check the scene but hide away quickly, shivering trance chants and monastic ambiances, distant screams and clamors in between chaos and warfare swirl until bursting into subtle songs where even Mother Mary comes forth softly. Soothed by foggy atmospheres and crackling punctuations, these voices shape a vulnerable crowd, an occasion of fragility. Along this swarm of songs thrown into thin air, accordions sound like heavy-breathing lungs; clarinets sigh like curtains shaking; violin solos wander around like bees; Gjallarhorns cries distend like fleeing cattle; glockenspiels evoke remote music boxes and inherited toys; backward emanations emerge like slender waves retreating. On the banks of stretching loops and ember textures is where the songs slowly nest, collecting the words to find their tone.

A poem by Jorge Teillier says, "To talk with the dead you have to choose words that they recognize as easily as their hands recognized the fur of their dogs in the dark. To talk with the dead you have to know how to wait: they are fearful like the first steps of a child. But if we are patient one day they will answer us with a flame that suddenly revives in the fireplace." This may be Brannten Schnüre's main purpose: To find the voice to speak to those of whom we were a vision. Not in mourning, but acknowledging the obscure and volatile nature of spring's regenerative force, searching for the treasure of balance, as evidenced in the lyrics of «Requiem für ein Schwalbennest,» "Its nest was destroyed so many times before it was finished, and despite that, the shallow builds as if it is infatuated." The same idea is here in the words of Schmid Noerr, who made poetry an act of resistance to the horror of Nazism; "Since having seen the ability of a brilliant spirit to die, with a calm mouth that everyone saw, health is true again and we affirm it, even if rivers of blood flow." And as we call for the dusk's kindness, waiting to return home and eat with our kin by the stove, our ears become used to the games of the night. We feel like we're rowing on wetlands, while the "moon musick" keeps us vigilant against the slightest movement of water or sweet moan because eeriness here is imperative for survival. Do not succumb to the insipid howl of death, for nothing may last but mutability. You see, the rock has moved a little during the night; the rest is just wind fleeing from the void.

Glasgow’s Somewhere Press return with their inaugural vinyl release, a new album from Madelyn Byrd aka Slowfoam. Mining the seam between ecology and technology, Byrd offsets syrupy, dissociated electronics with sparse acoustic instrumentation and expressive field recordings.

The polyrhythmic pulse of the natural world surges through Byrd’s productions, and though the sounds are mostly electronic and strictly metered, a landscape teeming with insects, birds, and wildlife fills the horizon. We’re languidly ushered through the gates on the opening 'Enlightened Smudge on the Machine', juxtaposing glassy tones with flute (from Berlin-based sound artist Diane Barbé) and skittering percussion that could have been lifted straight off Björk’s 'Vespertine'. "No traffic, under the stem," a stoic voice muses while sounds dissolve into waterlogged ambience. There are hints of vintage West Coast new age music, but Byrds' over-arching theme is one of a contemporary digital reality slowly harmonising with its distant, bucolic past.

Field recordist Pablo Diserens provides some of the album's most arcane material, handing over environmental recordings of sulphur pools, Arctic terns and glacial streams. The lengthy 'Divine Morpho, Shimmering' deploys a swarm of insects, forming a looped, uneven rhythm that counters Byrd's pulsing electronics. Choral stems mesh with uncanny strings, blurring the line that separates artificial from organic sound sources. Byrd uses mutation and reconstruction as a form of "speculative melting" to bring us closer to utopia. On 'Like Phantom Memories In The Slinking Storm’, one of the album's most levitational moments, they tease twangy harp-lyre plucks into dubbed-out smudges, eventually given a reprise on 'Grief Rituals' where the same riffs are stretched into slower phrases, queered against giddy, xenharmonic drones.

Bird calls and tremulous exotica mark the brilliant 'Fragrant Dusking', and ‘Soft Body Virisdescence' takes us to a gurgling, kaleidoscopic climax, with electronic processes thrust into the foreground. 'Of Data & Delight' distills all the album’s sonic elements into a sort of delirious fever dream, using pitched animal calls to signal sensuality. It's not ambient, exactly, even if it shares space with the 3XL crew's sludgy eroticism, and it's not wholeheartedly electro-acoustic either. The record exists at a place of convergence, as one era wrestles with a new dawn, and real life glimpses high fantasy.

Inspiriert durch Duas eigene Selbstfindung, Radical Optimism ist ein Album, das die pure Freude und das Glück widerspiegelt, Klarheit in Situationen zu haben, die einst unmöglich zu bewältigen schienen. Die schweren Abschiede und verletzlichen Anfänge, die zuvor drohten, deine Seele zu belasten, werden zu Meilensteinen, wenn du dich für Optimismus entscheidest und beginnst, dich mit Anmut durch das Chaos zu bewegen. Durchdrungen von der Energie von Duas Heimatstadt London, verkörpert das Album die Unverfälschtheit, Ehrlichkeit, das Selbstbewusstsein und die Freiheit des Britpop der 90er Jahre. Radical Optimism entführt den Hörer in eine verträumte Popwelt, die reich an Musikalität, lyrisch kompromisslos und klanglich befreiend ist. Dua arbeitete während des gesamten Projekts mit einem Team von Kollaborateuren zusammen, darunter Caroline Ailin, Danny L. Harle, Tobias Jesso Jr. und Kevin Parker.

2024 Repress

The gang of four have a new waxed weapon in their arsenal and as expected, it bites. Three slices of complex futuristic beats with no mercy.

As in previous sound exercises, they have collided in the studio, each one with his preferred tools, recording bites, mutating audios, twisting frequencies, and this is the result:

"MG009" is a mechanical tool constructed over a concrete drum architecture, surrounded with bleeps, distorted drones and cutting hi hats. All the elements come and go wisely creating an obsessive atmosphere.

"SQMD3" follows on similar parameters, fast, distorted, enforced with the essential layers of sound required to make massive damage on a proper sound system.

"SNT0073" closes B side as an extension of the message proposed on the previous cuts: a few elements fighting in a frequency range quest in order to destroy any sign of easyness and vulgarity.

Only for the brave.

Hybral’s “Affirmative Action” EP is a masterful take on drone-infused industrial techno—a blend of organically futuristic and fancifully artificial sounds through which Hybral delves into a thrilling sonic exploration of dystopic Giger-esque themes.

Drawing elements from their previous releases and merging them all together in more impactful ways than ever before, here Hybral presents their very own musical manifesto that—through a process of extensive introspection—references only itself, delivering a genre-defining, true original magnum opus.

Featuring remixes of “Undoing Bias” by SUBVERTED residents Fluid—giving the track his signature high speed and high impact flair—and Nnamael—rewriting its tale through a progressively hypnotising structure.

As mood changers go, this track is up there with the best. Last year whilst DJing with miche at Shapes festival in the snow-capped mountains of Switzerland, a breathtaking yet ominous Alpine sky suddenly became a picture postcard moment. The clouds parted and a double rainbow formed, as miche dropped Studio Rio's bossa nova remake of Bill Withers’ all-time classic 'Lovely Day'. From there, the dancefloor shifted gears and morphed into full-swing feel-good vibes, in a beautiful, spontaneous moment nobody could have planned for.

Mr Bongo now proudly presents a reissue of this brilliant, bossa-channelling Bill Withers reinterpretation from Studio Rio’s 2014 release ‘The Brazil Connection’. Masterminded by the German Grammy award-winning Berman Brothers, the project was born out of their deep love of Brazilian music. “Our goal was to bring the Brazilian joie de vivre to iconic performances by well-known artists. What would these classic songs sound like had they been recorded in the studios of Rio de Janeiro in the first place, with the best Brazilian musicians and arrangers?” the brothers reflect.

Capturing the life force of Brazil, the beating heart that is its music, they set out to find the musicians who would fit best with their concept. Landing in Rio in 2013 a series of coincidences led to them being introduced to their idols Marcos Valle and Roberto Menescal, who both agreed to come on board. The Berman Brothers also wanted to find some of the musicians who recorded with one of Brazil’s most influential composers Tom Jobim. “Fifty years after Jobim made the music that really defines bossa nova, we found that many of his sidemen were still active, including Paulo Braga of Jobim’s famed rhythm section. It was magic; everything just fell into place.”

There's no question that the original of ‘Lovely Day’ is up there as one of the most feel-good, spirit-lifting anthems of all time. Here the brothers, with the help of a whole host of Brazil’s finest musicians, rework Bill’s soul-fuelled groove into a bossa nova slice of sunshine. With the blessing of Bill and Sony, they were given access to the original multitracks so they could incorporate Bill’s vocals perfectly into the new arrangement.

Joy-injected horns and bouncing double bass blend with the smile-inducing samba flavour of Pretinho da Serrinha’s cavaquinho playing. Tying it all together Torcuato Marinao who worked with the likes of Gal Costa, Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso, completes the line-up as arranger of the songs.

The perfect end-of-the-night track, mood lifter or soul warmer, remakes don’t get much better than this.

London-based four-piece Adult Jazz announce their first full-length album in a decade, So Sorry So Slow, out 26 April 2024 via Spare Thought. Alongside the announcement comes lovesick new single ‘Suffer One’ featuring Owen Pallett, a cautious excavation of self and sexuality, clambering across a gorgeously shapeshifting, filmic five-minutes.

Containing some of the band’s most abrasive but gentle, beautiful and melismatic work to date, So Sorry So Slow has many defining characteristics: romance, panic, devotion and remorse, threaded together by an intentionally laser-focused love. It’s deeply personal, bruised and candid in its expressions of tenderness, and deeply pained in its concurrent reflections of ecological regret. Across its hour-long runtime, a delicate, frenetic energy and glacial heaviness coexist, the band pitting those paces against one another. In their richly experimental timbre, dancing strings and fluttering falsettos prang against a bed of brass drones like a wounded bird.

“We started writing in 2017 and began recording in 2018,” says vocalist Harry Burgess. “We genuinely thought it might be finished in 2018! But things kept developing and, having resolutely not struck while the iron was hot, there was no real external push to rush things after that, so we just kept letting things shift and unfold until it felt right. Listening back to my voice notes it’s nice to notice that there are fragments of ideas from the whole period 2017-2023 which have shaped the record.”

Recorded in bursts at studios across London and in the band members’ flats, at Konk, on the Isle of Wight and in Sussex, So Sorry is unambiguous in its evolution. Sonically, there are sparks of the arrhythmic brightness that afforded the band’s critically acclaimed debut album Gist Is its cult adoration, for fans of Arthur Russell and Meredith Monk, but with a blossoming, melancholic darkness often overhead. Piano sprees and luscious string sections appear like low-hanging stars on a night-time drive, whilst plunging vocal distortions and humming brass loops resurrect heavy limbs in a bad dream.

“I usually have objects as kind of totems for ideas,” explains Burgess. “The album initially started out to do with performance… the totem was a head mic, one of the subtle skin-tone ones, discreet on the forehead of a West End star. A number of the first songs in their original forms were almost musical theatre piano ballads. I think that was really a device to write about my life as the ‘main character’ (pre internet-speak reframing): regrets about romance, relationships - unsustainable relationships with the self and others.”

“However, once we started writing, the ideas about unsustainable personal relationships, loving unevenly and heartbreak conflated with a more expressly ecological regret. Like contending with big feelings of loss, endings, beauty, desolation, and with how much joy the earth contains in it. Feeling so much gratitude bound up in waves of sadness. Maybe witnessing a slow-motion goodbye to all that, or its last gasps. I love the earth and the life it supports so much. I love how ecosystems fit together - even the brutal stuff. It may be basic to say, but now is the time to be laser focused on that love. I was thinking about human centrality on earth, us as the ‘main character’, the way that is served by faith and romanticism, and the subsequent disingenuous understandings of our position in the ecosystem, as only stewards somehow, rather than subjects. The totems at this point: a herald’s horn, lorry inner tubes, archaeological tools. I guess from doom, industry, history respectively.”

“Now I would say the record is about gripping. Totems being: crampons, rope, drips, desalination equipment, accruing various survival tech. I think gripping sums up both of the threads. There’s the emotionally correct clinging to the earth that is the substrate of everything we value, or the delusional clinging to our imagined dominant position. But also the practical, technological aspects of creating a sustainable relationship, of remaining here. Then I think of romance again.”

So Sorry So Slow comes out 26th April 2024 on Spare Thought, mixed by Fabian Prynn at 4AD Studios and mastered by Alex Wharton at Abbey Road.

Adult Jazz is Harry Burgess, Tim Slater, Steven Wells and Tom Howe.

Made in M is known for his smooth lofi beats. This new release picks up where his other releases have left off.
Cranking up the bpm a notch but keeping his signature organic grooves in his house debut LP.
FLUX is jazzy lofi house at its best for those lofi beat graduates that haven’t forgotten their roots.
Full LP dropping May 3rd on ear-sight and limited to 350 black vinyl.

Warehouse Find! Test Pressing!

Time for one of Freerange's longest standing regular producers to return to the label for his first EP in three years. The Stepping Tones EP is absolutely classic Shur-I-Kan from start to finish with two original tracks plus a remix from the very excellent Berlin newcomers Kim Brown.

The title track opens with a big, bold, bouncing bassline and driving groove but as we hear the arrangement unfold the layers of keys build and drop bringing the trademark Shur-I-Kan musicality and energy to the track. In our opinion this is one of his strongest tracks yet and we're pretty sure this will be a firm favorite this summer, set to be heard everywhere from Croatian boat parties to Dalston basements and beyond.

Up next we have Kim Brown with their remix of Stepping Tones and what a job! The Berlin duo have made a big impact the last couple of years with their incredibly deep and beautiful Spring Theory and People's Republic releases on Just Another Beat. Completely sublime downbeat deep house is the key here, owing as much to ambient and orchestral music as to the rough and raw lo-slung club beats we're hearing from labels such as Dial and Smallville. Their remix brings rugged drums, dubby keys and lush strings to the fore with the addition of a twisted, filtering vocal enhancing the warm glowing sunrise vibe which emanates from this track.

Conundrum closes the EP with another deep, jazzy and cinematic Shur-I-Kan masterpiece and once again he layers up the textures and harmonic elements slowly and expertly, introducing the little hooks over time until before you know it you're bathed in a warm shower of lushness with tingles running down your spine.

Warehouse Find!

Red D is back for a follow up to his brilliant Chez EP which dropped last year and this time he's going for the jugular! The man responsible for
some of the finest house music of the last decade as FCL (with San Soda) and FCL vs VFB (with Motor City Drum Ensemble) knows a thing or two about
what makes the dancefloor lose its s**t, with tracks such as Let's Go Seven, It's You and Can We Try all testament to this.
When he's not DJing at the likes of Panorama Bar or hosting his own stage at Tomorrowland, Red D can be found running his own mighty fine We Play House label from his Ghent HQ.
Moan The Mania opens this release in suitably back to the raw fashion! A minimal drum machine groove and clipped bassline lay the foundations of this tribute to all things jacking with a sprinkling of porno groans to help you on your way. This is sleazy machine funk at it's very best. Next up we have a remix from Eli Escobar, the native New Yorker who has recently been making major waves following the release of his LP Happiness on Classic.
As someone who has remixed the likes of Lana Del Rey, Kim Ann Foxman, Honey Dijon and Holy Ghost we knew he'd be the man to take Red D's baton and run with it.
Keeping the overall vibe of the original intact
Eli cranks the energy further with additional in your face percussion parts and a couple of perfectly placed build ups. Flipping over we have Chase The Cat which takes a similarly stripped-back and minimal approach as Moan The Mania but goes heavier on the 707 beats. Finally we have Dusk Or Dawn closing the release with a deeper mood.
Simple FM synth stabs and glassy chimes provide a tender and naive-sounding counterpoint to the basic beats.
Red D proving once again that limiting your tools and not over-complicating things can often have so much more impact when it comes to house music.

Warehouse Find!

Jimpster serves up the first single entitled Crave from ahead of his forthcoming Silent Stars LP complete with remixes from Atjazz and Flabaire.In its original form Crave, which features the vocals from hotly-tipped Londoner Florence Rawlings, is an emotionally charged electronic torch song guaranteed to get inside your head from the very first listen. The spacey chords and punctuating string stabs bring hints of the 80's to mind whilst Florence's gentle vocal floats in the air like a fresh sea breeze. In addition to the mesmerizing original we present two brilliant and contrasting remixes from one of the UK's legendary producers Atjazz as well as Paris' rising star Flabaire whose D.KO Records has been dropping gem after gem since 2013. Atjazz spins Crave into outerspace with a fat, driving groove and twisted sonics making for an incredibly deep and forward-looking slice of aural gold. In contrast, Flabaire looks back to the early 00's for his classic soulful house rework which calls to mind the sounds of Spinna and vintage Naked Music. Closing the release we have another original track entitled Where You Are featuring Berlin based US native Khalil Anthony. Here we find Jimpster doing what he does best, creating a sublime late night club track with his deft musical touch making this one that will stand out in the crowd.

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Simbad makes a welcome return to Freerange following last year’s brilliant Take My Hand EP featuring South African vocalist Brian Temba. Now based predominantly in Cape Town, the French Londoner producer and DJ is one of the most prolific artists in the scene having notched up countless EP’s, remixes and production work for labels like Apron, G.A.M.M. Faces, Hyperdub, Atjazz, BBE & Brownswood. His association with Gilles Peterson and Worldwide runs deep, hosting regular shows on WWFM as well as traversing the globe delivering his unique and eclectic sets from Africa
to Asia and beyond.

Peaceful Revolution is one of those special house tracks which transcends boundaries, encapsulating an outernational sound in a way that Simbad excels in. Featuring South African upcoming producer Zito Mowa & vocalist Lwandile Zulu who brings a raw and impassioned energy to the deep and soulful mood, this tune was recorded in support of the troubled events from the past few months (Black Lives Matter movement).

Next up we have a track entitled Let Go which could quite easily be the lead track of the EP if they weren’t all as good as each other! This is late night emotive house music at its most sublime. Drop this at the right time and watch the floor come together in collective bliss.

Flip over for SMBD’s Shaolin Dub remix of Peaceful Revolution which pushes the original to the outer limits of the audio spectrum. Sub-sonic low end rumbles sitting in contrast to the ghost like whispers, glitches and industrial noises that pierce the ethereal pads.

Closing out this special release we find the unassumingly titled Soulful Jam, a low-slung groove which sees Simbad going heavy on fizzing analogue synths with a serene synth solo takin centre stage amongst the lush chords.

Inspiriert durch Duas eigene Selbstfindung, Radical Optimism ist ein Album, das die pure Freude und das Glück widerspiegelt, Klarheit in Situationen zu haben, die einst unmöglich zu bewältigen schienen. Die schweren Abschiede und verletzlichen Anfänge, die zuvor drohten, deine Seele zu belasten, werden zu Meilensteinen, wenn du dich für Optimismus entscheidest und beginnst, dich mit Anmut durch das Chaos zu bewegen. Durchdrungen von der Energie von Duas Heimatstadt London, verkörpert das Album die Unverfälschtheit, Ehrlichkeit, das Selbstbewusstsein und die Freiheit des Britpop der 90er Jahre. Radical Optimism entführt den Hörer in eine verträumte Popwelt, die reich an Musikalität, lyrisch kompromisslos und klanglich befreiend ist. Dua arbeitete während des gesamten Projekts mit einem Team von Kollaborateuren zusammen, darunter Caroline Ailin, Danny L. Harle, Tobias Jesso Jr. und Kevin Parker.

Mammoth Penguins are a 3-piece indie powerhouse, showcasing the songwriting and vocal talents of Emma Kupa (Standard Fare) backed up by the noisiest rhythm section in indie pop. May 2024 sees the release of their fourth album Here on Fika Recordings. After 2019’s big, bold and confident There’s No Fight We Can’t Both Win, and the initial shock of the global pandemic cancelling a trip to SXSW in 2020, the band returned to the studio in the summer of 2021 to start recording. The new record leans into a raw pop-punk power-trio sound more than ever, with a deep growl in layered guitars and bursts of percussion and harmony. The songs and artwork explore themes about finding a place for yourself and familiarity with people and places. Although it turns back towards a classic three-piece sound, the band weren’t restricted by that palette, adding finishing touches of percussion, extra guitars and backing vocals in short bursts in a garden shed, and also bringing in gorgeous strings to sweeten the title track. The sound builds on the band’s first album, Hide and Seek, which was released with the much-loved and sorely missed Fortuna POP! in 2015. The follow-up LP John Doe in 2017 was an ambitious concept album, exploring the feelings of loss and anger at a man who fakes his own death only to return years later, expanding well beyond the 3-piece rock‘n’roll template, with washes of strings, synths and samples. The ‘Penguins have been smashing it at some high-profile support slots in the lead up to this album release, including at Allo Darlin’s joyous reunion at Islington Assembly Hall (Oct 2023) and Muncie Girls last ever London show (Dec 2023). They play the Leicester Indiepop all-dayer and Wales Goes Pop in March, before heading out on tour in support of the new album in May. Those big singalong choruses need your voice shouting back from the crowd with joy and defiance. Mammoth Penguins are Emma Kupa (guitar, vocals), Mark Boxall (bass, vocals) and Tom Barden (drums, vocals). Reminiscent of the pop melodies of The Beths, the indie dissonance of Land of Talk, and the guitar forward slacker rock of Weezer, Mammoth Penguins marry heart-ache indiepop with spiky guitars and Emma’s frank confessional songwriting. “wonderfully awkward indie pop with a literate flair, sounding a lot like a Weezer record or even a more feminine Wedding Present” Clash // “eminently relatable earworms” Brooklyn Vegan // “one of the finest examples of simple and true indie rock around” All Music // “her characterful voice still carrying masses of charm and the messier, grungey approach bringing a strength all of its own, aided by a clutch of cheerful hooks and riffs that contrast nicely with lyrics dealing mostly with heartbreak and misery” Drowned In Sound

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Pattern Select aka Milton Jackson and Show-B have gone well and truly back to the raw on this, their first collaborative work together and debut EP for Delusions Of Grandeur. Both producers have been busy on some top quality projects just recently with Milton Jackson remixing Recloose for Planet E and Show B producing for Robert Owens on Compost. The pair met at a party in Munich, promptly fell in love, and soon enough Pattern Select was born.

Kicking off Tale Of The Tape sees the pair go deep n dark on this low-slung groove where demonic laughter rides the driving hats and insesant crashes until the filtering arpeggiated synth line joins the fun. Tale Of The Dub gives us a stripped back, dub-infused version which goes a little lighter on the craziness of the first version but without losing any of the deep, hypnotic funk.

Cottam is a producer who will need little introduction seeing as he's been getting hyped from all corners of the electronic scene following a series of untitled vinyl only EP's on his own Cottam label. Brilliant releases on Story and Use Of Weapons followed, and now we're very happy to have him bring his own unique take on house music here on this remix of Tale Of The Tape.

Finally, another original entitled Matrix drops the bpm's further for a lazy, hazy, hiphop inspired jam with deep atmospherics and simple rolling groove.

The first EP of somewhere… drops courtesy of Otis with four driving tracks. Hard, stripped back cuts on the A side and rhythmic, spacey soundscapes on the flipside. Keep your ear to the ground for this one.

Für Thy Catafalque war es nie genug, die Kluft zwischen Black Metal und Avantgarde zu überbrücken. Die ungarische Band ließ ihrem unerwarteten Durchbruch ein Konzeptalbum folgen, das sich um seltsame Übertragungen aus einem Radio außerhalb der Zeit dreht. Róka Hasa Rádió knistert vor kindlicher Neugier und lässt Melodien aus den Karpaten mit harschem Techno, gedämpften Drones und erdrückendem Doom verschmelzen. Obwohl es das letzte Album ist, das die Band als Duo aufgenommen hat, hat sich Tamás Kátai bereits als williger Kollaborateur erwiesen. Atilla Bakos und Ágnes Tóth (The Moon and The Nightspirit) steuern die Clean Vocals bei. Als Finalist für den HangSúly Hungarian Metal Award kündigte Róka Hasa Rádió Thy Catafalque als Kritikerliebling an.

Holland, Dozier and Holland are arguably the greatest songwriters ever. More prolific than Lennon and McCartney, they shaped “the Sound of Young America” and propelled the Motown sound in the mid-1960s into a creative stratosphere unmatched by any other independent music label. Their trademark catchy teenage love songs were delivered energetically by previously unknown Detroit groups like The Supremes, the Four Tops, Martha & the Vandellas & Marvin Gaye. Although synonymous with Berry Gordy’s Motown, it was their departure from Motown after a stand-off strike in 1967 and a brutal legal battle that led them to run their own group of labels, Invictus, Hot Wax and Music Merchant. This compilation is a definitive look at this period in history, exploring how H-D-H, under a new guise ‘The Creative Corporation’, drove the next generation of soul music in a myriad of different ways, towards funk, underground disco and jazz. Featuring 55 tracks, this collection documents HDH’s creativity and growth over this seminal 8 year period. During this time the trio developed new artists to rival Motown’s success such as Chairman Of The Board, Freda Payne, Honey Cone, Glass House, Flaming Ember, 8th Day, Laura Lee & Eloise Laws. The collection is complete with a detailed depiction of this period in history by award winning author Stuart Cosgrove who wrote the Soul Trilogy, a series of books on soul music and social change - Detroit 67: the Year That Changed Soul, Memphis 68: The Tragedy of Southern Soul which won the Penderyn Prize, as Music Book of the Year in 2018, and Harlem 69: the Future of Soul. Stuart’s notes detail the relationship with Motown in the final days, the immediate fall out after the trio left Motown and the creation of the new labels Hot Wax, Invictus & Music Merchant

In 1984, Jasper Van’t Hof, a prominent European jazz pianist, propelled to fame with the energetic ‘Pili Pili’ a 15-minute trance collaboration with Guinea's Isaac Tagul Group. Inspired by a fiery red pepperoni, the track sold over 100,000 copies, leading the group to adopt the name Pili Pili, becoming a hit in the club and disco scene.

Pili Pili's musical roots trace back to Van’t Hof's 1982-83 tour in Central Africa, where he discovered a love for African music. The band embraced authenticity by collaborating with diverse African musicians from Mali, Congo, Senegal, and Guinea. In 2000, Van’t Hof initiat-ed a project with the young Zulu choir Phikelela Sakhu-la from Durban, South Africa.
Pili Pili's style, described as experimental fusion, blends intricate African rhythms with jazz, fusion, funk, and dance. Van’t Hof emphasized the importance of groove over complex solos, stating that intellectual approaches are lost in their music.

The band's performances, marked by their energetic fusion of jazz and African rhythms, gained acclaim across Europe. Regular tours and festival appearances, such as the Jazz Festival of Montreux, solidified Pili Pili's reputation as an excellent live band. Reviews praised the band's dynamic and explosive music, turn-ing every performance into a rhythmic and fiery expe-rience.

Who is Leon Dinero? From whence did he come? The soulful singer dropped his first single this past June, tearing up a ska version of Lee Fields & Sugarman 3's classic "Lover Like Me". Backed by The Frightnrs, and with Victor Axelrod in the producer's chair Leon returns with "If You Ask Me", a gorgeous piece of wax that draws inspiration from the deep vaults of Jamaican Rocksteady.

Originally penned for The Frightnrs' debut long player but never tracked as such, this version showcases Dinero's timeless vocal delivery - his voice etched with honey-dipped imperfections that call to mind the classic vocals of Alton Ellis and Hopeton Lewis. Gracing the flip-side is"Bandits", a lyrical takedown of the continuing gentrification of New York City that rides the A-Side's instrumental in pure Jamaican DJ style. Vocal duties for this stellar side are brought to you by Screechy Dan, who's often described as the glue that holds the NYC reggae community together.

Beyond his classic tunes like"Pose Off" and "Big Bills", Screechy has nurtured generations of young artists, sound systems and selectors, forging deep ties that bind Jamaica to New York and veteran artists to the new school. Victor Axelrod expertly handles the production by employing the rhythmic powerhouse that is The Frightnrs to help mine the sweetness of rock steady for the A-side whilst tempering it with the drum and bass toughness of classic rub-a-dub for the flip. We're looking forward to much more to come from this extraordinary group of musicians!

The title track of Unklevon’s ‘UN1C’ album starts with a steady snare-heavy beat, foreboding atmospherics and a futuristic vocal. It introduces the France-based producer’s Detroit-inspired electro LP and also marks his debut full-length, landing on Boysnoize Records, a label Unklevon’s been affiliated with since 2022.

For the second track on Unklevon’s ‘UN1C’ LP, the International Chrome & Nechto artist is joined by Maral for ‘Bag Secured’, adding her sensual vocals to a raw cut featuring rough synthlines and racing rhythm. ‘Science Club’ then continues with infectious and hypnotic energy driven by a deep, earworm vocal before ‘Speed Chains’ picks up pace with speedy basslines and rhythms shot through with bleeps.

Ukranian singer Alina Pash infuses Unklevon’s ‘High Key’ with fantastic modern hip-hop flair, with ‘All 4 Homies’ returning to the club with cut-up sampling and tripped-out electro sonics. Boysnoize Records’ Boys Noize also teams up with Unklevon for ‘Spa8cid’, a menacing dancefloor heavy-hitter which eases into the acid madness of ‘Miami South Express’ which follows.

Next up, Unklevon and Vel drop the aptly named ‘Transed About U’, a true peak-time roller boasting hypnotic trance-like gated vocals, with German electro superstar DJ MELL G joining him for ‘Wizard Snakes’, taking a more classical approach with rich synth lines and crisp drum work. Closing out this fantastic first album from a promising name in the global electro spheres is ‘Call Me Von’, another amped-up, bass-laden track ready to rock the warehouse.

The opening line of Emily Dickinson’s short poem ‘‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers’ inspired the central image of Emily Barker’s new single ‘Feathered Thing’, written while she navigated cumulative grief.

When Barker was first introduced to producer Luke Potashnick (Gabrielle Aplin, Jack Savoretti, Katie Melua) in May 2022, she brought with her a full album’s worth of songs. But after visiting Potashnick’s storied studio, The Wool Hall and hearing his ambitious production ideas, she was inspired to write one more song.

“I also needed to process some heavy news” she comments. Barker and her husband Lukas Drinkwater had been trying to start a family. Following a couple of failed IVF cycles (and other “starts that we’d lost”), they investigated adoption and had decided to relocate to Australia to be closer to Barker’s family.

“It felt like we couldn’t work out what we wanted, but we finally reached a point where we both felt at peace with not having kids,” Barker recalls. “It had been an incredibly intense time, coinciding with a house move and the pandemic.”

And then Barker found she was pregnant. “We’d done all these things to try to make it happen, and then it happened naturally (and against all biological odds). Having previously navigated losses throughout our pregnancy journey, we now had to get our heads around what having this new person in our lives might look like - emotionally and practically.”

Soon after work began on the album, Barker had a miscarriage.

“Songwriting has always been a way of processing throughout my life.” Barker reveals how the new song came quickly as she sat at her piano at home. She shared an early version with Potashnick and remembers him politely asking, “Do you mind telling me what this is about?”

“I think I’d left it too abstract, initially,” she reflects. “It was difficult to open up about the miscarriage, but Luke was very supportive and encouraged me to dig a little deeper without necessarily being specific. I revisited the lyrics, and the result is much stronger.”

“I went to the burnt-out woods/ A tourist with some damaged goods/ Remembered how the trees withstood fires before…”

“The opening line is a metaphor for knowing that I’ll get through this,” Barker clarifies. “It’s about recovery and hope, allowing yourself both the space to grieve and permission to move on”. But Barker’s optimism is never misplaced – she knows the imprint of imagined futures and lost children are carried in hearts and minds forever:

“It’s so hard to let go, wanted to know wanted to know you …”

“I think that it's important to share and normalise these stories, which are all too common, yet not openly spoken about. People hide their pain and don’t want to burden friends and family. I think behind all this anguish, there’s a deep, often untold story.”

Now that Barker is settled back in Western Australia, she’s embracing being an auntie. “I’ve got three younger siblings over here who I’m close to, and they all have kids,” she enthuses. “I look after my brother's kids, aged two and five, one morning a week.”

Recorded - along with the entirety of the new album - at The Wool Hall, ‘Feathered Thing’ begins gently, with oscillating piano and distant drums, until the arrangement gradually transforms into an instrumental dervish of vibrant strings, bass drones and cymbal crashes. Throughout, Barker’s vocals float tantalisingly like a slipstreaming feather.

Watch the video, filmed at The Wool Hall here. The Wool Hall is a studio in Beckington, Somerset, set up by Tears for Fears in the 1980s and used by artists including The Smiths, Pretenders, Joni Mitchell and many more.

Emily Barker is an award-winning singer-songwriter, best known as the writer and performer of the theme to the hugely successful BBC crime drama ‘Wallander’ starring Kenneth Branagh.

Her last album, 2020's ‘A Dark Murmuration of Words’, was produced by Greg Freeman and recorded at StudiOwz, a converted chapel in the Welsh countryside. Lyrically probing, by turns both dark and optimistic, Barker searches for meaning through the deafening clamour of fake news and algorithmically filtered conversation, delivering a timely exploration of the grand themes of our age. It garnered widespread acclaim, with Uncut calling it “…a kind of Australian equivalent of PJ Harvey’s Let England Shake”.

Barker has released music and toured as a solo artist as well as with various bands and collaborations, most notably her long association with Frank Turner, and has written for TV and film, including composing the soundtrack for Jake Gavin’s lauded debut feature ‘Hector’ starring Peter Mullan and Keith Allen.

‘Fragile as Humans’ is scheduled for release on May 3rd 2024 through Everyone Sang/Kartel Music Group. The album will also feature earlier singles: the vast, cinematic ‘Wild to be Sharing This Moment’ and the meditative, crestfallen ‘Loneliness’.

The Path is the latest album from Belbury Poly (aka Ghost Box records founder Jim Jupp). This time round Jupp has recruited a full band roster to expand his own unique electronica. He is joined by occasional Belbury Poly collaborator Christopher Budd on Bass and Guitar, Jesse Chandler (of Midlake, Mercury Rev & Pneumatic Tubes) on flute, clarinet and keyboards, Max Saidi on drums plus narration from author and poet, Justin Hopper.

Musically it takes as its starting point a particular moment of early 1970s British film soundtracks by the likes of Roy Budd and Roger Webb; a soundworld of easy-going jazz and funky rhythms gently coloured with pastoral strings and flutes. The Path, however, is unmoored from time or place thanks to Hopper’s narrative style, Chandler’s rustic flutes and keys, Budd’s soulful psychedelic guitars and Jupp’s production and electronics. The co-writers were all chosen for their unique abilities and an
intuitive understanding of the ongoing Belbury Poly project. The spoken word elements form a loose, open-ended narrative; very much an album with spoken word rather than a spoken word album.

The Band and Album Recording:
Christopher Budd: Electric Bass, Double Bass, Guitars, Electric Sitar
Jesse Chandler: Piano, Synths, Mellotron, Flute, Clarinet
Justin Hopper: Narration
Jim Jupp: Electric Piano, Synths, Mellotron, Percussion, Sound Effects
Max Saidi: Drums, Percussion

The project came together over two years, beginning with a conversation between Hopper and Jupp during a walk on the Sussex South Downs. Originally, it was to tell the tale of an American academic unravelling while adrift in an alienating English landscape. From the beginning, the pair wanted on a narration integrated lyrically into the piece, rather than dropped on top. The words gradually became more film-noir and open to interpretation; occasionally a little tongue-in-cheek. The final
texts explore a folklore of alienation; the way we impact the landscape and it impacts us.

Belbury Poly:
Jim Jupp has released EPs, singles and seven albums on Ghost Box as Belbury Poly. It’s generally a solo project, but he calls on a floating roster of like-minded musicians to extend the sound beyond studio based electronica. He is also one half of The Belbury Circle along with Cate Brooks (of The Advisory Circle) - occasional collaborators with John Foxx. He has recorded library tracks for KPM, BMG and Lo-Editions. He’s remixed tracks for several artists including Beautify Junkyards,
John Foxx and Bill Ryder-Jones (The Coral) and co-written a song with Paul Weller for his 2020 album On Sunset.

Explore the fusion of world music with soul, funk and disco through the Rare Groove Collection. With this new volume 100% italian, discover rare gems from soundtracks of erotic and detective movies as well as more confidential music libraries. With Ennio Morricone, Goblin, Piero Piccioni, Guido e Maurizio De Angelis, Armando Trovajoli, Alessandro Alessandri, Toto Cutugno...