Of the countless accolades and analyses that surround Blue, no point is more significant than the fact that the 1971 Joni Mitchell album continues to become more popular, revered, referenced, and relevant with each passing day. Such vitality is not only extremely singular; it is the ultimate measure of great art and, in the context of Blue, indisputable proof of the record's accessibility, integrity, and timelessness. If the most brilliant and everlasting music seeks to find truths shared by all of humanity, Blue can be said to be universal doctrine.
Sourced from the original analogue master tapes, pressed on MoFi SuperVinyl, and strictly limited to 12,000 numbered copies, Mobile Fidelity's UltraDisc One-Step 180g 45RPM 2LP box set presents the landmark album with reference-grade detail, tonality, and directness. Marking the first time the beloved LP has received audiophile-quality treatment, it's one of six iconic 1970s Mitchell records Mobile Fidelity is reissuing on definitive-sounding vinyl and SACD sets.
Everything about Blue sounds more intimate, involving, and inescapable on this transparent pressing, which benefits from a virtually non-existent noise floor and superior groove definition. Mitchell's voice, positioned front and center, and primarily accompanied by minimalist acoustic guitar, piano, and dulcimer playing, comes across clearly and prominently. Suspended notes and radiant chords double as question marks, commas, and phrases. The in-the-room presence and spatial dimensionality make absolute the full-range spectrum of introspective emotions — hurt and distress, self-awareness and joy, difficulty and uncertainty, warmth and desire — Mitchell navigates, queries, and contemplates throughout the record. The defencelessness the singer once spoke about is laid bare here like never before.
The packaging of the Blue UD1S set complements its distinguished status. Housed in a deluxe box, both LPs come in special foil-stamped jackets with faithful-to-the-original graphics that illuminate the splendor of the recording. This UD1S reissue exists as a curatorial artifact for listeners who prize sound quality and production, and who desire to engage themselves in everything involved with the album, including the unforgettable cover photograph of a ruminative Mitchell shot by Tim Considine.
Deemed the third Greatest Album of All Time by Rolling Stone; universally celebrated by critics, fans, artists, and educators; and defined by a spell of disarmingly vulnerable songs that are at once confessional, intense, spare, honest, painful, hopeful, and exquisite, Blue charts love, spiritualism, independence, and loss like no record before or since. Widely considered the album that established the singer-songwriter template, the largely autobiographical LP changed everything shortly after its original release in June 1971. Amazingly, it continues to do so more than five decades later.
An incalculable influence on generations of artists, it stands as the through-line from Carole King, Elton John, James Taylor, Joan Armatrading, and Leonard Cohen to Patti Smith, Carly Simon, Emmylou Harris, and Rosanne Cash to 21st century contemporaries like Brandi Carlile, Taylor Swift, Sharon Van Etten, and Courtney Barnett. Teetering between agony and optimism, it is — to borrow a phrase from Mitchell's eternal "A Case of You" — a bottomless "box of paints."
The beauty of the stripped-down arrangements, intoxicating melodies, and Mitchell's wisdom on Blue didn't go unnoticed. Critical acclaim, coupled with the depth of the material and Mitchell's reputation, propelled the album into the Top 20 in the U.S. and Top 10 in the U.K. Yet while so much pop music diminishes with age, Blue has defied norms and headed in the opposite direction. Its 50th anniversary year witnessed an outpouring of tributes, reflections, and testimonials that helped frame the record's escalating importance and symbolism — apt in an age in which women have become the prominent trailblazers in rock, R&B, and hip-hop.
Perhaps most succinctly, in a 2021 article celebrating the LP, the Los Angeles Times declared: "In 1971, nothing sounded like Joni Mitchell's Blue. 50 years later, it's still a miracle." Nothing, indeed. Yet "miracle" suggests Blue partially owes to a divine agent or inexplicable circumstance. And though Mitchell's bracing conviction and forthright sincerity can appear otherworldly, her musical approach and lyrical storytelling is nothing if not personal and human. What we hear is pure truth — no matter how aching, complicated, or stark.
Much has been written about the circumstances that inspired the songs on Blue: Mitchell's romances; her time overseas; her disdain for celebrity; her lingering sense of loss at having given up her daughter for adoption; her treatment by the very same industry that her music made uncomfortable; her prolonged search for resolution. These situations and experiences pushed Mitchell to question everything — especially big-picture concepts that have always obsessed mankind: fulfilment, autonomy, love, honesty, being.
"I wanna make you feel free," Mitchell sings on the record-opening "All I Want." Mission accomplished. Blue is liberation — and the start of a freedom that continues to impact music, culture, and identity today.
More About Mobile Fidelity UltraDisc One-Step and Why It Is Superior
Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab's UltraDisc One-Step (UD1S) technique bypasses generational losses inherent to the traditional three-step plating process by removing two steps: the production of father and mother plates, which are created to yield numerous stampers from each lacquer that is cut. For UD1S plating, stampers (also called "converts") are made directly from the lacquers. Since each lacquer yields only one stamper, multiple lacquers need to be cut. Mobile Fidelity's UD1S process produces a final LP with the lowest-possible noise floor. The removal of two steps of the plating process also reveals musical details and dynamics that would otherwise be lost due to the standard multi-step process. With UD1S, every aspect of vinyl production is optimized to produce the best-sounding vinyl album available today.
Buscar:el tri
An avant-garde masterpiece, a vocal-instrumental suite, a work of collective improvisation, directly addressing the racial and political issues of it’s day, We Insist! Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite is one of the most important artistic statements of Civil Rights Movement and one of the most groundbreaking jazz albums of all time. Max Roach was already almost a decade into his career as one of the most influential jazz drummers and composers when he teamed up with lyricist Oscar Brown Jr. to collaborate on a piece they planned to perform at the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1963. Recorded just months after the February 1960 Greensboro sit-ins, the album stands as an early musical testament to the burgeoning rage, anger and passion that would take the Civil Rights Movement from its early victory in Montgomery in 1955 into a future that would dramatically alter race relations in the United States. The second release from the newly launched New York City based jazz label Candid Records, and produced by label co-founder, famed music critic and social activist, Nat Hentoff, the album is a bold statement, focused on civil injustices in black history ranging from slavery to contemporary racial prejudices, and featuring some of the finest jazz musicians ever, including Abbey Lincoln, Coleman Hawkins, Eric Dolphy, Booker Little, and Michael Babatunde Olatunji. The five movements of the work are organized as a historical progression through African-American history, a shape similar to the one in Duke Ellington’s Black, Brown and Beige. The Freedom Now Suite moves from slavery to Emancipation Day to the contemporary civil-rights struggle and African independence. The LP includes extraordinary liner notes written by Hentoff himself, giving a context and insight that adds to the experience of hearing these magnificent performances.
- Mar Vista - Visions Part 1 Her Eyes Are Closed
- Kennlisch - Kennlisch
- Crystal Eyes - Crystalzed
- Warlus - Girl Like You
- Gerard Alfonsi - Fana Stickle
- Geoffroy - Viking
- Amphyrite - Symphonie Pour 3 Oeufs Brouilles
- Eole - Friendship
- Capucine - Les Elephants
- Rictus - Flashes
- Inscir Transit Express
- Polaris - Polaris
- Joel Boutolleau - Force
- Spotch Forcey - Frustre
- Demon Wizard - Black Witch
- Temple Sun - Voyage Sans Retour
- Chantal Weber - Ballade Aux Chataignes Tombees
- Jean-Claude Zemour - X Kmh
- Rhodes Co - Baoum
- Guidon Edmond Et Clafoutis - Stormy Sunday
"For a long time, I'd come across these discs without really understanding what connected them, apart from a button and that famous logo designed by René Dessirier. Then, with a little more digging, I discovered the "self-production" link. For choirs, schools, folk singers, young pop groups, popular homes and even great composers who engraved unique copies of certain recording sessions...
The French equivalent of the English "Derby Service", the Kiosque d'Orphée, formerly at 7 Rue Grégoire de Tours in the 6th arrondissement, was taken over by Georges Batard in 1967 and moved to 20 Rue des Tournelles in the 4th arrondissement of Paris. The adventure lasted until 1991. Georges Batard was a sound engineer who used a Neumann tube engraver to engrave acetates from the tapes he received, before printing the precious vinyls in the press factories of the day, where he was able to produce very small runs of between 50 and 500 copies.
Of course, there were other structures for releasing his records, such as Voxigrave or, later, FLVM, but none of them had so many records in their catalog. Le Kiosque d'Orphée was neither a label nor a publisher, but a structure that allowed you to press your own vinyl, at a time when it was quite an adventure to get your first 45 rpm or 33 rpm album released!
Georges Batard was described as passionate and conscientious. His son, bassist Didier Batard, wrote of him:
"Georges was passionate about recording and reproducing the stereo sound of his great passion, music. He paid close attention to distortion rates, signal-to-noise ratios, response curves, rise times and other damping factors in audio equipment. He was looking for the exact reproduction of concert hall sound in his living room (with the same sound level, if possible...). In the late '50s/early '60s, he found other sound enthusiasts in AFDERS (Association Française pour le Développement de l'Enregistrement et de la Reproduction Sonores). He became its honorary president. Every Saturday afternoon, its members met to test au- dio equipment. Their opinions were published in the monthly Revue du Son.
All you had to do was send in your tapes and choose the number of record copies you'd like to take home with you, so you could finally share your creations and, in a way, exist. You could opt for a generic sleeve, available in several colors, directly customizable with your name and credits, or you could design your dream sleeve yourself in your living room or at a printer's.
This "Do It Yourself" temple gave birth to some superb pouches. Stencilled, hand-written, illustrated with paintings, drawings, illustrations by friends or girlfriends of the time, photo prints hastily stuck in the middle of a blank, white sleeve, on which the traces of time would leave their imprints, so that collectors and the curious would come and buy them decades later, with the promise of a musical discovery, unfortunately not always fulfilled...
What most of these records have in common is the youth of their songwriters, whether or not they've had a career. Stories of buddies, of getting by and dreams of glory made up this catalog. Most of them were amateur productions, both in terms of the level of the musicians and the quality of the recordings, made on a two-track or, the ultimate luxury, a 4-track in a teenager's bedroom or parents' living room.
It was the beginning of the home studio, thanks to the advent of the Revox portable tape recorder. A bit of a shaky DIY system, but, in return, the luxury of setting no limits: one-sided tracks, no outside censorship, no artistic director, no manager, no Barclay or EMI/Pathé Marconi logos...
When you finally had your own record, you could give it away or sell it to friends, family or after concerts. You could also drop it off at the nearest record shop, with undisguised pride.
It was also a calling card that could be sent to radio stations or music labels, in the hope of launching a career...
Many of the protagonists in this story tried to sign with labels, but in those days, bridges were not so easy to build between one's hometown, or even one's village, and the major or more specialized label that might have released these records. At the time, the advertisements published in the press by the Kiosque d'Orphée opened up the field of possibilities for provincial composers. It was now possible to make their own record, without having to go through the process of signing with a label.
Some of the composers who have gone on to make a career have used this channel to release their first record or parallel projects (Claude Engel, Dominique A, Andy Emler, Michel Deneuve, Claude Mairet, Mick Piellard, Tristan Mu- rail...) and sometimes even single or very limited pressings of work or promotional copies (Bernard Parmegiani, Jef Gilson...).
This album is the conclusion of a long investigation, begun six years ago. It took a long time to find the records, scattered all over the place, in the homes of collectors and sometimes the musicians themselves, and then to listen to them, sometimes painstakingly, to unearth these moments of grace.
From this work, 23 tracks remain, but there are dozens of others that could have been included, so we had to choose, and the choice had to be as universal as possible. This selection is obviously not objective, but I hope you'll like it.
Today's music is raw, touching and powerful. "
Jean-Baptiste Guillot - Born Bad Records
In 2005, an 18-year-old Raphael Gimenes left the sunny shores of Brazil behind, embarking on a journey to a distant and wintry land. "Dinamarca," the Portuguese name for Denmark, became his new home, where he has lived for almost two decades. Today, he presents his third album, a deep exploration of his life in Scandinavia. Rather than being a nationalistic tribute, "DINAMARCA" tells chapters from Gimenes" life story as a Brazilian living in the northern corners of the world. It guides us through the enchanting nordic woods, the vast fields stretching to the horizon, and the timeless sea resting beneath an endless sky. The melodies of blackbirds, the dances of red deer, and the whispers of ancient oaks form the backdrop for his musical stories. Within his songs, we experience moments of deep solitude and boundless inspiration, moments where reflection and creative passion intertwine. Gimenes skillfully turns the power of love into harmonies, dedicating songs to both his companion and his closest friends. Beyond these experiences, he leads us on journeys to Denmark"s neighboring lands, Norway and Sweden, where revelations and encounters with the mystical found their way into the lyrical fabric of his songs. The album"s orchestration includes Gimenes" vocals and the resonant chords of his classical guitar. Accompanying him throughout the album are Jan Kadereit"s multilayered percussion, and Lucas Delacroix"s bass synth, who also plays the electric guitar at times. The music further unfolds with the nuances of a string quartet, and a brass quintet, both recorded in the tropical highlands of Minas Gerais. Other guest musicians feature on individual songs, such as pianist Sebastian Macchi, flautist Flavia Huarachi, cellist Lucas Almeida, and singers Gaby Echevarria, Cecilia Pahl, and Cris Ferro. Gimenes has garnered acclaim and accolades across continents. His debut release, "Raphael Gimenes & As Montanhas de Som," delved deep into the rhythms and traditions of Brazil. It rose to prominence as the top Brazilian release in 2016 in Holland and was hailed as a "conceptual masterpiece" in Japan. His second album, "A Tongue Full of Suns," co-produced with Faroese multi-artist Teitur, ventured into the English language, blending Gimenes" inspirations from the world of prog-rock. Danish rock legend TimChristensen praised it as "top-shelf neo-folk," while Brazilian website80minutos described it as "hypnotizing." The music within "DINAMARCA" delves deep into the soul of a man who embraced a new land with open arms, while staying true to his roots. It unites elements from both of Gimenes" prior works, embarking on a journey across new musical horizons. The result is music that transcends borders, weaving itself into an intricately beautiful tapestry - a soul that has learned to harmonize with two worlds.
Introducing "Solace", a captivating 6-track EP by dubstep virtuoso Bukkha.
Crafted amidst the stillness of 2020's turmoil, far from all the noise pollution of everyday life, each track is like an unique demonstration of Bukkha's emotional state throughout these tumultuous times. "What came out was not forced and was just a very natural and fluid process" said Bukkha about working on this EP.
"Solace" also features an exclusive collaboration with soulful Drum & Bass artist Redeyes.
Embark on this heartfelt musical journey where Bukkha's passion and authenticity resonate through every note. As Bukkha eloquently puts it, ''I have always found comfort in music. I hope that the people listening to this record will find solace in it as well.''
Punk pioneers Crass continue their vinyl reissue series, re-pressing their limited releases by adjacent artists through Crass Records, in association with One Little Independent. The series, including over twenty bands and solo artists recorded at the legendary Southern Studios and produced by Penny Rimbaud, continues with two more historic pieces from the Crass Records catalogue; ‘Barbed Wire Halo’ by Annie Anxiety and ‘Neu Smell’ by Flux of Pink Indians.
They follow records from the likes of Captain Sensible, Omega Tribe, Honey Bane, Jane Gregory, Lack of Knowledge, Sleeping Dogs, Rudimentary Peni and Zounds. First released on 7” vinyl, limiting the sound, the new series has been remastered for 12” by Alex Gordon at Abbey Road Studios, allowing them to be heard as never before. This, plus enlarged replicas of the original covers, brings new gusto to their already radical sound.
New York City musical maverick and performance artist Annie Anxiety, aka Little Annie aka Annie Bandez, began her illustrious career (including work with Adrian Sherwood, Coil, Current 93, and Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry) with Crass. They released her first solo single, 1981’s ‘Barbed Wire Halo’ alongside ‘Cyanide Tears’, an extraordinarily prescient piece of jagged electronics, samples, and skeletal rhythms, led by Annie’s nightmarish vocals.
She tells us; “When creating this single with Penny I hadn’t heard the word ‘avant-guard’ nor could I spell it – I only got explained ‘concretism’ via an interview I did in Berlin regarding some of my work three years ago – My father was a printer so I grew up with sound of printing press and subway train beats and always heard melodies and cross rhythms within those beats – I was just making dance music / disco tunes to my mind and Pen heard those same tunes I was hearing – my first recording, in retrospect I guess, was pretty ‘out there’ at its release, but to us it was dance floor for a club yet to be invented- one day”.
Penny Rimbaud expands; “Annie Anxiety is a total enigma, a passionate voice in the wilderness of consensual reason. Dada in instinct, Monroe in affection, Rambo in inflection, Annie rams it home with divine thunder. An instigator and innovator, she’s the bonkers angel of Yonkers, NYC. With no time to spare, Annie takes to the road with complete conviction, overtaking Kerouac halfway down 5th Avenue. Catch her if you can”.
- A1: Rizla Skank
- A2: Spike Heel Shoes
- A3: Natty Dread Ah Carry The Swing
- A4: Natty Dread On The Ball
- A5: Jamaican Dollars
- A6: Shelly With The Electric Belly
- Side Two
- B1: Step It Brother Clem
- B2: Stumbling Block
- B3: Cricket Loving Cricket
- B4: Natty Passing Through A Curfew
- B5: Natty Dread Is Not The Prodigal Son
- B6: Starsky And Hutch
Pt. 4 of the 'Dub me crazy' series by Mad Professor.
Reggae meets twisted electronics for wild dub trips!
Originally released in 1985 on the same Ariwa imprint.
True D.I.Y. business from this UK dub pioneer.
Pt. 6 of the 'Dub me crazy' series by Mad Professor.
Reggae meets twisted electronics for wild dub trips!
Originally released in 1986 on the same Ariwa imprint.
True D.I.Y. business from this UK dub pioneer.
Pt. 9 of the 'Dub me crazy' series by Mad Professor.
Reggae meets twisted electronics for wild dub trips!
Originally released in 1989 on the same Ariwa imprint.
True D.I.Y. business from this UK dub pioneer.
MidnightRoba is Roba El-Essawy, the voice of UK trio Attica Blues. Golden Seams marks Roba's return to music, this time both as vocalist and producer. Recorded during lockdown of 2020, Golden Seams features artists Jason Moran, Ben Williams, Edward Wakili-Hick, Junius Paul, David Mrakpor, Robert Mitchell, Tony Nwachukwu, Artyom Manukyan, Bubby Lewis, Mike King, Alec Harper, Dezron Douglas and Tommaso Cappellato. The album's foundation is firmly inspired by jazz, but in a style of her own. From electronic tracks such as Safe With Me, Self Doubt and Shelter Within, to the ballads Don't Let This Change, Reminded and jazz ballad Be Still, to the spiritual Bitter Boy (ft Jason Moran) and the classical title track Golden Seams.
The album was supported by Gilles Petterson on both BBC Radio 6 (as a feature artist) and Worldwide FM and by Kevin Le Gendre on BBC Radio 3's J to Z; by Tony Minvielle, Anne Frankenstein and China Moses on Jazz FM, where Don't Let This Change featured as Track of the Week, as well as by Kev Beadle, Alexander Nut, Leanne Wright, Charlie Dark, etc on NTS, Totally Wired Radio and Worldwide FM.
- A1: Tina Turner - Let's Stay Together
- A2: Jocelyn Brown – Somebody Else’s Guy
- A3: Gwen Guthrie – Ain’t Nothin’ Goin’ On But The Rent
- A4: Womack & Womack - Teardrops
- A5: Joyce Sims - Come Into My Life
- A6: Princess - Say I’m Your Number One
- A7: Loose Ends - Hangin' On A String (Contemplating)
- A8: Will Downing - A Love Supreme
- B1: Whitney Houston - How Will I Know
- B2: Alexander O'neal – Criticize
- B3: Aretha Franklin - Who's Zoomin' Who?
- B4: Lionel Richie - Dancing On The Ceiling
- B5: Laura Branigan - Self Control
- B6: Imagination - Body Talk
- B7: Hi-Gloss - You’ll Never Know
- C1: Ashford & Simpson – Solid
- C2: Irene Cara - Fame
- C3: Diana Ross - My Old Piano
- C4: Donna Summer - Love Is In Control (Finger On The Trigger)
- C5: Odyssey - Inside Out
- C6: Terri Wells - I'll Be Around
- C7: Daryl Hall & John Oates - I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)
- C8: Fat Larry’s Band - Zoom
- D1: Rufus And Chaka Khan - Ain't Nobody
- D6: Billy Ocean - Caribbean Queen (No More Love On The Run)
- D7: Sister Sledge - Thinking Of You
- D2: Womack & Womack – Love Wars
- D3: Steve Arrington - Feel So Real
- D4: Miami Sound Machine - Dr. Beat
- D5: Jermaine Stewart - We Don't Have To Take Our Clothes Off
NOW Music is proud to present the third in our ongoing series of vinyl compilations, NOW That’s What I Call 80s Dancefloor. Each edition features an essential collection of tracks representing key genres of 1980’s Dance music. This volume, featuring 30 tracks across 2 LPs pressed on flaming yellow and orange vinyl, presents the best from the era of Soul and Disco.
The first LP kicks off with Tina Turner's landmark remake of ‘Let's Stay Together,’ a testament to her timeless vocal prowess. Jocelyn Brown’s ‘Somebody Else’s Guy’, brings a fabulous fusion of Funk and Soul, followed by Gwen Guthrie’s anthem ‘Ain’t Nothin’ Goin’ On But The Rent. Womack & Womack's ‘Teardrops’ blend of captivating lyrics and rhythm, leads into Joyce Sims' ‘Come Into My Life’, before the Stock Aitken Waterman written & produced ‘Say I’m Your Number One’ from Princess. Loose Ends' ‘Hangin' On A String’ offers a smooth, jazz-infused sound, echoed by Will Downing's very first hit, ‘A Love Supreme’, which closes this side.
Side B takes you on a whirlwind trip around the dancefloor with Whitney Houston's ‘How Will I Know,’ showcasing her stellar vocal range. Alexander O'Neal’s ‘Criticize’ and Aretha Franklin's ‘Who's Zoomin' Who?’ bring a blend of irresistible beats. Lionel Richie's ‘Dancing On The Ceiling’ makes you want to move, and Laura Branigan’s ‘Self Control’, alongside Imagination's debut single, ‘Body Talk’, offers a cross of Hi-NRG Disco with a sensual groove. Hi-Gloss's ‘You’ll Never Know’ is a gem of smooth, elegant Soul to finish the first LP.
Side A of LP 2 begins with the iconic duo Ashford & Simpson's ‘Solid,’ a celebration of enduring love. Up next is the #1 Disco anthem ‘Fame’ from Irene Cara, and Diana Ross's ‘My Old Piano’ - showcasing her unique ability to blend Pop with Soul on this Chic-produced classic. Donna Summer's Grammy-nominated single ‘Love Is In Control (Finger On The Trigger)’ fuses Disco with a Funk edge, while Odyssey's ‘Inside Out’ provides a smooth, and melody filled dance. Terri Wells's ‘I'll Be Around’ is a soulful delight, and Hall & Oates' ‘I Can't Go For That (No Can’t Do)’ mixes Rock with Soul, and became a hugely sampled and influencial track. The side ends on a romantic note with Fat Larry’s Band's ‘Zoom’.
The final side opens by showcasing Rufus and Chaka Khan’s ‘Ain’t Nobody,’ a masterpiece of Funk and Soul synergy. Womack & Womack make their second appearance with ‘Love Wars’, followed by Steve Arrington's ‘Feel So Real’ - a true example of the era's crossover with Disco and Soul. Miami Sound Machine's ‘Dr. Beat’ injects Latin-infused Pop rhythms, while Jermaine Stewart's biggest hit ‘We Don't Have To Take Our Clothes Off’ became a global dance-floor smash hit. Billy Ocean's Grammy award winner, ‘Caribbean Queen (No More Love On The Run)’, blends Soul, Disco and Pop, and Sister Sledge's ‘Thinking Of You’ is the perfect closer, uplifting and full of joy.
A Limited edition pressing, and an essential addition to any collection. Perfect for collectors, DJs, and anyone who loves to get down to the greatest dance-floor-fillers of the ‘80s. NOW That’s What I Call 80s Dancefloor: Soul & Disco is released on February 23rd 2024.
Steffi's fourth solo album, The Red Hunter gets remixed! This killer package with remixes by 9 artists close to Steffi's heart, represent her musical bandwidth with a very diverse mix from ambient, IDM, broken beat to electro, techno, and drum & bass! The special vinyl version opens with Convextion aka E.R.P who delivers his signature with a 10 minute ultra deep, beautiful, techno/electro journey. Italian talent Rosati drops a high energy chord techno monster and UK duo Tracing Xircles throw us in a deep trippy bath with their mixture of IDM with a lush broken beat banger!
- A1: Moon's Milk Or Under An Unquiet Skull (Part One)
- A2: Moon's Milk Or Under An Unquiet Skull (Part Two)
- B1: Bee Stings
- B2: Glowworms/Waveforms
- B3: Summer Substructures
- B4: A Warning From The Sun (For Fritz)
- C1: Regel
- C2: Rosa Decidua
- C3: Switches
- C4: The Auto-Asphyxiating Hierophant
- C5: Amethyst Deceivers
- D1: A White Rainbow
- D2: North
- D3: Magnetic North
- D4: Christmas Is Now Drawing Near * Featuring – Robert Lee, Rose Mcdowall
- E1: Copal
- E2: Bankside
- F1: The Coppice Meat
- F2: Ü Pel (Insense Offering)
Red in Clear Vinyl[57,35 €]
First compiled as a double CD in 2002, Moon's Milk (in Four Phases) is a suite of four EPs that Coil released seasonally via their in-house Eskaton imprint across 1998. The line-up for these sessions were John Balance, Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson, Drew McDowall, and William Breeze. Recorded primarily at their home studio in Chiswick, London on the eve of a permanent relocation to the small seaside town of Weston-Super-Mare, the collection has long loomed as a pivotal and pinnacle work in the group's discography, but has never been officially reissued, or repressed on vinyl. Time has only ripened its tapestry of regal strangeness. Arranged sequentially in tribute to the equinoxes and solstices, Moon's Milk captures Coil at a revelatory crossroads, leaning deeper into improvisation, spontaneity, and sound design. "Moon's Milk or Under an Unquiet Skull" initiates the proceedings on Spring Equinox, a two-part netherworld organ séance woven from vocal drones, cathedral keys, seasick strings, and opiated undertow. From there, Summer Solstice skews lighter but no less incantational, with Balance embracing his voice-as-instrument across lucid dream torch songs ("Bee Stings"), purgatorial spoken word ("Glowworms/Waveforms"), sultry chamber pieces ("Summer Substructures"), and falsetto ravings ("A Warning From The Sun (For Fritz)"). Autumn Equinox exudes more of a pensive and twilit mood, from the Rose McDowall-sung folk ballad "Rosa Decidua" ("I hear your voice sing near to me / I've put away the poisoned chalice (for now) / And lie down amongst the flowerbeds") to hall-of-lords hallucination "The Auto-Asphyxiating Hierophant" to the liminal string-plucked classic "Amethyst Deceivers," featuring excellent alien guitar by Breeze layered with Balance's oft-quoted couplet: "Pay your respects to the vultures / For they are your future." The album's final chapter, Winter Solstice, is its most swooning, remote, and ceremonial. Opener "A White Rainbow" stirs strings, layered choral vocals, and shivering rhythm into an imploding burial hymn. "North" oscillates bleakly, a ghost in the machine murmuring opaque prophecy ("This black dog has no owner / This black dog has no odour"), while "Magnetic North" is its inverse, a guided meditation of gently flickering software and surreal chakra poetics ("Red rose filling the skull / Yellow cube in the lower pelvis / Silver moon crescent below the navel"). The suite fades to grey with a traditional English carol ("Christmas Is Now Drawing Near"), rendered like an executioner's song by Rose McDowall's doomed, beautiful voice. The Dais box set includes the entirety of the rare Moon's Milk Bonus Disc CD-R / 2019 Threshold Archives Copal CD, which includes three collaborations with Thighpaulsandra. This material is as rich and intoxicating as the previous four phases, ranging from electro-acoustic singing bowl rituals ("Copal") to dissonant electronic recitations of visionary Angus MacLise poetry ("The Coppice Meat") to ominous classical melancholia ("Bankside"). Once again, Coil confirm the vastness of their confounding, infinite alchemy, explored and refined across decades of experimentation - both sonic and bodily. From postindustrial to post-everything, theirs is an art untethered, in the wilds of its own design.
**GREEN VINYL**Firefriend RCKNRLL ‘São Paulo is one of the largest, filthiest, and most violent cities of the world. And this is the music we make here’. Captured live at the No. 74 in São Paulo – brace yourself for a one way trip to the heart of darkness. RCKNRLL is an transcendental psychedelic sonic assault, a lightning storm of guitar haze and drugged-out wailing. Mainlining an elegantly wasted take on two-chord avant garage rock that makes direct reference to Plastic Inevitable era Velvet Underground, where Yury Hermuche devotional fuzz layerd on top of Julie and Caca primal throbbing rythm - you will feel the effect as time and space start creasing and folding in at the edges. The overall music created at this venue on this night is so intense and claustrophobic that, at times it will pin you back into your seat – such is the physicality of Firefriends music. This is not just another live album - this is a mission statement. With a taste for hallucinogens and the drone RCKNRLL is completely unyielding, it offers no concessions to listeners, demanding they embrace the distortion - . Do yourself a favour. Turn the music on, the lights off, and let yourself go. RCKNRLL, FUZZ, FEED YOUR HEAD
MME Recordings lands on planet earth with their first release from Berlin based Italian producer Cesare Muraca. The spacey four tracker opens with an immediate dancefloor smasher in the form of Space Message. The trippy yet melodic synths balance out the killer drums and addictive bassline to hypnotize dancers in the groove. The rest of the EP comprises of euphoric synth structures and chunky bass, offering a solid allrounder that simultaneously works for any moment in the night.
Jacob Lusk, Ryan Hope & Ari Balouzian; an acclaimed gospel singer and choir director, an established film director and a classically trained musician and soundtrack artist. This is the trio that fate brought together and now make up Gabriels.
Their debut EP ‘Love & Hate In A Different Time’ comprises five songs that sound instantly of another era without faltering into throwback territory. True masters of story-telling, their timeless take on vintage soul, new R&B and just a hint of ultra-contemporary altpop have seen them become firm favourites of Gilles Peterson, Off White’s Virgil Abloh, Benji B, Annie Mac, Elton John... the list goes on.
The lead track and new single, ‘Love & Hate In A Different Time’, showcases their sound perfectly. A soul-stirring song with elements of funk and that joyous gospel influence too. Jacob has one of those terrifically cavernous deliveries and understands the power of when to adopt restraint and when to let rip. It’s raw, show-stopping and combines to form a magical few minutes of cinematic sound, unlike anything else out there today.
In the song’s long-form video, directed by band member and British born musician Ryan Hope (himself a celebrated music video director), we’re taken through a history of the dancefloor in archive footage, culminating in Jacob singing Billie Holliday’s Strange Fruit to a rapt audience during a Black Lives Matter protest in LA last year. It’s an engrossing, moving watch and an evocative listen.
It all started with a crashed computer and it certainly didn’t end there. »Cinnte le Dia« is the third collaborative album by Hanno Leichtmann and Valerio Tricoli, their first entry into Ni Vu Ni Connu’s duo series that focuses on Berlin’s Echtzeitmusik scene and beyond. Having already released two joint records on the now-defunct Entr'acte label, the two musicians wanted to document a 2018 concert in Berlin, but technology failed them. Undeterred, the sound artist and percussionist and the electroacoustic composer went to the former’s Static Music Studio to record six of the eight tracks on this record straight to tape, with two additional ones being recorded during a performance at Eupen’s Meakusma festival in 2019.
After 2016’s »The Future of Discipline« saw the duo enter the studio for a one-take session with added synth-bass overdubs and 2018’s »La Casa delle Chimere« documented a live gig in Kyiv, »Cinnte le Dia« presents a synthesis of the two approaches. Mixing the album together and adding overdubs—Leichtmann with his synth-bass again, Tricoli with his trusted Revox B77—the duo combined the special energy of their performance in front of a live audience with the intimate atmosphere of a studio session between two exceptional improvisers and composers. The pieces are accordingly marked by their sonic density, but also a rhythmic intricacy that makes the album as a whole negotiate its place in music history between bass-heavy, dubbed-out club music and electroacoustic as well as musique concrète techniques.
Leichtmann worked with a mix of acoustic percussion routed through a modified looper and a granular live sampler as well as electronic drums consisting of three modular sampleplayers, a Syncussion drum synth and a bass drum module. Depending on the current set-up, the two fed this input through Tricoli’s B77 either individually or collectively to further manipulate single elements or the entire sound. What might look complicated on a tech rider sounds intuitive on record: these are two versatile musicians engaging in a play of difference and repetition, acting and reacting to each other in real-time, but also creating additional layers by inserting new elements after the fact. In a very literal way, »Cinnte le Dia« is the duo’s most refined album, yet at the same time a testament to the uncanny energy they unleash during their improvisations. It’s solemn and moody, spontaneous and driving at once. Of course a computer couldn’t handle that.
Delicate and beautiful music from the combined forced of the recently ubiquitous East-Coast psychedelic combo Elkhorn and Pelt’s Mike Gangloff, laying down two epic raga-like performances captured on a 2022 collaborative tour. Gangloff—fresh from the triumph of his VHF solo fiddle album Evening Measures—has found a distinct instrumental voice, blending drone music and trad influences in way that really advances the tradition into new areas. “East Dauphin Suite” builds patiently on the interlocking acoustic guitars of the Elkhorn duo, with Gangloff’s hardanger fiddle carrying the melody over the top. The sound is a neat riff on American primitive, with just enough Appalachian-style touches via Gangloff’s careful glissandos cutting through the Vuh-type chords and patterns to create a unique and supremely melodic hybrid. “Summerfield Raga” takes things further out, with more microtonal variation in the embroidery, with assertive bowing and an increased energy level. Pressed in Chicago and housed in an amazing jacket by Jake Blanchard.
Susana Baron Supervielle was born in Buenos Aires in 1910, but she lived in Brazil most of her life. Creation with electroacoustic means represented one more step in her search for renewal and a new articulation of her triple cultural horizon articulated between São Paulo, Buenos Aires and Paris. The results open a new dimension in the interstices of the sound montage. Susana had been a follower of Pierre Schaffer and his peers in the Groupe de Recherche de Musique Concrète from Paris since they began in the early 1950s.
Baron Superveille’s catalogue of works, as selected by the artist herself, shows nine compositions for magnetic tape. With one exception (1977’s Continuo variante), the pieces are in the personal archives of the composer filed in the Archivo del Instituto Nacional de Musicología “Carlos Vega”, in Buenos Aires, which depends on the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Argentina. This edition on Wah Wah Records is a coproduction with the Instituto Nacional de Musicología “Carlos Vega” and recovers all the available electroacoustic works composed between 1974 and 1980. While most of the collected works premiered in both Buenos Aires and São Paulo on dates close to those of their composition, there are not any previous known releases of these recordings, so this LP is not only an exception, but also a novelty.




















