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Casquiat and Controller 7 have united on DATUM Recordings for this high class new 45rpm which works as a fine weapon for your record bag or equally well as some superb home listening. Casquiat goes first with 'Set It Off' which has raw drum breaks and direct bars delivered over some wild guitar riffs, slamming hits and old school vocal chops. Controller 7's 'Dope On Plastic' is a percolating funk joint with old school hip-hop energy and some evocative bars that recall the likes of Beastie Boys. Add in smart horns, JB yelps and scratching and you have a real party starter.

Im Jahr 2023 veröffentlichte James Elkington "Me Neither", ein Doppelalbum mit Solo-Gitarrenimprovisationen und -Experimenten. Am Ende betrachtete er es als eine wortlose Sammlung von Library Music, eine Fundgrube anonym produzierter Klänge, die für jede Art von Verwendung geplündert werden können, und Elkington, der in Chicago lebende britische Gitarrist, findet in dieser Musik eine Freiheit, die aus dem Nichts zu kommen scheint. Er lässt "Me Neither" mit "Pastel De Nada" ein neues 2xLP-Set folgen, dessen 27 Tracks eher einem Werkzeugkasten als einer Bibliothek gleichen. Helle, optimistische Strums wie 'The Lyre Concordia', vielschichtige Meditationen wie 'Morny in the Earling' und 'The Caves at Aurangabad' und Stücke wie 'The Equal Spacing', die wie kleine Maschinen ticken und surren, um Freude zu erzeugen. Elkington stellt seinen Gitarren Texturen, Atmosphären und flüsternde Perkussionsinstrumente gegenüber.

The Crystal Hum is the debut vinyl release by Taiwan-based artist Yuching Huang and her first release for Night School.
A beguiling dreamscape of crackles, spluttering, love-struck Casios presided over by the the spectral vocal and guitar work of Huang, Yuching sings love songs at the end of this world and the beginning of the next. Recorded during a hiatus from her group Aemong (a duo with artist Henrique Uba) in Berlin, these songs elevate Huang’s unique vocal style and grasp of atmospherics. The Crystal Hum deconstructs balladry, Garage, guitar music and reforms it into a
unified ghostly otherworld version of these languages.

The Crystal Hum thrums with buried desire, trails of nocturnal reverb seeping out of apartment windows, diaristic vocal performances and deeply emotive, evocative Western-style strings. Formulated by Yuching Huang after periods of frustration and experimentation, the album is an exercise in minimalism and paring back, with some tracks like JohnJohn featuring little else than an elastic bass, spring reverb trails, an interjecting vocal and swelling, dislocated synths. The effect is spellbinding, the soundtrack to getting lost in the labyrinthine, closed streets of Venice, Taipei, Hong Kong, or mirror versions of them in the imagination.

On opener Fly! Little Black Thing, a subterranean funk bassline roots Huang’s singing, a rudimentary, unreliable beat floundering in whimsy underneath. Demure, dream Dance music, Huang references classic lo fi experimenters Suicide and Arthur Russell as well as Night School label mates The Space Lady and Ela Orleans. In fact, after the release of Aemong’s third album Crimson, Huang credits the direction of The Crystal Hum to being enchanted by The Space Lady’s Greatest Hits,
the landmark lo-fi recording made by Susan Dietrich Schneider in 1990. The new, minimalist approach to her sound world reveals and shrouds in equal measure. On the heart-melter Love, a sultry mid-tempo Casio + bass backing drops into the ether with Huang’s vocal swimming in preternatural void before emerging anew, in awe at the world. Every chord change heralds new perspectives, every guitar flurry swells and drips emotion, nothing is wasted and space billows out from between the grooves.
Huang never reveals more than necessary, making this an in-between love album: the right amount of mystery and darkened mirror shines wanely on The Crystal Hum while remaining fragile and vulnerable in the sweet spots. Turning over in pillowing smoke and night in the dark corners, Huang sings in both Mandarin and English. The songs speak of earthly matters seemingly at the edge of dissipating into nothing. Distorted, beguiling Sambas warble like sweating dancehalls in an imagined Lynchian 60s, as on Thoughts. Closer You, An Illusion warps a classic 60s Girlgroup bassline beloved of the likes of Les Rallizes

Denudes into a slight ballad on the edge of the void, held back by the teary-eyed, wistful and enveloping vocal cooed by Huang. Each song feels like a love song dedicated to the bits between worlds, between beats, the negative space between people where desires, feelings and loss hangs in the air, resolute and unresolved.

KEY POINTS

• Collector Crystal Clear LP deluxe packaged – the very First reissue of the cult 11 track EP – Street Album from year 2000 by DJ Mehdi collecting his Espionnage adventures

• “DJ MEHDI : Made in France” : an Arte 6 episode exclusive serie about DJ Mehdi from September 12th ! DJ Mehdi was the one building bridges between french hip hop and electro, and becoming a key composer,producer and DJ. He was a game changer in himself, helping both french rap & electro scenes to rise in the late 90’s & early 200’s . 13 years after DJ Mehdi’s sudden death, his long-time friend and Director Thibaut de Longeville imagined & directed the serie, with archives materials & exclusive interviews and words from big names from Rap & Electro about their collaborations & relationships with DJ Mehdi.

SHORT BIOG

“Rather than a compilation, this record is a summary of what Espionnage has done in the past two years, from the rap 12”s, the instrumental 12”s to the remixes I was given the opportunity to do. The members of The Espionnage Sound System, Yvan from Double Pact included (even if he only appears here on the interlude betweeen “Camille Groult Starr (rmx)” and “Si Tu Savais (rmx)”), have been essential to the label’s development as a whole. The Chronowax Distribution staff has been equally vital to a structure primarily dedicated to independent vinyl production. By the way, I have to thank Ulysse Genet who, on top of lending his name to a track title, suggested the name “Espionnage” instead of “Le Cirque Disques” (which was my initial idea) and drew the first logo. Many thanks to my team : Olivier Rosset, Charlotte Dutoit, Thibaut de Longeville, Alexander Wise, the 360 Creative & Marketing teams, as well as X2N, Tom Kan, DJ Gilb’R, Roulé, Crydamoure, Benoît Blue Boy and his daughters Ludella and Amadine ; who have all contributed on one level or another to what this record is. Of course I can’t forget my family: the Essadis, Faveris, Gassamas, Majira (and their many relations) as well as my other family, the 113 Clan and the whole African Mafia and most particularly my group, Idéal J, for the respect and freedom with which they’ve let me express the somewhat unusual ideas I had about all of this”.
Peace, DJ Mehdi, NYC, March 29th 2000.

In their new album Bagola, Trio Da Kali present newly composed songs accompanied on balafon and ngoniba, that provide a rich accompaniment to the spectacular voice of Hawa Kasse Mady Diabaté. She inherits her singing style from her father, the late Kasse Mady Diabaté, who was widely recognized as one of Africa"s all-time greatest singers and won a Grammy nomination in 2004. Hawa"s voice has an exquisite purity and expressiveness, with a wide emotional range. She is equally at home in the lively, 9/8 rhythms of the title track Bagola, a light-hearted critique of men in Malian society, to the soulful Orpaillage, a song that laments the destruction of land from gold-panning. Orpaillage was in fact composed on the spot in the studio, reflecting the creative chemistry between these three musicians. The musical director of the trio is balafon (xylophone) player Lassana Diabaté, born in Guinea into a well-known family of balafon musicians. His remarkable dexterity on the balafon earned him a place in Toumani Diabaté"s Symmetric Orchestra, and later on in the group Afrocubism (featuring Eliades Ochoa). He has collaborated with many musicians, including bluesman Taj Mahal on the album Kulanjan. With two balafons of 22 rosewood keys each, tuned to play chromatic scales, Lassana Diabaté achieves a perfect balance of rhythm, melody, harmony and virtuosic embellishment. David Harrington, leader of Kronos Quartet, compares him to none other than JS Bach. Underpinning the balafon with compulsive groove, is the large ngoniba, played with brilliant musicality by Madou Kouyaté (son of Bassekou Kouyaté and member of his group Ngoniba). Madou, the youngest member of Trio Da Kali, also adds rich harmonies with his deep breathy voice to the songs. Trio Da Kali were founded in 2013 under the initiative of the Aga Khan Music Programme, with the help of three-times Grammy-nominated music producer Lucy Durán. The Trio first rose to international fame with their sublime album Ladilikan (World Circuit Records 2017), featuring an unprecedented and multi-award-winning collaboration with Kronos Quartet, the legendary classical string quartet from San Francisco. Bagola is a showcase of Trio Da Kali"s entrancing and unique sound, only equaled by their magical performances on stage.

Yearly compilation series RADAR KEROXEN return with its fifth volume of themed based albums showcasing the talents and misfortunes of carefully selected musical projects based or connected with the Canary Islands.
With its first volume released in 2020 aiming to introduce and divulge adventurous Island based music, the Keroxen imprint now presents Vol.5 with a collection of tracks born out of an in-situ collective performance at the Keroxen Festival iconic venue - a massive disused gasoline tank near the harbour of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
The Radar Drone Ensemble, as it was named for that night only, took advantage of the tank’s natural reverb to perform an improvised piece exploring the cavernous resonance corners inherent to the locale. The four artists then took a few months to compose a 9 track LP inspired by the site’s peculiar sound.
Gonçalo F. Cardoso kicks opens up the proceedings with two broody new tracks, in a style not heard since his 2015 album A Study of 21st Century Drone Acoustics. Doomed and menacing atmospherics brush shoulders with creepy and ethereal chants creating the perfect opening for this drone themed edition of Radar Keroxen. Eduardo Briganty (also from MINIATURa) follows with two equally deranged feedback based compositions letting his guitar riffs and distortions roam free. Afgan aka Mladen Kurajica (from GAF, Lagoss and Tupperwear) takes things further to an Angus MacLise inspired drone collage of mystic percussions, field recordings and electronic modular storms. Resonance aka Javier Perez wraps up the journey with his now trademark soothing synth compositions full of warm tones and blissful melodies.
The album comes, as always, wrapped into a dizzying post-tropical collage artwork by Pura Marquez.

OHYUNG aka Lia Ouyang Rusli describes their new album as “my trans self and my former self in conversation, from both perspectives.” The record represents their lengthy, complicated, but crucial journey between lives, strewn with both doubt and excitement. It is an ecstatic, pop-oriented shift in direction from an artist primarily known for noise, experimental hip-hop, and ambient music, but carried with sleek confidence, maturity, and a silvery, hallucinogenic shimmer that reveals Rusli’s experimental background. It is, writes Rusli, “sometimes written from a dark place and other times from a place of happiness.” Throughout, darkness and light rise and fall in layers of phased strings, trip-hop drum production, and earworming vocal lines.

Also a film score composer, Rusli’s songwriting craft is meticulous and nuanced. You Are Always On My Mind was, perhaps surprisingly, formed primarily from processed “generic string loops” found in online sample packs - a strange and wilfully jarring reminder that what seems to be is not always what is. Recontextualised, these string loops enshadow the simplicity of their origins and reveal a grace and purposefulness perhaps not even imagined by their authors, subtly drawing out euphoria and tension in equal balance.

Rusli also writes of the influence of rave culture central to their transition, and of the record’s production and theme. “It’s a declaration of love for raves and the dark hazy rooms that helped me to be free and true with myself— seeing other people who are so free and beautiful and thinking that one day that can be me— that’s me in the future.” But there is also a fear and unease present. Key moment “no good” explores “the worst version of myself as a trans person, feeding doubt to my pre-transition self” with its core lyric anyone can see / I’m no good for you, delivered over a relentless beat, swooning strings, and glistening synthesis.

Later, “i swear that i could die rn” renders a Spectreish Motown beat lamenting and lush with breathy synths and knife-edge melodies that eventually yield a hazy, gliding string section, created again from mutated, spliced, and transitioned royalty-free sample packs. The track is about “seeing my beautiful friends at raves and feeling at home appreciating the harsh noises of hardcore techno and acid. Feeling that I could die at this moment and be happy.”

180g black vinyl - limited to 200 numbered copies.

"What is my heart now"is the debut solo album by Ziemowit Klimek, known so far from bands such as Immortal Onion, Hania Rani, and Magda Kuraś Quintet. It is a cycle of five improvised compositions – "What," "Is," "My," "Heart," and "Now" – unified by a unique artistic concept, with each piece created in collaboration with a different musician.

The creative process for each of the five duets began with a conversation between Ziemowit, the guest artist, and the video team. Deconstructing the title word into its fundamental elements through questions like "What does 'What' mean? What emotions and associations does this word evoke in us? How can we capture its essence in sound and image?" became the starting point for artistic exploration.

To preserve the authenticity of the material as much as possible, both sound and image were recorded live, with no cuts or post-production editing. Equally important was the choice of spaces that corresponded to the meaning of each title word. Instead of sterile studios, the recordings took place in a variety of unique locations – "Heart" was captured in Ziemowit's most personal space, his bedroom, while "Now" was recorded inside a car during a dynamic drive, where the physical forces acting on the musicians significantly influenced their decisions while playing.

The album resonates with dialogue – not only musical but also emotional and intellectual. It is a meeting of individualities who, for Ziemowit, are not only inspirations as artists but also significant people in his life."What is my heart now"is an album about defining one's identity and capturing the moment, created in an atmosphere of honesty and trust. Ultimately, the question arises: is it even possible to definitively answer the question posed in the album's title?

"What Is My Heart Now"

Ziemowit Klimek (Double bass, Bass, Piano, Moog)

feat.

Krzysztof Hadrych - Guitar

Michał Jan Ciesielski - Saxophon, Volca

Hania Rani - Piano

Mikołaj Kostka - Violin

Jacek Prościński - Drums

Although still very much a secret, Oakland, California's Justin Pinkerton has perfected and expanded his Futuropaco project to a stunning degree over the past seven years. The one-man band is deeply rooted in Pinkerton's masterful drumming, which builds on the legacy of 1960's and 1970's legends such as Tony Allen and Jaki Liebezeit. But he's an accomplished multi-instrumentalist as well, and the Futuropaco sound is a colourful fusion that sees him throw fuzz guitars, flutes, vintage synthesizers and Anatolian string instruments into the mix - seemingly without much effort. The second and final volume of the "Fortezza Di Vetro" series feels like a conclusion, the sound of an artist reaching his creative zenith. It's an experimental album, yet immediately seductive in its energy - channeling the vibey art-rock of Tortoise, Black Sabbath riffage and vintage Italian film music in equal measures. It's such a refined and esoteric blend, yet hits so directly. It's simply impossible not to crank the volume knob once this slab of vinyl is on the turntable, followed by immediate head nodding. Buy the ticket, take the ride. Justin Pinkerton is a vastly talented rhythmsmith, best known as a member of Californian stoners Golden Void. On this project he plays all the other instruments too so he can do what he blooming well feels. And it's not as if the drum solos go on for twenty minutes like those of John Bonham and his pale imitators. Nope. Into tracks that are both jam-packed and concise, Pinkerton has squeezed his love of vintage Italian library music, classic krautrock and heavy psych rock. At one point it suggests Grails have been performing super-speed cover versions of fusion-era Miles Davis with Adrian Younge on production. -The Quietus Futuropaco returns in a big way with Fortezza di Vetro, a buzzing, groove-heavy album that expands on what came before while staying true to the project's origins. Dizzying, fuzzed-out psych with just the right amount of melancholy for good measure. Justin Pinkerton and Futuropaco have done it again. Fantastico! -Complex Distractions

Makin' Moves is back with the latest edition of unreleased tracks “Unreleased Volume 3” that might one day see the light of day digital but for now they will stay in the vinyl vault !

First up on the A side we deliver two choice cuts from one of New York’s underground producers Conway Kasey as he returns to Makin Moves with two tracks that will work dance floors in equal measure.

On the flip Johnny Melek brings us Manifestations with Juliet Mendosa on vocals. This one is much anticipated following Johnny’s colossal debut release on Your records that was number one in the Traxsource charts for a long time! Finishing off this classy 4 track EP is David Harness’s unreleased remix of Reggie’s Steele’s “Vulnerable” which was a huge track in 2024. Harness uses his trademark beats to take this one to peacetime floors!

Inaugurating the New Year as he means to go on, German record producer and live act Monolink returns with his brand new single, Mesmerized. From the very first note, Mesmerized draws listeners into a world of contrasts. Deep longing is intertwined with stirring instrumentation, as Steffen Linck’s pensive lyrics glide over layers of pulsating percussion and moody synths, creating a track that’s equally suited for moonlit dancefloors and reflective moments. It’s a journey that balances vulnerability and groove, inviting listeners to get lost in its hypnotic embrace.
On the B-Side Monolink presents a beautiful acoustic reinterpretation of the track. He takes listeners on a thought-provoking sonic journey with this acoustic version. The hauntingly beautiful rendition strips away the electronic layers of the original to highlight the raw emotion in Monolink’s soulful vocals and acoustic instrumentation, breathing new life into the already poignant narrative.

The sounds, songs, and passages within Power Sucker are the very reason that Young Widows are still a band after an 11-year creative pause; they remain masters at making music with equal parts sonic and emotional weight. Young Widows have inspired scores of underground artists across the globe with their unique collage of noise-rock, hardcore, and post-punk and pioneering presentation. The Young Widows sound - or more accurately, the Young Widows feel - is in full battering ram motion on their fifth studio album. The heaviness of Power Sucker isn't mysterious. The Louisville, Kentucky power trio play their individual parts with such recognizable precision and style that once entwined together each completed piece becomes an integral part of the puzzle. The sizzling guitars, growling bass, and lock-tight drums rip through the pavement that Young Widows had previously laid to allow the most forward-moving vocal arrangements of their now two-decade career. Historical accomplishments aside, Power Sucker has the shock and wonder of a new band's debut album. After all, this is the regrouping of three passionate lifers once again sharing their undying love for the art of sound. No one and no thing can take those powers away.

The sounds, songs, and passages within Power Sucker are the very reason that Young Widows are still a band after an 11-year creative pause; they remain masters at making music with equal parts sonic and emotional weight. Young Widows have inspired scores of underground artists across the globe with their unique collage of noise-rock, hardcore, and post-punk and pioneering presentation. The Young Widows sound - or more accurately, the Young Widows feel - is in full battering ram motion on their fifth studio album. The heaviness of Power Sucker isn't mysterious. The Louisville, Kentucky power trio play their individual parts with such recognizable precision and style that once entwined together each completed piece becomes an integral part of the puzzle. The sizzling guitars, growling bass, and lock-tight drums rip through the pavement that Young Widows had previously laid to allow the most forward-moving vocal arrangements of their now two-decade career. Historical accomplishments aside, Power Sucker has the shock and wonder of a new band's debut album. After all, this is the regrouping of three passionate lifers once again sharing their undying love for the art of sound. No one and no thing can take those powers away.

Glasgow-based producer Conna Haraway returns to Theory Therapy with his first vinyl release, Spatial Fix. Inspired in part by his 2024 tour of Japan and Korea, the album explores new dimensions of his evolving sound.

Since Lusidiq – his debut on Theory Therapy – the co:clear owner has honed his ability to balance introspective atmospheres with crisp, meticulously crafted rhythms, imbuing his music with a physicality that’s as tactile as it is hypnotic.

Spatial Fix expands on this approach in every respect. The record oscillates between ambient abstraction and rhythmic intensity, seamlessly weaving the two together. Tracks like “Freon” and “1702” are anchored by a propulsive low end, woven through with Haraway’s crackling textures and field recordings – including those captured across Asia last year. Even in these deeply immersive moments, there’s always something luminous lurking beneath the surface – snaps, clicks, and micro-shudders ripple throughout in strange and surprising ways. The result is an album that pulls you into a writhing, disorienting space, a psychedelic sonic world where beauty and unease pulse in equal measure.

Spatial Fix is available as a limited edition run of 200 12-inch vinyl records.


Written & Produced by Conna Haraway
Mastered by Ike Zwanikken
Lacquer cut by Henry Rudkins
Artwork & Design by Conna Haraway & Gary Hunter

As the leader of new outfit Sarter Kit, saxophonist Tara Sarter is creating a unique form of minimal, experimental jazz drawing on humanist principles and shared experiences. Her uncluttered and emotionally heavy debut album 'What I am and What I'm Not' creates an open, instrumental soundworld, where breaks and silences command equal gravitas as the notes and beats.
The masterful drumming of Lukas Akintaya dances between oblique patterns in odd meters, into rolling grooves and afrobeat inspired rhythms. On keys and synth, Elias Stemeseder creates tension and releases, with lingering chords and fragile melodies. Stemeseder's synthesizer work throughout the album is subtle yet masterful. Stalking the silence between the sax, drums and piano, creating a haze of digital textures within the margins of the music. Much of the album was recorded live, preserving the raw, unedited energy of their performances.
Beyond its musical qualities, 'What I am and What I'm Not' is a reflection of Sarter's belief in the power of music as a form of human connection. For Sarter, music is not about proving technical prowess but about creating something meaningful, something that transcends barriers and speaks to the shared experience of being human.

These two vinyl records showcase the legacy left by the boogaloo movement in Peru between 1966 and 1975. They comprise twenty-two songs by seventeen artists who recorded on the remarkable local label MAG more than five decades ago and now invite today’s new generations to dance body and soul to these re-releases. You will find outstanding tracks by the likes of Tito Chicoma, Melcochita, Los Kintos, Otto Rojas, Coco Lagos among many others. MAG was one of the most important and prolific labels in Peru and, though it also was involved in releasing a lot of other types of music, its specialty was the tropical variety, which coincidentally, DJs and collectors seem to crave most. Peru developed a major boogaloo scene in the mid-60s, far from the genre’s place of origin, New York, where iconic songs like 'Bang Bang' and 'El Pito', fused soul and funk with Latin sounds, conquering dance halls and winning extensive radio airplay. The music trend soon spread to Caribbean countries and from there made the geographical leap to the city of Lima. 'El Pito', the collective creation of the Joe Cuba Sextet, was particularly popular. Shorn of overelaborate arrangements, the improvisation and spontaneity of the song resonated with the young generation who were avid for new music after the U.S. placed an embargo on the distribution of Cuban music. In July 1966, Rebeca Llave´s label, Disperú, released the 45 RPM of 'El Pito' (and Joe Cuba's LP), promoting the single in the most prestigious newspaper in the country: El Comercio. The press information stated that the record had sold seventy thousand copies in New York and fifty thousand in Los Angeles. That same year local dance versions by the bands of Alfredo Linares (MAG) and Lucho Macedo (El Virrey) were released, followed by another by the band of the Argentinean musician Enrique Lynch who was based in Peru (Sono Radio). These records were a hit with a new generation that embraced Lucho Macedo's band and the garage rock of Los York's with equal enthusiasm. Although Joe Bataan claimed that boogaloo was killed off at the end of the sixties by the labels and their veteran musicians (who conspired against the new generation of singers), Pete Rodriguez, Richie Ray and the Lebrón Brothers continued to release boogaloo records in Peru, but salsa music soon took over.

T. Gowdy returns with a major statement and luminous stylistic expansion on his third album for Constellation. Trill Scan is an exquisite suite of songs literally and figuratively about alchemy, where Gowdy melds his background in choral and medieval music with his trademark analogue electronics. Following the acclaimed Miracles (Bleep Album of the Week / Albums of the Year 2022), Gowdy's bar-raising new LP centers human voice for the first time. Choral set-pieces and solo lead vocals, along with his own lute playing, are novel elements in Gowdy's work, and draw on strains of Middle Ages polyphony and the Baroque "broken style" to further distinguish Trill Scan from anything in his discography to date. Gowdy sees "the modal language of medieval Europe as a less distant cousin to indigenous traditional music practice" compared to a Classical-colonial "patriarchal order of tonality that honours a system of domination." The 12th century Notre Dame School of choral music and 17th century style brisé each carry tonal materiality, heterodox technique, and cultural-historical symbolism central to Trill Scan's conceptual and compositional alchemy. Gowdy coheres these beautifully into his palette of serpentine slowburn electronics, a minimal analogue-driven techno shaped by aleatory strategies and tinged with post-punk grit. Gowdy's sound has been aptly described as "gently transportative, flickering like a busted halogen lamp" and his overriding pursuit of psychoacoustic immanence likened to "getting your brain massaged" and praised as "blissful work that bristles with effervescent energy, like brain waves coming in and out of focus." Trill Scan expands this sonic sensibility with more conspicuous harmonic complexity, stylistic variety, and humanistic narrative arc. Alternately sacramental and intimately personal vocals, sometimes wordless and sometimes lyrical, are worked into superlative instrumental tracks, yielding a warmly immersive concept album that's equally Gowdy's most musical. Gowdy sings explicitly of alchemy on the hypnotic album centerpiece "Novus Lumen" with lyrics that gesture at these medieval processes of material investigation. The tension between the scientific and esoteric is crucial; the separation and synthesis of physical substances in medieval alchemy maps onto his fixation with the interplay between the materiality of sound and psychoacoustics. Gowdy follows the Jungian interpretation of classic alchemical texts as an historical bridge to theories of the psyche, where consciousness itself is treated as materiality and similarly subjected to methodical analysis and experimentation, to deconstruction, dissolution, transformation, reintegration, metamorphosis. Song titles like "Arislei Bone" and "Materiadiscipuli" further reference these mythopoetic throughlines from medieval alchemy to modern psychology. Gowdy chooses disruptive forms from the history of Western music that symbolize and prefigure the modern psychological subject and its struggle for/against order, even as they also evoke liturgy and the Renaissance court. The sacramental adds a potent dimension to his pursuit of psychoacoustic activation, meditation, and transcendence, as choral passages intersperse with electronic drone and pointillism throughout the album. His gorgeous Fennesz-meets-lute rendition of the Baroque composition "Courante" by François Dufault offers idiomatic salon-secular counterpoint. Album closer "Strewn" is bookended by a final recurrence of choral invocation, with pulsing earworm motorik techno in between, over which Gowdy whisper-sings a dreamlike vision quest of mythic-alchemical imagery: "as I washed my eyes they turned to metal / and the memories melted to the metal / the metal of my heart." A mesmerizing final song that explicitly invokes Gowdy's search for materialized abstraction and substantive musical immanence wrought from his own psycho-therapeutic subjectivity, and encapsulates the album's turn towards more harmonic, historicized, and humanistic elements. Trill Scan commingles empyrean and earthly electronic songcraft to genuinely original and absorbing effect. Thanks for listening. RIYL: Coil, Nicolás Jaar, Alessandro Cortini, Pantha Du Prince, Fennesz, Visible Cloaks, Actress,

JP’s historic restoration carpentry has continued to be a baseline for his relationship to music; the yin to his yang, the Burt to his Ernie, the Dolly to his Porter. It was through this concurrent line of work that he met another twice-initialed singer with a penchant for old Americana music, obscure film, and overly elaborate ethnic meal preparations: one JD McPherson. The two became fast friends and would eventually, through many twists, turns, false starts, and biblically-proportionate plagues, enter a modest studio in Nashville to record Harris’ latest album.

Over the course of nine months in 2023, they recorded a sometimes lush, sometimes sparse, and sometimes jarring country album of Harris’ originals, loudly and violently squelching any attempt to pigeon-hole a song into any subgenre of country music. Only albums by Lee Hazelwood and an obscure folk album Waylon Jennings made when his hair was still short were allowed to be mentioned in reference. Featuring the guest vocals of Erin Rae, The Watson Twins, Shovels & Rope, and producer JD McPherson himself, the record is equal parts satire, reflection, and apology to those that would listen.

In a musical landscape of period-correct reproduction, “outlaw” internet posturing, and flavor-of-the-month variants on country,

“JP Harris Is A Trash Fire” burns bright as a dumpster in a Walmart parking lot on a moonless night; some will fear it, some will gravitate to its acrid warmth, and most will have no idea what to make of the situation. Harris has been steadily elbowing the definitive boundaries of “country music” wider with every album, both sonically and lyrically, and his latest piece of self described “Avant-Country” is no exception.

Steven Osborne's unerring command of the elusive ambiguities of Debussy's
piano-writing has already been amply confirmed by his earlier recording of
the two books of Preludes; these lustrous new accounts of the Images,
Estampes and Children's Corner are every bit their equal

Felix's impassioned F minor quartet was the fiercely personal response to his
sister's death in 1847, only a few months before his own
The Takacs Quartet frames it with equally committed accounts of a much earlier
work, and Fanny's own important contribution to the genre.

Now available on LP for the first time