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Yaya Bey ist eine der spannendsten Storytellerinnen des R&B. Mit einer Kombination aus den Kräften ihrer Vorfahren und denen ihrer eigenen Selbstverwirklichung navigiert die Singer-Songwriterin nahtlos an den Stolpersteinen des Lebens vorbei und direkt hinein in die freudigen Momente der Musik. Beys neues Album, „Remember Your North Star" fängt diese emotionale Achterbahn mit einer Mischung aus Soul, Jazz, Reggae, Afrobeat und Hiphop ein, die die Seele nährt.

Beys Fähigkeit, die emotional kaleidoskopische Natur von Frauen, insbesondere von schwarzen Frauen, anzuzapfen, ist die Essenz des gesamten Albums. Die von der Kritik gefeierte multidisziplinäre Künstlerin und Kunstkuratorin, die mehrere Kunstresidenzen im Brooklyner MoCADA (Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art) absolviert hat, beschäftigt sich mit Themen wie Misogynie, Generationstraumata, sorglose Romantik, elterliche Beziehungen, weibliche Ermächtigung und Selbstliebe. „Remember Your North Star“ setzt Beys persönliche und künstlerische Entwicklung fort, indem sie sich bemüht, ein Resonanzboden für schwarze Frauen überall zu sein. „Ich fühle mich durch die Musik gestärkt, weil ich alles, was mir widerfährt, in etwas Wertvolles verwandeln kann. Musik hilft mir, den Wert dessen zu erkennen, was in meinem Leben passiert.“, erklärt sie. „In der Musik steckt ein Geist. Sie ist eine Kultur, und ich bin Teil dieser Gemeinschaft und trage mit meiner Geschichte dazu bei, dass wir miteinander verbunden bleiben.“

"The dazzling symphonic album he always threatened to produce" UNCUT 5/5
"A soulful symphonic masterpiece" ROLLING STONE

Originally released in Japan only on CD in 2002, Plush's Fed lives up to the cult-like adulation it has garnered ever since. A stunning symphony of Bacharach-inspired pop, Toussaint-swing andMelody Nelson-era-Gainsbourg, it's an album bound together by Liam Hayes' maverick genius, an uncompromising Brian Wilson-esque quest for sonic perfection. Positively indulgent in every way, this sumptuous record has long deserved to be treated to a deluxe vinyl edition. Lovingly overseen by Hayes and recent collaborator Pat Sansone (Wilco/The Autumn Defense), it will finally be available on the format it should've always been, this Record Store Day 2018. Remastered and presented as a double LP - cut specially at 45rpm - it comes housed in a beautiful gatefold jacket with expanded artwork throughout.

Its expansive, singular vision infamously took years to realise, involving Earth Wind & Fire's horn arranger (the legendary Tom Tom MMLXXXIV) amongst other elite personnel. Recorded with five different engineers (including Steve Albini and John McEntire), Hayes meticulously extracted every ounce of pop from each note. A long list of renowned studio ringers (including soul drummer Morris Jennings) and Chicago regulars (McEntire, Rizzo, Parker) among many others provide playing of demonstrably professional precision. As such, Hayes' complex, meandering melodies are rendered far more coherent and satisfying than they otherwise might have appeared, bringing his epic, anguished pop to a rarely seen level of perfection and depth. This unstinting dedication to the overarching vision was rewarded handsomely - artistically, at least.

However, as might have been expected, his deluxe approach resulted in a bill too steep for any American or European label to ultimately support. It has since seemed unlikely that it would see the light of day on either side of the Atlantic. Yet we were determined not to allow Hayes' lifetime achievement to go unnoticed or let music fans across the world miss out on one of the finest albums of this century.

A wide-eyed opus of stunning intensity, Fed oozes Hayes' impeccable influences without ever becoming overwhelmed by them. Incredibly, it touches upon Blaxploitation soul, Boz Scaggs-soft-rock, hints of jazz and blues, timeless baroque and skewed pop. In one long minute, the stabbing, soulful "So Blind" moves through five different melodic segments, horns shift easily from haunting backdrop to explosive forefront, smoothly giving way to strings as Hayes' voice casts its bewitching spell. The ambitious soul of "Having It All" has been described as the diffident cousin of Marvin Gaye's "Save The Children" whilst the breezy "Greyhound Bus Station" is pure 70s AM Gold, evoking the easy warmth of Jimmy Webb's beloved Land's End period. The sublime resignation of "No Education", a beautifully slow number that begins, "Never read a book in my life/ But I feel just fine" is post-rock ballad heaven. Arriving towards the end, the title track arrives as a majestic suite, moving from a horn-and-guitar-led instrumental via shifting melodies to Hayes' compelling vocal bursts.

An album of such brilliance, Fed can comfortably sit alongside such staggering statement pieces as David Bowie's Young Americans, Randy Newman's 12 Songs or Harry Nilsson's Nilsson Schmilsson. Indeed, for all the sprawling elements that went in - lengthy guitar builds, exploding horn sections, solemn strings, female backup chorus - it is a deeply personal and original record. Employing a distinct "more is more" aesthetic, he demonstrates remarkable restraint in producing an album of such intimacy. "My creation has drowned me," he memorably sings on languid opener "Whose Blues", yet he navigates the shifting styles and ideas with enviable ease.

4 more quarters, 4 more contrasting expressions of global bass music culture: Barefoot sound originator and G-stone Afrofuturist Stereotyp teams-up powerfully with Malaysian rap legend Arabyrd on 'KEK', delivering a massive dose of Malay shudder trap that does not relent in either its growling bass attack or husky lyrical humour. Next up, the crisp and clean mid-90s DnB vibes of Bristolian producer K-65 ups the energy and tempo with the steadily rolling rinse-out of 'In My Mind', lightening the mood momentarily prior to the first cut on the B-side, with which we descend once more into the increasingly familiar Badman-isms of Low End Activist, who opts for a mutant strain of hardcore UKG on this outing, all scuffed swing and first light maneuvers. Finally though, it's all about the transparency of the groove, with the lush closing tune by Sentinel 793 emanating masses of UK Bruk style and charm, delivering another solid, low-slung workout from this hardworking and charismatic producer. Confined to quarters or not, get these 4 new sound pieces for the meantime, downtime, time being etc... as you like, want or need.

This is the second Haress album, a five piece from Shropshire. They channel the sounds of Fairport Convention, Lungfish, Papa M, Earth, Robert Wyatt, John Fahey, and Talk Talk. Taking influence and making it their own. The first vinyl press comes with a bonus flexi disc telling the story of the week the band spent recording the album, the weirdness, the positively supernatural happenings. On this album the core duo of Elizabeth Still and David Hand are joined by David Smyth (Mind Mountain, Kling Klang) on drums, Chris Summerlin (Hey Colossus, Kogumaza) on guitar, Thomas House (Sweet Williams, Charlottefield) on vocals and Nathan Bell (Lungfish, Human Bell) on trumpet. In early 2020 the group travelled to a disused water mill in North Wales for a week to record with engineer Phil Booth (JT Soar) and his mobile studio. The stories of what occurred are told on the flexi disc that accompanies the LP but the group’s plans for a relaxing break in the country were scuppered by events that were either highly unusual, or positively supernatural (depending on your own beliefs in such things). Well-made plans were abandoned and the recording was forced to develop according to the location it was being made in. Chance and accident were welcomed as a collaborator rather than a saboteur and the group exited the sessions extremely freaked-out but with the makings of an album. Ghosts is an incredible piece of work and posits Haress on their own when it comes to developing new approaches to traditional musical forms. The music contains many moments of immediate joy - the relative pop of House’s vocals on White Over, the wild horns of I Think I Think, the rush of warmth as Time To Drink morphs into focus. But it also stretches the sound Haress have carefully developed almost to breaking point with sections of music that feel like somebody - something - else is steering the ship. The 2 final songs – Litres Into Metres and Sussurus – are joined together by a collage of site-specific sound. It was decided to add the output from a detuned long wave radio to this section on the final night of recording. Static hissed from the device but as soon as the record light illuminated, a rich male baritone voice sang loud and clear from the radio, taking a solo right where it was needed and then disappearing into space forever like the Ghosts of the title.

Time Released Sound is pleased to be releasing the new album "Allusionen", from German modern classical artist, Himmelsrandt. The nine tracks on this moody, wintry and melancholic beauty feature the artist Peter Honsalek either on piano and viola, and on four tracks, he additionally plays the mysterious early electronic synthesizer called the Volkstrautonium. This is a somewhat dark and introspective journey through the shortest, coldest days of the year, please pull up a chair by the fire, and put your headphones on!

As Peter says, "The album in general deals with the topic of "allusion". The piano songs reflect the period in which the viola songs were invented (between the years 2019/2020). The viola songs themselves are allusions to certain styles and epochs. To notice this and to classify correctly is the job of the listener.

There are also allusions (music for Piano and the rare Volkstrautonium), which are not intended to refer to specific styles, epochs or compositions, but only to allude to specific cold and snowy days between the years 2019/2020. The aim of the album was to capture the creation of contemporary music in its entirety and make it audible. This includes not only the result, but also the external (musical and non-musical) influences that shaped it.

The title already says it all: This compilation is an album of instrumentalsonly, something that bandleader Tosho Todorovic has had on his to-do list for quite a long time
The album brings together 15 'songs without words' from the last 30 years of the band, which was founded in the German town of Osnabrück in the mid-1970s. And that also means that these songs, which were recorded either live or in the studio, reflect the history of the Blues Company and is various line- ups, with Tosho Todorovic and second guitarist and singer Mike Titré being the only two constant band members over all these years.

With three exceptions all of the songs were penned by Tosho Todorovic, but of course there is also a version of the Freddie King classic ‘Hideaway’, a long-time staple of the band’s live repertoire.

Astrel K is Rhys Edwards of Ulrika Spacek. Astrel K's debut single ‘You Could If You Can’ was released via Duophonic Super 45s - a label which has a history of releasing limited edition abstract releases from Stereolab, Broadcast & Yo La Tengo. 500 copies of the 7” were made, hand stamped and numbered, quickly selling out in selected record shops. Following the loss of KEN, a shared house in which Ulrika Spacek band members lived and worked from, Edwards relocated to Stockholm, Sweden where he began making music on his own: “At this time, I didn’t really know anyone in Stockholm so kinda retreated into making music just by myself. The album title definitely reflects this period; I was on my own making music and sometimes nothing would be happening and sometimes there would be little sparks of ideas that could keep me going” Edwards would spend nights writing and recording in a shared rehearsal space producing music rich with layers and texture, synonymous with the work of Ulrika Spacek but with perhaps a greater focus on the art of ‘song writing’. Tracks with verse’s and chorus’s are surrounded by instrumental interludes; inspired by old library music and compositions for film as well as being reminiscent of bands such as Broadcast. The album doesn’t sound like one made in either London or Stockholm, rather somewhere in the nether region. Written pre pandemic but mixed in the past year, the music led Edwards to finding like minded musicians from the Stockholm music scene: “Though I’m now glad I can say I wrote an album by myself, I was definitely confronted with my own musical strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes when you have an A/B decision you want some perspective and you’d be in the studio, turn around and no one is there. It really made me curious to bring in more people into the fold, not to compromise any original vision or anything, but to have other energy in the room, to exorcise out any lazy tricks I may fall into”. Stockholm musicians (including Lili Holényi, Milton Öhrström, Niklas Mellberg, Tomas Hellberg) played on the album and join Edwards in the live version of the project. UK and European live dates to follow.

Funny to think there was a time not so long ago when Stiff Richards was a name that required explanation - but not to you, of course, o punk connoisseur. This is your territory, after all. Music is your oxygen and the sound of the underground is your clarion call. You can explain the distinction between ‘Know Your Product’ and ‘No, You’re Product’. Hey, you’re probably pretty good-looking too. You know your shit, either way. So no wonder you’re drawn to this relative holy grail of modern garage rock - the 2017 self-titled debut album by the aforementioned Stiff Richards. Originally released on their own Stiff Records (and again by Legless in 2020), it lays down all the elements that made last year’s mighty ‘State of Mind’ LP such an instant classic. OK, we’ve established you know the drill, but let’s recap: scintillating Aus-punk that recalls the heroic high-speed riffs of their countrymen The Saints and Radio Birdman. It sounds like Royal Headache covering Motörhead, or maybe the other way around. It’s a full-on riot in 30 minutes - the rawest of rock’n’roll bleeding into the grimiest of power chords with hooks for days. You already know you’re gonna love it. Whether going full-throttle and aiming straight for the nerve receptors that get your head a-nodding and your toes a-tapping - like on sub-three-minute highlight ‘Strung Out’ - or sludgin’ their way through groovier cuts like ‘Bustin’ Out’, they’re never less than a treat that’s guaranteed to get your serotonin flowing and your speakers up to 11 (or beyond). As a certain similarly-named record label once said, if it ain’t Stiff, it ain’t worth a fuck. Frightfully rude, but that’s rock music for you, I suppose. Get it in your ears.

Australian hip-hop/neo soul duo SO.Crates are a boom-bap prayer sent live and direct from the heart of two of the culture’s most committed students. The group features Melbourne based beatmaker and DJ Skomes alongside California-via-Adelaide MC & poet Cazeaux O.S.L.O, not to mention the MUSE, a forever changing third party who completes the creative trinity of the Crates. With a legacy built on releasing a steady flow of cold-crush records and delivering uplifting live performances to the party people, SO.Crates prove that hip-hop’s golden era is not a lost date in time, but a foundational state of mind. Functioning as a considered preview of what to expect from the album to follow, the hypnotic first release 'Stars' is an auditory exploration of what happens when two opposing charges collide; the joyful and the melancholy. Here, layers of instrumentation, samples and vocals sit atop a foundation of grounding beats — the track's roots from which piano samples, live trumpet and vocal embellishments spring. "When Skomes gets in his stride, it's always a bit of a happy/sad feeling. It can go either way, like a mood ring", says Cazeaux O.S.L.O. "I guess you could say we make mood ring beats, and 'Stars' is no exception".

After the re-release of the classic "Nu Romantix" album, Ed DMX aka DMX Krew returns to Permanent Vacation with his new album "Party Life". This time the long-haired UK legend is taking a step back from his trademark Electro and Techno sound and putting on his romancing suit.

Ed is crooning over 80's styled Boogie, Disco and Funk tracks in a way only he can do it and that will either make you jump for joy or cruising down the coastal promenade.

"Party Life" is another example why Ed is a master of all crafts in the ever expanding DMX Krew universe.

For their ninth iteration, Hamburg's The Press Group punches back in with the sizzling hot debut to a VA series bound to scout and shed a broader light on exciting artists from various territories and backgrounds.
Pulsating to the bone, "Future Prospects vol.1" showcases a quartet of heaters courtesy of Germany-based Robert Dietz and Aii PS on the A-side and Kyiv-based Vlad Stuparenko & Ghetto Sunrise plus Sasha Zlykh on the flip. Either sides of the
disc inbound for optimal and non-pareil impact on the dance floor. Dietz's "Salbung" paves the way old-school style, grinding everything from lethal breaks to rowdy drums, via lysergic synth flights straight out a wild sci-fi scenario.
Aii PS' bouncy and oneiric contribution "Donteven" is more of a low-slung affair with its mischievous fusion of filtered synths and acid-informed bass spurts painting the sky all shades of radioactive green.
Flip it over and Stuparenko/Ghetto Sunrise's stealth, aqueous weapon "Pine Water" ushers us in a corridor of groove-enslaved echolocation, delayed stabs and propulsive bleepin' n bloopin' from the depths. A further dusty, shuffling affair
blazing with clanky hats on a Chicagoan tip and futuristic electroid inflections, Zlykh's "Pidozepam" tops it all off in implacable fashion, casting a spell of exquisitely thrilling menace upon the ravers.

"For a whole decade, spanning between the second half of the ‘50s and the second half of the ‘60s, jazz took over the Italian screens. The Californian be-bop rhythms, filtered and reinterpreted in a typical Mediterranean key, became the perfect soundtrack to the Italy of the economic boom; the quintessential music for a country that was sailing through a moment of profound and exciting industrial, social and cultural renovation. A nation that was rapidly shedding its skin, changing its style, look and identity, but also its landscape, letting itself go to the inebriation of the economic miracle. The compilation was conceived like a sonic stream, a journey of discovery carefully sequenced from hundreds of soundtracks from the golden age of Italian jazz contained in the CAM Sugar archive.
33 tracks that go beyond music, telling the story of Italian cinema, society and of its unmistakable style and charm. A genre that even when nodding to Californian be-bop, to crime jazz or bossa nova still sounds surprisingly original and Mediterranean, elegant, and seductive, either with joyous peaks (the scat of I Cantori Moderni di Alessandroni or of I 4+4 di Nora Orlandi) or with enigmatic and nearly dramatic nuances (La strega in amore by Luis Bacalov, Il batticuore by Marcello Gigante). The compilation also offers a precious insight into the Italian jazz scene of the times, with its string of formidable soloists like Gianni Basso (sax) and Oscar Valdambrini (trumpet), two Piedmontese men on duty for the RAI television orchestra conducted by Armando Trovajoli; like Nunzio Rotondo (trumpet) a legendary and elusive figure who had a special bond with Piero Piccioni; or like Enrico Rava (trumpet), Franco D'Andrea (piano) and Gegé Munari (drums) who often recorded with Piero Umiliani. Not to forget international stars like Chet Baker and Gato Barbieri, who were often fortuitously dragged into the recording sessions also thanks to Umiliani’s never-ending curiosity."

The word that jumps to mind when hearing Deanna Petcoff's music for the first time is “yearning”. A whirlwind of emotions, her debut record To Hell With You, I Love You is a reckoning with the loss of a relationship, documenting the aggressive highs and deeply emotional lows that come from falling out of love.

Recorded in Toronto over the course of a year spent in-and-out of lockdowns, she was able to look more closely at the nuances and minutiae of relationships and examine the ways in which they can either grow or falter. She writes about her frustrating experiences as a24-year old woman finding her voice and identity while navigating a never changing world, exploring the ins and outs of love and heartbreak with a grace and quick wit that belies her year. Her rich, textured voice juxtaposes her soft imagery and her vulnerable and starkly honest lyrics welcome us into a world where even a fleeting moment of emotion can become its own monument.

Based in Toronto, ON, Petcoff shaped her own unique brand of beautiful and confessional indie rock through years of devotion to music, sharing stage with the likes of Molly Burch, Tokyo Police Club, The Nude Party and many more. She excels with heart-on-her-sleeve-emotive lyricism that showcases her strength as a songwriter and a vocalist, and on To Hell With You, I Love You, she wanted to present “the whirlwind of emotions you have when you’re grieving a relationship, which can feel like the death of a part of you or what you thought your life was going to look like.” It’s an album that ebbs and flows with a confidence and an assuredness as she tackles the highs and lows of falling in and out of love, and everything in between.

Often when music is constructed with synths and other electronically generated sound makers, their level of exactitude and control is such that the vocalist will either wittingly or otherwise seek to emulate the relative artifice of the soundscape. This is often done to great effect, think Kraftwerk. But what if there was a unit whose music was synth-generated but the vocals were coming from a hot-blooded, singing-for-the-cheap-seats approach? If done well, it’s a case of two great tastes that taste great together, which brings me to System Exclusive.

Their multi genre / time period collision is like a car accident where all parties walk away not only unscathed but sure they had a great time, like two different recording sessions sharing the same space and making it work. Vocalist Ari Blaisdell (previously of Lower Self, The Beat Offs) co-exists excellently amidst the driving beats and synth waves and her guitar further helps to jailbreak the tunes from the often sterile entrapments that synths provide. Matt Jones (previously of Male Gaze, Blasted Canyons, and continuing Castle Face behind-the-scenesman)’s smart use of live drums bring great juxtaposition against the machines. Ari’s irony-free sincere delivery is the perfect closer on this very cool record, recorded ably by Enrique Tena Padilla (Osees, Wand, Beach House) in their backyard studio mid-pandemic and adorned with original artwork by Miles Wintner (L.A. Takedown, Mr. Elevator, Devon Williams). If you don’t get this slab of goodness, well, that act of non-compliance will confirm you as the pain-in-the-ass that many have described you to be in great detail during Zoom chats. How dare they! Prove them wrong! Reduce their snark to mere pseudo-intellectual piffle! Your lifeline arrives in March. Grab it. — Henry Rollins

- First vinyl reissue, available on LP for the first time in 20 years - Completely remastered audio and restored artwork - Side D lunar vinyl etching art // After leaving London in 1999 for the sleepy seaside retiree town of Weston-super-Mare, Coil co-founders John Balance and Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson set up shop in a palatial eight-bedroom estate to pursue the outer reaches of the group's heightening cabalistic chemistry. Among the staggering string of late-era masterpieces they produced is lunar opus Musick To Play In The Dark, widely hailed as an artistic zenith upon its release. The sessions that birthed it were in fact so fruitful that a second LP took shape during the creation of the first one. Aided by the recent addition of Welsh multi-instrumentalist engineer Thighpaulsandra, Coil mined further into the recesses of surrealist eldritch electronica Balance termed "moon music" - post-industrial spellcasting at the axis of narcotic and nocturnal energies. Musick To Play In The Dark² spans a full witching hour of bad acid sound design, synthesizer voyaging, opiated balladry, Luciferian glitch, and subliminal hymnals, alternately ominous, oracular, and absurd. Scottish gothic icon Rose McDowall guests on vocals for two tracks but otherwise the album is a hermetic affair, tapping into the group's limitless insular synergy. Opener "Something" is stark and incantational, a spoken word experiment for windswept voids. "Tiny Golden Books" unspools an aerial whirlpool of cosmic synth, both whispery and widescreen. "Ether" is an exercise in funeral procession piano and intoxicated wordplay ("It's either ether or the other"), while "Where Are You?" and "Batwings - A Liminal Hymn" lurk like liturgical murmurings heard on one's death bed, framed in granular FX and flickering candlelight. As a whole the collection skews more muted and remote than its predecessor, as if having grown accustomed to the nether regions of these darkening seances. But music box hallucination "Paranoid Inlay" captures the group's oblique comedic side, always glimmering beneath: over a warped, wobbly beat Balance intones an opaque narrative of serenity, Saint Peter, and suicidal vegetables, accompanied by spiraling harpsichord and stuttering squelches of electronics. "It seems concussion suits you," he repeats twice, like a macabre pickup line, before dictating a dear diary entry about risks and failures, finally concluding with as close to a self-portrait as Coil ever came: "On a clear day I can see forever / that the underworld is my oyster."

- First vinyl reissue, available on LP for the first time in 20 years - Completely remastered audio and restored artwork - Side D lunar vinyl etching art // After leaving London in 1999 for the sleepy seaside retiree town of Weston-super-Mare, Coil co-founders John Balance and Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson set up shop in a palatial eight-bedroom estate to pursue the outer reaches of the group's heightening cabalistic chemistry. Among the staggering string of late-era masterpieces they produced is lunar opus Musick To Play In The Dark, widely hailed as an artistic zenith upon its release. The sessions that birthed it were in fact so fruitful that a second LP took shape during the creation of the first one. Aided by the recent addition of Welsh multi-instrumentalist engineer Thighpaulsandra, Coil mined further into the recesses of surrealist eldritch electronica Balance termed "moon music" - post-industrial spellcasting at the axis of narcotic and nocturnal energies. Musick To Play In The Dark² spans a full witching hour of bad acid sound design, synthesizer voyaging, opiated balladry, Luciferian glitch, and subliminal hymnals, alternately ominous, oracular, and absurd. Scottish gothic icon Rose McDowall guests on vocals for two tracks but otherwise the album is a hermetic affair, tapping into the group's limitless insular synergy. Opener "Something" is stark and incantational, a spoken word experiment for windswept voids. "Tiny Golden Books" unspools an aerial whirlpool of cosmic synth, both whispery and widescreen. "Ether" is an exercise in funeral procession piano and intoxicated wordplay ("It's either ether or the other"), while "Where Are You?" and "Batwings - A Liminal Hymn" lurk like liturgical murmurings heard on one's death bed, framed in granular FX and flickering candlelight. As a whole the collection skews more muted and remote than its predecessor, as if having grown accustomed to the nether regions of these darkening seances. But music box hallucination "Paranoid Inlay" captures the group's oblique comedic side, always glimmering beneath: over a warped, wobbly beat Balance intones an opaque narrative of serenity, Saint Peter, and suicidal vegetables, accompanied by spiraling harpsichord and stuttering squelches of electronics. "It seems concussion suits you," he repeats twice, like a macabre pickup line, before dictating a dear diary entry about risks and failures, finally concluding with as close to a self-portrait as Coil ever came: "On a clear day I can see forever / that the underworld is my oyster."

- First vinyl reissue, available on LP for the first time in 20 years - Completely remastered audio and restored artwork - Side D lunar vinyl etching art // After leaving London in 1999 for the sleepy seaside retiree town of Weston-super-Mare, Coil co-founders John Balance and Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson set up shop in a palatial eight-bedroom estate to pursue the outer reaches of the group's heightening cabalistic chemistry. Among the staggering string of late-era masterpieces they produced is lunar opus Musick To Play In The Dark, widely hailed as an artistic zenith upon its release. The sessions that birthed it were in fact so fruitful that a second LP took shape during the creation of the first one. Aided by the recent addition of Welsh multi-instrumentalist engineer Thighpaulsandra, Coil mined further into the recesses of surrealist eldritch electronica Balance termed "moon music" - post-industrial spellcasting at the axis of narcotic and nocturnal energies. Musick To Play In The Dark² spans a full witching hour of bad acid sound design, synthesizer voyaging, opiated balladry, Luciferian glitch, and subliminal hymnals, alternately ominous, oracular, and absurd. Scottish gothic icon Rose McDowall guests on vocals for two tracks but otherwise the album is a hermetic affair, tapping into the group's limitless insular synergy. Opener "Something" is stark and incantational, a spoken word experiment for windswept voids. "Tiny Golden Books" unspools an aerial whirlpool of cosmic synth, both whispery and widescreen. "Ether" is an exercise in funeral procession piano and intoxicated wordplay ("It's either ether or the other"), while "Where Are You?" and "Batwings - A Liminal Hymn" lurk like liturgical murmurings heard on one's death bed, framed in granular FX and flickering candlelight. As a whole the collection skews more muted and remote than its predecessor, as if having grown accustomed to the nether regions of these darkening seances. But music box hallucination "Paranoid Inlay" captures the group's oblique comedic side, always glimmering beneath: over a warped, wobbly beat Balance intones an opaque narrative of serenity, Saint Peter, and suicidal vegetables, accompanied by spiraling harpsichord and stuttering squelches of electronics. "It seems concussion suits you," he repeats twice, like a macabre pickup line, before dictating a dear diary entry about risks and failures, finally concluding with as close to a self-portrait as Coil ever came: "On a clear day I can see forever / that the underworld is my oyster."

After 'Transit', his successful solo debut, Safe is the second album Bert Dockx (Dans Dans, Flying Horseman, Ottla, Strand) is releasing under his own name.

This collection of songs and instrumentals navigates between threat and dream, between silence and storm. Unlike 'Transit', 'Safe' mainly consists of original work and just two interpretations (of The Velvet Underground & Ornette Coleman tracks). This time Dockx is not flying entirely solo either, he gets musical assistance from Loesje and Martha Maieu (Flying Horseman, Blackie & The Oohoos) and Thomas Jillings (Ottla, Linus). Koen Gisen, Ghent based producer for connoisseurs, is back at the controls. Together with them, Dockx paints a richly variegated and adventurous soundscape with echoes of his other musical projects.

We hear folk, psychedelia, ambient, introverted guitar rock, shaded jazz. Colourful vistas are contrasted with gloomy introspection. Careful listeners will also discover the narrative of a complex, painful, passionate love.

After 'Transit', his successful solo debut, Safe is the second album Bert Dockx (Dans Dans, Flying Horseman, Ottla, Strand) is releasing under his own name.

This collection of songs and instrumentals navigates between threat and dream, between silence and storm. Unlike 'Transit', 'Safe' mainly consists of original work and just two interpretations (of The Velvet Underground & Ornette Coleman tracks). This time Dockx is not flying entirely solo either, he gets musical assistance from Loesje and Martha Maieu (Flying Horseman, Blackie & The Oohoos) and Thomas Jillings (Ottla, Linus). Koen Gisen, Ghent based producer for connoisseurs, is back at the controls. Together with them, Dockx paints a richly variegated and adventurous soundscape with echoes of his other musical projects.

We hear folk, psychedelia, ambient, introverted guitar rock, shaded jazz. Colourful vistas are contrasted with gloomy introspection. Careful listeners will also discover the narrative of a complex, painful, passionate love.

The Ricardo Villalobos / Samuel Rohrer partnership has yielded increasingly interesting results over the past few years, with the former’s remixes of the latter’s trio Ambiq being supplemented by further reinterpretations of Rohrer’s solo work and live meetings at select events like Berlin’s Funkhaus and Radialsystem V. As should be the case with any strong collaboration, this partnership has been based on mutual challenge rather than compromise,
seeing each participant shuttle key technical and emotive aspects of the other’s work to previously unexpected places.
Those who have been closely following this relationship will notice a definite sense of continuity between previous outings and the new collaborative release entitled MICROGESTURES. As with those earlier Villalobos / Rohrer pairings, these four new pieces are defined by a special quality of being many things that once: that is to say, depending on the listener’s own level of focus, these can feel very tightly constructed and disciplined, or playful and freely wandering. That the tracks are equally engaging regardless of one’s chosen listening “mode” is a testament to the level of thought put into them; you could almost imagining the creators poring over some elaborate sketched set of architectural blueprints rather than coolly monitoring the usual multi-track editing software.
Altogether the music here is firmly a-melodic and percussive, but within these deliberate limitations there is still a greater variety of individual sounds than most would bother with. Each track is its own observatory of microgestures clustering together into a dense communicative fog or a sort of robotic sound swarm. Yet while all
these tracks are variations on that theme, each one has its own character and, consequently, its own rewards in terms of the exact sectors of the imagination that it activates.
Take for example “Cochlea” and its twin “Helix,” on which the magnetizing, busy layers of percussion are tempered with mischievously disruptive blossomings of digital noise, as well as sampled radio communications (which again bring us back to the idea of listeners’ attentiveness changing the meaning of this music - these
curious transmissions can either be taken as a purely aesthetic element or as something to be actively decoded).
Club-oriented elements are also not absent from this suite, particularly on “Incus” with its traditional sequenced baseline, crisp synthetic trap and hats, and dizzily sliding set of bell-like tones laid on top.?
Yet this track, too, is powered as much by its restless desire to deviate as by its rhythmic consistency: throughout the eleven-minute running time, a mass of ambiguous and restless machine sounds build a parallel narrative, and will maybe prompt the occasional glance over the shoulder as they seem to be taking on their own life. “Lobule” rounds out the program with the most rhythmically eventful sound set off the five.
What this all adds up to is a confident music which builds that quality from its faith in possibilities rather than firm conclusions: it’s an inspiring addition to both the musical landscape and reality in general

Dengue Fever on Vinyl! This Deluxe Reissue contains 5 bonus tracks not
availble on the original release / w download
Fronted by amazing vocalist Chhom Nimol, Dengue Fever has surprisingly
universal appeal - Chhom herself is already quite accustomed to seizing the
hearts of listeners (including the King and Queen of Cambodia), as she comes
from a family best considered as a Cambodia pop music dynasty– not unlike a
Cambodian version of the Jacksons. The rest of the band is no flake-fest either,
consisting of Zac Holtzman (Dieselhed) and his brother Ethan on Farfisa organ,
Senon Williams (Radar Brothers), David Ralicke (Beck) and seasoned drummer/
engineer Paul Smith. Their covers stay remarkably true to the crazy party music
spirit of the '60s- and '70s-era originals. But there are also original songs, some of
which veer off into the darkened corridors of lost love and ghostly noir
romanticism, dissolving sometimes into spaces of genuine bleakness and
tragedy — all in the Khmer tongue. Far from mere novelty or cheap Orientophile
thrill, Dengue Fever keeps listeners on their toes, dancing to their way-out tones.
The Deluxe Reissue contains 5 bonus tracks not availble on the original release.

"We’ve reached book IV in Rupert Clervaux’s series of “Zibaldone” audio diaries, at which point we find him telling a different kind of story.

“The first three all had very specific themes, while this one feels a little bit looser and doesn’t have just one thematic thrust,” he tells me, which maybe explains why listening feels a bit like annotating. I’m underlining, emphasizing, drawing arrows from here to there, highlighting symbols and noting motifs, realising, questioning, eureka-ing. An impressionistic meaning’s been encoded in and we’re lucky to be given the space to play that most poetic and boundless of all mental games: narrativization.

There are no wrong answers, but Rupert offers some clues either way. If there’s any cipher here it’s “something like a meditation on the concept of ‘depth’––in all its connotative forms.” Think below the surface, (the) underground, yawning oceans, being ‘down in the dirt’, soil, roots, rootlessness, pulling at the dregs, collapse, profundity, stable and unstable horizons, distance, perspective, intuition, not to mention relative opposites: to be shallow, to be above, to be beyond.

It’s got me thinking of Bresson’s “Bring things together that have as yet never been brought together and did not seem predisposed to be so.” His: “Dig deep where you are. Don't slip off elsewhere.” Rupert has realized these—two favourite goals of mine!—here.

This is music that catches you at your own periphery, gives pause, has you offering a little “huh” to, asking “I wonder why” to. Again, it’s got me musing on another mindworm, this time from New York publisher and multi-sensory reading room Dispersed Holdings: “Feeling-making-knowing feedback loop; cartography of feeling; water as text, read to know the land beneath and around it, and body as reader.”

Is it ok to offer up these other contexts out of context? I think so, because Zibaldone IV articulates a similarly swirly tone. Like, we’ve got Rebecca Solnit talking through Kropotkin’s “Mutual Aid” and later calling out to Michael Ruppert a ways away, and “Easy Rider” is playing in the wings. We’ve got Susan Sontag magically contextualizing Mariah Carey with poet Thylias Moss triangulating in order to sketch out (Rupert again) “something a little more interesting than wilful eclecticism or that laboured and patronising kind of pop-savvy.”

Are we following? Whether yes or no Vanessa Bedoret follows on with a performance of a performance of Moss’s 'Water Road’: to be once or twice removed, via strange transitions, purposeful confusions, and, suddenly, seagulls. We’re on a boat with Ingeborg Bachmann—and how I wish I could actually be! But maybe thanks to this music I can as literature, films, friends, lethargy, coincidences, little mental links, eternal wormholes, lingering notions come together to imagine something better."

Text by Natalia Panzer

Ten years into his role as poster boy for pop soul and peak-hour R&B, Syl Johnson did an unlikely about-face and cut the most inspiring and powerful song he'd ever touch. Issued on 45 in September of 1969, "Is It Because I'm Black" struck an immediate chord within the black community, forcing the song up the charts by sheer volume of call-in requests. It would be Syl's biggest hit for Twinight, climbing as high as #11 on the Billboard R&B chart during its 14-week stay, marking the defining moment of what had become more than just an occupation. Syl had his hands on a career and worked tirelessly rehearsing his next opus, an album of songs reflective of the changing times. With "Is It Because I'm Black" still bolding the pages of Billboard, the coming LP's title appeared to Syl plain as day _ or, in this case, black as night. Issued in April 1970 _ a full 13 months before Marvin Gaye's What's Going On _ Is It Because I'm Black can rightly be called the first black concept album, a distinction few give it credit for. But that factoid, whatever its meaning then or now, failed to inspire music buyers: Johnson's record never got a whiff of the two million copies Gaye's did in its first year of availability. Syl lays the blame squarely on the record's lack of marketability to a white audience. The album's cover didn't exactly move units either. Photographer Jerry Griffith dragged Syl to a burned-out building on 43rd Street to shoot the back cover image, and he finger-painted the iconic title over a stock photo of an eroding brick wall. The title track, coupled with the politically charged "I'm Talking About Freedom" and ghetto conscious "Concrete Reservation" sealed the album's cool reception as the work of an "angry black man." Which is unfortunate, as "Together Forever," "Come Together," and "Black Balloons" are positively uplifting, forming their own pot of gold at the end of a grayscale rainbow. The album's closer burns the brightest. "Right On" devolves into a full-on party track, ending with Syl riffing on the line "I'm gonna keep on doing my thing," as if to answer his critics before their needles reached the run-out groove.

* Strictly limited-edition 2x12” vinyl in full colour sleeve. Includes card to download full album in WAV format.
* ‘Strange Days’ the debut album from one of the standout Drum & Bass acts of recent years, due for release on the legendary V Recordings on 3rd December 2021.
* Features collaborations with Serum, Makoto, MC Fats, Lorna King, 2shy MC, Cleveland Watkiss, Blak, Riya, A Little Sound, Elipsa & T.R.A.C.
* With support already secured from the likes of Shy FX, Bryan Gee, Fabio & Grooverider, Rene LaVice, Hybrid Minds, Serum, Randall and with a growing international fanbase at their back, Paul T & Edward Oberon's new album 'Strange Days' is set to be one of 2021's defining drum & bass releases.
* Their recent run of singles, including two Beatport number ones and collaborations with vocal talents like Cleveland Watkiss, MC Fats, A Little Sound & Lorna Kings have given us a flavour of this monumental project. An eclectic array of influences from jazz to jump up have been filtered through the unique musical perspective of this duo to bring us something that we've never quite heard before.
* Drum & bass has the capacity to deliver, on the one hand, soulfully emotive musicality and, on the other, sheer rave-inflaming filth. Paul T & Edward Oberon, however, have consistently performed the alchemical magic of bringing together both the music and the mayhem without compromising either.
* But of course they have. Paul and Edward have years of experience creating music for some of the most prestigious labels in the scene and drawing from a myriad of influences. Individually, they have credits stretching back decades, and, as a combo, they've been dusting dances around the world since 2011.
* Having won an army of new-gen fans with anthems like 'Stomp', 'Look for the Light' and the absolutely huge scene smashing Serum-collab 'Moon in Your Eyes', these veteran artists have wasted no time in stepping things up to even greater heights as they gear up to drop their album.
* Balancing vibes and viciousness, 'Strange Days' lays out the definitive manifesto for Paul T & Edward Oberon's dirty soul sound. Operating as both a self-contained audio journey and a collection of rave-ready deejay weapons, this LP is a piece of work that demands your attention!

Sunny side up » is the first solo EP of JL., Paris based artist and Reshuffle music / Momo's Basement resident. The EP embraces a solar energy spread in four refreshing tracks, between house and techno. It has this sunrise galvanizing vibe, that you can enjoy either when partying late or waking up at dawn to welcome a new day. A game of contrast and textures, definitely positive.

Techno pop dance music incoming! Pretty much 10 years after its debut with the „She Knows EP“, Jet Hammer – the collaborative project of seasoned producer Nacho Marco and trusted vocalist Garen Moreno – finally expand its horizon with new songs. The Last Night EP sees the valued tradition of the extended dance mix gets rejuvenated, readjusted and reprised. Recorded between Warm Studio in Valecia and Chief’s Peak Studio in California, with influences ranging from the avant-garde fusion of Tuxedomoon to the groove of the Pet Shop Boys and the subsequent fashion that became Acid House (the UK definition, of course), the EP is home to four tracks that are cut from the same cloth.
Last Night sounds modern on the main mix and like a lost The Cure demo on the 1981 version, it’s hard to resist in either version. How We Started develops the thought into something of a power ballad and last, but not least, the instrumental version of On Your Side delivers the sugarless dessert for allergic subjects. Halcyon dance hall days ahead!

Via tape loops and synth motifs sent from LA to NY, sound artist Christopher Royal King has teamed with violinist and composer Christopher Tignor toward richly timbral, emotionally gripping works of spontaneity that unfurl immense details with each replay while marrying west coast outboard-ambient to studied east coast modern classical. The resulting debut album, A Wave From A Shore, exhibits both artists' sonic identifiers falling in and out of cooperation before binding into a new entity distinct from either's solitary palettes. A visual artist whose work includes album covers for Thrice and Deftones in addition to video bumps for Adult Swim, Christopher Royal King spent his teenage years cutting his teeth on heavy metal and punk before gravitating, quickly and perhaps unexpectedly, toward experimental composers like Philip Glass and Terry Riley. This unlikely seesaw of influences led directly to King forming the post-rock pillar This Will Destroy You with fellow San Antonio native Jeremy Galindo. Similar to his former band's output, King's solo meanderings impart a mood of buoyancy and contemplation while hinting at darker, more shadowy hues beneath the glimmer, making his music stand apart from the glut of New Age droners and modular-synth influencers.

Causa returns to Infernal Sounds for his debut solo release, after his previous two outings in collaboration with Shu (IFS003) and as part of the VA Crimson LP (IFS025). This time he presents two standout tracks, and a strong message to go alongside. With the world requiring more sustainability and less waste, this record has been created with the most measures possible to create a greener record - The 12" are made in a completely climate-neutral way, the material having been recycled, all unavoidable Co2 emissions have been offset, the cardboard/centre labels are either FSG approved or via recycled means, and even the artwork has been made with all of this in mind, using minimal ink work and a restricted colour pallet to limit the amount of waste throughout.

Not only that, but the two tracks on the 12" absolutely slap, radiating that trademark Causa swampy-sound. 'Haiy' kicks off the proceedings with a reverberating lead before plunging you into a frenzy of mid-range madness, and bass-curdling pressure. 'Untitled R V3 C' has been a long sought after dubplate, having done the rounds for a few years. It's a proper groovy, swinger, providing you with pure invigoration.

"Whether it's the last hour you were allowed to play outside as a child before you had to go home, a reference to the fight against time in regard to the climate crisis or the last minutes of a person's life - ""An Hour Before It's Dark"" certainly doesn't lack interpretations. Be it ""Seasons End"" on the 1989 album of the same name or the much discussed track ""Gaza"" on the 2012 album ""Sounds That Can't Be Made"" - Marillion have never minced their words and don't do so on this album either. ""An Hour Before It's Dark"" is not only the title of the album, but also the overarching theme that creates a connection between all the songs on the album.
Recorded in Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios, Marillion remain musically true to themselves and continue swimming against the path of adjusting to norms and limitations.
DVD and Blu-ray come with a Hi-Res stereo mix and HD video content including a documentary on the making of the album and a performance of Murder Machines from Real World Studios."

"Whether it's the last hour you were allowed to play outside as a child before you had to go home, a reference to the fight against time in regard to the climate crisis or the last minutes of a person's life - ""An Hour Before It's Dark"" certainly doesn't lack interpretations. Be it ""Seasons End"" on the 1989 album of the same name or the much discussed track ""Gaza"" on the 2012 album ""Sounds That Can't Be Made"" - Marillion have never minced their words and don't do so on this album either. ""An Hour Before It's Dark"" is not only the title of the album, but also the overarching theme that creates a connection between all the songs on the album.
Recorded in Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios, Marillion remain musically true to themselves and continue swimming against the path of adjusting to norms and limitations.
DVD and Blu-ray come with a Hi-Res stereo mix and HD video content including a documentary on the making of the album and a performance of Murder Machines from Real World Studios."

It's a little known fact that in 1969, Motown Records boss Berry Gordy organised a holiday trip to Jamaica for his label's stars. It's even less well known that while they were there, a number of those same stars worked with an up-and-coming local producer to record versions of established hits over instrumental riddims from the newly emergent reggae genre. Unfortunately, perhaps due to the plentiful supply of herbal entertainment during the recording sessions, the masters were believed lost. Until now. Happily, their recent re-discovery means you finally get to hear Uptight Boss and Beg For A Dollar - the massively crowd-pleasing consequences of giving a brace of mid-sixties Motown classics the boss reggae treatment!

Alright, maybe it didn't go down like that. Maybe the sound of this release was born instead out of people occasionally mishearing the name of Mako & Mr Bristow's 'Stank Soul Edits' series as 'Skank' Soul Edits. Which got them thinking. What would 'skank soul' sound like? Hello Trojan – meet Motown. Mojan? Trotown? Either way - reggae most definitely got soul!

One On One Crew are Leslie Lawrence & Danny Arno. They experimented with various styles and directions with the aim of creating different music; a deep house sound. There are strong influences from Detroit and Chicago, but still with an unmistakable London style and identity. Both tracks were produced in 1989, and this is the first time either are released on a full length 12".

"Black Truffle proudly presents The Refrain from Melbourne-based artist Francis Plagne, whose growing catalog of collaborative and solo releases range from song-based work to abstract audio collages.

Closely aligned with Plagne's Moss Trumpet LP (released by Penultimate Press in 2018), The Refrain’s two side-long tracks mix sounds of the mundane with the otherworldly; rising, receding and overlapping. The result feels like being led through a series of scenes devoid of context or direction. Furthermore, it’s hard to define the scenes as either inviting or disconcerting, as they’re often both at the same time. As the record progresses sounds reappear and are juxtaposed so as to only hint at the familiar. A hall of mirrors, perhaps?

Completed in 2020 using material recorded from 2012-2020, the record uses tapes of shelved, unfinished, and forgotten projects that featured field recordings from various locations, domestic sounds of plastic bottles, bubble wrap, creaking chairs, voice, and instrumental recordings, including an appearance from crys cole on Casio. These pieces were re-amped, processed and edited, then additional instrumental pieces featuring synths, guitars, plastic saxophone, melodica, and percussion were added, the results shaped into drifting, episodic assemblages.

Although essentially a tape piece, The Refrain presents as a crude, non-idiomatic composition that feels both timeless and transitory. It’s a million miles from the polish and rigour of GRM, perhaps more in line with Jacques Bekaert’s eponymous Igloo LP, or Costin Miereanu’s Luna Cinese. The Refrain could be read as a psychedelic Krapp’s Last Tape; one man’s response to listening through forgotten and discarded tapes, reflecting, reconciling, and forging a new path. A potent tonic for these absurd times."

-- Nick Hamilton, August 2021

F.S.Blumm and Nils Frahm have confirmed details of their fourth collaborative album, 2X1=4, which will be released on September 3, 2021, by LEITER, the new label formed by Frahm and his
manager, Felix Grimm. The seven-track album finds the duo unexpectedly exploring a dub influenced universe, though in truth it’s one already familiar to both. F.S.Blumm, for instance, is
co-founder of Quasi Dub Development, whose 2014 album, Little-Twister vs Stiff-Neck, featured Lady Ann and Lee Scratch Perry, while Frahm’s music – not least 2018’s All Melody – has
occasionally betrayed a fondness for the form’s associated studio techniques, though he concedes wryly that his approach has always been “a little bit more German” than his influences.

F.S.Blumm, a revered mainstay of the German underground for over two decades, and Nils Frahm, who’s enjoyed significant success in recent years with his ground-breaking compositions
for piano and synths, first met in the early 2000s. Frahm was a big fan of Blumm’s 2001 album, Mondkuchen – he refers to his fellow Berlin resident admiringly these days as “a vital brick in the
Berlin Wall” – while Blumm was soon dazzled by Frahm’s studio set up. “Compared to mine,” he says, “it was like a space ship!” Soon they were working together on a variety of projects –
including theatre pieces and animated films – and by 2010 they’d released their first collaborative album, Music For Lovers Music Versus Time. A second, Music For Wobbling Music Versus
Gravity, followed in 2013, and a third, Tag Eins Tag Zwei, in 2016.

2X1=4 is very different to its predecessors, but its final track, ‘Neckrub’, first took shape as they wound up work on Tag Eins Tag Zwei. “We had a certain sound in the back of our heads,”
Blumm recalls, “which was influenced by these 80s rhythm machines, and we suddenly discovered a common love for dub.” Most of the new album, therefore, was initially developed in 2016 during improvisation sessions recorded by Frahm to two-track cassette. “It was like we were running a combine harvester,” Blumm laughs, “so we could write our names on a single grain!”

Afterwards, they worked on editing and overdubs in Frahm’s new studio at Berlin’s legendary Funkhaus. “We kept on making new songs out of these sessions and starting over and over again,” Frahm smiles. “It was a process that was time consuming but really fun.” Not that either of them is eager to claim a purist approach. “I love ending up somewhere where I’m surprised by myself or the machine or the person with whom I’m making music,” Blumm concludes, while
Frahm emphasises that, “None of this is too serious. The record is only as much of a dub record as the ones before are jazz records…”

The Zephyr Bones’ psychedelic rock expands in a precise and determined sophomore album. A warm and accessible record that speaks about love, self-affirmation, loss and hope.

A quicksilver track that glides on a buoyant bassline and glistening melodic interplay, “No One” is the sound of joy. While it’s easy to pigeonhole it as a dreampop track, there’s undoubtedly hints of psych, funk and Kraut all nestled in there, The Zephyr Bones blurring the lines with ease in this intoxicating track that shows growth in their sonic heft without losing their feathery lightness.
Beats per Minute
"No One" opens up like a traditional indie dance track, with sparkling guitars and a vibrant synth lead reminiscent of a cut from The Strokes or Tame Impala. But it progresses in a fascinating way, bringing in a crunchy psychedelic guitar solo and a funky instrumental breakdown at the end. This track has a variety of sounds, but it's prog rock more than anything, as the dynamic instrumentation sticks out the most. Every layer here is not only an excellent piece to the larger puzzle while also being technically impressive on its own. Despite these nods to the more experienced rock nerd, what's the most fascinating is how accessible the tune really is. The wild drum beats, dense synth layers, and lightning-quick guitars demonstrate the true cerebral chemistry of the group. The sheer musical talent doesn't hurt either.
Earmilk
When The Zephyr Bones first burst into the scene they crushed everything that got in their way. Their music slapped us like a wave when it reaches shore. It took us by surprise and left us asking yearning for more. They coined their style “beach wave”. All this became a first album titled Secret Place, something like the sonic coordinates of a sunny place with a soundtrack of guitars with reverb and intoxicating melodies. You can’t tell whether you’ve been there or not, but you definitely want to go back.
In Neon Body they are the same people, but it hits differently. Their melodies and suggestive guitar riffs are on point. They are able to take you back to places. You will never finish these 10 tracks in the same place where you were when you first hit play. Speaking of The Zephyr Bones is speaking of pure freedom. And yet, in this second album we get to know them in a different way, more determined and with a renewed intensity. The landscape has also changed and now the tone reminds us of the twilight, and in some songs you can even feel the reflection of neon light on your skin.
But let’s not lose the point. What matters here are the songs, and in this album you can find pretty damn good ones. “No One”, the first single, is an excellent entry into the universe created in Neon Body. Addictive and irresistible, it will instantly get you dancing and singing along. “So High” is a dizzying and fast-paced first track. By the time “Verneda Lights” arrives, you have fully surrendered to Brian Silva (vocals, guitar and synthesizers), Jossip Tkalcic (guitar and vocals), Marc López (drums) and Carlos Ramos (bass). “Sparks” shines with its own light: it is a controlled fire until the final part of the song makes everything burn again. “Plastic Freedom” goes all-in with an infallible riff. “Velvet” is as elegant as its title suggests, and “Rocksteady” hits the bullseye again with a chorus that hits like a poisonous dart. “Neon Eyes’’ lifts you up with heavenly back up vocals and “Afterglow” keeps you with your feet on the ground – Why? Because begs you to dance. And then comes “Celeste V”, a song that speaks about loss that puts an end to the recording.

Neon Yellow
The Zephyr Bones’ psychedelic rock expands in a precise and determined sophomore album. A warm and accessible record that speaks about love, self-affirmation, loss and hope.

A quicksilver track that glides on a buoyant bassline and glistening melodic interplay, “No One” is the sound of joy. While it’s easy to pigeonhole it as a dreampop track, there’s undoubtedly hints of psych, funk and Kraut all nestled in there, The Zephyr Bones blurring the lines with ease in this intoxicating track that shows growth in their sonic heft without losing their feathery lightness.
Beats per Minute
"No One" opens up like a traditional indie dance track, with sparkling guitars and a vibrant synth lead reminiscent of a cut from The Strokes or Tame Impala. But it progresses in a fascinating way, bringing in a crunchy psychedelic guitar solo and a funky instrumental breakdown at the end. This track has a variety of sounds, but it's prog rock more than anything, as the dynamic instrumentation sticks out the most. Every layer here is not only an excellent piece to the larger puzzle while also being technically impressive on its own. Despite these nods to the more experienced rock nerd, what's the most fascinating is how accessible the tune really is. The wild drum beats, dense synth layers, and lightning-quick guitars demonstrate the true cerebral chemistry of the group. The sheer musical talent doesn't hurt either.
Earmilk
When The Zephyr Bones first burst into the scene they crushed everything that got in their way. Their music slapped us like a wave when it reaches shore. It took us by surprise and left us asking yearning for more. They coined their style “beach wave”. All this became a first album titled Secret Place, something like the sonic coordinates of a sunny place with a soundtrack of guitars with reverb and intoxicating melodies. You can’t tell whether you’ve been there or not, but you definitely want to go back.
In Neon Body they are the same people, but it hits differently. Their melodies and suggestive guitar riffs are on point. They are able to take you back to places. You will never finish these 10 tracks in the same place where you were when you first hit play. Speaking of The Zephyr Bones is speaking of pure freedom. And yet, in this second album we get to know them in a different way, more determined and with a renewed intensity. The landscape has also changed and now the tone reminds us of the twilight, and in some songs you can even feel the reflection of neon light on your skin.
But let’s not lose the point. What matters here are the songs, and in this album you can find pretty damn good ones. “No One”, the first single, is an excellent entry into the universe created in Neon Body. Addictive and irresistible, it will instantly get you dancing and singing along. “So High” is a dizzying and fast-paced first track. By the time “Verneda Lights” arrives, you have fully surrendered to Brian Silva (vocals, guitar and synthesizers), Jossip Tkalcic (guitar and vocals), Marc López (drums) and Carlos Ramos (bass). “Sparks” shines with its own light: it is a controlled fire until the final part of the song makes everything burn again. “Plastic Freedom” goes all-in with an infallible riff. “Velvet” is as elegant as its title suggests, and “Rocksteady” hits the bullseye again with a chorus that hits like a poisonous dart. “Neon Eyes’’ lifts you up with heavenly back up vocals and “Afterglow” keeps you with your feet on the ground – Why? Because begs you to dance. And then comes “Celeste V”, a song that speaks about loss that puts an end to the recording.

Tape

The Zephyr Bones’ psychedelic rock expands in a precise and determined sophomore album. A warm and accessible record that speaks about love, self-affirmation, loss and hope.

A quicksilver track that glides on a buoyant bassline and glistening melodic interplay, “No One” is the sound of joy. While it’s easy to pigeonhole it as a dreampop track, there’s undoubtedly hints of psych, funk and Kraut all nestled in there, The Zephyr Bones blurring the lines with ease in this intoxicating track that shows growth in their sonic heft without losing their feathery lightness.
Beats per Minute
"No One" opens up like a traditional indie dance track, with sparkling guitars and a vibrant synth lead reminiscent of a cut from The Strokes or Tame Impala. But it progresses in a fascinating way, bringing in a crunchy psychedelic guitar solo and a funky instrumental breakdown at the end. This track has a variety of sounds, but it's prog rock more than anything, as the dynamic instrumentation sticks out the most. Every layer here is not only an excellent piece to the larger puzzle while also being technically impressive on its own. Despite these nods to the more experienced rock nerd, what's the most fascinating is how accessible the tune really is. The wild drum beats, dense synth layers, and lightning-quick guitars demonstrate the true cerebral chemistry of the group. The sheer musical talent doesn't hurt either.
Earmilk
When The Zephyr Bones first burst into the scene they crushed everything that got in their way. Their music slapped us like a wave when it reaches shore. It took us by surprise and left us asking yearning for more. They coined their style “beach wave”. All this became a first album titled Secret Place, something like the sonic coordinates of a sunny place with a soundtrack of guitars with reverb and intoxicating melodies. You can’t tell whether you’ve been there or not, but you definitely want to go back.
In Neon Body they are the same people, but it hits differently. Their melodies and suggestive guitar riffs are on point. They are able to take you back to places. You will never finish these 10 tracks in the same place where you were when you first hit play. Speaking of The Zephyr Bones is speaking of pure freedom. And yet, in this second album we get to know them in a different way, more determined and with a renewed intensity. The landscape has also changed and now the tone reminds us of the twilight, and in some songs you can even feel the reflection of neon light on your skin.
But let’s not lose the point. What matters here are the songs, and in this album you can find pretty damn good ones. “No One”, the first single, is an excellent entry into the universe created in Neon Body. Addictive and irresistible, it will instantly get you dancing and singing along. “So High” is a dizzying and fast-paced first track. By the time “Verneda Lights” arrives, you have fully surrendered to Brian Silva (vocals, guitar and synthesizers), Jossip Tkalcic (guitar and vocals), Marc López (drums) and Carlos Ramos (bass). “Sparks” shines with its own light: it is a controlled fire until the final part of the song makes everything burn again. “Plastic Freedom” goes all-in with an infallible riff. “Velvet” is as elegant as its title suggests, and “Rocksteady” hits the bullseye again with a chorus that hits like a poisonous dart. “Neon Eyes’’ lifts you up with heavenly back up vocals and “Afterglow” keeps you with your feet on the ground – Why? Because begs you to dance. And then comes “Celeste V”, a song that speaks about loss that puts an end to the recording.

Pink Marbled Vinyl

Lunatica Borghesia sees emerging Italian producer KOKO come into his powers in a 6-track EP which, at times seems suited to accompany a blissful reverie, and at others a rave in a rainforest. Either way, Lunatica Borghesia is about escaping.

The first two tracks capture deep house in its truest essence: at once meditative, melancholic and serene.The blissed-out piano chords and cymbal strokes "You can't buy luxury" lend the opening track a nocturnal jazz feel which is carried through to "Ego Borghese" where it is heightened by the melodic cries of a saxophone. Instrumentation maintains its primacy in "Listening to Some Impala in Coventry" as staccato flutes guide the subtle bongo-sounding percussion which gives the track its swing.

The next two tracks - "9,99EU" and "Pegasus" - are for the dance floor. Whilst the synth-driven melody and acid undertones of "9,99EU" sees the EP at its most retro, the final track "Tradizione Tradimento" is a brilliantly modern take on garage house which lets the listener settle back into the groove after being rowsed by "Pegasus" driving pulse.

SweetSexySavage, the certified gold 2017 debut album from the Bay Area-born two-time GRAMMY Award-nominated multiplatinum songstress Kehlani, is out on vinyl on November 26th.

The 17-track, full-length debut, now available as a physical vinyl, includes the hugely popular tracks “Crzy”, “Distraction” and “Keep On”. It bowed at #3 on the Billboard Top 200 and closed out the year on Pitchfork’s “The 50 Best Albums of 2017” and Rolling Stone’s “20 Best R&B Albums of 2017” before eventually going gold, accompanied by sold out dates on the SweetSexySavage World Tour.

Critically acclaimed R&B pop songstress Kehlani embodies the title of her 2017 full-length debut album, SweetSexySavage and is praised by Complex as “a special talent, making the kind of personal music that speaks to her fans as much as it functions as a therapeutic release for her”. It doesn’t really need an explanation – you know exactly what Kehlani means when she sings. Without sugarcoating or softening a word, she will drop a hard truth in one breath and flip a middle finger in the next. She may extend a seductive invitation or an empathetic plea before leaving you in your thoughts and feelings. Either way, she finds a way to consistently relate without filter and with each move she strengthens this connection to listeners everywhere.

While We Wait, the chart-topping 2019 mixtape from the Bay Area-born two-time GRAMMY Award-nominated multiplatinum songstress Kehlani, is out on vinyl on November 26th.

The 9-track mixtape, available as a physical vinyl, includes the hugely popular tracks “Nights Like These, “Nunya” and “Feels”, with appearances on the album from Ty Dolla $ign, Dom Kennedy, 6lack and Musiq Soulchild.

Critically acclaimed R&B pop songstress Kehlani is praised by Complex as “a special talent, making the kind of personal music that speaks to her fans as much as it functions as a therapeutic release for her”. It doesn’t really need an explanation – you know exactly what Kehlani means when she sings. Without sugarcoating or softening a word, she will drop a hard truth in one breath and flip a middle finger in the next. She may extend a seductive invitation or an empathetic plea before leaving you in your thoughts and feelings. Either way, she finds a way to consistently relate without filter and with each move she strengthens this connection to listeners everywhere.