Search:ear to ear

Introducing Atoll: Unleashing the Unrelenting Power of extreme Metal... Prepare for an auditory assault like never before as extreme metal band Atoll is set to unleash their bone-shattering new double Album "Human Extract/Inhuman Implants." With brutal grooves, guttural vocals, and a relentless onslaught of sonic chaos, Atoll continues to redefine the boundaries of the death metal genre. "Human Extract/Inhuman Implants" is a merciless dive into the darkest depths of the human psyche. Drawing inspiration from the macabre and the unknown, Atoll's latest offering takes listeners on a spine- chilling journey. With hauntingly atmospheric lyrics, the band delves deep into the horrors of this otherworldly experience, creating a musical narrative that will leave fans on the edge of their seats. True to their signature style, Atoll unleashes a sonic tempest upon the listener, combining relentless blast beats, blistering guitars, and soul-crushing basslines. The guttural vocals pierce through the dense wall of sound, delivering a sinister intensity that adds a chilling layer of malevolence to the composition. "Human Extract" showcases the band's exceptional musicianship and their unwavering commitment to pushing the boundaries of extreme metal. Atoll has amassed a loyal following through their relentless live performances and uncompromising dedication to their craft. Their ability to conjure an electrifying atmosphere that grips audiences, coupled with their unmatched stage presence, has earned them a reputation as one of the most formidable forces in the metal scene. With "Human Extract," Atoll proves once again why they are at the forefront of the Extreme metal movement. "We wanted to create a sonic experience that would engulf listeners in an eerie atmosphere, where the boundaries between reality and the unknown blur," says Wade Taylor the band's vocalist. "With 'Human Extract,/Inhuman Implants' we aimed to capture the essence of fear and vulnerability, delivering a musical journey that mirrors the horrors of alien abduction and the horrors of earth and man. It's an intense, cathartic exploration of the human condition." -Atollbone-shattering new Album "Human Extract." With brutal grooves, guttural vocals, and a relentless
onslaught of sonic chaos, Atoll continues to redefine the boundaries of the death metal genre. Beautiful
bloodwork petri dish colored vinyl in gatefold sleeve.

7A Records is proud to present Davy Jones "The Bell Records Story". A lavish reissue of Davy Jones' self-titled album remastered with 6 bonus tracks. The CD version comes with a big 36 page colour booklet, extensive liner notes from Monkees historian Mark Kleiner and rare and previously unseen pictures. This reissue gives fans the opportunity to reassess an album that was unfairly neglected by record buyers at the time of its initial release in the fall of 1971.

Prior to entering the studio with producer Jackie Mills, Jones had recorded a batch of more somber and adult contemporary-sounding demos than the eventual Bell recordings of big band sunshine pop. While the latter played quite squarely into Jones’ established image; the former suggested another path that may (or may not) have launched Jones into a more fecund musical and commercial direction. Who can say? At the end of the day, we have these recordings and their manifold (and for too long overlooked) pleasures to enjoy, a worthy entry in the broad category of early seventies sunshine pop and in the specific canon of Davy Jones and Monkees-related recordings. Here is primetime Davy Jones, singing like an angel, and pointing to a love that leads to joy for all mankind. This release comes with a Booklet & Liner Notes & Photos

Godzilla returns once more to face the combined might of Japan's most extraordinary scientists in the second picture of the Millennium-era: GODZILLA VS. MEGAGUIRUS. Looking for new ways to defeat the Big G, the JSDF invent an incredible new weapon called Dimension Tide, which creates a miniature black hole that will transport Godzilla far away from Earth. However, a byproduct of weapon testing leads to thousands of winged insects invading Tokyo and attacking Godzilla. The Big G fights back, but their new queen appears, now kaiju-sized due to Godzilla's atomic breath. A thrilling battle then occurs as Godzilla goes head-to-head with Megaguirus while the JSDF frantically works to disappear both monsters forever.

GODZILLA VS. MEGAGUIRUS saw the introduction of composer Michiru Oshima into the franchise with a fantastic score that built on previous Toho musical traditions with a view to the future. While using music composed by the great Akira Ifukube for two sequences, Oshima also unveiled her own theme for Godzilla. First heard in a slow and foreboding mode, it's quickly unleashed in gigantic low tones, as terrifying and inevitable as the Big G himself. Soaring heroic material represents the JSDF and their advanced Griffon aircraft, while powerful brass is used for the threat of Megaguirus. Cementing Oshima's reputation as a great composer, GODZILLA VS. MEGAGUIRUS is a classic of kaiju musical mayhem. - Charlie Brigden

Composed by Michiru Oshima
Artwork by Attack Peter
Manufactured in Czech Republic

Oceanic White & Blue Vinyl, limited to 300 copies. The band's name is borrowed from the legend of the Cailleach, the ancient witch god of winter from Scottish Celtic mythology. The story goes that she lives at the bottom of an enormous whirlpool, Corryvreckan, which lies between some of the western isles of Scotland and lends its name to this album. As the herald of winter, she rises from the depths to wash her plaid (cloak) in the waters of the Corryvreckan. Once washed and restored to a bright white, she casts it across the earth where it lands as snow. This is done at the start of Samhainn (beginning on 31st October, which was the Celtic precursor to Halloween and the name of the band's debut album). Her reign ends as spring arrives with the festival of Bealltainn in May, and she turns to stone to await the next winter. The Cailleach is depicted in various, contradictory ways - both as a symbol of death, loss and despair, as well as a source of nurturing and protection. Taking inspiration from all this, the music that HAND OF KALLIACH creates is centred around these dual concepts of benevolence and malevolence, all against the backdrop of the history, mythology and land/seascapes of the Scottish islands. The threads of Celtic and Gaelic folk music and folklore weave throughout the album, against a backdrop of spectral, melodic death metal. Blending the robust brutality of death metal with the ethereal wisps of folk is an intoxicating brew. Corryvreckan was recorded with Wynter Prior at Sphynx Studios, Brighton, UK. The resulting album is a phantasmagorical journey through ancient tales and truly progressive modern metal, with an unmatched eye for detail that brings every single element of Corryvreckan to life.

After 25 years of living his dream as one of hip hop’s most respected producers, Hi-Tek is digging back into his roots with a brand new trio of instrumental vinyl LPs. “Werk Road (1997 MPC 60)” is the third volume of the series, each featuring a selection of restored and remastered beats, carefully chosen from an archive of DAT tapes. These LPs manage to both provide a window into Tek’s development and to shine light on the work of an already enormously talented musician whose beats would’ve sounded right at home on classic releases from the mid-1990s.

1997 is when the name Hi-Tek began to develop a global buzz, largely due to the combustible indie-rap scene. He’d moved on from the now-shuttered Beatbox Studios in his hometown of Cincinnati and began building his first proper home studio in his new apartment on Werk Road. With a borrowed Akai MPC 60 drum machine as the foundation, he began churning out beats at a more prolific rate than ever.

In addition to placements on debut LPs by Mood and Royal Flush, Tek would make his name in 1997 as one-half of the duo Reflection Eternal with Brooklyn MC Talib Kweli. Their Rawkus Records debut 12” “Fortified Live” was an instant smash, and it quickly placed him at the top of the class of up-and-coming beatmakers. His unique balance of bassline-driven grooves behind soulful samples would eventually lead him to be in high demand for artists across the spectrum of the genre, and in short time he was producing for Common, Snoop Dogg, Raphael Saadiq, Dr. Dre, 50 Cent, and others from all over the country.

The work featured on “Werk Road (1997 MPC 60)” reveals an artist who would not only become one of the most respected producers in rap, but one of the cultural ambassadors of his home city of Cincinnati for over 25 years. In 2022, Hi-Tek was inducted into the Cincinnati Black Music Walk of Fame alongside luminaries like The Isley Brothers, Bootsy Collins and Midnight Star, and remains the most successful hip hop artist that the city has ever produced.

A very "MGMT MGMT album" which the band describes as "a group of songs about love and change, first and foremost." Descriptors from the band include: bold, flavorful, playful, sincere, optimistic, perceptive. Loss Of Life was produced by MGMT and Patrick Wimberly (Solange, Lil Yachty, MGMT), with mixing and additional production by Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips, Interpol, Spoon). The album includes the first ever MGMT song with a feature, courtesy Christine and the Queens. The album artwork has been licensed from John Baldessari's estate and is an artwork titled Noses & Ears, Etc. (Part Two). Formed in 2002, MGMT released their era-defining debut album Oracular Spectacular in 2007. One of the most influential albums of the '00’s - it went on to sell over 2 million copies worldwide and was certified Gold or Platinum in over 10 major territories, including double platinum in UK, Platinum in Australia, Gold in France and Platinum in the USA. It gave the world evergreen hits such as “Kids”, “Electric Feel” and “Time to Pretend” which have inspired, and continue to inspire new generations of artists and music fans alike to this day - those three songs combined have been streamed over 2 billion times on audio streaming platforms since released. Always taking an unexpected creative turn at every new record, but always maintaining their cultural and commercial relevance over the subsequent 15 years, MGMT later released three further studio albums: “Congratulations” (2010), “MGMT” (2013) and “Little Dark Age” (2018).

marbled green vinyl

A1 - The Cartographer
JLM Productions opens the EP with an inspiring, uplifting intro leading wonderfully towards an intricate old school atmospheric drum loop, laden with sprightly deep bass tones with crisp, clear hats and cymbals. Luscious, long swaying strings weave their magic on the ears as catchy keys sneak around the movements of a cartographer far from silent, to create a composition which will rightly sit atop your playlist for some time to come.
A2 - Fata Morgana
Showcasing his diversity in the genre and an immense ability to seamlessly mix old school jungle sensibilities with a modern atmospheric twist, Fata Morgana sees JLM Productions fuse a medley of swirling, enveloping atmospheric pads and a tight two-step breaks to form a collage of inspired vibes which will fit perfectly within a synth wave-style dancefloor set - or a good old throwback jungle mix.
AA1 - The Navigator
Breaks are on the agenda immediately with The Navigator, bringing forth a myriad of fluid drum samples, filtered and chopped with old school sensibilities shining through. Tense pad work builds the vibe with washes of synths before the breaks switch up, throwing in more surprises to the mix alongside along early 90's jungle inspired melody. We are continually treated with layers of detail and intricacies with FX as the breaks reach their final form. A real treat.
AA2 - Aleya
Closing out the EP, we see JLM Productions deftly toying with the legendary Apache break, which features heavily in the varied cluster of classic jungle breaks on display. A diverse selection of pads and keys tint the engulfing atmospheric soundscape with a quiet Sci-Fi intensity, developing and
evolving towards a stunning breakdown before the breaks
return, eventually exhaling towards a fittingly epic outro.

Jahmal Padmore, a Toronto-based singer-songwriter and drummer, is a master of introspection and musical innovation. Having begun his career as a punk rock duo with The Carps, Jahmal's solo artistry has since flourished, earning him critical acclaim for his contemplative R&B ballads. In 2022, he released his latest album, Esparonto, a testament to his unyielding commitment to artistic expression. Jahmal has graced the stages of Pop Montreal and delivered a mesmerising sold-out performance for his album release, cementing his place as a rising star in the industry. Set to tour Europe and the U.S. throughout 2023 and 2024, Jahmal's genre-blurring sound, which includes R&B, punk rock, and calypso, is a powerful meditation on love, relationships, and the human experience.

"The Wooz" by Jahmal Padmore includes the following tracks: "Denial", "Silver Lines", "In 5", "Not Long Now" and more.

This version of the album comes on WHITE vinyl.

Jahmal Padmore, a Toronto-based singer-songwriter and drummer, is a master of introspection and musical innovation. Having begun his career as a punk rock duo with The Carps, Jahmal's solo artistry has since flourished, earning him critical acclaim for his contemplative R&B ballads. In 2022, he released his latest album, Esparonto, a testament to his unyielding commitment to artistic expression. Jahmal has graced the stages of Pop Montreal and delivered a mesmerising sold-out performance for his album release, cementing his place as a rising star in the industry. Set to tour Europe and the U.S. throughout 2023 and 2024, Jahmal's genre-blurring sound, which includes R&B, punk rock, and calypso, is a powerful meditation on love, relationships, and the human experience.

"The Wooz" by Jahmal Padmore includes the following tracks: "Denial", "Silver Lines", "In 5", "Not Long Now" and more.

This version of the album comes on WHITE vinyl.

Returned to us from early 90s Japan are the holy holy sounds of Ghost. Their collective, clearly inspired by various forms of transcendental music throughout history, created a new syncretic psychedelia with these albums, mixing the texture and vibe of multinational forms of traditional music, with strummed antique stringed instruments and the haunting wail of a recorder on top of their heavy beats and guitars. The considerable depth of this approach was explored through 2014 over another five Ghost LPs, as well as the further explorations to the present day of leader Masaki Batoh, as a solo artist and with The Silence, Damon & Naomi, Helena Espvall and most recently, nehan. These first three Ghost titles were originally released by P.S.F. on CD in 1990, 1992 and 1994, respectively, radiating enigma and energy in palpable waves with their original sound. After the acclaim that greeted Drag City"s 1996 US release of Lama Rabi Rabi, we quickly reissued all three on vinyl - and they quickly went out of print! At which point, Ghost had Snuffbox Immanence and Free Tibet ready to go. And then, Hypnotic Underworld. And then, and then . . . . Now, it"s been 25 years since they were last offered on vinyl. In the twenty-year sweep of Ghost history, these first three releases qualify as primitive early Ghost - sort of like a German Os Mutantes (or perhaps a Brazilian Amon Düül). The subterranean presence of a diversity of progressive/avant classic rock influences (Pink Floyd, Incredible String Band, Captain Beefheart, Scott Walker, Led Zeppelin, Popol Vuh, Third Ear Band, to name but a few) provokes further synthesis, making for an entirely new meditation on the traditional order of psychedelic music. The first two studio albums, each one an iteration of Ghost"s unique lysergic folk music, were followed by the monolithic "live in various places" happening of Temple Stone, which raised the trippiness levels considerably. But this was only the end of the beginning . . .

Returned to us from early 90s Japan are the holy holy sounds of Ghost. Their collective, clearly inspired by various forms of transcendental music throughout history, created a new syncretic psychedelia with these albums, mixing the texture and vibe of multinational forms of traditional music, with strummed antique stringed instruments and the haunting wail of a recorder on top of their heavy beats and guitars. The considerable depth of this approach was explored through 2014 over another five Ghost LPs, as well as the further explorations to the present day of leader Masaki Batoh, as a solo artist and with The Silence, Damon & Naomi, Helena Espvall and most recently, nehan. These first three Ghost titles were originally released by P.S.F. on CD in 1990, 1992 and 1994, respectively, radiating enigma and energy in palpable waves with their original sound. After the acclaim that greeted Drag City"s 1996 US release of Lama Rabi Rabi, we quickly reissued all three on vinyl - and they quickly went out of print! At which point, Ghost had Snuffbox Immanence and Free Tibet ready to go. And then, Hypnotic Underworld. And then, and then . . . . Now, it"s been 25 years since they were last offered on vinyl. In the twenty-year sweep of Ghost history, these first three releases qualify as primitive early Ghost - sort of like a German Os Mutantes (or perhaps a Brazilian Amon Düül). The subterranean presence of a diversity of progressive/avant classic rock influences (Pink Floyd, Incredible String Band, Captain Beefheart, Scott Walker, Led Zeppelin, Popol Vuh, Third Ear Band, to name but a few) provokes further synthesis, making for an entirely new meditation on the traditional order of psychedelic music. The first two studio albums, each one an iteration of Ghost"s unique lysergic folk music, were followed by the monolithic "live in various places" happening of Temple Stone, which raised the trippiness levels considerably. But this was only the end of the beginning . . .

Returned to us from early 90s Japan are the holy holy sounds of Ghost. Their collective, clearly inspired by various forms of transcendental music throughout history, created a new syncretic psychedelia with these albums, mixing the texture and vibe of multinational forms of traditional music, with strummed antique stringed instruments and the haunting wail of a recorder on top of their heavy beats and guitars. The considerable depth of this approach was explored through 2014 over another five Ghost LPs, as well as the further explorations to the present day of leader Masaki Batoh, as a solo artist and with The Silence, Damon & Naomi, Helena Espvall and most recently, nehan. These first three Ghost titles were originally released by P.S.F. on CD in 1990, 1992 and 1994, respectively, radiating enigma and energy in palpable waves with their original sound. After the acclaim that greeted Drag City"s 1996 US release of Lama Rabi Rabi, we quickly reissued all three on vinyl - and they quickly went out of print! At which point, Ghost had Snuffbox Immanence and Free Tibet ready to go. And then, Hypnotic Underworld. And then, and then . . . . Now, it"s been 25 years since they were last offered on vinyl. In the twenty-year sweep of Ghost history, these first three releases qualify as primitive early Ghost - sort of like a German Os Mutantes (or perhaps a Brazilian Amon Düül). The subterranean presence of a diversity of progressive/avant classic rock influences (Pink Floyd, Incredible String Band, Captain Beefheart, Scott Walker, Led Zeppelin, Popol Vuh, Third Ear Band, to name but a few) provokes further synthesis, making for an entirely new meditation on the traditional order of psychedelic music. The first two studio albums, each one an iteration of Ghost"s unique lysergic folk music, were followed by the monolithic "live in various places" happening of Temple Stone, which raised the trippiness levels considerably. But this was only the end of the beginning . . .

Thee Alcoholics are the brainchild of Rhys Llewellyn, a longtime Rocket Recordings alumnus whose background leans as heavily into the bassbin-shaking realms of electronic music as it does the tinnitus-inducing world of howling, cranked-up ampstacks. Not content with hammering drumskins for numerous floor-shaking records on the Rocket discography from the likes of Hey Colossus and The Notorious Hi-Fi Killers, he’s also been responsible for brain-rearranging electronic works under the Drmcnt and Acidliner monikers. Thee Alcoholics, however - which initially gestated as a result of Rhys himself wanting to pursue the somewhat hostile sound in his own head during lockdown - maps out a collision course between all of the above. Cranky and cantankerous yet lysergically aligned, Feedback is mesmeric rock with swagger, warped into sci-fi shapes by the spirit and sonics of bass and soundsystem culture. The psychedelic shapes here are redolent of the ur-klang of The Fall and the monolithic lurch of The Heads, the motorik malevolence less an uplifting trip to the heavens than a drill down to the earth’s core. Discernible in these jackhammer beats, grimly murmured vocals and delirious dirges to certain heads may be the trash futurism of Chrome, the decomposed stomp of unsung legends Earl Brutus and the electro-punk attack of Six Finger Satellite, yet all of the above co-ordinates are waylaid effortlessly by a balls-out intensity and a 6 fearsome intent on aural oblivion at all costs. Feedback may be elemental and primal, yet this is no psych comfort-blanket nor retrofetishism, rather a repetition-driven journey headlong into intimidating territory unknown. Get on board and strap yourselves in for a bumpy ride.

DirtybLends edition 10 is a Chicago slab of ruff business!

the A-side comes from new member of The Klan of The Beatheadz Grizzly Knuckles with ‘Caviar’ an influential continuation concept from the early days of trax records for 1 of the nastiest productions to come from The Sensuous Man & Woman Goes Disco laying on top of a drum machine rhythm that gets to the heart of the cut and the message!

the B-side comes from the leader of The Klan of The Beatheadz: The Jak himself re-creating the drum rhythm of Jesse Saunders with his Kpr machine from scratch, then applying influential sounds from his keyboard to sound like DJ Rush from his proto release on relief records by creating a new blueprint for Jakbeat CHICAGO style of slam dance and mosh pit chaos that happened at The Reactor or Medusa’s (for those who remember)

In his long and successful career Ennio Morricone composed many dance songs as it was in fashion in the late sixties and early seventies.

Themes that were usually not directly connected with the subjects of the soundtrack, but which were played in disco clubs, on jukeboxes,

turntables and on the radio.



This collection contains a selection of very cool pieces such as the brilliant main theme from GRAND SLAM (1967), the shake rock (opening credits) from

Dario Argento’s classic FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET (1971), the danceable from the noir film VIOLENT CITY (1970), the beat version of the opening

credits of “Pioggia sul tuo viso” by The Sorrows, from HOW I LEARNED TO LOVE WOMEN (1966), “Per Vittorio (Bossa)” elegant bossa nova with flute and

percussions from THE SUCCESS (1963), the tribal shake from I Cantori Moderni which winks at the Dies Irae from GARDEN OF DELIGHTS (1967),

“Scuola di ballo al sole” a wild surf piece from THE HAWKS AND THE SPARROWS (1966), the supreme bossa nova from ONE NIGHT AT DINNER (1969)

with the super iconic voice of Edda Dell’Orso, the shake music of “Ostinazione al limone” from WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO SOLANGE? (1972),

“Donnabossa” from FULL HEARTS AND EMPTY POCKETS (1964), a delicate bossa nova with a prominent harpsichord.

CLAUDIO FUIANO

This Is The Sea is the third album by The Waterboys. Released in September 1985 and includes the classic single,The Whole of The Moon, along with other tracks, Don't Bang The Drum, The Pan Within and Old England. Considered by critics to be the finest album of their early rock-orientated sound, described as "epic" and "a defining moment" in the bands ongoing career.

This new clear vinyl edition is a companion piece to the (also) forthcoming 6CD Deluxe box set '1985', the making of the This Is The Sea album.

The format is 12" 3mm spine sleeve with silver OBI, printed insert and on 180gm clear vinyl

The Trashmen's defining moment, 1963's "Surfin' Bird," is perhaps the ultimate lightning-in-a-bottle record. Their first true studio recording, it captures the group's interminable energy and mastery of live performance. But it also is the culmination of spirit and experiment that turned it into something new and, from the perspective of 50 years, unique. This collection shows them to be variously a first-rate surf band, a great protopunk outfit, solid rockers with the raw essence of the earliest originators of the sound, and adept enough to work in some comedy and country. This scope of ability and interest is probably the true basis of the band's following now. But "Surfin' Bird" has more tenacity than other bands' entire better-performing catalogs, and with it, the Trashmen created a work that is arguably today the most relevant release from that storied decade.

"Best Of The Trashmen" by Trashmen includes the following tracks: "Tube City", "Sleeper", "Dance Bird Beat", "Bad News" and more.

This version of the album comes White vinyl.

After an impasse recording with tightly arranged groups and big bands with strings, Billie Holiday signed her last long-term contract with Norman Granz. He had showcased her as a star with his Jazz at the Philharmonic tours in the mid and late forties, and when he signed her as a recording artist in 1952, he endeavoured to repeat the small group magic of her early years.On Billie Holiday Sings, she is backed by an all-star sextet including Charlie Shavers on trumpet, Flip Phillips on tenor sax, Oscar Peterson on piano, and Barney Kessel on guitar, among others.Bonus Tracks: (Studio session for Aladdin Records):'Blue Turning Gray Over You' , 'Be Fair With Me Baby aka Be Fair To Me)' , 'Rocky Mountain Blues' , Detour Ahead' .

Black vinyl, DL card. Bardo Pond's extensive archive recordings series opens up once again with 'Volume 9', an incisive journey into their hypnotic sound. Recorded in the early 2000's it's a heady mix of acoustic ambience and menacing distortion. Infamous purveyors of longform stoner rock, Bardo Pond embrace their sludgestorms with graceful nods to Hawkwind, Earth and my bloody valentine. For anyone uninitiated with the band's tranquilizing sound, Volume 9 leans into their mesmeric practise with reckless abandon. Featuring two tracks recorded with ace percussionist Michael Zanghi (Kurt Vile/The War On Drugs) and the seminal two parter 'War Is Over', a lilting Floydian strum that's invaded - quite literally - by unreconstructed noise. The Zanghi collaboration is an Eastern-facing mantra with percussive flurries and distorted modal shifts - like listening on the other side of feedback. "Effortlessly combining psychedelic inspirations from Pink Floyd's original explorations to the more modern reachings into the beyond" AllMusic

Infinity Machine is a duo comprised of Juan MacLean - as in the Juan MacLean, longtime DFA traveler - and Gee Dee, also known as Greg Droggitis, a producer and DJ based in Brooklyn and 1/3 of the Earth Beat DJ troupe. The project name stems from a series of gatherings the two began hosting in various private spaces around New York City shortly after lockdown, though that description is a bit innocuous for the journeys traveled by its attendees. These events, billed as "psychedelic dance ceremonies" lasting 8 or 9 hours, began with a sound meditation to vibrational and acoustic instruments before eventually segueing into a "dance" soundtracked by a DJ set from Juan and Greg. Something clicked - that ceremonial tea! - and so Juan and Greg began playing and recording in their studio using the same approach: improvisation with equal attention placed on traditional acoustic (flute, guitar, gong) and more contemporary electronic (Yamaha DX-7) sounds. After awhile, there was literally three albums worth of material, each of them a voyage into the warm, liminal space between new age, ambient, drone and psychedelia. None of those genres quite fully describe what's across 001, 002, and 003 - available from DFA digitally and on a very limited run of cassettes (150 each!) - but if you've read this far then you're either the right kind of curious or just forgot what you were doing.

Die Versuchung, Bill Fay zu mythologisieren, kann überwältigend sein. Sein Status als unbesungener Held hat sich langsam, aber stetig, über fünfundzwanzig Jahre hinweg entwickelt und mit jedem neuen Album kommen Fans hinzu, darunter prominente Musiker wie Jeff Tweedy, Kevin Morby, Adam Granduciel und Julia Jacklin, um nur einige zu nennen. Fay war jahrzehntelang ebenso produktiv wie unterschätzt, innerhalb seines Katalogs ist die Bill Fay Group seine bedeutendste Zusammenarbeit. Nach seinem selbstbetitelten Debüt Bill Fay (1970) und dem Klassiker "Time of the Last Persecution" (1971) hatte Decca Records kein Interesse ein drittes Album zu veröffentlichen. Bill Stratton, Gary Smith, Rauf Galip formierten sich mit Fay zur Bill Fay Group und nahmen zwischen 1978 und 1981 in mehreren Sessions, trotz minimaler finanzieller Mittel, ein brillantes Album auf. Die Bandmitglieder beschwören ein elegantes Gegengewicht zu seinem Gespür für das Unauffällige. "Tomorrow Tomorrow and Tomorrow" bringt die galaktischen Qualitäten des frühen Rock, die Komplexität der Jazz-Improvisation und Fays erdigen Folk-Zauber zusammen. Zur Zeit der Fertigstellung fand sich aber leider kein Label für das Projekt. Erst 2005 brachte David Tibet auf seinem Label Durtro Records eine unvollständige, nur auf CD erhältliche Version heraus. Eine Neuauflage von 2006 machte das Album auf Vinyl erhältlich, allerdings mit stark gekürztem Tracklisting, es fehlten neun Songs. Jetzt endlich erscheint Tomorrow Tomorrow and Tomorrow weltweit in voller Länge. Es enthält die 22 Original-Songs des Albums, dazu 6 Bonustracks, sowie seltene und bisher unveröffentlichte Fotos von den ursprünglichen Aufnahmesessions von "Tomorrow Tomorrow and Tomorrow".

Sdban Records continues its reissues of the legendary library series 'A Special Radio - TV Record' with Selection 23, releasing a variety of notable tracks from the 70s library label together on a physical compilation for the first time. With this release, the label continues the vinyl reissues of the Belgian imprint 'Selection Records,' featuring tracks originally released between 1976 and 1981.

Essentially, the tracks take you through a cinematic musical landscapewhere funk and soul merge with a hint of jazz, always evoking a sense of familiarity.

One name that immediately springs to mind is René Costy. From this virtuoso and insatiable artist, the compilation 'Expectancy' was previously released. With 'Strange Dream' and 'Crystal Waltz,' he shows once again that he was not only a versatile composer but also a curious jazz cat. With 'Space Shuttle Jazz', pianist and harmonica Jacques Siroul shows his fascination for synthesizers. Which, as a composer, earned him an unofficial title as an expert in music on demand. This, and much more, make Selection 23 a must-have for fans of previous compilations like Beat Action, Funky Chicken, and Funky Chimes!

Watch Out! Here comes the third strike from Bremen's noise post-punkers. Bulky here, catchy there... and then another weird surprise comes around the corner and smashes into your ear canals...11 tracks & the record spins at 45 RPM! Defekt Defekt are a UK/DE trio that play music influenced by early 80s british punk rock or post punk. They have released 3 LPs and have toured the U.K., France, Belgium ,Holland and Germany. They have been requested (by the bands) as a supporting act for Jello biafra a.t.g.s.m, Slime, The Briefs and the Subhumans. Band members have played in many other bands as founder members or stand in players including The Smart Pils , Zygote ,The Moorat Fingers ,Chung ,Cross Stitched Eyes,M.O.T.O and The Sonny Vincent band and various other acts aswell as working with members of The Circle jerks,Hawkwind,Amebix, and various others.

In the early aughts, The Children"s Hour produced a genial, naive-adjacent, front-porch take on Josephine Foster"s celebrated solo music with the album SOS JFK, then disappeared from the face of the earth. The belated issue of their second album from 2003 furthers their arc delightfully. David Pajo"s Aerial-M-esque drums and bass elevates Josephine and Andy Bar"s shared vibe of love, pure and simple, to an apex of local band barroom bliss.

Taking on Medal Headz G.B.D.F., lifted from the recent Brainwaltzera LP Itsame, British drum & bass producer Peshay turns in a driving remix in a classic UK style. Rolling breaks meet a heady reese bassline and wide-angle atmospherics, put together with all the aplomb of a skilled craftsman doing what he does best. It’s music made for the dancefloor, delivered in a timeless style by one of the heads of the early Good Looking Records & Metalheadz years.

On the B1, Brainwaltzera takes the reigns with an extended version of the original album piece – a valuable reminder of the impressive source material, reimagined in a new context. For the B2, the artist offers a previously interconnected phase of Medal Headz G.B.D.F. up as a track in its own right. A spellbinding IDM reduction, it’s wrought with all manner of synth flourishes, elegant drum machine rhythms, and warping synths – a neat closer that offers a new and intriguing approach to an LP highlight.

a Medal Headz G.B.D.F Peshay Remix
b Medal Headz G.B.D.F Extended
[separated]

Modern English’s new album, 1 2 3 4 – produced by Mario McNulty (David Bowie, Lou
Reed, Nine Inch Nails), mixed by Cenzo Townsend and mastered at Abbey Road – retains
the intrinsic spirit of the early, post-punk days and is also a sterling sonic example of what
Modern English have always done best. The album encompasses seething songs with punk
bite, keyboard-forward melodic rockers and simmering, darkwave-meets-post-punk gems.

Infinity Machine is a duo comprised of Juan MacLean - as in the Juan MacLean, longtime DFA traveler - and Gee Dee, also known as Greg Droggitis, a producer and DJ based in Brooklyn and 1/3 of the Earth Beat DJ troupe. The project name stems from a series of gatherings the two began hosting in various private spaces around New York City shortly after lockdown, though that description is a bit innocuous for the journeys traveled by its attendees. These events, billed as "psychedelic dance ceremonies" lasting 8 or 9 hours, began with a sound meditation to vibrational and acoustic instruments before eventually segueing into a "dance" soundtracked by a DJ set from Juan and Greg. Something clicked - that ceremonial tea! - and so Juan and Greg began playing and recording in their studio using the same approach: improvisation with equal attention placed on traditional acoustic (flute, guitar, gong) and more contemporary electronic (Yamaha DX-7) sounds. After awhile, there was literally three albums worth of material, each of them a voyage into the warm, liminal space between new age, ambient, drone and psychedelia. None of those genres quite fully describe what's across 001, 002, and 003 - available from DFA digitally and on a very limited run of cassettes (150 each!) - but if you've read this far then you're either the right kind of curious or just forgot what you were doing.

Ploho offers up their most exciting and best-produced album to date: ????? ???? ???? (When the soul sleeps). Out on Artoffact, the new album promises to be one of this year's high-lights and is sure to stand out on many end of year lists. Ploho's music combines early post-punk, new wave and Russian rock, drawing inspiration from the aesthetic and sounds of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The current album from dark Russian post-punk trio Ploho, pressed on vinyl.

Klasse Wrecks continues its expedition through the wilderness of early 2024 with a release from your favourite producers' favourite producer. Bufo Bufo continues his golden run after sterling records for the likes of Cabaret with a unique 4 tracker for Wrecks. Distilling all styles and influences into one record, 'Beelzebufo' sees the producer capture rare species of electro, breakbeat and mangled rave together...resulting in a supernatural sonic hybrid. Play with caution...the sounds you hear maybe devastating to your ear.

Big Crown Records is proud to present Zero Grace, Liam Bailey's sophomore album on the label. Following the success of 2020's Ekundayo album, the tried and true chemistry of Bailey and producer Leon Michels (El Michels Affair) is on full display again as they take the sound they established and push it further. On Zero Grace they lean more into the bleeding heart singer-songwriter side of Liam. The result, much like Bailey himself, is impulsively honest without reserve. Born and raised in Nottingham, England, the son of an English mother and 2nd generation Jamaican English father, Liam will admit his early childhood was fairly chaotic and filled with "all the cliche racism that happens when people started mixing up in the '80s in England." Liam got his early influences from his mom's record collection. Bob Marley and Dillinger, Stevie Wonder and The Supremes, The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix would eventually shape the singer/songwriter we know today. Fast-forward to 2005, Liam is in London performing at every open mic and acoustic night he could, hustling with hopes of landing a record deal. It was through this time that Liam first teamed up with Michels, musician/producer luminary, and the co-founder of Brooklyn's own Big Crown Records. Liam flew out to New York and those first sessions together produced the now classic tunes "When Will They Learn" and "I'm Gonna Miss You" which still gets spins at Reggae spots around the globe and were co-signed by heavy hitters like David Rodigan & Don Letts. That first trip to NYC brought a lot of industry attention to Liam, including being noticed by a just-famous Amy Winehouse who heard one of Liam's apartment-made, lo- recordings, and liked what she heard. Regardless of the audio quality, Liam's particular sound shone through - all guitar, warm-rough and genuine soul. Eventually Liam signed to Polydor and wound up bumping against the typical major label industry obstacles. They already had an idea of the Liam they wanted to make, promote, and push With the typical large advance enticement, Liam did his best to trust that path. "Maybe I can make it work,' that's what you're thinking," Liam remembers, "but, you quickly find out that you can't." Zero Grace is full of freedom and love, in fact, working with Leon Michels and Big Crown Records has encouraged Liam to be himself. On album opener "Holding On '' Bailey speaks to his observations & fears when looking out at the world in front of him and also to the dedication it has taken to get on the other side of his personal trials & tribulations. "Dance With Me" is an instantly infectious two-stepper that nods to those incredible soul records that were coming out of Jamaica during the early Reggae days. Bailey steps into the dance with hopes of finding a new love and pulls us all out on the dance oor with him. "Disorder Starts At Home" is another close to the chest tune that addresses the difficulties he struggles with from his early chaotic childhood and his progress in getting past them. "Mercy Tree" is a powerhouse of Reggae Rebel Music. Bailey addresses the racial tensions that plague humanity and encourages everyone to step up and do their part to help foster equality. What starts out as a declaration of injustice turns into a call for action and an inspiration for hope.

Big Crown Records is proud to present Zero Grace, Liam Bailey's sophomore album on the label. Following the success of 2020's Ekundayo album, the tried and true chemistry of Bailey and producer Leon Michels (El Michels Affair) is on full display again as they take the sound they established and push it further. On Zero Grace they lean more into the bleeding heart singer-songwriter side of Liam. The result, much like Bailey himself, is impulsively honest without reserve. Born and raised in Nottingham, England, the son of an English mother and 2nd generation Jamaican English father, Liam will admit his early childhood was fairly chaotic and filled with "all the cliche racism that happens when people started mixing up in the '80s in England." Liam got his early influences from his mom's record collection. Bob Marley and Dillinger, Stevie Wonder and The Supremes, The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix would eventually shape the singer/songwriter we know today. Fast-forward to 2005, Liam is in London performing at every open mic and acoustic night he could, hustling with hopes of landing a record deal. It was through this time that Liam first teamed up with Michels, musician/producer luminary, and the co-founder of Brooklyn's own Big Crown Records. Liam flew out to New York and those first sessions together produced the now classic tunes "When Will They Learn" and "I'm Gonna Miss You" which still gets spins at Reggae spots around the globe and were co-signed by heavy hitters like David Rodigan & Don Letts. That first trip to NYC brought a lot of industry attention to Liam, including being noticed by a just-famous Amy Winehouse who heard one of Liam's apartment-made, lo- recordings, and liked what she heard. Regardless of the audio quality, Liam's particular sound shone through - all guitar, warm-rough and genuine soul. Eventually Liam signed to Polydor and wound up bumping against the typical major label industry obstacles. They already had an idea of the Liam they wanted to make, promote, and push With the typical large advance enticement, Liam did his best to trust that path. "Maybe I can make it work,' that's what you're thinking," Liam remembers, "but, you quickly find out that you can't." Zero Grace is full of freedom and love, in fact, working with Leon Michels and Big Crown Records has encouraged Liam to be himself. On album opener "Holding On '' Bailey speaks to his observations & fears when looking out at the world in front of him and also to the dedication it has taken to get on the other side of his personal trials & tribulations. "Dance With Me" is an instantly infectious two-stepper that nods to those incredible soul records that were coming out of Jamaica during the early Reggae days. Bailey steps into the dance with hopes of finding a new love and pulls us all out on the dance oor with him. "Disorder Starts At Home" is another close to the chest tune that addresses the difficulties he struggles with from his early chaotic childhood and his progress in getting past them. "Mercy Tree" is a powerhouse of Reggae Rebel Music. Bailey addresses the racial tensions that plague humanity and encourages everyone to step up and do their part to help foster equality. What starts out as a declaration of injustice turns into a call for action and an inspiration for hope.

The Three of Us is a name you might not know even if you are something of a jazz lover. It was the name that jazz keyboardist Hilton Felton - who will be much more well known to those with an ear for rare groove - used for this one groovy soul-jazz album. It arrived in super limited quantities back in 1971 and is now hugely sought after and therefore also rather expensive on the second-hand market. Joining Felton for these sessions were bassist Joe Harris and stickman Johnathan Setell, but it is Hilton's touch that really elevates the music - his free melodies and deep grooves really make their mark. This one has never been reissued before.

Re-issue as double vinyl in slip sleeve! Frank Bornemann has transformed the story of the French national heroine Jeanne d’Arc to an impressive musical journey into the 15th century. Next to spoken word passages the music primarily captivates with its atmospheric
arrangements that open up a new chapter in the Eloy cosmos. The press puts the work under the same category as Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” and the Who’s “Tommy”, confirming the powerful intensity of the songs and praising the audiophile quality.

World Of Echo are proud to announce the long-awaited reissue, on 17th February, of the self-titled debut album by Bristol’s Movietone. Originally released in 1995 by Planet Records and reissued on CD in 2003 by The Pastels’ Geographic Music imprint, this is the first time Movietone has been reissued on vinyl. An expanded double-LP edition, it includes the extra tracks from the 2003 CD (their first two singles, and an unreleased demo of “Chance Is Her Opera”), and adds three more unearthed gems: demos of “Alkaline Eye” and “She Smiled Mandarine Like”, and an early take of “Late July”, recorded in a garden by Dave Pearce (Flying Saucer Attack) in 1993. Taken together, this is the definitive collection of music from the first phase of one of Bristol’s most remarkable groups.

Movietone was the cumulation of a series of events, explorations, and discoveries, starting at secondary school – the group’s core membership of Kate Wright, Rachel Brook, Matt Elliott and Matt Jones met at Cotham School in Bristol. As for many other groups, their early years were all about experimenting, and finding ways to ‘make do’, a DIY sensibility that would inform Movietone through their decade-long lifespan. From formative rehearsals in a shed in the garden of Brook’s family home, to recording early material to four-track in Redland Library, and on into the Whitehouse and Mr Grin’s studio sessions for their debut album, Movietone’s music fell together in a creatively unpredictable, yet conceptually rigorous manner.

By the time they released Movietone, they’d found a home with Bristol’s Planet, run by author Richard King and James Webster, who had both released their first two singles, “She Smiled Mandarine Like” and “Mono Valley”. There was other music happening around them in Bristol, too, from the Jones brothers’ avant-rock outfit Crescent (who were Movietone’s closest conspirators), through Elliott’s jungle/electronica project Third Eye Foundation, and Brook and Elliott’s membership of Flying Saucer Attack. A closely knit community, Movietone are the centre of this nestling architecture of groups.

The vision in the music, mostly, belongs to Wright, but Movietone ran in democratic creative consort. Listening back to Movietone, you can hear this democracy in action through the wildness of the music, which is balanced by the poetics of Wright’s lyrics and melodies. Full of half-captured memories and entangled abstractions, there’s an elliptical, ruminative quality to much of the writing here that shows the deep influence of the Beat Generation writers, along with a twilight environment captured in the songs that’s pure third-album Velvets, Galaxie 500, early Tindersticks, Codeine. Unpredictable interventions – the crashing glass in “Mono Valley”, the sudden explosions of “Orange Zero” – point towards the noise blowouts of My Bloody Valentine, the unpredictability of Sonic Youth; Wright’s understated vocal cadence suggest a deep, embodied understanding of John Cage’s Indeterminacy.

Movietone would go on to make three fantastic albums for Domino – Night & Day (1997), The Blossom Filled Streets (2000) and The Sand & The Stars (2003) – and their Peel Sessions were released early in 2022 by Textile. Still held in high regard by artists like Steven R. Smith, and The Pastels, whose Stephen McRobbie once described them as “one of the great unknown English groups,” it’s an absolute thrill to listen to Movietone anew – still inspired, still seductive, still magic, still mysterious.

LP black vinyl repress, standard single sleeve printed inner but note no download card. The Time Has Come’ is an absolute master class on words and guitar twisting into one another - the poetry goes beyond simple observation into deeply personal and profound lore. A timeless document of sweet and haunting melodies. My favourite record of all time.’ Ryley Walker. // "I've never written songs, regularly, because I never considered myself a songwriter. I've only ever really considered myself a ballad singer, which is what is most important to me. The stories... the ancient nature of the situations and the human condition. And obviously, it's changed so much over the centuries that those songs have been sung, but it always retains that essence of something that's universal... to humanity, and I've always wanted to touch that. I think I wanted to understand people; I think I wanted to understand myself. It's a way of finding the truth. I felt I belonged to that music.” Anne Briggs // Offering some of her first original compositions, ‘The Time Has Come’ was a break from tradition in more ways than one for Anne Briggs. Where previous recordings displayed the unaccompanied melodies of her voice, this album - originally released by CBS in 1971 - brings additional instrumentation in the form of guitar and bouzouki. The result is that her vocals are not submerged but heightened - the plucked strings providing the perfect foil for her crystalline inflection. ‘The Time Has Come’ is a mix of Anne’s own songs alongside some notable covers (Lal Waterson, Steve Ashley, Stan Ellison, Henry McCulloch). All are graced with the quietly self-assured elegance of Anne’s playing, with sounds ranging from the breezy ‘Clea Caught A Rabbit’ to the terrible beauty of ‘Wishing Well’ - each song typifying the bouzouki or guitar style. To say that Anne was an accomplished picker is to do her something of an disservice - the intricacy of her finger-work rivals - and more often than not eclipses - any number of her contemporaries.

Devon made her musical debut earlier this year, releasing her first ever recorded single, ‘Swim’ to swooning fans in September, and has decided to follow it up next week with a sultry and high energy tune entitled ‘Killer’. ‘Killer’ is the second song to be released by Actress/Model/ — and, now —Musician, Singer/Songwriter: Devon Ross. ‘Killer’ hits all digital platforms worldwide on the next ‘Bandcamp Friday’ (1-December -2023) in advance of her very first concert taking place at London’s legendary 100 CLUB on December 13, 2023. Inspired by Sixties and Seventies legends, such as The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Patti Smith, Bob Dylan, The Stooges and Television, Devon Ross is finally debuting her first recordings on the forthcoming EP, entitled Oxford Gardens. Oxford Gardens was recorded in Paris and mixed & mastered at Abbey Road Studios in London and set for release on Thurston & Eva Moore’s indie record label, The Daydream Library Series. TRACKLIST: 1/I Don’t Wanna 2/Swim 3/Killer 4/Mine Not Yours. Bio: Model-actress-guitarist, 23-year-old recording artist was raised in Los Angeles and moved to London in 2020. British Vogue cited Ross as “the coolest model currently climbing up the ranks”. During 2019, Gucci recruited her for a Rome runway show before casting her in the launch of the Gucci x Disney Collection (notably shot at Disneyland). It opened up the floodgates as she went on to walk for Valentino, Erdem, Gauchere, Sies Marjan, and Simone Rocha and lead campaigns for Vivienne Westwood and Mulberry. Her career would be chronicled by L’Officiel, 10 Magazine, W, and many more. In 2021, she joined the cast of HBO and A24’s Irma Vep - The Serial (2021) alongside Academy® Award Winner Alicia Vikander, Adria Arjona, Carrie Brownstein, Byron Bowers, and others. Eva & Thurston met Devon at Cannes Film Festival in France in 2021 and started going to shows and kicking around London together. After witnessing her guitar playing and hearing her music the couple invited her to release music on their independent record label. This month November 2023, The Daydream Library Series independent record label will celebrate five years in operation. Thurston & Eva founded the label in 2018 to release the debut album Sistahs by London’s black, feminist, punk band Big Joanie.

Dean McPhee’s fifth full length album 'Astral Gold' sees the Yorkshire-based electric guitarist's music continue to evolve beyond the spacious folk-inspired fingerpicking that typified his earlier releases into a heavier sound combining deep bass, textured reverbs and waves of saturated delay. 'Astral Gold' brings together several now out-of-print tracks that were originally released on the Reverb Worship and Folklore Tapes labels, along with two brand new pieces – all recorded live in single takes. There is a cosmic theme throughout, including a track based on the local lore of The Ilkley Alien (The Second Message), a trance-inducing drone piece inspired by the orbit of the 'doomed moon' Triton (Neptune) and a meditation on lunar volcanism combining baroque melodies, EBow bass and found recordings of a crackling fire played through guitar pickups (Lunar Fire). Throughout this intricately layered and beautifully crafted album McPhee draws on a wide range of influences from Kosmische Muzik and Dub to Stoner/Doom Rock, British Folk and underground electronic music, and the result is both intoxicatingly atmospheric and sonically inventive. ‘Astral Gold’ was mastered and cut by Anne Taegert at Dubplates & Mastering in Berlin and is pressed on 180g heavyweight vinyl. ‘Astral Gold’ follows Dean McPhee’s recent appearances this year on several well received compilation albums ‘I Thought I Told You: A Yorkshire Tribute to Michael Chapman’ on the Tompkins Square label, ‘Ballads of Seduction, Fertility & Ritual Slaughter’ released by Wasistdas, and Folklore Tapes’ limited edition cassette ‘A Web of Braided Willow (The Folklore of the Wickerman)’. "His take on the late folk guitarist’s ‘Caddo Lake’ could have you believing the pinch of callous on string was birdsong – a meditative gem" (Noel Gardner, The Quietus) "Magpahi's synth-drizzled Maypole, Dean McPhee's Sunset and Meg Baird's Willow's Song are particularly gorgeous" (Jude Rogers. The Guardian) "An excellent new single from UK guitarist Dean McPhee...the A-side is an echo-laden slice of smoldering instrumental guitar, pulling at the mind like taffy and living up to its cosmic title" (Raven Sings the Blues) "Absolutely lovely stuff; shimmering, gorgeous, delicate electric guitar playing of the very highest quality

Two longstanding electronic legends, Steve Bug reunites with frequent collaborator Cle for the three-track ‘It Just Happened EP’ on Nu Groove.

The German tastemaker and Poker Flat label boss has helped define a plethora of electronic sub genres through his modern releases and expansive DJ sets. From early LPs ‘Volksworld’ and ‘Da Minimal Funk’, to later works ‘Traffic Signs’ and ‘Never Ending Winding Roads’, Bug’s futuristic vision is apparent throughout his experimental releases.

Joined once again by Cle, a fellow veteran of the German rave scene, the pair return to the cult NYC label with three striking originals following previous release ‘Let It Go / Suitcase In A Box’. The EP’s lead, ‘It Just Happened’ features breathy synths and acidic loops that harken back to an era of underground house, immediately nostalgic yet forward thinking in its technique.

‘Crew Thing’ and ‘House Music Transcends’ follow suit, both teeming with energy as the two producers show off their unique creative process through sound.

Ploy kicks off the year with the third release on his Deaf Test imprint with his own strain of club rattling 4/4 house music.

The A side - Vortex (stripped mix) - rolls out an infectious three note bassline, rumbling alongside seven minutes of cranky arps and sharp risers with a minute long breakdown providing the only respite amidst the unrelenting groove. Tech house through Ploy’s weirdo lens.

Vocal chops and slapping percussion feature on Vortex (busy mix), deftly layered over the pounding U.S garage drums and explosive hits. A main room roller for the peak hours.

In Your Head races along a galvanic bassline and guttural techno synths, complemented by an earworm vocal hook (a ploy signature). Rude UK tech house business.

Eyez On U is a ‘tough as nails’ progressive drum workout. Functional club gear with bags of groove and industrial strength breaks, slapping you around the dancefloor.

Sending winds down the 5 tracker with sultry r&b vocals floating over hazy synths, glossy strings and a dusty drum groove. A nod to Detroit and the house music that has informed his work for the past decade.

Written, produced and mixed by S. Smith
Additional mixing from Thomas Bulwer on Vortex and In Your Head
Mastered by Beau Thomas

Warehouse find!

Since emerging in the early 2000s with releases on the seminal Merck label, Proswell (Joseph Misra) has proven to be one of the most original voices in IDM. People Are Giving And Receiving Things At Incredible Speeds (PAGARTAIS), his debut on Sheffield's Central Processing Unit, is another Proswell record which overflows with creative energy. Containing five widescreen electronic epics, PAGARTAIS showcases some of the most ambitious work in the discographies of both artist and label.

The core sonic palette of PAGARTAIS is one schooled in the IDM and electronica sounds of imprints like Rephlex Records, B12 and Skam. These tracks are helmed by thick washes of keys, an array of playful synth tones and drums so deft it's sometimes hard to tell whether they have been programmed or played live. However, across almost forty minutes of music here Proswell explodes preconceptions about genre and form, his music gleefully jumping from one new sound to the next while assimilating electro, prog, computer game music, post-jazz and pretty much everything in between.

Opener 'PAGARTAIS I' sets the tone for the rest of the record. This is a track which never sits still - beginning with a distorted melee of drums that comes off like a strange new version of breakbeat, 'PAGARTAIS I' moves through some thrillingly idiosyncratic takes on Rephlex-school IDM, stargazing Detroit electro and The Comet Is Coming's futurist electronic jazz across its near-ten-minute runtime. Following number 'PAGARTAIS II' is no less impressive, referencing the hyper-modern computer sounds of Iglooghost and Kai Whiston while containing a driving opening section which could have soundtracked one of the legendary Wipeout games.

Although this fabulously unpredictable record often zips along at high speeds, Proswell is also able to dial things back when he needs to. Indeed, the second half of PAGARTAIS finds him slowing down a tad in order to deliver some of the album's most atmospheric material - 'PAGARTAIS III' blends cutting-edge electronics with sonorous jazz harmonies and fizzing improvised lead lines, the mysterious 'PAGARTAIS IV' is a sort of freeform variation on the maximalist, colourful electronica of Galaxy Garden-era Lone, and the slinking computerised Braindance number 'PAGARTAIS V' recalls Calum Gunn's recent CPU drop Addenda.

Really, though, none of these comparisons quite do justice to the inventive capacity of this music - Proswell's in a lane of his own here. An incredibly innovative fusion record that takes in IDM, prog, computer music, electro and plenty more besides, People Are Giving And Receiving Things At Incredible Speeds (PAGARTAIS) is the sound of a unique musical mind in full flight.

RIYL: Calum Gunn, Kai Whiston, Iglooghost, Rustie, Bogdan Raczynski

Following her contribution to this Spring’s Gudu & Friends Vol. 1 compilation, Lady Blacktronika steps out with a full EP for Peggy Gou’s Gudu label.

Whether operating as Lady Blacktronika or her Femanyst alias, Akua Grant has built a deserved reputation as one of house and techno’s most daring and unique artists - one that dates back 25 years now, when she first debuted as a vocalist.

“House and techno” can be a cliched catch-all term, but in Grant’s case, she really has explored the extremes of both sides. Her early Lady Blacktronika work, when she earned the nickname The First Lady of Beatdown, saw her produce and narrate a style of deep house that was both sensitive and transgressive, while as Femanyst, she explores some of techno’s darkest corners, all distorted kicks and serrated edges.

Her EP for Gudu kicks off with some serious intent: ‘Baby I Got It’ chops its vocals rough and raw, pairing them with marching drums and the sort of idiosyncratic synth-work that feels like a Blacktronika signature at this point. ‘Sing the Blues’ and ‘Hold My Hand’ take things smoother, but without ever deferring to type — as ever with Grant’s music, she works with such sleight of hand that it’s easy to skip back three minutes previous and wonder how the hell we got here. Her tracks are just that hypnotic and hallucinatory.

Closing the EP, Octo Octa provides a remix of ‘Hold My Hand’ that extends things to a full 12 minutes (note: slightly shorter on the vinyl due to time constraints), taking us out with crushed percs and held pads over some undeniable drum work.

This EP marks the final release of Gudu’s busiest year to date, with music on the label in 2023 coming from Special Request, Matisa, Mogwaa, Hiver, Matrefakt, DMX Krew, Dukwa, Brain de Palma, Lady Blacktronika, Salamanda and Closet Yi.

Musique Infinie is the collaborative project of Manuel Oberholzer a.k.a. Feldermelder and Noémi Büchi.Their album »Earth«, released through the Hallow Ground label, is based on a spontaneously composed live score for Alexander Dovzhenko’s groundbreaking 1930 silent movie »Zemlya« (»Earth«) created for the 24th edition of the VIDEOEX festival for experimental film.

Frequently cited as a masterpiece of early 20th century filmmaking, the movie deals with the collectivisation of Ukraine’s agriculture. The Swiss duo complemented it with atmospherically rich electronic soundscapes that are both deeply immersive and highly evocative. As a stand-alone music release, the two-piece »Earth« album captures the essence of Büchi and Oberholzer’s collaboration that is marked by mutual trust and musical versatility that puts them in a state of »togetherness trance,« as they call it.

Oberholzer has been highly productive as a composer, musician, sound designer, and installation artist in recent years, releasing a slew of solo albums as well as a variety of collaboration records with artists such as Sara Oswald and Julian Sartorius. Büchi has recently debuted as a solo composer and sound artist working with electroacoustic techniques to create a »symphonic maximalism for the end of the world,« as she dubs it.

Both are prolific and versatile artists with a penchant for working conceptually, however their collaboration as Musique Infinie is an improvisational and thus by design an intuitive one.

Their sessions start with an exchange on emotions and thoughts rather than theoretical questions or aesthetic debates. When they get to work—often for several hours—they rarely talk.

They approached »Earth« the same way, improvising freely together and using only a few select samples from the film’s original score in the process. Their open-ended approach is marked by an aesthetic ambivalence that perfectly corresponds with the movie’s own inherent contradictions.

Dovzhenko approached his socio-political subject with poetic imagery and philosophical rigour, juxtaposing notions of traditionality with the depiction of modernity.

Büchi and Oberholzer accordingly work with motives that at o ce seem anthemic and elegiac, working with sounds and musical motives that evoke a sense of familiarity in one moment before transforming into something futuristic and uncanny in the next. Their score for »Zemlya« is not to be understood as a mere interpretation of the movie, but rather a re-narration or even re-negotiation of its aesthetic and emotional qualities under their very own terms. »Earth« is an album that concisely depicts what is at the core of the duo’s musical partnership

It was winter. Six Parts Seven had returned to Ohio after touring out to Washington State, to record Casually Smashed to Pieces. There was down time between the recording and the actual release of that album in January 2007, and we were rehearsing, playing local shows, and collaborating, with most of us involved in other projects to keep the momentum going (Mike w/ Talons, Al w/ Beaten Awake), but the one we all came together over was recording an album with Joey Beltram, the songwriter behind Goodmorning Valentine, a local band we shared players with, a band we deeply admired. The music on Kissing Distance came together over two weekend days. There were a lot of people around; 6P7 and GMV players coming and going from the Saint Ledger House. There were handles of whiskey, there was weed, stacks of Marlboro Reds for the ones still dragging butts. We all went 'dancing' at Thursday's, in Akron, Ohio, on Saturday night. Not sure how we were productive the following day. Chalk that one up to relative youth. Over those two days, songs were cut without any prior rehearsal time. None of us remember how the idea came up. In hindsight, it seems inevitable. The first song on the album, "Mediation in D," had been written a couple of years before, and was the decided spark that set the fire blazing: for both bands, this song was the starting point, an invitation to take things further, to expand, combining players from both bands, our 'toolbox' had increased in size from a single hammer to a toolbox. Everything came easily at this point. "Drunk from the Bottle," is the first of the one-take/one mic songs: an SM58 used for both vocal and guitar, making it impossible to over-think anything: You got the version, or you did not, that simple. "Instrumental #2," is the last full/core band recording by Six Parts Seven. The first piece in our catalog written/arranged by Tim Gerak. This song would have been developed on our follow-up to Casually Smashed to Pieces. Alas, an album never came to be. The ache in this is real. It's there in the bass guitar, tuned high and open, played with a slide, and utilizing one of Jamie Stillman's pre- Earthquaker Devices fuzz pedals. "Lonely Daughter," is another one-take/one-mic song, notable for the lead-guitar, played by James Matthew Haas, who overdubbed his part, months later, standing alone on the deck at Joey's folks place, playing to the moonlight, making magic...

2023 Repress

Frank Maston’s Tulips is a sample-ready film score to the best 70s movie never made. Originally a super-limited self-release on his Phonoscope label in late 2017, Tulips has already become incredibly sought-after. Be With were introduced to Maston by mutual friends Aquarium Drunkard and it didn’t take long before we decided this modern classic deserved a reissue.

Inspired by the deep-grooving soundtracks of Italian cinema - think Morricone, Umiliani and Alessandroni - Maston conceived the entire Tulips project as a continuation of these revered works. Frank designed the artwork and made two 16mm films to accompany the music: “It wasn’t just the LP… it was kind of a whole vibe I was trying to create. Not really trying to emulate the things that influenced me but more trying to make something that could sit alongside those records on a shelf. I’m still very proud of the project.”

There’s a distinct library music feel too, with wiry organ, spacey keyboards and loping 60s guitar hinting at KPM and DeWolfe. Like the best library music, Tulips creates a cinematic universe through sound alone, evoking moving images in the listener’s technicolour imagination. It turns out that was accidentally on purpose: “I was discovering a lot of library music for the first time… listening to a composer’s entire catalog or finding all this obscure stuff. I wasn’t entirely conscious of the influence until I started making this music and realized I was channeling the vibe. That’s when I began focusing more on weaving melodic themes throughout the record to make it function more like a soundtrack”.

Tulips was recorded between 2015 and 2017 in a small studio in a village called Zwaag in Holland, during downtime from Frank’s touring duties with Jacco Gardner’s band. “Tulips” comes from the title of the very first demo he made in Holland, it was the first thing that came to mind. Makes sense.

Recording in Europe with some very European influences in mind, Frank wanted to eschew any American influences. But we can still feel the studio wizardry of the likes of Brian Wilson and Harry Nilsson in there somewhere. A psychedelic bedroom-pop song-cycle, full of hypnotic hooks and dusty drums, Tulips manages to sound charmingly homemade yet wholly widescreen.

Dreamy opener “Swans” is an exquisite soul instrumental and recalls the soft-psych of Koushik, which Be With loves of course. Tropicalia influences abound in the cool and breezy “New Danger” and the KPM-references are loud and proud on the lush organ pop of “Old Habits”. Fast-paced “Chase Theme No. 1” manages to be both tense and laid back, decorated by acid-drenched spaghetti Western guitars. The glorious Gainsbourg-esque melancholia of “Infinite Bliss” is all gauzy flutes and happy-sad vocalizing and the title is almost perfect: it’s bliss, no question; *if only* it went on forever. Side A closes with “Evening”, a subtle bossa nova beat thing. Gorgeous.

Side B opens with the heat-shimmer guitars of “Rain Dance”, evoking an unreleased Byrds or Buffalo Springfield backing track. Yes, it’s that good. “Sure Thing” is music to accompany an elevator ride you never want to end, but in a good way! The ornate “Garçon Manqué” is as beautiful as the instrumentals on Pet Sounds (think “Let’s Go Away For A While”) and the wistful “Turning In” starts like a stroll in the park before Maston introduces a scorched-Earth guitar solo that would startle if it wasn’t so pitch-perfect. “Chase Theme No. 2” is a briefer, more keening counterpart to what we hear on side A. The head-nod bass-drums-keys funk of “Hues” rounds out this staggeringly assured set; still opening each phrase with a plaintive strum, but using vibrato and heavy reverb to accent the electric organ melody. Sublime.

All these top drawer musical references might sound like just more of the usual release notes hyperbole, but there’s a reason that this still-young LP already changes hands for big money. It really is that good. Of course that first pressing didn’t hang around for long and Frank’s regularly been asked about a re-press pretty much ever since.

Re-issuing Tulips on Be With made sense to Frank “because the record would fit in so well with the catalogue”. Having already delved into the archives of KPM and Themes, and beginning to do the same with Coloursound and Selected Sounds, the collaboration “just makes sense and seems inevitable”. We agree.

Frank wasn’t sure a record of instrumentals with obscure soundtrack references would be an easy sell when it was originally released, and was surprised when Tulips turned out to be exactly what some people wanted to hear. We reckon its timeless beauty ensures that it’ll *always* have an audience.

The record was originally cut to be played at 45rpm, a technical quirk that grants the home listener the opportunity to go deeper, for longer. Played at 33rpm, the more languid unfurling of the tracks proves just as wonderful a trip. As a psilocybin-soaked case study from Aquarium Drunkard back in January of 2019 describes, some of the songs sound as if they were intended to be heard that way. The slower speed allowing the listener to step inside and perhaps even “crack the code” of the music’s meaning.

Mastered for this vinyl reissue by Simon Francis and featuring alternative burnt orange artwork from Maston himself, this Be With pressing is limited to just 500 copies. Hypnagogic it may be, but please don’t sleep.

You just moved to the big city, you end up at a party where you don't know anyone and someone walks up to you and asks: "Hey, are you alone here?". That is exactly the feeling that Porcelain id describes on their debut album Bibi:1, short for the Arabic pet name Habibi. Porcelain id is the pseudonym under which Hubert Tuyishime (they/them/their) has been unleashing unique songs since 2020.

The album - inspired by their move from a quiet provincial town to Antwerp - is the soundtrack to walking into city traffic during rush hour and trusting to get out of the chaos in one piece. It is an ode to exciting encounters with complete strangers and to the friends you can come home to afterwards. A story about being a stranger in a city you've romanticized for so long, the rejection that comes with it, and the false nostalgia with which you look back on it all later on.

At first hearing, the completely English-language Bibi:1 may seem like a brusque farewell to the autobiographical intimacy and lo-fi singer-songwriter music on the previously released EPs Mango and Reprise, and especially on songs like Vlaanderen. But to Porcelain id it feels like an organic evolution. One towards more abstraction, experimentation and electronics, but never detached, and still building on the core of Porcelain id.

The new sound is the result of an intense collaboration with producer and partner in crime Youniss Ahamad, who, despite their different musical backgrounds, immediately felt challenged after Porcelain id's legendary elevator pitch: 'I want to make something that is situated between Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Yeezus by Kanye West'.

Together they drew the blueprint for Bibi:1 in Youniss' home studio. Track by track, without looking back. A sporadic, but rigid process that added to the intensity of the album. In the studio, the songs were taken to a higher level. The two invited a pack of talented friends and young musicians to the studio to add parts, a stark contrast to the solitary approach of previous EPs. Aram Abgaryan (recording engineer/synths/vocals), Nard Houdmeyers (guitar), Tim Caramin (drums), David Idrisov (bass), Alban Sarens (sax) and Emma Hessels (vocals) came by. Aram Santy was at the controls during the mixing sessions.

The result sounds like the ultimate symbiosis of Porcelain id and Youniss. Lofi, but ambitious. Fragile, but rough. Poppy, but disruptive. Sometimes challenging. Then welcoming again. Sometimes even danceable. Each song forms a small vignette that is part of a diverse, but coherent unity. Adam Coming Home and Low Poly are closest to the melancholy of Porcelain id's earlier work, while Lights! strikes a new path. First single Man Down, on the other hand, is inspired by the Antwerp students who drown every year and sounds like a wandering nightly stroll through the city. For Brilliant, David Idrisov was asked to 'play bass as if Chet Baker were not a trumpet player, but a bass player', a bizarre assignment that he accomplished with verve. And Cellophane flirts with emo trap and was sung with raspberries between the teeth, to simulate the effect of grills.

2023 Repress

Maston’s Darkland is a breezy collection of the material from the Tulips sessions that didn’t make it on to the original LP. Originally a digital-only release for those in the know in the autumn of 2018, after re-issuing Tulips in 2020 it made too much sense for Be With to give Darkland a vinyl release.

Like Tulips, Darkland was recorded mostly in Hoorn, in the Netherlands, between 2015-2017 during downtime from Frank’s touring duties with Jacco Gardner’s band. Bits were also done in Los Angeles on some extended trips back home.

The collection plays like an alternate view of Maston’s instant modern classic Tulips; a companion piece to the LP proper with similar mixture of shorter themes and more full length tracks. As Frank Maston explains: “I think Darkland is the shadow of Tulips in a way… what it might’ve been in a different universe. But the heart of Tulips beats in these songs as well and they evoke the same memories and feelings for me. I see my process playing out across these songs - lots of experimentation and trying out new techniques and sounds and just sort of going for it.”

Frank goes on: “It was all from the same pool of material, like 30+ ideas. I was making a lot of little demos… some would be more fleshed out and become songs and others would just be a cool riff and not go anywhere. When I started trying to form it all into an LP I went through all the sessions and ideas and collected the ones I thought were the most fleshed out and cohesive together as a whole. There were a fair amount of songs that were finished and in hindsight really should have been on Tulips (like what would’ve been the title track). And the rest of these songs are either very early versions of tunes that ended up on Tulips or some cool ideas that just ended up being dead ends. It definitely shows how wide my net was in the beginning before I narrowed the record down stylistically.”

Darkland opens with its ornate 39 second title-track before striding into “Tulips”, that full-length title-track that never was. It’s a real head-nod, percussive-rich electric piano stunner that would’ve been a comfortable standout on the album proper. But now this “downlifting” gem is given ample room to shine on this record.

The funky organ-led bass and drums workout “Immaculate Conception” will keep your neck gently snapping while MPC fiends go reaching for their sampler. And that’s gospel. “Love Theme No 3” cuts a breathtakingly stylish vibra-slapped swathe through the middle of the opening side before we’re startled by the pronounced bass and twinkling percussion of “The Owl In Daylight”. Charming digi-drums underpin the wonky synth (quiet-)banger “Innovative Patterns” which has a lovely melodic switch-up in the final third before the tempo (and hairs on your neck) rise on the faintly creepy yet imminently groovy “Osiris”. The gorgeously soft-focus “Groove Experiment No 3” closes out the first half in slow-mo wonderment.

The lushly melancholic “Raincloud” ushers in side B before the emotionally-stirring “Phonic” taps at the door, coming on like the long lost sister to Pet Sounds’ “Let’s Go Away For A While”. Next up, the swooning beauty “Love Theme No 2” keenly sways in front of you, growing ever more insistent and hypnotic. The too-short “Italian Summer” conjures the same flirtatious imagery as the title hints at whilst “Endless” is a fascinating “piano-pella” alternative version to “Rain Dance” from Tulips. “Wonder Theme” has a nostalgic, exotic 60s swing and album closer “Willow” is a hushed, campfire folk gem. The gently circular strumming is just magical.

Speaking to Aquarium Drunkard back in 2019 about the sessions that became Tulips, Frank noted: “I was really surprised by the lack of sunlight during my first winter in Holland, so I would call it Darkland which then became the name of the first demo I wrote during that time. It was also the working title of the record when I first started writing. Some are full songs that didn’t make the cut (including what would have been the title track), some are just ideas that I never finished.”

Whilst we were working on Darkland’s vinyl release Frank explained more specifically about the music that didn’t make it on to Tulips: “When I was putting together the tracklisting for Tulips I was already thinking that whatever didn’t make it onto the LP would be cool to release eventually somehow. The response to Tulips has been so passionate over the years that it’s nice to be able to offer another piece of that world. And for me personally it’s amazing to have more of my work out there in the world. Most common bit of feedback was that many of these songs should have been on Tulips. The odd friend says it’s much better than Tulips.”

Just like Tulips before it, Simon Francis’s vinyl mastering for Darkland has been cut at 45rpm so you can trip out to this as well at a woozy 33 1/3. The artwork too has been designed by Frank himself as a literal visual continuation of the Tulips cover.

We couldn’t possibly say whether Darkland is better than Tulips, and luckily we don’t have to decide.

2024 Repress

Get Up! Time to release this beast on 7".

Breakwater’s earth-shattering “Release The Beast” is unquestionably the standout song from their 1980 funk masterpiece LP Splashdown. It also came out as a now-hen’s-teeth-rare 7" in the same year and when it came to putting it out as a 7" again we just had to do it in a miniature version of the Splashdown sleeve. It’s one of the best album cover shoots of all time.

For the b-side, we’ve backed Breakwater’s biggest track with Be With’s favourite: the quietly majestic gem “Let Love In”, another winner from the same LP.

Possessing a sound and a feel that was lightyears ahead of its time, “Release The Beast” is a showcase for Breakwater’s phenomenal power-funk capabilities. The energy is astounding. It rips out of the grooves on a deep funk tip, with speaker-smashing, room-shaking drums competing with distorted funk-rock guitar, bumping bass and space-age synths. But it’s not without its compellingly haunting elements too. What else can we say? It’s a genius piece of music.

And, yes, of course this is the tune Daft Punk sampled for their 2005 track “Robot Rock”. Let’s be blunt, they lifted the Philly act’s funk-rock vamping pretty much wholesale. But to be fair to them we wouldn’t have messed with the perfection of the original either and those Parisians shone a much-needed spotlight on an innovative band from the halcyon period of post-disco funk.

On the flip, “Let Love In” is a smooth, easy glide that demonstrates Breakwater’s superb, sophisticated musicianship. The tight horn section and irresistible bass make for an undeniable groove. However, it also reveals a depth to their lyricism that’s often overlooked. In these dark days, the sentiment of the opening lines is truly one to we should all take to heart:

“It feels good to be friends with everyone, Walk around and the feeling’s in the air, No more hate can’t you see, This is really for me.”

A feel good hit for the summer if ever there was one.

Remastered for this vinyl reissue, we’re delighted to present this modern soul double-sider. Essential in every way.

London soul star Jordan Mackampa returns with a new album titled Welcome Home, Kid! out 16 February 2024 via AWAL. This new music sees Jordan come back to his love of R&B, soul, funk and gospel with references to Dru Hill and Blackstreet, producing a new sound that nods to his earlier soundcloud works and the nostalgia of his childhood. It's brazen and bold and presents an incredibly assured artist that is no longer afraid to show off their Blackness, queerness, or sexual expression in all their forms. Getting to this place has taken Jordan decades of growth, patience & gruelling lessons to reach this state and now he can stand in his Blackness proudly. This album tells the story of how he got to this place of self-worth and the stories of the varying complex but beautiful perspectives about the Black experience. He is open and honest about sex, intimacy, imposter syndrome and how he navigates healthy love, toxic heartbreak, friendships and forgiveness. The core theme of this record is introspection with Jordan explaining, “This was a big theme for me in writing a lot of these songs because no one else has lived life in my shoes, I really had to take other peoples’ opinions & stories out of the writing and put myself at the forefront of everything. Which in turn, made me put the guitar down more and stand centre stage naked in a way. This new album for me feels even more personal now - I use more self language of “I” over “we” because all of these stories are about me and my life in even more depth than the first record touched upon, whilst covering more bases either through my own first person story telling of something current I’m dealing with or a past situation I’m using music to heal through. The debut was me figuring out shit, this album is me putting the last puzzle piece on the board.”

Maya Youssef is a multi-award winning musician and composer from Syria. She is hailed as ‘queen of the qanun,’ the 78-stringed Middle Eastern plucked zither. Maya’s intense and thoughtful music is rooted in the Arabic classical tradition but forges pathways into Western classical and contemporary styles. It explores the emotional and healing qualities of music.

The 'Finding Home' is a journey through memories and the essence of home both within and without in the search of that place of peace, comfort, and healing which manifests in everyone in a unique way.

Maya wrote this album during a time of spiritual awakening. Over time she has come to accept the loss of her homeland and in the process of grieving (which she explored in her Album Syrian Dreams in 2018) Maya has found a much greater sense of home in the most spiritual sense.

“As any Syrian will tell you, there is this overwhelming sense of loss and an overwhelming sense of grief. Because that world which existed before the war started, despite it naturally having problems, was a beautiful world with a booming economy, artistic scene, film festivals and visiting international artists, Damascus was the third safest city in the world. The loss of that world was heart wrenching and, in a way, steered me towards a universal concept of home.

The main trigger that made me create Syrian Dreams was the Syrian war and the loss of my homeland. And it's only by embarking on that spiritual journey of constant meditation and of finding home within God and within myself that I started to feel consolable and started to feel that I have my own home within me. I felt that the world is my home and humanity is my home. With my latest album I want to take people through a transformative journey, where they land in that place of home for them. No matter how that will look like for each person.” Maya Youssef

glass beach's debut album the first glass beach album is the first album from glass beach. That's a good place to start, but the album's plain & descriptive title does little to explain exactly what goes on in the hour-long adventure contained therein.the first glass beach album was initially self-released by the band in Spring 2019, but it's roots date back to as early as 2015 - songwriter & band leader j mclendon started demoing songs for the album when they first moved to Los Angeles & spent three years polishing those first demos into these songs with bassist Jonas Newhouse & drummer William White. On their Bandcamp page, the band describes their sound as the accumulation of jazz, new wave, synth music, and emo distorted through the lens of punk. The songs that make up the first glass beach album are ambitious, theatrical and chaotic. Abandoning genre limitations makes glass beach's talent for songwriting all the more apparent - mathy guitar leads, catchy drum grooves and the constant interplay of horns, synths, and even the intermittent theremin set the perfect scene for j's stunning vocal performance, which can shift from a charming falsetto to the lead of a sing-a-long in an instant.

Remastered and first worldwide release (previously only limited availability in Iceland) Since first bursting onto the global punk scene in 2018, Icelandic trio GRÓA have thrilled audiences across the world by fully embracing an unruly freedom. Made up of sisters Hrafnhildur Einars Maríudóttir (aka Hrabba, age 22) and Karólína Einars Maríudóttir (aka Karó, age 20) and their childhood friend Fríða Björg Pétursdóttir (also 22), the Reykjavík-bred band merge elements of post-punk and noise-rock and art-pop with absolute abandon, arriving at an explosive yet magnificently arranged sound unlike any other. A local favorite, the Icelandic government has recently been sponsoring worldwide travel to share GRÓA with the rest of the world and in 2023 they have played shows around the world including in UK, Western and Eastern Europe as well as USA dates including Washington DC, Seattle, Chicago and New York City. They have recently recorded an in studio performance at KEXP which will be broadcast worldwide in January 2024 and more worldwide touring is planned for early 2024 to support the vinyl and CD releases. Listing iconoclasts like Sonic Youth, PJ Harvey, and Bikini Kill among their longtime inspirations, the Icelandic punk band GRÓA pursued their experimental impulses with more intensity and confidence on Í Glimmerheimi, matching the album’s shapeshifting sound with a surrealist but emotionally potent form of lyrical storytelling. “It’s about a girl who’s trying to escape the world she’s stuck in—this glitter world that looks so good on the surface, but it’s not where she’s meant to be,” says Karó in discussing the album’s concept. “There’s a song called ‘Jetpackstelpan,’ or ‘Jetpack Girl,’ where she leaves the world on a jetpack and flies away to the moon, and she’s never coming back again.” Opening on the kaleidoscopic rhythms and rowdy call-and-response vocals of “Fullkomið” (“Perfect”), Í Glimmerheimi brings that narrative to frenetic and dazzling life, ultimately closing out on “Skrímslið er að ná þér” (“The monster is getting you”): a serpentine and strangely mesmerizing epic whose swirling textures, otherworldly vocals, and sparse yet complex guitar tones illuminate the immense scope and depth of GRÓA’s artistry.

The music of Atlanta trio Omni has always swung fast and hit hard. And Souvenir, their fourth album and second for Sub Pop, packs their biggest punch yet. Inactive during the majority of the pandemic-the longest downtime in their history-they approached this recording with lots of pent-up energy. Guitarist Frankie Broyles, singer/bassist Philip Frobos, and drummer Chris Yonker converted their creative fuel into sharp, driving songs that land immediately, sporting chopping riffs, staccato beats, and wiry melodies. Why does Souvenir sound so sharp? Because each track is a compact unit that stands on its own, reflecting the time and place in which it was created. That's why Omni called the album Souvenir: it's a collection of audio objects, a stash of musical miniatures. Think of it as a family photo album, a binder of rare playing cards, a shoebox holding precious gems. Take "Plastic Pyramid," the first song Omni wrote after coming out of lockdown. Filled with twists and turns, it's a journey unto itself, charged by clanging chords, spinning rhythm, and Frobos trading lines with Izzy Glaudini of Automatic, with whom Omni toured with last fall. (Glaudini sings on two other Souvenir tracks, the first guest vocalist the band has collaborated with). Or take opener "Exacto," a slicing web of intertwined guitar and bass. Its razor-fine notes and syncopated beats perfectly match pointillist Frobos lyrics such as "Exacto, de facto, concise, quite right"-a line that could well be an Omni mantra. The precision and clarity of Souvenir comes from some new Omni developments. For one, this is their first album with Yonker as their full-time drummer, and his forceful playing adds exclamation points to every pointed moment on Souvenir. In addition, the trio worked with Atlanta-based engineer Kristofer Sampson for the first time. Sampson pushed the band to a higher degree of power, with Frobos's vocals more upfront in his pulsing mix and the rest of the music leaping out of the speakers. You might notice that Frobos' singing is a bit more emotional and even nostalgic this time around. In crafting his vocals, he was inspired by the early college radio rock of formative favorites like REM, the Cure, and Big Audio Dynamite-the kind of bands whose melodies could have been top 40 hits in an alternative universe. The lyrics on Souvenir are also by turns funny, absurd, and even cryptic. A wry humor has always coursed through Omni's songs, and this time, it comes in shades of both dark and light. In "Granite Kiss," an "astronomical" love story concludes with the hope that "we can decay together," while in "PG," a romantic walk in the park includes a rose-colored mugging. Immediacy rushes throughout every moment of Souvenir, making it the band's most powerful album to date. Omni has truly crafted a musical keepsake-a set of songs that you'll want to keep close, an aural memento you'll cherish for the rest of time.

The UK avant-garde’s rising star, Bristol-based multi-instrumentalist Bingo Fury is announcing his debut album ‘Bats Feet For A Widow’ due out 16 February via tastemaking label state51. Filled with noir elegance, ‘Bats Feet For A Widow’ is an album that revels in extremity. The album was recorded in a local church in Bristol, taking inspiration from the musician’s complex relationship with his strong religious upbringing. The influence of the church building resonates throughout the album.

‘Bats Feet For A Widow’ is full of strange experiments, obscure references, offbeat one-liners, heart-breaking sentimentality and surging creativity. At the heart of it all is Bingo Fury’s crooning bass vocal, lending a vivid and slyly humorous voice to universal themes of love and pain.

Alongside the album announcement, Bingo Fury is releasing new single ‘Leather Sky’, a tender piano ballad charged with real emotion and a heartbreaking cornet refrain played by band member Harry Furniss. In this cinematic track full of paralysing despair, the musician sings: “You know I’m trying to give you everything / It all gets in the way.”

Bingo Fury on the single: “Leather Sky is a difficult song to describe succinctly. It’s about being separated from someone against both of your will. Somebody close to me became very unwell and communication became restricted, almost non-existent. The song took shape during that period. A few of the surreal lines ended up becoming reality.”

Although very much a solo songwriter, Bingo Fury’s compositional process relies on contributions from his entire band - bassist Megan Jenkins and drummer Henry Terrett have been playing together since their teens. In one of their various incarnations, they recruited local avant-jazz legend, cornet player Harry ‘Iceman’ Furniss, with guitarist and percussionist Rafi Cohen later completing the line-up.


The album announcement follows the release of the cacophonous single ‘Power Drill’, which garnered praise from The Line Of Best Fit and DIY. This comes after Bingo Fury’s debut EP, ‘Mercy’s Cut’, that came out last year to an abundance of critical acclaim from the likes of BBC 6 Music, The Quietus, Loud & Quiet, Clash, as well as earning himself a spot on the NME Top 100. Filled with rich, cinematic allure, the EP is both beautiful and unsettling and underlines Bingo Fury’s complete abundance of compositional ideas.

The UK avant-garde’s rising star, Bristol-based multi-instrumentalist Bingo Fury is announcing his debut album ‘Bats Feet For A Widow’ due out 16 February via tastemaking label state51. Filled with noir elegance, ‘Bats Feet For A Widow’ is an album that revels in extremity. The album was recorded in a local church in Bristol, taking inspiration from the musician’s complex relationship with his strong religious upbringing. The influence of the church building resonates throughout the album.

‘Bats Feet For A Widow’ is full of strange experiments, obscure references, offbeat one-liners, heart-breaking sentimentality and surging creativity. At the heart of it all is Bingo Fury’s crooning bass vocal, lending a vivid and slyly humorous voice to universal themes of love and pain.

Alongside the album announcement, Bingo Fury is releasing new single ‘Leather Sky’, a tender piano ballad charged with real emotion and a heartbreaking cornet refrain played by band member Harry Furniss. In this cinematic track full of paralysing despair, the musician sings: “You know I’m trying to give you everything / It all gets in the way.”

Bingo Fury on the single: “Leather Sky is a difficult song to describe succinctly. It’s about being separated from someone against both of your will. Somebody close to me became very unwell and communication became restricted, almost non-existent. The song took shape during that period. A few of the surreal lines ended up becoming reality.”

Although very much a solo songwriter, Bingo Fury’s compositional process relies on contributions from his entire band - bassist Megan Jenkins and drummer Henry Terrett have been playing together since their teens. In one of their various incarnations, they recruited local avant-jazz legend, cornet player Harry ‘Iceman’ Furniss, with guitarist and percussionist Rafi Cohen later completing the line-up.


The album announcement follows the release of the cacophonous single ‘Power Drill’, which garnered praise from The Line Of Best Fit and DIY. This comes after Bingo Fury’s debut EP, ‘Mercy’s Cut’, that came out last year to an abundance of critical acclaim from the likes of BBC 6 Music, The Quietus, Loud & Quiet, Clash, as well as earning himself a spot on the NME Top 100. Filled with rich, cinematic allure, the EP is both beautiful and unsettling and underlines Bingo Fury’s complete abundance of compositional ideas.

German melodic extreme metal act FAR BEYOND mark their return with their third studio album, The End of My Road, on February 16 via their new label home Prosthetic Records. FAR BEYONDüs latest full-length is an ambitious and fastidiously curated amalgam of melodeath, symphonic and power metal, covering themes of courage and heart in the face of depression and hardship. Formed in the early 2000s, FAR BEYOND is the solo project of Eugen Dodenhoeft. Based in the Franconian Switzerland region of Germany, FAR BEYONDüs history to this point has been one of slow and steady artistic progression with 2005's An Angel's Requiem and 2016's A Frozen Flame Of Ice albums showcasing Dodenhoeftüs penchant for seamlessly alternating dynamics of gothic and death metal symphonia. Lusciously complex by design, FAR BEYOND's latest album shines in its songwriting structure. Across the eight tracks, Eugen compiled up to 30 layers of vocals, synthesisers and orchestral textures. Whilst a solo endeavour at its core, The End of My Road sees collaborative guitar solos from Nathram's Lukas Grasslin as well as additional synthesiser embellishments from Ari Ahrendt on Tempus Fugit and the title track. The End of My Road was then placed in the hands of Patrick Staudle of Glaswald Studios in The Black Forest, Germany. Furthering their quest to understand the complexities of the unknown and transcend beyond the unknown, The End of My Roadüs contemplative atmospherics and concentrated sonic extremities merge seamlessly with a deft poetic touch. With Eugen adding: üThe End of My Road is my invitation to get lost in the sonic realms of FAR BEYOND and find a moment of peace and inspiration. I look forward to sharing this album with the world and hope that it touches the hearts of listeners, providing them with an unforgettable soundtrack for their own journey.

He did some time at the highly respected Juilliard Music School as a composition major in modern and avant- garde music, but don't hold that against him. He reinvented the rules as to what makes a perfect pop song, and inspired countless musicians during the formative years of punk rock, new wave, and whatever- comes- next. (Rule #1 = 'no- rules'). So here we are. Some things never change. Blink. Everything is different. Blink. Paul is still doing what he was meant to do, and his life's work is better than ever. You've got a future classic album in your hands with 'Stand Back And Take A Good Look'. And a beautiful earworm it is.

"Stand Back and Take a Good Look" by Paul Collins includes the following tracks: "In Another World", "Will You Come Through?", "Under The Spanish Sun", "How Will I Know?" and more.

Comprising accomplished musicians Roy Bar-Tour, Atzmon Avrahami and Adam Yodfat, Les Dynamites built themselves a strong following for their fresh blend of Mediterranean and classic surf rock with Balkan and Yemini folk, catching the attention of Middle Eastern groove connoisseurs Batov Record. Their debut single for the label, “Pop Oud #2”, packed enough punch, and funk, for both psych fans and break dancers. Backed by a dubwise flip by digging pioneers Radio Trip, it received support from the likes of Juno, Monolith Cocktail and Worldwide FM.

“Uzi Kinrot” takes its name from guitarists Uri Kinrot and Uzi Feinerman of Boom Pam, pioneers of today’s resurgence in Middle Eastern surf rock. Ray Bar-Tour riffs like a Klezmer-playing Dick Dale over a Balkan sousaphone bass lines and snappy drum rhythms. Towards the end, Yemen Yehudith adds a special touch of traditional wailing, raising the excitement by another notch.

Recorded, co-arranged, produced, mixed and mastered by Uri “MixMonster” Wertheim of famed funk band, The Apples, and obscure sample scientists, RadioTrip. On “Uzi Kinrot” and “Sea Gull”, the group pay tribute to the Mediterranean surf heroes who inspired them most. They continue from where the seventies funk leaning “Pop Oud #2” left off, going deeper, and reuniting the classic Mediterranean and American surf sounds with a fresh perspective, destined to earn themselves an even greater following.

"Profiler is a Nu-Metal reawakening from the mind of vocalist and guitarist Mike Evans.
This band is inspired by those who have incited change in genres, arts, and theories. It's a weight of legacy that Profiler is comfortable shouldering, backed by SharpTone Records, its home since 2020.

After starting as a solo project in Bristol, UK, Mike stepped out from the studio and onto the stage, enlisting bassist/vocalist Joe Johnson and drummer Oscar Hocking. In early 2023, Oscar departed to be replaced by Brad Ratcliffe, cementing the line-up that would forge 2024 debut album, A Digital Nowhere.

Profiler's nu-metal-grunge-alt-rock, call it what you want, is an abrasive distorted soundscape that reverently glances back to those genres' heydays. Profiler is for anyone who misses or missed the contagious nineties Seattle grunge movement or the explosion of nu-metal that dominated the 00s and the genre-bending bands they made a path for. "

A slightly revised & edited take of Death Is Not The End's Jamaican Gospel special for NTS Radio, originally broadcast for the station back in late 2016. A dusty heap of JA gospel from the 60s and early 70s. Split across two sides - all vinyl and all 45s - played through a touch of delay pedal with crackle aplenty.

Tone Def are the original Bournemouth ravers with some absolute classics released in the early 90’s on Moving Shadow. Rog from the band is also the founder of Void Acoustics, the ultimate in club and festival audio equipment, a hobby that became a huge business empire for him.

This EP was written during 1990 to 1991 and had been lost for 30 years until recently, when Rog was checking some of his old ¼” tapes that he took out of storage. These are 4 original UK acid breakbeat rave tracks, encapsulating the raw DIY ethos of the era, of kids messing about in their bedrooms, writing music with no boundaries or templates. Never heard before, never released before… until now.

Acid Boom is a sister label to the Vinyl Fanatiks family. A vehicle to release that early 90’s acid sound that would later morph into rave. High energy 303’s, 808 and 909 drum machines, synced up to rolling breakbeats. Whether music from back in the day or new music that’s been created to emulate that early warehouse sound, Acid Boom is here to take you on a rush.

The first revolutionary fracture in The Fall was the sudden departure of guitarist Martin Bramah. Commonly understood as the only viable challenger to Mark E Smith's dominance of the band, Bramah was The Fall's first singer and primary songwriter at the start. His subsequent group, Blue Orchids, was originally a reconstitution of the first recorded line-up of The Fall, without Mark, but with another slightly later Fall member, Eric McGann. After slight revisions in the lineup, Blue Orchids created a singular sound of maniacally aberrant psych on two thrilling singles - "The Flood" and "Work" - before recording one of the most imperfectly perfect debuts in what could no longer really be called 'rock and roll'. 'The Greatest Hit (Money Mountain)' eschews the frenetic energy of those singles to present itself as the greatest 'morning after the trip' albums ever - Martin and Una's wonderful explanations of the experiential backdrop to "Sun Connection" take up nearly as much space as those of all the other songs combined! Without exception, the songs are brilliant, majestic and memorable . . . plus it's possible that more covers of songs from 'The Greatest Hit' have been recorded by bands of credibility and renown than from any single Fall LP (although we're counting!), with near-contemporaneous versions arising from Fish & Roses, Slovenly, Dustdevils and Aztec Camera and many others since. Never reissued on vinyl since its 1982 release, due to objections from the WB Yeats estate for the album's musical interpretation of the author's "Mad As The Mist And Snow" (now in public domain!), this deluxe edition includes a bonus album with two unreleased pre-album demos, two further demos released only on long out-of-print cassette compilations from more than forty years ago, and scorching live set featuring several of their early songs, extensive liner notes from Martin Bramah and Una Baines, a reproduction of the original lyric fold-over booklet and (with the 2LP version), a download card. The original artwork for the album and booklet have been restored painstakingly, and as Bramah himself says, "It's better than the original." Four decades later, we're ecstatic to make this classic available again. Tiny Global Production's first album, "Awefull", is also available. A companion to this release, it contains the band's first two 7" singles, the album's four-song follow-up 12" 'Agents Of Change', and two unheard demos.

10 Year Anniversary Vinyl Release (first time vinyl pressing of Blake Mills’ debut album). Includes Hi Res Audio Download Card & Poster Foldout. BLAKE MILLS is a Grammy-nominated songwriter, guitarist, producer, and composer based in Los Angeles. In 2010, Blake’s solo career began with this self titled critically acclaimed album released only on a limited run of CDs and digitally. It became a cult favorite over the years, with 2019 marking the first time it will be pressed on vinyl. In 2015 he produced the highly acclaimed sophomore album SOUND & COLOR for ALABAMA SHAKES. The album reached #1 on Billboard charts and was nominated for six Grammys, winning Best Alternative Album, Best Engineered Album, Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song. Blake went on to produce the albums NO SHAPE for PERFUME GENIUS, DARKNESS AND LIGHT for JOHN LEGEND, WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE for DAWES, and SEMPER FEMINA foR LAURA MARLING - earning him his second Producer of the Year Grammy nomination. Blake also composed original music for DAVID O’RUSSELL’S Academy Award nominated film JOY. As a session player and sideman he has worked with BECK, CASS MCCOMBS, JACKSON BROWN, LUCINDA WILLIAMS, BAND OF HORSES, FRANK OCEAN, RANDY NEWMAN and NEIL DIAMOND, among others. RICK RUBIN and T BONE BURNETT frequently call upon his services as a guitarist, and equally enamored is ERIC CLAPTON who told Rolling Stone magazine “Blake Mills is the last guitarist I heard that I thought was phenomenal

2024 Repress

Limited edition remastered reissue of an obsure Italian Balearic Disco song produced and arranged by Victorio Pezzolla the same man behind the project "ASSO - Don't Stop" that was a big hit during early 80s in the N.Y.C. underground clubs, regularly played by Larry Levan at Paradise Garage and by David Mancuso at Loft. The plus on this limited edition reissue is that the production is directly handled by the former producer to obtain a more accurate sound compared from the first release.

People Of Earth strides into the New Year with a new project called The Elements Series. Part one welcomes some serious names, not least Detroit's ambient and techno master John Beltran who kicks off with 'Nuyorico' a joyous, chord-laced house groove laden with organic percussion. Javonntte's 'Tropical Feelings' is another of his textbook deep house cuts with whispered vocals bringing a spiritual vibe. Atlanta's main man Kai Alce does his do with the jazzy synth energy of shuffling house cut 'Benefit' (NDATL instrumental mix) then Byron The Aquarius pairs things back to dusty drums and humid chords on 'Sun Gods'. This one is only for the real heads.

In Frank Herbert’s 1973 novel Hellstrom’s Hive, the Dune writer tells of a sinister narrative surrounding the maverick scientist Nils Hellstrom, who has created subterranean Hive of 50,000 insect-human hybrid life-forms. Ultimately his plan being for the inhabitants of the Hive to usurp humanity and take over the world. The decade thus far may not have seen anything quite so daunting, but it’s provided more than its fair share of challenges. Yet in such dystopian environments, Teeth Of The Sea flourish. This band has created a kaleidoscopic inner world all its own in Hive, their sixth and most outlandish album. Fundamental to Teeth Of The Sea’s mission thus far is that this band can go anywhere and make short work of any obstacles in their path. Inspiration flowed into Hive from all dimensions, with the band’s sphere of influence expanding to take in everything from Italo-disco to minimal techno, from dubbed-out studio madness to their most brazen forays thus far into pop songwriting. Here is a headspace where the psychic charges from records by Labradford, Nurse With Wound, Vangelis, The Knife, Nine Inch Nails and John Barry can happily co-exist. Hive is more than just a transformative force from subterranean origins. It’s an alchemical headspace where monochrome animates into vivid colour. It may not be a carefully ordered insectoid militia set to overthrow society, but it’s a transmission which transcends anything Teeth Of The Sea have thus far offered in their time on Earth. Step inside Hive, if you dare

Egil Kalman has levelled up on this one; we were stunned by his last solo opus, and on ‘Forest of Tines’, the bassist/synthesist has traded the EMS Synthi 100 for the Buchla Series 200, recording at Stockholm’s illustrious Elektronmusikstudion (EMS). Here, he builds on themes he explored on his debut with a generous 20 track double album that marks firmer lines between Scandinavian folk music and contemporary electro- acoustic minimalism.

Using woody, synthesised tones that gradually open into sawing wails, Kalman suggests harmonies that lie between the 17th century polska and earlier, pre-Renaissance sounds, mimicking the tonal and textural fluctuations of strings with advanced tuning and sequencing techniques. There are plenty of artists delving into the past to unravel their identity, but Kalman’s approach is refreshingly unadulterated. He recorded the entire set on the fly, using just spring reverb to add extra texture, without overdubs or modern DAW-style layering, the Buchla 200 played almost like an acoustic instrument.

There’s a glimmer of vintage acid on the lithe ‘Dub One’, a complex, rhythmic experiment that lashes its pulses together with willowy portamento slides. And on ‘Klystron’, he absorbs warehouse techno’s architectural oomph, splaying psychedelic, reverberating ascending sequences over jagged kicks; listen carefully, and there’s something else going on in the background too, as Kalman meets his stabs with flute-like echoes. It’s a peculiar cocktail of ideas and provocations: ‘Mbira’ finds the composer shaping his synth into dusty, fluttering hits that resemble the titular Zimbabwean finger harp, and on ‘Drums’, he pipes pre-recorded percussion through the system, triggering its oscillators and helping shape its rhythmic patterns. He’s most comfortable when he’s mines a hazier past, ‘Autumn Leaves’ is a mystickal, just intoned droner that harmonises with Mattias Petersson’s awesome ‘Triangular Progressions’, and ‘Subtines’ sounds as if Kalman has deployed his instrument in a subterranean crevice, resonating his rumbles around synthetic water droplets.

If it’s uncanny court music you’re particularly interested in, there’s plenty of that too. ‘Polska’ is another sublimely hauntological Swedish folk interpolation, while closing track ‘Ocquet’ appears to blur Kalman’s ideas more thoroughly, melting folk phrasing and peaceful, uneasy drones to draw us to a neat conclusion. Soft-hearted but animated, it’s modern electronic music that isn’t afraid of employing vintage techniques to suggest new directions.

Another previously unreleased killer from the early '80s Radics / Scientist days, this one was played on dubplate by Volcano in JA and Jah Life in NY, alongside other cuts of the rhythm (also eventually to be released). This is Peter Ranking the singer, not the more well known deejay.

White vinyl, limited to 500 copies. Liam Cromby, known for his work as the lead singer and songwriter of We Are The Ocean until 2017, has today announced his forthcoming debut solo album What Can I Trust, If I Can't Trust True Love, due for release on December 1st 2023, also sharing the title track, available to stream/download worldwide now. "Drawing from my own experiences, this song is a testament to those early, fragile moments of a relationship_where every misstep feels like a fall and every kind gesture feels like flying," he explains. "Choosing to name the album after this song was instinctive, given that it was among the final tracks to be crafted. Even though it came later in the creative journey, it perfectly embodies the central theme of the album." Since revealing the first taste of new music in March, with the release of `Here I Am' - accompanied only by a contemplative, artful film featuring an elaborate dance between two performers - followed by `Breakdown', and last month, `At This Table', this new phase of his career is already off to an impressive start. With early airplay from BBC Introducing and Absolute Radio Country among others, an appearance at The Great Escape festival and sold-out headline shows across the country, Cromby was invited to play at the prestigious Black Deer Festival of Americana, and along with a full-band set, joined Brandy Clark, Drake White, Elles Bailey and Bella White for a Songwriter Session. Although recorded in a matter of days, the project was at least five years in the making.

Fresh from delivering a stellar remix on Subtle Audio, Earl Grey drops a stellar four tracker of dark and smoke-filled vibes on Rua Sound. Its a moody, doped-up trip worth taking as a scary soundtrack into the darkness with plenty of frantic, detailed precussion to lead you off the beaten track.

Brasilian Producer Apoena kicks off 2024 in style for Hudd Traxx following an impressive back catalogue of releases on labels like Jimpster's Freerange and Jus Ed's Underground Quality.

Pure Feeling opens up proceedings in a deep and hypnotic style reminiscent of Ron Trent and Chez Damier's early releases on Prescription. Rico Balanço follows in a similar vain oozing with raw Berlin vibes, which is where Apoena currently resides.

The B side features In between the beat and the title track Mystic which are melodic trippy groovers for early hour vibes. 2024 is shaping up to be a big year for Hudd Traxx keep em' peeled.

Clear Vinyl

Blue Lake is the musical moniker of American born, Copenhagen based multidisciplinary artist and musician Jason Dungan, who signs to the Tonal Union imprint for the release of his new longform album ‘Sun Arcs’. It follows 2022’s release ‘Stikling’, earning a nomination for ‘Album of the Year’ at the Danish Music Awards plus warm praise from The Hum blog and musicians and DJs alike including Jack Rollo (Time is Away/NTS) and Carla dal Forno. A self taught player, Dungan began freely experimenting with self-built multi-string instruments, preferring to build his own hybrid 48-string zither and working in the realms of left-field ambient music, off kilter folk and improvised acoustic minimalism.

The starting point of ‘Sun Arcs’ saw Jason travel for a week alone to Andersabo, a cabin set in the idyllic Swedish woods just outside of Unnaryd, known also as the music project, festival and residency space which has been run by Dungan since 2016, hosting artists like Sofie Birch, Johan Carøe and Ellen Arkbro. Whilst writing 1-2 pieces per day, a conscious decision was made to leave behind everyday distractions and shut out the outside world to instead focus on the natural passage of time as Dungan recalls: “My only sense of time came from these daily walks out in the woods with my dog, and an awareness of the sun’s path as it moved across the sky each day.”

The album’s immersive world unfolds with the opener ‘Dallas’, an ode to his home state and a musical synthesis of these two disparate spaces (Texas and Denmark), the touchstones of Dungan’s life. A folk-esque single acoustic builds to a flowing arrangement of clarinets, organ and cello drones coupled with percussion. ‘Green-Yellow Field’ chimes in as the first of two solo oriented zither recordings twinned with the dreamlike title track ‘Sun Arcs’, both densely rich as cascading and overlapping harmonic tones resound. ‘Bloom’ emerges with a krautrock psyche before an eruption of cello drones, slide guitar and free-ranging zither playing, ushering in the anticipation of spring. With half of the recordings conceived in Andersabo, Jason returned to Copenhagen to form the album's centre piece ‘Rain Cycle’ which features a tempered Roland drum machine alongside shifting zither improvisations. ‘Writing’ explores the shimmering harp-like qualities of sweeping playing figurations with Dungan mapping out adjusted tuning “zones” on the zither for unconventional but creatively liberating effects. ‘Fur’ captures the feeling of openness and the momentum of time, seeing Dungan perform waves of solo clarinet, often in one takes and embellished with textural drones, a zither solo, and layers of guitar. ‘Wavelength’ the album's closer is fondly inspired by the film works of Michael Snow and Don Cherry’s seminal live album ‘Blue Lake’ (1974), as it builds out from a drone-generated zither chord and features an alto recorder solo. Dungan found a deep connection to Cherry’s stripped back performance ethos, focusing on the core beauty of minimal instrumentation creating a genre-less meeting between folk and jazz. A dialogue is formed between the solo and the bandlike performances, interlinked in a geographical duality with all finding a sense of commonplace as musical sketches of visited landscapes. The bountiful instrumentation ebbs and flows as further layers emerge with Dungan constructing his material much like an artist would, recording and reviewing, adding and subtracting.

Musically it portrays a form of double life led by an American-identifying person living in Scandinavia, and a new found presence in Denmark, seeking out underdeveloped marshlands and barren stretches of beach adrift from other rhythms and distractions. Highlighting their individual and potent importance Dungan concludes: “Both places feel like “me”, I think on some level the music is always some kind of self-portrait.” ‘Sun Arcs’ depicts the intricate balance of nature’s cycles and the paths outlined by the seasons, from a winter dormancy to a warm sun drenched scene. The album scales new glorying heights and further defines Dungan’s musical narrative, inhabiting a unique space in left-field, improvised and experimental music, borning his most accomplished compositions to date. A singular and visionary expression, drawing on an array of instruments and sound worlds with a renewed sense of joy and discovery.

The album's rich tapestry was mixed by Jeff Zeigler (Laraaji, Mary Lattimore, Kurt Vile /Steve Gunn) and mastered by Stephan Mathieu (Kali Malone, KMRU, Félicia Atkinson).

repressed !

Say what you wanna say, but you have to give Strahil Velchev this: the man's a powerhouse. Recording and playing live under the KiNK alias, he went on to become one of finest purveyor's of funk in techno and house. What it is, by definition, ain't exactly clear. And that is the beauty of it.

KiNK's music is unifying in the best possible way. Channeling the spirit and feeling of a time where it didn't really matter who the faces behind the music were, KiNK plays with the elements of genres and sub-genres as if the future of it all is still wide-open. At the same time it could be accused of retro-fetishism, as much as the Pope himself is infallible.

The pure need to recreate moments, feelings and experience - rather than carbon copies of existing designs - was what started KiNK's production work. Hailing from Bulgaria, it was nearly impossible to get your hands on all the records and music that fed into a system of raves, clubs and record shops that seemed far away from Sofia, and financially it might as well have meant another galaxy. Wanting to DJ without having access to the tracks that spun the carousel meant that you had to create them yourselves. So, here we go with a private bootlegger gone public mastermind and one of the loudest voices in house, techno and beyond.

From KiNK's early productions with Neville Watson to his smash-hit for Ovum, a cerebral album for Macro, tons of remixes & tracks and his mind-bending live act, Playground seems to take all that into a blender. Simultaneously a sound-summary, the harvest of a field of ideas, and the exhibition of an artist in his prime, it also works as a sort of KiNK dictionary: avant-garde soundscapes stand next to boisterous bangers, classic club tracks and peak time emotions find their idiosyncratic and contemplative counterparts - all of it coming down like a torrent in a drought.

When Paul Murphy released his critically acclaimed debut solo album, Claremont 56, in 2006, many thought it would be the first of many. In a way, it was, as in the years since he’s released a string of collaborative sets alongside Benjamin J Smith (as Smith & Mudd), and as part of underground ‘supergroups’ Paqua, Bison and Hillside. But that second solo album? Well, it just had to wait. In early 2023, Murphy finally decided to scratch that itch, roping in some of his most trusted collaborators (keyboardist and bassist Michele Chiavarini, percussionist Patrick Dawes, guitarist Dave Noble and HF International’s Kashif included) to lay down a sumptuous set of tracks that not only showcases his now familiar (bit hard to pigeonhole) neo-Balearic sound, but also proves how much he has matured as a writer and producer since 2006.

In The Garden of Mindfulness is richly musically detailed, expertly arranged and full to bursting with fluid instrumental solos, with Murphy and his collaborators serving up tracks that brilliantly blur the boundaries between languid jazz-funk, downtempo, vintage synth-laden krautrock, dubby grooves and sun-splashed soundscapes. It simply sparkles from the moment that opener ‘Eighty Three’ slowly rises like the morning sun, with gentle, undulating synth sounds ushering in a slow-motion jazz-funk excursion rich in twinkling electronics, spacey pads and warming bass. Recent single ‘Katanaboy’, a lusciously layered dub disco-infused dancefloor excursion in Murphy’s familiar style, raises the temperature a touch, before ‘Bonne Anse’ and the sublime ‘Unka Paw’ (whose combination of evocative fretless bass, extended electric piano solos, Clavinet licks and acoustic guitars is genuinely spellbinding) invite a combination of wavy shuffling and flat-on-the-back, eyes-closed appreciation.

And so it continues, with gorgeous title track ‘In The Garden of Mindfulness’ making way for the boogie-influenced, Japanese-British brilliance of ‘Hangsang’ (check the jaunty pianos, yearning breakdown and exotic melodies). Murphy’s long held love of warm, weighty bass, hypnotic disco grooves, colourful analogue synth sounds and jazzy guitars once again comes to the fore on ‘Way Of The Hollow’ before the album reaches a fittingly triumphant conclusion with ‘Late In March’.

A neat sonic summary of all that makes the set such a rewarding and entertaining experience, repeat listens reveals a wealth of musical details, from off-kilter triple-time drums and surprise bass guitar solos, to impeccable piano solos (provided by the immensely talented Chiavarini), fizzing jazz-funk synth doodles and stirring synth-strings. It’s a breathlessly brilliant way to end an album that was genuinely worth waiting for.

During the Tang dynasty (around the 9th Century CE), traveling intellectual Li Yuanming would routinely leave home to write and debate poetry with likeminded scholars across China, isolating his wife Cifu for sometimes weeks on end.

Frustrated, she found comfort in the arms of a widowed neighbor, but when Li remained at home for an unexpected stretch of time, Cifu was prompted to develop a method to signal her lover it was safe to approach. She stitched a special green hat that she handed to her husband as he was about to leave town; when Li was wearing the hat, it worked like a traffic signal - green meant go.

But this didn't last for long, during one trip Li returned home early and caught Cifu and their neighbor together, and when the local community caught wind of the story, the green hat became an enduring symbol of infidelity.

On Tzusing's sophomore album the Malaysian-born artist, who lives between Shanghai and Taipei, meditates on China's complicated history of patriarchal heteronormativity, and how these archaic double standards continue to dominate the culture in pervasive, often invisible ways.

Michal Vaľko, aka Line Gate makes a return to mappa with his third cassette for the label. Once again the material is deeply minimalist, but shows marked evolutions in the Slovak, Prague-based artist’s unique trajectory. This time comprising two relatively short pieces (compared to the 40- and 60-minute works previously published on mappa), 'Trap' is perhaps Line Gate’s darkest yet.

Whereas previously his works focused on psychoacoustic phenomena, or highlighted the sacredness and timelessness of “the drone”, ‘Trap’ is a personal reflection of the artist’s innermost feelings, and perhaps a mirror that is held up to each listener: disillusionment, hopelessness and apathy have become an ever-present features of the society around us. ‘Trap’ very directly expresses the feelings of being lost, of despair, of wandering and not seeing the end. Vaľko utilises drones and repetitive vocal/instrumental phrases to express the endlessness of these feelings, and his own captivity within them.

The pieces draw once again on the hurdy-gurdy, but also on Vaľko’s processed, sometimes transposed voice. On “Maze I” layers of humming voices and meandering sung melodies form an impenetrable wall of sound, as the voices’ timbres intertwine and overlap, giving rise to fascinating overtones and singular resonances. On “Maze II” Vaľko returns to the earthy sound of the hurdy-gurdy alongside some deep, crooning voices (transposed an octave lower) and embellishes its drones with a performance on glass cups. More than ever, Line Gate's music resonates not just in sonic terms, but also in its deep humanity and social relevance.

The Technarchist returns to the label with a 2 track 7” of chunky dancefloor Weirdo Techno Funk, overflowing with humour and all the zaps, wobbles and basslines that we love !!

These tracks return to the core sound that defined the label in its earlier years. For fans of Dance Mania, Luke’s Anger, Relief, Sativae and of course, Don’t. Some of you will know The Technarchist from his amazing track ‘Danse Macabre’ on the Don’t compilation album a few years back.

The long lost 1968 debut album by singer-songwriter, Scott Fagan, once tipped to be bigger than Elvis, is set for release on 9th February 2024 via Earth Recordings. 'South Atlantic Blues' will be reissued for the first time in its original artwork, with an iconic portrait of Fagan by famed rock photographer, Joel Brodsky, following a widely celebrated 2015 release. Revisiting his mystical, mythical, and deeply soulful masterpiece, this psych-folk gem doffs a Tropicalia hat direct from downtown New York. "His songs embrace a broad sonic fantasia, swirling in '60s New York R&B and '40s jazz, as well as the Caribbean rhythms of calypso, meringue and Pachanga." New York Times Scott Fagan's story is worthy of a movie in itself. A swinging hipster who landed in 60s Greenwich folk scene, escaping the abject poverty of his U.S. Virgin Islands upbringing, Fagan found himself mentored by the Brill Building's Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, and feted as the next big thing. "Forget Rodriguez, forget Searching for Sugar Man," says Sharyn Felder, daughter of the late Doc Pomus, the legendary songwriter who signed Fagan to management in 1964. "Scott was so much more. He was cut from a different cloth." 'South Atlantic Blues' is the perfect soundtrack to this tale, an epic song cycle wrapped around an impassioned love story, driven by Fagan's dense, allusive lyrics, and production by Elmer Jared Gordon (Pearls Before Swine) and rich arrangements by Horace Ott (Nina Simone, Sam Cooke, The Shirelles). The Earth Recordings reissue coincides with a resurgence in activity for Fagan, with a new album in the works - the never-recorded soundtrack to 'Soon', the 1971 Broadway rock musical he co-wrote and starred in - and a documentary 'Soon: the Story of Scott Fagan' currently filming through Scissor Kick Films, from director Marah Strauch, writer Chris Campion (who rediscovered the singer-songwriter in 2015), and producer Eric Bruggeman. Classic Black Vinyl + DLC