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A Notwist concert is a Notwist concert is a Notwist concert. The band around the core trio of Cico Beck and the Acher brothers Markus and Micha usually takes its studio recordings as a mere starting point for their live performances, considering them to be possibilities that need to be explored further. This is especially true for »Vertigo Days - Live from Alien Research Center,« a live record made under unusual circumstances. The band members rearranged songs from their ambitious 2021 album »Vertigo Days« in their studio in Weilheim to record and film a special performance. The songs took on a new life, becoming more psychedelic and intense when rearranged into a spontaneous, Krautrock-esque collage.

»Vertigo Days« was meant to transcend the conventional notion of a band as well as the creative and geographic boundaries inscribed into that concept. And even though life had other plans, this is precisely what the album did when it was released to both commercial success and critical acclaim in early 2021. Contributions by Tenniscoats singer Saya, Angel Bat Dawid, Ben LaMar Gay, Juana Molina, among others, as well as new member Theresa Loibl on bass clarinet, harmonium, and keyboard, expanded the band’s sonic palette, stylistic range, and even lyrical focus through the addition of different instruments, artistic approaches, and languages.

All of that was missing when the band retreated to their studio—dubbed Alien Research Center in response to, and in spite of, a nearby church called Christian Outreach Center—to further explore the possibilities of the source material. The band members considered this a challenge rather than an insurmountable problem and not only accepted, but fully embraced it. Trying to work as little as possible with the computers and samples—Saya’s voice on »Ship« being a notable exception—the band rearranged six tracks from »Vertigo Days« and a piece from the »One of Those Days« film soundtrack in order to allow themselves to improvise more freely, especially thanks to Loibl, who takes on a key role during these 45 minutes.

The intro sets the tone for what’s to come, contrasting loose jazz drumming with curious synthesizer rhythms in an abstract rendition of the first sounds that greeted the listeners on »Vertigo Days«. While the next four tracks—»Into Love / Stars«, »Exit Strategy To Myself«, »Where You Find Me« and »Ship«—follow the chronology of the album, they use the originals as a blank slate for further experimentation. The first track morphs into a feverish long-form jam that draws on the underlying groove to shift the dynamics from and leave behind the song structure of the studio version. It’s an exemplary piece in a recording that sees each individual musician leaving their mark on the overall sound, all while being perfectly attuned to what everyone else is doing around them. This continues up until the record’s triumphant finale, a whirring rendition of »Loose Ends.«

»Vertigo Days - Live from Alien Research Center« is at once a snapshot of a certain moment in the band’s history and the quintessential Notwist live record: a unique performance that both explores the untapped potential of the »Vertigo Days« studio recordings while also serving as an inspiration for upcoming live shows.

As with the studio album, the artwork for »Vertigo Days - Live from Alien Research Center« features photographs by Japanese artist Lieko Shiga, taken in the '00s.

2023 Repress on Yellow Vinyl

On Vertigo Days, the first album in seven years for The Notwist, one of Germany’s most iconic independent groups are alive to the possibilities of the moment. Their music has long been open-minded and exploratory, but from its engrossing structure, through its combination of melancholy pop, clangorous electronics, hypnotic Krautrock and driftwork ballads, to its international musical guests, Vertigo Days is both a new step for The Notwist, and a reminder of just how singular they’ve always been. Most importantly, the core trio of Markus and Micha Acher and Cico Beck are reaching out: as Markus reflects, “we wanted to question the concept of a band by adding other voices and ideas, other languages, and also question or blur the idea of national identity.”

It’s been seven years since The Notwist’s last album, Close To The Glass, and in that time the various members of the group have been busy with side projects (Spirit Fest, Hochzeitskapelle, Alien Ensemble, Joasihno), guest appearances, a record label (Alien Transistor), movie scoring, helping organise the Minna Miteru compilation of Japanese indie pop & running a festival (Alien Disko). Those divergent paths feed back into Vertigo Days in surprising ways, from its structure, built from group improvisations, with songs flowing and melting into one another in a collective haze, to its spirit, which feels refreshed and alive. There’s something cinematic about Vertigo Days too, reflective of the group’s time working on soundtracks, and reflected in the rich, moody photographic artwork by Lieko Shiga that adorns the cover.

The first sign of this newfound openness was the album’s lead single, “Ship”, where the group were joined by Saya of Japanese pop duo Tenniscoats, her disarmingly hymnal voice sighing over a propulsive, Krautrocking beat. Elsewhere, American multi-instrumentalist Ben LaMar Gay sings on “Oh Sweet Fire”, also contributing “a love lyric for these times, imagining two lovers in an uprising hand in hand.” American jazz clarinettist and composer Angel Bat Dawid adds clarinet to the spaced-out dream-pop of “Into The Ice Age”, while Argentinian electronica songwriter Juana Molina gifts some gorgeous singing and electronics to “Al Sur”. Saya also reappears as a member of Japanese brass band Zayaendo, who guest on the album. Throughout, The Notwist also capture the openness of their live performances, too, where they mix and link their songs in unexpected ways.

Indeed, what’s most impressive about Vertigo Days is the way it sits together as one long, flowing suite, the album conceptualised as a whole entity – it’s perfect for the long-distance, dedicated listening experience. This is also captured by the album’s lyrics, which Markus states, “feel more like one long poem.” The dimensions of that poem are multi-faceted, something intensified by the geopolitical weirdness of its times: “As the situation changed so dramatically, while we were working on the record, the theme of ‘the impossible can happen anytime,’ more about personal relationships in the beginning, became a global and political story.” But it also works at a level of poetic abstraction, such that each song gestures in multiple directions – the deeply private pans out to the global. The one certainty is that there is no certainty. “It’s maybe mostly about learning and how you never arrive anywhere,” Markus concurs. To sit within uncertainty is brave, but it’s also where we feel most alive, and Vertigo Days is an album that is brimming with life, with enthusiasm and love for music and for community, all wide-eyed and dreaming.

Coming February 10: the most live-sounding Yo La Tengo album in years, This Stupid World. Times have changed for Yo La Tengo as much as they have for everyone else. In the past, the band has often worked with outside producers and mixers. In their latest effort, the first full-length in five years, This Stupid World was created all by themselves. And their time-tested judgment is both sturdy enough to keep things to the band’s high standards, and nimble enough to make things new. At the base of nearly every track is the trio playing all at once, giving everything a right-now feel. There’s an immediacy to the music, as if the distance between the first pass and the final product has become more direct. Available on standard black vinyl.

Die mit Platin ausgezeichneten Band Pierce The Veil - Gitarrist/Sänger Vic Fuentes, Gitarrist Tony Perry und Bassist Jaime Preciado veröffentlichen ihr neues Album ”The Jaws of Life” am 10. Februar 2023 über ihr langjähriges Label Fearless Records/Concord.
Pierce The Veil sind in ihrem Genre zu einer Legende geworden - und das zu Recht. Ihre Rückkehr wurde mit Begeisterung aufgenommen und die erste Single ”Pass the Nirvana” wurde seit ihrer Veröffentlichung im September über 13 Millionen Mal gestreamt.
Sie haben in den USA zweimal die Spitze der Billboard Top Rock Albums, Alternative Albums und Hard Rock Albums Charts erreicht - zuerst mit Collide With the Sky (2012) und dem Nachfolger Misadventures (2016). Ein Jahrzehnt nach seiner Veröffentlichung schoss das bereits mit Platin ausgezeichnete ”King for a Day” auf Platz 1 der Billboard Hard Rock Streaming Charts, angetrieben durch den viralen Hashtag #KingForADay auf TikTok.

Was The Jaws of Life als Ganzes angeht, sagt Fuentes: ”Dieses Album hat uns wirklich näher zusammengebracht, als wir es je waren. Es war extrem schwierig für uns, so lange von der Straße weg und getrennt zu sein. ... In The Jaws of Life geht es darum, wie das Leben seine Zähne in dich schlagen und versuchen kann, dich zu verschlingen. Die ganze Negativität in der Welt und in deinem Kopf kann eine bösartige Sache sein. Wir sind extrem dankbar für diese Platte, unsere Fans und die Möglichkeit, wieder live Musik zu machen.”

Since 2006, Pierce The Veil have unassumingly yet consistently climbed their way into the hearts of millions worldwide via an unshakable devotion to making honest and hypnotic hard rock. The San Diego band — Vic Fuentes (vocals, guitar), Tony Perry (guitar), and Jaime Preciado (bass) — released A Flair for the Dramatic 2007 and Selfish Machines 2010, the latter of which camped out at No. 1 on the Billboard Heatseekers Chart. They have steadily built a dedicated and diehard fanbase through touring and by nurturing an honest connection. PTV truly established themselves with 2012's Collide With the Sky, which spawned their first RIAA Platinum-certified single with "King for a Day." They followed with Misadventures in 2016, which charted at No. 4 on the Billboard Top 200 and notched No. 1s on multiple charts, including Top Alternative Albums, Top Hard Rock Albums, Top Independent Albums, and Top Rock Albums. In between sold-out tours all over the globe and a headlining stint on 2015's Warped Tour Main Stage, the musicians garnered five Alternative Press Music Awards (including "Album of the Year" for Misadventures), two Kerrang! Awards, and a Revolver Golden Gods Award. They've graced the covers of Alternative Press, Kerrang!, Rock Sound, and more — multiple times. Elsewhere, their digital and streaming footprint is nothing short of staggering. They've tallied over 1.5 billion global streams and almost 370 million YouTube views — proving that growth is a constant for them. Ultimately, Pierce The Veil, who've earned multiple gold and platinum certifications, remain one of the most beloved bands of their generation and they show absolutely no signs of slowing down as they march into a new decade ready to share the most important music of their career.

Called a "slow-burning vocal-house juggernaut," and an "invigorating artist's artist," BRANDON has put together a collection of tracks featuring some of the genre's best producers, such as Chicago scene founders DERRICK CARTER & ANTHONY NICHOLSON.

A travelogue that unites physical and inner space, a series of trance states rendered in vivid colour, a delirious portal into the ether.
Marlene Ribeiro’s first albumunder her own name is all of this and much more. Toquei No Sol is a fresh new chapter for this unique artist, by far the most melodic and transcendent outing yet for her hypnotic dreampop.

This is only the latest release in a long history of sonic experimentation for Marlene, which includes her previous work as Negra Branca across a series of releases on labels such as Tesla Tapes and Zamzam and a long period as a member of audial iconoclasts and Rocket mainstays GNOD, not to mention collaborations with the like of Valentina Magaletti and Thurston Moore.

Toquei No Sol is also a record with a very distinctive and potent sense of place, paradoxically despite having been woven together from recordings made in Ireland, Wales, Portugal, Madeira and Salford.
It’s genesis came via a visit to Marlene’s maternal grandmother Emilia, whose influence as well as the sounds of her kitchen in Portugal.
can be heard on the album’s first track ‘Quatro Palavras’.

“Emilia ended up getting excited about me being able to record things there and then and - total news to me - told me she used to sing a lot when she was younger to the point of getting offered studio time but refusing it as she was fearful of what that could imply in those times” relates Marlene “From that point I planned to include her in this record as sort of the chance she never had of getting her voice out there.”

Elsewhere, a disarmingly catchy and irresistible grace is married to
a utilitarian approach to sound and texture. The ritualistic “Sangue De Lua de Lobo” (first released on a Sofia records compilation Songs Of The Lunar Eclipse) contains random objects from Marlene’s then-garden in Ireland, whereas on the drifting, beatific ‘Forever’ the percussion tracks are constructed from the sounds of pots and pans in her own Salford kitchen.

Yet at all times her fleet-footed approach to melody rings through even as the tracks conjure visions of heat-hazes, meditative spaces and late-night epiphanies. Although listeners may hear echoes of the
loop-driven psychedelia of Panda Bear’s Person Pitch or the incantatory ululations of Pocahaunted in these beguiling soundscapes and magick-strewn mantras, the truth is that the aesthetic here is
very much Marlene’s alone.

“It’s all a big misty haze of nostalgia, playfulness, self-reflection and hopefulness” is what Marlene reckons herself. Yet Toquei No Sol
is also a transporting vision from an artist both returning to her roots
and looking out to new celestial horizons.

On the 25th release of their label Restoration (after 15 years of its foundation), the original trippy “Someone Else” comes with a mesmerising chicagoic heavy shuffled remix by dj Fett Burger.
On the B side, the sophisticated beats and the classy arpeggios layered over the gloomy “Amazon Crime” comes together with the first track produced by Francesco del Garda and The Analogue Cops’;
“Good Breath” (edited by Del Garda) is the state of the art of years spent behind the decks looking for the perfect combination of garage bass lines, eccentric beats and esoteric pads.

THE CULT DEBUT ALBUM OF INDUSTRIAL BLACK METAL FROM THE
NORWEGIAN PIONEERS, PRESENTED ON VINYL FORMAT WITH
ORIGINAL COVER ART
One of the pioneering industrial black metal forces to emerge in the early 90's,
Mysticum brought to the world a completely unique brand of extreme &
psychedelic discordant black metal with insane drum machine patterns & synths.
They were originally signed to Euronymous' Deathlike Silence Productions label;
such was his belief in the band (Mysticum even featured Hellhammer from
Mayhem in their line-up for a brief period). However, this venture proved to be cut
short following his death, forcing Mysticum to look elsewhere for the release of
their eventual debut album, 'In The Streams Of Inferno', finally surfacing in 1996.
A perfect concoction of cold, primitive black metal & forward-thinking ideas from
an act unafraid to push boundaries, the hell of 'In The Streams Of Inferno' has had
a lasting & profound impact on many since 1996. For this release, the album has
had some extensive remastering work courtesy of Tom Kvålsvoll at Strype
Studios in Oslo to give a better representation of the sound the band initially
intended & includes 2 bonus songs in the form of 'Eriaminell' & 'Black Magic
Mushrooms'.
This vinyl edition of 'In the Streams Of Inferno' includes the original's cover art,
plus printed inner sleeve.

Yellow Vinyl
Over their six albums The Go! Team have taken sonic day trips to other lands - musically dipping into other cultures. But now on this, their seventh - they"ve bought a round-the-world ticket.... Benin, Japan, France, India, Texas and Detroit - all stops along the way. Wildly different voices from wildly different cultures side by side but all still sounding unmistakably Go! Team. Setting the course for a kaleidoscopic, cable access, channel hop. On the vocal roll call there"s Star Feminine Band, an all-girl group from West Africa, the Indian Bollywood playback singer Neha Hatwar, Kokubo Chisato from J-Pop indie band Lucie Too, 19 year-old Detroit rapper IndigoYaj, Hilarie Bratset (ex-Apples in Stereo), Brooklyn rapper Nitty Scott, and a whole host of others, alongside Go! Team staple Ninja. Picking up from 2021"s "Get Up Sequences Part One", Part Two continues the feeling of Technicolour overload. It"s a journey spanning Cyclone Tracey wig-outs, chroma key sitar psychedelia, Casiotone anthems, spoken word melodrama and kalimba callouts. Brill building melodies lead into musical handbrake turns, four track into panoramic. Eighteen years after their debut LP The Go! Team are still unlike anyone else and on "Get Up Sequences Part Two" they sound as fresh as a club soda....

Over their six albums The Go! Team have taken sonic day trips to other lands - musically dipping into other cultures. But now on this, their seventh - they"ve bought a round-the-world ticket.... Benin, Japan, France, India, Texas and Detroit - all stops along the way. Wildly different voices from wildly different cultures side by side but all still sounding unmistakably Go! Team. Setting the course for a kaleidoscopic, cable access, channel hop. On the vocal roll call there"s Star Feminine Band, an all-girl group from West Africa, the Indian Bollywood playback singer Neha Hatwar, Kokubo Chisato from J-Pop indie band Lucie Too, 19 year-old Detroit rapper IndigoYaj, Hilarie Bratset (ex-Apples in Stereo), Brooklyn rapper Nitty Scott, and a whole host of others, alongside Go! Team staple Ninja. Picking up from 2021"s "Get Up Sequences Part One", Part Two continues the feeling of Technicolour overload. It"s a journey spanning Cyclone Tracey wig-outs, chroma key sitar psychedelia, Casiotone anthems, spoken word melodrama and kalimba callouts. Brill building melodies lead into musical handbrake turns, four track into panoramic. Eighteen years after their debut LP The Go! Team are still unlike anyone else and on "Get Up Sequences Part Two" they sound as fresh as a club soda....

Yellow Vinyl


Over their six albums The Go! Team have taken sonic day trips to other lands - musically dipping into other cultures. But now on this, their seventh - they"ve bought a round-the-world ticket.... Benin, Japan, France, India, Texas and Detroit - all stops along the way. Wildly different voices from wildly different cultures side by side but all still sounding unmistakably Go! Team. Setting the course for a kaleidoscopic, cable access, channel hop. On the vocal roll call there"s Star Feminine Band, an all-girl group from West Africa, the Indian Bollywood playback singer Neha Hatwar, Kokubo Chisato from J-Pop indie band Lucie Too, 19 year-old Detroit rapper IndigoYaj, Hilarie Bratset (ex-Apples in Stereo), Brooklyn rapper Nitty Scott, and a whole host of others, alongside Go! Team staple Ninja. Picking up from 2021"s "Get Up Sequences Part One", Part Two continues the feeling of Technicolour overload. It"s a journey spanning Cyclone Tracey wig-outs, chroma key sitar psychedelia, Casiotone anthems, spoken word melodrama and kalimba callouts. Brill building melodies lead into musical handbrake turns, four track into panoramic. Eighteen years after their debut LP The Go! Team are still unlike anyone else and on "Get Up Sequences Part Two" they sound as fresh as a club soda....

Hailed by The Guardian as “the hopeful new voice of her super-sad generation” Arlo Parks released her second track in January 2019. At the time of release Arlo told Clash Magazine: "When I look at my generation I see a kaleidoscope of dejection, passion and anxiety – there’s this strange mix of sadness and intimacy that saturates Generation Z. 'Super Sad Generation' was inspired by the time my friends and I sat on the green at sunset, half wine drunk and ugly crying for no reason in particular."

Lifted from the Super Sad Generation EP ‘Paperbacks’ took its inspiration from Space Song by Beach House and Changeling by DJ Shadow.

"The British songwriter captures the specifics of being young and messed up like no-one else" - Noisey

Kode9's most ambitious work yet as a multi-disciplinary artist, `Escapology' is the soundtrack album to the sonic fiction `Astro-Darien', itself soon to be released on Hyperdub sub-label Flatlines. Already available as a special edition CD and digital album, we now offer a 1000 piece limited pressing on lucent orange vinyl, in spot-gloss sleeve with additional artwork by Optigram. `Escapology' reconfigures `Astro-Darien's tense, off-world atmospheres into slices of high definition, asymmetric club rhythms, woven through thrilling sound design and vertiginous sonics. "A record brimming with ideas and novel sounds, departing from genre exercises to offer something genuinely different." - Album of the Month -DJ Mag "Kode9's most dextrous and intuitive club music yet, full of mind-bending rhythmic nuggets. He's still the brilliant master behind the scenes, quietly one-upping everyone else." - Resident Advisor "The 15 tracks become proper dancefloor scorchers _ `Escapology' builds a futuristic jumble of aesthetics and sound design." - The Wire

box-set clear / vinyl / 180 gr

The Stone Techno Series returns with another exciting compilation. This time alongside a new festival that celebrates forward thinking artists from 9th to 10th of July at Europe's biggest coal mine complex under the UNESCO World Heritage Zollverein. The project is exceptional at its core, bringing back excitement and inventiveness to the genre.

The project functions as a multidisciplinary ever-evolving experiment that brings different aspects together. Sampling, creating and releasing music made out of million years old inorganic materials which shaped and defined the Ruhr Area like nothing else. "Auf Kohle geboren - born on coal" stands for this region and the so-called "German Wirtschaftswunder".

The Stone Techno project wants to embrace the history of "the Ruhrpott" while looking into the future as well. Techno Music stands for upheaval and modernity, while coal is the symbol of the Ruhr Area. This unique project will lend audibility to the ongoing process of transformation in the cultural and natural history of this region. Science and museums crossing paths with contemporary electronic music culture.

The Stone Techno project is not shy of its obvious significance. World-famous Ruhr Museum and The Third Room collective mark a first of its kind of long-lasting collaborations between a techno brand and a cultural institution.

This time the project is conceptually going one step further: Before the final backfilling of the mine at Zeche Zollverein, the acoustic atmos

Red Vinyl

Breaking from the strange monotony and abnormal norms that took hold during two years of pandemic life, Hammock returns with Love in the Void , an album that looks to the future, seizes the present, and unabashedly relishes the experiences and bonds that bring meaning to our days. Known for crafting orchestral works of stirring cinematic ambience, on Love in the Void the Nashville-based duo of Marc Byrd and Andrew Thompson bring guitar-forward, heart-pounding urgency to songs that shout through and shatter the static of complacency. Since forming as Hammock in 2003, Byrd and Thompson have released 14 critically-acclaimed albums, and are renowned for their unique talent for bringing inexpressible emotion to life. The Covid-19 pandemic followed closely after one of Hammock's career-defining works, the Mysterium, Universalis, and Silencia trilogy that chronicled the incomprehensible loss of Byrd's 20-year- old nephew. At their homes and apart, Byrd and Thompson then recorded Elsewhere, an album of shimmering ambience that channeled alienated longing and displacement into avenues that gave way to worlds and possibilities yet realized. Shaken awake and needing to break free of frustrations and longings, Love in the Void pulses with an unbridled spirit for action and experience and a burning desire for connection Across songs that hammer home the keenly felt emotions of life's highs and lows, Byrd and Thompson crest soaring crescendos awash in reverb and delve to keenly felt moments of quiet introspection, with unflinching lyrics on tracks like "Undoing" and "Denial of Endings'' that weigh choices made and circumstances that can't be changed. Lush and dramatic string orchestration from Matt Kidd (Slow Meadow) and emphatic drumming from Jake Finch heighten the stakes in play, and Christine Byrd's (Lumenette) ethereal vocals leave mysteries lingering in the haze. Love in the Void is Hammock's loudest album to date, embracing daring and vulnerability with palpable vitality at its core, and moving into an unknown future without fear.

Hailing from Brussels, Bandler Ching is a creation of musical ideas from composer and saxophonist Ambroos De Schepper (Kosmo Sound, Azmari and Mos Ensemble).

Flawlessly blending contemporary jazz, electronics, trap, hip-hop and global beats, the sound is based around the freedom of expression and improvisation and performed with astounding conviction. With the help of Alan Van Rompuy (Azertyklavierwerke), Federico Pecoraro (ECHT!) and Olivier Penu (Kel Assouf), the four idiosyncratic artists come together to express their musical identity to dazzling effect.

After a period of exploration, the quartet are set to release their debut album 'Coaxial' on the 27th January, via the groove-obsessed Sdban Ultra label. A hypnotic trip through each band members' musical fantasies, the band have their roots in jazz. "We start from Jazz and we give it our own attitude with improvisation and a lot of freedom and eventually mix it with influences such as electronics, beats, hip-hop etc," says De Schepper.

From the free-spirited beauty of 'You Call It' and pulsating, loose beats of 'Awpril' to the luminous 'Dag na Naamdag' inspired by warm winter memories and wild summer dreams, De Schepper gives the sax a new place in its musical sphere. The album title refers to the band members' various musical influences that coalesce around one artistic centre. That centre is 'Coaxial' - a distinct sound with a clear identity, yet versatile and difficult to catergorise.

Elsewhere, the bass-heavy 'RoodGroen' features Vieze Meisje (performer Maya Mertens) while the sonoric mayhem of 'Smooch' mutates without border - mischievous, dynamic and unpredictable at the same time. 'Rave Fever' is rich cataclysm of sound and rhythm while the intriguing 'You Have Got Me' and album closer 'Kitsune' showcase the magnetic soundings of Bandler Ching.

‘Living Rooms’ is a full-blooded debut of rich, playful, experimental pop from the artist Fe Salomon – full of unabashedly big songs and sumptuously big sounds. Fe’s soulful and arresting lead vocals weave amongst soaring strings and big band brass sections; clattering percussion and disjunctive rhythms; dirty electro synth and butchered guitar. A collaboration with producer and contemporary classical composer Johnny Parry, ‘Living Rooms’ is a true pop album with a distinct, exuberant and deeply generous sound.

Born in Northampton, Fe moved to London at 18 for a place at Theatre College; but soon left to concentrate on music and songwriting, falling quickly into the Camden music scene, and earning her a prolific career as a singer. Building on her diverse musical background and honing her unusual sonic style, this album has been percolating at the back of Fe’s mind for a long time. The perfect storm of personal and external factors thus created the moment to make it. ‘Living Rooms’ tells stories of multiple lives lived and lost

in the city, of friendships that meant everything and the characters you’ll never meet again, of transience and loneliness, and of getting by and moving on.

At the forefront of the album is an organic and fiercely honest lead vocal performance. However, Fe permits her voice to be twisted and distorted into the fabric of the instrumentation. The un-doctored lead vocals are frequently haunted by angels and demons, created through Fe’s uninhibited willingness to this manipulation, and capturing the more visceral emotions within the expression of the human voice.

‘Living Rooms’ navigates a wide spectrum of sounds and emotions. Take album opener “Polka Dot”, a track that mixes emotive vocals with an avant-garde alt/pop production to conjure a cut as stylish as it is shrouded in shadowy mystique. A track “about mourning innocence, and the darkness that’s picked up along the way, with an ‘up yours’ sarcastic tone, and not wanting to grow old”, it sets the scene for a twisting collection that up-ends expectations at every opportunity.

Elsewhere, the chunky hooks of “Super Human”, the sci-fi/country/big band of “Wired of Caffeine”, or the intimately sung vocals and Vaughan-Williams-esque string sections of “Taxicabs”, all contribute to an album that evolves like a rich and constantly surprising tapestry.

Although the conception of the album was a frenzy of wild experimentation. The album is faithful too, and celebratory of many joyous pop traditions; but searches for ways to reinterpret the familiar. And no less so than on the off-kilter centre-piece “Quintessential England”. Through wry lyricism and vivid imagination, the track paints a lucid, if lonely, depiction of a life lived out in the sticks; one that ultimately arrives at the conclusion that perhaps “the grass isn’t always greener”.

Gifted with the kind of superpowers that have blessed Alison Goldfrapp with her unwavering glam-pop allure and Stevie Nicks with that invincible soul, Fe Salomon’s empowering first release will prove she’s cut from the same cloth and ready to be your newest musical hero.

The last album of Dead Cat In a Bag on vinyl! 180g + downloadcode.

"Do you know it? Ennio Morricone, Nick Cave, Mark Lanegan, Tom Waits and Zach Condon walk into the bar, and there are all the seats occupied by the Dead Cat In A Bag musicians. Really." - this is how Jarek Szubrycht started the review of the last album of the Italian group Dead Cat In Bag in Gazeta Wyborcza. And he was right. Really.
Yes! Dead Cat In A Bag is back! They are back with a new album "We've Been Through".

After exploring several so called Neo-Folk regions, flirting with Folk Noir, mostly with Traditional Folk in a modern perspective, for example Americana to Tex-Mex and Balkan Music to Alternative Country, on this third record the ensemble drifts to a cinematic landscape, focusing on the theme of overcoming.

We've Been Through puts together World Music elements incorporating an almost soundtrack experience for a journey into both Day and Night, Hope and Disillusionment and telling stories of broken romances and shipwrecks.

Utilizing banjo and theatrical vocal delivery, together with with classic and odd instruments, the band remap the original charts but still set sail the desired destinations. And if, about the previous records, critics were prone to recall the prowess of Waits, Cave, Lanegan, Cash and Tindersticks, this time it will be harder to name the grandfathers.
Now there is a Morricone (or was it Badalamenti?) guiding spirit and a dreamlike universe full of memories, from the dry electric blues of a stream of consciousness duet in Duet For Nothing to the unexpected crooning vocals provided by Liam McKahey (CousetauX) in Lost Friends (a banjo droven dirge dealing with electronics and a bassoon, with steal percussions and a music saw for a frame), from the rendition of the traditional Wayfaring Stranger, balancing between electric guitars and Bluegrass, to the intimate cover of Leonard Cohen's Hunter's Lullaby, from the rock-(swamp)blues of The Cat Is Dead (enriched by Italian bass hero Gianni Maroccolo, from Litfiba and C.S.I.) to the soft meloncholy of the string quartet in Between Day And Night, from the dark cabaret of Fiddler, The Ship Is Sinking to the soft porch song, between Willard Grant Conspiracy and Kris Kristofferson, of the final title track.
You can hear a shrawn and a blues harp, whispers and choirs, love and dudgeon as the record goes. This is the sound of an orchestra playing on a sinking ship: what else could a fiddler do? And what can we do, in the end?

French pianist Melaine Dalibert, known for his releases on contemporary music labels such as Another Timbre and Elsewhere, his work with David Sylvian, Ensemble 0, Sylvain Chauveau, and world premieres from Gérard Pesson, Giuliano D'Angiolini, Michael-Vincent Waller, Tom Johnson, has signed with FLAU in Japan to release a new album Magic Square.

Across the album's eight tracks, the French pianist and composer takes listeners on a "fantasy journey". Travel is at the heart of Magic Square, but not of the physical kind. Instead, his emotive and intriguing piano pieces inspire inward travel and daydreaming, reflecting the past two years of pandemic and introspection.

Having received his training in Rennes and the conservatories of Paris, Dalibert has a musical background that is naturally entrenched in the technical aesthetic of classical music. However, experimenting with algorithmic ways of writing and other mathematical concepts such as fractals, Dalibert's music combines emotion and logic for captivating results. His music has been played on BBC Radio, Radio France and NTS Radio, among others.

“Melaine Dalibert, himself a composer whose works similarly deal in patience and space, is an ideal interpreter « As with his other releases, Dalibert breaks boundaries difficult to define but easy to hear, rendering and dissolving their polarities with a new iteration of his already luminous language. » (Mark Medwin, Dusted Magazine, juillet 2021) of such beguilingly modest music, and this sensitive recording lets every detail resound.”
Steve Smith — The New-Yorker

“compositions by French pianist Melaine Dalibert, is a warm stream of harmonious ripples that echoes the graceful postclassical music of Max Richter, Ólafur Arnalds, Jóhann Jóhannsson, etc, but the economy and precision, combined with Dalibert’s calm hands on the keys, put it on a whole other level of beauty.”
Derek Walmsley — the WIRE

“As with his other releases, Dalibert breaks boundaries difficult to define but easy to hear, rendering and dissolving their polarities with a new iteration of his already luminous language.”
Mark Medwin — Dusted Magazine

“Dalibert is one of the most effortlessly talented and subtlety creative pianists at work today”
Roger Batty — Musique Machine

“Au-delà des genres et au dessus de ce monde, le pianiste français Melaine Dalibert continue d’échafauder une œuvre d’un autre temps, d’un futur à construire avec une musique qui doit autant à Federico Mompou qu’à l’Acousmatique. Night Blossoms, son dernier disque en date (avec la participation de David Sylvian sur deux titres) est une pure merveille !”
Greg Bod — Benzine Mag

“La musique de Melaine Dalibert, héritière de cinquante ans d’expériences minimalistes, correspond à l’impérieux besoin du public d’aujourd’hui de cultiver un hors-temps et de se plonger au cœur du son. Elle y répond parfaitement”
Guillaume Kosmicki — Res Musica

“Comment des pièces reposant sur des constructions aussi abstraites et rigoureuses peuvent-elles susciter autant d’émotion à l’écoute ? La musique de Melaine Dalibert projette l’auditeur dans un univers où l’assommant temps quotidien n’a plus cours. Plus de mesure, plus de début ni de fin : pour qui accepte de se laisser prendre, Night Blossoms fait perdre tous les repères du commensurable”
Guillaume Kosmicki — Hémisphère Son

Expanded reissue of their 1980 classic Featuring the hits “Me And The Boys,” “Never Take The Place Of You,” plus four bonus tracks Packaging contains new liner notes from original Engineer Tom Mark • Available on LP, CD, and Digital Over a decade into their career, NRBQ entered Bearsville Studios and recorded their eighth album. The line-up featured Terry Adams (keyboards), Joey Spampinato (bass), Tom Ardolino (drums) and Al Anderson (guitar), plus The Whole Wheat Horns (Donn Adams and Keith Spring). The end result was Tiddlywinks, which contained the singles “Me And The Boys” and “Never Take The Place Of You.” It immediately became another fan favorite NRBQ classic album, and provided an entry point for new a new audience to come on board as “Me And The Boys” garnered repeat airplay on radio stations across the country. Now, over four decades later, Tiddlywinks returns. This time, four bonus tracks are added to the mix; “I Don’t Think Of…” and “Big Goodbyes” – recorded during the Tiddlywinks sessions and released on 1983’s Tapdancin’ Bats collection, plus the Radio and TV Spots originally issued on the flip side of the “Never Take The Place Of You” 7” single. Featuring updated artwork and liner notes from original engineer Tom Mark (who had worked with the band on At Yankee Stadium), the Tiddlywinks experience is now complete. From Mark’s liner notes: “Working with those guys was such a pleasure. We always had fun. Four amazing musician/writers really listening to each other, what else do you want? Thank you NRBQ.” Available on LP, CD, and Digital, it’s time to stop playing games, and grab some Tiddlywinks!







[g] 7. I Don’t Think Of... [Bonus Track]





[m] 13. Big Goodbyes [Bonus Track]
[n] 14. Tiddlywinks TV Spot [Bonus Track]
[o] 15. Tiddlywinks Radio Ad [Bonus Track]

On Seeds, Georgia Muldrow takes a step back and leaves the beatmaking to Otis Jackson Jr., aka Madlib. As producers, Muldrow and Jackson are not worlds apart, so the switch requires no adjustment on the part of the listener. That said, this is one dense and tight set, barely over half-an-hour in length, and it's definitely in contention for Muldrow's most focused, funkiest, and (somewhat ironically) personal release to date. Throughout the record, the emphasis remains heavily fixated on her family as a unit of salvation and purpose. The most direct track of the lot is "Husfriend," where she honors her relationship with Dudley Perkins (a/k/a Declaime, who appears on “The Few”). Muldrow can't quite divorce the planetary and personal issues, heard vividly on "Best Love," which sounds just like a simple, sweet, straight-ahead love song until she starts asking her other half for money to build water wells on three continents ("We can make a difference if we try now"). Overall, Seeds is another left-field deviation in Muldrow's career: it's one of her most captivating and immediate front-to-back statements of purpose as a singer, but it's also the first album where she's handed over all the production duties to somebody else. In celebration of this album’s decenary run, Someothaship Connect is pleased to reintroduce an anniversary edition repress of this captivating release in partnership with Fat Beats. "Seeds strikes the perfect balance, as Madlib's thickly layered funk and soul samples and cabinet rocking beats pair with Muldrow's gloriously off-kilter vocals and free-form song structures to make this her most satisfying release to date." – Exclaim!

Thee Headcoats and CTMF go head-to-head! Two Billy Childish bands battle it out with versions of the same song! Thee Headcoats version is taken from their forthcoming new studio album "Irregularis: The Great Hiatus". The CTMF version is exclusive to this release. Q: Two versions of the same song by different bands. Has each band heard the other version? If so, did they pass judgement? A: No, neither group heard the other version. I had forgotten how the CTMF version went - even though it was only a few weeks past. As with all the LPs there's no rehearsal. I play the track - we do a run through and then press record. I don't remember how either version goes now. Q: There's a famous saying - "Talent borrows; genius steals". Are you a borrower? A stealer? Or something else entirely? A: As I've said before, I follow strict music industry guidelines and only plagiarise 50 percent of my material. Kurt Cobain put it better - he said people thought he was original because he didn't let on what he was ripping off. Though we know he got the riff to his most famous song from The Daggermen, a local group Wolf (our drummer) played in. Q: What was it like recording with Bruce and Johnny after such a long time? A: We met up in the studio in the morning, had a cuppa, a chat, plugged in and recorded the LP (in two days.) It was the first time we'd all been together in about 30 years, and it felt like yesterday - just laughing and joking about how rubbish we were and generally having fun. It was like no time had passed at all. Q: Love the sleeve picture for this 7"! A lot of people miss the humour in your work, does that frustrate you? A: I'm not frustrated but surprised that the British seem to have lost their sense of humour somewhat - they've been pretty po-faced since 1978, I think. I was brought up on Pete and Dud when I was a kid. Interestingly a lot of comedians seem to like what we do. Stewart Lee has always been a fan and he said there are others of his ilk. If something can't be mocked or laughed at, I'm not that interested in it.

1000 black vinyl LPs. London-based ‘indie-supergroup’ SUEP announce their long-awaited debut mini-album Shop, a collection of 6 oddball, car-boot-sale pop songs with a sprinkling of theatrical storytelling. Led by Georgie Stott (of Porridge Radio, Garden Centre) and Josh Harvey, SUEP was born out of a near-decade of playing in sheds and barns with like minded personnel, holding a mutual love for Paul McCartney, Jona Lewie, the B-52s, Devo and other performative freaks enjoying themselves. Following a move to London from Brighton, the pair added George Nicholls (The GN Band, Joanna Gruesome, The Tubs), Will William Deacon (PC World, Garden Centre), and Ollie Chapman (Boil King) to the line-up. The 5 piece take turns writing songs and taking the lead vocal duties in a wonderfully playful but coherent collaboration, with their debut being a kaleidoscopic off kilter pop ride, taking the listener through haunted castles, deprived encounters, days lost to the imagination in bed, and through the integral friendships that give SUEP the energy to keep dancing to their own beat. The album was arranged and recorded in the Red Lion Boys Club, an ex-youth centre in which Georgie and Josh both lived. Using equipment collected by Josh in his travels as a bootsale and market trader, the sports hall was transformed into a makeshift studio for a few days, with sessions conducted by producer Matthew Green (Sniffany & The Nits, The Tubs, etc.) Mark Riley (BBC 6 Music) described SUEP’s debut single and album opener, ‘Domesticated Dream’ (2021) as “perfect pop music.” The joyfully kitsch track brims with a 70s Yamaha disco beat, deep bass, nostalgic drum machines, and hooky melodies. Possibly the most psychedelic and infectious track born out of lockdown, it tackles homelife, drinking too much, and making big plans that never come to fruition, but with a big technicoloured positivity for the future of the human-race, with the chorus’ refrain, “the psychedelic 4000s,” predicting the return of the psychedelic Age of Aquarius in a couple of millennia time. The following single ‘Misery’ (2021) is pure cosmic swing-pop wizardry in part inspired by spy music and The Supremes. Ollie, The track’s baritone vocalist, describes it as “A love song disguised as a song about loss. It's about cherishing the things that matter but it’s also about having the courage to say goodbye,” with each line of the song a small story about a different character. Whilst latest Shop taster ‘In Good Health’ is darkly euphoric like a pleasantly strange meeting of Siouxsie Sioux and Jona Lewie. It’s a playfully discombobulating mix of 80s jangly guitar, chirpy keyboard and moody post-punk tackling mental health, drug addiction, and the power of friendship, written after the song’s vocalist Georgie came out of hospital following a mental health crisis. “I wanted to write a song that encapsulated how important my relationships with my friends and boyfriend were at that time” she explains “…and one that also felt dark like I did at the time. I couldn’t go outside due to anxiety surrounding my health so I stayed inside for weeks. People would visit and watch films with me or let me tattoo them or make music with me. My community helped me recover.” Elsewhere on Shop is ‘Just The Job’ fronted by Harvey and described by him as “About the relief of accepting a menial existence, and allowing life to be boring - but (within that) how the small things are the important ones, how pulling a sicky or extra long lunch break are important things to do for yourself. It’s an anthem for working people who’ve had enough - and a crowd favourite at SUEP gigs. The darker undertones and post-punk angles of the Georgie-fronted ‘Onions’ is inspired by the crapness of cliques, with the band calling the song “A cry of welcome to all;” and finally the hooky ‘Friend of Mine,’ described as “A love letter to all the people that come and go throughout your life no matter how long you know them”. SUEP have received coverage in Independent & Clash, (among many others), with big support from Mark Riley and Steve Lamacq (BBC 6 Music) for early singles.

The Zephyrs release their brand new album “For Sapphire Needle” on January 27th 2023 alongside Spanish comrades Acuarela, their first since 2010. With only 2018’s double A-side single “The Witches” and “The Crown Prince of Lies” in between, this represents their first collection of new songs in 13 years: from short and tightly constructed country-folk introspections to sprawling, spaced-out psychedelia, including a couple of extremely sharp pop glimmers and a killer Morricone-like instrumental. Originally conceived of as a series of 4 track EPs based on the seasons in which they were created, the recordings spanned into a patchwork of sessions with long-time collaborator and producer Michael Brennan at his Substation studio, neighboring a naval port in Rosyth. The ongoing recording sessions were made possible with the kind support of Robert Dillam, drummer for The Zephyrs and ex-guitarist for Creation band Adorable. With songs ranging from short and tightly constructed country-folk introspections to sprawling, spaced-out psychedelia, what resulted was an album near to double length. The collection presented as “For Sapphire Needle” is a cut-down selection of these songs. The record opens with “Leatherback”, a Crazy Horse inspired wall of distorted guitars drawing on lyrics from The Zephyr’s first album and pre-history, followed by the four songs earmarked for the first of the seasonal EPs – Winter – whose artwork was photographed in the alley behind Traceyann Campbell’s (Camera Obscura) house in Glasgow. Elsewhere on the album, “I tell you what” had much of its writing and recording initiated in a wooden shack near Aviemore and “Bolder” tells the story of overheard bar-side conversations and delayed flights in Denver airport, where lizard people live underground and some say the new world order lays dormant. The domestic depression of “How have you been today” precedes closing opus “Aliens”, inspired in equal measures by the maturation as social control science fiction of The Tripods and the schlock b-movie imagery of Rocky Erickson’s The Evil One. The album is the work of older and more consistent The Zephyrs. Stuart, David and Robert joined by collaborators: guitarist John Brennan and keyboardist Will Bates. The songs and sounds are sculpted out of slabs of time with friends at the Substation, a de facto weekly youth club for musicians who refuse to grow old. The triple bridges of Queensferry, the shipbuilding cranes of Rosyth docks and Babcock's shop - one of the few places in Scotland you can buy a real periscope over the counter - are just some of the backdrops as the Zephyrs rehearse for nobody but themselves. Yet, ever since Jean-Luc Picard himself told us that "this is not a holiday", it has become a unique and unbeatable way of peering up above the waterline, reinventing themselves and returning to the scene. Indeed with 10 songs in 46 minutes which wade across Gram Parsons and Big Star, Slowdive and spaghetti Western: folk, rock and shoegaze… as if they were trying to shorten the path to the California sky passing through Scotland and then Almería in Spain.

Stillness is a myth. Consider concepts such as ”still water”, or ”still air” for that matter. Go to a restaurant, ask them for a glass of still water, hold it against the light and see where we’re at. Even though the water itself has been captured and imprisoned in the glass, it never stops breathing. It’s filled with tiny particles, dancing. Everything can be explained on a molecular level, but since we’re not scientists – and even if you happen to be – it’s the natural world of perception that moves me.

Still air is very similar. A hot summer’s day with zero wind feels completely still. It’s the closest I have felt to complete stillness. Or for a more urban adaptation, imagine the same vibe inside a normal apartment. In those moments, revelations and mind- blowing experiences can be had with experiments in stillness.

Try this: Just sit down for a minute on a sunny day, making sure there’s enough natural light. Do absolutely nothing. Try not to breathe for a bit. (If you need a mental anchor, you can play Cage’s 4’33” in your head but nothing else.) Watch the tiny dots of dust dancing :..’ ̈.:; ́ ́*°.,’:,. ̈ ̈ ̈ ̈:,.’

The movement is crazy, but the feeling of stillness comes from witnessing how subtle it is. In (perceived) complete stillness, every act of microscopic mobility seems to speak volumes. Yet, it feels both reassuring and oddly threatening that the stillness is never complete. What if we would need absolute stillness? Or is it just enough that we can perceive something as such?

Extremes attract, so for both water and air, extraordinary movement is equally fascinating. That is also a luxury item of sorts. For us to enjoy a very ”loud” body of water or air, we need to be safe, in enough control of the situation. So when you are, it’s worthwhile to pay attention and take it all in.

A rapid flowing free with extreme strength and just barely in control. Look at that water go! No still water on this one, only ”sparkling”. A windy day when birds seem surprised how hard it is to fly, but in the end they make it. Trees bend but don’t break. The wind shows you its movement but doesn’t hurt you. It feels friendly, like a big clumsy dog that doesn’t quite understand its size.

It’s beautiful to be a guest of the elements, but not at the mercy of them. A new kind of dialogue forms.

Credit 00 is back on track with four monsters in his bag that are almost too dangerous to get unleashed. The Uncanny Valley regular from Leipzig sends us down into the electronic vortex while taking some detours to places that haven't been visited in a long time. Thanks to his DIY attitude and an open mindedness for all kinds of music, you can find traces of jungle, garage, trance or even 90s pop and gabber in this hard rocking machine funk. He's juggling with sounds and genres like no one else. It's just so much fun to listen and dance to these tunes. Indeed, there is no other...

Comet Records present the new reissue out of the Comet new reissue series, Dilijans by Ayizan. A mind-blowing session of Spiritual Jazz recorded in NYC in 1984 led by Haitian genius Alix Pascal blending traditional Ra Ra elements with modal/spiritual melodies. The result was like nothing else coming out of Haiti or the Haitian exile community in the US at the time. Dark, mystical, lyrical and abstract, with its otherworldly shifting rhythms, Dilijans came off like a Haitian version of Bitches Brew.
The album sounds less like a stylish mini-jazz performing in a hotel dancehall than like a cry of ancestors emanating from the spirit world to lament over the complications of modern Haitian society.

For nearly 60 years, John Cale has been reimagining how his music is made, sounds, and even works. MERCY, Cale’s first full album in a decade, moves through true dark-night-of-the-soul electronic torment toward vulnerable love songs and hopeful considerations for the future with the help of some of music’s most curious young minds. Cale has always searched for new ways to explore old ideas of alienation, hurt, and joy; MERCY is the latest transfixing find of this unsatisfied mind.

John Cale announces MERCY, his first new album of original songs in a decade, out January 20th via Double Six / Domino. For nearly 60 years, or at least since he was a young Welshman who moved to New York and formed The Velvet Underground, Cale has been reinventing his music with dazzling and inspiring regularity. There was the bewitching chamber folk of Paris 1919 followed instantly by the gnarled rock of Fear, the provocative and spare song cycle Music for a New Society followed more than 30 years later by mighty and unabashed electronic updates. Once again, here is Cale, reimagining how his music is made, sounds, and even works. His engrossing 12-track MERCY moves through true dark-night-of-the-soul electronics toward vulnerable love songs and hopeful considerations for the future.

On MERCY, Cale enlists some of music’s most curious young minds: Animal Collective, Sylvan Esso, Laurel Halo, Tei Shi, Actress. They’re only some of the astounding cast here, brilliant musicians who climb inside Cale’s consummate vision of the world and help him redecorate there. Cale turned 80 in March, and he’s watched as many peers have passed away, particularly during the last decade. MERCY is the continuation of a long career’s work with wonder. Cale has always searched for new ways to explore old ideas of alienation, hurt, and joy; MERCY is the latest transfixing find of this unsatisfied mind.



The writings and recordings that shaped MERCY piled up for years, as Cale watched society totter at the brink of dystopia. Trump and Brexit, Covid and climate change, civil rights and right-wing extremism—Cale let the bad news of the day filter into his lines, whether that meant contemplating the sovereignty and legal status of sea ice melting near the poles or the unhinged arming of Americans. Lessons from a life (still being) richly lived floated to the fore, too, nodded to on the previously released “NIGHT CRAWLING.” If we’re always regretting our past, aren’t we conscripting ourselves to permanent disappointment?

During “STORY OF BLOOD,” after the piano prelude gives way to a frame-rattling beat and synthesizers that feel like sunshine splashed across a snowfield, the voices of Cale and Weyes Blood’s Natalie Mering slide past one another, two phantoms trying to find a partner amid the modern din. “Swing your soul,” they both sing in aspiration. In the final verse, Cale remembers this existence is not just about himself. “I’m going back to get them, my friends in the morning. Bring them with me into the light.” The accompanying video by Emmy-winning director Jethro Waters is a mix of disturbing and serene featuring both Cale and Weyes Blood. Its deep tones and religious images emphasize the track’s dark, spiritual mood.

Cale elaborates: “I’d been listening to Weyes Blood’s latest record and remembered Natalie’s puritanical vocals. I thought if I could get her to come and sing with me on the ‘Swing your soul’ section, and a few other harmonies, it would be beautiful. What I got from her was something else! Once I understood the versatility in her voice, it was as if I’d written the song with her in mind all along. Her range and fearless approach to tonality was an unexpected surprise. There’s even a little passage in there where she’s a dead-ringer for Nico.”

Ready for a bit of new rocking punk with just a touch of garage psych thrown in for good measure? Well, if you are, then The Mundaynes debut album 'Love It' should do the trick. Recorded during Summer 2021 on the front line of Bexhill-On-Sea, 'Love It' is stuffed to bursting with 15 great new songs. During lockdown, Bevis Frond frontman Nick Saloman, having little else to do, found himself writing loads of songs. Some were used on the Fronds’ ‘Little Eden’ album, many were discarded, and some were kept with a view of doing something with them in the future. Nick felt that a batch of these songs were pretty good, but not really suitable for The Bevis Frond, maybe being a bit too punky. However, wanting to record these songs, he called up his mate Tony Page, the former lead singer with vintage punk bands The Ploy and Apocalypse, to see if he fancied doing some vocals. Tony was only to pleased to take part. Then Nick asked bandmate Paul Simmons if he’d do all the guitar parts. Paul agreed and the three of them went into Bexhills’ Graffite Studios and laid down the tracks. The results were so good that the trio decided to put them out as an album. The impromptu band needed a name, so they became The Mundaynes, thought up by Tony because it was a Monday! Bearing in mind that all three guys played in punk bands, Tony as mentioned above, Nick with The Von Trap Family & Room 13, Paul with The Cravats and Jello Biafra, and, of course his own band The Alchemysts, the pedigree here is pretty solid. So what do we have here then? I guess it’s a loud, angry, melodic, wry punk rock album full of great tunes. Hope you ‘love it’, and if you don’t, well, that’s life.

Following the success of his 2022 mod-club, soul-jazz adventure with Mick Talbot, on 27 January Acid Jazz Records will release Chris Bangs' compendium of dance-floor fillers and Latin dynamite. Chris, who coined the term 'acid jazz', has created a new solo album of 10 tracks that takes his unique spin on jazz DJ-ing and turned it to producing an album that is totally reminiscent of the classic '80s era on the UK dance scene.

Recent single 'Firebird' (Jazz FM's Breakfast show 'track of the week') encompasses a lifetime of Chris's musical influences to present a jazz-tastic smorgasbord of bossa, fusion, bop jazz funk, salsa and a myriad selection of other jazz stylings all delivered with his trademark ear for the grooves and melodies to go with it. Paying tribute to his roots, 'East Coast' is the distinctive sound of jazz-funk fusion which spread through UK clubs in the early '80s, whereas 'Dinamita's heavy duty percussion-led Montuno Salsa groove tips its hat to the sound of '70s NYC via Puerto Rico.



Elsewhere the album features a tough Batucada rework of Dom Um Romao's 'Kitchen (Cosina)', the bossa of Cal Tjader's 'Samba Do Sueno', Brazilian disco funk-jazz 'Sambara' via the epic samba fusion 'Lifetimes'. Firebird features an array of in-demand and exceptional musicians, including jazz guitarist Nigel Price (Van Morrison, David Axelrod, JTQ), supreme jazz piano stylist Janette Mason (Seal, KD Lang, Robert Wyatt), trumpeter Dave Priseman (Jeff Beck, Imelda May), bassist Ernie Mckone (Boogie Back), saxophonist Simon Bates (Elvis Costello, Chaka Khan, Carleen Anderson), and fresh from his remix work with Paul Weller, vibesman Roger Beaujolais. This brilliant team of collaborators have helped a remarkable musical maverick create a truly unique and incredibly exciting album. Independently self-produced and composed, Firebird is a set of tunes better than any Chris Bangs had ever done.

With so much going on in the world right now, it's safe to say we need to spread far more Joy then is circulating…

And who else deliver's Joy of this magnitude? The king of disco, Dr Packer. The Legendary Champion Records has enlisted the mirror ball man of the last decade to flip this absolute classic from Staxx and the gorgeous vocals of Carol Leeming. Perfect for sunsets AND sunrises, charge your cocktails!


DJ Feedback:

David Guetta - tasty update

Utah Saints - Minitsry Of Sound / FFRR - Cool groove. Production on point

DJ Kue - Dope!

MING - Nice one, I'll Play !!!

Steven 'Sugar' Harding - Milk & Sugar / M&S Recs - Love it!

DJ Rae - Good memories, nice work

Ember - Huge!

D.O.N.S. - Cool House tune. Support!

Black Legend - Defected / Simma Black - big one

Ruben Mandolini - Snatch! / Mother / Saved - Nice!

Sugarstarr - Defected / Toolroom / Vienna - Excellent

Tommie Sunshine - PACKER ALWAYS DELIVERS!!!

Vanilla Ace - Nice sounds

Kyle Kinch - Realm / Solotoko / Farris Wheel / HUGS - groovy

Severino - sweeet

MB Mgmt - top draw !

Jerk Boy - I've been eye'ing of this for a reboot for years ! I played this to death back in the day!..great remix !

Yolanda Be Cool - Sweat It Out / Club Sweat - cool...

Magnetically energetic and eternally hopeful, Dayglow (the project of Austin, TX based Sloan Struble) excels in creating catchy, carefully crafted, effervescent indie pop. His home-recorded 2018 debut album Fuzzybrain featured the Platinum Certified single “Can I Call You Tonight?”, which went on to be hailed as 2020’s biggest independent alternative hit. Following up with his sophomore album Harmony House in 2021, Dayglow generated a mountain of indie buzz and critical acclaim anchored by lead single "Close To You". Now, after racking up over a billion streams and selling out headline tours around the world, Dayglow returns with his third album People In Motion. Fun and colorful, People In Motion meditates on the ideas of commitment, inner peace, and movement, while inviting the listener to the dance floor to leave the chaos and noise of our current culture behind.

Magnetically energetic and eternally hopeful, Dayglow (the project of Austin, TX based Sloan Struble) excels in creating catchy, carefully crafted, effervescent indie pop. His home-recorded 2018 debut album Fuzzybrain featured the Platinum Certified single “Can I Call You Tonight?”, which went on to be hailed as 2020’s biggest independent alternative hit. Following up with his sophomore album Harmony House in 2021, Dayglow generated a mountain of indie buzz and critical acclaim anchored by lead single "Close To You". Now, after racking up over a billion streams and selling out headline tours around the world, Dayglow returns with his third album People In Motion. Fun and colorful, People In Motion meditates on the ideas of commitment, inner peace, and movement, while inviting the listener to the dance floor to leave the chaos and noise of our current culture behind.

Don"t ask Rozi Plain to explain her spellbinding fifth album Prize. Its ten, magical tracks exist as if in another realm, where feelings matter more than meanings, where thoughts have room to roam and where you can live in the moment for as long as you like. Rozi"s signature, free-floating sound was set with her 2015 breakthrough Friend and cemented with 2019"s globally adored What A Boost ("Like slipping between cotton sheets" was Pitchfork"s description). Prize builds on both, but takes its cues from elsewhere. By a stretch, it"s Rozi"s most upbeat and daring album to date. Electroncia, jazz and saxophone treated to sound like strings, synths and harp all play a part. Economy is key - every sound has an impact out of proportion to its size, every texture pays dividends. Rozi"s bewitching vocals are bolder and brighter than ever before. Male and female backing vocals feel like friends dropping by.

Clear Vinyl

Don"t ask Rozi Plain to explain her spellbinding fifth album Prize. Its ten, magical tracks exist as if in another realm, where feelings matter more than meanings, where thoughts have room to roam and where you can live in the moment for as long as you like. Rozi"s signature, free-floating sound was set with her 2015 breakthrough Friend and cemented with 2019"s globally adored What A Boost ("Like slipping between cotton sheets" was Pitchfork"s description). Prize builds on both, but takes its cues from elsewhere. By a stretch, it"s Rozi"s most upbeat and daring album to date. Electroncia, jazz and saxophone treated to sound like strings, synths and harp all play a part. Economy is key - every sound has an impact out of proportion to its size, every texture pays dividends. Rozi"s bewitching vocals are bolder and brighter than ever before. Male and female backing vocals feel like friends dropping by.

Clear Vinyl

Erased Tapes are immensely proud to announce the reissue of the debut album Recording a Tape the Colour of the Light by Bell Orchestre. To honour the album"s original recordings the album is also seeing its first vinyl repress since it was released in 2005. Originally formed in 1999 whilst studying at university, the first music Bell Orchestre made was live scores for contemporary dance performances. A few years later, the studio sessions for Recording A Tape.. took place simultaneously in the same studio as when Arcade Fire were recording their eponymous debut album Funeral. The two Montreal-based bands took turns to record their albums but due to the growing interest in Arcade Fire, Bell Orchestre was put on hold as band members Parry and Sarah Neufeld quickly became occupied with Arcade Fire"s busy touring schedule. "The Bell Orchestre album was almost done, but it kind of sat there. We were just sitting on this album that we were really proud of, but we didn"t have anyone to pay attention to it" Parry told Pitchfork in 2005. The album was released to critical acclaim and has since received cult status among fans. Bell Orchestre is a collaborative instrumental group based in Montreal. Its six members come from wildly divergent musical backgrounds, and the unlikely chemistry that results from their collaboration is the very thing that sustains their connection. It"s as if the group as a whole has tapped into a very particular, very distinct energy: like that of an approaching storm. In many ways, Bell Orchestre is the sum of not only its parts, but the sum of its influences and inspirations. Among those influences can be listed such diverse artists as Lee "Scratch" Perry, Arvo Pärt, Charles Mingus, and Talk Talk. But ultimately they work together to create something that none of them has quite heard before. Bell Orchestre has been known to retreat into the woods to make and write music: from a residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts, to the forests of Quebec and Vermont, and back to their hometown of Montreal. The specifics of time and place, the elemental forces at work outside, and those forces that exist inside, all come into play within Bell Orchestre"s musical process. This particular music could be made by no one else at no other time in history. The experience of listening to Bell Orchestre, whether live or recorded, is almost that of experiencing a form of synaesthesia: the result is a collage-like construction of not just sound, but visual elements as well. From a herd of elephants to that approaching storm on the horizon, from a quiet forest in the country to ice forming on a city street, from watching vapour trails disappear in the sky to watching the changing light of dusk through a window. The result then is not so much cinematic as it is evocative: Bell Orchestre have not just written the music to the film - they have created an invisible film that only comes to life in the listening

Black Vinyl

Erased Tapes are immensely proud to announce the reissue of the debut album Recording a Tape the Colour of the Light by Bell Orchestre. To honour the album"s original recordings the album is also seeing its first vinyl repress since it was released in 2005. Originally formed in 1999 whilst studying at university, the first music Bell Orchestre made was live scores for contemporary dance performances. A few years later, the studio sessions for Recording A Tape.. took place simultaneously in the same studio as when Arcade Fire were recording their eponymous debut album Funeral. The two Montreal-based bands took turns to record their albums but due to the growing interest in Arcade Fire, Bell Orchestre was put on hold as band members Parry and Sarah Neufeld quickly became occupied with Arcade Fire"s busy touring schedule. "The Bell Orchestre album was almost done, but it kind of sat there. We were just sitting on this album that we were really proud of, but we didn"t have anyone to pay attention to it" Parry told Pitchfork in 2005. The album was released to critical acclaim and has since received cult status among fans. Bell Orchestre is a collaborative instrumental group based in Montreal. Its six members come from wildly divergent musical backgrounds, and the unlikely chemistry that results from their collaboration is the very thing that sustains their connection. It"s as if the group as a whole has tapped into a very particular, very distinct energy: like that of an approaching storm. In many ways, Bell Orchestre is the sum of not only its parts, but the sum of its influences and inspirations. Among those influences can be listed such diverse artists as Lee "Scratch" Perry, Arvo Pärt, Charles Mingus, and Talk Talk. But ultimately they work together to create something that none of them has quite heard before. Bell Orchestre has been known to retreat into the woods to make and write music: from a residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts, to the forests of Quebec and Vermont, and back to their hometown of Montreal. The specifics of time and place, the elemental forces at work outside, and those forces that exist inside, all come into play within Bell Orchestre"s musical process. This particular music could be made by no one else at no other time in history. The experience of listening to Bell Orchestre, whether live or recorded, is almost that of experiencing a form of synaesthesia: the result is a collage-like construction of not just sound, but visual elements as well. From a herd of elephants to that approaching storm on the horizon, from a quiet forest in the country to ice forming on a city street, from watching vapour trails disappear in the sky to watching the changing light of dusk through a window. The result then is not so much cinematic as it is evocative: Bell Orchestre have not just written the music to the film - they have created an invisible film that only comes to life in the listening

Although the members were good friends and musical allies for years
beforehand, Wizzerd was officially formed in October 2014
Forged from countless hours of jamming in a northwestern Montana basement
was a sound that Wizzerd could latch onto as their own. They soon penned and
recorded their first album, Doomchild', and since then have been challenging
themselves to grow in every way possible while remaining independently
managed and produced. Since the release of Doomchild', they have written
mounds of material and released some of it in the form of their self titled LP on
Cursed Tongue Records, and has recently signed to the mighty Fuzzorama
Records to put out the third in this musical trilogy: Space?: Issue No.001 that will
please your eardrums like nothing else. However, perhaps the way the band has
grown most is on the road. Four years of extensive touring of the US and breaking
ground in Europe has led the band to bring their sound to the ears of many people
far and wide. All of this time in the van and on the stage was followed by lots of
studio time has led up to THIS album!. With new music and more touring in the
near future, Wizzerd has a bright road ahead that is not to be missed!

Repress !

Selva Discos returns to the LP reissue game with a bang – by giving a new life to the stunning and very sought-after Memória das Águas album by Fernando Falcão. Originally recorded in 1979 in Paris but only released independently in Brazil in 1981, the album comes complete with genre-hopping explorations that swirl around ambient soundscapes, lively jazz, experimental-leanings, Afro-rhythms and a unique blend of Latin grooves and French pop with a Brazilian accent, but it also comes with a story as deeply unique as the music.

To make a long story short, after participating in the political movements against the military regime in 1968 in Brazil, Fernando Falcão left the country and moved to France, where he lived in exile for 15 years. There, after working in music, acting, and sculpting, he involved himself in Jérôme Savary's legendary Grand Magic Circus, where he met his first wife, Valérie Kling. It was from this relationship that a partnership began between the musician and his father-in-law, the artist François-Xavier Lalanne, who guided Falcão in the process of inventing sound sculptures such as the balauê – a horizontal version of the berimbau string instrument whose sound was influenced by a water stream (since there was a hose soaking parts of the balauê wet during the performances). Much of this exploration and experimentation resulted in the album Memória das Águas.

The album still sounds like little else from the time. As audacious and experimental as it is seamlessly listenable, it takes in immersive textures one moment before breaking out into Fela Kuti-esque brass-soaked grooves the next. It’s ultimately a record that captures the spirit and rhythm of Falcão’s homeland combined with the lush production and art-pop approach associated with his exiled home; It’s a polished, well executed and glistening record. Its fusion of African, Brazilian, jazz, pop, classical and avant-garde collides to create a record that spans as many continents as it does genres.

Remastered from the original master tapes, not only the sound but the artwork of Memória das Águas was completely and faithfully restored. Also, the reissue comes with unprecedented liner notes featuring rare photos of the musician and his sound sculptures plus articles that help to explain who Fernando Falcão was and where Memória das Águas sits among other staples of Brazilian music, including one from DJ and selector John Gómez – who helped to connect Selva Discos' Augusto Olivani with Diana Lion, Fernando Falcão's daughter (since the musician died in 2002), for this project. After Memória das Águas, Selva Discos will also reissue another long lost Fernando Falcão LP album – Barracas Barrocas.

Lined up next on Toolroom, we’re set to welcome the return of WEISS to the label 3 years after his last outing. Most known for his certified gold, 2018 smash-hit ‘Feel My Needs’, which received critical acclaim, topping 5 international music charts at #1, and earning DJ Mag’s ‘Best Of British Winner’ in 2018. WEISS himself has locked in an incredible collaboration with legendary Soul act The Jones Girls, using their classic record ‘You Gonna Make Me Love Somebody Else’ to create the club stomping cut that is, ‘I Need Some’.

A prolific DJ and producer, WEISS has released cuts on DIRTYBIRD, Universal, Island Records, D4 D4nce, Glitterbox and Toolroom along with remixing A-list artists including Kylie Minogue, Robyn, Calvin Harris, and Rag n Bone Man to name a few. When it comes to the House Music elite, Weiss is amongst some of the best there is, touring worldwide and sharing stages with Armand Van Helden, Todd Terry, and MK.

Of course, The Jones Girls are an act that needs no introduction, the legendary Philadelphia trio of sisters are the vocalists behind the classic Soul cuts ‘Nights Over Egypt’ and ‘Who Can I Run To’, released on the renowned Philadelphia International label.
Backing singers to both Aretha Franklin and Diana Ross during the 1970’s, The Jones Girls have left their mark on Music History and still influence artists and vocalists alike today.

With a passion for all things Soul, Disco and R&B, WEISS has officially fulfilled a childhood dream working with The Jones Girls to create ‘I Need Some’. This is a Disco House focused cut that pays homage to the original record ‘You Gonna Make Me Love Somebody Else’, whilst reinterpreting the sample and making it club ready for dance floors.