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MAJOR REISSUE OF MAKOTO KUBOTA'S SUNSET GANG ALBUMS RECORDED IN THE 70S WITH HARUOMI HOSONO FOR THE SHOWBOAT LABEL AND FEATURING HIS BLEND OF JAPANESE FOLK, BLUES AND R&B WITH HAWAIIAN, OKINAWAN AND NEW ORLEANS INFLUENCES. THE ALBUMS ARE RELEASED IN COLLABORATION WITH MAKOTO KUBOTA AND COME WITH ORIGINAL ARTWORK, REMASTERED BY MAKOTO KUBOTA HIMSELF.


Starting with the reissue of 'Hawaii Champroo' recorded in Honolulu in 1975 and co-produced by Haruomi Hosono, Wewantsounds will then release 'Sunset Gang' from 1973 followed by Dixie Fever from 1977. All albums have been newly remastered by Makoto Kubota and they each come with original artwork, OBI and the original 4 page japanese insert. This is the first time the album is released outside of Japan....

Wewantsounds continues its Akiko Yano series with the reissue of her cult classic 'Ai Ga Nakucha Ne' recorded in 1982 and co-produced by Ryuichi Sakamoto. Featuring Japan, the album includes additional recording in Tokyo with YMO and is mixed by Steve Nye and Shinichi Tanaka. It is the first time the album is released outside of Japan and the deluxe LP features the original artwork with gatefold sleeve and a lavish 24-page colour booklet with sessions photos by Pennie Smith (famous for The Clash's London Calling photo). The reissue also includes a new introduction by Mac DeMarco and a dual interview with Akiko Yano and Steve Jansen by journalist Paul Bowler. The audio remastered from the Original tapes by Mitsuo Koike.

'Ai Ga Nakucha Ne' ('there must be love' in Japanese) is Akiko Yano’s 6th studio album and follows 'Tadaima' in 1981. It continues exploring the electro-pop sound of its predecessor, hot on the heels of her touring with Yellow Magic Orchestra between 1979 and 1980. For this album, Akiko decided to try something new; she enrolled English fellow musicians Mick Karn, Steve Jansen and David Sylvian from Japan and booked the Air Studios in London under the supervision of engineer Steve Nye. ​​Over a couple of weeks, the musicians created a fascinating soundscape full of catchy pop tunes, sung in both Japanese and English. Reminiscing about the studio sessions, Steve Jansen notes "Our music’s different but we maybe had a similar process of working. It was a great environment because the studio was a great place to work. It was very insular. There were four studios and there were always groups working in there 24/7."

The eleven tracks featured on "Ai Ga Nakucha Ne," mostly composed by Akiko - are a great collection of catchy tunes featuring her distinctive vocals and accompanied by the Japan musicians. As Akiko explains about the creative process, "I didn’t think to imitate or to make another Tin Drum. But I had Steve Jansen and Mick Karn, these excellent musicians. They were eager to understand the songs, then they put in everything they had. I knew the material was different from what they usually played in Japan. But it was a great experience working with them.

​There are many highlights on the album, from the pop edge of "Aisuru Hito Yo" to the avant groove of "Another Wedding Song", each song is memorable and the album ends with the superb “Good Night” sung by Akiko and David Sylvian.

The original 1982 LP release included a 24 page booklet featuring many photos by Pennie Smith and Japanese photographer Bishin Jumonji. The booklet is reproduced in its entirety here and the album on top of contributions by Mac DeMarco, a longtime fan of the album, Akiko and Steve Jansen making this release of 'Ai Ga Nakucha Ne' a unique testament to Akiko Yano's greatness.

Der Soundtrack zur HBO-Serie "The Last of Us" basiert auf der beliebten Musik und Klangwelt des gleichnamigen Videospiels. Geschrieben wurde der Soundtrack vom mit einem Academy Award ausgezeichneten Komponisten Gustavo Santaolalla und von David Fleming.Die intime, gitarrenbetonte Klanglandschaft spiegelt die Emotionalität der Serie wider und nimmt die Hörer mit auf die ungewisse Reise durch die USA in einer postapokalyptischen Welt, zwanzig Jahre nach der Zerstörung der modernen Zivilisation durch eine, von einem Pilz verursachte Epidemie.

Based on the critically acclaimed video game of the same name developed by Naughty Dog for the PlayStation® platforms, The Last of Us is written and executive produced by co-creators Craig Mazin (Emmy® Award-winning creator of HBO’s “Chernobyl”) and Neil Druckmann (creator and writer of the award-winning “The Last of Us” franchise and Naughty Dog Co-President).


The Last of Us takes place twenty years after modern civilization
has been destroyed by a viral outbreak. Joel, a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie, a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey, as they both must traverse the U.S. and depend on each other for survival.

The vinyl release to the acclaimed series contains soundtrack
highlights from the show. Featured are score tracks by composer Gustavo Santaolalla, with additional music by David Fleming as well as songs by Depeche Mode, Pearl Jam, Jessica Mazin & Nick Offerman.


The package contains 2x vinyl, standard weight at 140g, 1x green and 1x clear, a double-sided poster of the show’s key art, spot gloss and soft touch on the gatefold and an insert featuring liner notes by Neil Druckmann, Craig Mazin, Gustavo Santaolalla & David Fleming and images from the show.

“Orlando Furioso is a haunting, one-of-a-kind statement, from an important new voice in improvised music.” - Steve Lehman

“…imagining instruments that haven’t been invented yet: space harps, cosmic gamelan, Venusian banjo. It’s the purest distillation of Atria’s musical language, simultaneously grounded and unearthly.” - Stewart Smith for The Wire (November 2022)

“Making liberal use of microtonal harmony and hypnotic, ostinato rhythms – as well as the occasional stylistic smash-cut, reminiscent of John Zorn – Orlando Furioso announced itself on Wednesday as a punchy, creative force on the New York scene. (…) Atria’s rhythms had a welcoming, social propulsion, and the microtonality of his writing for keyboard proposed an individual – even insular – language.” - Seth Colter Walls for The New York Times.

Early European composers felt that their work reflected in its structure the divine nature of the material world. Via tuning, form, and contrapuntal alchemy, these musicians sought to illuminate and edify the complex and perfect order of existence. The music recorded here also reflects the contours of an ordered world, but it is no place any of us has ever visited. By assembling far-flung building blocks from the detritus of a 21st-century musical vocabulary, Orlando Furioso brings the listener into a bizarre new cosmos. The result is deeply expressive music that speaks not with the voice of a narrator or memoirist, but with that of a cartographer.

Like a science-fiction Dante, the listener is taken on a tour of many diverse and colorful provinces of an alien world. Though each composition references its own set of real-world musical locales (from the Andes to Indonesia to Italy to New Orleans), they are bound by stylistic consistency into a coherent, continuous geography. Permeating this world is an uncompromising commitment to microtonal harmony, rhythmic intensity, and an ability to deploy the esoteric (Nicola Vicentino's notorious 31-tone temperament) and the head-smackingly obvious (a surprise djent breakdown) with equal conviction. Though Vicente's compositions are steering the ship, serious recognition is due to all the players on the record for their ability to meet these demands.

Our omnivorous musical diets offer real abundance. They enrich our craft by providing access to limitless approaches from which to choose - more masters to study, traditions to absorb, and techniques to hone than is possible in multiple lifetimes. They can also inflict heavy and often contradictory burdens of influence. When every corner of the map has been charted, it becomes difficult to find a new direction in which to travel. One solution I hope to see more often is the one pursued on this record: breaking down distinct musical worlds into component parts and reassembling them into a language. When completed with precision and with no stone left unturned, the seams between the pieces vanish and the listener is deposited somewhere beautiful and strange, left to assign their sensations meanings of their own. - Mat Muntz

Orlando Furioso is led by Vicente and features David Acevedo, David Leon, Andrew Boudreau, Alec Goldfarb, Daniel Hass, Simón Willson, and Niña Tormenta. Orlando Furioso celebrated its release at Roulette Intermedium in Brooklyn, NY, as a part of Wet Ink Ensemble's 24th Season opening concert, a performance which The New York Times heralded as "virtuosic", "punchy, creative" and "even revelatory."

Winner of the Deutscher Jazz Preis: Best International Debut Album 2023

Ocela can be a dance album if you want it to be, but above that, it is an album about dancing. The second instalment in a planned trilogy, it regards dance as a form of pathmaking, a physical chronology of a journey. Its voyager is the eponymous Ocela // an invented feminine form of the word steel // who wields both strength and brittleness. While the first album (Spojky Čiary) focused on Ocela's inception and youth, here she is mature // on a resolute trajectory between birth and passing away.

Ocela is not a concept album // unless you want it to be // but it is an album built around beats. While there is a loose precedent for rhythms in the two-piece project Jamka, the trilogy also marks Daniel Kordik's solo return to melodical composition. On this record, Ocela dances on her orbits in patterns that are harmonious but always slightly elliptic. Each song on the album travels with its own varying velocity, before it abruptly finds itself at the subjective beginning. Then it goes through further revolutions, with determination bordering on a lack of choice.

Recorded live onto a 4-track before mixing, Ocela is unlike its predecessor in that it shuns any form of field recording, and was instead made using only hardware (Elektron Octatrack MK1, Elektron Digitone, Jomox Mbase01).

Daniel Kordik, also known as Iskra, is one half of Jamka, member of the Urbsounds Collective, co-founder of Earshots Recordings and Ocela is his second release on the melodramatic label Weltschmerzen.

Black Truffle is pleased to announce The Leisure Principle, a new solo LP from London-based bassist and sound artist Otto Willberg. A key player in the London underground, Willberg is often heard on acoustic and electric bass in free improv settings and bands with Laurie Tompkins (Yes Indeed) and Charles Hayward (Abstract Concrete), as well as the fractured No Wave unit Historically Fucked. His previous solo releases have ranged from extended technique double bass to explorations of the acoustics of a 19th century artillery fort. But nothing Willberg has committed to wax so far prepares a listener for The Leisure Principle, six unashamedly melodic improvisational workouts created almost entirely with heavily filtered bass harmonica and electric bass. On the opening ‘Reap What Thou Sow’, a single-note bass harmonica loop pulses along underneath a roaming bass solo, the side-chained envelope filtering (where the dynamic behaviour of the bass determines the filter for both bass and harmonica) fusing the two instruments into a single stream of burbling shifts in resonance. After several minutes of patient exploration of this low-end landscape, the music suddenly opens up in widescreen with the entrance of Sam Andreae’s graceful melodica chords, spreading out across the stereo field. From this epic opener, each of the remaining pieces goes on to explore a slightly different aspect of the terrain. On ‘Shadow Came into the Eyes as Earth Turned on its Axis’, a similarly buoyant harmonica bass line provides the foundation, but this time playing a soulful descending riff, its almost R&B feel abstracted and half-obscured by the filtering. On ‘Mollusk’, echoed bass arpeggios skitter between elegiac chords somewhat reminiscent of the opening of John Abercrombie’s ‘Timeless’, before settling into a hypnotic groove. On the record’s second half, Willberg pushes further into the possibilities of his idiosyncratic instrumentation. On ‘Wetter’, bass and harmonica come together into a monstrous, growling jaw harp; on ‘Had we but world enough and more time’, the subtly shifting pulsating patterns start to feel almost like a kind of evaporated, drum-less dub techno until an eruption of wheezing bass harmonica gives the piece a comically folkish turn. Willberg’s melodically inventive and virtuosic bass performance calls to mind any number of fusion touchstones, from Jaco Pastorius to Mark Egan’s singing tone in the early Pat Metheny Group—even Anthony Jackson’s work with Steve Kahn. But with its radically reduced instrumentation, The Leisure Principle is also an exercise in minimalism, and the absence of percussion gives even its funkiest moments a strangely abstracted quality. At times, its uncanny blend of the abstruse and the immediate suggests the fried pop experiments of David Rosenboom or the skewed but deeply musical DIY of 80s underground groups like De Fabriek. Both easy on the ear and profoundly strange, The Leisure Principle proudly takes its place among the most eccentric offerings on the Black Truffle menu.

In 1972, a foursome of design students set out to make a record. This was, in many ways, a strictly creative endeavor. The quartet — composed of Dave Pescod, Alan Lewis, Phil Rawle, and Ted Rockley — were all trained, not as musicians, but as creatives. Art school heavyweights, the four were well-versed in the methodology of intentional experimentation, in the delicate balance of pushing the limits without completely unmooring oneself from a guiding creative intention. Emboldened by a high-brow familiarity with thoughtful experimentation and all the non-conviction of non-musicians, Bowes Road Band’s stint in the world of popular music yielded a record that is as much mind-melting as it is a direct product of its time. Their sprawling LP “Back in the HCA” embodies the exigence “art for art’s sake,” but it is for art’s sake that this record, however off the deep end it seems to travel (hear: “Doctor, Doctor”), remains a unified, and stunning, body of work. The LP’s do-ityourself garage rock noisemaking meets highfalutin creative processes. “Back in the HCA” is warbling psychedelic freakout (“Two Fingers,” “Doctor, Doctor”), Donovan-esque English countryside folk stylings (“Inside My Head,” “Goodbye to Rosie”), and avant-garde jazz improvisions (“Grass is Grass,” “Tomorrow’s Truth”) in one luminous release.

Originally an 9-track LP, Jakarta, Uno Loop, and Bowes Road Band decided to mine the six most cohesive tracks for the reissue, though the extras may be released somewhere down the line. Cohesion efforts aside, “Back in the HCA” stands alone in its singular conception of a genre-bending continuum — it evades definition. That said, the LP can easily be situated in the sonic environment in which it was conceived. By the end of the 60s, England was crawling with blues-based rock outfits that were starting to venture into prog rock territory. You can hear this popular dint cast over the folkier side of the LP. But Bowes Road Band was armed with their non-musicianship: they existed completely liberated from the motivating yet ultimately paralyzing lust for stardom. Enjoying this liberation, Bowes Road Band was utterly free to make noise. This freedom meant drawn out sax interludes amidst sweetly folk stylings (“Grass is Grass”) and Shaggs-like fuzzed-out freakouts that spiral into a void (Doctor, Doctor). This freedom also meant straight-forward tuneful cuts like “Goodbye Rosie” that conspicuously introduce heavily distorted auto-organ accompaniment mid-track amidst poignant lyricism. Bowes Road Band crafts a unified sound and then cracks it open.

With a completely off-the-radar status, Bowes Road Band could only press 50 copies of the record — 10 for each of them and 10 for the school. The band’s lifespan was to end there, or so they thought. “Back in the HCA” was the accidental fruit of a Berlin flea market treasure hunt by Jannis Stürtz, DJ and co-founder of Habibi Funk and Jakarta Records. After finding and sharing the LP with a few colleagues, Stürtz managed to get in touch with the band, get ahold of the master tapes collecting dust in Ted Rockley’s attic, and start the reissuing process. The record is still adorned with its original cover art designed by Alan Pescod, both reminiscent of bygone school days and the Zoom calls of yesterday — in short, reunion. Its re-discovery was happenstance and ought to be listened to as such. That is, “Back in the HCA” was not made to be listened to on a broad scale, or, at least, was not made with this goal in mind; it is neither in its time nor of its time. Of course, the group explicitly cites the folk tunes of the English countryside, the distorted rock groups that reigned during the record’s conception, and the fringes of psychedelic music that only the uber-underground might recognize (e.g., “Dreaming of Alice”). Yet still with these obvious influences, “Back in the HCA” always existed beyond the domain of both traditional musicianship and conventional commodification. Bowes Road Band’s DIY musicality beams through in technicolor across “Back in the HCA.” The vinyl includes an 8-page booklet detailing the albums creation and interviews with the band.

Lead single “Grass is Grass,” out July 14 along with album pre-order, encapsulates the record’s range: the track unfurls into a sprawling sax-driven trip following a sundrenched, Donovan-esque intro w/ lyrics “naively about parks and gardens, not marijuana!” The keyed-down folk cut “Goodbye to Rosie” is single 2 and elevates stripped-down acoustics with golden tinges, out August 4th. Focus track “Tomorrow’s Truth” constructs the fuzzed-out underbelly of acid folk. Listen for echoes of late Beatles, Mark Fry, and Donovan (if they were armed by an unshakabele willful naiveté). Like Sgt. Pepper’s on a shoestring budget—take a trip to the underground with LP “Back in the HCA,” available everywhere physically and digitally on September 1st via Jakarta Records and Uno Loop.

Besides online promotion from label profiles, the album will be further promoted by external agencies within the UK and US.

What will always stay the same with Blue Cranes no matter how much they change as people, as players and as composers is the vibrant emotional core within the music they create. Each song on My Only Secret has a core memory attached to it, whether it is the birth of a child ("Sloan"), a parent's comfort after the death of a beloved pet ("Rhododendron"), or the agony of the 2016 election results ("Forward"). They feel every moment of every song deeply, something which colors every note they play. "We're a good emotional band," says Cunningham. "We can go to that place." The beauty of My Only Secret, like all of the work Blue Cranes has produced to date, is that they want anyone and everyone to join them.

Ethos Records is a new vinyl only record label based in Athens,GR.
It’s aim is to present music from carefully curated artists that are consistent & true to their sound regardless the current trends or hype.
For the first release Leonid delivers a deep & dubby, Detroit influenced 4 track EP.

The release will be a limited pressing with each record featuring a hand stamped number on the label.

Remastered for its 10th Anniversary, the newly cut vinyl edition of Ripely Pine features the bonus track “Up In The Rafters,” long a live favorite that really should have been on the album in the first place. More than anything, Aly Spaltro has 20,000 second-hand DVDs to thank for her first album. Despite being recorded at a proper studio in her recently adopted home of Brooklyn, Ripely Pine showcases songs conceived during her tenure at Bart’s & Greg’s DVD Explosion in Brunswick, Maine. Little did customers know, the same store they’d drop off their Transformers movies was providing the ideal four-year cocoon for the development of a major musical talent. Spaltro worked the 3:00 PM to 11:00 PM shift. Each night, after locking up, she’d walk past Drama and Horror, pull out her music gear from behind a wall of movies, and write and record songs until morning broke. She did this every day, drawing strength from the monotony of her routine and testing out multiple techniques, approaches and instrumentation. Anger, confusion, love, happiness and sadness reigned, and the songs ran rampant, with little form or structure. Isolated for those many hours, Spaltro let melodies morph together, break apart and pair up. This is how she taught herself to write music and sing. Taking the name Lady Lamb the Beekeeper, Spaltro became one of the most beloved musicians in Portland. Her live shows were unhinged, as melodies followed an internal logic only apparent to Spaltro herself. She sang and played guitar, and the songs offered a vivid yet brief snapshot of her expansive world. At 23, with years of writing and performing music already under her belt, she ventured to the next milestone—recording an album. This would be the first time she did so in a professional studio and the first time she shared the process with anyone else. Luckily, she met Nadim Issa at Let ’Em Music in Brooklyn. He was taken enough by her abilities to dedicate nine full months toward the recording of Ripely Pine, and she with his producing abilities to ease comfortably into making him a part of her recording process. She wrote everything—all the songs, all the arrangements. And the two of them assembled an album that finally fit what existed in Spaltro’s mind. Keeping the songs’ stark rawness, the record is a pure representation of her sound. Ripely Pine shouts the introduction of a new talent from every groove. These recordings come as close as possible to conveying the intense majesty of her live shows, and, much like those performances, a narrative breathes through the record’s progression. The album opens with urgency and anger, settles into reconciliation and reciprocation, and ultimately reaches toward resolution, realizing infatuation leads to a loss of self; instead, embracing one’s own strengths is the most powerful thing of all.

Audiophile reviews rave about saxophone master John Coltrane's immortal Impulse! records, A Love Supreme (1964) and Ballads (1963). In fact, jazz critics have lauded A Love Supreme as Coltrane's most important recording. The rave reviews which appeared in the magazines Downbeat, Jazz Hot, Jazz Podium and Swing-journal reflected this: critics all over the world, in America, Europe and Japan recognized that Coltrane's deep religious belief had influenced both his approach to life and his music-making.

You're about to experience A Love Supreme at its peak of vinyl perfection — in UHQR format on Clarity Vinyl, with the added bonus of a double 45 RPM cut by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound. Ryan's cut has his characteristic clarity and transparency all set against Quality Record Pressing's usual noiseless backgrounds on 200-gram flawless records. Each UHQR will be packaged in a deluxe box and will include a booklet detailing the entire process of making a UHQR along with a hand-signed certificate of inspection. This will be a truly deluxe, collectible product.

For this 45 RPM 2LP edition you'll also receive a 12" x 12" 12-page booklet featuring liner notes by Ashley Kahn and images from the Coltrane home.

The original master tape is available but it's not in the best shape. This LP was cut from a flat tape copy made by Rudy Van Gelder and used for cutting in the UK in April of 1965. Of course, the original recording was in December '64, so only a handful of months later. This tape was discovered at Abbey Road and had been untouched between 1965 and 2002. So while the original tape is available and while we would always opt for the original whenever we can, in this case this copy was the better choice as the tape has incurred less overall wear and sounds much better than the original.

A Love Supreme was Coltrane's pinnacle studio outing that at once compiled all of his innovations from his past, spoke of his current deep spirituality, and also gave a glimpse into the next two and a half years (sadly, those would be his last). Recorded at the end of 1964, Trane's classic quartet of Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner, and Jimmy Garrison stepped in and created one of the most thought-provoking albums of their relationship.

The album not only enabled Coltrane to express himself with great intensity but also lent him the necessary inner peace to conceive a work of almost 40 minutes in length and to lead his quartet along the same path as himself.

Starting in 2019, Fairytale have carved out a unique sound that is both ethereal and chaotic, beautiful and terrifying. This New York City band are back with their debut LP, Shooting Star. Wretched soaked guitars and a rhythm section that sounds like a horde of demons are blended together with dynamic vocals that meander between gruff and choral, at times reminding one of Tozibabe. We dare you not to have the disc on a loop as each listen reveals more and more layers.

A year after its first edition, the Open Space series returns in order to keep exploring what ambient music might mean nowadays.

A breadth of fresh artists, some new to the label and others renowned for their more dance-centric works, the compilation aims to give each individual artist their creative freedom to explore the space.

Techno producers such as Arthur Robert or label head Len Faki himself keep the beats present but this time focus on evoking states of introspection rather than the shuffle of dancefloors.
On the other end of the spectrum, we find seasoned multi-instrumentalist Laraaji, who has been crafting deeply meditative soundscapes since the 80’s. Using the special opportunity, the label reaches outside its usual sphere, inviting artists like the modular synth expert Jeremy Wentorth or Jimmy LaValle’s band project The Album Leaf. All while still featuring some well known veteran producers the likes of John Beltran or Exos.

No matter their respective scene or background, all artists are using their unique approach to display something deeply emotive. Be it the warm, expansive electro of Future Beat Alliance or a bubbly cosmic arpride by Hamburg Duo Can Love Be Synth.

Truly living up to its name, the Open Space series aims to open up possibilities for artists to freely pursue their creativity in a completely undefined area, a space for exploration and connection.

The issue was always: How could I transport my work as a producer and beatmaker on to a stage? How can something, that is happening behind locked doors in the studio, emerge into a live experience?" With this vivacious live quartet, he has found his answer.
Songs from a productive solo career spanning a period of over 10 years, Sepalot has a wide variety of songs to pick and choose from. Even in the live set up, his ove for electronic music remains unaffected and the subtle influence of Hip Hop is un- deniable. Despite this being the initial state of the project, a distinctive sound has evolved from jamming together in dark rehearsal rooms. The different characters compliment each other like a puzzle on stage, though Sepalot's part as producer and svengali is undisputable.
FABIAN FU?SS on the drums - longtime partner on the drum set and the voice behind Sepalot's unmistakable radio hit "Rainbows". ANGELA AUX on the bass and mostly the voice of the quartet is a writer and solo artist in his own right. Having released albums on Millaphone his roots are undeniably in hip hop with a heavy tinge of folk. MATTHIAS LINDERMAYR on the trumpet, who originated from a family of musicians, is highly decorated jazz virtuoso. His very own releases grace modern jazz specialist label Enja Records. ... and finally SEPALOT, bringing them together and making them more than the sum of its parts.

The electronic beats, the pulsating bass, Sepalot's enthusiasm for ambient sound design - all this remains unchanged and is garnished with the element of jazz. A unique, unequalled sound that strives for higher ideals and has immense international potential.

Selected Songs 1997-2003 compiles some of the finest moments in the recording history of Hydroplane, the Melbourne-based indie-pop three-piece that operated alongside The Cat’s Miaow through the second half of the nineties. It’s the third release in what feels, now, like a loosely planned series by World Of Echo, documenting the music made by this group of friends in Melbourne sharehouses (The Cat’s Miaow’s Songs ’94-’98, 2022), or in the case of The Shapiros (Gone By Fall, 2023), while traversing the International Pop Underground.

Hydroplane would be familiar to anyone already following these breadcrumb trails – Andrew Withycombe, Bart Cummings and Kerrie Bolton were the group’s core, all members of The Cat’s Miaow. With Cat’s Miaow drummer Cameron Smith itinerant, having moved to London, the trio used this opportunity to expand their music. It’s a subtle, but important shift. If The Cat’s Miaow was about the perfect, minimalist, two-minute pop song, Hydroplane’s music was far more open-ended, embracing the loops and drones, sampled house-y shuffle beats, the burbling of a Roland Jupiter-4 synth, all of which the trio joined, effortlessly, to their endless capacity for moving, elegant melodicism.

They may have only planned to release one seven-inch single, but the sound Hydroplane created was so bewitching, so compelling, that the project’s lifespan ran for around half a decade, and they ended up releasing three albums, including a self-titled debut recently reissued by Efficient Space, and seven singles. There are all kinds of compelling things happening in the music compiled here – the hazy repetition of the gentler side of Krautrock is in here, somewhere, which also suggests Stereolab at their most intimate and disarmed; the gently drifting guitars, gauzy and oneiric, set the songs adrift and floating, each one lost in its own imagined, distracted world. Songs like “The Love You Bring” set indistinct tonal floats across dance rhythms, in a way not quite heard since My Bloody Valentine’s “Instrumental” – but with the added gift of Bolton’s gorgeous voice.

This loose coalition with dance music, and the quiet experimentalism at the heart of Hydroplane, also gestures towards peers like Hood, Acetate Zero and Other People’s Children, and releases on renegade labels like Wurlitzer Jukebox and Enraptured. Like those groups and labels, The Cat’s Miaow were reconciling independent pop music’s past – sweet melody and melancholy, chiming and droning guitars – with the futures promised by DIY electronics and nascent digitalia, the interface of indie and IDM that led to some of the underground’s most blissful, texturally swoonsome music. All that is here, but also, the poise of the melodies is pure Cat’s Miaow, though, with Bolton’s voice sailing, pacifically, over some of the most pared-down, gorgeous music made during their decade.

It was a time, too, when such music could make waves – “We Crossed The Atlantic”, one of their early singles, was picked up by John Peel, who played it repeatedly on his legendary radio show, the song reaching #13 on his 1997 Festive 50. That the song itself was a cover of a tune by 1960s Australian beatnik-pop-poet Pip Proud felt even more perfect – a group of outsiders paying tribute to another outsider, played on the radio one of the few broadcasters brave and human enough to take a chance on this music. But it was a time where everything was up for grabs, and genres were flowing into each other: folk songs went drone; indie re-discovered noise; ambient pop floated, again, out onto the dancefloor. And while they may have been sequestered away in Melbourne, Australia, Hydroplane felt core to that scene, a quietly driving force.

Compiling material from across their brief but mercurial career, this double album perfectly captures the magic and mystery of Hydroplane’s dreamlike, perfect pop songs.

Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench is a 2009 American romantic musical film directed, written, produced, shot, and co-edited by Damien Chazelle. The film was the feature directorial debut of the Academy Award-winning director who is known for Whiplash (2014), La La Land (2016), First Man (2018), and Babylon (2022).

After connecting with the shy Madeline, a jazz trumpeter embarks on a quest for a more gregarious paramour, but through a series of twists and turns punctuated by an original score, the two lovers seem destined to be together.

The film score was composed by Justin Hurwitz, who went on to compose the music for Chazelle's other movies, including La La Land (2016) for which Hurwitz received two Academy Awards. Chazelle and Hurwitz met each other at Harvard in their freshman year and soon became friends. They both understood and appreciate each other's work and collaborated ever since.

Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench is available on vinyl for the first time as a limited edition of 500 individually numbered copies on orange & black marbled vinyl and includes a 4-page booklet with lyrics and liner notes by Justin Hurwitz.

2023 Repress
Re-cut from original Peter Christopherson approved masters.

The Ape of Naples is Coil's highly celebrated final album completed by Peter Christopherson following the tragic death of Jhonn Balance in 2004. Often noted for being a fan favorite, The Ape of Naples uses Balance's final recordings and material recorded at Trent Reznor's studio in New Orleans to create a deep, heavy masterpiece.

This re-press is packaged in a heavy duty jacket with Ian Johnstone's original artwork coated in a custom spot gloss. Each LP is housed in a printed inner sleeve and side D contains all three original etchings. Ape's lyrics are spread across the gatefold.

Straight outta Rockaway Beach, Queens, New York City, USA, THE WORLD, Prison is a state of mind, an experience, a loose collective, a band, a jam band and a bunch of psychedelic dudes who aren"t your average bunch of jambanders. All that, all at once, ALL THE TIME. You get what you"re dealing with here? No...you don"t. The only way to REALLY get it is to go to Prison -- and if you"re not from greater NYC and haven"t showed at any of the shows, here"s your best bet: their breakout album, Upstate. And whatta breakout! So high, you can"t get under it; so wide, you can"t get over it! How wide? Every song has two titles, that"s how wide. And almost everybody sings, like, all the time. That wide. Sure, you can break down the numbers -- five guys, five songs and four sides of vinyl in one gatefold sleeve -- but that won"t get you Upstate, either. Prison is the sound of everybody in the room figuring out where to go, individually and collectively. As they go through it, the meaning changes, the destination changes, the words mean something different. It"s meaning and no meaning, rising and falling, sinking and flying on the back of something massive cacophonized by three guitars, four vocals, a bass and drums. A lot of information bouncing around and enough time to really get you out of yourself! Take a look at the titles: each one a dichotomous inquest that the assembled Prison-ers march upon with fervor, glee, vengeance -- a whole spectrum of feels and perspectives woven into the jam for you to see. The Prison population changes with the seasons, and during the season this album was recorded, Sarim Al-Rawi, Mike Fellows, Sam Jayne, Matt Lilly and Paul Major were in Prison. Sarim you might know from Liquor Store, Mike"s made a bunch of scenes and records as Mighty Flashlight, Sam, who passed away in 2020 (R.I.P., brother) was in Love as Laughter -- and Paul Major you know from Endless Boogie, who Matt had roadied for -- and despite being "just a skateboarder who loves music" with no previous experience on the drums, he and Sarim inaugurated the Prison experience, like, seven years ago. Since then, it just fell together and it keeps doing so. A free thing called Prison.

Coke Bottle Clear Vinyl. High Vis were formed in 2016 from the ashes of some of the UK's best hardcore bands. Gild-toothed frontman Graham Sayle's anguished lyrics about life in working class Britain were familiar to fans of Tremors' full-throttle thrash, but alongside his former bandmate Edward `Ski' Harper and veterans of Dirty Money, DiE and The Smear, High Vis sought to transform that energy and intensity into something entirely new.Like scene-mates Chubby and the Gang did by pulling in unlikely source material from classic doo-wop or Micromoon have by combining everything from psychedelia and metal into their high potency mix, High Vis' 2019 debut album, No Sense No Feeling showed the band were never going to be constrained by any sense of genre rules or regulations. Its claustrophobic rattle bore traces of Joy Division, Bauhaus, Crisis, The Cure and Gang Of Four lurking in the shadows. 2020's synth-driven EP, Society Exists, was further evidence of the band's restless creative MO.High Vis' second album Blending sees them open their viewfinder wider than ever before. Alongside longstanding favourites such as Fugazi and Echo and The Bunnymen; Ride and even Flock Of Seagulls were shared reference points as the band worked on the album together.From the anthemic sweep of opener "Talk For Hours", through the title track's psychedelic swirl and "Fever Dream"'s baggy groove, it sees High Vis' sound blossoming into something with an unlimited richness. The hazy drift of "Shame" or the melodic jangle of "Trauma Bonds" may take them until uncharted waters, but they still have all the power and bite that made No Sense No Feeling so remarkable.Lyrically, the album represents another leap forward too. Talking frankly about poverty, class politics, and the challenges of everyday life, Sayle's lyrics have always addressed the downtrodden and discarded communities across Britain slipping below the waterline. This time around, Sayle's lost not of that social consciousness, but he's looked at himself and his own emotional landscape, and in the process created something that feels more universal, that reaches a hand-out to people and ultimately gives a message of hope."To me, the lyrics are less selfish," reflects Sayle. "In the past, I couldn't see past whatever was going on with me. It's about accepting things and being open to conversations and learning to talk to people rather than just thinking that we're all doomed."The song "Talk for Hours" is a prime example of that. Born out of an afternoon meeting up with an old group of mates "repeating the same thing and not actually learning anything about each other" it offers to actually break the cycle and to listen and speak frankly about shared feelings and experiences. "Trauma Bonds", meanwhile, traces the broken lines of those living in lost communities, but ultimately realises that despite our shared scars, there's still hope to move on to a better future."The message of the album is you're not who you're told you are," Sayle summarises. "You're not your class background. Whatever it is, you're not that. Don't resign yourself to thinking you can't be this and you can't be that."It's a vitally important message right now, and one that could be the motto for not only Blending, but for High Vis themselves.

Back with their first original music since since 2020, this is the start of a new era. Each single will be presented with an official music video and full global marketing campaign at the start of a brand-new cycle. The album is produced by Colin Pastore.

Taylor Swift’s new studio album Midnights is available everywhere on October 21st. It’s a collection of music written in the middle of the night, a journey through terrors and sweet dreams. The floors we pace and the demons we face - the stories of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout Taylor’s life.


Each Vinyl Album Includes:

- Unique marbled color vinyl disc
- 13 Songs
- Collectible album jacket with unique front and back cover art
- Unique marbled color vinyl disc
- Collectible album sleeve (each side features a different full-size photo of Taylor)
- Full-size gatefold photo
- A collectible 8-page lyric booklet with never-before-seen photos

Sophisticated, suave, and masterfully composed, this 45 is a sonic love letter to late 60s and early 70s soul, nodding to the giants of the genre and bowing to its unsung heroes. With inspiration from artists like The Moments, Baby Huey, The Delfonics, and especially the late Curtis Mayfield, this 7" is drenched in the era-defining tone that can only come from its origins on analog tape. From the first notes of the first track "Beck & Call", the songs shimmer and glow from one moment to the next like a summer's drive with the windows down, with a steady cruise anthem like "Daydreaming" floating by like a cool breeze. Friends since childhood, The Sextones are Mark Sexton (guitar, vocals), Alexander Korostinsky (bass), Daniel Weiss (drums), and Christopher Sexton (piano). Having known each other for so long, their musical chemistry is effortless and forms the foundation of the band's longevity and creative workflow. Despite their bond, each member has been able to channel their creativity into other acclaimed groups_Alexander and Mark with their cinematic-soul project Whatitdo Archive Group, whose acclaimed debut LP The Black Stone Affair was released on Record Kicks in 2021, and Daniel with the soul/jazz group Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio (Colemine Records). Flexing their creative muscle individually has only strengthened The Sextones' collective songwriting ability and heralds their formidable return to the spotlight. With their recent signing to Record Kicks, the self-made heroes of soul begin a new chapter in their sonic journey, ready to scale new heights and plumb deep emotional depths in service of the genre they love.

Katie Munshaw really needed to finish the fucking quilt, and find a way to
sew herself into it
The lead singer of Ontario four-piece Dizzy has been thinking a lot about the way
things look and the way you can find comfort in disappearing into it all. She
describes the album, a bright indie-pop beast continuing the legacy built from two
previous shimmering records, as a "patchwork quilt" with each song a square, or a
sliver, of her life. "None of them have all that much to do with each other and yet
they wouldn't exist without one another," she says.
It makes for a colourful record that's intrinsically Dizzy - one that swerves
comparison, instead reflecting the shapeshifting and imperfect nature of its
musicians. Avoiding the spotlight yet more confidently themselves than ever.
Munshaw is satisfied with where this record finds Dizzy. The band's first record,
she says, was "formative" to what kind of musician she became, even though "I
was young and had no business making a record. The Sun and Her Scorch was
our rebellious teenage phase where we thought we could do it all ourselves, this
new chapter is about throwing our hands up saying 'we don't have all the
answers. I'm open to having somebody help me. Help us.'"
Listeners will find that Dizzy have made what sounds like their most confident
work to date; embracing the best parts of what has made fans fall in love with
them in the past while confidently stepping into the future and trying new things;
ready to show the world exactly who they are as artists - mask or no mask.
Heavily supported across DSPs, with prime playlist placements across Spotify,
Apple Music, Amazon, YouTube, Deezer and Tidal.
Plays on BBC Radio 1, Radio 2, Radio X.
Coverage on The Independent, Clash, Line of Best Fit, DIY, Dork, Brooklyn Vegan,
Gigwise, She Makes Music, Scientists of Sound, Cool Music & Things, Mystic
Sons and many more.

Gatefold single vinyl LP with an 8 page 12" size bookelt in the other side of the gatefold.

We're thrilled to announce the return of Tobor Experiment, the visionary musical project led by the enigmatic Giorgio Sancristoforo, to the Bearfunk fold. After a twelve-year hiatus, Tobor Experiment emerges from the shadows with their second LP, "Available Forms". Picture the ethereal ambiance of a dimly lit jazz club colliding with the futuristic vibrations of a 1970s sci-fi TV show, and you'll begin to grasp the sonic experience that awaits. Giorgio draws on a whole host of musical inspirations, from the name checked Tim Gane & Letitia Sadier to the moog pioneers Claude Denjean & Jean Jaques Perrey. With the moogsploration of contemporary jazz Tobor Experiment invites listeners on an extraordinary musical odyssey where jazz meets electronica meets nu-disco.

Prepare to be captivated from the very first note of the infectious opener, "Lowpass Risotto" as Tobor Experiment masterfully combines familiar elements with their unique artistic vision. Resonating with undertones reminiscent of the timeless classic "Take Five" the track immediately grabs your attention. While the familiar drum shuffle sets a comforting foundation, Tobor Experiment takes an unexpected twist by infusing the composition with squelchy Moog lines and captivating hollow body guitar solos. The result is a harmonious blend of nostalgia and innovation that transports you to an entirely new sonic realm.

Continuing the journey, the mesmerizing 6/8 rhythm of "Up!" pays homage to the iconic sounds of Stereolab while showcasing Tobor Experiment's innovative spirit. As enchanting synth pads weave through the air, you find yourself immersed in a dream-like state, carried away by the hypnotic shifting patterns of the bass and drums.

With "Astounding Stories" Tobor Experiment returns to the energetic vibes of the album opener, inviting you to surrender to a sonic tapestry rich with musical exchanges. In traditional jazz style we receive solo's from all parties. Each instrument adding its unique voice to the narrative, creating a dynamic and engaging musical conversation.

As the album progresses, "Moonscape Dust" emerges, drawing inspiration from the atmospheric brilliance of "Low." This track serves as a portal to an otherworldly sonic landscape where time and space lose their hold. Here, organic drums step aside, making way for a low-fi drum pattern that lays the foundation for ethereal synth pads. The composition invites you to explore the depths of your imagination, transcending earthly boundaries and allowing you to float in an immersive soundscape.

The album's closing track, "Monsters" has an air of "Air" about it... the ethereal synths beckon you to surrender to the weightlessness of space, just allow yourself to be carried away by the infectious rhythms, intricate melodies, and atmospheric textures that shape this extraordinary musical journey.

Each track on "Available Forms" showcases Tobor Experiment's exceptional ability to transcend musical boundaries, creating a genre-bending album that defies all expectations. From start to finish, the soundscape presented is a testament to Tobor's relentless pursuit of musical innovation. Each composition is a fusion of diverse elements, seamlessly blending organic instruments and electronic textures in a way that challenges traditional genre classifications.

The AI-generated artwork serves as a portal to an alternate dimension. Paying homage to the retro-futuristic aesthetic of 1970s science fiction TV shows, it captures the essence of the album's fusion between organic and electronic realms.

Sophisticated, suave, and masterfully composed, this 45 is a sonic love letter to late 60s and early 70s soul, nodding to the giants of the genre and bowing to its unsung heroes. With inspiration from artists like The Moments, Baby Huey, The Delfonics, and especially the late Curtis Mayfield, this 7" is drenched in the era-defining tone that can only come from its origins on analog tape. From the first notes of the first track "Beck & Call", the songs shimmer and glow from one moment to the next like a summer's drive with the windows down, with a steady cruise anthem like "Daydreaming" floating by like a cool breeze. Friends since childhood, The Sextones are Mark Sexton (guitar, vocals), Alexander Korostinsky (bass), Daniel Weiss (drums), and Christopher Sexton (piano). Having known each other for so long, their musical chemistry is effortless and forms the foundation of the band's longevity and creative workflow. Despite their bond, each member has been able to channel their creativity into other acclaimed groups_Alexander and Mark with their cinematic-soul project Whatitdo Archive Group, whose acclaimed debut LP The Black Stone Affair was released on Record Kicks in 2021, and Daniel with the soul/jazz group Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio (Colemine Records). Flexing their creative muscle individually has only strengthened The Sextones' collective songwriting ability and heralds their formidable return to the spotlight. With their recent signing to Record Kicks, the self-made heroes of soul begin a new chapter in their sonic journey, ready to scale new heights and plumb deep emotional depths in service of the genre they love.

Amanaz were serious, and they made a serious stab at an album. They titled their album Africa, according to original band member Keith Kabwe, “because of how it was shared and how its inhabitants were butchered and enslaved, its resources stolen… all the atrocities slave drivers committed. “ Thus, their “Kale,” a blues sung in Nyanja, that traced the continent’s arc from slavery to Zambia’s independence closes the album. Kabwe and rhythm guitarist John Kanyepa have a winsome softness to their vocals, which sit politely aside the feral growl of drummer Watson Baldwin Lungu, bassist Jerry Mausala and bandleader/lead guitarist Isaac Mpofu. Africa’s vibe ranges from anxious (“Amanaz”) to escapist (“Easy Street”) to straight-up pissed-off. On the “History of Man,” his voice whiskeyburned, his distorted guitar buzzing like swarming hornets, Mpofu indicts his species.
There’s a darkness to Africa not found on any other Zamrock records, and a melancholy drifts throughout, specifically on Mpofu’s more restrained “Khala My Friend,” which stands as an effective, bleak situation for the Zambian everyman, the average citizen of a struggling, new nation, who might have had relatives in conflict-torn countries on the horizon, who might have been struggling to find his next meal, who might have seen a bleaker future than his president promised. Then there’s the clear Velvet Underground-influence on the nostalgic “Sunday Morning,” which, as Kabwe
recalls, was the first song written for the album, back in 1968, when Velvet Undergound and Nico was a new release - and the underground funk of “Making The Scene.” The album also tackles traditional Zambian music and early-‘60s rock – punctuated, of course by Kanyepa’s wah-wah and Mpofu’s fuzz guitars. But every time Amanaz get too deep, too violent, they come back with an accessible song and woo their listener back to the groove. “Green Apple” is a civil song, featuring Kanyepa’s sighing guitar. It is a perfectly arranged album, from the dichotomy of Mpofu’s and Kanyepa’s lead and rhythm guitars, to the vocal harmonies, to the rhythm section’s sense of space and time, which allows Africa’s funk to build. Inexplicably, Africa was given two separate mixes and two separate presses: one version is dry, with the vocals and drums mixed loud, the other slathered in reverb, with the vocals and drums disappearing into the mix, and with the guitar solos mixed much louder. We’ve presented them both here as they each have their appeal: it’s up to the listener to pick the one he or she prefers. This is a highpoint of the Zamrock scene and we hope that this can be seen as its definitive reissue.

Repress!

‘Make The Call’ comes with an extended version and remixes from the legendary Two Soul Fusion duo of Louie Vega and Josh Milan. These remixes bring something new and special to the track with each creating a subtly different mood for the dance floor, for the radio and for the house party.

MF Robots is a songwriting, production and performing duo created by former Brand New Heavies founder Jan Kincaid and BNH vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Dawn Joseph. The pair left the Heavies in 2014 to record their own compositions and have been wowing audiences and record buyers with their effortless blending of Soul, RnB, Funk, Disco and Jazz ever since.

Louie Vega is one half of the House music dons Masters at Work and Josh Milan is a Grammy nominated vocalist, musician and composer who also collaborate in Vega’s collective ‘Elements of Life’. With both at the forefront of production, composition and remixing for more than three decades, the House, Boogie and Instrumental versions they have produced for ‘Make the Call’ are off the scale here.

The life-affirming energy at the heart of Sven Väth‘s recent album Catharsis is revisited, reanimated, and remixed by some of the most exciting names around, closing the circle on a superlative burst of
recent work that has not only given us the epic original LP, but also the extraordinary compilation What I Used To Play.

Roman Flügel, Benjamin Damage, Robert Hood, Planetary Assault Systems, Mano Le Tough… do we need to go on? This hand-picked list of luminaries have answered the call and certainly don’t disappoint, each fusing their signature sound with Sven‘s DNA to create a wild, uncompromising companion piece to the original album.

True to form, the running order is very much rooted on the dance floor, Silvi‘s Dream, revisited by Damiano von Erckert, explodes like a Balearic sunrise. Dreamy strings with a touch of Detroit create a lovely atmosphere while the beautiful piano sound goes right into your heart and appears as if you could feel the warm sun on your skin. Roman Flügel’s acidic rework of What I Used To Play is a homage to the 80s and the early sound of electronic music which creates nostalgic feelings and offers a greatly produced retro soundscape à la Kraftwerk. Staying close to the original, but with the perfect amount of spin, it’s a symbiotic interplay of synthetic bass pads, and a tiny bell melody. Robag Wruhme’s cranking minimal funk takes us down The Worm-hole. A concise interference sound builds
up sustained tension, tangled but structured, deep and yet driving. Robag took over the deep and dirty rhythms of the original perfectly and delivers a versatile piece. This opening salvo oozes quality and
sets things up perfectly for the electrified celebration of hi-octane technology come.

Jonathan Kaspar‘s growling interpretation of We Are provides a melancholic atmosphere with fascinating percussion parts. Zaps shoot through the air like small laser pistols while we let ourselves
be carried away by the bass, the frisky vocal stutter effect is the icing on the cake. Speeding things up, the euphoric trance that engulfs Krystal Klear’s epic version of Feiern. Expansive strings increase up
to ecstasy and guide us to a love-filled unity. This remix is sure to be an excellent peak-time smasher for the open-air season. On to a wild ride of pure techno with Benjamin Damage, who delivers a dry and uncompromising Berlin Techno version of Mystic Voices. Harder pace but the string synthesizer harmony brings light to an otherwise gloomy environment. Next up is Luke Slater’s PAS Deep Heet Mix to add a retro nineties vibe to proceedings on Nyx. Entering a rough space with gigantic clap impacts, we are blessed with straightforward Techno. Shimmering and spooling, this groove hits the
mark. Then, as if it was ever in doubt, Sven‘s lofty place in the techno firmament is underlined by a peak-time contribution by non-less than Detroit legend Robert Hood. Unmistakable, you must recognize the signature Robert Hood drive on Butoh. Chord stabs fulfill the Detroit feeling with offtaking string elements and high-energy vocal transformations. It’s a warm embrace that triggers emotions. Planetary Assault Systems then blasts things ever deeper into the cosmos on a second outing of Nyx. Reduced and to the point but of course, true to form, with powerful tribal percussion parts and intensive cutting hi-hats.

From there on in, the collection gradually re-enters the atmosphere, burning with a phosphorescent, melancholy glow. Harald Björk extrapolates Being In Love into a hypnotic groove for the early hours. A playful and atmospheric electronica interpretation to soothe our souls due to disharmonious synth pads and a dreamy deformation of the original melody. Mano Le Tough harnesses the ethno-rhythms
and brooding energy of Catharsis into a low-slung, tribal stomper. Anomalous organ parts ring out and link up with a trance-like sequence, summer feelings arouse as you feel like you can almost smell Ibizan air. The collection comes full circle with a second equally seductive interpretation of Silvi‘s Dream by Florian Hollerith. Stripped-down and hypnotic, the homage to Sven's girlfriend Silvi is extended as a reverence to Sven himself. Sven's profound vocal clearly infuse time and space and leave a forever-lasting memory of love.

By accident or design, it somehow leaves us with the reassuring sense that, although this specific part of the journey may be drawing to a close, the mission of the man behind it all most definitely isn't.

written & produced by: Sven Väth & Gregor Tresher

A vinyl-only label out of NYC, Brooklyn Sway is back with their fourth release, this time varying slightly from their usual Various Artists format and enlisting two artists to fill out each side of the vinyl. The A-side features Montreal transplant, frequent collaborator, and minimal jazz master Ohm Hourani, who puts forth a tripped out, extended jam using classic Kim Cooper vocals and hypnotic beats. The B-side enlists live band N/UM for two improvised tracks, The Way and Any Time. N/UM is a 3-piece electronic band that uses classic analog instruments, vocals, modular synths, and guitar to create fully improvised live performances. In typical BK Sway fashion, interludes book end both sides of the record to tie the package together.

Pink Siifu’s latest release, GUMBO!, is another sprawling Afrocentric vision from one of the boldest voices in contemporary rap. Following up on 2020’s NEGRO, the album’s songs are as rich and varied as its titular stew. Siifu’s boundless style makes for an unpredictable but rewarding ride across the album’s 18 tracks, as he explores the diverse sounds of his influences and breaks new ground with a unique class of co-stars.

Siifu, born Livingston Matthews and raised between Alabama and Cincinnati, has already notched a conspicuous list of collaborations in his burgeoning career, from legendary producer the Alchemist to Australian electronic group the Avalanches. Siifu also embodies various inspirations through a range of alter-egos, often producing under the moniker “iiye,” or as half of the duo B. Cool-Aid with Ahwlee, both of which appear on GUMBO!.

The variety of guest features and production on GUMBO! only elevates Siifu’s ability to push the boundaries of genre and song structure. “Voicemails Uptown” (produced by Soulection’s Monte Booker) is the second of two back-to-back posse cuts, sporting five plus vocalists each. “Lng hair dnt care,” the album’s first single, was produced by Ted Kamal, who first garnered attention for his outside-the-box edits of contemporary rap staples. And while several of the album’s tracks are well within his bag, the jazzy, drumless loop on “Fk U Mean/Hold Me Dwn” could’ve been a cut off of his collab album with Virginia rapper Fly Anakin, FlySiifu’s.

Though rife with standout tracks, GUMBO! is greater than the sum of its parts. Siifu’s ambitious range and impressive pool of features create an otherworldly listening experience. Overall, it reflects an intense desire for self-expression and creative growth, one which he shares with many of his influences. Like Outkast, Sun Ra, Baraka, or Bad Brains, his unique soundscapes re-imagine a genre without restrictions, breaking new ground in search of artistic and personal freedom.

FOR FANS OF : Brian Eno, Robert Rich, Ashra

Dreamland is the third album from Italian ambient band PCM. This time out, the trio of Francesco Perra (P), Matteo Cantaluppi (C), Matteo Milea (M) veer away from the inter-cellular themes of their previous collections to shed aural light on what humans spend most of their life doing: sleeping.

Each track on Dreamland focuses on a phase of sleep from that ever-frustrating half-awake feeling to tranquil R.E.M. and from disaffect- ing nightmares to blissful dreaming.

As a result, each of the album's works float by, some with a cloudiness that mirrors confused sleepy feelings and others that display the vividness of the most memorable of dreams.

KAWALA today announce their emotionally resplendent debut album ‘Better with You’. The album marks the culmination of years of work which has seen the band grow from humble begging’s to the world class act they are today. Along the way they have done everything from support Bombay Bicycle Club on their European tour, play socially distanced shows in UK parks (after the first easing of restrictions in 2020), appear on FIFA 2021, write and perform in their own YouTube sitcom (the mad-cap Paradise Heights) and become ambassadors for the Music Venue Trust. Each step on the journey has seen the band grow and expand on what KAWALA means to their community. Ahead of the album’s release, the band are about to head out on their biggest UK and Ireland tour to date – including a sold-out show at the O2 Kentish Town Forum. NME describes them "the Bombay Bicycle Club-approved indie heroes making bangers without borders"

Elysian Park is a slice of unaffected paradise found in downtown Los Angeles. Home to countless birds and (what feels like) infinite layers of greenery, the park plays the role of muse for tstewart’s 21 track album, Elysian. With each track named after his favourite nooks of the Elysian, tstewart likens his crescendos to the grand, never-ending steps found just before the park. As the new project from tstewart (aka MachineDrum), the artist whose credits include Azealia Banks and A$AP FERG, he has signed to Mercury KX with a diverse, piano-led sound that juxtaposes his previous glitchy, pop-fused work.

Dutch multi-instrumentalist Felbm returns with the conceptual album "cycli infini" : a 38-minute composition of metamorphosing tape loops, musical patterns and instrumental sketches. Further exploring the concept is the vinyl release which features the track spread over both sides and cut to the end of each locked groove - creating an essentially never-ending piece that challenges the idea of the traditional listening process. The idea came to fruition by way of a lifelong interest and growing awareness of the cyclical nature of the world around him - be it through observing nature, or the mathematical and mind-bending works of Dutch artist MC Escher, or minimalist composers such as Erik Satie, Laraaji and Melaine Dalibert.

"The openness of Laraaji"s and Satie"s music have also been an influence to create a certain softness and feeling of comfort, as I like this piece to be a place you want to revisit", says Felbm, real name Eelco Topper. While Topper"s previous releases on Soundway Records comprised series of short, individual sketches, on cycli infini the tapestry is sewn seamlessly together using a step-like progression through the circle of fifths, which as the name suggests, brings the listener back to the musical key and soundscape at which they started. Should the full track be on repeat, it begins anew without being noticed. The piece began life with a layer of drone loops using tapes and delay pedals, over which acoustic instruments such as flute, saxophone and bass trumpet would playfully but gently interpret a melody - toying with jazz, ambient, fourth world and percussive sounds. As the music evolves through the key progression, organic elements such as birdsong and wind chimes ground the piece in nature. Says Topper: "the never-ending metamorphosis of matter has always fascinated me, the idea that nothing ever really disappears and everything has already been here... just in different shapes."

Phoenix Breaks is a physical record label based in the UK specialising in modern breakbeat hardcore, jungle and drum n' bass. The label began in 2021 and the first release was released in December of the first year in the form of a vinyl ep entitled 'The Rising'.

The EP sports 4 tracks of varying styles ranging from breakbeat hardcore to jungle and also drum n' bass. Staying true to the sounds of the 90's, each track has been carefully produced to fully capture that sound and has received raving reviews so far. Strictly limited edition and housed in a sturdy stickered cover, this is a must buy for anyone who has any kind of interest in the oldskool 90's rave sounds.across 4 huge dancefloor tracks.

The Remixes series continues to shine, and attempts each time to bring remixers that have never been previously featured. This time we have one of the oldest and most original statesmen of the scene - the one and only Nookie, remixing an old skool tune in an old skool way, and it is beautiful to behold. Meanwhile Dj Beeno reworks Luna-C & Saiyans epic track, Innercore smashed an IOTB tune, and Paul Bradley reworks the classic 2 Pumpin by 2 Croozin.

What happens if you pit The House Crew and NRG against each other? And then you have both artist remixed by a legend from the dutch gabber scene? This. This is what happens. This lovely little white 10" contains two HUGE, tearing, old skool gabber remixes of "We Are Hardcore" and "He Never Lost His Hardcore" and as such, its something both totally new and never before seen. Limited in number, this one will sell as fast as it plays, which is...very!

Edna Wright's idiosyncratic "Oops!" is one of the most sublime vocal refrains in soul music history. Anchoring its host album's leadoff cut, it sets the tone for a uniquely satisfying modern soul LP. Indeed, whilst many of its ilk come laden with filler, Wright's one solo record is an exercise in elegant restraint, a concise killer.

Originally released in 1977 on RCA, this rare and sought-after album followed the 1973 disbanding of Edna's much-loved Honey Cone. Produced by her husband, legendary producer/songwriter Greg Perry, the album was somewhat of a risk, a deep soul album released during the period when disco was altering the landscape of popular music. And perhaps inevitably, despite the stellar production and spine-tingling vocals throughout, the album glided gracefully under the radar, spawning only one single and seeing no chart action.

That single - the magnificent title-track - soon became a notorious rare groove stepper in its own right. However, in the years since, it has become a crate diggers classic. Its fame was elevated among hip-hop heads when Prince Paul memorably looped the shimmering intro when crafting the melodic hook for De La Soul's late-summer-stunner "Pass The Plugs", a wistfully melancholic back-porch nostalgia trip. And, more recently, Leon Vynehall liberally lifted the same intro for his sepia-tinged "Midnight On Rainbow Road" to augment the excellent Rush Hour compilation Musik For Autobahns 2.

Yet this album is so much more than its most famous song. An assuredly lean masterpiece from start-to-finish, the album features a further six dynamite tracks of warm, smooth soul. As such, it's an impossible task to choose certain tracks to highlight alongside the mighty title track. Throughout, Edna's strikingly mature vocals are wonderful, proudly stepping out with a sophisticated groove reminiscent of Jean Carn or Gloria Scott, whilst Greg Perry's gorgeous string-drenched backdrops add a rich depth. So much so, many of the other tracks have been sampled by producers with impeccable taste, from 9th Wonder to The Alchemist for songs featuring Nas and Talib Kweli.

Following her glowing role in the acclaimed documentary 20 Feet From Stardom, we pray this long overdue reissue will allow further light to shine on Edna. Officially licensed and beautifully remastered for vinyl by celebrated engineer Simon Francis, it has been pressed on audiophile 180g vinyl for the first time and features the original iconic artwork. Each copy includes a printed inner sleeve with a sumptuous black & white photo, full lyrics and heartfelt notes from Edna herself.