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‘Changephobia’ is the second full length solo
record from Grammy Award-winning songwriter,
producer and composer Rostam Batmanglij.
An adventurous new direction for Rostam, the
songs collected on ‘Changephobia’ are deeply
personal, yet universal for anyone who has ever
experienced doubt.
In addition to being a founding member of the
seminal New York indie rock band Vampire
Weekend, Rostam has been described as “one of
the great pop and indie-rock producers of his
generation.”
Rostam has produced and co-written critically
heralded recent albums by Clairo and Haim, as
well as singles from Maggie Rogers, Solange,
Charli XCX, Frank Ocean, Santigold and others.








[h] [interlude]

Shura announces a deluxe version of her acclaimed 2019 album
‘forevher’, released via Secretly Canadian.
‘forevher: Deluxe Edition’ is released on cassette and features the
eleven original album tracks with nine extras. These include acoustic
versions of five album tracks recorded and produced with Sam Evian
and featuring Hannah Cohen on backing vocals, previous Bandcamp
single ‘magazine launch (demo)’, last year’s collaborative single
‘elevator girl’ featuring Ivy Sole and two unreleased tracks including
‘obsession’.
On ‘obsession’, Shura explains: “‘obsession’ was one of the songs I
wrote whilst I was writing ‘forevher’. I always wanted it to be a duet
between two women but it never came to fruition during the recording
process. Then, when I toured ‘forevher’ in Europe, Rosie Lowe came
with us and we’d always spoken about wanting to collaborate on
something together and I suddenly remembered this song, which I loved
but had somehow never finished. I sent the track across to Ro and when
she sent back her rough take I was like ‘YES. this is it.’”
With ‘forevher’, Shura’s immediately identifiable way with love, touch and
how we talk about it reached even greater creative heights. Having
moved from West London to New York following her adored 2016 debut,
,Nothing’s Real,, it’s all mirrored in a lyrical journey from rejection and
loss to desire, long-distance love and the prospect of how we make
something real actually work.
In 2020, Shura emerged as one of contemporary pop’s accidental
trailblazers. A frank, funny voice in the LGBTQ+ community whose
contribution to the paradigm-shift in the cultural landscape cannot be
underestimated.
Written primarily about Shura’s relationship with her girlfriend and their
long-distance conception, ‘forevher’ traces everything from the initial pull
of desire to that first real life meeting (‘the stage’), before recognising
when the connection develops into something scarily meaningful. It’s a
classic NYC-to-London love story but one told through the totally modern
filter of dating apps, unanswered texts, Skype chats and MUNA gigs.
And whilst how to live - and love - as a queer woman has always been
integral to Shura, it’s remarkable to hear these stories twisted through
such a gorgeous amalgam of influences: Joni Mitchell and Minnie
Riperton, Bon Iver and Frank Ocean, Prince and Ariel Pink. Through
these inspirations, Shura’s own modern, outlier perspective found a
newer, more daring approach to sound and song.

Originally released on CD in 2012, Chapter's landmark compilation of 70s gay musical pioneers gets a vinyl release for the first time ever - and on limited baby pink vinyl to boot! Strong Love explores the first wave of openly gay songwriting, emerging after New York's Stonewall Riots kickstarted the modern gay rights movement in 1969. It took just a few years for the defiant chanting and interlocked arms of early 70s pride marches to reverberate onto record, and Strong Love begins with the earliest known example, 1972's A Gay Song by London hippie collective Everyone Involved. Across 15 tracks, the compilation takes in disarmingly personal folk, uplifting soul, outsider country and dark synth-rock. But tellingly, none of its songs could be considered well-known. New York's Steven Grossman released the first major label album by an openly gay artist in 1974, and Tom Robinson hit the UK Top 20 with the fiery Glad To Be Gay in 1978, but these are the exceptions. The coy ambivalence of Lou Reed and David Bowie was about as sexually adventurous as the 1970s music industry got, and most Strong Love artists released their own self-funded recordings in very limited numbers. Unlike their lesbian counterparts, who joined forces to create long-lasting record labels, strong distribution networks and considerable sales figures, gay male musicians in the 1970s existed largely in solitary bubbles. Which doesn't mean they didn't carve out niches of their own. Chris Robison played with the New York Dolls and Elephant's Memory, while LA glam seducer Smokey saw members of the Stooges and Quiet Riot pass through his backing band. Steven Grossman was covered by Twiggy and Scrumbly & Martin are infamous for their work with San Francisco drag hippies the Cockettes. Strong Love illustrate the vision, talent and raw courage that drove 1970s songwriters to sacrifice popular careers for the sake of honesty and selfexpression. Compiled by Chapter Music's Guy Blackman, with an evocative introduction from drummer RIchard Dworkin (who played with Blackberri and Buena Vista), the album is a powerful tribute to pioneering artists whose music has been neglected for too long.

• Showaddywaddy eventually had more UK hits in the 1970s than any other act…including Abba!
• From their winning appearance on an edition of ‘New Faces’, the ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ of the day, to become runners-up in
the series’ ‘All Winners Final’, it took just a matter of months until Showaddywaddy released, ‘Hey Rock And Roll’.
• The single reached #2 in the UK Singles Chart.
• The band are still lauded as one of the hardest working live bands in the UK, usually with more than 250 shows a year.
• This vinyl LP collection, showcases the band’s professionalism, in this no-nonsense 16 track rock ‘n’ roll set.
• The album includes their versions of ‘Sea Cruise’, ‘Blue Moon’, ‘The Girl From New York City’, ‘Multiplication’, ‘Doo Wah
Diddy’ and a blistering performance of the Vanda/Young classic, ‘Good Times’, taken from Showaddywadddy’s 1981 album
of the same name.
• The album is pressed on heavyweight 180g pink colour vinyl.

Returning with their first new music in 8 years, Stubborn Heart have announced their anticipated new album 'Made Of Static'. Luca Santucci and Ben Fitzgerald, who have spent the last few years developing the ten brooding electro-soul tracks that make up the successor to their lauded 2012 self-titled debut, have once again struck a fine balance between ominous synth-soundscapes and introspective songwriting. Balance is the key theme here. With Fitzgerald leading the production and manning the machines, the sound is rawer than on their previous album. Left-field pop with dark, icy edges, it finds a home somewhere in between r&b and cold wave. Santucci brings the heart and with it his aching, obsessive lyrics and a desire for something grittier in its presentation. The duo's talents complement each other perfectly throughout. Santucci has amassed an impressive list of writing and vocal credits in his time, with the likes of XL and Warp signee Leila Arab, Plaid, Riton and Soulwax amongst them. Fitzgerald has also been hard at work at his home studio programming various styles of music for artists and producers from around the world. As Stubborn Heart, they come armed with some serious experience and a wealth of influences. There's an honest simplicity in the way they create, with lyrics written in an immediate, direct fashion with the aim to catch a feeling rather than emulate one. On their first album Stubborn Heart garnered praise from the likes of Pitchfork, NME and the UK broadsheets. It was named album of 2012 at Gilles Peterson's Worldwide Awards and Rough Trade placed it in their top 20 best albums the same year. However, it's now that we're presented with an album they feel better represents their dynamic - an album born from the duos combined creative static - as such, 'Made Of Static' is the first fruit of their reunion, aiming to step on from where they left off, and with the promise of much more to follow.

Tibor Szemző is not only a skillful and experienced Hungarian musician but also a media artist with a vast imagination. His last LP, ARBO X – Csoma Grooves, refers to his full-length film A Guest of Life released in 2006, for which he not only directed but also composed all the music. The film is inspired by the life of Alexander Csoma de Körös, a remarkable polyglot from the 19th century who set out from his native Transylvania to central Asia on foot to look for the roots of the Hungarian language. He reached Tibet, dedicated the rest of his life to study of Tibetan manuscripts and finally became the founder of tibetology. After 14 years Tibor Szemző decided to explore the theme further and composed the cinematic performance, Silverbird and the Cyclist, where he as narrator presented the story of Csoma from a different perspective.

ARBO X is the music from this performance and it is based on the soundtrack of the original movie but the material has been restructured and enhanced by new layers. There are fourteen relatively short tracks on the album and each of them has a very specific character, sometimes mysterious as the titles of the tracks themselves. Their arrangement is ingeniously composed. Szemző’s typical bass flute and voice with percussion accompaniment on the first track Axis is a very impressive introduction to the whole album. The following tracks build up a series of colorful sound parables, which are in no way descriptive. Every element, whether it’s a double bass, viola, soprano voice, vocal trio or electronics, fits perfectly within the overall sound fabric with effective timing. Listening to ARBO X one unwittingly concentrates on interweaving details without loosing the sense of the whole. It’s certainly a great benefit, as in previous recordings, that most of the musicians participating in the recording of ARBO X are very familiar with Szemző’s music and his collaboration with some of them goes back to Group 180, a new music ensemble he founded in 1978 and soon earned international acclaim. This most recent album belongs among a long line of recordings that Tibor Szemző has released during his musical career and displays great compositional complexity and a keen sense of a perfectly balanced sound spectrum.

Alexandr Krestovský

Captain Rip Hayman (b.1951, New Mexico) has come ashore again, bearing fresh cargo. A student of John Cage, Ravi Shankar, and Philip Corner, Rip was a founding editor of the notable Ear Magazine (1975-1991), and since 1977 he has run New York's oldest bar, the Ear Inn. The focused minimalism of his new LP Waves: Real and Imagined varies from the collaged spectacle of his first Recital LP, Dreams of India & China (2019).

This oceanic dish holds two side-long works: “Waves for Flutes,” a multi-tracked flute composition recorded by the artist in 1977. ‘Angelic’, ‘Grave’, and ‘Sad’ modes overlap an effect of medieval choral organum, as shifting patterns evoke water and wind variations of the shore and vast sea beyond. An enchanting and arresting piece.

The second side holds “Seascapes,” which was recorded on the Pacific ocean in February and March of 2020 – through calm seas and tempestuous storms. The ship as the instrument played by the sea. We feel both lost and saved when at sea, the landfall feared or longed for.

The album is dedicated to all those whose souls have been lost and found at sea amidst the waves, for each sea wave is a child of Oceanus & Tethys, Greek gods of the sea, every one sent on their way to play...

Tape / Cassette
Canaan Balsam is an electronic composer and musician based in Edinburgh. He uses field recordings, found sounds, hardware and a range of software to create immersive soundscapes. His work explores the dead space between ambient and new age music; the liminal zone between the harshness of industrial and the beatific serenity of devotional music.
Responding to the context where ever-expanding modes of communication seem only to blur the line between connectivity and solitude, Canaan often returns to the theme of loneliness in his work - how it can grow and metasta- size, until it becomes incommunicable, resistant to empathy; an alien host overtaking the body. Cruise Utopia was recorded over the last 3 years and it's his first solo work.
Balsam has collaborated with several contemporary artists including Cosima Cobley Carr and Calvin Z Laing, as well as experimental musician Dan Mutsch, and has performed in an iteration of Damo Suzuki's Sound Carriers. Canaan's sound work has featured at the Radiophrenia Festival at CCA in Glasgow. His audiovisual work has been exhibited at the Embassy Gallery in Edinburgh. He is also part of the Scottish sound art and collective Optic Nerve.

Miriam Makeba's 'Keep Me In Mind' was her last album for Reprise and reflected major changes in both her own personal life and politically within the USA. After becoming a national star globally following the success of 'Pata Pata' in 1967, she had fallen out publicly with her mentor and 'Big Brother', Harry Belafonte. Makeba made the decision to return to Africa following an invitation from President Sékou Touré of Guinea. In Conakry, Makeba met Stokely Carmichael, President of civil rights organisation the SNCC and they would later marry. "With the Vietnam War, the student protests and the riots in the ghettos, everyone isscared," Makeba said. "Everyone is afraid that there will be a great black uprising." Makeba's concerts were widely cancelled and both her and Carmichael were followed relentlessly by the FBI. Reprise also terminated her contract but brought in producer Lewis Merenstein for her final recording for the label, best known for his work with Van Morrison on 'Astral Weeks'. Merenstein suggested two Van songs for Makeba to cover, 'Brand New Day' from the 'Moondance' sessions and 'I Shall Sing' and further songs were added to reflect both the political climate and Makeba's own memories including Stephen Stills' 'For What It's Worth' and Lennon &McCartney's wistful 'In My Life'. New compositions by Makeba and her daughter Bongi included 'Lumumba', a personal tribute to Congolese independence leader, Patrice Lumumba. Reflective of the times, the album is infused with apalpable despair but, as in all of her music, a quiet determination still shines through.

May 28 will see prolific Japanese vibraphonist, multi-percussionist and composer Masayoshi Fujita mark a new sonic direction with his forthcoming album Bird Ambience on Erased Tapes.

Bird Ambience brings several fresh changes for the artist. Until now, Fujita would separate his acoustic solo recordings from the electronic dub under his El Fog alias and experimental improvisations with contemporaries such as Jan Jelinek, Bird Ambience sees him unite all of these different sides to his work for the first time, into one singular vision. He also makes a lateral leap from his signature instrument the vibraphone, on which he created his acclaimed triptych Stories (2012), Apologues (2015) and Book of Life (2018), to the marimba, which takes centre stage on his new album alongside drums, percussion, synths, effectors and tape recorder.

“The way of playing the marimba is similar to the vibraphone, so it was kind of a natural development for me and easier to start with, yet it sounds very different”, explains Masayoshi. “The marimba bars are made with wood and it has a wider range than the vibraphone, which gives me a bigger sound palette with more possibilities. I play the instrument with bows and mallets, and sometimes manipulate it with effects.”

Bird Ambience also marks his liberation from fastidious preparation for past solo releases to new endeavours in improvisation. “I prioritised trying to capture the wonder which happens during those occasional magic improv moments. Sometimes the mic-ing and placement of instruments was pretty rough; things weren’t perfect and everything was done quickly, but it turned out as the final recording. Overall when I
couldn’t decide between two takes, I told myself to go with the first”, Masayoshi recalls.

Arranged with a perfect Kanso-like balance, the unhurried pace of Bird Ambience allows each sound and phrase enough time to be mindfully absorbed and savoured. This subtle but affective work carries ethereal remnants of Midori Takada’s minimalism, the static atmospheres of Mika Vainio, To Rococo Rot’s organics and the bucolic electronics of Minotaur Shock. Fujita vaporises contemporary and classical, ambient and dismantled dub, controlled noise and fragments of jazz into an atmospheric, static mist, which he skilfully coerces into new forms.

After 13 years in Berlin, Masayoshi recently relocated to a new home and studio in the rural Japanese mountain village of Kami-cho, Hyogo, following his life-long dream of creating music in nature. Even though the album was entirely recorded in Germany before he left, it has this palpable sense of reverie found in the natural world. From there we can only imagine the kind of impact his new life in rural West Japan will have on future works.

Unknown recording outside Ethiopia which documents Mergia Hailu & The Walias legendary early period. Beautifully-rendered instrumentals of classic Ethiopian standards, "Tezeta"is the follow-up reissue of the hugely popular seminal Ethiopian instrumentals LP "Tche Belew" (ATFA012). It was a Cassette-only release in 1975 on the band's in-house label, to fund their record store. From their genesis as members of the Venus club in-house band in the early 70s, Hailu Mergia and the Walias Band were at the forefront of the musical revolution during an era where modern instruments and foreign styles superseded the traditional fare to become the staple sound of Ethiopia. No one would argue that the Walias were the trailblazing powerhouse of modern Ethiopian music. They were the first band to form independently without affiliation to a theatre house, a club or a hotel; unprecedented and risky as they had to raise all funding for expenses by themselves including buying equipment. They were the first to release full instrumental albums, considered to be commercially unviable at the time. They opened their own recording studio, with band members Melake Gebre and Mahmoud Aman doubling as technical buffs during sessions. They were also the first independent band to tour abroad. In short, they were the pioneers every band tried to emulate; some more successfully than others. Odds are, any Ethiopian over the age of 35 who had access to TV or radio by the early 90s, will instantly recognize the sound of Walias. What is not a given is, how many would actually identify the band itself. Barely a day went by without hearing the Walias either in the background on radio or as an accompaniment to various programs on TV. This Tezeta album, the band's second recording, released in 1975, is one of those that have been impossible to find for nearly three decades. Sourced by Awesome Tapes From Africa and expertly remastered by Jessica Thompson, its unique and funky renditions of standards and popular songs of the day are so quintessentially Walias, flavorful and evocative. Hailu's melodic organ, unashamedly front and center in every track, makes even the complex pieces accessible. Profoundly engaging; it's an immersive trip down memory lane for those of us getting reacquainted with it, while also an enthralling and gratifying experience for fresh ears.

Leo Ceccanti should be a familiar name to all followers of the Claremont 56 label. Alongside sometime studio partner Gianluca Salvadori, he was responsible for two delightfully distinctive Almunia albums released on the label, 2011’s New Moon and 2013’s Pulsar. Both sets were filled with golden, sun-kissed sounds, psychedelic grooves and immersive, life-affirming soundscapes.

Now he’s decided to go it alone as Leo Almunia, delivering a debut album for Claremont 56 that’s every bit as alluring, wide-eyed and evocative as those he made with Salvadori. In keeping with his previous work, the album blends layered acoustic and electric guitars with toasty bass, dreamy synthesizers and grooves that variously touch on hypnotic house, chugging mid-tempo disco, sunset-ready Balearic beats and, on the glistening, life-affirming album highlight ‘Wishing Star’, loose-limbed jazz breaks.

What’s most significant about Ceccanti’s personal musical style is not the blend of stylistic influences he draws on – think psychedelic rock, progressive rock, jazz-rock, new age ambient and slow-motion disco – but rather the way he uses it to paint vivid aural images that genuinely linger long in the memory.

After opening with the duelling guitars and chunky dub disco grooves of ‘Sinking Fields’, Ceccanti sashays between magical moments of rush-inducing positivity, heart-tugging poignance and heady nostalgia.

Along the way, you’ll find numerous sonic highlights. On the intoxicating 21st century psychedelia of ‘Panerea’, jangling chords and eyes-closed psych-rock guitar solos ride a chugging, thickset electronic bassline, while ‘Il Cormorano’ is a metronomic, flash-fried workout rich in fuzz-tone guitar motifs, bluesy riffs and echoing instrumental touches.

He cannily joins the dots between Mid-West Americana and throbbing, psychedelic disco-chug on ‘Loveblind’, while ‘Minor Circle’ sits somewhere between Santana, the Pat Metheny Band and sunrise-ready Balearic blues. Arguably even better is the saucer-eyed brilliance of ‘Brillo De Luna’, where a dubbed-out electronic beat becomes enveloped in life-affirming acoustic guitar chords, exotic slide guitar motifs and string-bending solos. If John Lennon had ingested MDMA rather than LSD before writing ‘Across The Universe’, it would probably sound like this.

Then there’s the album’s crowning moment, closer ‘Can’t Hold a Lover’. A heart-aching, largely ambient instrumental that channels the loneliness and anguish felt by many of those separated from their nearest and dearest during the pandemic, it sees Ceccanti brilliantly wrap a variety of sun-bright guitar textures and solos around some of the loveliest synthesizer chords you’re every likely to hear. On an album packed with effervescent, mood-enhancing musical highs, it’s a rare moment of bittersweet bliss.

Squid announce their debut album, ‘Bright Green Field’, already one of 2021’s most highly anticipated releases.
Produced by Dan Carey, ‘Bright Green Field’ is an album of towering scope and ambition, it is deeply considered, paced and intricately constructed. With all band members playing such a vital and equal role, this album is very much the product of five heads operating as one.
Some bands might be tempted to include previous singles on their debut - and the band already released two more in 2020 via ‘Sludge’ and ‘Broadcaster’ - but instead ‘Bright Green Field’ is completely new. This sense of limitlessness and perpetual forward motion is one of the key ingredients that makes Squid so loved by fans and critics alike, from 6 Music, who have A-Listed previous singles ‘Houseplants’, ‘The Cleaner’ and ‘Match Bet’, to publications such as The Guardian, NME, The Face, The Quietus and countless others. The band was also on the longlist for the BBC Music Sound Of 2020 poll.
‘Bright Green Field’ features field recordings of ringing church bells, tooting bees, microphones swinging from the ceiling orbiting a room of guitar amps and a distorted choir of 30 voices, as well as a horn and string ensemble featuring the likes of Emma-Jean Thackray and Lewis Evans from Black Country, New Road.
Squid’s music - be it agitated and discordant or groove-locked and flowing - has often been a reflection of the tumultuous world we live in and this continues that to some extent. “This album has created an imaginary cityscape,” says Ollie Judge, who writes the majority of the lyrics and plays drums. “The tracks illustrate the places, events and architecture that exist within it. Previous projects were playful and concerned with characters, whereas this project is darker and more concerned with place - the emotional depth of the music has deepened.”
For all the innovative recording techniques, evolutionary leaps, lyrical
themes, ideas and narratives that underpin the album, it’s also a joyous and emphatic record. One that marries the uncertainties of the world with a curious sense of exploration as it endlessly twists and turns down unpredictable avenues.

The rich sounds of Maloya and Séga music, originating from the Réunion island (as well as Mauritius and Seychelles for Séga), have recently been brought to the ears of the Northern hemisphere's music lovers. Hailing from the French Alps, where Réunion-natives and young "metropolitan" French youngsters have been sharing parties, food and music for years, Les Pythons De La Fournaise are a flavoursome electric "Séga" band and they have already put out a couple of albums over the last decade.

This time, they are interpreting Séga and Maloya songs under the form of a - nearly – all-acoustic orchestra : "L'Orchestre Du Piton" !

This Long-Player has got a particular sound and character, starting with a powerful four-woman choir (often sung in unison, in accordance with the Maloya tradition). The "lead" is a different singer on almost every song, which brings a variety of tone and vocal texture to the album.

Instead of keys, organ or synth, Les Pythons went for accordion ; they also brought into the studio an array of percussion, ranging from classic bongos and bells to typical instruments of the Indian Ocean : theKayamb, the Pikeur, the Sati and most notably the Roulèr– the king of them all, majestic barrel-shelled bass drum.

On songs like "Anon Manz Demiel" (Let's go and eat honey), two crazy electric guitars with intertwined riffs add a fresh element to the sound – somewhat echoeing with Esquivel's exotica and Congolese rumba at the same time !

And the most unusual fact on this record : there is no bass guitar. Perhaps the band had a statement to make; in our modern music culture where bass plays a central role, they prove that one can move to other sounds – and appreciate the more organic deepness of percussion.

Whether or not you look into the meaning of the songs (mostly from the Réunion repertoire with a couple of Mauritian exceptions and one original "Pythons" composition), you will feel the mood of the Creole lyrics – a deep love story in "Maloya Tantine", an hymn to slowness and indolence in "Tou Dou", a clumsy chat-up scene in "Malbaraise"...

And overall, a joyful, fresh and sparkly energy emanates from this "Orchestre" sound, from this exceptionally talented crew. Oté !

180g, black Vinyl. 1974. the Cosmic Jokers were basically Klaus Schulze, Manuel Göttsching, various Ash Ra Tempel and Wallenstein members doing late night jamming. Galactic Supermarket is one of them, and is more rock-oriented than many others. It's no surprise the music bears more than a passing resemblance to Ash Ra Tempel, because of Manuel Göttsching and his guitar playing. Also Jürgen Dollase gives some nice keyboard work, particularly the piano, Farfisa electric piano, synths, and even a little Mellotron. Klaus Schulze were more responsible for the more droning organ and synth end of things, it's pretty obvious when he plays it. The legendary producer Dieter Dierks plays Bass on these nearly never ending improvisation. The recording was transferred from the original analog tapes at the Dierks Studios in Germany. And carefully remastered for an incredible result. Released on the label "Kosmische Kuriere" (Cosmic Couriers)

Ulf Lohmann, the newcomer of the year. From the deepest suburbs of Cologne, he spreads his musical message around The world. Resistance is futile. His music disarms even the unarmed. Innocence has become sound - unswervingly pure and beautiful. Like the electronic immaculate conception Truthful as love itself . So, leave the container and enter into the paradise of active oblivion. Shut up, you real world! Here comes Ulf Lohmann, here comes Pop Ambient 2001.
STERBENS-SCHÖNER POP AMBIENT & EIN KLEINER MINIMAL HIT MACHEN ULF ZUR ECHTEN ENTDECKUNG. HAMMER !

Following on from Vince Watson’s sell-out 2020 release, that saw tracks lifted from his 9th studio album ‘Via’ taken to a whole new level with remixes by the mighty Joe Clausell, Steve Bug & Langenberg, Osunlade and Manoo, he unleashes two fresh, new, feel-good cuts on Everysoul Audio!

Defining them as House or Techno would be a mistake, as Vince effortlessly bridges the gap between both worlds in a way that he does so very well. ‘Make A Wish’ was born out of the same studio session as his ‘Teardrops’ track for Sacred Rhythm, taking the initial sketch into a different direction with powerful drums, big basslines and silky synth stabs, adding to the orchestral strings that build. ‘Forever’ was originally a studio jam that made it into his live shows pre-covid, but this gave him the chance to finish it the way he always wanted. It’s an upbeat, jazzy cut with funky 909 drums and acid bassline.

The group Magizter formed in Malmö, Sweden in the early 90s, and mainly consisted of former members of the Hungarian industrial band Das Kapital, of which some managed to flee to Sweden from the communist regime before the fall of the Soviet Union.

Gyula Szilagyi, who was the first to make his escape via train through Berlin in 1987, recalls: “it was a few weeks before mandatory military service would begin, and our passports should have been turned over to the authorities”. Risking deportation and prison, he was granted asylum in Sweden after some months in Stockholm.

Szilagyi and the rest of the band were all part of the underground scene in Budapest, of which some had been under surveillance by the secret police since their teens. It was a tight knit community where anti-communist and illegal literature was distributed, and many bands shared mutual members.

The track “Das Kapital” was produced in Malmö in 1993 by Szilagyi and fellow Magizter member Zoltan Lengyel, in a home studio overlooking the Möllevång Square, were Szilagyi had moved after some years working at the glass factory in Orrefors. He had managed to save a few performances by Das Kapital recorded on cassette, of which one served as sample material for the Magizter track; an homage of sorts to a group involuntarily disbanded.

The cassette sampled here was recorded in 1986 during a live concert at the university-affiliated venue Ráday Klub, where Das Kapital performed alongside the British industrial act Left Hand Right Hand (who had formed from the Sheffield band Zahgurim).

On the eve in question, Szilagyi remarks: “we used a guitar that we had made ourselves to resemble a Kalachnikov rifle. During the concert at Ráday Klub the guitar was destroyed using a drill machine. It made a powerful sound effect”

A remix of the remix is offered by Vienna-based Heap, who with his own productions as well as his work with the Neubau label is building a bridge towards the new era of European industrial music.

Vinyl Only

Expo 2000? Mousse T? Cyberhouse at Hanomag? The many shades of Hannover. If you haven't heard of Felice, now's the time. The city's most hidden secret guides us towards Fantasy, that is. The Nine-Oh-Nine, the piano, it's all in there. House Music for the Jilted Generation. Made in Linden. For the time being available on beautiful, one-sided vinyl only. Well we through in a little download card just in case. Now close your eyes, move your feet and sing along as if nobody is ever watching.

The first ever release of Ed Banger records, this is ED001
To celebrate its 18th anniversary, we're happy to announce a limited edition re-press of this 12''.
I'm not going to repeat the story of how I ended up launching a record label while Napster was scaring the whole music industry…
Now I realize Radar Rider sounds like the perfect soundtrack of a disaster movie, in which record stores are closing, distributors are disappearing, a world without music, without life!
We didn't want this! Of course we'll release music from French producers, newcomers and put all our hearts into this new adventure. By accident Ed Banger records was born, 18 years ago. Mr Flash stopped by the office to play me some his beats. He was the French El-P to me, an MPC 3000 genius! I was blow away immediately, his music was talking to me.
I wanted this sound to be the beginning of something I will create with my friends.

Recorded in 1973 in Rome - at Piero Umiliani’s "Sound WorkShop" – this one of the stand-out italian libraries to say the least. The whole record oozes a dreamy, mysterious, surrealist atmosphere enhanced by the vivid instrumentation that open a series of mesmerizing pieces which range from the gentle to the hypnotic. Eastern sounds, ritual horns and assorted metal banging and scrapping add to the whole mix for a landmark sound that will eventually evolve in delirious lysergic passages, hypnotic bass riffing, stoned funk beats, dubbed-out passages and Rino De Filippi trade-mark collage and sound manipulation.

It’s a given that timing is everything in music – most obviously in terms of composition and production but often just as much in regard to conception and release – the latter two doubly poignantly so in the case of this massive DOOM vs The Sugarcubes mash-up LP from turntablist and producer Krash Slaughta.

Which is why the tale of this project’s gestation is perhaps what should be told about it before anything else.

Begun last August and finished on 25 October, the album started life as an idea born from a casual listen to final Sugarcubes album Stick Around For Joy that Krash had bought a copy of years before in a charity shop. Contemplating the cover art while listening to the LP and the track Hit in particular, it came to him that here might be the musical basis for a concept LP in the grand tradition of the hip-hop mash-up album. Thus the project was born, becoming something of an obsession as lockdown restrictions recommenced through a sanity-testing autumn. As it developed, the provisional title of Stick Around For DOOM morphed into Sugar Coated DOOM and Brighton artists Leigh Pearce and Rob Crespo were roped in to create the artwork. So pleased was Krash with the results that he decided to self-finance the pressing of the LP to vinyl which in turn would allow him to send a copy to DOOM in the most fitting format. On that basis, along with his dad’s advice that if you want something done properly; do it yourself’, he initiated the process for a limited press run as soon as the project wrapped and telephoned his dad (who’d been shielding and who he hadn’t seen for months) to say he’d done precisely that. In a tragic twist, this turned out to be their last ever conversation, for Krash’s dad died suddenly the next day. Two months later of course, while waiting for the Covid-slowed vinyl pressing process to complete, came a further tragic twist as the world received the delayed news that DOOM himself had also passed away back in October – in the event, only five days after Krash’s father. So it’s no understatement to say that Sugar Coated DOOM carries significant emotional resonance for its maker, forever linked as it will be to the deaths of two of his personal heroes.

Which brings us to the content. The album contains seven vocal tracks, with an alternate version of one and instrumental versions of five of the seven across two sides of an album with the music, track names, LP title and cover art mashing up musical, lyrical/ textual and visual elements of The Sugar Cubes’ Stick Around For Joy with DOOM acapellas, track names and references. Listeners won’t need long to appreciate that Krash Slaughta was right to be proud of his creation, almost certainly correct in thinking DOOM would dig it and no doubt The Sugarcubes too. Also, who would have thought The Sugarcubes had so much potential for beat-mining? But then seeing potential in the unexpected was always a vital skill from the golden era of sampling in hip-hop and those who follow in the tradition. The first track proper, for example, swipes Madlib’s lo-fi beat from underneath the vocals for Figaro and replaces it with the looped and beefed-up opening bars of the Cubes’ I’m Hungry. The result is a natural fit. But then the blending of elements in every track on this release provides evidence of the effort and love put into its creation, reinvigorating DOOM’s classic vocals while re-purposing The Sugarcubes in a manner that will delight. Indeed, if you’d didn’t know the work of Bjork’s former band, you’d be unlikely to pin an early 90s alt-rock LP as the sample source. I imagine listeners will have a hard time picking a favourite too. Perhaps Hit It (based on the track which triggered the project idea in the first) which splices the Bond-theme-ish Hit with My Favourite Ladies might prove the most popular, or the monkey’s favourite, Nurse Chong, which blends Happy Nurse with Raedawn (named for Tommy Chong’s daughter) from Viktor Vaughn LP Vaudeville Villain. Whichever one punters pick though, anyone who hears anything off this will know it’s one to rank alongside your other favourite hip-hop mash-up albums. And who knows – perhaps even Mr Daniel Dumile himself might have considered it a not unfitting epitaph.

After the moderate success of the debut album "Live in Montreux", Agorà published their first and only studio work in 1976. The possibilities offered by the recording studio seemed more congenial to their proposal, which turns out to be a deeply matured LP, technically flawless and with songs that still belong to the best Italian jazz-rock, with a more intense jazz component at the expense of the progressive one.
Unfortunately, both “Agora 2” and the single “Cavalcata Solare” taken from this work were almost completely ignored, in a period in which the vast universe that revolves around the Italian progressive was slowly decaying.
The Atlantic label, also due to a very poor familiarity with the Italian bands and scene, didn’t renew Agorà’s contract and the group disbanded after a final appearance at the Parco Lambro Festival in 1976, with their various members that dispersing in many other jazz bands, in some cases up to the present day.
“Agorà 2” still sounds wonderfully today, and deserves a respectable place within a serious Italian progressive rock discography. The album is here reissued on LP for the first time ever, in a faithful reproduction of the original edition of ‘76.

If you mention the name of Metamorfosi in front of any fan of Italian progressive rock, you get a unique effect: awe, wonder, united to the memory of the masterpiece that firmly established them as fundamental exponents of the genre. We are obviously talking of "Inferno", published in January 1973 and inspired by the eponymous first poem of the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri.

But the musical maturity of "Inferno" had not come immediately, at least not in discographic terms, as it happened for example in the case of Alphataurus, Biglietto per l’Inferno and Campo di Marte, typical meteors of Italian prog that made their debut with a bang and then dissolved into thin air for decades. In fact, Metamorfosi debuted with a work that was indeed less complete, but not negligible.

“...e fu il sesto giorno” is born after two years of gestation, since the singer Jimmy Spitaleri joined the band I Frammenti in 1970. It is the period of maximum splendour for the music which at the time was called ‘avant-garde pop’ and that only later would be labeled as ‘progressive rock’, a music scene in which the Metamorfosi of the beginning just partially fit in as they were partly still anchored to old beat styles, and as they engaged in the exaltation of the Catholic faith at the textual level. The religious content of the album is substantially unequivocal from the cover, in which Jimmy Spitaleri is portrayed in a symbolic laying on of hands to the rest of the band, his disciples and fellow adventurers.

If it is true that the weakness of the Italian prog scene has always been found in the singing, Spitaleri is a notable exception, who does not show any shortcoming throughout the disc. In addition, some elements - the guitar solos, the interventions of flute and keyboards, a solid rhythmic base, a sometimes unpredictable song structure - anticipate what will come from there after a few months. "...e fu il sesto giorno" is, therefore, contrary to what is often said, a major premise, a flower waiting to bloom and show everyone its own beauty.

"Milano Odia: La polizia non può sparare", a 1974 movie directed by Umberto Lenzi, is the quintessence of the Italian police films. Not only, it's even more violent and extreme than usual, with one of the best interpretations ever by the Cuban actor Tomas Milian.

The soundtrack for the film is commissioned to Ennio Morricone, who at the time was already a full-time score composer, and had already worked in the same field. The Maestro wrote the entire OST starting from a single, obsessive theme, arranged in many different ways for each different scene or atmosphere.

The whole soundtrack had never been released until 2007, and this is the first whole edition on vinyl ever. It comes in a gatefold package, with a 30x30cm inlay poster.

Have you ever felt like you’re being watched? Have you felt unseen eyes staring at you, monitoring your every move? Composer and guitarist Daniel Davies reflects on this familiar paranoia on his new EP, Spies. Across its five stirringly atmospher- ic tracks, the frequent John Carpenter collaborator evokes the tingle you get on the back of your neck when you sense you’re under surveillance - a feeling some psychologists have dubbed the “psychic staring effect.”

The songs for Spies were composed in the fall and winter of 2020, in the depths of pandemic lockdown. Working in isolation in his L.A. studio, Davies composed the five tracks entirely alone. With no collaborators, his gaze turned inward, and the songs feel intimate and intense. Yet at the same time, they would become the most sonically expansive material he’s ever put on a solo record. His guitar and synthesizer are bolstered by double bass, cello, viola, and violin, adding a new depth to the music.

As he did for his 2020 full-length Signals, Davies teamed up with acclaimed visual artist Jesse Draxler for the artwork. The stark, black-and-white piece that Draxler contributed for the cover of Spies perfectly captures the mood of the record. Eyes are cut out, disassociated from faces, their gazes made inscrutable. Yet they seem to fix on the listener. Have you ever felt like you’re being watched? Maybe you are.

Red Vinyl

Cinema Paradiso Recordings is proud to announce the release of the soundtrack to the motion picture 'The Parallax View', on vinyl for the first time ever, this coming April 30th 2021. Based on the book by Loren Singer, ‘The Parallax View’ is directed and produced by Alan J Pakula as the second instalment of his Political Paranoia trilogy - alongside Klute (1971) and All the President's Men (1976). With cinematography by Gordon Willis (The Godfather trilogy, Annie Hall) and starring Warren Beatty, this political thriller from 1974 is perhaps even more relevant today than it was back then.

The legendary score by composer Michael Small is regarded as a benchmark in the sound of paranoia thrillers that dominated cinema in the 1970s, with revered film critic Pauline Kael hailing the film as an essential for all fans of the genre. Now, 47 years later, the soundtrack will finally be available to own on vinyl.

The CPR edition of ‘The Parallax View’ soundtrack includes for the first time the infamous brainwashing scene, an influence on countless films and TV shows over the years. Notably, most recently with the Watchmen series and shows Mr Robot and Homecoming even using the music from the film. Whilst researching to gain approval for this usage we discovered from Jon Boorstin, (Assistant to Pakula on The Parallax View), that the unaccredited disembodied voice from the ‘Parallax Test’ scene belonged to director Pakula himself.

The single LP, deluxe gatefold limited edition in coloured vinyl comes with liner notes that include two essays by Scott Bettencourt and Alexander Kaplan (of Film Score Monthly), which provide a fascinating insight into the making of the film and an analysis of the score.

“The Parallax View embodies a particularly paranoid moment for America, when assassination wounds were still fresh and the President’s bungling burglars were running him out of the White House. Michael Small’s music beautifully captures our hope, our dread, and our nostalgia for truer values. In the Parallax Test sequence, he brilliantly seduces the assassin in all of us. Watching this today, wrapped in Michael's music, what was once wild fantasy feels at least as credible as the pronouncements of our Kool-Aid drinking Congressmen. “
- Jon Boorstin

Offering a multi-faceted LGBT+ experience, this stellar 1LP, pressed onto rose coloured vinyl, brings together old and new for the most fabulous musical accompaniment to your 2021 summer. £1 from each unit sold, will be donated to Stonewall in support of their work towards LGBT+ equality.

Side A, entitled ‘Queer Club Classics’, provides the perfect throwback snapshot of all your favourite queer tracks, including worldwide hits such as Cher’s “Believe” and Chaka Khan’s “I’m Every Woman”.

Whilst Side B, entitled ‘New Age Anthems’, is an assortment of the best music from more recent years. This collection combines tracks from LGBTQ+ artists such as the indie-legends Tegan and Sara, and pop pioneer L Devine, as well as popular songs within the LGBTQ+ community such as Lizzo’s charismatic feel-good bop, ‘Juice’.

After missing out on Pride celebrations in 2020 and with the summer of 2021 set to be the start of a long-awaited celebration of freedom, this vinyl release is a surefire way to keep up your spirits right the way through to summer 2022.

81355 (pronounced `bless') is a meeting of the minds between three pillars of the Indianapolis music scene; Sirius Blvck, Oreo Jones, and Sedcairn Archives. While the three have worked together in the past, this is their first start-to-finish collaboration, and the result is the stunning and distinctive debut Time I'll Be of Use. Simultaneously mystical and stark, somber and danceable, the project grapples with hard-wired truths and imagines alternate realities with better futures. These lucid wanderings amongst the street fires sound like a cross between the ghost of progressive electronic music of the 70s with its innovative eccentricities, and acrobatic wordplay delivered with sharp resolve. While surrealist in its metaphors and abstraction, it doesn't betray a present awareness. Reflecting on Black struggle in the pandemicridden and democracy faltering landscape of 2020, each member arrived from a synchronistic space, and the recording process ended up being largely intuitive. On "Capstone," the opening track on the album, Sirius Blvck offers a look from inside his space, "This is what we've come to. Generational curses I still can't undo. Just taught my lil girl to tie her shoes now she running to. Holy smokes lungs made of leather like it's comfortable. Climbing up this infinite ladder to get a better view." These three musical vagabonds have met up to find even themselves surprised with the results. Drawing inspiration from the likes of biting poetic commentary of the late Naptown residents, Etheridge Knight and Kurt Vonnegut, OJ summons a golden-era flow and paints a picture of the group's influences, surroundings, and trajectory in one fell swoop in "Thumbs Up." "Alright, in my feelings tonight, Honda Civic overturned as it burns through the night. Bone Thugs in these streets no Surender in sight. I'm writing poems from a jail cell, Etheridge Knight. I throw a fit when I flip it, it's all vintage. A pearl white Bronco like OJ you done did it. The sunshine shatters the rock painted so vivid. Two-hundred fifty pounds of gifted we so lifted_ wassup?" Sirius, with poetry present even in his speaking voice, adds, "It's a way to carve our story in the sky before we're gone. This is us choosing to believe that this time, things will be different. It is an affirmation to the universe. This time I'll see the whole blessing. This time I'll be of use."

Excelsior! It’s the hail of yore that one should go ever onward and upward. And so, fittingly Onwards and Downwards is the occultist Swedish band Alastor’s clever call to arms... and also a reflection of our collective dark state of mind these days.
“If our last album Slave to the Grave were about death, this record is more about madness,” says guitarist Hampus Sandell. “You can look at the whole record as one person’s gradual slip into insanity. An ongoing nightmare without end. It also sums up the state of the world around us as this year has clearly shown.”
Alastor is heavy doom rock for the wicked and depraved. Drenched in heavy, distorted darkness and steeped in occult horror that will make your skin crawl and ears cry sweet tears of blood, the band is revitalized in 2021 with meticulously crafted songs and new drummer Jim Nordström bringing a hard-hitting and precise energy.
“It’s a more focused record but at the same time it’s more personal and naked. More raw emotion and pain,” Hampus says. The band recorded the album with the help of Joona Hassinen of Studio Underjord, who has helped with mixing since their ”Blood on Satan’s Claw” EP in 2017. Christoffer Karlsson of The Dahmers also assisted with overdubs and encouraged the band to demo the material early on, aiding in the album’s more deliberate and tighter feel.
From the first note of opener “The Killer In My Skull” the guitars are far thicker and out front than ever, and Nordström pummels the snare and kick like a young Dave Grohl. Bassist/vocalist Robin Arnryd’s chorus-drenched voice soars above it all like a one-man choir, at times harmonizing beautifully with shimmering Hammond organ notes. Nary a moment is wasted on the droning navel-gazing of lesser bands. Particularly, the driving anthem “Death Cult” which sounds like it would fit comfortably on QOTSA’s Songs For The Deaf, though there’s considerably more heft here. The title track pays its due to the Devil’s tritone in a marvelously woven framework of intertwining melodies befitting the album’s theme of descent into madness.
The quartet released its epic 3-song debut album Black Magic in early 2017 via Twin Earth Records, followed by the 2-track “Blood On Satan’s Claw” EP on Halloween the same year. Joining forces with RidingEasy Records in 2018, Alastor summoned the 7-track hateful gospel Slave To The Grave, which was packed with dynamic twists and turns, and funereal girth. It was met with considerable praise, setting the stage for the band’s greatest step onward (and upward... or downward, depending on your preferences.)

Excelsior! It’s the hail of yore that one should go ever onward and upward. And so, fittingly Onwards and Downwards is the occultist Swedish band Alastor’s clever call to arms... and also a reflection of our collective dark state of mind these days.
“If our last album Slave to the Grave were about death, this record is more about madness,” says guitarist Hampus Sandell. “You can look at the whole record as one person’s gradual slip into insanity. An ongoing nightmare without end. It also sums up the state of the world around us as this year has clearly shown.”
Alastor is heavy doom rock for the wicked and depraved. Drenched in heavy, distorted darkness and steeped in occult horror that will make your skin crawl and ears cry sweet tears of blood, the band is revitalized in 2021 with meticulously crafted songs and new drummer Jim Nordström bringing a hard-hitting and precise energy.
“It’s a more focused record but at the same time it’s more personal and naked. More raw emotion and pain,” Hampus says. The band recorded the album with the help of Joona Hassinen of Studio Underjord, who has helped with mixing since their ”Blood on Satan’s Claw” EP in 2017. Christoffer Karlsson of The Dahmers also assisted with overdubs and encouraged the band to demo the material early on, aiding in the album’s more deliberate and tighter feel.
From the first note of opener “The Killer In My Skull” the guitars are far thicker and out front than ever, and Nordström pummels the snare and kick like a young Dave Grohl. Bassist/vocalist Robin Arnryd’s chorus-drenched voice soars above it all like a one-man choir, at times harmonizing beautifully with shimmering Hammond organ notes. Nary a moment is wasted on the droning navel-gazing of lesser bands. Particularly, the driving anthem “Death Cult” which sounds like it would fit comfortably on QOTSA’s Songs For The Deaf, though there’s considerably more heft here. The title track pays its due to the Devil’s tritone in a marvelously woven framework of intertwining melodies befitting the album’s theme of descent into madness.
The quartet released its epic 3-song debut album Black Magic in early 2017 via Twin Earth Records, followed by the 2-track “Blood On Satan’s Claw” EP on Halloween the same year. Joining forces with RidingEasy Records in 2018, Alastor summoned the 7-track hateful gospel Slave To The Grave, which was packed with dynamic twists and turns, and funereal girth. It was met with considerable praise, setting the stage for the band’s greatest step onward (and upward... or downward, depending on your preferences.)

Aparde’s new album, Alliance sees the German
musician retreat from his recent experimentations
with avant-gard pop music back into the world of
deep, and oftentimes dark, electronica. For his
previous album, Hands Rest, Aparde ventured
outside Berlin’s club scene through the use of his
voice, which gave his music a softer and more
intimate edge. Alliance is no less intimate, except
this time the musician’s vulnerability seeps through
the cracks rather than taking center stage.
As impressive sonically as it is technically, Aparde
used a mixture of electronic sounds, analogue
equipment and his own voice either as a sound
element or lyrical component to explore this duality
of sound. “This album was about focusing on
something that calmed me down and brought me
away from reality,” says Aparde. When the musician
says ‘away from reality’, he doesn’t mean into
dreamy, ethereal soundscapes, but rather a deep
dive into dystopian atmospheres of drone sounds
and chewed-up drum machines. Alliance’s second
track, Allies has a dire beginning and one might
even be tempted in skipping it if it weren’t for
Aparde’s hushed voice shining through the
shadows, melancholic yes, but also warm. Despite
the album’s focus on electronic gear the music isn’t
exactly dance-able, tracks have a ruminative pace,brooding even, “I wanted to make the tracks with
more breathing space between the atmosphere
and silence. There are fewer elements but more
impact, I think,” says Aparde.
Things change gears toward the middle of
Alliance, with both Lined and The Shift representing
the colder, club-ier tracks of the album. For
both of these tunes, any emotionality gets
converted into a dense and thumping energy that
is released in a cathartic fashion. It is, as Aparde
describes, music “for you to move to when you
have a good moment or a mental crisis”. But
Aparde doesn’t leave it at that frequency; he closes
off the album courageously by letting listeners in,
once again, to his own world and emotions. While
still a driving electronic track, Hole is framed
around melancholic piano keys that bring the
mood down, and prepare listeners for Know you,
the album’s most intimate, and vulnerable piece. “I
never felt alright,” Aparde admits open-heartedly
on the track.
With Alliance, Aparde brings listeners deep into
his soul, a soul that is at times conflicted and
agitated and at times low-key and solemn. And as
he does so, the listener’s own mood is muted and
lifted in a journey of quest, dance and healing.

On May 28th , 2021, Surfdog Records will release Brian Setzer - Rockabilly Riot! Volume One - A Tribute To Sun Records on vinyl again! Out of print since 2005, this record sees Brian Setzer paying tribute to one of the greatest rockabilly labels ever, the one that arguably started it all: Sun Records.

"Why should I record a tribute to Sun Records? And at that, narrowing in on only their rockabilly years... a narrow time frame between roughly 1954 through early 1957. For that matter, what the heck is rockabilly anyway? Sure, all of us greaser, guitar slingin' hep-cats know, but (for the most part) the general population has never even heard the word. Rockabilly, the musical bastard of rhythm and blues, hillbilly, country, gospel, and maybe even a little jazz sung by wild-eyed southern white boys with too much time and too little money just lookin' for trouble. After doing much homework, I have selected 23 of what I consider Sun Records' best recordings. Some I’m sure you know (at least I hope so) and some are very obscure gems." - Brian Setzer

Double red vinyl in standard 5mm spine sleeve with printed inserts
for each vinyl.
“When BO NINGEN decided to re-issue their first album on vinyl for the first time ever. Originally it was only out on CD, they didn’t want to do the usual ‘remastering’ or ‘re-takes’. No. They “re-built” their our own debut album from a decade ago, using exactly the same material/sounds, “re-mixing”” with their new interpretation and perception.. Taigen says
“we simply wanna listen to our 1st album again with fresh ears and mind” and we invite you to do the same. 10 Years on, BO NINGEN’S debut is more fresh and relevant than it ever has been. “

The venerable composer and keyboardist Stale Storlokken follows up his previous Hubro release (and solo debut recording), The Haze of
Sleeplessness, with a second solo album performed entirely on pipe organ and recorded at Steinkjer Church by Stian Westerhus.
He describes the album as “a cavernous cathedral of sound”. While the Norwegian Grammy-nominated ‘The Haze of Sleeplessness’ used a whole keyboardmuseum’s worth of antique synths and contemporary digital software to create
its vast array of sounds, everything on ‘Ghost Caravan’ is the product of one organ’s pedals, pipes and sonic plumbing.
“There’s not so much of a relationship to ‘Haze’, says Stale Storlokken of the new album. “That album was more based on improvised ideas that were tweaked and arranged , while this one is all improvised with almost no editing at all. Everything you hear is from the church organ, with no additional instruments.
The basic concept of the record, and the arrangement of the titles and pieces, is done in such a way that they alternate between a fluent, “on the move”, abstract mood and a more recognisable, concrete and grounded mood. At the same time it should be so open that listeners will hopefully have their own unique experience. The organ at Steinkjer is not a big organ but it has some really nice sounds, with a number of quirks and mechanical eccentricities that suit my music.”
The organ is partly a reconstruction based on a Wagner organ in Nidarosdomen built originally in 1741, the organ is housed in the strikingly modernistic Steinkjer kirke, designed by Olav S. Platou in 1965, and featuring glass panels by the artist Annar Millidahl. What Ghost Caravan does share with its predecessor is a seemingly limitless acoustic space for the listener’s imagination to roam in, with Storlokken creating a cavernous cathedral of sound.
The audio dynamics span an enormous range, capable of stretching from the quietest breathy whisper to a basso profundo squawk or scream, sometimes within seconds of each other. Similarly, the incredible variety of sounds that Storlokken coaxes from the organ can defy rational analysis, with the resolutely analogue instrument appearing to echo the industrial, found-sounds of clanking machinery or buzzing electronics that one might expect to encounter through digital sampling or the tape-based experiments of musique concrete.
Over ten separate improvised pieces which connect into an informal suite through the repetition of key elements and sequential titles (with four ‘Spheres’ and four ‘Cloudlands’, plus ‘Ghost Caravan’ and ‘Drifting on Wasteland Ocean’), Storlokken has made a strikingly unified, self-referential aesthetic world that can stand as a true work of art.

After decades on the road and the never-ending hustle of life as an artist, Lou Barlow has tapped into a new confidence in the chaos. In 2021, the concept of balance feels particularly intimidating. Now more than ever, it's clear life isn't just leveling out a pair of responsibilities. Instead, we're chasing after a flock of different ideals with a butterfly net. On Barlow's new solo album, Reason to Live, he has come to an understanding of that swirl rather than trying to contain it. As a long-time indie legend, Barlow has found a life akin to a middle-class musician. In recent years, he's moved from Los Angeles back to Massachusetts, where he lives with his wife and three kids. And yet rather than settle into a comfortable malaise or yearn for the open road, Barlow's strengthened urgency finds a way to merge the two instincts. Reason to Live is shambolic and grand yet intimate and doting, warmly acoustic and crackling with grit. "I had been struggling for a way to connect both my home life and my recorded life, but this record is the first time I've integrated that," Barlow says. By folding the many facets of his life into one package, Reason to Live radiates with a renewed balance and calm. That comfort in complexity shines through even in the recording process, with select songs having origins in decades past and others written in the early stages of 2020. The multitude of whirring messages of Reason to Live are united by Barlow's roiling multilayered arrangements and the understanding that change is inevitable - and that it can bring you a new reason to live in the darkest times. "This album is me really opening up, and the album follows that through its many different themes," he says. "Some of my other work could be almost claustrophobic in its insistence on being all tied together but there's space for people to live inside these songs." After albums with Sebadoh, Dinosaur Jr., Folk Implosion, and under his own name, listeners may have felt they knew the construction of a Barlow song, even that they knew Barlow himself. "People have this vision of me as this heartbroken, depressed guy, but this record feels so true to who I am, to this rich life I now have full of people I love," he says. "The songs culminated over the last five years to show that music has returned to its central comforting role in my life. Now I'm home."

Sinéad O’Connor marks a long-awaited return with a stunning version
of ‘Trouble Of The World’, a traditional song made famous by exalted gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, available as a 7” single backed with an a cappella version on Heavenly Recordings.

It follows somewhat belatedly the-ever-more pertinent ‘Trouble Soon Be Over’, her contribution to 2015’s ‘Tribute To Blind Willie Johnson’ compilation and once more exudes the heart and soul of this extraordinary performer.

Sympathetic to its origins, the heartfelt, evocative tones propel this impassioned rendition to the present its poignancy highlighted by a remarkable artist who leaves her own indelible mark on this topical realisation whilst realigning with a positive viewpoint.

In her own words, she explains; “for me the song isn’t about death or dying. More akin, a message of certainty that the human race is on a journey toward making this world paradise and that we will get there.”

The inspirational lyrical narrative that underpins ‘Trouble Of The World’ bears more relevance than ever today in the context of the death of George Floyd and the highlighting of the persistent racist undercurrents that trouble mixed societies across the globe.

The song sees Sinead joining forces with renowned producer David Holmes and, recorded in Belfast, Northern Ireland at the easing of the lockdown, it shares an uncanny albeit eerie symmetry with our new trouble of the world backdrop and once again Sinéad awakes our souls to the ironies and similarities of our collective past and present. The pair have created a sonic tonic and shout out to the powers that be as a voice of the people still questioning all-toofrequent events such as witnessed over the past few months that ensue decades since the nascent birth of the civil rights movement in the United States.

Embodying a voice with beauty and innocence, a spirit part punk, part mystic with a combined fearlessness and gentle authenticity - unique, uncompromising, a pioneer, a visionary, just some of the descriptions that perhaps merely touch the surface of Sinéad O’Connor.

“Vax!” – Reminiscent of all the slippery vinyl that glitched under so many sweaty wet fingers in a steamy basement before time – a picture that seems highly illegal in our current antiseptic climate of hopefully germ free adolescents. Vax-inate! Give them the needle! It’s time.

Deti Vechnosti – Pered Rassvetom opens the gates to plug into the socket of our collective deranged consciousness, generating frisky and flamboyant specks to brightening darkness that confines our lives. Offering glimpses of the great unknown we also carry within. The Track introduces Chikiss & Mustelide’s new group “Deti Vechnosti”.

Alexander Arpeggio & OhLandy’s “Der Anruf”, wich originally appeared as a French language version on a previous Sameheads / Diapason tape release tells those tales of hot and hotter heat. Karmic payback for the sweaty and long nights enveloped in the halo of resonating frequencies of silly and high-spirited mischief.

Rouge Mécanique – Down the Line – follows suite in the odyssey that is a demented night out, sitting in front of a club, realising that the leatherjacket you picked up a few streets ago from the ground doesn’t smell like adventure but like spew.

The B-Side opens with Automatenfall – a hardware electronic 3 piece, previously appearing live at Sameheads during a “My Friend calls it K-Jazz” event. A yearning that eventually gets us on a spiritual path and headed toward enlightenment through the meandering melange of chimes, that little sounds that usually overcome us in the weirdest of times.

Das Kinn – the new project from Toben Piel, who’s part of Frankfurt’s MMODEM family, and one half of Les Trucs evokes memories of better days, black leatherpants – think Falco meets DAF – Überpop for the Untergrund.

Stopping for a final coup d’œil is Alessandro Adriani’s – Preserved Data Space. A persuasive case of brutally but lovingly worked machines serenading sawtooth waves of an infinite Weiter, a dissolving timeframe – the longest after hour I’ve been to, it lasts more than a year now already and counting.

Written by Michael Aniser.