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Two iconic old school hardcore titles from 1992, now available again
together as one Limited Edition 12-inch on yellow vinyl.

The soulful instrumental mastery of Cold Diamond & Mink takes center stage in this release that versions two essential tracks from their collaboration with the singer Jonny Benavidez. Both songs are lifted from the album My Echo, Shadow and Me that the group recorded together with the golden-voiced Chicano soul brother for New York's Daptone Records. On the A-side, you get to immerse yourself in the enchanting crossover soul beats of "My Echo, Shadow and Me", the instrumental rendition complementing the previous gems by Benavidez and the band on Timmion Records. Flipping the record exposes another soulful groover in "Playing The Fool" that showcases Cold Diamond & Mink's love for iconic `60s and `70s indie soul by groups like The T.S.U. Toronadoes and The Commands. The whole My Echo, Shadow and Me LP is getting an instrumental treatment on Timmion, and this single shows that even without the vocals Jonny Benavidez's strong influences from Texas Chicano soul shine through loud and clear.

Repress

Songs ’94-’98 is a smart selection of material from The Cat’s Miaow, an Australian indie-pop group that gifted their decade with some of its finest songs. Released on World Of Echo, the album draws from the group’s string of excellent seven-inch singles, a small clutch of compilation contributions, and features one previously unreleased song, “I Take It That We’re Through”, recorded in 1998. Part of the burgeoning international pop underground of the nineties, The Cat’s Miaow’s legend has only built over subsequent decades, as more people discover this most quixotic and curious of groups: a recent appearance on A Colourful Storm’s compilation of Australian indie-pop, I Won’t Have To Think About You, is testament to their enduring influence. In part emulating the selection of tracks on the 1997 CD-only compilation, Songs For Girls To Sing, Songs ’94-’98 is also the group’s first ever full-length 12” vinyl collection. The Cat’s Miaow started out in 1992 as a home-recording duo, Bart Cummings (guitar, bass, vocals) and Andrew Withycombe (bass, guitar) taking time out from duties with Girl Of The World and The Ampersands (respectively), knocking out songs on Withycombe’s four-track. Soon joined by Kerrie Bolton (vocals) and Cam Smith (drums), the quartet spent the next five years quietly, slowly working away in the suburbs of Melbourne, recording gem after gem of independent pop. Like many of their Australian precursors or peers – The Particles, Even As We Speak, The Cannanes – The Cat’s Miaow were more successful overseas, a sadly typical phenomenon within the Australian musical landscape. The Cat’s Miaow were always worldly and stylish, anyway, each seven-inch single a refined artifact, each song a peaceable jewel. You could hear some relationships with other music – someone (if not everyone) in The Cat’s Miaow was a Galaxie 500 fan; there’s a minimalism to the playing and melodies that recalls Young Marble Giants, Marine Girls, Beat Happening – but the spirit in these songs is endearingly individualised, the result of a hermetic vision, an ideal of what a simple, unadorned pop song could be. They had a winning way with simplicity, songs like “Autumn”, “Crying” and “I Can’t Sleep Thinking You Hate Me” passing by in the blink of a moistened eye, and when they stretched out, as on “Firefly”, you can hear hints of the drifting ambience they’d perfect in their other band, Hydroplane. It’s not much of a surprise that The Cat’s Miaow found a receptive audience, and no small amount of support, from the networked communities of indie-pop labels and fanatics that developed in the nineties – they released records on imprints like Drive-In, Darla, Bus Stop and Quiddity, shared a flexi-disc with Stereolab, and appeared on countless compilations over the years. But they also understood the importance of the local: their first few cassettes reached the world’s mail routes via Wayne Davidson’s legendary Melbourne tape label, Toytown; they turned up on a split single with Davidson’s group, Stinky Fire Engine; they appeared on a tribute cassette for one of Australia’s finest, The Sugargliders, and indeed that’s Josh Meadows of said group playing wah guitar on “Stay”. The Cat’s Miaow also rarely played live – one launch gig, for the Munch video compilation, and a few parties – which is a great way to maintain mystique. Cosmopolitan yet homely, dedicated to their craft, The Cat’s Miaow always felt a little like a group moving in slow motion, using that pace and focus fully to embrace the art of the perfectly stated pop song – every element in place, no flash and no fuss, no excess, just the core of the thing. Few managed to tease such fierce poetry from such understated, elegant means. From Australia or anywhere.

goat (JP) are renowned for two albums released in 2013 and 2015 that took Kraftwerk’s man-machine concept back to its roots with swingeing, inch-tight drums, bass and guitar patterns that needed to be heard to be believed. For their long-in-the-making new album ‘Joy In Fear’, band leader Koshiro Hino (YPY, KAKUHAN) describes the process as “90 percent pain” - and we can well believe it - few other records we can think of transmute DAW-composed rhythmic precision into such an expressive instrumental performance. It really is a feat of determination, skill and execution that seems to defy human dexterity.

Make no mistake - an academic exercise it ain’t - in the most visceral sense, goat (JP) make BODY music, for dancing, flailing, for losing yourself in completely. As usual, Hino plays guitar, backed by bassist Atsumi Tagami, while Akihiko Ando joins on saxophone, while Takafumi Okada and Rai Tateishi step in to handle percussion, with the latter moonlighting on flute. Every sound is sculpted into a fragment of cadence: guitar and bass prangs alternately echo and dance between the drums, and Ando's sax is mutated into a respiratory slobber of guttural smacks and phantom breaths.

In some respects, it's tempting to label it jazz, but the kind of jazz that Miles Davis spearheaded on the game-changing 'On The Corner', the blueprint for so much post-punk, electronic music and avant rock. goat (JP) take that raw alloy and sharpen it like a blade, mangling the template with the knotty metrics of Autechre or Ryoji Ikeda. The accuracy is galvanic; it's almost impossible to comprehend each player keeping a mental note of the mathematical time signatures, and yet they floss them out with trills and icy stutters that seem to evaporate around the thick, taiko-like thuds.

They practically get our teeth gnashing with the bruxist rictus chatter of ‘III I IIII III’ , before ‘Cold Heat’ introduces subtly harmonised, new aspects to their sound with slivers of Hassellian flute and ringing overtones of their percussion, while the winding sensuality of ‘Warped’ slips down very nicely. Their links to OG no-wavers like Glenn Branca & Wharton Tiers’ Theoretical Girls - is manifest in the 8 mins of chipping stop/start pulse and parry to ‘Modal Flower’, while a total left turn into Mark Fell-meets-Ligeti-esque messed up metronomics in ‘GMF’ ties it off with a properly beguiling flourish.

Biomes are little worlds of organic relationships, full of struggles, symbiosis, and sheer obsolete noise. In "De Silenti Natura," Henrique Vaz is meticulously crafting synthetic auditory biomes, sprouting from their own fuzzy logic. Unfolding across two distinct acts, the Brazilian artist interprets and replicates the complex, often ambiguous sounds of (un)natural environments, creating imaginary systems to inhabit over two sides of tape. The soundscape of the first side and title track is entirely algorithmically synthesized, with no samples used, leveraging Supercollider for real-time sound generation. The environment thus built is a flourishing one, seemingly unable to escape its own grandeur as insect-like buzzing and crackles expands into mountain ranges and forests of erupting sonorous drama. The second side introduces 'hydrophone' water synthesizers, submerged in a goldfish bowl to interface with the unfurling waves of electronic chords, creating a unique blend of damp and unwieldy sloshing movements, prismatically scattered into a luscious soundscape, and resembling everything from the bridge of a starship to the echoed drip-drip of stalactites.

Both sides of the album slowly unwrap and uncrinkle, revealing layers of hisses, distant digital choirs, warm enveloping chords, and juddering bleeps. Despite their unwieldy and strange nature, myriad elements convey a familiar sense of environment, flitting between the blossoming of new (manmade) life and the doom and destruction of the (real) world.

As the ringing of bells (fully synthetic; no samples were used) hove into view during the closing movement of side one, a simulacrum cacophony of voices is ushered in. It’s a reminder of the holy nature of sound itself, beamed into our heads intangibly. The flipside’s water ritual, frantically dunking ‘water synthesizers’ to birth swooping melodies and yawning tones, is jabbing at sleeping giants. It’s pushing and pulling the stars in the night sky into place. It’s both a simple act of beautiful creation, and a storm in a teacup.

-3rd album from veteran rap duo Dillon & Batsauce. Dillon on the raps & scratches, Batsauce on the beats. ('On Their Way' - 2018, 'Self Medicated' - 2020).
-Produced entirely by Batsauce, guest features include Grand Puba, Kool Keith, Quelle Chris, Reef the Lost Cauze, Headkrack and Jay Myztroh of Stono Echo.
-Atlanta, GA + Jacksonville, FL album release parties booked for end of July + Northeast Tour Run scheduled for August.
-Batsauce has been producing hip hop and soul for 20+ years with multiple albums on labels BBE (Barely Breaking Even) producing for his wife, soul-singer, Lady Daisey + Galapagos4 where he produced multiple projects for Qwazaar of Typical Cats. He is 1/3 of the group, 'The Smile Rays' (which includes Lady Daisey and Paten Locke). He's also done extensive work with Akrobatik, Mr. Lif and even has multiple songs with George Clinton!
-Dillon is an Atlanta, GA based MC/DJ who has been releasing records for 20 years, 10 of those years was running FULL PLATE, the label he started in 2013 with Paten Locke (RIP). Dillon has worked with many of Hip-Hop's elite from the old school to the true school such as Chuck D, Diamond D, Count Bass D, Kool Keith, Greg Nice, Grand Puba, Homeboy Sandman, J-Live, Quelle Chris, Sadat X, Ras Kass, Stacy Epps, Planet Asia, eLZhi, Slimkid3 of The Pharcyde - and the list goes on!
-Classic black, standard weight vinyl in full-color jacket w/ matte finish. Includes Download Card.
Underground hip-hop veterans, Dillon and Batsauce have been making unorthodox rap music together for nearly 20 years with a simple formula: Batsauce makes the beats, Dillon writes the songs, and whatever happens, happens. After carving out their own lane with a catalog of EPs and LPs over the past 2 decades, the duo has finally slowed down enough to ask themselves, 'What Have We Done'?
Is the title of their latest effort rhetorical or meant to be an actual question? If so, Dillon and Batsauce probably don't want to know the answer. They probably don't want you, the listener, to think too much about it either. Instead, 'What Have We Done' is an invitation to experience the trials and tribulations, the small wins and the big losses of being aging independent artists in an increasingly cut-throat world for music makers.
But Dillon & Batsauce aren't the only ones on this joyride, we also hear from a well-curated crew of characters they've befriended along the way, from bonafide legends like Grand Puba and Kool Keith to modern day rap heroes, Quelle Chris & Reef the Lost Cauze. The end result is a collection of songs that runs the gamut from personal to aspirational to...delusional. Whether it's 'too much' or 'not enough', the answer to the question, 'What Have We Done' remains open to interpretation. Perhaps it’s not a question at all, but merely the naturally visceral reaction when career creators look back at a life lived on the edge.
Track Listing: 1. What Have We Done (Intro) 2. Mind Made 3. Quiet as a Library 4. Eddie Farah 5. Make History 6. Cannonball feat. Grand Puba 7. Banana Peels 8. Accolades feat. Reef the Lost Cauze & Jay Myztroh 9. Wakin' up Hungry feat. Headkrack 10. Goin' Viral 11. Ready on the Left feat. Kool Keith 12. What Are We Doing (Interlude) 13. Watercolors feat. Quelle Chris 14. Speak Easy 15. Isiah Thomas 16. Rock Bottom 17. Yoga Flame

Pressed on heavy-weight 3xLP 180g curaçao vinyl GIANTS is an ambitious video game concept album, meticulously crafted over six years by Tokyo-based record label Brave Wave Productions under the direction of Mohammed Taher. The colossal 98-minute album showcases the talents of legendary composers known for their iconic work on series like Mega Man, Ninja Gaiden, Panzer Dragoon, Sonic the Hedgehog, Final Fantasy, among others. The album is a rich tapestry of new, gameinspired compositions from these celebrated artists, paired with innovative remixes from their classic catalogue as reimagined by their contemporaries. A highlight of the album is its emphasis on collaboration, exemplified by original tracks like Ultramarine_the first collaborative effort from Mega Man 2's Takashi Tateishi with Mega Man 3's Harumi Fujita and Sonic Mania's Tee Lopes. Another standout track, Ronin, marks a historic reunion for the Ninja Gaiden composer trio_Keiji Yamagishi, Ryuichi Nitta, and Kaori Nakabai_collaborating for the first time since their work on the NES Ninja Gaiden titles. The collaborative spirit extends to the remixes as well, such as Final Fantasy series composer Yoshitaka Suzuki's cinematic reimagining of Mega Man 2's Wily Stage, featuring Bayonetta co-composer Takahiro Izutani on acoustic guitars and producing, as well as Celeste composer Lena Raine's tranquil rendition of Panzer Dragoon Saga's Art Thou the Holy One, crafted in harmony with original composer Saori Kobayashi. GIANTS transcends traditional boundaries, featuring a diverse array of genres and styles brought to life by over two dozen talented musicians, making it a celebratory anthology of game music's rich history and evolution, led by Brave Wave's in-house rock band Super Strikers and a legion of legendary game composers.

Dark Funeral feiern den 30. Jahrestag von roher Kraft und Dunkelheit mit einer überarbeiteten Wiederveröffentlichung ihres Debütalbums - eine exklusive Sammleredition für echte Black- und Extreme-Metal-Liebhaber! Mit neu aufgenommenen Versionen ihrer düsteren Hymnen! Produziert und gemischt von David Castillo in den Ghostward Studios (Dark Tranquillity, Opeth, Whitechapel etc.) und gemastert von Thomas "Plec" Johansson (Mayhem, Soilwork etc.). Hier findet Ihr seltenes Material aus den unheilvollen Anfängen der Band im Jahr 1994 - eine ultimative Neu-Interpretation und ein Muss für alle Jünger der Dunkelheit! Diese Edition wird als einzigartige und strikt limitierte, handnummerierte, transparent-blau/schwarz marmorierte LP erhältlich sein.

zake's latest album, Dolere, unfolds meticulously over 70 minutes and invites you deep into his signature blend of detailed, harmonic drone. Inspired by the suspended weight of unchangeable emotions, the first movement drifts on melancholy waves all enveloped in analogue hiss and tape samples that echo a wandering mind's ceaseless pondering. The title track shifts mood with darkly-tinged drones and subtle field recordings that progress deliberately like shadows in a forest. Both pieces offer refuge from life's relentless pace and resonate like sonic Rorschach Tests or meditative soundscapes. Positioned alongside ambient greats like Thomas Koner, this is another essential album in a long line of them from this ambient titan.

Gerade als die Hippie-Bewegung ihre friedlichen, leichten 70er-Jahre-Gefühle entdeckte, erschien mit "Songs" der einzige Beitrag von Sandy Harless aus Chillicothe, Ohio zum Cosmic Americana Genre. Finanziert von einem Fischzuchtbetrieb mit 27 Aquarien, zeigt das Album seine Wurzeln in den Appalachen mit einer engen Verflechtung von bergischem Folk, ländlichem Rock und pastoralem Country. Echte amerikanische Volksmusik.

Gerade als die Hippie-Bewegung ihre friedlichen, leichten 70er-Jahre-Gefühle entdeckte, erschien mit "Songs" der einzige Beitrag von Sandy Harless aus Chillicothe, Ohio zum Cosmic Americana Genre. Finanziert von einem Fischzuchtbetrieb mit 27 Aquarien, zeigt das Album seine Wurzeln in den Appalachen mit einer engen Verflechtung von bergischem Folk, ländlichem Rock und pastoralem Country. Echte amerikanische Volksmusik.

"Oyster Cuts", das vierte Album und Merge Records-Debüt von Quivers, zeigt, dass die in Melbourne, Australien, ansässige Band in der Art von Emotionen schwimmt, in denen sich die meisten Menschen zu verlieren fürchten. Der überdimensionierte Gitarrenpop von Quivers schimmert wie die Oberfläche eines Ozeans, unter der ein Riff liegt, das abwechselnd schön und schmerzhaft ist, dessen Züge fremdartig und scharf genug sind, um zu verwunden. Angetrieben von Melodien, die manchmal an Galaxie 500 und The Pretenders erinnern, machen Quivers Musik, die zart und hart ist und den Hörer dazu zwingt, immer wieder einzutauchen, wobei jeder Song einen neuen Gefühls-Blickwinkel eröffnet. "Oyster Cuts" ist Sonnenschein-Pop mit Blut im Wasser. Die Verluste und Lieben, die Quivers' Musik seit ihren Anfängen geprägt haben - der plötzliche Verlust eines Bruders im gebrochenen Optimismus von "We'll Go Riding on the Hearses" (2018) und das Leben in und nach der Trauer von "Golden Doubt" (2021) - fließen in "Oyster Cuts" ein, das sich dem Weitermachen verschrieben hat, während es akzeptiert, dass einige Gefühle, wie Trauer, ein Kreislauf sind. Entscheidend ist, dass Quivers sich verpflichten, miteinander Vorwärts zu gehen. Ohne den Chor und die Streicher von "Golden Doubt" ist "Oyster Cuts" ein Beispiel dafür, was immer noch möglich ist, wenn vier Leute - Sam Nicholson (Gitarren), Bella Quinlan (Bass), Michael Panton (Gitarren) und Holly Thomas (Schlagzeug) - zusammen Musik machen. Durch die Verwendung von Tape Loops - die "Oyster Cuts" eröffnen und schließen und das Album wie Haie umkreisen - legen Quivers Wert auf Wiederholung, setzen gemusterte Riffs ein und navigieren durch kreisförmige Gedanken, bis sie an ihre Grenzen stoßen und schließlich zu einem neuen Song zusammenfinden. Ihr verträumter, sonnenverwaschener Jangle-Pop ist dadurch schlanker und muskulöser geworden, und ihre Sound-Palette wird durch Anklänge an The Cure, Echo & the Bunnymen und The Durutti Column verdunkelt. Innerhalb dieses Rahmens betreten Quivers als Band Neuland, indem sie ihrem charakteristischen Gruppengesang eine neue Dimension hinzufügen: Quinlan übernimmt bei vier Songs die Leadstimme, die ineinander verwobenen Gitarren von Nicholson und Panton werden in den Mittelpunkt gestellt und der zielgerichtete Groove von Quinlan und Thomas treibt das Ganze voran. Die Songs von Quivers fühlen sich wie lange Gespräche zwischen Freunden an, in dem Sinne, dass ein Gespräch sowohl ein Akt der Sprache als auch ein Raum ist, den Menschen füreinander einnehmen. Die ersten beiden Tracks auf "Oyster Cuts", "Never Be Lonely" und "Pink Smoke", nehmen diese privaten Universen, die aus gemeinsamer Sprache, Erinnerungen, Songfetzen und dem Licht eines Handybildschirms mitten im Doomscroll bestehen, und verwandeln sie in ein Leuchtfeuer, in suchende Texte, die von massiven Hooks entfacht werden. "All I ever wanted was a true friend / All I wanted was a friend with benefits / All I ever wanted was transcendence" singen Quinlan und Thomas zu Beginn des Albums, und von da an spult "Oyster Cuts" in den Horizont hinaus. Die vier Mitglieder von Quivers erforschen diesen Raum nicht nur, sondern füllen ihn auch so weit wie möglich mit sich selbst aus, indem sie sich aneinanderbinden, egal wie unklar und chaotisch Herzensangelegenheiten werden können. Jeder Moment der Katharsis, den Quivers aus dem Äther zaubern, ist eine Einladung, sich ihnen anzuschließen. Wenn man ihnen zuhört, wie sie dort aufsteigen, wo andere grübeln würden, ist es unmöglich, ihrer Einladung zu widerstehen.

Limited press of a 100 on this DIY Berlin Electro imprint with heavy remix duties by Viikatory & DJ Dijital.

Garage Hermétique's sub-label dedicated to non-club excursions continues its exploration by welcoming Nummer to its collection of mixtapes.

Let yourself be captivated by the day unfolding under the morning sun, filtered dreamy synths, the memory of distant voices and eerie percussions; echoing in the garden, transporting the listener into a kaleidoscopic realm.

Repress.

British-Trinidadian poet/musician/author Anthony Joseph’s latest album was inspired by and echoes the fertile London scene. Anthony has surrounded himself with some of the best musicians on the local scene, including Jason Yarde, Shabaka Hutchings (Sons Of Kemet, The Comet Is Coming), Crispin Robinson (founder of the iconic acid jazz band Galliano,) and Rod Youngs (Gil Scott Heron’s drummer). Operating as a dedication to poetic ancestors and a coming together of musical generations, ‘The Rich are Only Defeated When Running for their Lives’ is also an almighty jam. Recorded live in August 2020, it shows off the prowess of a team of master musicians from Paris and London. Jason Yarde, who also produced Joseph’s 2018 album ‘People of the Sun’ is credited as producer/ composer/arranger - to startling, albeit intimate, effect. Running throughout the release are inter-connected themes: memory, place, belonging and acts of homage. Anthony Joseph has released seven previous albums - six on Heavenly Sweetness - and collaborated with Archie Shepp, Keziah Jones and Meshell Ndgeocello who produced his album, ‘Time’ in 2014. He is the author of four poetry collections and three novels. His 2018 novel Kitch: A Fictional Biography of a Calypso Icon was shortlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize, the Royal Society of Literature’s Encore Award, and long listed for the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature.

Pascal Gaigne, born in France in 1958 and installed in San Sebastian since 1985, is a musician with a vast trajectory composing music for films. He has composed for more than 50 movies, won 16 awards (including a Goya award, Spanish Oscar equivalent) and had 15 nominations. He has worked with some of the most interesting new directors in Spanish cinema (Víctor Erice, Icíar Bolláin, Salvador García Ruíz, Daniel Sánchez Arévalo, Montxo Armendáriz), and foreign directors like France (Le cou de la girafe), Finland (Matka Edeniin) or Cuba (Omerta).

Early in his career, before working in cinema, he collaborated with some of the most interesting artists and voices in the short history of Basque folk music, including well known Amaia Zubiria (check the two records he made with her “Egun Argi Hartan” & “Kolorez eta Ametsez”), as well as Basque traditional chant avant-gardist Beñat Achiary. It is together with Amaia & Beñat that he paired himself up to create “music pour le ballet du Iguzki Hauskara”, an entire album of compositions made for the 80’s French Basque Ballet group “Ekarle”. Originally released on cassette only in 1984, it is now reissued by Hegoa including three unreleased pieces taken from a second album that was never published.

Limited edition of 250 black vinyl LP’s housed in a coloured reverse board cover recreating the original hand painted artwork.

White w/ Red Splatter Vinyl. For their third album As You Please, Citizen is looking inward. Pairing up again with longtime producer Will Yip, the band presents twelve songs that fuse aspects of their entire catalog into one neoteric whole. While the cathartic melancholy of their debut Youth and the jarring intensity of 2015's Everybody is Going to Heaven are both present, the most welcome addition to Citizen's arsenal on As You Please is the range of auxiliary instrumentation and sonic experimentation on the album. This is most notable on "In the Middle of it All," where vocalist Mat Kerekes is sampled singing the song title in a modulated, haunting chorus that echoes throughout the song. The addition of organs and unconventional drum effects on songs like "You Are A Star" and "Medicine" create shifting emphases on tension and frailty, while the huge choruses of songs like opener "Jet" and "I Forgive No One" are reminders that while Citizen dove headfirst into uncharted territory with their new album, the band is still as good as ever at writing emotionally-charged anthems. As You Please presents Citizen's vision at the most focused it has ever been - it is delicately crafted to provoke at every moment.

Formed in Liverpool in 1985, the Revolutionary Army of the Infant Jesus is a unique experimental ensemble whose work goes beyond music. For over thirty-five years the band’s cult following has grown. Their mesmerising recorded material is influenced by diverse cultural perspectives and stimulates a deeply personal and subjective awakening. Ethereal vocals, ambient compositions, chants, acoustic instrumentation and field recordings generate beautiful and emotionally intense soundscapes. ‘The Dream We Carry’ is the band’s fifth album and perhaps their most coherent body of work to date. It captures echoes and fragile remnants of the lived experience. The emotional traces that affect us. The joys and sorrows we hold. The dreams that we carry. Founder member Leslie Hampson said: “The RAIJ is a project in pursuit of beauty; we have tried to jettison anything that doesn’t address that. We’ve been active for a long time and this album represents another phase in our work. We’re not trying to reinvent ourselves or be something we’re not. We’ve never done that. We only ever try to be more of ourselves.”

Formed in Liverpool in 1985, the Revolutionary Army of the Infant Jesus is a unique experimental ensemble whose work goes beyond music. For over thirty-five years the band’s cult following has grown. Their mesmerising recorded material is influenced by diverse cultural perspectives and stimulates a deeply personal and subjective awakening. Ethereal vocals, ambient compositions, chants, acoustic instrumentation and field recordings generate beautiful and emotionally intense soundscapes. ‘The Dream We Carry’ is the band’s fifth album and perhaps their most coherent body of work to date. It captures echoes and fragile remnants of the lived experience. The emotional traces that affect us. The joys and sorrows we hold. The dreams that we carry. Founder member Leslie Hampson said: “The RAIJ is a project in pursuit of beauty; we have tried to jettison anything that doesn’t address that. We’ve been active for a long time and this album represents another phase in our work. We’re not trying to reinvent ourselves or be something we’re not. We’ve never done that. We only ever try to be more of ourselves.”

Veyl is pleased to welcome Velvet May for his debut LP on the label. Enchanted By The Muse marks a new and exciting direction for the Italian-born, Berlin-based artist whose aesthetic focuses on post-punk, techno and industrial music. This album embodies May’s exploration and experimentation of various musical directions, reflecting a fusion of industrial, rock and electronic elements. It also symbolizes a new approach, spanning genres and styles and exploring his sound from every angle.
Conceptually, the album reflects a realm of emotional dissonance in an industrial desolation - where harsh electronic textures mingle with gritty industrial and rock elements. Also present are echoes of punk's raw energy and adrenalinic drive, a musical journey through shifting moods and atmospheres, serving as a soundtrack to different aspects of life and capturing the essence of its high and lows.
From the opening track, “Now That You Have Left It All”, we are lured into a thrilling sonic dimension with a shot of energy that sets the stage for journey ahead. “Keep On Falling” injects a dose of rock which we find throughout the record fused with the artist’s signature blend of postpunk, industrial and techno strains. Tracks like “The Outsider” and “Slithering Serenade” conjure raw, distorted rhythms and a menacing fuzz which bleeds out of the speakers while “Scales of Gold” traverses back through infectious body and wave. “Illusion In Control” is the perfect climax, a musical assault that shatters boundaries and blurs the lines between reality and fantasy.

"I Erode“ ist vollgepackt mit den Markenzeichen der Blütezeit des US Death Metal und explodiert förmlich aus dem Tor mit gnadenlosen Riffs, wilden Tempi, geschmackvollen Soli und den bösartigen Unterströmungen aggressiver Death Thrash-Perfektion.

Mit einer idealen Balance aus Technik und Geradlinigkeit, Highspeed- und Midtempo-Breaks und einer prägnanten, auf den Punkt gebrachten Attacke voller Abwechslung bietet „I Erode“ einen rein süchtig machenden Schuss echtes Death Metal-Adrenalin in einer Linie, die Demolition Hammer, Morgoth und Suffocation umfasst.

Obwohl es vielleicht ein Gefühl von Nostalgie hervorruft, ist es eine Tatsache, dass Laceration's gewachsenes Selbstvertrauen und die Hingabe an die schonungslose Ausführung eines Songs jeden Fokus auf die Ära auf dem halsbrecherischen 'I Erode' auslöschen. Die Hingabe an die Zeitlosigkeit des Death Metal und der hohe Anspruch an wahre Anerkennung kennzeichnen Lacerations Schaffen mehr denn je.

"I Erode“ ist vollgepackt mit den Markenzeichen der Blütezeit des US Death Metal und explodiert förmlich aus dem Tor mit gnadenlosen Riffs, wilden Tempi, geschmackvollen Soli und den bösartigen Unterströmungen aggressiver Death Thrash-Perfektion.

Mit einer idealen Balance aus Technik und Geradlinigkeit, Highspeed- und Midtempo-Breaks und einer prägnanten, auf den Punkt gebrachten Attacke voller Abwechslung bietet „I Erode“ einen rein süchtig machenden Schuss echtes Death Metal-Adrenalin in einer Linie, die Demolition Hammer, Morgoth und Suffocation umfasst.

Obwohl es vielleicht ein Gefühl von Nostalgie hervorruft, ist es eine Tatsache, dass Laceration's gewachsenes Selbstvertrauen und die Hingabe an die schonungslose Ausführung eines Songs jeden Fokus auf die Ära auf dem halsbrecherischen 'I Erode' auslöschen. Die Hingabe an die Zeitlosigkeit des Death Metal und der hohe Anspruch an wahre Anerkennung kennzeichnen Lacerations Schaffen mehr denn je.

David Bowies bahnbrechendes Debütalbum erlebt mit einer Neuauflage ein pulsierendes Revival und bietet exklusive Tracklisten, die alte und neue Fans begeistern werden.

Kritiker der damaligen Zeit äußerten sich wie folgt: Der NME lobte Bowies frischen Sound als „durch und durch sehr erfrischend“ und pries ihn als „ein sehr vielversprechendes Talent“. Melody Maker lobt das Album als „eine außergewöhnlich lohnende Sammlung“ mit „exzellenter“ Produktion und zeigt sich überrascht, dass Bowie die Popszene noch nicht stärker beeinflusst hat. Disc & Music Echo schwärmt unterdessen von dem Album, beschreibt es als „ein bemerkenswertes, kreatives Debütalbum eines 19-jährigen Londoners“ und bezeichnet Bowie als „ein neues Talent, das Aufmerksamkeit verdient“. Mit solch aufschlussreichen Kritiken verspricht diese Neuauflage, Bowies frühes Erbe wiederzubeleben und sein visionäres künstlerisches Schaffen einer neuen Generation von Zuhörern vorzustellen.

Squama regulars Enji and Popp join forces on ‘Nant’, the debut LP by their newly minted duo ‘Poeji’, exploring the confines of Post-Dub and Downtempo.
2022’s 3-track EP ‘031921 5.24 5.53’, released as a limited run of dubplates, was the first testament to their open approach to writing, which takes only very basic ideas and relies on non-verbal communication to define form and pace.
Enji’s vocals are less centre-stage than on her solo endeavors, piercing through reverb plates and guitar pedals while Simon inked his signature set of wooden and metal percussions with chains of tape echoes and analog delay.
Listening to ‘Nant’ as a snapshot of Poeji’s artistry at a certain time and place can instill a sense of gratitude within the listener that something so fleeting can be captured.

Wiederveröffentlichung des CM Debtus! Limitiertes farbiges Triple-Vinyl mit Mamoreffekt. Nach zwei "Groove Sessions"-Compilations war es für die drei Künstler an der Zeit, ihr Rennen mit der Sonne zu starten und ein echtes Debütalbum mit Hip Hop, Dub, Electro und mehr zu schaffen... "Racing with the Sun" wurde wie ein Soundtrack zu einem imaginären Film konzipiert, einem seltsamen Western, der in einem geisterhaften fernen Westen spielt, in dem sich mysteriöse Charaktere in den verschiedenen Tracks verflechten. Später meldete sich das französische Kollektiv mit einem Remix-Album seiner bisher besten Veröffentlichung zurück und nannte es "Remix with the Sun". Ihre eigenen DJs und befreundeten Künstler haben das Album neu abgemischt, um einen neuen Einblick in die Lehren des Chinese Man zu geben. Simbad, Femi Kuti, DJ Suv, Deluxe, Mourning Son feat. Jeru The Damaja, Tha Trickaz, Iration Steppas, OBF, Scratch Bandits Crew, General Elektriks und weitere Gäste haben dazu beigetragen. Die Triple-Gatefold-LP enthält auf drei Seiten das reguläre Album und auf den drei anderen Seiten alle Remixe.

Repress auf purple & red splatter Vinyl. Das zweite, alles auf seinem Weg liegende vernichtende Album der Hardcore Thrasher aus Texas: POWER TRIP. Möglicherweise das beste Thrash Album des letzten Jahrzehnts! Massiv, riesig, über alle Dimensionen. Aufgenommen von Arthur Rizik (INQUISITION), gemastert von Joel Grind (POISON IDEA, TOXIC HOLOCAUST) mit Coverartwork von Paolo Girard. POWER TRIP sind eine echte Band, unvergleichlich. Ihre rohe Intensität, ihr musikalisches Können, die perfekte Songstruktur, fetter Sound, wilde Riffs, ihre Entschlossenheit und ihre bloße Einstellung machen sie zu einer der Speerspitzen im Metal, Punk und Hardcore Underground der USA. In den letzten Jahren haben POWER TRIP beinahe non-stop getourt und dabei Bands wie ANTHRAX, LAMB OF GOD, CRO-MAGS, NEGATIVE APPROACH, TURNSTILE, BACKTRACK, EYEHATEGOD, BANE, OFF! Und weitere supportet und Festivals in den USA, Europa und darüber hinaus beehrt.

Haunted Plasma, powerhouse of futuristic synth in symbiosis with the super violence of kosmische black
metal, release their debut album as a Turquoise/Black Marble Vinyl in July 2024. The phenomenal threepiece band includes members of Oranssi Pazuzu, K-X-P, Grave Pleasures and Aavikko.

Italian producer Toto Chiavetta returns to Mind Against's HABITAT with a spellbinding new single titled "My Eyes Are Failing". Off his new EP of the same name, the song is a haunting journey where crunchy textures and hypnotic melodies come together with the refrain, "I think my eyes are failing, but I feel my lungs inhaling," to envelop listeners in a dark, atmospheric soundscape. Featuring the mesmerizing Thom Yorke-esque vocals of Trenton, the new track showcases Chiavetta's mastery over immersive, emotionally-charged electronic music.

Bolstered by b-side single “The Sacred Space” and a club-ready alternative version from Toto himself, plus remix from Echonomist, the new EP rounds out to create a defining statement from Chiavetta. With a growing list of supporters that include industry heavyweights like Âme, Sasha, John Digweed, and Camelphat, to name a few, and previous releases on Innervisions and Diynamic, Toto Chiavetta is poised to make a big impact with this landmark release on HABITAT.

We’re glad to be back with the second installment of our new series of DJ and Artist curated 12” mini compilations: Melodies Record Club.

Ben UFO is up next for volume two, following Four Tet’s selection a few months back. Available early October in loud 12” format and digitally. Here we have two tracks which have been staples in Ben’s DJ sets at different times, but neither were originally produced with a club setting in mind, which is why they’ve never been available in this format before.

On one side, we have “Drums” from Laurie Spiegel’s 1980 experimental electronics album “The Expanding Universe”, a collection of tracks produced between 1974 and 1976 using a computer playing the actual sounds by controlling analog synthesis equipment under control of the GROOVE hybrid system developed by Max Matthews and F.R. Moore at Bell Labs. Drums is a percussive seven minute computer generated workout inspired by Laurie’s interest in African and Indian musics, and which brings to mind the most far out kosmiche music of the period to modern day techno. A connection Ben has tried to make explicit by including it in his first BBC essential mix back in 2013.

On the flip we have a track by Olof Dreijer from the Swedish band the Knife who’s work you might also be familiar with under the moniker Oni Ayhun. Back in 2009 his artist friend Adnan Yildiz curated an exhibition called “THERE IS NO AUDIENCE” in Montethermoso, dedicated to public imagination. Adnan commissioned a single piece from Olof called “Echoes from Mamori”, that played on loop during the exhibition and was subsequently released only on CD. A contemporary piece more clearly indebted to house music, Olof built the track around arpeggios generated using sounds of frogs he recorded in the Amazon and birds around Berlin, fed into a sampler.

Scottish experimental/electronic musician Drew McDowall's lifelong interest in an elegiac solo bagpipe style called pibroch (ceòl mòr in Gaelic) has been an inspiration for much of his previous work (including Coil's legendary Time Machines). This form, often traditionally used for laments and for tributes to the dead, fuses modal drones with flickering dissonance and plaintive melody evoking an ancient, solemn mood. His latest work, A Thread, Silvered and Trembling, both incorporates and transforms these elements via exploratory electronic processing, weaving an electro-acoustic tapestry of strings, shudders, voids, and voices, alternately disembodied and displaced. Co-produced with engineer Randall Dunn at Circular Ruin Studios in Brooklyn, the collection's four pieces capture McDowall at his most elevated and elusive, in thrall to "the ineffable - that which refuses to be spoken." McDowall's palette here is unusually eclectic, sourced from a dynamic orchestral ensemble arranged by Brent Arnold and comprised of cello, viola, violin, harp (Marilu Donovan of LEYA), and french horn. Ebbing between shrouded electronics and enigmatic, sometimes spectralist orchestration, the album moves with a seething, simmering energy, surging into elegant, uneasy crescendos. The first two pieces are inspired by a liberatory hijacking and inversion of a grim biblical story (and by a cryptic and strange UK simple syrup branding). Opener "Out of Strength Comes Sweetness" shivers with short echo and resonant pads, before shifting into the album's centerpiece: the 14-minute saga "And Lions Will Sing with Joy." A murmuring electrical storm of keening strings and disorienting drones gradually grows darker and denser, until suddenly there's a crack in the clouds, revealing mutated choral voices and sparkling harp. McDowall describes the track as "an incantation to help usher in a break, and a new beginning." The record's latter half evokes a deep untamed animism shot through with spiraling radiance. "In Wound and Water" sways with harp, plucked strings and eerie cello undertows while lush layers of disorientated electronics hang in the dusk. There is no resolution, only a faint gradient of fragile dissipation, leading into the album's harrowing and climactic closer, "A Dream of a Cartographic Membrane Dissolves." Processed voices (credited on the liner notes to "The Ghosts Who Refuse to Rest") contort, whisper, and gather as the rest of the ensemble sharpens, poising to strike. Then it does - grand, tragic stabs of strings and horns lashing the sky, storming heaven by force. The fallout is poetic and inevitable, raining embers into a dark sea. But the journey and catharsis of A Thread linger long after it goes silent. Like so much of McDowall's multifaceted catalog, this is music of immanence and alchemy, attuned equally to the sacred and the profane, to the tile and the mosaic.

Cassandra Jenkins ist ganz einfach eine der besten Songwriter-Geschichtenerzählerinnen, die derzeit Musik machen. Sie gehört zu den großen amerikanischen Songwritern, zu Künstlern wie David Berman, Adrianne Lenker, Jeff Tweedy und Sufjan Stevens. Es sind Künstler, die durch ein Gefühl der Unmittelbarkeit verbunden sind, nicht nur durch ihre Texte - die präzise, aufrüttelnd, manchmal brutal und im richtigen Moment witzig sind -, sondern auch durch die Art und Weise, wie sie singen, mit einer tiefgehenden, totalen Überzeugung, die einen durch ihre Lieder trägt. Das sind die Künstler und Lieder, die sich anschleichen und wirklich für immer mit uns leben, und auf „My Light, My Destroyer“ reiht sich Jenkins in diese Reihe ein. Das Bemerkenswerteste an „My Light, My Destroyer“ ist, dass es eine Künstlerin an einem aufregenden Sprung in ihrer Entwicklung zeigt. Vieles an diesem Album unterscheidet sich von seinen Vorgängern; Field Recordings und Found Sound durchdringen es, erzählerisches Songwriting kracht in berauschende, wirbelnde Kompositionen. Jenkins singt mit einer Stimme, die man nur als Powerwhisper bezeichnen kann (man denke an Sufjan Stevens, Annie Lennox, Margo Timmins oder Tweedy aus der YHF-Ära), ihr Gesang ist nah und intim, aber subtil konfrontativ. Aber hier fühlt sich alles größer an, ausgefeilter, kühner und reichhaltiger als bei ihren früheren Arbeiten. Geboren und aufgewachsen in New York City, ist Jenkins seit ihrer Kindheit auf Tournee und tritt auf. Ihre ersten Aufnahmen veröffentlichte sie im Eigenverlag, bevor sie 2021 ihr bahnbrechendes Album „An Overview auf Phenomenal Nature“ veröffentlichte. Auf „My Light, My Destroyer“ sind viele der Songs bestimmten Gefühlen gewidmet, und es geht darum, sich in diese Gefühle hineinzuversetzen, im Gegensatz zu einem erzählerischen Bogen. Die Leadsingle "Only One" ist ein Beispiel dafür, dass ein Moment oder ein Song völlig kurzsichtig sein kann; er kann ein einzelnes Gefühl verkörpern und bietet keine Antworten. Songs wie "Devotion", "Delphinium Blue", "Clams Casino", "Echo" und "Only One" sprechen von der befreienden Qualität einer fokussierten Beobachtung, selbst bis zum Punkt der Desillusionierung. "Es gibt diese Idee der Desillusionierung, an der ich festgehalten habe", sagt sie. "Ich schätze Desillusionierung als einen Prozess, bei dem man neue, unerwartete Ergebnisse entdeckt. Wir lassen auf diese Weise Erwartungen los. Erwartungen halten uns zurück. Es ist leicht, sich auf Abstumpfung oder Enttäuschung zu konzentrieren, aber ich sehe es eher als Freiheit".

Cassandra Jenkins ist ganz einfach eine der besten Songwriter-Geschichtenerzählerinnen, die derzeit Musik machen. Sie gehört zu den großen amerikanischen Songwritern, zu Künstlern wie David Berman, Adrianne Lenker, Jeff Tweedy und Sufjan Stevens. Es sind Künstler, die durch ein Gefühl der Unmittelbarkeit verbunden sind, nicht nur durch ihre Texte - die präzise, aufrüttelnd, manchmal brutal und im richtigen Moment witzig sind -, sondern auch durch die Art und Weise, wie sie singen, mit einer tiefgehenden, totalen Überzeugung, die einen durch ihre Lieder trägt. Das sind die Künstler und Lieder, die sich anschleichen und wirklich für immer mit uns leben, und auf „My Light, My Destroyer“ reiht sich Jenkins in diese Reihe ein. Das Bemerkenswerteste an „My Light, My Destroyer“ ist, dass es eine Künstlerin an einem aufregenden Sprung in ihrer Entwicklung zeigt. Vieles an diesem Album unterscheidet sich von seinen Vorgängern; Field Recordings und Found Sound durchdringen es, erzählerisches Songwriting kracht in berauschende, wirbelnde Kompositionen. Jenkins singt mit einer Stimme, die man nur als Powerwhisper bezeichnen kann (man denke an Sufjan Stevens, Annie Lennox, Margo Timmins oder Tweedy aus der YHF-Ära), ihr Gesang ist nah und intim, aber subtil konfrontativ. Aber hier fühlt sich alles größer an, ausgefeilter, kühner und reichhaltiger als bei ihren früheren Arbeiten. Geboren und aufgewachsen in New York City, ist Jenkins seit ihrer Kindheit auf Tournee und tritt auf. Ihre ersten Aufnahmen veröffentlichte sie im Eigenverlag, bevor sie 2021 ihr bahnbrechendes Album „An Overview auf Phenomenal Nature“ veröffentlichte. Auf „My Light, My Destroyer“ sind viele der Songs bestimmten Gefühlen gewidmet, und es geht darum, sich in diese Gefühle hineinzuversetzen, im Gegensatz zu einem erzählerischen Bogen. Die Leadsingle "Only One" ist ein Beispiel dafür, dass ein Moment oder ein Song völlig kurzsichtig sein kann; er kann ein einzelnes Gefühl verkörpern und bietet keine Antworten. Songs wie "Devotion", "Delphinium Blue", "Clams Casino", "Echo" und "Only One" sprechen von der befreienden Qualität einer fokussierten Beobachtung, selbst bis zum Punkt der Desillusionierung. "Es gibt diese Idee der Desillusionierung, an der ich festgehalten habe", sagt sie. "Ich schätze Desillusionierung als einen Prozess, bei dem man neue, unerwartete Ergebnisse entdeckt. Wir lassen auf diese Weise Erwartungen los. Erwartungen halten uns zurück. Es ist leicht, sich auf Abstumpfung oder Enttäuschung zu konzentrieren, aber ich sehe es eher als Freiheit".

There are albums that tap into the very heartbeats of rhythm, melody and intricate sound design, pulsating with every musical note. This is the case of 'Séptimo Sentido', the new album by Buenos Aires-based producer Seph.

Sebastián Galante aka Seph is no stranger to these realms; with almost two decades of experience under his belt, he has established himself as one of the leading talents in the Argentina techno scene and as one of the most intriguing minds in alternative Latin American electronic music. His productions have found a home in cutting edge labels such as Insurgentes –a platform led by the DJ and producer from Medellín (Colombia) Verraco, and sister label of TraTraTrax, which has reduced gaps between the Latin electronic scene and the rest of the globe– or his own label Aula Magna Records. He has also fostered collaborations, among which stands out his project Oscean alongside Andrés Zacco, a project that was recently released on the legendary Berlin label Tresor.

In his new album 'Séptimo Sentido', Seph exhibits superlative production skills and masterfully showcases the widest palette of the braindance sound, that intersection where countless genres and sub-styles can coexist. Here we hear echoes from the mid-90s that revive undeniable references of early IDM; but with a renewed form, under a fiercely contemporary new skin.

At the core of this intriguing album, we find an artist whose devotion to experimentation takes his rhythmic and melodic obsessions through vibrant magical-techno-urban landscapes, where radiant colors and mutating forms collide in a bold and imaginative sonic journey.

'Séptimo Sentido' hails from the prism of perception, beyond the five senses and a step further than instinct, hunting for mysterious resonances with the cosmos; like a space portal inviting us to float a handspan above the ground.

Things are getting better is a bold statement to make in a time when the world seems to be on the verge of world war 3 and the cost of living is rising beyond most of our reach. Five years ago when I started the Voices of Creation with Jack I knew the world would need new songs, new mantras and prayers for this new day that is dawning. We would need more faith, we would need love, we would need vision, and we would need each other. A part of every beginning is an ending, this is an observable law of nature. So it is with unyielding faith and a hopeful heart that I look out at this world and find reasons and ways to keep moving forward with love; making music that echoes with the sparks of this new world I’m working to see come into view. Things may be falling apart, old ways of being becoming unsustainable; death, war, chaos, genocide, famine, and floods; symptoms of the internal combustion of a society wracked with fear and given more access to weapons than to their own feelings.

This collection of songs are my testimony in a way, a sonic exploration of finding my faith and figuring out how to use my faith to navigate life and this great big old world after losing family (my mother Betty and my brother Keith) and in a way losing my sense of hope for what my future could even be. Through the writing and singing of these songs I healed myself of the doubt and mistrust of the unknown. I found a way to forge my faith into what is now a mighty sword of song, community, and ministry with the intention of healing myself and others. I’ve always felt as though melody and language were tools that could be agents of change and healing if used with intention and integrity. To witness the expanding joy and shared purpose grow within the choir and to see the contagious nature of faith and togetherness through our rehearsals and shows showed me how necessary it is to the human experience. This has been truly revelatory, further anchoring me in what I feel my purpose is on the planet; and that is to sing and bring to life more joy, peace, love, community, unity, faith, and praise. With more of those energies flowing around the planet, things will surely get better and better and better…ad infinitum. Word to Nina, Jimmy & Betty, and all my angels and ancestors riding wit me. We still here and God is still good.

"An artist's duty, as far as I'm concerned, is to reflect the times." Nina Simone

Pleasure Planet’s kaleidoscopic debut album has been a long time coming, but good things come to those who wait. Developed over years of late-night studio improvisations, ‘Pleasure Planet’ is an affectionate and colorful patchwork of the New York City-based trio’s knotted influences that’s suspended between the rave and the chill-out room, weaving glistening pads and chunky basslines into vocal earworms and warm, saturated rhythmic cycles. Bandmates Andrew Potter, Kim Ann Foxman and Brian Hersey enter into a lysergic dialog with their discrete personal musical histories, drawing inspiration from vintage EBM, ambient music and heady early ’90s West Coast rave sounds and launching these classic elements into a transcendent new sonic universe.

Celebrated DJ and producer Foxman was a lead singer of Hercules and Love Affair when she first ran into DC rave veteran Potter, and the two rapidly realized their musical interests overlapped. So when Potter was recording with his studiomate Hersey, a NYC underground club scene mainstay, and they needed to bring in a vocalist, the choice was simple. Working together was a refreshing, freeing experience for the three seasoned artists, and the more they experimented, the closer they became; Foxman ended up moving into the studio, and Pleasure Planet was manifested into existence. “We’re like family,” says Potter. “We’re always on the same page – we couldn’t make this music solo.”

For Foxman, the open-ended jam sessions provided her with a chance to try something new, a few steps from the dancefloor-forward DJ tracks she’s best known for producing. And as the trio pooled their adolescent rave memories, reflecting on them with more mature ears, they began to develop the signature sound that was first heard on the Throne Of Blood-released ‘Animals’ 12″. Pleasure Planet aren’t trying to re-capture the past, but suggest a poetic contemplation that layers their recollections and musical obsessions into a hypnotic sci-fi dream. Harnessing a self-described “Aladdin’s cave” of analog and digital gear that help galvanize the timeline, they bridge the gap between avant-pop and icy bleep techno, curving suggestive words through lattices of tightly-engineered electronics.

On ‘Endless’, Foxman’s voice is echoed into a glistening haze that hovers around ethereal pads and tense, electroid pulses. Slow-moving and evocative, it’s a track that capture the open endedness of post-rave euphoria, touching the afterparty but moving far beyond the material world. She’s more recognizable on ‘Alien’, the album’s most upfront track, singing in a glassy, upper-register coo over urgent bass bumps, taut guitars and florid electronic atmospheres. “Are you an alien, or are you an angel?” she asks, fractalizing the borders between genres. And the band’s sense of cosmic togetherness bubbles to the surface on ‘Saved by the Bells’, a meditative after-hours experiment that diminishes the pulsing beats for a moment to bring out a spectrum of interconnected, serpentine melodies.

Modular bleeps and echoing percussion anchor the swooning ‘Planet Love’, one of Pleasure Planet’s most recent compositions and one of the album’s most outwardly psychedelic cuts, while the urgent and anthemic ‘Go With Madness’ steps back towards the main stage, evaporating Foxman’s memorable calls into a thumping procession of analog drums and squelchy, acidic bass tweaks. But they save the best for last, tugging at the heartstrings with ‘Remember (In Dreams)’, a giddy spiral of blipping synth arpeggios and haunting, reverberated chorals. It’s the perfect way to conclude an album that cryptically gestures towards the vulnerability of friendship, celebrating the shared experiences that result in some of the most meaningful memories of all.

Die psychedelischen Hardrocker WORSHIPPER haben mit ihrem dritten Album "One Way Trip" ihren grandiosen Balanceakt zwischen klassischem Hardrock und Old School Heavy Metal perfektioniert, dem die Truppe aus Boston, Massachusetts durch eine gesunde Dosis Psychedelika zu einem rauschenden Höhenflug verhilft. Sowohl Rock als auch Metal drehen sich vor allem um die Hooks und Riffs der Gitarren, die das amerikanische Quartett als echte Leckerbissen in üppigen Portionen auftischt. Textlich werfen WORSHIPPER einen kaleidoskopischen Blick auf den menschlichen Zustand durch eine psychedelische Linse. Dabei wurde die Reihenfolge der Tracks durch den psychologischen Horror Thriller "Jacob's Ladder (In der Gewalt des Jenseits)" beeinflusst, in dem ein Veteran des Krieges in Vietnam von Flashbacks und monströsen Visionen geplagt wird, durch die das Album ein loses zirkuläres Konzept erhält. Als WORSHIPPER im Jahr 2014 gegründet wurden, war es für Sänger und Gitarrist John Brookhouse, Schlagzeuger Dave Jarvis, Bassist und Backgroundsänger Bob Maloney und Gitarrist Alejandro Necochea von Anfang an klar, dass sich ihre neue Band angesichts der hohen Konzentration gleichgesinnter und talentierter lokaler Kollegen deutlich abheben musste. Mit dem Ziel, etwas aufregend Neues auf den Tisch zu bringen, setzte die immer noch intakte Originalbesetzung auf makelloses, berauschendes und wuchtiges Material, mit einem Fokus auf das Schreiben von echten Songs mit eingängigen Melodien, unheimlichen Gesangsharmonien und Doppelgitarren-Großtaten. WORSHIPPERs Talent für eingängiges, episches Songwriting blieb nicht lange unbemerkt, und schnell hatten die Amerikaner einen Plattenvertrag in der Tasche. Es dauerte nur wenig länger, bis die universell gepriesenen Alben "Shadow Hymns" (2016) und "Light in the Wire" (2019) für weltweite Bekanntheit sorgten. Mit "One Way Trip" können WORSHIPPER nicht nur die hohen Erwartungen erfüllen, die an ihr drittes Album geknüpft waren, sondern die Bostoner haben hörbar Spaß daran, genau das zu tun, was sie am besten können: Großartige Songs für ein Album schreiben, das nur Volltreffer enthält!

Following a ten-year hiatus, multi-instrumentalists Rafael Anton Irisarri and Benoît Pioulard return with »How to Color a Thousand Mistakes«, their third LP together as Orcas. Building on the electronic minimalism of »Orcas« (2012) and the Twin Peaks-inspired haze of »Yearling« (2014), the duo have expanded their sound and vision into a full-spectrum ensemble.

In the time since their last major collaboration, Irisarri and Pioulard have done plenty on their own, while also traversing significant life changes: relocation from Seattle to New York, separation and divorce, illness, hospitalizations, and the loss of siblings, parents, and friends. Yet from these tribulations, they gleaned inspiration to reconstruct their lives, creating music with new collaborators and partners. Recorded in a variety of studios and cities including Brooklyn, Cambridge, Oxford, Seattle, and upstate New York, the resulting album, under the tutelage of UK producer James Brown (Arctic Monkeys, Kevin Shields, Nine Inch Nails), is a patiently-crafted beast, equally inspired by impressionism, British new wave, and dream pop.

With Irisarri’s guidance and Brown’s encouragement, Pioulard brings his velvety voice to its harmonized peak on songs like »Wrong Way to Fall« and the Durutti Column-indebted »Fare«. Where his most recent solo albums for Morr Music (»Sylva« and »Eidetic«) navigated foggy forests of ambient pop and stacked tape loops, here his characteristic blur shifts into focus with a unique degree of clarity and confidence. »How fare against balance do I / Navigate my errors?«, Pioulard sings in a heartbreaking tenor, echoing the album’s broader themes of introspection, grief, loss, trial and trauma.

Lead single, »Riptide«, is a summary of Pioulard’s life changes and personal upheavals in the past decade, »flitting eastward toward a yen deep in the past« and learning to glide through the tumult of ocean waves, as a metaphor for the punches one takes in pursuit of grace. Its towering, key-changing midsection arrives with the monumental drumming of Slowdive’s Simon Scott, a long-time friend and cohort who appears on most songs in the set. Scott’s quintessentially English, jazzier approach offers a balance of force and restraint as the backdrop for Irisarri’s majestic guitars, analog synth lines, and Martin Heyne’s Fender Rhodes counterpoints.

Second single, »Next Life«, began as a sketch by Scott, and reached its final form in the hands of Pioulard and Irisarri, at a point that each had endured major concurrent losses, finding a commonality in the need to gaze over the horizon while acknowledging the unavoidable bittersweetness of letting go – not only of people, but of routines, places, and expectations. It’s one of Orcas’ most nuanced pieces, with a mid-tempo, sunset glow that unfolds into a sparkling, slide-guitar finale as it disappears in the rear view.

On third-act highlight, »Bruise«, Scott is doubled on the drum kit by MONO’s Dahm Majuri Cipolla, whose Liebezeit-influenced metronomy anchors a nimble bass groove from Andrew Tasselmyer (of Hotel Neon), and some of the album's most syncopated, spaced-out interplay, courtesy of Puerto Rican guitar player Orlando Méndez (a childhood friend of Irisarri’s). Originally a droney, fingerpicked guitar demo, »Bruise« is the most storied composition here, having gone through almost a dozen versions and lyrical edits, with Brown distilling hours of improvised performances into the final arrangement.

Throughout »How to Color a Thousand Mistakes«, Irisarri uses his deep well of production experience to paint the stereo field with meticulously designed textures, exemplified on the slow burn of »Heaven’s Despite« and the heady rush of »Swells«. As a mixing and mastering engineer with Black Knoll, he has built a client list that reads as a who’s-who of modern, forward-thinking composition, including Temporary Residence, All Saints Records, and Ghostly International, among many others.

As with previous collaborations, Irisarri and Pioulard bring disparate styles and specialties to the table, but with an interpersonal dynamic that transcends friendship into brotherhood, their open-minded workflow and mutual respect are evident at every turn. »How to Color a Thousand Mistakes« brims with tight, complex art rock songwriting, masterful production, and sonic versatility, informed by a plethora of genres and tonal hues. The title might promise answers, but the gravitational center of the album is the dawning realization that, as you reckon with the infinite whims of the cosmos, there could be none.

Das ist schon ein historischer Moment: Exile On Mainstream bringt erstmalig eine Wiederveröffentlichung einer Platte, die seit Jahren restlos ausverkauft ist und am 25. April 2008 nur auf CD erschien. Erstmalig auf Vinyl, remastered: Heavy Zooo von BEEHOOVER. Die Band schreibt dazu: "Endlich! Oft gewünscht, drüber nachgedacht und wieder verworfen. Aber jetzt, endlich, kann mit Hilfe unseres Lieblingslabels Heavy Zooo so kommen, wie wir uns das die letzten 15 Jahre gewünscht haben: auf Vinyl!" Ist es Metal? Ist es Stoner Rock? Ist es Jazz oder gar Avantgarde? Weißt du was? Vergiss doch einfach mal die ganzen Schubladen in deinem Kopf und beantworte folgende Frage: Wann hat das letzte Mal jemand versucht, die Melvins zu klassifizieren? Oder Primus? Siehst du! Ladies & Gentlemen - der Heavy Zooo öffnet seine Tore! Treten sie ein und bestaunen sie eine Sammlung der unglaublichsten Geschöpfe dieses Planeten. Schimären aus Groove und Intelligenz. Sounds, so vertraut und doch so neu. Nichts hier ist eindimensional. Nur mit Bass und Drums schaffen Beehoover die Quadratur des Kreises - verrückte Arrangements mit Arsch, die dir das Tanzbein zucken lassen, dich aber trotzdem große Augen machen lassen. Damit sind die Eckpfeiler gemauert, zwischen denen sich die Sounds einer der wohl außergewöhnlichsten deutschen Bands dieser Tage spannen. Eine Kategorisierung erscheint unmöglich, wenn auch Beehoover Einflüsse aus traditionellen Stilen miteinander verweben. Im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes - das Ergebnis ist ein Teppich aus Bass und Drums, aus emotionalen Ausbrüchen und psychotischer Melancholie. Claus-Peter Hamisch (Drums) und Ingmar Peterson (Bass) versuchen dabei konsequent herkömmliche Strukturen zu vermeiden und neue Wege zu gehen, ohne jedoch den Song aus dem Auge zu verlieren. Ihre Herangehensweise ist avantgardistisch, das Ergebnis aber trotzdem melodisch. Ihre Auseinandersetzung mit Sounds ist intelligent und Kopf-betont. Das Resultat hingegen geht direkt in den Bauch - eine Wirkung, die heute nicht viele Bands erzielen können. Die Presse schrieb im April 2008: Dieses Duo ist ein echter Geheimtipp! ... ein echtes Original! ... Einfach nur großartig! (Eclipsed) Ein erneut bärenstarkes Album! (Rock Hard) Amtlicher Irrendoom, nur mit Ballerbass und Drums fabriziert. Ein herrlicher, fachmännisch fröhlicher Krach. Funktioniert eins a, absolut nicht zu klassifizieren.(Intro) ... die schwäbische Antwort auf die Melvins ... brachial-tighte Riffmaschine unter Dampf ... fette Prog-Schwarte, nie affektiert oder klugscheißend, sondern immer mitreißend komplex. (VISIONS) _ eine Mischung aus der Verrücktheit und technischen Brillianz von Primus, dem feinsinnigen Humor und der Vielseitigkeit der Melvins, der Heaviness und Brachialität von Neurosis und der Rhythmik von Kyuss (METAL HAMMER) Beehoover sind sie der lebende Beweis dafür, dass ein Bass, ein Schlagzeug und ein gepflegter Testosteronüberhang ausreichen, um die Musikgeschichte auf Lightning Bolt, Led Zeppelin, Melvins und Unsane einzudampfen und dein Trommelfell inklusive allem was dahinter liegt in die ewigen Jagdgründe zu schicken. (VICE) _ Es grenzt an ein Wunder ... Heavy Zooo steht als untrüglicher Beweis dafür, dass musikalischer Minimalismus tatsächlich maximale Brachialität und Wirkung erzielen kann (Legacy)

Land Of Talk emerged from the ethereal landscapes of mid-aughts Canadian indie rock with their 2006 debut Applause Cheer Boo Hiss. Led by Elizabeth Powell, they have spent the last 18 years carving their own path through the music scene, captivating audiences with their emotive soundscapes and raw vulnerability.

The EPs brings 2009's Fun And Laughter and 2021's Calming Night Partner together on vinyl for the first time, combining two distinct chapters in Land of Talk's sonic journey while offering fans a unique perspective on the evolution of their sound.

Fun And Laughter showcases the band's early experimentation with texture and tone. From the shimmering guitars of "May You Never," to the haunting melodies of "A Series Of Small Flames," each track exudes a sense of youthful energy and introspection.

Calming Night Partner is an equally mesmerizing collection of songs that delves into themes of longing and redemption. With tracks like "Leave Life Alone," and "Something Will Be Said," the EP showcases Powell's continuing evolution as a songwriter and lyricist.

This release represents more than just a collection of songs; they are a testament to the band's unwavering commitment to their craft and their unyielding passion for storytelling through music. As they continue to push the boundaries of their sound and forge new paths in the indie rock landscape, one thing remains certain: the echoes of Land of Talk will linger on, resonating in the hearts and minds of listeners for years to come.