Born from a desire to explore her background in film composing to create a music film, Hannah Holland’s upcoming album 'Last Exit On Bethnal’ is set for release via PRAH Recordings on 18th July. Together with director Lydia Garnett, the multi-faceted London producer shaped ideas born out of images the pair weren’t finding in film, inspired by queer icon filmmakers like Kenneth Anger and Derek Jarman. “We wanted to craft something unapologetically for dykes: a poetic, surreal exploration of dyke power and sexuality set in a fantasy underworld,” explains Holland. Once the film was shot, she channelled its stunning imagery and the energy of the cast into making the record. Seductive and bass-driven, its nine tracks merge sleazy guitars with 707 machine drums, beautiful evolving arps, and surreal moments of Lynchian dreaminess and Aphex Twin-inspired atmospherics. "It was a really amazing collaborative experience and coming together of a community to make something totally unique….and hot!” she continues. The first single ‘Biker’ features a filthy synth hook atop Hannah’s signature bass-guitar, perfectly capturing the raw and sexy energy of the album and its visual centrepiece. You can listen to it here. The film will be screened at a one-off club night at London’s ICA on 11th April in association with Culture Divided, Somesuch and Bala Project.
Hannah Holland has played a pivotal role in London’s alternative and queer London club scene since the mid-noughties. Rooted deeply in London’s fertile musical community, musical exploration and the transcendent potential of dancefloor have always been her biggest inspiration. Her recent delve into experimental theatre, film and TV scores has proved a future further artistic voyage to explore her creative vision. Holland first arrived on dancefloors sharing electro-tinged techno, with equal inspiration taken from the sounds of DnB and jungle heard at legendary parties such as Metalheadz, which she had frequented in her early teens. Having already been “borrowing” (and perhaps never since returning) Kraftwerk, Grace Jones and Talking Heads records from her parents, the influence of this metropolitan musical soup ensured that Holland emerged on the decks with a unique musical character and diverse taste, hallmarks of her sound that she has not lost since. This has been reinforced with trusted residencies at iconic parties such as Trailer Trash, Adonis, Glastonbury’s NYC Downlow, or undertaking far-reaching marathon sets at Berlin’s Panorama Bar. In 2006 Hannah started Batty Bass with vocalist Mama. Immediately a roadblock party and then a record label with releases from Josh Caffe and The Carry Nation sitting in its discography, Batty Bass explores the disparate strains of electro, acid, techno and house. Hannah also released her own music on the label including the ever-anthemic Paris’ Acid Ball.
A steady stream of releases have followed on Shall Not Fade, Super Rhythm Trax, Crosstown Rebels, Classic, Nervous, as well as remixes for Blessed Madonna ft. Kylie Minogue, Planningtorock, The Knife and Goldfrapp among others. Hannah also finds the time to play bass in several bands including Black Gold Buffalo whose debut album she also co-wrote. Her much-anticipated debut album, Tectonic, came out on PRAH Recordings in 2021, with a second on the way. Hannah’s latest venture into the world of film scores have included queer icon Bruce LaBruce’s ‘The Visitor,’ Channel 4 series Adult Material and award-winning indie feature Electrician.
Hannah Holland continues to push the boundaries of electronic and live music, telling stories and carving her own path in the deeper frequencies.
Originally released in 1969, the concept for Dusty In Memphis was to take England's reigning female soul queen to the home of the music which had inspired her. Produced by Atlantic's Jerry Wexler and Arif Mardin and engineered by Tom Dowd, the record's highlights include "Son Of A Preacher Man," "So Much Love," "Breakfast In Bed," "Just One Smile," "I Don't Want To Hear It Anymore" and "Just A Little Lovin'".
Springfield is backed by a crack band that had previously worked with Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, King Curtis and Elvis Presley among others. The musicians — collectively known as the Memphis Cats — include guitarist Reggie Young, bassist Tommy Cogbill, drummer Gene Chrismann, pianist Bobby Wood and Bobby Emmons on organ and electric piano. Songwriting contributions came from, among others, Randy Newman, Carole King, Gerry Goffin, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. Dusty Springfield is one of the finest white soul singers of her era, and this is the undisputed proof.
Analogue Production's reissue here is perfection. Mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog master tape. Double LP cut at 45 RPM, pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Quality Record Pressings, and housed in a Stoughton Printing tip-on old style gatefold jacket.
Invitation to the Dance is the second album by nu metal band 40 Below Summer. The album was released on October 16, 2001. The album combines the downtuned riffs of nu metal/alternative metal with elements of New Jersey hardcore, hip hop, jazz and hard rock. Invitation to the Dance was made with the help of with well-known rock and metal producer GGGarth (Rage Against the Machine, Mudvayne) Allmusic wrote about the album "Invitation to the Dance at first glance may seem to be just another hard rock album, but along with further observation it is apparent that 40 Below Summer is striving to spice up what modern hard rock became in the 21st century." Invitation to the Dance is now available for the first time ever on vinyl, it's a numbered limited edition of 750 copies on translucent green coloured vinyl and includes an insert.
(Limited edition to 500 copies, remastered audio, pressed and printed in Indonesia) The 13 tracks contained in this compilation “Begadang: Soneta Group Best Songs, 1975-1980” are some the most innovative music that came out of Indonesia’s music scene in the 1970s, tunes that has cemented Rhoma Irama’s status as the king of the genre.
Dangdut is the biggest musical genre in Indonesia. Dangdut, onomatopoetic name from the sound of hand drums used in this type of music, is what reggae to Jamaicans, country to Americans or skiffle to mid 20th century British people. And in this genre of dang dut, the name Rhoma Irama looms large. He is until today the undisputable king of dangdut and his role as pioneer of the music is already in the history book. In fact, there's one book documenting the outsized role of Rhoma in establishing dangdut as the father of this music. The book is aptly titled Dangdut Story, written by Pittsburgh University music professor Andrew N. Weintraub.
Among Indonesian fans of dangdut, there’s this one misconceptions that dangdut music is that it is an indigenous art form from Indonesia and that it constitutes an amalgamation of local, traditional music of this Southeast Asian nation, with Malay music being the most prominent feature in the mix.
Dangdut pioneer Rhoma Irama is among the first to reject this assertion. “Dangdut music may have originated in Deli (in North Sumatra) but then got the influences from the West and India”, he said.
Indeed, most of Rhoma’s well-known compositions may have been influenced by Indian tunes but some of his best quality works owed much to the West.
Rhoma had long found home in Western pop music. In the early 1960s, after honing his guitar playing skill, Rhoma set up his first band Gayhand to play the tunes of The Beatles, Paul Anka and Tom Jones. In 1972, Rhoma won best singer title in a Southeast Asia singing competition in Singapore playing Tom Jones “I Who Have Nothing.”
Yet, nothing changed Rhoma’s fortune in the music industry, to a point where he decided to leave pop and switched to playing Orkes Melayu (Malay Orchestra) music, first with Orkes Melayu Purnama and later with Soneta Group.
His career soon took off with Soneta, especially after he introduced what ethnomusicologist William H. Frederick considered as “theatre”, through which Rhoma borrows many elements from stage performances of British and American rock bands. These elements, kitsch and pomp, he liberally adopted and became an inseparable part of dangdut itself; tight pants, long hair, platform shoes, glitter and glamour which would not be out of place in Elton John and David Bowie stage show.
And this is actually the contradiction of Rhoma’s brand of Malay music. “One might legitimately ask how imaginative, not to say bizarre, costuming and dancing with abandon could be related to some of the objectives of Rhoma has set for himself and soneta group”, Frederick wrote on his seminal work on the singer, Rhoma Irama and the Dangdut Style: Aspects of Contemporary Indonesian Popular Culture, published in 1982.
From technical point of view, Rhoma not only replaced the acoustic elements from Melayu Music with electric instruments but also created new synthetic sounds that has never been attempted before in Indonesia’s music industry.
Detractors like to point out how much he was indebted to Deep Purple, but a closer inspection reveals how he in fact had mined his influences even deeper.
Notice how Rhoma reproduced funk, which is all the rage in early 1970s, in the song “Santai” (Relax), this album’s closer or “Credit Title (Instrumentalia)” which opens this Darah Muda (Young Blood) soundtrack. The rubbery bass lines that open both songs can easily find home in any Sly and the Family Stone’s or Isaac Hayes’ tunes from that era. Other highlights of the song is the funky guitar licks and the droning Hammond a la George Clinton that stabs deep in the record groove. In the guitar solo, you can also hear the bark of George Harrison’s licks from “Taxman”.
The 13 tracks contained in this compilation “Begadang: Soneta Group Best Songs, 1975-1980” are some the most innovative music that came out of Indonesia’s music scene in the 1970s, tunes that has cemented Rhoma Irama’s status as the king of the genre. Only 500 copies were pressed for this compilation.
Dear Life Records is proud to present the physical reissue of the self titled debut of MJ Lenderman. MJ Lenderman is a songwriter born and raised in Asheville, North Carolina. The anatomy of an MJ record might go something like this: warped pedal steels and skuzzed out guitar; a voice reminiscent of the high-lonesome warble of a choirboy; the keen observations and reflections of a front stoop philosopher. Songs snake their way from a lo-fi home recording to something glossier made with longtime friends at Asheville's Drop of Sun studios, but the recording setting doesn't seem to matter much - at its core, a Lenderman song rings true. "MJ Lenderman" was recorded, mixed and mastered for digital in 2019 by Colin Miller in Asheville NC, and was self-released online to quiet but firm acclaim. Now available as a Double LP and remastered for vinyl by Heather Jones, it offers a glimpse into the formative steps of a style; focused and precise, yet expansive and rough around the edges, that remains consistent across MJ's catalogue to date (see also 2021's `Ghost of Your Guitar Solo' (DLR 016) and 2022's `Boat Songs' (DLR 031)). Looking as firmly to the legacy of 90s slowcore as it does to the tenor of Magnolia Electric Co. and sound wall of Neil Young and Crazy Horse, these 9 songs clock in at just over an hour and offer warm, patient worlds of heavy color that blow by breezily. These are songs that wrap mysterious and urgent feeling in layers of patience and clarity that unfold anew with each timeless listen.
This self-titled LP marks the fifth release of Scottish artist Murray Collier’s Dip Friso project, his longest running alias and the solitary vanguard of his own Real Landscape imprint. Across the six tracks he delivers another collection of warped percussive loops, heavily manipulated guitar work and psychedelic sound experiments that drift between popular music forms ('I’ll Get to Hiding') and whittled down takes on electric blues and shoegaze ('Another Country’). The former features the instantly recognisable croon of Still House Plants vocalist Jess HK embellishing a backdrop of tape loop alchemy, an inspired pairing given the shared history of Glasgow dwelling. ‘Thin Ayrshire’ (written with Hannan Jones) treads a similar path with Collier’s own beyond-unrecognisable voice featuring, broken suddenly by a brief flash of 12th Isle’s Loris S. Sarid & Innis Chonnel’s ‘Spalted Water Portal’ thanks to a recycled tape spool. ‘A Sorry Business’ takes on avant-jazz inspired puddle skronk, a stunted casio bleep propelling forward guitar dirge and cymbal crashes, whilst Australian minimal wave heroes The Systematics are paid homage via a farewell cover of their track ‘Midnight on Balancing Day’ (here ‘Midnight’).
All in, the album sees the project incorporating more instrumentation and a full use of vocalists, leaning less heavily on gauzy sample collage styles and providing a more introspective look at the hazy, dubwise world Collier has been building for the past half a decade.
For fans of Michael Kiwunaka, Jon Batiste, Leon Bridges, Gregory Porter, and Mg.Kee. Full tour in the works for 2025 in North America and Europe. Collaborated with a wide range of artists including Jack White, Dwele, Slum Village, Black Milk, Foreign Exchange, 14KT, and Daru Jones. Former musical director for tours for Black Milk and Slum Village, throughout North America, Europe, Australia, and Japan. “From the Throne Room” is Abernathy’s fourth official LP, following the trilogy of “Monologue,” “Dialogue,” and “Epilogue,” released between 2016 and 2019. Aaron Abernathy has been firmly established in the modern soul scene for almost two decades, and he continues to elevate his craft as a songwriter and performer. His latest LP “From the Throne Room” once again demonstrates a rare ability to seamlessly shift between lyrical themes and musical styles, and it is his most inspired and uplifting album to date.
The turmoil caused by the pandemic was especially hard on touring musicians, and as a veteran musical director and bandleader who has regularly traversed the globe, Abernathy was certainly affected. Instead of wallowing in grief and darkness, he tapped into his gifts as a songwriter and lyricist to manifest light and optimism in his own life. As expressed on the opening track “New Relationship,” this “new way of seeing” kicked open some new creative doors for him as a musician and producer, with a wide variety of influences. The four-to-the-floor push of “A Reason to Smile” brings to mind 80’s post-disco boogie, “Show Off” shows off a modern rock edge, and the booming, driving energy in tunes like “Hope Song” and “Joy” is reminiscent of the electric 60’s soul of Wilson Pickett and Otis Redding. With its catchy hooks, powerful lead vocals, and slick self-produced arrangements, “From the Throne Room” proves that Aaron Abernathy remains one of the most talented singer/songwriters of his generation in contemporary soul music.
Typically, a band's big indie label debut doesn't come 15 albums into its career, but with Constant Smiles' Paragons, here we are. Primary songwriter and sole "constant" member Ben Jones_who considers Constant Smiles a collective_sees its impressive output as a way to document the group's evolution. Since its live debut as a noise duo on Ben's home of Martha's Vineyard in 2009, Constant Smiles has grown to include contributions from 50 other members, all of whom have personal connections to the group's extended family. And while the collective has indulged an array of musical whims along the way - including Ben's penchant for penning a new set's worth of material for each live performance - Constant Smiles' sound has tightened up considerably over their past couple of albums, in large part as a result of Ben's working relationship with Mike Mackey, who has become his main creative partner. This increased focus manifests on Paragons in the band's most cohesive batch of songs to date, ranging from shimmering psych-pop excursions to bittersweet, piano and string-accented strummers, and an execution that feels like a massive step forward for the band. Through its recent forays into dream pop and shoegaze (Control) and synth-pop (John Waters), Constant Smiles has learned how to incorporate its experimental inclinations more fluidly into the mix. Artists like Yo La Tengo, and the more recent Rat Columns, are good touchstones for Constant Smiles' musical approach - tethering to an indie-pop core while perennially mining genres, always finding new ways to intrigue listeners and pursue a unique vision. Paragons was produced and engineered by Ben Greenberg in the last two weeks of December 2020 at Gary's Electric, with additional recording done by Ben Jones at his home studio, The Void, and his Aunt Leanne's house. The album was mixed at Circular Ruin Studio and mastered by Josh Bonati. The band on Paragons consists of Jai Berger (who performed "Introduction"), Spike Currier (bass and synth), Matthew Addison (drums), Emma Conley (violin), Nicky Wetherell (cello), Adam Lipsky (piano), and Ben Greenberg (guitar and Mellotron).
Acid-washed motorik drone with buried vocals from experimental duo.
Follows up, thirteen years later, from critically acclaimed album Common Era.
Realistic IX, the third full-length by the duo of Michael Jones and Turk Dietrich aka Belong, is both an expansion and excavation of their signature acid-washed songcraft.
Bleached guitars, metronomic drums, and buried voices rev, swirl, and seethe across shifting gradients of haze and hypnosis, alternately driving and diffuse. Melodies surge closer to the surface, flexing their form before resubmerging into quickening currents of feedback. Elsewhere the elements dissipate into a dusk of murk and microtonalities, electricity liberated back into infinite night.
Although it’s been thirteen years since Belong’s prior Kranky offering, Common Era, none of the duo’s rare synergy has decayed in the interim. Jones and Dietrich’s commitment to oblique states of motorik drone and liminal emotion continues to evolve and unfold, increasingly tactile and unreal, an alluring glow glimpsed through fogged windows at witching hours.
Keep on Dancing EP by Marky Ramone's Blitzkrieg on 10-inch 45 rpm vinyl with four versions fresh out of the oven. Faithful to the essences, the band of the only Ramone still standing trims all the fat off the originals and makes every second count. High voltage. DESCRIPTION Marky Ramone needs little introduction. The only Ramone still standing was born in 1952 in Brooklyn and joined the band in 1978, replacing Tommy, and remained with the Ramones until they disbanded in 1996 (with a 1983-1987 hiatus due to personal problems). He is a restless person and has never stopped recording and performing live, either solo (MR & the Intruders, MR & the Speedkings) or in projects and collaborations (Joey Ramone, Teenage Head, Tequila Baby, Wardogs...). MARKY RAMONE'S BLITZKRIEG is the name of the band with which he has been touring the world for 15 years celebrating the Ramones' legacy, as well as adding some own-penned songs and some covers of other iconic punk rock bands to his repertoire. Over the years the line-up has varied, but in recent times the band has consolidated its position on stage with the resounding presence of Vitoria-Gasteiz's own Iñaki Urbizu "Pela" (La Excavadora, Victima's Club) as frontman and vocalist, and the Argentinians Marcelo Gallo and Martín Sauan (Expulsados) on guitar and bass. So, the time seemed right to transfer all the energy generated live to a 10" plastic EP. Four versions fresh out of the oven. Three tracks under two and a half minutes and one just over three minutes. True to the Ramones essence, they remove all the fat that was left over from the originals and make every second count. The Gentrys' "Keep On Dancing" opens the selection. The original track reached number four in the US charts in 1965 and, after passing through the hands of MARKY RAMONE'S BLITZKRIEG, classic Ramones covers like "Do You Wanna Dance" inevitably come to mind. The idea is easy, speed up the original a bit, in 4/4, and then play it faster. The hard part is that the result is so exciting and energetic. "It's Not Unusual", the Tom Jones hit, becomes maximum fun. The familiar, catchy tune is elevated to a whole new level of energy and intensity so that the chorus can be belted out loud. The Beatles' "Octopus's Garden", originally composed and sung by Ringo Star, is transformed into a playful punk-pop song to escape, if only momentarily, from the worries of the earthly world in the backdrop of a bar with a good sound system. Closing "New York, New York", the classic song from the Frank Sinatra songbook, celebrates New York City. It fits perfectly with Marky's identity as a native of the city, rooted in its culture and spirit, capturing the vibrant energy and rebellious attitude of the city that never sleeps. Some can cover hundreds of different songs and make them their own, and others can't. MARKY RAMONE'S BLITZKRIEG, like their originators, are certainly one of those who can. The band is just as comfortable with a colossal song as they are with a ditty, it's all about electric atmosphere and chemistry and, on each of these new recordings, the voltage is very high. One euro from the sale of each record will go to the victims of war. Stop the war!
Over the last 20 years, Portland, Oregon's Federale has carved out a unique niche within the indie music landscape, blending their signature spaghetti-Western instrumental sound with increasing doses of moody vocal arrangements in the spirit of Lee Hazlewood or later-period Leonard Cohen. Still, through it all songwriter (and lead singer, when there is one) Collin Hegna has maintained a strictly retro vibe, and Federale's records have always sounded period-correct for an alternate-universe 1971 where rock and roll never caught on.
Reverb & Seduction, Federale’s sixth studio album, marks the band’s 20th anniversary, and finds them beginning to color outside those Ennio Morricone lines. Perhaps Hegna—who also spent the last 20 years as a dues-paying member of The Brian Jonestown Massacre—has finally decided to give his psych-rock alter ego a seat at the Federale table.
“Before, I'd have an idea and think, ‘Well, that can't be a Federale song’, because it had distorted guitars or whatever,” says Hegna. “But then I thought, 'Well, why not?’” This openness to a broader palette of influences allows Reverb and Seduction to veer into psychedelic and even gothic territory—think Love and Rockets or Sisters of Mercy—that the 2010s Federale might have considered off limits.
The album's first single “Heaven Forgive Me,” for example, draws on Goblin (the Italian prog-rockers who scored Suspiria) and perhaps even a little Depeche Mode, while “Advice from a Stranger” borrows the fuzz and feedback of DIG!-era BJM and The Electric Prunes.
The Path is the latest album from Belbury Poly (aka Ghost Box records founder Jim Jupp). This time round Jupp has recruited a full band roster to expand his own unique electronica. He is joined by occasional Belbury Poly collaborator Christopher Budd on Bass and Guitar, Jesse Chandler (of Midlake, Mercury Rev & Pneumatic Tubes) on flute, clarinet and keyboards, Max Saidi on drums plus narration from author and poet, Justin Hopper.
Musically it takes as its starting point a particular moment of early 1970s British film soundtracks by the likes of Roy Budd and Roger Webb; a soundworld of easy-going jazz and funky rhythms gently coloured with pastoral strings and flutes. The Path, however, is unmoored from time or place thanks to Hopper’s narrative style, Chandler’s rustic flutes and keys, Budd’s soulful psychedelic guitars and Jupp’s production and electronics. The co-writers were all chosen for their unique abilities and an
intuitive understanding of the ongoing Belbury Poly project. The spoken word elements form a loose, open-ended narrative; very much an album with spoken word rather than a spoken word album.
The Band and Album Recording:
Christopher Budd: Electric Bass, Double Bass, Guitars, Electric Sitar
Jesse Chandler: Piano, Synths, Mellotron, Flute, Clarinet
Justin Hopper: Narration
Jim Jupp: Electric Piano, Synths, Mellotron, Percussion, Sound Effects
Max Saidi: Drums, Percussion
The project came together over two years, beginning with a conversation between Hopper and Jupp during a walk on the Sussex South Downs. Originally, it was to tell the tale of an American academic unravelling while adrift in an alienating English landscape. From the beginning, the pair wanted on a narration integrated lyrically into the piece, rather than dropped on top. The words gradually became more film-noir and open to interpretation; occasionally a little tongue-in-cheek. The final
texts explore a folklore of alienation; the way we impact the landscape and it impacts us.
Belbury Poly:
Jim Jupp has released EPs, singles and seven albums on Ghost Box as Belbury Poly. It’s generally a solo project, but he calls on a floating roster of like-minded musicians to extend the sound beyond studio based electronica. He is also one half of The Belbury Circle along with Cate Brooks (of The Advisory Circle) - occasional collaborators with John Foxx. He has recorded library tracks for KPM, BMG and Lo-Editions. He’s remixed tracks for several artists including Beautify Junkyards,
John Foxx and Bill Ryder-Jones (The Coral) and co-written a song with Paul Weller for his 2020 album On Sunset.
Fast ein halbes Jahr ist es her, seitdem Kanadas Rüpelrocker DANKO JONES das letzte Studioalbum „Electric Sounds“ auf die Menschheit losgelassen hat. Songs wie „Guess Who's Back“, „Get High?“ oder „Good Time“ haben sich seither als Ohrwürmer etabliert und die Band konnte mit Platz 18 in den deutschen Albumcharts sowie mit der Spitzenposition der deutschen Rockradiocharts mit „Guess Who's Back“ einige Erfolge feiern.
Beste Voraussetzung, um nochmal in der Kiste zu wühlen und weitere Schmankerl für die Fans aufzubereiten. So dachten es sich auch DANKO JONES und hauen mit „4x10“ eine streng limitierte 10“ Vinyl raus, die das Sammlerherz höherschlagen lässt. Gemeinsam mit „Electric Sounds“ ist dies die beste Vorbereitung für einen unvergesslichen Festivalsommer 2024.
Die Vinyl beinhaltet zwei unveröffentlichte Bonustracks „Waiting for You“ & „Haunting Me“, sowie zwei Live-Versionen der Songs „Lipstick City“ und „My Little RNR“. So wird nicht nur der knackige Sound von Electric Sounds zurück in die Kompaktanlage geholt, sondern auch die Nostalgie!
Mehr als 500 Stück gibt es nicht – bestellt also jetzt das Dingen vor! Nur solange der Vorrat reicht!
2024 Repress
Three emotional years in the making, Be With and Efficient Space finally present Steve Hiett’s Girls In The Grass. Pressed alongside the long awaited reissue of his one-shot masterpiece Down On The Road By The Beach, these ten balearic soul instrumentals are of equal necessity; unrivalled beauty rescued from the fashion photographer-guitarist’s Paris Tapes (1986-1997).
While recordings unintended for release should often be approached with caution, this is a rare case of unheard material being assembled as an indispensable and coherent piece. Girls In The Grass is something super special. The light and shadow that defines Hiett’s music is arguably more compelling here. It speaks to us in a language that feels profound, yet entirely comforting and familiar.
Girls In The Grass reintroduces Hiett’s languid electric blues boogie, crafted on Saturday afternoons with fellow art director Simon Kentish. Kentish would cook, pour some wine and then utilise his arsenal of technology. He’d dial up a chugging rhythm, together with some ambient pads or keyboard textures, and anchor the weightless gauze of Hiett’s six-stringed touch.
Hiett’s guitar sings with the same clean, crisp tone as Down On The Road, animated by a carefree weekend groove. Unlike his defining album which was boiled under pressure, these subsequent sessions have all the time in the world. The naïve melodies chart a missing link between Vini Reilly’s ventures into electronica and Booker T, sounding like sun-warped takes on wordless, fractured non-hits from his heroes The Beach Boys.
Remastered for public pleasure by Simon Francis, these private moments are adorned with Hiett’s singular photography and feature typically idiosyncratic liner notes from Mikey IQ Jones
Warehouse Find!
'And Also The Trees' compelling new album, 'Mother-of-Pearl Moon', was born from a series of extraordinary electric guitar improvisations created by guitarist Justin Jones in the pre- and postdawn hours during a month of solitude in 2020. Each piece then developed in its own way - the guitar, often left in its raw, unaltered form, is accompanied by the voice of his brother Simon, bringing imagery and narrative, Colin Ozanne's clarinet and piano adding poise, colour and harmony, Paul Hill's percussion creating depth_ on occasion an autoharp, a Moog_ all leading the listener from the depths of the English countryside far out in all directions of the compass. The music is often filmic, reminiscent of various film genres from the '50s to the '70s. This is most apparent in 'This path through the meadow', a song that explores the intertwining of human nature and nature in its animal and botanic form, and in its video where the band appear to be performing to an imaginary screening. Elsewhere, the album title track transports the listener across the oceans to the Far East...and to its exotic gardens, still waters and the 'Mother-of-pearl moon'. And Also The Trees (AATT) formed during the original post-punk era in rural Worcestershire, an environment that has provided a constant inspiration to a group whose music has often explored the dark underbelly as well as the beauty of the British countryside. They are renowned for their captivating live performances, a unique style of mandolin-like electric guitar, evocative lyrics and dark jazz rhythms - not to mention a creative independence fiercely preserved for over four decades. Founded by singer Simon Jones and his guitarist brother Justin, AATT have maintained a continuous presence on the post-punk, alternative rock and Gothic scenes worldwide. They have released fifteen studio albums.
With J Jazz volume 4, the BBE J Jazz Bullet Train continues its journey traversing the expansive landscape of modern Japanese jazz. Volume 4 is the latest in the universally praised compilation series exploring the best, rarest and most innovative jazz to emerge from the Far East. Please take your seats for a first-class ticket to J Jazz central. This latest station stop off is with the famed Nippon Columbia label, one of the biggest labels in Japan, whose jazz output embraces every possible style imaginable. Focussing on the key years 1968-1981, J Jazz volume 4 sees compilers Tony Higgins and Mike Peden dig even deeper into their record collections and pull-out tracks that span styles ranging from solo to big band, jazz classical interpretations and heavy jazz rock, to febrile post-bop, white hot samba fusion, and modal psychedelic wig-outs. J Jazz volume 4 features icons such as drum master Takeo Moriyama, keyboard magi Hiromasa Suzuki, Fumio Itabashi, and Masahiko Satoh, and guitar wizards Kazumi Watanabe and Kiyoshi Sugimoto, alongside big band maestros and innovators Nobuo Hara and his Sharps and Flats, and Toshiyuki Miyama’s New Herd. Thunderous basslines nestle alongside glistening runs of electric piano, bubbling synths and air-tight drumming as the heavy psychedelic modal blues of Jiro Inagaki flows with the infectious samba grooves of Takashi Mizuhashi featuring Herbie Hancock; Shigeharu Mukai’s fusion funk epics take the music to another level and Mikio Masuda’s driving keyboard rhythms brings the heat to an incendiary dancefloor zone.
Wewantsounds is delighted to announce the release of "TOUCH," a selection of sought-after tracks produced by Yuji Ohno, one of the most revered producers and arrangers on the Nippon music scene. His blend of Jazz, Space Funk and Disco have long been highly sought-after by DJs around the world and we've been given unique access to the Nippon Columbia vaults and to Mr. Ohno himself to come with a versatile selection from his 70s body of work, all bearing his uniquely recognisable sound. The set includes works with singers Nanako Sato, Hatsumi Shibata and Ken Tanaka alongside tracks from his cult anime soundtracks for "Lupin III" and "Captain Future." Approved by Yuji Ohno himself, "Touch" was remastered in Tokyo by Nippon Columbia and features liner notes by Nick Luscombe in conversation with the maestro and artwork by Optigram's Manuel Sepulveda.
Born in Atami in 1941, Yuji Ohno started learning the piano at a young age and formed his own band during his teenage years, getting into Jazz in the process. After high school, he entered the prestigious Keio University in Tokyo and played in the revered university big band alongside two other pianists, Masahiko Sato and Hirosama Suzuki, who would have an illustrious career in their own right. After University, Ohno became a professional musician and started playing with the new wave of Japanese Jazz musicians forming his own trio and recording with the likes of Hideo Shiraki, Terumasa Hino and Masahiko Togashi from 1967 onwards.
At the turn of the 60s, Ohno started to veer away from the Jazz scene as he realised, as told to Nick Luscombe that "the jazz music being played by the Japanese at the time was only chasing the cutting edge, and was ignoring the roots and origins of jazz." Ohno therefore shifted his efforts to film and TV and also to producing artists for various Japanese labels, becoming one of the most in-demand composers, arrangers and producers in Japan. This is when Ohno developed his unique sound across a wide variety of styles. More than anything else, he got renowned for his anime soundtracks, particularly with the Lupin III series - represented here by the superbly funky "Silhouette" - which made his fame in Japan
Whether it's jazz, funk, disco or Pop, the "Ohno Sound" is unmissable both in terms of melodies and arrangements, on a par with those of such legends as Quincy Jones and Michel Legrand. Ohno's melodies are sophisticated yet accessible and there's a great sense of space in his productions especially when it comes to slow-burning grooves as heard on "Kirameku Inner Space" from the cult anime soundtrack "Captain Future" or "The Soaring Seagull" from the sought-after 1975 album "Electro Keyboard Orchestra." This album was recorded with seven fellow musicians including Kentaro Haneda and Ohno's old friend, Masahiko Sato and using twenty Korg synths to create a unique blend of futuristic jazz funk. "The Soaring Seagull" could be the perfect embodiment of Ohno's signature sound when it comes to instrumentals. The producer was however equally at ease with producing lush disco extravaganzas such as "Subterranean Futari Botchi" by Nanako Sato or "I Wish You Love" by Hatsumi Shibata, a revamp of Charles Trenet classic, both colourful and glitzy.
Ohno's versatility is on display here with a couple of jazz vocal tracks, "Speak Low" by Ann Young accompanied by the Yuji Ohno Trio and Mieko Hirota's fast and furious "I Want to Be Happy" while he also excelled at crafting gorgeous mellow songs such as Ken Tanaka's "Lilac-gai No Aki" and Hatsumi Shibata's "Mouichido Kikasete" closing the selection on a perfect note. "Touch" is just a tiny selection from Yuji Ohno's immense body of work and it will hopefully open the ears of Japanese music lovers to one of the most important musician, producer and arrangers of his generation.
