Search:each

Ibrahim Alfa Jnr released techno music since the age of 17. He started to play piano when was six years old and has a master degree in sonic arts. As a Live Act and DJ he is world wide known.

His first album on Mille Plateaux is a fine example of Hypercussion, which implies a new rhythmic A-logic when beats split or shoot each other off, or when they overlap and mutate into high-pitched hums and rattlesnake breaks; accelerating, before music again blurs into the grains of noise or calm science fiction landscapes and at the same time builds gigantic sound walls. And such music, as far as its conceptualization is concerned, does not have to submit itself to technology at all, but must understand itself as a form that can be recombined with technology.

In hugo, there’s a central question that Loyle Carner keeps coming back to: “I’m young, Black, successful and have a platform - but where do I go next?” The answer is explored in this epic scream of a third album. With urgent delivery and gloriously widescreen production, Carner confronts both the deeply personal (“You can’t hate the roots of a tree, and not hate the tree. So how can I hate my father without hating me?) and the highly political (“I told the black man he didn’t understand I reached the white man he wouldn’t take my hand”). Cinematic in scale and scope, hugo is both a rallying war cry for a generation forged in fire and a study of the personal internal conflict that drives the rest of the album - as a mixed-race Black man, as an artist, as a father and as a son. With Mercury and Brits nominations, NME Awards and appearances in global brand campaigns (Nike, YSL, Timberland), Carner has undoubtedly had a meteoric rise to the top, culminating with his second album Not Waving, But Drowning charting at number 3 in the UK albums chart in 2019. However, hugo sees Carner taking a sharp detour from his previous work, putting it down to lockdown and the “hedonistic side of career being stripped away. There were no shows, no backstage, no festivals, no photoshoots”. By continuing to write in these tumultuous times with a renewed clarity and sense of artistic freedom, Carner reached deeper beneath the surface than he ever had before. The result is his most cathartic and ambitious record yet, a coruscating journey into the heart of what it means to be alive in these tumultuous times, and one which looks set to neatly cement his position as one of the most potent and vital young talents around today. Working alongside renowned producer kwes. (Solange, Kelela, Nao), Carner leaves no stone unturned on this album, in both its sound and its stories. In a 10-track album that moves from gorgeous neo-soul moments to thundering hip hop, with immediate, infectious bangers and sampled interludes from non musicians (mixed-race Guyanese poet John Agard and youth activist and politician Athian Akec) Carner shifts seamlessly from micro to macro, confronting everything from strained relationships with family to the societal tears caused by class stratification. It also lays bare bruises in his personal life that he has never revealed before – often in painful, deeply uncomfortable ways, focusing on Carner's experience of becoming a father in the context of growing up without contact with his biological father. With the song “Polyfilla”, against the backdrop of a warm melodic beat, Carner explores his desire to “break the chains in the cycle” of dysfunctional Black fatherhood, commenting on the narrative of fatherhood in the genre, and saying a key part of the process was realising that his father “grew up in a world where nobody showed him how to love or nurture”. The follow up track “A Lasting Place” is an exploration of the MC’s failure and inability to be perfect in this mission. The album closer is a powerful statement of love and forgiveness; with his signature lyrical dexterity, Carner declares his relentless commitment to his son and sees forgiving his father as a key part of this. The song closes with an emotional ending of Carner telling his dad “still I’m lucky yo that we talk”. There’s a striking duality of hugo’s bold, multilayered tracks and its often starkly intimate and tender lyricism, and that dichotomy is deliberate - it is a message for young Black men, but really, anyone, who is listening. Cognizant of the immense pain and fear and confusion that we are faced with everyday, Carner has thrown down the gauntlet, defying us not to rise above the fray, wake up each day and be ambitious. Ambitious in building strong personal relationships. Ambitious in our pursuit of our goals. Ambitious in never refusing to back down against injustice. Rejecting the title of leader, Loyle Carner sees himself “as holding up a mirror”, and that clearly translates into the album's universal messages.

Copenhagen-based HVAD releases a new solo album entitled YUG, an electro-acoustic shrine. The double LP also serves as the second release on HVAD's newly founded, self-owned label ULLLU. The album YUG consists of nine separate tracks but breathes as one unified piece, presenting something for the brain, something for the body and something for the soul in alternating measures throughout the one hour long release. YUG is Hindi for era or an age of time, framing the musical material by HVAD made over the last few years. The album reflects a continuum of creating a personal, musical language; building a new home by drawing upon classical Indian instrumentation as well as electronics, in total making for an expression that has been the foundation of HVAD's practice for more than a decade. The cover of YUG portrays HVAD's grandmother and her two sisters, bringing to the foreground family roots as a cornerstone of the album, ancestral ghosts running through the music. As a prerequisite of eerie emotion, this weaves together material across a broad musical spectrum with both determination and sensibility. Some tracks are in steadfast 4/4 while others are stretched out in free form with each their pulse or ambience, always seeking ahead towards some place that is even more free than the last.

From contemporary admirers of Sakamoto's work like Thundercat, Devonté Hynes, and Hildur Gudnadóttir to longtime collaborators and friends like David Sylvian, Alva Noto, Cornelius, and Fennesz, plus some of Sakamoto's personal favourites like Lim Giong, Gabrial Wek, and 404. zero, the included artists reflect the breadth of Sakamoto's influence on contemporary music. Given full access to the musician's extensive catalogue of solo releases and film scores, each artist personally selected their contribution and put their unique spin on Sakamoto's originals.

The elusive SW. returns to Avenue 66 with okALGORYTHM. His third LP for the label is a semi-opaque wandering through the shadowy byways of memory, driven by tough-yet-supple production and his unmistakable, unerringly original voice. Inspired by all night electronic radio shows of the '90s, okALGORYTHM pulses with rich imagination and a sense of purposeful meandering. Speaking in cryptic fragments, the artist hints at elusive reminiscences "back then on the autobahn, to Berlin, with friends" while also noting that some recollections are "of things that didn't happen that way."

To this end, the album drifts from the knotty synth spirals of opener "WHAtADAY" through the tense, technoid tropics of "stepCLASSixMOtor," the brightly melancholic Larry Heard-isms of "TROPyCALLhytsrIA" to the stately skronk of closer "What endingENDs." The rhythmic undergirding never lets up, suggesting a limitless night drive tinted in deep greens and refracted reds. Each of the album's ten tracks comes alive with warm, analog finesse and a palpable atmosphere, though they play out by turns urgent or unhurried, coaxing or inscrutable. Yet throughout, there's a consistently hypnotic quality which draws the listener deeper into the album's unique balancing act.

If listeners are trained to expect throwback anthems every time the '90s are referenced, here they might find a more apt touchstone in the wilder, left-of-center corners of Chicago's foundational epoch. Throughout the album, the spirit of jacking house is absorbed, metabolized and transmuted. Drawing on lineages of taut, nervy synth-and-drum machine workouts, SW. manipulates his hardware with the delicate, considered touch of a painter. Perhaps the memory that lingers longest from that bygone era is the sense of profound possibility that dawns before forms become rigidly calificed and commodified. Either way, adventurous listeners will find that okALGORYTHM blooms with a uniquely affecting grace and SW.'s inimitably obscure loveliness, infused with a somber glow and marked by shimmering, untraceable contours.

Robbie Williams remains one of the most successful British pop stars of his generation many years after he put out his most notable albums. Life Thru a Lens was one of them and it now turns a frankly hard to believe 25 years old. This special anniversary edition comes on limited clear vinyl and takes you right back to the end of the last millennium. The songs are big singalongs with plenty of Williams's swaggering confidence shining through each one as he muses on growing old, love and of course loss with his biggest single of all, 'Angels.'

On in february, Isik Kural works like a photographer of sound, documenting the passing and returning of time as if material snapshots of life's temporality. Across the album's twelve songs, each composed from chance loops and cocooned within the soft container of Isik's memorable voice and melody play, time is held on to hopefully, impossibly, eternally.
Born in Istanbul, Isik studied music engineering at the University of Miami, alighted in New York City, and eventually settled in Glasgow, immersing in a sound design masters and audiovisual practice. While these paths guided him between different projects and cities, a voice was simultaneously growing inside the artist, informed by a vision of the world in its everyday luminosity. This voice was expressed in the lyrical and instrumental waves of 2019's As Flurries, a cassette collection for Italian label Almost Halloween Records.
Isik Kural's in february will be released on October 15, 2021 on vinyl, cassette, compact disc, and digital formats. On behalf of Isik, a portion of the proceeds from this release will benefit Turkiye Egitim Gonulluleri Vakfi, an organization that creates and conducts workshops, educational training programs and after school programs for children across Turkey.

With his first release since 2015, Seattle based Indie-folk hero Rocky Votolato returns with Wild Roots, an intimate concept album inspired by and written for his family. Each song a letter dedicated to a specific family member and focused on a special memory or moment in time. After losing his child in December of 2021 in a tragic car accident, the entire album, and especially the song “Becoming Human”, now a posthumous love letter, takes on an even deeper while devastatingly bittersweet meaning. The production on Wild Roots is hushed, handcrafted, and warm — an intimate and personal experience that brings the nature of Votolato’s storytelling to life in very authentic and genuine ways. Produced, engineered, and mixed by Votolato himself, the record is a deliberate construction of his conceptual vision and new phase of his recording career. Additionally, the record features a stellar cast of renowned musicians whose contributions perfectly compliment the delicate nature of these songs — Abby Gundersen (William Fitzsimmons) on piano, string arrangements, and vocal harmonies, James McAllister (Sufjan Stevens, The National) on drums and percussion, Phil Wandscher (Whiskeytown, Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter) on electric guitar, and Marcel Gein (Perry O’Parson) on electric guitar. In many ways, Wild Roots is not only a break in silence for Votolato, but the opening of a new chapter — one that feels laser focused on what really matters in life. Whether discovering Votolato for the first time or adding another record to your collection, Wild Roots resonates on the most simple and important human levels — a sharing of experience that encourages us to keep believing in ourselves and in the magic of this life, no matter how harsh and difficult it can be.


Track list: 1. Evergreen 2. 23 Stitches 3. Glory (Broken Dove) 4. There is a Light 5. X1998x 6. Becoming Human 7. Breakwater 8. Little Black Diamond 9. Archangels of Tornados 10. The Great Pontificator 11. The Wildest Horses 12. Little Lupine 13. Bella Rose 14. Southpaw 15. Texas Scorpion (The Outlaw Blues)

David Gedge says: "During our `Hit Parade' series in 1992, there were a couple of Science-Fiction-themed singles, namely `Flying Saucer' (July) and The Queen Of Outer Space (November). And, would you believe it, I've only gone and done it again, haven't I? Thus, hot on the heels of last month's `Astronomic' comes the November single, erm... `Science Fiction'. It's not about the whole genre as such; the title will make sense when you hear the song. Although it's quite a sad lyric I, rather glamorously, wrote it whilst enjoying the amenities of a fancy hotel in Hollywood, so maybe the proximity of the film industry inspired me. Talking of inspirations, one band that has influenced The Wedding Present, off and on, over the years is The (mighty) Fall. And I don't know if they even planned it but, on `Plot Twist', Jon's spiky guitar riff and Melanie's crunchy bass line totally remind me of the classic Craig Scanlon / Steve Hanley combination that was memorably to be heard on sessions like the one recorded for John Peel in March 1983. Suitably inspired myself, when writing this lyric, I decided to also reference The Fall (for the second time in Wedding Present lyric history, the first being `Take Me!' some thirty-three or so years ago)." Penultimate release in this monthly series, in 2022 The Wedding Present will be releasing a new 7" single every month, the last but one is available for indie record stores only soon. This fascinating project - which goes under the name of 24 Songs - comes thirty years after the band's similar Hit Parade series of 7"s in 1992 and features two brandnew recordings of the current WP incarnation. Each of the records comes in a beautifully designed sleeve featuring brutalist photography by Jessica McMillan

“This is for the family,” Abe Linx says. “It’s not really about who doesn’t love us, it’s about those that do. The ones we motivate and inspire. It’s for those people.” The World Famous La Familia Forever is the powerful sophomore effort from Abe Linx & Tully C., two incredibly gifted emcees who have crafted a contender for the best release of 2022. Across this EP’s 10 tracks, the Indianapolis-repping duo showcase their worldview, dig into their personal histories, and firmly plant themselves on the hip-hop map. And as Abe Linx spits on the stunning track “WORLDWIDE”: “Who the f*ck gon’ tell me different?” In addition to the passion of Abe Linx & Tully C. and their collaborators, TWFLFF stands on its own because it is just so sonically engaging. The production is equally crunchy and fascinating, because it flirts with sounds crafted by legends without sounding dated. This is timeless, raw hip-hop helmed by two talented rappers and their favorite producers like Nomstks & AWSME J, as well as longtime collaborators Baleboy Geechie & DJ GB.
You can tell that Abe & Tully took their time with these songs, meticulously piecing them together in the two years since their previous release. Each cut moves seamlessly into the next, bringing that special kind of cohesion. Just listen to how “RABIES” moves into “400MPH (skit)” and then “SKYSCRAPER,” a brilliant slice of showin’-out rap elegance. While there are only three guest features on the project, they’re used to great effect and make as much of an impact as their hosts. Planet Asia stomps all over the aptly titled “SHOWOFF,” while Willie The Kid complements the smoked-out vibes of “CHANDELIER.” And when Bub Rock shows up on “RABIES”? It’s a wrap as soon as he hops on that piano-laced, dusty instrumental. TWFLFF is a mission statement, with pieces that also sound like a word of warning to anyone looking at these two sideways. Or, as Tully C. raps so perfectly on “CHANDELIER”: “I be in this b*tch, with my clique/ So don’t act stupid.” The World Famous La Familia Forever drops on vinyl right in time for the holidays through their recent partnership with Fat Beats.

Great songs are not set in stone - since he burst from the blues clubs of Louisiana onto the global music scene with 1995's breakthrough first album, Ledbetter Heights, followed by his career defining second album, Trouble Is..

in 1997, Kenny Wayne Shepherd has twisted those classic cuts into bold new
shapes each night on the stage. Led by the pulse of the crowd, every last note
alive in his hands, the Trouble Is... tracks have always been on the move, never
settling into museum pieces.
But to give a quarter-century-old album a second birth is another matter. And in
more recent times, as the five- time- Grammy- nominated, multi- platinum- selling
artist looked up the road and saw the 25th anniversary of Trouble Is... on the
horizon, he hatched an audacious plan."One of the coolest things about rerecording Trouble Is... has been finding out or verifying how timeless this album
really is," says Shepherd, who also is leading a triumphant anniversary tour across
the United States in 2022 and 2023, performing the album in full. "I'm so proud of
what we accomplished, and also the fact I was just 18 years old when I did it. I
mean, I had an experience with this album that most musicians can only dream
about. Trouble Is... sold millions of copies. There's validation in all of that for me."
The Artbook package contains: 2LP on Gold Vinyl, CD, DVD and Blu- ray of the
Trouble Is... 25th Anniversary Show in the Strand Theatre in Shreveport, Louisiana
and a documentary about the making of the album, plus a Dolby Atmos audio Bluray that is exclusive to this release.

Shelter Press extend a quietly cine-poetic invitation to visit the Outer Hebrides via immersive sounds - field recordings of psalm singing and local dialect - collected and arranged by interdisciplinary artist Joshua Bonnetta, going hand-in-hand with Shelter Press’ core interests in the fading light of its 10th year in operation. A beautiful artefact - complete with 60 page photobook.

Accompanied by an evocative photo study and access to an accompanying film and essay, Bonetta’s second release for Shelter Press following 2016’s ‘Lago’ imparts a real feel for the archipelago, off the north west coast of Scotland, where he was stationed during an artist’s residency during 2017-2019. Stitched together from observant field recordings and interviews with residents on the islands of Barra, Berneray, Harris, Lewis & North Uist, the work elicits a sense of timelessness in its slow drift between shores, hills, standing stones and the intimacy of its voices, including Gaelic spoken word, folk song and whistling. Save for the appearance of a plane overhead, the sounds of car and boat motors, plus a little bit of electronic disturbance that pull you into the modern era; the results practically imagine what it would have been like to visit the islands with a recording device at any point since the last ice age. 

For Bonetta, who hails from rural Canada, the similarities between his formative landscapes and those of Scotland must have appeared familiar, perhaps a subconscious recall/reminder that the two places shared a landmass, albeit 425 million years ago. His sound sensitive subtlety and cinematic ear in arranging his collected sounds serves to highlight the way the modern world only just infringes on Innse Gall’s ancient landscapes and only relatively modern tongues (if we’re thinking in geologic terms of scale). We hear the sounds of its avian population seamlessly eliding its humans in the whistling of Alick Macauley, and the natural cadence of of its mild oceanic climate mirrored in lilting Gaelic folksong, here performed by Calum McDonald, Joey Morrison, and Maggie Smith, and more generally practiced by only a tiny percentage of Scotland’s population (some 1%) but still surely alive in its meridian isles where time moves much more slowly.

With the nuance and poetry expected of a Shelter Press title, ‘Innes Gall’ reflects on the area’s anglicised name, meaning “islands of the strangers”, with calming, soberly documentarian results as heartwarming and fascinating as a visit to the area, just without the effort of travel, and from the comfort of your own living space. Bonnetta is incapable of ignoring the cinematic frame, and intersperses each shot with enough poetry to keep you entranced.

1970s/80s San Francisco art-punk band 14-track collection includes
remixed tracks and previously unreleased recordings
It's hard to let go of a good thing
More than four decades after The Mutants first appeared on the San Francisco
underground music scene, four of the original members are still playing shows
together under that name in 2022. After all, mutants are known to mutate, and
that's what this colourful, energetic musical collective has been doing off and on
since 1977.
Perhaps even more surprisingly, the sessions for their lone album, 1982's ‘Fun
Terminal’, continue to bring forth lost nuggets. In punk and new wave lore, ‘Fun
Terminal’ is considered a troubled project. Prior to the album's appearance, The
Mutants had released only one 7-inch single -- 1980s' ‘The Mutants EP’ -- and the
band also had songs featured on two local compilations. Both the EP and one of
the compilations were issued by 415 Records, the legendary Bay Area indie that
made the jump from the new wave trenches to the majors when they signed a
deal with Columbia Records in 1981. Many scenesters felt that The Mutants
should have begun album sessions for 415 immediately after the EP, but that
didn't happen.
Each of the 14 tracks on the new collection, ‘Curse Of The Easily Amused’ has
either been remixed, or sourced from previously unreleased tapes. Eight songs
have never been officially released on vinyl or CD in any form. The versions of
'Think, Think, Think' and 'Tribute to Russ Meyer' feature radically different
approaches than what was heard on the ‘Fun Terminal’ reissue.<

Originally released in 2014, “Instruction Booklet N. 1232” marks the first cassette release on Dauw for Tatersall under his The Humble Bee moniker. Taking advantage of the format, each side on “Instruction Booklet N. 1232” is reserved for a single piece nearing the 20-minute mark.

“Exploding View” (aka Side A) swells into existence with a very grand sounding synth-driven melody. Of course the other thing that’s present is the decaying sound of the tape loop that’s working to bring that music to life. At first, the melody grows and grows, fairly undisturbed, but eventually the sound of so-much tape warble threatens the rising nature of the piece until it sounds as though it is one loop away from total decay and simply fluttering out of existence.

But of course that’s the point. There’s a tension between that grand melody that opens these moments and that warble. It’s a lesson in opposites: the mechanics of a tape loop, guaranteed to break down, placed in contrast with those signature Tatersall melodies, which somehow seem eternal. And just as that tension seems too much to bear — the melody dies to be replaced by something altogether new. What comes next is something much quieter, driven by a sub-aquatic bassline, some rhythmic tape hiss and some gentle piano.

It’s a very dramatic and sudden break. The technical elements of that could be attributed to Tattersall’s understanding of how far a melody can be pushed before it succumbs to the abuse of being processed out of existence — perhaps the tape had been looped and processed to its breaking point. Regardless of whether it was a technical or artistic choice, that hard break serves an important narrative function. Frequently in instrumental music, musicians play with opposites (quiet-loud, clean-distorted) to create a narrative to their work since they don’t have words/lyrics as a tool. In the case of The Humble Bee’s use of tape loops, one set of opposites in tension is always driven by the fragility of the melodies and the limitations of a machine guaranteed to inevitably decay the media it is designed to support. And where one thrives, the other takes a backseat. As side A winds down, the melodies are much more sparse — appropriate for en ending, yes; but it also gives more space for those hisses and crackles to claim their moment.

Side B is filled out by “Manual with Foot Pedal” and it begins as gently as its predecessor ended. Slowly eking outing it existence – it’s as if watching Tatersall set the board, showing his players on opposite sides of the table before really setting them in motion to do their thing. By the piece’s midpoint, melody has taken centre stage as a glitchy, piano-led rhythm marches its way forward, clearly carving out its space and claiming its territory. And almost immediately following that: the decay takes over again and those tape loops seem processed to near death — the melody almost barely decipherable as it flutters under the weight of the history of being looped/played ad nauseum. And in the very final moments, the melodies are sparse again, giving the tape hiss room to play its part — it’s as if Tatersall is giving both players enough space to take their final bows.

The Sol Power All-Stars are back once more on the Rocksteady Disco label with some superb new covers of much-loved British funk band Cymande. Each one brings a fresh perspective while paying heed of the Afro-roots of the originals. 'Anthracite' (feat Denise Henderson) opens up and is designed for moaner dance floors with cosmic synth work and big, bouncing drums. There is a deeper and more steamy sense of rhythm to the tropical sounds of 'Getting It Back' while the Parkway dub of 'Anthracite' sounds like early house music. Two versions of 'Genevieve' offer shuffling rhythms and big horn stabs and stomping, ass-wiggling Afro-jazz.

Art Of Primitive Sound is a sensational journey to the origin of Music. In his crucial research chapter on the Paleolithic, Walter Maioli between 1986 and 1991 investigates the soundscape of different geographical, climatic and botanical environments, in which the mystery of the ancient human-nature relationship resides. What emerges is an expanded and unprecedented Paleorganology, with a range of acoustic and natural instruments from all over the World. Rubbing of fossils, animal artefacts, plant elements of all sorts, everything becomes sound and each object opens up forms of imaginary communication, psychic effect and unexplored languages. Whistles, flutes, leaf and shell rattles, rhombuses, horns, bone pipes, slate slabs, bamboo arches, stones, vertebrae, seeds, stalagtites etc...how great can be the Natural Orchestra inherent in the spirit of forests, rivers, caves, seas, swamps or Amazon jungles? Thanks to an interdisciplinary partnership (Anthropology, Archaeology, Botany, Ethnomusicology) of collaborating friends, Maioli directs an Opera of universal character inspired by the archaic essence of sound and infrasonic dimension.

Founded in 2014, Katalyst Collective has never been one for labels. Rather than strictly a live act, they've acted as an incubator for a fresh crop of local talent, helping hone the voices and talents of individual members, while collectively advancing like a phalanx. Each 'Kat' writes their own solo material, and everyone contributes and works together on each project, feeding off the communal energy. Leading to the group's upping collaboration for Jazz Is Dead, Katalyst has poised themselves as the next breakout stars of Los Angeles' rapidly expanding Jazz universe - a small army of creative firebrands, each burning more brightly together.

Purple Vinyl

Founded in 2014, Katalyst Collective has never been one for labels. Rather than strictly a live act, they've acted as an incubator for a fresh crop of local talent, helping hone the voices and talents of individual members, while collectively advancing like a phalanx. Each 'Kat' writes their own solo material, and everyone contributes and works together on each project, feeding off the communal energy. Leading to the group's upping collaboration for Jazz Is Dead, Katalyst has poised themselves as the next breakout stars of Los Angeles' rapidly expanding Jazz universe - a small army of creative firebrands, each burning more brightly together.

BLACK VINYL REPRESS

NYC´s Superbloom debut LP Superbloom is Brooklyn’s latest entry into the alternative rock scene. Their debut album, “Pollen” is a 12-track love-letter to heavy alternative music that spans infectiously bouncy hard rock, instantly nostalgic acoustic songs, sing-along choruses and undeniable hooks. The album was mastered by Will Yip (Quicksand, Mannequin Pussy, Code Orange), mixed by Joe Reinhart (Remo Drive, Joyce Manor, Hop Along) and produced by Superbloom. The album’s two recent singles, “Whatever” and “Mary on a Chain” have both landed in several Spotify curated playlists including All New Rock, New Alt-Rock Mixtape, Noisy and Alternative Noise. While the album’s feedback-laced instrumentation is hard-hitting at every turn, the band’s sonic signature is embedded in the vocal performance that fills each track with complex layering, earworm melodies and lush harmonies that deliver discoveries of nuanced detail with each listen. Press Quotes: "Your next grunge revival obsession." -The Noise "...buzzing guitars that aren’t too far away from the ones that dominated DGC Records during their heyday... reminiscent of a bygone era when rock dominated the airways. Superbloom are most definitely a guitar band and they play their instruments loud and with the urgency of a ticking time bomb, it’s aggressive and in-your-face, but also catchy as hell." -The Alternative "The group's sonic approach is rooted in the fuzzy guitar atmospherics of bands like Hum and Amusement Parks on Fire. The hooks are plentiful, the arrangements lean and mean, and there's a bouncy rhythmic quality to much of their work so far." -No Echo

2022 Repress

Pampa Records is back with its sixth release. This one will be a split 12~ of Isolée and Robag Wruhme who each drop tracks of their upcoming artist albums to be released on Pampa in 2011.

Los Angeles Free Music Society (LAFMS) formed in the mid-1970s as a loose-knit experimental music collective and multimedia publishing vehicle. Founded by teenage Le Forte Four members Chip Chapman, Joe Potts and Rick Potts and soon joined by Tom Recchion of Doo-Dooettes, LAFMS incorporated free improvisation, modular synthesizers, tape music, sampling, musique concrète, homemade instruments, noise, mail art and avant-rock in permissive and anarchic sessions at the Raymond Building and Poo-Bah Record Shop in old Pasadena. Inspired by The Residents, LAFMS self-released records and periodicals, organized performances and connected with fellow outsiders via post in the years before punk. Their uninhibited, egalitarian ideal of music-making and DIY distribution would influence generations of underground musicians.

LAFMS primarily reached outside Los Angeles via word-of-mouth and the United States Postal Service, foreshadowing the self-publishing and cassette trading networks of post-punk and industrial subcultures. In 1976, Joe Potts solicited recordings from LAFMS affiliates and admirers to edit and compile I.D. Art #2, utilizing correspondence art's technique of "assemblings." (The first installment in this series was a magazine, and the third was a coloring book.) Potts received dozens of pieces by members of Le Forte Four, Doo-Dooettes, Smegma and Ace & Duce as well as painters, filmmakers and non-artists with few recording credits to their name, creating a delirious, winking sound-art collage of field recordings, voicemails and improvisations. Participants purchased time on the record and received one copy each of the finished LP, realizing the philosophy contained in LAFMS' motto: "The music is free, but you have to pay for the plastic, paper, ink, glue and stamps."

This first-time vinyl reissue is limited to 500 numbered copies. Comes with insert.

Tall Black Guy chases his extraordinary 2021-released collab LP, Of Process and Progression alongside emcee Ozay Moore, with the long awaited instrumental version. The record is a celebration of hip-hop and its many influences, especially jazz, funk, soul, and R&B. And now that it’s available in instrumental form, listeners can fully dive into and unpack the layers, samples, and sounds comprising the release.

In speaking about his approach to the album’s production, TBG explains the process as follows: "When myself and Ozay decided to come together to make OP&P, we really wanted to make it to where there were no skips. And the production had to be top notch.” He goes on to say that he didn’t want to just sample, but instead add live instrumentation and collaborations with other musicians to craft the sound they wanted.

“I wanted to make sure Ozay had a lot of space to get his point across in the songs he was coming up with,” TBG says. And while you can certainly hear that space in these instrumentals, they stand on their own as stunning odes to hip-hop and the genres that birthed it. This album is also brimming with musical Easter eggs on each song, particularly on repeated listens as the layers begin to unravel themselves to your ears.

There is so much to love and discover within the instrumentals of OP&P, and for fans of TBG’s past work, it exists as another triumph in what’s becoming one of hip-hop’s most thrilling discographies.

Leipzig-based musician, engineer, and producer Friedrich Brückner has, despite his youthfulness, been a decisive figure in the Leipzig music scene for literal decades, being involved, in one way or another, in many, if not most notable releases coming out of the city. Having received a classical musical education, Brückner most recently figured as part of the German-American band White Wine, playing the bassoon and bass, but has also, as either musician, producer or sound designer, toured internationally with the likes of Yoko Ono, Get Well Soon, Modeselektor, or Dear Reader.

For a few years now, Brückner has been working on his solo debut, which now comes in the form of his remarkable »Polyism«, out on Altin Village & Mine. On it, Brückner puts his considerable musical chops to use, in the service of a rollercoaster of an album that truly eschews categorization, being, as its title suggests, a work of being multiform. While the sound takes wide ranging cues from jazz, new age, dub, electronics to post punk, Brückner’s compositions never feel accidental in the slightest. Instead they share a distinctive sense of dramaturgy, a pronounced attention to sonic texture, and a sense of purpose both within the individual pieces as well as in the context of the album as a whole. The result is an LP that is astonishingly coherent, considering the multitude of means it employs.

On »Polyism«, Brückner also enlists a veritable all-star cast of guest performances, ranging from his parents Isabell and Bernd Brückner, both professional musicians, on saxophone, clarinet, and flute, Martin Wenk (Calexico) on trumpet, to Hendrik Otremba (Messer) and Brückner’s four-year-old daughter Rosa both on vocals, to name but a few. Each lend their own notes to »Polyism«, a work of what it means to live, that is, to be many. Truly exceptional stuff!

Blue Vinyl

Leipzig-based musician, engineer, and producer Friedrich Brückner has, despite his youthfulness, been a decisive figure in the Leipzig music scene for literal decades, being involved, in one way or another, in many, if not most notable releases coming out of the city. Having received a classical musical education, Brückner most recently figured as part of the German-American band White Wine, playing the bassoon and bass, but has also, as either musician, producer or sound designer, toured internationally with the likes of Yoko Ono, Get Well Soon, Modeselektor, or Dear Reader.

For a few years now, Brückner has been working on his solo debut, which now comes in the form of his remarkable »Polyism«, out on Altin Village & Mine. On it, Brückner puts his considerable musical chops to use, in the service of a rollercoaster of an album that truly eschews categorization, being, as its title suggests, a work of being multiform. While the sound takes wide ranging cues from jazz, new age, dub, electronics to post punk, Brückner’s compositions never feel accidental in the slightest. Instead they share a distinctive sense of dramaturgy, a pronounced attention to sonic texture, and a sense of purpose both within the individual pieces as well as in the context of the album as a whole. The result is an LP that is astonishingly coherent, considering the multitude of means it employs.

On »Polyism«, Brückner also enlists a veritable all-star cast of guest performances, ranging from his parents Isabell and Bernd Brückner, both professional musicians, on saxophone, clarinet, and flute, Martin Wenk (Calexico) on trumpet, to Hendrik Otremba (Messer) and Brückner’s four-year-old daughter Rosa both on vocals, to name but a few. Each lend their own notes to »Polyism«, a work of what it means to live, that is, to be many. Truly exceptional stuff!

After a rollercoaster two years promoting his last offering King Of Clubs in the middle of a global pandemic, alt-rock legend Jamie Lenman returns with the most intimate, most ambitious and most accessible album of his career. Recorded at The Chapel studios in Chichester over January and February this year with producer Mark Roberts, The Atheist is eleven tracks of guitar driven indie-pop, each laden with enough hooks to catch Moby Dick. With themes ranging from toxic friendships to socio economics to the religious topics inherent in the title, Lenman eschews the aggressive approach of previous records for a more melodic mood. “I’ve had a few of these songs kicking around for years, just waiting for the right album,” says Lenman. “Some of them were written for my first solo project Muscle Memory, some of them were even written whilst I was still in my band, but they were all too pretty. After twenty years of hard edges, particularly the ugly overtones of my last record, it was a relief to mellow out and just revel in the pure joyfulness of the thing.” From the huge earworm of Talk Hard to the stadium-sized chorus of Lena (Don’t Leave Me), the sheer catchiness of the material is undeniable, and was proven when Lenman took his new-look three-piece band to this year’s Download and played a set of entirely unheard tracks. The capacity crowd erupted into spontaneous sing-alongs despite never having heard a single note before, resulting in one of the surprise highlights of the weekend. Combined with dazzling artwork from renowned Washington Post/Wall St Journal illustrator Michael Parkin, Lenman will be unleashing his new softer side on an eager public later this year, alongside a string of live shows and the third iteration of his own mini-festival, Lenmania.

Based on original 1967 BYG sampler. Newly mastered to vinyl from original BYG tapes. Lacquers cut by Alchemy Mastering at AIR STUDIOS. Introduction by surviving BYG co-founder Jean-Luc Young. Track-by-track notes by author, journalist and BYG-authority Kevin Le Gendre. Cd: expanded cd edition in deluxe gatefold sleeve & printed inner wallet Based on original 1967 BYG sampler. Expanded with 5 additional tracks exclusive to CD. Digitally mastered from original BYG tapes by Nick Robbins. Introduction by surviving BYG co-founder Jean-Luc Young. 16-pages booklet with track-by-track notes by author, journalist and BYG-authority Kevin Le Gendre. *** BYG were a pioneering independant record company, one of the first labels to actively promote diversity and support black African-American musicians and multi-cultural artists worldwide during the 1960’s and 1970’s. Beginning in March 2022, BYG will reissue their now rare and collectable original albums. Newly remastered from the original BYG tapes, each album will be released on LP facsimile-edition & CD with exclusive sleeve notes by Kevin Le Gendre and John Masouri, in high-definition digital audio, downloads and streaming formats. “BYG were passionate in supporting diversity, against prejudice and narrow-mindedness so I am proud we fought for all our artists and their music, no matter what they were, who they were or where they were from ... This sampler is a testament to their creativity...” Jean-Luc Young, 2021

The prolific German musician Christian Schoppik is dropping his second solo album of 2022 under the moniker Läuten der Seele, following up his critically acclaimed self-titled debut album released at the start of the year.

Once again, “Die Mariengrotte als Trinkwasseraufbereitungsanlage” (The Mother Mary Grotto as a Drinking Water Treatment Plant) is a work based on a mix of sample collages and recorded instruments that are often used sparsely but as load-bearing elements. However, this time, Schoppik came up with two long tracks where the narrative evolves in multiple and intricate movements to tell mysterious stories that have to be imagined by the listeners as the music unfolds. If the title of the tracks “Opferkerzen weihen das Betonbecken” (Votive Candles consecrate the Concrete Pool) and “Der Heilige Geist aus der Leitung” (The Holy Ghost from the Water Tap) give a starting point to these stories, the ethereal, mystic and dreamy sounding minimal atmospheres presented in this record let each one of us contemplate our own soothing experience against the continuous chaos surrounding us.

Johannes Schebler's musical output is all about establishing a dreamlike territory where sonic settlements can spread at ease. While Grykë Pyje (Johannes Schebler's duo with Jani Hirvonen) presents musical landscapes as open and clear spaces, Baldruin's miniature pieces tend to narrow them down, zooming into domestic sceneries that shift like malleable rooms inside a magic building. These are the quarters where the inhabitants of Schebler's musical world are configured.

Rendered in a tender manner, the tunes in Kleine Freuden (in English: small joys) unfold like a collection of fairy tales and bedtime stories. Fables and lullabies performed in whispering tones seem to carry us through a child's dream where images blend into each other. Compact, yet gauzy and free flowing melodies gather up revealing an ensemble of households where fanciful entities play care freely, leading us along their musical maze. The music is placid, childlike and playful. It wanders around in unwavering estrangement, organizing an unprecedented and intimate space as seen from a bird's eye view.

In the landscape of a bedroom where the night lamp is the sun, we take part in a lively journey, as wonder is warrant and keeper of a warm and pristine environment. Perspective shifts as we rise from bed sheet folds that turn into fragile mountain ranges. We crawl behind furniture and take shelter in secret hideouts while dust falls upon us like a blizzard. Transfiguring notions of scale and time, we are left wondering how long have we been here, wondering if music is the only true measurement of time.

Repress in on Red & Yellow Vinyl, note new price. 1000 only worldwide. Today's Active Lifestyles, the second full-length by North Carolina rockers Polvo, did exactly what a sophomore LP is supposed to do: It expanded the ideas put forth in the first album, gave them a new spin and shine, and presented the "where we are now" to the world. Produced and recorded over four heady days in December 1992 by former Bostonian and ex-Volcano Suns bassist Bob Weston (around the time he started in Shellac), Today's Active Lifestyles hit record store shelves in April 1993. From the whizzing crunch of "Thermal Treasure" to the loping, connective "My Kimono" to the 7-minute-plus blowouts "Stinger (Five Wigs)" and album closer "Gemini Cusp," the album asserted its place as a most worthy successor to Cor-Crane Secret. The foreboding title of a particularly screechy, fuzzy jam, "Time Isn't on My Side," proved to be nonsense; Today's Active Lifestyles has aged beautifully. “The band experiments with several ideas throughout the album, and each concept is successful. The album ranges from cascading guitar solos in “Stinger (Five Wigs)” to the straightforward “Tilebreaker” to the catchy, rolling, keyboard-punctuated “Time Isn’t On My Side.” Overall an excellent album with many layers.” ALL MUSIC GUIDE. Track Listing: SIDE A 1 Thermal Treasure 2 Lazy Comet 3 My Kimono 4 Sure Shot 5 Stinger (Five Wigs). SIDE B 6 Tilebreaker 7 Shiska 8 Time Isn’t On My Side 9 Action vs. Vibe 10 Gemini Cusp

Omochi, (honorific “O” before mochi) in daily parlance is a rice cake, a dense glutinous product suited to many recipes, sweet or savoury. Stick one under the grill, watch it burst open, wrap it in crisp seaweed and dip it in soya sauce - a healthy snack, and a staple around Japanese New Year. Like everything, Omochi also has its dark side - each year it kills off a small section of the aged community, the gluey bolus a hard act to swallow - the unwary can quickly choke to death.

This Omochi is in fact Tadaki Matsunaga, of early 2000s Tokyo three piece Femini Flyers. The original Feminis were Tadaki (bass), Sachie (vocals) and Koji (drums) that was it, no guitars, no synths, Tadaki's bass being the rhythm and lead, and boy could he make it sing. Their 7” single Like You See / Masterbed was an early Ethbo release was the most requested track from Japan Blues’ Boiler Room Collections video - now pulled off the internet by The Powers That Be - since it was first aired, way back in 2014. Now the single trades for a collector's premium with those in the know. Since that recording, Omochi has built, and been working in, his home studio. The first release being his Ethbo 7” Devil, in 2019.

The follow-up is a roller-coaster ride, his own take on several genres in his forage bag, marinated to his own recipe. You'll hear his expert bass in amongst the fungii, some slick R'n'B guitar styling, several dollops of glitch-tronics, some falling-down-the-stairs drum'n'bass, a slice of kraut, Omochi's louche voice, and a spot of Sachie, the lead singer of the legendary Feminis.

This modern psychedelic omnibus, flying in the face of logic (an Ethbo template) was pressed by Omochi at Toyo Kasei, the last independent Japanese pressing plant, housed it in a tip on sleeve and shipped it to the UK, grill-ready for release. Itadakimasu!

Humour live together in Glasgow and formed in lockdown
The music is intended mostly to be a backdrop to Andreas' lyrics, which are a
mixed bag. We hope that each song looks the way that it sounds. Our musical
influences don't shed much light on the project – we don't listen to much postpunk although we all quite like it. We listen to stuff with good lyrics and stuff that
makes you feel sad.

“Arguably his generation’s best lyricist” – Mojo // “The year’s stand-out album for me” – Stewart Lee // “A sort of modern-day pastoral” – Simon Armitage, Poet Laureate // The follow-up to last year’s first volume, English Primitive II continues the themes introduced previously in a harder, more electric and psychedelic style. The songs were mostly recorded during the same sessions but, if EPII showcased the ‘songs of innocence’, this new set comprises ‘songs of experience’. Callahan's lyrical themes here are frequently the sleaze and corruption of our ‘betters’, the intentional and unintentional brutality meted out on those weaker and the sometimes perverse ways in which this happens. There are moments of reflection among the broken mirrors, but they allow scant solace or reassurance. Dressed in another of Scottish artist Pinkie McClure’s witty and detailed stained glass creations and recorded at home and under a railway arch, EPII rises above its origins and invades the wider world, in all its colour, gritand glory. Each song serves as a monument to its internal tale – in fact, the whole LP is as much a collection of musical short stories as it is an album of songs. Opening with Invisible Man, the impression of a regular person with hidden grievances, biding his time and waiting to lash out is given. Waves of distant samples ebb and fall as the warped guitars swell and crash behind the main themes. We don’t know when this explosion will happen – we only know it will. A sleazy celebration of Britain’s position as the laundering capital of the world follows in the form of Beautiful Launderette. It’s good that we keep everything nice and clean for the whole planet, isn’t it? Business as usual, keeping the globe turning – that’s our role and we love it. The Parrot rocks like only a prolonged evisceration of governmental mouthpieces and their court stenographers can. It’s a thankless task making sure that the powers that be retain their authority in all things and patrolling the borders of what is allowed to be said and believed, but somebody’s got to do it. If you’re providing a service, you’ll need to present a united front against the grievances of the public, so you’ll need The Scapegoat. Mistakes and accidents can’t be the company’s fault, so you’ll need to pay someone to be publicly and repeatedly sacked to make it appear as if you’re solving problems and getting better. Lessons will be learned, going forward. The disturbing tale of Bear Factory begins side two and is the real-life story of the murder of one of the singer’s primary-school classmates in the 1970s, and true in every detail. The victim’s body was never found but the killer justifiably imprisoned for life. A more ancient scent of death pervades The Burnet Rose. This ground-hugging plant covers the graves of the victims in a seventeenth-century plague village on the Yorkshire coast to this day, commemorating their sacrifices when all around have forgotten. It’s this particular songwriter’s favourite flower. Orgy of the Ancients describes the intimate intricacies of ageing politicians and the press as they decide whether to go to war. In grotesque scenarios worthy of Caligula, they decide the fates of our children. And it’s not even half the truth. To finish, the songwriter looks back to an admired predecessor, when he sets William Blake’s famous poem London in a groovier setting than we’re used to – in the form of London by Blakelight. If London swings, it’s from the Tyburn tree. Tracks: Invisible Man / Beautiful Launderette / The Parrot / The Scapegoat / Bear Factory / The Burnet Rose / Orgy Of The Ancients / London By Blakelight

Created and conducted by Sam McLoughlin (N.Racker, Sam and the plants) & David Chatton Barker (Folklore Tapes), Environmental Meditation Music (EMM) is a collaborative project with the natural world, where handmade instruments are placed in the environment and are played by the wind, rain, grass, snow and rivers. The instruments capture and channel the innate rhythms and frequencies of the elements, converting them into a fluid and detailed blend of modulating drones, birdsong, dripping water and the sounds of distant polyrhythmic drumming, overtone flutes and ringing chimes. The instruments include River Harps, Water Gongs, Clock Chimes and Aeolian Flutes, and are made using a variety of materials ranging from guitar strings, rubber bands, saw blades and jars, many of which are amplified using contact microphones. Since 2017 the duo have collected many hours of recorded material, which has been hewn into a long form digital edition and this two-sided 46min long playing record. For the record sleeves, a paintbrush was suspended on a branch using string. The sleeve was cut and placed upon a table with string passed around four bamboo canes in order to keep the brush contained above the card. Windy days were chosen to animate the brush. The brush was dipped into black drawing ink and begun at the middle of the card. Lastly the sleeve was left under rain drops. In total 305x card sleeves were created using this process and so each edition of the record is unique.

In 1998 The Wave Pictures started carving out their own path in search of the lost essence of British Indie, since their acclaimed “Instant Coffee Baby” -nominated for The Guardian New Album Award and present in many lists of the best albums of the last 15 years– , until the most recent “When The Purple Emperor Spreads His Wings”, always giving their best in countless electrifying performances. Now The Wave Pictures are once again allied with Acuarela to release an exclusive double 7” with five songs (one, “French Cricket” included on their new album and the other four totally exclusive) and show that they are still an indie rock band without indie rock influences, a trio with its own style that doesn't want to be a blues group, but with blues –and soul, and country, and folk-, as the invisible core of everything they do. The Wave Pictures began their career in 1998. Since then the British trio hasn't stopped: at the frenetic pace of their concert schedule, they add a stakhanovist record production, which advances at the rate of almost one album per year. Example: “Great Big Flamingo Burning Moon”, which came out in February 2015, was already their thirteenth official LP (without forgetting that they have also released a large number of singles, EPs, rarities and unofficial material). But it is that in February 2016 the fourteenth album, “A Season In Hull” was released -which they recorded with a single microphone and only released on vinyl-, and in November of that same year its successor, “Bamboo Diner In The Rain” came out. In June 2018 they returned to the fray with another LP, “Brushes With Happiness”, and that November also dropped “Look Inside Your Heart”. The pandemic has made them slow down a little bit until May 2022 when they finally returned with "When The Purple Emperor Spreads His Wings". “When The Purple Emperor Spreads His Wings” is a double album dedicated to the cycle of life and in which each of its four sides (in the old fashioned way) is focused on one of the seasons of the year. The title refers to spring and its splendor. The result is pop in the style of The Wave Pictures, with all the essence of the band: those intense guitar solos by Dave, his acoustic plucking, the solid writing… in addition to the mandolin, the bluesy harmonica...you name it! All the band members, David Tattersall (vocals, guitar), Franic Rozycki (bass) and Jonny “Huddersfield” Helm (drums), are avid fans of rock'n'roll, classic country, 70s rock, soul and folk, and this album celebrates with joy all those musical loves of them, some rediscovered in recent times. Moreover, they have pointed out that Guided By Voices have also been a great source of inspiration on this recording, as well as re-listening to Sun Records’ rockabilly, African guitar records, the more country side of Neil Young, the crazy fun of The Who and some moments from The Yardbirds. The Wave Pictures are still playing what Modern Lovers did back in the day -and then Herman Dune or Hefner-, only they play it as if Rory Gallagher was their lead guitar. With the lo-fi pop-rock label as an amicable stigma, they never deny the maxim that places attitude before technique and they are always vaccinated against fashion. Years go by and they are still the same sly alley-cats, only sounding more and more classic. Tracklist: 1. French Cricket/ 2. From A Buick 6/ 3. Porcupines/ 4. Rufus Thomas/ 5. Cincinatti Flow Rag

On her Signature Sounds debut Til It's Gone, Ali McGuirk delivers a sublime set of songs that pairs her trademark soul sound with rootsy turns and raw rock n' roll detours McGuirk co-produced Til It's Gone with Jonah Tolchin (a star singer-songwriter in his own right) and a set of session legends: Little Feat guitarist/mandolinist Fred Tackett, organist Larry Goldings (James Taylor, Norah Jones), singer Valerie Pinkston (Ray Charles, Luther Vandross), percussionist Lenny Castro (Stevie Nicks, Stevie Wonder). They provided the astounding chops, but the true magic of the album comes from McGuirk's singular voice as both singer and songwriter. The nine tracks run from intimate introspection to wider meditations on oppression and justice, from tough r&b and tender soul to big rock guitar and twangy folk. And McGuirk's voice bold, buttery, spellbinding " carries each song to the next til they're gone.

Broken Bells are back with their third full length album, INTO THE BLUE. Featuring two of the bigger names in indie and alternative music -- the Shins' singer/guitarist James Mercer and producer/multi-instrumentalist Brian Burton, aka Danger Mouse -- Broken Bells combined the pair's greatest strengths. On 2010's Grammy-nominated self-titled debut and 2014's more structured After the Disco, Mercer's gift for indelible, slightly spooky melodies and Burton's atmospheric productions complemented each other perfectly. In the late 2010s, the duo reconvened to release a succession of singles ahead of their third album. Mercer and Burton were inspired to collaborate when they met at 2004's Roskilde music festival in Denmark, where they discovered they were fans of each other's work. However, they didn't start writing and recording together as a band until March 2008, when Mercer holed up in Burton's home studio in Los Angeles. They took a different approach to working together than with their other projects: Burton avoided the sample-heavy style he used on The Grey Album and Beck's Modern Guilt, and played only live instruments; Mercer broadened his vocal style to include falsettos and deeper registers. Mercer and Burton made their official debut as Broken Bells in 2009, releasing their debut single, "The High Road," late that year. Their self-titled debut album came out in March 2010; it reached number seven on the Billboard 200 Albums chart and was nominated for a Best Alternative Album award at the 2011 Grammy Awards.

Loleatta Holloway’s sojourn at Aware records in Atlanta in the mid-70s was just about as good as soul music can get. We have taken the wonderful two-stepper ‘I Can’t Help Myself’ (NOT the 4 Tops song) from her “Cry To Me” LP for DJs and collectors and added the originally unreleased – until it’s Kent CD appearance in 1996 – ‘Mrs So And So's Daughter’. That track is a more raunchy, sister-funk number compared to the smooth top side; each side oozes class.

Being somewhat of a conceptual experiment. All the artists on this album were asked to imagine fusing Acid and House with the Virtualsex LP which was released on Buzz in 1993. A 303 sound would be welcomed but not essential with an emphasis on soulful emotion and melody.

Each record comes with a individual digital download code